♪ amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff bennett is away. on the “newshour” tonight -- the justice department and sixteen state attorneys general sue apple for maintaining a monopoly with a vote to avoid a government shutdown set for

tomorrow, house speaker mike johnson works to keep his fractious majority intact. and an arizona lawmaker talks about why she publicly announced her decision to terminate her non-viable pregnancy. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs has been provided by -- >> actually you do not need vision to do most things in life. it is exciting to be part of a team driving technology forward. that is the most rewarding thing. people who know know bdo. >> all our partner rediscovers her grandmother's artistry and rediscovers a crop to i. a financial advisor gets to know you, your passions, and the way you enrich your community. life well planned.

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broadcasting at a by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the “newshour”" the department of justice and more than a dozen states sued apple today in a landmark antitrust case. they argue the tech giant has created an illegal monopoly in the smartphone market by using excessively restrictive hardware and apps that keep customers locked into apple's ecosystem, and that puts a “chokehold on competition.” that includes its payment and messaging systems and basic connections with other apps. doha mekki is the principal deputy assistant attorney general at the department and she joins me now. welcome to the newshour. >> it is nice to be with you. amna: the department of justice is arguing apple's monopoly comes at the expense of phone makers and consumers. how are consumers being harmed? >> today's lawsuit was filed

about alleged monopolies a and, monopoly maintenance to be specific by apple that we allege has artificially sorted competition in the smartphone market, and specifically we allege that apple imposed restrictions on apps, products, and services that threaten to disrupt apple's smartphone monopoly, so consumers suffer the consequences. sometimes that look like higher prices for smartphones. it looks like disrupted innovation by potential developers that harms the entire ecosystem for smartphones, and it also means apple is the wording technology and emerging paradigms that may make consumers device agnostic altogether. amna: part of apple's response that is the lawsuit threatens the principles that set them

apart in the market. they say if successful this lawsuit would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from apple where hardware, software, and services intersect. part of the apple appeal is they have this integration across this suite of systems and apps. is there a sense that doj is punishing them for what customers like the best for? >> absolutely not. in the united states is in favor of consumer electronics and products and services that work for consumers, and competition is the best way to make sure that there is ample opportunity in the market for different kinds of providers to offer more of what consumers want. united states government in its lawsuit is very in favor of privacy and security, and

specifically none of the conduct that we challenged in our lawsuit is necessary to ensure privacy and security. amna: part of the doj's challenge is to prove the benefits apple delivers to the consumers do not outweigh its alleged antitrust practices. how do you do that? >> there will be many months of discovery and the long road to trial in this case which we very much look for to, and one of the things we will focus on is developing awful record i of trial about all of the ways in which apple undertakes -- through developer guidelines outweigh what is required to

deliver their products and services. amna: what kind of changes could do be looking at apple to make? structural changes for example? >> that is a legal question. our burden right now is to demonstrate an antitrust violation, and it is black letter law in the united states that a remedy has to be tailored to redress the violation and prevent its recurrence, so it is too early right now to say with the precise contours of a remedy are, but it is the rule -- role, tradition, and long-standing goal of the justice department to take on monopolies and prion -- pry open markets and make sure the forces of competition can take hold so we are protecting the opportunity for next generation technologies and disruptive services and products that americans have always look

forward to. amna: this lawsuit all those years of regulatory scrutiny of apple. they have fought off another number of antitrust challenges. what prevented the doj from taking action sumer that might have saved some of the consumers now harmed? >> this lawsuit was filed after a careful and deliberate investigation. we take our case is in effect as we find them and only file lawsuits when we are confident that we have real competition concerns that cannot be addressed short of going to court, so that is what happened here. there is no doubt justice delayed is justice denied, and we will be excited to try our case when it is ready. amna: that is the principal deputy assistant attorney general at the department of justice.

thank you so much for your time. >> thank you for having me. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with “newshour west.” here are the latest headlines. the quest to end the grinding war in gaza took secretary of state antony blinken to egypt, on his latest middle east mission. blinken met in cairo with president abdel fattah el-sissi and later with his arab counterparts. and he voiced hope about mediated talks in qatar between israel and hamas. >> negotiatiors continue to work, the gaps are narrowing, and we're continuing to push for an agreement in doha. there's still difficult work to get there, but i continue to believe that it's possible." >> meanwhile, in gaza city -- smoke billowed from a fourth day of fighting around the al-shifa hospital complex. the israeli military said it has killed more than 140 palestinian gunmen there. ukraine's capital city has suffered its heaviest barrage of russian missiles in weeks. military officials say all 31 of the missiles were shot down.

still, falling debris caused extensive damage to residential buildings. in all, 13 people were injured in the attacks, including a child. the european union today formally took up the question of using frozen russian assets to help ukraine's military. the interest on those assets could provide more than $3 billion dollars a year. e.u. leaders met in brussels, and german chancellor olaf scholz was among those endorsing the plan -- despite russian warnings that it amounts to theft. >> i am quite sure that we are sending a very clear signal to putin here. he has made a miscalculation if he believes that we are not able to support ukraine for as long as it is necessary. and the use of windfall profits is a small but important component. >> in mississippi sentencing concluded today for six white, former law enforcement officers who tortured two black men. the final pair received federal prison terms of 27 years and 10 years. the six defendants admitted to

torturing michael jenkins and eddie parker after breaking into a home without a warrant in 2023. no charges will be filed in the case of nex benedict, a non-binary high school student who died following a fight in a school bathroom. an oklahoma district attorney said he agreed with a police assessment that the altercation was mutual. the state medical examiner determined benedict died by suicide the day after the fight. the biden administration has announced it's forgiving a new round of federal student loan debt. the announcement affects 78,000 teachers, nurses, firefighters, and other workers in public service jobs. it cancels nearly $5.8 billion in student loans that they still owed. that makes nearly $144 billion in federal student debt forgiven so far by the administration. and, a passing of note -- richard higgins -- one of the last survivors of the pearl harbor attack -- has died in bend, oregon. he was a u.s. navy radioman when japanese planes attacked on

december 7th, 1941. richard higgins was 102 years old. still to come on the “newshour” -- why suicide rates are higher among tank units than the rest of the army. californians approve a plan to address homelessness and mental health the life-threatening risks associated with eviction. and dartmouth basketball players push the boundaries on unionizing college athlete. -- athletes. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios and washington, d.c. and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: congress is on the verge of passing a large spending deal, six months into its fiscal year and with less than 48 hours left before a partial government shut down. lisa desjardins has more on what has made this congress one of history's most dysfunctional. lisa? >> that dysfunction is one of

the defining features of this house, we have a narrow republican majority that is made governing unpredictable, and at times, impossible. the basement of the u.s. capitol is a messy place of power -- of lawmakers in a thin majority and dim light. and for the past 15 months -- house republicans' regular meetings here have showcased the most chaotic majority in modern american history. >> a speaker has not been elected. >> not just the 15 votes to find a first speaker. nor the unprecedented ouster of that speaker in just ten months. >> the office of speaker of the house of the united states house of representatives is hereby declared vacant. >> this is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down, it doesn't work. >> but other failed votes that should be easy -- >> the “nays” are 216. the resolution is not adopted. >> to keep government going,

speaker johnson has repeatedly suspended the rules to pass key legislation, like spending bills. >> this will be a five minute vote. >> common, internal divide has taken an uncommon form. >> we need to be instilling trust. we need to be instilling confidence, not in -- not showing dysfunction. however, i know that you don't mind the debate either, and they don't mind it being public as well. >> and that is the point to some -- >> like we all said, the border is the number one issue. what are we going to do about the border? nothing, right? >> if you recognize that face -- of house freedom caucus member chip roy -- it may be for his repeated, public criticism of republican decisions. he's one of 19 or so gop rebels who say the party compromises too much. they have power in part because of the slim 3-vote margin in the house. and starting next week, disorder will make that even tighter. >> too many republican leaders are lying to america. >> with the departure of colorado congressman ken buck, who has blasted republicans as pushing lies for former president donald trump.

now, leaving months before his term is up, he is blunt. >> it is the worst year of the nine years and three months i've been in congress and having talked to former members, it's the worst year in 40, 50 years to be in congress. >> i think that this is a tough moment that can really define the conference overall. >> erin perrine is a republican strategist who worked for kevin mccarthy in house leadership. she sees bright spots -- including wide agreement last week on the bill to limit tik tok. but the underlying tension remains. >> some people are never going to want to compromise. they want to stand where they want to stand. but to be able to get the conference to move legislation together forward, that's the big thing. >> the situation's been a bit of a nightmare for republicans like sarah chamberlain, who heads the republican main street partnership that includes 75 house members -- with a creed focused on governing. chamberlain has watched debates turn into public disarray and

knows of worse behind the scenes. >> i mean, there is almost been fist fights and it's funny, we're not the -- the parliament in england. i mean, there truly have been very close to some real problems on the floor and certainly in conference. >> fist fights? that's from another era. >> right? the democrats already, the democrats should be the group we're working against. not fellow republicans. >> in her alliance are members fighting for their political lives in swing districts and she says fighting for sensible governing on the floor of the house. >> patriotic americans -- >> she points to rebels -- like matt gaetz of florida -- who have used social media and the small margin to derail what should be simple votes, like the rules for debate. >> no one ever does that. but now it gets done on a pretty regular basis, which is unfortunate. they don't want to be on the team, and maybe they're okay being in the minority. at main street, we certainly do not want to be in the minority. >> but what republican hard liners want is to dig in.

what others in their party see as a nightmare they shrug off. >> government, in the last, you know, last 200 plus years -- show me a year that isn't dysfunctional. everybody just looks back on it through the, you know, through the, through the rose-colored glasses of time. but it's always dysfunctional. >> some of your, mainstream guys in swing districts say they're they are getting hurt by it because the republicans look like they can't govern. >> so i'm supposed to compromise my views? no, i'm not going to compromise. country's too important to me. >> in the small capitol basement, it's all a massive test for a new speaker trying to govern with members who don't agree on what that means. hardliners say the disorder is with gop leadership skirting rules and bending or breaking pledges. but the majority of republicans i speak with say no, the issue is the hardliners demanding untenable positions, like allowing a government shutdown. some hardliners see shutdowns as leverage. even right at this moment, and others see them as disasters. amna: remind us why this all

matters, who is impacted by this disarray? >> we have been used to dysfunction but this is a special situation this last one in five years. there is not time, the room to deal with the real problems we have in this country. let's take the deficit and the dead, something that needs to be addressed. while these hardliners have spent a lot of capital trying to deal with it, in truth they have gone the other way. while they have held the line on spending their is not time to actually get to work done. another thing that is important is that is what we have continued risks of shutdown. we almost had a debt ceiling problem and this is the rest of the world looking at america as an unstable democracy. just this week on a monday vladimir putin called american democracy a catastrophe, so our reputation in the world is at stake with how the house of representatives is able to do or not do its job, and the majority

is at stake for republicans. amna: thank you as always. ♪ the patchwork landscape of abortion restrictions in a post-roe america can be both confusing and dangerous. this is true even for some lawmakers, one of whom took to the floor of the arizona state senate to describe her own recent experience with a non-viable pregnancy. >> after numerous ultrasounds and blood draws, we have determined that my pregnancy is once again not progressing and is not viable. and once again, i have scheduled an appointment to terminate my pregnancy. i don't think people should have to justify their abortions, but i'm choosing to talk about why i made this decision, because i want us to be able to have meaningful conversations about the reality of how the work that we do in this body impacts people in the real world. amna: eva burch is the

democratic whip of the arizona state senate, and she joins me now. senator birch, thank you for joining us and let me begin by saying how very sorry we are for your loss. >> thank you for having me and i appreciate the sentiment. it is an unfortunate thing to happen, but i am glad that i had the opportunity to turn this sad moment into something that is powerful and meaningful and has the opportunity to affect change. amna: tell me about your decision to share that decision publicly. how easy was it to decide to speak out on the floor like that? >> it is a complicated decision, but i do not know that it was a difficult decision. i started going through this process, and as i was having my initial consultation where you have to have this counseling in arizona it became clear to me that i was being told who i was in that council meeting and that my provider did not want to say

the things that they said, and i felt a strong sense of responsibility to take ownership of the debt and to tell people who i was instead of the other way around. i know that there is this stigma about through the abortion patient is, and the weight that i was being treated was unacceptable to me and i had to speak out about it. amna: tell me about what the reaction has been like from fellow lawmakers, many of whom may disagree with you. >> i have a lot of respect and appreciation for my fellow lawmakers and have good relationships with many of my fellow lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. we do have extremist republican leadership in the arizona senate and i am not particularly surprised. i do not think i was urged by the leadership in the arizona legislature, but what i do know is i was urged by so many other people and have had an overwhelming response of people reaching out to me, telling me their own stories, and it makes

it clear to me we are in an environment where people are ready to be heard themselves and are ready for change. amna: you did lay out the multiple steps arizona state law currently requires women to go through to legally get an abortion including an evasive ultrasounds that you did not need, but you also state your medical provider was forced to tell me multiple things that do not apply to my situation and some that are just transparently factually false. what did you mean by that? >> several things specific to me is i was told that adoption was an option for me or that parenting was an option for me. i did not have a viable pregnancy. it is cruel to tell someone they could be parenting when that is not an option. this was a wanted pregnancy but that was not in the cards by me. i was also told that if i chose to continue my pregnancy that the father would have to support me financially, which also would

not apply to my situation. i have a loving and wonderful relationship with my husband, but i do not need to be financially supported and that relationship. providers are supposed to talk about the probable anatomical properties of the fetus at the time of the abortion, and in my case that also did not apply. at my embryo was dying it was not subject to the probabilities of how the pregnancy, and it was cruelty for the sake of cruelty. it was not medical providers, experts putting this list of counseling together. it was people opposed to abortion: work hours have been trying to convince me to make a different decision. amna: you have made clear your views and beliefs, but there were many people in arizona and across the entire u.s. who do not share those beliefs. they do not believe you should have a right to an abortion at all or after a certain point and

they may ask why terminate a pregnancy at all. why not continue to carry it even if it means miscarrying? would you say to those people? >> those people should not have an abortion if they feel comfortable and would want to carry to term themselves, but i would say people do not have to feel obligated to explain their stories and their situations to others to gain their approval in order to have autonomy over their decision-making and their health care. are there reasons other than medical necessity or a nonviable pregnancy the people get abortions they can make other people uncomfortable? of course there are and that would have high disapproval from other individuals, but we also have to look at the reality of what the outcomes are for people who seek abortions and are unable to get them, and there are serious consequences there as well that should be considered. these patients are more likely to be the victims of domestic violence, evicted, more likely to not be able to afford basic

needs for their homes, their living children are less likely to be developing normally. there are so many consequences that can happen when someone is unable to make a decision for themselves and we have to allow people to make those decisions, because it usually has a right decision for them. we have to allow them to do that. amna: that is senator ewa birch joining us tonight. thank you so much for your time. ♪ amna: alarming suicide rates among the military and veterans can be traced to the stress and trauma from the long wars in afghanistan and iraq. but those conflicts are over. and suicides remain at what the pentagon calls an unacceptably high level. as nick schifrin details, a new report reveals that within the army, armor brigade combat

teams, which revolve around tanks, have the highest suicide rates. >> since 9/11, more than 30,000 active-duty service members or veterans of the post 9/11 wars have died by suicide. that is more than four times the number of those who've died in combat. secretary of defense lloyd austin has repeatedly said that even one suicide is too many, and that the department must do more to prevent suicide. a new report by the army times found the highest rates of suicide are among soldiers in the army's tank community. it was written by senior reporter davis winkie, who joins me now. and i'm also joined by craig bryan, a former air force psychologist, member of a congressionally chartered study about suicide in the military and author of the book “rethinking suicide: why prevention fails and how we can do better.” thanks very much, both of you. welcome to the “newshour,” davis winkie, let me start with you. in your extraordinary report, you found that between 2019 and 2021, tank brigades experience a

suicide rate twice as high as the rest of the active duty force. why? >> nick, it's tragic, frankly. new trends in suicide prevention research are linking daily hassles and sustained stress over time with higher suicide rates. that functions, by stripping away the resilience of somebody and potentially making them more vulnerable to suicidal behavior if they experience an acute stressor in their lives. a lot of people in the army community have known for a long time that the tank brigades are not okay, that they've been run ragged over the past decade. but i didn't realize how deeply that had impacted service members down to the core of their beings. there are service members who do their 3 or 4 year contracts and never know anything but the relentless grind that these types of units have experienced.

>> what you're talking about is what you call operational tempo, what the military would call operational tempo. talk about that a little bit more, and also about what you call a lack of cohesion. what did you find in these tank brigades that aren't necessarily in other brigades? >> what we found for armored brigade combat teams is that because they've been in such high demand overseas over the past ten years, that their op tempo, as it's shortened, got largely out of control. they would spend nine months abroad, come home and they would have 18 months just to prepare to do it again. and over the course of those 18 months, they would have to spend a lot of time in the field, away from their families, preparing for the next deployment. or in their motor pools, fixing their vehicles for the next training exercise. and that really compounded over time. that combined with manning requirements that essentially say if a unit is going to deploy to europe, it needs to have this many of its slots filled.

what that meant functionally was that in order to have a brigade meet those requirements to go overseas, you would have to break down other armored brigades to fill in their empty slots. and when it comes to a loss of cohesion, that's referring to the fact that tank crews would be broken up in order to achieve those administrative requirements. and, nick, you can't exaggerate how tight knit and close a tank crew is. and that loss of cohesion can't be overstated when it occurs. >> craig bryan, let me -- let me turn to you. what's your reaction to this? what stands out most in these findings? >> yeah, i think one of the things that stood out to me as soon as i heard about the statistics was the focus on the tank community as a whole. i think when many of us think about military suicide, tankers

are not necessarily what comes to the forefront of our thoughts. we have long seen and understood suicide as something that is sort of a characteristic of the person. and so we think of in many ways resiliency or suicide risk being something that a person has. but what we understand is that over half of those who die by suicide do not have a mental health condition. this is true within the military as well as outside the military. and we know that for those without a mental health condition who struggle with suicidal thoughts and die by suicide, oftentimes it is environmental life stressors that are much more common. the prevailing thinking right now about suicide prevention just really has not embraced that complexity. >> secretary of defense lloyd austin, as i said, has discussed combating suicide as a priority. and the department has a campaign to reduce the number of suicides, including foster a supportive environment, improve

mental health care, address stigma, revise training, and promote a safety culture. are those working? >> well, i think it's a little bit too early to tell. you know, being a part of that congressionally mandated, review panel last year, we offered over 100 recommendations of ways that we believe the department of defense can change how they approach suicide prevention. and many of those have only started to be implemented. and so i think it'll take a little bit more time for us to see what works and what doesn't work. but i think one of one of the key things, key takeaways from that committee that many of us served on, was that right now, the dod doesn't really seem to have a centralized strategy as it relates to suicide prevention. and that a lot of the way that it thinks and approaches this issue is very reactive in nature. >> davis winkie, is that where you've also seen the dod be reactive and not have a

centralized strategy? >> what i've seen of army suicide prevention and is, is that, as doctor bryan said, it's largely focused on it as a individual problem. that approach has, appears to be inadequate in that it doesn't account for systemic risk factors that cut across multiple installations, such as armor brigades and their operational tempo. and frankly, for them to consider that as a systemic suicide risk factor would require the army to take a very hard look in the mirror about what it's asking its soldiers to do. and the institution isn't always incentivized to be as self-reflective. >> eight members of the first battalion of the 66th armor regiment. you spoke with current and former. they spoke on the record. that is not common. for those who cover the military. why did they do so? and did they risk their own careers in doing so?

>> traditionally speaking, members of the military are not supposed to speak out on matters of policy, and especially on matters of policy that could cast the service in a negative light. and when i spoke with these soldiers and veterans, i made sure they understood the risks. i made sure they understood the different ways they could possibly face reprisal. and they had a number of reasons for speaking out anyways. they were loyal to each other after having gone through so many deaths in such a short time. they were loyal to those they'd lost. but most of all, they understood the message that it would send for them to put their names to their words and say, this wasn't okay. the army needs to hear us. >> davis winkie, the series is called broken track.

doctor craig bryan, thank you very much to you both. >> thank you. >> thanks. ♪ amna: california voters have narrowly passed a ballot measure that will fund billions of dollars to help the state tackle its homelessness crisis. william brangham looks at the initiative that just passed by a razor-thin margin. >> about one third of the people who were homeless in america live in california, and for years it has been an endlessly vexing problem for the state since many of these people also suffer from severe mental illness and addiction issues. the newly passed proposition includes a $6.4 billion bond to fund 11,000 housing units in treatment beds and also funds $1 billion for homeless veterans.

today governor newsom celebrated the victory, but opponents say it does not do enough to keep people from becoming homeless in the first place and gives the state too much control over mental health spending. christine has been covering this closely and joins us now. thank you for being here. i laid out some of those topline numbers, but can you explain a little more about who this is intended to help? >> from the beginning governor newsom of the others find this effort have been clear that this is about helping those who are the most desperate, the most in need of help in terms of mental health services, and terms of substance abuse disorders and also homelessness. these twin crises, trying to get the folks in the most dire of

need off the street. >> it is an estimated 180,000 who do not have a place to live. not all of those people are mental health or substance abuse issues, but 11,000 beds does not seem like it closes the gap that much. >> it will not erase the problem overnight and not all of the folks on the streets in california suffered from mental illness or substance use disorder. where do researchers do know is that sometimes those two challenges can precipitate or being on the streets can exacerbate those conditions, so what we are looking at here is an attempt to create space is needed for treatment. >> what was the opposition to this? how do you explain what the opposition was here? >> the opposition came from two

distinct places. a number of mental health advocates were concerned that the portion of this measure that would actually divert funding away from existing mental health programs would be detrimental to the mental health system in california. the taxi that was passed in 2004 that will be redirected makes up one third of the state's public mental health system at the moment, and so there was some concern that current and existing programs might be harmed by that and the other concern is about compelling people into treatment, certain involuntary methods of trying to get folks up the street and into treatment with her for mental health issues or substance use issues that more of this money

might go to locked facilities or promote involuntary treatment, which is not something many advocate support. >> they are arguing some of the measures might be too coercive for people who may not be ready for that treatment? >> there is always a concern when there is a question over whether someone will be put into treatment or a facility involuntarily. the original sin of this was deinstitutionalization during the 1950's and 1960's and the shutdown of a big mental health system and infrastructure that was not replaced with anything else, so going back to those days in terms of locked institutions is not what everybody wants to do. that said, there are some questions and this is an ongoing policy issue. there will be some laws

implemented to change what conservatorship means and will change the definition of substance use and have those decisions made for them. >> california is not unique for suffering with these kind of public dollars to get california has had a very long-standing problem with this. it does a reporting help us understand why california has been struggling with this for so long? >> the lack of affordable housing does not help the situation. there is been under building in california for decades. millions of units of housing short in terms of the population what is needed. it is harder to building california, the state and local governments have tried to change policies and laws to help with that in recent years, even as more and more money and billions

of dollars get put toward homelessness issues folks are falling into homelessness as quickly as we can bring them out and a lot of cases. >> thank you so much for sharing your reporting with us. ♪ amna: with pandemic protections like eviction moratoriums and emergency rent assistance drying up, eviction filings have risen more than 50% in some cities. and new research shows that housing instability can have deadly consequences. stephanie sy has the story. >> is the cost of housing in the u.s. continues to sort new researchers link between eviction and premature death, a link shown to be stronger during the pandemic. during the first two years of the covid-19 crisis the mortality rate was more than

twice as high for renters facing eviction. we spoke to renters across the country who have faced eviction about the toll housing instability took on their health. >> my name is sabrina and i live in kansas city, missouri. i was evicted. >> i live in dallas, texas. i was faced with eviction and i am currently struggling. >> i am caroline davis. i am the mother of a wonderful 10-year-old son. we were evicted in december 2022. >> after two years of struggling i faced eviction. i saw myself in the street. >> i was living in a house for one year.

and complained about high utility bills. the landlord decided i would have it eviction. i cannot be homeless. >> there was no cushion for a working mother and a son excelling in school. we were supposed to be part of a community, and the decline immediately happens, the sleepless nights, the diet changes, the anxiety. >> your mind is racing and it is the one topic in your mind. >> i suffer from chronic pain, so when i got evicted, that stress intensified that chronic pain that i was already living with. >> it was about six months or seven months span, airbnb and hoteling until we found a room to rent. we did not have the kitchen to cook in. everything was microwaved. in addition to that we are open to covid and viruses and colds,

and there is a fear of going to the doctor. having to get sick and pay for medicine or examinations. >> i decided the extra 100 or $200 i had to spend that i would leave for food. it is for late fees to catch up on rent. >> it was horrible, scary, and i was having such stress that one day i was having heart palpitations, i got clammy and sweaty and nauseous. i did not think i would make it to the other side. >> if you are not eligible he held a you will be depleted at the end. it is a disease that has no name other than addiction. amna: we are joined by nick from princeton university's eviction

lab and author of a study that found a link between eviction and mortality. thank you for joining us. before we go into your study, what do you understand about who was impacted by eviction? >> we have known for a long time tenant organizers have been son of the 11th at the seams to be black tenants, and in this new study we found close to 30% of black women with children are threatened with eviction this year, and we need to think about these disparities says the results of racist housing policies, which have segregated certain americans to high cost, unregulated exploited rental markets where it eviction has become part of the business model. amna: in your new research just published you look at court records. these are people facing eviction filings threatened with eviction , and then you look at excess mortality.

what made you want to study the correlation between eviction send health? >> we have a lot of reason to think it eviction is terrible consequences for health both in terms of chronic stress and mental health, and mortality serves as a social mirror, the culmination of all of the mechanisms linking eviction and health. prioritizing rent over health care and food or experiencing intense security after an eviction. we found that renters threatened with eviction, mortality rates during the pandemic were double what we would've expected based on pre-pandemic mortality rates, which were already extremely high for folks facing eviction. >> how do you delineate what was associated with the eviction versus what other factors, that same group of folks who might've been going through during the pandemic. for example, lack of access to health care? >> it is tough to parse out

those different pathways. we think of eviction as an indicator of risk of an acute event happening such as the invention itself, but more general the financial stress, and we know the threat of eviction has health impacts even if it does not happen to you, so the constant stress of facing an eviction. tenants sacrifice other needs when rent goes up, which often times can proceed in eviction, so all of these consequences compound over time and ways that shape health both leading up to and following the event leading up to an eviction. amna: to be clear your research does not look at causality. how strong is the evidence that you are talking about. i do not see that your paper necessarily proves that. >> we are not making a claim about the causality of the eviction event itself. we are comparing how mortality

changed amongst those who were filing during the pandemic compared to prior to the pandemic. this is a descriptive finding rather than a causal finding pointing out there was a big spike in excess mortality for these folks induced by the very scary -- of the pandemic. >> it seems clear you have found an anomaly, something we would not expect with the number of excess deaths with people facing eviction court filings. what do you hope people, lawmakers, policymakers take from this research? >> a lesson i would want to take away from this is moving toward creating a country where quality housing is affordable for everyone and also when you got that we are experiencing a housing crisis before the pandemic, so this data shows how

these things were exacerbated by covid-19, but i think that today as rent burdens hit record highs and evictions are increasing we should really be thinking about those policies to reduce evictions and guarantee affordable housing. it is not just housing policies but critical health policies. amna: thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. ♪ amna: march madness is officially underway, and underlying the excitement of brackets and potential upsets is a conversation around athletes' efforts to unionize. last month, the dartmouth men's basketball team voted 13-2 to form a union -- after the national labor relations board ruled the players were employees of the private university. but this week, the ivy league's board said it would not enter into a collective bargaining unit with the team -- saying

adamantly that they are not university employees. john yang explores what could happen next. >> this is the latest challenge to the student athlete model that is to find college sports for so long. we sing court decisions oppose the ncaa to allow athletes to make money from their name, image, and likeness and to get limited payments, but allowing players to enter into collective bargaining would be a new ballgame. gabe is the director and school associate provost for ncaa compliance. there are many steps to go here. dartmouth is appealing this to the national labor relations board. but potentially how big a deal is this? >> it's massive potentially as you said, there are many steps to go and dartmouth has announced that they are going to refuse to bargain with this union. but assuming it does go all the way and it is affirmed and that

the dartmouth men's basketball players can unionize. it is likely that virtually every college athlete in the country will be able to unionize and collectively bargain over their compensation. and there are other terms and conditions of employment, so it would completely upend the system of college sports we've had in the past, it might lead to massive salaries on some ends and lower salaries and other ends. but it would certainly fundamentally change the relationship between the college athletes and their universities. >> and at the heart of this is whether what -- what qualifies as an employee -- dartmouth because you said it's not going to bargain with this union, they said. varsity athletes in the ivy league are not employees. they are students whose educational program includes athletics. the nlrb says they are employees because they get -- they get compensation for six pairs of shoes every season and tickets. how do you -- way those? how do you look at those two competing arguments? >> well, i think you look at the past several decades and every court that has looked at this

has said that college athletes are not employees because what they're doing is part of the educational system. and we have seen a shift as there's more and more money pouring into high end college sports where people have said, well, these athletes are working really hard. they're generating a lot of money for their schools. the schools are controlling every hour of their day, and they're getting compensation through athletic scholarships . for dartmouth men's basketball players, it's very different. they're not -- not generating a lot of money. they are not receiving athletic scholarships. yes, they are under the control of their coaches and their athletic department. but it's a very different analysis, so i think this is a tough case for the dartmouth men's basketball players to win. it may be that many college athletes are employees because they are doing work for the benefit of their schools. but it may not be that dartmouth men's basketball players are employees, so this still may have a massive impact down the road. but i'm not sure it's clear that it's going to affect ivy league players and athletes at the d-2, d-3 and really non power football or basketball levels.

>> there is a similar effort going on today at a power school. usc and university of southern california is trying to do the same. same thing. is this going to have any effect on usc's case do you think? >> been a mind the national labor relations act only applies to private employers, so it only applies to private schools. dartmouth is a private school. so are all of the other schools in the ivy league. but the majority of division one schools and the schools and what used to be called the pac 12, are public schools, so the nlra does not apply to them. what's interesting in the usc case is the nlrb is arguinthat the conferences are also the employers of the athletes. and because all of the conferences are private. if they win that case, it means that every athlete at every school, public or private, would also be covered under the nlra so they would all have the right to unionize. i think usc if you look at the technical factors of employment status, probably those football players and basketball players have a better argument because they are receiving compensation in the form of athletic scholarship, as opposed to six pairs of sneakers that the

dartmouth men's basketball players are receiving. >> in addition to college athletes, there are a number of other programs, similar programs in college like there's the marching band marches at halftime for football game. might they want to try to claim that there are employees of the university? >> i think they might. we're certainly seeing the growth of unions on college campuses for student workers, and it might be that the music student or the marching band student argues that they're doing just as much work as the college athletes, and they're also getting free gear and they're getting free travel and then maybe getting preferential admissions. but what the national labor relations regional director said that distinguishes dartmouth athletes from potentially dartmouth musicians is that the music program does not exercise as much control or the musicians and they don't unlike with the athletes. they don't say, if you're going to be a music student, you can't take certain majors and you have to miss class so that you can go to your rehearsals or your practices or performances. so that's the line that was drawn in the dartmouth case. but i do think it might open the door for not only all college

athletes, but as you said other college students on campus who are working hard and believe that they should be protected by federal labor law. >> gabe feldman from tulane university, thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. amna: and, finally tonight -- some 1100 world war ii soldiers -- who served in the so-called "ghost army" -- received long overdue recognition today at the u.s. capitol. during the war, they belonged to units that specialized in trickery to outwit the germans. their methods included inflatable tanks, sound effects, and phony radio transmissions. all told, they carried out 20 highly secret operations. today, three of the seven known surviving members accepted the congressional gold medal -- congress' highest honor -- on behalf of their comrades. rep. jeffries: we salute the ingenuity of their spirit, creative brilliance, and the bravery they displayed in risking their lives to confuse and deceive the nazis on the

battlefield. >> they gave their talents and their lives to defeat the nazis and preserve freedom around the world, and for that, we are forever grateful. amna: the u.s. army estimates the "ghost army's" work saved the lives of up to 30,000 american servicemen. and that's the “newshour” for tonight. 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

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>> this is pbs newshour west from weta studios and washington d.c. and from our bureau at the walter grad school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ >>

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