♪ amna: od evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the “newshour” tonight, russia's vladimir putin extends his presidency after securing a preordained fifth term. amna: a look at former president donald trump's violent language on the campaign trail.

geoff: and why federal housing assistance is shrinking at the same time rental prices, and homelessness, are at historic highs. >> it's essentially a lottery. those who are very lucky will get assistance. everyone else gets nothing. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. 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. >> actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. yes, i'm legally blind, and yes, i'm responsible for the user

interface. data visualization. if i can see it and understand it quickly, anyone can. it is exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo. >> two retiring executives give their focus to greyhound. a raymondjames financial advisor gets to know you, your purpose, and the way you give back. life well planned. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting instituations to promote a better world. at hewlett.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. geoff: welcome to the “newshour.” we begin tonight with two major stories, one related to the 2024 presidential election, the other focused on an election held just this past weekend in russia. amna: today in moscow, president vladimir putin declared his intention to advance deeper into ukraine, and issued new threats against the west, one day after he secured his fifth term in office. it was an election with no suspense, the outcome of which was preordained. here now is nick schifrin.

nick: in moscow tonight, a celebration, and coronation. tens of thousands in red square marked the 10th anniversary of russia's illegal annexation of crimea, and the man who many call a czar. last night, vladimir putin declared victory with supporters, some who weren't alive when he was appointed president in 1999. he will soon surpass joseph stalin to become the longest running russian leader since catherine the great. >> people came to create the conditions for internal political consolidation to move forward for development and the strengthening of their fatherland, russia. nick: putin's nearly 88% of the vote, and record 77% turnout, made this a potemkin plebiscite, especially since at least one city offered voters a chance to win expensive western electronics, and another offered motorcycles and even apartments. and putin has launched the

harshest crackdown on dissent since the soviet union. russia, his critics say, has moved from authoritarian, to a dictatorship. but some russian voters, especially those old enough to remember the chaos of the 1990's, say putin symbolizes a successful effort to make russia great again. >> i am interested in what is being done now, and i would like it to be continued and even improved, because the younger generation must live in peace and harmony. nick: putin's critics call that propaganda, and voted with gasoline and a match, including one woman who lit her own ballot after writing, bring my husband back. those who believed the ballot was already spoiled, spoiled an entire box. and others wrote in one name, navalny. alexei navalny, the country's leading opposition figure before he died in mysterious circumstances in prison, had called for russians to protest, by all voting at the same time. and they showed up for noon against putin, as seen on this video posted by navalny's team.

strength, through numbers. that included expats in berlin, where navalny's widow yulia, who'd echoed her husband's protest call, waited for six hours to vote. for putin, navalny had been he who must not be named. until today, when he said he was willing to include navalny in a prisoner swap. >> on one condition only, i said. so he doesn't come back. but things happen, there's nothing you can do about it. >> even before the elections, we knew that, the numbers, that there should be more than 80% people vote for him. nick: alexandra prokopenko is with the carnegie russia eurasia center, and was the advisor to the central bank's deputy governor before leaving to protest the ukraine war. she says the russia's economy is unhealthy. but it has avoided failure despite western sanctions, thanks to chinese and indian willingness to buy russian oil, and massive military spending.

>> next, 12, 18 months, are decisive for, ukraine from the pure military standpoint. in terms of, this time frame, putin has enough money to finance the war to continue, and maintain lavish payments on population during this timeline, and probably to keep inflation moderate. nick: but there is nothing moderate about putin, who gets another term to continue the policies that define his russia, a nation at war with freedom, and its citizens. for the "pbs newshour," i'm nick schifrin. geoff: former president donald trump is under fire again for comments made during a controversial speech at a campaign event for a republican ohio senate candidate. extremism experts say it's the latest example of donald trump using violent rhetoric to appeal to his supporters. at a campaign rally in ohio saturday, a tribute to those charged and convicted of crimes connected to the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol.

>> please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated january 6 hostages. geoff: and a vow from the former president to release them. >> we're going to work with the people to treat those unbelievable patriots. geoff: as his use of the word "bloodbath" during an extended riff on the auto industry and chinese automakers sparked fresh controversy and criticism. >> we're going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line. and you're not going to be able to sell those cars. if i get elected. now, if i don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole -- that's going to be the least of it. it's going to be a bloodbath for the country. that will be the least of it. geoff: in a social post social media post today, mr. trump said his threat had been taken out of context, and turned the defense of his comments into a fundraising appeal.

former president trump also facing criticism for his dehumanizing anti-immigrant rhetoric at the same rally. >> if i had prisons that were teeming with ms-13 and all sorts of people that they've got to take care of for the next 50 years, right? young people that are in jail for years, if you call them people. i don't know if you call them people. in some cases, they're not people in my opinion. geoff: and in a fox news interview sunday, he doubled down on past comments about migrants that echoed dictators. >> why do you use words like "vermin" and "poisoning of the blood?" the press, as you know, immediately reacts to that by saying, well, that's the kind of language that hitler and mussolini used. >> well that's what they say. i didn't know that. but that's what they say. because our country is being poisoned. geoff: experts who study extremism say the former president's bloodbath remark is just part of an escalating campaign of violent rhetoric. >> in this case, it may have been a metaphor. it's hard to tell with him.

and we should be very worried with how mundane it now seems. geoff: president biden's campaign in a statement, responding to donald trump's rally remarks, said quote, he wants another january 6, but the american people are going to give him another electoral defeat this november because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for

violence, and his thirst for revenge. ♪ in the day's other headlines, former president trump's lawyers say he can't post the bond to cover a civil fraud judgment of $454 million in new york. the penalty is for inflating his wealth in his business dealings. today, his lawyers told an appeal court that, quote, obtaining an appeal bond in the full amount is not possible under the circumstances. mr. trump has until march 25 to pay the full judgment or win a delay. otherwise, the state could start seizing his assets. a texas law that gives police broad powers to arrest undocumented migrants is going to stay on hold. supreme court justice samuel alito extended a temporary pause indefinitely today. that gives more time to resolve the law's final fate.

the biden administration says it usurps federal authority. texas officials say the border crisis affects texans more than anyone else. president biden and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu spoke by phone today, amid a growing rift over israel's handling of the war in gaza. white house officials say the prime minister agreed to send a delegation to washington to discuss a planned assault on rafah, in southern gaza, something the president opposes. >> this is not a question of defeating hamas. and any time i hear an argument that says, if you don't smash into rafah, you can't defeat hamas, i say, that is a straw man. our view is that there are ways for israel to prevail in this conflict, to secure its long-term future, to end the terror threat from gaza and not smash into rafah. geoff: inside gaza, israeli

forces raided the shifa hospital complex in gaza city, where some 30,000 palestinians are sheltering. the israelis said senior hamas leaders had regrouped there. they said they killed 20 gunmen, including a hamas commander. the military released video of the fighting and said troops were instructed on avoiding harm to civilians. but the gaza health ministry reported there were deaths and injuries. a coalition of a dozen governments and u.n. agencies is warning famine in northern gaza is imminent. their report today estimated up to 300,000 people could face starvation by may. but in new york, u.n. secretary general antonio guterres said the worst is still preventable. >> this is an entirely man made disaster, and the report makes clear that it can be halted. i call on the israeli authorities to ensure complete and unfettered access for humanitarian goods throughout gaza and for the international community to fully support our humanitarian efforts. geoff: in response, israel's

foreign minister accused hamas of violently interfering with attempts to send aid into gaza. north korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles into the sea today, as secretary of state antony blinken was in south korea. blinken met with his counterpart korea's president for a democracy summit. it came days after the south wrapped joint military drills with the u.s. here at home, the epa has announced a ban on the last type of asbestos being used in the u.s. it's still employed in making chlorine bleach, car brakes, and some construction materials. asbestos is known to cause a number of cancers, and is linked to more than 40,000 american deaths each year. the national institutes of health reports advanced new studies have found no evidence of brain injuries from so-called havana syndrome. it also offers no explanation for the headaches, balance, and sleeping problems first reported by u.s. embassy staffers in cuba in 2016.

a lead researcher says what is clear is that these individuals have real symptoms. they can be quite profound, disabling and difficult to treat. and on wall street, tech stocks led the broader market higher to start the week. the dow jones industrial average gained 75 points to close at 38,790. the nasdaq rose 130 points. the s&p 500 added 32. still to come on the "newshour," the supreme court hears two cases with major implications for free speech. tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines and a teacher's brief but spectacular take on harnessing artificial intelligence in schools. >> 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: we return now to the russian elections and what vladimir putin's continued rule means for russia, ukraine, the united states and the world.

nick schifrin has more. nick: thanks amna. joining me now is fiona hill. she was the senior director for european and russian affairs on the national security council staff during the trump administration. she's now a senior fellow at the brookings institution and the author of "mr. putin: operative in the kremlin." and evgenia kara-murza is advocacy director at the free russia foundation which seeks to promote a free, democratic and peaceful russia. her husband, russian opposition politician vladimir kara-murza is a political prisoner in russia. thanks very much to both of you. welcome back to the "newshour." what is your assessment of how the election went, as well as the calls for protest? the noon against putin that we saw people in some parts of russia, but also across the world. evgenia: well, first of all, thank you for the invitation. and, as, to the election, so-called election, i don't think that this process that took part in russia over three

days can be called an election, because it has nothing to do with a democratic process that is called election in any normal democratic country. this was vladimir putin reappointing himself yet again for the fifth time as the president of the russian federation, in violation of many international laws, and having completely destroyed the russian constitution through the so-called referendum in 2020, which basically made him into its czar forever. so, this process, i don't believe that it can be considered and accepted as a legitimate process by the international community. and i definitely call on the international community to call vladimir putin for who he is. he is a dictator and a usurper and a criminal, actually, wanted by the icc. definitely not a legitimate leader of the russian federation. nick: fiona hill, was this a reappointment? and is putin a dictator? fiona: well, it's certainly a re-anointment, because it's not

just being a dictator, but as you've said, he's almost a self-styled czar at this point. and in fact, you know, these are the people that he associates himself with in russian history. in terms of his legacy, now we're all talking about how he will be -- have been in office longer than catherine the great. certainly any of the other previous czars. and if he, in fact, extends his term again, beyond this current six years up to 2036, he will have been in power longer than stalin. so i think that those legacies, even those terms, tell you enough. nick: what is the point, then? why go through this stage managed process? what is the kremlin benefit? evgenia: well, to create this image of universal support of the russian population for vladimir putin and his policies, both domestic policies and the aggression against ukraine. because a lot -- this regime depends a lot on this image of -- this very warped image of

reality. and this is why the call for the, noon against putin, because this was the only way the russian population was able to show how many russians were actually opposing these policies. because there are no free and fair elections. we understand that whatever we put on those ballots will be counted differently. and of course there was no surprise in vladimir putin winning, maybe in a little bit in the fact that he gave himself, over 87% of the vote, which is i mean, he could be slightly more modest. but no, he had to go that high. and these results were called and precedented and record by the russian authorities. so, the only way for russians to actually show what they think of it was to come at the same time at noon to polling stations and see how many of us they are actually in reality. nick: fiona hill, was noon against putin successful? fiona: look, i think it was symbolically very important. we'll have to see how we judge success over time. but the very fact that there was signaling that people were

dissatisfied and the only way that they could with the repressive constraints on them is very important because there were suddenly hundreds of thousands of people. we saw hundreds of thousands of people turning out for navalny's funeral, and not just on the day of the funeral, but on the days afterwards. nick: and doing so despite knowing full well they could be arrested. fiona: and also people that turned out, in fact, to sign, the forms for the possibility of an alternative candidate, boris, to also run against putin and ultimately, of course, was disqualified. but all of this is very important because the people who have the courage to do these small acts of defiance are also standing in for, let's just say, all of the other people behind them who just don't have the wherewithal or are too frightened, in fact, to show their dissatisfaction. so i think we can say from this that it isn't a monolith that putin is presiding over, and it is 87% of what? nick: let's turn to the future. does putin use 87%? does putin use another election

to rule differently, either domestically or internationally? evgenia: well, it's certainly going to give him confidence and i think we're going to see him use that externally as well. it's the second year anniversary or just afterwards of the full on invasion of ukraine. and ukraine itself was also suosed to have an election coming up. so i would just predict right now that putin will use the very fact that he's been re-anoint as the czar from here to eternity, at least his eternity, perhaps, to make the case that other elections are not being done in the same way, that there's a lack of legitimacy in ukraine. nick: but he's long since questioned other elections. he's long since questioned whether there can be any democratic process anywhere. does he use this election differently, specifically, perhaps in ukraine or with joe biden as president or with the u.s. elections? evgenia: yes. basically, to make the point that we all have to deal with him and that we should be considering him and his position on the importance of russia as an actor when we think about our own policies.

so he's definitely going to use this for all he can. nick: what do you think, is the state of russia's oppositi today and how putin will, or will not treat it differently moving forward? evgenia: well, the reason there is such harsh repression in the country, the reason there are these mass arrests, detentions, etc., the reason we have hundreds and hundreds of political prisoners and hundreds of thousands of russians being forced out of the country, is because this is the alternative. this is the alternative. and vladimir putin is doing everything to completely annihilate this alternative so tat the world is left to deal with him alone. and this is why i believe it would be so important right now for the international community to do everything to show support and solidarity with those russians who represent a vision for a different russia, for democratic russia, a normal country, a european country that understands and respects the freedoms and rights of its own

citizens and lives in peace with its neighbors. i just understand that for as long as vladimir putin remains in the kremlin, there will be war mongering and there will be repression. and those two things in russia have always been interconnected. internal repression always leads to external aggression. and this will go on and on for as long as this regime is allowed to survive. nick: but fiona hill, is putin isolated internationally? it seems like he has tactical help, certainly on the battlefield from places like north korea and iran. he's getting oil purchases from iran, and there is a strategic, top cover, if you will, from beijing. how isolated is he, or not? and where does he go from here? fiona: well, that is an issue for us to contend with. and i think it's actually a difficult one. we have to be honest about it. and it's something that we have to keep working on as well. you know, i think, you know, part of the problem that we always face, again, is questions about our own electoral system, which we are right in the middle of right now. also showing, you know, insufficient, i would say,

dedication and resilience, when it comes to dealing with foreign policy. and the key for thinking about the answer to this question is how we best conduct ourselves at this particular point. nick: the best thing that the u.s. could do is actually strengthen itself? fiona: that's right. and also, strengthen its relationship with its allies and partners. and that's not just with european countries. it's also with countries like japan, south korea, australia, new zealand. ere are a whole host of countries, including countries like india, that have, you know, somewhat ambiguous relationships with russia. that we need to keep reaching out to and trying to kind of push back against the threat that vladimir putin poses, not just to domestically in russia or to ukraine, but to the larger world system that many other countries have benefited from. so that's a challenge for us. and putin's thrown that challenge down. i don't think we should give up hope, because i do think that that signaling from inside of russia shows that, you know, it isn't a monolith inside of russia and there are vulnerabilities. and actually he's quite isolated domestically, right? i don't think he even knows himself, you know, quite how

much support he has. but people around him will know how many ballots they're stuffed. they will know how many people they bust out are forced to vote. and eventually, if he shows any kind of weakness internally, you know, there might be another reaction. we've already seen that with prigozhin. on that episode, you know, several months ago. and we've seen it with the outpouring of emotion and support for navalny. nick: your husband of course, has long been fighting for some of the changes that fiona is talking about. he's in prison. how's he doing? evgenia: he's doing as well as he can. you know, he's, he still sounds -- well, sounds, i haven't talked to him since last summer, but in his letters, he is optimistic. and he sends us words of support. but that's what russian political prisoners do. amazingly. they are the ones mistreated. they are the ones denied medical care. they are the ones in solitary

confinement. and they say about russia, about the hope for a different russia and about that hope leaving on even after the murder of alexei navalny. they say that vladimir was able to address us during a recent court hearing. and it happened right after alexei's murder. and he said that, of course, he was absolutely devastated by what had happened. and this was not the first political assassination in russia's history. but he also said that we cannot give in to despair because this is exactly what they want us to do. and we need to, fight even more. and this is what we owe to our fallen comrades to continue the fight, to make sure that russia does become what they fought for and died for a normal european, free, democratic country. so, vladimir, sitting in this solitary punishment cell in

western siberia sends us words of support and encouragement. nick: evgeny kara-murza, fiona hill, thank you very much to you both. evgenia: thank you. ♪ geoff: the first amendment was at the center of two key supreme court arguments today. one focused on social media company's handling of misinformation while the powerful gun lobby, the national rifle association, was at the center of the other. our supreme court analyst, marcia coyle joins us now. the first one was whether the biden administration violated the first amendment when they flagged covid misinformation to facebook and twitter. where were the justices on this case? >> the crux of the cases is how do you tell when the government

has crossed the line between what is permissible persuasion and unconstitutional coercion. just a chief justice framed that as, how do we measure this? it is significant persuasion enough? the lawyers for the state that brought this lawsuit said you don't even need coercion, you just need inducement and coercion which justice kagan said, wow, that is so broad and expansive. they're really trying to find out where is the line here and did the biden administration cross it. the justices did not seem entirely sympathetic to the challengers here. the seats -- because they saw a couple problems with the case. first, did these individuals and the states even have the legal right to sue here?

the justices could not see a clear line between the claims that the individuals said their posts had been taken down because of government action. like justice kagan said at some point, there was such a time gap between communication by the government and what happened to their post. was it the government's action or the platform's own action? my sense of the argument afterwards was that they are leaning towards, a majority is definitely leaning in favor of the biden administration. there was a lot of talk too about how the government does communicate, how almost every single day you will see a president using the bully pulpit or you'll see federal officials communicating one thing or another. there is just a lot of back-and-forth. and facebook and social media platforms have their own power. they can say no, and they do often to the government. and also they can turn to

officials when they have complaints. these were all issues that the justices rocked up which lead me to believe they are leaning towards the biden administration . geoff: interesting. we have seen this court take up a number of social media-related cases this term. what does that suggest? marcia: i think it is just to expansion of social media, the amount of information that is going out on these platforms. it is almost like passage of a big new law. it takes a certain amount of time for issues to percolate from the lower courts up to the supreme court. and they are percolating very quickly when it comes to social media. geoff: another first amendment case heard today involved the nra. they were actually defended by the aclu today in a case where the nra is saying they are being punished for gun advocacy. marcia: there lawsuit was against new york state regulator of insurance companies and other financial institutions.

and they claim this state regulator had used coercion and threats in order to get certain insurance companies to drop their coverage or the relationship with the nra. and the nra has lost a lot of those insurers. and so the court today also was looking at this coercion or persuasion. but this is an odd case. it is not social media. a lot is going to turn on the communications the state regulator had with the insurance companies. she claims that she was not coercing them. that, one, she was being persuasive and reminding them of the reputational risks they faced like continuing their relationship the nra for an she was primarily engaged in a law enforcement activity. because the nra was issuing insurance products that work, one, to legal, and the an array did not have a license.

so she felt that protected her from any claim of liability. there, too, i think with the court, it is really hard to tell on this one. i think it is going to come down to how to actually look at, examine closely the sort of guidance regulators the state regulator put out to these financial institutions in order to decide whether crossed over to impermissible coercion. geoff: marcia coyle, thanks as always. marcia: my pleasure. ♪ amna: for more on donald trump's escalating violent rhetoric, how lawmakers are responding, and more political headlines today, with our politics monday team. that's amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter. and tamara keith of npr. great to see you both. so you saw the report earlier on

the violent rhetoric. even after mr. trump is confronted about the fact that some of his language echoes hitler's, he doubled down. he said they would be a bloodbath if he did not win. i want to ask you about republicans have said since then. senator bill cassidy said his comments were on the edge. speaker mike johnson said mr. trump was just referring to the auto industry and he is 100% correct. the decision by fellow republicans to not unequivocally call out violent rhetoric, what does that say to you? amy: i will point out the one person who did say something, mike pence, his former vice president, who announced he is not endorsing him. when pushed he is not saying whether he would vote for him or not but he said he would not endorse him. he came right out and said the fact that first of all you have the president claiming that the january 6 defendants are hostages at a time when we have

actual american hostages in gaza is really beyond the pale. and i think the word he used, he said i will never diminish it, january 6 he is saying. that the people moving to the system are not hostages, they are defendants. and he said his remarks were unacceptable. now, that is what might -- what mike pence said. if you were on the ballot this year that is not likely something you are going to say. bill cassidy has not as well but he is also not endorsed him yet. this is the gamble trump has been making since he came down the escalator in 2016. that fundamentally he has a base of voters who will stick with him no matter what. there is a bigger coalition than anybody appreciates or understands. and that he does not have to worry about alienating everybody else, including people who are in the middle, because his

coalition can overtake them. and that is what -- and he's looking at the polls right now is or other republicans. the former is leading the current president right now and thinking, well, maybe this time there will be enough of those voters. and so we don't want to put our own political opportunities at risk in our own campaigns. amna: what about those people in the middle? the biden campaign came out very quickly with past comments he had made defending white supremacists. are there people who can look at this and say maybe i won't vote for him now? tamara: the biden campaign absolutely believes there are persuadable voters. they look for those who voted for nikki haley in the republican primaries and say at least some share of those voters could be persuasion targets. i was talking with people who

were out knocking on doors and campaigning in waukesha, wisconsin this weekend. this is a red county but has gotten more purple. and they believe that some of those voters, obviously not all of them, but some of them could be reachable. and it's not just a trump violent rhetoric that the biden campaign intends to use. certainly they are highlighting it and doing everything they can to highlight it. but they really believe that messaging around abortion and reproductive freedom and reproductive rights, that that is where some of those same voters will be persuadable. the same people -- the footsie with violent rhetoric are all also concerned about abortion rights. amna: mr. trump was in ohio at a campaign event for businessmen bernie moreno, one of three republicans vying for the senate nomination. this is a state trump won by eight points in 2020. it is winnable by republicans

but the democratic incumbent sherrod brown remains very popular. what can we learn from this? amy: this is one of the handful of states where there actually is a competitive republican primary. republicans actually took something from the 2022 election to heart, which was they stayed out of these primaries and the candidates that endorsed -- that trump-endorsed ended up winning in almost all of those primaries. those candidates ended up failing in november. and so, the approach this year by the republican senate committee was to go in and try to clean out these primaries. and make an alliance with donald trump. instead of trying to fight him or let him do whatever he wanted to do, to try to maybe bring him into the tent and say these are the candidates we think of the strongest, these are the candidates we think you should endorsed. ohio is one of the places where that really did not work out, and we have another battle

between these old pre-trump party, which is this candidate that is the closest to the candidate that trump in terms of the polling. so, that wing of the party endorsed by the former senator rob portman. then you have the candidate trump has endorsed, who is also campaigning with people like kari lake and j.d. vance, the new senator there. the campaign on this side, the trump-endorsed candidate, is campaigning explicitly on, i am the answer as the antiestablishment. i will defeat the establishment. so i think that is really much more of the story about whether you are going to see the side that is the more traditional wing, or the more trump-ified candidate win. and that has really been the story the last five or six years. amna: how do you look at this? tamara: in much the same way.

we will be watching to see if the trump-endorsed candidate in this senate race ends up being the one who emerges. but in arizona you have kari lake, who has basically cleared the field. she is someone who failed in her last race, who many establishment republicans thought was a disaster. she has been a leading election denier and has been out campaigning with trump. and ultimately, the establishment kind of folded and said ok, it's kari lake in arizona. i think jim i -- i think democrats are generally pleased to have that. in ohio, democrats want moreno to be the candidate the republicans elevate. amna: i need to ask you about a call between president biden and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, their first call since majority leader chuck schumer took to the senate floor and called for regime change in israel. this has been a private rift that is now out in the open.

what does this mean for the white house relationship with israel? amy: israel is now going to send a delegation to the u.s. to have high-level meetings about its plan for rafah. the president has drawn something of a redline, but it is not a hard and fast one, which may be means it is not a real redline. saying not that israel cannot invade rafah, but should not do it unless there is a credible plan for getting civilians out of harm's way. so this meeting is a stem sibling about figuring out whether there is a credible plan and having that discussion. but president biden continues to be in a bind between his progressive left and other voters who do support him who are more pro-israel. and the biden administration is trying to make this distinction that benjamin netanyahu is not israel. netanyahu, who is much more closely allied with republicans. about the politics are

incredible challenging for biden. amna: already a busy week. always good to see you both. thank you so much. tamara: you're welcome. ♪ geoff: unlike other social safety net programs that continue to expand, federal housing assistance has shrunk to its lowest level in nearly 25 years, even as homelessness and rental prices have hit historic highs. today, only one in four households eligible to receive federal housing assistance actually does. stephanie sy and producer mike fritz take a look at why as part of our ongoing series, america's safety net. >> the rent they're asking for is $1825 a month. >> that's real good. stephanie: in mesquite, texas, a suburb of dallas, 36-year-old kassyli williams and her two children need to find a new place to live by the end of the month. >> i like the outside. stephanie: but first, she and real estate agent latonya

donaldson have to find a landlord willing to accept the family's housing choice voucher, also known as section 8. housing choice vouchers are the federal government's largest form of rental assistance. 2.3 million american households rely othe $30 billion program. >> the hardest process is literally the finding process because you're going through so many different landlords. so i am up all night long, all night long trying to find somewhere to stay. stephanie: williams got on the program in 2010, two years after being hit by a pickup truck on the side of a dallas highway. >> i broke the first vertebrae in my neck. i broke my right shoulder. my hips were completely crushed, like, literally in pieces. my pelvis was broken in three places. stephanie: so that led to disability. >> lifelong. stephanie: williams considered herself lucky when she first found this house in mesquite

with her voucher. >> i've been here seven years, i love my landlord, love my house. but what is happening? my house has started to fall apart piece by piece. literally every time it rains the whole thing comes down. stephanie: and does it flood your kitchen? >> yes. every single time. stephanie: now, she's back to square one, competing against other renters for a limited supply of houses in dallas's more desirable suburban neighborhoods. along the way, she says she's faced bias from landlords. >> they automatically assume that because you're on section 8 that you're dirty or that you're just almost not worthy of having a nice house because you need the help. >> moving is stressful for all of us. moving with a section 8 voucher is overwhelming. stephanie: ann lott runs the inclusive communities project, a texas nonprofit that helps people on housing choice vouchers. she hears stories like kassyli williams' often.

>> as a matter of fact, in the dallas fort worth metroplex, 93% of the landlords will not take a housing choice voucher. stephanie: a big reason for that, lott says, is that in texas, landlords can legally discriminate against prospective tenants who use voucher income for a portion of their rent. from what i understand, black families are disproportionately affected. >> approximately 85% of the families that we serve on the voucher program are african american. but unfortunately, what we found is that even with the voucher, the only areas that would accept section 8 would be those high minority, high poverty areas. stephanie: you're speaking in past tense. isn't that the case now? >> that is still the case. stephanie: when president nixon created the section 8 program as an alternative to government-funded public housing

developments, it allowed low income americans to take their rental assistance with them, giving them the opportunity to live outside of segregated neighborhoods. >> so, the idea that families wouldn't be tied to these units and could go, you know, purchase housing elsewhere, i think was an exciting prospect. stephanie: but 50 years later, the program hasn't lived up to its full promise says stefanie deluca, director of the poverty and inequality research lab at johns hopkins university. >> most voucher holders in the u.s. live in moderate to high poverty neighborhoods. and frankly, we've privatized public housing in the u.s. and that means that landlords are our housing providers. and the program rests on our ability to not only get their participation, but meet their needs as well. stephanie: across the country, the number of vouchers is determined by annual funding from congress. but studies have found that funding hasn't kept up with rental prices.

another problem is housing supply, says kevin corinth with the conservative american enterprise institute. >> if we can only build, build, build, and build some more. that's the only way we have a potential chance of getting families access to these high opportunity areas that have been demonstrated to have major successful outcomes for themselves and for their kids. stephanie: a lack of affordable housing has led to a surge in homelessness in cities like san francisco, los angeles, and new york. but here in seattle, one of the nation's least affordable cities, there's a renewed focus on housing vouchers and how to make the system work better for applicants and landlords. >> this is one of our studio apartments. it is about 250 square feet. stephanie: ben maritz is a landlord who owns about 900 affordable apartment units in the city. >> we've built a lot of housing, especially the kind of kind of basic low frills housing like what you're seeing here, that is a very good fit for the voucher

program. stephanie: unlike in dallas, landlords here cannot deny applicants on the basis of their income source, and maritz says the seattle housing authority makes it easy to rent to tenants with vouchers. >> the downside and the risks aren't that much. and frankly, our business does better when we have those kinds of stable rent payments that come from a voucher resident. they are very easy to work with, they pay on time, they pay electronically, and they have a pretty good case management and dispute resolution system. stephanie: tysonia mclain with the seattle housing authority says the city tries to address landlords' concerns. >> if a tenant falls behind on rent they can submit a referral and get assistance with that rent amount. if the tenant decides o move out and leaves a high utility bill, they can get assistance with that. if something were to happen and the unit was left damaged, they can receive funds up to $5000 to repair those damages. stephanie: they also lend a hand

to prospective tenants. mclain leads a team of housing counselors who help connect individuals with potential resources, like help with paying for moving costs, security deposits, and application fees. >> of course the main way you can always apply is through the online's applications process. stephanie: since january, the housing authority has been holding public information sessions for people hoping to get on the waiting list for a housing choice voucher. it's been seven years since seattle opened that list to applicants. >> we get calls every day through our referral line about housing. i'm sleeping in my car, i'm sleeping in tent city, i'm sleeping on someone's couch. stephanie: seattle is hoping to distribute 800 housing choice vouchers by the end of the year, but already 14,000 people have applied. whether an individual or family gets one is based largely on luck says the kevin corinth, who believes the program should be redesigned. >> it's essentially a lottery. those who are very lucky will get assistance. everyone else gets nothing.

another problem is that it discourages families from earning more. basically, your rent effectively goes up if you earn more money, which can discourage upward mobility. stephanie: but for those who receive one, like 42-year-old sarah richardson, a housing choice voucher can be life changing. >> i don't know where we would be today without the voucher. stephanie: she got one from the seattle housing authority in 2017. growing up, richardson says she battled homelessness and later drug addiction and incarceration. having a permanent home helped her turn her life around. >> when i got the news, my number came up on the waitlist, i cried, i screamed, i was so excited because i knew that finally i was going to feel stable. stephanie: stability and also opportunities for her 11-year-old daughter ja'brea that she didn't have.

their voucher afforded them a house in one of seattle's better neighborhoods. her 21-year-old goddaughter, aliyah, also lives in the home. seattle's commitment to making the process easier was crucial. what's next? what are your greatest hopes for the future? >> getting my daughter through middle school and high school. that's like what my goal is, is to push and help and be the best mom that i can be. stephanie: back in texas, kassyli williams has the same simple dream. but when we left them, they were still sending out applications to landlords. how optimistic are you feeling about this? >> honestly, im trying to be as positive as i possibly can, even though it's terrifying. it's terrifying because you just don't know.

stephanie: last week, after 2.5 months of searching, the williams family finally found a rental and a landlord who will accept their voucher. for the "pbs newshour," i'm stephanie sy. ♪ amna: as a new york city high school english teacher, adrian antao has embraced technology to help his students. while some express concern about the influence of a.i. on education, antao has worked with educators, coders, and designers to develop an a.i. tool that helps students with their writing revisions. he shares his brief but spectacular take on harnessing a.i. in schools. >> here it is. the argument that said, it's a yes/no question that needs an answer in the intro. because i've taught for close to 20 years, i've taught almost every english class this school has offered.

why did the author want to write these four paragraphs? i have wanted to be a teacher since i was 10 years old. initially, i thought it was a job that would garner you respect as an adult. as i got older, i fell in love with literature and have lucked into a dream job. openai dropped chatgpt on all of us last november. my initial reaction was terror. the summer began with me sitting in on conversations about how to adapt ai for the classroom, and by july we began a partnership with a company called playlab that provided an open platform for teachers to create their own ai bot. i'm going on to project tony. it's an ai chat bot that can be a teaching assistant for teachers and a writing tutor for students. so i'm going to put in the assignment. it is designed to read articles

that students are also reading so they can engage in the conversation to begin the revision process. tony will provide strengths and areas for improvement for each paragraph. the problem that i had in mind was largely the jealousy i felt toward math teachers and science teachers who can give instant feedback to students during tutoring. if i assign a five page essay, that's a 500 page novel that i would have to get through. before tony existed, the feedback cycle largely mimicked the letter writing that you would see in jane austen movies, roughly two to three weeks, and this shrinks that feedback cycle to 24 to 72 hours. remember what i told you on tuesday. introducing project tony into the classroom has been fascinating. what i'm discovering is that i'm needing to teach them how to use it well. just press one and tony will give paragraph by paragraph suggestions.

it's not alexa or google. you don't just give it simple commands. you have to engage with it. specifically, could you elaborate on why this was a poor example? and it will give you two to three sentences of explanation and you can convince tony that it was incorrect. but what that takes is for you to make a stand for your own writing, which is such a huge move in a writer's psychology to have the confidence in your own sentences, where often students are coming from a space of doubt and fear. you're entering in a partnership the way a professional writer and a professional editor enters into a conversation and they're both engaged in trying to make the writing better. the p is the purpose. one of the goals of being a good teacher is to give them academic attention and show them how intelligent they are. what i enjoy most about teaching writing is seeing growth in one of my students.

it fills me up the way a great sentence in a novel fills me up. it's a really fulfilling experience. my name is adrian antao, and this is my brief but spectacular take on harnessing ai in schools. amna: tonight's brief but spectacular is part of a six-part collection on the future of education. geoff: you can watch the entire series on our website, pbs.org/newshour. amna: and join us again here tomorrow night when we report on the warnings of famine in gaza and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's fight to keep his grip on power. and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. thanks for joining us and have a good evening. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. >> on an american cruise lines journey, along the colombia and snake rivers, travelers retrace the route forged by lewis and

clark more than 200 years ago. american cruise line's fleet of modern riverboats travel through american landscapes to historic landmarks, where you can experience local customs and cuisine. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of "pbs newshour." >> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions.

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