william: good evening. i'm william brangham. geoff bennett and amna nawaz are away. on the “newshour” tonight, after some setbacks, the jury in the trump hush money trial is filled. the u.s. and britain target iran with new sanctions as the world waits for israel's response to iran's weekend attack. and scientists sound the alarm as warming waters trigger massive bleaching of the world's coral reefs. ♪

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william: welcome to the “newshour.” a full jury has been seated in former president trump's criminal trial, but jury selection has had a rocky start, as two previously selected jurors were dismissed. and prosecutors again accused the former president of violating a gag order and asked the judge to hold him in contempt. i'm joined now by former federal prosecutor jessica roth. jessica, great to have you back on the program. a bit of a whiplash with this jury. it was up and then it was down and now there is a full jury seated. two issues came up with regards to these jurors being dismissed. one, a juror was worried that her identity was being revealed in the process. the second was concern over whether another juror was somehow hiding his or her true intentions about they wanted -- about why they wanted to sit on the jury.

were those just normal concerns, especially in a case like this? jessica: they raised two distinct concerns. the first juror who said she was concerned about her privacy, and implicitly her safety because she thought her identity was being found out, that is particular to this case. you usually don't see those kind of juror concerns in a case involving falsification of business records which of course is the charge here. you might see that in an organized crime case or a terrorism case. but of course this is a white-collar case involving the former president who has engaged in a pattern of conduct and speech, online in particular, that really has caused threats to people involved in legal proceedings. that are associated with him. and so it is highly unusual you would have a juror in a case like this expressing those kind of concerns. and it is unique to the

circumstances presented by donald trump and his followers. so that particular instance was of grave concern to me because i am concerned not only about that juror but about other jurors who may develop concerns about their safety and privacy and those of their families as this case goes forward the second juror presented a different kind of issue and that was somebody who appeared possibly to be trying to get onto the jury, potentially because of some bias that this person harbored. a motivated by his juror who would have been potentially lying about their own past, failing to disclose something that might have caused the lawyers to strike that juror for caused. and the worry with somebody like that is less about whatever it is they are concealing and more the fact they are concealing it. because that suggests they may not be a fair and impartial juror. william: i see. prosecutors have also asked to hold trump in control --

contempt of court, arguing he has repeatedly violated the gag order placed on him which bars him from attacking witnesses, jurors, the judge, other members of his family. he said he will have a hearing about this next week. do you think that this has gotten to the point with the former president's behavior that the judge does need to issue some kind of censure, or worse? jessica: i think the judge absolutely has to take some firm action that involves a sanction for. the question is what it will be. the last time the district attorney's office filed a motion in this regard they were asking for monetary sanctions and a reprimand and a stern warning that future conduct would lead to even more severe sanctions. they asked for a $1000 fine per instance in which mr. trump violated the order. that is when there were only three instances they were pointing to and those involved witnesses. now what we have are instances

of mr. trump violated the gag order, and the record is clear that he did, with respect to jurors who were listed on the order as well prohibiting from making comments outside of the court room about those people. and so i think a lot will turn on how the judge handles this next week. not only for these particular instances of misconduct, but it will set the tone for the rest of the case in terms of how strict he is going to run this courtroom. william: jessica roth, always good to hear from you. thank you so much. jessica: my pleasure. ♪ william: in the day's other headlines, police in new york city have arrested several pro-palestinian protesters who had set up an encampment at columbia university. this comes a day after the school's president addressed a congressional hearing on anti-semitism. minouche shafik said students

participating in the protest would be suspended. that included the daughter of u.s. congresswoman ilhan omar. police made several arrests, and removed the tents put up by protesters. they did not say what charges the protesters would face. president biden picked up endorsements from members of the famed kennedy family today. it was a rebuke against robert f. kennedy jr., who is running as an independent. members of the prominent democratic family appeared with the president at a campaign event in philadelphia. kerry kennedy, daughter of the late rfk, said president biden shares many of the same values as her father. >> daddy stood for equal justice, for human rights, and freedom from want and fear, just as president biden does today. [applause] donald trump mocks these values just as he mocks our system of

laws. william: kennedy didn't mention her brother, rfk junior, by name, but she did allude to him, saying, quote, there are only two candidates with any chance of winning the presidency. there were dramatic scenes on capitol hill today, as house speaker mike johnson scrambles to get the votes for his proposed foreign aid bills. johnson has doubled-down on separate funding measures for israel, ukraine, and the indo-pacific. hardliners within his own party are angry over further aid to ukraine, and there have been growing calls for his removal. votes on the bills are expected on saturday. in germany, authorities have arrested two german-russian nationals for allegedly spying on behalf of russia. one allegedly agreed to carry out attacks on u.s. military facilities in a bid to undermine support for ukraine. a court ordered they remain in custody while prosecutors seek indictments. germany's top security official

vowed to stand with ukraine. >> since russia's murderous war of aggression against ukraine, our security authorities have ramped up all protective measures against this threat from the russian regime. we will continue to provide ukraine with massive support and will not be intimidated. william: germany is one of the biggest suppliers of weapons to ukraine, second only to the u.s. back in this country, maine's state legislature has approved sweeping new gun reforms. they come nearly six months after the state's deadliest mass shooting, where 18 people were murdered in lewiston. the legislation mandates background checks for private gun sales, requires waiting periods for gun purchases. it also criminalizes the sale of guns to people barred from having them. the mass outage of 911 emergency services across several states last night has been blamed on a light pole being installed. the company that provides the service said a fiber line had been cut. emergency lines were down in south dakota, nebraska, nevada,

and texas, though the outage in texas was unrelated to the cut fiber line. all call centers were up and running again within a few hours. on wall street, a lackluster day of trading, with markets ending mixed. the dow jones industrial average gained 22 points to close at 37,775. the nasdaq fell 81 points. the s&p 500 closed lower for a fifth straight day. reuters photographer mohammed say-lem has won the world press photo of the year. his image shows gaza resident inas abu maa-mar cradling the body of her five-year-old niece, saly. the young girl was killed, alongside her mother and sister, when an israeli missile struck their home last october. say-lem won the same award more than a decade ago. and legendary guitarist and singer dickey betts has died. betts, there on the left, was a founding member of the allman brothers band.

he wrote some of their biggest hits, and helped pioneer the southern rock sound. here he is in 1981, performing his best-known song, “ramblin' man.” >> ♪ and when it's time for leavin' i hope you'll understand that i was born a ramblin' man. ♪ ♪ william: betts died at his home in florida, after battling cancer. he was 80 years old. still to come on the “newshour”" a new report looks at the high turnover of election officials. philanthropist melinda french gates discusses increasing economic empowerment for women across the globe. after the end of ethiopia's brutal civil war, famine, starvation, and an uneasy peace. and why more employers are exploring a four-day work week. >> 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. william: today, the u.s. imposed

new sanctions on iran in response to tehran's unprecedented attack last weekend on israel. and the u.s. is vetoing an attempt in the u.n. security council to create an independent palestinian state. all this as israel continues to debate how and when to respond to iran's attack. nick schifrin looks at u.s.'s attempts to prevent even more regional escalation. nick: william, this afternoon, president biden and prime minister benjamin netanyahu's top national security aides talked about israel's potential response to the iranian attack. u.s. officials have made it clear, they think israel should not respond militarily and are trying to increase economic and diplomatic pressure on iran to help make their case. for the lay of the land in the u.s. and the region, we get two views. ambassador dennis ross played leading roles in the mideast peace process for more than 12 years. he is now the counselor and a distinguished fellow at the washington institute for near east policy. a washington think tank. and khaled elgindy has participated in past

israeli-palestinian negotiations, and is now the director of the middle east institute's program on palestine and israeli-palestinian affairs. thank you very much. welcome both of you to the "newshour." let's start in new york. the u.s. is vetoing a resolution that would have allowed the state of palestine to join the u.n. as a full member. u.s. allies and fellow permanent members the united kingdom is abstaining. and france is voting in favor. what is your response to those votes? dennis: i am not surprised the biden administration is going to veto it. i think they look at this is not just a symbolic move at this point the palestinians do not look like a state. and so i do not think they are prepared to recognize it as such in a u.n. context. i also think they see this is not necessarily connected to the diplomacy they are engaged in right now. the are trying to reach a saudi

and israeli negotiating blp they're negotiating what that might mean in terms of defense treaty, saudi development of nuclear industry, but they are also talking about what with the palestinian component be? what with the israelis have to do in terms of recognizing some kind of move or commitment towards palestinian statehood? while they are negotiating that they are not necessary at having a symbolic move. nick: what is your response to the u.s. vote in new york? khaled: it is not at all unexpected. the expected united states would veto this resolution. they have said it. they have said all along that the only possible way for a palestinian state to emerge is through direct bilateral negotiations. which means essentially that israel has a permanent veto over palestinian self-determination.

this is an attempt by palestinians maybe to do an end run around that principle but i think even they understood that this was not going to pass. i think the president has pursued this for his own reasons. i think he is looking more and more obsolete given the destruction in gaza. he is unable to influence either the military for the diplomatic equation and is looking for some way to be relevant. nick: some of this effort by the u.s. to try and tamp down escalation in the region is economic. new sanctions announced on iran today, on iran's drone program, iran's steel production, the first time those sanctions have been imposed in about three years. does that kind of actions help convince the israeli government not to respond to iran's attack with another military attack? dennis: it probably helps but i am not sure it is enough.

91% of their oil sales are going to the chinese if they were doing more to prevent those sales, convincing the chinese to either not go ahead or be prepared to sanction chinese companies, that would probably more -- be more impressive to the israelis. nick: do you believe president biden is doing enough to try and influence israeli behavior, whether towards iran or in gaza? khaled: i agree with the ambassador it is probably not enough to convince the israelis not to go off on their own, or to pursue a military response. and i think they are going to leverage that. i think they're going to try and extract more from the united states. quite possibly up to and including the oil sanctions that ambassador ross mentioned. that would definitely be a game changer as far as israel's

decision-making. but we are not quite there yet. nick: there are some democrats who are wanting president biden to use more leverage on bibi netanyahu when it comes to gaza especially in condition military aid until israel takes certain steps when it comes to the war in gaza. do you believe they should condition military aid? dennis: no, especially right after israel has just been targeted with more than 300 and 50 cruise missiles, drones and ballistic missiles. i think that would be the wrong signal to send right now, especially vis-a-vis the iranian s and many of their proxies. nick: do you believe the u.s. can exert pressure on israel, especially when it comes to gaza and how israel wages that war separate to israel's response to iran? khaled: absolutely. there is no question that the lack of consequences is why we have this humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in gaza, where we are now at the fastest

any population has reached the state of famine in recorded history. so there is a lot the u.s. can do. it can and should condition military assistance at a very minimum, it could hold up the offensive weapons, the massive 2000 pound bombs that do what president biden called indiscriminate damage in gaza, and that have caused so much civilian death and suffering. i think there are ways to condition aid that don't necessarily affect israel's ability to mount a defense against an iranian threat, but that would inhibit its ability to continue to cause this mass death and destruction in gaza. nick: thanks very much to you both. ♪

william: the temperatures of the world's oceans are, quite literally, off the charts. that orange line, that's last years' reading. that red line at the top? that's this year's temperature readings. one of the most severe consequences of this warming falls on the world's coral reefs, which nearly a quarter of all ocean species rely on. according to noaa, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, scientists issued a warning due to record breaking temperatures in 2023 which accelerated the speed of the second largest mass bleaching event across the atlantic, pacific, and indian oceans. for more on the global situation and what's at stake, we're joined by julia baum, a marine ecologist and coral reefs researcher and a professor at the university of victoria in canada. julia baum, thank you so much for being here.

so noaa just issued this report showing this widespread bleaching. which is a sign of distress in corals. we have seen reports over the years of declining health in corals. so how do you put what's happening now, in the context of what we've seen before? julia: what we're seeing now is the fourth global coral bleaching event, as you said, and it's alarming and likely catastrophic. and what's particularly alarming about it is that in the past, these bleaching events occurred a sufficient amount of time apart that coral reefs had sufficient time to recover in between them. but now we're seeing these global coral bleaching events occur, two within the past decade. so there was a mega event during the 2015-2016 el nino. that devastated coral reefs right around the world, including mass bleaching and mortality on the great barrier reef and in many, many other locations. and coral reefs take many years to recover.

so 10, 20, 30, 40 years to recover. so now to see another bleaching event that is very, very intense and widespread, happening just eight years later, is extremely worrying. william: so i mentioned briefly, coral's importance in the ocean ecosystem. we love them not just because of what we see in jacques cousteau and david attenborough documentaries. they are that, but there are also many other things. can you sort of explain, remind us of their importance? julia: absolutely. i'm a marine ecologist, so of course, i think about all of the wildlife that lives on coral reefs. and you already mentioned that a quarter of the world's diversity, different species of animals in the ocean live on coral reefs, which is completely astounding when you think about the fact that coral reefs cover less than 0.1% of the surface area of the world's oceans. but coral reefs are also extraordinarily important to people.

so, they are worth hundreds of billions of dollars every year, and that's through things like tourism, recreation, all of the coastal protection that they provide. so, when we risk losing a huge proportion of the world's coral reefs, we are actually at risk of losing all sorts of other things that are vitally important to many, many people around the planet, especially those who live really close to coral reefs and rely upon them for either their sustenance of their livelihoods. william: when you look at the drivers of this warming ocean, climate change, el niño perhaps some other factors, what does your research indicate is most complicit in this problem? julia: well, it's climate change. so this is without a doubt, driven by human caused climate change. and so i want to link el nino to that. under climate change, el niños

are now supercharged. that means that they are occurring more frequently. they are at a greater intensity. so, the magnitude of the heat stress that they unleash is a lot bigger. and they also can last for a much longer period. so in the past, for example, you might have had some heat stress on an individual coral reef lasting for a couple of weeks. now we see that type of heat stress lasting for many, many months. and that causes the corals to bleach and then eventually die, so they're becoming much more serious. and that's a direct result of climate change. william: we have seen over the past year all of these efforts to try to preserve the corals, pull them out of warmer oceans and store them in cooler tanks on land. sometimes cryo-preserve these corals. what do you make of those efforts? and do you think overall, they are going to be enough to save this ecosystem? julia: i think it's a tragedy that we are pushing, you know, coral reefs and coral reef

researchers to that absolute extreme. that's a triage type of response and it's a last ditch response. maybe it will make a little bit of a difference in some areas where it's being implemented, but it's not a solution that is going to save the world's coral reefs, and it's undoubtedly the only thing that is going to save the world's coral reefs at this point is a rapid reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. that is absolutely certain. anything else that we do might help a few areas here and there, and of course, that will be important in those areas where it helps. but if we are going to ensure that the world's coral reefs are still in existence in the coming decades, we have to rapidly mitigate climate change. there is no other way forward here. william: alright. julia baum of the university of victoria in canada. thank you so much for talking with us. julia: thank you. ♪

william: a new report reveals a historic amount of turnover within local elections offices, but also the resiliency of that workforce. stephanie sy takes a closer look. stephanie: the new report from the bipartisan policy center in collaboration with researchers at ucla acknowledges what we have been hearing from election workers since 2020, when trump supporters were accused of intimidating and threatening these civil servants. but while many election workers have left the field, the report finds that there are glimmers of hope. miles parks covers voting and election security for npr and joins us to help us unpack what this new data may teach us about what is to come in this election year. so, miles parks, the report states that turnover is not new and that for decades local election offices have dealt with this.

why is that context so important? miles: it kind of gives a good news and a bad news. on the good news, there has been all this hyperbole over the last couple of years as a started to come out that election officials were leaving their job, people freaking out about the state of the 2024 election. but this indicates that may be election administration profession is a little more prepared for 2024 than maybe previously thought. the bad news is the fact turnover has been ticking up indicates there are some chronic issues with the profession outside of the threats of harassment we have heard so much about. things like election officials saying they are not getting enough resources pre-the other thing i hear a lot is that their jobs have just gotten a lot harder. we know that laws are changing rapidly and that can have an impact on how hard their job is. election workers have to do things like become cybersecurity experts, physical security experts, in addition to just making sure people can get their

ballots and making sure the ballots are counted correctly. stephanie: some of those election workers would say after the 2020 election in particular, things got even harder for them. you have been covering the election landscape since 2016, including threats to election workers. i just want to remind viewers of what some of them have been going through pretty we spoke to election officials from both sides of the aisle in north carolina and pennsylvania. >> in the past, candidates ran against other candidates and campaigns ran against other campaigns. and in the last several years, the people responsible for running elections have been targeted as enemies. when in reality they are simply trying to make sure that their voters' votes get counted. >> these are not high-paying jobs for a lot of folks. and they get into this work because they have a passion for serving the public, for carrying

out our elections process. they do so with integrity and yet we are at a time when there integrity of being questioned, personally and professionally quite often. stephanie: we have heard of similar frustrations among election workers here and there. did this report show turnover has been worse in battleground states? miles: it did. this is one of the most interesting data points. in the previous 20 years researchers looked at, turnover impacted jurisdiction no matter their political leaning or geography. then in 2021, they found specifically turnover jumped the most in states that were competitive in the presidential election, which aligns with what we have heard from law enforcement about where there has been an uptick in threats and harassment. i would also note even when i talk to election administrators in these battleground states, even if they personally have not received the threats, they talk about how much more pressure is

on them to do their jobs completely perfectly every single day because there is this general sense, this cloud that they could be next in terms of targeting. stephanie: one of the positives, however, that came out of this report is that the data suggest even though there has been more turnover, more experienced election workers are feeling the jobs. is that across the board, or do you see more of a struggle to retain those experienced election officials in hotly contested districts? miles: what we are actually seeing is kind of the inverse. across the board, on average the people placing the election officials who have left, according to this new report, on average have about eight years of experience in the administration field. when you look at these largest jurisdictions, which generally since 2020 have been the places, the detroits, philadelphias, highly popular did areas -- on average the replacements there

have 11 years of election administration experience, which is really expressed -- surprising. the researchers found it oddly comforting, that maybe it is not all doom and gloom ahead of 2024. stephanie: so maybe things are not as bad as post-2020 election headlines suggest. i want to ask you about something else. you have recently reported that despite concerns about voting access that came after the 2020 election, that new data shows it has actually gotten easier to vote since 2000. tell me a little bit about that reporting. miles: this was a really interesting report that came out really -- recently. it basically looked at, do people have more than just election day to be able to cast a vote. and what they found was that in 46 states and d.c., voters have some sort of option to vote early. which is a really big seachange when you think about two decades ago. in 2000, 86% of voters cast a

ballot on election day. whereas in 2024, 97% of voters live in a place they have the opportunity to vote early. when you just think about the most basic aspect of voting, filling it out, turning it in, voters have more options to do that now than most ever before. stephanie: as you said, it is not all doom and gloom. miles parks with mpr, thank you so much. miles: thanks, stephanie. ♪ william: consider this -- in at least 93 countries, it's legally acceptable to pay women less for doing the exact same job as a man. that's just one of a litany of examples where women's economic equality is denied. and these inequities impact not just women, but their children, their families, and their broader communities. the u.n. estimates that closing the gender gap, not just in pay,

but in other ways such as giving them more access to loans and capital, could give the global economy a $7 trillion jump start. these issues are top of mind for many this week, as world leaders gather in washington, d.c. for meetings hosted by the world bank and the international monetary fund. one person advocating for a more just economy is melinda french gates, she's the co-chair of the bill and melinda gates foundation, which is a funder of the "newshour." welcome back to the "newshour." melinda: thanks for having me. william: i mentioned this one fact that that is ok legally to pay women less than men. but again, that is just one example of so many. when you are here trying to convince people about this inequity existing and causing harms, what do you argue? melinda: i am arguing for, let's fix the system. to be honest, it is not that hard. if you look at high income

countries, we don't have it all right yet but women are doing better in our country than in money -- many others. we are not immune to this. but it was the early 1970's a woman finally did not need her husband to sign a bank account in our country. if we get the regulations right in other countries and remove capital, this large-scale capital that goes from the world bank or the imf, but we really hook it up to the women entrepreneurs -- there are literally millions of female entrepreneurs across the continent of africa -- and we make sure the loans are right sized, the interest rate is paid monthly, not weekly, it is not an exorbitant fee. these women will grow not just their business, but their entire economy. william: those disparities you are describing, those are what exist today? melinda: yes, they still exist in many countries. a woman cannot get a loan without her husband signing off on it. so we need to fix those laws. we also need to fix credit.

right now it women often doesn't have a credit score in africa. she does not have the collateral to prove she is creditworthy. and yet if we can get her on a mobile bank account, which many women are getting onto, we can start to see that she is paying bills, she is actually financially very literate, and that she can build credit and we can help her then get a small loan to not only educate her kids, but advance the business she cares about. william: you are here talking to the world bank in the imf and the heads of these very large international banking structures. when you make this argument to them, are they nodding along to you, are they looking skeptical to you, do they appreciate what you are talking about? melinda: i would say it has only been in the last eight years that the world and these large financial institutions have woken up to the opportunity that women present. if i look back -- 15 years when i used to come to these institutions or the u.n., we really did not talk about women. now people realize -- take the

u.s., women have the most purchasing power of anybody in our own country. and so they start to see the opportunity. but they have to get their whole organization moving in that direction. william: how do you explain that chasm, the disparity that exists? again, we understand some of the societal forces at work here that we have been fighting against for generations. how do you explain that around the world? melinda: it is much the same. it is the social norms. for better or for worse, we set the worlup for males. and what is happening now is females, when you send them out into the workforce or to capitalize their small business, they run up against the systemic barriers. so, a man does not understand their business if he is the one who is going to extend their credit or the loan. they don't see the business, they don't understand it, they often have bias thinking a woman cannot run a business. so we have to break down those

barriers so we demonstrate that women can create society the way we want it, and that as investors we can get a good return. and then i think you will see vast amounts of money flow. william: a good return on investment always seems to be key when you are talking to bankers. melinda: that's right. and it should be. we expect in our investments to have a return. but sometimes also the financing, these large global institutions we are talking about, you have to both do some grant funding and the loan piece. because we know, in the is a perfect example. they put their many women in these self-help groups and now they are lending to 42 million women-led businesses. because it is advancing the indian economy. but there had to be grantmaking at the beginning to get women organized and have the mentorship and the sponsorship to then be able to know how to start their business. william: i imagine there is also this suite of other complicated factors too. war, conflict, political unrest, climate change.

again, that we know disproportionately falls hardest on women. and you also have to be trying to ameliorate those things to create the conditions by which women can thrive. melinda: absolutely. and it is particularly difficult right now. we have been talking about climate change, conflict is rife. but what we are trying to get the high income countries to understand is that you have to also continue these investments in africa and across the continent of africa and southeast asia. because countries want to move from low to middle to high income. and we know it is possible. peru has done it. india has done it. south korea used to be a recipient of aid, now they give aid. so if we keep making these investments, you will see peace and prosperity in those places as opposed to more conflict. william: you touched on this before, but i know you are here trying to cajole bankers and the world bank and the imf to do better. some of this is also pushing

back on societal, cultural, oftentimes religious beliefs about the role that women should and ought to play in societies. that seems like that is a much tougher stream to swim against. melinda: those issues are tough to swim against, even in our own country. we are seeing the rollback of women's rights in health. so, when i look at those issues, i say we need to get more instance -- more women in our country in the 7000 seats in state houses and in congress and the senate. because women have a different lens on society and they will make different policy. in countries around the world, much is the same thing. they are trying to get more women into their parliaments, because they create different policies. they see what is often unseen. they see the unpaid work women do. they see the caregiving burden of, they need to care for the children and run the business. so i think getting women into all of those seats of power really will change society. william: are there examples you

point to, if someone expresses skepticism about moving this rock of this huge hill, where you can say look at x, this proof of concept? melinda: at large-scale i say look at india. india really has gotten their mobile phone penetration, they have gotten people i.d. on their phone, people have bank accounts. they are trying to get more women with their own bank account. they are now scaling and getting resources out to women. and they are on the economic rise in a huge way. so i point to them as a large-scale example of how and where this can work. william: melinda french gates, thank you so much for being here. great to see you. melinda: thanks for having me. ♪ william: ethiopia continues to face one of the worst droughts in recent history, and millions

of its people are suffering from acute hunger. back in december, the united states resumed aid shipments after previously suspending them due to suspicions of theft. but starvation is still prevalent. special correspondent jack hewson reports from tigray region in northern ethiopia. jack: these might be the last days of gebremichael's life. after months of little or no food, he is starving. his stomach is swollen from water retention that results from protein deficiency, skin stretched taught across his upper body, his heartbeat visible. >> i have a hard time breathing. it gets worse each day. i'm also feeling sick in my kidney. i can't go to the toilet because everything i eat i vomit out. jack: gebremichael is so acutely malnourished that his body is rejecting food. his wife, gember, grinds a few

grains outside their home in the yechela district of northern tigray province. this is all they have. after the rains failed to fall in august, the crops failed too. as climate change bites, ethiopia's drought is the worst many here have ever experienced. people here are just trying to forage the last grains and berries that they can get from this arid landscape. food aid is beginning to arrive, but for some, it may be too late. millions face acute food insecurity in the region. approximately 400 have reportedly died of starvation in tigray and amhara. gebremichael is dangerously close to becoming the next fatality. >> there's nothing we can do about the pain. our insides hurt. jack: the legacy of conflict, visible across the region, is also making the situation worse.

the civil war that ended in november 2022, displaced 2.5 million. these people idps here in yechela have fled ethnic persecution in contested western tigray. among them was dessalegn abadi tafere and his family. >> i have so many problems. i lost my house, i lost everything. i have to beg. i ask people to help me for the sake of my babies. i ask people to support me until we get through this hard time. i used to go to local people before. but now i can't even go to them, because they are also suffering themselves. jack: despite this widespread suffering, in january, ethiopian prime minister abiy ahmed was awarded the u.n. food and agriculture organization's highest award, for his contribution to rural and economic development.

this, for a leader accused of using starvation as a weapon of war, as government forces laid siege to tigray two years prior. >> i am deeply honored and grateful for the u.n. food and agriculture organization for recognizing ethiopia's diligent efforts over the past five years in addressing food and nutrition security. i would like to emphasize my government's commitment to meeting zero hunger goals. jack: zero hunger? that's the rhetoric. but in tigray the reality looks very different. baby leul was brought to ayder hospital in mekelle by his mother alem degefu birhan, after she was unable to produce breastmilk and he became dangerously underweight. >> when i was pregnant there were food shortages. when i got close to giving birth i had so many problems. my breasts ran out of milk because i had no food. jack: further down the ward are other children that have developed hydrocephalus, the

swelling of the brain with spinal fluid, a condition that can be caused by malnutrition in pregnant mothers. if nothing is done, tigray could slide into famine. but using what's termed "the f-word" is sensitive for the government and aid agencies alike. the memory of 1984 haunts ethiopia, when pictures of the devastating famine shocked the world. 40 years later, the death rates, and numbers suffering severe acute malnutrition, do not now meet the un's technical famine definition. but for reda getachew, interim tigrayan president, he's not interested in semantics. >> i see people dying because there is no food on their plate. no amount of technical obfuscation is going to convince me that this is not hunger. whether the f-word should be avoided at this point is overly academic, as far as i'm concerned. jack: tigray's hunger was exacerbated by the world food

program and usaid suspending food deliveries last march. the grain was being systematically stolen and sold on the black market, reportedly by both the federal and tigrayan military. after changes to prevent theft, wfp resumed shipments in august, and usaid in december, but according to mr. getachew, it's not enough. >> the response is not adequate at all. the resumption of food aid only covers 20% of what used to be the humanitarian need in tigray. i know the federal government for quite some time has been dragging its feet to come to terms with the reality on the ground. jack: and the reality remains bleak. responding to "pbs newshour" in a written statement, the ethiopian government said it was distributing $250 million in food aid, and claimed that national wheat yields had increased dramatically since 2021. but there's little sign of this

supposedly bumper crop in rural tigray. for millions facing acute hunger, the words will ring hollow. for the "pbs newshour," i'm jack hewson, in northern ethiopia. ♪ william: nearly one-third of large u.s. firms are exploring new work schedules for their employees. economics correspondent paul solman takes a look at some companies that are trying out a four-day, 32-hour week with the same pay. paul: at metro caring in denver, there were 45,000 visits last year. not far off the 47,000 at the start of the pandemic. >> i came out of the pandemic just exhausted, frankly. paul: the ceo felt overworked and overwhelmed. >> i worked far too many hours.

hunger was steadily growing. and i was really feeling discouraged. i just don't see us making progress. and so that landed really heavily on me. paul: and on many of her co-workers. >> we were experiencing a lot of burnout on staff, and feeling like we were treading water around our mission. paul: cory scrivner oversees food procurement and distribution. >> we have had four different food access managers in the last four years. it has 1000% been a burnout factor there. paul: in fact, sienicki almost quit. >> the burnout among nonprofit ceo's and nonprofit employees was higher than any other industry. probably like four out of 10 left the field. i was nearly there. paul: instead, though, she took a sabbatical and came back with a proposal. a four-day workweek. >> if you can have a more balanced life and work fewer hours, that you actually bring more creativity to your job and you bring more efficiency, and those hours that you do work mean more.

paul: alex pong has written about working less, runs research and innovation at non-profit four day week global. if you're in an industry in which there are serious challenges with recruitment and retention, with work-life balance, or if you have concerns about the sustainability of your organization, a four day week is a great way to address all of those challenges simultaneously. paul: hey, bernie sanders thinks so. he recently introduced a senate bill to reduce the standard workweek to 32 hours. >> the sad reality is americans now work more hours than the people of any other wealthy nation. paul: now look, a shorter workweek is hardly a new idea. in 1930, given ever-increasing output per person, increasing productivity that is, economist john maynard keynes foresaw a 15-hour workweek in 100 years. in 1956, vice president richard nixon predicted a four-day workweek in the quote, not too distant future. that future has yet to arrive. but thanks perhaps to covid,

companies have begun to shift. >> the pandemic had forced a lot of companies to change how they had worked. and so they were more open to the idea of playing around with work time. paul: as were workers. >> we all realized our own mortality. paul: stanford's nicholas bloom. >> you know, more than a million americans have died. you should enjoy life while you're here. work from home has been such a bonanza. so i've talked to, you know, hundreds, thousands of managers, employees, and they're kind of like, why didn't we do this earlier? and so as soon as you start thinking like that, you think, well, what else is there? and other things like the four-day week. a whole bunch of changes come into play. paul: metro caring's pilot began in late summer. the staff worked monday through thursday, took fridays off. 32 hours of work, same pay. >> there's definitely a learning curve, right? like, it doesn't just happen like you're just like, oh, i'm going to be efficient. paul: to get their work done in eight fewer hours, employees,

turned off computer alerts, reorganized their time. >> a lot of those have been around meetings and emails, not responding right away, but like setting aside concentrated blocks. and how to make meetings that are normally an hour into 15 minutes. paul: a shortened week increases focus, says graye miller. >> if i have to be here monday through friday, i am much more likely to take that half an hour sitting and drinking coffee, or that 15 minutes stepping outside for a cigarette. paul: integrity pro-roofing also tried a four-day week. >> there are so many tangible, tactical ways the you can give your team back that additional eight hours of time. paul: ceo rae boyce says her staff focused on tasks and projects in the morning when they were most energized, pushing meetings to the afternoon. >> the average knowledge worker loses about two hours of productive time per day to overly long meetings, to poor use of technology or outmoded processes.

so in a sense, for a lot of us, the four day week is already here. we're just spending a full day in the office, sitting around in meetings wondering who's going to change the toner cartridge or talking about the football game. paul: in surveys completed in february, at the end of metro caring's trial, employees reported well-being had improved. pre-trial, just 8% were highly or very highly satisfied with their work-life balance. at the end, that figure rose to 46%. at the start of the pilot, 50% felt burned out. by the end, half that number. >> having four days and then a three-day weekend? oh, my lord. it is rejuvenating on all levels. paul: the results didn't surprise pang. his firm helped run a 2022 trial of 61 british firms that showed benefits to workers' health and productivity when their hours were reduced. >> managers and companies also reported that people were collaborating better, that they were happier in the office. all of the important metrics trended in positive directions.

paul: bloom has his doubts, though. >> very productive, well-managed american companies, they are already, you know, pretty kick ass in terms of how well managed they are. these places are very efficient. it's not that easy to take a day out and produce the same amount. paul: at integrity pro roofing, a strictly four-day workweek did not work year-round. >> roofing and construction tends to be very seasonal. paul: so, employees now work fewer hours during the off season. but -- >> the summer and the fall is our busiest season. so we have found that there are times where we do need to ask our team to be flexible and to come back to a five day workweek when we're experiencing that type of a high volume. paul: still, boyce remains committed to a shorter week for her employees the rest of the year. >> time is our most precious resource. we have a really short life, so if there's any ways that we could give them some additional time, that's really what we wanted to focus on. paul: at metro caring, the four-day workweek created some problems of its own.

>> we rely on donations and foundations and grant funding to be able to exist in the way that we do. and they don't have a four-day workweek. they don't have a three-day weekend. there are deadlines that are due on friday. i often miss emails that are important that come on fridays. we really do need to be available for some of these bigger deadlines. paul: as a result, ceo sienicki still has to put in hours on fridays. >> i don't know that all of us are to 32 hours yet. you know, i think, you know, some of us, at least on some weeks, are at 35 hours. but frankly, 35 hours is way better than the 50 hours i was working prior to this trial. paul: metro caring plans to make the shorter workweek permanent, even as they work out the details. >> it may not be exactly like we've done the trial, like maybe we go to a 35-hour workweek, or maybe we look at a little bit more flexibility. paul: different schedules, perhaps. >> maybe it looks like one team works a different set of days than another team. paul: and that flexibility may help with retention.

cory scrivner thinks she'll last longer than her three predecessors. >> i'm feeling really good. i'm not leaving. i broke the curse. paul: scrivner bucked the burnout trend, she says, thanks in part to the four-day workweek. for the "pbs newshour," paul solman. william: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm william brangham. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. ♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf. the engine that connects us.

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wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. hello, everyone, and welcome to amanpour and company. here's what's coming up. amid escalation with iran, gaza keep getting bombed, another israeli strike kills at least 13 people. former idf intelligent cheer joins me. then, i just want to go home, if i die, so be it. confusion that ended in bloodshed. reports on the chaos that unfolded a