amna: good evening, and welcome. geoff: on the newshour tonight, earthquake victims in the rebel held part of syria are left without international aid or rescue operations a week after the disaster first suck. >> 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? amna: u.s. officials shed more light on the unprecedented decision to shoot down four objects over north american airspace within eight days. geoff: and thousands protest against the israeli government's plan to weaken the nation's judiciary.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these inviduals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, the william and flora hewlett foundation, for more than 50 years, and bensing ideas and promoting institutions to promote a better world, at hewlett.org. ♪

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: first, though, we turn again to the earthquake disast in turkiye and syria. the official death count has now topped 37,000. but against all odds, a few people are still being found alive in the wreckage. jane ferguson reports tonight from turkey. jane: more than a week after the deadly quake, there are still near miraculous reports of new survivors rescued.

in one province, a 12-year-old boy pulled out a from under the rubble. and two brothers age eight and 15 also rescued after 181 hours. >> the rescue brothers are my brother's children. we bury our dead relatives today, but we have left all the pain behind after the rescue. >> 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 the chance of survival even slimmer. now, the focus is on providing food and homes to more than a million in temporary shelters. in this city, the slow response has frustrated survivors. >> this is the eighth day.

from now on, we want psychological and financial help from the state. jane: today an independent business group estimated turkey's financial damage at more than $84 billion. that damage extends out to rural areas. the snow-covered village was almost entirely ruined. the people's only hope is to hold on until spring. >> we sleep in mud. >> all together with 2, 3, four families. there aren't enough tents in the village, so we stay together. >> martin griffiths visited aleppo where he said the rescue phase was coming to a cle. >> now the humanitarian phase, the urge of planning shelter, school, the since of future for these people, that's our focus now. >> after more than a decade of

war. he 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 when -- we get in the car and sleep uncovered. jane: now all they can do is wait and hope that help arrives. for the pbs newshour, i'm 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. john kirby fielded dozens of questions about the matter today and specifically what is known about china's balloon program. >> we were able to determine that china has a high altitude balloon program for intelligence collection that is connect to the people's liberation army. it was operating during the

previous administration but they , did not detect it. we did. we tracked it and we 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. general clancy, welcome, and thanks for joining us. john kirby and other officials have said we are seeing more of these objects, in part because we are looking more, right? there have been some changes at norad in terms of ratcheting up the defense detection there. explain to us what's happen, what's different at norad, what are they seeing now that they were not before? >> is a great question. the general referred to it in his pentagon briefing right after the shoot down of the shootdown of the first object.

what he said was he had intelligence gaps that he has since closed. after the first shootdown of these unidentified objects in alaska, it was made clear they have change the filters on the radar screens. what that means is that you have radar data that is coming in, it can be overwhelming to the operator so they will filter out the things that -- for example in this instance, it was probably, we are not going to look at targets, we don't want any radar information, with air speeds below, let's say, 80 knots. which means that when you're looking for aircraft and cruise missiles at go hundreds of miles an hour, then you wouldn't be looking at that. now they are seeing that data and getting more traffic. >> one of the questions is that the first flying object, clearly they've identified as a chinese spy balloon. the questions are around the last three object and what they were.

we spoke earlier with the head of the largest provider of weather balloons to the u.s. government, including to the military. he set 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 were likely government or privately funded research devices. take -- take a listen to what he said. >> now norad is picking up intentionally lighting up on the christmas tree because they are picking up all these funded research programs, the southern great plains research, the department of energy, all the artillery basis, all the test ranges that we had here in the united states are launching balloons on a regular basis. all could potentially be picked up because these blondes got -- balloons go up to 100,000 feet, every one of them. >> general clancy, could he be correct? >> absolutely he could be correct.

i think all the agencies in both nations are being very prudent with respect to what these things are until they get some idea from e wreckage of exactly what they are. a little bit of concern here, it could mean these things, that doesn't really ring true to me, however, and here's the reason why. in norad, the vast majority of weather balloons that are launched are launching within the flight restrictions of the faa. we are saying that very quickly afterwards they are going to come back down to, that is not how these balloons are set to operate and that's not why they are a threat to civil mediation. these were persistent through the airspace and in some instances are tracked for multiple days. that is more indicative of something that is an intelligence gathering asset and not just a weather balloon

that's designed to go up into the atmosphere and then come down. amna: i guess the question is if they are detecting many more flying objects, at some point there is a determination that some of them are enough of a threat to shoot down. you have been inside norad, how is that decision made? >> it's made through a complex web of categorization of those systems. and the first step in that is identifying exactly at that is, and which is why norad launch aircraft to obtain visual identification of them prior to engaging them. i think the predominant rationale or category or factor that was involved in these last three was the risk to civil aviation. and that's 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. >> thank you very much for having me.

♪ stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west, here are the latest 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 ukraine. what we see is that president putin and russia still want to control ukraine. >> is that bray straw a russian offensive, you training forces -- ukrainian forces trained in southwest poland. it is part of the european

union's assistance to ukraine. we have some breaking news to report tonight, michigan state university police are reporting that shots were fired on campus this evening. the lansing state journal is reporting there are multiple victims. the cdc is warning of a pandemic wave of sexual violence against and trauma among teenage girls in the u.s.. the agency says in 2021, 30% of high school girls reported they seriously considered suicide. that's up 11 points from a decade earlier. more than one in 7 said they'd been forced to have sex. that was up 27% 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 report withheld until they decide on criminal charg. president biden today fired the

architect of the capitol -- the official who 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. sunday's super bowl was the third most watched television show in history with an estimated 113-million viewers. the kansas city chiefs claimed the trophy, beating the philadelphia eagles, for their second super bowl win in 4 years. quarterback patrick mahomes -- playing on an injured ankle -- again won the league's mvp award. still to come, a train derailment leadingo the release of toxic chemicals in ohio prompts water safety concerns. we explore the latest federal effort to help renters. what's behind a sharp rise in maternal mortality? 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. stephanie: let's take a deeper look at the aftermath of the earthquake, rebel held provinces in syria on northwest now face a double disaster. the deadly quake and little to no outside help. special correspondent jane ferguson and a video journalist traveled of the weekend to a city in the northwest aleppo province. there they found death and heartache, but also stories of survival and resilience. >> one week since the earth shook lives apart here. and no one came to help. in northwest syria, they're 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 air strikes, did what they could to pull ople 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 assad regime for years. but they only have a certain amount of equipment and now almost a week after the earthquake, theyhemselves have not received any additional help. jane: our visit to northwest 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 hasn't 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 imploring people to take them out of the rubble. and 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 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 the situation be? can you say for example that we cannot send aid because that country is a communist or a capitalist, of 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, peoples' 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 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 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 twelve years. babies like aya now join their ranks. when the white helmets pled 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 in afrin town. she has recovered, is thriving, and beautiful. she has come to embody syria's pain and survival. the impossible 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 he how do you explain her survival? >> it's a miracle. her story is a short video of our story. we have twelve years of fighting, like her. jane: those like him have been fighting to keep syrians alive for years, under impossible conditions.

>> the man who took her from under the rubble, here is his wife. why? why he don't hold it like this? because it's a symbol. >> 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'm jane ferguson in afrin, syria. ♪ geoff: in eastern ohio, residents have been on edge for more than a week following an explosive train derailment and a toxic chemical leak. evacuation orders have been lifted and the all-clear has been given. but in the east palestinian, a small community of about 5000 people on the pennsylvania border, that's 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 palestinian. -- east palestine. but it's what's in that smoke that has residents still concerned about returning home, the train, operated by norfolk southern, was carrying several toxic chemicals, including the carcinogenic vinyl chloride. residents within a one-mile radius of the derailment were ordered to evacuate immediately. resident melissa henry recalled the moment she knew she had to leave with her son. >> it smelled like really, really strong paint thinner. and then his eyes turned like bloodshot and he started coughing. and i was like, 'we're leaving'' geoff: after a controlled-release of the toxic chemical, local officials protection agency, and lifted the evacuation order on wednesday. >> we know everybody's frustrated. everybody wants to be in their homes. we did the best we can. the number one goal was 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's worried about what she's seeing in waterways near her home. >> there were several dead fish floating locations. that's what we bathe in, that's what we drink, that's what we cook with and they could not , reassure me the water was safe to drink. geoff: officials say the the derailment was likely caused by a mechanical issue with a rail car axle. even though there have been no deaths reported, there's deep concern about the long-term effects. and we are joined now by ohio governor mike dewine. welcome to the newshour. your office deemed safe wednesday of last week. days later we learned that 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? >> you know, we rely on the experts, what they tell us. we continue to monitor the air and we continue to monitor the water. epa continues to tell us that it is in fact safe. where we've seen some traces is in the water, which has gone into the ohio river. again, the experts tell us that is such a small, small quantity that we really should not worry about it. but we're continuing to monitor it. in addition to that, you know, we have gone around to the different not only the public water sources and tested all of them and we'll continue to test them. but we've gone around to people in that area who have private wells and offered to test that, that those private wells as well. geoff: a question about that,

because neither the railroad nor the ohio epa is sure how much of these chemicals spilled into the soil and into the water. as you mentioned, there's a number of people who rely on private wells for drinking water as is the case in many rural areas around the country. how can you assure them that their drinking water is safe, not just -- not just today, but moving forward? >> we will continue to test it. we have an obligation to people who continue to test and that's what, that's 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 spill. the only way you really can cln it up and to be sure it's 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 mediation right now? >> it's the railroad.

the railroad caused this problem and they're they're the ones who are shouldering the burden of cleaning it up. geoff: are you confident that norfolk southern can btrusted to handle this this work and cover the costs moving forward? >> look we're not taking , anyone's word for anything. we are monitoring what they're doing every single day. we have people on the ground and we will hold them accountable. that is our job. geoff: what is your message to folks in east palestine who aren't sure what to believe, and they don't trust the help that is coming from the railroad, and they don't really trust the word of elected officials? >> we are not asking them to trust the railroad or their elected officials. we are asking them to follow the science, and the best experts that we can find. they are monitoring this and

continue to monitor it continue , to test the water and monitor the air and that will that will continue. so we're asking them to, i guess accept what what the experts are saying the best people that we , can find about what is safe. i understand people's concern. if i lived there, i would have concerns as well. but again, we've been very transparent. i've been over there several times myself. we've held a number of press conferences. we are going to continue to publish. what the test is finding time -- what the test results are, and i think by being transparent, being as open as we can, that's how you engender trust from the public. but we don't take anything for granted. we're going to hold the railroad accountable. geoff: do you have any larger concerns about rail safety,

given norfolk southern's track record? >> well, sure. i mean, we want to see what the results from the federal government finishes their investigation. they're the ones who come in and do the analysis of why this occurred. and so again, yes, you certainly do. you can go through a situation i could just went through and are dealing with right now and not be concerned. railroads are carrying very toxic material. and they have a catastrophic wreck, such as this. yeah, sure. it's very concerning. geoff: ohio governor mike dewine, thanks for your time. we appreciate it. ♪ 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 israel'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. netanyahu and 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 of israeli democracy. >> these are crucial days for israel's future and israel's identity, whether it's going to be a democracy or a fascist

regime. william: inside the knesset, chaos erupted as netanyahu's allies pushed the reform through a committee. opposition lawmakers chanted shame at their far-right counter parts. opposition leader yair 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 anahy. they want a substantive dialogue and in the end they want unity. william: complicating the issue is that netanyahu is currently facing corruption charges , charges 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 , coromise, but warned of potentially 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. for moren all of this, we are joined now by david makovsky. he's the director of the project on arab-israel relations at the washington institute for near east policy. and previously he served as a senior adviser on israeli-palestinian negotiations during t obama administration. david, great to have you back on the newshour. as i mentioned, these are the ggest protests that israel has

seen in years. and critics are arguing, look, if these reforms go through this so dramatically, upends the balance of power in the country that it will become almost unrecognizable. is that a fair characterization? david: i think it's more accurate than not because basically it would concentrate the power in the hands of the exutive but israel always had this independence of the judiciary. that was its pride and joy. it was part of its social cohesion, its resilience all these years that it had a check on executive power. but if you're ablto politicize the judges, if you're able to have a bare majority of the parliament able to orride a supreme court decision, what you're 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: i mean, netanyahu and his supporters argue that the supreme court is too liberal, that it has too much power, and that their reforms are what get it closer to a more equitable distribution of power. where do you come down on that? david: i think that's not fair characrization. you know, there will be times they will cherry pick certain points of, well, all in america. the senate judiciary committee has a hearing. but the united states, we have protections that israel doesn't have. we have a constitution. if there's an amendment, it requires three quarters of the states. we have, you know, two branches of congress. we have term limits. israel doesn't have any of those things. what you're going to see is that those protections that israel is not have are now going to be weak and further, politicizing who gets on the court's through the selection committee and how they're able to override court

decisions with ease. so 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 docracy -- william: others have strong disagreements with this court. is it inappropriate to look at these reforms through that lens? david i think it's very fair to : look at it. it's a perfect storm, what's going on. basically, you have a situation, as you pointed out, the prime minister is in the middle of a corruption trial on three charges. you've got the ultra-orthodox. they are mad at the courts because the courts want to always ensure that they are not exempt from the draft. there's a three year military conscription and the court says equality under the law. so they do not like the courts

because of that, that they do not give them the free pass that they want. so wt you've got is all these parties and there's another party whose leader has now been disqualified to serve as a cabinet minister because he had been convicted on corruption charges itself. so every element of the netanyahu coalition has its own individual grievance. and now it's kind of coming to a crescendo where all these individual grievances are becoming a collective grievance, and that is causing them to want netanyahu to stand against the 100,000 demonstrators who are coming against it every week. but it's not just 100,000. the point is that the polls do show that a majority of the israelis want consensus. and now you have the very consensus that is not been chosen. i think there's a sense in israel that there is a fraying of the social fabric, that the very social cohesion tt has been the core of israel and allowed it to fight against its enemies when it felt threatened for these 75 years, that is fraying. and that is something that the

united states cares deeply about because these are two countries that have been joined by common interests and also common values. and if those common values are now imperiled, that's something the united states cares about. william: david makovsky of the washington institute for near eastolicy, great to see you. thank you. david: great to be with you. ♪ geoff: with the goal of addressing the nation's soaring rent prices, the biden white house has announced aew 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 have gone through. you have a family to provide for, you want to support and, you know, uphold not only your spouse, but, you know, we have animals, you know, and 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. laura do you ever think at all : about where you would be if that assistance didn't come through? >> absolutely. i know for sure that we would be facing hardship, you know, if we didn't get that assistance and kind of get that boost running that, you know, we probably would be facing homelessness. laura but even though she has : work again and housing -- jessica says roughly half her

income goes toward rent. she's not alone. more than 40% of tenants in america meet the federal definitionf rent burdened, meaning they spend at least 30% of their income on rent. the assistance jessica received from congress -- part of some $46 billion over multiple coronavirus aid packages -- 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 regulions and a bill of rights to make housing more affordable and to empower renters like jessica. but the immediate impact is questionable. >> housing is a right in america. laura: president biden vowed to

tackle the housing crisis within days of taking officeaand 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 hikes. 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 deprsion, 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 issued guidelines for safe, affordable housing, with fair leases and anti-discrimination standards.

but it's not enforceable and 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. : jerry howard says most landlords are working in good faith to keep their tenants housed. he's the ceo of the national association of home builders, a trade association that represents landlords, property managers and builders. jerry: 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 condioning bills. and we're 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. jerry: 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 regulations 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'll keep pushing congress -- the president's upcoming budget proposal will include funding for veterans' 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 for the pbs newshour, i'm 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, and thank you for joining us. let's just begin with knowing what you know about maternal care for native women. going into the pandemic, did you expect to see these kinds of increases? >> yes, when we went into the pandemic, our team knew there was going to be a lot of issues that were going to be revealed and intensified, but we didn't quite understand until it -- until we started seeing it now what it actually was going to

be. but we did anticipate it, yes. amna: tell me why you anticipated that increase going in? >> for many years we have had historically high infant mortality rates. as the pandemic happened, we know that in general, the populations that are already struggling were going to struggle even more. so that was a fear that we had when the pandemic began. amna: tell us about the struggles, what does prenatal and postnatal care look like for most of the women that you serve? >> 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's provided is subpar. during a prenatal visit, they often have 3-7 minutes per visit, which isn't enough time to be able to ask questions and understand what's going on with your body or even for a docto

to understand what complications or additional things are needed beyond prenatal care. >> i found it interesting in the report they found pregnant and recently pregnant lack women also faced an increase risk, their odds of death were double those of white women. when you look back to the pandemic, iteally laid bare a lot of the structural racism that exist within our health care system. did you see that among the population of native women you serve us well? >> absolutely. there were structural rism there before and as th pandemic began it really open those crack's in a way that revealed numbers that cannot be ignored. >> we know pregnancy is a time of enormous stress on the body, but there were all these other causes of death not linked to pregnancy our complications from that itself. native women five times as likely to die in car accidents, three times as likely to die of drug overdoses or homicide, four

times as likely to die by suice. in your role, trying to support these women, where do you even begin? how do you address allhis? >> a lot of the reasons why this is happening is fair 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. 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, language and rebuildi our nationhood, that that's the way that we want to address all of these numbers and the things that we're seeing. amna: jessica, as you know, maternal health is really a mix of social factors, economic factors, a lot of things.

but it's widely sn as a key indicator in overall social well-being. when you look at these latest numbers, what does that say to you about that? >> it's scary. i feel that this is -- it is absolutely our life givers are the people that determine the foundation for our future. as we continue to build these systems that are 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's taken a long time to get here, and it's going to take a lot of work and a long time to fix. amna: that is jessica whitehawk of the ttawaxt birth justice center in washington state. jessica, thank you for your time. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: we are going to take a look now 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 share the same purpose, to find out just to these memories might belong to. it's a task undertaken by men who has been dubbed the sherlock of tiktok. >> any photograph is my first priority but i'm looking for anything that is technically lost memor >> the search often begins in a thrift store. >> it could be home movie, a film reel, a diary, letters, photo albums, and even memory cards that are still stuck inside of cameras. >> during the early days of the

pandemic in 2020, he was looking for a project when he stumbled on a bucket of old photos. >> i would want someone to flip over the back and read my family name on it and then try to find me online. so i thought i might as well start doing thator other people. >> i found the strip of film at a trip store in new york. quick so he turned to social media and created what is now the popular museum of lost memories. it has more than a million followers combined. >> this is just some of the stuff i have collected over the last new year's. >> he brings his fines homeo digitize and post to his accounts, hoping the social media platforms will help deliver the old videos, letters, pictures, and anything else he finds to their original owners. >> is there any commonality in the way these items have ended up in the places where you found them? >> i 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 displaced, boxed up and cleared out and people don't know what they are getting rid of. quick so far, only about 10% of the materials have made their way back home. what whether a return happens or not, he believes the effort is worth it. next i just love it. i think it's extremely important. i think people deserve to have their memories back and i think that everyday life is important to be preserved. >> just a month and half after starting the museum, he was able to make his first connection. >> the only clues we had to go off of her that it said africa, and right away i realized it was a vacation from africa, and work from there. and there was a shirt he was wearing. >> that shirt was the key that ultimately helped identify him.

except first, being contacted, i didn't think it was real, i thought it was spam. >> in 1989, marcus was 23 years old when he and his parents went on a safari in kenya and tanzania. his mom brought a sony dvd mini camcorder and captured this footage that would be found 30 years later. >> we didn't really lose track of it like we lost it, it just gets buried in the stuff, and my father died around seven years ago, and when my mom moved house, it was a little cassette tape so it just kind of got lost in there. >> lost until the post went viral and a team of volunteer started chipping in to try to find out who this family was. >> this woman eventually sent me a link, and i looked at it in disbelief, like sure enough, my mom and dad are trending on tiktok, and i didn't even know

what that meant at the time. it turned out that the video garnered so many comments that are tiktok are decided to do some internet sluicing and found me. >> marcus, who is now 56 and lives in bethesda, maryland, ended up posting another video on tiktok re-creating part of the original footage with his wife and children. he said these two videos that 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 just feel just themselves, let go, not be scared. there have been a lot of tiktok posts that include videos of people crying when they see it. in part of it it's a very simple , kind of family on a safari. and i think the ending with my father and then showing that he had passed, as an ending, that just really hit a lot of people. christopher since then, : gutenmacher has made several more connections, including with

the friedmans, a jewish family who were in vienna in world war ii and lost these photos taken in 1943. with the help from his followers online, he wasble to track down their relatives and later discovered they had likely fled to new york. and we were able to get in contact with that family and >> return those memories to them, which they had never seen before. and it was just like 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 then 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, in hopes the museum can help find the original owners. >> i mean, people find things in jordan, india, south america. all over the world, people have sent in things that they find at their local thrift stores or even on the ground in the street. christopher we watched the open : one package from the united kingdom. >> oh, wow, look at this one. looks like a group of miners.

christopher: it contains both a picture and a letter written in cursive addressed to "jim, ruth and the boys." it begins with: "birthdays keep coming along. and it's nice to think that we're remembered." >> if i can leave anybody with any message, it's to preserve your own family history. scan your photographs. write down names on the back of them. if you're young and your grandparents are still around, sit with them and ask them who's in what photograph, interview em, get their story down on video, convert vhs tapes, digitize your film reels. all of this stuff is going away. and the sooner you have it preserved, the better. christopher gutenmacher believes : it's effort that will pay off for generations to come. for 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 back here 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: and i'm goeff 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's exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that's 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. ♪ >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur

foundation, committed to building more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at mac found.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. >> this is pbs newshour west, from weta studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -today on "america's test kitchen," erin makes bridget struffoli, jack challenges julia and bridget to a head-to-head tasting of single-origin chocolate, and becky makes julia pistachio-spice biscotti. it's all coming up right here on "america's test kitchen."