March 2, 2023 - PBS NewsHour full episode

AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening, and welcome.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: The U.S. secretary of state meets his Russian counterpart for the first time since the start of the war in Ukraine, as the conflict deepens divisions between the two countries, AMNA NAWAZ: Memphis residents question the best path forward for their community after the killing of Tyre Nichols by city police.

LISA BENNETT, Memphis Resident: There needs to be some cultural shifts.

The system and the culture of policing allowed them to beat a man to death.

GEOFF BENNETT: And librarians in Louisiana find themselves at odds with conservative activists trying to ban books about race, gender and sexual orientation.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening, and welcome to the "NewsHour."

The war in Ukraine is playing out tonight both in the streets of a ruined city and at a high-level diplomatic gathering.

It dominated discussions today among foreign ministers from the Group of 20 Nations.

AMNA NAWAZ: On the fighting front, the block-by-block battle for Bakhmut in Eastern Ukraine raged on.

Ukrainian forces are hanging on there under round-the-clock Russian shelling.

Meanwhile, Russia says Ukrainian fighters attacked the Bryansk region inside Russia today.

Ukraine denied the claim.

GEOFF BENNETT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced protesters as anarchists after a crowd last night staged a mass protest outside the building where his wife was getting her hair done.

Chanting, jeering demonstrators gathered in the street as Sara Netanyahu was in a Tel Aviv hair salon.

The chaotic scene lasted for hours before police escorted her away.

MATAN GILAN, Protester: Hundreds of people just blocking her from going out.

It all ended when the police came in with horses and just, yes, made their way through and got her out.

GEOFF BENNETT: Earlier on Wednesday, police used force for the first time to break up protests against Netanyahu's push to overhaul Israeli courts.

The death toll from a train disaster in Greece climbed to 57 today.

Crews again used heavy machinery to look for bodies in the mangled metal and debris of a passenger train that collided head on with a freight train on Tuesday.

There's no word yet on what caused the crash.

Back in this country, a Pennsylvania congressman is urging the EPA to expand a testing zone around the train derailment site in East Palestine, Ohio.

Republican Mike Kelly's district is just across the state line from the site.

He says the one-mile radius for testing soil, air and water covers only 22 homes in Pennsylvania.

Meantime, railroad union leaders report some workers have fallen ill after doing cleanup at the site.

Much of California finally got drier weather today, but 13 counties remained in a state of emergency digging out from extreme snowfall.

East of Los Angeles, seven feet of snow blanketed communities in the San Bernardino Mountains in recent days.

But federal officials now say all that snow and rain have ended a long-running drought in half of the state.

Tennessee will be the first state in the nation to impose strict limits on drag shows.

Republican Governor Bill Lee signed a bill today that bans the performances on public property, so as to shield them from the view of children.

Some Republicans say drag shows expose children to inappropriate themes and imagery.

Advocates say the measure is discriminatory.

It takes effect July 1, but legal challenges are expected.

On Wall Street, stocks managed a small rally after three days of losses.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 341 points, or 1 percent, to close it 33003.

The Nasdaq rose 83 points.

The S&P 500 added 30 And a passing of note.

Jazz saxophone innovator Wayne Shorter has died in Los Angeles.

His career spanned more than 50 years, with compositions that became modern jazz standards.

Along the way, he won 12 Grammys and became a Kennedy Center honoree.

Here he is with Herbie Hancock and others back in 2018 performing "Smilin' Through."

(MUSIC) GEOFF BENNETT: Wayne Shorter was 89 years old.

And still to come on the "PBS NewsHour": the use of artificial intelligence raises questions about the future of art; new FDA guidelines spark disagreement among farmers over what exactly is milk; and a Ukrainian music conductor reflects on the war and his life as a refugee.

AMNA NAWAZ: The world's 20 wealthiest nations met in New Delhi today for the G20 summit hosted by India and bringing together the U.S., Russia and China.

But the gathering on global cooperation was largely overshadowed by bitter disagreements on the war in Ukraine and concluded with no consensus.

For the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met face to face with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, a 10-minute meeting on the sidelines of the G20.

Summit in New Delhi, Blinken urging Lavrov to end what he called a war of aggression.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. Secretary of State: President Zelenskyy has put forward a 10-point plan for a just and durable peace.

President Putin, however, has demonstrated zero interest in engaging, saying there's nothing to even talk about.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lavrov blaming the West for prolonging the war.

SERGEY LAVROV, Russian Foreign Minister (through translator): While we are being called for talks, I don't remember Western colleagues urging Ukraine for talks, probably because Ukraine is being encouraged for a continuation of the war.

AMNA NAWAZ: Blinken and Lavrov last met in January of 2022, one month before Russia launched its war in Ukraine with global reverberations, a year later, growing worries over Beijing and Moscow's closer ties.

Blinken today threatened sanctions if China supplied weapons to Russia, saying the issue was raised with Chinese officials last month in Munich and with partners in New Delhi today ANTONY BLINKEN: I made clear that there would be consequences for engaging in those actions.

So I'm not going to detail what they would be.

But, of course, we have sanctions authorities of various kinds.

NARENDRA MODI, Indian Prime Minister: We are meeting at a time of deep global divisions.

AMNA NAWAZ: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the fallout shouldn't disrupt global agreements on food, energy and debt.

NARENDRA MODI: We should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can.

AMNA NAWAZ: Modi has stopped short of condemning Russia for its war, and India has continued to import discounted Russian oil throughout the conflict.

For more on today's G20 meeting and, in particular, China and India's support for Russia, we get two views.

Sumit Ganguly is a distinguished professor of political science at Indiana University, and Elizabeth Wishnick is a senior research scientist at the Center for Naval Analyses.

She's on leave from Montclair State University.

Welcome to you both and thanks for being here.

Sumit, I will begin with you and India's relationship with Russia.

Modi is attempting to be as neutral as possible, it seems.

Explain that to us.

Why would Modi not want to upset Putin?

SUMIT GANGULY, Indiana University-Bloomington: There are three compelling reasons why Modi is following this very delicate tightrope walk.

To begin with, anywhere between 60 to 75 percent of India's weaponry is either of Russian or Soviet origin.

And, consequently, India is acutely dependent on Russia for supplies of spare parts and a continuing pipeline of weaponry.

Secondly, India can ill afford to buy oil on the global market, given the price of oil, and the Russians are prepared add to sell oil at concessionary rates, which is easing inflation in India, when global inflation is affecting the Indian economy.

And, third, there is a degree of Cold War nostalgia that permeates the Indian political elite.

And, consequently, they are unwilling to totally abandon Russia and rebuke Russia for its actions in the Ukraine.

AMNA NAWAZ: Elizabeth, what about the Chinese view here?

When we last spoke a year ago, Russian troops were massing on the Ukrainian border.

Putin flew to Beijing to meet with President Xi.

You said then that you didn't believe a war in Ukraine was in China's interest.

So why does China stand with Russia today?

ELIZABETH WISHNICK, Center for Naval Analyses: Well, Russia is an important partner for China.

China just doesn't have another partner of Russia's stature, a U.N. Security Council member, a neighbor with which China shares a very lengthy border.

Like India, China also receives military technology from Russia, though, increasingly, China is producing its own.

And China has also been increasingly importing oil and gas from Russia and sees overland supplies of energy as more secure than risking seaborne supplies, where the U.S. could intervene.

AMNA NAWAZ: The oil component is huge.

I'd like to ask you both about that, because, over the last year, the U.S. and West have worked very hard to cut off Russia's oil revenue.

At the same time, China and India have ramped up their oil imports from Russia.

When you look at the numbers, those are China's numbers and red, India's numbers in yellow, in terms of oil imports from Russia.

China has hiked up their imports from 1.8 million barrels a day to 2.3 million.

India has increased from fewer than a million, 0.1 million barrels per day, up to 1.6 million barrels per day Sumit, this is arguably helping to fuel the war.

So what does India say?

How do they justify that increase in oil imports from Russia?

SUMIT GANGULY: They justify that increase on the grounds that this is easing India's economic burden, that, ultimately, India has to be concerned about 1.4 billion of its own population, and that India has meager other sources of obtaining oil at a reasonable price on in the global market.

And consequently, they sort of shrug their shoulders and say, the Western world also deals with any number of regimes which are not entirely savory, and who are they to hector us about who we are buying oil from, particularly at a time of dire need?

AMNA NAWAZ: Has that strained U.S.-India relations in any way?

SUMIT GANGULY: It has strained Indo-U.S. relations, but the U.S. has mostly expressed its discomfiture privately.

Publicly, Antony Blinken, President Biden have maintained mostly silence on this subject after, initially, when Blinken had raised the issue with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

But Jaishankar basically rebuffed Blinken at the time.

And, subsequently, the U.S. has not publicly upgraded or rebuked India.

AMNA NAWAZ: Elizabeth, what about from the Chinese perspective?

How do they explain the increase in oil imports?

ELIZABETH WISHNICK: They have been increasing their imports from Russia steadily over time.

And prior to the war, they accounted for about 17 percent -- Russian oil accounted for 17 percent of Chinese imports.

And now it's about 20 percent.

So, for China, they see it as a matter of energy security, that Russia is a close supply of oil.

And this oil, some of it has been going to Chinese reserves.

I think China is concerned about supply chains, and wants to make sure it has enough reserves of oil.

AMNA NAWAZ: That purchase has certainly increased tensions between the U.S. and China, though.

Then we had the spy balloon incident, of course.

And now we have U.S. officials, warning Chinese officials against providing lethal support to Russia.

Would doing that in any way be in China's interests?

ELIZABETH WISHNICK: I think they know that this is a red line for the international community, as they're threatened with sanctions if they do this.

But, nonetheless, we have seen evidence of some companies trying to go under the radar and provide some parts for aircraft by falsifying records or claiming these are commercial aircraft.

And there was evidence of a small company, Xi'an Bingo Intelligent Aviation, that was in an agreement with a Chinese-state-owned defense company, China Poly Group, to provide prototypes for kamikaze drones.

So this is a delivery that was supposed to be by April.

And we don't know if it will take place.

So I think that some companies are trying to find ways of getting technology to their Russian counterparts.

They have been working together for a long time.

We don't know if this is a state-directed effort by China to aid Russia, though.

AMNA NAWAZ: Do you believe the threat of sanctions, as Secretary Blinken said today, would prevent China from acting in that way?

ELIZABETH WISHNICK: Well, we haven't seen any systematic effort by China to overtly provide military aid.

So I think the sanctions are a factor, but also the huge reputational costs, because China just issued a position paper where it claims to be impartial and aiming for peace.

And so this would certainly run counter to that message.

AMNA NAWAZ: We will certainly be following both of these nations very closely.

Sumit Ganguly and Elizabeth Wishnick, thank you both for joining us.

SUMIT GANGULY: Thank you.

ELIZABETH WISHNICK: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: It's been almost two months since the police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee.

Five police officers have pleaded not guilty in his fatal beating.

In all, the city's investigation into the incident has implicated at least 13 officers and four fire department employees.

White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez recently spent some time in Memphis to explore where the city goes from here.

And a warning: The story contains some disturbing images.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Lifelong Memphian Keedran Franklin wants his city to be different.

KEEDRAN FRANKLIN, Community Organizer: I would love to see like not a police force, but more like a community, like, guiding department, right?

I would like to see more therapists, more health specialists in our communities.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Following the killing of Tyre Nichols, Franklin, a 36-year-old community organizer, thinks change won't come from the Memphis Police Department KEEDRAN FRANKLIN: I have no trust in them to do anything.

They have had this long to try to do something.

They have been knowing that it was terrible, so I don't have any trust that they will do the right thing.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Despite the disbanding of the so-called SCORPION unit, whose officers fatally beat Nichols, many Memphians say the culture within the entire police department is to blame.

KEEDRAN FRANKLIN: Disbanding that unit does not disband that mind-set.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Many residents in Memphis are still processing the trauma of Tyre Nichols' death.

From that pain is a new push in the city to change policing, but there are divisions over how best to achieve reform.

Pastor Ricky Floyd, who's been shot and carjacked himself, doesn't want funds diverted away from police, especially when crime in Memphis is up by a third over last year.

PASTOR RICKY FLOYD, Pursuit of God Transformation Center: A job that was once honored, celebrated, valued and appreciated now are looked at in many people's eyes as the scum of the earth.

And so I'm not for defunding the police officer.

I am for reforming, revisiting, revitalizing, reviewing.

Most of the people in Frayser don't even know this exists.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In the North Memphis neighborhood that is home to his church, Floyd sees opportunity.

PASTOR RICKY FLOYD: It has the reputation of being one of the most economically deprived, low-education, violent neighborhoods in the city of Memphis.

We have a responsibility, instead of pointing the fingers, to dig roots in the dirt where we are and make something positive happen in our community.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: For Floyd, that means connecting community members to jobs in affordable housing.

But it also means resisting the kinds of police reform that some Memphians want, like changes to traffic enforcement.

PASTOR RICKY FLOYD: They find real criminals by traffic violations.

I would rather they pull me over and pull this other guy over who's going to go do a crime.

I would rather lose that five minutes than for somebody else to lose their life.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Last week, Memphis residents packed the chambers of city hall, as counselors advanced a series of ordinances aimed at combating police misconduct, among them, improve transparency and data collection on use of force, limits on the use of unmarked cars, establishing an independent review of all police training techniques, and restrictions on certain kinds of traffic stops that are often pretextual.

But some activists and residents want more, an end to all task forces and specialized units like SCORPION, even the firing of Cerelyn "C.J."

Davis, the city's first bill Black female police chief.

The police department declined our request for an interview.

You have been somewhat critical of the transparency from the Memphis Police Department.

Do you think -- are you satisfied with what you're hearing from them and from Chief Davis?

MARTAVIUS JONES, Memphis City Council Member: No.

No.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: City Council Chairman Martavius Jones says getting rid of the chief is premature, but: MARTAVIUS JONES: To not be in front of the public in an instance like this just gives the impression there's something to hide.

People just want to be updated.

The council wants to be updated on these things.

And we haven't been adequately.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Jones also wants a better understanding of the role of those specialized units before he calls for their elimination.

And he says funding shouldn't necessarily be diverted from police, which means the city may need to raise taxes to help grow other services.

MARTAVIUS JONES: I look at what we have done as a city.

We have continuously increased the police budget.

But when we look at the activities for young people in our community, there's been a serious decline.

I think that a large part of our issues here from a crime standpoint deals with our high poverty rate.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Today, almost a quarter of Memphians live below the poverty line.

And in this majority-Black city, that number is even higher for people of color.

Lisa Bennett, a retired educator who spent more than half her life in Memphis, says more money should be given to Memphis schools, instead of police.

LISA BENNETT, Memphis Resident: I'm a 52-year-old lifelong Southern Black woman.

I have a history of not good experiences with law enforcement in my own life.

That part of me is almost afraid to be hopeful, because I don't -- I don't want to be disappointed.

I -- it's pretty traumatic.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: When Bennett was about 3 years old, her father was killed by police.

LISA BENNETT: I'm old enough of a realist to know -- to know that policing is not going to go away.

MPD is not going to be disbanded.

But I do think that there needs to be some cultural shifts.

The system and the culture of policing allowed them to beat a man to death and feel confident that it was OK to do it, because they did it on camera.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Bennett mostly supports the City Council steps so far.

But, as Memphis charts a path forward, she's not confident they're enough to create lasting change.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez in Memphis.

GEOFF BENNETT: Scrutiny of libraries, books, teaching materials and curriculum has become a central issue for conservative politicians around the country.

In Louisiana, the fight over banning books in public libraries is escalating and in some cases targeting librarians.

Conservative Christian groups are working to take over the boards of public libraries.

The state's attorney general has conducted a six-month investigation into what he called sexually explicit materials in libraries.

Our New Orleans communities correspondent, Roby Chavez, has been reporting on this issue across Louisiana, and joins us now with more.

Roby, thanks for being with us.

So, what's different in Louisiana from what we're seeing in other states?

ROBY CHAVEZ: Well, Geoff, what we're seeing here is that the battle over books is focused on Louisiana public libraries.

And more and more librarians are finding themselves under intense scrutiny.

Law enforcement continues to be used in some situations, and the attorney general has set up a tip line asking the public to report librarians.

Attorney General Jeff Landry, who is a Republican running for governor, also called for legislation to restrict what children and teens can check out in public libraries.

All of it has fueled the effort by conservative groups that are on a crusade to attack books that expose children to what they call pornographic material and diverse perspectives on race, gender and sexuality.

The difference is that these groups are not just attacking books.

More and more librarians feel like they are in the crosshairs and have come under increased scrutiny for what's on the shelves.

The majority of the book challenges across Louisiana last year focused on titles for children and young adults involving sex education and books with LGBTQ themes.

Police have been called on librarians.

All of it has been unsettling for librarians like Kelly LaRocca in St. Tammany Parish just outside of New Orleans.

LaRocca has been a librarian for the past 17 years and has never seen anything like it.

Recently, she was targeted online and singled out by conservative groups, suggesting she was using literature to groom children.

She says the criticism and more than 150 book challenges in her parish are an enormous strain on her staff.

KELLY LAROCCA, St. Tammany Parish Library Director: I can say unequivocally we're not pedophiles or groomers.

And I can say that on behalf of our staff.

That is not why we go into public service or librarianship.

We really are here to connect our community with all of the resources that they may want or need, and knowing that, I mean, a community has lots of different voices and different perspectives, and so we provide materials for everyone.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Roby, what have you learned in your reporting about the groups who want the books removed or replaced?

ROBY CHAVEZ: Well, Geoff, these are conservative political groups.

Many have a very heavy online presence, and they have a traditional notion of family values.

The other side, however, says this amounts to nothing more than censorship and that it targets marginalized communities.

Now, normally, quiet and unintended library board meetings have now become very jam-packed and contentious.

Some have been arrested at these meetings, as both sides debate library content.

In this charged climate, some conservative members of groups leading the book challenges want to remove or relocate books.

They want to take over library boards with conservative members.

And some groups have started to make calls to defund libraries that they say provide children to so-called dangerous materials.

Armed deputies now flank library board members at meetings.

WOMAN: Is this the role model reading material that we want in the library?

Is this the type of information conducive to preserving our children's innocence for ever how long we can?

They're young.

They need protection.

WOMAN: Libraries are sanctuaries of knowledge.

My family and I admire and respect the work of the librarians of our libraries.

They have always been caring and respectful.

GEOFF BENNETT: So what's the national picture when it comes to this conservative bookbinding effort?

ROBY CHAVEZ: Well, Geoff, we checked with the American Library Association, because they track this kind of stuff.

And they say that the challenges of library books have jumped from 400 books in 2017 to more than 1,600 book challenges last year.

The ALA said the figures this year are set to exceed last year's totals.

Now, a separate PEN America study about school book bans in the last academic year said 41 percent of all bans are about books dealing with LGBTQ topics.

Now, Geoff, we did also check out what was submitted to that library tip line.

We reviewed some 11,000 documents.

Most of it was spam.

There was even the entire script of "The Bee Movie" that was submitted and a lot of complaints about Attorney General Jeff Landry.

GEOFF BENNETT: Roby Chavez, thanks for sharing that reporting with us.

ROBY CHAVEZ: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you can read more of Roby's reporting at PBS.org/NewsHour.

AMNA NAWAZ: Artificial intelligence, or A.I., is everywhere.

It's now part of our conversations about education and politics and social media.

It's also become a hot topic in the art world.

Programs that generate art using A.I.

are widely available to the public and are skyrocketing in popularity.

But what goes into these programs and the work that comes out are heavily debated in the arts community.

Jeffrey Brown explores the influence of A.I.

on art, and where it may be headed next.

It's part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

JEFFREY BROWN: An enormous 40-by-14-foot screen, constantly morphing abstraction, created from some 35 million images of coral from around the world.

What are we looking at?

REFIK ANADOL, Artist: These are machines' interpretation of millions of data of underwater.

JEFFREY BROWN: It's a kind of artificial reality, in the term of artist Refik Anadol, who calls this a data painting.

REFIK ANADOL: It's in flux, doesn't dry.

The pigment is always in movement.

The colors are changing.

JEFFREY BROWN: The 37-year-old Turkish born artist in perpetual motion and overflowing with energy at the opening of a new exhibition of his work at the Jeffrey Deitch art gallery in Los Angeles, is at the leading edge of a growing artificial intelligence, or A.I., art revolution.

REFIK ANADOL: My primary material is data, the information, and my second material is a thinking brush that is assisted... JEFFREY BROWN: Thinking -- a thinking brush?

REFIK ANADOL: Yes, that is assisted by artificial intelligence.

JEFFREY BROWN: Anadol's artworks are made in a Los Angeles studio in which computers, software programs, screens and a 3-D printer with a giant robotic arm replace more traditional artist's materials.

Here, he and a team, including computer and data scientists, engineers, researchers, architects and designers, build enormous data sets requiring huge computing power -- you can't do this at home -- and run them through or train A.I.

programs they themselves have created.

The input can vary.

Right now, at New York's Museum of Modern Art, Anadol has created a piece titled Unsupervised created from images, research and other data from the museum's entire archives.

In another example back at his studio, the input is a whole lot of flowers.

This is your brush in this case.

REFIK ANADOL: Yes.

It's like with a game joystick.

So, what we are watching here is an A.I.

that is trained on 75 million flowers.

JEFFREY BROWN: Seventy-five million images of flowers.

REFIK ANADOL: Of flowers, exactly.

JEFFREY BROWN: And then the A.I.... (CROSSTALK) JEFFREY BROWN: ... is making its own flowers.

REFIK ANADOL: Yes, exactly.

And -- but to make it happen, it's when and machine and human connection happens.

JEFFREY BROWN: We're not seeing real flowers here, but an artistic collaboration of machine and human.

Who is the artist?

REFIK ANADOL: Artist is still the artist.

Like, human is the human there.

JEFFREY BROWN: You are the artist?

REFIK ANADOL: Yes.

But let's also remember that it's an -- assisted by a machine, an A.I., an algorithm.

And I think this is really inspiring to me, because that's exactly where art, science and technology, a beautiful movement that I hope it's inspiring.

And it's most likely our future, where we are more getting closer to machines every single day.

JEFFREY BROWN: You refer constantly to the machine dreaming.

REFIK ANADOL: Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: Is the machine thinking too?

REFIK ANADOL: No, I don't think machine is thinking.

Machine is helping to think in a different way.

JEFFREY BROWN: It's the stuff of sci-fi, yes, but art and technology have been connected and debated forever, including in the early decades of photography.

Dhyandra Lawson is an assistant curator of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, known as LACMA.

DHYANDRA LAWSON, Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Photographs were dismissed and marginalized from fine art discourse.

It's because of the president of the apparatus, the machine, the camera, right, which people had claimed, critics claimed, took away the artist's special hand.

JEFFREY BROWN: And the computer itself has been a fascination for artists for more than 50 years, made clear in a LACMA exhibition titled Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, artists playing with the physical machine and exploring its ability, primitive compared to today, to generate images.

Coded brings the story up to 1982, the advent of the Internet age.

DHYANDRA LAWSON: What is new now I think is access.

JEFFREY BROWN: Access, that is, for everyone, including to a new kind of artmaking on A.I.-generating apps available to the wider public, offered by companies such as Midjourney, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, and a proliferation of others, which allow the artist in each of us to create an artwork through simple prompts.

It's easy and fun, but has also raised a host of new questions.

Last year, for example, an A.I.-generated work won a prize at the Colorado State Fair, outraging other contestants.

And some artists, like Molly Crabapple, see another, more urgent threat.

MOLLY CRABAPPLE, Artist and Author: I see a world where illustrators like me, people who make our living drawing pictures, are completely replaced by these apps because they can make images faster and cheaper than any human possibly can.

And, even worse than that, this generative A.I.

was trained on our stolen images.

JEFFREY BROWN: Crabapple is a New York-based artist and writer.

Her critique?

The new platforms build their businesses by scraping, or collecting, images and other data from the Internet, including works by artists and illustrators who aren't credited or compensated.

And that, she says, is already changing the landscape for her community.

MOLLY CRABAPPLE: There are companies that, even one year ago, were hiring artists to do book covers and creating beautiful book covers with those artists that are now making A.I.

book covers.

JEFFREY BROWN: In January, in fact, a group of artists filed a class action lawsuit now pending against several A.I.

imagery generators, charging copyright violations.

I asked Crabapple, who's not part of the suit, about A.I.

's lasting impact on the art world.

MOLLY CRABAPPLE: Do I think that human creativity will be destroyed because there are these little image generators?

No.

People are creative.

However, do I think the lives of individual artists who are making their income will be destroyed if they no longer have work?

Yes, of course I do.

JEFFREY BROWN: Another concern in these early days of A.I.

art suddenly being available to all, the images themselves, and how much they reflect the biases, or worse, of the Internet databases from where they have been obtained.

Curator Dhyandra Lawson counsels that consumers need to consider the source of the data being used to generate A.I.

art.

DHYANDRA LAWSON: The things that we need to be aware of are, who and what is training the A.I.?

What sort of data are they -- is it using?

Does the data perpetuate power dynamics and inequalities in our -- in our lived experiences, in our real lives?

JEFFREY BROWN: Artist Refik Anadol agrees with such concerns.

His work, he points out, differs from widely available apps, in that he and his team generate their own data sets and take care with their sources, what is sometimes referred to as ethically sourced data.

He remains a big believer in the future of this technology.

He's convinced that the work going into his art, for example, the mapping of coral reefs, can help with environmental and a host of other big problems in the world.

But, he cautions: REFIK ANADOL: We should think A.I.

as a mirror.

A.I.

is a mirror, and this mirror can reflect whatever we are training.

So, if we are aware of this mirror that reflects the information, I think we have more clarity.

It's really on our hands to train this mind to dream what we want.

It's -- the human intention is here.

It's not the A.I., I think, the issue.

JEFFREY BROWN: The human, that is, is, for now, still the more complicated machine.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in Los Angeles.

GEOFF BENNETT: It's almost official.

Soy, almond, and other plant-based drinks that call themselves milk can keep using that name, at least according to new draft guidelines released by the FDA, which got us thinking, what is milk anyway?

Stephanie Sy explores the debate.

ANNOUNCER: Who's shot Alexander Hamilton in that famous duel?

STEPHANIE SY: Milk has long been a huge part of our cultural fabric.

Remember this commercial from 1993?

ACTOR: Actor?

ACTOR: Hello.

For $10,000, who shot... ACTOR: Aaron Burr.

ACTOR: Excuse me?

ACTOR: Aaron Burr.

Hold on.

Let me just get some milk.

No!

STEPHANIE SY: But there's been a growing debate, as divisive as the question, is a hot dog sandwich?

Americans have been having a cow over the meaning of milk.

What is milk exactly?

These days, it seems you can milk anything, at least according to these YouTube videos from Howard Nutkik of Creamy Valley Nut Milkery.

HOWARD NUTKIK, Creamy Valley Nut Milkery: There's so much confusion in city folk these days.

They are talking about nuts don't lactate, nuts don't have nipples.

I will show you a nut nipple.

Looks like milk to me.

Mmm, nice and warm.

STEPHANIE SY: According to the FDA, milk is a lacteal secretion obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows.

Harvard's School of Public Health Web site says it's liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals.

And dairy farmers like Harold Howrigan want to keep those definitions.

HAROLD HOWRIGAN, Dairy Farmer: These plant-based products, obviously, they're well-entrenched in the market.

At some point, they should stand on their own legs and not masquerade as a dairy product.

STEPHANIE SY: What do you think they should be called, this stuff?

HAROLD HOWRIGAN: Well, they're a juice.

STEPHANIE SY: For the last decade, as nut, grain and soy alternatives rose in popularity, milk advocates have complained that using the milk moniker for plant-based impostors was misleading.

During the Trump administration, then-FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb suggested at a political conference that new labeling requirements might be in the offing.

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, Former FDA Commissioner: There is a reference somewhere in the standard of identity to a lactating animal.

And an almond doesn't lactate.

STEPHANIE SY: But, last week, the Biden administration's FDA announced draft guidance that says plant-based alternatives are allowed to continue to call themselves milk.

The reasoning?

Could I just get a medium oat milk latte, please?

That's already what most of us call them.

The latest statistics from 2017 show some 90 percent of Americans still buy cow's milk, but the plant-based options have been drinking up market share.

It's now a more-than-$2.5-billion industry and accounts for 16 percent of all milk sales in the U.S. A new ad campaign by the company Silk even riffs on the milk mustache.

NICOLE NEGOWETTI, Plant Based Foods Association: I think that's a huge win for the plant-based food industry, and it's a long time coming.

STEPHANIE SY: Nicole Negowetti, vice president of policy and food systems at the Plant Based Foods Association, agrees with the FDA's decision allowing alternatives to be called milk.

There are people that are just like, this isn't milk.

You don't milk a cashew.

NICOLE NEGOWETTI: However, many, many cultures have used the term milk on products such as coconut milk, and so to ignore that is to ignore longstanding cultural uses for the term milk.

STEPHANIE SY: What she and others disagree with is the FDA's accompanying recommendation, that the plant-based milks include labels like this intended to clarify the difference in nutrients between alternatives and dairy milk.

NICOLE NEGOWETTI: The fundamental flaw of this draft guidance is that it seeks to portray plant-based milks as somehow nutritionally inferior to cow's milk, when that is not true at all.

In fact, there are important nutrients such as fiber which are included in plant-based milks, but are not in conventional cow's milk.

And there are nutrients that need to be limited by most Americans, such as saturated fat, which are not included in plant-based milks, but are in many cow's milk products.

STEPHANIE SY: Harold Howrigan says saturated fat has gotten a bad rap.

HAROLD HOWRIGAN: These plant-based alternatives have been around 10 or 15 years.

They're playing off dairy's integrity, dairy's nutrition, dairy's wellness, dairy's help to sell their products, and their nutrition and their wellness are just not there to back up their claims.

MAN: There's not a grain or a nut that hippies don't want to milk, and they will pay for it too.

STEPHANIE SY: The only thing the sides of the great milk debate seem to agree on is moo-tual dissatisfaction with the FDA's draft guidance.

The public comment period is open.

Feel free to weigh in.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we will be back shortly with a look at a Ukrainian conductor's effort to rebuild his life after Russia's invasion.

GEOFF BENNETT: But, first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station.

It's a chance to offer your support, which helps keeps programs like ours on the air.

AMNA NAWAZ: For those of you staying with us: Cataclysmic flooding in Pakistan last year was the latest in a string of weather-related disasters the country has faced over the past two decades, prompting calls to make hard-hit areas more resilient as they rebuild.

Fred de Sam Lazaro has our encore report on one woman's efforts to rebuild.

This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center and is part of Fred's series Agents for Change.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: On a recent morning here in rural Sindh Province, workers, including residents of Pano (ph), a model village, were building bamboo frames for construction.

The need for durable shelter is overwhelming in a country still grappling with an enormous rebuilding effort.

Last year's unrelenting rains wiped away hundreds of thousands of mud huts across rural areas.

Standing water still covers acres of land once home to villages of mostly sharecroppers and farm laborers.

The village of Pano and 12 others are the brainchild of globally acclaimed architect Yasmeen Lari, the first female to qualify as an architect in Pakistan; 82-year-old Lari has won several awards in a career that focused at first on designing modern buildings, like the Finance and Trade Center in Pakistan's commercial capital, Karachi.

YASMEEN LARI, Architect: You must about the architect that we're all trained to control everything, nothing should be different from what we have decided, what we design.

And here was a different way of working altogether, where you have to lose your ego.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: In retirement, she found her calling at the intersection of architecture and social justice, she says, beginning with the devastating 2005 earthquake in Kashmir, where she planned to spend three months doing relief work.

YASMEEN LARI: While it didn't quite work out that way.

I found there was plenty to do there.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Her focus shifted with the urgent need for structures that can be built quickly and sustainably in a country slammed in recent years by extreme climate events, moving away from concrete and steel, and using more local low-carbon and low-cost materials.

YASMEEN LARI: When I was a practicing architect, I built some huge, monster buildings with a lot of concrete and steel.

And I found that 40 percent of carbon emissions are because of the conventional construction.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Among her signature projects is this pedestrian-only street in the heart of Karachi, emphasizing green space and terra-cotta tile, which drain rainwater much faster than the usual concrete.

YASMEEN LARI: Concrete is the worst thing, because everything becomes totally impervious.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For mass shelter projects, she found a game-changing substitute in lime, an abundant mineral that, mixed with traditional mud, becomes stable and water-resistant, she says.

YASMEEN LARI: I found it was an absolutely miracle material, because it stabilized the earth completely and could last for years if you submerge it in water.

And we have tested that.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Lari's structures incorporate climate-smart design and materials with traditional ones.

The key is to build on higher ground, add a short platform for additional protection from floodwaters, and use a sloped, thatched roof.

YASMEEN LARI: It's made out of eight prefab panels.

And then it has a structure, a roof which is like an umbrella.

So, there's a huge amount of air movement.

So it's very comfortable inside.

My own dream is really that if I could just save people from displacement, if they could be just these structures which will make sure that people can stay in them.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: About five million Pakistanis remain without permanent shelter.

And the goal here is to not just build homes for people, but to train local residents to do it themselves.

The hope is that this know-how can then be transferred village to village, creating not just sustainable homes, but also jobs.

And, Lari says, she's trying to make sure residents can make something to sell, which has allowed many to emerge from extreme poverty.

The reason she credits for this success?

YASMEEN LARI: Well, I managed to get women mobilized to do things, and I found that I could get the results very quickly.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Much of that entrepreneurship is around cleaner cookstoves.

Champa Kanji learned to build these stoves, or chulhas, several years ago.

Now she earns a living building them and training others in neighboring villages.

CHAMPA KANJI, Model Village Resident (through translator): My husband joined me, and we'd go around to villages, and we would make between eight and 10 chulhas in a day.

We were earning a good wage.

Now I hope that it will spread more widely.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The stoves range from the simple to very customized, like this demonstrator model in Pano village.

For women like Dhani, who uses one name, it's made preparing the family meal far less burdensome.

DHANI, Model Village Resident (through translator): The new stoves are very nice.

There's less smoke in your face, and it's much safer for the children.

YASMEEN LARI: Suddenly, women's postures changed, because, earlier, they were crouching on the floor, on the ground.

And, suddenly, every woman's back was erect.

Suddenly, she was proud, as if she was sitting on a throne.

And women are in the lead in everything that I'm doing.

And once they're strong and confident, I think they will make it -- they will bring about a change.

And we have got to bring about a change.

We can't go on like this.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: More immediately, Dhani, husband Khumo and the 100 other families here say they're grateful their village literally was an island during the recent floods.

KHUMO, Model Village Resident (through translator): Because we are higher, we were safe.

People in other villages had to run to the roadways because they were lower down.

And the water just drained off the roof, away from the house.

The water in the old place would come into the house and collapse it.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It's not just homes, but also schools that were wiped out in the floods.

And Lari hopes to build thousands of them in the years ahead.

And she's raising funds to meet the goal of a million homes in the next two years.

For the "PBS NewsHour," this is Fred de Sam Lazaro near Hyderabad, Pakistan.

AMNA NAWAZ: And Fred's reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

GEOFF BENNETT: Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine a year ago, an estimated 16 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes.

We have looked this past year at Ukrainians trying to rebuild their lives in America.

And, tonight, we introduce you to one man and his family doing that through the universal language of music.

Justin Kenny of Rhode Island PBS Weekly has the story, a collaboration with The Boston Globe for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

JUSTIN KENNY: It's Sunday morning at the Second Baptist Church in East Providence, Rhode Island.

Alex Kreshchuk is warming up the small choir.

It's smaller than he's used to.

Back home in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe, he conducted on a much grander scale, like the Reverend Billy Graham's revival at a Moscow stadium.

When Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, his life changed.

One of Russia's first targets was Kreshchuk's hometown.

He and his family were forced to flee.

Musicians all, the family made a difficult decision to leave the country and head for the Romanian border.

OLEKSANDR "ALEX" KRESHCHUK, Ukrainian Refugee: When we came there, a crowd of people, mostly women and children, cry, and it was very cold.

It was terrible situation.

Many times, I saw on TV what's happened in Syria or in other countries when refugees left countries.

But I cannot imagine I can be -- I can with my eyes what's happened.

I'm standing in this crowd and crying.

And I saw on my kids.

I saw on my grandchildren, and had no idea of what will be happened.

JUSTIN KENNY: They waited for it to be safe to go home, but going home would bring even more pain.

OLEKSANDR "ALEX" KRESHCHUK: Everywhere was burning, the big library with collection of music instrument and all photos, all what we collect during last 35, 40 years.

JUSTIN KENNY: Kreshchuk's worst fears were realized.

Once Ukrainian forces finally pushed the Russians out of their town, his daughter Victoria went to see for herself.

This is where the family house once stood, full of music and culture, now gone.

After several months in exile, the family acquired special visas allowing them to come to the United States.

They moved to Rhode Island last summer.

His family, including his wife and their three youngest children, share a two-bedroom apartment.

The children attend a nearby Christian school.

The parents study English at a refugee resettlement agency.

Kreshchuk now has a Social Security card.

And he's looking for work.

OLEKSANDR "ALEX" KRESHCHUK: And I visited many countries and know it's one side when came this concert or came as a tourist, but another way to come as a refugee.

I met a very deeply party and compassion and people with deep love, with this open heart.

JUSTIN KENNY: Does it make you sad to think about your former life?

OLEKSANDR "ALEX" KRESHCHUK: I'm just saying that life is a journey on the way, a journey from day of birth until day of death.

And we must came through different events in our life.

And when I see back on my life, it's not sad.

I'm only thankful to God he gave this experience, this chance to live.

And now I understand it's a new period of my life.

JUSTIN KENNY: Finding peace in their music, even when there's no peace back home.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Justin Kenny in East Providence, Rhode Island.

GEOFF BENNETT: Remember, there's a lot more online at PBS.org/NewsHour, including a look at how the push to legalize marijuana for recreational use has gained traction in conservative Oklahoma.

AMNA NAWAZ: And join us again here tomorrow night, when we will speak to a Vietnam veteran who's receiving the Medal of Honor after a nearly 60-year wait.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

Thanks for being with us.

Have a good evening.