♪ >> good evening. >> on the newshour tonight, a new intelligence report refutes one possible cause of the mysterious havana syndrome that second hundreds of american diplomats in cuba and other parts of the world. >> chicago voters oust mayor lori lightfoot in an election where crime was a top issue setting up a runoff between two candidates act by teachers and police. >> scientists researching the aftermath of california wild fighters add to the growing evidence climate change is accelerating the risk of disease spreading from animals to humans. >> as animals get more and more stressed they are more likely to shed a particular virus or pathogen. ♪

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. ♪ >> the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together.

supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation committed to building a more just, peaceful and verdant world. more information at mac found.org. and with the ongoing support o 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. >> welcome to the newshour. it is a mystery that has challenged the countries intelligence community for years. >> 1500 reports of an unexplained illnesknown as the havana syndrome named after the city where u.s. officials and diplomats suffered from cognitive difficulties and even memory loss. the intelligence community assessed it was likely not the work of a foreign adversary.

nick schifrin is here with more. what does this assessment say? >> the top line is exactly what you just said. the members of the intelligence community are dissipating found it quote very unlikely a foreign adversary was responsible, very unlikely a weapon or any device purposely or accidentally caused the symptoms and there is not a consistent set of physical injuries that could be characterized as havana syndrome. there are varying levels of confidence and not the entire intelligence community participated in this. this is as emphatic a conclusion as it makes. on a serious condition that we are talking about american suffered in cuba, china. americans who worked on russia. even u.s. officials who suffered this i the united states. one official told us we cannot tie a foreign adversary to any of those instances. >> what evidence does the intelligence community provide to back that up? >> the intelligence prefers who

talked to me and a dozen reporters today, one official said intelligence points against foreign involvement. this official said adversaries including china and rsia expressed some confusion when the u.s. started reporting have been a symptoms. many thought this was a u.s. plot to blame them for something. there was no evidence this official went on to say ukrainians or any kind of partner country suffered from any systematic attack or any evidence and adversary was even practicing this kind of attack. evidence they would have seen if they believed and adversary was behind this. as for the weapon previous assessments the intelligence community has considered said that direcd energy might have caused these symptoms. the intelligence official told us those were all washed out. there was no evidence the official said any evidence overcame some of the challenges to create some kind of microwave

that would have had to gone through concrete or line of sight to some of these victims. i just spoke with the head of the intelligence committee expert panel and he disagreed. he said the panel found a device could have been portable, concealable and there could have been more than one mechanism used. he said the u.s. does not know enough about directed energy to know for certain whether it could have been used or not. >> if we are to take this assessment at face value, if not a foreign adversary with a weapon what then explains the symptoms these people have come forward with? 1500 reports across 96 countries. >> it is a great question for which the intelligence community does not have a great answer. the officials we spoke to briefed on a couple possibilities for what the victims suffered from. they talked about environmental

circumstances. one official talked about a malfunctioning air-conditioner that created undue pressure in room. the official talked about pre-existing medical conditions. what they called conventional illness in some of these cases and social forces otherwise known as media attention causing more people to report what they suffered. that has not ameliorated what the victims felt paired i talked to multiple former officials who made the same point. 26 americans and canadians in havana at the same time felt symptoms and there were no pre-existing medical conditions among them nor was there coordination between them when they suffered these victims. we talked to attorney mark zaid who represents several dozen of these victims and their families. he said they were demoralized these findings and they disagree with them. >> there are counterintelligence situations that have arise to with respect to surveillance and

interactions with human individuals with respect to our intelligence officers who have not been investigated. there are technical situations where electronic devices have started to act strangely in the midst of what the human invidual interprets to be an ahi incident. there is absolutely no doubt how are foreign adversaries are very capable of doing this. the technology frankly was created by the united states for the most part back five or six decades ago. >> ahi is anomalous health incident. the intelligence officials i spoke to today responded to some of those criticisms and said they did track down every lead including everyone he pointed out in ainvestigation they compared to the osama -- the osama bin laden hunt before coming to thr conclusions. as for the victims feeling rejected by today's assessment

cia director bill burns, director of national intelligence all released statements saying the same thing that they believed victims pain was real and that was echoed at the state department spokesman. >> the findings that the intelligence community has spoken to today in no way cal into question the experiences, the symptoms that our colleagues and their family members have reported in recent years. >> while the victims do say their medical care has improved in the last few years and whether or not they receive care was independent of today's assessment, they clearly believe they were still a target of a foreign adversary and they are very upset by today's findings. >> thanks much for that reporting. ♪ >> in the days other headlines,

more than half a million voters in chicago have spoken. they said no to the incumbent mayor. they will decide who the next mayor will be very soon. john yang reports on tuesday's election results. >> obviously we did not win the election. >> chicago mayor lori lightfoot turned out of office after just one term. she got 17% of the vote placing third in nine person field. >> regardless of tonight's outcome we fought the right fights and we put the city on a better path no doubt about it. >> the first black woman and the first openly gay person to lead the city has become the first incumbent to lose reelection since jane byrne in 1983. >> it is a seismic event in chicago history. >> a reporter at wt tw, chica's pbs station. >> in 2019 she ran as a progressive but did not govern as a progressive which left that community angry and frustrated

and ready to pick a new candidate. >> the top two finishers advance to a runoff in five weeks squaring off in a campaign likely to focus largely on crime and public safety. the former of chicago schools was in first place with a third of the vote. he is the only white mayoral candidate in a city that is about 29% black and 29% hispanic . he says as mayor he would increase the number of cops on the street. >> the voters once a mayor who is going to the city back on track and going to address the most pressing issues. obviously the issue of public safety is front and center. >> chicago, we did it, y'all. >> brendan johnson, a couy commissioner and former teacher says he would focus on the root causes of crime. he finished second edging out lightfoot with 20% of the vote.

>> a few months ago they said they did not know who i was. well, if you did not know, now you know. >> this is the most chaotic possible outcome of the vote last night. the two candidates completely ideologically opposed. race, approach to schools, approach to public safety. >> now the runoff matchup is set, early voting starts later this month for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> late today mayor lightfoot announced chicago's police superintendent david brown will step down in two weeks. both of the candidates and in the runoff vowed to replace him if they are elected. for the first time police in israel have used force against crowds protesting an overhaul of the nation's courts. it started after hundreds of people in tel aviv blocked highways waving flags. officers on horseback used stun

grenades and others fired a water cannon. they said protesters threw rocks and water bottles. critics of the plan say it would weaken the independence of israel's judges. rescuers in northern greece spent the day searching for survivors in bodies after an overnight train crash killed 43 people and injured scores more. a passenger train in freight train collided head-on. cranes were brought in to lift around cars as crews dug into the wreckage. the prime minister toward the site and promised accountability. >> what we are experiencing today is very difficult as a country. we are talking about an unspeakable tragedy. one thing i can guarantee, we will find out the causes of this tragedy and do everything in our power to make sure it never happens again to >> the cause of the crash is still unknown but the greek transportation minister resigned today and a stationmaster in nearby city was arrested. in ukraine a top government

advisor suggested commanders might pull back from the besieged town of bakhmut in the east pit they have held out for months but russian forces are closing in on the last escape route. schelling hit the nearby town of chasiv yar sending up-fake smoke and leaving a grocery and inflames. greening fighters have set up new defensive lines. in this country the latest winter storm to sock california is finally winding down. it dumped several feet of new snow east of los angeles. farther north the snow added to the already staggering totals. parts of the sierra nevada have gotten 41 feet of snow since october. the most in 50 years. the u.s. senate moved to keep imate change and various social responsibility issues out of investment decisions. the vote was 50 to 46 to block a rule that makes it easier for hedge fund managers to through those concerns. the measure goes to president biden who is expected to issue a veto.

on wall street stock struggled again as fears about inflation pt investors on edge. the dow jones industrial average gained five points to close at 2661. the nasdaq fell 76 points. the s&p 500 lost 15. still to come on the newshour, lgbtq americans voiced their apprehension as new state laws restrict the rights. pharmaceutical giant eli lilly/is the price of insulin after pressure from the government and consumers. the ruling party's candidate wins nigeria's presidency after a disputed vote. plus much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington and from the west in the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. >> across the country a least 150 bills of been filed by republican legislators targeting

transgender americans this year. roughly 100 specifically restrict doctors and other providers from offering transition related health care for minors even when their parents approve. liam brangham takes a look at where these bills are being proposed and the impact they could have. >> yesterday mississippi's republican governor signed a law banning puberty blockers, hormone therapy and other gender affirming care for minors. it is the third state this year to legalize restrictions on transgender health care and similar bands are moving quickly through tennessee and indiana. we will talk with someone who tracks all of these new laws. but first let's hear fm some parents wse children are most impacted. >> when our son was growing up he was an active kid. like to go play basketball, ride his bike, do all kinds of things outside. and then as he grew near adolescence and puberty things got more distressing.

he began to have lots of anxiety, severe depression. he began to self-harm. he was hospitalized for suicidal ideation. times were tough for a while. a little bit later as 18 he realized what had been nagging at him all this time was he was not a girl as we thought. he was really a boy. >> our daughter is 10 years old. she started letting us know she was transgender really before she could even speak. she would do things like where her sister's clothes, pretend that tells where her long hair and when she was about three years old she start to withdraw and become depressed so we started doing some research. we talked to her pediatrician.

for us gender affirming care so far has been a social transition using the correct pronouns, letting her grow her hair long, lettin her pick her clothes from t girls section. >> when my son transitioned at the age of seven, it was not something that was particularly eventful. it involved him changing his name, changing his pronouns. suddenly when i went to target instead of going to the girls section i went to the boys section. >> it is just so heart wrenching as a parent to see your kid in such agony and hopelessness. it was through gender affirming care with good doctors and mental health professionals that he saw hope. >> as soon as we started affirming her as a girl her

mental health increased greatly. we do notice with the onset of puberty coming anytime now her distress rises greatly. >> as he gets older, what we are looking at is first puberty blockers. . medication that would prevent puberty from happening in the natural course at its core really tobs time. what we don't want is to have unnecessary and sometimes invasive surgeries. we want to be able to push a pause button to make sure we are not making these decisions at young ages, at ages like 11, 12, 13. >> it has been really tough on us as a family. the idea that the state of indiana wants to take away our

rights as parents to make medical decisions for our kid with our doctors and -- it is really painful. >> here comes the legislature saying your child has been living as a girl for seven years but they cannot go on puberty blockers when they hit puberty because we think it is best they do not. >> when you have health care professionals who are working with you who have gotten to know you who have been talking about plans months and years out understanding what that is going to look like and helping you to plan that road ahead to know what it is you are looking towards, to think you could then lose that and that the government could be telling you they know better than this entire team of people to stop you from accessing lifesaving medical care, that itself is

terrifying. >> those families are clearly watching these laws and they are deeply concerned with what they might mean for their children. for more on what the various states are doing i am joined by a researcher who tracks transgender legislation around the country and advotes for trans rights. thank you so much for being here. there are so many states that are proposing these different kinds of laws. oddly speaking, can you explain -- broadly speaking, what are these laws generally trying to target? >> yes, thank you for having me on. ere are over 400 those i am tracking that target the lgbtq community, primarily the trans community. a good third of them target the medical care of transgender youth and in some cases transgender adults. they will ban things like puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery from this population.

they will tell doctors precisely how they should medically dechant's a the transgender youth by withdrawing them from their medication. that is what i am tracking. >> sum of these have passed into law. some of these are just on at the legislature. what are the penalties for people who break these laws? >> they tend to vary. in some cases it is a revoking of licensor. some cases they have floated child abuse provisions. in texas last year whenever governor greg abbott began investigating the parents of trans teens for child abuse. we have a broad range for the way the community is targeted by legislation. >> we should say for the record this is care that is widely accepted by most major medica organizations. pediatric organizations that study this. what are the arguments these

legislators are making as to why they want to pass these bans? >> the arguments i tend to see center around the kids are too young to choose and things like that. they tend to float surgery and we often hear a lot about transgender surgeries done on minors. there is often little time spent by proponents of the legislation on puberty blockers and hormone therapies. i believe that is intentional. surgeries are more extreme and easier to sell then puberty blockers and hormone therapies. >> one of my colleagues spoke with a legislator in tennessee, speaker of the house cameron sexton. he supports one of these laws and i want to play a clip on what he has to say. he equates gender reassignment surgery with child abuse and argues people who undergo that surgery, 80% of them regret it. here's more of what he had to say. >> there is a difference between a child younger than 18 making

that decision compared to someone who is an adult making that decision. we are going to err on the side of saying if that is what you want to do, go at it. as a child, you are telling me a 10, 11, 12 real child absolutely knows what gender they want to be. that decision should be left later in adult life. >> what do you make of that argument? >> the idea that transgender youth are being treated abusively by their parents i think stands in ark reality to some of the clips you played earlier as well as the testimony i have seen of these hearings. i watched a testimony in nebraska where the mother of a transgender teenager spoke about how for years she was worried she would come home and find her child dead. after allowing transitioned by going through an intensive medical process with therapists, doctors over the course of a few years she stated while pleading for her medical care for her child she went from having a

depressed suicidal teenage boy to a happy thriving successful teenage girl. a daughter. this particular representative mention something like 80% of people d transitioning and these are the kinds of things we hear that areot borne out by reality. these numbers are often based off data that are decades-old from in the 1980's and 90's. never transgender people could not be in public. we could not exist in public safety and so yes of course, rates of the transition were so much higher because we were not allowed to be our selves and the idea that we would treat these parents as abusers and take their kids away from them is heart wrenching. >> why do you think we are seeing all of these laws across the country? >> there has been a sustained fear campaign waged against the transgender community and the lgbtq community as a whole.

but the better part of two years we have heard we are dangerous around kids. that children should not be exposed to lgbtq people, identities that were dangerous in bathrooms. i think this fear campaign has been waged has gotten through and it has been utilized in a political matter. it is unfortunate because it is targeting families that clearly care deeply about their kids that are following the best medical guidelines they know how and are working with their care teams, doctors and therapists and seeing the results in their kids. seeing the improved lives and the ability of these kids to express themselves and be themselves. >> thank you so much for being here. >> thank you for having me. ♪

>> we spend a great deal of time looking at the impact of climate change and how it is changing our weather and environment. that can have an impact on how pathogens and disease could spread as well. our science correspondent has the story. >> dawn in the high sierra. 50 miles northwest of reno at the clover valley ranch. >> member to check every trap. walk the line. >> the hunt is on once again. >> make sure you take the boxes. open, closed or empty. >> for clues linking a changing climate and the worsening spread of disease. that is ranch owner brian, a veterinarian and for all edges to end director of the one healthy institute laboratory at the university of california davis. overnight 47 took the peanut butter oats and bacon bait.

now it is time to retrieve the traps. >> i believe that is the most we have ever captured here. >> and gather some data. for three years now he and his students have been systematically trapping deer mice that live here. the rodents are the primary reservoir for this pathogen. >> it does not carryny harm to the rodent. it then they shed the virus in urine and feces. >> when a human gets junta virus, is that serious? >> it cans be -- it can be very serious. 50% could be fatal. it is a relatively rare but high consequence disease. >> it is a so-called zoonotic disease meaning it is spread by pathogens that spillover from one species to another. this is the primary cause of

pandemics throughout human history. human encroachment and global travel hastened these spillover events. it appears the climate crisis is making matters even worse. >> as animals get more stressed they are more likely to shed a particular vir or pathogen. there is also the impact on the animals themselves so where do they live? as the environments change th animals will move. those changes occur very gradually over millennia. out we are looking at dramatic fast-paced changes on the timescale of hundreds of years if not faster. >> in september of 2021 he learned how fast. to the fire come through here? >> it did. you are walking on burned area here. >> it was the dixie mega amplified by a historic drought linked to climate change. it burned nearly a million acres over three months. you had been working in the spot prior to the fire. >> exactly in the spot prior to

the fire. we had two seasons of sampling data before the fire. >> he expected it would take years, even decades to connect the dots but in his blackened field he saw opportunity. >> we thought this would be a great time to continue the sampling and see how to the road and populations respond to putting much a complete destruction of their habitat. >> they are now finding the virus in 8% of mice they are tracking. in the unburned control site it is 4%. he says the mice are fighting to establish turf. >> the primary method of transmitting the virus among rodents is when they fight and bite each other. they could be transmitting the virus at a heightened rate compared to a control site that was not burned. >> that means more transmission potentially. >> potentially. >> climate change worsens a drought that triggers a me fire which wipes out a habitat causing a rodent rumble. a virus super-spreader.

a nuanced link to be sure but not new. the historical evidence linking the climate to zoonotic disease isrowing. camilla is arofessor at the university of hawaii at mandala. he led a team that poured through the less than 17,000 scientific studies dating back to the end of the roman empire. >> 58% of the pathogens that had impacted humidity anywhere in the world are already affected by climatic changes. theirs are the ones we already know. the scary things are the ones we do not know about because the ones we know of we know we can cope with them. you cannot imagine the surprise we make it when we start unleashing these pathogens that could be more damaging to us. >> at georgetown university global change biologist collin carlsen is working on a way to take the surprise out of this. what are we looking at here? >> we are looking at the

pathogen harmonize surveillance system. >> he is trying to meld existing climate and disease data in a way that allows epidemiologists to see the big picture. >> let's go to berlin. each of these points is somewhere they have tested a fox for distemper virus. what if we knew this much about viruses everywhere in the world? what if we knew this about the diseases we were worried about jumping into humans? we could literally know within a city where spillover risk is the highest. >> he is building an open source tool to forecast an help break sooner -- an outbreak sooner. he sees the ability to predict disease as well as the weather. >> we need to know the dynamics of these viruses when were not watching them. >> can technology make it easier for public health professionals to monitor disease in wild animal populations? epidemiologist christine johnson is also a professional at the uc davis one health institute.

she is testing new ways to monitor one of the most prolific spreaders of zoonotic disease, bats. >> did you get that stream? >> we did. >> she and her team are testing thermal cameras as well as audio devices able to record what bat echolocation sounds like. they hope to employ the technology to make it safer. >> we are able to see them much more clearly with thermal cameras. the techniques we are developing could be used to do that remotely. >> she has collaboratingith the engineering department seeking ways to monitor and test bat populations remotely. >> thais what we are seeking is with innovative technology we are using to try to bring much

more feasibility to wildlife surveillance. >> there are more and more zoonotic diseases coming or the climate crisis makes it unavoidable. a greater investment to protect public health with some 21st-century tools along with the risky laborious fieldwork might be the only way to stop a spillover from boiling over shutting down the world once again. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien near portola, california. ♪ >> more than 7 million americans rely on insulin and over the past two decades prices for the life-saving drug have skyrocketed. with pressure mounting on pharmaceutical companies to addresthe high cost of diabetes care drugmaker eli lilly announced today it is cutting the prices for its most popular insulin products by 70%

and capping out-of-pocket costs at $35 a month. we are joined by a reporter with kaiser health news. how significant of an announcement is this? given the way that drug pricing works in this country a company's list price does not necessarily afflict how much insurers will cover and how much folks and up paying out-of-pocket. >> that has been the criticism of a lot of the approaches to addressing the high cost of insulin in the past. in the inflation reduction act last year congress passed a $35 cap for some medicare patients for insulin. there were proposals to pass a similar cap for all insured patients. the criticisms with those kind of caps is it does not address the list price. if you are uninsured or underinsured you would still be exposed to a high list price of products.

. by reducing the list price of insulin it is a significant step. it gets at some of the criticisms people have had in the past for addressing this issue. >> will this announcement by a lily lily push other insulin makers to follow suit? >> it is certainly possible. you saw president biden upload the announcement did -- applaud the announcement. bernie sanders has written letters to us and of the end of anointest together with eli lilly they account for 90% of the insulin used in the united states. bernie sanders has written letters to their ceos asking them to follow suit so there is certainly pressure. >> as you mentioned this announcement puts the company in line with the provisions in the inflation reduction act capping out-of-pocket costs for seniors relying on insulin but let's talk about how we got here. in 1990 91 vial of a diabetes drug cost $21 a vial.

in 2019 that cost was $332. that is a 1000% increase. how did that happen? >> one of the ways to think about it, i described it as a game of thrones pharmaceutical companies are playing with insurers and middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers. the gist of it is you have an insurance company that has millions of patients they provide insurance for. through these middlemen they will go to the pharmaceutical company and they will say we want to make your insulin the preferred insulin on our list but we want a good deal on it. the manufacturers wilprovide these things called rebates to the middlemen who then pass some or all of it to e insurer. that creates these incentives for high prices so everybody will get their cut along the way. what that does not take into account is the uninsured and underinsured patients.

when you don't have insurance or you have a high deductible, can be exposed to high list prices that were never meant for patients. >> how big of a financial bden has this been for folks up until now? there are millions of americans who have been rationing there insulin. >> that is right. a study came out last year something like 17% of americans who use insulin had rationed it. a lot of that is because of financial constraints. there are plenty of stories. i have written some. they're plenty other stories written by other reporters, other journalists about people who have died from rationing there insulin because they did not feel they were able to afford the insulin they needed to survive. it has been a really big issue. >> what will you be watching for in the weeks and months to come? >> i am certainly interested to see if the other insulin manufacturers will also reduce

the list prices of their insulin. i am interested to see if congress will continue to take action itself. president biden in the state of the union called for a more universal co-pay cap. i would be interested to see if congress will do something along those lines. there are initiatives in states around the country worth keeping an eye on. california for example has an initiative they are going to manufacture their own insulin to bring it in at a lower price. continuing on that path could provide more market pressure for other companies to reduce list price of the insulin products. >> a reporter with kaiser health news. thank you for your time and your insights. >> thanks for having me. ♪ >> africa's largest democracy has a newly elected president.

a longtime nigeria kingmaker has declared the winner today with over 36% of the vote. firstly contested election was not without controverng les andd the opposition to allege fraud and there have been sporadic protests and some violence since the election. a nigerian american academic and a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations joins me now. welcome to the newshour. before we get into the candidates and the results, help us understand how significant this election was especially given nigeria's history of what terry. is it -- history of military will. is it fair to call this a turning point? >> it is fair to say that because since 1999 this is the first election in which there was no former army general on the ballot. all of the candidates were proper civilians. it is also an election for the first time the bulk of young

people sought to overthrow the old established order in the country. they did not succeed. the energy they brought to the election, the new secure -the new urgency was something that moods -- that moves the way for nigeria. >> he -- a man from the smaller labour party. how did he win? what was his message? >> i don't think it is the message as much as the craft that had wrought to the game. -- the craft it had brought to the game. he appointed every successive governor of legos up until now -- of lagos.

he was able to take into and exploit all the alliances that had built over a long time. that is what he won the election. >> there were some familiar issues to american politics and there were questions raised about his age. he is 70 years old. the russians raised about his claims he worked for the company to wait whicturned out to be not true. either of those -- did either of those turn out not to be true? >> the president of the united states is 80. that makes him a spring chicken . what we should be talking about is whether he has the energy, vitality, the know-how and expertise to rural nigeria. i would focus on that rather than talking about his age. >> there were a lot of issues around the tech deployed for

this election which is leading the opposition to sayhere was fraud and turnout was low. just around 27%. why do you think that is? >> i think turnout was low because of the environment in which the election took place. there was this very controversial monetary policy implemented by the central bank of nigeria which left people bereft of cash. people could not get around. the election was the last thing on people's mind. >> there were questions -- there were allegations of fraud. there were long lines, delays at some places. do you think the charges of fraud have merit? >> i don't think so. i don't think so for a couple of reasons. i think people should distinguish between fraud and irregularity. if you look at the results it does not support the allegation of an orchestrated systematic raking by anyone.

there were irregularities but those irregularities were of a national character. they did not just take place in a one zone or region. they took place across the country. i have heard about those allocations but i do not think the case has been sufficiently made. >> so he now takes card of africa's most populous nation. -- takes charge of africa's most popular nation -- populous nation. it is facing a serious economic crisis and deep polarization. what is ahead for nigeria? >> insecurity is very high. the economy is in the basement. infrastructure is degraded. young people are disenchanted. what this means is that the new president will have to find a way to respond to all these while keeping the political system itself in -- if we look at what it was able to do between 1999 and 2007

there is hope but there is no doubt to succeed as president he will have to reach out to the political elite and young people across the country. >> senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> we will be back shortly but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. >> it is a chance to offer your support which helps keep programs like this one on the r. ♪ for those of you staying with us pipe organs have a storied history throughout western civilization but demand for the so-called king of instruments has seen a steady decline in recent decades. our special correspondent has this second look at one attempt to change that.

♪ >> the bells herald a new day at st. john's, a benedict and monastic college community nestled in 3000 acres of lake and forest in central minnesota. on this september day the attention was on sounds coming from inside the abbey church. world renowned organist stephen tharp was rehearsing for the and a girl concert on an instrument that has been duly expanded to better command its space to flood this nontraditional sanctuary. >> it is kind of a surprise for people who perhaps never heard an organ recital and wonder where all the sound and color is coming from because you cannot see it. as to what you are going to hear is behind this red scream. >> i got a chance to peek behind the screen thanks to casey. all of his older stuff below the level of the second floor up

there is the original organ. a st. john's graduate and organ builder himself he has maintained this one for 45 years. >> so what we ended up doing was preserving the old instrument and building upon it. the new organ gives at the extra power it needed. >> many instruments use mechanical pumps to send air through the pipes at this one uses electronic signals. to tune it he uses a phone app. >> on the control side of things we are up currently with the technology on the sound side of things we are back centuries. >> the pipe organ dates back to ancient greece and its industrial scale evolution came long before the industrial revolution. >> in its earliest incarnations it made more noise than pre-much

anything before gunpowder. >> he is a leading historian on the pipe organ and host of the public radio program pipe dreams. >> to someone who lives in the countryside, a peasant, a former coming into a gothic cathedral and hearing the organ sound, nothing has been comparable in their life. it is just astonishing. >> it is godlike. >> indeed. it has been thought to represent the voice of god. >> st. john's organ went from three manuals or keyboards to four and from about 3000 pipes to 6000 to a good >> way to look at the organ, it might you like a small city of 6000 people. 6000 pipes. half of them were kind of homesteaders here when the church was built. the other half came in the last couple of years. >> thousands of pipes, every single one of them handcrafted

team that martin policy. he has worked for three decades out of a converted two room schoolhouse near tacoma, washington. a larger base or lower end pipes are milled from hardwood som way up to 850 pounds. up the trouble scale to an and lead pipes, he relies on electronics to confirm what his ear is telling him that the pipe is sounding the right note. a typical organ like the one at st. john's takes up to two years to build, ship and reassemble in its permanent home. only a few builders remain in business in america. most of them older like martin who trained in his native austria before emigrating to the u.s. four decades ago. it was while he was installing the organ in collegeville martin says he had lenny of time for reflection. worrying in particular as age 70 approached about who would

succeed him. it is here that the idea came up, why not move the whole operation to st. john's abbey? he is pinning his hopes on a campus with hundreds of students with a long tradition of woodworking. most of the furniture at st. john's is crafted here from the abbey's own sustainable forests. >> people can come and learn the profession from the ground up. that will make all the difference. somebody has not only the skill of their hands but an attitude. >> a passion for the instrument. >> a passion forhe instrument, a passion for the work people do with their hands. >> sometime next year he and fellow craftsmen marcus will move into a newly expanded woodworking shop in collegeville. one of about a hundred monks at st. john's says it a silken -- says it is a silken glove fit. >> organ building and our coitment to music and

community -- and communal singing, communal musicmaking is an embrace of what the monastic tradition has offered for many centuries and hopefully is what sustains us going into the future. >> would you please welcome tonight's featured artist stephen tharp. [applause] ♪ >> this concert was one kick off event into the future. in nod to the benedictine tradition of glory and chance, he accompanied a trio of monks. throughout the evening he brought out the impressive range and capability of the new organ. in building that defied

church tradition in an instrument that is a rousing embrace it. for the pbs newshour, this is fred de sam lazaro in collegeville, minnesota. ♪ >> arizona republican rusty bowers stepped into the national spotlight when he testified before congress about refusing president trump's request to help overturn the 2020 election. that stance cost him his political career but he has since found a silver lining. now he has time to pursue his long love of our full-time. shauna fisher of arizona pbs reports for arts and culture series canvas. >> at 70 years old rusty bowers is not looking to start a new

chapter in his life but rather continue an old one. >> i love to doodle and draw in class in grade school. >> six months after losing the republican primary to his trump act opponent -- >> i'm thinking of this under the terms of politics. >> the outspoken conservative is letting his art speak for him now. >> in the legislature, the contrast in time demand made it where i could rarely pain. >> growing up in chino valley his mother sparked the creative fire inside him when he was just five. at the time he says she was just trying to keep them quiet in church. >> she would draw the girls like on shampoo. she would draw them and out of her head and hand it to me and say copy that. i would sit and copy it. was not much of a bother. >> after winning a state wide art competition in high school he enrolled in art school and

brigham young university and graduated with a degree in watercolor. >> i'm not a modernist. i want a message just to do something and make it a design does not hold strength from you. >> the walls of his studio are lined with watercolors and places special to him. the view from his family ranch, a field in utah, haystacks in romania. >> i think it is a combination of man-made geometry with god's geometry and how those juxtapose. there is an organic symmetry and geometry in nature that i love to combine with buildings, barns, old homes and also the geometry of trees. love that inspiration. on the monsoons come to arizona with those gorgeous clouds, that is always a subject i enjoy inting. >> along with painting, he is an

accomplished sculptor. his pieces can be seen all over arizona. he has several works in progress including this privately commissioned most of the late m aquatic center carl hayden. it will replace one stolen from the capitol grounds. >>'s dad saved my grandma's life. >> his family has a deep connection. it was the senator's father who saved ours grandmother from drowning under the salt river after her horse dougie fell off the ferry. bowers says he will remain lit a clear active but is fairly active he will not run for office again noting his paintbrush is just as powerful as the speaker's gavel. >> the values in our our wet mate -- in art are what make art good or bad. it is the same with government. if you know the values and you know when to employ them and how to employ them you will be able to make an impression. >> that is the newshour for tonight. >> on behalf of the entire

newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> 25 years consumer cellular school has been to provide wireless services that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of contract plans and our customer service team can help find one that fits you. as a consumer cellular.tv. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the newshour including jim and nancy goldman and kathy and paul anderson. >> actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. it is exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that is the most rewarding thing. people who know know bdo. >> the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change

worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ this program was made possible for the court -- by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from ewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪ >>

hello, everyonend a warm welcome to kwlt a"amanpour and company." here is what is coming up. tensions simmer as the votes are counted in nigeria's close presidential election. my conversation with popular nigeria broadcaster. then how autocracy is creeping up on the 21st century. "the new york times" roger cohn joins us. also ahead, a new deal between the u.k. and european union but will it steady northern island's politics and help reserve the treasured peace? i ask an expert. >> to be present is no small fit to somebody. >> how to serve a friend in