wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. ♪ william: tonight on "pbs news weekend" -- rescue efforts begin in morocco as the death toll from a devastating earthquake surpasses 1000. >> houses collapsed on people. people are suffering here very much. we are in dire need of ambulances. william: then, with gun suicides at an all-time high, we examine what can be done to reverse this sobering trend. and, a look at africa's first-ever climate summit and what it means for the continent's future.

♪ >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. i will let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. have a nice day. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour.

this program was made possible for the corporation by public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. william: good evening. i'm william brangham. john yang is away. it's been more than 120 years since moroccans have suffered an earthquake this strong. the 6.8 magnitude quake has killed more than 1000 people and injured 1200 others, according ptho rise. damage was widespread, from the atlas untains to the old city of marrakech. the quake hit just after 11:00 friday night, sending people scrambling into the streets of marrakech, away from buildings, as fast as their feet could carry them. the city is home to 800,000 people. closer to the quake's epicenter, in the smaller towns and

villages in the high atlas mountains southwest of marrakech, there were pleas for help. >> houses collapsed on people. people are suffering here very much. we are in dire need of ambulances. william: many spent the night outdoors, fearful of aftershocks and unstable buildings, many of which were not made to withstand tremors this strong. in the light of day, the scale of destruction became clearer, especially in those small towns nearest the epicenter, like amizmiz. as stunned moroccans took stock, rescuers would occasionally go silent, listening for any possible survivors in the wreckage. the process of identifying and burying the dead also continued. debris and rubble across many roadways made travel fore difficult. aid workers and others worked to move a massive boulder that shook loose during the quake and blocked a busy thruway. medina of marrakech, the original fortified part of the

city and a unesco world heritage site, sustained extensive damage. >> we were harmed in the old city. we were harmed by the earthquake. everything is by god's will, but we sustained great harm. william: the ancient and famous 12th-century koutoubia mosque, known as the "rooftop of marrakech," was damaged in the quake, but how badly wasn't yet clear. in a sign of the immense scope of the disaster, king mohammed vi ordered moroccan armed forces to mobilize its air and land assets. at the g-20 summit of the world's top economies today in new delhi, india, there were two major announcements. the african union will become a permanent member of the annual summit. and president biden and his allies announced a massive new rail and shipping corridor that will link the middle east and europe to india. it's part of a strong counter to china's global infrastructure

initiative, known as one belt, one road, and a sign of the rising clout of the global south. chinese president xi jinping and russian president vladimir putin notably did not attend the summit. and, a federal appeals court has ruled that the biden administration likely overstepped first amendment protections when it urged social media companies to remove misleading or false content about covid-19 and other issues, like election integrity. the judges said it amounted to coercion. conservative advocates hailed the ruling as a victory for free speech. the biden administration has 10 days to seek a supreme court review of e ruling. still to come on "pbs news weekend" -- what africa's first climate summit could mean for the continent's future. and, a new report sheds light on the environmental and financial costs of invasive species. >> this is pbs news weekend from

weta studios in washington, home of the pbs newshour weeknights on pbs. william: this is suicide prevention and awareness month, and it seems we need both more than ever because last year in this country, over 49,000 people died by suicide. that is an all-time high. we know that firearms are involved in more than half of u.s. suicides. a recent analysis by johns hopkins university found that the gun suicide rate also reached an all-time high, and that for the first time, the rate of suicides by gun were higher among black kids and teens than white ones. for more on this distressing trend, we turn again to dr. emmy betz. she's the director of the university of colorado's firearm injury prevention initiative, and she's also an emergency physician. very good to have you back on the program. before we get into the specific data points, what do you make of this overall trend of increasing

rate of suicides in america? dr. betz: it is certainly not what we were hoping for. we saw a decrease in suicide rates from 2019 to 2020. many of us hoped maybe things were improving. now, we are seeing rates go up again. i think in important take-home note is there's a lot we can be doing, that these deaths are preventable so it is important we not give up hope. william: guns are used in over half of suicides in america. i know you and a lot of researchers have argued we need to talk about that connection between firearms and suicides more overtly. what are the things that people ought to know about that connection? dr. betz: absolutely. i think the first thing to know is it is not that the gun somehow causes the suicide. we know from lots of studies that having a gun in the home for example does not make someone more suicidal. it is that a gun is uniquely lethal. in a suicide attempt, if someone

uses a firearm, unfortunately about 90% of the time, that person -- and call for help or someone to find them and get them to a hospital for treatment. in the emergency department, we rarely see people with firearm suicide attempts because unfortunately, they have died at home. when we think about the connection between firearms and suicide, it is two things. the one that i mentioned, that firearms are so lethal. second, suicide attempt usually occur after a pretty brief period of deliberation. when someone is in a place that feels so dark, they don't see a way out. they may reach for something to try to hurt themselves, to try to kill themselves. if that object is a gun, they are likely to die. we know that things get better. we know there are effective treatments for mental health, mental illness like depression. we know the social stressors we

face, those things often look better the next morning. when we talk about firearms and suicide, it is really about making sure someone in that dark moment cannot reach for a gun. william: the cliche you always hear is if someone is distressed, they will find a way no matter what. it seems like you are arguing,% no, the means by which they -- dr. betz: we know from a lot of research that suicide is not inevitable. if someone is considering suicide, and let's say they cannot get into the gun safe, most of the time, that person just won't find another way. that is sort of a myth. also, even if they did, even if they attempted something else, they are less likely to die because medications, for example, there are antidotes often. or other things we can do to help stabilize people. which is why it's really --

suicide is preventable and there are ways to get people through those dark moments, but if it is a gun they have attempted with, usually there's not a second chance. william: what are some of the proven prevention strategies with regards to firearms that can save lives? dr. betz: when we talk about firearms and suicide, it is often like a designated driver. it is when your friend is perhaps not at their best or perhaps impaired from alcohol, you help them get home safely. same thing. if someone is going through a rough patch, we want to make sure they don't have access to firearms at home. that could mean changing the storage so they can't get into the gun safe. it might mean temporarily moving guns out of the home to store it with a range or retailer, family member, depending on what is legal in your state. a lot of people will say are you just talking about red flag laws and confiscation? that is an option but i see that as the last resort. what we want to be doing first

is engaging firearm owners, their families, and recognizing during tough times, it is not a good idea to have access to a gun. it's about voluntary and temporary changes in access. william: we also know that the suicide rate -- this is by any means -- amongst older adults went up last year. people aged 45 to 64 sign nearly -- saw a nearly 7% increase. i know where you live and work, the mountain, rural west, it is particularly a hotspot, if that is the right term, for firearm suicide. it is often older, white males. do you have a sense why older americans are particularly vulnerable? dr. betz: as a nation,s communities, we need to think about how we look at aging, how we portray aging. i think that is often a very negative view of people being feeble or being dependent on

others and not having value in society anymore. it is so wrong. how do we really help everyone age in a healthy way? meaning staying socially connected, feeling like they have purpose, like they are giving back to their community. feeling like they are connected to their community. as we age, we all develop various physical impairments. that is just a normal part of the process, but we need to make it ok for people to adapt and accept those, but also to reach out for help. i think there's still a lot of stigma, particularly among men about what it means to be a man or that you don't need help and you have to be physically strong and so forth. i think we need to be working to adapt our model of what it means to be an aging person, particularly an aging man in our country. william: dr. emmy betz, so good to see you. thank you so much. dr. betz: thank you. william: if you or someone you

know is struggling with depression or thinking about suicide, you can call 988 to access the national suicide and crisis lifeline or online at 988lifeline.org. africa is responsible for just 2% to 3% of global carbon emissions, but it is the continent most vulnerable to climate change. despite this, african nations receive only 3% of global dollars committed to mitigating and adapting to climate change. this week, leaders held the first africa climate summit in nairobi, kenya, where climate investment ranked high on the agenda. ali rogin has more. ali: to discuss the outcome of the three-day summit, i'm joined by carolyn camacho. she's the east africa development correspondent for "the guardian magazine," and she covered the event. carolyn, thank you so much for joining us. the slogan of the africa climate summit was driving green growth

and finance solutions. here's what the host, kenyan president william ruto, had to say. >> we demand a fair playing ground for our countries to access the investment needed to unlock the potential and translate it into opportunities. ali: the climate crisis has so many dimensions. why did this summit focus on finance? caroline: well, ali, what we're seeing across africa is that many countries are struggling with debt at the moment. so, a number of countries are having to choose between key priorities. i'm talking about education, health versus climate action. and by climate action, i'm talking about even the response to the different disasters we're seeing happening across the continent, whether it's flooding we've seen in western afra, cyclones in southern africa, the prolonged drought that has hit the horn of africa region. so, we're seeing countries having to navigate a very delicate and very tight balance as far as how financing goes.

right now, african countries are having to take on funding at interest rates that, the sense is that it's very high in terms of repayment timelines. there's less flexibility on that front. so, i think that what african countries are trying to push for is something that will leave the countries with breathing room ultimately just to be able to have more financing available to them as they deal with different issues. ali: can you tell us a little bit about the conversation that took place at the summit about the rich natural resources all over the continent of africa? what was the conversation around taking advantage of all those natural resources in terms of furthering an energy transition? caroline: right. one of the things that president william ruto highlighted at the beginning of the summit is that africa, he said, does not have all of its assets on its balance sheet, essentially, that they're not reflected. and, you know, it should that the continent should be

positioning itself in a way to be able to get benefits from some of its natural resources. and so, that was one side of things. the question of what exactly does a just energy transition look like for africa has been different for different countries. let's say that around 16 countries that have those fossil fuel endowments, but the other majority of countries do n. so, there are countries like kenya, ethiopia, that are pursuing the renewable energy pathway quite aggressively. ethiopia, for instance, is like 100% dependent or has 100% renewable energy. and, you know, the sense is how can more countries move towards this? ali: the topic of carbon markets is a big debate right now. the notion of companies and countries being able to purchase carbon credits that allows them to continue emissions while investing in green activities elsewhere.

take us inside that debate as it played out at the summit. caroline: from the leadership side, there's wide support for the scaling up of the carbon markets under the africa carbon markets initiative that was launched at cop 27 last year. t essentially, what we are seeing from the campaigners' side is a sense of opposition to these markets. they see that it will allow for the extraction of africa's resources and also that it's not the right way to go when the world is trying to reduce emissions. that essentially what the carbon market schemes offer up is an imaginary commodity for essentially emissions that we do need to be reducing at this time globally. ali: there were also many protesters, climate campaigners outside the summit. what were their main points of protest? caroline: top of the list were that fossil fuels needs to be an issue that ion the agenda.

there was a hesitance to go in that direction because obviously, if you're talking about building consensus among african countries ahead of big summits like cop 28, that's going to be hard no matter which way you dice it. and one of the main things, i think to avoid huge areas that could only bring more division among african countries rather than build consensus, i actually think that could have informed dropping fossil fuels off of the agenda. as far as the main issues that they highlighted, it was the fossil fuel projects issue, the carbon markets issue and concerns about efforts on renewable energy projects not being addressed. ali: caroline kimeu with "the guardian magazine." thank you so much for your time. caroline: thank you very much, ali. william: invasive species are quite simply invaders often

brought by humans into a new ecosystem where they often push out existing, native species. this week, a new report backed by the u.n. documented that these invaders not only harm those ecosystems globally, but they're also costly. the price tag for the global economy, $423 billion each year. a number of researchers believe that estimate may be just the tip of the iceberg. earlier, i spoke to one of the study's authors, laura meyerson of the university of rhode island. i asked her about the ways invasive species affect us. some obvious, some not so obvious. laura: a lot of the costs associated with invasive alien species have to do with losses. so, for example, a species can come in and cause great damage to agriculture or to forestry, and that is income foregone. there are other damage that happens, for example, to infrastructure. there are many, many species,

for example, the zebra mussel that do great damage to our infrastructure, such as ter intake pipes. and then, there are other costs that are a little less tangible. for example, you know, costs associated with illness, people missing work due to an introduced pathogen. by its nature, the problem of invasive alien species is a global problem because it's one of people moving organisms from one region to another. a good example is the american mink in europe, which is a voracious predator. it's escaped from fur farms there and is causing great damage in the united states. we've had many species brought in, such as the invasive lionfish. we know that that is causing real trouble in fisheries down in the caribbean and around florida, and it's also damaging our coral reefs.

so, the lionfish predates or eats fish that graze on the algae that grow on coral reefs. and without those grazers, the coral reefs become smothered in the algae d they begin to decline and degrade. william: we're talking principally here about species that hitch a ride in some way on humans and we are the ones that move them around. is that right? laura: that's part of the story. there are many hitchhikers and stowaways, but there are also many intentional introductions. so, some species he been introduced because of their perceived benefits. a good example in the southeast of the united states is the introduction of kudzu, and kudzu is known as the "vine that ate the south." and a lot of people that live down there surely know the species. it was introduced for erosion control back in the 1930's by the civilian conservation corps, and it does its job.

but it also escaped and it now grows everywhere, grows on top of trees. it will swallow even cars and houses. sometimes, you'll get an exotic pet and it will be carrying a pathogen or a beautiful plant that you bought at your local nursery. and in the soil of that plant is some kind of worm or a nematode or perhaps even a fungus that will escape and cause harm. william: this all seems to point to one of the key, prevention strategies, which is to try to do a better job of monitoring those stowaways, so to speak. what else can we do to try to stem this issue? laura: well, i think we need greater cooperation. you know, this is a problem of moving species from one country to another. so, you know, we need more cooperation where we're screening before things are transported. so, pre-border control. another really important aspect of this is to engage with the public. citizen science has proved

incredibly important in managing and preventing species invasions. so, people are out there all the time. they've got cell phones. they can use apps like inaturalist or leaf snap to begin to identify those invasive species. so, education is critical, people getting involved to manage invasions, but also being careful about what they buy or what they bring in, what they maybe bring home from a trip. if they found something pretty, a live plant, don't bring it back because there could be an invasive species associated with it. william: are there examples of communities that have done a good job of identifying an invasive species and then doing everything they can to push it back or get rid of it? laura: there really are a lot of really fantastic local examples. for example, here in rhode island, we work really hard to control many of our invasive

species. there is a new introduction of a waterborne plant called hydrilla. it's just been found and we're already taking action to control it. so, there are there are many incidences and examples of where people have been able to control invasions and slow the impacts. william: as i mentioned, that there are some researchers who believe that this estimate, as jaw dropping as that number is, that it could be an underestimate. do you share that concern that we could still just be only getting a slight glimpse of how severe this problem is? laura: i do, i do. we know that there are many, many other impacts out there that we haven't been able to account for. so, for example, how do we put a value on the extra time that people have to spend weeding to remove invasive species? that's impacting small farmers.

it's impacting the production on their farms, so that time is being taken away from them, you know. or another example might be, you know, what is the cost of a species extinction? can we put a price tag on that? when a species is gone from the planet, it's gone forever. and those kinds of costs are not included in that just jaw-dropping estimate. william: all right. william: laura meyerson of the university of rhode island, thank you so much for being here. laura: thank you so much for having me. ♪ william: now online, how keeping a garden can help refugees and immigrants put down roots in their new communities. all that and more is on our website, pbs.org/newshour. and that's our program for tonight. i'm william brangham. for all of my colleagues, thanks so much for joining us. we will see you tomorrow. >> major funding for pbs news

weekend has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. thought i would let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract, that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals a 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.]

♪ ♪ i love you. you're going away. i'm not. goodbye, harry. ♪ ♪ nancy: the poles have bicycles. the germans have tanks. (sighs) i'm very fond of your daughter. stefan: keep kasia safe. promise me. (guns firing, men shouting) tato! you need to get out of europe. that's not gonna happen, auntie nancy. ♪ ♪ i'm looking for your brother. lois: been nicking scrap metal again? am i too soft on him, do you think? that's pacifism for you, dad.