GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening, and merry Christmas.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Amna Nawaz is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: In one of the war's deadliest nights, an Israeli airstrike on Christmas Eve kills more than 100 Gazans.

Two months after the state's deadliest mass shooting, Maine's deaf community rebuild in the wake of tragedy.

And a unique way of combating loneliness in Britai benches help build connections across communities.

DAVID BARBER, Winterstoke Gardens Project: Pe have got earphones in.

They don't want to converse.

They contact.

So, the art of conversation is an awful lot less than it used to be.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

The death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surged higher today, as Israel ramped up its strikes on Gaza.

Health officials there reported 250 Palestinians died and another 500 were injured in the last 24 hours alone.

All this comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to intensify the fight.

William Brangham has our report.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Gaza woke up re sidential block in Deir al Balah, a city in Central Gaza, bombed into rubble.

Survivors at the Maghazi refugee camp dug through the debris with their bare hands, searching desperately for all that they have lost.

On Friday, they were told by the Israeli military to move here.

And now it is the site of death and devastation.

Om Ahmed was one of those who came here, thinking it was safe.

OM AHMED, Displaced Gazan (through translator): For the love of God, have mercy on us.

For the love of God, have mercy on us.

We're dying and no one is paying attention to us.

We have lost our children, our homes, everything.

We don't know where to go.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: There is grief and pain, shock and disbelief, tears and heartache.

At the Al-Aqsa Hospital, their loved ones arrive in body bags, one after the other.

Their loss is crippling, a father mourning his child and a son struggling to let go of his father.

As Gazans pr to the end war.

It includes a cease-fire, a phased release of all hostages, and the creation of a loosely defined Palestinian government of appointed experts.

Hamas and its allied militant group, the Islamic Jihad, rejected the proposal of relinquishing control of the Gaza Strip, according to reports.

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was heckled by famil to continue the war.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Is and we will not stop until victory, because we have no other country, and we have no other way.

WILLIAM BRAN POPE FRANCIS, Leader of Catholic Church (through translator): May peace come in Israel and Palestine, where war is devastating the lives of those peoples.

I plead for an end to the military operations with their appalling harvest of innocent civilian victims.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In the occupied West Bank, Bethlehem, where the Bible says Jesus was born, resembled a ghost town, a far cry from what a normal Christmas here looks like.

At the Church of the Nativity, residents marked a somber day with a prayer for peace.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: of Iran's top generals.

Iranian state media said the attack happened in a Damascus neighborhood.

The general had been a longtime adviser to Iran's Revolutionary Guard in Syria.

His death comes amid clashes between Hezbollah and Israel along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Ukraine's air force says it shot down two Russian fighter jets overnight, along with two cruise missiles and dozens of drones.

Kyiv says the attacks were aimed at Central and Southern Ukraine, and reported no casualties.

Meantime, Ukrainians observed another wartime Christmas.

But i officially broke from the orthodox date of January 7, which is observed by Russia.

ANASTASIIA, Kyiv, Ukraine Resident (through translator): I feel that we are united as a family as we celebrate Christmas on December 25 in Ukraine now.

We are together with the whole civilized world in this Christmas celebration.

I hope that this prayer will be heard by God and bring us victory.

GEOFF BENNETT: Ukraini move the observance date and further distance Ukraine from Russia.

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been located at a prison colony above the Arctic Circle.

His lawyers had lost contact with him for three weeks.

A spokesperson for the Kremlin critic says he's now being held in the town of Kharp about 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow.

His attorney was able to visit him.

Navalny is serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism.

Police in Serbia say they have detained at least 38 elections.

The governing populist party was declared the winner, but opposition groups and international observers cited widespread irregularities.

Demonstrators tried to break into Belgrade's city council last night, until riot police responded.

Today, students blocked the street outside a government building in the capital, but were mostly peaceful.

And Beijing has recorded the most hours more than seven decades.

A bitter cold wave and heavy snowfall have frozen northern and central parts of China.

The snow totals were so high in northeast Jilin province that a local resort was able to make an army of 500 identical snowmen, each towering around 6.5-feet-tall.

And still to come on the "NewsHour": paramedics in the Israel-Hamas war struggle to save lives under harrowing conditions; a unique antidote to isolation and loneliness across Britain; and American troops spreading Christmas joy through song.

With only a few weeks until the first votes of the 2024 presidential campaign, one Republican candidate is on the rise, while another's campaign seems to be fading.

Our Politics Monday team is here for a check-in on the race.

That's Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

Merry Christmas to you both.

So, let's talk Donald Trump's path to the nomination.

New Hampshire could be her best and perhaps only chance.

And look at this Saint Anselm College poll.

She has 30 percent to Donald Trump's 44 percent.

What that poll doesn't show is that support for her has doubled since their last poll, while Donald Trump is holding steady.

When you look at this poll, what do you see?

AMY WALTER, The out, a state that is really ripe for an upset in the mold of somebody like Nikki Ha Remember that New Hampshire is a state that has the opportunity for independent voters or people who don't identify by party to participate, so more independent-leaning, more moderate.

This is also a state that is just overall a little more Trump-skeptical than many of the other states, especially those that come early like in Iowa or even a South Carolina.

The challenge for Nikki Haley, though, is that once you get past New Hampshire, finding opportunities for that coalition of hers to expand is really, really difficult.

The primaries -- some primaries don't allow independence to vote, places like California, for example, with a lot of delegates at stake.

And the kinds of moderate, college-educated voters who are voters, again, most prevalent in New Hampshire.

That thins out a lot once you get past that state.

GEOFF BENNET do right now, expand her coalition beyond the co suburban voters?

TAMARA KEITH Certainly, if someone like Chris Christie were to drop out, those voters that currently support him would likely move to a Nikki Haley.

But if someone like Ron DeSantis were to drop out, those are voters who are much more Trumpy.

Those are voters who are looking for a message that is about isolation from the world, about building walls along the Southern border, a message that is much more like Trump's message and not as much like Nikki Haley's message.

Those voters certainly are more likely to go towards Trump.

So, the challenge for her really is expanding her coalition.

And it's just not -- given the divisions in the Republican Party, the Republican Party is more Trumpy than it is, like, this traditional, more moderate, fiscally conservative Republican in a traditional mold that Nikki Haley represents.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tam mentioned Ron DeSantis.

And The New York Times is out with this de despite all of the early hype.

And it includes details like this one.

"Ryan Tyson, Mr. DeSantis' longtime pollster and one of his closest advisers, has privately said to multiple people that they are now at the point in the campaign where they need to -- quote -- 'make the patient comfortable,' a phrase evoking hospice care."

Is there any coming back from this for Ron DeSantis?

AMY WALTER: Listen, his only hope right now is t not actually correct, especially Iowa.

And, look, there is the possibility that Nikki Haley comes in second in Iowa and not Ron DeSantis.

That is not out of the realm of possibility, especially right now, given her rise.

And, in fact, when you talked about broadening her coal she does better or worse is going to tell us about how likely it is that she can put a coalition together that's a little more regionally creative, let's say, and can break her out of this New Hampshire mold.

But for DeSantis, the challenge has been that unable to find this mix of voters who both want somebody like Donald Trump, but also want to move beyond Donald Trump.

And he's never been able to really capture that.

The other thing that this campaign did early on was decide that they were going to basically outsource all of the things that a campaign traditionally does, door-knocking, interacting with voters.

All of that went through a supe Because you never really got the sense that there was a grassroots movement for Ron These were paid canvassers.

These were people that they found from -- not because these people said, I love Ron DeSantis, necessarily, but because the super PAC was paying them to do that.

So I think t of the challenge.

GEOFF BENNET this Colorado Supreme Court ruling that disqualifies Donald Trump from being president again on the grounds that he was involved in the insurrection, also removing him from that state's primary ballot?

How is the B about addressing this moving forward?

TAMARA KEITH: You know, you' that involves Donald Trump's challenges, his legal challenges, whether that be the various indictments and court cases or these challenges to even appearing on the ballot.

The Biden campaign feels that those sorts of stories are getting a huge amount of attention.

In fact, they worry that those stories are getting all of the attention and sort of sucking the oxygen out of the campaign, not allowing opponents of Trump in the primary to really gain footing and also not allowing voters to learn about the things that Trump is saying out on the trail or the things that he's promising that he would do as president.

So what the Biden campaign is doing is trying their very best to draw attention, to draw contrasts to things like the former president's position the Affordable Care Act, or language he's used describing his political opponents as vermin, or the fact that he wants to seek retribution.

All of this, the natural order and the news cycle put attention Trump's legal challenges, whether that be the Colorado case or others.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, in AMY WALTER: Yes.

GEOFF BENNET that affected our politics in a new or significant way, Amy, starting wit AMY WALTER: Well, we're talking a little bit about the courts here, the Supreme Court's role in the presidency and what that election could look like, but it's not just the presidency.

It's also control of Congress may come down to what the courts decided, the Supreme Court being one, also some of the state courts on redistricting.

And when you have a five-seat majority, as Republicans have, any single movement, one seat here, a couple seats there, could be the difference between Republicans staying in power or Democrats gaining power.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tam?

TAMARA KEITH: Well which was, this past week, the Wisconsin State Supreme Court made a decision throwing out the state's legislative district lines.

Now, that is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Cou me from this moment is, there was a race for state Supreme Court, for a position on the court earlier this year.

And abortion was a huge issue in that race, because there was this oldie-time abortion law on the books that could go before the state Supreme Court.

And so there was a race that was pretty much entirely focused on abortion, a little bit about redistricting, but mostly about abortion.

And that election had consequences.

The judicial -- the judge who was backed by Democrats, who aligned in favor of abortion, rights ended up winning, winning handily in this state that's pretty closely divided.

And that could affect the balance of power in the state legislature and other things.

What stands out to me here is that, again and again throughout this year, we have seen examples of abortion being on the ballot, whether that be literally or just in typically minor races that people wouldn't even pay attention to.

And pretty much every time, it has fallen towards voters wanting to continue to ha access to that health care procedure.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tamara Keith and Amy Walter, thank yo Politics Monday of 2023.

We will see you back here next Monday for the first Politics Monda of 2024.

Take care.

Merry Christmas AMY WALTER: Merry Christmas.

TAMARA KEITH: Merry Christmas.

GEOFF BENNETT: The Israel-Hamas war has put first responders, like ambulance drivers and paramedics, on the front lines of that conflict.

"NewsHour" special correspondent Martin Himel has this look at the Gaza and Israel, who do all they can to help save lives.

MARTIN HIMEL: Fadi Afana is a senior medic.

He's seen three wars in Gaza, but this is like no other.

The casualties are many times higher in this conflict.

And most of the hospitals have been shut down.

There are nowhere near enough faciliti the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Khan Yunis, Southern Gaza, he is racing toward the scene of an Israeli airstrike.

Trying to save the wounded and gathering the dead is a daily, even hourly job for Fadi.

WOMAN (through translator): My leg, my leg.

MAN (through translator): I will count WOMAN (through translator): Oh God.

MARTIN HIMEL: Fadi and more than a 1.5 million other Gazans have been forced ho mes and find refuge in the south.

FADI AFANA, Senior Medic (through translator): We lived v neighborhood was shelled.

The house no longer exists.

Since the start of the war, we have been scattered.

I haven't returned at all.

I haven't seen my children, except on the street.

I haven't seen my wife at all.

I saw my mother for the first 15 days, and, until no as well, because each of us are in a different place.

MARTIN HIMEL: In Israel, American Israeli medic are heading to Kfar Aza, a kibbutz on the border with Gaza, to come to terms with what they experienced here during the Hamas attacks.

Moishe and Yehuda are volunteer medics in the United Hatzalah EMS.

On October 7, Moishe risked his life as part of a medical team trying to save the lives of others as Hamas slaughtered men, women, and children here.

Yehuda came to the embattled Israeli border towns shortly after.

MOISHE PASKESZ, Medic: People's pe of a bicycle, somebody's broomstick, you know, like they say, the worst massacre of Jewish people have experienced since the Holocaust.

This is another house of what was apparently a musician.

We went inside, we sa set and guitars, keyboard, sound system, possessions waiting for their owners to come back and use them.

We set up sort of a field hospital, a triage center, if y He can go in a car.

This guy is more urgent.

He needs an ambulance.

This one is so urgent, he needs a helicopter.

MARTIN HIMEL: Th MOISHE PASKESZ: Dozens of patients, literally, without exaggeration, dozens of patients came through.

Ambulance number 71 is on its way to you, with four severely injured patients, one shot in the head, two shot in their limbs and one shot in the abdomen.

MARTIN HIMEL: Back in Gaza, Fadi drives for a rare rendezvous with his children.

Apart from the dangers of being killed in combat or by airstrikes, there is also the risk now of being arrested by Israeli forces.

Hamas is alleged to have used ambulances to move its men and materiel around.

Now all medics are suspect.

Fadi and his brother Mohammed were picking up wounded when the Israeli military stopped them and arrested Mohammed, who is also a medic.

FADI AFANA (through translator in front of me, abused him, covered his eyes, and took him to the tank.

For 13 days, I have no information about him.

MARTIN HIMEL: Fadi Afana and th ey share a common motivation to save lives in the war.

They also share a common trauma from what they have been witnessing in the fighting.

Moishe lives in Jerusalem.

He often serves as an ambu-bike medic.

Moishe usually gets to the scene up to 10 minutes before an ambulance and gives a lifesaving first response.

MOISHE PASKESZ: We at United Hatzalah, we try our best to be at serious calls within 90 seconds of being dispatched, as much as possible.

There was a soldier who was attacked by a terrorist.

You are talking about someone who is losing blood, so every second counts.

The sooner you get there, the sooner you can put on a tourniquet, the sooner you can save someone's life.

MARTIN HIMEL: This is the nerve center of United Hatzalah EMS.

MOISHE PASKESZ: So, it's running three different calls at the same time.

MARTIN HIMEL: Moishe often volunteers as a dispatcher.

He recalled the ho 7.

MOISHE PASKE red alert in the entire country, the rocket sirens.

A volunteer responded to a rocket attack that basically went right down the core of the building and landed on the roof and went right down the stairwell, and it killed three people and it wounded easily more than 10 other people.

When I say wounded, I mean like dismembered limbs and stuff.

My first clue that things were going to be really bad was when I overheard them discussing how many victims they could fit into one ambulance, and one of the most senior guys was saying, "I think eight."

And I said; And he said: "Not eight wounded people, eight dead bodies," just people getting mowed do one after another in cold blood, just for the sole crime of being Jewish.

MARTIN HIMEL: In Gaza, three ambulances emerge in the darkness from the north.

Fadi check out the staff and the patients.

He discovers all the drivers are civilians.

The Israelis told them to drive the ambulances because they arrested the medic drivers.

FADI AFANA (through translator): They arrested everyone, our four colleagues, Mohammad al-Kurd, Ala Moammar, Mohammad Nahhal, and Sharif Bayouk.

We brought all their cars to use them.

We will bring our cars and move with the European hospital cars.

MARTIN HIMEL: There is no time to get frustrated over the arrests.

These wounded need t transported.

Fadi is taking them to the Europa Hospital.

It is, of course, totally inundated with the sick, the wounded, and the dying.

Arriving at the hospital, the parking lot has been transformed into an emergency ward.

So, for now, they are turning the adjacent school into a makeshift hospital.

But there are no beds and there are dwindling supplies of medicine and equipment.

WOMAN (through translato FADI AFANA (through translator): I hope the war stops and the bloodshed we are experiencing comes to an end.

I also hope the in camps and in other places.

The situation of the displaced is tragic, and we don't know where they will go once the war is over.

MARTIN HIMEL: There is great uncertainty both Fadi and Moishe brace themselves for more casualties as the fighting rages on.

For the "PBS NewsHour," this is Martin Himel on the Israel-Gaza border.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today marks two months since a gunman opened fire on a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, Maine, killing 18 people and injuring 13 others.

It was the country's deadliest mass shooting this year, and one community was hit especially hard.

The shooting is believed to be the deadliest for deaf people ever in the U.S. Laura Barron-Lopez looks at how the deaf community in Maine is rebuilding in the wake of tragedy and how the community there is coping with this holiday season.

MEGAN VOZZELLA, Widow (through interpreter): Our wedding day, LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Megan and Stephen Vozzella were married on No MEGAN VOZZELLA (through interpreter): He always told me he loved me every day.

It didn't matter if we were having an argument or what.

He said he loved me.

He'd give me a kiss good night.

LAURA BARRON Stephen was killed by a gunman at Schemengees Bar and Grille, along with seven others.

MEGAN VOZZELLA (through interpreter): They said: "Steve got shot."

And I -- I just -- I shut down.

I was gone.

I can't describe any more than that.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Megan says he was a devoted father who loved traveling, camping, and cornhole.

He died playing with his cornhole team.

MEGAN VOZZELLA (through interpre sometimes, a lot of deaf people were there at the cornhole tournament and enjoy time together.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: That Wedn killed, Stephen Vozzella, Joshua Seal, Billy Brackett, and Bryan MacFarlane, a loss felt acutely throughout Maine's small and tight-knit deaf community.

MEGAN VOZZELLA (through interpreter): Our friends and our husband' him, it's not easy.

My friend Liz, I mean, we grew up together.

And Josh Seal, I grew up with him.

I mean, it's too difficult to talk about, because we both lost our husbands.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Kyle Curtis was Stephen's best friend and cornhole partner.

He was at the bar that night and was shot in the arm.

KYLE CURTIS, Shooting Survivor (through int and what has happened?

And it was a tragic night.

It's th in my life.

And there's nothing that can compare to that.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: What has your recovery been like?

KYLE CURTIS (through interpreter): Seeing that we have o been very strong, that has helped to be able to get some healing and processing.

process has been slow.

I know it will take more time, but it is a wonderful, connected family.

LAURA BARRON that night.

He didn't realize what was happening until he saw the shooter.

RICHARD MORLOCK, Shooting Survivor (through translator): And there was this loud boom, and then it continued.

There was a second and third strange sound.

And, after that, I don't know how many more after that, we saw a man start shooting.

I was essentially in a corner.

So I went to the ground.

I dropped and played dead, I mean, and just laid there and tried to just wait it out.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Morlock, Curtis, and a few other survivors from that gather at Sliders just down the road.

Morlock says he is grateful to have a place to get together and enjoy the game they all love.

RICHARD MORLOCK (through interpreter): We cannot give to stay strong and support one another.

You know, it allows us to have fun.

ha ve this, I think it would be very difficult.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Do you feel as though the deaf c to recover from the mass shooting?

RICHARD MORLOCK (through interpreter): So far, I f it's going to be a long process to be able to heal.

There's going to be counseling that's needed and all of that.

So I know they have a long way to go.

You know, we can't have any of these resources end.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The deaf people w trying to rebuild a sense of community.

They hope their experience brings attention to needed resources for deaf people everywhere.

HOWARD ROSENBLUM, CEO, National Associat illustrative, one isolated example of what can go wrong anywhere in this country.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Howard Rosenblum is CEO of the National Association of the Deaf.

He says the shooting in Lewiston highlighted systemic issues that leave deaf people more vulnerable during and after traumatic events.

HOWARD ROSENBLUM (through interpreter): There being provided.

The deaf and hard of hearing community historically h hard about how we get warnings and information.

And, often, we're at the end of the communication loop and we are the last in the Lewiston shooting, this is another demonstration of the problem rooted in the system itself.

LAURA BARRON In Lewiston, interpreters were left out of the initial press briefings and kept out of hospitals in the hours after the shooting.

HOWARD ROSENBLUM (through interpreter): clinical hospital staff, governor's offices to get changes moving.

And I remain ever hopeful that, even though it's a terrible tragedy, what happened in Maine, that it will lead to better systemwide changes.

MEGAN VOZZELLA (through interpre with accessibility, for sure.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Megan Vozzella hopes t bring about lifesaving changes for deaf people in times of crisis.

MEGAN VOZZELLA (through interpreter): There's nothing we can do about the si happened that night.

And they're just going to have to fix the system.

We la y blame, but we need to work together and really work to improve it.

We need to move on from here.

LAURA BARRON of Stephen everywhere, Megan holds on tight to memories with her husband.

MEGAN VOZZELLA (through translator): He was always asking me to make the cookie Christmas.

LAURA BARRON him?

MEGAN VOZZEL the Christmas tree, the one behind me.

That's a new one.

It was a wedding gift.

And I strugg with that.

My daughter didn't want to help with it.

She didn't really want to have anything to do with it.

So I did it alone.

Very hard, because Steve was always there every year.

He loved the de corating.

So, this year, it's not the same at all.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez in Maine.

GEOFF BENNETT: Mental health experts are convinced that one of the long-term consequences of lockdowns during the COVID pandemic is an increase in loneliness.

In Britain, communities are trying to combat people's isolation by introducing so-called chatty benches and chatty cafes.

Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from Kent.

MALCOLM BRABANT: This bench overlooking the North Sea has a poignant sit down here, you're inviting a conversation, or perhaps making a cry for help.

RACHAEL STONE, Chatty Bench Donor: My husband took his own life in 2019.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Rachael Stone is Ben's widow.

RACHAEL STONE: And, at the time, there was so many yo other who were struggling who had taken their own lives.

And I wanted to do something to help, because you feel a bit helpless in a situation like that.

MALCOLM BRABANT: While left to raise two small daughters and her older to create a legacy for her husband, who was overwhelmed by depression.

Just in case no one stops to chat, there's a discreet reminder of a suicide hot line.

RACHAEL STONE: If you're feeling desperate and you have got somewhere like this, come and sit tight.

It just takes that one person to stop and just say, are you OK?

And if he genuinely had something like this, and it could have delayed him taking his own life on that day.

MALCOLM BRAB people have leapt to their deaths.

The cliffs no longer have such a grim reputation, thanks in part to a neighborhood regeneration scheme, including the benches.

I have come to Ramsgate, a seaside town some 80 miles southeast of London.

This is a chatty bench.

It's a glorious sunny day, a real change from the miserable winter that Britain's having.

People are out and about.

Let's see if anybody wants to talk.

The sad truth is, I was studiously ignored, until David Barber turned up.

th e community leaders behind this chatty bench project.

DAVID BARBER, Winterstoke Gardens Project: Life is pretty it?

It's not exactly a happy place at the moment, the world.

And s I think.

MALCOLM BRAB people post, but rarely share in person face-to-face.

DAVID BARBER: Technology hasn't helped.

People walk along with their phones.

They h earphones in.

They don't want to converse.

They don't want to have even eye contact.

So the art of conversation is an awful lot less than it used to be.

LORRAINE HUDSON, Aspirant Artist: I don't want fame.

GARETH COX, to let the people see you.

LORRAINE HUDSO DAVID BARBER LORRAINE HUD MALCOLM BRABANT: Amo Cox, who come to shoot the breeze.

GARETH COX: I think community sp oke to each other far more.

It doesn't happen now.

Partly, I think, is the Internet.

People have all of the need to go out and communicate.

They don't really go to pubs as much.

And that's just isolated everybody.

And it's become the norm, which is -- it's sad, but we all do it.

LORRAINE HUDSON: Yes.

No, I agree.

Yes.

Everyone's on their phones.

They're on the computer, busy working.

So it's nice to have places like this where you can sit down, just chill.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Given Britain's inclement climate, the boom in chatty cafes is outpacing chatty benches.

Besides conviviality, Whitstable's Revival cafe offers a low-key mental health safety net.

DEBORAH HAYL of loneliness and isolation isn't good for people's mental health.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Deborah Haylett runs the Revival, which Mind, the m established as an innovative social enterprise.

DEBORAH HAYLETT: We are social animals.

That's Part of villages, part of tribes.

That's who we are.

Research shows that social interaction is one of the main ways that you can support your well-being.

FRANCES BURTENSAW, Chatty Cafe Client: I might have an om WOMAN: Yes.

MALCOLM BRAB FRANCES BURTENSAW: If you sit indoors and you don't talk to anyone own, you go bonkers.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Recent surv rise in loneliness.

Overall, one in three Britons feels lonely.

But the surprising thing is that people who are suffering most are young people.

A survey conducted in 2023 revealed that amongst those aged bet every five felt alone and isolated.

DEBORAH HAYLETT: I think that that particularly is to do w of disruption in school.

They stopped going to after-school clubs.

They stopped going seeing their friends outside of school, and it became all of their education was on screens.

Their interaction with friends was on screens.

And it's naturally just progressed that they used to those patterns.

MALCOLM BRAB the international symbol for mental health awareness.

RACHAEL STONE: Particularly coming up to Christmas, is n't it, because you think everyone around you is having such a lovely time, social media influences.

Having someb up, it's one of the worst things you can do, because you're just alone with your thoughts.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Rachael's message is simple: Don't walk on by.

You might make You might even save a life.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm GE OFF BENNETT: Fifty years ago this month, President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law.

One of the first on the endangered list was the black-footed ferret, North America's rarest animal.

It was once thought to be extinct.

But thanks it's making its way back.

John Yang has a look at some of that News Weekend."

JOHN YANG: There is a lot ferrets, and whether they thrive will go a long way in determining whether their species will survive.

ADRIENNE CRO has a lot of press They absolutely have a critical role to helping maintain the balance of the ecosystem.

We try to look at each individual kit every day if we can.

JOHN YANG: Adrienne Crosier is in charge of the breeding program at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Her goal is to produce enough of this rare member of the weasel family to help stop breeding programs around the country and reintroduce them into the wild.

ADRIENNE CROSIER: Every enclosure either has a single adult or a family group.

So for example, this is stink pot, and she has seven babies.

JOHN YANG: We visited cruiser during the birthing or wellbeing season.

S all ages of baby ferrets which are called kits.

JOHN YANG: You can see some of them peeking out.

ADRIENNE CROSIER: Yeah, they're peeking out.

They're getting look like little adult ferrets.

JOHN YANG: And I was thinking AD RIENNE CROSIER: So that's her box.

That's her territory.

She keeps all the kits in JOHN YANG: Each day the staff carries out a carefully choreographed routine to sep the kits from their mothers for inspection.

After they've been checked out and placed in a fresh clean box -- ADRIENNE CROSIER: I' JOHN YANG: The kits to return to their mothers who some of their mind.

We help check out series six kits just a few weeks old.

They're unable to see until they're about 35 days old.

ADRIENNE CROSIER: So we just look at them looks normal, their eyes look normal, there's no swelling or scabbiness or crustiness around the eyes.

Make sure everybody is nice and vigorous.

He's going to seem very sleepy.

JOHN YANG: Is just curling up to go back to sleep.

JOHN YANG: When it was over, this mother quickly moved her kits from one box to another doing her own maternal head count.

Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains the conservation campus in Front Royal, Virginia, uses reproductive technology to breed species for cheetahs to black footed ferrets.

Crosier says the ferret size requires them to do some improvising.

ADRIENNE CROSIER: Because they are so very small.

We really have challenges finding tools and instruments that we can use on what may be only a seven or 800 gram female.

So we have to get really creative, and we've bought some special tools that are actually made for pediatric surgery so that we can try to improve our success in artificial insemination and the species.

JOHN YANG: B And then in 1979, when the last known member of the species died in captivity, they were declared extinct.

But two years later came a surprising discovery.

Made by a Wyoming ranch dog named Shep, he took a dead black-footed ferret home to his owner that led to the discovery of 24 black footed ferrets alive and well in Northwest Wyoming.

All members of the species known today are descendants of that group.

PAUL MARINARI, Smithsonian Conservation Biology In mementos representing the pedigree of the first couple of in the breeding program.

JOHN YANG: P back to the original mom.

PAUL MARINARI: Actually, that is Mama mom -- JOHN YANG: R PAUL MARINAR her offspring were captured from the wild, we had to make certain assumptions of who the dad was, that is Scarface and he was actually the last black-footed ferret to be captured.

He was quite prolific when it came to breeding very over represented in the population.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): Marinari is the keeper of the Smithsonian's black-footed ferrets studbook.

PAUL MARINAR JOHN YANG (voice-over): Most of his career has be years he was director of the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service's Black-Footed ferret Conservation Center in Colorado.

PAUL MARINARI: We have a very po pulation is precarious in places.

There are several populations that are doing really well.

And we estimate that there's between three and 400 black-footed ferrets living in the wild.

It's kind of the perfect species to deal with a breeding program and a reintroduction program.

They don't l number of offspring.

That's the simple version.

Saving the species is much more complex.

JOHN YANG: That complexity comes in part from the black-footed ferrets relationship with Prairie dogs, which make up 90 percent of their diet.

ADRIENNE CROSIER: They require prairie dogs to thrive.

They require prai burrows for their homes.

And also it's their primary price wars.

The prairie dogs are not very popular with the farmers especially because they do so much damage to the farmland.

And so the prairie dogs are actively removed from farmland which means the ferrets don't have a home the ferrets don't have prey.

JOHN YANG: Prairie dogs are a ke many ranchers and farmers in the West consider prairie dogs pests to be eliminated.

In the early 1900s widespread poisonings were commonplace.

JOHN YANG: If you don't have prairie dogs, you won't have ferrets.

And if you ferrets -- ADRIENNE CRO be occurring naturally, and keeping each other in balance.

But if you take out one of that, which is usually caused by humans, then everything falls out of balance.

And then we have complete loss of species.

But anytime you have an extinction event like that caused by human intervention, obviously we're doing something really catastrophic to the ecosystem.

JOHN YANG: T to Texas, but since the late 19th century, it's shrunk by 62 percent.

PAUL MARINARI: We can save the black-footed ferret, our thought and all of our partners thought is that we can save the other 130 unique plants and animals that are native to the North American prairie.

And it's a pretty special ecosystem, one that's often overlooked because of the riches we have in our country.

JOHN YANG: Another threat to the black-footed ferret, a bacterial di plague both black-footed ferrets and the prairie dogs they eat are highly susceptible to it.

It's transmitted by fleas and has been known to infect humans.

Black-footed ferrets are nocturnal spending daylight hours in burrows dug by prairie dogs their lives there have largely been a mystery to scientists.

But this summer field biologist in Montana began the first ever tests of electronic devices to track prairie dogs under round into such a mess they're like Fitbits mapping their movement providing researchers with a wealth of data they hope will give them a better understanding of how the two species shared the networks of tunnels called towns.

HILA SHAMON, Smithsonian's National Zoo and ti me, we'll be able to map that and know how animals?

What is the space that one black-footed ferrets is actually using out of that town?

Then what is the overlap between those ferrets, so we can know what would be a carrying capacity of a given prairie dog town.

JOHN YANG: And cryogenic technologies allowing in state of the art genome resource banks.

In 2020, researchers use the frozen cells of a black footed ferret that had been dead for 30 years to produce the first ever cloned member of the species, Elizabeth Anne.

JOHN YANG: So Adrienne, this is your breeding board.

ADRIENNE CROSIER: Yes.

JOHN YANG: M ADRIENNE CROSIER: So we try to mix and match younger 90s males with older proven females and vice versa.

27.5.

JOHN YANG: As a new generation of black footed ferrets weighs conservation biology center feels the weight of what's at stake.

PAUL MARINARI: So you go from the species that's thought to be ext holy cow, we have the species we have to take care of them the fate of the species that is in our hands.

That's a huge responsibility.

People can make a difference.

th at is something that is important for people to hear.

JOHN YANG: Exceptional measures to save a small but vital piece of our Fo r the "PBS NewsHour," I'm John Yang in Front Royal, Virginia.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we close tonight's program on this Christmas with a "NewsHour" tradition.

Each year, the Pentagon produces a holiday song with members of the military singing.

Tonight, we share again what first aired last Friday, their rendition of "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (SINGING) GEOFF BENNETT: And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Thanks for spending part of your evening with us, and have a merry Christmas.