amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the newshour tonight, a major dam breach in ukraine endangers several cities and prompts evacuations as russia and ukraine trade blame. amna: former new jersey governor chris christie launches his bid for the republican presidential nomination, signaling he plans to take former president trump head on. geoff: and, the mayor of los angeles on her city's strategy to counteract the alarming increase in homelessness. >> we are not just pushing them away, we are getting them housed. with the commitment to address the underlying causes as well as put them in supportive housing. ♪

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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, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the newshour. water is pouring through a giant gap in a dam in southern ukraine tonight. it gave way early this morning, forcing thousands of people to flee and touching off competing claims about the cause. amna: ukraine accused the russians of blowing up the dam. moscow charged that ukrainian

shelling caused the rupture. neither side offered any direct evidence, but the results were catastrophic. reporter: the massive structure that sustained ukraine's largest reservoir now overtaken by a thick wall of water. satellite images show the ruptured kakhovka hydroelectric power plant and the violent stream it unleashed. the torrent burst through the dam, down the dnipro river and toward the black sea. flooding threatened tens of thousands of residents of low-lying villages in the water's path. ukrainian police surveyed the kherson region by boat at times, wading through thigh-deep water to carry people to safety. >> our local school and stadium downtown were flooded, the stadium was completely under water and the floodwaters were reaching the school. the road was completely flooded, the bus was stuck. only one elevated point could be reached by the bus and this is where we were taken from.

reporter: in occupied nova kakhovka, russian officials said water levels had risen past 30 feet with more than 600 homes submerged. the soviet-era dam was captured by russian forces at the start of the war and is surrounded by major flashpoints on the frontlines. it spans the dnipro river, separating ukrainian forces from the russian-occupied south, including crimea. to the northeast, the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant sits along the kakhovka reservoir. and just downstream, kherson, the port city retaken by ukraine last fall, which has seen some of the war's most intense fighting. both sides were quick to blame the other for the breach. moscow said it was ukrainian explosives. >> aiming to prevent the offensive operations by the russian army on this section of the frontline, the kyiv regime committed an act of sabotage. reporter: ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky responded. >> it is physically impossible

to blow it up from the outside by shelling. it was the russian occupiers. they blew it up and this once again demonstrates the cynicism with which russia treats the people whose land it has captured. amna: at the white house they say they are still assessing who is responsible. >> we are working with the ukrainians to gather more information but we cannot say conclusively what happened at this point. what is clear and what we absolutely can say is that the damage to the ukrainian people and to the region will be significant. amna: some reports say russian mismanagement of the facility led to the incident. in recent days, high water levels suggest the reservoir could have been perilously overfilled, causing the dam collapse. whatever the cause, experts warn of a potential humanitarian and environmental crisis. the dam provides electricity and drinking water to a huge swath of southern ukraine. and in zaporizhzhia the nuclear

power plant relies on the reservoir to cool its systems. the head of the international atomic energy agency said its six reactors are in shutdown mode, leaving enough water to supply the plant for several months. while not presently in danger, he warned any further harm to the reservoir could be catastrophic. >> it is vital this cooling pond remains intact. nothing must be done to potentially undermine its integrity. i call on all sides to ensure nothing is done to undermine that. the consequences may be grave. amna: for more on the destruction of the dam and its impact on ukraine and the war, we turn to michael kaufman from the center for naval analyses, a federally funded organization that focuses on national security issues. the breach has impacted both russian-controlled areas and ukrainian-held areas.

as u.s. officials work to assess who is responsible, how do you see it? would this breach benefit either side? michael: unfortunately, this breach is an ecological and humanitarian disaster that is a losing proposition for both sides. the flooding will substantially affect the ukrainian controlled right side of the riverbank and damage even more the currently russian occupied side of kherson because it iss on a loweron, down to russian occupied crimea. it is a disaster with long-lasting environmental and humanitarian issues for the region. it is unclear if the dam was destroyed resulting from a deliberate act or due to intentional attack or negligence. there was significant rain and

raising of the water level in the reservoir ahead of this over the past several months. so that issue is still unclear. either way, russia is responsible by virtue of action or the fact that controlled the dam. at the end of the day, the outcome is a result of russia's actions in ukraine. amna: what is the military impact? you mentioned downstream crimea being impacted. that is a russian occupied area. could the loss of that water supply impact the russian occupation there? michael: the impact is likely long term, but is still unclear. many models predicting what could happen in the fall did not anticipate this high of a water level from the dam. i do not think this will affect ukrainian military prospects when it comes to their offense. when you look along the dnipro

river, it will damage defenses russians built, but it will make a ukrainian operation exceedingly difficult. it was always a high risk proposition to begin with. i do not think it will substantially shape outcomes when it comes to ukraine's offense of operations. amna: what about the ukrainian counteroffensive? there is consensus it has in fact begun. it seems like you agree with that. what does that mean for both the direction and duration of the war? michael: it is fair to say the ukrainian offensive has begun and we are probably in the initial phases. we are beyond what people might call shaping operations that were taking place over the last several weeks. there has been an uptick in fighting and a limited ukraine offensive has made headway in

one part of the region in donetsk. there does seem to be a significant increase in fighting. that said, the ukraine offensive is likely to proceed over the course of several months. i do not think we are seeing the main effort where the forces likely to be involved in the main effort. it is too early to make assessments, except that ukraine is taking the initiative and i am deeply skeptical what happened with this dam and flooding will affect military prospects. amna: on the long-term impacts of the flooding, you're talking about tens of thousands of people now deeply impacted being evacuated. the disaster on top of 16 months of war russia has been waging, what will this require from the international community so invested in helping ukraine? michael: a tremendous amount of assistance. especially once ukraine liberates kherson.

that part is substantially damaged. it will lead to lasting damage to agriculture, the provision of drinkable water, and wipe out entire communities. we will have to see what happens when the water levels recede. but i think there will be lasting damage. amna: disaster on top of disaster. that is michael kaufman, senior fellow for russian studies at the center for naval analyses. thank you. stephanie: here are the latest headlines. lawyers for ukraine branded russia a terrorist state before the international court of justice at the hague. they spoke during an initial hearing into russia's 2014 annexation of crimea. the kyiv government has challenged that move as well as

russia's arming of rebels in eastern ukraine. the ukrainians are demanding that moscow pay reparations. the war in ukraine shadowed ceremonies in france marking 79 years since d-day landings, the largest naval land and air operation in history, which began the liberation of western europe from nazi control. defense secretary lloyd austin met with aging veterans who fought on d-day and delivered remarks. >> we still see a world where oppression is a sin. human rights are sacred. they risked their lives for freedom then. surely, citizens can risk our comfort for freedom now. stephanie: back in this country, two people were killed and five other shot outside a graduation

ceremony today enrichment, virginia, according to police. two suspects in custody. the richmond school district canceled all remaining high school graduations this week. atlanta city council approved funding for a police and firefighter training center that smart -- bark sometimes violent protest. critics called $90 million project cop city. hundreds of people packed city hall last night per 14 hours before the predawn boat. they argued the project would further militarize the police. the city says it will greatly improve training. and a passing of note, a french painter died today in manhattan. in her early on, she was best known as pablo picasso's mistress and had two children with him. he ended the relationship in 1953 and later wrote a celebrated memoir, life with picasso. she also became a highly successful artist in her own right. she was 101 years old.

still to come on the "newshour": the u.s. government sues two cryptocurrency exchanges for securities violations; golf's pga tour merges with the saudi-backed liv league following a protracted legal battle; and an educator gives her brief but spectacular take on teacher burnout. >> this is the pbs newshour, from weta studios in washington, and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: the race to the republican nomination for president is picking up, as a growing number of candidates jump into an already crowded field. former new jersey governor chris christie filed his paperwork with the federal election commission today, becoming the latest to launch his presidential bid. tonight, he kicks off his run with remarks at a town hall in manchester, new hampshire. laura barron-lopez has more. laura: chris christie hasn't

been shy about his soured feelings for donald trump. fmr. gov. christie: donald trump is a tv star, nothing more, nothing less. if we put him back in the white house, the reruns will be worse than the original show was. laura: the former two-term governor from new jersey officially kicks off his bid for president in new hampshire, the same state where he finished in sixth place in the 2016 republican primary and within 24 hours dropped his first bid for the presidency. then and now, he positioned himself as a no-holds-barred candidate, leaning into the tough-talking reputation he built his governor, but for roughly two decades, christie considered trump a friend and advised him throughout his 2016 campaign and presidency. fmr. gov. christie: i am proud to be here to endorse donald trump for president of the united states. laura: after serving in trump's administration as chair of the opioid and drug abuse commission, christie broke with him in 2020, as trump spread misinformation about a stolen

election. he considers those lies a threat to the republican party. fmr. gov. christie: but i got off the train when he stood up in the west wing of the white house, behind the seal of the president, and told us the election was stolen, when he didn't have one fact to back it up. laura: since their fallout, christie's also blamed the former president's rhetoric for the january 6 attack on the capitol. fmr. gov. christie: i think everything that he was saying from election night forward incited people to that level of anger. laura: now a presidential hopeful once again, christie is positioning himself as trump's foil, an alternative with his own accomplishments and a legacy of bipartisanship and moderate policy positions. fmr. gov. christie: i was a pro-life governor in new jersey, which is one of the most pro-choice states in america. jonaan karl, abc news: but you weren't attempting to ban abortion in new jersey. fmr. gov. christie: i wasn't, but, jon (crosstalk) jonathan karl: your personal views fmr. gov. christie: i was very clear about my personal views. laura: from 2002 to 2008, he served as a federal prosecutor in new jersey, carving out a tough-on-corruption reputation.

he then set his sights on the governor's mansion, elected in 2009. fmr. gov. christie: hey, new jersey, we did it. [cheers and applause] laura: during his first term, he was credited for his leadership and handling of recovery efforts after hurricane sandy. fmr. gov. christie: that's the only message i'm here to deliver is of support and let them know i'm on the job and we're going to continue to work real hard. laura: he went on to be reelected in 2013. but his second term was marred with controversies, namely, the infamous highway traffic scandal known as bridgegate. one of christie's aides and multiple political appointees colluded to create traffic jams in fort lee, new jersey, by closing lanes to the george washington bridge, one of the busiest commuter bridges in the world. fmr. gov. christie: i have 65,000 people working for me every day. and i cannot know what each one of them is doing at every minute. but that doesn't matter. i'm ultimately responsible for what they do. laura: the scandal became the subject of a federal investigation and ended in the

indictments of christie's deputy chief of staff and political appointees to the port authority. christie denied any direct involvement and was never charged, but the events cast a shadow on his time as governor. in 2017, he was unapologetic after being photographed enjoying a holiday weekend on an empty beach he had closed to the public after a state government shutdown. fmr. gov. christie: the governor has a residence at the beach. others don't. it's just the way it goes. run for governor, then you can have the residence. laura: he left office with a 15 percent approval rating down from a peak of 70 percent, one of the lowest of any governor in the history of new jersey. but christie hopes to start fresh, a new chapter himself and the party, as he takes on his former boss in the process. for the "pbs newshour," i'm laura barron-lopez.

geoff: the securities and exchange commission announced today it's suing coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency platform in the u.s. it com one day after the sec announced its lawsuit against binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, accusing it of lying to american regulators and investors about its operations. stephanie sy has more. stephanie: geoff, these are big players in the crypto world. in its most recent suit, the sec is accusing coinbase of breaking federal law by acting as an exchange broker and clearing agency without being registered as any of them. for more on the crisis in crypto, i'm joined by roben farzad, host of public radio's "full disclosure.” roben, it's good to see you. in the simplest of terms, please explain why the sec is suing coinbase and what it alleges. roben farzad, host, "full disclosure": coinbase was operating as an exchange, something that has been

regulated, in fact, intensely for the better part of 90 years. and if they want to do things, if they want to say, we operate outside the system, that's a world that they would like to occupy. that's their world view. but here you have the sec chair coming in and saying, actually, these should be regulated securities. they should be accompanied by offering statements, disclosures, various strings attached to the sec. and, clearly, that's anathema to the crypto world. you kind of want to exist in this gray area, in this wild, wild west, if you will. and i think between what happened yesterday and the announcement today, i think it's that the sec is finally putting regulatory contours around this. stephanie: yes, this is a $2 trillion industry that's been around for about 10 years. the sec chair, gary gensler, on cnbc this morning said, what coinbase is doing would be like if the new york stock exchange was allowed to operate a hedge fund. so could the outcome of this case, roben, really tame the wild west that crypto has been for the last decade? roben: the wild west aspects

are, i mean, truly the most profitable elements, if -- i think if you look at the revenue model for coinbase. and it's had a pretty harsh two years. in these various gray areas, such as staking, i mean, where you really have to read the fine print and the legend, it's like lending out stocks if you're part of a -- a client of a brokerage firm. you have to opt into that are getting things on margin. they roughly rhyme with what exchanges and wire houses do, the likes of goldman sachs and schwab and others. but coinbase's offering here, it's saying that, if you regulate us such as this, it's going to kill the whole thing. i mean, we're supposed to be deregulated. and what is a token? what is one of these non-bitcoin things? if it's not a commodity, it's kind of a meaning of life question. are we an ephemeral asset? do we even exist? it -- in the case of the action you saw yesterday, the mysterious ceo says, i don't even have a headquarters. it's wherever i'm putting up my laptop at my table.

so i think that's a -- it's actually on brand for the crypto companies to say, you don't quite understand us. but, in the same voice, they're saying, if you do want to regulate us, at least put out a blueprint for us. at least be transparent. so you're seeing this kind of game of chess between regulators and the cryptos. stephanie: i mean, it does seem like smoke and mirrors to those of us that don't invest in crypto, but plenty of americans do. and gensler pointed out that investors of all kinds, especially small amateur investors, invested a lot in crypto during the pandemic. have recent times shown they need, these investors, the same kind of protections that other investors in, say, securities would want? roben: yes, if you saw the implosion of ftx last year, if you saw what happened with very well-capitalized banks and bank runs, again, these things rhyme. they're not necessarily apples to apples, but you could have situations where your liquidity is not available. if you thought, ok, i want the best of both worlds, i want full

access to things, i want access to other markets and exchanges, but i don't want it regulated, well, what happens when these crypto assets fall? i mean, it's like, heads, i win, tails, you lose. do you want to be protected in the event of a downturn? i mean, clearly, there's been tremendous, hyperbolic upside for crypto assets over the last decade. but when things fall apart, i think that's when mom-and-pop investors or whatever you want to call them, stakeholders, want protections as well. stephanie: yes, and don't even get me started on what happens if you forget the password to your digital wallet. but, as you say, roben, coinbase says the digital asset industry lacks clear rules, and the company says it's planning to -- quote -- "defend its platform vigorously" against this lawsuit, so not expecting a settlement. how do you expect things to play out? roben: well, i think the best case scenario for them is if the sec can give them contours, can regulate them modestly, but not so much that it completely harshes the mellow of what they have going on, again, liquidity, high-volatility action, without regulators coming in, without

being gummed up by offering statements and disclosures and wells notices and the like. that is so anathema to crypto. i just don't see how they'd be profitable. certainly, the stock has reflected a catastrophic scenario over the last two years, coming down from euphoria, but today, down 12 percent, it's not exactly end of times for them. stephanie: yes, and the stock is up 45% year to date, so investors seem like they think they might be able to fight this lawsuit. harshes the mellow, spoken like a true crypto bro. thank you so much, roben farzad, host of "full disclosure.” roben: thank you. stephanie: thank you. roben: a pleasure. geoff: los angeles is home to the country's largest homeless population. the city's new mayor, karen bass, promised solutions upon entering office back in december.

late last month, she signed a $13 billion city budget, 10 percent of it dedicated to addressing homelessness. much of the new investment is set aside for an initiative called safe inside, which aims to house the homeless and clear street encampments, los angeles mayor karen bass joins us now. welcome to the "newshour.” gov. bass: thank you. thanks for having me on. geoff: let's talk about your plan, your strategy to confront the homelessness crisis. this program, inside safe, has moved more than 1,200 homeless people off the streets out of encampments into interim housing. what's the plan to make sure that those folks and others find their way into permanent housing? gov. bass: well, absolutely. and thank you for raising the issue. los angeles is really the epicenter. we have over 40,000 people sleeping in tents around the city, and so getting them off the streets immediately, putting them in interim housing, which right now are motels and hotels,

addressing why they were unhoused to begin with, and then moving them on to permanent supportive housing. and we are having challenges doing that. we actually have vacancies in some of our permanent supportive housing. but we're dealing with bureaucratic barriers, and we're trying to address those. and those barriers are on a federal level, on a county and a city level. geoff: so often, the political solution to homelessness is to make it invisible, to push people into places where they can't be seen, to clear encampments. how is your strategy different from that approach? gov. bass: well, it's completely different, because we're not just pushing them away. we are getting them housed, with the commitment to address the underlying causes, as well as to put them in permanent supportive housing. and so what has happened in the past is that the priority has been to clean the streets, which is something that absolutely needs to be done, but to move them on. and that doesn't do anything. and when you have reached

critical mass, like we have in los angeles, you can't hide 40,000 people. and so that's why i ran. that is my commitment. that is, on day one, i declared a state of emergency, because i think we have an emergency in los angeles; 2,000 people died in these tents last year; 22 people died in the first three months of this year on our metro line, at the subways, because -- and that's a phenomena that i know happened around the country, where people who were unhoused started living in subway stations when people were not riding the trains. geoff: people often fall into homelessness faster than the system can catch them and help them. los angeles -- the social services system in los angeles has a number of gaps. there is a major affordability crisis, as you well know. how do you address this urgent

need, when it takes time to build or acquire housing for folks, and it takes time to roll out new social services? gov. bass: and you know what? you are so right. my biggest concern right now is that, since the covid protections, like the eviction moratorium, the rental assistance and all of that, since those programs have gone away, i'm actually worried that we're going to experience another increase in homelessness in los angeles. at the end of the day, there has to be a comprehensive approach. we need to prevent homelessness to begin with. so, for example, our city council passed tenant protections. but we need to make sure that the public knows about that. so we're doing grassroots outreach, as well as mainstream outreach, and then, again, putting people into temporary housing, which are hotels and motels. one of the things that we have not encountered really at all are people refusing the housing. and that was one of the biggest myths around, that people are on the street because they choose to be there, because they're all strung out on drugs.

as a matter of fact, we have had the opposite problem. when we go to move people out of an encampment, we plan for 20 people, and the day that we're moving, folks, 30 people show up. so we have learned to rent additional rooms. now, we have had a few examples of people refusing, but it has been extremely rare. geoff: in your inaugural speech, you talked about how you were raised in los angeles and how your father was able to own a home, raise a family on a single income. he worked for the u.s. postal service. that version of l.a. is unrecognizable now. that dream is so far out of reach for so many people. big picture, beyond the homelessness crisis, what is your vision for the future of housing in los angeles? gov. bass: yes, you are absolutely right. and let me just put some numbers to that. i think, if you went to the toughest neighborhood in town, you are not going to find a house below $400,000. a million-dollar home in los angeles is not necessarily a

mansion at all. and so the only solution to that is to massively increase the supply. and one thing that angelenos -- it's a cultural shift for us. and that is to move up, because we are a city that is spread out with single-family homes. and so now taking a second look at our commercial areas, taking a second look at outdoor malls that are underperforming, so we have to change some of our cultural norms here in the city in order to accommodate -- 500,000 units is what we need in the next 10 years. geoff: how do you do that? how do you change the minds of residents who don't want multifamily housing built in their neighborhoods? gov. bass: well, in one of the neighborhoods where they are the most resistant, they actually support the idea of housing on the commercial strips? so, what i believe is that this problem has become so massive in los angeles that, a few years ago, where people who would have said, not in my neighborhood under any circumstances, are now

going, well, i mean, what's my choice, on the streets or in housing? because, in addition to tents, we also have a terrible problem with recreational vehicles and people living in cars. and so it's different forms. but, at the end of the day, it's all homelessness. geoff: i'd like to ask you about policing while we have you because in -- over the last four years, the los angeles police department has been hemorrhaging officers, down 1,000 officers. the department has had to ask former officers to come out of retirement. how will you recruit and retain officers, while placing a premium on quality, not just quantity? gov. bass: well, you are so right. it has to be on quality. and, in my budget, i am calling to expand the police department, to offer signing -- signing bonuses, to offer raises to officers who've been there for a few years. and we have taken a member of the police department and placed the individual in the personnel

department, beuse one of our problems -- it's not just a recruitment problem. it's a problem with the bureaucracy in city hall that it takes so long to go through the hiring process. so, we are absolutely trying to address that. now, in addition to that, i am also very, very committed to permitting -- to preventing crime in the first place. so, we are opening an office of community safety that's going to focus on unarmed and alternative responses, especially to calls for mental health crises. so there is a variety of ways that we are approaching this problem. my number one job as mayor is to keep the city safe. geoff: throughout your political career, you have been an activist. you have served as speaker of the california state assembly. you have served in leadership roles in the u.s. congress. you have tried to effect change at different levels of government in different capacities. what is different and distinct about being mayor? gov. bass: well, i will tell you, everything.

gov. bass: but what probably what i enjoy the most is the instant gratification, where you're working with legislation, which i also enjoyed very much, but it's 30,000 feet up and it takes years. to be able to go to a person in a tent and get them out of that tent and put them in a motel on the same day, it's -- that brings me tremendous joy, that you can see the change that you are leading in happen right there at the moment. geoff: karen bass is the mayor of los angeles. thanks so much for your time. we appreciate it. gov. bass: thanks for speaking with me.

amna: the pga tour is merging with the saudi-backed liv golf tour. the stunning announcement ends months of bitter legal fights between the rival groups. the pga says the move will quote "unify the game of golf.” but critics and human rights activists argue the merger will stain the legacy of the tour, given liv's close ties to the saudi royal family. for a closer look, i'm joined by brendan quinn, a senior writer at the athletic who has covered this story from the outset. this seemed to catch a lot of people by surprise. did you see this merger coming? brendan: i did not. typically it is the media or fans caught off guard. rarely do you see tour officials, the most prominent players in the game, the most powerful agents in the game that have no idea. zero indication. the pga often refers to itself as player-run and operates differently than traditional sports leagues. in this instance, the players had no idea this was happening.

their reactions were everything from confusion to anger and reacting in real time since 10:00 a.m. this morning. amna: it is stunning. what does that how you -- what does that tell you about how this deal was crafted? brendan: between two very small groups. the pga tour commissioner jay monahan and the governor of the public investment fund of saudi arabia, mbs' personal anger and the director of liv golf. -- personal banker and the director of liv golf. overseas liv golf has been those two parties going at each other in terms of finding who has more

leverage to get the best players in the world. over the last seven weeks according to jay monahan, the two have been talking. they met in london, played golf, had lunch, hammered out a deal. for everything that has happened in the past two years, to suddenly get wrapped up between two people in seven weeks is unthinkable. no one would have considered a scenario like this. amna: we need to remind people liv golf is bankrolled by mohammad bin salman, linked to the murdering of journalist jamal khashoggi. they have a terrible human rights record with their treatment of women and lgbtq folks. some called this sports washing, pouring money into a sport to distract from those other

issues. does this merger suggest that that work? brendan: one thing saudi arabia has been looking for is twofold. it is legitimacy and power. i remember speaking to graham wood. he had met with mbs multiple times and studied saudi arabia at length. he said, it would be something the saudis would think of, why buy a sports team when you can buy a league? there is that degree of ambition. in creating liv golf, it was an entirely new entity to take over

a sport and gain leverage as much as possible. two years ago if it could have, the public investment fund would have bought the pga tour outright if it would have sold for how many billions. but the pga tour would not sell. now it is the influx of cash that the pga tour is getting from the public investment fund that is bolstering the tour and giving the saudi government a controlling share. amna: part of the statement from the 9/11 families they put out today after the merger they said, now the pga and monahan appear to have become just more paid saudi shills taking billionsf dollars to cleanse the saudi reputation. has the pga commissioner addressed any of these concerns?

brendan: he spoke with the media half an hour ago. his message was that the long-term threat of the health of the pga tour and needing this cash to get out of litigation -- there has been a drawn out lawsuit with liv golf. their tax-exempt statuses are being investigated. basically, they had to get out of that situation and this is the only way. the pga tour used a lot of ideas of morality and ethics to keep its best players and stand in stark contrast to what liv golf is. at the end of the day, chose its own financial security over concerns of morality.

amna: brendan, thank you. ♪ geoff: the nation is in the middle of a teacher shortage, and at the end of another school year, burnout is causing many more teachers to call it quits. micaela desimone is a 6th grade english teacher in a charter school in queens, new york, and explains how the past few years have changed her views on what was once her dream job. she shares her brief but spectacular take as part of our open call for stories. >> i don't know a teacher right now that's not struggling and i know a lot of teachers. my father was a guidance counselor for 30 years. we had a family of five on just his salary and he got the

summers off. he got to coach and be with people. it looked like a joyous, fulfilling, satisfying, and sustainable life. so i just knew from an early age i wanted that. so i teach at a charter school in long island city, queens. we serve grades six through eight. so i'm at a middle school. the biggest perk is you get to see these people and experience these important life ents with them. i work with some of the most brilliant, incredible educators that you'll ever meet. they are open-minded, they are creative, they're collaborative, they are hardworking and they are tired. during covid, teachers really had to learn a new job. to teach over a screen was unbelievably infuriating and demoralizing. nobody turns their cameras on. so you don't know if they're listening, you don't know if they're there. again, i work in the midst of one of the largest housing projects in the country. so my students absolutely did not have access to this technology. and that was during the phase, the pandemic where everyone was like, oh my god, pay the teachers millions of dollars.

how are they doing this? and that did not last long. once we finally figured out how to teach on zoom, they shove us back into the classroom. without ppe. i had 25 kids in a room. how am i supposed to keep them six feet apart? so what we saw when we got back to the classroom is number one, your teachers are exhausted. but also the kids are exhausted. and a lot of my students had been home for a year, a year and a half without adult supervision. the apathetic nature was frustrating and infuriating and demoralizing. it's demoralizing because when we asked for help, we didn't receive it. so now i am running on a very low empathy tank and a very low resource tank and my funds are being cut. i'm not asking for more money for crayons, i'm asking for another special educator in the room because my classroom is mandated to have one. hotspots for my students who don't have access to internet,

multi-language learner specialists who can come help us with the immigrants that are being dropped off at our schools. i've decided to leave teaching after this year because it is at the point where my mental and physical health can't sustain this profession anymore. it's a grieving process. i'm mourning the loss of a life i expected. and i am mourning the loss of a future i'd always imagined for myself. so at the same time, i'm 30 years old and i'm basically like a 22 year old college graduate because the only experience i have is in this very niche profession that nobody really knows what we do every day. we're smart and we're capable and we manage 25 to 30 people at a time. and yet the positions that i am qualified for are that of an intern. so as hard as it is to walk away from this, another even harder element is figuring out what to do next. my name is micaela desimone, and

this is my brief but spectacular take on teacher burnout. amna: you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. and we'll be back shortly with a look at an academy training up the next generation of musicians. geoff: but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air. ♪ amna: for those staying with us, we spend a great deal of time looking at the impact of climate change and how it's changing our weather and environment. that, in turn, can have an impact on how pathogens and disease could spread as well. our science correspondent, miles o'brien, has this encore report.

miles: dawn in the high sierra, 50 miles northwest of reno at the clover valley ranch. >> remember to check every trap. walk the line. miles: the hunt is on once again. brian: make sure you take the boxes, open, closed. they're empty if there's no animal in it. >> for clues linking a changing climate and the worsening spread of disease. that is ranch owner brian bird, a veterinarian, virologist and director of the one health institute laboratory at the university of california, davis. brian: good hunting. miles: overnight, 47 of their quarry took the peanut butter, oats and bacon bait. now it's time to retrieve the traps. brian: i believe that's the most we have ever captured here. miles: and gather some data. for three years now, he and his students have been systematically trapping deer mice that live here. they're hoping to better understand hantavirus.

the rodents are the primary reservoir for this pathogen. hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is a so-called zoonotic disease, meaning it is spread by pathogens that spill over from one species to another. this is the primary cause of pandemics throughout human histy. human encroachment and global travel hasten these spillover events. and it appears the climate crisis is making matters even worse. brian: so, as the animals get more and more stressed, they're more likely to shed a particular virus or a pathogen. there's also the impact on the animals themselves. so where do they live? as those environments change, well, those animals will move. they're adaptable at a species level, certainly. but those changes occur very gradually, over perhaps millennia. but now we're looking at rather dramatic, fast-paced changes on the time scale of hundreds of years, if not even faster. miles: in september of

2021, he learned just how fast. so did the fire come through here? brian: it did. so you're working on burned area here. miles: it was the dixie megafire amplified by a historic drought linked to climate change. it burned nearly a million acres over three months. so you had been working in this spot prior to the fire? brian: yes, exactly in this spot prior to the fire. and we had two seasons of sampling data here before the fire. mis: bird expected it would take yea, even decades, to connect the dots. but in his blackened field, he saw opportunity. brian: so, we thought, well, this would be a eat time to continue that sampling and then see, well, how do the rodent populations respond to pretty much a complete destruction of their habitat? miles: they're now finding active hantavirus in 8 percent of mice they're trapping. in the unburned control site, it is 4%. bird says the mice are fighting to establish turf.

brian: the primary method of transmitting the virus amongst the rodents is when they fight and bite each other. so they could be transmitting the virus at a heightened rate, compared to a control site that wasn't burned. miles: so, climate change worsens a drought that triggers a megafire, 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 is growing. biologist camilo mora is a professor at the university of hawaii at manoa. he led a team that pored through no less than 70,000 scientific studies dating back to the end of the roman empire. >> over 58% of those pathogens that have impacted humanity anywhere in the world are already affected by climatic changes, but those are the ones that we already know. the scary things are the ones that we just don't know about. miles: at georgetown university, global change biologist colin carlson is working on a way to take t

surprise out of this. so, colin, what are we looking at here? >> we are looking at the pathogen harmonized sueillance system. miles: he is trying to meld existing climate and disease data in a way that allows epidemiologists to see the big picture. colin: so let's go to berlin. so, each of these points is somewhere that 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 that we were worried about jumping into humans, right? we can literally know within a city where spillover risk is the highest. miles: he's building an open-source tool to forecast an outbreak sooner. he foresees the ability to predict disease, as well as the weather. colin: if we want to get really good at predicting spillover, we need to know what the dynacs of these viruses are when we're not watching them. miles: so can technology make it easier for public health professionals to monitor disease in wild animal populations? epidemiologist christine johnson is also a professor at the u.c. davis one health institute.

she is testing new ways to monitor one of the most prolific spreaders of zoonotic disease, bats. she and her team are testing thermal cameras, as well as audio devices able to record what bat echolocation sounds like. christine: we don't like to go into bat caves for so many reasons, especially because they're very dark. we're able to see them much more clearly with thermal cameras than we could just see with our own eyes. the techniques that we're developing could be used to do that remotely. miles: she is collaborating with the engineering department, seeking ways to monitor and test bat populations remotely. christine: and so that's what we're seeking is, with the innovative technology that we're using to try to bring much more feasibility to wildlife surveillance. miles: there are more and more zoonotic diseases coming. the climate crisis makes it unavoidable. a greater investment to protect public health with some 21st

century tools, along with the risky, laborious field work, 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. ♪ geoff: at the stax music academy in memphis, students learn the fundamentals of music, building on the long legacy of r&b and soul artists who emerged from their local communities. this piece comes to us from the newshour's student reporting labs and is part of our arts and culture series, canvas. >> i'm going to stay in this key. [drumming]

>> here, the students learn what were the elements that went into songs of the past in order for them to create those songs of the future. >> i sing everywhere. [choir singing] >> me being at stax academy, now i feel more confident because i'm learning how to like breathe and stuff like that so now i can do my singing to the fullest. ♪ sing on i'll be at home yes i will i'll be at home ♪ >> this is an r&b institution that teaches kids the basics about rhythm and blues and soul. >> we have alum who are playing with bruno mars and silk sonic and this last grammy cycle three of our alums were on grammy nominated projects from gospel

to pop. >> i heard stax has a lot of genres. when it is fast, you want to dance to it. when it is slow, you smooth dance with a partner. >> we have many long conversations. >> blues can make you feel sad, but it can also make you feel good. and but then pop can make you feel sad, but then it can also make you feel good. it is how you receive it, really. i mostly receive it just as music. >> this is a musical place. all of them are great examples of students who have found a space where they can be creative. >> when i got in, like you're automatically being accepted into a family that cares about you and cares about music the same as you do.

dealing with a lot of self-doubt, it was tough to fit in with school. i just knew i loved to sing. performing has become a thing i need to do. >> music is an outlet to help kids stay focused, determined. they come in with ideas of what they cannot do. when they walk out, they have all these ideas of what they can do. >> i believe that i was created to do great things and to do it through the world of acting, theater, music. amna: that is the newshour. i am amna nawaz. geoff: i am geoff bennett. thank you for sharing your evening with us. >> funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by --

>> you do not need vision to do most things in life. yes, i am legally blind, and yes, i am responsible for the user interface. data visualization. if i can see it and understand it quickly, anyone can. it is exciting to be part of a team driving technology forward. that is the most rewarding thing. people who know know bdo. >> pediatric surgeon, volunteer, topiary artist. a raymond james financial advisor taylor's advice to help you live your life -- tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. ♪ >> carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the investment of international peace and

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

introducing a technological achievement so advanced... it rivals the moon landing. wow! ok. rude. that's one small ep for man.

one giant leap for mankind. this program was made possible in part by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ■ - [female narrator] the u.s. and the holocaust premiered on pbs in september of 2022. the three-part series from filmmakers ken burns, lynn novick, and sarah botstein explores the role of the u.s. before, during, and after one of the greatest humanitarian crises in history. - [ken] i have not been prepared for the response to the film, and yet this hit the spot. people struggled with it, people, you know, liked it, people have showed it to their kids.