amna: good evening and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett on the "newshour" tonight, investigations are underway after ukraine's interior minister is killed in a helicopter crash near kyiv. amna: microsoft lays off 10,000 employees in a potential harbinger of a global economic slowdown. geoff: and in the aftermath of devastating floods, pakistanis find new ways to build more climate-resilient homes. >> about five million pakistanis remain without permanent shelter. and the goal here is to not just build homes for people, but to train local residents to do it themselves.

>> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf. the engine that connects us. >> pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. a raymondjames financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well-planned. >> the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect

water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: good evening, and welcome to the “newshour.” tonight, a first in nearly 11 months of war in ukraine, the death of a ukrainian cabinet member. the interior minister was killed when his helicopter went down in a suburb of kyiv. amna: in all, at least 14 people died in that crash, among them,

at least one child who was killed on the ground. nick schifrin has our port. nick: even in a nation far too familiar with war, what authities called a terrible tragedy, the aftermath of the helicopterrash early this morning near a kindergarten filled with children. oleksandr arriving at the scene, realizing he had just lost his wife and their daughter, who had been inside the building. kateryna pechura's daughter is only alive because she happened to have kept her home. kateryna: i thought a rocket hit our house. i quickly started to dress the children. we came out and we looked at what happened, bodies with torn-off clothes. nick: the crash left aurning wreckage, damaged apartment buildings, and helicopter debris in a kyiv suburb that helped resist russia's attempt last year to seize the capital.

among the dead in the helicopter, interior minister denys monastyrsky and his senior aides. monastyrsky oversaw ukraine's police and emergency services and often visited the scenes of russian strikes. ukrainian officials say they are investigating the crash's cause. andrey: it is early to give the reasons. i can say that there will be a large investigation to determine all the circumstances. pres. zelenskyy: a tragedy happened near kyiv. nick: but today, at the world economic forum in davos, ukrainn president volodymyr zelenskyy asked for a moment of silence. pres. zelenskyy: thank you very much. nick: and blamed russia. pres. zelenskyy: this was not an accident, because it was due to war. there are no accidents in wartime. nick: in moscow, russian foreign minister sergey lavrov took a hard line and suggested the war had no end in sight. mr. lavrov: there must be no military infrastructure in ukraine that poses a direct threat to our country. there can be no talks with zelenskyy. nick: that leaves ukrainian

fearful there will be more nights of candle lighting and more lives cut short. for the “pbs newshour,” i'm nick schifrin. sthanie: i'm stephanie sy with “newshour west.” here are the latest headlines. there are fresh signs tonight that inflation is easing. the growth in u.s. wholesale prices slowed again in december. new federal data show producer prices were up 6.2% from a year earlier. but that rate of increase has now fallen for six months in a row after peaking back in march. at the same time, retail sales fell 1.1% in december, as higher prices prompted americans to cut spending. u.s. law enforcement officials have made another major federal bust in a crackdown on crypto-currency exchanges. last night, they arrested the russian national who co-founded the exchange bitzlato, based in

china. french authorities led the arrests of five associates across europe, in a related sting. u.s. oicials say the exchange was a notorious haven for illicit transactions and money laundering. in washington today, justice department officials made clear they're serus about going after sham crypto outlets. >> operating offshore, or moving your servers out of the continental u.s. will not shield you, and whether you break our laws from china or europe, or abuse our financial system from a tropical island, you can expect to answer for your crimes inside a united states court room. stephanie: just last month, sam bankman-fried was arrested in the bahamas on charges of defrauding investors in his crypto-currency exchange, ftx. in california, some major roadways remained shut today, and damage assessments worsened after weeks of storms.

flooded streets across the state left cars stranded this week. officials also are estimating that several thousand homes were seriously damaged. 41 of california's 58 counties racked up losses. in israel, prime minister benjamin netanyahu's coalition suffered a setback today when they ruled he must fire a key ally because he was convicted of tax fraud. he had no immediate response, but the opposition leader insisted he comply. >> if aryeh deri is not fired, the israeli government is breaking the law, and it can no longer demand that citizens obey the law. israel will be plunged into an unprecedented constitutional crisis. stephanie: the high court's decision comes as the new government is trying to lessen the power of israeli courts. the head of the united nations sounded a grim warning today

that the world is in, quote, a sorry state. secretary-general antonio guterres addressed the world economic forum in davos, switzerland. he cited challenges ranging from climate change, to the pandemic, to the war in ukraine. sec. gen. guterres: we can't confront problems unless we look them squarely in the eye, and we are looking into the eye of a category five hurricane. our world is plagued by a perfect storm on a number of fronts. stephanie: guterres also emphasized the importance of a u.n.-brokered deal to help ukraine resume grain exports from its ports along the black sea. new zealand's prime minister jacinda ardern announced she will step down next month. she says she can no longer do the job justice. in 2017, ardern became the world's youngest female head of government when she was sworn into office at 37 years old. back in this country, the

federal government says it's launching a targeted investigation of nursing homes over the abuse of anti-psychotic drugs in patients, pointing to evidence that some facilities administer the drugs as a way to sedate patients, despite the dangerous side effects. officials say they're also looking into the over-diagnosis of schizophrenia. still to come on the "newshour," several recent incidents raise concerns or children's access to guns. mayors from across the country gather in d.c. to discuss the common issues affecting their communities. and a revealing new book details the inner workings of the biden white house. >> 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. geoff: the job cuts in big tech are piling up. microsoft said today it's laying off 10,000 employees. and amazon today started a fresh round of job cuts in what's expected to become the largest

work force reduction in its 28-year history. it all follows recent work force reductions by twitter, meta, lyft, salesforce, and other te companies, more than 120,000 tech sector employees laid off in just the last year, coming during a period of slowing growth and fears of a possible recession on the horizon. roben farzad is host of public media's full disclosure podcast, and he's here to help us sort through this news. it's great to see you, friend. so, roben, amazon, as you well know, went on a hiring spree during the pandemic. microsoft appears to be bracing for slower revenue growth. what accounts for these latest job cuts? roben: they all got really ahead of themselves. believe it or not, there was euphoric thinking at the end of 2020. back then, i mean, let me take you back. we were slathering everything in purell. we were not touching salad bars. suddenly, filling in that vacuum in this time of panic, all these tech players were saying, there's a whole new normal. we're going to be working from

home exclusively. there will be never-ending demand for cloud services and software. and these companies went on a hiring spree as their stocks surged to record highs. yohad a trillion dollar club and the nasdaq occupied by five or six players. and i think, as a lot of that thinking has kind of come undone, and you realize that the matters, they're starting to prune at the margins. they have massive work forces. microsoft, i believe, was a quarter of a million people. so, when you see 10,000 or 15,000 workers reduced, that's a big absolute number, but, in the grand scheme of microsoft, it's kind of -- you don't want to sound terrible saying this, but it's kind of pruning for them. geoff: well, i was going to ask you, i mean, what do these layoffs suggest about the state of the overall industry? is the big tech boom over? roben: well, we have seen many players out there saying that we really thought it was going to be far bigger than it was. i mean, you mentioned them, amazon, microsoft, meta. netflix came out last year and said, we're just not having this period of never-ending growth.

and that then caused the dominoes to fall in hollywood and with streaming and with disney. so there's this broad rethink, and it happens in bull markets. it happens in periods of euphoria. i mean, certainly, this rhymes with the dotcom boom, because we're seeing the largest number of tech layoffs since 2022 coming after -- out of that bust. and, look, things happen in clouds. you had the ceo of salesforce say that, i get a second look at my work force because we are working remotely, and i'm just not seeing the productivity. maybe i need to bring them back to the office. and we haven't faced that full reckoning yet, where people are coming back to the office. so i think a lot of companies are kind of almost looking for an excuse to trim and maybe provide for some margin stability,or wall street's sake. geoff: so, is what's happening in the tech sector, this pruning, as you called it, is that set to happen in other parts of the labor market? roben: we -- it's uneven. mean, you have seen it in media. and i think that's just been a constant for so many years. you have seen it in advertising

in areas that are cyclical. if you talk to any diner owner or any hotel right now, an resort, the airlines, they can't hire people fast enough. and that headline unemployment rate is 3.5%. we still have difficult inflation. but there's still a near record number of job openings that many sectors and many employers want to fill. and it's not necessarily across the board the case in tech. for example, you really want to hold on to your programmers and engineers. they're really hard to hire, really hard to retain. but en it comes to selling general administrative marketing, you have to reassess that situation constantly, especially if you're publicly traded. geoff: so, in the minute we have left, roben, what does this al say about the strength of the economy overall? there are people who are concerned about that r-word, recession. roben: well, i think if you pass by the treasury department, i don't know if there are several chimneys, but it's not like they send up white smoke when there's an official recession. point is, recession can be a big function of self-fulfilling prophecy. if companies see order pullbacks, if everybody's nervous, they can go ahead and

start pruning payrolls accordingly. they don't have to wait for the official capital-r declaration from washington. and, certainly, we're not there yet. it might well happen in 2023 or 2024. it might not happen at all. geoff: roben farzad, host of the full disclosure podcast, great to see you, as always. thanks so much. roben: thanks, geoff. amna: in the last few weeks, the country has seen several harrowing events where very young children have had access to loaded guns, taken those firearms and, in two cases, shot themselves or others. it's again raised questions about the responsibilities of adult gun owners to better protect the children around them. william brangham has our conversation. william: last night, in newport news, virginia, parents demanded more answers about why a six-year-old student was able to

access a loaded handgun, bring it into school, and intentionally shoot his first grade teacher. desiree: my daughter was a student of richneck. she was in that classroom. she's six. she's terrified because the person that was advocating for her got hurt. william: and in indiana a few days ago, residents of an apartment complex shared this alarming video of a toddler wandering alone in the hallway carrying a loaded handgun, pointing it in all directions. the child's father has been arrested. and then, in phoenix earlier this month, a young child found a loaded gun in his apartment, played with it, and accidentally shot himself. the child is in stable condition. these cases are unfortunately not isolated ones. so what exactly are the laws governing how gun owners are supposed to secure their weapons to prevent these kinds of events? josh sugarmann is the executive director of the violence policy center, a nonprofit that advocates for stricter gun control.

josh sugarmann, thank you so much for being here. these examples that i have cited are obviously horrendous, discrete events. but can you just tell me a little bit, broadly speaking, are there any laws governing what a gun owner is supposed to do, has to do to protect kids from getting access to those guns? josh: unfortunately, on the federal level, there are no standards as far as safe storage or limiting child access to firearms. and that's a sad fact that has been with us for a long time. the other issue is that, at the same time, you have an increase in firepower. you have an increase in the lethality of guns that are being sold in the u.s. and, finally, one point is that you have things like concealed carry, where people come from one home to another and bring a gun withhem. and these most recent events,

these horrible events are just the latest example of the price that children pay for the mania we have for guns in this country. and it's not just high-profile incidents, like we have just seen, but it's firearm suicide. it's unintentional injury. it's homicides involving children. william: i recently saw one -- a 2018 survey that indicated roughly 4.5 million minors in america live in a household with an unlocked loaded firearm. are there states that individually do more to require gun owners, do more to protect kids from getting guns. josh: there are laws on the state level, on the local that can be enacted, such as safe storage, that limit access to guns to children. but, having said that, one of the most important things to note is that, when you talk to the experts regarding child safety, the most important thing you can do if you have a child is not have a gun in the home.

all too often, we think that, as parents, as guardians, you can safely secure the gun and the child will never find it. unfortunately, we know all too often that that is untrue. william: ok, so, separately from this access issue, you have documented quite clearly how the gun industry is targeting children as potential customers. and i saw this flyer that i want to put up. this is a flyer for what's called the jr-15. it's a kid-sized gun styled after the ar-15. the original tagline for this gun says, looks, feels and operates just like mom and dad's gun. and the logo is this skull and crossbones with a baby's pacifier in its mouth. i mean, what does that marketing say to you? josh: well, it says two things. one is that the gun industry is facing a long-term catastrophe due to the fact that the primary market of white males is essentially saturated for firearms. so they're following a trail blazed by the tobacco industry, which means targeting women,

targeting minority communities, and then also finally targeting children. and this has been going on for a long time. and i think what's most striking about the wee-1 junior is the fact that they basically said the quiet part out loud, that they were directly marketing a gun to children using grotesque skate punk graphics. when they talked about the gun, the people who run the company said they wanted to have that type of image because it had a "wow factor" for the kids. and, not surprisingly, i guess to a degree reassuringly, there was just revulsion against the company when they launched this campaign last year. and now we're finding that they're relaunching it with a more, i guess you would say kinder, gentler approach to the marketing. but, still, the bottom line, they're marketing a junior ar-15 to children. william: here's what i don't understand, is that federal law says you have to be 18 to buy a rifle or a shotgun, 21 to buy a handgun.

are there no rules governing the marketing of these kinds of firearms to people who are clearly under 21 and under 18? josh: there are very limited rules as regards possession by those under age 18 or under age 21 for a handgun regarding possession for youth. there are restrictions on handguns, with some exceptions. but the issue of marketing guns to children is actually an issue for the federal trade commission or for state action. and soon after we revealed that wee-1 tactical was marking guns to kids, california passed a law banning that practice. five u.s. senators submitted a letter to the ftc, federal trade commission, urging them to look at this issue. and i think one key issue is that other states can take action, as could the federal legislation take place. william: all right, josh sugarmann of the violence policy center, thank you so much for being here.

josh: thank you for having me. amna: more than 200 mayors have traveled to washington, d.c. this week for the u.s. conference of mayors' winter meeting, where they're going to discuss policy initiatives for cities and meet with federal officials. that includes president biden, who is slated to meet with a bipartisan group of them on friday. the group's president, miami mayor francis suarez, says their success is due to teamwork and collaboration. mayor suarez: we put solutions before politics. we don't make easy problems hard by weighing them down by partisanship. we operate with respect, civility, and higher purpose and we get things done. amna: joining me in our studio are two of those mayors, oklahoma city mayor david holt, who is a registered republican, and richmond, virginia, mayor levar stoney, who also serves as president of the democratic mayors association.

welcome to you both. thanks for being here. mayor holt: thank you. amna: so, you're meeting with several federal officials while you're here in town. is there a single most important message you hope to deliver while you're here? what is it you want to see from washington? mayor stoney, why don't you start? mayor stoney: well, our residents are dealing with a number of challenges. we have dealt with the pandemic, but now we're dealing with the consequences and the after-effects. so our residents are dealing with the challenges of mental health, the challenges of fentanyl and opioids in our communities. and you know what? mayors and localities can't do ity themselves. and so we're asking just for a little help from the federal government. they have been already helpful with the american rescue plan act and the infrastructure act. we're just asking for some more help. amna: what would you say, mayor holt? mayor holt: i think i would say two things. one, from a policy perspective, if i had to pick one thing, it'd be infrastructure. but from a -- from a more of a big picture perspective, i think we always want to make sure that cities have a voice in washington, and that people

understand that we -- i think we strongly believe that cities are the economic and cultural engines of american life. and we need to have a seat at the table. we don't t elected to work in this city. but we -- so we need to come up here of our own accord at least once a year, as we do every january, to make sure that we're weighing in and we're being heard on any number of policy fronts. amna: well, let's talk about infrastructure, because you have both talked about it a lot and roads and filling potholes. mayor stoney, you have said paving isn't sexy, but it's got to be done. both of your states received billions of dollars in federal funds from that american rescue plan. how much made it to you? and how are you using it? mayor holt? mayor holt: well, so, the american rescue plan, as you referenced, had direct funding for cities. and we might have time to tease out that that's not exactly how the bipartisan infrastructure law works. but the arpa funding, you did get direct funding. we got about $120 million in oklahoma city. it was based on other factors beyond just population. so even though we're the 20th largest city, we didn't get the 20th most dollars.

so we ultimately -- and this was the pitch at the time -- we ultimately used a lot of it to sort of backfill lost revenues. we're heavily dependent on sales tax, and, certainly, that was hit hard during that 2020-2021 period. so -and that was the argument we were making leading up to the passage of arpa was, this -- we need this to backfill our revenues. and that's how we largely use it in oklahoma city, some other special projects as well. but our overall annual budget is $1 billion, $120 million isn't going to necessarily be a transformational amount of money for us, as appreciated as it was. amna: what about you, mayor stoney? mayor stoney: well, we thought the american rescue plan was a game-changer. the sort of investment received, $155 million. we haven't seen that sort of investment from the federal government, i could -- i think since lyndon johnson and the great society. and so, for us, our residents wanted to see us use those dollars on families and on children. so, we're using $78 million of that focused on parks and recreation centers, things of that nature. we're building two or three new community centers in

neighborhoods have been long marginal -- longtime marginalized. and so it really has been -- for us, we see a value add, right? we didn't use it to backfill some of our operational costs or our budget, but we used it actually as a foundation center, i guess you could say. so, you look at our city in five, 10 years, you will see the american rescue plan act did its job. amna: you have a number of other priorities in each of your cities i want to try to get to. mayor holt, specific to you, i know police reform has been high on your list. our "newshour" colleague adam kemp has done a lot of reporting on this. you ushered in sweeping reforms, right? how are those going? how can you tell if they're working when it comes to reducing police violence in particular? mayor holt: right. everybody was there. i felt like everybody set aside their natural biases, and we came out, as your reporting has related, with about almost 40 different recommendations. and now we're kind of just in what will probably be a multiyear process of trying to implement all of them. but what i was grateful for was that the activists who brought these issues to the fore were very pleased with the outcome.

and the police chief, our police chief, was saying things like, all of these seem reasonable to me. and i felt like, if you can find that sweet spot, you have perfectly executed how american democracy is supposed to work. amna: mayor stoney, i know gun violence has been a big issue for you. you declared it a public health crisis last year for richmond. what can you do as mayor? and what kind of help do you need from the state, from the federal government? mayor stoney: well, i think we have seen gun violence not just in urban centers. we have seen them in suburban and rural areas of the country as well. we know, locally, we need be tough on crime, but also be tough on the root causes of crime. and so we put more dollars into policing, giving police raises as well. and now we're the pay leader in our region. but, also, we knew that we have to also look at this with a human services lens as well, more dollars into parks and recreation, more dollars into after-school programming as well, so the dollars reach our youth as well.

so, we have seen a decrease in the homicide rate. in 2021, we had 90 homicides. now we were -- knocked it down in 2022 to 59, a 33% reduction, one of the highest reductions in the united states of america. so, for us, we need more -- i think we need stronger gun safety laws, right? the fact that an 18-year-old can go into a store and purchase an ar-15, that's a problem. we have a problem with that. you see mass shootings all across the country, buffalo, for example. but, at the end of the day, if a child can get even ahold of -- a six-year-old can get ahold of a gun in our country, that's a problem. and so we need less thoughts and prayers and more and stronger gun safety laws to keep guns out of the hands of wrongdoers. amna: i'm curious. you are both on the front lines of a number of the issues that are very hotly debated topics here in washington, right? and so i'm curious how you look at the way those conveations are unfolding in washington right now when it comes to your

priorities. mayor stoney, i will start with you. mayor stoney: well, sometimes, i will have to say, i see a lot of rhetoric in washington, d.c. i'm 100 miles south. i see a lot of democrat vs. republican. and i think, at the end of the day, the people of the commonwealth of virginia, the people of the city of richmond, well, they just want you to get something done. and i think that's the great thing about mayors, that we're charged with getting things done. d you don't -- we're mayors first before we're democrats and republicans. and so what i want to see is us get around the table around issues that matter to everyday people, gun safety, more dollars for education, affordable housing. amna: mayor holt, what do you see, especially when you look at the state of the republican party here in washington? mayor holt: well, i mean, i always see the -- firstly, i see the contrast bween, as levar was just referencing, i mean, the -- we can't pat ourselves on the back for an awesome press release or an awesome tweet. like, we actually have to get things done. so we have to bring people together. and we have to oftentimes, in a purple city like mine, cross party lines and find some sort of common ground.

and we have no choice. and we do it all the time. and we do it at the conference. i mean, this is a republican and a democrat. and we're not like -- this isn't some sort of program where we're yelling at each other, right? [laughter] amna: thank you for that, by the way. we do appreciate that. mayor holt: that's not your style here anyway. but i just think that that's the first thing i see is that contrast between the way we operate, that we're trying to get things done. i think either party in washington is capable of that type of leadership and capable of working together, but all the incentives they currently have in place, and just generally the way that things have evolved over the last five years obviously has brought them to the point of high dysfunctionality. but if they want to figure out how to really make things work, come talk to us. mayor stoney: that's right. amna: all right. you are available. oklahoma city mayor david holt and richmond, virginia mayor levar stoney, thank you so much for being here. mayor stoney: thank you. mayor holt: thank you. geoff: pakistan is struggling to

recover from last year's cataclysmic flooding that killed more than 1700 people. it was the latest in a string of weather-related disasters the country has faced over the past two decades, prompting calls to make hard-hit areas more resilient as they rebuild. fred de sam lazaro reports on one woman's effort across the flood-ravaged sindh province. this story is produced in partnership with the pulitzer center and part of fred's series agents for change. fred: on a recent morninhere in rural sindh province, workers, including residents of pano, a model village, were building bamboo frames for construction. the need for durable shelter is overwhelming in a country still grappling with an enormous rebuilding effort. last year's unrelenting rains wiped away hundreds of thousands of mud huts across rural areas. standing water still covers acres of land once home to villages of mostly sharecroppers

and farm laborers. the village of pano and 12 others are the brainchd of globally acclaimed architect yasmeen lari, the first female to qualify as an architect in pakistan. 82-year-old lari has won several awards in a career that focused at first on designing modern buildings, like the finance and trade center in pakistan's commercial capital, karachi. yasmeen: you must about the architect that we're all trained to control everything, nothing should be different from what we have decided, what we design. and here was a different way of working altogether, where you have to lose your ego. fred: in retirement, she found her calling at the intersection of architecture and social justice, she says, beginng with the devastating 2005 earthquake in kashmir, where she planned to spend three months doing relief work. yasmeen: while it didn't quite work out that way. i found there was plenty to do there. fred: her focus shifted with the urgent need for structures that can beuilt quickly and

sustainably in a country slammed in recent years by extreme climate events, moving away from concrete and steel, and using more local low-carbon and low-cost materials. yasmeen: when i was a practicing architect, i built some huge, monster buildings with a lot of concrete and steel. and i found that 40% of carbon emissions are because of the conventional construction. fred: among her signature projects is this pedestrian-only street in the heart of karachi, emphasizing green space and terra-cotta tile, which drain rainwater much faster than the usual concrete. yasmeen: concrete is the worst thing, because everything becomes totally impervious. fred: for mass shelter projects, she found a game-changing substitute in lime, an abundant mineral that, mixed with traditional mud, becomes stable and water-resistant, she says. yasmeen: i found it was an absolutely miracle material, because it stabilized the earth completely and could last for years if you submerge it in water. and we have tested that.

fred: lari's structures incorporate climate-smart design and materials with traditional ones. the key is to build on higher ground, add a short platform for additional protection from floodwaters, and use a sloped, thatched roof. yasmeen: it's made out of eight prefab panels. and then it has a structure, a roof which is like an umbrella. so, there's a huge amount of air movement. so it's very comfortable inside. my own dream is really that if i could just save people from displacement, if they could be just these structures which will make sure that people can stay in them. fred: about five million pakistanis remain without permanent shelter. and the goal here is to not just build homes for people, but to train local residents to do it themselves. the hope is that this know-how can then be transferred village to village, creating not just sustainable homes, but also jobs. and, lari says, she's trying to make sure residents can make

something to sell, which has allowed many to emerge from extreme poverty. the reason she credits for this success? yasmeen: well, i managed to get women mobilized to do things, and i found that i could get the results very quickly. fred: much of that entrepreneurship is around cleaner cookstoves. champa kanji learned to build these stoves, or chulhas, several years ago. now she earns a living building them and training others in neighboring villages. champa: my husband joined me, and we'd go around to villages, and we would make between eight and 10 chulhas in a day. we were earning a good wage. now i hope that it will spread more widely. fred: the stoves range from the simple to very customized, like this demonstrator model in pano village. for women like dhani, who uses one name, it's made preparing the family meal far less burdensome. dhani: the new stoves are very nice.

there's less smoke in your face, and it's much safer for the children. yasmeen: suddenly, women's postures changed, because, earlier, they were crouching on the floor, on the ground. and, suddenly, every woman's back was erect. suddenly, she was proud, as if she was sitting on a throne. and women are in the lead in everything that i'm doing. and once they're strong and confident, i think they will make it -- they will bring about a change. and we have got to bring about a change. we can't go on like this. fred: more immediately, dhani, husband khumo and the 100 other families here say they're grateful their village literally was an island during the recent floods. khumo: because we are higher, we were safe. people in other villages had to run to the roadways because they were lower down. d the water just drained off the roof, away from the house. the water in the old place would come into the house and collapse it.

fred: it's not just homes, but also schools that were wiped out in the floods. and lari hopes to build thousands of them in the years ahead. and she's raising funds to meet the goal of a million homes in the next two years. for the "pbs newshour," this is fred de sam lazaro near hyderabad, pakistan. geoff: that is remarkable. who knew that bamboo and lime could make a sturdier home than concrete? amna: i know. and i also love the idea that a simple innovation like those chulhas, or the stoves, can completely transform a family's life, an entire community. remarkable. geoff: absolutely, yes. and we should mention that fred'reporting is a partnership with the under-told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. amna: coming up dozens of

prisoners go on hunger strike. and a new england guitar maker uses unique material to decrease her environmental impact. the white house has been plagued in recent days by the slow drip of developments related to classified documents from president biden's days as vice president which were found in a d.c. office he wants used as well as in his delaware home. and it all comes as a new book out this week takes us inside the inner workings of the biden administration. joining me now is chris whipple, the author of that new book, called "the fight of his life: inside joe biden's white house." chris whipple, welcome to the "newshour." let's talk about what's going on inside that biden white house, those classified documents, and specifically the response from biden's white house team, which some have called late or slow or fumbling in some cases. i'm curious. you have talked to a lot of these folks. did you expect a different response from the seasoned team

around the president? chris: well, it's a little bit surprising, given how well this white house is run normally. but i spent two years talkin with almost all of joe biden's inner circle. and there's more drama behind closed doors than you might expect. this was certainly true during the first year with the bungled exit from afghanistan. certainly, the second year has been much more successful for joe biden, with his rallying the west against vladimir putin in defense of ukraine and pasng a really impressive legislative agenda. so i think he goes into his third year really with the wind at his back. amna: specifically, to these documents, though, now, among the people you have talked to is bob bauer, i believe, who is representing the president as his personal attorney on this issue. what do you see as the biggest challenge for him? how does he do this? chris: well, i think the real challenge is that you're seeing

a really delicate balancing act. the communications team would like to get out in front of this and be much more forthcoming. bob bauer, who is a ve cautious lawyer, is telling them that -- to be quiet, that you don't want to run the risk of saying things that will later be contradicted. amna: you write quite a bit about afghanistan and the chaotic withdrawal and the loss of life there, clearly a low point during biden's tenure so far. but, based on your reporting, i'm curious, did you find out, how did the u.s. get it so wrong, that the taliban would advance as quickly as they did, that kabul would fall so swiftly? chris: well, what i discovered in talking to biden's inner circle is that there was -- there was just a lot of drama behind the scenes here. tony blinken, the secretary of state, told me in no uncertain terms that everything they did was based on a fatally flawed intelligence assessment that the afghan government would last for 18 months.

this was news to cia director bill burns when i went over and spoke with him at cia headquarters. and he said, no, look, we were clear-eyed about the fragility of the afghan government. and if you remove two legs of the stool, the military -- u.s. military and contractors, we thought things could collapse very fast. so, there was a lot of drama, a lot of finger-pointing in the immediate aftermath of that unfortunate event. amna: what about the approach to russia's war in ukraine? you write a great deal about the secret trip that cia director bill burns made to kyiv before the war even started, a trip that vice president harris made weeks later, in which you had this chilling line in there as she left the meeting with zelenskyy. you wrote, as zelenskyy departed, harris had a chilling thought. there was a good chance she would never see him alive again. you talked about drama in the white house. were there disagreements within the white house about how to handle ukraine? chris: well, by contrast with the afghanistan episode, i think

that february 24, 2022, was really the turning point of the biden presidency. joe biden was uniquely prepared to deal with this crisis and to rally the western world in defense of ukraine against putin. and he did so. but it was a lot closer than anybody really thought. volodymyr zelenskyy didn't believe it was -- that the invasion was coming. neither did most of the european leaders. thanks to biden and his team, the west was ready in the end. amna: you do focus quite a bit on the white house chief of staff, ron klain, as well. i'm curious, if he leaves, as chiefs do, what does the biden white house look like without him? who do you thinkould step into that role? chris: well, that's going to be a huge challenge for joe biden. he's poised to run for reelection. almost certainly, that's ing to happen. ron klain has been an integral

part of the first two years and of biden's successes. it was klain who really helped to engineer his remarkable performance in the midterms, agnst all odds, and those will be very big shoes to fill. he's one of the most qualified ople ever to have that job. and i think that it's going to be someone probably within the inner circle. it's hard to imagine someone coming in from outside, but also people with that rare combination of political savvy, knowledge of how governance works, ability to run the white house, to manage not only joe biden up, but to manage the staff down, that's a tough combination to find. amna: chris, i'm curious. out of everyone you talked to, did anyone express any doubt about mr. biden running for reelection? chris: i haven't spoken to anyone who doesn't think that joe biden is running. and his inner circle really believes that that's the case.

think about it. when was the last time a president voluntarily walked away from the oval office? it was 1968 with lyndon johnson. if you reach that point, it's very hard to surrender power. and i think joe biden has been dreaming about or running for president almost every four years of his career, right? and he's got unfinished business. so i think he's running, and i think they are -- they're prepared for trump. but i think that, even if it's not trump, it'll be joe biden running for the democrats. amna: the author is chris whipple. the book is "the fight of his life: inside joe biden's white house." chris, tnk you for your time. good to talk to you. chris: great to be with you. thanks.

geoff: dozens of inmates in texas prisons have been staging a hunger strike for more than a week. john yang has the details on their demands. john: geoff, the prisoners want a change in the way that texas prison officials use indefinite solitary confinement. right now, about 3100 prisoners are being held in solitary, and hundreds of them have been held that way f more than a decade. paul flahive is a reporter for texas puic radio. paul, tell us, what are the nditions? what is it like for these prisoners in solitary confinement? paul: my understanding is that they're held in their cells for as much as 22 hours a day. in a complaint that they filed with the state legislature, they e-mailed a bunch of legislators documents about their conditions. they said that they at times during the pandemic didn't have access to outside recreation for years, for months oftentimes, that they had access to showers

once a week in one unit. and so, obviously, it's been described as torture by some prison researchers across the country, the use of indefinite solitary confinement, and they are trying to change it. john: how many prisoners are participating in this hunger strike right now? paul: the number is up for debate. at last check, the state said it was 51. and independent advocates are -- that are trying to help have said it's as many as 138. but it's been -- i's been a struggle to kind of understand exactly how many people are involved. john: why are these prisoners in solitary confinement? paul: yes, in the mid-1980's, there was an increase in gang activity within the jails. and many of these men are in prison gangs. and along with the increase in prison gangs, there's just an incredible explosion in violence. and so they created this system of administrative segregation, many prison systems across the country did, to quell that violence.

and as one prison researcher here in texas said, in doing so, they did bring some modicum of safety to the rest of the intes, but they created a system that really does, at times, torture these other inmates. john: they're in solitary confinement simply because they belong to a gang, or are they also there because of things they have done, because of behavior? paul: yes, there's -- there is a number of them that are in there because of disciplinary infractions, that they have history of assaults or have a current case against them within the system of violence. there are others that are considered a high risk of fleeing, of escape. and those folks are kept in there as well. but my understanding is, most of them are part of this stg, or security threat group, which is another term for gangs. john: simply because they're gang members? paul: that's right. john: and is there a way that a prisoner can, i don't know, work their way out of solitary and be transferred to the general population?

paul: yes, first, the tdcj, the texas department of criminal justice, says that they use an exhaustive system to determine who should be in these places, who should be in administrative segregation. and they say that they preliminarily or -- excuse me -- they periodically review those cases. and people that are kept there have an ability to appeal those decisions through the grievance process. but in terms of gang members, there's oftentimes programs that are -- one is called the grad program, which is a renouncement and disassociation program. basically, they are -- have to leave the gang and inform on the gang oftentimes to be able to exit the gang -- or exit solitary confinement. john: how common is this practice? how does this texas policy compare with other states? paul: yes, texas is one of just a handful of states that still utilize status-based administrative segregation. they're one of the leading

proponents of it, and it is far more severe than in other states, according to researchers i have talked to. one of the other big proponents was california. but after similar circumstances where thousands of hunger strikers led to an increase in litigation around it, they lost a large lawsuit that forced them to reform their system. john: what are the demands here that the -- that these striking prisoners are making? paul: well, first and foremost, they just want them to end status-based administrative segregation. they want them to be based more on their behavior. they want to create a step-down program that would gradually reenter the vast majority of them back into general population, especially those that have an out date, a date when they would be released from prison, because the data around people that go straight from solitary confinement to the streets is not very good. they often reoffend. john: what's the status of efforts to try to resolve this? paul: it's unclear. the state has said it has -- really doesn't have an interest

in ending this practice. tdcj said these are -- these are violent offenders, part of violent gangs, and we just can't risk them having -- being -- having unrestricted access to recruit within their prisons. john: paul flahive of texas public radio, thank you very much. paul: thank you. amna: so, what do honeycombs, mushrooms, and corn husks have in common? they're all ingredients that a new england guitar maker uses to reduce her impact on the environment. michelle san miguel of rhode island pbs has the story for our arts and culture series, canvas. michelle: rachel rosenkrantz had established herself as a furniture maker and an industrial designer both in her native france and in rhode

island. but, about a decade ago, she decided it was time to explore something new. rachel: i missed working with my hands. that was the bottom line. and i started to play music again. so that, really, like propelled everything. michelle: over the years, rosenkrantz says her own creative process faced some inner struggles. rachel: there you go. michelle: she felt torn between being a musician and a visual artist, and dreamed of combining her two passions. rachel: if it wiggles a bit. michelle: yes. wathere a moment when you realized, gosh, i can make a living making guitars? rachel: yes. other people do it, so w not me? and i have been thinking about it for too long to not do it. and, no, because it was scary. it's like it's a drastic change. it was worth the risk, though. michelle: rosenkrantz says the environmental impact of making guitars has been well-known for

decades. much of the timber comes from old rare trees that produce good acoustics, like ebony, mahogany and rosewood. excessive harvesting of brazilian rosewood has contributed to its extreme endangerment. it's one of the reasons why she's selective about where she buys her wood. rachel: my rosewood is from india. my maple is fromhe states. i have some cedar from spain, i have some cedar from california. michelle: rosenkrantz used her free time during the pandemic to experimentith making instruments from other materials. take, for instance, the body of her guitars. they're not carved. they're grown. rosenkrantz packs her molds with mushroom spores, as well as organic waste like corn husk. rachel: that whole bag made to the trick.

actually, growing a body in mushroom is cheaper than cutting a tree across the world. that's just the bottom line. it looks like a granola bar, but there's kind of a brutalist aesthetic to it. [laughter] michelle: the growth of the mushrooms fills any remaining spaces and binds it all together in the shape of the mold. then, once it's dry, rosenkrantz is left with a solid board. her friend mark milloff stopped by her studio to try it out. mark: pretty close. because it's mushroom, i think of really delicious porcini soup or something like that. but, yes, there's definitely a distinctive sound. it is absolutely not a wden guitar, a wooden resonance. there's something that is -- i find very pleasing.

michelle: rosenkrantz not only proved mushroom spores and organic wastes can be used to make guitars. rachel: so i gave the bees some board to build from. michelle: but she also built one from honeycombs. rachel: the humming of the bees is within the range of the guitar. it's three or nine hertz. that's close to, like, the -- a string on a guitar. so i'm like, ok, so that should diffuse a guitar. michelle: she knew honeycomb was resonant. she designed a bracing structure and watched as the bees built their comb along it. but then she found herself with a honey-filled guitar that couldn't resonate. rachel: so i had to leave it a whole winter for them to eat, because it's cruel to, like, take all their food. they worked hard, and now they're going to starve? i can't do that. so, well, they had food for the winter, and they return in early april. i had a perfectly cleaned-up guitar that was, like, empty of honey, that could resonate.

michelle: rosenkrantz admits strumming a guitar made from honeycomb isn't practical, but she says it's helped her better understand how biomaterials can diffuse sound. rachel: i'm learning so much. as i'm working on one, i start to have like, five other ideas. there's so much curiosity that the learning curve is exponential. michelle: for the "pbs newshour," i'm michelle san miguel in cranston, rhode island. geoff: remember, there's a lot more online at pbs.org/newshour. amna: and join us again here tomorrow night, when we'll explore the debate that's heating up around gas stoves. that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. >> for 25 years, 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 u.s.-based customer service team can help 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." >> these are people who are trying to change the world. startups have this energy that energizes me. >> i am thriving by helping others every day. people who know, know bdo. >> the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social chan 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. 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. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and acracy.] >> you're watching pbs.

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