i'm lisa desjardins. geoff bennett is away. tonight on "pbs news weekend." trump on the attack. the former president lashes out at president biden and the fbi in his first rally since the mar-a-lago search. then, the battle over birthing access. health advocates sound the alarm over closure of maternity wards and a lack of birth centers. and, on our weekend spotlight, geoff bennett sits down with crooner michael buble. >> there's this magic in the peace of knowing that you can seduce an audience that way or a relationship that way. i think there's a lot of joy in that. lisa: 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. lisa: good evening and welcome. former president donald trump spoke publicly last night for the first time since the fbi seched his florida home in august. campaigning on behalf of republican candidates in battleground pennsylvania, mr. trump used the rally to lash out against the department of justice and federal agents for their lawful search. pres. trump: the shameful raid and break-in of my home, mar-a-lago, was a travesty of justice. the fbi and the justice department have become vicious monsterscontro by radical left scoundrels, lawyers, and the media, who tell them what to do -- you people right there -- and when to do it.

lisa: mr. trump's handling of sensitive documents and government property is part of an ongoing criminal investigation. the doj says it discovered more than 100 classified documents in the search at mar-a-lago, as well as more than 40 empty folders labeled "classified" and 10,000 government documents with no labeling. the former president has not been charged with any crime. federal and local officials in jackson, mississippi, say it's still too early to tell when the capital city's water will be safe to drink again. most jackson residents now have water pressure, but the city still does not have drinkable water, going on nearly a week now. at times, lines for bottled water have stretched for blocks, if not miles. jackson's mayor made clear today that the city's water infrastructure woes go beyond the recent heavy rains and floods. >> as i have always warned, you know, even when the pressure's restored, even when we're not under a boil water notice, it's

not a matter of if the systems will fail, but when the systems will fail. lisa: the city of roughly 150,000 has been under a boil-water advisory since july 30. after a pair of launch attempts were called off, nasa's artemis i moon mission will now press pause for several weeks, if not longer. both launches this week had to be scrubbed due to technical concerns. nasa officials said yesterday that a longer delay, likely into late september or october, will give them a better chance to fix the problems. and, in movie theaters, the holiday weekend has been a good one for a change. 8.1 million moviegoers went to the theaters yesterday, a record for this year, accorng to industry estimates. that's thanks in part to national cinema day and discounted $3 ticket prices. there is, of course, still time to catch a movie this weekend, but be ready to pay full price. still to come on "pbs news weekend," the overlooked crisis in giving

birth in america. and, geoff bennett's one-on-one with canadian superstar singer, michael buble. ♪ >> this is "pbs news weekend." lisa: this labor day comes after some of the most tumultuous years in the history of the american worker, a pandemic roller coaster of historically high unemployment and now quite low unemployment numbers. tonight, we look at what that means for workers themselves. we invited some of you, over twitter, to tell us if you feel secure in your jobs. in the answers, we saw stress and exhaustion. people who say they are struggling, like this woman who said she is seeking to retire soon after years under pressure, or this one, who said she is carrying more burden than she expected to at this age.

but others told us they are enjoying working from home and finding satisfying opportunities. to talk about this complicated moment, i'm joined by maximillian alvaraz of the real news network and host ofhe working people podcast, and tsedel neely, professor at the harvard business school. focusing on the workers themselves, here are two powerful tweets we recved. "covid relief has ended. the school iunderstaffed and overwhelmed. the stress is unbearable." " i am re satisfied. i get to play an experiment." you want to talk about the good and the bad. which kinds of workers are struggling the most right now? >> well, you know, it's hard to say who is struggling the most, but i think what i want to underscore for people is that people are struggling across different industries, from many of the same problems, as you mentioned that tweet.

chronic and deliberate understaffing is probably the most common complaint that i hear from workers in retail and service, from education workers. we are starting a new school year. we have been hemorrhaging teachers because we have been underpaying, under resourcing them, vilifying them relentlessly in the media. it's also happening in health care. health care has been hemorrhaging staff after 25 years of the pandemic -- 2.5 years of the pandemic. and we have no real plan to replace all these lost workers. lisa: hearing that, about understaffing, stress on workers across the board, where do we see workers finding more satisfaction, more flexibility? i know tt's something you study. >> you know, one of the biggest things that came out of the global pandemic is remote work. remote work revolution, as we've seen, is the grandest experiment, where people have had the capability to work from home. and, more recently, hybrid work

has been introduced more and more in companies, where people have both in person and remote experiences. that has increased job satisfaction in extraordinary ways, increased productivity, increased the ability for people to have work-life integration in ways that we have never seen in this country since the 1950's. lisa: we did get a tweet about that. "i've seen hiring policies change, people to work complete the remotely, more flux ability -- flexibility." something else we noticed and i would like both of you toay attention to is talking about ionization. herere two more personal stories revolving around that. first, we had a heating and air conditioning tech write us, since we joined the union, pay

has almost doubled, and i will finally have a little more room to breathe, they wrote. the other, "i work for a major railroad and we are about to strike. we work to the point of exhaustion." unions had been losing workers for decades. this speaks to the exhaustion factor. what is the moment right now for labor unions? >> it's a pivotal moment. we have a tight labor market, the likes of which we may never see again in this century. the boomers are retiring out. a lot of people died or got sick and debilitated from covid. also, as mtioned, a lot of industries have been slashing their workforce. we have been hearing this "no one wants to work" narrative. but if you hear the workers' side of it, you hear workers at chipotle, starbucks, or on class one freight railroads screaming, we don't have enough people, we

can't even hire and retain people because we are being treated so poorly. a lot of the country probably doesn't realize we are closer right now to a national rail shut down on the freight railroads th we have been in my lifetime -- than we have been in my lifetime. because workers have been run into the ground and the profit maximizing, cost-cutting decisions from corporate ceos has rued the supply chain and turned what was once a good job into a miserable experience. it's a real crisis. lisa: tsedel, we've been talking about something that spans different kinds of work, different stresses and different kinds of satisfaction. you've noticed some gaps in gender and generation that's happening right now with workers. can you talk about that? >> absolutely. it's kind of a moment in time where there's fierce divide between employers and employees, particularly around the return to office. those who are leaders of companies often times people of a certain age, have a perception

of what the best way of work is. and often times, they prefer the butts in seats, command-and-control. on the other hand, employees who are digital natives, who are much more savvy, who can go between the in person and the digital, prefer that disproportionately. and so this gap is massive. and i actually don't know how it's going to get resolved unless there's some kind of compromise, particularly from the sides of leaders. because we've been through the biggest lesson of our lifetimes. well-being is another thing that people are thinking about and caring about a lot, a lot of well-being issues. lisa: i want to ask both of you, as we wrap this up, what do you think is most misunderstood about workers in america, any kind of workers? tsedel, let's start with you. >> they want autonomy. they want control in their lives. they want to be able to contribute and produce for their

organizations in a way that also works for them, from a physical standpoint, from a mental standpoint, from a family standpoint. the kind of discontent that we are seeing with the push for return to office is because there's this loss of control, loss of autonomy, loss of integration in their lives that they so want to maintain. lisa: maximillian? >> i think that the covid-19 pandemic servers arched -- supercharged workers' underst n nding of their own worth, because for a brief moment, this system was forced to admit how much it needs us. we are essential. i think that has had a lot to do with the growing labor movement in this country, from the unionization wave to the strikes we've been seeing to record numbers of people quitting their jobs. the backlash has been just as fierce. the bosses do not like this worker militancy and they want to put all of us back into our

place. i think you are seeing a real struggle between working people and a system that admits that it values our labor as essential, but not our lives. and working people are pushing back against that and saying we are worth more, and we are going to fight for it. lisa: maximillian and tsedel. thank you to you both. >> thank you. ♪ lisa: the battle over access to reproductive health care in this country is largely focused on abortion. but often overlooked is a dire problem over where to give birth. in short, in many parts of the country, there are fewer places to do it. maternity wards, or obstetric units, have closed in many states this year, including new

hampshire, new york, delaware, florida, mississippi, texas, wyoming, and more. at least 7 million women of childbearing age live in so-called maternity care deserts -- here in red, those are counties with no obstetrics unit. and no birth center, places where midwives independently oversee delivery. earlier this weekend, i spoke with two experts on this issue, alecia mcgregor of harvard university, and aubre tompkins, the president of the american association of birth centers. thank you both for joining me. alecia, let me start with you. what is happening right now with the number of facilities that deliver babies in this country and how significant is it? alecia: without a doubt, our system of obstetric care in the country is in a crisis. when you look at the number of maternity wards that have closed between 2006 and 2020, they're in excess of 400 across the country. some states have higher rates

than others. so places like pennsylvania, north dakota, we see very high rate the hospitals that are most deeply impacted by maternity ward closures tend to be those hospitals that are known as black-serving hospitals or latino-serving hospitals. so they have a greater share of black and latino patients than other hospitals. in fact, hospital care tends to be relatively segregated even to this day, and that remains the case for at the hour of childbirth as well. lisa: aubre, what about the support on the state level in some of these more red states? what does that look like with birth centers? is there that support or is it not there? aubre: so we as a country have the worst outcomes of any developed nation. currently, you know, alabama and louisiana are significantly low on the list. unfortunately, a lot of state government agencies like health

departments do not understand birth centers, are being educated and informed about birth centers from the wrong avenues, from physicians and hospital systems that don't really understand birth centers. so they're working to put up obstacles and blocks to them. so we need to have a lot of grassroots movement and education on the benefits of the birth center model and the midwifery model of care to improve these outcomes. lisa: i want to ask you both, how does the post-roe world affect all of this, this area? aubre: one of the things that's important to remember in a post-roe world is that, in this country, if you are a black, brown, indigenous, or person of color and you become pregnant, you honestly and truly have to contemplate that you could die. in our country, we have the worst maternal mortality outcomes of any nation, developed nation, and particularly for black birthing people. so you have the honest and true specter of death related to

pregnancy. we have taken away the ability to decide whether or not to be pregnant, and we are also creating maternity health care deserts. so this is a crisis in our country that we need to address. alecia: we know from our interviews with women and birthing people in two urban areas in the united states where we've done this research, that people have lost faith in the system of hospital care that we have. they don't feel safe in the clinical encounter, especially at such a vulnerable time in life as that of childbirth. and so the movement to start birth centers, there is a movement to start one in boston. there are a couple in washington, d.c. i'm hugely inspired by this movement for more community based models of care. i'm inspired by the women and birthing people who want to sort

of take this process, this natul process, and put it in their own hands, because there's -- there has to be -- there has to be another way. until we deeply reform the system that we have. lisa: such an important topic. alecia macgregor and aubre tompkins, thank you both very much. ♪ lisa: time now for our weekend spotlight. throughout his 20-year career, michael buble's name has been synonymous with universal standards, the kind of music that seems to transcend generations. geoff bennett spoke with him earlier this week to learn about the mind behind the voice. geoff: in a modern musical era where crooners are few and far between, michael buble occupies a lane all his own,

reinterpreting timeless jazz and big-band classics alongside his own contemporary pop songs. buble is out with his 11th full-length album, which includes a duet with willie nelson and a record with sir paul mccartney. buble is currently back on the road. his new tour just wrapped up in a u.k. and is now taking him across the u.s. i spoke with michael buble this past week, ahead of his show in washington, d.c. michael: ♪ i might be falling for you i don't know ♪ geoff: what's it like when you stand on the stage and you are responsible for captivating 20,000 people by the sheer force of your profound -- personality and performance? michael: there's an alter ego kind of way. it's a way of having self protection. in another way, i think that there's this magic in becoming this superhero that you always wanted to be. there's this magic in the piece -- peace of knowing that you can

seduce an audience that way or a relationship that way. i think there's a lot of joy in that. e truth is, it became, in my early 20's, it was a lot scarier. and now, as i'm in my 40's, i've been out here for 25 years, it's st joy. often within the moment, i'm going, wow, i can't believe this is my life, i get to do this. ♪ because ♪ geoff: you've always been really intentional about the songs you choose to interpret. what informs the choices you make? michael: love. listen, if i don't love, love, love it, if it is something that doesn't completely fill me, there's no way i will do it. and i know that i'm going to have to dthis for the rest of my life, and if i'm lucky enough to do this till i'm an old man,

if people don't kick me off the stage and say, buble, you are done, you shouldn't be out there, then i need to actually love and be in the moment of every song. tonight, it's weird. my shows will be -- obviously, i'm really lucky, i wre a bunch of hit songs, so i have a bunch of originals that people know. . i'm blessed to have new hits. i try not to be too self-indulgent about that. i don't want to do all new stuff or all old stuff. i tried to keep a really good balance. it's the hits. if you come, i want you to walk away and go, oh, man, he did everything we wanted him to do. he didn't leave out "feeling good." he sang, "i haven't met you yet." but every song has to be loved. geoff: could do it with willie nelson -- the duet with willie nelson. michael: it's crazy. he's one of my heroes. geoff: there are so few musical heroes left, unfortunately. michael: a country guy?

for me, one of the great records of my life was "stardust," where he was covering all these incredible songs. i think it was one of the greate things in my life, getting to work with him and meet, not just him, but getting to know his wife, who is an incredible, wonderful, kind, real, funny, amazing woman. there was so much about this record that was a real massive joy for me. there was a lot of pinch myself, working with sir willie nelson, working with sir paul mccartney. geoff: listening to this latest album, i was paying close attention to your technique, because the contemporary stuff sounds complete different than when using the classics. how do you do it? how do you place your voice? what informs your approach? michael: i think my love of music. i think it's easy to study something when you love it

understand the logistics of singingt hat -- singing that way. how to sing differently when i sing stylistically -- i mean, weirdly, i could walk you through it. i think it's boring. geoff: i think it's fascinating. michael: you? geoff: yeah. michael: it's hard for me to do it without singing. dean martin would kind of, you know, get real low. very similar to elvis presley. you have a fast by grotto -- fast vibrato. elvis and dean were almost the same. with elvis, you have, ♪ wise men say, ♪ and he would do this quick by grotto -- quick vibrato. and dean would do, ♪ only fools rush in ♪ ♪ sinatra sings on the vowels, oohs and eees, ♪ but i can't

hepl -- help falling ♪ ♪ and he does the weird e's. the soul music. all theeople i love from donny hathaway to sam cooke. there's all of these little -- tiny, little changes. geoff: all the nuances. michael: and i basically have stolen as much as i possibly could from my heroes, as much as i could. and years ago, i had met tony bennett. we were doing a record for the first time together. and i said, mr. bennett, i have just stolen so much from you and frank and dean d bobby and ella and all these people. and he smiled and he honey said, well, -- he said, well, kid, when you steal from one, you are just a thief, buwhen you steal

from everyone, you can call it research. i thought that was great. everyone is paying tricky to someone else. i don't care if it's zeppelin -- is paying tribu to someone else. i don't care if it's zeppelin to elvis. you can trace the steps to who has turned on who. how they make it theirs. thank you so much. i had a great time wh you. ♪ lisa: it makes you kind of want to sing, but i won't. that's "pbs news weekend" for tonight. on monday on the "pbs newshour," how california's decision to ban gas-powered cars in favor of electric vehicles could ripple across the u.s. i'm lisa desjardins. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at "pbs news weekend," thanks for spending

this part of your sunday with us and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪

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