amna: good evening and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: on the newshour tonight, earthquake victims in the rebel held areas of syria are held without rescue operations a week after the disaster first struck. >> the international community is saying for political reasons, we cannot send aid to u. is this reasonable? is this a world that can be lived in? amna: u.s. officials shed light on the unprecedented decision to shoot down four objects over north american airspace within eight days. geoff: thousands protest against the israeli government's plan to weaken the nations judiciary -- nation's judiciary.

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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. questions are swirling tonight about unexplained objects floating over the u.s. and canada and being shot down by u.s. fighter jets. we'll hear more about that, shortly. amna: fir, we turn to the earthquake disaster in turkiye and syria. the official death count has topped 37,000. but against all odds, a few people are being found alive in the wreckage. jane ferguson reports from turkiye. reporter: more than a week after the deadly quake, there are still near-miraculous reports of new survivors rescue. in hatay province, a 12-year-old

boy pulled out alive from under the rubble. and two brothers, aged 8 and 15, also rescued, after 181 hours. >> the rescued brothers are my brother's children. we buried our dead relatives today, but we have left all the pains behind after the rescue. reporter: but moments of hope are fading fast. the overwhelming story is one of massive loss, as rescuers in some areas start to call off their searches. experts say a week is reaching the limit of how long a human body can live without water. freezing temperatures make that chance of survival even slimmer. now, the focus is on providing food and homes to more than a million in temporary shelters. in the city of adiyaman, the slow response has frustrated survivors like cengiz karadag. >> this is the eighth day.

from now on, we want psychological and financial help from the state. reporter: today, an independent business group estimated turkiye's financial damage at more than $84 billion. that damage extends out to rural areas. this snow-covered village of polat was almost entirely ruined. the people's only hope is to hold on until spring. >> we sleep in mud, altogether with 2, 3, four families. there aren't enough tents in the village so we stay together. reporter: across the border in syria, u.n. emergency relief coordinator martin griffiths visited regime-controlled aleppo where he said the rescue phase was coming to a close. >> now the humanitarian phase, the urgency of providing shelter, psychosocial care, food, schooling, and a sense of the future for these people, that's our obligation now. reporter: for many syrians, it is a new displacement after more than a decade of war.

abu abed al-khalek and his family managed to escape their home without injury. >> we now live on the streets. we stay up at night in the front yard, and we feel we are falling asleep, we get in and sleep in the car that we covered. reporter: now, all they can do is wait, and hope, that help arrives. for the pbs newshour, i am jane ferguson. amna: now to the ongoing story of unidentified flying objects crossing into american and canadian airspace. four, including a chinese spy balloon, have been shot down over the last week. national security council spokesperson john kirby fielded dozens of questions about the matter today, and specifically what's known about china's balloon program. >> we were able to determine that china has a high altitude balloon program for intelligence collection that is connected to the people's liberation army.

it was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it. we detected it. we tracked it. and have been carefully studying it to learn as much as we can. amna: for more on the detection and decisions to shoot down these objects and where they could be coming from, we turn to retired major general scott clancy. formerly of the canadian air force, his last assignment was director of operations at the north american aerospace defense command or norad. welcome and thanks for joining us. kirby and other officials have said we are seeing more of these objects in part because we are looking more there have been changes at norad in terms of net -- of ratcheting it up. explained to us what is happened, what is different at norad, what are they saying that they were not before? gen. clancy: that is a great question. the general alluded to it in his pentagon free thing after their shootdown of the chinese balloon, the first object. what he said as he had

intelligence gaps that he has since closed, and after the first shootdown of these unidentified objects in alaska, it was made clear that they have changed the filters on radars. what that means is that when you have radar data that is coming in, it can be overwhelming to the operators of that, so they will filter out those things that are not pertinent to the threats you are expecting. for example, in this instance, it was probably, we are not going to look at targets or we don't want any radar information with air speeds below 80 knots. which means because you are looking for aircraft and cruise missiles that go hundreds of miles an hour. he would not be looking at that. they are seeing that data and getting more track. amna: one of the questions is the first balloon, clearly, they identified as a chinese spy balloon. the question around these last three objects and what they

were, and we spoke with a man named paul fecko it's, head of the largest provider of weather balloons to the u.s. government, including to the military. he said on any given day, there are some 300 balloons up in the air over the united states. he thinks these last three objects that were shot down or likely government or privately funded research devices. take a listen to what he said. >> now norad is picking up potentially lighting up like a christmas tree because you're picking up all these funded research programs. you know, the southern great plains research, the department of energy, the north slope project, all the artillery bases, all the all the test ranges that we have here in the united states are launching balloons on a regular basis. all could potentially be picked up because these balloons go up 100,000 feet, every one of them. amna: could he be correct? gen. clancy: sure. he absolutely could be correct. as the general alluded to, and i

think all the agencies in both nations are being very prudent with respect to attribution of what these things are, until they get some idea from the wreckage is of exactly what they are. i will post a little bit of concern here, it could be these things. that is not really ring true to me, however. here is the reason why. in norad, not all of these research elements, but the vast majority of weather balloons that are launched are launching within the flight restrictions of the faa. we are saying, very quickly afterwards, they are going to come back down -- that is not how these balloons are set to operate. that is why they are not a threat to civil aviation. these were persistent. they were persistent through the airsce, and had been tracked in some instances for multiple days. that is more indicative of something that is an intelligence gathering asset, and not just a weather balloon designed to go up into the

atmosphere and come down. amna: in a minute or so that we have left, the question is if they are detecting more flying objects, at some point, there is a determination some of them are enough of a threat to shootdown. you have been inside norad. how is thadecision made? gen. clancy: it is made through a complex web of categorization of the systems. the first step in that is identifying exactly what that is. which is why norad launched an aircraft to obtain visual identification of them prior to engaging them. think the predominant rationa or category and factor that was involved in these last three was the risk to vil aviation. that is why that decision was made at that time. amna: that is retired major general scott clancy, formerly director of operations at norad, joining us tonight. thank you for your time. gen. clancy: you for having me. -- thank you for having me. ♪

geoff: in the day's other headlines, ukrainian troops fought to hold back intense russian assaults in the eastern part of the country. the ukrainians warned that a new russian offensive is imminent. and in brussels, nato's secretary general said it may have started already. >> the most important message is that we see no sign whatsoever that president putin is preparing for peace or ready to negotiate something which will respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of ukrain what we see is that president putin and russia still want to control ukraine. geoff: as they brace for a russian offensive, ukrainian forces trained today in tanks in southwestern poland. poland's president was there to observe the training which is part of the european union's assistance to ukraine. back in this country, the cdc is warning of a pandemic wave of

sexual violence and trauma ang teenage girls in the u.s. the agency says in 2021, some 30 -- 30% of high school girls reported they seriously considered suicide. that was up 60% from a decade earlier. more than one in 10 said they had been forced to have sex. that was up 27 percent over 2 years. officials in georgia will have to release findings on former president trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. a judge today ordered that parts of a special grand jury report be made public on thursday. prosecutors wanted the *full -- the full report withheld until they decide on criminal charges. president biden today fired the architect of the capitol, the officialho oversees the u.s. capitol complex. brett blanton was accused of mismanagement and ethical violations. he also drew criticism for being absent during the january 6th attack on the capitol. republican house speaker kevin mccarthy had asked for his removal.

on wall street, stocks closed higher over hopes that inflation is easing. major indices were up 1% to one .5%. the dow jones industrial average gained 376 points to close at 34,000 246. the nasdaq rose 173 points. the s&p 500 added a 46. the kansas city chiefs and their fans are basking in the glow of a second super bowl win in four years. the chiefs claimed the trophy sunday, beating the philadelphia eagles 38-35. quarterback patrick mahomes, playing on an injured ankle, won his second super bowl m.v.p. award. still to come, a train derailment leading to the release of toxic chemicals in ohio prompts broader safety concerns. we explore the latest federal effort to help renters. what's behind a sharp rise in maternal mortality. and a digital museum helps return lost family photos and videos to their original owners.

>> 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: let's take a deeper look at the aftermath of the earthquake. in syria, it brutalized a community that has already suffered more than a decade of war. rebel-held provinces in the country's northwest now face a double disaster, the deadly quake and little to no outside help. special correspondent jane ferguson and video journalist jorgen samso traveled over the the weekend to the city of afrin in syria's northwest aleppo province. there they found death and heartache but also stories of survival and resilience. jane: one week since the earth shook lives apart here and no one came to help. in northwest syria, they are not going to come. no international rescue operations, no search dogs, no paramedics.

people in this rebel-held enclave watched their loved ones struggle and die slowly under the rubble in the hellish days since the earthquake. when we reached the town of jindires in aleppo province, they were pleading for their message to reach the outside world. >> don't help us, all the world. here, we are people. we are human. we need life. jane: the local volunteer group the white helmets once nominated for a nobel peace prize for saving thousands from airstrikes, did what they could to pull people from the rubble. but their diggers and rudimentary tools struggled against this new and massive natural disaster. >> when the earthquake struck here, people's only source of help was the white helmets. they have been pulling people out of the rubble due to russian airstrikes and attacks by the side regime for years. -- by the assad regime for

years. but they only have a certain amount of equipment and now almost a week after the earthquake, they themselves have not received any additional help. our visit to north west syria was a rare opportunity to access the area. a place where five million have fled to escape the wrath of syrian dictator bashar al assad. the turkish government tightly controls its border with this area. rebels here, many of them extremist islamist fighters, have an agreement to cooperate with the turkish authorities. but that has not helped get aid in this past week. the contrast to turkiye, where well-equipped rescue teams from all over the world have pulled people from the rubble, is glaring. a man-made border decides between life and death. >> our young children who are under the rubble are iloring people to take them out of the rubble. in the international community is saying for political reasons we cannot send aid to you. is this reasonable?

is this a world that can be lived in? jane: salahuddin hawa taught comparative literature at aleppo university before the war. he and his wife and six children all survived the earthquake, but have been forced to sleep elsewhere in case their home is not safe. the newshour first met him outside aleppo over 10 years ago, as the resistance to assad was at its height. >> but you know when you talk about an earthquake, a violent earthquake, politics is intermingled with the humanitarian crisis. you cannot take politics away from our life. because we are here because of politics. we are here. we have been displaced of our houses, of our cities, because we were political activists. only because we said no to bashar al-assad. jane: the politics of who gets what help has never been more stark. syrian regime areas have received aid trucks from the un,

and rebel held areas are getting some of the usual food and medical supplies. but there has been no additional assistance, and no disaster response units. >> imagine that this earthquake happened anywhere around the world. what would t situation be? can you say that we will not send, for example, aid because that country is a communist or a capitalist or whatever? no. we do not do that. jane: this place has been pounded by syrian government forces and their russian allies for years. many of the buildings were made poorly by the displaced, and weakened by the constant military bombardment, making them all the more vulnerable. and so, people's homes became death traps. entire families, gone. like little mohammed mohammed's.

the seven-year-old now lays in the afrin public hospital, after his home collapsed. ten perished, including his parents and all of his siblings. he spent three days under the rubble next to them before being pulled out alive. jasmine marjan is a distant relative, and now all he has in the world. she shows us pictures of his family. no one survived, she tells me, only mohammed. >> he has had on his leg -- he has had an operation on his leg already. he has a broken hand, but beyond that the lack of wounds is really remarkable after three days under the rubble. jane: children have been orphaned at a cruel rate in syria's war for nearly 12 years. babies like aya now join their ranks. when the white helmets pulled her freezing, bruised body from the wreckage, videos of her were beamed around the world. her mother had given birth in the rubble, dying. we visited her in another hospital. she has recovered, is thriving,

and beautiful. aya has come to embody the endurance of this place the world forgot. the doctor who treated her when she came in, dr hani marrof, is still overwhelmed when he speaks about her. >> how do you explain her survival? >> a short video about her story. jane: those like him have been fighting to keep syrians alive for years, under impossible conditions. >> the man who take it from her under the rubble held her like this. why he don't hold her like this? it is that simple. we will still fight.

reporter: much of that fight now is for survival. more now forced to survive out in the open, sleeping in tents until they can somehow recreate the homes they once built from lives already ruined by war. for the pbs newshour, i am jane ferguson in afrin, syria. ♪ geoff: in eastern ohio, residents have been on edge for over a week following an explosive train derailment and a toc chemical leak. evacuation orders haveeen lifted and thell-clear has been given, but in east palest-een, a small community of about 5000 people on the pennsylvania border, that has done little to calm anxieties. it was like something out of a disaster movie. a massive train derailment led to an explosion. causing ominous plumes of smoke to billow over the quiet village

of east palestine. but it is what is in that smoke that has residents still concerned about returning home . the train, operated by norfolk southern, was carrying several toxic chemicals,including the -- used in plastic and paint manufacturing including carcinogen vinyl chloride. residents within a one-mile radius of the derailment were orded to evacuate immediately. resident melissa henry recalled the moment she knew she had to leave with her son. >> it smelled like really, ally strong paint thinner. and then his eyes turned like bloodshot and he started coughing. and i was like, we are leaving. geoff: after a controlled-release of the toxic chemical, local officials consulted the environmental protection agency, and lifted the evacuation order on wednesday. >> we know everybody's frustrated. everyby wants to be in their homes. we did the best we can. the number one goal is public safety. geoff: now residents are reluctantly returning with deep anxiety about the lasting impact of the chemical leak. linda murphy lives roughly three

miles from the site of the train derailment. she is worried about what she is seeing in waterways near her home. >> there were several dead fish floating at multiple locations. that is what we pay then, what we drink, what we cook with. and they could not reassure me that the water was safe to drink. geoff: officials say the the derailment was lely caused by a mechanical issue with a rail car axle. even though there have been no deaths reported, there is deep concern about the long-term effects. we are joined by ohio governor mike dewine. whatcom to the newshour. >> thank you. geoff: your office deemed it safe for residents to return to east palestinian of wednesday of last week. days later, we learned the epa informed the railroad of several other chemicals that were not publicly discussed. how can you assure people that the area is safe when we are still learning more about the severity of this disaster? gov. dewine: we rely on the

experts, what they tell us. we continue to monitor the air , we continue to monitor the water. the epa continues to tell us that it is in fact safe. where we have seen some traces is in the water. which has gone into the ohio river. again, the experts tell us it is such a small, small quantity, that we really should not worry about it. but we are continuing to monitor it. in addition to that, we have gone around to the different, not only the public water sources and tested all of them and we will continue to test them, but we have gone around to people in that area who have private wells and offered to test that, those private wells as well. geoff: a question about that. neither the railroad nor the ohio epa is sure how much of

these chemicals spilled into the soil and into the water. as he mentioned, there are a number of people who rely on private wells for their drinking water, as is the case in many rural areas across this country. how can you assure people their drinking water is safe, not just today, but moving forward? gov. dewine: we are going to continue to test it. we have an obligation to the people to continue to test, and that is what we have done. the soil itself is in the process of being removed. the only way you can really clean it up is obviously a big, massive big spell. the only way you can clean it up and be sure it is gone is to go down and dig it out and remove it. and that's what's happening. geoff: who is shouldering the cost of that remediation? gov. dewine: it's the railroad the railroad caused this problem, and they are the ones who are shouldering the burden of cleaning it up.

geoff: are you confident nor folk southern can be trusted to handle this work and cover the costs moving forward? gov. dewine: we are n taking anyone's word for anything. we are monitoring what they are dog every single day. we have people on the ground. we are following what they are doing. and we are going to hold them accountable. that is our job. geoff: what is your message to folks in east palestine and the affected areas? who really are not sure what to believe, and don't trust the railroad, th don't trust the help coming from the railroad, and they don't really trust the word of elected officials. gov. dewine: we are not asking them to trust the railroad. we are not asking them to trust elected officials. what we are asking them to do is to follow the science. and the experts, the best experts that we can find, are monitoring this, they are going to continue to monitor it, they are going to continue to test the water and monitor the air. and that will continue.

we are asking them to accept what the experts are saying, the best people we can find, about what is safe. i understand people's concern. if i lived there, i would have concern as well. but again, we have been very transparent. i have been over there several times myself. we have held a number of press conferences. we are going to continue to publish what the tests is finding what the test results are. i think by being transparent, they being as open as we can, that's how you engender trust from the public. but we don't take anything for granted. we are when to hold the railroad accountable. geoff: do you have any larger concerns about rail safety, given nor folk southern's track record? gov. dewine: sure. we want to see what the results and the federal government finishes their investigation.

they are the ones who come in and do the analysis of why this occurred. again, yes. we certainly do. you can't go through a situation like we just went throu and are dealing th right now and not be concerned. railroads are carrying, toxic -- carrying toxic material, and they have a catastrophic wreck such as this, yeah, it is very concerning. geoff: ohio governor mike dewine, thanks for your time. we appreciate it. gov. dewine: thank you. ♪ amna: the recently elected far-right government in israel took a clear step today toward passing highly controversial judicial reform. and its actions have created a massive reaction among israelis who stand against it, saying they could fundamentally alter rael's democracy. william brangham reports.

william: the streets of jerusalem were flooded today with the largest demonstrations israel has seen in years. protestors thronged outside the knesset, the israeli parliament, following weeks of mounting frustrations and other demonstrations. the target? prime minister benjamin netanyahu, and a proposed overhaul of israel's judicial system. netanyahand his supporters argue the supreme court is too powerful and needs to be reined in. but critics contend these laws badly weaken the court, tighten the prime minister's grip on power, and could spell the downfall oisraeli democracy. >> these are crucial days for israel's future and israel' identity, whether it's going to be a democracy or a fascist regime. william: inside the knesset, chaos erected as netanyahu's

allies pushed the reform through a committee. opposition lawmakers chanted "shame" at their far-right counter parts. opposition leader ir lapid called for further demonstrations. >> we will not hide in the houses as they try to turn the state of israel into a dark dictatorship and shut us up, they will not shut us up. william: in comments today, netanyahu condemned the outbursts. >> i call on the leaders of the opposition, stop it. stop deliberately dragging the country into anarchy. most citizens of israel don't want anarchy. they want a substantive diogue and in the end, they want unity. william: complicating the issue is that netanyahu is currently facing corruption charges, charges he denies, but legally, he stands to gain from the law's passage. his office would have more control over judicial appointments, and less checks on its executive powers. despite the mass protests, israelis are closely divided over these reforms.

41% are against and roughly 44% support. last night, isaac herzog, israel's president, which is largely a ceremonial role, appealed for dialogue and compromise, but warned of pontially disastrous outcomes. >> we are long past being in a political argument. rather, we are on the brink of constitutional and social collapse. william: the legislation now heads to the full parliament for a series of votes that are likely to stretch on for weeks. geoff: for more on this, we are joined by david makovsky, he is the director of the project on arabs real relations at the washington institute for near east policy and he served as a senior advisor on arab-israel relations at the washington he served as a senior advisor on israeli-palestinian negotiations during the obama administration. great to haveou on the newshour. these are the biggest protests israel has seen in years. critics are arguing if these reforms go through this so

dramatically upends the balance of power in the country, tt it will become almost unrecognizable. is that a fair characterization? david: i think it is more accurate than not. because basically, it would concentrate the power in the hands of the executives. israel always had this independence of the judiciary that was its pride and joy. it was part of its social cohesion, its resilience, all of these years that it had a check on executive power. if you are able to politicize the judges, if you are able to have a majority of the parliament able to override a supreme court decision, when you are going to see over time is the evisceration of that independent judiciary, which has had pride of place in israel for the 75 years of its existence. william: netanyahu and his supporters argue the supreme

court is too liberal, that it has too much power, and that there reforms are what get a closer to a more equitable distribution of power. where do you come down on that? david: i think that is not a fair characterization. there will be times where they will cherry pick certain points of well, in america, the senate judiciary committee has a hearing. but the united states, we have protections israel does not have. we have a constitution. if there is an amendment it requires three quarters of the state. we have two branches of congress, w have term limits. israel does not have any of those things. what you were going to see is those protections that israel not have are going to be weakened further by politicizing who gets on the court's through the selection committee, and how they are able to override court decisions with ease. the critics are worried that the very identity of the state is at stake.

it will still be a democracy in the sense of there will be elections, but democracy is more than elections. william: we can't overlook the fact that netanyahu is under indictment. other members of his coalition have strong disagreements with this court. is it inappropriate to look at these reforms through that lens? david: i think it is very fair to look at it. it is a perfect storm what's going on. basically, you have a situation, as he pointed out, the prime minister is in the middle of a corruption trial on three charges. you have the ultra-orthodox, they are mad of the courts because the courts want to ensure they are not exempt from the draft. there is a three year military conscription. also come of the settler constituency is upset at the courts because they feel they are a constraint, a break, on settlements in terms of palestinian land usage and the like. every element of the netanyahu coalition has its own individual

grievance, and now it is coming to a crescendo where all of these individual grievances are becoming a collective grievance, and that is causing them to want netanyahu to stand tough against the 100,000 demonstrators who are coming against it every week. it is not just 100,000. point is that the polls do show a majority of the israelis want consensus. now you have the israeli president, he has come out with his own principles that he feels could forge the very nsensus that has not been chosen. i think there is a sense in israel that there is a fraying of the social fabric, that the very social cohesion that has been at the core of israel and allowed it to fight against its enemies when it felt threatened for the 75 years, that is fraying. that is something the united states cares deeply about, because these are two countries that have been joined by common interest, and also common

values. if those common values are in peril, that is something the u.s. cares about. william:avid makovsky, of the washington institute, great to see you. thank you. david: great to be with you. thank you. ♪ geoff: with the goal of addressing the nation's soaring rent prices, the biden administration has announced new a effort to protect tenants and make renting more affordable. laura barron-lopez has more. laura: the pandemic left jessica russell eight months behind on rent. laid off, and out of options. >> the fact that we were possibly getting evicted, you know, it became more and more of a reality and not a possibility. laura: jessica, an art teacher, and her partner, nikki, a tattoo artist and marine corps veteran met here in baltimore, maryland and bonded as creatives. but in march 2021 they were both out of work and struggling to make monthly payments or come up with cash for costly security

deposits. >> it was probably one of the hardest things that i would say that i've gone through. you have a family to provide for, you want to support and, you know, uphold not only your spouse, but we have animals. so all of those types of things are running through your head of like, oh, my god, what am i going to do? laura: facing eviction, they applied for and received federal rental assistance through the nonprofit united way of central maryland. eight months of back pay plus funds for three months rent got them back on their feet. do you ever think at all about where you would be if that assistance di't come through? >> absolutely. i know for sure that we would be facing hardship. if we didn't get that assistance and kind of get that boost running, we probably would be facing homelessness. laura: but even though she has work again and housing, jessica says roughly half of her income goes towards rent. she's not alone. more than 40% of tenants in america meet the federal definition of rent burdened.

meaning they spend at least 30% of their income on rent. the measures she received from coronavirus aid package is all but spent by the state of maryland. that, plus persistent inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain issues in the construction industry have meant evictions are creeping back to pre-pandemic levels. jessica worries for herself and others. do you think that your local elected officials or national elected officials are doing enough to help renters like yourself? >> absolutely not. laura: the white house recently outlined regulations and a bill of rights to make housing more affordable and to empower renters like jessica. but the immediate impact is questionable. pres. biden: housing is a right in america. laura: president biden vowed to tackle the housing crisis within days of taking office. and after a year of meetings with industry and tenant advocates, announced a slate of actions. agencies will begin collecting data on unfair rental practices like tenant background checks and egregious rent increases.

the justice department will review competition in the housing market. and the federal housing finance agency will explore ways to protect renters with leases at federally mortgaged properties. >> it's the first time in decades, i think probably the first time since the great depression, that the federal government is acknowledging that there could be an important federal role in preventing rent gouging. laura: diane yentel is the president of the national low income housing coalition. she says the administration took a first step, but more is needed. >> they're not actually implementing these new protections now. they're not even committing to ensuring that they will. they're only committing to a process to consider such protections. laura: the president's proposal includes a renters bill of rights, that issues guidelines for safe, affordable housing, with fair leases and anti-discrimination standards. buit's not enforceable. tenant advocates hoped for more

full-throated protections against price gouging and other bad practices. >> one of the really unfortunate omissions from the announcement is any administrative action to hold corporate landlords accountable for egregious, predatory and sometimes unlawful behavior during and since the pandemic. >> in 99.9% of the cases in america, there are good relations between landlords and tenants. laura: jerry howard says most landlords are working in good faith to keep their nants housed. he is the ceo of the national association of homebuilders, a trade association that represents landlords, property managers and builders. >> during the pandemic, when renters were at their most vulnerable, it's been the landlords of america that with their own money, with their own money, were paying the electric bills, the heating bills, the air conditioning bills. and were working with tenants to make sure that they were not evicted. laura: he says the biden plan is

misguided, focused too much on renters, and not on the forces squeezing the housing market. >> it's too expensive for builders, whether the for profit builders or non-for-profit builders to build enough low income housing with the amount of regulatio that are that they have to comply with. laura: that housing shortage is significant. at least 1.5 million homes by the most conservative estimates. and the demand for affordable housing far outpaces the supply of it. the white house says they will keep pushing congress. the president's upcoming budget proposal will include funding for veteran's housing for families like jessica's. remembering how close she came to being homeless, jessica said she hopes the administration's latest announcement is the beginning. >> i think there is a stigma around the housing crisis. and i truly, honestly believe that if there was more of a balance when it comes to cost of living, that other people would

have that exact same opportunity to become successful members of society. laura: renting for now, jessica and nikki hope to save enough to buy their own home. a dream many americans have had to postpone due to the high cost of housing. >> this goes up to maybe 50 or degrees. laura: for pbs newshour, i am laura barron-lopez in baltimore, maryland. ♪ amna: a recent study found a disturbing rise in the number of deaths among pregnant women and new mothers during the pandemic. and not just because of complications from pregnancy and childbirth. the report by the journal of the american medical association found that from 2019 to 2020, there were 4,535 deaths among pregnant women and new mothers. that was up from 1,588 deaths pre-pandemic.

native american women faced the greatest risk by far during this period. they were three and a half times more likely to die than white women. to better understand what's driving this increase, i recently spoke with jessica whitehawk, the founder of the ttawaxt birth justice center on the yakama nation reservation in washington state. welcome to the newshour. thank you for joining us. let's begin with knowing what you know about maternal careor native women going into the pandemic. did you expect to see these kinds of increases? jessica: yes. when we went into the pandemic, our team knew there was going to be a lot of issues that were going to be regaled and intensified. but we did not quite understand until it started -- until we started seeing now what it was going to be. but we did anticipated. amna: tell me why a pair why did you anticipate that increase going in? jessica: for many years, and

historically, we have had high infant and maternal -- maternity mortality rates. we know in general that the populations that are already struggling were going to struggle even more in the pandemic. that was a fear we had when the pandemic began. amna: tell us about those struggles. what does prenatal and postnatal care look like for most of the women you serve? jessica: for most of the women we serve, they are experiencing health care through federally qualified health care systems, which have very limited office visit time, and the care that is provided is subpar. during a prenatal visit, they often only had three to seven minutes per visit which is not enough time to be able to ask questions and understand at is going on with your by, or even for a doctor to understand what complications or what additional things are needed beyond prenatal care. amna: i found it interesting in

the report, they found pregnant and recently pregnant black women also faced an increased risk. their odds of death were doubled those of white women. when you look back to the pandemic, it really laid bare a lot of the structural racism that exists in our health care system. did you see that among the population of native women you serve as well? jessica: absolutely. there was structural racism there before. as the pandemic began, it really opened those cracks in a way that revealed numbers that cannot be ignored. amna: we know pregnancy is a time of enormous stress on the body, but there were all of these other causes of death not linked to pregnancy or complications from that itself. native women five times as likely to die in car accidents during or after their pregnancy, three times as likely to die of drug overdoses or homicide, four times as likely to die by suicide. your role trying to support these women, where do you begin, how do you address all of this? jessica: a lot of reasons why

this is happening is very historical. violence against native american women has taken place since the inception of america. this has not changed over time. we still have high missing and murdered indigenous people rates, we are still in a battle with this type of violence. what our organization does, and what we believe are the values, is that when you rebuild community and support for each other and start getting access to high-quality care, support through other women, support through culture, support through language and rebuilding our nationhood, that that is the way that we want to address all of these members and the things that we are seeing. amna: as you know, maternal health is a mix of social factors, economic factors, but it is widely seen as a key indicator in overall social well-being. when you look at these latest numbers, what does that say to you about that? jessica: it's scary.

i feel that it is absolutely our life givers that are the people that determine the foundation for our future. as we continue to build the systems that a grounded in community, and continue to support through culture and healing, that these numbers will improve. but this is going to take a long time to fix. it has taken a long time to get here, and it is going to take a long time to fix. amna: that is jessica white hawk of the ttawaxt birth justice center in jessica state -- washington state. thank you for your time. jessica: thank you. ♪ geoff: we are going to take a look at a digital museum dedicated to the idea of lost memories. that is the result of one man's extraordinary efforts to return neglected or misplaced family mementos to their owners.

special correspondent christopher booker reports from new york for our arts and culture series, canvas. ♪ christopher: they can show everything from life's big moments to snapshots of the everyday. but these videos all sha the same purpose, to find out just who these memories might belong to. it is a task undertaken by a man who has been dubbed the sherlock of tiktok. >> any photograph is my preferred priority. but i am looking for anything that is technically a loss memory. christopher: for 27-year-old david, his search begins at a thrift store. it >> >> could be a home movie, vhs tape, a diary, letters, photo albums. even memory cards that are stuck inside of cameras. christopher: during the early days of the pandemic, he was looking for a project when he stumbled upon a bucket full of photos. >> immediately i thought, if my family photographs were in there, i would want someone to

flip over the back, rd my family name on it, and try to find me online. i thought i might as well start doing that further people. >> i found this strip of film at the thrift store in new york. christopher: he turned to social media and created what is the popular museum of lost memories, a tiktok and instagram account of the same name with more than one million followers combined. >> this is just some of the stuff i've collected over the last two years. christopher: david, a social media manager for a health care company by day, brings his pines home to digitize and post to his accounts, hoping the social media platforms will help deliver old videos, letters, pictures, and anything else he fis to their original owners. is there any commonality in the way of which these items have ended up in the places you have found them? >> think most of the things i find come from either a move, or after a family member passes away. a lot of the items get misplaced, boxed up, cleared

out, and people don't know what they are getting rid of. ♪ christopher: so far, only 10% of the materials has made its way back home. whether a return happens or not, he believes the effort is worth it. >> i just love it. i think it's important. i think it is extremely important. i think people deserve to have their memories back, and i think everyday life is important to be preserved. christopher: just a month and a half after starting the museum, he was able to make his first connection with this tape. >> i found this at a thrift store on long island. the only clues we had was that it said africa. right away, i realized it was a vacation from africa. they likely were not from there. there was a shirt, he was wearing a shirt that said wesley university. >> that shirt was the key that helped identify jonah marcus. >> at first, being contacted, i did not think it was real. . i thought it was spam. >> how are you doing? christopher: in 1989, marcus was

23 years old when he and his parents went on a safari to tanzania. 's mom brought a camcorder and captured this footage that would be found by david more than 30 years later. >> i'm talking to you. >> we didn't really lose track of it, like we lost it. it just gets buried in the stuff. and then my father died around seven years ago. when my mom moved house, it was a little cassette tape. it just kind of got lost. christopher: lost, until david's post went viral and a team of volunteers started chipping in to try to find out who this family was. >> this woman sent me a link, and i look at it in disbelief like, sure enough, my mom and dad and i are trending on tiktok. which i didn't even know what that meant at the time. it turns out that the video garnered so many comments that tiktok ares decided to do some internet sleuthing, and found

me. christopher: marcus, who is now 56 and lives in maryland, ended up posting another video on tiktok, re-creating parts of the original footage of -- with his wife and children. he says these videos which have been viewed more than 10 million times, struck a chord with people during the pandemic. >> i think it presented opportunities for people to finally feel themselves, let go, not be scared. there have been a lot of tiktok posts that included videos of people crying when they see it. part of it is very simple family on a safari. and i think the ending with my father, and showing that he had passed, that just, as an ending, that really hit a lot of people. christopher: since then, david has made several more connections, including with the friedman's, a jewish family who were in vienna in world war ii and lots these photos taken in

1943. he was able to track down their relatives, and later discovered they had likely fled to new york. >> we were able to get in contact with that family and return those memories to them, which they had never seen before. it was the perfect story from start to finish of having just one or two clues, and then having so many people participate in trying to find that family, and being able to find them in the end. christopher: with the viral success of his posts, people from all over the world have begun sending him materials and hopes the museum can help find the original owners. >>eople find things, in jordan, india south america, all over the world. people have sent things in that they have found in their local thrift stores. christopher: watched as he oped one package from the u.k. >> looks like a group of minors. christopher: it contains a picture and a letter written in cursive, addressed to jim, ruth, and the boys. it begins with, birthdays keep

coming along, and it is nice to think we will be remembered. >> if i could leave anybody with any message, it is to preserve your own family history. scan your photographs, write down names on the back ofhem. if youre young and your grandparents are still around, sit with them and ask them who is and what photograph, interview them, get their story down on video, convert to vhs tapes, digitize your film reels. . all of this stuff is going away. the sooner you have it preserved, the better. christopher: he believes it is an effort that will pay off for generations to come. to the pbs newshour, i'm christopher booker in new york. amna: i love that so much. rescuing memories. what a good mission. that is the newshour for tonight. join us again tomorrow when we will look at how families are trying to hold social media companies legally accountable for the growing mental health crisis among teenagers. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: i'm geoff bennett. thanks for being with us. >> major funding for the pbs

newshour has been provided by -- >> actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. yes, i'm legally blind, and yes, i'm responsible for the user interface. data visualization. if i can see it and understand it quickly, anyone can. it is exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that is the most rewarding thing. >> people who know, know bdo. >> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committing 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. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪ >> you're watching pbs.

hello, everyo, and welcome to amanpour and company from the white house. here's what's coming u >>ranslator: i'm very confidant that we will follow ahd in the process of rebuilding brazil, and while we rebuild our od alliance with the u.s. >> after his dramatic return to power, brazil's president joins me for an exclusive intervw. he'll discuss democracy with president biden. plus, russia's new missile attacks on ukraine underscore president zelenskyy's plea for western fighter jets. will washington do it? i asked john kirby of the national