amna: good evening and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "newshour" tonight, w travel to one of the turkish towns hardest hit by the recent earthquake as rescue operations in the region continue, but hope of finding survivors fades. amna: the u.s. releases new details about the chinese balloon's spying capabilities, while china accuses the u.s. of information warfare. geoff: and financially strapped health care faculties work to stave off a projected spike in heart disease among americans. >> you do yo best. you keep doing it even one life at a time, one patient at a time.

>> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovatns in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security, at carnegie.org. d with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: good evening, and welcome to the “newshour.” the death toll from the catastrophic earthquake in turkey and syria has risen to nearly 21,000 with no end in sight. amna: aid is slowly starting to trickle in, but, for many, it is too little, too late. jane ferguson reports tonight from antakya, capital of hatay province in turkey. much of hatay and neighborin idlib province in syria now lie in ruins. jane: bodies gathered from the rubble in antakya are everywhere, collected and labeled and stored in the street. no buildings are trusted anymore. fresh running water is too scarce for the religious rites of the dead. an older tradition of clean soil is now used here to dignify the bodies.

the heartbroken come to the cemery to claim their loved ones. few here held out hope they would find their missing family members any other place. but, still, the grief comes in waves. gonul us has seen 10 members of her extended family arrive here in body bags. more are missing, she tells us. gonul: i live in a separate building from some of the rest of my family. i went to look for my mother, my sisters-in-law, cousins, aunts. we know that they didn't make it outside because they are missing. jane: her cousin ham saart lost a horrifying list of people dear to him. >> my mother, my brother, my wife, my son, my daughter. jane: still in shock, he says he remembers little of the days since monday's earthquake destroyed his home and his life. since then, hundreds of thousands like gonul have had to grieve while homeless, destitute in a city that has no more safe housing.

gonul: i was with my daughter last night and had no roof over our heads. the last couple of ds have been misery. it is only today that we received help. we built a fragile tent for ourselves with the pieces of cloth we found here and there in the street. jane: antakya was one of the hardest-hit areas in turkey when the quake struck. but it was also one of the last to get any outside help. help has finally arrived here in the very south of turkey. but it's ally just today that you saw rescue crews like this and equipment like this making its way in here. much of this city has had to cope by itself for several days. the turkish government has worked to clamp down on criticism here of its response to the crisis. people complain off-camera that they were left to fend for themselves for too long. in nearby iskenderun, a fire that broke out among shipping containers at the port continues to rage, as rescue teams search among what's left of the city. president erdogan visited the city of gaziantep today, close to the quake's epicenter.

he joined survivors now living in a tent city to pray for the dead. erdogan's reelection in may could very well hinge on his response to this disaster. today, he assured displaced families that help is on the way. pres. erdogan: while the damage assessment is under way, in this transition moment, we will provide $530 in financial aid to our citizens. and with this financial aid, we want at least to alleviate their oblems a little bit. jane: meanwhile, the first convoy of u.n. humanitarian assistance finally reached northwest syria from turkey after being stalled when the only aid crossing was damaged in the earthquake. it's bringing much-needed medicinelankets, tents, and other supplies to the rebel-controlled area. sanjana: we need the cross-border assistance to continue in these very early days, because as -- if we do

not, every day, every moment, we're losing more and more people. jane: but the white helmets organization said the u.n. assistance is part of regularly scheduled aid deliveries to syria organized before the quake and not specific aid and equipment for the disaster relief effort. angela kearney works for unicef. she says the humanitarian situation in war-torn syria is especially dire. angela: they need water, clean drinking water. they need sanitation, places that they can go to the bathroom. and, in many cases, they also need mental health support and psychosocial supportespecially for the children. it's a very bewildering time to be woken up in the middle of the night and now not have a home. or some of them have lost family members, and so they need to grieve for that. but it's that life is very, very different now. jane: many syrians are growing more and more frustrated that international aid still hasn't reached them yet, three days after the quake struck. samer hassani lived with his relatives in the quake-hit city

of bisina. he lost six members of his family. samer: we're still looking for one of my cousins. she's 19. we have been looking for her on for four days now, and haven't found her anywhere, not in the hospitals, nor anywhere else. jane: further compounding the miseryone northwestern village became inundated with water today after the afrin dam, damaged days earlier in the quake, collapsed. ammar: we just want people to help us to shelterhese women and children. as you can see, our homes are flooded and destroyed. jane: in the city of salqin in idlib province, 10-yeaold fadi haidar, one of the f lucky ones, he holds on to his father. the two and his mother and brother were rescued with few injuries after being trapped under debris for several hours. fadi: we were here. we were here under the rubble. we were sleeping in the bedroom, and then the building started falling on us. i was next to my mom, and my

brother was trapped under the ceiling. we got them out. we all got out thank god. jane: haidar struggles to find all that he has lost. his family is one of only two that survived in a village of 500 people. what's left of his village is a pile of rubble and a faint memory of what once was. fadi: the building here, they brought out children. these were our friends who we used to play with. they all died. we used to play ball with them down there. they all died. every day, played together. they all died. jane: time is running out for any remaining survivors, but he and his cousins have a message. no aid has reached northwest syria. for the “pbs newshour,” i'm jane ferguson in antakya, turkey.

vanessa: i'm vanessa ruiz in for stephanie sy with "newshour west." here are the latest headlines. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy made an emotional appearance before the european parliament in brussels, appealing for new support. he drew a standing ovation and said later that several european leaders are ready to supply fighter jets. he gave no details, but said leaving empty-hand was not an option. pres. zelenskyy: i just don't have the right to go back home without results. and even if it sounds bold now, it's not cynicism on my part, it's pragmatism. and believe me, there are no emotions anymore. we left emotions a year ago, so there are none of them, just pragmatism. vanessa: zelenskyy also pushed again for ukrae to be admitted to the european union. his two-day trip to western europe comes as russian forces step up their assault in eastern ukraine. north korea's leader kim jong-un has been showing off his

country's largest nuclear-capable missiles. it came during an overnight parade in pyongyang. around a dozen inter-continental ballistic missiles rolled through the streets, cheered by thousands of troops. kim's young daughter stood and clapped by his side. there's been speculation that she may be his eventual successor. the nicaraguan government today released more than 200 people from prisons, many of whom were flown to the u.s. they were generally considered to be political prisoners. u.s. officials said they were given humanitarian parole and allowed to fly to washington. secretary of state tony blinken said the release opens the door to further dialogue with nicaragua. the biden administration had imposed sanctions on the government of president daniel ortega, as the country has slid into autocratic rule and targeted opponents. pennsylvania senator john fetterman remains hospitalized in washington after feeling lightheaded last night.

the freshman democrat had suffered a stroke during his campaign last year. but his office said initial tests showed no evidence of a new stroke. staffers said fetterman was in good spirits. he's under observation as doctors run more tests. also, southwest airlines has apologized again for canceling nearly 17,000 flights during a december storm. the fiasco left crews in the wrong places and stranded more than two million customers over the holidays. at a senate hearing today, an airline executive faced accusations that for years, southwest ignored warnings to upgrade its crew-scheduling system. >> there were techlogy issues during the disruption. and we don't dispute that and we will make the necessary investments there. all we're trying to say is the problem -- or the root cause -- was how we handled our winter operations. and that's where we will see us put some focus over a multi-year period.

sen. markey: because you did not listen to those warnings, catastrophic conditions were created for passengers by the hundreds of thousands all across our country. so, that is absolutely unacceptable. you were warned. that mismanagement absolutely led to real pain, real harm for families. vanessa: last year, southwest canceled a total of 40,000 flights out of 210,000 for all u.s. airlines. house republicans investigating the biden family have made their first official request for documents from the president's son, hunter, and brother, james. the house oversight committee chair, james comer, sent letters today seeking material on foreign business pursuits linked to the chinese communist party. republicans have accused the biden family of influence peddling but have so far failed to produce supporting evidence. hunter biden's lawyer accused

comer of using the investigation to air baseless claims. there are multiple media reports that former vice president mike pence has been subpoenaed by the special counsel investigating former president trump. the subpoena is reportedly related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. still to come on the "newshour," a tense moment during the state of the union reignites the debate over social security and medicare. also, how new weight loss drugs are changing the conversation around treating obesity. a court ruling allows people under domestic violence restraining orders to possess guns. and we remember the life and career of legendary composer burt bacharach. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: today, the biden administration released new details on how it says a chinese

balloon spied on the united states last week. but administration officials also faced bipartisan questions from senators about why they let it fly across the country, instead of shooting it dn earlier. nick schifrin is here now to discuss all of that. nick, good to see you. nick: thanks very much, amna. amna: so what did we learn today? what new details about how this balloon worked? nick: u.s. officials say that this was part of an international program that the chinese have launched of spy balloons that they say flew across 40 countries across five continents. the balloon that we're talking about here was 200-feet-tall and had a jetliner size payload. and according to a senior state department official, it was -- quote -- "capable of conducting signals telligence collection operations." what does that mean? it means it can pick up communications from u.s. military bases as it flew over them. the official said -- quote -- "it had multiple antennas, to include an array likely capable of collecting and geolocating communications and solar panels

large enough to produce the requisite power to operate multiple active intelligence collection sensors." now, officials say they're making this public, something that the intelligence community has historically resisted, because they are trying to pull back the curtain on chinese spying. they're trying to refute what beijing said today, that the u.s. was waging a campaign of -- quote -- "information warfare." also today, the house of representatives passed a resolution unanimously that calls out china's -- quote -- "brazen violation of u.s. sovereignty, and also efforts to deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns." that shows, amna, at least on a general level, washington's anger with beijing right now. amna: so, bipartisan support for that resolution, right, but not when it comes to how the administration handled this, when they chose to shoot it down. nick: very much not, and especially on that last point you just said, when the administration chose to shoot it down.

the balloon arrived in u.s. airspace on january 28, traversed through canada, then reentered the continental united states. it was 10 days, on february 4, thatn f-22 shot it down. and today we heard from the senate in the appropriations defense subcommittee that the anger that those 10 days, what the balloon was doing, the anger was bipartisan, both from montana democrat jon tester and maine republicans susan collins. sen. tester: i got a problem with a chinese balloon flying over my state, much less the rest of the country. sen. collins: it defies belief that there was not a single opportunity to safely shoot down this spy balloon prior to the coast of south carolina. nick: now, publicly, the administration officials have said that they didn't shoot it down earlier because of the risk to people on the ground if it had shot it down, given the size, and also that the military limited the balloon's ability to

collect intelligence, essentially, that they shut down some of the communications in these bases as the balloon flew over those bases. the military said the same today. but officials also made two additional points in this hearing. they pointed out that atlantic waters were actually ideal to salvage the balloon, so that they could collect parts of the balloon to understand what it did, as opposed to waters in alaska, which were deeper, colder, and covered with ice. take a listen to melissa dalton, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense. sec. dalton: if we had taken it down over the state of alaska, which is part of the united states, it would have been a very different recovery operation. a key part of the calculus for this operation was the ability to salvage, understand, and exploit the capabilities of the high-altitude balloon. nick: now, the military also made an addition point which it doesn't often talk about in public. the u.s. spies on china. it flies satellites over china. it flies aircraft off the coast

of china. the u.s. doesn't want beijing to start instinctively shooting at u.s. assets that are near china or above china, just like it doesn't want -- just like it didn't fire instinctively at this balloon. and take a listen to lieutenant general douglas sims, the director for operations on the joint staff. lt. gen. sims: if we establish that precedent, that precedent may be met -- we may meet the same precedent, in which case, as opposed to thinking and looking and then reacting, we may create something in which we are -- is to our detriment. nick: but the balloon flying so low over u.s. airspace and the size of this program, amna, are unprecedented, as are the bipartisan questions of how the administration has operated in the last week, which continue. amna: so, nick, where does this leave the relations between u.s. and china? nick: relations had been getting a little bit better since president biden met with xi jinping in november. but since the balloon incident, secretary blinken canceled his trip, no rescheduling yet. secretary austin picked up the

phone. no answer from beijing. and so it does seem like things are getting worse. but president biden la night to judy woodruff said, no, this is not changing u.s.-china relations. and the officials i talked to explain that thinking. one, they still want dialogue with beijing. and, two, they didn't learn anything they didn't already know about beijing from this balloon. as deputy secretary of state wendy sherman said today, china's become more repressive at home more aggressive abroad, and the balloon is just evidence of that. amna: nick schifrin, thank you very much. nick: thank you. geoff: democrats and republicans have been sparring for months over the federal government's two main social safety net programs, social security and medicare. in tuesday's state of the union address, president biden said some, but not all republicans want to target the programs for

cuts. his remarks drawing jeers from some members of the gop, all of it leading to an unusual moment of live policy negotiation and apparent agreement. pres. biden: social security and medicare is off the books now, right? they're not to be touched? [cheering and applause.] all right. we've got unanimity. let's all agree -- and we apparently are -- let's stand up for seniors. [cheering and applause] stand up and show them we will not cut social security, we will not cut medicare. geoff: while republicans have accused president biden of misrepresenting their proposals, a handful of gop lawmakers have fload making changes to the programs. rep. waltz: if we really want to talk about the debt and spending, it's the entitlements program. sen. graham: we're down to a small fraction of the federal pie to run the discretionary part of government.

so, entitlement reform is a must for us to not become greece. sen. scott: we ought to every year talk about exactly how we're going to fix medicare and social security. here's what's happening. no one that i know of wants to sunset medicare and social security. but what we're doing is, we don't even talk about it. medicare goes bankrupt in four years. social security goes bankrupt in 12 years. geoff: the president took his message to florida today, promising to protect the social programs crucial to seniors. pres. biden: folks on fixed incomes rely on social security and medicare to get by. they deserve a greater sense of security and dignity. i know that a lot of republicans, their dream is to cut social security and medicare. well, let me say this. if that's your dreami'm your nightmare. geoff: and following all of this closely is our congressional correspondent, lisa desjardins. so, lisa, let's dispense with the politics just for a second, shall we, and talk about the underlying issue. medicare and social security both face the same basic

problem, in that people are living a lot longer than they did when these programs were created. where are we with the solvency of both of these programs? lisa: let's take a minute to look at it. so this is according to the trustees for these various programs. first, let's start with medicare. right now, if congress does not then, medicare will be insolvent in 2028. that used to be a date far away. it isn't anymore. that would mean if, again, nothing happens, the payments to medical providers would be cut about 10%. social security, a little bit longer, but still a jor consideration here is that retirees, that retiree fund would be insolvent in 2034. and that would mean, if congress does nothing, cuts of about 20% to benefits. another way to think about that for social security. geoff, is anyone in this country who's 56-years-old or younger would see their social security benefits cut by at least 20% if congress does nothing. geoff: wow. so, you have got more than, what, 60 million americans enrolled in these programs right now. what are the possible solutions? lisa: ok, let's go over that, because it's not easy. there's one reason they haven't

done this, is because these aren't easy decisions. someone's going to have to make sacrifices. number one, one thing that they could do is increase payroll taxes for some or all americans. maybe richer americans pay more. that's one idea. we could -- they could also raise the eligibility ages even more or the criteria for qualifying for these programs. they could also reform how medicare pays medical providers. specifically, there could be a lot of savings there. and then the bottom one is lower benefits for some or all americans. and that is what you often hear referred to as cuts. but if you raise eligibility, that also means fewer benefits for fewer people. in all of this, geoff, timing matters. the longer that congress and the president wait to make these decisions, the deeper those kinds of cuts could be in the future. geoff: so this all ties in to the country's debt problem. what would it mean for the bottom line if congress does nothing to address the solvency issue? lisa: think about medicare and social security as almost the equal of the regular agency budget for all of government. so if you don't address the red

ink in those programs, you have a major problem. you have fewer options for what to cut. we talked to larry levitt of the kaiser family foundation about what exactly would happen if medicare and social security continue to bleed this red ink. larry: if you want to balance the budget, and you take two big programs in medicare and social security off the table, probably defense spending is largely off the table as well. the next big chunk of the federal budget is medicaid so if you're going to balance the budget and take all these other tools off the table, you're probably looking at big cuts in a program like medicaid. lisa: medicaid, the program for lower-income americans. and what he's saying there is, republicans say they want a balanced budget. but if you don't change medicare and social security or affect the defense department, medicaid is probably the next big target left. no one's proposing cuts there, but he's saying one plus one plus one, this is what's left. geoff: so what then are

republicans, what are democrats proposing to do about this? lisa: we're going to be talking this probably more down the road. let's talk, first of all, about florida senator rick scott, whose name comes up a lot in this. he's proposing something very specific. he's using the word sunset. and he says he wants to sunset every federal program every five years, basically look at every federal program every five years. as part of that are social security and medicare. he has not yet proposed specific cuts to those programs. but, listen, i have talked to him a lot about the national debt, and he is really kind of out far front on the national debt. he does think government needs to shrink. and i'm waiting to see what his proposals will be specifically for how he would deal with medicare and social security, because he talks about it a lot. other than that, the truth is, there's no plan. there is not really a full proposal from democrats or republicans. senator joe manchin, the democrat, i said he wants to try and perhaps propose a commission. but the white house initially has said, no, we're not going to talk about that, at least not as part of a national debt

proposal. so we have a major problem looming. it's coming fast. there's no plan quite yet or no discussion yet either. geoff: lisa desjardins, i learn so much whenever i talk with you. it's good to see you. thanks. lisa: good to see you. amna: in two parts tonight, heart disease and the obesity epidemic. no disease kills more americans annually than heart disease. at least half of all americans are at risk because of factors such as obesity, elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol, or smoking. and that's projected to get even worse in the coming decades. stephanie sy reports from mississippi, the state with the highest rate of heart disease, on how access to care is affecting residents in the rural delta. lee: how does that feel, terry? is it hard?

stephanie: in a small room tucked away at greenwood leflore hospital's physical rehab center, nurse lee roach is putting her patients through their paces. lee: just stay close to the front. it's easier. >> ok. lee: you start dragging behind, you're going to be back over here in this chair. [laughter] stephanie: each patient here is recovering from a serious cardiac event, like a heart attack or heart surgery. and as they go through their circuit of exercises, each patient's heart rate and blood pressure are closely monitored. lee: exercise, though, walking will actually make it go down, so -- and then got to watch the sugars that you eat. stephanie: while they're here, roach peppers in counseling around medication d wellness. lee: small changes make very big differences in lifestyle is what i like to say. we can change it a little bit. stephanie: 66-year-old leslie rounds travels here from a small rural town almost an hour away. she recently had a stent put in her heart. leslie: it will help me a whole

lot since, you know, i have been coming. stephanie: 75-year-old james wellborn is recovering from open heart surgery in november. james: you can't do this three days a week without feeling different. lee: is that the one that helps you sleep? education is a big part of it, and try and make sure that, while they're here, that we get everything that they need to know to decrease the likelihood of having to come back after another cardiac event. so it's very rewarding for me to see people actually change. stephanie: it's change that's desperately needed in the mississippi delta, a swathe of ferte farmland bound by two rivers northwest of jackso the region has among the highest poverty and heart disease rates in the country. dr. edney: the mississippi delta is the canary in the coal mine. stephani dr. daniel edney is mississippi's top health officer and a practicing physician for more than 30 years in the state. dr. edney: you have to understand, in mississippi,

poverty drives most everything. and with poverty comes obesity, because there are fewer choices for healthy food, and there are fewer opportunities for exercise and increased activity. obesity drives diabetes, which drives -- in coordination with hypertension, drives heart disee and stroke. overlaying all of that is access to care. stephanie: access that edney says is made more limited by the fact that mississippis one of 11 states that has not expanded medicaid, a change that has been resisted by republican leaders in the state. dr. edney: it's not my role to advocate one way or the other, but i point out where the resoces are. and, in 2023, part of federal funding of health care is the affordable care act. it just is. and we have a very big danger in mississippi, especially in mississippi delta, of hospitals closing or downgrading services. stephanie: greenwood leflore hospital has been open for more than a century, but it's now on borrowed time.

hospital officials say they only have enough money to stay solvent through june. dr. thakur: no chest pain, anything like that? >> no chest pain. stephanie: dr. abasha thakur is greenwood leflore's only cardiologist. the hospital has closed its maternity ward and intensive care unit and has 40% fewer employees than it had in 2021. dr. thakur: and you're eating good? >> yes. dr. thakur: not bad stuff, right? >> no. no. [laughter] stephanie: in his own unit, dr. thakur had a nurse practitioner laid off as well. dr. thakur: people can get sick and can die from this kind of disease, where we can help if we can catch it early. stephanie: it's preventable? dr. thakur: that's right. hey, hope. how are you? hope: i'm doing fine. stephanie: 50-year-old hope cooper has an elevated heart rate and a leaky heart valve. she's been seeing dr. thakur for almost three years. hope: i'm not feeling well

today. so if i had to drive myself somewhere else besides, i don't think i could -- would have been able to make that drive. so we need him here at greenwood leflore hospital. it's nojust, oh, i want to go here. no, we need him here. stephanie: the crisis in rural health care access comes as rates of heart disease are expected to surge across the country. a study released last august projected that heart disease and risk factors like diabetes, hypertension and obesity would rise steeply over the next 35 years, especially among black and hispanic americans, even as they decrease for whites. how do you even begin to prepare for that, given that you're already so busy now? dr. thakur: you do your best. you fight the war, the army you have. so, that's what my principle is, so that you do your best. you keep doing it, even one life at a time, one patient at a time. stephanie: and those patients

come from all over the region. about 25 miles south of greenwooleflore is the small town of tchula. surrounded by farmland its population of 1652 is more than 97% black. quinnie: tchula kind of like the graveyard where they put out people that can't work anymore. stephanie: quinnie and aaron denton have lived around tchula their whole lives. both were born to sharecroppers who worked on the same plantations where their great-grandparents were once enslaved. aaron: when i'm coming up, you went to the doctor, you was in bad shape. you were bleeding and hurting and everything else. it wasn't no checkups. stephanie: you didn't have any preventative care? aaron: no. grandmama go to in their kitchen and do some home brewing and kept you going. stephanie: aaron was hospitalized at greenwood leflore for an irregular heartbeat in 2021. and quinnie was diagnosed with congestive heart failure there in 2020.

quinnie: that hospital is very important, because not many people can make it to jackson, to be quite frank with you, not right here in this area, because they don't have the transportation. so, if they close the closest thing to us down, then it's going to be back to where as -- like living on the plantation out there and can't get any health care. julian: mississippi has a history of chattel slavery, of course. these health disparities also are a result of this -- these racial and economic injustices of the system that was -- that was forced upon us. stephanie: julian miller is a professor at tougaloo college in jackson, a historically black college. he is also a fifth generation deltan with a family history of heart disease. miller is helping lead a $6 million national institutes of health-funded study examining how access to healthy food can improve health disparities. julian: we plan er this five-year study to recruit 300 patients, to actually provide

them access to locally grown fresh produce and study their health outcomes. additionally, this project has the benefit of also building a sustainable food system in the delta with the investments it's making in building production on the ground. so our health would drive our economic security. stephanie: miller hopes this is the first step in making food as important as medicine. julian: we want to be able to have a system where medicare and medicaid dollars are used to purchase locally grown fresh food the same way it's used to purchase prescription drugs. stephanie: but the reality today for patients in the delta is very different. at greenwood leflore hospital, administrators a taking action to get more funding, but it's not clear it will save the hospital. what is the worst-case scenario if this place has to close? and have you thought about your plans? dr. thakur: one patient told me that we will collect money and

open a clinic for you. stephanie: a patient told you they would open a clinic for you, doctor, so they could keep you in this community? dr. thakur: yes. stephanie: that's how much you mean to them. dr. thakur: yes. and i don't think she has even $100 to spare. so she said they will go and t community will collect it. stephanie: would you stay? dr. thakur: i will try. stephanie: over at the cardiac rehab center, nurse lee roach also keeps trying. lee: it's disheartening. my parents still live here. if the hospital closed, i just -- it would just not be good. people would die. people need care. stephanie: in fact, they need it more than ever. for the "pbs newshour," i'm stephanie sy in greenwood, mississippi. geoff: while there are no quick solutions or pills that easily solve the problems of obesity, a

new crop of anti-obesity drugs are proving remarkably effective, cutting body weight by an average 15% to 22%. these medicines, including ozempic and wegovy, could trigger a shift in how doctors treat this. but the drugs come with a hefty price tag, some costing over $1000 a month, and many insurance companies won't cover them. in a moment, william brangham talks with a specialist about this. but, first, let's hear from some people taking these drugs. nancy: my name is nancy barnes. i live in new iberia, louisiana. in 1.5 years, i have lost 107 pounds. tesiah: i'm a nurse practitioner, i use she/her pronouns. and i'm based out of california. janet: i'm janet from chicago, illinois. and i have been on weight loss medicine for a couple months, and recently found out that my insurance no longer covers it. nancy: people say, well, if you would just quit eating, you

would be fine. and i truly believe that the stigmas associated with being overweight is so wrong, and compared to celebrities. they're doing it to lose 10 pounds to get into a dress. the rest of us just want to feel better. we want our knees to quit hurting. we want the inflammation to be gone. tesiah: like, a side effect has been losing weight, but that's not what my -- necessarily my aim s. my aim was really to stop, like, kind of the thought patterns and the binge eating-like cycles that i was going through. and the wegovy acts as kind of like a shutoff switch, i guess is the best way to describe it. janet: i started taking it and instantly felt so much better, like, had energy, had no cravings for any kind of sweets, and then went again to get my second-month refill at the beginning of january.

and, again, it was $25. then, just recently, i had to get my next month, and the -- they told -- the pharmacy told me it would be $2000. and she goes, do you realize that it's $2000? and i'm like, no? tesiah: i think making these medications more accessible is really important, because not only is it super expensive, which i have had -- but even when your insurance does cover it, i have had to spend hours and hours on the phone with my insurance company. and that's meas a medical provider, like, understanding how to navigate the system. and i have had to spend so much time just to access my medication every month. janet: at this point, it's really kind of up in the air. i'm not sure what's going to happen. and, to me, it's kind of scary, because it's something that's working for me finally, and for it to be taken away is very heartbreaking. nancy: and i just feel better.

i mean, the whole point, to me, my blood pressure's not 205 over 140. it's normal. and i can walk my dog. william: so those are some of the many people who are taking these drugs and seeing some real benefits. but soaring demand for these medications has also led to shortages, which can leave diabetic patients who also use some of these drugs stuck. so, for a medical perspective, i'm joined by dr. fatima cody stanford. she's an obesity medicine physician at massachusetts general hospital and a professor at harvard medical school. for the record, she is a consultant to several pharmaceutical companies, including the one that makes ozempic. dr. stanford, so good to have you on the "newshour." i wonder, what is your take on these medications? do you see them as this remarkable new evolution in treatment? and, if they are working, why are they working this way? dr. stanford: absolutely. first of all, thanks for having me. and i'm so happy to finally hear a conversation where we're

beginning to address this chronic disease that is obesity. and these medications really spend their time acting primarily on the brain to up-regulate one of the pathways that tells us to eat less and store less, while down-regulating a pathway that tells us to eat more and store more. so, that's the primary way and where these medications work. and so, when we listen to those individuals that have had a chance to experience, the benefits of these medications, you will hear about how it's influenced just their daily life. and that's how these medications work. now, there are several medications, in addition to these ones that we're talking about today, that also influence how the brain sees weight. and so it's important for us to recognize that all things don't work for all people. even people with obesity have differences in how their bodies navigate, different agents to help them treat obesity, including the medications that we're talking about today. william: so people who do have

the disease of obesity, if they are taking these medications, do they take them for life? is that correct? dr. stanford: yes, that is. and i really have thought about this quite a bit, william, trying to figure out like, how do i explain this to people? no one expects to eat one healthy meal and expect that to last them indefinitely. nobody does one great workout and expects that to last indefinitely. similarly, these medications are acting on different portions of the brain. and while they're being used, they're effective. as soon as you pull em back, they're no longer acting on the body, much like, if you're no longer eating a healthy diet, you're no longer exercising, those things aren't working on the body. so i think that, if we think about the need for chronic, healthy diet, chronic exercise, that, for those people that these medications are effective for, we do need to use them chronically. william: we heard in the voices prior to this that some patients were having trouble paying for it because their insurance had run out. do you believe, from your expertise, that -- on balance, that these provide enough benefit that they ought to be covered by insurance?

dr. stanford: you ow, i really am a strong advocate for coverage of this chronic disease, what we know to be the largest chronic disease in human history, affecting over 42% of the population. and that's based on 2018 numbers. as you know, we're in 2023, so those numbers are much likely higher. we know that obesity leads to over 230 other diseases, so why not treat the one that's contributing to, unfortunately, many others? i think we -- the cost/benefit ratio is one that we have to be aware of. and we also know from a lot of data that these medicines improve both your cardiovascular health and non-cardiovascular health. what do i mean, by that? we know it reduces the rate of stroke, heart attack, admission for heart failure. thesare things that we can't discount. and so, ife know this, if the data shows that and we have robust data showing that, then why not utilize these medications in individuals that could benefit? william: as you will know, there's this ongoing discussion

about the disease of obesity and how we treat it, whether it's something to be -- quote, unquote -- "cured" or not. there's so much shame and stigma attached to it as well. where do you come down on that? and how do these medications fit into that discussion? dr. stanford: well, i do know that shame and stigma are very, very pervasive. the two most common forms of bias in the u.s. are race bias, followed very closely by weight bias. we judge, we devalue, we dehumanize individuals that struggle with this disease, and we don't feel like they deserve any forms of therapy. we believe that they have done this to themselves. after treating over 10,000 patients with obesity, i can tell you, that is not the case. they have tried. they have struggled. and we have not been able to offer them any benefits from other things that we would do for chronic diseases, which are medications, which are surgical interventions that sometimes people often need. this is a chronic disease. and so there is no magic pill,

there is no magic injection, there is no magic surgery, but we can treat that person over the long term for their disease and help improve their overall health and just their ability to navigate the earth. one of the things we heard in one of the, i guess, outtakes was that a woman talked about, hey, i just want to be able to walk my dog. that's not something that a lot of us have to think about. we're able to do that with ease, without any stress or strain. why shouldn't every human have that ability? william: dr. fatima cody stanford, thank you so much for being here. dr. stanford: thanks so much for having me. amna: one of the nation's most conservative appeals courts has struck down a federal law that banned people under domestic violence restraining orders from owning guns. the decision, which only applies in the fifth district of texas, louisiana, and mississippi, is just part of the massive legal fallout from a u.s. supreme amendment last year.second

and it could signal how courts will decide on firearms cases for years to come. joining me now is chip brownlee. he's a reporter with the trace, a nonprofit news organization that covers gun violence. chip, welcome to the "newshour." let's just start with the immediate impact. so, does this now mean that anyone in texas or louisiana or mississippi who has a domestic violence restraining order can now legally own a gun? chip: this ruling found that the federal law that covers these issues is unconstitutional, but there are still state laws in most of the states that are people who are subjected to domestic violence restraining orders from owning and possessing guns. and this dsn't immediately affect those state laws. but in regards to the federal law in those three states, yes, it does -- it does find it unconstitutional. and, in this case, they vacated a person's sentence who had been -- or vacated the conviction of a person who had been convicted under this law. amna: so the reason those laws were in place in the first place, we should note, there's a

well-established connection between domestic violence and gun violence, right? tell us about that. chip: probably about a fourth of the homicides that are done with guns in the united states are in some way related to domestic violence or family violence. about half of the women in the u.s. who were shot and killed with a gun every year are shot and killed in domestic violence incidents. we know from the research that having a gun in a situation raises the risk of a domestic violence murder by about 400%. so, these laws, these were tried to kind of prevent those by having in place a prohibition on a person having a gun if they're under these restraining orders, because you can imagine, if somebody goes to the length to get a restraining order, they feel like they're under an emergency situation, that they need protection. and those are probably the most dangerous situations that somebody could be. amna: it's notable in their decision they made clear that the question wasn't about whether keeping a gun away from someone who has a domestic violence restraining order is what they call a laudable goal.

they acknowledge it is, but they say they're working under a new standard. that's a standard that's based on that supreme court decision in june known as the bruen decision. what did that change? chip: so, previously, in federal court cases, courts could weigh the benefits of a law against the constitutional questions around it. so they could look at something and say, this law is designed to prevent gun violence, and it balances that with constitutional protections, and so it can be ruled ok. after bruen last year, the supreme court essentially told lower federal courts that the only thing that they can take into account is history and tradition. basically, what they said is, if a law wasn't around, around the time of the founding, around the colonial period, the early days of the u.s., then it can't exist today. so they basically told the lower courts that they can't consider these other things like public safety. amna: yes, i found this line really striking, chip. in applying the new standard,

they say the law is -- quote -- "an outlier that our ancestors would never have accepted." so they're essentially saying, what, because domestic violence wasn't a crime in the 18th and 19th centuries, then this law is unconstitutional? chip: pretty much, yes. i an, that's what the supreme court told the lower courts to do. they had to look and see whether there were what's called historical analogies back in the earlier history of america to support a law existing now. and in the case of domestic violence, most states didn't start criminalizing domestic violence until the 1900's. and in this specific case, this law, the law that we're talking about, wasn't around until the 1990's. and so this is not an unreasonable or crazy interpretation of bruen, considering that there really isn't a historical precedent going back too far for this type of law. amna: what does this new standard mean for all gun laws, all gun restrictions in america? chip: we really don't know yet. but i imagine that pretty much angun law you can think of is

going to be challenged under bruen. this is the biggest decision since heller in 2008. so pretty much anything is up for play. right now, we're seeing challenges over things like assault weapons bans. we're seeing challenges over and rulings already in cases like whether somebody who uses illegal drugs can possess a gun. there's a split and district courts over that question. there's also some challenges going on right now over whether somebody who's under felony indictment is allowed to possess gun, because -- possess guns, because, under current federal law, if you're under felony indictment, then you're not allowed to possess guns. so there was already some district court rulings that said that that's unconstitutional. so i think we're going to see pretty much any federal gun law, state gun law that you can think of challenged under the bruen framework. and if it didn't exist back in the 1800's and 1700's, then it probably could likely be ruled unconstitutional. amna: what about in this specific case?

what are the next steps here? is this likely to be appealed by the department of justice? chip: yes. so, the department of justice has said that they're going to challenge this. exactly how that's going to work out kind of remains to be seen. this was heard by a panel of judges in the fifth circuit, so it's possible they could try to get the and full fifth circuit to rehear this case, or they could try to directly appeal it to the supreme court. and there are still so many questions over how to apply the bruen tests and, frankly, what judges are supposed to consider history and what they can consider tradition, that this is going to have to end up back at the supreme court. amna: all right, that is chip brownlee, reporter with the trace, a nonprofit news organization that covers gun violence. chip, thank you for joining us. chip: thank you so much for having me. geoff: popular composer burt bacharach, who won six grammys

and three oscars, has died of natural causes. jeffrey brown has a look at the hitmaker known for melodies such as "walk on by," "i say a little prayer," and dozens of others. ♪ jeffrey: burt bacharach was best known for a string of hit songs he composed in the 1960's, mainly for singer dionne warwick, often written with his longtime collaborator hal david. it was a signature romantic sound mixing orchestration with pop hooks, and his music was everywhere. featured in the 1967 james bond film "casino royale," a number one hit in 1968 with herb

alpert, "this guy's in love with you," the score and hit song from the film "butch cassidy and the sundance kid which brought bacharach an oscar, and a broadway success with "promises, promises." bacharach himself became a celebrity, including through his marriage to film and tv star angie dickinson, one of his four marriages. years later, he even played himself in the "austin powers" bond spoof films. the post-1960's and 1970's years found bacharach experiencing a number of ups and downs, but he continued turning out music, while also gaining a new following among a younger generation of rock and pop

musicians, notably including a long songwriting and performing collaboration with elvis costello. a box set of their recordings over three decades is due out next month. in 2012, bacharach and hal david were honored by the library of congress with the gershwin prize for popular song, where legends like stevie wonder performed some of their biggest hits. ♪ ♪ burt bacharach continued to work into his 90's. he died yesterday at his home in los angeles at 94. for the "pbs newshour," i'm jeffrey brown.

♪ geoff: remember, there's a lot more online at pbs.org/newshour, including a story about what the hibernation process is like for some animals during the winter. amna: and join us again here tomorrow night, where we will have a look at the efforts to crack down on sex trafficking ahead of the super bowl. and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. for joining us -- thanks for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provid by. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans designed to help people do more of what ey like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >>t was like an a-ha moment.

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carrie has asked me to drive herself and nathalie dupree to atlanta. road trip. nathalie dupree is like the queen. how do you know when you're overworking the dough? this is not your sweetheart. [laughing] one of the worst things about traveling with carrie. i have found this little kitchen inside a gas station. this biscuit is divine. i love food that has a story to it. molasses, sugar, love. i'm in love all over again. thank you. you are a bad ass. i took my mom's best recipe and started selling handmade southern biscuits. now i'm balancing a family, a business and biscuits every day.