♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. tonight on "pbs news weekend"... while the u.s. awaits a supreme court ruling that could overturn roe v. wade, latin american countries are expanding abortion access. then... a social media project memorializes some of the 1 million americans who have died from covid-19. >> it's a reminder just how much pain and trauma we have yet to process, not just for the folks who have lost somebody they love, but for the broader community overall and across the country. geoff: and... the premier league's fight for the title comes down to the wire. we discuss all things soccer and how this season has been unlike any other. all that and the day's headlines on tonight's "pbs news weekend." ♪

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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: we begin with breaking developments of a mass shooting at a supermarket at buffalo, new york. at least 10 people have been kill according to law enforcement. it is still unclear how many other people may have been shot. buffalo police say the suspected shooter is in custody. turning to the war in ukraine, ukrainian forces say they have forced the russian withdrawal from the country's second-largest city, kharkiv, in the northeast. fighting rages on in the eastern donbas region, athe south.o t meanwhile, russian president vladim putin took punitive action today against finland, suspending its electricity exports two days after finland declared its intention to join nato.

putin told the finnish president by phone today that abandoning its policy oneutrality would be a mistake. and, in the ukrainian capita ky, a senate republican delegation led by minority leader mitch mcconnell met with president volodymyr zelenskyy, who praised the visit as a show of strong bipartisan support for his country. justice clarence thomas weighed in on the leaked supreme court draft opinion overturning roe v wade. at an event last night in dallas, thomas said thleak has dramatically affected trust within the high court. justice thomas: now that trust, or that belief, is gone forever. and when you lose that trust, especially in the institution that i'm in, it changes the institution fundamentally. you begin to look over your shoulder. it's like kind of an infidelity. geoff: thomas' critics note the damage to the court done by his own refusal to recuse himself from capitol-riot cases in light

ofhe fact that his wife, right-wing activist ginni thomas, reportedly pressed then-president trump's chief of staff on overturning the 2020 election. meanwhile, thousands across the country gathered today in support of abortion rights. phundreds of events in dozens of ties brought massive crowds to protest the supreme court's leakedraft opinion. protesters in the nation's capital marched to the supreme court, after activists spoke about defending abortion rights at the ballot box. >> we need you to vote because reproductive justice rights are on the ballot in 2022. make no qualms about it. we need you to vote. we need you to run. we need you to organize. we need you to donate. they are counting on our voter apathy. geoff: the leaked draft opinion is not final, but the decision in the abortion case will come down by the end of the court's term in late june or early july. a federal judge has blocked part

of an alabama law that made it a felony to prescribe gender-affirming medical care and hormones to transgender minors. the law makes prescribing the treatments punishable by up to 10 years in prison. alabama was the third state to pass restrictions on transgender healthcare, following arkansas and tennessee, but the first to add felony penalties. south africa is seeing a rapid uptick in covid cases. health experts say the increase is driven by two additional omicron sub-variants, which can still infect people who are vaccinated or have some level of immunity. the countris reporting more hospitalizations, but severe cases and deaths remain stnant. and, north korea is scrambling to contain an outbreak among its largely unvaccinated population of 26 million. today, 21 new deaths were reported. leader kim jong-un called it a "great disaster and upheaval." due to north korea's poor healthcare system, the country's response will likely rely on isolation and quarantine measures.

and, they made it to the top of the world while also making thfirst-ever expedition group comprised of all-black climbers reached the summit of mount everest. the group, called full circle everest, marked the moment as especially important, as a means of boosting black representation in the climbing community. also this week, a nepali sherpa set the women's climbing recd the sherpa scaled the peak for a tenth time, besting her own record set in 2018. still to come on "pbs news weekend"... the twitter feed that has memorialized those who lost their lives to covid-19. and with the premiere soccer league's title still up for grabs, a look at some of the biggest headlines from this season. >> this is "pbs news weekend" from weta studios in washington, home of the pbs newshour,

weeknights on pbs. geoff: as americans contemplate living in a country where roe versus wade is overturned, a very different story is playing out in many parts of latin america. in recent years, countries throughout the region have relaxed abortion restrictions. correspondent ali rogin explores what's changed and why. ali: in just the last three years, abortion rights activists in latin america have celebrated some major victories. their movement is called the "marea verde," the green wave, for the green scarves first worn by activists in argentina. that country legalized abortion until 14 weeks of pregnancy. it was previously treated as a crime, except in cases of rape and to protect the life of the mother. in mexico, some abortion rights demonstrations grew violent. last year, the supreme court ruled that state laws criminalizing abortions were unconstitutional. now, 7 of mexico's 32 states allow them.

in february of this year, colombia's constitutional court legalized abortion up to 24 weeks. there had been a total ban until 2006, when some exceptions were added. but other countries in latin america and the carribean still have some of the most severe abortion laws. the procedure is still completely illegal, with no exceptions, in six countries. for more, i'm joined by alicia yamin, the senior fellow for global health and rights at harvard law school. alicia, thank you so much for joing me. of course, latin america is not a monolith, but what are some of the broader trends that you've identified that have popped out to you in recent years? alicia: well, first of all, ali, thank you very much for having me. as you rightly pointed out, the region is not a monolith and still has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. in el salvador, in nicaragua, for example. but the incredible progress that has been made in the last few years, which is really a product of a very much longer struggle by feminist movements in the in

the region, i think it is is for not just legal entitlements, but also has really emphasized social decriminalization of abortion and has centered reproducve justice as a matter of democratic governance. ali: and let's talk about those feminist activists. what are some of the defining characteristics of the green wave movement? alicia: the feminist movements in latin america have expanded to include ltq plus movements, to include labor movements, to include a broader swath of society. some of that has been in response to very high levels of violence against women, including femicide in the region. but some of it has its roots in deep struggles for a secular state as part of democracy and female representation and

politics and more grassroots based struggle for abortion, frankly, than we have had in this country. ali: and do you think some of those lessons of what worked in some of these countries in latin america could be applied to the debate that's taking place in the united states right now and that some of the messaging that worked for abortion rights activists in latin america -- do you think that could be applied for abortion rights activists here in the united states? alicia: i think it could be. we have to be careful cause they were drawing on, they are drawing on a different universe of legal norms. it's not been generally framed as a right to privacy in latin america. of course, dignity and women's and pregnancy capable people's self-determination and dignity is important, but it's also a matter of equality, of gender equality and democratic inclusion and the right to

health, which, of course, we don't have a right to health care in the united states. politically, i would say that although these are countries with deep polarization and exclusion in politics, abortion has -- and there are differences among them. but abortion, for example, in argentina isomething that is not associated with one political party so strongly. it's a cleavage that cuts across different major political parties and coalitions. ali: and how would you contrast the way the abortion debate is framed in the united states with that of latin america? alicia: here we've focused on reproductive autonomy, and that, of course, is absolutely essential. but abortion is never really a private decision. it' awas te mys mr atanofy of relionships in women's lives. and what the reproductive

justice movement coming out of black women's feminism in this country showed was that there was a huge difference between legal entitlements and actual access. in latin america, the social movements and feminists have really targeted access, not just legal entitlement.gresvelyoved toward a complete change in legal frameworks, but they've really worked long and hard to reach out to health providers to, again, socially decriminalize abortion so that it's not such a stigmatized and private issue. it's a social justice and a reproductive justice issue, not just an individual issue. ali: alicia yamen of harvard university, thank you so much for your time. alicia: thank you. ♪

geoff: each day, the twitter thread "faces of covid" posts the names, images, and a short remembrance of americans who have died from covid-19. the project was started by boston-based communications consultant alex bernstein, who has posted more than 7,000 remembrances since starting the feed in march 2020. i recently spoke with bernstein, and started by asking him about a recent post on the site -- 25 year-old tdy nelson, who died of covid on april 11, 2020. and because of hospital covid protocols at the time, teddy was in quarantine. no family, no friends could visit him in his final hours. alex: unfortunately, so many of the stories that were submitted to faces of covid over the last two years are people who did not have their loved ones at their side when they passed away. so many people said goodbye by facetime or via zoom and i think it's a reminder just how much pain and trauma we have yet to process, not just for the folks

who have lost somebody they love, but for the broader community overall and across the country. what does it mean to process a million pele who were not, who are not here now, who were here two years o? i don't think we've even begun to really examine what that is going to take and how much work we have to do to bring some peace into people's lives. geoff: is that why you wanted to start this, this twitter account faces of covid? alex: yeah. you know, i think first and foremost, i started the account because i thought that we needed to really affirm the dignity of the people who have lost their lives. and i think we did a really, i think, highly credible job of telling a data driven story about the number of people who were sick, the number of ventilators that were needed, the number of people who were losing their lives each day. but they were cold statistics. and without knowing the names and the faces and the stories behind those numbers, i thought we were doing a disservice to those who had died and to the

families who were left behind, who i think more than anything, we're looking back, you know, through the window to the rest of the world saying, do you see what we're losing? do you see the pain that we are all enduring? because i think so many of the rituals we've come to rely on when we lose people that matter to us and our lives have been stripped away from us these past two years and that we need to find the types of spaces and avenues for people to mourn that grief together. geoff: as you've curated this account, what stories stand out to you? alex: you know, i think about a lot of different kinds of stories. sometimes it's the stories of young people who had their entire lives ahead of them and were robbed of decades of joy and their families' joy because of this pandemic. oftentimes, it's the stories of just frank injustice of people who should not have been lost but were forced to work without the proper protective gear or forced to work while they were

sick, or the people who were lost because of systemic misinformation and anti-science aggression around vaccines. i think there's just so many different ways in which this pandemic has brought indignity to the lives of people at the very end of their lives. but you know, more often than not, the stories that linger with me the most are the ones in which i see my own family and my own friends in the faces and the names and the stories of others who i never knew. and i think that's really part of the point, which is if we can see ourselves in the suffering of others, if we can see our own loved ones in the stories of people who have lost someone, i think that is a step towards all of us making better public health decisions and seeing our stake and looking after each other. geoff: so much of this pandemic has been politicized. whether or not to wear a mask, whether or not to get a vaccine, whether or not you should get a booster shot. and yet you have gone to great lengths to make sure that this

account is in no way partisan. why was that important to you and how ve you done that? alex: well, a pa of it is that i don't think that we need to establish a litmus test for what we grieve and who we grieve together. whe anyone who had lost someone could use that space to be a part of their mourning process and a part of their grieving process. i think one thing i've learned is that we have an instinct to assume that we know an awful lot about people's lives. and these last two years has reminded me that we don't know that much about the different struggles that people face and what leads to the decisions that they make. and i've tried not to make this a place that passes judgment, but rather a place that's more healing and open to create a venue for people to wrestle with their grief together and with strangers they've never met. geoff: one hopes that atne

point, covid is eradicated. are you going to keep this going? alex: you know, i was doing the back of the envelope math the other day and realized that, with 7000 stories, that puts me fairly significantly under one percent of the losses that have been shared through this account. so certainly there are just countless other stories to tell. and so long as there are still families that are seeking a level of acknowledgment and affirmation of what they have been through and the trauma that they have experienced, i will still be sharing these stoes and feel like it's a responsibility to do so now that this opportunity exists. geoff: thank you for your efforts and shining a light on some the stories and stories that deserved to be elevated. so thank you. thanks for your time. alex: yeah, absolutely. ♪ geoff: it is another big weekend for soccer fans, everything from

the premier league title race to the upcoming champions league final. lucky for us, we've got roger bennett -- no relation -- to help us break it all down. roger is a british-american broadcaster, author and filmmaker. he's also the co-host of the "men in blazers" podcast. roger, it's great to have you with us, friend. roger: it's a joy to be with you. geoff: so let's talk about the premier league title race. how did that race become so competitive beeen manchester city and liverpool? and i ask the question because at one point manchester city had a dominant 14 point lead over liverpool in the standings and then it all fell apart. roger: in january, everything changed. manchester city are an abu dhabi owned powerhouse. liverpool, owned by the boston red sox group. this has been like watching rocky and apollo creed go round for rounds. city are a nation state backed team hoping to win their fourth title in five years, like a footballing terminator, the result of roughly $2 billion invested in the team by their owner, sheikh mansour, and the

palace tactics of their manager. a gentleman called pep guardiola . think catalan stanley tucci. but he attac tactics with a frenzy of russell crowe in a beautiful mind in the search for footballing perfection. and rpool have taken another pathway. they're backed by american sports entrepreneurs john henry and tom werner, and they don't have infinite wallets. but what they do have is a sense of statistics and analysis which they've taken from their ownership of the boston red sox. and they've created a powerhouse by looking for intangibles in talent and recruitment. and they also have a german manager, jurgen klopp, who is really a human phenomenon. he's essentially a large teutonic care bear dispensing life wisdom and hugs on the road to glory and liverpool are challenging for an unprecedented quadruple, a clean sweep of every tournament they've

entered. and it is remarkable to watch these two different approaches, these two heavyweights week on, week, round and round, just slaying all comers. gef: you always paint quite a picture. i want to ask you about dane murphy, because this is quite an inspiring story. he's this 36 year old arican, a former dc united player. he successfully turned around the once great but more recently underachieving nottingham forest football club. tell us about him. roger: dane murphy is an intriguing story. he is a 36-year-old from reddg, connecticut. he was a professional footballer in mls and nottingham forest are essentially a gray gdens of a footballing club. they were great in the 1980s but they have fallen below the ice and they're in a essentially the footballing equivalent of aaa baseball. in comes this gentleman, dale murphy, he's a brilliant mind. he's chopped up the deadwood, promoted young players, brought in one of the best young managers. and when he inherited the team, they were at the bottom of the

aisle, but he's overseen a worse than their first season. nottingham forest started off for their worst campaign in 108 years, but they're now in the final four. one of the teams that emerges for this will be promoted into the major leagues, the premier league and it's worth 165 million. they call it the richest game in sports. and so when you look at murphy, he's further proof that american men were not quite world class yet at football but were so bloody good at owning teams and also running them. geoff: so you talked about what the promotion to the premier league means financially. what does it mean emotionally for some of these clubs? roger: well, this promotion, which is moving up, there's also relegation. it's like the bottom three teams in the premier league get punished for their dismal performance. in america, if you've had a bad year, you just swe're rebuilding. we get a great draft pick. in england, it's much more ruthless. the bottom three teams are flung out through the moon door,

essentially relegated. think in baseball, if the cincinnati reds were punished for being so impotent and move down and let the portland sea dogs move into the major leagues. so for the fans of the team, many of whom have generational memories, it can be utterly, utterly crushing. my team i support, everton, have been flirting with wave relegation and i say football has given me some of the sweetest memories in my life of my grandparents, for my parents, for my children. but this darkness of the possibility of relegation right now, i couldn't hate it more and it's fairly all consuming. but for nottingham forest and dale murphy, if they can come up, they will never haveo buy a drink in that town again. geoff: indeed. as we wrap up this conversation, i want to shift our focus to the states here and talk about the champions league, because at the start of this month, the seattle sounders won this one, the concacaf championship league, a historic victory for that team. tell us about it.

roger: yeah, but the mls has been trying to win this champions league, which features the club teams of our whole region, north amica, central america. for the last two decades, it's become a real symbol that they utterly crave. they failed time and time again. but the seattle sounders beat the mexican team massively. mexi has always felt like the scooby doo league and mls has felt like scrappy doo, and they beat them 5-2 in front of a packed stadium of 68,000 delirious fans in seattle. the club is really reinforcing its status as the jewel of our nation. a first win for mls in this tournament in 20 years. seattle will go into the club world cup where they could play the likes of liverpool or real madrid and really test themselves at the highest level. and when you watch those deliriou scenes, we've always joked on our show that soccer is america's sport of the future, as it has been since 1972. but when you look at these scenes, you get a sense that

it's really the sport of the now. geoff: indeed. roger bennett, always great to speak with you. thanks for making time for us. roger: send my love to judy woodruff. geoff: i absolutely will. ♪ as we reported earlierfull circle everest became the first all-black team to summit mount everest this week. last year, the "pbs newshour" profiled that team while they were training for their climb. you can watch that story to hear about w they prepared physically and mentally. that is at pbs.org/newshour. and that's "pbs news weekend" for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at "pbs news weekend," thanks for spending part of your saturday with us. ♪ >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by -- ♪

and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions -- ♪ gramas madpossible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

akiko vo: it may be their lunch spot or their fishing hole or their soccer field where they visit the king kamehameha statue. for some, though, the present-day site of wailoa state park is shinmachi, which means "new town" in japanese, a thriving business distct of three city blocks on the hilo waterfront where they lived their fondest childhood memories. ramon goya: we used to play football, softball, baseball on the street• june shigemasa: we did get very