♪ laura: good evening. i'm laura barron-lopez. geoff bennett and amna nawaz are away. on the "newshour" tonight, new year's celebrations turned to horror. a driver tore through bourbon street in new orleans, killing and wounding multiple people in what's being investigated as a terrorist attack.

after decades of work, jimmy carter's goal of eradicating a tropical disease appears within reach. we examine the lasting global health legacy the late president leaves behind. and new research shows exercise could be the most potent medical intervention ever known. euan ashley: stressing our bodies with exercise in just the right amount actually prepares our bodies to deal with the stress of everyday life. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- >> working to advance inclusive democracy. >> of holding freedom by strengthening democracies at

home and abroad. looking 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 and peaceful world. more information at macfound.o rg. 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. laura: welcome to the newshour. at least 15 people are dead and dozens injured after a man driving a truck barreled through the french quarter in new orleans early this morning, where people had gathered to usher in the new year. authorities found an isis flag and weapons in the truck.

the suspect, a u.s.-born citizen, is dead, and the fbi is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism. a warning, video of the attack is disturbing. in new orleans, what should have been a night of celebration ringing in the new year, ended in terror. authorities say at around 3:15 a.m., the suspect plowed a white ford pick-up truck into a crowd on bourbon street. [gunfire] after crashing the vehicle, the driver fired at police officers on the scene. law enforcement intervened, killing the man, identified today as 42-year-old shamsud din jabbar. all of this leaving an unimaginable trail of destruction and lifeless bodies in the streets. today, a coroner van on the city's main roads. a popular area known for its bars and live music now an active crime scene.

more than 30 people were injured, including two police officers shot that remain in stable condition. witnesses described the scene as surreal. >> what we saw was insanity. i mean, something out of a movie. the graphic nature of it. and it was unbelievable. authorities say he was dressed in military gear and had an isis flag inside the vehicle. officials said the act was intentional. supt. kirkpatrick: because of the intentional mindset of this perpetrator, who went around our barricades in order to conduct this, he was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did. laura: the fbi does not believe the suspect acted alone and is asking the public for help. special agent duncan: we're asking if anyone who's had any interactions with the deceased subject jabbar in the last 72 hours to provide us with this information. laura: president-elect donald

trump implied the attacker was an immigrant, saying, quote, "when i said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, it turned out to be true." but authorities confirmed the suspect was a u.s.-born citizen from texas -- and an army veteran. new orleans mayor latoya cantrell told residents her priority is safety. mayor cantrell: the mission now is to facilitate, support, and coordinate safety procedures to keep residents and visitors safe. we're taking every step to put even more safety procedures in place, especially given the nature of investigation. laura: increased police presence can be seen around the area as the investigation continues. the sugar bowl college football playoff -- initially scheduled for tonight, just blocks from the attack -- has been postponed until tomorrow. for insight into the ongoing terrorism investigation, we're joined by bruce hoffman, a

senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland security at the council for coal foreign relations. he's advised the cia and studied terrorism and insurgency for five decades. bruce, thank you for joining us this evening. the suspect was an army veteran and had a isis flag, according to authorities. how significant is it that he had the isis flag, and what and out to you? prof. hoffman: the isis flag is enormously significant, because it is very clear he tried to create this act of violence in a political context and show allegiance and support to isis. laura: law enforcement said they do not believe the suspect, din jabbar, was acting alone. what can we infer so far about who else might be involved in what this means? prof. hoffman: this is what is so alarming about this particular incident is it was not just a matter of someone

getting in a truck and driving from texas to louisiana to carry out an attack. it is believed two other improvised explosive device's were found in the french quarter of new orleans and several other men and women have been captured on video planting them they are. so this suggests some conspiratorial dimension to the attack, which means that this may not be isolated. laura: right. authorities did say in the last few hours that they are not sure if that man and woman were involved or connected to the suspect. there's a lot we do not know, and again, based on the information we have so far, how likely is it that the suspect was inspired or directly linked to isis? prof. hoffman: it is difficult to say. it is clear that he was going through some personal crisis. he had financial problems, for example, he was recently divorced, a recent convert to a religion, for example, all of these things may have played into his mind to do something daring, dramatic, and violent that would all of a sudden

catapult him into infinite notoriety but notoriety nonetheless. what we know from the recruitment and radicalization of individuals is that members of terrorist organizations play on individuals' personal weaknesses, personal traumas, and try to a get them to engage in acts of violence that under normal circumstances that might have never contemplated. laura: are there similarities between this attacked and passed acts of terrorism that may or may not have been diagnosed? prof. hoffman: isis for at least the past decade has targeted highly populated, celebratory type of events, the area on a ground a concert, and -- the ariana grande concert, the

attempt on the taylor swift concert in vienna, austria. so if people are still running something, whether a concert or as in this morning's tragedy, a new year's eve event, and try to find places where they can kill lots of people but also get lots of attention. laura: isis has been substantially weakened in recent years, but what reason would they still have to attack the u.s.? prof. hoffman: one of the main reasons is during the trump administration, for example, for several occasions, president trump proclaimed the defeat of isis. the international campaign against isis from 2014 to 2019, destroy the caliphate. this could be a way of isis poking at the united states, especially as the inauguration is only three weeks away. laura: i mean, could this attack indicate that isis might still have more influence than we previously believed and the ability to conduct an attack on

u.s. soil? prof. hoffman: absolutely. and let's not forget the aborted isis plot that was derailed in october in oklahoma city on election day. we can see this morning's events as not necessarily an aberration. laura: what are you looking for? prof. hoffman: i think the biggest question, was this a broader conspiracy? who are they fellow conspirators? i would say secondly, the serious explosion of a cyber truck outside a trump own hotel in las vegas is in any way connected. it is odd that two electric vehicles are involved in exposures on the same day. laura: bruce hoffman, thank you for your time and insight. prof. hoffman: you are very welcome. laura: let's turn now to possible security lapses in new orleans. for that, i spoke a short time ago with juliette kayyem, a former assistant secretary at the department of homeland security, and faculty chair of

the homeland-security program at harvard's kennedy school. thank you so much for joining us today. given your expertise, how was a vehicle able to ram into a crowd, and from a physical security standpoint, could more have been done to prevent this? prof. kayyem: the evidence is starting to suggest yes. bourbon street was changed after attacks in europe, in nice, in france, and in germany, where automobiles were used. in that instance, new orleans produced three different security measures, the barricades, the bollards, which we will get two and a second, and basically trucks, so they would have this layer of security. what we are starting to learn and what is being disclosed is that second entity that would essentially terror of a car that was trying to ram through,

bourbon street, were not functioning, they were being upgraded presumably for the super bowl in a couple of weeks, and therefore were not ready for this big event. and that is what everyone is focused on right now, is whether alternative measures, alternative securities, were used, and whether they were sufficient enough. look, any terrorist who really wants to kill could have just gone down the street and gotten another group of people, but obviously you want to protect areas that are going to have the greatest risk in the greatest density of people. laura: juliette, authorities are saying that the suspect may not have added alone. is this a bigger security failure or a larger issue? prof. kayyem: the larger question, what we are hearing from officials, is that this perpetrator did not act alone. we have no clarity on who he may have acted with, and therefore whether the city is safe tonight and, of course, tomorrow, when

they finally host a delayed sugar bowl tomorrow night. it is that discrepancy between, you know, saying that the city should be open and people should move forward and the potential that there might be co-conspirators is something that they are going to have to answer to. it is a legitimate question from reporters and the citizens to ask of public officials, if they are wrong about there being co-conspirators, that is actually good news. it shows a horrible incident but one that can be managed by the city, and they can move forward faster. laura: you said that there should have potentially been a backup action to the barriers on bourbon street that were not being used at the time of this attack. what next steps are you looking for in this investigation? prof. kayyem: i think an honest accounting. there was a press conference today that seemed remarkably defensive. i don't think that is a good

posture for new orleans nor the police department. we need an honest accounting of what were those alternative measures? were they focused on the wrong event, so to speak? in other words, the super bowl is in a couple of weeks, so they work preparing for that, but forgetting they had a high risk, high-profile event. we also have to figure out is, where -- why were there sanitation trucks, and where they moved after midnight? so any build up to a risk event is also going to have a drawdown, and that drawdown may have happened at 2:00 a.m., 2:30 a.m. did that create greater vulnerability for the people who were still partying on the street on new year's eve? those are the questions, operational questions that have to be asked and answered honestly, not just for new orleans but every other city that is going to do this. paris, for example, has learned they essentially keep a

hard-core security posture in paris, almost impossible to get vehicles in front of yours even till 6:00 or 7:00 the next morning. these may be the lessons we have to learn from this tragedy that happened today. laura: juliette, you write in the atlantic today that new orleans needs to return to normal as quickly as possible, but how safe is it to be in new orleans right now, and is it feasible and safe for the sugar bowl to continue tomorrow? prof. kayyem: i think the delay was appropriate. i think it needs to guarantee that there is no ongoing threat. what kind of changes can they make to security planning for the bowl that will ensure safety and also ensure the preceptor of safety? -- perception of safety? you want people to have a good time. you don't want terrorists to hold capture a whole city indefinitely. you want people to move forward. those were the two major

aspects, both an accounting of is it safe, who are these potential co-conspirators? and secondly, what changes are they going to make to the security posture, to move forward? i'm not a fan of cities closing down for long periods of time. we learned in the past they create more tension, more fair, more isolation. they generally are not more beneficial in terms of finding people. the most important, and they get the terrorists a narrative that is greater than asia. it makes them feel -- than they should. and makes them feel more powerful. we can close down the sugar bowl and all of new orleans in the first week of 2025, and i think there is something important ura: juliet kiam, thank you for your time. prof. kayyem: thank you. --laura: juliette kayyem, thank you for your time. the day's other news begin with the restoration of power in puerto rico, following an island-wide outage that struck on new year's eve.

the u.s. territory's private energy provider says that as of this afternoon, 98% of its customers have their lights back on. but luma energy warns there could be temporary outages in the coming days, as it works to fully restore power across the island. the exact cause of the outage is still under investigation. but early indications point to a problem with an underground power line. at the peak of yesterday's outage, nearly 90% of luma energy customers were without power, forcing people to start the new year in darkness. in las vegas, authorities say one person is dead and seven others were injured today, when a tesla cybertruck caught fire and exploded outside the city's trump international hotel. eyewitness video captured the vehicle as it burned in the valet area of the hotel. the driver is the only known fatality. the cause of the explosion is unclear, though a law enforcement official tells the associated press that the truck appeared to be carrying a load of fireworks. authorities are reportedly investigating the explosion as a

possible act of terror. authorities in new york city have arrested and charged a 23-year-old man, after a manhattan subway passenger was shoved onto the tracks as a train approached. security camera footage shows the 45-year-old victim -- wearing an orange jacket -- being pushed violently from behind. police say he's in critical but stable condition. the suspect has been identified as kamel hawkins. he has been charged with attempted murder and second-degree assault. it's just the latest act of violence to raise concerns among new york's transit passengers. though police figures show major crimes on subways are down compared to last year. israeli air strikes killed at least a dozen palestinians in gaza overnight, as the war grinds on into the new year. hospital officials say one strike hit a refugee camp in central gaza, killing a woman and child. israeli forces say the attack was in response to militant rocket fire that had come from the area. another strike hit a home in

northern gaza, killing seven and wounding a dozen others. the israeli military has been conducting a major offensive in that area since early october. ukraine is putting the brakes on russian gas flowing through its pipeline network to european customers. the shut-off in supplies comes nearly three years after russia invaded ukraine. that's because a five-year agreement between the two countries had kept the gas flowing. but the deal expired at the end of 2024, and ukraine has refused to extend it. slovak prime minister robert fico said the stoppage will have a "drastic" impact on european union countries, but not on russia. p.m. fico: nobody, i repeat, nobody is pushing slovakia away from the european community. but we must see that selfish national interests are beginning to dominate this community. in world politics, it absolutely applies that it does not matter whether elephants love or fight. the grass always suffers.

i do not want slovakia to be such grass. laura: before the war, russia supplied almost 40% of the e.u.'s natural gas via pipelines. but by 2023, their share had dropped to around 8%, as the e.u. moved to diversify the bloc's energy sources. the u.s. and norway have stepped in to fill the gap, becoming the two largest suppliers to europe. in south korea, investigators say they've extracted black box data from the boeing jet that crashed at muan international airport on sunday, killing 179 people. they hope to use the information to determine the exact cause of the crash. transport ministry officials are also sending a damaged flight data recorder to the u.s. for analysis. today, relatives of the victims visited the site to pay respects to their loved ones. officials say they have identified all of the victims. only two people survived, when the boeing 737-800 jet skidded off the end of the runway and slammed into a concrete fence,

bursting into flames. and a navy medic who survived the attack on pearl harbor has died. harry chandler was a hospital corpsman on the morning of december 7th, 1941, when japanese planes dropped bombs and fired on ships in the harbor. he helped pull injured sailors from the oily waters after the attack. chandler told the associated press in 2023 that he saw the planes approach as he was raising the flag at a nearby mobile hospital. he's the third survivor to die in recent weeks. with his passing, only 15 remain. harry chandler was 103 years old. still to come on the "newshour," the election result for a north carolina supreme court seat is held up by legal challenges. and an english town that's been on the decline places its hopes on the success of its soccer team. ♪ >> this is the pbs news hour

from the david m rubenstein center in washington and from the west at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. laura: for more than four decades after leaving the white house, president jimmy carter channeled his work on the world stage through his non-profit carter center. one of the key achievements -- the near eradication of guinea worm disease, which once affected 3.5 million people. last year, there were just 14 cases reported in africa. that's why, as william brangham reports, carter's work promoting global public health is being remembered by many as a core piece of his legacy. william: the carter center's efforts spanned more than 80 countries and helped bring about the eradication of diseases, the delivery of life saving drugs to far-flung areas, and to focus on improving mental health care. to examine this work that was so

important to jimmy carter, we are joined again by dr. peter hotez. he's co-director of the texas children's hospital center for vaccine development and dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine. he worked with jimmy carter on neglected tropical diseases. dr. hotez, great to have you back on the program. when you look at jimmy carter's legacy on this front, with regards to global public health, what stands out the most to you? dr. hotez: i think, for me, it's the fact that the president really hit home for for the world that health is a fundamental human right. just like people have a fundamental right to access to food, water, and shelter, they also have a fundamental right of access to being free from ancient scourges like guinea worm, like river blindness, like lymphatic filariasis, diseases that are not household names here in the united states, but globally, they're among the most common afflictions of people living in poverty.

he, more than anyone else, i think, really hit on the fact that people have a fundamental right to be free of these parasitic and neglected tropical diseases. william: and a lot of his work was in the field, but it wasn't only in the field. i mean, he was also just as active, twisting arms of world leaders and pharma executives and business leaders, using the leverage that only a former president can really do. how important do you think it was to have someone of his stature pointing the finger at these at these issues? dr. hotez: yeah, this this is what was absolutely game changing, to have a former president of the united states, arguably the most powerful nation in the world, focus his attention on diseases that represent the most common afflictions of the world's poor. for me, that was -- for those of us who worked in global health, of course, that was so inspirational. but it really held elected leaders and leaders of foreign

countries' feet to the fire, both in terms of low- and middle-income countries as well as at the advanced countries, high-income countries, to really pay attention to these illnesses. and there was nothing like the power of the president to provide that kind of advocacy. william: you've hinted at this already, but do you have a good sense as to why this suddenly became such an important mission in his later life? dr. hotez: i think, you know, throughout his -- throughout his presidency and something permeating the president's life, and his wife, rosalynn, who is a real champion of vaccines as well, was was helping, was service, and helping those in need. and when he asked dr. foege, bill foege, to head the carter center, his original plan, my understanding was that there was not necessarily around global health, but dr. foege convinced the president that this had to be on the forefront as well.

and he quickly got it. now we're at a we're at a place where more than a billion people annually receive these donated medicines for neglected tropical diseases. and a lot of that is happening through a usaid program that i worked with the president on. so imagine more than a billion people now receive those treatments. and this is an extraordinary legacy of president, for the president. william: i want to play a clip from a 2010 story that my colleague, fred de sam lazaro, did. he went to south sudan with jimmy carter. this was on one of their guinea worm eradication missions there. and carter was describing how they wanted to use an insecticide in this pond to kill the guinea worm eggs and larva. but the locals there were resistant to it, because the pond was very, very precious to them. here's how carter solved that problem. pres. carter: in fact, the ponds

of water were looked upon as sacred. if that particular rainfall pond hadn't been there, the village wouldn't have existed, they wouldn't be alive. and of course, we said that the pond was, in effect, sacred. but there was a curse on that pond. and if they would just help us remove those guinea worm eggs from their pond or from the drink of water that they took out of the pond, then that curse could be removed from their pond and their village forever. so we had, you might say, not only a philosophical but also a theological explanation to make. william: how critical is that level of cultural competency for this kind of work? because certainly a former president of the united states could have come in and said, look, we know how to do this, just let us do it. but he didn't. dr. hotez: yeah, this was something also really special about president carter. and, by the way, the good work of the carter center, which still continues today, that it's not all top down. yes, of course, president carter was talking to leaders of low and middle-income countries, talking to the leadership of the

world health organization and unicef and and other international u.n. agencies. but then he was also talking to the people who are the recipients of these medications and treatments and approaches to ensure that there was community ownership, and that that was really special, because he recognized that without community ownership, none of these interventions were going to be sustainable, and that was what was going to allow it to continue. and that continues to permeate, for instance, the the program from our u.s. state department at usaid for neglected tropical disease control, is to ensure that there is that ownership at the local government level and equally important, at the community level of all, again, part of his extraordinary legacy. william: all right, dr. peter hotez, thank you so much for sharing your remembrances of jimmy carter with us. dr. hotez: thank you. ♪

laura: it's been nearly two months since election day, but control of a seat on the north carolina state supreme court is being held up in, well, the courts. as stephanie sy explains, the trailing candidate is asking for more than 60,000 votes to be invalidated. stephanie: after more than 5.5 million ballots were cast in the tar heel state, this contest came down to 700 34 votes, separating allison riggs from jefferson griffin. griffin said there were voting and -- irregularities to explain the outcome. here is rusty jacobs, reporter for a public radio station. rusty, it is a pleasure to have you on the news hour. judge griffin, the republican challenger, is asking for 60,000

votes, is asking for the court system to throw these votes out. that is about 1% of the vote, but in a contest that i understand came down to 2/ 100ths of a percent, that matters. what celebrities -- what irregularities is he alleging? rusty: that 60,000 or so of these votes were cast by voters who were not completely registered or registered appropriately, essentially it comes down to this issue over registration forms that predated what was the help america vote act in the early 2000's that was passed. once that law passed, registration requires a voter to either provides the last four digits of their social security number or a driver's license number. some voters in north carolina registered with forms that predated the passage of that act. this issue has been brought up before and has been dismissed by

a federal district court judge in the lead up to the most recent election. the state board of election also reviewed allegations that people were improperly registered and therefore ineligible to vote, and they dismiss that claim. when they looked into it, all these cases, voters who cast ballots in the most recent elections had to provide either photo i.d. or fill out exception forms. all of those ballots had to be reviewed by local board of elections. anyone who cast a ballot, those ballots for review, and their eligibility was confirmed. stephanie: why is mr. griffin so confident that worthy's 60,000 ballots to be thrown out, it would help him or change the outcome of the election? does he know the party, for example, of who these voters are? rusty: the pool of voters swept up in the ballot protests filed

by judge griffin includes voters of all registrations, republicans, democrats, unaffiliated. it also happens to include the parents of allison riggs, the income but he isunning against, it includes an editor from my station, wcnc, these are valid voters. that's why a judge that you cannot just summarily throw these ballots out. for all intents and purposes, these are eligible voters who, may be due to clerical errors, the registration might be incomplete, beta is not a reason to keep them from having their vote count. stephanie: his opponent, justice riggs, says he's trying to engineer the election. i wonder what the stakes really are, though. if not this election itself determines the political makeup of the state supreme court, which is a 5-2 republican majority. so what is at stake with this outcome, not just in north

carolina, but perhaps broadly as we see these types of legal maneuverings and other races around the country? rusty: what we see as public trust in election administration and election integrity. there's nothing unusual about a raise outcome looking like it did in this case at the end of election day, you have a tight race between two judicial candidates, and over the course of the 10-day canvas period, when all of the final ballots are being counted, absentee ballots are being finalized, and if you have a slim margin and the outcome is different, after the canvas period, than it was at the end of election day, that is not unusual. but since 2020, candidates like donald trump learned many republican candidates, have tried to exploit tight races like this where provisional ballots, where ballots that come in at the end of election day,

may change votes, they sought to exploit that and tried to conjure up lack of trust in the process. this is how it works. there were two recounts that came out at the end and showed still a very tight race. now you have a candidate who is to convince the court to invalidate ballots that, by and large, seem to have been cast by eligible voters. if those legal processes are used to change what seems to be a reliable outcome, that could really damage public trust in the elections administration. stephanie: and it could be a playbook for other contested elections in the future. rusty jacobs, a reporter at wunc, thank you so much for joining us. rusty: you are welcome. ♪ laura: today, many americans are making a new year's resolution

to exercise more. it's well known that regular exercise is good for your health. but a new scientific consortium is revealing fresh insights into just how profound the benefits are for the human body. william brangham spoke recently with someone who's helping lead this research, euan ashley. he's a professor of cardiovascular medicine and genetics at stanford university, and the newly named chair of its department of medicine. and he calls exercise "the single most potent medical intervention ever known." william: euan ashley, it's so good to have you on the news hour. you are undertaking this massive multidisciplinary study to understand how exercise changes our body in some fundamental way, but, as i mentioned, don't we already know a lot of this. i mean, don't, what is the importance of doing this much deeper dive that you're doing? prof. ashley: well, we've known for maybe 70 years that exercise was among one of the most potent medical interventions, you know, we knew from studies in the

1950's, comparing london bus drivers and london bus conductors that lived in the same environment, but one, the bus drivers who were sitting, the conductors were standing, and the heart disease rate among the drivers was twice that of the conductors. so, yes, we've known for 70 years that exercise is really, really good for you. but we have not through that entire time really understood how it works. so the new study was to bring together 17, 18 different groups from across the united states to really study, to build a molecular map of exercise to try and work out how come this intervention that's so available to all of us is the most powerful intervention known. how do, how does it actually work? william: and so you've started to publish some of your findings. when you compare exercise to these other critical things that we know are important for health, diet or sleep or things like that, where does exercise fit in? what are the sort of top line findings of exercises' potency? prof. ashley: well, one of the

things that really surprised us -- we're all exercise people already, so we were all convinced as to the benefits. so in this study, we also had a control group. so, the first study we released was of rats that were sedentary, and then they were trained over the course of 8 weeks, aerobic training on literally on a treadmill. and then at the end of the period of time and at the end of several time points along that 8-week time period, we looked at the, the tissues from the rats. and the thing that we were really surprised to find was that really they turned into almost different beings. i mean, exercise was that potent. every single tissue we've looked at showed something completely different from before. it really changed the entire molecular makeup of the individual organs of the rats in a very positive direction. one example might be that multiple tissues, for example, fat tissue, another example would be the mitochondria, that little battery-like organelles inside each cell. when we looked at the changes with exercise, we often saw mirror image changes to the ones we see with disease. so exercise was quite literally kind of reversing, in a mirror

image-like way, the changes that happen with disease and explaining a little bit about how exercise manages to protect from those diseases. william: i mean, some of the other findings i read in your initial research is showing that exercise impacts the body in ways that we don't associate with exercise, the digestive system, the mood and mental health. how do you explain that mechanism being so widespread? prof. ashley: well, i think one of the things is that exercise, at the end of the day, is a stress, and we don't recommend stress for anyone, certainly not work stress. but the reality is i think that stressing our bodies with exercise in just the right amount, actually prepares our bodies to deal with the stress of everyday life. one of the biggest signatures we saw was in a system that basically tends to the proteins in our, so it helps them come together in the right format, in three dimensions. it stops them sticking together and aggregating, and when it's time for those proteins to be renewed, it helps. it's called the heat shock response. and this was something that we

saw changed across multiple tissues, across all the tissues, as you mentioned, lungs, cital -- skeletal muscle, heart, not just the ones that you might expect, we would expect perhaps skeletal muscle and heart, for sure. but we were seeing changes in the kidney and the adrenal gland, and the intestine, in the brain. and i think that begins to get at how exercise is just such a remarkable intervention. essentially, helping with, for example, reducing the risk of heart disease by 50%, reducing the risk of many cancers by 50% and more. reducing the risk of back pain. people sleep better, they have better mood. they're able to breathe better. there are just so many ways in which exercise helps. and i think the key is, is just stressing you just enough so your body then, in recovery, builds these mechanisms that help you deal with the stress of life in other ways. william: and i understand there have been some interesting gender differences in your results. can you explain a little bit about that? prof. ashley: yeah, i think one of the other things we were really surprised by was just the extent of the changes in, in this study, we had both male and female rats. and of course, we expected to see some changes, but really the changes were profound, and we

saw them both at rest, before we started, but also with exercise, some things got closer together with exercise between the sexes, something's got further apart. and this was the case particularly in adipose tissue and in skeletal muscle. we really saw very profound differences between the two sexes. and i think it would have led us to believe is that really every study from now on should be done with both sexes. this is something we've known for some time, but over the history of science, we've tended to, just because science costs a lot of money, to choose one or the other. we would do studies in all males or all females or or or both when we could, but often the, the numbers were smaller then and that gave us less power for discovery. what's really clear, i think, from this study is that we really have to do both sexes in order to really work out what the differences are and be able to describe them adequately for both sexes. william: i know people listening to you will of course be wondering. i'm sure you get this question all the time. what kind of exercise? how often? does it matter when i do it?

how much i do it? what does your research indicate? prof. ashley: well, this particular research with the rats doesn't answer that question, but fortunately, we have lots of research to give us a good answer to that question. and, and although you read lots of different things, as every new study comes up, the overall advice has remained the same. the first thing is, any movement is better than none. so if you're, you're in a sedentary job or you're not used to moving much and just stand up, standing up is a good start. if you can walk, take some walking paces, go for a walk at lunchtime. that's great as well. if you can get 30 to 45 minutes of moderate intensity exercise, that's like a brisk walk, if you can do that five to six times a week. that's fantastic. and of course, if you want to do more, there's added benefit. one of the things i regularly

tell my patients -- i'm a cardiologist -- is that one minute of exercise buys you 5 minutes of extra life, which means you definitely have time to exercise, because if you, even if you exercise even a little bit higher intensity, you get 7 or 8 minutes of extra life. so you definitely have time to make, uh, in your day to exercise. it doesn't matter whether you do it in the morning, at lunchtime, in the evenings particularly good meal. so the evening is a fine time to take a brisk walk. but the main thing is get up, move about as much as you can. william: euan ashley of stanford university. such fascinating research. thank you so much for talking with us about it. prof. ashley: my pleasure. thank you for having me. ♪ laura: on this holiday, we return to ipswich, in eastern england, and its precious soccer -- or should we say, football club. our man in britain, malcolm brabant, is from ipswich and visited earlier this year just as his club was returning to the top tier of british football, the premier league. since then, it's been a very rough road for the team. they're near the bottom of the league. but on monday, a stunning

victory -- they beat legendary chelsea 2-0, winning their first home premier league match since 2002. here's second look at malcolm's story, that charts the team's fairytale rise since american investors took over. malcolm: you may have fenway park, yankee stadium, the rose bowl come about from a come of the field of dreams will always be portland road. >> a good family feel. it's a lovely place to live. they won club town. the club has got its footballing identity once again. malcolm: a towering partnership for both ipswich and england. russell osman -- >> yeah. as the old saying goes, it's part of your dna. >> the atmosphere is incredible.

not a bad time to enjoy it. it is good. >> is living a dream, a dream since i was a child. >> it is everything to me. >> ♪ darling i will ♪ malcolm: the team's minority stakeholder is a local lad by the name of ed sheeran. >> people like success stories like this. it feels like it has lifted up the town as well. ipswich has gone through tough years, and this is great for the area. malcolm: ipswich is that a town i went to school, miss spent my youth, and to be honest, got away from as quick as possible. the clue is in the nickname of the football team, the tractor boys.

this gave tractors a bad name. ipswich are imbued. when chris and i were schoolmates, our team was one of england's best, but in 2019, ipswich hit rock bottom. >> there was a season a few years back where the football was dire, it was negative, and i described it as random acts of football. there was no thought behind it. it was an insult your intelligence. >> into the penalty area. that is it! >> i did think about giving up my season tickets then, but i'm so glad i hung on, because since we got our new manager, it has been uphold-- uphill. malcolm: this is a moment and make them ipswich, back to back promotions. the architects of that is herein, a young coach from

northern ireland and the club's american financial backer. >> do you think americans have the drive? >> no, i don't think so. it is just the fact that the americans have this attitude that if everything is going well, we will keep backing you pitted has repaid them in the way that he's got the team playing. >> strike and cut corner. what a goal. malcolm: you've got the support back to the road. one of the gifts has been to transform players from the lower echelon into all conquering heroes. >> has everybody got the potential to be a star, do you think? with the right handling? >> i don't think star is the word. i think everyone has the potential to improve. not everyone will operate in the macro capacity for physical reasons, technical reasons, a number of reasons, tactical reasons, so trying to help the

players in each of those areas, and still support them. malcolm: kieran mckenna's greatest challenges competing with vast budgets and world-class players. he has recruited inexpensive players from lower divisions with huge potential such as defender jacob grain. >> i can already definitely feel his improvement already in the shop. malcolm: but schoolboy errors like this could come back to haunt ipswich. >> jacob greaves with a penalty spot. malcolm: oh well. time to talk the old enemy. >> thank you so much. malcolm: i've known top sports reporter nick dennis for many years. his main character flaw is he supports lloyd city, ipswich's greatest rival.

dennis keeps his memorability in the smallest room, which if such fans -- which ipswich fans will say is the perfect place. next: they have 512 days, not that i'm counting. >> on the rebound! nick: i think it is extraordinarily difficult for promoted teams paid last season, three promoted teams came straight back down again. a joy ride at the moment. malcolm: success has cascaded to the greyhound, 10 minutes walk from the stadium. >> because ipswich -- now the premiership. >> what is the change like?

>> it is huge. before the action kickoff. malcolm: the transformative partner to sports. >> i would be amazed if the grounds of sold out every game. it has been great for us, great for the business. malcolm: but on the days when there's no football, ipswich town center is more, for example, its most historic building, the ancient house where i bought schoolbooks is empty as is the old-fashioned gentlemen's outfitters, where i was sat for my negligent attitude. neil mcdonald is the leader of ipswich. >> the partner and business here is to have a successful football team, successful nightlife. malcolm: corn hill, the central square, was bustling.

not anymore. >> the main square should be the central hub of the town. malcolm: sophie alexander of the chamber of commerce wants the square to be reined with bars and restaurants. >> it could be internationally renowned. we are missing out on the tourism, visitor economy. this place could be so much bigger than it is. malcolm: this store once sold my school's uniform. it has been empty for 12 years for the owner is from dubai. >> it's a unit in crime location, and the owner will not sell it to anyone who wants late nights. >> it has been a nightmare, really. malcolm: the council is hoping to break the impasse by enticing the owner to sell. regenerating ipswich will take time. for the football club to remain in the top 5 -- >> down the left-hand side. off his left foot.

it is the equalizer! scoring. malcolm: with kieran mckenna at the helm, there is hope, but something english footballers know too well, it is the hope that often rips you apart. for the pbs newshour, i am malcolm brabant in ipswich. laura: one of the world's most famous classical pianists lang lang discovered his passion for piano while growing up alongside other musicians in china. today, he stands as a globally acclaimed classical pianist whose extraordinary talent has led him to perform with diverse musical legends, from the prestigious philadelphia orchestra to contemporary icons like coldplay and metallica. tonight, he shares his brief but spectacular take on loving what you play.

langlang: it was like having a toy in my hand when i started. it was like " the nutcracker" by tchaikovsky. ♪ so i grew up in china, in the northeast region, shenyang, a very industrial city, big factory. every day, i hear music from everywhere. the chinese traditional orchestra, where my father was a principal. i was in beijing at the age of nine, and i got fired by a piano teacher there. she was kind of very skeptical

of my piano style, and that was very difficult for me. i thought my piano career is over. ♪ so when i was 17 years old, i have this big dream, you know, to play at the biggest orchestra in america, but in reality, i was playing as a sub, waiting for somebody to get sick. the opportunity comes in very fast, and if you catch it in the right way, you are in the game. so i was at the travel symphony at the festival with the conductor. the wonderful pianist andrew watts got sick. that was the biggest concert that summer. when i was a kid, people

sometimes called me a prodigy. but, of course, now i'm 41, it is far from that age. sometimes, the child prodigy remains a child, and the prodigy goes away, so the important thing is to keep the talent but let the child go away. for me, transformation is a very important element of a performance. i'm always trying to move my heart into somewhere and then take my audience with me. i think my musicmaking has changed a bit, since i got married, had a little kid. sometimes it is challenging. i don't know if i should be a little bit more strict or a

little bit more relaxed on his education. i'm not so sure in this moment. but he certainly makes my playing more subtle. when we play piano, every note needs to have real life, real emotion. the hard thing to do is, what is behind the note? what is the meaning behind the bars? rather than, just play everything right. what is the whole story, and what is the background of this piece? what is precise, the technique behind all of those pieces? ♪ my name is lang lang, and this is my brief but spectacular take on loving what you play. laura: and that is the newshour for tonight.

i'm laura barron-lopez. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us and happy new year. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by friends of the newshour, including jim and nancy bitler and the robert and virginia sure foundation. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. funding for america at a crossroads was provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. ♪ >>

funding for "new orleans cooking with kevin belton" was provided in part by the l.e. phillips family foundation, incorporated, and by painting with a twist. studio locations can be found at paintingwithatwist.com. additional funding was provided by cajun power, grandma's cooking in every jar. hi. i'm kevin belton. today on "new orleans cooking," we're gonna work on some things that we do