LISA DESJARDINS: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, rescue workers in Myanmar and Thailand race against time to find survivors as the death toll from the devastating earthquake there soars.

Then, we explore the new cuts at the nation's leading health agency and what they mean for millions of Americans who rely on their services.

And we shine a light on women lighthouse keepers who kept shoreline beacons illuminated for generations.

WOMAN: These women are remarkable for their strength.

I think most of them didn't think what they were doing as remarkable or interesting or strange.

They did their jobs.

They did them well.

(BREAK) LISA DESJARDINS: Good evening.

I'm Lisa Desjardins.

John Yang is away.

Myanmar's ruling military government now says over 1,600 people have been killed by a devastating earthquake as more bodies are being pulled from the rubble.

The epicenter of the 7.7 magnitude quake was near Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city, and it rocked neighboring countries, including Thailand.

Temples in Myanmar's capital, Nipan Da, were crumbled to their foundation just southwest of Mandalay.

Some buildings and bridges partially collapsed, others completely destroyed.

While there have been some miracle rescues from the debris, it's been an uphill battle.

Debi Edward of Independent Television News has the latest from Bangkok, Thailand.

DEBI EDWARD, Independent Television News (voice-over): They keep shouting into the remains of the Wisdom Villa High School, asking if anyone is there, but no response comes back.

It's thought at least seven people were in the building when the earthquake struck.

All over Myanmar, there are frantic searches taking place for survivors.

In Mandalay, close to the epicenter, rescuers search through the wreckage of this apartment building by hand.

Several teams have come to help this search.

So far, they've recovered more bodies than survivors.

Without specialist equipment, it is difficult to free victims trapped between the layers of debris.

MAN: It doesn't seem like there's a building that's not affected in some way, but obviously to see this and that there are some other buildings that are also like this is just hideous.

DEBI EDWARD (voice-over): The 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit on Friday lunchtime and was felt across the region.

This was a maternity ward in southern China where a nurse held on to the baby in her arms for dear life as she was tossed around on the ground by the powerful tremors.

In Bangkok, the focus of the aftermath centers on a skyscraper under construction that collapsed.

The families of the dozens still trapped inside have gathered at the site.

Just seeing it was distressing, for this family.

Pa (ph) been trying to call her boyfriend, who was working on the 28th floor.

She says his phone was ringing yesterday, but now it doesn't connect.

As the search enters its second night, rescuers are still hopeful of finding people alive.

DEBI EDWARD: The building stood at 34 stories high and in the space of just three seconds it was reduced to a seven story pile of rubble.

We've been told that in several places the concrete hadn't set yet and that will have contributed to its complete collapse.

DEBI EDWARD: So many families are tonight sharing the same agonizing weight that this man is facing for news of his mother.

Debi Edward, ITV News, Bangkok.

LISA DESJARDINS: In tonight's other headlines, overnight airstrikes hit Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Strikes suspected to be from the US.

U.S. Central Command released video on social media which showed fighter planes taking off and conducting a strike against the group, but did not provide a date or location.

Houthi backed media reported airstrikes hit the capital of Sana'a, killing one person and injuring several others.

The Trump administration has taken a more aggressive approach to the U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization.

The southern tip of Texas is getting a much needed break from the torrential downpours that caused flooding across the area.

Storms are blamed for at least four or deaths in the low lying Rio Grande Valley.

While the rain has stopped, deadly floodwaters have not receded yet.

In Hidalgo County, one of the hardest hit areas, 21 inches of rain fell this week in an area that normally sees 24 inches of rain in a year.

In a loss for the White House, a judge has ruled against the dismantling of Voice of America.

The federal district judge blocked the agency overseeing the international news organization from firing more than a thousand journalists and other.

A temporary restraining order also prevents offices from being closed or overseas workers from being recalled.

Elon Musk is shifting the ownership of the social media platform X, selling it to his own artificial intelligence startup company XAI.

Musk made the announcement on X.

He said it was an all stock deal that merged the private companies, valuing XAI at more than double that of X. Musk said this will more fully blend AI technology with X, but it's not clear what that could mean for users.

And let's talk because the English language is changing.

The folks behind the Oxford English Dictionary added dozens of new words to its pages this week.

The new entries include many of Spanish origin, like cubano, referring to anything Cuban from individuals to the famous sandwiches.

Also in there, slang phrases such as real talk meaning honest and direct conversations, and British slang like the word faffy, as in overcomplicated and time consuming.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend, the debate over thousands of job cuts at the government's health agency and the women who saved countless lives at sea as lighthouse keepers.

(BREAK) LISA DESJARDINS: The top vaccine official at the Food and Drug Administration has resigned.

On Friday, Dr. Peter Marks wrote that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wants, quote, subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.

The Associated Press reports Marks had to choose between being fired or resigning.

That follows this week's announcement that HHS would fire some 10,000 workers.

Along with voluntary departures, that cuts the agency by almost a quarter.

ROBERT KENNEDY JR. HHS Secretary: We're going to streamline HHS to make our agency more efficient and more effective.

We're going to imbue the agency with a clear sense of mission to radically improve the health of Americans and to improve agency morale.

LISA DESJARDINS: What does this mean for the country?

Ali Rogin spoke with two former HHS leaders.

First, Tom Frieden, founder of the nonprofit organization Resolved to Save Lives.

He led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under President Obama.

Dr. Frieden, thank you so much for joining us.

I first want to ask about the departure of Dr. Peter Marks.

In his resignation letter, he cited a, quote, unprecedented assault on scientific truth that has adversely impacted public health.

Is that what's happening here?

DR. TOM FRIEDEN, Resolved to Save Lives: I think what we're seeing is extremely concerning.

Secretary Kennedy has repeatedly undermined confidence in vaccines, and vaccines are essential for health.

When the secretary says it's an individual choice, well, it's certainly the case that every vaccine is given after informed consent is signed.

It's also the case that whether one person gets vaccinated can very much influence whether another person, such as a child with leukemia, gets sick.

ALI ROGIN: Turning to the larger reduction in force, how is this going to affect public health in America?

TOM FRIEDEN: We don't yet have the details of what has been announced.

If we look at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are discussions of reducing our global work that's really dangerous.

It means that instead of finding and stopping threats where they emerge, which is less expensive, safer and more efficient, we'll have to fight them here within the United States at greater risk and greater expense.

There are also discussions of reducing programs that address tobacco and junk food and other problems at CDC.

CDC has deep experience and knowledge and data determining what's happening, what kind of cigarette or other tobacco products kids are using, what kind of junk foods people are eating, in fact, what kind of environmental contaminants people are being exposed to.

That's all deep experience at CDC.

And if we lose that, we lose the ability to protect Americans from the leading causes of death.

ALI ROGIN: And Secretary Kennedy has said that he wants HHS to be streamlined and really focus on its core functions.

He talks a lot about reducing chronic disease.

What do you say to that?

TOM FRIEDEN: There's no doubt that every organization could be more efficient, could be more effective when it comes to chronic disease.

There's not a mystery about most of the causes of chronic disease in the US.

Tobacco still kills close to a half a million Americans per year.

In addition, we have an obesity epidemic.

We have very poor treatment of diabetes and hypertension.

So sure, there's plenty of room to improve primary health care, to strengthen our public health system so that we can detect and respond to problems faster.

But going in and saying we're going to cut 20 or 25 percent of the workforce and make it better and safer for Americans.

Show me.

ALI ROGIN: I also want to ask about something that Secretary Kennedy continues to bring up and many observers of the health care system do, they talk about the so called revolving door between regulators that enter HHS and the pharmaceutical industry that they are charged with regulating.

Is that relationship a problem?

And if so, do cuts like these help address that problem?

TOM FRIEDEN: Well, cuts like these don't make government stronger.

Cuts like these are very disruptive for professionals who devote their lives to protecting Americans and advancing science.

What is clear is that Secretary Kennedy has repeatedly spread misinformation about groups like the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, what's called ACIP.

And this is part of a broader assault on vaccines, which is really terrifying because these are what stands between diseases and the health of the next generation.

Globally, we're seeing the administration apparently planning to pull out of the what's called gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

These are changes which not only will make the U.S. less safe, less healthy, and with higher healthcare costs, but unless these changes are reversed, they will literally cause millions of deaths around the world.

ALI ROGIN: Dr. Tom Frieden, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and founder of Resolve to Save Lives, thank you so much.

TOM FRIEDEN: Thank you.

For a different perspective, we're now joined by Roger Severino.

He is vice president of Domestic Policy at the Conservative Heritage Foundation and served as director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights during President Trump's first administration.

Roger, thank you so much for joining us.

How are these staffing cuts going to, quote, radically improve the health of Americans, as Secretary Kennedy has said they will?

ROGER SEVERINO: Well, if we want to make America healthy again, we have to make HHS healthy again.

And there was so much fat in that agency.

I was there for four years.

I saw the inefficiencies firsthand.

This does not help in the delivery of health care.

And you saw that this budget ballooned beyond the Department of Defense.

It grew 38 percent under Biden to 1.9 trillion.

Yet at the same time, our health has gotten worse in every single measure.

And these cuts are going to help refocus the agency into what it should be doing, and that is restoring American health.

ALI ROGIN: On the issue that you mentioned of staffing administrative departments in many of these agencies, current and former HHS officials have told me that each department really needs its own administrative office because these are highly specialized positions.

And if you consolidate them, you're going to have the remaining staff in those agencies picking up the administrative duties and distracting them from their core missions.

What do you make of that?

ROGER SEVERINO: Don't believe it.

So, finally, the government sector is going to have some semblance of the same discipline of the private sector.

If the waste and abuses that happen in a federal government happened in, say, a major corporation, they would lose money year after year and eventually go bankrupt.

There is no price mechanism in the government.

What we have are measures of pure inputs.

How much money is going towards something, what we need to do is move it towards outcomes.

Are Americans getting healthier?

Is chronic disease going down?

Is childhood obesity going down?

These are the measures we should be looking at instead of okay, how many admin persons, how much paper is pushed, how many reports are made?

ALI ROGIN: A lot of folks who would disagree with what you're saying now will say that actually in order to improve tracking those outputs, tracking progress, tracking results, you actually need more experts, you need more people coming in, not less.

My question to you is how are these staff cuts going to lower the cost of health care for Americans, as Secretary Kennedy has also said, is their intended purpose?

ROGER SEVERINO: Well, if we improve Americans health, we'll reduce the cost of health care.

What RFK Jr. is pushing is making sure that Big Pharma is no longer in the driver's seat.

And this sort of revolving door of government bureaucrats and big pharma patting each other's back is getting in a way of prioritizing the delivery of health care.

Good health isn't necessarily the most profitable thing for big pharma and big medicine.

Healing people sometimes cost them money.

ALI ROGIN: You were the lead author of the HHS section of Project 2025, the Conservative blueprint for government.

And in some cases some of your recommendations included areas that specific agencies actually needed to be strengthened in terms of their authorities.

That includes the Office of Civil Rights which is now going to be under the oversight of a new HHS Assistant Secretary.

So are these across the board cuts and restructuring the most effective way to achieve this?

ROGER SEVERINO: Well, what I'm seeing is consolidation.

So with OCR, which I love, and they're doing fantastic work now, they have been consolidated with other enforcement agencies within HHS.

And you see this in other areas.

The problem is were siloed much of the agency.

You have your own little fiefdoms where each person in control has this temptation to continue to grow on their own.

And that gets in the way of communication across agencies.

It creates power struggles and turf wars.

I mean, look, people are human beings.

And you see that in the federal government as you see in other places.

And when you consolidate, you get people talking to each other, you see overlapping efficiencies, you learn from each other and you break down those silos and that actually helps the delivery of health care.

ALI ROGIN: Roger Severino, who served as director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights during the first Trump administration, now vice president of domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation.

Thank you so much for joining us.

ROGER SEVERINO: Thank you.

LISA DESJARDINS: And finally tonight, some of the little known stories of the women who operated lighthouses across the country, saving lives and keeping history.

John Yang brings us this story of strength and beauty.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): Surfers and seabirds called this stretch of the California coastline home.

It can be dramatic and breathtaking.

But the rocky, jagged shore and shoals, sometimes shrouded in fog, can also be treacherous for boats and ships that get too close.

For generations, the Point Pinos Lighthouse in Pacific Grove has stood century, warning mariners to keep their distance.

When it was built in the mid-1850s, this was an isolated outpost.

The nearest town, Monterey, was about four miles away, reachable only by a twisty dirt and sand trail.

Those on the east coast who wanted to get to the west coast generally traveled by sailing boat, a six month ordeal that took them around Cape Horn at the tip of South America.

JOHN YANG: This is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the U.S. Pacific coast.

Two women have been principal lighthouse keepers here, dating back to 1856, when Charlotte Layton became the first woman to have that job on the West Coast.

NANCY MCDOWELL, Docent Coordinator, Point Pinos Lighthouse: Charlotte Layton, who was the first, took over when her husband was killed.

She sort of knew what to do and she was widowed and the people around the local community wanted her to have a job so she wouldn't be destitute.

JOHN YANG (vice-over): Nancy McDowell is the docent coordinator at Point Pinos.

How did her husband die?

NANCY MCDOWELL: He was with the group that went out to the house where this bandit was and he went to the back door and that's where the bandit came out and shot the three of them that were back there.

JOHN YANG: And that's how she lost her husband, but also became the head keeper.

NANCY MCDOWELL: Yes.

JOHN YANG: These are sort of unheralded pioneers doing this.

NANCY MCDOWELL: Right.

We think it's wonderful and especially that she got the same pay as her husband had.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): It was one of the first non-clerical government jobs open to women.

Over the years, there were scores of women lighthouse keepers from coast to coast.

SHAUNA MACDONALD, University of Canada: One of my grandfathers worked at a lighthouse here in Nova Scotia, so I've always been fascinated.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): Shauna MacDonald of Cape Breton University in Canada works to shine a light on the women who ran lighthouses.

SHAUNA MACDONALD: There were hundreds of women from the 18th, but really 19th and 20th centuries who kept lighthouses in the United States.

Most of them, however, would not have been official keepers.

So the official number is somewhere around 200.

JOHN YANG: 200 is more than I had imagined.

Did that number surprise you?

SHAUNA MACDONALD: Absolutely.

I mean, I'm someone who's always been interested in women's history and women's lives, and I just -- I sort of felt ashamed that it hadn't ever occurred to me, you know, even though I had been researching lighthouses, when I realized how many women had done this work or had been involved in some way.

NANCY MCDOWELL: So from here you can see the original lens up there and -- JOHN YANG (voice-over): At Point Pinos the second woman to be principal lighthouse keeper was Emily Fish.

She had the job from 1893 to 1914.

NANCY MCDOWELL: She hopefully had a time to sit, maybe resting during the day after being up all night with the lamp.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): The widow of a physician, she was known as the socialite keeper.

She entertained guests at the lighthouse in her fashionable sitting room.

NANCY MCDOWELL: Maybe you'd like to go up and see where she went -- JOHN YANG: Sure.

NANCY MCDOWELL: -- from her room to take care of the light.

And so it's narrow steps, but it goes up to a ladder, and we can even go up the ladder.

Just like the keepers would have had to do.

We're going up the ladder to the lantern room.

JOHN YANG: So we see this vista and this light is going out 17 miles is in this entire direction.

NANCY MCDOWELL: Yes.

However many degrees this is all the way around.

It's not 360 because this little part's gone.

And I'm not sure how many that is, but it goes everywhere except in the fog.

And I don't know how far it does go.

It depends on how thick the fog is, I suspect.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): By 1990, all U.S. lighthouses had been automated, eliminating the need for keepers.

SHAUNA MACDONALD: Lighthouse keeping was not a terribly posh job, despite the exception of someone like Emily Fish.

These were mostly working class people.

These were not easy jobs.

And while we might look at lighthouses today as places of beauty, where we go to learn about history or we love to paint or take pictures of at the time, they were just another necessary technology that everyone you know relied upon.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): North of Point Pinos, across Monterey Bay is Santa Cruz, once home to another important lighthouse run by a woman.

Laura Hecox was the principal lighthouse keeper there from 1883 to 1917.

She was also a naturalist, amassing an impressive collection of specimens from the area.

Ida Lewis was arguably the best known U.S. woman lighthouse keeper.

She made it onto the cover of Harper's Weekly in 1869.

She ran the Lime Rock Lighthouse in Rhode Island's Newport Harbor.

SHAUNA MACDONALD: She did a lot of rescuing, so that's how she was.

She came to be known by rowing out in her rowboat and rescuing people who had gotten into some kind of trouble on the water.

She began at the age of 15 because her father had fallen ill. And so he just sort of supervised and she did the work until she was an elderly woman.

By all accounts, she was a tiny woman, but she was able to do these wonderful things.

So she was famous in her time.

But then I also love women who haven't gotten as much attention.

Laura Hedges.

She kept a lighthouse in New Jersey for a while when her husband had fallen ill. And then I was able to visit the National Archives and find the logs where I can see Laura Hedges having been the keeper in 1925 and 1926, and the day that her husband passed, she simply had written in the log, keeper died.

And the time and the rest of the log is weather and sailing reports.

JOHN YANG: Her husband dies, she makes a note of it.

But she keeps on working.

She keeps on her job.

SHAUNA MCDONALD: She keeps on working.

These women are remarkable for their strength, I think, both physical and mental, as well as obviously emotional to be able to keep doing this work.

Most of them didn't think of what they were doing as remarkable or interesting or strange.

They did their jobs.

They did them well.

They cared for people.

NANCY MCDOWELL: These logs were written by Emily Fish.

JOHN YANG: Oh wow.

NANCY MCDOWELL: And usually it had to do with the weather and what was happening around.

JOHN YANG: Hazy fog, clear showers.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): 89 years old, Nancy McDowell is determined to keep a spotlight on the stories of these women keepers just as they and those like them around the country kept their shoreline beacons illuminated.

LISA DESJARDINS: And that's our program for tonight.

I'm Lisa Desjardins.

For all of my colleagues, thank you for joining us.

See you tomorrow.

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