john: tonight on "pbs news weekend," what a federal court ruling means for the future of protecting communities of color from pollution in louisiana's cancer alley. then, americans navigate family planning, weighing concerns about finances, childcare and even the planet's future. and how wisconsin is trying to save its fresh-water mussels from drought and warming temperatures.

>> i was no longer picking up a muscle and placing it gently in the water. i was throwing them as fast as i could. ♪ >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the news hour.

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. the united nations is calling for a full invtigation into the death of a young turkish-american protestor in the west bank. witnesses say the protester was shot in the head during a demonstration against expanding israeli settlements. and in gaza, israeli airstrikes are blamed for the deaths of more than a dozen people who were taking shelter in a school and at a refugee camp. israel says it was targeting a hamas command center. outside the combat zone, pauses in fighting in central and southern gaza have allowed aid workers to administer polio vaccines to 354,000 children, more than half of the u.n.'s goal. in ukraine, russian drone attacks are getting dangerously close to the country's capital. ukraine's air force said that across the count overnight it shot down nearly 60 long-range drones.

debris and shrapnel fell onto streets in kyiv, some of it narrowly missing the country's parliament building. president volodymyr zelenskyy is in italy today, meeting with european leaders to shore up support and ask for more aid. both presidential candidates were in crucial swing states today. vice president kamala harris took a break from debate prep in pittsburgh, to talk with voters at small businesses and former president donald trump was in wisconsin, addressing supporters at an airport tarmac rally from behind bullet-proof glass. the cdc -- the candidates' first debate is on tuesday. the cdc says the risk from bird flu remains low despite a new case in missouri. the 14th person infected this year is the first with no known exposure to farm animals that can carry the virus. the patient has revered after being treated with antiviral medications in a hospital. boeing's troubled starliner capsule is back from space without its two test pilots. overnight, the fully automated craft parachuted into the new mexico desert. the capsule

malfunctioned on its way to the international space station and nasa decided it was too risky for astronauts suni williams and butch wilmore to fly it back to earth. they remain on the space station and are to return home next year. the starliner capsule will be transported to the kennedy space center in florida to try to figure out what went wrong. and the united states picked up 15 medals, including 4 golds, at the paralympics in paris today. swimmer jessica long won her 31st paralympic medal with a first place finish in the 100-meter butterfly. fiona howard and rebecca hart both took gold in para-equestrian. and team usa's sitting volleyball team beat china, for their third consecutive gold. still to come on "pbs news weekend," how americans are navigating family planning. and, an effort to save mussels in wisconsin from the effects of months of drought.

>> this is "pbs news weekend," from weta studios in washington, home of the pbs newshour, weeknights on pbs. john: a large number of studies have shown that the burden of air pollution in america is not evenly shared, disproportionately falling on racial minorities, especially blacks. in 2022, the biden administration began investigating whether louisiana's approval of where industrial plants are locatefd disproportionately affected minorities, even unintentionally. but last month, a feral judge said the administration can't do that, and can only investigate regulatory decisions that are intentionally discriminatory. while that ruling is limited to one state, 23 republican governors had already asked the epa to scrap that approach. beverly wright heads the deep south center for environmental justice. this case started in st. john, the baptist parish of louisiana. tell us what that place look

s like and who lives there. beverly: well, it came out of saint john parish but but the site is the same across what is called cancer alley, where we have the third highest cancer rate in the nation, and 85 mile stretch of land between new orleans and baton rouge, with over 156 petrochemical plants and six refineries, over 200 million pounds of pollution. that number is almost comparable to the amount of pollution in the state of texas. all of the research basically shows that it was intentional and we can show places where white community members were actually moved away from areas while black people were left to languish in pollution as they expanded the plants. saint john parish was one of the communities that actually brought administrative regan down and he was able to see what his own eyes smell and feel the stench of these facilities, and then look at the data that showed, for example, a public

school down the road from a, facility called denka that could produce very dangerous chemicals. and that was the one that we were really working to get, not so much shut down, but certainly getting them to reduce the amount of ethylene oxide that they were putting into the air, harming children. john: the judge who handed down this ruling also wrote in his order, that, pollution doesn't discriminate. but then in the separate section, he said, when a decision maker has to consider race, it has indeed participated in racism. in other words, the considering of race, when you're talking about where these plants are cited, that's racism. what do you say to that? beverly: i say that is ridiculous and it's a specious argument that they're trying to use. everything shows that that pollution does discriminate. we can determine almost how long you're going to live by your address, and the addresses of poor people and people of color are such that we live near the most dangerous polluting

facilities. our air is worse. and that's why i felt that we should have taken this further. john: you've been critical of the epa and the justice department here. what do you think they should have done? beverly: i'm not so much critical of epa, critical of the department of justice because i can't imagine epa doing the amount of work that they did on this particular case, sitting down with the state of louisiana, coming to an agreement of how these things would be redress, and then decide not to move forward. and it's really just exciting, what i would call bad behavior all over. it's like a kid getting, oh, i can get away with this. let me spread the word. and so that same bad behavior is happening, across the country where you have these, governors in these departments of environmental quality, making certain that the sighting of these really dangero facilities are always closest to people of color, and that is

happening continuously in our society. john: what's the next step for your group and organization and people who are fighting this? beverly: so, there are a number of ways that it can be attacked. of course we can continue to raise our voices and interact with the government. that's how we've gotten anything that we've gotten done, but there are other ways to deal with it. and i think that the epa actually found another way, and that's called the hon rule, where the hon rule really falls under the clean air act, which basically says that you are supposed to reduce exposure of extremely hazardous chemicals to society in general, so that's still on the table where they still have to follow the rule. but making certain that the rules are followed, that the clean air act has within it some protective measures, and we have to identify what those measures are and push forward in that way to reduce exposure. john: beverly wright of the deep

south center for environmental justice, thank you very much. beverly: thank you. john: last year, the u.s. birthrate hit a record low. but some data suggests that over the past 30 years, the number of adults who want or wish they had children has remained relatively stable. so why aren't they having children or expanding their families? ali rogin explores some of the complexities of today's family planning. ali: over the past few weeks, we've been speaking with americans who say they want to have a child or grow their families about why they are hesitant to do so. their answers were varied and complex, just like the solutions they said would help them change their minds. catherine clark: i always wanted kids. i love kids. but economically, i don't really know of anyone who can swing it anymore. even parents that are working full time, they can't afford childcare. they don't have a village to

help them raise them. cecelia: i'm grateful that we are in, like a stable financial situation. still, it's difficult to raise a child. we don't have any family close by. we have friends who also have kids, so they are also busy taking care of their families. it's difficult. we don't we don't have anyone. trevor: every year that comes out, a new statistic of whether or not we've hit the turning point for climate change. and that's something that i take into consideration when it comes to starting a family, because i don't want to raise a child. b in a world that every year gets closer and closer to becoming uninhabitable. cazoshay: in may of 2017, i was struck by a car that was traveling 48 mph while crossing -- miles-per-hour while crossing the street, and as a result of that, i ended up with several long term disabilities and conditions. and really, through this experience, my son actually became a caregiver to me. our roles were kind of reversed, and so that's not something that i would willingly want to be in another position to do again. would i be able to handle the parent-teacher conrences, the

transportation, making meals, changing diapers? as a disabled person, those are all considerations. erica: pretty much as soon after having my first child, we agreed that we weren't going to try and have a second, with, with all the other uncertainties. and that was heartbreaking. and we really did want to and, and we were kind of hoping that that could be possible, but it just wasn't. we had met with a financial advisor, and he was pretty clear. you're either going to be able to afford childcare or retirement savings like you can't. you're not really going to do both in the next five years just because of the cost. catherine clark: everyone is incredibly stressed out. everyone's incredibly broke. we're all trying to help each other. we are all -- we are all grasping at straws, and i don't know if i want that for my future. trevor: my sister, i know she spends about a quarter of her salary every month on childcare expenses. even with daycare expenses and such like that, i know there's additional things, such as putting extra food on the table and covering medical expenses.

cazoshay marie: there are a lot of things that i think that the government, the society and community can do to, kind of help with some of those concerns that are not just for me as a disabled parent, but i think for anyone who would be considering or hesitant, to expand their family, that would be just offering more support, more community based support, as well as just the resources for the practical knowledge, parenting classes, things of that nature. erica: if universal childcare was an option and we didn't have to worry about that, if universal health care was an option, and, you know, i would have to wonder if i can anticipate, you know, regular maternal care, high quality maternal care while i was pregnant then yeah, we absolutely would have made an effort to expand our family for sure. catherine clark: we need rent subsidies because no one can afford it. we need to be able to get the cost of food and housing under control, because right now they are spiraling out. cecelia: i think we need to have paid leave for all because many families are the sandwich

generation. you have to take care of your parents who are elderly and you have to take care of your kids. people work really hard. it's not that we don't work hard, but it's not enough. ali: for more on this topic, i'm joined by karen guzzo, a family demographer and the director of the carolina population center at the university of north carolina. karen, thank you so much for being here. first of all, tell us about this moment that we're in. is it different than other times in this country's history that we've seen declines in fertility? karen: well, that's a great question. and so what i would say is we've seen fertility fall below what we call replacement vel before, and the united states has come back up, above this or above that sort of mythical two children per women level. what's interesting now, though, is that it's been sustained declines pretty much year after year since the great recession. and so we're startinto think as demographers, maybe the decision making that goes into whether people have children are going to have another one has changed.

ali: what are the factors weighing on people's minds these days? karen: well, people are certainly not being selfish about deciding to have kids. they're actually being really deliberate about having children. and so they're worried about their ability to combine work and family, their ability to provide for their future children, their ability to afford to give sort of a lifestyle that will suggest that their kids have opportunities for success in the future. so they want to be able to afford to buy a house. they want to send their kids to safe and reliable childcare centers and then ultimately safe schools. they want a world in which ty think climate change will not delay their children's chance of success. and so they're giving these these factors a lot of thought, and they're hard to measure in sort of the typical surveys that we used to use and some of the earlier theories, we had to kind of understand fertility. ali: there's been a particularly steep decline in terms of births from people who are much younger. to what do you attribute that ? karen: the research really shows

that for teens and those in their early 20s, traditionally those births have largely been sort of unplanned and unintended. and so these are births that people are able to avoid having, avoiding getting pregnant in their late teens or early 20s, when perhaps they have less stable relationships, when they have fewer economic resources. so this is good. the problem is, is that if people are avoiding having births, at ages and in circumstances where we might think they are not ready to to be parents is to try to understand when they think they will be ready to have kids and make sure that we as a society, have those conditions in place for them. we need to make sure that they reach their later 20s and their 30s and feel like, okay, now i have what it takes to be a good parent, and i have the resources, and life circumstances where i can, you know, go ahead and make those decisions. ali: sometimes we hear of people in the categories labeled as selfish or insinuations that they are selfish. what do you make of those conceptions?

karen: that is really not the case. my research and the research of many others is showing that people have the sort of prerequisites in mind that they want to be able to meet, to make sure that they are able to be good parents and that they are able to provide with their kids need, that they can meet the needs of their relationships and their family and friends. and so they're really being quite considerate about this, being that being a parent is really hard in the united states. and we have declining social mobility. and so people are being very careful about this. if they think they can't give their kids good opportunities and they're willing to say, hold on, i should wait, i'll wait till i have kids and tell them in a better circumstance. ali: lastly, what are some of the other solutions that other countries are trying to put in place to avoid continuously declining birth rates? and is any of it working? karen: well, there are countries that are offering, allowances, cash allowances or tax breaks. those don't seem to be particularly effective. the more effective policies are those that are kind of a package of deals. so having a bust childcare

infrastructure, one that, people can find easily, they can afford it, it is high-quality. that's important. having parental leave, for both mothers and fathers is important. most policies that are the effective are the ones that grow the economy for everybody, but also have a strong social safety net that really make sure that young people, and young families have access to the resources they need, like childcare, like paid leave, but also aren't overburdened by housing costs or student loan costs. ali: dr. karen guzzo at the university of north carolina, thank you so much for joining us. karen: thank you for having me. john: wisconsin is coming back from its worst drought in decades. along with unusually high temperatures, it's affected wildlife in and along the state's rivers. while spring rains ended the drought, recovery in some places has been slow. pbs wisconsin's nathan denzeen tells us about one species that's been hit particularly

hard. >> we reached peak drought severity in september of last year. >> it has been a dry few years for wisconsin. >> i started getting lots of phone calls from people saying there are all these mussels that are stranded and dying, what can we do? >> it has had a significant impact on the species we hardly think about. >> i was no longer picking up mussel and placing it gently in the water. i was throwing them. as fast as i could. >> much of southern wisconsin was in a perpetual drought starting in the winter of 2021 through 2024. >> droughts are very stressful to aquatic organisms, as well. >> the director of the wisconsin river alliance -- >> there is less space for things, animals, plants, insects and every thing else that they need to survive. >> one animal that can be

squeezed out our muscles. --mussels. >> they are mollusks with 2011 the rivers. >> one expert at the department of natural resources -- >> they don't have a brain or eyes. they cannot just figure out where the deeper water is. >> she says there are tens of thousands on the bed of the wisconsin river, including 40 different species. >> they filter as much as 10 gallons of water a day per muss el and when there are hundreds of thousands, they purify the water. >> mussels started to walk up -- wash up on shore banks. >> what i was looking for was actually historic artifacts. the water was so low, i had never seen it like this. >> a retired scientist for the department of natural resources lives near the wisconsin river northwest of madison.

she was also the first person to contact experts and she saw stranded muscles. >> mussels are a huge part of the ecology of the river. i thought, hey, i better ring the alarm. >> a natural question is to a how it affects water levels. >> we had such a drought year, the dam did not have water. >> the dams along the river are not holding back water and cannot release anything more than they receive, meaning they cannot add more water to help ssels at the lower end of the river. alliant energy, who owns the dam, said, "our license requires us to maintain the water level. therefore, we cannot release more water during drought conditions." >> on paper, nobody did anything wrong. everybody was in compliance with the license, applications the entire time, yet, the outcome was tens of thousands, we don't know, to have them on the river.

>> people say that the solution was to throw them back into the river. >> there were thousands saved. people were picking up 100 a day, 300 a day. it was pretty amazing what people were willing to do. >> it was getting to where i was spending three to four hours. i was no longer looking at the artifacts. >> she saved more than 1200 herself. >> multiply that times 300 625 days a year. -- 365 days a year, just those 1200 mussels, you are filtering over three gill -- 3 million gallons of water. >> 2024 has been called the weather whiplash in the state. some parts are still in a drought, but overall, this spring and summer are experiencing an unusually wet season. still, should it dry up again, they will be ready. >> there is a live phone tree rescue system in place. >> they can also contact me anytime.

i can give advice as to what to do. >> until the time comes to walk the shore banks again, experts will be glued to the weather. for pbs news weekend, nathan denzeen. john: we have an update from paris, team usa picked up its 16th med of thea day whenl -- medal update, when the u.s. men's basketball team picked up their third gold medal. and that is pbs news weekend for this saturday. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. see you tomorrow. >> major funding has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, how may i help you? 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 and institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributis to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪

[ 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