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. >> john: tonight on “pbs news weekend,” controversial return -- elite women's tennis is back in china foror the first time since the disappearance of chinese tennis star peng shuai. then, the lack of regulation of the ink used in the billion dollar tattoo industry, and what it means for the millions of americans getting inked. >> unfortunately, we know very little about what's in the ink in the united states because it isn't regulated. they can use absolutely anything. there's actually no ink that is fda approved for injection into the skin. and i think that's the main

problem. john: and the legal blind spot that results in unexpected big bills for medical emergency transportation. >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by. >> iould let you know that with consumer cellular you get what coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> 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. john: good evening. i'm john yang. tonight, as the make-or-break week for avoiding a government shutdown begins, house republicans are still looking for a way out of their spending stalemate. house speaker kevin mccarthy wants to pass a 45-day spending bill to fund the government beyond next saturday, but hardline republicans are insisting on full-year bills with big cuts. this morning on fox news, one of the hardliners, matt gaetz of florida, blasted the speaker's strategy. rep. gaetz: we knew september 30 was coming all year. and kevin mccarthy has been dilatory.

he's been fiddling like nero as rome burns. >> as we understand it -- as we understand it, they're doing this, this upcoming week. so, we will be watching that. rep.gaetz:ight, because we are making them. they are doing it with a political gun to their head. and you are welcome, america. john: this week, mccarthy will try to pass four of the bill needed to fund the government for a full year as well as a short-term stop gap measure for the rest of the government. french president emmanuel macron is ending his country's military presence in niger, and bringing the ambassador home as a result of july's military coup that deposed niger's democratically elected president. france, the west-african nation's former colonizer, has kept about 1500 troops in niger to combat terrorism in the region, but huge protests have called for the french to leave. macron says all french forces will be out of the country by the end of the year. nasa got a special delivery from space this morning. a capsule about the size of a car tire landed in the utah desert, ending a seven-year, four-billion mile trip to

collect the biggest haul of samples from an asteroid ever collected in space. the material will be analyzed at the johnson space center in houston and, eventually, labs around the world. scientists hope what they find will help unlock the mysteries of the creation of the earth and our solar system. it's the most extraterrestrial material to be brought to earth since the end of the apollo lunar program. and two milestones today for women in sports. at the berlin marathon, ethiopian runner tigist assefa shattered the women's world record by a full two minutes. she covered the 26-mile course in two hours, 11 minutes, and 53 seconds. assefa only started running marathons last year. before that, she was a middle-distance runner. and tonight's u.s. women's national soccer team match against south africa will be megan rapinoe's final game with the team. in her two decades on the national squad, she helped win two world cups and an olympic gold medal.

she still has three more games in the national women's soccer league regular season before fully retiring. after that, rapinoe says she will continue to fight for women's equal rights and equal pay. still to come on “pbs news weekend,” the unexpected high cost of emergency medical transportation. and the story of lydia mendoza, the first queen of tejano music. >> this is "pbs news weekend," from weta studios in washington, home of the "pbs newshour," weeknights on pbs. john: when chinese tennis star peng shuai disappeared from public view after accusing a high-ranking communist party official of sexual assault, the women's tennis association declared it would not hold any more tournaments in china until peng's whereabouts were known and there was a full, uncensored investigation of her allegations. that was two years ago.

there's still no official word about peng, who hasn't been seen since a brief appearance at the 2022 winter olympics. there's been no investigation. but, despite that, on tuesday in beijing, the wta's $8 million china open begins. sophie richardson is the china director at human rights watch. sophie, first i want to talk about peng. what do we know about her current situation? do we know anything? sophie: we know very little. we don't know whether she has removed herself from public view or whether she is being kept out of sight by either sports officials or by agents of the government or the party. john: the wta says they've been in touch with people around her. people who know her well, and they say that she's she's well, she's living with her family in beijing. do we know if any of that's true? sophie: there's no way to verify it independently and really, even if we could, you know, we are talking about an independent adult who should be able to

answer these questions herself directly in order for us to be confident that she really is free, secure, or any of the other characteristics that people are attributing to her. john: i want to read the statement that the world tennis of the women's tennis association released when they said they were going back to china. they said, after 16 months of suspended tennis competition in china and sustained efforts at achieving our original request, the situation has shown no signs of changing. we have concluded we will never fully secure those goals and it will be our players and tournaments who will ultimately be paying an extraordinary price for their sacrifices. what do you make of that? sophie: well, i think the wta gets a lot of credit for having tried to take a principled position in the first place. and then for having been honest about the ways in which it hasn't succeeded. i would amend its statement to be clear that what hasn't changed is the intransigence and the hostility of the chinese

government and communist party, you know, to being transparent to people letting speak their minds freely or to letting serious allegations of sexual assault be investigated by competent authorities. that's what needs to change. john: in a way, does this embolden them? if they just help hold out long enough, they'll get what they want? sophie: i think that's the story of the last 40 years, particularly with the business community as a whole. i think the wta is being honest in saying that it tried and failed a lot of companies and indeed sports organizations and particularly a body, like the international olympic committee, just continue to insist without any evidence that simply doing business there will bring improvements, and i think recent history shows that's not really the case. john: alize cornet of france is one of the few top 100 players

who says she's not going to china because of peng. she said on her instagram post, staying true to my convictions and careful about my health, i decided i will not be playing in china this year. are the players doing enough to support their colleague? sophie: i think in in the immediate aftermath of peng shuai's allegations against gaoli in november 2021, a number of athletes spoke up very movingly and strongly both in her defense, but also concerned about her whereabouts and well being, and it's good to hear some of them follow through on on those concerns. but i think too often they are limited or have to stop and think about whether professional sports associations will in any way penalize them for trying to speak their minds or act on their own principles. and that is unfair and should change too. john: peng is obviously a very high profile individual, so a lot of attention, a lot of people noticed when she sort of

disappeared. but are there people who are less known who, just simply, similar things that are happening to them in china? sophie: the chinese government has a long track record of disappearing people. and whether it's, for example, a journalist named huang xueqin who was just tried on friday after being off the grid for two years, she made her name actually writing about metoo cases in china. or whether you're talking about the, until recently, foreign minister who disappeared off the grid in june. the authorities have no trouble simply depriving people of their liberty. there's no warrant, no arrest, nobody tells your family where you are, and you can't call a lawyer. this is an alarmingly common problem for journalists, activists, and indeed for very senior government officials. john: sophie richardson of human rights watch, thank you very much. sophie: thank you. ♪

john: tattoos in early 20th-century century america were largely limited to sailors and circus performers, but today there is hardly a major celebrity who is not inked. and it's not just the famous. when the pew research center surveyed 8500 americans this summer, 32% said they had at least one tattoo and 22% said they had more than one. by one estimate, tattooing in america is a $1.5 billion industry. but while all 50 states require tattoo artists to have a license, tattoo ink is unregulated in the united states, although the food and drug administration has proposed guideline. we have a surgeon from boston is the former president of the american society for dermatologic surgery. how is tattooing done, and what

are the risks from that process? >> tattooing can be done in a couple of different ways. one, very crudely. you can put anything into the skin with ink and create a little deposit, some color, kind of an image or tattoo. the professionals use a machine that has needles that go in and out of the skin and deposits ink at different depths to give you a more colorful picture. but the risks with tattoo start with infection. since the needle has to penetrate the skin, you could potentially inject some bacteria or virus into the skin and cause a problem. there have been bacterial or viral infections. down the road, what happens with the ink, there can also be problems. some of those inks, people are allergic, and can have a mild or

massive allergic reaction. one of the other issues we have been seeing with a tattoo, particularly with a big tattoo, is they cover a good portion of the skin. so if the patient were to develop melanoma, it is difficult for the patient to see that. there have been cases of tattoos reacting when someone goes for an mri. lastly, there is some question about some of these tattooing leading to cancer down the road. john: in your practice, with the increase of the number of people who have to's, have you seen -- who have tattoos, have you seen an increase of people people coming in with complications? >> we have, but it's probably reflective of the increase of people getting tattoos. overall i don't know if the percentage of people has changed, but we have definitely seen an uptick in the past two

years. john: talk about the ink. as you say, it is not regulated in the united states. the eu, the european union, has banned some ingredients. what we know about what is in the ink in the united states? >> unfortunately, very little because it is not regulated. they can use absolutely anything. there is no ink that is fda approved for injection into the skin, and i think that is the main problem. it would be better if they could standardize it like the eu did, and limit it to a handful. john: the fda has put out proposed guidelines. is that enough? >> i think some set of guidelines should be fine. that should be a working base to start with and then go down the road, but that would be very helpful to help regulate the tattoo industry. john: in this survey we talked about in the introduction, one quarter of people who have a tattoo said they regret it. how is tattoo removal, and how does that work?

and have you seen a lot of people coming in asking for that? >> that is what we see mostly. patients come into regret it. the numbers vary, some day 70%, some say 40%. one only showed 2%. so, the numbers vary. how we remove them is with lasers. we have a lot of different lasers. the newer ones work much better than the older if someone is ones. getting a tattoo removed, make sure they go to a board-certified dermatologist with high-tech lasers. not just a mom-and-pop shop that might have lasers which might cause harm. john: you said earlier you tend to see patients with problems come in, but if it patient were to come in and say to you i am thinking of getting a tattoo, what would be your advice? >> yeah, i guess the same thing i tell my family members. be sure you want the tattoo, and know that there are some complications that can happen with it.

and also know that it is going to hurt a lot more and cost a lot more to remove the tattoo than it is to get it in the first place. john: thomas, thank you very much. >> my pleasure. thank you. ♪ john: in a medical emergency, you want to get to a hospital as quickly as possible. but what happens when the cost of that transportation is hundreds or thousands of dollars, even with insurance? allie rogan has more on how a legal blind spot is creating a dangerous dilemma for families across the country. ali: when congress passed the no surprises act last year, it got rid of most unexpected billing, for out-of-network emergency visits. but the legislation left out a crucial service -- ground ambulance rides. every year, roughly 3 million people ride in ambulances during

medical emergencies. but up to 85% of those transports are out-of-network. that means many americans are being slapped with surprise bills. joining me now is laura santhanam, newshour's digital health reporter. laura, thank you so much for joining us. you spoke to many people who've been affected by this, including one californ mom. tell me about her experience. laura: yeah, so california is one of the worst parts of the country when it comes to out-of-network billing or what we call surprise bills. so there's one new mom who i talked to, you know, had a newborn son, her third child, last september. shortly after he was born, he developed problems breathing. and so the hospital worker said, you need to take an ambulance, get him to a pediatric facility where they can take better care of him. so, you know, it's an emergency situation. seconds matter. they did what the professionals told them to do.

after a few days, he recovered, they went home. everything is sort of clicking into place as far as newborn schedules go. and then a few weeks later, a bill bills start to show up. the ambulance company is saying that she owes $4400 for this ride. that was 23 miles to save her son's life. presumably the insurance company's not, you know, paying for it. the ambulance company and the insurance company aren't talking to each other. she's spending her parental leave when she's recovering and trying to take care of her youngest child getting these companies to talk to each other so that she's not left with thousands of dollars of medical debt. ali: and she ended up having to pay several thousand dollars, is that right? laura: that's right. so ultimately, after again, you know, like months on the phone, the insurance company agreed to pay for half, but that left her on the hook for more than $2000. she's a teacher, she didn't have paid leave. so she ultimately had to cut short her parental leave, go back into the classroom, teach and teach summer school to pay down this debt that she wasn't looking for and had no real chance of anticipating in the first place.

ali: why were ground ambulances not included in the no surprises act? laura: there were a lot of things that the no surprises act tackled, especially thinking about out-of-network billing. but when it came to ground ambulance services, it was just a bridge too far. just in large part because the one universal truth, it seems about to ground ambulances in the u.s. is thatt's a complex system and it took us decades to get here. ali: for patients, there's often no way to calculate how much an ambulance ride costs. why does the price vary so much state to state? laura: right. i mean, you know, so part of the complexity is that, you know, in some places you may have fire departments operating this, in others prite equity firms. and so others hospitals may be running these services. and then you layer on top of that state, local taxes on top of that health insurance status and in and out network and so all of those complications make it to where no reasonable person can anticipate some of these costs. ali: i want to talk about something related here, which is that millions of americans live in what are known as ambulance deserts, in which the closest ambulance that they could call is 25 minutes away. how is this affecting this problem that we're talking about? laura: it's a problem that came

up with this family in california who i talked to. so, you know, they they had insurance, but their insurance did not cover the one ambulance company that was in the county where they lived and where their son was, you know, transported between hospitals. so that's part of the reason why, you know, when you see things like ambulance deserts, it directly implies that, you know, there are fewer choices. and when you have fewer choices, you're forced to make decisions that might not be in your best interest. ali: so in terms of solutions, there are 13 states that have protections against patients being slapped with these emergency ambulance bills, but on the broader level, we have this committee now in place. what sort of protections are they looking into? laura: right. so, they're looking at, what is the frankenstein system of ambulatory care that we have right now and what can be done to fix it? so in several states, they have already ken the initiative to protect consumers from some of

these surprise bills. but how sustainable are those solutions? right now this committee is gathering, you know, all kinds of evidence and testimony and research to try and put together a number of recommendations that they'll then share with lawmakers in congress and state level and local levels of government to try and see what we can do. how receptive policymakers will be to those suggestions, time will tell, but it's it's definitely a problem worth looking at. ali: absolutely. laura santhanam, newshour digital health reporter. thank you so much. laura: thanks for having me. john: to read all of laura's reporting on the high cost of emergency medical transportation, visit our website, pbs.org/newshour. and now for hispanic heritage month, we look back on the life of a mexican-american musician whose music bridged styles and cultures to tell the stories of the working class. it's part of our series, hidden histories.

during her seven-decade singing career, lydia mendoza was known by many nicknames -- the lark of the border, the songstress of the poor, the glory of texas. mendoza was the first queen of tejano music, giving voice to the working-class texans of mexican descent living along the border. from the 1930's to the 1980's, she recorded hundreds of songs on more than 50 solo albums. at public performances, her clothes reflected her cultural roots. her songs evoked generations of heritage. lydia: whether i'm singing a corrido, a waltz, a bolero, a polka, or whatever it is -- when i sing that song, it feels like i'm living that moment, i feel what i am singing. if it's a corrido, i feel it. it's my feeling for every song i sing. john: mendoza kept to the oral tradition of singing what

audiences requested, drawing on her encyclopedic musical memory. in a 1986 interview, renowned tejano composer and music producer salome gutierrez recalled asking mendoza to sing a song her mother had composed decades before. ♪ salome: she told me, "i haven't sung this song in over 20 years, let me see if i remember the verses." but she started singing it without reading. she sang the 28 verses without making a mistake. john: mendoza was born in houston in 1916 to mexican parents who were part of the wave fleeing the revolution. it was a musical family. her mother taught her guitar when she was seven. she later took up the mandolin, the violin, and eventually the iconic 12-string guitar. her family formed a band,

playing on street corners and in restaurants, wherever they could pass the hat. they were playing at a san antonio outdoor market when a tejano broadcaster heard mendoza sing. he put her on his show as a guest. listenerphoned the station demanding an encore. the host made her a regular, paying her $3.50 a week. we felt like millionaires, she recalled years later. while still a teenager, mendoza auditioned for bluebird records, then part of rca-victor. one of the songs she recorded that day, "mal hombre," became a hit on both sides of the border, led to a record contract, and was her signature tune for the rest of her career. ♪ mendoza continued performing into the 1980's, singing in 1977 at president jimmy carter's inauguration. in 1999, a decade after a stroke

ended her performing career, president bill clinton presented her with the national medal of arts. pres. clinton: with the artistry of her voice and the gift of her songs, she bridged the gap between generations and culture. lydia mendoza is a true american pioneer, and she paved the way for a whole new generation of latino performers who today are making all americans sing. ♪ john: and in 2013, six years after she died at 91, she was honored with a postage stamp, a forever stamp, just as her contributions to tejano culture will live on forever. ♪ and that is "pbs news weekend" for this sunday. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks

for joining us. have a good week. >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by. >> consumer cellular, this is sam. how may i help you? this is pocket dial. well, somebody's pocket, thought i'd let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> 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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