♪ this is the "cbs overnight news." good evening, and thanks for watching. we begin tonight with a spreading covid threat. even with just over half of americans now fulfill vaccinated, that's not enough to hold off a surge of new cases. the u.s. is now reporting an average 100,000 infections per day, up from 11,000 in late june. hospitalizations are also up, averaging about 50,000 a day. cbs' mola lenghi is in sturgis, south dakota, tonight, where there's clearly more fun than fear. >> reporter: that's right, jericka. here at the rally, there are no

mask mandates, no vaccination requirements. and that's just how these bikers seem to like it. while parts of the rest of the country deal with that severe covid spike, here at sturgis, you'd barely know the virus exists. with more than half a million people expected at the annual sturgis motorcycle rally, the city manager thought he'd be a little busier delivering covid rapt tests to people with symptoms. any issues as far as covid? >> we haven't had any issues. we have covid tests and masks available. in the very beginning we were running around town making a lot of deliveries and starting to get worried about how we're going to keep up, but ultimately interest in it really went away. >> the entire u.s. is red hot with covid spread. health officials say the delta surge is dire in the southeast, including florida, tennessee, and connecticut where hospitalizations jumped into% in a week.

>> reporter: in hard-hit florida, deaths have quadrupled in a month. at jacksonville's impact church, the congregation is reeling from a fatal outbreak. >> we literally have six people who have tested positive, end up in hospital and pass away within the last ten days. >> reporter: new infections are highest among the unvaccinated. just 50% of americans are fully vaccinated. >> we're scared because of our age. >> reporter: there's a push to get shots in the arms of children as many begin heading back to classrooms starting tomorrow. >> i can't think of a business that would put 30 unvaccinated people in a confined space without masks and keep them there for a whole day. >> reporter: one in five new covid cases in the last week of july were kids. >> this is political overreach. >> reporter: still, the debate over school masks and vaccine mandates continues to boil over. compliance is mandatory for americans who want to go to canada, they must be vaccinated

and have proof of a negative covid test. after 16 months the great white north is finally re-opening its borders to u.s. visitors tomorrow. but canadians won't be allowed to come here until august 21st. most of the bikers we've spoken to here tell us they have at least one shot. as a state, more than 54% of south dakotans are fully vaccinated. that is higher than the national average, jericka. >> mola lenghi for us in sturgis, south dakota for us, thank you. the aide who filed a criminal complaint against new york governor andrew cuomo is publicly coming forward for the first time. in an exclusive interview for cbs this morning and the times union, i spoke to brittany commisso. she's identified as executive assistant number one in new york attorney general's report on sexual harassment allegations against the three-term democratic governor. in that report, commisso said she was groped and sexually harassed by the governor.

she is one of 11 women accusing the governor of sexual misconduct. >> when you openhat report, executive assistant number one is first, and you were not the first to come forward with allegations of sexual harassment, misconduct by the governor. why do you think your story appears first? >> i believe that my story appears first due to the nature of the inappropriate conduct that the governor did to me. i believe that he groped me, he touched me not only once but twice. and i don't think that that had happened to any of the other women, the touching. and i believe that because of what had happened to me that

of the actions that he had done. >> governor cuomo denies all accusations of sexual harassment or unwanted advances and says he will not step down. you can see more of our exclusive interview with brittany commisso on "cbs this morning." the fires and extreme weather seen around the world could be a preview of what's to come. tomorrow, the world's top climate scientists are set to release a landmark report that includes a stark warning about the expected changes to oceans, ice caps, and land in the coming decades and how humans are making it worse. to japan now where the tokyo olympics officially came to a close today. the games ended as they began, in a pandemic with fireworks, athletes, and a mostly empty stadium. good news, though, on the last day of competition, team usa won the most gold medals and total medal count.

our jamie yuccas is in tokyo and has been covering it all for us. jamie, great job out there. >> reporter: thank you. we like those wins, too. well, the closing ceremony was a celebration of athlete accomplishments. the olympic games will be remembered for so much more. the summer games are over for tokyo. next up, paris 2024. a smaller-than-normal closing ceremony in tokyo due to covid restrictions, and athletes having to leave 48 hours after competition. it highlighted the more than 200 nations who participated. usa javelin thrower kara winger marched with the american flag. and it was a moment of reflection for the 2020 olympic games delayed a year by covid as the cauldron was extinguished. the two weeks of action also put a focus on athletes' mental health when star gymnast simone biles pulled out of key events. biles back home in texas spoke with president biden and the first lady on a zoom call along with other team usa athletes.

>> it's been a long journey. the olympics was not how i expected it to go, but putting my mental and my physical health first will probably be one of my greatest accomplishments. >> you set an example. i really mean it, simone. you had the courage to say i need some help, i need some time. >> allyson felix posted to instagram that she was excited to head home after winning 11 medals, surpassing carl lewis as the most decorated track and field athlete. and the usa women's basketball team beat japan to win gold. their seventh straight gold medal win. >> couldn't be more happy. this is always really difficult to win a gold medal. this year was even harder, given just all the challenges everyone faced. >> reporter: the paralympics will start here in tokyo august 22nd. there does seem to be a collective sigh of relief among athletes who waited for two

years and wondering. >> we'll be glad to get you here to this country, too. again, great coverage, jamie. do you struggle with occasional nerve aches in your hands or feet? try nervivenerve relief from the world's #1 selling nerve care company. nervive contains alpha lipoic acid to relieve occasional nerve aches, weakness and discomfort. try nervivenerve relief.

this is the "cbs overnight news." >> i'm jericka duncan in new york. thanks for staying with us. after months of delay due to the pandemic, the united nations will release its latest report on climate change today. the report is ten years in the making, and it's expected to deliver a stark warning about global warming and its effects on the environment. it will also address how human behavior is adding to the problem. meteorologists and climate specialist reports. >> i've seen a lot of crazy weather in my career, but i cannot remember a time where there were so many extremes in so many parts of the world

simultaneously. and experts say this is just the beginning. >> flash floods level thousand-year-old villages in europe, entire neighborhoods submerged in china. raging wildfires incinerate millions of acres across the mediterranean, canada, and the pacific northwest. that's just a glimpse into what's already the most extreme summer in memory. columbia university climate scientist has made a career out of studying extreme weather. >> the speed and frequency and intensity of extreme events has been startling at times and more than a little scary. >> reporter: scary even for a scientist intimately familiar with decade-long predictions of escalating extremes. >> it feels like the reality is outpacing our expectations. >> reporter: according to the u.n., global climate disasters have nearly doubled since the

1980s. and in the u.s., billion-dollar weather disasters have increased by five times. >> so, as we start to go from one degree of warming to two degrees of warming to three degrees of warming, the impacts on extreme weather aren't linear, they increase even faster, don't they? >> right, so water vape, for example, increases exponentially with temperature. >> and extra moisture means hundred year floods now happen every few years. in july over 200 people were killed when two months of rain fell in just two days across western europe. >> so many people died. >> reporter: a belgium official described the floods as one of the greatest natural disasters our country has ever known. earlier this week, monsoon mudslides wiped out a section of interstate 70 in colorado. engineers said it was unlike anything they had ever seen before. a lot of our infrastructure was built for the 20th century. it's a new century, we have a new climate are. things going

to have to change? >> investments in infrastructure have to continue to increase, otherwise investments are just going to continue to be destroyed. >> reporter: speaking of heat, in the pacific northwest an early summer heat wave pushed temperatures to the brink of what's physically possible. killing nearly a thousand people and setting the stage for a fierce fire season. take the city of lytton, canada. three days in a row they broke their all-time record highs. 121 degrees. next day, 90% of the town. >> while we have already expected and predicted wildfires as a consequence of warming, how fast and how severely it has happened has been really shocking and disturbing. >> reporter: the scale of this summer's fires across canada and the western u.s. are already unprecedented. from above, satellites capture

extreme fire behavior. fires producing their own lightning storms igniting new fires. and on the other side of the globe, a record-shattering heat wave is fueling massive fires across the mediterranean. would it be safe to say that this is not just a new normal for the future but that that new normal is going to continue to shift until we stop warming the planet? >> yeah, and i think that's incredibly important. this is a long-term increase, and it's going to keep going as long as we keep emitting carbon dioxide. >> reporter: but, for that reason, he says ultimately we are in control of how bad it gets. >> we're making decisions not just for ourselves but for generations to come and what they're going to face is going to be much more extreme than what we're seeing today. well, apple is getting both praise and criticism for its plan to roll out a new software feature that targets child pornography. the tool will automatically scan the photos on your iphone or

ipd looking for known images of child sex abuse. it will also allow parents to get notified if their child's phone has sent or received sexually explicit photos and automatically blur those images. child abuse experts call it a step forward in protecting children. but others have privacy concerns. and cybersecurity experts say the new software opens up a back door for apple devices to be hacked. tom hanson reports. >> reporter: new controversy over apple's latest software update. the program scheduled for rollout later this year will scan u.s. iphones for images of child sex abuse. >> apple's gone out of its way to make this as privacy friendly as possible. >> reporter: jim lewis is an expert in cybersecurity. > how exactly will this software work? >> there will be part of the program that has access to data, what they call hashes of

imagery. in other words, the picture reduced to a numeric formula. apple will use that numeric formula to look for things, images that match it on your device. >> reporter: if there is a match, the photos will be shown to an apple employee, verified sensitive material will then be forwarded to the national cente children and the user's icloud account will be ld. dwing both andoutcry on twitter. ashton kutcher tweeting, it's a major step forward in the fight to eliminate child sexual abuse material from the internet. security watchdogs concerned the new software could be exploited by hackers and foreign governments. the head of whatsapp calling this a major set back for personal privacy, tweeting, can the scanning software running yo your phone be errorproof? researchers have not been allowed to find out. >> do you think that this could potentially put certain people under scrutiny from law enforcement who don't deserve to

be? >> apple program in itself is designed in such a way that the chances of it making a mistake, of it saying something is child pornography, or not, are infinitely small. >> reporter: for better or for worse, do you think that apple's move here will push other large tech companies to follow suit? >> i think all the tech companies are looking at ways to deal with malicious content. there's a lot of bad stuff on the internet, and it's more than overdue that they try and step in to change that. >> reporter: apple says its efforts to protect children will evolve and expand over time. tom hanson, new york. welcome to cbs this morning. we have a lot of news today. we have a lot of news today. >> watch gayle king, antho depression. multiple symptoms hold you back. it's hard to get out of your driveway, and your own way. gotta change this.

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is now on the run from her own government. >> my grandmother called me and said please don't come back to belarus. and that was the reason why i go to -- >> reporter: fearing prison, she used google translate to show japanese police at haneda airport a plea for help. she is now in poland on a humanitarian visa. the 24-year-old sprinter's troubles began after she went on social media to criticize how her team was being managed at the games, setting off a major backlash in belarusian state media. >> how i can come back to belarus? because for sure now it's so dangerous for me. i don't know when i can come back to home. it's my country, but now it's so sad that i can't come back. >> reporter: belarus is often described as europe's last dictatorship. for nearly 30 years it's been

led by president alexander lukashenko. he's under sanctions following n last year, and has aggressively targeted dissidents including those outside belarus' borders. the main opposition leader who ran against lukashenko now lives in exile. this is her spokesman. >> on one hand this is regime doesn't have any boundaries and it's ready to terrorize its citizens all over the world. >> now, her ordeal is eerily rea reminiscent of sporting defections during the height of the cold war. but this is lek shenko's own war against his own people. skateboarding made its olympic debut this summer. and skaters from the host country japan were dominant.

ot of the 12 medals handed out the japanese won five including three out of four golds. just a few years ago skateboarding was frowned upon in japan. lucy craft explains. skateboarding evangelist. a youtuber with over 200,000 subscribers, he test-rides skateparks, demystifies new tricks and tirelessly preaches the gospel of skatings. a self-described misfit who briefly dropped out of school. he found unlikely salvation on a narrow plank of wood and the friendship of fellow outcasts. >> back then skateboarders were more antisocial, people that couldn't fit into society like me, like i couldn't fit in school. i really felt like i didn't have freedom. but skateboarding gave me freedom. >> reporter: now 23, skateboarding has taken him on skate aid trips bringing boards

to underprivileged kids in sri lanka. he's got his own clothing fine, crowd funds for skaters trying t go he just published a memoir. the urban jungle, japanese cities packedai and slopes has proven an irresistible playground for tourists. among many japanese, skateboarding still carries the whiff of delinquency. >> if i am holding my skateboard and just walking, some people will tell me, like, what are you doing, that's for losers or like you're not supposed to be doing that. >> reporter: and yet despite a lack of space and sympathy, japanese skaters have excelled at a sport that levels the playing field for athletes with small, light physiques and exploits the country's strengths at mastering detailed maneuvers. thanks in part to skateboarding's olympic visibility, he said the sport is finally starting to shed its outsider status. >> the japanese society has a

lot of rules, a lot of restrictions and people are really getting tired of this. skateboarding is a sport of freedom. people are just really enjoying the freedom of it >>

if you are planning on seeing italy this summer, you better have your vaccine card handy. that's because the country has launched strict new covid rules. without proof of vaccination, you won't be getting into any bars, restaurants or tourist sites. >> reporter: want to see inside the colliseum or how about the sistine chapel? not without a covid pass. as of today it's italy's golden ticket for indoor venues. this is a texas tourist visiting just before new rules took effect and without getting vaccinated. how would you get into restaurants and things like that without your vaccination here in italy? [ laughter ] >> reporter: i wouldn't be able

to. >> reporter: if he got tested, a negative result from the past 48 hours would also do the trick. for the vaccinated, your cdc card is just as good. >> i think it's a good idea because it makes the people who have been vaccinated feel a little safer. >> reporter: for italians, some have taken to the streets calling it a violation of civil liberties. but for the vast majority, it's a way to ensure italy once the epicenter of the pandemic never returns to the hell of last year where they ran out of space to bury the dead. indeed, vaccination rates have tripled in some regions shortly after the new rules were rolled out. this after a slow vaccination start in europe. but today more people are getting vaccinated in the e.u. than in the u.s. >> and that's the overnight news for this monday. for some of you the news continues. for others check back with us

later for "cbs this morning." and follow us any time at ing h jericka duncan. good morning. this is cbs news flash. new york governor andrew cuomo's top aide has resigned. melissa da rosa called the past two years emotionally and mentally trying. cuomo has denied any wrongdoing following a state attorney general's report which found he sexually harassed 11 women. jury selection begins today in the federal trial of robert kelly, also knownwn as r. kelly. the entertainer faces federal racketeering charges linked to several sex crimes against women and girls. taliban fighters have taken control of much of afghanistan's critical kunduz province. this comes after a monthlong

battle of government forces and the complete withdrawal of u.s. troops. i'm elise preston, cbs news, new york. ♪ it's monday, august 9th, 2021. this is contract "cbs morning news." wrong direction. america's battle against covid takes another step back. the troubling trend not seen since february. what he did to me was a crime. he broke the law. >> breaking her silence, a former executive assistant publicly talks for the first time about how she was allegedly sexually harassed by new york govern a tokyo passes the baton for the 2024 olympics. what organizers have already promised in the wake of the pandemic. ♪ good morning, good to be with

you.