PBS News Hour - Full Show - July 12, 2025 – PBS News Weekend full episode

Episode Date: July 12, 2025

Saturday on PBS News Weekend, a new analysis reveals FEMA missed major flood risks at Camp Mystic where dozens died in the Texas floods. How NIH funding cuts are raising concerns about research focusing on vulnerable populations. The search for justice in Argentina nearly 50 years after thousands disappeared under a military dictatorship. Plus, Moo Deng the hippo celebrates her first birthday. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Tonight on PBS News Weekend, as the search for the missing from the deadly 4th of July flash floods in Texas begins a second week. A new analysis reveals FEMA missed major flood risks at Camp Mystic, where more than two dozen died. Then the ongoing search for justice in Argentina, nearly 50 years after thousands disappeared under the country's military dictatorship. and adoring fans from around the world converge on Thailand to celebrate the first birthday of a social media sensation named Moudang. She makes me happy. Yeah, I don't know. Whenever I'm, like, stressed at work, I, like, pull up photos of Moudang.

So my whole office knows I'm here and they're like, okay, they let me take OBG golf. Good evening. I'm John Yang. The search for the more than 100 people still missing from the catastrophic 4th of July flash floods in Texas began its second week today. As the death toll has risen to at least 129, officials have rejected suggestions that the calamity could have been anticipated and, if not prevented, at least alleviated. This happened very quickly over a very short amount of time that could not be predicted.

even with the radar. But an analysis by NPR and PBS's front lines suggest otherwise. Laura Sullivan is an NPR investigative correspondent. Laura, what is it that you looked at and what did you find? Well, we found was a significantly higher risk of flooding in this camp and in this area than the federal government has ever reported. We found that a number of the cabins were, had an expectation that if a serious storm came, they were going to be inundated.

And yet FEMA's maps, what Americans depend on, to know whether or not they have a flood risk, we're not showing this risk. And so when we went and looked at a number of maps that are done by private companies, you can see that if a serious storm came, that this place would be underwater, not only in the main camp, but also off into the new camp that they built recently. And some of these are done by private companies like First Street in New York, which was able to show where they expected the water to come. Why the difference? Why did these private companies pick it up and FEMA not?

FEMA does not map rainfall. They are not mapping flash flooding. And they're also not looking forward into what sort of climate predictions might be there coming. FEMA is looking backward. FEMA does not have the mandate from Congress to do this work. And they also, they don't have the funding to do this. So there are wonderful scientists at FEMA that are capable of doing this. They have some of the best data scientists in the world. But they are not mapping this risk the way a lot of the private companies are saying, look, this is a serious problem. The Associated Press had a story out this morning that said that a number of buildings at Camp Mystic had been taken off the list. Because you write in your investigation that there are special interests that can appeal. How does that work? NPR and PBS Friendly, we're

also reporting this. We have the documents that show that this camp pulled these buildings out of the floodplain. They're saying, we don't want to have these in this risky area, so can you just take them out of your map? And FEMA granted this request for multiple buildings back 15 years ago. This is a significant problem because if you are in the floodplain, then you are required if you are in a community that belongs to this program and you have a federally backed mortgage, you are required to build to a flood standard that usually means elevating your house so that you can survive a significant storm like this, a significant flood. that's coming through. And if you're outside the flood maps, you don't have to do that work. And that is why a lot of communities sometimes ask to come out of it, and even private owners like this camp, requested to come out of the floodplain. And we can see the impact that that had.

To be clear, they want to get out of the floodplain on paper, but in reality, they're still in it. Exactly. They're still in this very dangerous area. This is happening not just at Camp Mystic, But across the country, more than two times as many Americans have a flood risk. Millions of Americans that don't even know they have a flood risk. And that's because FEMA's maps have not been updated with this new information. Because you said this is also an issue in North Carolina when Hurricane Helene moved through. Absolutely. When we were in North Carolina covering Helene, 98% of the people that were affected by the storm were not in FEMA's flood maps.

This means that not only if they're not in the flood map, they may not have been required to build in a way that it could have helped them survive the storm, but also they may not have belonged to the National Flood Insurance Program because there wasn't a requirement for them to do so. And so they're out of luck in that way, too, when it comes to rebuilding. What's it take to fix this? Legislation? We found in our reporting that Congress needs to fund this program. They need to fund FEMA to do these maps.

But there's a lot of pushback to having these maps updated. A lot of politicians don't want to be the ones that will increase flood insurance rates for people across the country. But we also found in our reporting that the National Association of Home Builders, Home Developer, Lobby Groups, even sometimes the National Association of Realtors are saying we don't want to see these maps necessarily updated because they want to keep, they say, homes affordable. And now with FEMA in limbo under the Trump administration, changes likely, unlikely? The cuts to FEMA are making it difficult from the insiders we've talked to to do the work that they want to do. But it is also going to undermine the agency's ability to insist on flood map changes and also insist on resilient building.

And there's a lot of feeling at this point that this administration is looking to roll back some of the requirements for how people, people build for a flood. Laura Solomon of NPR, thank you very much. Thanks so much for having me. In the day's other news, President Trump announced 30% tariffs beginning August 1st on imports from the European Union in Mexico. Mexican and European officials have been negotiating with the administration in hopes of avoiding steep tariffs.

This week, the president announced a series of tariffs on U.S. allies and adversaries alike, including Canada and Brazil. So far, months of trade negotiations have resulted in all. only two deals with Great Britain and Vietnam. In Gaza, there's been another incident of Palestinians being killed while trying to get food aid. Palestinian medics say 24 died near Rafa from Israeli gunfire. Israel says it only fired warning shots at people approaching them and was not aware of any casualties. The UN estimates that 800 people have been killed in the last six weeks at U.S.-run food distribution sites.

In addition, Gaza hospital officials said Israeli airstrikes killed. 28 Palestinians. And the State Department said it's aware of reports that Israeli settlers beat to death a U.S. citizen, 20-year-old, Seifala Musilat, on his family's land. Family in Tampa said he was visiting relatives and called on the U.S. government to investigate. Russia pounded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and missiles today, killing at least six people. Russia's been stepping up long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities while also trying to break through Ukrainian defenses along parts of the 620-mile-long front line.

A preliminary report on last month's deadly air India crash says the fuel supply to both engines was cut off shortly after takeoff. On the cockpit voice recorder, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he had turned off the switches. The other responded, that he hadn't. The fuel supply was restored 10 seconds later, but it was too late for the plane to recover. 260 people were killed, 19 of them on the ground. Still to come on PBS News Weekend, how NIH funding cuts are raising concerns about research focusing on vulnerable populations, and the Pygmy Hippo, who became a social media star. This is PBS News Weekend from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington, home of the PBS News Hour, weeknights on PBS. this year, the Trump administration has cut more than $1 billion in NIH grants.

That includes a sickle cell disease study. Sickle cell is a blood disorder that affects roughly 100,000 people in the United States. According to the CDC, 90% of them are black. Ali Rogan sat down with Dr. Charity O Yedegi, a Duke University hematologist. Her $750,000 sickle cell research grant was terminated by the Trump administration. The reason given, DEI. Thank you so much for joining us. First, tell us about sickle cell disease

and about how you were working to help people who live with it. Yeah, so sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder that predominantly affects black people in the United States, but can be in all people of racial or ethnic backgrounds worldwide. It's grounded in genetics, and so it's not necessarily only black people that experience it. And so the work that I was doing was focused on developing the first and valid functional assessment for people with sickle cell disease and the first exercise program tailored to the unique needs of older adults with civil soul disease.

And why was it important to look at exercise programs that specifically are suited to this population? Yeah. So people with sickle cell disease have historically had fears of exercising due to fears of going into pain. So they're often triggered by over-exertion, stress, weather. And so that's the hallmark of sickle cell disease, but it makes it hard for them to be active. And some even fear that these patients can have sudden death. And so they really need a program that's tailored to the unique needs that they experience. And when you found out that the NIH was canceling your grant and that the reason for doing so was DEI, what was your reaction? The language of the letter, the termination notice, was shocking to me because it used words like the research was low return on investment and harmful to Americans.

And I was like, who wrote this? Like, who wrote this? Because this is racist. Like, this is a racist letter to say that, like, as if my patients are not Americans or as if studying people with sickle cell disease or, you know, even doing equity research is low return. But improving the health of minority populations and people with sickle cell disease. It's the opposite. It's higher return. It improves the health of Americans. It can prolong life. And I'm doing the opposite of what this termination notice was even saying. What message does this send to other researchers who want to get into this line of research?

The first message to researchers is that, you know, it doesn't matter if your work is grounded in evidence. It doesn't matter if you're doing life-changing, groundbreaking, innovative research that it can get discarded without cause. It tells researchers that focusing on vulnerable. populations and underserved populations is not worth the time because they're going to just take your money, you know, and so it really sends the message that maybe people should focus on other areas, like focusing on only white men, right? You know, and so it really makes people scared to study the most vulnerable populations in the world. We asked HHS about your project in particular and why funding was cut. Here's what HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told us.

In a statement, your study has value, but that it was, quote, funded under an ideologically driven DEI program under the Biden administration and that future projects will be reviewed based on their, quote, scientific merit. How would you respond to that? Yeah, so I would respond to that by saying the project was already reviewed based on its scientific merit. And it underwent a rigorous review process called a study section that reviewed the science, that reviewed me as a candidate, that reviewed the innovative. nature of the project, and they scored it in a high-impact zone, which was why it was funded in the first place. In addition to eliminating the funding for your project, the administration has also

cut tremendously the CDC division that dealt with blood disorders, including sickle cell disease. What does it mean for the federal government writ large to seemingly be divesting from this type of research? It's grounded in unscientific agendas, and it's really harmful because we already, we already went many decades without adequate treatments, adequate options to improve the health of people with sickle cell disease. So this really is destructive and it's really going to set us back to the 1920s where we didn't have anything, you know, and so it's harmful and it sends the message to the patients that

their lives don't matter, that improving their health doesn't matter. And so it's really grounded in some dangerous, dangerous, racist ideology. And what are your next steps here? Do you have options to appeal this decision? Yes. So on the letter, there was an option to appeal. And so I'm working through that process. I also am in the process of trying to secure some other additional funds in order to be able to continue the work. Because at the end of the day, whoever is the president, I'm going to do what I need to do to care for my patients. Dr. Charity, Oedegi, hematologist at Duke University. Thank you so much for joining us.

Yeah, thank you for having me. This week, a human rights group in Argentina said it had identified a man who had been taken from his mother at a secret detention site more than 40 years ago during the country's so-called dirty war under the rule of a military dictatorship. He was reunited with his sister who had searched for him for years. But there are concerns that the government of Argentine President Javier Malay is reversing long-standing policy to come. continue the search for the tens of thousands of citizens who were abducted never to be seen again. The disappeared. Special correspondent Kira K. reports from Buenos Aires. Every year, Argentina holds a day of remembrance. For the estimated 30,000 people who were murdered or disappeared by the military junta that ran the country from 1976 to 1980.

Americans may know this time as Argentina's dirty war, when intellectuals, students, unionists, and others suspected of being left-wing dissidents, vanished into detention and torture centers. Few bodies were ever found. The method of execution was to drop people into the sea from military planes, still alive. After the junta finally fell,

activists pushed the country to account for these crimes. Carolina Vilela represents a victim's rights group. Argentina is known as a global beacon in matters of memory, truth, and justice, with more than 1,200 people convicted of crimes against humanity. And it has a long history of human rights organizations

and victims driving this entire process. To educate new generations about this future, dark past, memory centers like this one have also been created at former clandestine sites. Some of these sites remain active crime scenes. Archaeologist Laura Dugine has been excavating this basement of a former detention center. Dugine's team occasionally recovers personal artifacts that both serve as evidence at trials and as a and as a last sign of life for families whose loved ones never returned home. Argentine society is still piecing together information about state terrorism

because a pact of silence by Argentina's military remains in place to this day. The artifacts we found have helped to confirm the testimony of survivors. The junta also appropriated more than 400 babies, taken from their mothers before they were executed. and given to other families, often members of Argentina's military. Leonardo Fassati was one of them. I was born in this clandestine detention center on March 12, 1977, where my mother and father would disappear.

There were many years where I had doubts about my identity. I didn't bear a physical resemblance to the family that raised me, and we didn't have any photos from my mother. photos from my mother's pregnancy." Fassati and 139 other now adults have recovered their previous identities, with the help of an organization called the Abuelas, or grandmothers of the Plaza DiMaggio. Estella Carlotto, now 94, found her own grandson in 2014. Two missing grandchildren have been identified so far this year.

It's not just about identifying these victims and allowing them to live the truth and have the opportunity to meet their families. It also has to do with ensuring that these crimes, which are the most serious in the world, are punished. But activists say all this progress is now at risk, through actions by Argentina's new government. In November 2023, Argentina elected President Javier Malay. A libertarian economist who promised to address the country's economic chaos. Fekundo Robles managed the Wilson Center's Latin America program.

In the period that goes from February 2017 to February 2025, inflation was 7,800 percent. Millie, he's drastically decreasing the size of the state. He fired 40,000 people out of the public sector. Malay is known for his flamboyant style, and his cost cutting was an inspiration for Doge. Earlier this year he appeared at a Washington, D.C. Republican conference to hand Elon Musk a chainsaw.

The chainsaw for bureaucracy. While the government cuts are mostly across the board, Carolina Vilella says the ongoing search for children abducted by the junta, by the junta is under additional pressure. The Special Investigations Unit within the National Commission for the Right to Identity was closed.

The National Genetic Data Bank is being cut, a budget reduction of almost 50%. The Ministry of Security's documents are extremely important for conducting investigations, but the document analysis team has been dismantled. Memory sites are facing drastic cuts drastic cuts, too, and must shorten their operating hours and end programming. And at archaeologist Laura Dugine's lab, signs mark the chairs of her laid-off staffers.

She has had to stop expanding work at her site, when a new roof to protect it was canceled by the Ministry of Public Works. If we can't conserve the archaeological site today, tomorrow we won't have it, and the heritage can't be replaced. While the trials are today, they won't be in 20 years. At an Inter-American Commission hearing in Washington, D.C., the government defended its cuts. Insisting memory programs will continue despite them. But Malay's administration has also gone on the attack.

His vice president is the niece of an officer charged with a disappearance. Both she and Malay have questioned the number of 30,000 junta victims, and over the last To Remembrance Day holidays, the government's official video accused victims groups of manipulating memory for political and economic gain. Millet had the support of a generation of people that don't know and maybe they don't even care of all the dictatorship was. And as long as Milley controls the inflation, people will be like, say whatever you want. Leonardo Fasati says remaining survivors deserve to have their cases solve.

It was a gift of life to regain my identity. And it's only fair that other people who are going through the same thing know the truth. We urge the world's societies to call on Argentina to respect human rights. For PBS News Weekend, I'm Kira Kaye in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Finally tonight, a birthday celebration for a social media sensation. Thousands of adoring fans gathered at a zoo in Thailand this week for a four-day celebration of the first birthday of Mou Dang, the baby pygmy hippo that took social media by storm. Her birthday cake, 44 pounds of fruits and vegetables, which she shared with her mother. The zoo is about a two-hour drive from Bangkok, but fans came from much farther than that.

Mudang is won! Molly Swindle flew about 8,600 miles from New York for her third time visiting Mudang. On this trip, she had the honor of helping prepare her birthday breakfast. I just loved her so much and decided, you know what, I have have three days off, three or four days off of work. I can make it work to fly to Thailand. I will only be there for about 30 hours, but that's enough to go see Mudang,

and that's exactly what I did. Thea Chavez came from Houston. Deng has brought a lot of happiness to each and every one. She's just a potato, a moist potato that has burst of chaotic and calm energy at the same time. Jennifer Tang traveled from Malaysia. She makes me happy whenever I'm like stressed at work. I like pull up photos of Mudang.

So my whole office knows I'm here and they're like, okay. They let me take a week off. Mudeng, tie for bouncy pork, has been a social media star practically since birth, thanks to photos and videos her keeper posts showing her many moods, sweet, playful, feisty. She's achieved mean status and has been featured in posts from X, a top German soccer team, the New York Mets, the ultimate fighting championship, and even showed up on Saturday night live. They're throwing shellfish and bananas at me.

Colin! No, Colin, hey! Hey! You leave Moodang alone! Her birthday generated star-sized crowds. The zoo director said there were 12,000 visitors on Thursday afternoon alone. While pygmy hippos tend to lose some of their playful energy around this age, they can live for as long as half a century. So Mudang's fans likely have many more years to watch their favorite pygmy hippo grow into adulthood.

And that is PBS News Weekend for this Saturday. I'm John Yang for all of my colleagues. for joining us. See you tomorrow.