LISA DESJARDINS: Tonight on PBS News, Weekend in Gaza, a tipping point as deaths from hunger rise and global pressure build Israel announces it will begin airdrops of humanitarian aid tonight.

Then, a big birthday and a big moment for the postal service.

250 years old and now navigating far more than snow, rain, heat and gloom of night.

And the global debut of a unique boy band featuring two North Korean defectors.

WOMAN: I did think that it would be fascinating to have North Korean defectors trying out something in K pop because, you know, who doesn't love the story of someone from a humble background chasing their dreams.

(BREAK) LISA DESJARDINS: Good evening.

I'm Lisa Desjardins.

John Yang is away.

A pivotal moment for lives and the conflict in the Middle East as deaths from hunger rise in Gaza today, the Israeli military announced it will begin airdrops of aid and will open more humanitarian corridors to bring in food.

But the U.N. and aid groups have criticized airdrops as inadequate and dangerous.

The Gaza Health Ministry reported that in the last day, five people died of malnutrition and starvation, including a baby girl.

She's one of 85 children to die of malnutrition over the last three weeks, the ministry said.

Death also came from above.

At least 42 people in Gaza were killed by gunfire and airstrikes, according to Gaza health officials.

Half were shot while waiting for aid.

Earlier today, I spoke with a leading aid worker who is in Gaza.

Rachel Cummings is with Save the Children.

I began by asking what she sees.

RACHAEL CUMMINGS, Save the Children: The situation in Gaza is catastrophic for children and for their families.

We're seeing now a sharp rise in the number of children coming to our clinics who are malnourished.

Very deeply concerned about pregnant women and lactating, breastfeeding women coming to our clinic who are malnourished.

And now we're hearing of people dying from starvation.

And this is deeply concerning.

We expect now an exponential rise in the number of people who are malnourished and at risk of starvation.

You know, just in our clinics in the last two weeks, the first two weeks of July, we've seen the same number as the whole of June.

So this is the rise that we've been fearing for so long.

LISA DESJARDINS: How about the supplies of food.

I know you've recently been to a market.

And what are you seeing among your own staff in terms of how they're handling this with their families?

RACHAEL CUMMINGS: Yeah, all of my staff.

I have over 200 staff working, Palestinians working in Gaza, and of course, they are all directly impacted by the war.

There is very little, if anything, now left in the market.

Three of my staff last week fainted in the office and shared with me that they hadn't eaten that whole day.

And most of the staff have shared with me that they worry about going home because they don't have any food to take for their children, and they're worried, desperately worried about where their next meal will come from.

One of my staff said to me last week, we are all walking towards death and nobody is helping us.

Now, that's a desperate situation, and that could be multiplied by pretty much everyone in Gaza, they know what is happening.

They see themselves wasting away.

I see them wasting away on a daily basis.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, you have said just in the last day or so that you think this is a tipping point.

What do you mean by that?

RACHAEL CUMMINGS: It is a tipping point.

So for many months, we've been talking about the risk of this situation playing out because we know that not enough food has been entering Gaza since March, when the blockade was put in place in Gaza.

Not enough food, consistent food, safe and dignified distributions haven't been taking place in Gaza.

And there is only so long the body can sustain.

And what we're seeing now, of course, is the weakest dying of starvation.

But what we could see is map starvation for people across Gaza.

Between January and March, we had between 400 and 600 trucks a day of humanitarian supplies and commercial supplies entering Gaza.

At the moment, it's less than 100.

And for many months it was nothing.

So this is the result of the blockade, humanitarian supplies and food, essential food items not entering Gaza.

And as you said, people have been since the end of May, forced into impossible choices of whether to stay hungry and risk their children starving or risk their lives to go and get a bag of flour or a bag of pasta.

This is the situation that we're now facing, is absolutely catastrophic.

LISA DESJARDINS: Do you sense there's a disconnect by those in power?

This is atrocious conditions and yet we continue to get deeper into these conditions.

RACHAEL CUMMINGS: I've said it many times, it can't get worse for children, but actually it does, and it gets worse every single day for children.

So there has to be a disconnect.

You know, we need to stop bombing children.

We need to allow children to eat food to sustain life.

So there has to be.

There is a disconnect between people making decisions, people in power and what is happening for children in Gaza.

LISA DESJARDINS: What do you think needs to happen now?

This is a dire moment.

RACHAEL CUMMINGS: The world needs to wake up.

It feels like we've been sleeping or just watching this unfold.

And yet it's been predicted for months, over the course of the whole war, what could happen.

And we're now reaching, as I said, this tipping point.

So we need the definitive cease fire.

We need to stop bombing children.

We need to allow the humanitarian supplies into Gaza, the commercial supplies into Gaza, and we need to be allowed to do our jobs as humanitarian communities to reach children who are desperately in need.

You know, Save the Children, other humanitarian organizations.

We know how to prevent malnutrition, we know how to treat malnutrition.

We need to be allowed to do our jobs now.

LISA DESJARDINS: Rachael Cummings from Save the Children, thank you for taking this time to talk to us.

RACHAEL CUMMINGS: Thank you so much.

LISA DESJARDINS: In tonight's other news, President Trump says chances of a trade deal with the European Union are improving.

This as the President is in Scotland, seen golfing at his resort in Turnberry.

The White House calls it a working visit.

With Trump set to talk with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen about trade and U.S. tariffs.

The president sounded cautiously optimistic yesterday.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. President: With the European Union, I think we have a good 50-50 chance.

That's a lot.

WOMAN: What are the sticking points?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don't want to tell you what the sticking points are, but the sticking points are having to do with maybe 20 different things.

You don't want to listen to all of them.

LISA DESJARDINS: Protests and anger have surrounded Mr. Trump's trip to Scotland, including this scene in Aberdeen.

An anti-Trump group called hosted a kind of protest festival there.

While in the country, the president will also attend a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new golf course bearing his name.

A White House spokesman did not address possible conflicts of interest, instead praising the course.

House Democrats want more details on President Trump's potential connections with Jeffrey Epstein, asking for a copy of the disgraced financier's birthday book.

Representatives Ro Khanna and Robert Garcia have asked the attorneys for Epstein's estate for the book, which the Wall Street Journal reported was signed by President Trump, though the White House has denied that.

The full House committee has subpoenaed testimony from Ghislaine Maxwell, who allegedly put the book together and is now serving time for crimes related to her time with Epstein.

The governor of Florida confirms that detainees at a remote facility there are being flown out for deportation, even as attorneys for some being held there say they've had no access.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in the last day that several flights have taken off, transferring 100 detainees from the detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz to other countries.

This despite outcry and a lawsuit filed by immigration attorneys who say they have not been able to check on or provide legal counsel to their clients.

The state of Florida runs the facility.

An official there said attorney visits did not begin because of quote, unquote technology problems.

And the acting prime minister of Thailand said he agrees in principle to a ceasefire with Cambodia.

The comments came as a deadly dispute between the two countries entered its third day.

At least 33 people have been killed since the start of clashes, and more than 168,000 are displaced.

The two countries have long fought over a disputed 500 mile frontier, and past clashes were often brief.

Today, President Trump warned both countries on social media that if there is no cease fire, the U.S. will not make trade deals with them.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend, a pervasive but little discussed health condition for women and the newest faces in K pop that includes two defectors from North Korea.

(BREAK) LISA DESJARDINS: In our relatively young country, it's one of the oldest institutions we have.

The U.S.

Postal Service turns 250 today.

The agency is deeply intertwined with this nation's history and has been critical to its growth.

But with annual net losses nearing $10 billion, this time of celebration is also one of concern.

I went to the National Postal museum in Washington, D.C. to ask how regular Americans see what many call the post office.

MAGGIE ADKINS: Everything's now on the phone and you're sending texts and messages.

But, like being able to get like a letter in the mail and be like, yeah, I got a letter.

It's the best.

So I hope that the post office days.

REGINALD DIXON: I think it's critical because there are so many places in America that they're more remote and your commercial carriers can't really reach those places.

BARRY DILGARD: I don't want everything to be coming to me electronically.

Sometimes you want paper, you want something tangible.

SAMANTHA KAUFMANN: I guess it's losing money, but I would say it's still worth it because it's always there for you.

LISA DESJARDINS: Hansi Lo Wang is a correspondent for NPR and covers the U.S. postal Service.

Hansi, let me start with the big birthday question here.

How does the Postal Service fit in the way this country sees itself?

HANSI LO WANG, NPR: Well, the U.S.

Postal Service plays a role in the daily lives of so many people.

And it has been the case going back to 250 years ago, before the founding of this country, when the Second Continental Congress set up Benjamin Franklin as a first postmaster general.

And you had horseback riders delivering mail through the 13 colonies.

And now all the way today, the U.S.

Postal Service on foot, by truck, plane, boat, sometimes by mule, all the way to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

And it's six days a week of service of letters, mails, bills, medication packages that so many folks rely on through deliveries from a letter carrier or their mail carrier.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, the Postal Service is not going away, as you're saying.

By law, it must deliver mail six days a week under current law.

But the future's not here.

They operate almost entirely off of their own revenue, not taxpayer dollars.

But can you help us understand the fiscal challenge here?

HANSI LO WANG: Two main things to keep in mind is that first, the mail value, the amount of mail in the system, has been on the decline for about two decades since 2006.

And that's a really, really disruptive trend to a Postal Service that, like you said, generally receives material, no tax dollars to keep it running and relies on stamp sales and service fees.

The other main thing to really keep in mind, kind of really in the weeds.

But a really key part of why, if you were to look at the financial books of the Postal Service, why you see these losses, is that Congress passed really unique legal requirements for the Postal Service to prefund retirement benefits, health benefits for retired postal workers.

So that has been really saddling the finances of a postal Service that has also been seeing a changing United States with different ways of communicating.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, the current Postmaster General has said he just in the last week he does not want to privatize.

He wants to keep this as an independent agency.

But President Trump, we know in the past and in his current presidency has indicated he may be interested in privatization or somehow taking over the Postal Service into another agency.

The does he have the power to do that potentially?

HANSI LO WANG: By law, the president does not have the power to privatize, to take over what Congress set up to be an independent federal agency.

It is part of the executive branch, but it is run by a board of governors.

Those governors are appointed, nominated by the president, but they have to be confirmed by the Senate.

But ultimately those governors are the ones who pick the Postmaster General who really helped guide the direction of the Postal Service according to federal law and a lot of other requirements.

And so while the all the talk coming from the Trump administration about potentially looking into privatizing or folding it into the Commerce Department, that's been another idea that's been floated.

Those would run into legal challenges.

LISA DESJARDINS: Can you help us understand the stakes then for this debate over the future of the Postal Service is able to stay as it is, or if it does need significant change?

HANSI LO WANG: You know, in the age of the Internet, it can be really easy to take the Postal Service for granted, not even think about it.

But there are so many people in the country, across the country, especially in rural communities, that depend on the Postal Service for their medication, to mail, to receive voting ballots, to receive payments.

This is an infrastructure that the country still relies on, that the economy still relies on to send packages as well.

It reaches every address in the country.

And so the stakes are very high when you're talking about potentially dismantling it or changing it in any dramatic ways.

So many people, so many parts of the country rely on it.

But again, it is running into these challenges at a time when the country, how it communicates is so different from when the Postal Service got started.

LISA DESJARDINS: Hansi Lo Wang, always illuminating talking with you.

Thank you.

HANSI LO WANG: You're welcome.

LISA DESJARDINS: From unbearable pain to feeling no symptoms at all, women with uterine fibroids can have vastly different experiences.

And while these growths impact a large percentage of women, health advocates say they too often go undiscussed.

That has now started to change as women share their stories, including Academy Award winning actress Lupita Nyong'o and tennis superstar Venus Williams.

Ali Rogan spoke with Sateria Venable, a patient advocate and CEO of the Fibroid Foundation.

ALI ROGIN: Sateria Venable, thank you so much for being here.

SATERIA VENABLE, Fibroid Foundation CEO: Thank you for inviting me.

I really appreciate it.

ALI ROGIN: You yourself have experienced uterine fibroids.

Tell us more about what they are and what your own journey with them has been like.

SATERIA VENABLE: Uterine fibroids are noncancerous growths in and around the uterus.

And the word noncancerous is really important because a lot of people who are diagnosed don't know whether they're cancerous or not.

And what led me to this journey is I had my third fibroid surgery.

I've had four total and I couldn't find a provider to care for me who wouldn't offer a hysterectomy.

And I lived in Chicago at the time, and I thought, if I'm living in a major metropolitan city and I can't find a provider, what are other women experiencing?

And I just wondered why people weren't screaming from the rooftops, because until that time, I thought that I was alone in my journey, which is another recurring theme that we hear from our community.

ALI ROGIN: It's truly extraordinary how many women this affects.

What do we know about any groups of women among whom the risk is greater or the symptoms are more prominent?

SATERIA VENABLE: We know that 70 to 80 percent of all women will be diagnosed with uterine fibroids by the age that they're 50.

And there's a misnomer that it's primarily women of African descent, because we do know that women of all walks of life, all ethnicities, have fibroids.

ALI ROGIN: What does the range of symptoms look like?

SATERIA VENABLE: It can be really exhaustive.

Women have pain, they're gasping for air, and don't really realize that their lung capacity has been reduced by the anemia.

There can be complications.

A lot of our community members find out that they have fibroids when they're either pregnant or trying to conceive.

And then it becomes a real issue because sometimes, because of the surge in estrogen during pregnancy, the fibroids can grow as quickly as the fetus and sometimes crowd out the fetus and cause issues.

ALI ROGIN: What are the treatment options for this?

SATERIA VENABLE: So we have a few treatment options and some medical therapies that were approved during the pandemic that aren't widely known.

If you're looking to conceive, the most frequently utilized therapy is a myomectomy, which can be either open incision in the abdomen, which is just really tough to recover from.

And then the medical therapies, I really think about them as tools because they can help you to stabilize your body, to combat anemia and to have your body recover to some degree while you're trying to understand what fibroids are and what treatment option I should pursue.

But we really don't have enough treatment options for this.

And hysterectomy, sadly, accounts for half of the 600,000 hysterectomies that occur annually in the United States.

ALI ROGIN: And as is so often the case, women's health research into it has been systematically under invested in what would the addition of investment attention do to this ailment that affects so many women around the world.

SATERIA VENABLE: So investment in this would be huge.

We're trying to get more research dollars on two fronts in general legislation through NIH research and also under the military umbrella for military readiness because our service members are suffering with fibroids and endometriosis and other women's health concerns.

So the research would look at finding new treatment options, really understanding -- we don't understand how fibroids behave in the body, really, because there hasn't been enough research.

And so a package of bills was introduced last week by several members of Congress that will look at various aspects of research and understanding fibroids, screening for fibroids, understanding endometrial cancer, and also recognizing July as Fibroid Awareness Month.

ALI ROGIN: The Trump administration so far has cut a number of research projects devoted to various ethnic minorities to women.

And so I wonder, how are you feeling about the future for investment in uterine fibroids specifically, as we're in this particular moment, politically.

SATERIA VENABLE: I am not deterred.

My whole life I've kind of bucked the system and tried to find solutions.

And so that's what I'm doing in this moment.

We are moving full steam ahead.

We're finding partners who understand and agree and empathize.

And I encourage anyone who doesn't really see this as a priority to go home and talk with the women and menstruators in your family.

And whenever I hit invite anyone to do that, they come back and say, oh my God, I didn't know my mother had a hysterectomy due to fibroids.

I didn't know that my sister is suffering right now or that she had birth complications.

And it really opens their eyes to this issue.

ALI ROGIN: Sateria Venable, founder and CEO of the Fibroid Foundation.

Thank you so much.

SATERIA VENABLE: Thank you for having me.

LISA DESJARDINS: Finally tonight, the debut of a new K pop boy band with an improbable origin story that includes two North Korean defectors.

And a note for viewers.

There is some flash photography in this piece.

LISA DESJARDINS (voice-over): The world of K pop has fresh new faces.

The band 1VERSE with a debut album and lead single, "Shattered."

That's more than a pop hook, it's anthem, especially to band member Yu Hyuk.

He escaped North Korea as a child, joining his mom in South Korea.

She arranged to get him across the border.

His father chose to stay and died a few years later.

YU HYUK, 1VERSE (through translator): My song "Shattered" captures the feeling of my life breaking apart.

I'm sharing the story for the first time.

I wrote it drawing on the emotions when I heard my father in North Korea passed away.

LISA DESJARDINS (voice-over): He remembers starting work at nine years old and having to resort to desperate measures for food.

YU HYUK (through translator): After I was caught stealing, I was beaten hard until I was bleeding.

I've been through a lot in North Korea.

I've eaten spoiled, smelly rice.

LISA DESJARDINS (voice-over): Now that kid is a pop star in the making, worried no longer about basic survival and instead pushing back with music that is pointedly illegal in the North.

Reports indicate the North Korean government is cracking down on consumption of South Korean culture.

A group working with defectors released this video.

They say it shows two high schoolers being publicly sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for watching K pop.

But they couldn't stop the music from reaching Kim Seok, 1VERSE's other North Korean defector.

He was inspired when he was secretly shown a 2012 global hit by the K pop artist Psy.

KIM SEOK, 1VERSE (through translator): I'd never seen a video like Gangnam Style before.

I didn't have it myself.

A friend showed it to me in North Korea, and both the music video and the song really blew me away.

LISA DESJARDINS (voice-over): Kim, now 25 years old, escaped the regime in 2019 with his father and grandmother.

1VERSE was carefully formed.

Label CEO and producer Michelle Cho.

MICHELLE CHO, CEO, Singing Beetle: I did think that it was fascinating after casting the two.

That would be fascinating to have North Korean defectors trying out something in K pop.

Because who doesn't love the story of someone from a humble background chasing their dreams.

LISA DESJARDINS (voice-over): The rest come from across the globe.

Aito from Japan.

Kenny, a Chinese American from Los Angeles.

And Nathan from Arkansas.

NATHAN, 1VERSE: We learn from each other's backgrounds.

I think that only benefits us more just because we learn from each other things that we couldn't have learned if we didn't meet, if we've never met.

LISA DESJARDINS (voice-over): The very existence of 1VERSE demonstrating the power of music to transcend even the most closed borders.

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

I'm Lisa Desjardins.

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

See you tomorrow.