♪ john: tonight on "pbs newshour weekend." what divide and expansion of health care means. then, concerns about security and stability in africa as american troops leave chad and niger.

and one ukrainian family lost everything in the russian invasion. now, they're rebuilding their life in america. >> i will always feel this pain for him, because i had normal life and he now, he has like different life. ♪ >> major funding for "pbs newshour weeke" has been provided by -- >> certified planning professionals are proud to support "pbs newshour weekend." >> 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 fr viewers like you. thank you. john: good evening, i'm john yang. almost from the very beginning of the israel-hamas war seven months ago next week, aid groups have been warning that gaza was a humanitarian crisis in the making. and now, cindy mccain, head of the u.n.'s world food program, tells c's "meet the press" the situation has reached a perilous phase. cindy mccain: what i can explain to you is there is full blown famine in the north and it's moving its way south. i just want to be very clear >> because what you're saying is

significant and i believe it's the first time we've heard it. you're saying there is full blown famine in northern gaza? cindy mccain: yes, i am. yes, i am. >> and there has not been an official declaration that there is famine, but you are saying that based on what you've seen? cindy mccain: yes, it is. based on what we've seen and what we've experienced on the grinded, yes. >> which is? cindy mccain: it's horror. it's so hard to look at and it's so hard to hear also. john: in southern gaza today, an israeli airstrike se plumes of smoke into the skies. reports said six people were killed in two different locations. as this was going on, efforts to negotiate a deal between israel and hamas for a hostage release and a truce were said to be intensifying. a hamas delegation arrived in cairo today, but israel has yet to send a team of negotiators. as the college commencement season gets into full swing, tensions on campuses remain high due to anti-war protests. at the university of virginia this afternoon, police arrested

several protesters at a pro-palestinian encampment on campus, saying it was an "unlawful assembly." and at the university of michigan, there was a brief disturbance when protesters waved palestinian flags and chanted anti-war messages. about 50 people took part. today also marked the 54th anniversary of the death of four students at kent state university in ohio during a vietnam war protest last night, . there was a candlelight vigil comemorating the day ohio national guard troops opened fire on protesters. in ukraine, new drone footage reveals the damage russia has inflicted on a village in the eastern donetsk region. no building appears untouched, many looking damaged beyond repair. residents have fled and ukraine's military acknowledges that russia has gained a foothold as troops advance against ukraine's depleted defenses. in kharkiv, to the north, russia stepped attacks overnight. exploding drones set fire to two buildings in an industrial area.

russia has increasingly targeted ukraine's second largest city, only 25 miles from the russian border. and, around houston, more than 400 people have been rescued from their homes after fierce storms left neighborhoods flooded, and officials say more rain forecast for tonight could make the situation even worse. in a 24-hour period, more than 11 inches of rain fell, inundating roads and homes and forcing a number of high-water rescues. authorities urged residents of low-lying areas to evacuate ahead of tonight's rains. still to come on "pbs news weekend," the potential consequences of american troops pulling out of two african nations. and, after fleeing the war, a ukrainian family begins to rebuild in america. ♪ >> this is "pbs newshour weekend" from weta studios in washington. john: late last moh, the biden administration issued new rules

designed to keep prosecutors from getting the medical records of patients seeking legal abortions. the expansion of the 30-year-old health privacy law known as hipaa prohibits the disclosure of health information to state officials conducting a criminal investigation. the idea is to prevent it from being used to prosecute an instance when a pregnant person goes out of state for a legal abortion. the rules are to take effect in late june. carmel shachar heads the health law and policy clinic at harvard university. i think there are a lot of misperceptions. they think the medical information is locked in a vault behind an impenetrable wall. why are the new rules needed? >> i wish hipaa was that kind of lockbox. the truth is it is more like a pasta strainer. it keeps some information protected, but there are a lot of exceptions.

one of the exceptions from the start is if law enforcement goes to youmedical provider and says we need these medical records for an investigation. ever since dobbs undid the constitutional protections for abortion, people are afraid police, law enforcement, in states that have banned abortion will use that exception to get patients' medical records. john: do cities and states collect information about people that have abortion procedures that is not protected? >> yes. a lot of states have had abortion and abortion complication reporting requirements for many years. those reports nominally do not include people's names. get is supposed to be who is providing abortions, the outcomes of abortions. but there are also concerns over prosecution of people seeking abortions.

john: would this also cover someone going online to seek abortion medication from a pharmacy or provider in another state? >> yeah, that is a big concern. dobbs undid roe, but we are not back in 1970 three before there was a constitutional right to abortion. a lot of people are getting abortion care and information over the internet where a patient might be in alabama but the physician is in massachusetts, state that allows abortions. john: are there other loopholes or ways that the rules fall short in your view? do you wish they had gone farther? >> i do wish they had gone farther, although i understand biden administration's concern with how much we can put out there before we are going to open ourselves to legal challenges. one of the issues is telehealth

abortions, as you raised, are those lawful under this rule and protected or are they unlawful because the patient is in a state that has banned abortion? the other concerns are that this rule is focused on reproductive health information, but there is a lot of other health information that is increasingly becoming criminalized such as gender affirming care. this rule does not protect that kind of information it does not protect hiv status as well. i think there is also going to be some challenges because, right now, you have a rule that says records about abortion need to be protected and , if somebody asks you for those records, you have to say no. otherwise, you will get serious penalties under hipaa, which is a big deal for hospitals. but state law is going to say aiding and abetting abortion, and that could mean just talking

about, are you going out of state for a lawful abortion, is a crime we need to get information from you in order to prosecute crimes that are properly put on the books in terms of being an active. and so, i think it will create a real conflict between federal and state law. i think physician and patients are going to be in the middle of it. john: continue on that thought, former president trump spelled out his stand on abortion in an interview in "time" magazine this past week. he said i'm leaving everything up to the states. he was asked specifically about tracking pregnancies. he said they might do that, again, you will have to speak to the individual states. this is an administrative rule. could a new administration come in and wipe out? >> i think this rule is somewhat fragile. the good news is it was passed early enough that congress

cannot simply repeal it under the congressional review act. when there is a change in administration, if there will be a change. as we have seen in other rules in the health care space, most notably around antidiscrimination protections, we saw the obama administration had one rule. the trump administration put out another rule walking at about. and then, the biden administration put out a rule restoring the obama administration's protection. you can see a lot of flip-flopping. i think that is going to be really concerning for patients. we know in the first half of 20, about 92,000 people traveled from an abortion restricted state to a state with legalized abortion to receive that care. we have heard officials like the mississippi attorney general say that the state maybe has an interest in preventing these people, mostly women, from traveling across state borders.

that feels alarming that people's ability to travel would be restricted depending on their pregnancy status. john: thank you very much. >> thank you. ♪ john: the african nations of niger and chad have both been key partners with the united states in combatting terrorist groups in the region. but, as ali rogin tells us, that cooperation is in question now that both countries are ruled by military regimes. >> the american presence gives u.s. troops eyes and boots on the ground in the stronghold for islamist groups like isis and al qaeda. can account for nearly half of all terrorism deaths worldwide. it has been hosting nearly 1000

military personnel and an airbase from which the u.s. launches drone operations. special forces have been stationed in chad's capital and have trained forces in both countries. the majority of forces in niger are on their way out. as u.s. forces withdraw, u.s. adversaries are looking to fill the droid. russia has sent military instructors to niger and vladimir putin hosted chad's leader in moscow this year. peter, thank you for being here. how significant are these departures? >> in particular, the departure and the loss of the two airbases are significant. it took a decade to build these facilities up to train local forces with which we operated and to carry out operations not

just in niger but these bases were useful for operations across a wide part of africa. it is going to be a significant loss and setback. there is no sugar coating it. in time, substitute facilities may be found, but it will take time to build up the capacity and partnerships being lost. >> could this have been avoided? what could the u.s. have done differently? >> i think we could have been more attuned to the fact that the winds of change were sweeping across africa. political elites are widely discredited in these countries just because there's an extra overthrow of a government does not mean what came before was a jeffersonian democracy. quite frankly, our french friends and allies are partners but they have a lot of baggage in the region. there is widespread unrest about them.

there has been some tainting by association. we could have probably managed the situation much better in terms of being attuned to what was happening, the dynamics, and also engagement with the regimes that have emerged. >> what was happening are eight military coups and west and central africa since 2020. why have they swept the region like they have? >> part of it is with what came before, there were elections but they were not necessarily the judgment elections. even where they were democratic elections, these were young democracies where governments were failing. when i was special envoy, i kept repeating the region had a crisis of state legitimacy. the governments were not providing basic goods, services, and protection to their people. people want protection, security. i'm not saying military guys are the solution but they present an easy, credible solution compared with some of the civilian leadership's that came before them. >> what does it say about these

leaders that they have been shunning leaders from the west? >> the one big mistake we make is to try to force them to choose us or the other guy. anyone who knows me knows that i carry very little water for our chinese or russian friends, but they are offering solutions. we tell them us or them very often because they can deliver quickly and immediately that becomes the easy one for the other leaders to opt for. we have to figure a way to maintain our conversations, our strategic objectives while at the same time not betraying our values. it is a tough balancing act. >> in niger, t decision does seem final. troops are leaving. in chad, there are talks going on. who these troops come back to the region? >> i think the chadians raise a

legitimate question in their note. what are our forces doing in chad? it has been several years since we have had direct military to military training and assistance of the normal kind that one stations troops in this country for. one has to do with the nature of the regime in chad and events that have occurred. they are also going through an election right now of turbulence. i think when they get through that, there are frank conversations that had to be had . we will see what comes out of it. hopefully, we do not get pushed out of yet another country in the region, especially a country like chad which is at the fulcrum of not just the region but libya to the north and sudan to the east. it has been several years since congress and t administration have given military assistance or training to the chadians.

part of that is due to the nature of regime transition in the country. at the same time, the chadians have the right to ask, if you e not here to train us, what are you here to do? the answer is to also help our french partners in some counterterrorism operations. it raises a legitimate question from the chadian point of view. we end up associated with a former colonial power that have baggage in the region. >> in terms of countries filling the vacuum, we sought russia has already made its way into niger. what are the consequences of countries like russia and china filling the void that we are leaving? >> in the short-term, they provide what some of these new regimes, military regimes, think is a security blanket. whether what they provide is useful is a direct question. but in the long term, are they capable of providing military assistance, training the u.s. and european friends have provided? are they capable of providing

the economic development assistance the u.s. and our european friends have provided for decades? and the answer seems to be no. in the short-term, they may benefit within the long term the people ofiger, mali, chad, who may pay the price for short-term decisions. >> former ambassador and special envoy for the region and now a distinguished fellow at e atlantic council, thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. ♪ john: since russia invaded ukraine more than two years ago, about 6.5 million ukrainians have left the country including hundreds of thousands who have come to the united states. one of them is a 10-year-old. just days after the war began, he lost part of his arm in a russn bombing that killed his father and brother.

the minnesota group that helps ukrainians with lost limbs brought him to america for a prosthetic arm. today he and his mother are rebuilding their lives in suburban minneapolis. this story comes to us from minnesota public radio news. >> [indiscernible] >> yeah, sure, ok. this is our kitchen. we like it. kerry nice. -- very nice. a table for our big family. a nice deck and big yard. my name is oksana. i leave ukraine, kyiv. >> we became big friendly

family. >> we have each other. it is wonderful. we are very grateful. >> i have really good friends here. everybody is so nice. i don't know why, but i like to draw a rainbow. i like to draw a smile. i am eight. >> nine, almost 10. [laughter] >> he likes his class, teachers. food. [laughter] that is his first -- >> prostatic. -- prostatic. >> yes. >> my son. >> he is a good example for all

of us how he can enjoy life and do everything he wants, even without his arm. it happened february 26. they were scared and they decided to run away from kyiv to save their lives. they thought it would be safer. that was a big mistake. russian soldiers came into her ex-husband's cabin. he saw how he died.

she is very grateful his father put hison's life first than his own. i will always feel this pain for him. it is better that happened to me than him. because i had a normal life, now he has a different life. >> he is quite a character. he is very active, a veractive person. >> [laughter] >> right now, we have 1500 people on our list that want to get prosthetics. in ukrainian, that means prosthetics. that is how we named it.

seeing people with lost limbs due to a stupid war that should never happen. but you put the prosthetic on any peon can start doing things, that makes my day. >> [laughter] >> what game would you like to play? >> heads up, 7-up. [applause] >> he is very confident. he likes the spotlight. he really does like the spotlight. there will be some times when he is sharing and he might just go into the whole thing about how i miss my dad. but if it were not for him, i would not be here right now. >> ok, favorite part of your day? >> gym and soccer. you play soccer. >> you can do that, right?

>> my friend. [children playing] ♪ john: now online, cicada season is in full swing. at the soil in several states reaches 68 degrees in height, billions will emerge to start their adult life in the world above ground. all that and more is on our website. that is "pbs newshour weekend" for this saturday. on sunday, help some students and administrators are diffusing tensions over pro-palestinian protests on campuses. i am john yang. for all of our colleagues, thanks for joining us. see you tomorrow. >> major funding for "pbs newshour weekend" has been provided by -->> consumer

cellular. how may i help you? >> i thought i would let you know that -- >> you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. certified financial planner professionals are proud to support "pbs newshour weekend." the professionals are committed to acting in their clients' best interest. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions toour pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪

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