♪ >> tonight on pbs news weekend, investigative journalists unravel the story of african migrants whose search for a better life ended their lives. >> they came from countries in west africa where there is not just poverty and lack of opportunities for young men but there is also conflict, political instability and they simply wanted her lives. >> what can be done to curb sexually-transmitted infections in the united states, especially those passed along to newborns. the first federally refunded

change in location of a community because of climate change. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by. >> consumer cellular provides wireless service that helps people communicatend connect. visit consumer cellular.tv. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour.

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> good. i'm john yang. control of the north african nation of sudan appears to be up for grabs. the sudanese military and a powerful paramilitary force led by rival generals engaged in fierce fighting including in the capital city of khartoum. a doctors group says at least 25 people are dead and nearly 200 injured. people sheltering from the fighti say they saw gunfire in the streets and heard fighter jets overhead. houses were left in ruins from shelling. the paramilitary force claims it has seized the presidential palace in the airport. antony blinken called for an end

to the violence. >> it's a fragile situation. this is a real opportunity for the civian led transition. >> in december, sudanese political pties agreed to move toward democracy after an october 2021 military coup. in japan, an explosion just feet from the prime minister disrupted a campaign event. police tackled a man who officials said hadow a suspicious object. the prime minister was whisked away unharmed. it was reminiscent of the assassination of prime minister shinzo abe nine months ago at a similar event. president emmanuel macron signed into law the controversial pension measure that gradually increases the age of retirement from 62 to 64 starting in september. the changes followed months of sometimes violent protests that injured hundreds of people. the government says the reforms

are necessary to keep the pension system afloat amid an aging population. labor unions are calling for a mass protest on may 1, international workers day. families oboston marathon bombing victims laid wreaths at the spot near the finish line where the explosion killed three people and injured hundreds of others 10 years ago today. still to come on pbs news weekend, a look at the troubling spike in sexually-transmitted infections and a native tribe locates to escape -- relocates toscape rising sea level. >> this is pbs news weekend. >> last year more than 2000 migrts died while attempting to reach europe by crossing the mediterranean sea.

we are learning about a longer and more dangerous route across the atlantic. a new associated press investigation has uncovered the deadly journey many african migrants are taking. those on board were in search of a better life in europe never made it. journalists spent nearly two years unraveling the story of the boat and the lives of people in it. thanks for joining us. tell us what they were leaving. >> as far as we know, they are all men. we were able to identify 33 of the 43 people who boarded this boat and they ca from countries in west africa, mauritania, senegal where there is not just poverty and lack of

opportunities for young men but there is also political instability, conflict, the effects of climate change on their livelihoods. situation is only getting worse and they simply wanted better lives. >> this story began about two years ago when a boat washed up in tobago. >> when it first appeared, it made the local news and the police found out quickly that the boat was from mauritania. apart from that they didn't have any inrmation on the people who had boarded it, why they had died, who they were and why this boat was found drifting. we saw this news and we noticed how similar it was to the boats being used by migrants to reach the canary islands. these islands off the coast of northwest africa that are used as a stepping stone to reach europe. we immediately thought this

might be a case of a group of migrants and potentially refugees who were trying to reach europe and got lost in the lantic and their boat ended up on the other side. >> how were you able to find out who these people were? you name 33 of them. how were you able to trace them back? >> that was a long process. we went to where we believed they were trying to reach, the canary islands and then we gathered evidence there. we were able to get phone numbers that were retrieved from some cards of cell phones were in the boat and that's how we began to basically call every number and cate a list and try to find out more. >> from calling those numbers, we basically found who the owner

of the phone was and that he had gone missing after boarding a boat in mauritania with a lot of other young men from his region and neighboring countries from mollie and senegal. -- mali and senegal. we went to tobago, looked at the evidence, sent it back to their families who were able to recognize some clothing and ultimately we managed to do a dna test confirmation for one family and now the red cross after our investigation has gone to collect more dna samples to see if there are more matches that can be made with the remaining bodies. >> in some cases i imagine you were delivering the first news these families were having of their loved ones. >> as journalists when we do

these kind of stories, we are not usually the ones that have get that information. what happened was especially in mauritania when we were meeting the families, they really didn't know anything about what happened to their loved ones. they just knew when they left and that's it. we were in a very difficult position to have to share with them what we knew, that most likely the relatives were on the others of the atlantic and that there were no survivors. >> on the others of the atlantic they were trying to get to the canary islands, they ended up thousands of miles away in the caribbean. is this an isolated incidernt tharote >> there are others liks and in most of the cases the victims are rarely identified. basically what happens is because of the winds in the

atlantic, especially the tradewinds, if you miss your target they are on very overcrowded boats often that are not being navigated appropriately, they are not meant for such voyages, the engines are underpowered. if you miss your target, you end up in the middle of the ocean and theinds are against you. they push you to the other side of the atlantic. >> it's a fascinating and very sad tale. thank you very much. new numbers from the cdc show a surge of sexually-transmitted infections in the united states with no signs of slowing. in 2021 there were 2.5 one million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis.

the most significant rise was in syphilis and congenital syphilis. from 2020 to 2021, cases of each went up %. >> over the past decade there has been an eightfold increase in the cases of congenital syphilis in the united states. the numbers in 2012 were at historic lows thanks to robust contract pricing -- contact tracing. syphilis in babies is much more serious than in adults, carrying the risk of stillbirth and long-term health problems. dr. irene stafford works at ut health houston. let's talk about why sti's in general are on the rise. >> thank you for having me.

th rise in sti's in this country is multifactorial. part of it is incsistent screening patterns, especially with people in special risk groups. unfortunately our emphasis should be placed on offering and encouraging routine screening for sti in every health encounter. sexual health in general really seems to be underemphasized due to a lack of screening and other significant issues such as access to care, funding, lack of available clinics. all of this contributes to the rising rates. >> how about connital syphilis in particular? is that part of the overall increase? >> there has been over 30% increase in all cases of syphilis infection. particularly perinatal syphilis where a mother can pass it to

her baby. we have seen over 30% increase in cases inhe last several years. >> things were going so well. how did things go so wrong? >> i believe partially we are not being vigilant about screening and treating pregnant women. unfortunately 30% of women don't have access to care. on top of that there has been a certain percentagehat have actually been screened for syphilis but did not get timely treatment. lastly there h been a surge in cases where women have converted andecome infected with syphilis during the third trimester. >> what are the symptoms and the consequences of not treating syphilis? >> unfortunately the infection itself during pregnancy carries a 30% to 40%. at a loss rate.

if the baby survives, sadly it will be in the neonatal intensive care unit for over a week, and some cases longer. the baby can have blood, liver and bone problems. when the infection itself affects the central nervous system or the brain of the newborn, that can lead to neurosyphilis which is quite detrimental and hard on a newborn baby and the family of course. >> you are seeing these patients every day. once somebody comes in for treatment, what does that look like? >> the responsibility of most health providers is actually to counsel the patient and talk to her about the need for treatment. often times when it has been there for a long time, that level of infection requires multiple doses of penicillin.

so the counseling component is critical to help patients understand the need for continued surveillance and follow-up so that we can treat her adequately for her stage of infection. >> what about the role of covid-19? we saw lots of resources being reallocated for covid. was congenital syphilis part of that reallocation of resources? >> absolutely. we did everything we could to reduce contact, but unfortunately that sort of alienated a lot of patience. their favorite clinic closed, they didn't know where they could go. those kind of changes in the actual structure of health care clearly impacted sti screening especially for infections like syphilis that can often be asymptomatic. it can be a rash that people think might be eczema so often times they don't bring that to

the physician's attention and definitely not when they are not face-to-face with a physician. >> what can people be doing to protect themselves from getting and transmitting congenital syphilis? >> physicians, providers, everyone out there has to start prioritizing sexual health. this is a call to action. it is time for us to use every resource we can help patients get screened and treated for sti. patients need to self advocate and if they are at the physician's office, go ahead and talk about sexual health with your provider, especially when you're pregnant. use protection. we have seen from the data that people unfortunately are using condoms less and les >> thank you for your time.

>> last year at the biden administration said it would pay to help move five native american tribes from coastlines and rivers where wers are rising due to climate change. megan thompson reports on an earlier relocation effort in louisiana that led to some unexpected complications. >> it's the only place i've ever known as home. this is where my whole life experiences are. >> for all his 58 years, he lived in one place. a sliver of an island on louisiana's gulf coast. he is also tied to this land through his ancestry. he's a member of the choctaw nation. >> we are one with the island and the island is one with us. >> the tribe traces its roots to a native american woman who settled with her french husband

in the early 1800s. children married people from nearby indigenous tribes in the communit group to around 400. over his uncles 90 years, he has seen the island change dramically. >> when i was little, i didn't see any water on the land. everythi was dry all the time. >> it was about five miles wide. today it's only about a quarter-mile wide. sea levels are rising. the land beneath louisiana's coast is sinking. thousands of canals used by oil and gas companies have made it worse and mississippi river levees block sediment from naturally restoring the wetlands. all this as increasingly intense hurricanes pound the coast. >> and we are still here. >> when we first met chris in 2012, his house looked like this. in 2021, hurricane ida ripped

off the corner of the house. the winds destroyed his uncles roof. >>ost about everything. >> flooding and storms drove residents away and the population of the island dwindled to only a few dozen. for tribal leadership, the writing was on the wall. the new chief. >> they came up with a good plan to move a community. >> in the early thousand thousands, tribal leadership begin planning a new community to reunite the scattered tribe h and most importantly 10 to 12 feet above sea level. >> the goal was to bring everyone back together. >> the tribe partnered with the state of louisiana. the federal department of housing and urban development awarded louisiana $48 million for the first federally funded relocation of a community

because of climate change. after six years of planning and construction, families began to move in last year. they're calling the community the new aisle. 34 families have moved insofar. three more are expected to arrive this year. >> this room eventually is going to be a prayer room. >> the reverend was able to choose the layout and paint colors. >> this is the most luxurious house i ever lived in. >> he lives next door to his nephew just like before. for chris, leaving the only home he has known has taken some getting used to. >> i'm grateful that a house was built. it's home because i'm surrounded the people i've known my whole life. but it is still not all the way home.

>> it's absolutely in innovative approach to adapting to climate change. >> pat forbes runs the state office of community development. his office received the money and oversaw the project because the choctaw nation doesn't have federal recognition. >> you have to talk to people on a personal individual level to understand their priorities. >> residents told him they wanted a community center, so one is being finished now. the houses he don't need to be on stilts forbes learned the space underneath homes often functied as a place to gather. >> you will see every single house has a covered outdoor space. >> the houses were also designed to withstand hurricane force winds. >> there is an extra layer of

impermeable covering between the shingles and the roof. >> for some residents who are on disability, these extra features create an unexpeed problem. the value of his new home is higher than his last one, so property taxes and insurance will also be higher. >> how can you put me in a position that requires me to afford more than what i can afford if this is about climate change? >> the long-term success of this whole experience -- experiments depends on people being able to live here for the long term. >> the mark place could help by offsetting the higher costs. but there's no concrete solution yet. though this might look like a success story, the leadership doesn't see it that way.

>> once the funding was issued, the tribe had nothing to do with it. the tribe had no say so. it's like they stole it from us. >> the chief wrote a letter calling for the grant money to be returned, saying the project was no longer for or led by the tribe. >> this was supposed be for the tribe and it was supposed to be keep our heritage, culture all in one spot. >>hat we found when we started interviewing folks on the island was not everybody on the island is part of the tribe. we couldn't say we are going to put all the decision-king authority with the tribe. >> forbes says they couldn't build hold -- homes for people because the federal money was from the federal money was from a disaster assistance program. so only current residence qualified. >> to i wish the tribe would work more closely with us to

bring more people back here who used to live on the island? absolutely. >> the states offering free plots of ld to anyone who left before 2012. 27 families have signed up but the building costs will fall on them. the state offer to sell the tribe a parcel of land, but the chief questions why the tribe should pay after it helped secure the grant that boded in the first place. >> it was supposed to be a model to the rest of the world. >> there are different ways of looking at it negatively. >> chris feels his community has been preserved. the island is mostly deserted, but he was allowed to keep his property, so he visits as often as he can. to his new home, he brought a big tub of the marsh grass that grows in the shallow island.

>> it reminds me of where i come from. >> far from home but still able to thrive. >> now online, this instagram story on the epa's proposal to update emissions regulations for new gas powered vehicles. all that and more on pbs.org/newshour. that is pbs news weekend for this saturday. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. see you tomorrow. >> major funding has been provided by. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no contract wireless plans to help people to more of what they like.

our team can help find a pla that fits you. >> and with the ongoing suppo of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by t corporation for public broadcasting. ♪ >>

[ applause ] >> but every period, every time, has its heroes. every need has a solution, and an answer. some people, the press, magazines sometimes think that the heroes that young people choose lead the way. i tend to think that they happen because they grow out of a need. [ "mr. tambourine man" playing ] this is a young man who grew out of a need. he came here, he came to be as he is and the young people wereing. the ones who wanted to say them,

and they wanted to say them in their own way.