>> good evening. amna: michigan state university becomes the site of the latest mass shooting in america after a gunman killed three people and wounded several more. >> former south carolina governor nikki haley announces a bid for the white house, challenging former president donald trump. amna: hand amid a growing mental health crisis, we speak with a teacher whose family is suing social media companies, alleging that the quest for more likes contributed to her eating disorder. >> i knew that i was hurting myself, but i just needed that validation so badly that i was willing to do anything to get it. ♪

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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. amna: good evening and welcome. it's happened again, a burst of gun violence wiping out lives, seemingly at random. monday night's attack at michigan state university left

three students dead. geoff: five other students were critically wounded before the gunman shot himself. that left investigators faced with finding a motive and a campus community in shock and grief. michigan governor gretchen whitmer, an msu alum herself, mourd the loss of life. >> another place supposed to be about community and togetherness shattered by bullets and bloodshed. geoff: today, as students coped with the aftermath of the mass shooting, officials released new details on the gunman. police say 43-year-old anthony mccray was found with a note indicating threats to two schools in new jersey where he had ties. those schools were closed today. officials say the shooter, seen on a surveillance recording holding what appeared to be a pistol, had no affiliation with msu. he'd been charged with a weapons violion in 2019 but did not serve prison time. the gunman's father told the washington post he lied about

having a firearm inside their house and firing the gun in his backyard. a neighbor reportedly describing the shooter as a "real hellraiser." the gunman opened fire last night shortly before 8:30 inside an academic buildingnd then, later, at a student union. officers raced in as students poured out, leaving thousands of students in lockdown for hours. >> my legs are still shaking. geoff: dominik molotsky says he came dangerously close to the gunman. >> the shooter came into our room and shot three to four times. once he shot those rounds, we waited about 30 seconds to a minute and there was silence. so we started breaking open one of the windows. geoff: officials today released the names of the three victims -- junior ariee anderson, an aspiring doctor. alexdria verner, a junior known as a tremendous athlete. and sophomore brian fraser,

whose family described him as a light in the lives. and this morning, sparrow hospital's chief medical officer reported five people still in critical condition. >> we had general surgeons, cardiothoracic surgeons, neurosurgeons -- didn't get a lot of sleep last night, sorry. pres. biden: our hearts are with the students and the families at michigan state university. geoff: president biden -- pres. biden: it's happening far too often in this country. far too often. while we gather more information, there's one thing we do know to be true -- we have to do something to stop gun violence from ripping apart our communities. geoff: the attack came on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the shooting at parkland florida's marjory stoneman douglas high school, where a gunman murdered 14 students and three staff members. since then, mass shootings have continued at a vicious frequency. the gun violence archive reports more than 67 this year across the u.s.

that's more than two every day. we are joined now by a student at michigan state university, eleanor hoss, who had to shelter in place for hours when the gunman opened fire on campus. thank you for being with us. you, last night, were at a rooftop bar, celebrating a friend's birthday, and this bar was across the street from the student union. you witnessed this entire thing. what did you experience? eleanor: i arrived 10 minutes late, so i got there around 8:10. i was saying happy birthday to my friend. we were celebrating. almost immediately we saw cop cars show up, so we could see the capitol from the rooftop we were at. we saw one cop car show up, then three, and it totaled up to nine. we looked to see where they were going, and they were surrounding the union.

we saw cop cars coming the other direction from the east side and west side. and then we just saw ems trucks, fire trucks, everyone getting out of the vehicles and running towards the msu union. within a couple minutes, we saw students running out of every exit with their hands up above their head. students were scrambling to figure out where to go. it was just crazy. geoff: how long were you in the bar? >> about four hours. the bar was also a hotel and they offered us rooms to stay for the night. they gave us a voucher at around 11:30, midnight, but that was also around the same place the stay in place order was lifted. we were sitting in the bar for four hours, i think. geoff: you were hearing false reports that there might have

been multiple shooters. >> i am in a bunch of group chats because i am an ra and everyone was sharing that they saw multiple gunmen and there were reports that shots were fired in every building on campus, essentially. there were some in the east campus, some in the brody campus. peopleere spreading pictures, false reports on erything, so people thought there were two or three gunmen throughout campus. geoff: how are you and your friends holding up? how are you processing all this? eleanor: i was in shock last night. i could not cry. this morning i woke up and cried for 20 minutes. my friends that did stay on campus, we have all been in touch with each other. me and one of my good friends who is an ra, we went on a walk through campus a little bit ago. we went to the spartan statue and the rock and saw all the flowers people had left. it was nice to get out and walk

around. geoff: you mentioned you are a resident assistant to freshman residents. how are they doing? eleanor: most of my residents have left. i have 50 residents and i think 80% to 90% have left campus. my floor is usually loud. i have a bunch of girls that are all friends and it is just dead silent here. geoff: do you feel safe at school? eleanor: i do not. i went home this weekend because i didn't feel safe on campus. there was a lot of other crimes happening near or on campus, so i felt like i needed to leave. geoff: i appreciate your willingness to speak with us. you and everybody at msu are in our thoughts. ♪

vanessa: we turn now to the ongoing tragedy in syria an turkey, where the earthquake death toll topped 40,000 today. it includes some 35,000 in turkey, making it the country's worst disaster in a century. amna nawaz reports at the same time, a few flickers of life are still being found. amna: rescuers shouted "don't be afraid" as a teenager was pulled to safety after nearly 200 hours buried under concrete, one week after the devastating earthquakes in turkey and syria. but these stories of survival are becoming rarer by the minute. rescuers in antakya, turkey, tired and cold, are sleeping in the rubble. as hope wanes, frustration is mounting.

victims blame contractors for skirting building codes, which led to catastrophic consequences. >> [translated] god does not create people so they can die. it's the contractors who kill people. it's the concrete that kills people. amna: hospitals in turkey are still full, but patients' needs are starting to shift. doctors say they're treating infectious diseases, upper respiratory viruses, and mental health. >> now more of the patients are coming with, you know, post-traumatic stress disorder, all the shock that they've gone thugh during the earthquake. patients are having panic attacks. amna: in this hospital across the border in syria's idlib province, doctors are trying to save everyone they can. in one bed sits a 10-year-old boy in shock, rescued after 50 hours in the rubble. a toy truck keeps him company, as doctors treat him for injuries sustained when his home collapsed, killing his mother and six siblings. other patients in the hospital need ongoing dialysis

treatments. but medical supplies are running out. >> [translated] i came here today for dialysis, but there isn't anything to go with the machine. there are no syringes, no tubes, no medications, no solutions. there is nothing, absolutely nothing. amna: much-needed international aid is barely trickling into syria. today, the first u.n. aid convoy crossed into a rebel-held region. but u.n. secretary general antonio guterres says it's not coming fast enough. >> aid must get through from all sides to all sides through all routes without any restrictions. amna: the u.n. estimates that nearly 9 million syrians were affected by the quakes. their lives upended, they're left to hope that aid comes quickly. and, late today, another remarkable rescue. a search team in southern turkey pulled a 77-year-o woman from a collapsed building, after 212 hours of being buried alive.

in other headlines, inflation at the consumer level eased again in january, from a year earlier. the labor department reports consumer prices rose 6.4% from the previous january. that was the slowest pace since year-over-year inflation peaked above 9% last june. but on a month-to-month basis, prices rose half a percent in january, up sharply from the december increase. president biden is naming two new economic policy advisers. today's announcement said federal reserve vice chair lael brainard will become director of the national economic council. the president also named longtime adviser jared bernstein to chair the white house council of economic advisors. u.s. senators got a classified briefing today on the series of unidentified objects being shot down in american airspace. but they emerged with essential questions still unanswered, including where the objects came from and what they were doing. they also voiced mixed feelings

on how much the biden administration should tell the public. >> they can say what they know, what they don't know, and don't reveal sources and methods. that's what the american people want. when you don't provide information and there's a dearth of information, it can lead to wild speculation. it can lead to unfounded fears. sen. schumer: i think the biden administration is being very careful and very thoughtful. a t of this information people say make it public, but a lot of it is classified or on the edge of classified and it's difficult. vanessa: also today, general mark milley, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, confirmed that a u.s. fighter jet missed the first time it fired at an object over lake huron on sunday. a second missile hit the target. former vice president mike pence has reportedly decided to fight a special counsel's subpoena in the january 6 investigation. politico, the associated press,

and others say mr. pence argues he was serving as president of the senate on january 6, 2021, to certify the election results. the reports say he will contend that in that role he is shielded from the subpoena. federal authorities in florida say they have arrested four more people in the killing of haitian president jovenal moise in 2021. they include a financier and the owner of a security firm in miami. a total of 11 suspects are now in u.s. custody, with dozens more in haiti. but the haitian probe has all but halted amid widespread chaos there. in new zealand, a national emergency was in effect today for only the third time ever, after a powerful tropical cyclone barreled through. by early wednesday local time, the storm was southeast of auckland, moving roughly parallel to the coast. its passage triggered widespread flooding and landslides in the

northern part of the country. some 225,000 people lost electricity. the prime minister said the scale of destruction is immense. >> cyclone gabrielle is the most significant weather event new zealand has seen this century. the severity and the brett of the damage that we are seeing has not been experienced in a generation. amna: this ces after an earlier storm battered auckland, killing four people. senator diane feinstein announced she will not seek reelection in 2024 after more than 30 years in office. the california democrat turns 90 in june and is the oldest member of congress. she was the first woman to be mayor of san francisco and first woman elected as a u.s. senator from california. a missouri judge overturned today the conviction of a man who served almost 30 years in

for a murder he said he did not commit. 50-year-old lamar johnson was convicted of the fatal shooting of marcus boyd in 1994. the judge said there was evidence of innocence and two other men have confessed to the crime. republican led state attorney general's office has set -- has said it will not fight today's decision. on wall street, the inflation news left investors uncertain which way to jump. the dow jones industrial average closed at 34,089. the nasdaq rose 68 points. the s&p 500 was virtually unchanged. the white house sent a special valentine to the nation today. three large parts bearing the handprints of military children were set up on the north lawn, joined by cutouts of the first family's dog, commander, and the

cat, willow. still to comon the newshour, nato defense ministers meet to consider supplying ukraine with aircraft as the war grinds on. republican representative nancy mays discusses the spy balloon situation and the future of the party. social media companies face legal scrutiny over teens' deteriorating mental health, and much more. >> >> this is the pbs newshour, from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: former ambassador nikki haley announced her candidacy for president today, making her the first republican to challenge former president donald trump for the 2020 four -- 2024 gop nomination. lisa desjardins explains how she got here. >> it's time for a new generation of leadership. lisa: with a three minute video, former south carolina governor nikki haley launched a

long-speculated bid for the white house. the former u.n. ambassador diplomatically but clearly sought contrast with her former boss and now primary opponent, donald trump. >> republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. that has to change. lisa: the daughter of indian immigrants, haley made history in 2010 as the first woman and first person of color elected governor in the palmetto state. she led it following the massacre at the historic african american mother emanuel church in 2015. a white supremacist killed nine black parishioners. >> you are going to see all of us try to lift these nine families up in prayer. lisa: reversinher position, haley then pushed through the removal of the confederate flag from state capitol grounds. >> the confederate flag is coming off the grounds of the south carolina state house. lisa: now a national name, haley backed a floridian who was not

donald trump in 2016. >> our next president will be marco rubio! lisa: this started a nuanced relationship with trump, whose tone on immigrants she seemed to criticize in her state of the union response that year. >> it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. we must resist that temptation. pres. trump: nikki haley, a very nice woman, she said i'm an angry person, and they said to -- i said, i am, i am very angry because i hate what's happening to our country. lisa: but ultimately haley would support trump and he would hire her as ambassador to the u.n. and unlike others in his orbit, she left white house on her own terms and in good standing. >> it's been the honor of a lifetime. mr. trump: we will be speaking all the time, but we will miss you nevertheless. lisa: in the time since, haley has walked a tightrope of high praise and soft criticism of trump.

after the january 6 attack, she said he would be judged harshly for his role. >> the actions the president had since election day were not his finest. lisa: but later that year, she backed him as the leader and the future of the party. >> i would not run if president trump ran. lisa: but he is running and so is she, highlighting her foreign policy record with notable words >> i don't put up with bullies. and when you kick back, it hurts them more if you are wearing heels. lisa: and wading into the identy issues that trump has stressed, raising the new york mes' 1619 project on slavery, a flashpoint on the right. >> some think our ideas are not just wrong, but racist and evil. nothing could be further from the truth. lisa: haley will hold a campaign kickoff event tomorrow in charleston before heading to iowa and new hampshire. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. geoff: we are going to talk more about what nikki haley brings to the 2024 presidential race. whit ayres is a republican

strategist and the president of northstar opinion research. he has consulted for republican candidates, including senators marco rubio and lisey graham, and florida governor ron desantis. it's great to have you here. it strikes me that the central idea behind a nikki haley candidacy is she can attct a different kind of republican primary voter, expand the republican base, and carve out a lane for herself. is that realistic? can she do that? >> we are going to find out. she has a lot to sell. she is a popular former governor of one of the earliest gop primary states. she showed leadership chops with the dylann roof massacre and taking down of the confederate flag you showed in the intro. she is one of few people who went into the trump administration and emerged with an enhanced reputation and in the process got foreign policy experience. demographically she separates herself from most of the

potential candidates. she is relatively well known among primary voters, about 3/4 nationally have heard of her. desantis level, but it is more than the others. she can make a pretty good case at age 51 that it's time, as john f. kennedy said, for a new generation of leadership. she has a lot to sell. geoff: she took a jab at donald trump without naming him in her announcement, noting he failed to win the popular vote in either of his campaigns. how does nikki haley confront, navigate, or sidestep the trump factor? >> it is a challenge and will be a challenge for every one of the potential candidates as they go forward. one thing is clear, you cannot run for a gop nomination in 2024 by running against donald trump.

the republican party is split into three factions. there is a never trump faction, but that is only about 10% of the party. there is an always trump faction which is a group who will walk through flame for him and follow him anywhere, including an independent candidacy against ron desantis or joe biden. 28% of republicans would vote for him, which would put a democrat in the white house. but the largest portion of the party is a maybe trump faction. those are people who voted for him twice, supported him as president, but are interested in an alternative who looks more like a winner and carries less baggage. that's the group shis going to try to go for. geoff: tell me more about that. you did some polling recently and you found republican voters don't necessarily dislike donald trump but think other people dislike nald trump and think he is not electable and that's why they are looking for someone else. >> that's right, they have heard their friends cannot stand donald trump, are never going to vote for him. that's why they think he might not be electable.

so they are looking for someone who could be in the white house for eight years rather than four, which is what trump would be in for if elected. they are reluctant to admit they don't like trump, but they want somebody who is going to be a different sort of candidate who is less confrontational and has a better chance to win. geoff: what about ron desantis? can he own the mantle of trump-ism for those who want trump policy? >> we are going to find out. in many ways ron desantis is trump without the crazy. that's what the campaign is going to be about, who can get and capture a large portion of those people who liked trump in the past but want a different candidate in the future. geoff: thanks for being here, great to speak with you. >> enjoyed it. thank you. ♪

amna: leaders from a coalition of more than 50 countries that send weapons to ukraine met today in brussels to discuss accelerating their assistance. russian forces have launched fresh offensives in ukraine's east, known as the donbas, and there are concerns about ukraine's ability to withstand russian attacks and launch its own offensive. secretary of defense lloyd austin spoke after that meeting. >> we are going to continue to work with ukraine to address ukraine's most pressing needs. they are contemplating an offensive in the spring, and that is just weeks away, so we have a lot to get done. amna: we turn now to nick schifrin, who is in the donbas, the main target of russia's push. nick and his team are reporting with the support of the pulitzer center. nick, it is good to see you. you heard secretary austen seems to have a lot more urgency in what he is saying. what is driving that right now?

nick: it is what you said, the russian offensives that the u.s. believes are underway a few miles east of here. it is the ukrainian need to launch that counteroffensive that is just weeks away. also, a senior u.s. official tells me new intelligence about helicopters and jets on the ukrainian border. the official tells me it is not like the lights are blinking red, but there are accelerating concerns that already existed about ukraine's air defense. up until now, ukraine has relied on a soviet era air defense known as the s-300 and has denied russia the ability to fly freely over the country. u.s. officials tell me that the parts and munitions will run out , so at some point they will need to create all western air defense. you see some of it there. you have american patriots on the top and systems from germany and france on the bottom.

that requires that coalition of countries sending a lot of munitions very quickly. as for what ukraine wants, this is the defense minister showing off a western jet. and yet u.s. officials say they still do not support the idea of sending f-16s to ukraine. amna: you are in a city not far from much of the heavy fighting. what does the front line look like right now? nick: the main part of the frontline is just a few miles away. the short-term goal, according to u.s. officials is to seize donbass, the province where i am right now, the province russia controlled largely alongside luhansk. the new attacks are in three places. the largest attacks are where we have seen ukrainian forces

facing off against russian private military, many of them conscripts who have been fighting for a city that ukraine says represents resistance to russia, but u.s. officials have said they don't believe it is strategically that iortant. the russians are making progress but at great cost. take a look at what happened in the south. those are more than a dozen russian tanks and armored vehicles blown up inside a minefield. the russians are still making some of the same mistakes they have made over the last year. i think the concern among some u.s. officials is the quantity. russia invaded ukraine with more than 150,000 troops. they now have 300,000 in ukraine or poised to invade, something ukraine has to contend with on a very long frontline. amna: given those numbers, what does that mean for the battle

beyond the frontline? particularly what secretary austen mentioned, a spring offensive by ukraine? nick: ukraine will have to achieve something it has not yet achieved, break through russian lines that have been dug in for many months, with trenches, with vehicle barriers, with something called dragon's teeth like these, which are supposed to stop tanks. some are concerned that ukraine has the ability to do that. republicans criticized the administration for not sending more weapons more quickly. the administration officials i speak to who believe this strategy is going to work say that ukraine does not need to take on russia along this entire frontline, nor does it need to rely on quantity. it is being given more modern tactics, more modern western vehicles, and it can use those to create a localized advantage and try and push through one of the russian lines. whether that is true will determine what is truly for both sides going to be a crucial few months.

amna: nick schifrin reporting tonight from ukraine, good to see you. nick: thank you. amna: for more on what ukraine needs in order to counter russia, we get a rare perspective from an american who has fought in that war. william brangham has that story. william: after doing several tours as an army ranger in iraq and afghanistan, and then several years in eastern europe as a green beret, my next guest thought his military days were over and decided to go to graduate school. but then russia invaded ukraine, and that all changed. former staff sergeant david bramlette left the u.s. last march, went to ukraine, and voluntarily fought against the russians for 10 months. he led a multi-national team of up to 50 other volunteers and former soldiers. david bramlette is back, and back getting his master's degree at johns hopkins school of advanced international studies, and he joins us now. david, thank you so much for being here. can you explain a little bit

more about the decision you made? you seemingly had put your military life behind you. you were in graduate school. but that all changes. why? david: as i was sitting in graduate school, we were talking about ukraine. with my previous green beret experience, i thought i can sit in the class and talk about ukraine or i can go over and do something about it, so i did. it's that simple. william: it was the fact that the russians had illegally invaded another country that stood out to you? david: yeah, to me, this conflict is black-and-white, and after serving in afghanistan and iraq three times, i felt it was time for me to put my skills to use in a conflict that was good versus evil. this is as clear-cut as it gets. i think it is the most righteous conflict that i will see in my lifetime. this is democracy in europe we are talking about.

we need to stand up and fight against tyranny. william: given you are over there volunteering your services to the ukrainians, you have a very unique perspective i ink a lot of us are curious about. why do you think the russians have seemingly done so poorly and ukrainians done so well? david: i will go back to my iraq and afghanistan experience. i saw on the ground what a motivated group of individuals can do to a superpower, essentially. if you look at the ukrainian resolve to resist, the willpower to fight, it all comes down that. i think a lot of academics, a lot of people in government, place too much emphasis on quantitative analysis. the number of tubes, the number of tanks.

they don't place enough emphasis on the quantitative factors of willpower. they are hard to measure. fundamentally, that's why. william: as you know, president zelenskyy was in the eu and u.s. before that, asking for more and better weapons. from your perspective, pushing up against the russians, what do ukrainians need most? david: i may be contraian on this. i think instead of focusing on confined arms, maneuvers, and big battle tanks, i think we need to focus on weapons systems that are going to have immediate effects on the battlefield. william: high-powered surface to surface missiles? david: yeah. and they have not been given yet. william: the u.s. says we don't have enough to give right now. david: yeah, so, in in my opinion with ukraine, i think

what happens in ukraine is going to set the precedent for the next decade. we may not have enough for us right now, but i think it is worth opening up our stocks of what we have to give it to them. if we can push the logistical's back farther, you can increase the survivability of these units, these new brigades of conscriptees, ukrainians when they have to go against the offensive and push up against those russian lines. william: so you think that is the most critical thing, even though we are hearing signals that russians might be amassing more air force along the border, you think those are the more critical tools. david: i would say those are critical. i have no idea what the stocks on things like men pads or stinge, but those are absolutely essential because they allow a decentralized form of air defense, so if the russians decide to try to make a play for air superiority, which in my opinion would be the worst

case scenario for ukraine. if russia can gain air superiority, it's going to be an entirely different battlefield and the ukrainians will have a very hard time putting up a conventional resistance. william: herin d.c., there is seemingly a split over support for ukraine. the president, his party, and some republicans argue we need to be doing everything we can. some republicans argue we are spending too much money supporting ukraine and our interests lie elsewhere. what would you argue to those the people saying enough is enough? david: i would ask them to go to places like kharkiv, donetsk, see those places firsthand and then tell me the same thing. william: what are they going to see? david: there are whole neighborhoods that have been leveled, razed to the ground, not a single roof insight.

this is an epic battle for the heart of democracy, and if we don't take care of this problem now, we are going to have tons of problems downstream internationally. taiwan, other authoritarian regimes. what does it signal to them if we are not able to defend democracy in europe? william: thank you for being here. david: thank you for having me. ♪ geoff: now to our special coverage of teens in crisis. as we reported yesterday, a national survey by the cdc is raising alarm. it shows that nearly 30% of teenage girls said they had considered dying by suicide. and three out of five girls said they felt persistently sad or

hopeless. all this comes at a moment when there's growing concern about the impact of social media. during a senate hearing today, lawmakers called out social media companies for not doing enough to protect teens. and school districts and hundreds of families are now pursuing lawsuits against the tech giants, seeking to hold them accountable for rising rates of teenage depression, suicides, cybebullying, and eatingisorders. special correspondent christopher booker reports from new york as part of our ongoing series, "early warnings: america's youth mental health crisis." christopher: for nuala mullen, it started when she was 10 years old, posting videos like this one to social media. two years later, she joined instagram. the next year, tiktok. >> it's just an addiction. once you know what it feels like to get likes and validation, you just crave it all of the time.

>> ♪ back in the sixth grade, i got the bad grades ♪ christopher: and over the next five years, she gained thousands of followers documenting her teenage life. >> like, i knew that i was hurting myself and what i was doing wasn't beneficial to me, but i just needed that validation so badly that i was willing to do anything to get it. christopher: mullen, who is now 18, says that became especially true at the start of the pandemic. then a star field hockey player at her high school in westchester county, new york, mullen says she started doing popular workout challenges on tiktok and instagram while stuck at home. >> i think that's really how i fell down the rabbit hole, because i was noticing after these two weeks, the changes. and i was getting comments on tik tok being like, oh, you look so good, whatever. and i thought to myself, oh, something must be working, you know. christopher: almost immediately, mullen says her instagram and tiktok feeds were flooded with body image content, from workout challenges to diet tips to testimonials on how to lose and keep off weight. ♪

christopher: before long, she had developed a new routine, one that continued even after she went back to school. >> i'd go to field hockey practice, come home. i would run for an hour. i would do weight training, i would do ab routines, i would do hiit workout videos, you know, basically until i was too weak do anything else. i was training for hours and hours and throughout the day i wasn't eating then. >> i had no idea who she was. it was like another person took over her body. christopher: nuala's mom, elizabeth mullen, says she and her daughter have always been close, but as nuala became obsessed with workinout, she struggled to understand what was fueling this new behavior. >> she would talk about a feeling of not being good enough, being lonely at times, not being seen. i was like, what's happening here? then i started to really take a look into what she was seeing on the phone. christopher: what was it like for you as a parent to first try to understand what was happening and then, by extension, try to

get control over what was happening? >> at its worst, it's like dropping your boat's anchor in the middle of a hurricane at sea . it is just impossible. i'd be like, well, what's this about? why do you have to photograph yourself like that? so what ended up happening is, you know, she's a smart girl. she would just create different accounts. christopher: by the fall of 2021, nuala's life began to spiral. diagnosed with anorexia, she began having chest pains and was hospitalized after her heart rate became dangerously low. >> for me i couldn't get skinny enough, i couldn't receive enough likes. i was still in that mindset that i needed to be skinny in order for these people online to like me. christopher: what about peers and friends? did you have conversations with them later about what had happened? >> not until after my second hospitalization. i found that even, like, during the eating disorder, i didn't want to tell anyone, not even in the sense that i was embarrassed, but it was competitive for me. i thought, oh, if i shared that i had anorexia with one of my friends, they might get a notion

and they might become skinnier than me, and they might get more likes, so i wouldn't tell anyone what was going on. christopher: in december, the mullens filed a lawsuit against both tiktok and meta, the parent facebook, alleging that the and addictive qualities of these platforms are causing and contributing to the burgeoning mental health crisis for teenagers. it's one of hundreds of lawsuits against social media companies that come as the industry faces increasing calls for reform, including from president joe biden earlier this month. pres. biden: we must finally hold social media companies accountable for the experiment they are running on our children for profit. christopher: social media companies have long been shielded from lawsuits because of what's known as section 230 of the communications decency act, a 1996 law that protects companies from what users post on their platforms. but the supreme court will consider challenges to the law later this month. >> right now, platforms have no responsibility for how their businesses cause harm.

christopher: imran ahmed is the ceo of the nonprofit center for countering digital hate. in their recent report, titled deadly by design, the organization calculated that videos related to eating disorders on tiktok had been viewed more than 13 billion times. the organization also set up eight tiok accounts, all posing as 13-year-olds, the minimum age allowed by law to be on social media. after these accounts briefly viewed or liked body image and mental health content, more was quickly fed to them. >> within two and a half minutes of opening an account as a 13-year-old girl, it's sending it self-harm content. within eight minutes, eating disorder content. every 39 seconds in the first half hour, they were receiving some sort of harmful content. christopher: both tiktok and meta declined the newshour's request for an interview, but a tiktok spokesperson told us that last year the company proactively removed more than

80% of all eating disorder content within 24 hours and more than 70% of those videos received no views. while metta told the newshour, "we want teens to be safe online and we don't allow content that promotes suicide, self harm, or eating disorders," the statement goes on to say, "of the content we remove, we identify 99% of it before it's reported to us." >> everyone is competi for the teenagers. christopher: jonathan haidt is a social psychologist at new york university. he traces what he calls an epidemic of teenage sadness back more than a decade. >> it's anxiety and depression, also self-harm and suicide. all of those things skyrocket after 2012. christopher: to clarify, this isn't just social media. there are other factors at play. >> yes, there are always other factors at play. this is a complicated sociological phenomenon. but the instant they go on social media, by instant, i mean, like within a year, the depression lines begin to go up. plus, there is direct

correlational evidence that the more you use it, the more depressed you are. it's especially heavy users, more than four hours a day. those girls are three times more likely to be depressed than medium users. christopher: despite these concerns, teens are more likely to view their own time on social media as positive rather than negative, saying it makes them feel more connected with friends and offers them a support network. but more than a third of all teenagers say they're on at least one social media platform almost constantly. >> age 13 is when kids are technically allowed to use social media. christher: that has led to calls from health experts to increase user age requirements to join social media, incling the u.s. surgeon general, dr. vivek murthy. >> i personally, based on the data i've seen, believe that 13 is too early. christopher: in the fall, instagram rolled out new parental supervision tools, which give parents the ability to monitor how long their children are on the platform, what accounts they follow, and who follows them. they also include reminders for teens to take a break. tiktok also highlights that by

default, the accounts of users between age 13 to 15 are set to private and they restrict their direct messaging. >> i don't know where that content is going, i don't know who is looking at it. christopher: but elizabeth mullen says not enough is being done to protect users like her daughter, who remains on both tiktok and instagram, and is still seeing much of the same content as before. >> the app is working against us, for sure. the only difference between now and then is if she is confronting it and we do see her sliding, there's more people to jump on, whereas before we didn't know what was happening. ristopher: nuala was forced to quit her field hockey team last year because of health concerns , but today she says overall she is in a far better place. >> on social media, everyone posts the highlights of their life. no one acknowledges what's happening behind the screen.[00:24:25] people -- behind the screen. people probably thought i was

the happiest, but it was one of the worst times in my life. christopher: for you as a young person, what would your life be like if you're not on social media? because i think that's one of the questions. >> i think without social media i would be completely left off. i mean, i could get off the app, sure, but then i wouldn't be able to talk to my friends. i wouldn't be able to make plans. i wouldn't be able to see what ople are doing. and in this day and age, it's so hard to stay off of it because everyone's life revolves around it. christopher: neula is now trying to build a new life. she recently accepted an academic scholarship to fairfield university in connecticut, where she will begin in the fall. for the pbs newshour, i'm christopher booker in new york. ♪ amna: house republicans have had a busy start to their majority, from investigations into the biden administration to early negotiations around the debt ceiling.

now they have turned their focus to the administration's handling of the spy balloon. here to talk about that is one republican congresswoman not shy about breaking with her party, nancy mace of south carolina. she joins me now. congresswoman mace, welcom thanks for joining us. rep. mace: thank you for having me. amna: let's begin with the news about the four flying objects the u.s. has been shooting down in recent days, first the chinese surveillance balloon shot up down off the south carolina coast. senators were briefed today. do you know when you will be getting everything? rep. meeks: we did have a briefing midday this afternoon but it was with open source information. i look forward to another classified briefing. i had two last week but that was before these three new objects were shot down. i have more questions than answers at this point. amna: what's the biggest question you want answered? >> either they have been up there the whole time and we are

only now shooting them down, or we were unaware that they were up there. neither scenario, in my opinion, is a good one. what kind of technology are we using? we have radar, satellite, other ways to track classified objects. above 18,000 feet you have an -- a flight plan. my otheruestion is about the origin of the objects. i assume they are surveillance drones, likely not from china but from another country. we are not going to shoot anything down if we don't know what it is. playing cat and mouse with ngress and keeping us in the dark is not healthy for either side of the aisle. if we continue to shoot these things down, i worry there is going to be fear on the ground, which is why i am asking for more transparency. amna: i want to ask about the other big news out of south carolina, former governor nikki haley announcing her presidential run. she is from your district.

you have said you would like to see a woman run. will you endorse her? rep. mace: i would love to see a woman on the ticket. i may have two constituents running. it is exciting to see leadership coming out of south carolina. i nt to say mething about nikki. i wish people could see how hard she works and how much she cares. nikki was one of the only few elected officials who would return my phone call when i was primaried by the president a few years ago. she was with us every step of the way. she has been a good friend. i am excited about her jumping into the race. i have not decided on an endorsement yet, but i am excited. i believe republicans need a woman on the ticket and she is more than qualified. amna: she made a case it is time for a new generation of leaders, similar phrasing we heard from governor sarah huckabee sanders in her response to the

president's state of the union address. a new generation of leaders for republicans. do you agree with that? what would a new generation do that the old one didn't? rep. mace: we need to look forward. many leaders want to look to the past. they want to look to 2020 and the last couple of years. we need to move forward. i represent a swing district. even though i am in south carolina, my district is very much a swing district. we have a number of people that have left the democrat, left the republican party. they don't feel like they have a home. we need leadership that will embrace independent voices. another example i can cite, after roe v. wade, republicans did not do a very good job of showing compassion towards women. even if we disagree on a hot button kind of issue. i worked really hard to build trust with women, constituents and voters alike, to find middle ground on that issue, because that issue is not going away. i am looking for that kind of leadership out of a nominee. amna: does a new generation mean

moving away from donald trump? rep. mace: it certainly means looking forward. i want to see a nice field, a vigorous primary. by the time candidates get to south carolina, i don't want to see more than 10 or 12 in the race. but south carolina is a very seminal moment. it will play an important role in the democrat and republican primary. typically whoever wins south carolina goes on to win the nomination on the republican side of the ticket. i expect it to be vigorous. i am excited about folks coming to south carolina, and i do believe that we need to, as a country, especially republicans, we have to move forward and embrace more independent voices. that is the kind of person i am looking to support when the time comes. amna: as you well know, congress needs to raise the debt ceiling in order for the u.s. to avoid defaulting on its debt. do you think your party should be holding out that vote to try

to get spending cuts, as some of your colleagues have said they want to do? rep. mace: we have a real problem with spending in this country. i would like to see budget reform as part of the debt ceiling. the debt ceiling was started after world war ii to help with paying for the war. it is important we understand that has been used over the years by republicans and democrats. we are at $31 trillion in debt, $5 trillion under the current administration, $8 trillion under the previous administration. we need serious reforms about about the budget w, rather than kicking the can down the road. amna: republicans have voted multiple times to raise the debt ceiling without tying it to spending cuts. do you feel it undermines the argument about spending cuts when that argument only comes up under democratic administrations? rep. mace: you can't call yourself a fiscal conservative if you don't operate that way. it is a problem within our party, that we have this message

of that, we are limited government and fiscal conservatives, yet we have added to the debt by trillions of dollars administration after administration. it is a problem. i am a fiscal conservative. i've made no bones about it. i have never voted to raise taxes on my constituents. i feel that's really important, and i think that's a bipartisan issue. nobody wants to see taxes raised in the middle of a potential recession or inflation as high as it is. they want to see the government act responsibly and do what every other household or business has to do, be responsible with the money they have. that's what i am asking for. amna: congresswoman nancy mace of south carolina, thank you for your time. rep. mace: thank you. ♪ amna: remember there is a lot

more online at pbs.org/newshour, including a story about how st. louis is exploring whether to provide reparations to black residents. geoff: join us tomorrow for more reporting on the ground in ukraine as the war against russia nears the one-year mark. that is the newshour for tonight. i ameoff bennett. amna: time omnibus -- i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newsho has been provided by -- >> architect, beekeeper, mentor. a raymondjames financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. >> carnegie corporation of new

york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement , and and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.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 by viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> 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. >> you are watching pbs.

-guadalajara, jalisco, is such a hub for creativity in mexico, with a thriving art scene and oh-so-many amazing food options. and sometimes these two things come together beautifully on the same plate. i'm getting a tour of a ceramics factory that supplies some of the world's best restaurants with plates, bowls, and tiles. these are all the pieces of the mural? -all the pieces. and we have to put it together in a mesh. -how cool is this? then a stop for sweets, where i can barely tell the difference between a dessert and a work of art. i know i should eat these with a fork, pero no. -why not? [ laughs ] -mmm. in my kitchen, i'm making two jalisco-inspired recipes with equal, equal taste -- a saucy, crispy, flavorful street-food favorite, pollo à la valentina, and a side with a perfect combo --