captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, april 25: india's covid crisis and the rush to slow the spread; jeff greenfield with a look at the presidential benchmark of the first hundred days in office; the messy truth about recycling and a once familiar roadside mainstay looking to woo a new generation. next on “pbs newshour weekend.” >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine

foundation. the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund. the estate of worthington ma- smith. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. the covid-19 pandemic is continuing to claim lives, with new cases rising worldwide even as vaccination programs continue to roll out. for the fourth day in a row, india set global covid-19 records with almost 350,000 new cases reported and more than 2,700 deaths in the past 24 hours. in new delhi, a lockdown order set to expire tomorrow was extended for another week. officials report covid-19 is now killing one pe every four minutes in the city and hospitals there are running short of oxygen needed for critical care. in iraq, where covid has killed more than 15,000 iraqis and infect over one million, an oxygen tank explosion and fire at a baghdad hospital yesterday killed at least 80 people and injured more than 100. the country's prime minister blamed negligence for the incident and has since suspended the health minister. in the u.s., confirmed cases of the coronavirus are slowly declining. there is still an average of almost 60,000 thousand new cases

daily, a 12% decrease compared to two weeks ago according to "the new york times." at the same time, vaccinations are also declining. the mber of doses administered each day has fallen to 2.8 million, down from 3.3 million at peak levels. michigan is now the epicenter of coronavirus cases. the state recorded 91,000 new cases over the past two weeks, the highest in the country. public health officials say th b117 variant, which is more contagious, is one factor in the outbreak. vice president kamala harris says it is time to put an end to moments when the public questions whether there will be police accountability in the united states. in an interview broadcast this morning, days after former minneapolis police officer derek chauvin was convicted of murdering george floyd, harris urged congress to pass the george floyd justice and policing act. >> this verdict is but a piece of it. and it will not heal the pain

that existed for generations, that has existed for generations, among people who have experienced, and firsthand witnessed, what now a broader public is seeing because of smartphones and the ubiquity of our ability to videotape in real time what is happening in front of our faces. >> sreenivasan: in louisiana, democrat trocarter won a special runoff election yesterday to fill a vacant u.s. house seat in a majority-black district that stretches from new orleans to baton rouge. the state senator easily defeed the more progressive candidate, fellow democrat, state senator karen carter peterson. troy carter will fill the 2nd district seat formerly held by democrat cedric richmond. richmond, who endorsed carter's campaign, resigned to take a position as a senior adviser to president biden. carter promised to work across party lines. he will be the only democrat in louisiana's congressional delegation. turkey's foreign ministry summoned the u.s. ambassador late yesterday to protest

president biden's decision to mark the deportation and killing of armenians during the ottoman empire as “genocide.” the ministry said the u.s. statemt has no legal basis, hurt the turkish people, and opened a wound in relations that is "hard to fix.” the protest came after president biden followed through on a campaign promise and issued a statement recognizing the deaths of 1.5 million armenians beginning in 1915, as genocide. for more national and international news, visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: president joe biden is aroaching his first hundred days in office this week. it's a benchmark every president has been measured by for the better part of a century. but where did it begin, and what does it really tell us about how a president will govern? special correspondent jeff greenfield walks us through this presidential milestone. >> this nation asks for action, and action now! >> it began here. on march 4,

1933, when franklin roosevelt took the oath of office at the depths of a savage depression. and that “bold executive actio”" he promised began almost immediately. two days after that inaugural, f.d.r. declared a “bank holiday,“ stopping a panic that threatened to collapse amera's financial structure. six days later, he gave his first fireside chat to explain what he was doing. >> i want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the united states about banking. >> then, with huge congressional majorities, roosevelt began to vastly broaden the scope of federal action: a new agency to save family farms; a civilian conservation corps to put people to work planting trees and cleaning rivers; the start of a public works program that would ultimately build dams and electrify rural america. within 100 days, 15 major pieces of legislation had been passed, and a benchmark for all future pridents was set.

but does a president's first 100 days really tell us much about how the next four years will erge? the answer seems to be a not entirely satisfying: sometimes yes, sometimes no. we did learn a lot about donald trump's highly unconventional approach to the presidency. the day after the inaugural, he sent hisress secretary out to argue that the crowds were much bigger than the visual evidence suggested. within a week, a travel ban from mostly muslim nations caused chaos at america's airport- early clues about how his presidency would evolve. but other early signals can be misleading. the ill-fated bay of pigs invasion in 1961 to overthrow cuba's fidel castro happened just about 100 days into john kennedy's presidency, but it may have taught him the value of prudence during the 1962 cuban missile crisis, when nuclear war was a real possibility.

ronald reagan found good fortune in his very first hour in office when he was able to announce an end to the iranian hostage captivity. >> 52. and i just won't call them hostages. they were prisoners of war. >> he almost did not survive to his 100th day, but his recovery from an attempted assassination helped give him the goodwill to get his major tax program passed, even with a democratic house of representatives. sometimes, events themselves completely overshadow a president's first days. george w. bush presided over a relatively placid world in his first seven months. and then... the horror of a september morning defined the rest of his days, with wars in afghanistan and then iraq. so, what have we learned from president biden's first 100 days? well, one of his goals, 200 million vaccinations, has been achieved-- but as for his

ambitious, expansive attempts to expand the scope of the government in areas from poverty to healthcare to climate change those so far, are intentions. how well he fulfills them? that's up to the next several hundred days. >> sreenivasan: shanna swan is a leading environmental and reproductive epidemiologist and professor of environmental and public health at the icahn school of medicine at new york city's mount sinai hospital. she's been studying the impact of chemicals found in everyday products like plastics and electronics on infertility. i spoke with her recently about her latest book: “countdown: how our modern world is threatening sperm counts, altering male and female reproductive development, and imperiling the future of the human race.” so, what are those chemicals found in, around us, how are we

interacting with them and what is the risk that they pose during conception and in utero? >> so, first of all, which chemicals? i focused on a class of chemicals called phthalates. and these are chemicals, a pretty big class, that make plastics soft and flexible, also present in cosmetics and personal care products, room fresheners, and anything fragranced. these chemals have the ability to lower testosterone. and i did a series of studies to look for it in humans. other chemicals involved that are important is bisphenol a, the bisphenols, which are estrogenic and also interfere with reproduion and your development and lots of things in our bodies. and then there are other classes of chemicals, chemicals in pesticides and flame retardants in pithos. and basically these are things in all of our lives all of the time. >> sreenivasan: you know, i know in the title of the book you're

looking at sperm counts, but you spend several chapters on just fertility overall that men and women are facing challenges to fertility. and it's happening, relatively speaking, when you think of human evolution in the blink of an eye, in 30 or 40 years. >> it's happening to men and women and as well, i should add, non-human species. and what we see is that the decline in the number of children that people have is one percent per year worldwide over the past 50 years. that's true of developed countries and underdeveloped countries. and the same rate of decline, 1% per year, is what we see for the declining sperm count, what we see for the decline in testosterone, we see for the increase in miscarriage rates, and we've examined in our book

"countdown" how each of these endpoints is deteriorating, if you will, at the same rate, about 1% per year, which is another bit of evidence, although not conclusive, that these are related to a common cause. >> sreenivasan: are there other factors that could account for this general decline in birth rate or replacement rate that we talk about? >> absolutely. there's no doubt that social factors, personal choice, play an important role. but it is, there is also no doubt in my mind that these chemicals also play a role. one of the telling things is that it's not just older people that are having trouble. young women today at 25 are less fertile than their grandmothers were when they were 45. and we see that with men as well. their sperm counts are below what their grandfathers' was. >> sreenivasan: what's the long term consequence here? we don't have any magic wand that's going to stop all the chemicals that are around us from being around us.

look out into the future 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. >> well, it doesn't look good, but i hope we do have a magic wand. i ink that we have the ability to change the chemicals that are around us, and i think we have to do it pretty quickly. i think we're going to we need these products for our daily lives. we're used to them. we want them. and so, they have to be made with safer chemicals and we have to have legislation and regulation that ensures that the chemicals that go into these products are safer for us. but it does take a huge effort and it takes people understanding the problem, recognizing the problem, committing to taking action. and that's what i'm hoping "countdown" will do. >> sreenivasan: shanna swan of the ichan school of medicine at mount sinai. the book is called "countdown: how our modern world is threatening sperm counts, altering male and female reproductive development and imperiling the future of the human race." thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, hari. nice to be here.

>> sreenivasan: there is little doubt that recycling can help to improve the environment, but depending on where you live, the rules can vary greatly. and when it comes to plastics, millions of tons still wind up in landfills, threatening our health and the environment. newshour weekend's christopher booker has more. >> reporter: my weekly recycling routine is an anxious one. cardboard boxes, kids' artwork, junk mail go in the paper bin, and i feel reasonably assured i am doing it right. but it's the plastics that set my heart racing. the yogurt cups, the coffee lids, the condiment containers. every week the same question: i can recycle this, right? >> most people really have no idea, we just kind of put your recycling in your bin and hope for the best. >> reporter: jennie romer is author of “can i recycle this?" a guide to better recycling. a conversation with her about recycling is both comforting and unsettling. >> when we think about recycling, for the most part, we think about something just getting turned into another item and that's not what's happening with a lot of our plastics.

recycling is a commodities market and it's all about whether there's someone that wants buy that item, to turn it into something else. >> reporter: and who buys what is usually determined by the quality of the plastic. sitting in the middle of the chasing arrow symbol is a number. if it is 1 or 2, it's high value and most likely will be sold on the commodities market. a 3 through 7, the mixed plastic, is low value. >> number 1 and number 2 bottles and ju are really the most recyclable. so, h.t.p.e. natural plastic milk jugs get sold for about $1,000 a ton, but whereas a lot of mixed plastics, like 3-7's, are sold for negative $17 a ton. that means that you have to pay someone to take it away. >> reporter: it wasn't always this way. for years, our mixed plastics would be bundled with the high value plascs and still find a market, but that changed in 2018. >> for a long time we were sending stuff to china. for a long time we were sending

a lot of our low value plastic waste to china, but china closed its doors to a lot of the low value plastic waste. they, they just said, you can't send us your contaminated plastic anymore. >> reporter: this meant that municipal recycling facilities had to spend more time sorting between plastics, pulling out the 1 and 2's and paying for the removal of 3-7's. but even if it ia 1 or 2, that doesn't ensure a future sale. >> so, if something is so small that it'll fall through and it'll fall through the machinery, then it's not going to end up being recycled things like your little plastic cups of salsa or fork or straw. they're not going to make it through. >> reporter: what's the, what's the broader, bigger cost of all of this? >> there are a lot of costs. so, there's a huge cost in the environment. if you're not recycling, if you're not source reducing, every time that you're manufacturing something, you're extracting minerals. you're extracting fossil fuels from the earth.

another big cost is the end of life for these products. so, if they're incinerated, if they go to landfill, if they know a lot of what happens with our low value plastic waste is that we ship it abroad and then it ends up polluting the environment and hurting human health in other parts of the world. >> reporte things may be changing. after the chinese market dried up, an unexpected coalition has formed to champion what's known as "extended producer liability,” laws and regulations that would require plastics producers to pay for the recycling and disposal of their products. >> for a long time it was really the environmental groups that were pushing a lot of a lot of the recycling policy. now we're seeing a lot more municipal recyclers coming to the table, going to the legislature and saying "we want extended producer responsibility laws. we want the producers, the manufacturers to pay for the recycling and disposal of these products, because it's not fair it's not fair that they that the cities and municipalities are

ending up with all this low value waste that they have to pay someone to haul away." >> reporter: how has this work changed you as a consumer? >> i try whenever i can to buy in bulk to use refill systems if they're available. i try to avoid certain things. i always bring my own utensils and straws when i go places. i bring my own water bottle, i bring my own bag, but when you get to a lot of the packaged goods that are in the grocery store shelves, a lot of the time you don't have a real alternative. i will go out of my way more than most people, but i want to see a system where it isn't difficult, where you can make choices that are good for the environment, that reduce packaging without having to go really far out of your way and be the outlier.

>> sreenivasan: after more than a year of pandemic lockdown, the tourism industry is preparing for millions of newly-vaccinated americans to catch travel fever. that's a business opportunity for a third generation georgia restaurateur whose family name was once synonymous with the great american road trip. from georgia public broadcasting, rickey bevington reports on the revival of stuckey's. >> take a stuckey's stop, make a stuckey's stop, it's the highway stop with style! >> reporter: for many post-war american families who piled into station wagons for long cross- country drives to visit grandma or spend a week at the beach, stuckey's was a fixture of childhood summer vacations. >> relax, refresh! back on the highway again. >> reporter: the iconic shops dotted highways from vermont to california. >> carol decides to stop at one of the famous stuckey pecan shops for gasoline, a snack, and

especially to browse around inside where thousands of unusual gifts are on display. >> we were the o.g. of the road ip. >> reporter: the business was founded by stephanie stuckey's grandfather in 1937 during the great depression. it started as a roadside pecan stand to make extra money. >> it was a side hustle. he hated farming cotton in middle georgia, and he wanted a better life. >> reporter: by the 1970's, stuckey's had grown to nearly 400 locations and become famous for treats like the stuckey's wrapped in caramel and nuts. >> people tell me it reminds them of taking road trips with their families in a woody station wagon going from new york to florida in the 1970's. >> now, fewer than two dozen standalone locations remain. stuckey, who took over the family operation two years ago, and her business partner, are reviving stuckey's by returning to its culinary roots: pecans.

and candy. >> well, we're in the candy plant for stuckey's and we're making chocolate-covered southern toffee. >> reporter: r.g. lamar and stuckey bought this candy plant and pecan processing factory in january, about 35 miles southwest of augusta. >> so, we have the pecan shelling plant next door. we make meal there. and so, when we do the chocolate-covered toffee, we dip it in the pecan meal. >> reporter: pecans are the only nut native to north america. they sold domestically until about 15 years ago when china's exploding middle class developed a taste and come for imported nuts. >> interestingly, the worst sells in the united states are the best sellers in asia, and it's unsalted and sea salt. actually, the best seller is unsalted. it's just the plain georgia pecans roasted with nothing on them. >> reporter: they're also experimenting with new additions. today's test flavor?

blueberry. >> tastes like breakfast cereal! >> reporter: while pecans drive sales, nostalgia is reviving the all-american stuckey's road trip. on the company's retro website, baby boomers and gen-x'ers share memories of childhood stops at stuckey's. the company is updating franchises, designing quirky swag, selling pecans and candy along back roads and in small towns. >> if you like road trips, if you like pecans, if you like adventur if you like uniquely erican things, whether you're american or not, you'll like stuckey's. >> reporter: a business model as timeless today as it was in 1937: family, sweet treats and the open road.

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, sunday. >> sreenivasan: finay tonight, it's oscar night, when the movie industry celebrates. but for movie theaters, it's been a struggle just to surviv during this past year. newshour weekend's ivette feliciano has more. >> reporter: even before covid forced movie theaters to close, streaming services were making movie-going more of a movie- staying-at-home phenomenon. >> i think we've all really gotten used to watching movies in our homes. in a lot of ways, that's great. movies have become more accessible. but on the other hand, this is a whole entire business that has come to a halt, and there was not a whole lot anyone could do about it. >> reporter: there are signs of recovery as box offices reopen at some big theater chains, but industry analysts forecast up to one-quarter of the country's 40,000 screens may not survive. earlier this month, pacific theate closed all of its

locations, including the iconic cinerama dome in hollywood. >> as a producer, i want to see my movies in places like this. i don't want them to just be streamed at home. it's not the same. we're a common humanity, and i think if covid has told us anything, it's how important community and experiencing things together is. >> reporter: for oscar-nominated director chloe zhao, home screens are not a replacement for big screen viewing. >> i am worried about that shared, that shared huma experience that we've been having, you know, sitting around a campfire in the cave long, long, long time ago, and for 300 people to laugh and cry at the same time, strangers, not just your family in your house. that's a very powerful thing that i don't think we're ever going to give up. >> reporter: to hold off more closings, theater owners are planning a first-ever "cinema week" for later this spring. they're hoping one of their slogans, "it's time to get off the couch," will motivate moviegoers.

>> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of “pbs newshour weekend.” for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. the peter g. peterson and joan

ganz cooney fund. the estate of worthington mayo- smith. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorro can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: nsumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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