captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, october 10: the ming debt ceiling votes facing congress. protecting the rights of l.g.b.t.q. seniors looking for safe housing. and why this man is running every street in cleveland. >> running these streets you can still see a lot of the oginal infrastructure and really the history of the city. >> 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 anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo-smith.

leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live ithe 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's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps peop communicate and connect. u.s.-based customer service team can help find one 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. one more vote is needed to raise the u.s. debt ceiling when the house of representatives returns on tuesday, but it's an extension that will only last through december. this morning, treasury secretary janet yellen said she is confident congress will raise the debt ceiling again in december, and said debt ceiling votes should be “a housekeeping chore.” >> once congress and the administration have decided on spending plans and tax plans, it's simply their responsibility to pay the bills that result from that. >> sreenivasan: on thursday the senate reached a deal and approved the emergency hike which will pay the nation's bills through december 3, but republican senator mitch mcconnell has warned that he may not support another debt ceiling increase. yellen warned today that the results of failing to raise the debt ceiling will affect millions of people.

>> sreenivasan: in brussels today, thousands of protesters took part in a climate march ahead of the united nations climate change summit set to take place in scotland at the end of the month. the protesters took to the streets calling on world leaders to take bolder actions against climate change. about 80 organizations participated, hoping to hold the largest gathering of climate activists since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in belgium. heading into the climate change conference, many environmentalists are trying to increase pressure on world leaders to do more to cut carbon emissions and mitigate global warming. the lights are back on and power is restored in lebanon today. the country's two largest power plants shut down yesterday plunging the whole country into daness. the energy ministry said both plants ran out of fuel. lebanon has frequent blackouts as it struggles with a constant shortage of imported fuel and antiquated infrastructure. in iraq, voters cast ballots today in the country's fifth

parliamentary election since the u.s. invasion in 2003. the vote was held six months early in response to mass anti- government protests in 2019 that saw more than 600 people killed. groups aligned with the shia muslim majority are expected to dominate the election with populist shi'ite cleric, moqtada al-sadr's party expected to emerge as parliament's largest faction. today's vote was marked by a boycott from activists who took part in the 2019 protests and there were widespread reports of low voter turnout. final results are expected over the next two days. retired general raymond odierno, who commanded u.s and coalition forces at the height of the war in iraq, has died. general odierno played a major role in the iraq war. referred to as "the big o," the 6'5" four star general urged then president george w. bush to rapidly deploy nearly 20,000 additional american troops to iraq in an effort to combat a growing insurgency. in 2011, general odierno was named the army's chief of staff,

where he oversaw the final withdrawal of us forces from iraq. retired general raymond odierno was 67 years old. for more national and international news, visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: representatives of the u.s. and afghanistan's ruling taliban government are restarting talks in doha, qatar, this weekend. issues reportedly on the table include terrorist groups operating in the count, evacuations, and a growing humanitarian crisis. i spoke with saeed shah, a reporter for "the wall street journal" who is in kabul about conditions there six weeks after the last u.s. troops withdrew. saeed, right now, it seems the taliban have already started staking out positions in their conversations with the united states, they're saying that they are not going to work with or help the united states per se in tamping down the i.s. or islamic state forces that exist in the country. that was one of the tenets of

the deal that the trump administration struck with the taliban is to make sure that afghanistan was no longer a safe haven for terrorists. >> well, the deal they struck was that afghanistan would no longer be a safe haven for international terrorists. the local branch of islamic state has, so far, anyway, hit afghan targets both that it used to hit-- the former government, used to hit the shiite minority. since the taliban has taken over, it's also been hitting the taliban pretty hard as well. so, the taliban's point of view is that we can handle e isis threat here. >> sreenivasan: tell me a little bit about the situation in afghanistan right now. you've been reporting from different parts of the country. is the taliban different depending on where you travel to? >> there are some differences. in kabul you notice there is a

huge amount of discipline among both the leadership and the rank and file, and they are smartly turned out in uniforms, patrolling, manning check posts, and so on. further away from kabul, most are not uniford. and we've seen in places, for instance, that they've done public hangings, which has not taken place in kabul. so, overall, it seems that they are following orders very strictly. and, you know, it's the nature of an insurgent movement that they are extremely disciplined. >> sreenivasan: one of the big concerns has been the fate of those afghans who helped american forces that are still stuck in the country. i know there are volunteers from around the country here who are still working to try to get them

out. >> it's very difficult to get out of afghanistan. essentially, the land borders are closed to afghans to cotries like central asia, iran, pakistan. flights are not properly going. there are few flights which are heavily booked out and extremely expensive, unaffordable for most ordinary afghans, and the taliban is reluctant to see a further exodus of people. >> sreenivasan: you had also reported a little earlier about the kind of economic and humanitarian crisis that is facing the country right now as you head into winter. >> it is a, essentially a crisis situation with the takeover by the taliban. international aid was cut off and the economy was entirely dependent on it. so, there is growing hunger, there is joblessness.

there's a lack of shelter because a lot of afghans were displaced as a result of the war. and there are only a few short weeks left before winter really bites. the international community has pledged $1 billion in emergency assistance for afghanistan, but it essentially has not arrived. and aid agencies are saying time is running out. the international community is extremely concerned that this money doesn't fall straight into taliban hands, and it is worried that women will not benefit om it, or that women aid workers will not be able to work in the field. and the taliban has not been able to give the sort of assurances that the international community wants on that. >> sreenivasan: saeed shah of "the wall street journal" joining us from kabul tonight. thanks so much. >> thank you.

>> sreenivasan: it's hard enough in this country finding safe secure housing if you're elderly, much harder still if you identify as l.g.b.t.q. tomorrow is national coming out day, but tonight we have a story about some of the 2.4 million seniors who identify as l.g.b.t.q. going back in the closet. it's because many elderly gay and trans people fear mistreatment and abuse when seeking senior housing. the fair housing act prohibits the denial of housing based on racereligion or sex, but there is no federal law that explicitly protects people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. newshour wee's ivette feliciano visited one senior housing development in new york city that is making sure their l.g.b.t.q. residents are welcome. >> reporter: stonewall house, in brooklyn, is an l.g.b.t.q.- friendly senior housing development. sage, an advocacy organization for l.g.b.t.q. elders, which

created stewall house, says it is the larst such development in the country. the 145-unit building which opened in 2019 is named in honor of the 1969 uprising often cited as the beginning of the modern l.g.b.t.q. rights movement. 71-year-old deidra nottingham was one of the first to move in. >> i said, finally, a house for us to stay in and not be judged. you know, i've been waiting a long time, over 50 years, for something like this. >> reporter: you don't have to be gay or transgender to live here. to qualify, you must be at least 62 years old, and earn 60% or less of the area median income. but the fact that stonewall house welcomes gay and trans seniors is important to nottingham. for decades, she says she faced housing discrimination, and at points homelessness, due to her sexual orientation. it began at 14, when she came out as lesbian, and her family

kicked her out on the street. it just got worse from there. >> when i was younger, me and my girlfriend, they wouldn't rent to us. and it was hard because we couldn't go back home. my family didn't want us. and it's hard when they're calling you a freak or a weirdo. i was called that lots of times by my own family members. so, it's very hard when you don't have no support. and there wasn't any groups out there where you could go to. we were lost. >> reporter: nottingham says before coming to stonewall house she ved in eight other residential long term care facilities over the last 12 years. each included some level of neglect or hostility by staff and her elderly residents. >> they did not want gay people there. they always made remarks and cursed at me when i came outside. so, i just couldn't take it, i was afraid that they was going to set my door on fire or something.

>> reporter: were you ever tempted to hide who you were in these housing situations? >> yes. a couple times. i was scared. >> reporter: according to sage, gay and trans seniors face more obstacles than their straigh counterparts. they're more socially isolated because they are less likely to have children, and are more likely to live alone, or be estranged from their families. and a lifetime of employment discrimination contributes to higher poverty rates among l.g.b.t.q. people over thege of 50, according to the u.c.l.a. school of lawilliams institute. >> it is truly a disgrace that there is no federal law prohibiting discrimination against l.g.b.t.q. people in housing. >> reporter: michael adams is sage's c.e.o. >> and what that means is that about half of our l.g.b.t.q. older adults are living in places where there are no such protections because there's no federal law and there's no state law. >> reporter: sage reports that

more than one third of l.g.b.t.q. seniors fear having to “re-closet” themselveen seeking housing due to discrimination and violence. >> and their fears are real and they're based in fact. sadly, we hear over and over again from our elders that some of the places they feel least safe and most vulnerable to harassment and discrimination is where they live. so, one of the big challenges we're dealing with is thvast majority of residential long term care communities have no formal policies that are protecting and lifting up l.g.b.t.q. elders. >> reporter: sage teamed up with the human rights campaign to create what it calls the long term care equality index. it says that only 18% of senior housing communities have policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. with 29 affiliates nationwide, sage trains long term care

providers on how to support older l.g.b.t.q. people. this includes cultural competency, writing staff and resident non-discrimination policies, and having l.g.b.t.q.- inclusive intake forms and marketing materials. >> many of the residential communities are run by faith- based organizations. while some of them are wonderful and are embracing of l.g.b.t.q. people, some of them are not, right. so, we have numerous instances of blatant discrimination where these communities simply refuse to accept people because they're l.g.b.t.q. and then, if people are accepted, there is the question of is this an environment where i can be open about who i am? >> reporter: 78-year-old onewall house resident bill meehan understands more than most. >> back when i was a young man, being gay was not the thing you ascribed to . being gay was a psychological association, psychiatric association. to them, it was a disease.

>> reporter: a former catholic priest, meehan battled coming to terms with his sexual identity before finally coming out in his early 40s. >> i gave myself a hard time in just trying to be who i was. and that's a terrible journey, people have to go back to thatme is just not right. this place offered an opportunity for gay people to find housing proudly. and it's not totally a gay house. it's a mixed community here. but it's a community that recognizes diversity. we celebrate diversity, and as different as we all are, we live together nicely. >> reporter: sage is lobbying congress to pass the "equality act," which would create federal anti-l.g.b.t.q. discrimination laws for housing. in the meantime, at the state level, it's pushing for legislatures to adopt a long term care bill of rights for l.g.b.t.q. seniors. deidra nottingham has no plans to leave her one-bedroom apartment at stonewall house because she feels safer than she

ever has. >> i be so happy when i wake up, and i haven't felt like this in a long time. it doesn't bother me being alone. i feel comfortable. i come downstairs, 3:00 in the morning just to check my mail. that's how safe i feel. it makes me happy when i see somebody like me. it-- it's refreshing. i'm home. >> sreenivasan: tomorrow, about 20,000 runners will compete in the 125th boston marathon. it's the first time that the race is being run since april of 2019. but while the boston marathon was on pause during the pandemic, running alone remained a crucial outlet for millions of americans when very little else emed safe. in cleveland, one resident is turning his pandemic running hobby inn ambitious project to get a better understanding of his adopted city.

newshour weekend special correspondent karla murthy caught up with him to learn more about “every street cleveland.” >> reporter: phil kidd is on one of his runs, about six miles long on average, and at a pace that would leave many weekend warriors in the dust. but the 42-year old isn't training for a race, he's systematically running everystet 3,000 miles or so-- as part of a project to document and better understand this rust belt city. >> cleveland is a city that was built for a million people, but only about 372,000 people live here now, and there's been a lot of loss over time. there's been a lot of demolition. there's been a lot of change. but running these streets, you can still see a lot of the original infrastructure and really the history of the city. >> reporter: for the last year and a half, kidd has been posting his runs, along with photos and historical context on his blog, “every street cleveland.” it's a personal project, but one that he says infms his work as a city planner with a local nonprofit. >> it gives you such a deeper

context to the history of how and why certain parts of the neighborhood developed the way they did, what immigrant groups came in initially, and then after and after. you can see that reflected in everything from architecture style, to names of businesses that change, to street names. when you're thinking about doing the type of work that i do, which oftentimes has to do with redevelopment, things that cou impact longtime residents that have lived here, having that deep level of understanding and that context helps inform all these decisions that you make. so, its been really, really important. >> reporter: kidd extensively researches and plans each route in advance to make sure he doesn't miss a street or known landmark. and he tracks himself using g.p.s. on his phone, creating a pacman-like record of where he's run. >> it's just a constant, kind of, balance between keeping my eye on my g.p.s., then stopping, photo documenting, turning this back on, you know, and i still got the music playing and not get hit by a car, so. >> reporter: it's a lot! >> it's a lot. >> reporter: that's a lot to juggle.

>> it's a lot going on, yeah. >> reporter: we followed him on a run in his west cleveland neighborhood, and first stop was an old industrial building at the end of a dead end street. >> this is the old westinghouse building, which was one of the two major industrial businesses that held form this neighborhood. >> reporter: westinghouse used to manufacture industrial lighting here, and employed more than 500 people. in recent years a developer has proposed turning this building into a residential development. kidd says this historical building is just one example of the kind of thing he likes to highlight on his blog. >> a lot of people are going to drive on the shoreway right down here. and they see this, this huge towering facade, and they see westinghouse on top, and the logos there, but they're not going to see this. they're not even really see the rest of that facade unless they're coming up in this neighborhood. and this is a dead end street. so, what reason would someone have to really even come down here? that's the reason why i do the blog, and why i run every street, is i want to tell those stories and expose those cool things. and there's lots of this on, in every neighborhood, all throughout cleveland.

>> reporter: telling those stories means capturing what he sees. >> we can get a sense of this ornate metal artwork, but then also, you can kind of catch a glimpse of the new development at the end of the street. so, it tells a story in some way. >> reporter: after running past some newer residential developmentsand a park which heotes the city will be redoing with community input in the next couple of years, kidd ends up in another formerly industrial area, this one famous for manufacturing energizer batteries. >> a lot of those former industrial sites have been repurposed for new residential housing. so, that's kind of been the trend here. but it still, you know, has kind of an industrial kind of feel to it. there's still an active rail line, so it's really kind of a mix of old and new. >> reporter: next stop is a pedestrian tunnel under the train line, with an intricate mosaic mural designed by a local artist more than 15 years ago. >> that's a map of the neighborhood and the streets we just ran through. so, yeah, really, really cool. >> reporter: documenting details in the mural, kidd notes the significance of a nondescript travel agency building that was

run by the family of a former council member. >> his father was the one that prevented a highway from cutting right through this area and bisecting this neighborhood during the whole urban renewal process. so, it's kind of aool little nod to them. >> reporter: so far, kidd has completed 55 runs, and a tot of 336 miles, which is only about 10% of cland's streets. he says the length and depth of the project is part of the point: each run exposes him, and his readers, to things he didn't see before. >> to me, it's like seeing the matrix, you know, you can kind of see the layers, the history, and i know what's on all the little back alleys. i know the story behind why this street is named after this person. i know how the city got the land for this park from a landfill development project that went awry. you know, all of that kind of information is really interesting, and i think when people are reading about that, they find it fascinating, too.

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, sunday. >> sreenivasan: finally tonight, as many of us return to our daily commute on buses, trains, or ferries, commuters in istanbul, turkey, are riding with an unexpected fellow passenger. as one of istanbul's ferries launches, a four-legged passenger quickly boards with commuters. after taking a seat for the ride, passengers recognize him as “boji,” a street dog who seems to enjoy riding public transit. >> ( translated ): two months ago, we noticed a dog trying to use our trams, our metros, our trains. he knows where to go. he knows where to get out. so, it was quite interesting, and we had started to follow him, and it was a really interesting pattern. it's something like he knows where to go and he has a purpose. >> sreenivasan: istanbul transit

officials track boji with a microchip and say he visits at least 29 metro stations and travels up to 18 miles on a regular weekday. >> ( translated ): no, i didn't expect to see him. i w him on the intert previously. it was nice running into him. >> sreenivasan: “boji” is the turkish word for the undercarriage of a train. he has been spotted on the subway, historic trams and ferries alike. >> ( translated ): you know what, i just watched him on youtube two hours ago and now i ran into him here. it's such a surprise. >> sreenivasan: becoming a local celebrity on istanbul's public transit, with thousands of fans on social media, boji is also appreciated for being a courteous rider. >> ( translated ): and also, he obeys the rules, you know? you know, when the door is open you have to let the people out first. he waits out of the lines just like the other passengers and after everyone gets out, he gets in the train and he has a special place.

>> 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. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington yo-smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural

differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerber 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 financia 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. thank you. you're watching pbs.

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