captioning sponsored by wnet >> senivasan: on this edition for saturday, october 2:eaon cr vithe president's s big dibillse seattle's vietnamese community is helping afghan refugees; and what keeps the band they might be giants making music 40 years on. >> ♪ no one in the world ever gets what they want, and that is beautiful ♪ everybody dies frustrated and sad, and that is beautiful. ♪ >> sreenivasan: next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the sylvia a. and simon b. poyta programming endowment to fight antisemitism. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo- smith. the leonard and norma klorfine

foundation. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. 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 provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no-contract plans, and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits u. to learn more, visww ceco additional support has been provided by: icby banadca:sting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

>> sreenk ivasan: good evening, and thank you for joining us. democrats remain divided today after failing to reach a deal on how to pass two of president joe bidespending bills. the presidenjot leftr the whit house this morning for a weekend at his wilmington, delaware, home telling reporters he still believes both his infrastructure package and a larger social spending bill will be approved. >> i think we will get them passed. >> sreenivasan: this afternoon, the senate approved a 30-day measure to keep transportation systems running, which the house approved yesterday. in a statement today, house speaker nancy pelosi said at funding will need to be renewed on october 31, and said she wants a vote on the infrastructure package to happen before then. in cities across the nation, protesters held rallies and marches for reproductive rights today. >> mbody, my choice! >> sreenivasan: from cleveland, ohio; phoenix, arizona; to washington d.c-- the women's march, which started in 2017, focused on abortion rights and cong legal battles. several thousand marched to the supreme court after a rally in

the capitol this afternoon. we will have me on the abor r more than 700,000 people have died from covid in the u.s., making it the deadliest pandemic in american history. the country crossed this latest threshold even as the daily average of new covid-19 cases fell 27% over the last two weeks. there were 100,000 deaths in the last three and a half months. the vast majority of people who died during that period were unvaccinated, although vaccines are widely available. a map based on the "new york times" database shows the highest death rates are in the l trter otais he vaccinaon u.s. women's soccer league commissionerisa baird has resigned after less than two years on the job. the league announced baird's resignation late yesterday, just a day after news broke that two players accused former north carolina courage coach paul riley of sexual coercion and misconduct.

riley, who denies the allegations, was fired on thursday. league games scheduled for this weekend were cancelled. the u.s. soccer federation says it will conduct an independent investigation. delegates from around the world are gearing up for next month's u.n. climate conference in asgow, scotland. at a preparatory meeting in n,ed i tlalyy , mutastda dy,elta $100 billion per year pledge to help vulnerable nations address climate change. u.s. clima envoy john kerry told those at the meeting that he believes “enormous progress” can be made in scotland, but he also said that trillions of dollars would be required to tackle the climate challenge. abortion rights marches today focused on a texas law making its way through the lower courts which restricts access to abortions. the supreme court begins its new term monday with a case on the docket stemming from a mississippi law that banned most abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy. for more on the legal cases, i

spoke with mary ziegler, aand author of the book, "abortion and the law in america: 'roe v. wade' to the present." so, professor ziegler, one of the things that people have been concerned about since the passage of the texas law ihow it would impact other parts of the country. are there lots of other states that are trying their own versions of this law? are they concerned now that there are kind of challenges and there might be roadblocks ahead? >> there's several governors of conservative states who've said they're going to look into passing this-- or pledge to pass the law. the momentum slowed down a little bit in the weeks since i think, in part, because these challenges have arisen and made it seem as if maybe this law will not be able to prevent abortions from happening in the state of texas. the other thing that's happened, of course, is that the plaintiffs who have come forward have not been people that the right-to-life movement might have chosen.

so, there's also a teat that if you pass this law, you losetf a sense among red state governors that maybe the best solution is to wait for the supreme court to reconsider "roe v. wade" in 2021-2022 rather than passing this law in the short term. >> sreenivasan: let's talk a little bit about what is coming down the road to the supreme court, and why is that case from mississippi so important? >> so, the supreme court is hearing a case, "dobbs vs. jackson women's health organization," which addresses a mississippi law that bans abortion at 15 weeks, which is the point at which the state says fetal pain is possible. most scientific research doesn't support that and suggests that pain takes place much later in pregncy. but what's significant is that 15 weeks is well before fetal viability, whi is the point at which survival outside of the womb is possible. and that usually takes place ar 2ou4 wes-- so, well after the 15-week mark. the supreme court since "roe v. wade" has said that there's a right to choose abortion before viability.

so, if the court is going to uphold this law as we expect it to, the court will either have to overrule "roe" entirely or will have to say that pre- viability bans are okay and potentially open the door to all kinds of legislation and to a decision overruling "roe" down siv: ift s li either, in a way, texas sets its precedent and is upheld, but inevitably you will have other states possibly creating their own rules in response, and then you've got challenges that will bubble up to the supreme crt. if it's not this case from mississippi, the court is likely to hear about abortion again. >> absolutely. there are two cases that the court is debating taking at the moment. both invol what-- what's often referred to as "reasons bans." so, laws that say you can't have an abortion in cases, for example, of a diagnosis of down syndrome or for purposes of sex selection. the court could decide to take those cases any time, right. and at's to say nothin tg of dozens of cases that are further in the pipeline, including

heartbeat bills. so, regardless of what the court does this summer, we should expect to see the court roll back abortion rights significantly or reverse "roe" entirely in the next couple of years. >> sreenivasan: professor mary ziegler from florida state university college of law. thanks so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. thanks.nd iernaonal news, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: as shocking as the recent afghan evacuations was to most americans, it was alsoulai ain rnftodeemy mr vietnamese americans, many of whom experienced an evacuation nightmare and refugee crisis of their own after the fall of saigon in 1975. now, the vietnamese american community in seattle is reaching out and welcoming afghan refugees. newshour weekend special correspondent mike cerre reports as part of our ongoing series,

revedpo itrttihangamhesire and d the: just watching the news going by d just looking at these horrific images that just trigger a lot for me. >> reporter: uyen nguyen lost her mother and two siblings during their family's escape from vietnam by boat. like tens of thousands of other vietnamese refugees who eventually made it to the u.s. in the '70s and '80s, they depended on the generosity of many americans to find a home and start a new life. >> at the end of the day, humanity is a common denominator. you know, we all want a safe roof over our head.ildr. we just want hope. >> if we are to replicate this, because i've seen a lot in training... >> reporter: uyen helped start viets for afghans, vietnamese americans in the seattle area helping newly arriving afghans navigate their way throu their refugee crisis. >> and i think that both vietnamese and afghans also share, unfortunately, this

feelg of abandonment. we were in this to fight with the u.s., and then the u.s. lefs vietnamese army officer who fled his country after the communist takeover. she is her family's first american-born chil t' i am because i was raised by refugees, and i was raised by people who went through that trauma. >> rorter: dedtran, alsohensors. daughter of vinamese refugees,on armven whserved in afghanistan, she's now trying to help her former afghan translator and others resettle in the u.s. >> it's been healing, as a veteran, to give back in this way. it's also been healing, as a daughter of refugees, to give back in this way. >> hello! >> hi, there! >> my name is thuy. >> reporter: the group enlisted dr. thuy do and her husband, jesse roin along wit than 100 other families-- mostly vietnamese americans-- to agree

to temporarily share their homes and rental properties in the seattle area with a new afghan arrivals like abdul kand adi >> my family came over with two sets of clothes per person and about $300. and that's all we had in the world. 45 years ago, on the fall of saigon, this was a vietnamese community. this was exactly us-- a different cultural, a different people, a different language. i'm sure, very similar sentiments, very similar fear, very similar desperation, very similar hopes of a better future in the u.s. >> reporter: washington state has a proud history of welcoming vietnamese refugees starting shortly after the fall of saigon in 1975. as their numbers swelled at the refugee tent city constructed at the caendleton marine base next, washington's then- governor, daniel evans, offered the state's help in initially relocating 500 vietnam refugees

a very moral thing to do. >> and vietnamese americans, especially those who are here in washington, have never forgotten that, his generosity. ♪ >> reporter: the vietnamefugee exodus spanned nearly three decades.e 70,000. most of the initial afghan refugee assistance in the seattle area and elsewhere is mostly faith-based relief agencies like rl tlid haeft refugee crisis. ie o,o sek ptan uinic and former refugees stepping into what we're doing, but theyn shhaoeves aof tayhe newcomers that we're helping to begin their lives. >> reporter: medard negueita, a former refugee from chad,

heads up world relief's afan resettlemeffthic iaree supported by ststaten and fedee tig,onnds.inwe as s ll >> health, economic empowerment, educion, all of those things come only when you have a ace youalhomeon >> reporter: in addition to the current housing crisisrelief agencies and the local afghan community are also concerned with how different americans' views on immigration are now than they were durg the vietnam era, especially since 9/11. >> and when it comes from an islamic country, i think it reinforces that idea of that we don't want immigration because we don't want these people's beliefs and ideologies. >> reporter: a former u.s. military interpreter who immigrated here in 2015, navid hamadi heads up seattle's afghan hlth network and the local muslim community's outreach efforts for recent

afghan arrivals like asirah, who just arrived earlier in the week. >> we have direct connect with all the newcomere s compdar ed to other states, washington's fairly progresse and very welcoming. >> repter: seattle's official stomwe oare rin tsatvaarl we et t refees theatelinc ad ietad ke ts hem tolo a prieo receiving area away from the normal airport confusion while their case workers organize luggage, transportation,nd a northwest-- an afghan refugee himself in 2015-- was able to find haroon habbibi's family an apartment, get their six kids to start job interviews within the first month of their arrival. thmee .hotel.a great help forght

and from there, worked with us and, like, in four days, he rented an-an apartment. >> tha wrko vewoy ver thard near to the school and supermarkets, safe area. so, we finally find it. we had to work hard.>> av call him uncle denny. he helped me a lot. he is asking me, like-- like, if i need any help any time every day. >> reporter: "uncle denny"s dennis dunne, their new neighbor and longtime area resident. >> and i see how difficult it is, you know, because it's just like you say, you're dropped off. and, you know, you have some help, you have somees, but it's not everything you need.icrv ♪ >> rep vietnamese-language televisionte genesttwork produced an eight-hr telethon that raised more than

$160,000 from the vietnamese commun refugees. ha>>y tpohat'ns ex straordupina and one of the families that contributed had been helped by lutheran immigrant services. people have contacted us all around the country, wanted to see how they can actually start something similar in their state. >> reporter: seattle's tradition of welcoming refugees, like uyen's family years ago, is being passed between two different generations and between two very different cultures. >> sreeniv many ways to enter the orbit ofe they might be giants, an eccentric musical group that has been writing and recording together for the last 40 years. from the early 1980s new york art scene, to mtv music videos, to television theme songs, it's a band that has never stopped

crting. newshour weekend's christopher booker caught up with the founding members of they mig be giants as they get ready to release a new alemanbubad rkon ew >> reporter: the world of they might be giantis a curious one. from esoteric projects like their dial-a-song service that allowed anyone to call in and listen to one of their recordings on an answering machine, to their steady, beloved presth ienheen eccentric output of high school friends john linell and john flasburg never seems to slow. ♪ fan department because our ntuot slwhaaydo tthunisff ws as that do great work. ertain point, os aitket lm we've had enough of you. you can leave now." contemporaries that we came up with who had much greater success than we have, have definitely gotten the, like,

reality check. like, wouldn't be a bad idea to just let it go. >> cut your losses. >> yeah. and that's-- i mean, to a little-- to a certain extent, we've-- it's always been a bit of a struggle for us, to a certain extent. we've always had a lot of small lucky breaks. >> but maybe the key, really-- i mean, i don't know if this is true, but it seems like the fact that we didn't have one explosive out success kind of lousweo td th o k,ultima yte high. >> yeah, and we still got it. >> reporter: there have been flirtations with chart success, most notably from their third album, "flood." released in 1990, it was a staple of college radio in the years just before nirvana's "nevermind" blew up the music scene. ♪ ♪ with double entendres, clever idioms and unreliable narrators, the music of they ght be giants traveled through the grunge years as a subversive alternative to alternative-- a

happy band with a key-changing, uncing sound that could make you dance, but dance to songs that lyrically could be as dark as they come. >> we've always kind of tossed in, like, some super-dire, high- voltage, dea-trip lyrics that kind of offset the merriment of of-- of a-- of a melody. >> the melieyos are owli, ke tae eventually traps everybody. >> ♪ you're older than you everr ♪ and now you're even older, and now you're even older... ♪ >> reporte their ability to create these offbeat melodic traps has allowed the band to move between genres and mediums, from television theme shows like "malcolm in the middle" to a collection of critically- acclaimed children's albums. ♪ and later this month, they will move into another medium, releasing an album of new

material and a book, as well. featuring original ptographs by brooklyn street photographer brian karlsson and illustrated they might be giants lyrics by graphic designer paul sahre, the project was recorded and completed before and during the pandemic. d this is album 500? >> ( laughs ) yes, yes, yes. a difficult 500.>>rybo's careers messier and messie g yr veo, ou, compilation albums, and do those count? and do live albums count? the children's albums count like our children's work. they-- they were-- there was a interval on our-- on the fan als as, like, cannon.baf althin the might be giants. if you want to know what the cover of the japanese release of their album "lincoln" looked like or where the band played and what their setlist was on february 10, 1995, you can find

it there. >> we actually wind up relying on this wiki, the t.m.b.g. wiki, to look up whether we played somewhere, when the last time we played, and they even list the setlis so, it's for-- for old people whose memories are not what they used to be, it's an amazg,wi rebe oauutti ifuf l sos urhave been released.( laught i me, tik other song about a dog. we can't write another song about birds, like, you know? it's like, just, like, cross it off. reporter: but yet, the fire is still there to-- to write and record? >> it doesn't get easier, but, yeah, we still-- we're still-- still struggling. and i can't get out from under this, but i'm always feeling intense self-doubt as we'r thing we've done.e and then, it's only after we're done and the smoke is clear, i, like, go, "yeah, okay, that was

good. this is fine." >> reporter: but after 23 albums, two grammy awards and an upcoming tour in celebration of their allo"fbuod w" chhiin nearly every show is sold out, it may seem such anxiety is l- questioning of one's accomplishments have been a part of their artistic exploration >> ♪ no one in the world ever gets what they want, and that is beautiful ♪ everybody dies frustrated and sad, and that is beautiful. ♪ >> reporter: have you gotten what you want? >> we don't-- actually, i peonally or the band, i feel like we don't have a specific goal that once we've completed, we're done. i mean, that s aort of what sad, in other words. th an d bat'sif ♪ >> this is pbs newshour wkend, saturday. hat imate

an on earth. in the alps, mont blanc is the apex, the tallest mountain in western europe. but new measurements releasedee. warming temperatures have led to glaciers on the mountain rapidly as a result, ms been shrinking for more than ac anon decade. the french team that compl arve eywl summit's altitude has always varied as the height of snow from year-toear, but t steadyownward trend in their biennial survey leaves no doubt the so-called "roof of europe" is getting shorter. it's not the only iconic mountain to undergo a recent altitude adjustment. atcct ,ngtamoexpeintions

by chinese and nepali surveyorsa r.st much in the context of a nearly ,000-foot mountain, it m a >> ( translated ): we have to respect anything that becomes "plu" the increase in height is a source of huge pride for nepal and nepalese people. so, it's a big deal. >> sreenivasan: scieists say that the same plate tectonics that formed the himalayas are responsible for everest's ongoing growth spurt, believed to be as much 1.6 feet a y.nt same forces can also cause earthquake centered in nepal in 2015, some researche thought everest might have been cut down a few feet. but either way, a future earthquake ithis region may veryell erase eons of growth.

>> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the latest news updates visit www.pbs.ornewshour. i'm hariasen saniv. captioned by is madeccess group at wgbhpbned possiby:le su the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and noa klorfine foundation. the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund. the estahington mayo-rtwo smith.te the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differencein our communities.

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. additional support has been provided by: consumer 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. you're watching pbs.

announcer: this program was made psible in part by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. pam: hello, i'm pam grier. some of you may know me as jackiewn by., those were all memorable roles that i've enjoyed portraying in motion pictures, but now, i'm excited to join you as host for a sensational 1970s rhythm and blues celebration with the legends of soul, here on my music on pbs. ♪ prepare yourself for the rubber band man ♪ ♪ you've never heard a sound like the rubber band man ♪ ♪ you're bound to lose control when the rubber band ♪ ♪ starts to jam ♪ ♪ oh, boy, this dude is outta sight ♪