geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the “newshour” tonight, israel and hamas release more people held, in a sixth day of exchanges, while negotiators work to extend the pause in fighting. geoff: congress wrangles over funding for israel, ukraine, and the southern border, with a rapidly closing window to work out a deal.

amna: and bangkok, thailand, and other southeast asian cities face an existential crisis, as they sink into the ocean. >> we grew rapidly without even thinking about many capacities and many like, sustainable urban planning. ♪ >> 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, 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. amna: welcome to the "newshour." tonight, mediators in the

israel-hamas war are working to win another extension of a six-day-old pause in fighting. the current temporary ceasefire ends early tomorrow. geoff: israel says it's willing to continue the ceasefire if hamas keeps releasing hostages. but prime minister benjamin netanyahu also reaffirmed today his commitment to continue the war and seek the destruction of the terrorist group. >> in the last few days i hear a question, if after this phase of returning our abductees is exhausted, will israel return to fighting? so, my answer is an unequivocally yes. there is no chance that we won't resume the fighting until the end. amna: meantime, hamas released 10 more israeli hostages, including one with american citizenship. president biden confirmed she is now safe in egypt. hamas also freed two russians and four thai nationals who were driven into egypt. israel was also releasing 30 palestinians from jail, including 16 minors and 14

women. hamas also claimed the youngest hostage, 10-month-old kfir bibas, was killed in an israeli bombing, before the ceasefire. the group said the child's four-year-old brother and mother also died. the israeli military said it's now investigating the claim. geoff: in the west bank, palestinian health officials said israeli troops killed two young boys during a raid in jenin. they were identified as adam sah-mer al-ghoul, who was eight years old, and bah-sel suleiman abu al-wafa, who was 15. the israeli military did not confirm the shooting, but it did say troops killed two islamic jihad militants in a separate incident. let's turn now to aaron david miller, senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace, and a longtime state department official in democratic and republican administrations. thanks for being with us. talks are ongoing to extend the pause in fighting to allow for the release of more hostages and palestinians held by israel.

at this point what are the prospects for another extension and what might it yield? aaron: i think from the israeli perspective, the netanyahu government has no choice but to play hamas's cruel game. if hamas has additional women and children, perhaps a number in the, say, 20, i think the israelis are perfectly prepared to continue the hostage for prisoner release. and diplomats, americans, qataris, egyptians, are perhaps working on a broader set of exchanges that could involve adult males and females, reserve military, and active duty military hamas is holding. so it serves the interests right now of both hamas and israel is in fact you can create a predictable and reliable channel in the coming days to continue the hostage for prisoner exchange.

but at some point the stream will be played out. geoff: the military personnel being held hostage, the men young enough to being called up for motor service, hamas said it would demand a higher price for those who fall into that category. what might that be? aaron: i think it is another asymmetrical trade. 1995 and 2011 in particular, for the return of one, it took sears. the israelis traded 1079 prisoners in israeli jails for his return. i don't know what the ratio would be but it would be another asymmetrical trade out. i am not sure the israelis are willing, depending on what hamas 's conditions are, to play that game. part of the problem is these hostages are not all controlled by hamas. palestine's islamic jihad has some. some of these families have

taken hostages in the wake of october 7 in an effort to trade them for money or some other bargain. geoff: prime minister netanyahu is adamant fighting will resume when the truce lifts. is there any universe in which the series of short-term extensions could lead to a longer-term cease-fire to bring this war to a close? aaron: the chances of that happening are absolutely zero. that of course would hand hamas an extraordinary victory. to be able to survive this onslaught, to get palestinian prisoners in the process, to pull off the largest terrorist attack in history, the single bloodiest days for jews since the nazi holocaust. since a cease-fire proposed, i doubt the israelis would accept it. and right now the biden administration does not seem to be interested in it either.

i think the ground campaign in some fashion -- here i think the biden administration can have an impact in shaping or reshaping what the israelis plan to do in gaza in an effort to try to minimize the tragic exponential deaths of palestinians we have seen and the destruction in northern gaza. geoff: israel's goal of rooting out hamas is the objective. what does the mission look like at this point? aaron: if the war stopped today, the israelis would have failed. hamas's military structure above and below ground, and their leadership remains intact. excuse me. even in northern gaza where the israelis have operated, there is still a hamas presence. i think the israeli objective, eradication of hamas, killing all of its senior leadership, if what the israelis intend i that is that there will not be a residual hamas presence and

hamas will not survive in some form, even as a political movement, i think that probably is unachievable. the cost is at issue and so is the amount of time the israelis would have to spend. we are talking months if we are talking about in eradication strategy. i am not sure it is achievable. can one final point, they are not going to eliminate hamas as an organization. it is the embodiment of an idea and that i.d. is the destruction of israel and creation of an islamic state. that idea is likely to sadly live on in the minds of too many palestinians who right now, an entire generation, i think will be shaped by this war and traumatized, not to mention the israelis who also emerge traumatized. it does not leave much room for

promise for leaders on either side to turn this parade of horrors into something that you and i would consider an equitable and durable resolution. you're much farther from that point in the wake of october 7, i am afraid. geoff: aaron david miller, thanks as always for your insights. aaron: appreciate it. thanks for having me. ♪ amna: in the day's other headlines, senate majority leader chuck schumer warned against letting criticism of israel's actions in gaza fuel anti-semitism. schumer is the highest-ranking jewish elected official in u.s. history. he gave an impassioned speech on the senate floor, saying he felt a responsibility to use his platform, citing centuries of hate and violence against jews. >> all jewish americans carry in them the scar tissue of this generational trauma and that

directly informs how we are experiencing and processing the rhetoric of today. the vitriol against israel in the wake of october 7 is all too often crossing a line into brazen and widespread anti-semitism. amna: schumer also published an opinion piece in the "new york times" in which he called the rise of anti-semitism quote, a five-alarm fire. a u.s. military osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off japan today, killing at least one of the eight people on board. video showed a helicopter searching the crash site. a life raft believed to be from the plane floated in the water. the tilt-rotor osprey can take off and land like a helicopter. it's had a troubled safety record, including a crash in australia that killed three u.s. marines in august. former first lady rosalynn carter has been laid to rest after a funeral service in the carters' hometown of plains, georgia. maranatha baptist church was filled with close friends and

family, including former president carter, now 99 and in frail condition. grandson josh carter praised mrs. carter's life-long focus on improving people's lives. >> she worked with everybody, from world leaders, to people living on less than one dollar a day. and when she told us stories about the work that she would do, she'd only ever focus on the people, on humanity. everywhere she went, she would tell us the people were just as smart and just as capable as she was. amna: mrs. carter's burial site is in view of the home where the former president still lives, now in hospice care. the cdc reports life expectancy in the u.s. has jumped by more than a year, as the pandemic wanes. a child born in 2022 could expect to live 77 years and six months, about the same as two decades ago. that's still well short of the nearly 79 years projected for those born in 2019, before the pandemic.

a new forecast sees the global economy slowing next year. the organization for economic cooperation and development in paris says wars, inflation, and interest rates will affect growth. for now, though, the u.s. economy is expanding faster than expected. the government's revised number shows an annual rate of 5.2% growth from july through september. that's up from the initial estimate of 4.9%. and on wall street, stocks mostly drifted. the dow jones industrial average gained 13 points to close at 35,430. the nasdaq fell 23 points. and the s&p 500 was down 4. still to come on the "newshour," we speak to the families of the palestinian students who were shot in vermont. how challenges to the voting rights act could reshape the nation's political landscape. plus, much more. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington

and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: with u.s. allies embroiled in wars overseas, members of congress face a pivotal decision on whether to green light more aid. congressional correspondent lisa desjardins spent the day on capitol hill, where a deal could hinge on u.s. border funding. lisa, good to see you. help us understand this. how are aid to israel and ukraine tied at all to what is happening at the u.s. southern border? lisa: let's try and make it clear. one is from current president biden himself and his proposal for national security funding. let's look at what he has requested from congress. you will see all of these bundled together. ukraine with the biggest request, about $60 billion more than that. israel about $14 billion. for the u.s. border he has added almost another $14 billion in humanitarian aid.

already he is saying i want these things together. politically he is saying essentially, i want ukraine, money for allies, but i also understand there is need for work on our own border. the other reason this is tied together is timing. ukraine in israel both need funding now. we are running out of time in this calendar year. republicans realize they are not that many must pass bills left this year. they want border security so they are also pushing for border security to be part of any package for israel and ukraine. amna: let's drill down on the border peace because this is not an easy issue to reach consensus on. what could a deal look like? lisa: the last day has been quite wild in terms of what is happening. there is a small group of u.s. senators trying to forge a compromise. it gets very technical but i want people to understand two very broad concepts we have in terms of border talks. you talked about this before. parole. that is something that is temporary and emergency. that is allowing people into

this country for a brief amount of time. the other is asylum. that is a permanent state. both of those things are things republicans want to limit, some very sharply. i asked speaker johnson about this today. are there any redlines for him for what has to happen for border security in order to get ukraine and israel money? i want you to listen to his answer for what priority he has for that money. >> people are deeply concerned about their safety and security and all the things, all the societal ills that happen at the border. so, that is a top priority for us in all these negotiations to get that secured. and we need policy changes, not just further funding to process people. lisa: he wants policy changes. now, listen a few hours later to a set a i was at. this is senator roger marshall, how he puts it. >> my priorities one, two, and three are the border, the border, and the border.

unless there is meaningful reform that secures our border, we are hell no. we're not going to vote for cloture on any type of supplemental legislation unless it includes border security. lisa: in other words, border security or nothing. amna: what about to aid to israel and ukraine? lisa: let's talk about some divides. israel, there is a difficult discussion democrats are having over whether there should be conditions for that. perhaps limiting the way israel uses some weapons america funds, protecting civilians. also in ukraine there are calls, especially from republicans, for more checks on spending. and for both of those are questions about how much should we give and for how long. are these endless wars? these are difficult discussions to have. amna: what is the timeline here? lisa: let's look at the calendar. just on the verge of december this is the timeline we are looking at. this is when the senate is hoping to have a vote on some kind of foreign aid and border bill maybe next week.

look at the entire calendar for this year. congress is only in session next week and the week following it. so it is really hard to do the math to see how they get all of this done. hope springs eternal but it is all to say that there has to be a deal essentially this week. blocking here from the capitol tonight, it seems like they are farther away than closer. senator chris murphy he was involved in the gun deal we talked about before, he said having a bipartisan compromise on guns was a cakewalk compared to what we are talking about now. amna: we are going to let you go now. will congress will to expel juran santos? lisa: he's said he will not resign. it is not clear the votes are there. it takes two thirds a vote in the house to expel him. that vote could happen as soon as tomorrow but the latest is they were leaning towards leaning it -- we will be watching that very

closely. amna: a lot happening. lisa, always good to see you. lisa: you too. ♪ geoff: now we turn the aftermath of the shooting that happened this past weekend in burlington, vermont, where a white man shot three young men of palestinian descent. the attack has again stirred fears of rising islamophobia and anti-arab hatred. william brangham spoke with two of the young men's mothers. william: on saturday night, these three college students were shot and wounded by a stranger. the attacker, whose motive is still unknown, has been charged with three counts of attempted murder. earlier today i spoke with his mother. she just arrived from the u.s.

-- thank you both so much for joining us today. i would love to both hear how your sons are doing. >> he's doing all right. he was discharged the day before yesterday. yesterday, actually. i was able to speak to his e.r. dr. by phone. the hospital has been amazing in giving us information. the bullet that the defendant hit him with grazed his right glute. and it did not penetrate deeply. so he was incredibly lucky. however, he is in a lot of pain. the adrenaline of all of this has suddenly subsided. and so he is having trouble sleeping.

i am very anxious to get to him because i have a feeling he is not just having trouble sleeping because of pain but because of trauma. so i am quite concerned for him. but otherwise he was incredibly lucky and he has a lot of concern for his friends that are still in the hospital. william: elizabeth, i know your son was also quite seriously injured. what is the latest on his prognosis? >> he has what they call an incomplete spinal injury. which means he has sensation in his legs but he cannot move them. from what i heard today talking with my husband, the bullet hit his clavicle. and we are grateful it hit his clavicle because if it had not in might have killed him. we are so grateful they are alive. we are so thankful it makes such a difference. they are going to get sick of us.

i don't know if i will let go of them for a while. it was a hair's breath away from death. i believe in my son. i believe he will be able to walk again. but you cannot bring a child back from death. william: as the country has focused on this, the tragedy that fell to your sons, everyone has been seeing these photographs of them as little boys knowing each other, obviously for many years. can you just tell us a little bit about the relationship between these three young men? >> sure. so, they have grown up together. -- elizabeth and i were pregnant very close in time. we were friends first and then the two babies were born being friends because frankly, they had no choice.

we were always hanging out, so the boys were always hanging out. so they will tell you that they are actually more brothers than they are just friends. the third boy that was with them is very close to them as well. he met them when i think they were in fourth grade. and the three of them are very like-minded. they are the kind of boys that spend hours and hours together, huddled with their heads together in a room just talking, talking about everything. talking about science, astrology, playing chess. so, they really grew up -- >> as an inseparable team. william: the night of the attack the boys were walking to dinner at a family's house when their attacker approached them, said nothing, and then opened fire. >> he came off the property and approach to them. they stood to the side to let them pass, because they were

probably rocking down in a row. he pulled out his gun, didn't say a word, shot them. he was able to turn and run, to flee, i think, from what was described. the man continued to shoot while he was fleeing. hisham and his friend fell to the ground. he said all of a sudden he found himself on the ground, he did not know he was shot. he pulled his phone out of his pocket and there was blood on it. his friend was lying next to him screaming in pain. hisham called 911, and then the emt came. william: he ran for safety down the street. >> i understand he thought his friends were dead. and was picked up by an emt. and in the ambulance he said to the emt, i'm an emt and i can help my friends. he thought his friends were dead.

her family thought he was dead. you can understand the trauma. william: i cannot imagine having to go through that experience, fearing for your friends and not being certain of what happened to them. as you know, there is still no quote-unquote stated motive for this attack. but you both clearly believed that your sons were targeted because they are palestinian. is that correct? >> look, i cannot get into the assailant's mind, but i can say this. two of the three of them were wearing the traditional -- if he was close enough to be within earshot, they were also speaking and mix of arabic and english, as they tend to do. our boys d't typically walk around with it, but right now in solidarity with what is happening to the palestinian

people, many palestinians and other supporters of the palestinian people are wearing it to recognize and be in solidarity with those who are suffering in gaza. i find it very, very difficult to believe that this was completely random and i can say even further that if our boys looked like the assailant, if our boys spoke like him, if our boys were dressed exactly like him, i have a very hard time believing that this shooting would have happened. and in all cases, this was definitely motivated by hate. no one can do an act like this that is not entirely fueled by hate. >> i do not think they are surprised by what happened because i think they have been on edge and they felt like they were targeted. the killing of that young boy a few weeks ago, in october, means

that there is a context in which this crime happened. and as she said, it was a hate-driven crime because he did something so hateful to young men who he had no contact with before. so it was a vicious attack on them, as they were standing there and based on how he perceived their identities. william: thank you both so much and we are wishing you a wonderful reunion with your son later today. >> we are looking forward to it. we are going to hold them and not let go. they are going to be squirming to get out. william: thank you so much for talking with us. >> thank you. ♪ amna: coastal cities in southeast asia including bangkok, jakarta and manila face

a mutually risky future -- they're sinking as sea levels around them are rising. fred de sam lazaro has our report from thailand. fred: just 30 miles from thailand's capital, bangkok sits a temple on a small spit of land. the only way in is to walk or hitch a ride with a motorcyclist along a narrow, concrete footbridge. over my shoulder here are about 2.5 square miles of what is today the gulf of thailand. as recently as the mid-1990's, this was the village of samut chin. community leader suwan buaplai points to the lines of what were once power poles disappearing into the distance, marking a road where they once carried power lines to houses, farms, and markets in a thriving fishing village. >> the soil here erodes by 1.5 to 2 inches every year. people have had to move houses six or seven times because the water has kept coming in.

fred: the 50-year-old has been fishing since he was 10. >> there's been a decline in mangrove forests, which has led to quite a few species of fish and shellfish disappearing almost entirely. fred: slowly, he says, the buffer zone that shielded the capital from the worst is eroding away. >> bangkok has a natural reservoir for water, and if the water comes in it's very hard for it to get out. if there's flooding and places like samut chin are no longer around, the water could potentially stay in bangkok for months. fred: thailand's capital was moved here 240 years ago, on the chao phraya river, lifeblood to acres of rice paddies, at the time the lifeblood of the economy. today, this dense, concrete megacity of some 10 million residents is sinking at a rate of up to two thirds of an inch

every year. during high tides after some flooding events, the river has risen nearly 10 feet above sea level. >> am i worried? yes. fred: i met varawut silpa-archa, until recently, thailand's minister for natural resources and environment, in his high rise office. >> 40 or 50 years from now we might be sitting at the sea level here on the 20th floor. fred: many who live at street level already know what that's like. >> it's impossible to live here if you don't have a two-story house. fred: surapol kearnakpu, 65, is a retired soldier and lives on a canal in east bangkok. >> what we can carry upstairs, we carry, but sometimes we just have to let it flood. so during the big floods of 2011, we couldn't move appliances like the refrigerators and television, so we just let it flood.

fred: the 2011 floods, the worst in half a century, inundating the city for almost three months. more than 800 people died, and cost the thai economy $40 billion u.s. in factory shutdowns. thailand is a major manufacturing hub serving global supply chains. the government has built some new dikes and flood gates to hold the water at bay in a future flood, but even the former minister is skeptical. >> i don't think it's adequate enough. we need to move much quicker. fred: despite the high stakes, he says, the sense of urgency has waned as memories fade of the 2011 floods. >> some of the infrastructure has been developed since 2011. but unfortunately, i think not many people are really concerned or realize how the magnitude of the problem is. fred: one with multiple causes. rising sea levels are just one factor causing the thai capital to sink. millions of new residents and thousands of new high rises have

drained groundwater levels. and many canals that drained into the sea have been paved over. >> we grew rapidly without even thinking about many capacities and many like, sustainable urban planning. so, we are very addictive to growth. like, we still want to grow more. fred: landscape architect kotchakorn voraakhom runs a social enterprise working to increase urban resilience in her hometown. she says in recent decades, the city has lost nearly half of its network of 3000 canals that drain through the chao praya river and into the sea. >> water is life to our culture. but now when you develop the city without concerning the benefits of the natural infrastructure, you shift to road, you have to drive more, you have to build more.

fred: she's working to build a more climate friendly city. her hallmark design is centenary park, opened six years ago, a vast green space in the middle of the city. graded to harness gravity, the park collects and holds water in an underground reservoir, reducing the flood risk. in dry periods, up to a million gallons is available for watering. another kotchakorn project is chong nonsi canal park, above a major canal, now reconnected to fresh water to nourish greenery on parkland. like many waterways, this one had been disconnected from the canal network, leaving it stagnant and polluted. >> this main canal is in the heart of the city. and is the true main canal that connects to chao phraya. fred: so people moved in here migrating from rural areas to get jobs? >> yes. fred: she took us to this canal

community that was among the hardest hit in the 2011 flood. >> we need these people to serve the cities, but it's so expensive to commute, so, they live in informal settlements. fred: kotchakorn's group is working with community leaders to help rehouse families being displaced as authorities plan to widen canals to move floodwaters through faster. she'd like to see more green space ideas, not more concrete, to mitigate the impact of bangkok's concrete binge. >> it's such a lovely city that we still want to be part of it. even with the flood. we used to live with the flood. we are amphibious. we can live in a wet season and dry season. it's not about destroying it, but work with the concrete. fred: are you optimistic that something will happen in time? or do you think you're going to lose a lot of this city? >> i know something will happen. it's not a matter of if, it's a

matter of when, and it's not a choice, shall we do it or shall we not. fred: meantime, not far from the bustling metropolis, in the once-upon-a-time village of samut chin, a large statue of lord buddha stands on a platform of concrete, facing the sea, hands outstretched as if holding back the tide. for the "pbs newshour," i'm fred de sam lazaro, near bangkok, thailand. amna: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under-told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. ♪ geoff: legal challenges regarding voting rights in multiple states, from georgia to arkansas, could alter the nation's political landscape ahead of the 2024 elections. laura barron-lopez has a closer look. laura: geoff, a special legislative session began today in georgia to redraw its congressional and state district maps.

lawmakers are beginning the work after a federal judge ruled georgia's current maps violate the voting rights act by diluting the power of black voters. and last week, the 8th circuit federal appeals court issued a ruling that could gut a key section of the voting rights act. a three-judge panel said only the federal government, not private citizens or groups, can sue under section two of the civil rights law. that could rollback decades of enforcement that protected minority representation. joining me now is janai nelson, president of the naacp legal defense fund. janai, thank you so much for being here. i wanted to start off by asking you, what could the impact of this eighth circuit circuit appeals ruling be beyond its effect on redistricting? janai: oh, the impact could be extraordinarily corrosive to our entire electoral system. what it means effectively is that after almost 60 years of

voters and civil rights groups and other advocates being able to bring lawsuits directly in federal court to make sure that voters are not discriminated against based on their race, that they will no longer be able to do so. and that could easily provide a welcome mat for even more voter suppression and racial discrimination and our electoral process. so the consequences arkwright -- are quite grave and it is something we are deeply concerned about. laura: and this could apply beyond just redistricting maps but also to where polling places are located, correct? janai: it applies to every aspect of voting. what section two of the voting rights act does which was the portion of that legislation that was unfortunately halted in many parts -- in all the eighth circuit in the states that are covered by the eighth circuit, it covers every possible voting practice or procedure.

that means voter registration, the location of polling sites, how you draw district lines for congressional, state, and local bodies that govern our population. sir there are many vast consequences from this ruling in the states that are covered by the eighth circuit. laura: the american civil liberties union old me they plan to file a petition in the coming weeks for the full eighth circuit to rehear this case. but in this specific ruling from the three judges, they said the actual wording of the voting rights act section two only allows the attorney general, the justice department, to bring these lawsuits. what is your response to that? janai: it really defies logic, it defies reason, and it defies the legislative history of the voting rights act. it also defies the purpose of section 2, which is that voters

have the ability to vindicate their rights. it is important to know that this is such an aberrant decision from this eighth circuit panel. and it is a three-judge panel but only two of the three judges agreed, which is unfortunately enough to halt the use of this critical portion of the statute by voters and their advocates. but this is not a normal decision. this upends nearly six decades of critical precedent, allowing voters to -- laura: and unlike that eighth circuit ruling, a federal court ruled that georgia did violate section two of the voting rights act and that means that georgia is now going to be adding new majority black districts that will be added across the political map. that includes one congressional district, two state senate districts, and five statehouse districts. what does this change mean for black voters?

janai: it means that black voters will finally have a fair shot at being able to elect candidates of their choice. it means black voters will no longer suffer from being manipulated bipartisan actors, or actors who have a nefarious purpose as they think about how they draw lines for congress, for state legislatures, for local power. what it does is really level the playing field for all voters and makes our entire election process much more fair and makes our governing bodies free of racial discrimination. right now the way the laws are drawn, it means the entire congress is infected by these racially discriminatory districts. laura: with the 30 seconds we have left, when you look at the supreme court upholding section two just earlier this year, but also continued challenges to section two from republicans in states across the country, what

is the pattern that you are seeing? janai: i am very pleased with what the supreme court did when it ruled in favor of a case ldf brought last term, and it was very clear that section two is still very viable in combating racial discrimination in redistricting. i have full faith the supreme court will uphold its prior precedent and find that yes, voters and their advocates can bring lawsuits to combat racial discrimination in voting in federal courts under section two. laura: janai nelson, thank you for your time. janai: thank you. ♪ amna: and we'll be back shortly to explore a new art exhibit that displays the masterful and complex portraiture of painter john singer sargent. 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 this one on the air.

♪ amna: for those of you staying with us, we get an encore from a dynamic musical group. while the pandemic caused heartbreak for millions, it also provided a chance for some artists to reset. william brangham spent time with the musicians behind the tedeschi trucks band, who credit their time in lockdown, plus a centuries-old poem, with not only opening new creative paths, but with fusing their band even more tightly. ♪ william: in the world of musical marriages, there is none quite like this one. susan tedeschis and derek trucks. as the creative duo behind the

12 member tedeschi trucks band, this husband and wife have been called two of the best roots musicians of their generation. ♪ but before joining together musically, they each had successful solo careers. susan's first major label record, just won't burn, now being reissued for its 25th anniversary, went gold. rare for a debut blues album. derek is considered one of the greatest living blues guitarists. he began touring at age 12. a sneaker-clad prodigy talented enough to take on eric clapton's layla. at 20, he joined the legendary allman brothers and played with them for over a decade.

>> this up here -- william: so after years of passing each other on the road, these two solo artists met, fell in love, and started a left together. >> we did it all out of order. it was pregnancy, marriage. >> we bought the house first. >> house, pregnancy, marriage. >> then we got married. then we did a band. william: that is really a scrambled set of sequence. their 2010 debut revelation or went gold, won the grammy for best blues record, and launched a new chapter. their band, including horns, double drummers and keyboards, recorded a string of records and spent 10 long years touring the globe. by any measure, they were a success. but it was draining. then when a beloved band member died of a heart condition, a man

trucks called the beating heart of the band, they began to reassess. >> the main story we are following, the coronavirus pandemic. william: and then came the pandemic and subsequent lockdown that brought life to a standstill. >> for us, in a lot of ways, the pandemic kind of saved our band. we were really at a point where, we were about to take time off to kind of deal with the loss and reset and think about what we want to do, and what is this thing. it was a hard reset for us. william: long time band member mike matteson says it was a rough period. >> the tank was pretty low. we had been touring pretty hard for over a decade. and we had achieved what we wanted to achieve. but i think what we realized in going down this wormhole is we

had not said what we wanted to say. william: so matteson had an idea. during lockdown, everyone in the band would read the 12th century persian poem, an arab romeo in juliet story about two lovers held apart by a male dominated society. heartbroken wonders the wellness -- >> the thing i was most concerned about is i would be shunned for being a nerd. [laughter] oh, gee, now we have homework. >> exactly. william: so mid pandemic, the band gathered at tedeschi and trucks' home and begin writing. multiple band members contributed ideas. some, but not all, touched on

themes from the poem. >> one of the big takeaways from me in reading that story, and mike alludes to this in a few of the tunes he wrote, is, when in a relationship, what is going on just does not affect the two people in the relationship. it can really spill out in positive ways and negative ways. and we see in our situation that is absolutely true. >> i see, as a woman, and all the things going on in the world as a woman, really trying to stand up and have a voice in a different way now. even the women are much more vocal, that does not mean our rights are more equal. so, it is kind of interesting. there are a lot of things that really have not changed. obviously in america we are much better off, but there are plenty of countries in the world that i just like that. -- that are just like that. william: it was a remarkably fruitful period. the band recorded four albums

and release them subsequently. each with accompanying films by alex lambert. ♪ the tedeschi trucks band continues their tour. a community on stage, 12 members strong. their playing music inspired by centuries-old poem, but in this telling, the starcrossed couple made it. and the woman is not locked away in a tower, but commands center stage. ♪ for the "pbs newshour," i'm william brangham in north carolina. ♪

geoff: the great painter john singer sargent, an american expat, is the subject of a new show at boston's museum of fine arts, its only u.s. location before moving to london. it reveals much about his methods and why his work remains relevant more than 100 years later. special correspondent jared bowen of gbh boston reports for our arts and culture series, "canvas." jared: painter john singer sargent had a way. a way of rendering the architecture of an arm, a splaying of the fingers, or an elevation of the chin so that we could know exactly what he saw inside and out. >> there's some people who recalled that they saw a little bit too much and that was a little bit nervous making to go sit for sargent. jared: sargent was an american artist who became the darling painter of the upper classes on both sides of the atlantic from the late 1800's through the turn of the century. his sitters had noble lineages

and cascading jewels. and paid six-figures, in today's money, for the privilege of being painted by him. >> he decided how they were going to pose, what they would wear in many cases, and the backdrop and setting. jared: erica hirshler is the curator of fashioned by sargent, a new exhibition at the museum of fine arts, boston that follows the threads of sargent's process, even reuniting portraits with the original garments his sitters wore. like this opera cloak enveloping lady sassoon. >> he takes it and he pulls it across her body and he tur out the lapel so that you get this great swoop of pink satin across her body. and it makes for a much more interesting painting. jared: while the society portraits may have been sargent's bread and butter, his true nourishment came from society's fringes. he relished painting bohemian poets, playwrights, and

musicians. he loved the performing arts. and here, sargent was as drawn to dame ellen terry as lady macbeth as he was to her costume. >> the costume is covered with beetle wings which reflect the light and sort of shimmer blue-green. and the excitement of being able to paint something that was so unusual appealed to him. >> i think there's a lot of sargent's biography lurking in these paintings. jared: paul fisher is a wellesley college american studies professor and author of the recent sargent biography, "the grand affair." far from the gilded age drawing rooms, he says the painter was also drawn to the transgressors, and had the daring to paint them. and all at a time, not unlike today, when society was publicly wrestling with gender fluidity. >> newspapers of the time often described this as the "maladie du siecle," the illness of the century. women were out and about. men were seen as more complicated, maybe more effete. so there was a lot of anxiety.

and sargent capitalizes on that. jared: he did it boldly in this portrait of a well-known parisian, the gynecologist dr. pozzi. for its startling intimacy, the painting was never shown publicly in paris in sargent's lifetime. >> he's wearing a blood red robe. and he's got cuffs and a collar that are highly pleated and somewhat feminine. so, sargent is really sporting with gender here. dr. pozzi was a famous womanizer, but he had lots of queer friends in the circles in paris. and sargent was kind of gripped by this man's charisma and you can see it in the portrait. he has warring instincts. on the one hand he's a very sort of shy, quiet, retiring man who loves his work. on the other hand, the provocation is part of his making a career for himself. jared: but provocation doesn't even begin to describe what sargent did in 1884, when this portrait of the american-born

madame pierre gautreau was exhibited at the prestigious paris salon. she did not commission sargent. rather, he chased her. >> everybody in paris wanted to make an image of madame gautreau. one other american artist described her as black as spades and white as milk, and she sort of glided across the floor. jared: but when the portrait was unveiled with gautreau's revealing gown, one strap originally painted slipping down her shoulder, and her skin so white it looked lavender, society revolted. >> one of sargent's friends wrote that it was surrounded by shoals of jibing women. and also in the press, they say that it looks like her dress is about to fall down. they say she looks like a corpse, she's so pale. jared: gautreau was mortified and sargent was singed. he later repainted the strap and found the experience bruising

enough to leave paris for london. >> sargent, when he sold it to the metropolitan museum in 1915, he said, i think it's one of the best things i've ever done. it's interesting, she sort of retreated from society. but then some years later, had another portraitist paint her portrait. also in profile. also with one strap down. jared: and validating john singer sargent as both socially and fashion forward. for the "pbs newshour," i'm jared bowen in boston. ♪ geoff: and join us again here tomorrow for coverage of cop28, the annual international gathering to address climate change. this year, it's hosted by the oil-rich nation of the united arab emirates.

and that is the "newshour" for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the "newshour," including jim and nancy, and kathy and paul anderson. >> consumer cellular, this is sam. how may i help you? this is pocket dial. well, somebody's pocket, thought i'd let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> these are people who are trying to change the world. startups have this energy that energizes me. i am thriving by helping others, every day. people who know, know bdo.

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hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. more hostages and prisoners expected to be released as israel and hamas continue their truce. as israel gathers evidence of sexual violence committed by hamas on october 7th, i'll speak to ruth halpern ka'darry, a women's rights advocate who accuses the international community of staying silent. then i'll putha