♪ john: tonight on "pbs news weekend." a new treatment for sickle cell disease, using the revolutionary crispr gene-editing technology, now approved by the fda. then, rising tensions in south america as venezuela threatens to take over a large region of

guyana that's rich in resources. and on the eve of receiving the nobel prize for economics for her work on women in the workforce, a conversation with harvard professor claudia goldin. >> i have the sense that this isn't just my nobel. it's a nobel for women in general. and for that i am very pleased. ♪ >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by. >> consumer cellular, this is sam. how can i help you? . >> this is a pocket dial. >> with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support

of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. john: good evening. i'm john yang. an unusual abortion-rights case in texas has taken a turn. the state supreme court temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that would have allowed a pregnant woman, whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis, to get an abortion, despite some of the nation's most restrictive abortion laws. the one-page order stresses that it is not a ruling on the two

sides' legal arguments and that the case remains undecided. lawyers for kate cox, the 31-year-old mother of two in the case, they say fear that "justice delayed" for the at-risk pregnancy will be justice denied. texas attorney general ken paxton asked for the pause, saying that an abortion while the case is pending couldn't be undone. cox says she wants another child but her doctors say carrying the fetus to term or inducing labor could risk serious complications, including infertility. israel hit targets across the gaza strip today, as its war with hamas entered its third month. israel order an evacuation of the central part of khan younis in southern gaza. the hamas-run gaza health ministry says nearly 1000 palestinians have been killed since the start of the war. israeli officials claim that 7000 of them are militants, and at least 1,200 israeli civilians and soldiers have been kille most of them in the initial hamas attack on october 7. an israeli hostage is reported

to be among the dead. hamas said5-year-old sahar baruch was killed in a failed israeli rescue mission. the israeli military only says that t soldiers were seriously wounded in a rescue attempt that didn't free any hostages. on the final weekend of the united nations cop-28 climate conference, nations are clashing on long-standing disagreements over a global reduction in the use of fossil fuels. there are reports that the head of the powerful oil cartel opec urged its member nations to reject any language calling for a reduction of fossil fuels. and china, the world's largest , emitter of greenhouse gases, won't say whether it would agree to reductions in the use of oil, gas or coal. the summit is to end on tuesday. and, ending weeks of speculation, two-way baseball superstar shohei ohtani said he'signing with the los angeles dodgers. reports say the 10-year deal is worth $700 million. that is a north american sports record.

ohtani, who excels both as a hitter and a pitcher, had spent the last six seasons with the los angeles angels. ohtani had elbow surgery in september and doctors say he should be ready to go for next year's opening day. still to come on "pbs news weekend." south american neighbors feud over an area rich in oil and gas. and harvard professor claudia goldin on her nobel-prize winning work studying women in the labor market. ♪ >> this is "pbs news weekend," from weta studios in washington, home of the pbs newshour. john: this week, the food and drug administration approved a revolutionary treatment for sickle cell blood disease, a chronic, debilitating condition that affects nearly 100,000 americans, most of them with african ancestry. it's caused by an inherited genetic mutation that distorts the shape of red blood cells. yale medical school assistant professor cece calhoun

specializes in caring for people with the disease. prof. cece calhoun: when i talk to patients, especially young adults who have sickle cell disease, they often tell me it's a silent disease. i feel unseen. people cannot tell what i am going through and what i'm trying to navigate. in part, what this represents is awarenessnd seeing that sickle cell israel starting to , understand the way it affects -- sickle cell is real starting , to understand the way it affects people's ability to live life every day. john: this is the first u.s.-approved medicine for a genetic disease that uses the ground-breaking gene-editing tool called crispr. gina kolata is a new york times reporter who focuses on science and medicine. how big of a deal for this? gina: it is a big deal for the people who have it. it offers them hope. there really was not much help before this as a cure.

most people will probably not get it. it is expensive. not everyone will be eligible. you can see something on the horizon that maybe could make a difference, change your life. for crispr, it is also a huge deal. one of the questions with crispr , is it safe? it is making a little cut in the dna. and the issue is, how do you know if cut in the right place and it didn't start cutting someplace else? how do you know you aren't disrupting another gene that might cause cancer, for example. so what happened was the company, vertex ancrispr therapeutics, that make this treatment, what they did was extensive tests saying we are looking and looking to see if this treatment is disrupting other genes. in both cases, it means a lot to have this treatment approved. john: you say not all people with sickle cell would qualify

for this. what is the difference? what would make someone ineligible for this? gina: what happens with sickle cell is the red blood cells get deformed and they get caught in red blood vessels and people have frequent episodes of really unbearable pain that send them to emergency rooms looking for opioids and often they are dismissed as drug seeking. they get hospitalized. it is totally debilitating. in order to qualify, you have to have several of these episodes a year. then the other thing that could make somebody ineligible is if their doctor thought they could not tolerate the grueling treatment. first, you have to have eight weeks of transfusions when people are trying to take stem cells, immature cells out of your bone marrow. you have to go to the hospital spend a month there. first, they give you very intense chemotherapy to just totally wipe out your bone marrow, which is the source of your immune system so that it's sort of cleaned out and ready for the gene edited cells that they are going to put in. and then you have to wait for your bone marrow to grow back again.

and so you are pretty much without an immune system for a month. and people who are frail, who've had a lot of other things go wrong with them, are not going to be able to tolerate it, at least in their doctor's opinion. john: the cause of sickle cell has been known for decades, but research sms to have languished over these years. why do you think that is? gina: people attribute it to a couple of things. one of them is it was they knew what the cause was, but they didn't really know what to do about it. so that was made it really difficult to try to figure out how do you treat this thing where you have one tiny change out of 3 billion dna letters, one of them is changed and you have this awful disease. but another reason is there was not a lot of money poured into doing research on sickle cell. there's a thought that that had a lot to do with the population that was that was affected, mostly black americans, hispanic americans, many of them without much money. and they didn't have a strong

advocacy group. people often compare it to cystic fibrosis, which strikes mostly white children, and is as common as sickle cell, but they had big fundraisers and telethons and lots of advocacy. and people knew about cystic fibrosis and money poured in. and there was a lot more research on cystic fibrosis than there was on sickle cell. so i think that that's one reason that languished was simply that people kind of did not care enough. john: gina kolada, the new york times, thank you very much. gina: thank you. it was a pleasure talking to you. thanks a lot. ♪ john: tensions between south american neighbors venezuela and guyana escalated this week over a century-old territorial dispute. today, venezuela signalled

openness to high-level talks to resolve the standoff, but guyana has yet to respond. ali rogin has more. >> last week, a venezuelan resident -- declared sovereignty over a resource rich region that makes up 2/3 of guyana's territory. >> let's see where on the map it will be tonight. long live the complete map of venezuela. long live the homeland. long live all of venezuela. >> both countries have claimed ownership of the region since its borders were decided in favor of guyana over a century ago when guyana was still a british colony. the discovery in recent years of 11 billion barrels' worth of oil and gas gave new life to the dispute. new oil drilling is driving huge

gains in guyana's academy as venezuela's economy flounders despite its own massive reserves. the president of the washington office on latin america, advocates for human rights in latin america. thank you so much for joing us. can you tell us more about the importance as the tebow has played in the culture in both of these countries? >> for venezuela, this is an issue. most venezuelans grow up believing it is part of venezuela. it is a territory in dispute. as children in school books, people use to draw the region with dotted lines, saying territory to be claimed. for guyana, it is its territory. it is 2/3 of guyana's territory.

it is indeed a complex country when you have a country that occupies a territory and another one claiming historical right spirit >> why is madero taking these steps? >> there are two things that are important to understand. one is oil, it is a huge reserve and it is very important. the second, i think it is really important, politics. madero is a deeply unpopular leader. he faces presidential elections in 2024. at the end of october, the position for the first time in years, choosing one candidate. it seems the majuro government underestimated -- it seems the

maduro underestimated. over 2.3 million people voted. the support went overwhelmingly to a different candidate. the government seems to have been taken by surprise. as a result, we see a tremendous propaganda apparatus set in place to change the narrative and take all the attention away from that issue and make everyone speak about a territorial dispute that is over a century old. >> how is this playing out with the average venezuelan? how do they view maduro in this context? >> when you look at the referendum itself, maduro claimed 4 million people went to vote, independently, citizens reported a low turnout. his lack of popularity really

shows. i think venezuela transitioning to democracy because for many years human rights violations have been at the forefront of his leadership. >> how is guyana responding? >> for gion, this is an existential threat. 2/3 of their territory. the president of guyana has been very clear about, first of all, defending their country. the government has been very strategic at rallying support from allies. the u.s. government has clearly said it supports guyana. i think the guyana government -- the u.n. security council has tried to rally support. there are strategies to get as much international support as possible. >> how big is the risk of

escalation here? there have been troop movements that have taken place as a result. what is the possibility this turns into a confrontation? >> maduro's nationalistic rhetoric seems to promote the idea that the government is willing to go to the very end, whatever theonsequences, to reclaim this territory. the reality is that maduro's allies will not support any further escalation of the conflict. i do not think any leader wants another war in the world. certainly, a war in south america. despite its loud narrative about going all the way, i think there will be a lot of international resistance. >> in terms of the united states' response, they have come out squarely behind guyana but the u.s. lifted oil

sanctions on venezuela earlier this year in exchange for some electoral exceptions allowing candidates to stand -- at least at was the agreement. how does this affect that situation with the united states? >> i think maduro keeps putting the u.s. government to a major dilemma. to contie supporting negotiations between the democratic -- the agreements signed in barbados. at the same time treact to maduro's actions around the essequibo. so far, the u.s. indeed with the sanctions, maduro has not done his part. he has not released political prisoners. he has not given -- i think the best thing the u.s. can do is to continue supporting the negotiation process between the opposition and the maduro government. support human rights for

venezuelans inside the country and outside the country and to oppose any further escalation of this crisis. >> thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. ♪ john: in a time-honored ceremony in stockholm, sweden, tomorrow, the king of sweden is to hand medals to this year's nobel laurates. among them will be claudia goldin, recipient of the prize in economics for her research on women in the american workforce. she's only the third woman to get that honor and the first to win it solo, not sharing it with anybody else. economics correspondent paul solman spoke with goldin about her trailblazing work. paul: where did you grow up? claudia: the bronx. new york city. paul: were you at all interested in economics? you went to the bronx high school of science right? claudia: i didn't know what

economics was. most high school students don't know what economics is. that's good. that's fine. there are many things that you. should learn when you're more mature. paul: her nobel prize is for her work on the economics of women. but her research ranges far and deep. and in particular, the increasing role of women in the workplace. >> a woman's delicate touch. paul: one against the grain finding that -- she posed a question. >> if world war ii had not existed, what would labor force participation been in 1950? it probably would have been a little bit lower but not much. the treatment of the war was probably felt most by the more educated women who had the clerical jobs during world war ii. not the ones who, like rosie, would have been in the factories. >> the most accurate image of rosie, says goldin, is norman rockwell's -- a temporary

wartime factory worker whose job was to crush hitler underfoot, not the now more famous image. but that's the one that's become so popular. >> that's right. because she's cute. [laughter] >> she's tough. >> she's also very pretty. she was 17, 18 years old. the norman rockwell rosie is the real rosie >> a rosie who often returned to housework when the soldiers came home from the war, reclaiming the factory work. but other women kept joining the workforce. one reason: the birth control pill goldin says, easier access to the pill in the 1970's helped more women pursue life outside the home. >> it gave to women who were graduating from college the ability to have more time to form their careers, either in the workplace or by going to professional or graduate school.

it causally led to an increase in the age at first marriage. that meant one could concentrate more on careers, and have the family later. >> which leads to today, with more than 70% of women in the workforce, up from 28% in 1940. and yet the gender wage gap has not closed that much. women earn 82 cents for every man's dollar. some 20 years ago they earned 80 cents on the dollar. >> when men and women begin their lives as workers, they earned similar amounts. as their lives progress, these differences widen. that is a fact. the question is, how do we explain it? >> what did you find? >> much of this occurs around the time of the birth of a

child. that explains a large part of the widening gap between men and women as men and women get older. what women, particularly those who are mothers, lose relative to men who are fathers is not fully made up. and if anything, men who are fathers seem to have something we call the paternal premium. >> mom and dad are equally educated, equally able, working what goldin calls greedy jobs, 100 hour weeks and skyhigh pay. >> they have a child and they want a second one and they realize this is untenable, that someone has to be the on call at home parent. >> so mom stays home, dad stays in the pressure cooker. but fathers not only work more hours and thus make more money than mothers, they also make more than single men. why? >> there are several possibilities but the one that seems most believable is they

somehow internally decide that they should rev up their energies to earn more, provide for the growing group of children. >> that was the story until the pandemic, which may now cause the pay gap to narrow. >> about 30% of days worked are now at home, are now remote. greedy jobs have gotten more flexible and flexible jobs have gotten more impoant. we have learned that working remotely can be done productively. >> which means women are more able to do greedy jobs, too. moreover, women are getting more graduate and even post graduate degrees and that difference is increasing. right? do we still need to worry about a gender gap? >> the differences in earnings at the upper end of the education and occupation

distribution, the gender gap is much, much larger than for individuals who have a less education whose jobs are not in the professional category. so it is enormously high . >> i read something that said five years from now women will , be getting double the number of degrees college degrees as men. so won't that mean that women are taking more and more high positions in the economy, even though women might still be expected to take care of the kids more than men are? >> we would have to see, first of all who's marrying whom and , what degrees they have and what jobs they are going into. but to the extent that higher education means that more doors are open to you, yeah, that certainly could narrow the gap. >> i have one last question. what's your reaction to getting the nobel prize in economics?

>> it has not yet sunk in. other than the fact that i got 1600 emails in 36 hours that i had to go through and it caused a certain amount of eyestrain, i am delighted. the 1600 emails included hundreds and hundreds emails that said i cried, i want to hug you. i have the sense that ts is not just my nobilo. it is a nobel for women -- it is a nobel for women in general. >> as are many of us. for pbs news weekend, paul solman. john: before we go, we want to let you know that liz mcgill said she is resigning as

president of the university of pennsylvania. she has been under fire after seeming on base of after being asked if penn would discipline students if they called for the genocide of jewish people. and that is pbs news weekend for this saturday. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. see you tomorrow. >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by. >> consumer cellular, this is sam, how can i help you? >> this is a pocket dial. with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs

station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >> you are by pure encapsulations,

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