announcer: my music is made possible by public television viewers like you, thank you. john: tonight on pbs news weekend, against a backdrop of increasing gang and cartel violence, what's at stake in mexico's largest election ever. then, how people with disabilities are navigating relaxed covid precautions. >> for many of us, we don't have the luxury to think that covid, as a public health situation, is

past us. and so it's been very isolating seeing the national discourse turn in that way. john: and what's keeping rents high and what could be done to help those struggling to find affordable housing. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. anfriends 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. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has thrown up a hurdle to president biden's proposed path to ending the war in gaza. he said there can be no permanent ceasefire until hama'' military and governing capabilities are destroyed. in a stateme, netanyahu said "the notion that israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are fulfilled is a non-starter." on friday, mr. biden said israel's bombardment of gaza has left hamas "no longer capable" of another large-scale attack on israel like october 7 and that it is "time for this war to end." the families of israelis held hostage in gaza called on both israel and hamas to take the deal. hamas said it views the president's proposal

"positively," as do many war-weary gaza residents. >> [translated] this proposal came late, but better late than never. we hope from god, the american administration, and the european community in general to continue to put pressure on israel for a cease-fire. john: netanyahu also accepted an invitation from the bipartisan congressional leadership to address a joint meeting of the house and senate. a barrage of 100 russian missiles and drones targeted the power grid across ukraine today. at least 19 people were injured, eight of them children. the attack came as ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is attending a defense summit in singapore, trying to convince more asian and western countries to supply weapons to his country and cut ties with moscow. south africa's anc party has lost its majority in parliament for the first time since the end of white minority rule 30 years ago. the party once led by nelson mandela got just over 40 percent of the vote in national

elections this week. uth africa is struggling with high unemployment, electricity and water shortages, and rampant crime. and an attempt to launch boeing's first astronaut flight was called off at the last minute today, the latest in years of technical problems and costly delays for the starliner project. the astronauts were in the capsule on the launchpad and just minutes away from heading to the international space station when a computer detected a problem and shut down the countdown at 3 minutes, 50 seconds. it's one more bit of unwelcome news for boeing, whose commercial airliners have been scrutinized for safety issues. still to come on "pbs news weekend," what relaxed covid guidelines mean for people with disabilities. and why rents are still higher in much of the country than before the pandemic. >> this is pbs news weekend, from weta studios in washington,

home of the pbs newshour, weeknights on pbs. john: tomorrow, mexico holds the largest election in its history, nearly 100 million registered voters. the legacy of outgoing president andres manuel lopez obrador looms large over the balloting, which comes at a time of record levels of gang and cartel violence. ali rogin looks at what's at stake for mexico and for the united states. ali: no matter the outcome in mexico's election this sunday, the country almost certainly will elect its first woman president. and voters are hopeful that will bring about change. >> [translated] this will be a great step forward, because it shows us that we can all do it and that we all have the capacity to move forward, to take a country forward, as other women presidents have done. ali: the leading candidates are claudia sheinbaum and xóchitl gálvez. polls favor sheinbaum of the ruling morena party. she's a former mexico city mayor

and protégé of the outgoing president andres manuel lopez over door. -- obrador. sheinbaum promised to continue the social welfare programs that made lopez obrador wildly popular. >> [translated] this administration's promise to reshape the country is a humanist model, protector of patrimony, better wages and pensions, without raising taxes. ali: trailing her by double digits in the polls is gálvez, a former senator backed by an alliance of opposition parties. she promises a return to democratic checks and balances that she says haveeen eroded under the current president. >> [translated] as president i will punish the criminals, extortion will end. ali: galvez has been critical of lopez obrador's failure to curb cartel violence gripping the country, a key issue this election cycle. in the small town of huitzilac, residents live in a state of constant fear, caught in the crossfire between warring gangs. >> [translated] when the phone rings, i'm terrified that it'll be the school saying something

has happened to my kids. ali: the same fear haunts those seeking public office. dozens of local candidates have been killed in the months leading up the election. whoever is elected, the new head of state will also inherit a nation grappling with an influx of migrants, shortages of energy and water, and the largest budget deficit since the 1980s. joining me to discuss this landmark ection is arturo sarukhan. he served as the mexican ambassador to the united states from 2007 to 2013. ambassador, thank you so much for joining us. let's start. let's talk about these two candidates. what are they campaigning on? >> well, the main issue for mexican voters, the top of mind issue, is public security. not only because 33, 34 candidates for elected office have been killed, murdered by organized crime in this current cycle. but because homicide numbers during these six years of the lopez obrador administration have skyrocketed. it's trending down, starting to trend down. but the numbers are still breaking records.

ali: and as we mentioned, sheinbaum is leading in polls. she's a protege of lopez obrador, also known as amlo. what would her presidency look like, and what are the chances that she's going to win? >> that's the big question mark. i think the main issue many mexicans and international observers are asking is whether she will become her own woman, whether she will be able to wean herself from the shadow of lopez obrador, from his ranch in southern mexico once he leaves office. she has signaled that she might deviate in some aspects of what has been the lopez obrador legacy, but i don't see significant changes in terms of her public policies going forward. if she's elected, she is the frontrunner. but a word of caution, i think polls are going to be, what we're seeing in the polls of double digit differences. i think it's going to be much tighter come tomorrow, sunday. the resus could be in the 5% difference. and that could trigger challenges both from the losing candidate, but also from lopez obrador, because he might argue

that the electoral institutions are shaving off votes from his candidate. ali: fascinating. we mentioned that this campaign season has been exceptionally violent. how has that played into this election? how has it affected it, especially in those many local races that are taking place? >> well, we already saw signs of organized crime muscling its way into local and state political processes in mexico's 2021 midterm elections. and then it happened again in two key gubernatorial races on the border with the united states seat of tamaulipas in the state of guerrero, which is one of the most violent wracked states in mexico. so the big question mark is, a, whether we will see signs of violence on sunday. and two, the most important issue is whether organized crime will seek to whip or suppress the vote on behalf of morena come sunday. ali: you talked about national security being an important issue for voters. what are some of the other animating issues this cycle? >> obviously, the issue of access to public health because

of the evisceration of the mexican state by lopez obrador, a lot of the public health programs have been whittled away. for example, access to cancer medicines for young kids. this has been a very pressing issue up mexico. the issue of jobs and the economy is always a relevant one, particularly when lopez obrador, which explains his popularity and the support for morena, is responsible for having raised the minimum wage in mexico. and so that's had an important impact in terms of economic perspectives for a very significant number of mexicans. ali: of course, this election comes just a few months before the one that's taking place here in this country. how will the outcome of these two elections affect u.s.-mexican relations in the next few years? >> well, obviously, there's no country more important to the united states than mexico and vice versa. these two countries are joined at the hip, for the good, i believe. but obviously, with the republican party that today sees

all the roads to the white house going through the border with mexico, whether it's on immigration, whether it's on drugs, whether it's on the narrative of mexico as the real national security threat to the united states. the double dynamic of what happens every 12 years when our two presidential cycles coincides is going to be challenging, particularly if donald trump were to return to the white house come next year. ali: and how will the issue of immigration factor into that in particular? >> well, lopez obrador has been weaponizing immigration and his relationship with the united states. you saw that in december when secretaries blinken, mayorkas, in the middle of the holidays, had to run down to mexico because mexico decided to stop deportations, repatriations, particularly of venezuelans coming into mexico. the mexican government restarted those efforts. one of the reasons that explains why numbers now on the border have diminished in terms of undocumented immigrants, being detained by the border patrol is what mexico is doing. but in my view, there is a big question mark out there as to whether lopez obrador, who will

leave office on october 1, a full month ahead before americans go to the polls, decides to open those migration valves to create some -- to exert a bit of pressure on the united states and on president biden before the election. ali: a fascinating dynamic to be watching for arturo, former ambassador to the united states. thanyou so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. ♪ john: the pace of u.s. covid-19 fatalities has slowed significantly. the nationwide death toll stands at more than one million people. with precautions like mandatory masking, social stancing, and isolation no longer in place, it can seems as if worries about the virus are gone as well. but for many people with disabilities, the threat is still very real. we asked people in the disability community to tell us

about their concerns about this new normal. >> naomi. i am 26 years old. i live in lowell, massachusetts. i have ortho tacky cardi system -- syndrome. the changes in covid policy have made it harder to be out and about. >> i have scleroderma, an autoimmune condition. there is so much erasure. we are not part of public spaces, not part of mass movement. we can't be, they are not safe. >> my different disabilities are cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that affects the brain and muscle. my second disability is a chronic skin condition. i am afraid of getting sick and not being able to get through

it. that's a real concern for me. >> my name is john ross. i am a 71-year-old widower with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. i don't go to restaurants. i don't go into inside places. >> my name is julie lam. i am immunocompromised. i have chronic kidney disease. >> my name is terry hudson. i live in chicago, illinois. i was born with spina bifida. >> my name is natalie lambros. i am 28 years old. my current disabilities are i have a traumatic brain injury, asthma, and then endometriosis. there is still doctors that i have not seen in over a year because it would require me to take off my mask for the tests. >> the burden is constantly on me as the disabled person having to like ask and advocate for

myself, even trying to like, yeah, like hang out with friends or if people want to come see me but are not willing to take the level of precautions that i need them to. >> yeah, a lot of grief, depression and feeling very disconnected from our culture, essentially. >> for many of us, we don't have the lury to think that covid, as a public health situation, is past us. and so it's been very isolating seeing the national discourse turn in that way. >> my social life has shrunk to zero. i cannot, like, attend parties. i cannot hang out with friends like what i used to. it used to be like, we are in this together. now, no, you do you, you are on your own. you look after yourself. >> i'm thrilled that people are

able to get back to their lives and do the things that we all love to do. but at the same time, we need to also recognize that life is precious and we may not be out of the woods completely. even though it seems that way. >> the person next to you, you don't know what chronic condition you have. you don't know what sickness they are carrying around. you giving them covid could be literally life or death. so i would implore people to think about community when they wear a mask, instead of thinking about themselves. >> we should be doing everything we can societally, all of us, to take care of all of us, because there's really nothing that disabled people ask for as far as accommodation and help, that doesn't also benefit non-disabled people, ultimately. it makes a better world for

everyone if we take care of everyone. ♪ john: when the gallup poll recently asked americans to name their top personal finance concerns this election year, the cost of housing was second, behind only inflation. more people cited it than at any time since gallup started asking the question in 2005. and little wonde -- rents are well above what they were before the pandemic. earlier i spoke with diane yentel, ceo of the national low-income housing coalition, and asked what's keeping rents high. >> well, so in some places, rents have cooled from those historic highs. they've leveled off or are even declining a bit in some communities.

but the rents still remain well above those pre-pandemic levels. over half of all renters pay more than a third of their income towards rent. so rental costs are still quite out of reach for the average renter, and especially for people with low or extremely low incomes. john: you say that in some places rents are cooling off, or dipping a little bit. where is that and what's going in those areas? >> it's primarily because either demand is down or supply is up, or in some cases, both. so in some places, there are some of the higher income renters who have been able to move into the homeownership market. so there's a little bit less pressure and demand on the rental market in that community. in other places, they're building more. and so those new multi-family units are starting to come online. we are still well behind where we need to be in terms of building enough apartments to

meet the demand in communities across the country. and that's why rents overall are stubbornly high. and it's important to note that even in those places where we are building more, the rents are coming down a little bit from those historic highs, but remain well out of reach for people with the lowest incomes and for those lowest income people, just building more apartments won't make housing affordable to them. she landlords can't build and operate apartments that are affordable to people with the lowest incomes on their own, because the rent that those lowest income people can afford to pay doesn't cover the costs. so that's a basic market failure that requires government intervention. and in this case, the form of the intervention needs to be subsidies, rental subsidies to make those apartments affordable. john: in a number of states and in congress, there's a push to limit the corporate ownership of rental units. would that have an effect do you

think? >> the research and the evidence has been very clear that by and large, corporate landlords are among the worst actors as landlords. corporate landlords are more likely, according to the research, to be serial eviction filers as a profit making tactic. they're more likely to have homes that are uninhabitable or unhealthy. so anywhere where we can limit the ability of corporate landlords to use those tactics or even to own those properties, the more we're able to create stability for those lowest income renters in those units. john: and also last year when we talked, evictions had gone up again after the pandemic era protections came off. what's been the trend there with evictions? >> during the pandemic, when policymakers acted in unprecedented ways, we were able to stave off what would have been a historic eviction wave. but just as those eviction protections expired and those resources were depleted, renters

re-entered this really brutal housing market, where rents were skyrocketing and costs across the board had increased, inflation was at a historic high. so those lowest income renters were really being squeezed. and we saw, as a direct result , eviction filings rising and reaching and in many cases surpassing pre-pandemic levels. and today, we have historic levels of homelessness in communities across the country. john: you mentioned subsidies to help make low income housing affordable for those with low incomes. what else can be done? what else would you like to see done? >> as long as, for example, we have higher income renters who aren't able to enter the homeownership market because of very little supply of homes for sale and high mortgage rates, that means they're staying in the rental market longer, and that's increasing costs for everyone. for people with the lowest incomes, we need increased

subsidies. we need to increase rental assistance, to repair and build more apartments that are affordable to people with the lowest incomes. we need to make pandemic era programs that were tremendously successful permanent, permanently authorized and permanently funded, so that people can absorb a financial shock and stay housed. and we need to rebalance the power in our housing market that tilts heavily in favor of landlords at the expense of the lowest income renters through robust and enforced tenant protections. john: diane yentel of the national low income housing coalition. thank you very much. >> thanks so much. john: on the latest pbs

newsweekly, israel expands its operation into rafah, where much of the gazan population has been seeking refuge. all that and more is on the pbs newshour youtube channel. and that is pbs news weekend for this saturday. on sunday, why car theft in america over the past four years have skyrocketed. 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 may i help you? this is a pocket dial. well, with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

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

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