judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, congress intervenes. the u.s. house of representatives passes a bill to stop a rail strike that would have implications for the nation's economy. the risk of recession. some economists raise concerns about whether the federal reserve's aggressive interest rate hikes are doing more harm than good. searching for justice. despite being disproportionately incarcerated, lgbtq americans find little to no support system upon their release. >> shelters are not letting trans people come in as themselves and trans people should not be forced to go to

one gender shelter. judy: all that and more on tonight's newshour." ♪ >> major funding for the pbs has been provided by -- >> architect, the keeper, mentor -- beekeeper, mentor. we tailor advice to help you live your life, life well planned. ♪ >> carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security, at carnegie.org. the target foundation, committed to creating the change required to shift systems and accelerate

equitable economic opportunity. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program is made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. judy: congress is moving swiftly tonight to head off a nationwide railroad strike. the u.s. house of representatives has voted to impose a compromise settlement on freight railroads and a dozen labor unions. a separate vote today also approved more paid sick leave for rail workers. the measures now head to the senate. we'll get into the details, after the news summary. house democrats today elected new york congressman hakeem jeffries as their new leader. he'll be the first black lawmaker to head a major political party in congress.

jeffries said he'll cooperate when he can with republicans, who'll control the house come january. >> we look forward to finding opportunities to partner with the other side of the aisle. and work with them, whenever possible. but we will also push back against extremism, whenever necessary. lisa: -- judy: house democrats also elected katherine clark of massachusetts and pete aguilar of california to their other top leadership positions. the "islamic state group" says its latest leader has died. today's announcement said abu al-hassan al-hashimi al-qurayshi was killed in battle recently. the u.s. military said the "free syan army" carried out the operation. the group oppos islamist radicals and the syrian government. former chinese president jiang zemin has passed away.

state media report he died today in shanghai of leukemia and organ failure. jiang took over as communist party leader just before the tiananmen square protests in beijing were crushed in 1989. his 10 years as president saw rapid economic growth. jiang zemin was 96 years old. so forces -- security forces moved to stop new protest over strict covert policies. amateur video showed riot police carrying shields and patrolling streets. protesters toppled a covid testing tent. meanwhile, rally goers in japan and elsewhere showed support for the demonstrators. this woman from shanghai turned out in tokyo. >> this is the first time actually 've seen the chinese people really stand out in

public saying we don't like the , communist government, we hate xi jinping, we don't like these policies. this is the first i've seen. judy: also today china's ruling , communist party warned of a crackdown on what it called "hostile forces." in iran, kurdish protesters celebrated the national team's loss to the u.s. yesterday, at soccer's world cup. in social media video shot overnight, cars honked in support and people chanted "death to the dictator." that was a reference to supreme leader ayatollah khamenei. the protests began after a kurdish woman died in police custody in september. back in this country, president biden pledged $135 million to relocate native american villages affected by rising sea levels and other climate threats. late the president attended the lighting of the national christmas tree. the tradition is marking its 100th anniversary this year.

another longtime tradition, the ench baguette, has joined the u.n.'s worldwide cultural heritage list. today's announcement recognizes the baguette even as artisanal bakeries in france are in decline. the time-honored bread dates back at least to 1839. on wall street, stocks jumped after the federal reserve chairman, jerome powell, talked of slowing the pace of interest rate hikes. the dow jones industrial average gained 737 points, 2% to close at 34,589. the nasdaq rose 484 points, nearly 4.5%. the s&p 500 was up 3%. and "fleetwood mac" singer, songwriter, and keyboardist christine mcvie has died after an undisclosed illness. the group rose to fame in the 1970's and 1980's and was later inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. mcvie was featured on hits like "everywhere" performed here for a 25th anniversary concert, in 1997. ♪

>> ♪ you know that i'm proud oh, ah ah i want to be with everywhere oh, ah ah i want to be with you everywhere ♪ ♪ judy: she was 79 years old. the white house campaigns to increase covid boosters among the elderly. despite being disproportionately incarcerated, lgbtq americans find there is little help upon their release. plus much more. ♪ >> 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. judy: let's look more closely at

the joint efforts by the president and congress to avoid a major railroad strike. as we reported, the u.s. house of representatives today passed key votes to avoid a strike that could start next week. lisa desjardins has our report and then looks at some of the key issues in the dispute. >> the gentleman is recoized. lisa: today in congress, both parties fervently engaged in trying to avert a national economic blow, a rail strike in just over a week. >> every major industry from automobiles to agriculture to energy will be severely impacted if we fail to act. >> it has come to us, as much as we might not like it, to have to negotiate this. lisa: the house took the first step today. >> the ayes are 290, the nays are 137. lisa: passing a bill to force a tentative labor deal into place. back in september, skies looked clear as the biden administration helped broker that deal with union chiefs.

that agreement would raise salaries by 24% over five years and give thousands of dollars in retroactive bonuses to rail workers. but it only grants them a single day of paid sick leave. [train horn] lisa: and that issue was pivotal to rank and file members. as a result, four unions including some of the largest voted down the plan and are threatening to strike. a sense of impending crisis was one reason mr. biden called congressional leaders to the white house yesterday to get congress to step in and force the deal. pres. biden: there's a lot to do including resolving the train strike, what we're doing now, and congress, i think, has to act to prevent it. it's not an easy call but i think we have to do it. the economy's at risk. lisa: but progressive democrats, led by congresswoman pramila jayapal in the house, spent the last day pushing for a better deal. >> ceo's have increased their pay, and yet they don't wanna pay a penny, what amounts to about a penny a day for seven sick days for workers? so i'm not happy about that.

lisa: as a resu, congress is working on two tracks with two bills. one forcing in the original deal into place and a second that would force railway companieto pay for seven days of leave. >> yays are 221, and the nays are 207. lisa: the house passed that idea as well but the senate can take it or leave it and stillvert a strike. rail owners have phed back with the association of american railroads writing that there is a misperception that they have imposed draconian abusive work rules, saying these are long-held practices unions agreed to in the past. nearly all agree a strike could derail the u.s. economy , freezing almost 30% of u.s. cargo shipments and costing some %2 billion a day. action in the senate is expected soon. for the record, we should note that one of the rail carriers involved in this dispute is bnsf, a newshour funder. for more on the railroad workers' perspective, we turn to

tony cardwell. he is the president of the brotherhood of maintenance of way employees division. help us first understand absolutely. thanks for having me on, first of all. i represent the hardest working employees in the railroad, i believe. they are the ones who do the maintenance on the track and reconstruction of track, tunnels and bridges, and they do the hard work of swinging the hammer and opere some of the heavy equipment and do much of the work that maintains the structures throughout the united states lisa:. why is it -- united states. lisa: why is it that sick leave is such a huge issue that they are willing to freeze the u.s. economy? >> it was brought to light

during the pandemic. many of our employees fell ill and/or were quarantined because they were exposed to it. in doing so,hey were not compensated. our members lost thousands of dollars of pay through the multiple quarantines and sickness throughout the year and brought the sick leave issue to light. this has been exasperated by the railroad's operation systems that they utilized called psr. psr has cut our membership to the bare bones so there's fewer workers doing the same amount of work. in doing so, it forced the policies -- the policies forced the employees to be artwork. they can no longer call in sick. they can be disciplined if they do so. lisa: psr stands for position scheduling. that is the way the railroads said they are becoming more efficient but essentially, it's fewer people working longer, longer hours, faster trains. i want to get to what is going on with the sick leave which is the critical issue.

railway workers are not unique inaving a pool of time off, vacation time, for examp, and some of the railway owners including the american association of railways argue that railway workers can use that time off that they already have if they are sick. they say unions agreed to that in the past. what is wrong with that? >> railroads have said a lot of things but they are simply untrue. vacation has to be scheduled and employees are required to schedule early in the year. only has one week of vacation in many cases and he is supposed to give adequate notice even if he breaks up the days of vacation. the railway carriers are not being honest. lisa: this is a look at a major debate in american life. labor and workers rights and especially time off. it's also a look at the role of congress. congress is poised to force you into a deal. it may have only one day of sick leave. it may have seven. what do you think of congress forcing you into something? >> we have been adamant that we

don't want to strike, nobody does, but if congress is going to intervene and stop our strike, we believe they should give us what we would otherwise get in that strike. the point is this. if congress did not intervene, $2 billion a day, the railroad would come running to theable to negotiate sick leave but they are utilizing congress as a backstop because they know under the law that they cannot inteene and stop our strike. our point and our position with all congressional people has been if you are going to stop our strike, give us what we would otherwise get. if you are going to intervene and stop honest, you should give us what we would otherwise get. and that is why the bills being passed today, we are happy to see it passed congress and we are hoping to get the senate to support the bill as well. we believe that our employees are entitled to this. we need to make sure that we stand with workers.

our public servants stand with the workers and not the duopoly corporations that are controlling your government right now. we have high hopes we will get some republicans to stand with us and get the bill through the senate. judy: i can see -- lisa: i can see you are busy with negotiations, everything going off where you are. one more question in the minute or so we have left. president biden calls himself a prolabor president but he says your strike was just too risky for hundreds of thousands of workers, millions of people, and the economy. how do you respond to him on that? >> we were definitely frustrated with what he said. his statement was implied that the railroa -- that the unions are the problem and gave cover for the railroads in my opinion. we wish he would have made a fferent statement and come out in support of our sick leave. he has positioned himself i believe to support the sick leave days and his recent statement, he did say he hopes

that the bill passes the senate so he has changed his position on this and we appreciate that. we are still frustrated that he took the position that he did. can always agree so i will say that. lisa: -- cannot always agree so i will say that. lisa: we appreciate your time. >> thank you for your time, lisa. i appreciate it. ♪ judy: the prevalence of covid in the u.s. right now is much lower than it was during the past two winters, and its deadly toll far less, but covid is hardly behind us. the u.s. is on pace to lose more than 150,000 americans during this third year of covid. and older americans are at the greatest risk of dying. in fact, more than 300 people a day are dying from covid on

average, far higher than from the flu, and nine out of every 10 covid deaths are among people who are 65 and older. the biden administration is particularly concerned about these trends and trying to encourage more people to get booster shots. dr. ashish j is the covid response coordinator for the white house and he joins us now dr. jha, welcome back to the newshour. so these numbers we read are disturbing. nine out of every 10 of these deaths, someone 65 and older. how much worse is that aspect of this than it was? earlier in this pandemic? dr. jha: so judy, first thanks for having me back. we have seen over the last six months, eight months or so, a clear shift towards more and more older americans. this virus has always affected older americans more. but in the last six, eight months, it's become really quite extreme. almost 70% of deaths are in people over 75.

but the biggest issue here is almost every one of these deaths is preventable. now, if people were up to date on their vaccines, and if people got treated, if they had a breakthrough infection, we could get almost every one of those deaths. we could prevent almost every one of those deaths. that is our focus right now. is trying to do everything we can to lower that death toll. judy: and i want to ask you about that. but is there is there another factor or factors involved here? in addition to age, is it -- does it have to do with gender , with race, with income level? dr. jha: that there's no question about it that there are certain groups of americans that have been at higher risk. we know that people who are who are poor, people who are racial ethnic minorities, throughout the whole pandemic have been more exposed to the virus, have had less access to high quality care. that's been a major focus of ours is to close that gap. and thankfully in the last six months, we have seen the racial gap close. we've seen the gap based on income get much smaller. so we have clearly made progress, but we've got to really continue plugging away at dropping dropping those death numbers for all americans.

judy: and why is it happening ? and you' talking about the need to get re people vaccinated and boosted. does it just go back to that issue that we've been talking about ever since the start of 2021? dr. jha: you know, turns out if you look at for instance, our death rates compared with many other high income countries, some kind of other countries have lower death rates. what differentiates and explains that? it's almost all the rates of boosters, among older people. that is the single determinant factor. there are other things that make a difference to as i mentioned earlier, treatments make a really big difference. but at this point, with covid the single biggest thing that's going to drive how many people are going to get very sick, how people are gonna end up in the hospital, how many are end up dying, is whether people are up to date on their vaccine. so if you got a vaccine a year ago, that's no longer good enough to protect them to provide the level of protection you need. getting that updated vaccine that we have now really is the is the game changer that'll make the dierence. judy: so i read thasomething like only 11% of all americans have received all e

vaccinations, all the boosters that they should have, by this point. first of all, is that accurate? and second of all, what is the reason people are giving not to get the shots? dr. jha: so i think what we've seen is certainly in the last few months, we have a new strategy for how to help people get vaccinated. so before then you were thinking about you need a third dose, you need a fourth dose, what are you eligible for? but we're now at a point where we have a much simpler strategy, which is for a vast majority of you' not in a supehight. risk category, one shot once a year. is going to be gooenough. so whether you've gotten two shots or three shots or four shots, worry less about that worry and focus on getting that updated shot. i do want to put the caveat out eding more than once a year of vaccination, but that's going to be a minority. for a majority of americans, it real is gonna be about focusing on getting that shot just once a year, much simpler, much easier to do. judy: but do you have a better

understanding now, dr. jha, why people are resisting why they're hesitating to get these shots given you had now what almost two years to study this? dr. jha: yeah, i wouldn't say people are resisting. the way i look at it is, if you look at surveys, a vast majority of americans are open to getting it. the proportion of people who really say they are not going to get it is actually quite small. remember, 90% of adults have gotten at least one shot so people who are truly against getting vaccinated is very small. the issue in my mind is, you know, it's been a hard three years. people are people have been in the past not so clear about what are you eligible for or not. and then the other part that's really important is when you think about the annual flu vaccine, most people go get that flu vaccine in november, december, january. mpaign right now just say to folks, this is a really good time to go out and get that covid vaccine and get the flu vaccine. we think simple messages that are straightforward. sinespace really will make a difference.

and then one last thing, we are doing a lot more work working with community leaders, trusted voices, religious leaders, because we think at the end of the day, they're gonna move the needle on getting more americans vaccinated. judy: how much does it affect? i want to come back to what you just -- how much does it affect the prevalence of covid by virtue of the fact that we do have flu, we have the the respiratory disease, rsv. there's a lot of that flying around right now. dr. jha: there is, there are three highly contagious respiratory viruses that are in high prevalence across the country. now the good news is we do have very strong protections against two of them, right, influenza -- this year's influenza vaccine looks like it's a particularly good match. so that's promising. the covid vaccine looks like a good match. that's promising. and then rsv for most americans, not that big a deal. it becomes a problem for young kids. kids under two who have small airways that can get clogged up if they get an rsv infection, so making sure that we have plenty of hospital capacity to take care of the youngest kids.

you know, if we focus on the things that we know work we really can get through this winter. we've got the tools in our toolbox now to do it. judy: but it also sounds like what you're saying is that americans should just expect that covid is going to be around for some time to come that they should expect. dr. jha: for the foreseeable future i think it is absolutely , reasonable to expect that covid is going to be around for not eliminating this virus. and so then the question is not just how do we live with it, but how do we live with it in a way that isn't killing hundreds of americans everyday? that is not disrupting our lives. and while the virus continues to evolve, judy, the good news is we due to our scientific community has been hard at work coming up with new treatments, updated vaccines. and the key now is to make sure those remain available to americans. they remain highly accessible free to americans and they we do it in a way that allows americans really be able to use

these tools so that they can go on with their lives. judy: dr. ashish jha, who is the white use covid coordinator, thank you so much. dr. jha: thank you. judy: word came today from a reliable source that the federal reserve may start to taper its string of consistent interest rate hikes as soon as next month. at the same time, the central bank tries to tamp down inflation. but that doesn't mean higher interest rates are over yet. and as william brangham tells us, some democrats and economists worry the fed has already hit the brakes too hard. william: judy, the fed has raised interest rates six times this year. today, federal reserve chair jay powell suggested again during a speech at the brookings institution that a seventh hike albeit a smaller one is on the way next month.

in a wide-ranging interview, he signaled rates could remain high for some time to combat inflation. and he said that while rising wages were not the reason inflation initially spiked, he said they're a key part of the puzzle now. chair powell: the inflation that we saw at the beginning of this episode back in march of 2021, it was not really related to wages at all. it was related to tightness in goods markets, largely due to supply chain issues. over time, though, inflation has now spread broadly through the economy. while i would ill say that the inflation we're seeing now is not principally related to wages, we think that wage increases will probably be an important part of the story going forward. william: many progressives have criticized the pace and scope of these rate hikes. rakeen mabud is among those voices. she's the chief economist and managi director of policy and research at a progressive think tank known as "the groundwork collaborative." thank you very much for being here.

i know you listened to what jay powell had to say today. were you at all encouraged by what he had to say or do you still think that the medicine is worse than the cure? rakeen: i heard chair powell say he's ready to do whatever it takes. i think a more cautious approach is warranted. we have seen six rate hikes this year and chair powell himself said today that we have not yet seen the full effect of those rate hikes play out in our economy yet so we really risk overshooting. we risk throwing the economy in a devastating recession that would put millions of people out of work, and that's just not a price that we should ask the very people who have been bearing the brunt of higher prices to bear. william: do you look at the economy today that job growth is growing, maybe not as fast as it was before, but it does seem like it is doing better. does that give you any sense that may powell and the fed have

threaded this needle appropriately? rakeen: we really do have a strong labor market. that's been fantastic to see over the course of this recovery. and that's frankly, a direct result of congress and the administration's actions to invest in the people who keep our economy going. you know, after the great recession, we it took us six years to really recover. we've done that much more quickly this time around. i am really concerned that chair powell is actions are neither -- that chair powell's actions are neither addressing the root causes of inflation that we're seeing today, namely supply chain solve a war in ukraine, corporate profiteering, and also it's going to potentially really harm millions of people who are really struggling with higher prices already. william: when you look at pain in the economy, who is that hurting the most? rakeen: it's always for the most vulnerable people in our economy who are hurting the most, right? if you're poor, and the price of essentials goes up, then you have less of your budget to pay your rent and to pay for other things that you need to pay. and that's that's always the case. so and similarly, you know, an

aggressive rate hike campaign, like the one that chair powell is in the midst of would really, really harm some of the most marginalized workers in our economy. so, you know, economists such as larry summers have advocated for unemployment rates as high as 10% to combat inflation. when you unpack what that actually means, that means in unemployment rates of nearly 20% for black workers. that means families not being able to put food on the table food, ich is already too expensive because of rapid corporate profiteering. william: you mentioned several things that contribute to this, the war in ukraine, profiteering. that is a tricky thing to identify, to say that we have an example of you jacking up prices here and thus we are going to do x about that. what would you prescribe? rakeen: we do have a lot of

evidence that profiteering is happening. you know, my organization and i have listened to hundreds of earnings calls and what we hear on these earnings calls is very clear. you know, ceo's are very forthright to their investors that inflation has been good for business and that they are raising prices on consumer in order to bring in record profits. i mean, just today, we saw the highest profits on record for nonfinancial corporations in the u.s., $2.08 billion. and so, you know, i think that's, that's important to note that we actually do in terms of policy solutions. now there are a range of tools that policymakers have to address inflation and higher prices. you know, president biden recently proposed an excess profits tax on oil and gas companies. i think that's a really good start. i would love to see, you know, a bigger tax on windfall profits more generally, so that companies start reinvesting those profs into making better products and bringing down prices and improving workers lives, frankly, rather than having the office of your shareholders. you know, we could also make

price gouging illegal, three quarters of states have a price gouging statute on the books. we could do that at the federal level and just say this is illegal. and then finally, there are lots regulatory things that we can also see also do so e federal trade commission, the department of justice, and tackle the you know, really excess corporate power and consolidation that we have in our economy that's been driving a lot of these price hikes and the pricing power that these companies have jacked up prices on consumers. they can also tackle exploitative and extract. so i think while we are often really quick to go to the fed to address issues of inflation, there's actually a much broader set of poly tools that we can use in order to bring prices down. william: i want to ask you about the sound we heard from jay powell arguing tight market , drives wages up, he is arguing that that is exacerbating inflationary pressures. what can be done about that?

rakeen: i don't believe that's true. i mean, as i said, you know, there it's pretty clear what the source of inflation are. it's, you know, corporate profiteering, supply chain issues, it's the war in ukraine that's been driving up the price of commodities. it's not workers. you know, worker wages have been really low for a very, very long time. i think we should be encouraged by the wage growth we're seeing. because when workers do well, they're spending that money . they're putting, investing that money back into our economy, and that bouys all about so you know, i think it's really important not to blame workers who are already the folks who are really feeling the pinch for the crisis that we're in. william: thank you so much for being here. rakeen: thank you so much. judy: lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are incarcerated at a rate three times higher than the general population, but as

special correspondent cat wise reports, when lgbtq people are released from prison, experts say many reentry programs fail to meet their unique needs. this story is part of our ongoing series "searching for justice." cat: for t.j. king, visiting "das haus," an lgbtq bar in lincoln, nebraska, is bittersweet. about a decade ago, king, who uses the pronoun "they" and is non-binary-meaning their gender identity is not strictly male or female, was a partner in a nightclub at this location. >> we were one of, i would say maybe three or four black business owners that actually had a nightclub. however, that was a period in my life when things were about to about to spiral drastically out of control. i was in the throes of my addiction. cat: in 2016, king pleaded guilty to possession of ecstasy and two counts of theft by deception, leading to a just over four year prison term.

king had served time for other drug and fraud charges over the years, but this time, they vowed to make a change once they were released. t.j.: this time, i'm like, "look, t.j. you're going to be 50. you're going to be 50. you don't you don't have you don't have a lot more chances." cat: king feared that a traditional reentry housing service, like a halfway house or temporary emergency shelter, would leave them vulnerable to harassment. t.j.: i'm going to be in there with the same people i was just in prison with. i don't want that. if you're somebody that is black, gay, and hiv positive in e prison system, it's just not -- it's just not cool. cat: his story is not unique. an estimated 1 in 12 people in prison identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. but experts and advocates say many reentry programs around the country fail to meet their needs

once they're released. among the most vulnerable, trans women. >> because i was transgender, i was policed in a different way. cat: jasmine tasaki is an advocate for the trans community who grew up in memphis, tennessee. should jasmine: when i was young, there was no term called transgender or no term to really help me understa who i was . i can remember seeing other little girls and seeing grown women and literally idolizing them, knowing that one day i would be beautiful and knowing that this is who i was. but i also had the awareness that whatever i felt about myself was considered to be wrong, was considered to be untrue, and was considered to be dangerous for other children. cat: she was sexually assaulted as a child, and later turned to sex work to make a living. jasmine: it was a way for me to

regain control over my life, you know, over my sex life, but also over my life because sex had taken control over my life as a -- over my life. as a child, you shouldn't have to go through that. jasmine: -- cat: tasaki was jailed at least 14 times for charges related to sex work, her experience is common. a 2018 study found that every time a young trans woman is incarcerated, her odds of recidivism increase. and, it said, her ability to reintegrate after incarceration may be hindered by the added stigma of being trans. tasaki says there are few housing options to help stop the cycle. jasmine: once they see that you're trans, you're not getting in the door. shelters are not letting trans people come in as themselves. and trans people should not be forced to go to one gender shelters. cat: sociologist joss greene studied reentry programs in san francisco's bay area.

joss: no trans women that i formally interviewed or met in the course of my field research nted to or felt safe in men's housing programs. cat: he found that many women's shelters admitted cisgender women, that is, women whose gender identity matches the sex they are assigned at birth, but excluded most trans women. joss: they were disbelieved as to really being women. for the women that were able to enter these programs, there were then, you know, a series of other challenges connected to the harassment they could experience, both from cisgender women in the program and from the staff themselves. cat: back in nebraska, king says this time coming out of prison was different. t.j.: i knew it was going to be a safe space, and that was the thing that was most important to me. cat: that safe space was this home on a quiet street in omaha called "lydon house." it's a free housing and support program exclusively for formerly-incarcerated lgbtq people run by black & pink, a

national non-profit. founded in 2020, it was the brainchild of black & pink's former head, dominique morgan. king and morgan were incarcerated together more than 20 years ago. tell me about the first moments you walked in here. how did you feel? t.j.: well, coming from a space where i lived in a room probably about the size of this with six gentlemen where i was able to close the door to the bathroom was wonderful. i was able to go upstairs and sleep on a bed with a comforter and a real pillow, a feather pillow. i could just rest for a second. cat: just hearing you describe how important the rest was for you. t.j.: peace. cat: peace? t.j.: mm hmm. cat: just as it is affirming and

comfortable. andrew: in the welcome packet, there's fuzzy slippers, socks, a journal that they can write in. little things to welcome them. cat: black and pink provides personalized services to ease the reentr process like helping residents apply for jobs, yoga and mindfulness sessions to cope with trauma, cooking and budgeting classes, and helping residents navigate the health care system. andrew: that could be mental health care access. that could be access to hormone therapy or just gender affirming care in general. we try to keep a list of, you know, providers that we know are informed and affirming of lgbtq individuals and it's the same for people living with hiv. cat: 10 people, including eight trans women, have lived in lydon house. unlike some other transitional housing programs, residents can stay for as long as they need.

trans activist tasaki oversees some of black & pink's programs. jasmine: it is apace for lgbtqia people to come after they are released, not only have a safe place to live, but this is a place for them to thrive and experience joy. cat: but she says the help lydon house provides is too rare. it is the only residential reentry program in the midwest that primarily serves trans people and only three residents can live there at a time. jasmine: if i had lydon, i know that, i would have been able to make better choices, but also i would have felt seen. we want to have spaces for people where they are welcomed and where they are celebrated. cat: king says staying at lydon house for more than a year gave them the opportunity to find their calling. today, they work at the nebraska aids project, the only community-based aids service organization in the state. king aims to give clients hope,

something king says they needed when they were diagnosed with hiv in 1993. >> i never want anybody to feel the way i felt when i got my result. my main purpose and my main goal, doing what i do is making sure that that information is out there, making sure that the diagnosis that i have just given you is life altering, but it's not life ending. cat: king now lives in their own apartment and has been sober for more than five years. where do you think you would be today if if you hadn't found lydon house? >> a lot of things would have probably turned out different for me. i say that because for me i owe a lot to lydon house. i owe a lot to them. cat: with the help of a supportive landing place, king is leading a life they couldn't have imaginejust a few years ago. for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in omaha, nebraska. ♪

judy: and we'll be back shortly with a group of artists whose senses, you could say, blend together, inspiring some unconventional art. but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air. ♪ judyfor those stations staying with us, we take another look at how afghanistan's poets are finding inspiration after fleeing the country and the taliban takeover. ali rogan reports. ♪ ali: post-taliban afghanistan, the new constitution was written

in prose. but the idea of the new afghanistan, peaceful, pluralistic, and democratic, was cloaked in poetry. starting with the lyrics of the new national anthem written in 2006. >> this is afghanistan and this is the honor of every afghan. this is the home of the soul and this is the home of the piece. ali: is -- the peace. >> it is such a hopeful message. ali: he is one of afghanistan's most prominent contemporary poets. he spent most of his adult life in the united states, fleeing afghanistan after the soviet invasion in 1979. >> the artists and the poets and the writers, they were doing their part in the jihad,

infighting against the occupiers . after the soviet withdrawal, poets were opposed to the taliban, too. ali: above all, he wrote about the need for afghans of all ethnicities to unite, a theme that the new president wanted to promote in the new anthem. >> it's about e pride we have taken in our country, in our history, in our prisons. ali: his choice of a well-known poet idelibete. poetry is central to afghanistan past and present, not just as a storytelling methobut as part of the story. one of the most favorite examples, malili. in 1880, afghans were fighting their second war against the

british. during the battle, the soldiers grew demorized. he rousted them with a stirring short poem in the language. >> if you do not fall in the battle, by god, someone is saving you as a symbol of she. ali: these types of verses are what drew him to poetry. >> it has been our history against patriarchy. ali: patriarchy was part of the taliban when it came to power in the mid-1990's. women were largely erased from public life. so too were modern music and poetry except for the taliban's own. when the taliban fell in early 2022, he was eight years old. as a student and poet, she flourished.

in 2014, she recited a poem at the presidential palace, paying tribute to another symbol of afghan national unity, the flag. >> i kind of glorified the flag as the flag of the land where there is love, it is free, it is prosperous, it is flourishing. it's beautiful. ali: the poem, my flag is made of colors, became a surprise hit , catapulting her to fame. >> i was not expecting it would go that way. it was one of the most unfortunate events of my life. ali: in those years, the poetry in bodied modern afghanistan. men and women took part ia traditional game that is a mix

between a poetry slam and a rap battle, like this one at kabul university in may, 202 just three months later, all of those forms of expression and the drive for gender equality were lost when the taliban took over kabul and the americans withdrew. she is now in canada. >> i am not in exile from my country but for myself. ali: for now, she has put down her pen. >> it is drowning me and i don't know how to swim. ali: sometimes, grief inspires as it did for poet and singer -- nowiving in pakistan, he wrote "oh, homeland" after celebrating his holiday away from loved ones. >> we had lost our homeland so

in a very -- i wrote the poem and then i was able to sing it with music. ali: back under taliban rule, popular music is once again considered sinful. his national anthem no longer plays nor does the tricolor flag fly. what remains is the desire for knowledge and freedom. some women have opened unofficial schools to teach girls beyond grade six when the taliban says they must stop learning. do you believe that will continue despite the taliban being in power again. >> of course. this is how we survived. it is how we survive. >> those who think they can destroy our identity, culture, and music by -- should think again.

no one can take afghanistan from us. ali: the talibanay have reconquered the country but in afghanistan, history shows that the pen always outlives the sword. i am allie rogan. ♪ judy: imagine living in a world where music is not only heard, but also seen. where words have flavors, and colors have a smell. that is a reality for some people with a rare neurological condition, and some artists are using it to expand their creative limits. michelle san miguel of rhode island pbs reports for for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> i think that we're all lucky that it exists because without it, there would not be, um, the magnificent art that we, we get to have all around us.

michelle: artist alyn carlson has a neurological condition that she says makes her life and her artwork more interesting. >> i was probably five and i started seeing numbers in color. three was yellow, five was red. zero was white. um, seven was, uh, sort of a purplely blue. michelle: not only does carlson see numbers in color but she says she can also hear them and smell them. >> you've been open about the fact that you feel self-conscious somewhat even talking about this. >> yeah, a little. >> why is that? >> well, it's kind of, um, i, because other people can't really relate to it. ♪ michelle: artist and musician lennie peterson certainly can. >> so when i hear music, i see shapes. michelle: what kind of shapes?

>> well, they're in my art and they're anywhere from a straight line, depending on the note, to all kinds of atmosphere within squares and circles. michelle: th lennie peterson and alyn carlson have synesthesia, a rare condition where a person's senses, including the sense of smell and sound, get mixed together. we asked neurologist dr. richard cytowic to explain just what synesthesia is. dr. cytowic: it's pretty easy. everybody knows the word anesthesia, which means no sensation. so synesthesia means joined or coupled sensation. and there are kids who are born with two, three, or all five of their senses hooked together. so that my voice, for example, is not only something that they hear, but something that they might also see or taste or feel as a physical touch. michelle: carlson says the artwork featured in her studio was created in large part thanks to her synesthesia. take, for instance, this

abstract painting. carlson says she painted it by mixing colors that smelled like one of her favorite things, a low tide. >> so i started to be able to pull in a whole family of those colors that smelled that way. it was like an undercurrent in the whole pallet, and so from that, i was, i painted a, you know, 80 inch wide, um, abstract landscape just from the smell, those two colors that came together and that, that happened, boom, that was so fast. michelle: synesthesia is more common than some might think. dr. cytowic says 4% of the population has this union of the senses, including lady gaga -- ♪ michelle: and billy joel. ♪ michelle: russian writer vladimir nabokov, who wrote lolita, also had it. ♪ michelle: so did composer and pianist duke ellington.

is synesthesia more common among artists and musicians? dr. cytowic: well, you know, we are, we're more familiar with, uh, famous artists who happen to be synesthetes than we are famous synesthetes who happen to be artists. and it's a chicken and egg question of, uh, are they artistic because they're synesthetic or are they synesthetic because they're artistic? but i think it's, i think it's the former that, and they're used to unusual things going together michelle: it's those unusual things that inspire the work of peterson. he listens to music as he works and draws the shapes that he sees. now, these shapes appear three dimensional in front of you? they're floatinin the air? >> they are being created in front of me. they're not like in the, they're not in the room. they're forming in front of me as, as i listeto music and the more i concentrate on it, the more they're gonna form and the

clearer they're gonna form. michelle: peterson's paintings are heavily influenced by the music he listens to. ♪ >> so this is specifically around, um, a miles davis song actually called in a silent way. and it's a very, um, mystical kind of setting for this song, then the synesthesia kicks in here. i start in the top left hand corner in my hand, i let my hand go. and it's just a free flow of while the music's playing. michelle: is it hereditary? dr. cytowic: oh yes, absolutely. very strongly. so it runs strongly in families. um, either sex parent can pass it down to either sex child and you'll see it in multiple generations. michelle: colorful experiences can also evoke pleasant sounds. for alyn carlson, this combination of blue has a distinct pitch. >> every time i started to put

them together, i would hear cello. i would hear cello music just a long note, just a long note, it's not a complicated piece of music. michelle: as the paint is being mixed? >> athe paint is being mixed. when i would get still with it, i would just hear it. michelle: what would a world without senate look like -- synesthesia look like to you? >> i would be lost. i would be really lost a thing. -- i think. michelle: for the pbs newshour, i'm in rhode island. judy: that is just fascinating. that is the newshour tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we will see you soon. >> major funding has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service

that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no contract plans and our customer service team can find one that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the newshour including jim and nancy belknap and kathy and paul anderson. >> these are people who are trying to save the world. startups have this energy that energizes me. >> i'm thriving by helping others every day. >> people who know know bdo. >> the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. 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. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪ >>

♪ ♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's comi up. >> president putin is failing in his brutal war of aggression. >> a western ally providing all the support ukraine needs as it leads the fight against russian aggression. i speak with president zelenskyy's chief foreign policy advisor igor zhovkva. and -- >> sniper fire. what it looks like notice the trenches. a special report from the front lines. then drn. >> if your heart is hurting, it's doing what 's supposed to do and that's okay, you know, but pain and sadness are an ingredient of a full human life. >> in his new book, "a heart that works," comedian, actor