wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the “newshour” tonight, continued israeli airstrikes flatten parts of rafah as negotiators make progress for a ceasefire in gaza. geoff: the fight over spending on capitol hill intensifies, pushing the country ever closer to a government shutdown. amna: and the state of the war in ukraine nearly two years into russia's invasion. >> this year is clearly looking like a year during which ukraine is going to focus most likely much more on holding and defending, trying to rebuild and reconstitute the force, and

maybe creating challenges for the russian armed forces with expanded strike campaigns. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> cunard is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with cunard, the world awaits. a world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences. a world of leisure, and british style. all with cunard's white star service. >> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative

leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security, at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the “newshour”" as israel's bombing of gaza

continues, some progress tonight towards a resumption of talks to both release hostages held by hamas, and reach a ceasefire agreement. geoff: israel's army radio said the country's war cabinet, made up of the prime minister, the defense minister, and opposition leader, approved sending emissaries to truce talks to be held in paris. but that slow progress toward a deal did nothing to stop the bombing and killing in gaza. in rafah this morning, the sun rose over fresh rubble. gazan health officials said close to four dozen palestinians were killed in israeli airstrikes. dina al shaer lost three members of her family last night. >> in 2014, they took three of my siblings and in the 2024 war they took the people i love. they took a piece of my heart. geoff: in rafah, the al-farouk mosque is in ruins as the muslim holy month of ramadan approaches.

>> listen good people, let the whole world to listen, we are nearing the blessed month of ramadan. where shall we pray? geoff: but israeli officials say without a new hostage deal, their offensive won't wait for ramadan. still, there are small signs of progress. israel's defense minister said today that israel would expand the authority of its hostage negotiators. at the same time, violence nearby threatens the chance for peace. in the west bank, three palestinian gunman opened fire at an israeli checkpoint, killing one and wounding at least five others. two of the attackers were killed by israeli forces and the third captured. israel's far-right national security minister itamar ben-gvir called for arming more israeli citizens and said their right to safety was more important than the palestinian right to move freely. >> i expect to have here more and more checkpoints, to have restrictions. we need to finally come to the understanding that our enemies are not looking for excuses, our

enemies only want to harm. geoff: but internationally, the spotlight is on israel. the united nation's top court continues to hear arguments over the occupation of palestinian territories. at the g20 meeting in brazil, a european union diplomat told reporters quote, there was a strong request for a two-state solution. it is a consensus among us. in the region, houthi militants vowed again to continue their attacks on red sea shipping lanes. today, u.s. forces said they shot down six houthi drones. meantime, two houthi missiles hit a british cargo carrier. and in the gulf of aden, suspected houthi missiles set a liberian-owned ship on fire. in the israeli port city of eilat, a suspected houthi ballistic missile was intercepted by israel's arrow missile defense system. >> in the yemen front, as we mentioned last week, we have shifted towards an escalation in our operations, as the enemy continues to escalate further in

the gaza strip and persists in committing genocide by all means against the palestinian people in gaza. the situation inside gaza only grows worse. beyond airstrikes and ground offensives, palestinians are fighting off starvation. >> we're trying to get food for our girls. we have girls and a boy. i don't have anything to feed them, nothing. geoff: cooks in deir al balah work in makeshift kitchens, trying to feed as many as they can. mahmoud abu khalifa is a volunteer from northern gaza. >> we have a lot of people we're feeding, we have about 30,000 to 40,000 people and it's not enough. geoff: palestinians wait in long lines for a chance to fill of a bowl with rice. anything that will get them to the next day.

stephanie: i'm stephanie sy would newshour west. here are the latest headlines. the mother of the late russian opposition leader alexei navalny says she's finally been able to see her son's body. but in a video statement today, she said russian authorities won't hand over his remains unless she agrees to a secret burial. >> according to the law, they should have given me alexei's body immediately, but they didn't. instead, they blackmail me, they put conditions -- where, when, and how alexei should be buried. they want it done secretly, without a memorial service. they want to take me to the edge of the cemetery, to a fresh grave and say, here lies your son. i don't agree with that. stephanie: she's filed a lawsuit demanding her son's body be released, but there won't be a hearing until next month. meantime, president biden met with navalny's widow, yulia, and daughter today in san francisco. a white house photo showed their embrace and in a statement, the president praised her husband's courage. russian president vladimir putin

chided president biden today for calling him, quote, a crazy s.o.b. mr. biden said it during a campaign fundraiser last night in san francisco in the context of the threat putin poses, given russia's nuclear arsenal. today, on russian state tv, putin said it was rude, but he suggested -- with a hint of sarcasm -- that it shows why he supports a biden re-election. >> you asked me who we prefer as the future president of the united states. i said that we would work with any president. but i believe that for us, for russia, biden is a more preferable president. and judging by what he just said, i am absolutely right. stephanie: the white house had no immediate response to putin's remarks. albanians parliament today approved a deal today to temporarily hold thousands of migrants seeking asylum in italy. under the five-year agreement, italy will build two processing centers on albania's coast to

house up to 36,000 people per year. opposition members of parliament tried to disrupt the vote today with whistles. that's as demonstrators gathered to condemn the plan. >> these tourist areas will not be the same after the migrant processing centers are built there. they will all be sent to a closed jail and from what we have seen in other countries, we have reasons to believe that this will be a security problem for the whole area. stephanie: italy has asked other european nations for help, after migrant arrivals jumped 50% last year from the previous year. back in this country, two more fertility clinics in alabama are putting a hold on in vitro fertilization. the day after the university of alabama at birmingham pause the treatment. it comes after the state supreme court declared that frozen embryos are legally considered to be children. president biden today called that decision outrageous and unacceptable.

a federal judge in california has blocked a state law that targets guns designated as abnormally dangerous. the 2022 statute allows private citizens and state and local governments to sue gun makers. but the judge found it reaches beyond california's borders and directly regulates out-of-state commercial transactions, and violates the u.s. constitution's commerce clause. a texas judge ruled today that a high school acted legally when it suspended a black student over his hairstyle. darryl george's lawyer argued his months-long punishment violated a state ban on race-based hair discrimination. the judge sided with the district, which cited its policy limiting hair length for boys. and hydeia broadbent, a leading voice in aids awareness, has died at her home in las vegas. she was born with hiv and had full-blown aids by age five. but as a young girl, she gained national attention, appealing

for support of those with the virus. in 1996, she addressed the republican national convention and later starred in a tv special with magic johnson. hydeia broadbent was 39 years old. still to come on the "newshour”" the search for answers after a non-binary student dies after a fight at an oklahoma high school. a respected geneticist and world-famous opera singer partner to look at music's potential to improve health. and a private spacecraft attempts the first u.s. lunar landing since the apollo missions. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: some news from capitol hill. even as congress is out of town, "newshour" has learned that bipartisan negotiators may reach a spending deal in the next few days.

but that may not be soon enough to avert a partial government shutdown just a few days after that. this has been a familiar plotline in recent years. but capitol hill correspondent lisa desjardins joins us now to explain that this spending showdown has some unique features to it. so let's start with the timeline. and forgive me, i feel like i have asked you this before. when would a government shutdown begin and what, if anything, makes this showdown unique? lisa: this has been as competitive as a son rhett and -- sunset and sunrise in american politics but this time is a little different and i'm going to show you why. the timeline is shorter than you might imagine. let's look at the calendar. when you talk about today february 22, congress is out of town. the first deadline comes next friday and that is the first different feature. these deadlines are split in two. four different kind of appropriation bills have their

deadlines next friday picked it must be passed or those agencies will shut down. then there is a second deadline march 8 after that. here is what makes it very difficult to imagine them reaching that first deadline without some short-term deal. because congress does not return until next week. the senate on monday. the house does not return to washington until next wednesday afternoon. that will give them two days to come up with some kind of solution to meet the first march deadline. amna: walk us through what agencies and programs would be impacted. who would be affected and went according to the deadlines? lisa: we wanted to start talking about this now because we think next week will be busy and it will feel more like a crisis and we wanted to explain what could happen. that march 1 deadline, these are the kind of agencies we are talking about. agriculture, energy transportation, housing and veterans. that includes in those agencies

the program food for mothers and infants as well as the fda itself. the march 8 deadline is all of the remaining agencies. where is the bigger portion of government at risk? march 8. that is about 80% of what federal agencies do. that is the bigger concern. but in a way that makes the march 1 deadline more precarious. some in the house will say it is not all of government, it is not even most of government so perhaps we can afford to have a short shutdown after march 1. let's also talk about some bigger picture issues to help people understand. there is a possible spending deal this weekend. i have that reported from multiple sources involved in the house and senate. but even if they have the outlines of a deal, it is hard to see how that full deal for all of the spending they need to pass can actually get through the house and senate by march 1.

if there is no long-term deal at all passed by april 30, there will be a 1% cut for federal agencies. that is part of the fiscal responsibility act, that debt deal led by kevin mccarthy last year. that was trying to motivate members of the house and senate to get all of these spending bills passed on time. they said if you don't pass the spending bills there will be a cut. it is having a bit of the opposite effect. some conservatives say great, let's have a 1% cut. amna: take us behind the scenes to some of the politics unfolding here. as you talk to lawmakers, what is your sense of what the chances are of a shutdown happening next week? lisa: we are watching the house freedom caucus and i spoke to several members of that group today. they sent out a letter yesterday, really a warning shot to speaker johnson saying they wanted an update on this whole thing. when you dig beneath the surface what is really happening here, while it was a politely worded letter, is there are

conservatives connected to donald trump, including from his son who sent out in email today saying what he got from the letter is that republicans in the freedom caucus were ready to trigger a shutdown. and indeed i did talk to at least one member of the freedom caucus who said i think it is worth a shutdown and we should try to head in that direction if we cannot get spending cuts. which no one thinks is possible in the next week. amna: speaker johnson is under -- overseeing one of the narrowest house majorities in history. what does all of this mean for him? lisa: this is his biggest test. he has been able to put off these huge decisions where his own conference is split. he will have to decide the next few days if he wants to put forth a short-term resolution or not. and after that he has a very difficult decision on ukraine funding as well. amna: that is lisa desjardins with the latest twists and turns from congress. lisa, thank you. ♪

geoff: this saturday marks two years since russia's full-scale invasion of ukraine, in a war that began nearly 10 years ago. with the conflict at a frozen and brutal stalemate, nick schifrin now takes stock of what's been gained and all that's been lost. nick: in two years, countless wives, now widows. sons, now orphans. the dead stolen of their dignity and 10 million forced to flee their homes. the largest refugee crisis since world war ii. everyone, everywhere carries the war's scars. and so ukraine fights. 300,000 soldiers are determined but exhausted come outmanned and

increasingly outgunned. in some areas for every artillery shell that they fire, russian soldiers fire 10. two years ago today before the full-scale invasion, russia occupied 7% of ukraine. on march 22, 2022, moscow expanded control to 27%. ukraine has won back about nearly half of the captured territory but russia still occupies 18%. recently ukraine pushed the russian navy further back into the black sea and increased exports and now increasingly threatens occupied crimea. it recently lost it eastern city. the russian military has momentum as ukraine waits for u.s. aid, without which senior u.s. officials fear ukraine will lose. we now take a look at where the war is, where it could go, and us policy toward ukraine, with three views. michael kofman is a senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace. john mearsheimer is a political science professor at the university of chicago.

and rebeccah heinrichs is senior fellow and director of the keystone defense initiative at the hudson institute, a washington think tank. thanks so much, all of you. welcome back to the "newshour." michael, let me start with you. as we just said, ukraine has lost a city, they're increasingly outgunned, outmanned. how bad is it? michael: look, ukraine starts 2024 in a very difficult position. that was very clear. ukraine has a deficit in terms of artillery ammunition. part of that is because it depends on western support for munitions and it has a deficit of manpower. it needs to replenish the force, particularly the infantry component of the force. now, while it's true that russia is materially advantaged in this war, that much is clear, if you look at manpower, particularly if we look at artillery, to a lesser extent equipment, that advantage at this stage is not decisive either. the battle which was a five-month grinding fight, tells us about the challenges both will face. ukraine was forced to retreat after fighting a defensive

battle but inflicted very high costs on the russian military, cost russian military almost entire armies worth of equipment and equipment remains a limiting factor for them. so that being said, this year is clearly looking like a year during which ukraine is going to focus most likely much more on holding the funding, trying to rebuild under constant the force and maybe creating challenges for the russian forces will expand those strike campaigns. nick: rebeccah, do you you agree with that assessment and do you think the u.s. needs to go further than it has so far in its support? rebeccah: i do agree with mike's assessment. you can look at all of the things that have not been going well for ukraine. ukraine has clearly demonstrated an amazing ability to make gains and retake territory. strong will to fight stronger, a greater sense of national identity. and so what ukraine needs now into the next year, agree with michael. it needs to be resupplied. but also longer-range strike systems. drones, bigger drones that can carry longer range strike systems in order to reach russian targets, not just in

ukraine, but outside ukraine in russian territory. nick: john, what do you think about that, that all that ukraine needs to do is hold the line and that the u.s. should increase its support for ukraine over the coming years in order for ukraine to be able to achieve what it needs to? john: well, i disagree. i think that ukraine has already lost the war. it's lost 20% of its territory, according to my calculations. and it's not going to conquer that territory and get it back, as was demonstrated in the failed counter-offensive last year. the key to understanding where this war is headed is to know that it is a war of attrition. this is two armies that are standing toe to toe and beating the living daylights out of each other. and the question is which army bleeds which army first? and it's quite clear that the russians are bleeding the ukrainians white. as the set up piece made clear,

the russians have about it 10 to one advantage in artillery and there is nothing we can do to fix that in the foreseeable future, because we do not have artillery on the shelf that we can give them. furthermore, in terms of manpower, they are in absolutely terrible shape. they say they need a mobilization to bring into the force 500,000 troops. they are not going to be able to mobilize 500,000 troops. in my opinion, they'll be lucky if they can mobilize 150,000 troops, and they're already greatly outnumbered by the russians because the russian population is five times bigger than the ukrainian population. so when you look at the metrics that really matter in a war of attrition, the ukrainians are in a terrible situation. and this situation only gets worse with time. nick: michael, take on those points, that there are not enough artillery to send them, that they will not have enough manpower and, quote, ukraine has already lost.

michael: first of all, i just have to disagree on the facts. the united states has plenty of artillery. it just doesn't have the money. and artillery production in both of united states and european union are increasing significantly. we will be in a much better position by 2025 than we are now. second, russia's advantage right now is about five to it's not one. the size of fighters advantage given the main constraints of force. third, when it comes to manpower, there's a lot more to military analysis than basic algebra. it's much more about how you use the forces you have and your ability to convert your resources into combat capable and effective formations. russia has a lot more people on paper. that is true. but the russian forces in ukraine don't actually outnumber the ukrainian troops on the front line by that much at all. russia's feeding off of soviet legacy, pulling equipment from its warehouses. it lost a ton of it over the recent battle. it can't keep doing that too many times. if russia is not on track and doesn't look like they're actually really winning this war, by the time we get into 2025, their negotiating position

becomes actually very uncertain. nick: rebeccah, is ukraine already losing and is it a rump state, as john wertheimer said? rebeccah: no, of course not. the united states currently has ready to send to ukraine as soon as congress gives the go ahead and passes the national security supplemental. we've also seen the united states and other western companies be able to adopt actually very quickly, irease the production of key munitions and take them over to the battlefield very, very quickly. so for the medium and long-term, it does have the ability to produce these weapons and get them to ukraine if there is is the will to do so. and so this isn't just all good and positive things going for it for russia. it does have to do with elsewhere also. and so the same situation is for ukraine, it's going to look to the west. nick: john, you want to take on those points? one, that the u.s. and europe are increasing their production to be able to send to ukraine. and two, that in general, russia does not have the decisive advantage that you think?

john: it's clear from almost all the accounts in the media that the russians have roughly a 10 to one advantage in artillery. if michael is correct that the artillery is on the shelf, why don't we give it or why haven't we given it to the ukrainians? and the fact is, it's not on the shelf. we don't have the artillery troops or shells to give to them. and he says that will make a substantial improvement in that regard by 2025. i would remind him that this is february 2024, and we have a lot of months to go before we get to 2025. and if you look at the russians, they have a significant industrial base that can pump out lots of weapons and are doing exactly that, which is why they have a 10 to one advantage. furthermore, if you look at manpower, there are some reports that the average age of ukrainian forces is 43 years old. they're having a significant problem with draft dodgers back in kyiv and other places in ukraine.

this mobilization is not going to be able to produce 500,000 troops. and generals have said they need 500,000 troops. because the russians have much larger numbers of troops. so in a war of attrition, if you're outnumbered in terms of artillery and you're outnumbered in terms of manpower, you're really in big trouble. and you saw this where the ukrainians just suffered a humiliating defeat. nick: michael, what is victory for ukraine, and can it achieve it? michael: what does victory look like? ukraine is able to achieve an end to the war on terms favorable to itself that does not involve sacrificing any significant amount of sovereignty or compromising its economic viability as a state. and ideally, and most importantly, ukraine avoids having to negotiate from a position of weakness where russia achieves a victor's peace. and i think that's possible and still feasible at this point. but i won't argue that ukraine does not have a difficult path ahead of it. nick: rebeccah, you you talk about attacking inside russia, some u.s. officials, as you

know, are worried about escalation. do you think they should be? rebeccah: to end this war on terms that favor ukraine, to give ukraine the strongest hand to play to end this conflict, that leaves itself with a strong hand to protect itself from further incursions, is to make sure that ukraine can inflict pain on russia so that russia decides that it's no longer worth the risk and the cost to continue moving forward. to do that, you have to inflict pain. and russia can no longer be a sanctuary for where it is launching its attacks and where its logistics are. so, ukraine has already been hitting some of those targets. it's just not been permitted to do so with western weapons. and that needs to change if we're going to actually change the tide of the war and enable ukraine, as michael said, to have a strong hand to play to end this war. nick: john, final word? john: i just want to point out that you want to understand that we armed up and we trained ukrainians for a major counter-offensive last summer, and that counteroffensive was a colossal failure. and given what's happened since

then, there is no reason to think that the ukrainians can go on the offensive and win a war against the russians. and if anything, it's quite clear that the balance of power over time has shifted in the russian's favor and it's likely to continue to shift further in the russian's favor moving forward. so we are in deep trouble in ukraine. nick: john mearsheimer, rebeccah heinrichs, michael kofman, thank you very much to all of you. ♪ amna: there are new details today about the death of an oklahoma teenager, the day after a physical altercation in a school restroom. nex benedict, who was non-binary, attended high school in owasso, a suburb of tulsa. police say an investigation is ongoing. but nex's death is raising concerns in lgbtq+ communities, and igniting fear in some families and among students who

identify as queer. for a closer look, i'm joined by our communities correspondent adam kemp, who has been reporting this story from oklahoma. adam, let's begin, please if you can just tell us more about nex, about who this teenager was, and about what we know about the events that unfolded the day before nex's death. adam: yeah, it's important to start the story that we don't know how nex identified. what we do know is the teen was gender expansive. nex was a 16-year-old sophomore student at owaso high school. on february 7, they were involved in an altercation with three other students in a school bathroom. early indications, or early reports actually indicate that nex had their head hit against the bathroom ground several times during that altercation, which lasted or around two minutes before it was broken up by other students. all the students involved were then checked out by a school nurse.

nex was then taken by a family member to the hospital. nex went home that evening. the next day, medics responded to a medical emergency involving nex who was then later declared dead at a local hospital. family and friends have described nex as a gamer who loved to play minecraft, a straight-a student, and a lover of animals, including a pet cat named zeus. amna: what are we hearing from authorities and the school district about nex's death? adam: preliminary reports are that it was not the result of trauma. school officials have been tight lipped so far on this, mostly because this case does involve juveniles. the owaso police did say that an investigation is ongoing. it is important context to know for the story that in 2022, oklahoma did pass a transgender and non-binary bathroom ban so

that students are not allowed to use the bathroom that their gender identity aligns with. state superintendent ryan walters, it should be noted, is a very big critic of lgbtq+ issues in this state, but he has offered owaso public schools, his support and the support of the state for counseling services. governor kevin stitt actually released a statement saying, quote, the death of any child in an oklahoma school is a tragedy, and bullies must be held accountable. again, there's just still a lot of questions at this time without a lot of answers. amna: i know you have been speaking with families in the area, with lgbtq+ advocates. what are you hearing from them? adam: right now it is a lot of fear from families that i'm hearing. right now in the oklahoma state legislature, more than 50-plus anti-lgbtq+ bills have been introduced so far this session.

that's the most of any state according to the aclu. i spoke with freedom oklahoma, which is an lgbtq+ advocacy group who has been doing their own investigation into this case and has found that nex had been bullied for more than a year. speaking with nicole mcafee, their executive director, she had this to say about kind of the mood of their community right now. >> it feels incredibly overwhelming to not know how we can keep kids in our community alive, as they are being bullied and targeted not only by fellow students but by the state. we have a lot of teachers in that space who they themselves are queer or trans and non-binary and are grappling with whether they can keep doing this work or if they feel like their only option is to leave. adam: i've also spoken to many non-binary and trans parents here in the state who just say

the atmosphere is that of despair right now. one mother in particular talked about just the hateful rhetoric directed at her son that she's seen ramped up in the past couple of years alone. right now, she's grappling with the idea of moving out of state and whether that's the best option to keep her son safe. amna: given all the questions, what can we expect to happen next? adam: police say an autopsy and toxicology report are forthcoming. we don't know yet what the consequences could be for the students who were involved in the fight. we know nex's family has hired an attorney and vigils are being planned around the state for later this month. amna: of course our thoughts are with nex benedict's family tonight. adam kemp joining us from oklahoma. adam, thank you. ♪ geoff: we have long known about

racial and ethnic bias in health care, but now we're getting some first-hand knowledge of how pervasive it is from people within that system, through the largest study of its kind. the report was based on interviews with doctors, nurses, dentists, and mental health workers. william brangham breaks down the study's findings, part of our ongoing coverage of race matters. william: in this study from the commonwealth fund, nearly half of health care workers in the u.s. say racism against patients is a major problem, and equal numbers report that they have personally witnessed discrimination against patients in their workplace. employees at facilities that serve black or latino patients reported higher instances of discrimination. to expand on the study's findings and why it matters, i'm joined by one of its co-authors. dr. laurie zepheryn is senior vice president for advancing health equity at the commonwealth fund. so good to have you. half of health care workers say

racism is a major problem. they have seen it in their own workplaces. i am curious why you chose to look at this issue from this perspective. dr. zepheryn: thank you and thanks for having me. previous research really tells us racism and discrimination impacts health care outcomes, especially for people of color. this study goes a step further, spotlighting the voice of health care workers who racism and discrimination, and experienced it themselves. in terms of why health care workers come understanding what health care workers are experiencing, what they need from their employers and colleagues to address discrimination is really critical to successful and sustainable change. health care workers can be part of the solution. we know that the perspective of patients and providers is incredibly important but for this study we decided to focus on health care workers because they are on the ground.

the impact day-to-day care of people and health care workers are living and breathing the health care system every day. they experience the realities of what it is to provide health care first-hand. william: one of the more striking disparities in this was the perspective of black health care workers. while half of all health care workers said doctors are more accepting of white patients advocating for themselves compared to black patients, it was 70% of black workers who said this. i mean, that kind of perspective just has to really leap out at you. dr. zepheryn: it does leap out at you. you know, where you come from is important. diverse experiences are incredibly important. the data is clear in general on the importance of a culturally diverse workforce. it has a really profound impact on the health care system, on patients served. i am sure you have seen data

that the first workforce in cultural needs, improved communication, improve patient satisfaction. and there is more awareness on the impacts of discrimination bias because of lived experience. william: there were similar disparities when it came to language differences with over 70% of latino workers saying that non-english-speaking patients just do not get the same kind of care as english-speaking patients. do these disparities, do you believe, actually impact patient outcomes? dr. zepheryn: there is data that supports the linkage between discrimination and impact of quality of care. so we do know that there are significant disparities, whether we are talking maternal mortality and the crisis we are experiencing in this country, or inequities in life expectancy. where you live, work, play, impacts your

outcomes. and their impacts on the social determinants of health. so we certainly have data that supports that. to your point earlier, for people who have lived experience, whether it is race, ethnicity, language, other aspects of culture, they're just may be more of a recognition, a sensitivity to what you are saying and discrimination in health care. william: there was an interesting generational divide, with older health care workers not seeing quite as striking a level of crisis as younger workers did. what do you attribute that to? dr. zepheryn: we didn't ask why in the study, so you don't know what you don't know. but a few things come to mind in terms of why younger people, younger health care workers are seeing more. this could reflect a generational shift in health care workers being more equity- oriented and younger workers

recognize we need more research to clarify these generational differences, and more research could be important to inform efforts to really prevent younger health care workers from leaving the profession. william: on that issue, you talked with workers about what they would like to see done to make things better. what were the general principles they articulated? dr. zepheryn: creating a safe reporting environment was one that came up as crucial. the study found that witnessing discrimination creates stress and workers fear retaliation. having a safe reporting environment that not only supports reporting, it is really important as well. education still remains crucial to engendering reform and training is going to be very critical. not just anti-bias training but also training recognizing that discrimination can be a game

changer in health care, that it can impact quality of health care outcomes, and also recognize the signs of discrimination. william: dr. laurie zepheryn of the commonwealth fund, thank you so much for being here. dr. zepheryn: thank you. thank you so much for having me. ♪ amna: two giants of music and science are merging their knowledge to propel advancements in body and mind. researchers, therapists, and artists from around the world gathered to explore what is known, and what is yet to be discovered. jeffrey brown takes a look and a listen for our ongoing arts and health coverage on canvas. ♪ jeffrey: she is a singer, one of the world's most beloved sopranos. but at times in her remarkable career, renee fleming has experienced terrible bouts of

somatic pain, the body's way of distracting her from the mental anxiety brought from performance. >> i was never a natural performer. and so i just kept reading and reading about the mind-body connection, trying to understand more about what was causing this, etc. and i discovered that the medical profession and neuroscientists were studying music. and i asked him why, one day. jeffrey: he is the renowned physician-geneticist best known for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and leadership of the human genome project. >> today we celebrate the revelation of the first draft of the human book on life. jeffrey: francis collins headed the national institutes of health -- the world's largest supporter of biomedical research -- for 12 years until 2021. >> i'm a doctor. i want to find every possible way to help people who are suffering from illnesses or other kinds of life experiences that are limiting their ability to flourish. i want to make everybody flourish, and music is such a

powerful source of that kind of influence. jeffrey: together, they are leading proponents of a marriage of arts and health -- advocates for research, understanding, and practice in the nexus of music and the brain. we talked recently on the nih campus about their music and health initiative, now in its 7th year. >> i believe the arts should be embedded in healthcare across the board. jeffrey: embedded, meaning? >> meaning, we already have it in many, many places. many hospitals have discovered just how beneficial it is to have creative arts therapists on staff. children's hospitals should have a creative arts studio, i think, available to parents and their children and families. so, i just think it should be everywhere in healthcare. jeffrey: it's a growing movement, one we've been reporting on around the country, including neuroscientists at johns hopkins studying music's impact on dementia patients. a hospital at the university of

florida incorporating arts into its care. individuals who've suffered traumatic brain injuries, like former congresswoman gabby giffords, playing the french horn to help rewire her brain, and rebuild her ability to speak. our understanding of the brain's connections and responses is still in early stages, francis collins says, with projects like the nih-funded brain initiative helping show how individual circuits connect and respond. we do know some basics, however. >> i think you can say the acoustic cortex, which is where your brain processes incoming sound and particularly musical sound, does have some pretty interesting circuits. it's also plastic -- it responds to training. if you look at the brain of somebody who had intense musical training before age seven, you can actually see that part of the cortex is a little larger than in somebody who did not have that. so, our brains are responding to

the environment very clearly in that way. and then you can say, ok, if you have a musical experience that affects you, you can see how that signal that starts out in the acoustic cortex spreads to many other parts of the brain. jeffrey: maybe you've had an mri? renee fleming got in and sang for two hours. >> when i show this video to people i always say, well, no grammys for this performance. [laughter] jeffrey: one interesting finding, that for an experienced singer like fleming, her brain circuits were more active while she thought about or imagined singing than when she actually sang. did that surprise you? >> it surprised me a great deal. it's also, i think what's even more surprising to me, is that music actually is in every known mapped part of the brain. so it's extraordinarily diverse

and throughout the entire brain, as we know, as we currently understand it. jeffrey: the research so far has a wide range of implications for child development, alzheimer's, and other forms of dementia, parkinson's, and other conditions and interventions. some research goes on in labs, some in the world -- as in a study in which individuals were offered singing lessons. one group was given individual training, the other, as part of a chorus. >> for 12 weeks, and to just see what happens as far as their health. the people that had individual singing, they did ok. the people in the choir, by all kinds of measures, were actually affected in a very positive way that -- many of them had chronic pain, their chronic pain was noticeably reduced. they had various measures of personal attitudes, their attitude toward generosity went straight up, and their oxytocin levels went up too, as another sort of hormonal measure of good

will, good sense of health. >> my favorite is, postpartum depression is tremendously benefited by singing in a choir. i would never have -- i wouldn't have guessed that. jeffrey: in fact, you know those advertisements for drugs we're all bombarded with? renee fleming has one she'd like to see. >> ask your doctor if music therapy is right for you. jeffrey: as a kind of prescription. >> exactly. >> exactly. >> write the prescription. why not? jeffrey: yeah but you have to -- you're saying it still has to be shown exactly in a scientific -- for a doctor to be willing to prescribe it. >> sure, that's our system and i'm totally behind it. you need evidence that this actually isn't just a nice thing, it actually improves outcomes. i'm pretty convinced from the data we have that's the case for various places, but let's tighten that up. let's make it absolutely incontrovertible. and then you'll have a better chance with the insurance

company saying ok, because that may save them money in the long run. >> let's listen to this melody line as it floats all the way up. jeffrey: at this recent gathering and others, fleming and collins are advancing new findings through a variety of collaborations including nih music and health with 20 nih institutes, the kennedy center sound health partnership, and the renee fleming foundation. everything you're talking about requires a kind of buy-in from your communities, the arts world and the science world. but is there still pushback? >> there's a bit, but i think we're getting some real momentum going. it doesn't hurt that scientists are also musicians, at least many of them are. this workshop, we invited multiple leadership at nih to come and take part, and they all said pretty much, yes, and they went away saying, that was even more interesting than i thought. jeffrey: a young person now goes to the music conservatory, you want them to study therapy, science, health?

>> well, these would be divisions within a conservatory or university. but there's definite buy-in now. but when i started, people were saying exactly what you're saying, well, we have too much to do already with what we're doing, in terms of presenting, and we're strapped and the funding is difficult, etc. but i think pretty much everyone is on board now, because we're community service providers. so, i think people who run performing arts organizations and conservatories are starting to see the benefit of it. jeffrey: and these two don't just talk about bringing their disciplines together -- they've been known to give it literal form, as amateur musician francis collins accompanies science-fascinated renee fleming. for the "pbs newshour," i'm jeffrey brown at the national institutes of health in bethesda, maryland.

♪ [applause] amna: and fleming has edited a collection of essays from scientists, artists, and therapists called, "music and mind, harnessing the arts for health and wellness." that's due out this spring. geoff: it's the first u.s.-built spacecraft to land on the moon in more than 50 years and the first ever by a private company. the lander, known as odysseus, was cause for celebration a short time ago. >> we are on the surface and we are transmitting. and welcome to the moon. >> houston, odysseus has found his new home. geoff: the mission is not expected to last about seven days until the sun sets on the

landing site and a frigid lunar night begins. odysseus took off from cape canaveral last week. while the houston-based company intuitive machines created the spacecraft, this trip is key to nasa's goal of returning to the moon with a manned mission. miles o'brien joins us. the suspense in the studio here has been palpable over this last hour. help us understand why this successful landing is so significant. what went into this? miles: no matter what the condition of the craft, the fact that they have gotten this far with the relatively small budget and tiny team that they have, operating on this different structure where nasa is more of a customer, a client than it is in charge, all of that speaks well to the direction that they are headed. how successful was this landing? well, i think we can say it is a

success by virtue of the fact it is on the surface and may transmitting faint signals. is it toppled over, is there damage to it? we don't know yet. but in the grand scheme here, proving that this can be done and be done for essentially pennies on the dollar is very important when you look at the larger ambition that nasa has with the artemis program. geoff: in preparing to speak to you i learned that over half of all the lunar landing attempts have ended in failure. why is this so challenging, especially when we did this more than 50 years ago? miles: i have been thinking a lot about that. of course 50% of the time will get you to the major-league hall of fame, but it is not very good for space travel. what happened 55 years ago or so, neil armstrong, apollo 11 lunar module, the guidance system was headed straight for a big boulder. and if he had not intervened, that would not have been a success.

so, trying to replicate the neural network that is a human brain with 80 billion neurons and human eyes with computers that are going to a place we don't know much about, is a real challenge. and of course the moon is tough anyway because there is no atmosphere, you cannot use parachutes, you have to have a powered descent all the way down, and they are going to the south bowl which is much more rugged than any of the apollo destinations. so a lot of people say, well, if we did that so easily back then, why can't we do it now? there's all that, and the inflation adjusted cost, it costs about $1 trillion to do it. geoff: they have left behind about six instruments on the moon's surface. what do they do? miles: they are going to try and characterize the surface of the moon. there was a lot of technology involved in just the landing itself. there was a failure on the way down of one of the laser guidance systems. the team was able to piggyback

off of an experimental system nasa was flying. and there are some space well sculptures on board as well. the idea was to create this public-private partnership so that the company could sell payloads, like a cross-country trucker. nasa doing the most of it, filling up most of the truck, as it were. but other commercial players are there, including embry riddle university had a tiny little cube with cameras on it designed to capture the landing itself. we will see if we see those pictures. it would be great if we could. geoff: tell us more about this houston-based company behind the spacecraft. miles: it is a lot of former nasa people, a lot of steely eyed rocket scientists. steve is a legendary flight director from the nasa shuttle days and senior manager at nasa. there is some experience here. but it is worth pointing out it has been two generations since anybody actually lived through

this in the united states and landed a craft on the moon. so the institutional memory is gone. ina way we are having to relearn all of this with new technology and without humans in the loop at the surface. so it is a different game right now with a different set of experiences required. geoff: in the 30 seconds we have left, what is nasa hoping to glean with another manned mission to the moon? miles: i think they want to prove they can stay there. building an outpost in space as much as anything is to prove that human beings can live in these environments. because the long-range goal for nasa remains putting human beings on mars. the idea is if you can do it at the moon which is much closer, much faster radio signals, you have a better shot on mars. geoff: that is miles o'brien, our man on all things space and aviation. thank you. miles: you're welcome, geoff.

geoff: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- ♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf. the engine that connects us. >> the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the "newshour," including leonard and norma klorfine, and the judy and peter blum kovler foundation.

the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. and friends of the "newshour." this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university.

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