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case pushes transgender rights for minors back into the spotlight. >> being transgender is hard enough, and you hear all these things that lawmakers are saying about you. it makes you feel like there is no room for us. geoff: pete hanks acme -- pete hanks seth -- pete hegseth meets with lawmakers on capitol hill in a bid to save his troubled nomination. >> major funding for "the pbs news hour" has been provided by -- >> in 1995, 2 friends set out to make wireless coverage accessible to all. with no long-term contracts, nationwide coverage, and 100% u.s.-customer support, consumer

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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. amna: welcome to "the news hour." president-elect donald trump has nominated a key and controversial ally to assist him in his next term. peter navarro, who service trade advisor to the president during his first term, will return in a similar role. he spent four months in prison earlier this year for defying a subpoena from the house january 6 committee. geoff: mr. trump also named cryptocurrency advocate paul atkins to chair the securities and exchange commission and daniel driscoll, an advisor to vice president-elect jd vance, to serve as secretary of the army. amna: one of the president-elect's most embattled nominees, defense secretary designate pete hegseth met with

leaders today on capitol hill. where does that nomination stand right now? lisa: it is in a precarious spot. our reporter has said this day and the next day are the critical hours in the nomination. a reminder to our viewers that reports and also a police report have brought up a lot of allegations against him, including sexual assault, which was not charged against him previously, and reports including from "the new yorker" and "the new york times," of allegations of mistreatment of women, including accounts of mismanaging two organizations that he ran as well as reports of alcohol-fueled that behavior. hegseth says the accounts are inaccurate. he denies the wrongdoing. his lawyer says the reports are wrong, but today he said he will keep fighting for this

nomination. i want to show you how he is doing it. in "the wall street journal" today, he came out with an op-ed defending his record. he also went on megyn kelly's podcast today and said president-elect trump still supports him. amna: when you talk to your sources, what are the key arguments that senators are looking at, and how impactful are they? lisa: let's start by listening to what hegseth says on megyn kelly's podcast. >> he reiterated the same thing this morning. "i've got your back. it's a fight. they are coming after you." it is our time to stand up and tell the truth and our side, and he knows that, so he supports me. i will not betray what we talked about specifically, but he said he will meet those senators and i've got your back. it means a lot to me. tells you who that guy is. lisa: if 4 republican senators

vote no and all democrats do as well, the nomination is sunk. by my count, there were at least six republican senators who are no or who have grave doubts about him. one everyone is watching is senator joni ernst, a military veteran herself and survivor of sexual assault. this is what she tweeted about pete hegseth. she said we had a frank and thorough conversation. she is not a bomb-thrower, as you know, but that's about the most brutal and neutral statement that you can see. the issues you are hearing most from senators are about his alcohol use and treatment of women. and email from his mother has come up quite a lot. she went on television today to say either she regrets those words and that this is not the same man she wrote about years ago. >> pete is a new person. he is renewed, forgiven,

changed. i think we all are after seven years. i believe he is the man for the job. lisa: that's not a denial of what she saw at the time, but she's talking about him now. also on alcohol, a senator said that hegseth swore he would not drink on the job, but there is in the air, rumors of others up for consideration. amna: as president-elect trump continues to work to build his cabinet, we also have final numbers for the house of representatives. the last race has been called. bring us up to speed. >> that's right. two races have been called recently, one just in the last today. democrats have picked up this seat. adam gray winning that rematch. another in orange county.

california's 45th district. in the end here is what the house will look like next year. 220 republicans and 215 democrats, but a reminder that three of those democrats are leaving to join the trump administration, so all in all, democrats essentially picked up one seat over where they are at this moment. it is going to be another very tight congress. it's going to be difficult and may be one of the most close margins we have seen in recent history. amna: this congress has a lot to get done, including funding the government. what does that stand? lisa: things moving in the direction of short-term funding, which means the trump administration would have to deal with it and quickly.

geoff: the supreme court heard arguments today in a landmark case on transgender rights. the justices are way if a tennessee law barring gender affirming care for minors violates the people protection clause of the u.s. constitution. amna: roughly 300,000 young people identify as transgender in this country, and a decision in this case would have major implications for them, their families, and medical providers. laura: eli givens has been camping outside the supreme court since late last night. >> hi, y'all. it's eli reporting in from the supreme court. laura: givens is urging the conservative-dominated court to protect the rights of transgender youth like themself. >> many kids just like me have

had such a difficult time making it to 18. many of us will not make it to 18. laura: inside the court, justices heard arguments in the most significant trends rights case to ever reach the bench. the question at the heart of today's argument is if a tennessee law banning gender affirming care for transgender people younger than 18 like puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and surgery, violates the equal protection clause under the 14th amendment. the law also allows people to take legal action against medical providers. since 2021, 26 states including tennessee have banned or restricted access to gender affirming health care for minors . a wave of laws enacted by republicans that affect roughly 40% of the nation's trends -- trans youth. >> the only genders recognized by the united states government

are male and female, and they are assigned at birth. >> now after an election in which donald trump and republicans promised to roll back protections for transgender americans, the supreme court is waiting into the issue. the outcome could dramatically alter the lives of people are givens, who in 2022 at the age of 17 underwent gender affirming chest reconstruction, also known as cap surgery. >> for me, it was a very slow process of making sure that this is what i want to do and this is who i am. >> surgeries among transgender youth are very rare and surgery among minors is actually more frequent among non-transgender males, but if givens had waited one more year, they would have been blocked by tennessee's van -- ban. >> surgery saved my life. being a trans youth is hard

enough, but when you have so much pressure from legislative politics and hear all these things lawmakers are saying about you without speaking to you, also refusing to speak to you, it makes you feel like there is no purpose and that you cannot grow older or that you are just going to have to deal with hardship for the rest of your life. >> challengers to tennessee's ban argue it discriminates on the basis of sex and transgender status. >> the problem with tennessee's law here is not that it is a little bit over inclusive or underinclusive but that it is a sweeping categorical ban where the legislature did not even take into account the significant health benefits that can come from providing gender affirming care, including reduced suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. >> conservators point out medical disputes around gender

affirming care in other countries and ask if it is better sent to the states. >> doesn't that make a stronger determination for us to leave those decisions to legislative bodies rather than try to determine them for ourselves? >> the solicitor general representing the biden administration acknowledged that there is some debate, but argued there is a consensus that such care is medically necessary for some minors. >> you say there are benefits from these treatments but there are also harms from allowing these treatments, at least the state says so, including lost fertility, the physical and psychological effects on those who later changed their minds and want to de-transition, which i don't think we can ignore. >> if you are thinking about this from the standpoint of there's no harm in just making them wait until adults, this law is saying we are going to make all adolescents in the state develop the physical secondary sex characteristics consistent

with their gender over their sex assigned at birth even though that might significantly worsen gender dysphoria, increase the risk of suicide, and i think critically, make it much harder to live and be effective in their gender identity as an adult. >> gender affirming care is endorsed by every major u.s. medical association including the american academy of pediatrics. an aclu attorney joined for arguments, the first openly transgender lawyer to present a case before the high court. for the republican-controlled state of tennessee, solicitor general matt rice argued that the ban is based on medical purposes, not a patient's sex. >> just as using morphine to manage pain differs from using it to assist suicide, using hormones and puberty blockers to address physical condition is far different from using it to address psychological distress associated with one is body. >> but liberal justices question

tennessee's premise. >> the whole thing is imbued with sex. it is a dodge to say this is not based on sex, it's based on medical purpose, when the medical purpose is utterly and entirely about sex. >> we don't think it is actually drawing a line based on sex. the only way my friends can point to a sex-based line is to conflate the use of puberty blockers to avoid puberty -- >> my sense is the tennessee law will be upheld primarily by at least five conservative justices on the supreme court. >> supreme court analyst marcia coyle said the justices appeared to take partisan lines during questioning. >> there was said to be among the liberal justices that this is discrimination on the basis of sex and transgender status, but there are only three on the

liberal side of the court. >> conservative groups who wrote amicus briefs in support of tennessee's law claim gender affirming care bands for minors are about protecting children. eagle council for one of those organizations, advancing american freedom, says being transgender is a "ideology." >> in the case of puberty blockers, hormone therapy, surgery that mutilates their bodies, what you have is something where the children are not sick with a physical ailment. this is a mental and psychological issue. but on the other side of the break will and's, what they lose is their ability to procreate. girls may not be able to breast-feed their babies. they may not be able to conceive. a boy he may not be able to

found his own family. >> the leader of the mount sinai center for transgender medicine and in new york says gender affirming care is as medically necessary as other forms of health care. >> our approach for youth is already very conservative with a lowercase c. the guidelines that we follow are quite conservative already. just as you would expect they would be across all of medicine. part of our conservatism in the health care community is that we don't give medicines to anybody under the age of 18 without their parents' consent. >> though it is unclear how justices will ultimately rule in this case, the stakes are higher than ever for transgender youth.

geoff: the days other headline start with what new york police called the brazen targeted killing of a health insurance ceo. the ceo of united health care was shot and killed just before dawn outside a hotel where investors had gathered for a conference. investigators said the mask suspect waited several minutes for thomson's arrival before shooting him and fleeing on a bike. there is no motive yet and no arrests have been made. turning overseas now to south korea, opposition parties move to impeach the president one day after he ordered a brief but chaotic period of martial law. the declaration came without warning late tuesday, which he said was to quash anti-state forces. armed troops encircled the national assembly and lawmakers climbed walls and scuffled with soldiers to get back into the building where they voted unanimously to lift the order.

today, members of opposition parties and their supporters gathered across the capital to demand that he resign. lawmakers spoke of the seriousness of the moment. >> impeaching a president is not really a fun thing to do, not even for a lawmaker, but this person has done something crazy that violates the constitution. he basically committed a coup d'etat. impeachment is not a choice anymore. it is a must. >> impeachment would require 2/3 support. the motion could come to a vote as soon as friday. palestinian officials say at least 21 people were killed in a nighttime israeli strike. a humanitarian zone where thousands of displaced people were seeking refuge. the israeli military said its targets were senior hamas militants who were "involved in terrorist activities."

more deadly strikes earlier in central gaza killed eight people, including four children. the head of nato is urging the alliance to ramp up its defense spending weeks ahead of president elect trump's return to office. mr. trump has threatened not to defend nato members who he says are delinquent in meeting spending charges of 2% of gdp. about 1/3 of the alliance's nations still fall short of that target. the secretary-general said the 2% level may not even be sufficient. >> i believe strongly and i know many allies believe strongly that 2% is simply not enough if we are determined to keep our deterrence at the level it is now. now it is ok we can defend ourselves and nobody should try to attack us, but i want that to stay the same in four or five years. >> secretary of state antony blinken also said of the alliance that it was in his words a time for every ally to lean in, not leaned back.

police in the country of georgia arrested in opposition leader today in an apparent attempt to stamp out political dissent in the days of mass demonstrations. the coalition for change party showed this video of authorities dragging someone into a car after rating offices in the capital city of two billy see -- two billy see -- tblisi. georgians are protesting their largely pro-russian government's decision to suspend negotiations to join the european union. more than 300 protesters have been detained. millions across cuba are without electricity yet again after one of the island's major power plants failed as the sun rose over have banner this morning. the buildings remained dark. it is the third massive blackout just over six weeks, but other smaller outages have been frequent with most caused by fuel shortages as well as cuba's

aging infrastructure. the minister of energy says power should be fully restored by tomorrow. federal reserve chairman jerome powell offered optimism today, saying that the economy is in remarkably good shape. that helped send stocks to record highs across the board. the dow jones industrial average soared more than 300 points to finish about 45,000 for the first time ever. the nasdaq added 1.3% to reach its own record, and the s&p 500 also set an all-time high. it is that time of the year when the streaming service spotify releases its annual top artists and listening trends known as spotify wrap. it has become a bit of a cultural phenomenon. listeners made one thing clear, and that's women dominated the charts. eight of the top streamed albums worldwide were by female artists, and it should come as no surprise that taylor swift snagged the top album spot. in the u.s., the most-streamed

song was "espresso" by sabrina carpenter, and joe rogan once again had the most listen to podcast for the fourth year running. coming up, why president biden is visiting africa in the final weeks of his presidency. and the push to make one of america's most revered symbols the national bird. >> this is "the pbs news hour" from the david m. rubenstein studio and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at the arizona state school of journalism. -- at arizona state university. geoff: the white house said a chinese hacking operation had infiltrated eight american companies and that none had managed to remove these chinese hackers from their systems. nick schifrin has been following this. nick: the white house gave new details on what is believed to

be the largest hack on american telecommunications firms in u.s. history. as you said, chinese hackers infiltrated at least eight communications firms in the united states and over the last one to two years, dozens of tele-communications companies across asia and europe, and the hack was ongoing. the deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology has more. >> the affected companies are all responding. there is a risk of ongoing compromises to communications. until u.s. companies address the cybersecurity gaps, the chinese are likely to maintain their access. nick: intelligence officials were on the hill briefing for 100 senators in a classified hearing about chinese hackers and our lisa desjardins cut up a texas republican john cornyn.

>> the chinese communist party has infiltrated telecommunications systems here in the united states in a dramatic and unprecedented sort of way, and it is a subject of tremendous concern. i'm sure you'll hear more about it because it affects a lot of people. not just in this country, but around the world. >> yesterday a senior fbi official admitted the bureau still did not know how deeply chinese attackers had penetrated even though they had been investigating since spring. it could take years to know the true scope of the hack. geoff:habeen targeted? nick: intelligence officials describe three groups. one, a large number of users whose phone metadata was stolen. two, a small group of individuals whose audio calls and text messages were targeted and successfully intercepted. number three, the portal law enforcement uses for phone

companies and internet providers. a senior official said today a large number of americans fell in the first category but would not provide the number but that it had a regional focus. members of the second group whose calls were intercepted include senior members of the trump and harris campaigns. a former intelligence official described to me that this is so hard because it is sophisticated state actors with limitless budget and time. they are difficult to detect because they entered the network with stolen credentials. if they detect surveillance by americans, they simply stopped moving. they can sit there and take as long as it takes, therefore avoiding detection. geoff: how has china responded? nick: a chinese official told me that the u.s. claims were "disinformation" and told me china combats all kinds of cyber attacks and that the u.s. needs

to stop its own cyber attacks against other countries and refrain from using its own cybersecurity to slam and frame china. u.s. officials use the term surveillance because this is not designed, as far as they can tell, to destroy any critical infrastructure. it is instead designed to conduct espionage to collect information. no signs that any of this is being used online. the only solution was to require companies to meet minimum cybersecurity guidelines. right now, those guidelines are optional for these companies. geoff: thank you for that reporting. appreciate it. nick: thank you. amna: president biden returns

today from the first u.s. presidential trip to angola in more than a decade. americans are playing a game of catch up with the chinese who have spent decades and billions investing, extracting, and some say exploiting developing countries. >> in angola this week, a new u.s. commitment to africa's future, as president biden promised $600 million in funding for a multinational railway project between zambia, the democratic republic of the congo, and angola, all part of the trends africa railway, a key hub for exports. president biden: the united states is all in on africa. the future of the world is here in africa, in angola. >> that investment is small potatoes compared to china, which invested $21.7 billion in the continent in 2023 alone.

>> this railway will not only speed up the economic development of two of the world's most underserved countries but also change local people's lives. >> over the last 20 years, china has become sub-saharan africa's largest bilateral trading partner, accounting for 20% of the region's exports. the main commodities exported are heavy metals, minerals, and fuel. in exchange, china has provided billions in infrastructure investment in the region. in almost 24 years, china has invested over $182 billion in loans to 53 african nations. china's belt and road initiative launched in 2013, $1 trillion plus global infrastructure investment project, has sent over $91 billion into africa, building transportation, energy, and mining infrastructure. at the forum on china africa cooperation in beijing in

september, president xi jinping promised an additional $51 billion to be invested in the continent. >> china is willing to deepen cooperation with africa in the areas of industry and agriculture, infrastructure and trade investment. >> but this comes at a cost. some of the projects built are not economically sustainable, and sub-saharan can african nations -- sub-saharan african nations are now more than $400 billion in debt to china. china has also been accused of bribing officials to secure contracts. amna: to further understand the race for influence in africa, i'm joined by the director of the africa program at the center for strategic and international studies. welcome back. thanks for being here. >> thank. -- thank you. amna: how big a deal is the first presidential trip to an african nation?

>> this signals that the u.s. is committed. in a statement today, new commitment, $600 million invested in the project. remember that for eight years, since president obama left, no u.s. president went to africa. even though president biden hosted the african leaders summit, humane -- he made a lot of promises that are not necessarily translate. the fact that he made an effort to go is so impressive. amna: you saw in that report how dramatically different the level of investment from china is versus what the u.s. has been investing on the continent. how much of biden's visit is fueled by this need or want to try to counter chinese influence, and is the american

effort to little, too late? >> i think it is a little late, but late does not mean never. you can catch up. i think the u.s. spent the last 35 years not really taking africa seriously. they could have really restructured and reframed the world, and that was a missed opportunity. now that you have china that sees is that moment, investing over 170 billion dollars in various projects, china really has planted its flag. amna: how is that going down on the ground? you have visited officials. what are they telling you? >> they were excited about this. when you talk to officials, they are very excited about this project. to them, it shows they mean something. the challenge is the average angle and is not really aware of

this. if you talk to farmers along the railroad, they did not know anything about it. i think the work has been cut out for both angola and the u.s. to try to translate this. amna: we know that this is critical when it comes to u.s. need for minerals we are talking about, the technology future the u.s. is trying to build. plus, these nations are much more than exporters at these minerals. you are talking about a continent that is home to 1.5 billion people. you have superpowers competing to some degree for resources, for parnership and alliance, what could that mean for a country like angola or zambia or kenya? >> for angola, it is about options and choices. african countries on average welcome the competition because it gives them a chance to choose what they want to do and angola is the epitome of this.

however, i think the big challenge for the u.s. will be because the u.s. and china are adversaries, the u.s. cannot afford to do this without cooperating. china controls the minds, so if the u.s. is going to export its product out of congo and zambia, but if the chinese control be minds, they can block them -- if the chinese control the mines, they can block them. you cannot avoid this cooperation. when i was in angola working on this story, i was talking with the board of the angola railroad, and they told me that recently, they had ordered 100 locomotives from china. i said why just china, not america? they said they asked the chinese to put ge engines in those locomotives.

amna: as you know, these investments president biden is making now only make a difference if they are continued by the next administration. president trump has a very different worldview than president biden. do you see investments like this railway corridor being continued? >> that is a question they are all asking. when a couple of things about president trump. this is an opportunity to do that. it will not be easy because china is deeply involved in these countries, but then, too, the question we ask also is when president trump takes over, will he punish china or punish the u.s. for being -- or punish africa for being partners with china? amna: indeed.

great to have you here. thank you. geoff: the federal reserve may cut interest rates for the third straight time what it means later this month as officials way the state of inflation and the broader economy. inflation has been running about the fed's targeted rate recently and other economic indicators have remained strong, leaving some worry that progress on reining in prices is stalled. we are joined now by someone familiar with these challenges. that's very daily, president and ceo of the federal reserve bank of san francisco, who will have a vote in this month's meeting -- that's mary daly. welcome. the fed chair said the strength of the u.s. economy means the central bank can show some restraint when it comes to cutting rates. is that how you see it?

>> there's no sense of urgency, but we do need to continue to carefully calibrate our policy and make sure it is in line with the economy we have today and the one we expect to have going forward. geoff: do you favor a rate cut at the december meeting? >> i'm going to wait until i get to the december meeting and do all the analysis. i talked to a lot of my contacts on the way to the meeting but only in the published data but also getting the real-time data on the ground from people who are doing business, working in the economy, leading their communities, and i'm going to bring that information with all my other colleagues. there's 19 of us. and discuss and debate what the right calibration of policy is to support both the decline in inflation, which we need to have, and to help with the u.s. economy. geoff: how do you interpret the signals you are seeing right now? mary: that's a great question. this is an economy where data looked good but the lived experience of individuals, it is not meeting those data.

i would not characterize lived experience as feeling very good, so we are balancing all of those things. ultimately, what people want is price stability, lower inflation, bringing it fully back to target, and an opportunity to catch up from what inflation took from them when it was so high and wages were not keeping up. there is a lot more work for us to do in balancing policies that we deliver on that price stability 2% inflation and deliver on the expansion it gives people that opportunity to catch up, be made whole, and return to what they really want to do, which is families, communities, careers. geoff: it is an interesting point. we reported on this pretty extensively on the program last night, this distance between strong economic indicators and a portion of americans who say the economy is not working for them. that raises the question, given the delta between the two, you think the mechanism -- do you think the mechanisms for measuring how the economy is affecting americans is adequate?

mary: i think it is, but i think it is often mischaracterized. we only look at the published data, but policymakers at the fed have broadened their lens over 20 years. important, the reserve banks -- there's 12 of us across the country -- most of our jobs are out in the field, so to speak, talking to communities and businesses of all sizes. what i hear from -- what i hear whenever i travel is that inflation is still the number one challenge people are facing. what they are hoping for and what we are trying to accomplish is bringing inflation down, giving them back that 2% price stability, and doing it in a way that supports the economy because they are not done with digging out of the hole that inflation cost, and they just want an opportunity to do that

and go back to the business. geoff: why do you think inflation has been so sticky over recent months after significant progress on that front? mary: it's a great question and everyone is asking. the expectation i had is inflation would be lumpy on the way down and it has been. remember the early part of this year, there were concerns it was even re-accelerating, but if you unpack inflation, you see more services have been secure, coming down, but then they reversed. we have seen the pattern before so i expect they will continue. ultimately, what we do at the fed, what i do with my teams is we look at the fundamentals. what are the fundamental features of the economy that drive inflation? the biggest one is supply and demand. right now, supply and demand need to be in better balance. that's true in the goods market and the labor market, and that ultimately puts downward pressure on inflation.

those are the things you have to look to to project how inflation is. as you know, monetary policy works with legs. if we are only looking at the last three months, we are behind. geoff: many economists think president-elect trump's sweeping policies could kickstart inflation. does the awareness of his plans figure into decision-making of fed officials as you think about how you are going to cut rates moving forward? gary: the first thing to understand about the fed and policymakers is we do not deal in speculation. we deal in facts and data and evidence. the president-elect has not even come into office yet, so it is just right to let him come into office, work with his team, proposed the whole slate of policies hat he has in mind like any incoming administration, and then start to unpack and understand better the impact it will have on the economy. i think out of due respect, it

is just a lot of speculation right now. again, policy is not made on speculation. it is made on actual projections of the economy. geoff: donald trump also frequently -- acknowledge how the pressure came publicly on social media but also privately. what are you that's what concerns you have on the pressure the fed could face in a second term? mary: one of the things that is important whatever pressure you are under is to do your work well. returning to what we have always done, and our goals are the same regardless of what administration is in place, and we have had a history of being pressured, but ultimately, the work we do is important to every

american, and that is what matters. again, restoring price stability has got to be top of our list, and doing that in a way that does not necessarily slow the economy or the labor market -- that is ultimately what americans want, and i feel confident if we do our work well, we will have good relationships with whoever we work with in the public sector. geoff: mary daly, president and ceo of the reserve bank of san francisco, thanks for being with us. mary: thank you. amna: we will be back shortly with a story about an effort to make the bald eagle the national bird. geoff: but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station with a chance to offer support which helps keep programs like this on the air.

amna: for those of you staying with us, we take another look now at a part of southeastern louisiana known for petrochemical production and high rates of cancer. geoff: a recent study documents how the risks may now be falling on the next generation. >> not long ago, tisha could not imagine making memories like this with her son cairo. he was born prematurely, almost two months early, weighing just four pounds. he had to live in this incubator, had a slow heart rate, and sometimes stopped breathing entirely. >> my first time seeing him after birth, i was holding him and he looked so peaceful. i was like, oh, my god, he's so peaceful, and i took a picture, and seconds later, his alarms went off. he had stopped breathing.

of course, just me being new to the experience, it was very overwhelming. >> she asked that we not use her last name for privacy reasons. she has lived in louisiana st. john the baptist parish most of her life. the community sits within an 85-mile stretch of land that is home to some 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical operations. >> growing up, we knew nothing about how this things were affecting us. >> researchers at tulane university found that in louisiana's most polluted areas, pregnant women have 25% higher risk of low birth rates and a 36% higher risk of premature births. prematurity is the leading cause of death among infants in the u.s. black and low-income women in those areas face the highest risks. >> it's a wake-up call in terms of how we think about the consequences of industrial pollution, and what you admit

today affects the health of somebody who is going to be born in six months or nine months, right? it's not decades from now. >> kimberly terrell is a staff scientist at tulane's law clinic and was lead author of the study. >> what was really surprising was the proportion of adverse birth outcomes that could be attributed to pollution exposure in louisiana, so our study suggests that 1/3 of the cases of low birth weight and about half the cases of preterm birth in the state can be linked to pollution exposure. >> the mississippi river commission full of petrochemical plants as well as grain elevators because they are truly the gateway to the world. >> republican state senator eddie lambert chairs the environmental quality committee, which oversees the agency that regulates the chemical industry. i'm sure your agency has seen a

number of studies that link living in these areas to disproportionately high poor health outcomes. >> i do not accept that as a complete truism. there may be some correlations. vaccines, we have had an explosion of vaccines in the last 20, 30 years, now you have autism. is there a connection there? i don't know. there's a lot of people who think they are. >> there's a lot of people who think there are, but there's no good evidence. >> economically depressed, their health, what kind of prude -- what kind of prenatal care they are doing. >> terrel argues those factors were accounted for in her study and were not exclusive. >> they are compounding. it does not make sense to say we are going to ignore pollution and focus on poverty or health

care access. if we know pollution is a risk factor -- and we do, we absolutely know that pollution is linked to low birth rate and preterm birth across the board -- why aren't we addressing that? i think the key is that the deq needs to take an unbiased approach to environmental justice analysis. what that means is when a facility wants to build a new plant in a community of color, deq needs to say, what is the existing burden of pollution here? is this community overburdened? >> two years ago, the environmental protection agency open up a civil rights investigation looking at if state regulators in louisiana were allowing oil and gas and petrochemical companies to build and pollute in a way that disproportionately harms black communities. in response, louisiana's then attorney general and now governor sued the epa and the

agency dropped the investigation. the epa declined to comment, citing pending litigation. >> we have to focus on mitigation with climate change. >> in aension parish, another area with concentrated better chemical plants, ashley is counting on a younger generation to enact change. she founded an organization to teach kids about environmental issues. >> that creates another generation of awareness. if we don't start reserving it, industries will be on every piece of clean property they can. >> she says she did not initially connect her baby's poor health with the air she breathed when she was pregnant. >> my son developed with an undeveloped lung and has had really poor asthma his entire life. you have a kid told you cannot take a anymore, when you learn you have from aldehyde in the

air and bends light in the air and all those chemicals have effects on your respiratory system, you get angry. >> back at st. john the baptist parish, tisha says even now she worries about how the air could be harming her son. if you could, would you move far away from here? is that something you have thought about? >> it is something i thought about, but i love here. i don't want to be anywhere else. i want to be home and i want my baby to know home the way i do. what do you do when you need to be home and home is where the problem is? geoff: finally tonight, we take

a closer look at what of america's most revered symbols. despite centuries on the national seal and widespread assumption, the bald eagle has never been officially designated as the u.s. national bird. our john yang has this report on the effort to change that and why it matters. john: along the mississippi or about 80 miles south of minneapolis, a bald eagle flies high above the water searching for prey. this area is home to more than 50 nesting pairs of bald eagles, one of the highest concentrations in the country. it's why tiny waukesha, minnesota, is called the eagle capital of america. >> who could not love that big, massive beak, the yellow feet, the black talons. it's just awe-inspiring. >> the education director at the recently renovated national education center.

15 square feet entirely get -- 15,000 square feet entirely dedicated to this stateless creature. people can learn all about the ego from its size, diet, and habitat to its central place in american history and culture. a trove of the center's eagle memorabilia was donated by a retired real estate investor preston cook. >> i was asking and ornithologist friend of mine from canada what he sees when he sees an eagle. he says, i see an eagle. when an american sees an eagle, we see something a little different. we see the freedom, the liberty, independence, the power. we see all those things in this bird that represents america. >> obsession is probably a good word for what i have done. >> it began with the brass

buttons that adorn his military uniform as a young man. now his collection has more than 40,000 items filling floor to ceiling shelves next door to the center. >> i never tire looking for eagles or watching eagles. i pulled my car over. i'm in are continually. >> around 2010 when he was doing research, he tried to nail down exactly when the eagle became the national u.s. bird and found out that it really was not. research at the national archives confirmed his finding. the second continental congress put the bald eagle on the national seal in 1782, but there had never been at law or executive action designating it as the national bird. so cook drafted legislation to do just that. he took it to minnesota senator amy klobuchar and representative brad offensive, whose district includes the city.

>> it does matter. it gives it a little higher status. >> the senate passed a bill without opposition. it is approved by the lame-duck house and president biden signs it, the eagle jointly rose as america's national flower, the oak the national tree, and the bison, the national mammal. >> the eagle has two wings, left and right, and it has a body middle, so it really represents all of our needs. >> he says it is important to keep educating america about soon-to-be official bird. >> is an opportunity for people to be aware of this bird that still needs its recognition. that's the cool part, that people are able to come here and recognize that this little small town in minnesota has that opportunity to do something major. really, to set the world straight. the bald eagle yes is our nations simple, but it was not

designated as our nation's bird. john: until now. her "pbs news hour," i'm john yang. amna: remember, there's a lot more online including a story about st. louis becoming the latest u.s. city to recommend reparations. geoff: that is "the newshour" for tonight. amna: thank you for joining us. >> major funding for "the pbs news hour" has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of "the news hour" including jim and nancy bildner and the rob and virginia schiller foundation, the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the frontline of

social change worldwide, 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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