john: tonight on "pbs news weekend" -- from railroad tracks to drawbridges. how extreme heat is affecting the way americans get from place to place. then, how u.s. officials are fighting foreign propaganda on social media. and, an investigation uncovers abuse and mistreatment at some youth residential treatment centers. >> my group home experience is something i still carry with me to this day. my body is covered in scars from some of those fights. ♪

>> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- 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 from viewers like you. thank you. john: good evening. i'm john yang.

death and destruction in southern gaza today. palestinian officials said a targeted israeli airstrike killed at least 90 people. that would make it one of the deadliest attacks of the war. israel says the target was hamas military chief mohammed dief, thought to be the architect of the october 7 attacks. hamas says he wasn't in the area at the time of the strike. israeli officials did not deny that it took place in a part of khan younis that was a designat safe zone where displaced palestinians were living in tents. >> end this war, this is enough. there is no safe zone in gaza, end this war, have mercy on us and our children. we are getting killed every minute. john: in addition to the dead, hundreds of others were wounded. hamas says the attack is proof that israel isn't interested in a ceasefire agreement. president biden was again working to shore up support today, speaking virtually with groups of moderate and progressive house democrats.

vice president harris was on the campaign trail in pennsylvania. she told a townhall organized by an asian-american group that america's democracy is at risk. >> one thing we know about our president, joe biden, he is a fighter. we will continue to fight, we will continue to organize, and in november, we will win. john: this week's pbs news, npr, marist poll of registered voters found no difference in support for mr. biden and vice president harris in head-to-head matchups with donald trump, each supported by 50% of those polled. trump got 48% against the president and 49% against harris. russia and ukraine traded more attacks today. ukraine says russian shelling killed four people along the front lines. while ukraine's latest long-range drone attack started a fire at an oil depot deep inside russia's southwestern rostov region. in paris, olympic organizers

still intend to use the river seine for events, despite concerns about its cleanliness. today, the french sports minister took a dip in an effort to dispel worries. while years of efforts he improved the water quality, data from city testing shows that as recently as last week, there were days of unsafe levels of fecal bacteria. the river is to be the venue later this month for the swimming leg of the triathlon and for marathon swimming. and pioneering sex therapist dr. ruth westheimer has died. known simply as dr. ruth, in the 1980's, she talked plainly and candidly about things rarely discussed in public at the time. she became a pop culture icon with her own tv and radio shows. born in germany and orphaned by the holocaust, her varied experiences included being a trained sniper in israel's war of independence. ruth westheimer was 96 years old. still to come on "pbs news weekend," why children in residential treatment centers

are vulnerable to abuse. and, u.s. attempts to crack down on russian disinformation through social media. >> this is pbs news weekend from weta studios in washington, home of the pbs news hour weeknights on pbs. john: what forecasters are calling an extremely dangerous heat wave persists in the west and is expected to extend triple-digit temperatures to the midwest and east this weekend. scientists say much of this heat is a long-term result of greenhouse gas emissions. and it's affecting everything from the power grid to trains, planes, and automobiles. kristina dahl is principal climate scientist for the climate and energy program at the union of concerned scientists. kristina, let's start by focusing on trains, planes, and automobiles, how this heat is affecting transportation and the transportation infrastructure. can you walk us through the sort of the big effects?

kristina: absolutely. heat affects all of these different types of infrastructure in different ways. for our cars and trucks that are running on asphalt roads, asphalt can deform or buckle when it's extremely hot, so that can make road transportation difficult. in terms of railroads, we know that rails can actually deform and buckle as well when it's hot, or if there are electric lines that the trains are connecting to overhead, those lines can sag and that can cause problems for the trains. and operators have to slow the trains down. when it comes to airplanes, there are a few different effects can happen on the tarmac at our airports. can deform when it's hot, which causes problems as planes are trying to take off and land. but, hot air also expands and becomes less dense, and that makes it harder for airplanes to get to the level of thrust they need to be able to take off.

so, when it's really hot, all of these forms of transportation can be affected. john: and not only can be affected, but have been affected in years past. kristina: yeah, many years now because of climate change and the fact that it's making our summers hotter, we see these kinds of instances. amtrak's northeast corridor line, for example, in the northeast u.s. has had to slow down trains significantly to deal with heat in recent years. planes have been unable to take off from the airport in phoenix, arizona because of heat. our infrastructure was largely designed for the climate of the past. and that's not the climate that we're dealing with today. and it's certainly not the climate we're going to be dealing with in the decades ahead because of climate change. so, we're seeing now that the ways that we've designed our infrastructure have some vulnerabilities, and we're going to have to either adapt that infrastructure or our lifestyles to deal with those changes in climate we've experienced, or we're going to have to find ways

to redesign and rebuild or develop new materials so that we can continue to operate our planes, trains, and automobiles the way we're used to. john: there's money in the infrastructure bill for infrastructure. is any of that going to help make this infrastructure more resilient, or perhaps design new plans? kristina: the bipartisan infrastructure law is a huge influx of money and resources to be upgrading and improving our transportation infrastructure. that's really important because we've long neglected the maintenance that our infrastructure requires. and so, there's a real backlog in our country, and there's a lot of upgrading that needs to happen. and so, as companies and states and communities are updating their infrastructure with this influx of money from the bipartisan infrastructure law, the hope is that they'll be also taking account in climate change so that the infrastructure that we're investing in now is durable for decades into the future.

john: are there certain areas or certain populations that are disproportionately affected by the effects of this extreme weather? kristina: absolutely. so, most types of extreme weather hit communities that have long been disadvantag by racism. discrimination. toxic pollution. extreme heat is affecting people who live in urban areas without a lot of shade trees that often were the more affordable and more accessible areas for people of color to obtain mortgages in. but, these areas tend to be hotter. and so, people are waiting for busses at bus shelters where there's no shade, for example. when we look at coastal infrastructure, a recent analysis by my team found that there are over 1600 eces of infrastructure in our country that are at risk from sea level rise, and that more than half of that infrastructure is in communities that are considered disadvantaged because of racism and pollution. john: you talked about trees

providing shade, but do they also help clean the air? kristina: they do. trees are incredible, and it's what makes our green spaces, particularly in urban environments, really important to be maintaining and to be building. as it gets hotter and hotter on our planet. so, trees provide shade, but they also circulate water vapor in the atmosphere. and so, that can have a cooling effect in their vicinity. so, that's part of the reason why when we try to mitigate the urban heat island, which is the fact that cities get hotter than the surrounding areas, one of the best ways to mitigate that urban heat island is to plant trees. john: every time we do a segment like this, i get mail saying weather isn't climate and climate isn't weather, but there is a link, isn't there, between climate change and the weather we're experiencing? kristina: absolutely. so, we will always have hot summers and cooler summers, but climate change is shifting our

weather patterns, so that they are looking different over time. so, heat waves like the one the west has been experiencing the last week or so. rapid intensification of hurricanes, like we just saw on the gulf coast this past week. those sorts of things that are considered extreme weather are becoming more and more likely because of climate change. john: kristina dahl, the union of concerned scientists, thank you very much. kristina: thanks for having me. ♪ john: earlier this week, the justice department said that for the first time, it had disrupted a russian propaganda campaign that used artificial intelligence in efforts to inflame election year divisions in u.s. society. also this week, director of national intelligence avril haines issued the first of what she said would be regular updates about disinformation threats. she warned that iran was using social media to encourage pro-palestinian protests. nina jankowicz is co-founder and ceo of the american sunlight project, which studies the

threat of online disinformation. nina, ai, this new tool that everyone's being using now, but now the russians are using this. how significant is this? nina: well, i think it's a logical next step, right? russia's been engaged in these sorts of influence activities for decades. they were ahead of the curve with oine disinformation back in 2016. and if a tool comes along to make it easier for them to fluence the american public, they're certainly going to use it. and that's exactly what they did here, allowing ai to create images for social media accounts and even populate them with content that audiences in the united states might be vulnerable to. john: makes it easier for them. does it make it harder to deal with or combat? nina: well, i think in this case, you know, the justice department, along with foreign allies, was able to identify this campaign. that's a good sign. but i think what makes it more difficult for american audiences is that, again, these messages are going to be specifically tailored not only to look like

real social media posters, but they're going to be tailored to be most effective to certain vulnerable audiences across certain lines. so, for instance, anti-ukraine messaging or messaging that might be pro-gun control. that's really easy to create and populate using information that already exists online. john: are there other ways that their their efforts have become more sophisticated since we really started paying attention to it in 2016? nina: yeah. the thing that i was surprised about with this doj announcement is actually that it's a little bit back to basics for the russian government, using these sorts of troll networks, bot networks that they've used before, seemingly not particularly effective, but what has become more effective for them over the past couple of years is the fact that the internet has become more fractured. we're all on a lot of different platforms. twitter now is not as popular as it used to be. people are finding community in groups and other closed spaces online that are harder to monitor, and that's good for our foreign adversaries. john: now, i know you had been part of a biden administration

effort to deal with this. is the government the right way to do it? do they have the proper tools to deal with this? nina: well, i think when it comes to foreign interference, absolutely. the government needs to be the one that is communicating to the american people about it. however, john, one tng that worries me is that since 2020, we've seen a lot of attacks on disinformation researchers outside of the government. and frankly, the social media companies have pulled back from their efforts to identify this stuff. a couple of years ago, if an announcement like this came out, we would have seen a coordinated release from twitter with a data set detailing what these accounts were up to. those days are gone. and so while it's good that the government is pushing back on foreign disinformation, there are a lot of threats that are going uncovered because, frankly, there's been this political push to, villainize the disinformation research community over the past couple of years. john: i mean, given that, what

more could or should social media platforms be doing about this? nina: well, i think we need to see more transparency from social media platforms again. we used to see data sets coming out regularly from twitter, now x. i would welcome elon musk to return those data sets to to the public. i would like to see facebook and many of thother platforms, youtube, tiktok, where so many people are getting news and information, regularly speaking to the public not only about foreign threats, but about other myths and disinformation that we're seeing, that might affect national security, public health and public safety. john: should the government regulation push the social media platforms to do the things you're talking about? nina: well, this is exactly what europe has done with their digital services act. europe has said to the platforms you need to give researchers and journalists, etc. access to data about what's going on on your platforms so they can communicate to the public about it. and you need to run risk assessments when you're introducing new technology that's not regulating speech in any way. that's just putting some

guardrails on these extremely powerful companies that are, frankly, overseeing much of our public discourse today. and i think that that's something that the united states should have entertained a long time ago. john: you talked about, mentioned elon musk, in addition to not releasing a lot of information, he essentially says that x should be for a free for all, anything that people want to post should just go out. what do you think about that? nina: well, i think there's been some extremely harmful content, including, you know, information about his whereabouts that he's taking down. so it's not entirely true that he believes that it should be a free-for-all. that's a talking point that he uses to appeal to his, you know, his constituents, as it were, on x. i think that every social media platform needs to have some rules around content moderation, because there are harmful things that happen online that endanger people's safety, endanger people's health, and, frankly, are misinforming people ahead of a critical election in november. so, i'd like to see more accountability from those platforms, including x. john: nina, thank you very much.

nina: thanks for having me. ♪ john: every year, more than 50,000 children in foster care across the country are sent to residential treatment facilities, some for mental health services, but some simply because the foster care system is out of room. a senate investigation looked into four of the largest operators of these facilities and found that the children in their care are sometimes subjected to abuse and neglect. here's ali rogin. ali: children in the care of residential treatment facilities are at risk for sexual, physical, and emotional abuse as states fail to track mistreatment in centers run by some of the country's largest behavioral health companies. these places house children and teens who need specialized care and mental health treatment, as well as young people from foster care and the juvenile justice system. a recent senate investigation

revealed that despite receiving payments from medicaid and taxpayer-funded programs, many of them have put profit before safety. we spoke to a handful of people who lived in these types of facilities when they were younger. >> there wasn't an immediate need for me to be in a treatment facility. it was just my foster parent didn't want to deal with me anymore, so. and there was nowhere else to place me, so it was just the easiest place to put me in. >> my sister and i abruptly were moved to a residential treatment facility. we were placed in this high-level facility not because of any behavioral concerns, but because there was a lack of any other placement options. >> my mom was working three jobs at the time and was really trying her best to, you know, give us what we needed. and she looked at a treatmt facility because my sister was not coming home. she was running away with her friends. and, you know, she wanted better for her so she had admitted her into one of these facilities. >> my first night in that group

home, one of the staff ended up fired the next day for sleeping with a bunch of youth in the bathtub. that was just day one. >> staff is monitoring you 24/7. they check on you every 15 minutes at night. you know, during the day, you're not allowed to just, like, walk outside. >> going in with someone that you have a very close bond with, we weren't allowed to touch. so, there was no hugging allowed. you know, even in moments of discomfort. for us to fall in line or to stay well behaved, a lot of times they would threaten to separate us. >> i don't understand why certain people are hired into these facilities, but it's very obvious that they shouldn't be. i was force put on drugs and overly medicated at eight years old, having to wean myself off of it was hard too. >> if the staff just really aren't sure what to do or how to handle a situation, and it seems immediate, like the results are like giving someone a shot. >> they will threaten you, that they're going to put you in a

hold or physically restrain you for not doing something that they want you to do. >> she wasn't provided what she actually needed. she was more reprimanded. and that's not what facilities should be. >> my group home experience is something i still carry with me to this day. my body is covered in scars from some of those fights. >> it was a really, really hard time to go through just because, like, as a child, it's like, who do you tell in these facilities? everyone's so interconnected. >> people need to really get down in there and figure out what's going on in these facilities and what's not working, because obviously something's not working. >> these are going to be the citizens of tomorrow that go through this system. they could be anyone's kids. that's how easy it is to be forgotten about. >> these are people that may need extra help and extra care, and we have to make sure we're paying attention to that. ali: for more on the conditions that some young people face in these residential treatment

facilities, i'm joined by sixto cancel, founder and ceo of think of us, a non-profit aimed at improving conditions for youth in child welfare system. thank you so much for being here. i want to ask you first, what problems were these sorts of residential treatment facilities created for? and is there agreement that these types of facilities are the best way to address these problems? sixto: you know, there are young people who experienced foster care and at no fault of their own, they have been removed and placed in foster care because of extreme physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse. and there are times where we need to address that trauma and short-term quality residential treatment is needed. but that's not what we're seeing today. what we're seeing today is that there are states and young people being put in facilities where it is as a housing option. ali: many of the people that we spoke to said that these facilities are like prisons. what are the conditions there? sixto: there are research that shows that when young people age out of foster care, that they are two times more likely to experience ptsd than an iraq war veteran.

our young people told us stories about how when they woke up, they were subjected to a strict schedule, forced to eat things, restrained, sedated, that the rules were so strict that they couldn't actually live life. ali: and this senate investigation used many of the findings from your own report, which featured firsthand accounts from people who have been through this system. why is it so important to focus on the voices of the people that went through the system? sixto: for decades, there's been this argument about whether children need to be raised in families, or whether they can be raised in facilities responsibly. but when we heard the stories of every single one of those young people, whether it's our report or other reports from other sectors of young people living in these facilities, what we heard was a great injustice, that they were maltreated, that they were beaten on by staff, that they were sexually abused by others in those facilities. ali: why is it so difficult to gather the evidence required to really show the conditions in these facilities?

sixto: we have to be believed. even when i was 13 and i was trying to speak out about the abuse that i was experiencing in a foster home, i had to literally tape a recorder to my chest to be able to get the evidence. the system is broken. there's no way that we can fundamentally say, hey, this is happening to me and i need you to investigate. and this is why we need congress to make sure that they're putting in the levers for us to be able to have a voice that is obligated to be heard. ali: the issue here seems to be endemic to the business model where these facilities are turning massive profit. is that part of the issue? sixto: facilities get paid for how many beds are filled per night. these facilities on average are making $1000 per night per kid. so, if there's not a kid sleeping in that bed, they don't get to be there. one facility takes $30 million to run. and yet, they're bringing in over $200 million a year. ali: part of the issue also seems to be that states are not doing a good job of monitoring abuses at these facilities. what needs to change there? sixto: states need to hold residentials accountable.

but most importantly, states need to use the option that works. the option that works is placing children with their family members. it shows that they have less behavioral health issues. it shows that it's much more productive to a society. ali: it really sounds like part of the issue is relieving the pipeline of children that are sent to these facilities. if you remove some of the stress on the system, you get the children who really need that care into the facilities and others, as you've been saying, into foster situations where they're being looked after by a member of their own families or other kin? sixto: states are struggling to find enough foster parents, but the reality is, is that these children have actual family members who can step up for them. so, if we place those children with the right supports, the non-profits who can come out and support those families, then we won't see many of them go into these facilities. in fact, the federal agency over child welfare said that over 40% of these children don't actually need to be in a residential treatment center. ali: we heard back from two of the companies investigated by the senate. one of them, universal health services, said the senate report is "incomplete and misleading and provides an inaccurate

depiction of the care and treatment provided." another group, devereaux, claims the report's findings do not apply to them, saying the facts disprove any suggestion of unpremeditated or systemic abuse or neglect at devereaux. what do you make of those responses? do you think these organizations are being held accountable? sixto: what i would tell congress, and what i would tell the american public is to believe the people who have been sexually abused, believe the people who have been physically abused. this is not a one-off case. ere is systemic issues within these companies, and there are records and human beings who will tell you what they have experienced. ali: sixto cancel, founder and ceo of think of us, thank you so much for being here. sixto: pleasure's mine. ♪ john: and that is "pbs news weekend" for this saturday. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. see you tomorrow. >> major funding for pbs news

weekend has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. thought i would let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> 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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