captioning sponsored by newshour p captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruf g >> woodruff:d evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, wounded by the trade war-- the tru administration offers billions in relief to u.s. farmers hurt by the president's tariffs. then, the second part of our l ok at the growing awareness of fetal alcohol disorder. tonight: how families cope with the diagnosis. >> those kids are at such high risk of falling through the cracks because they look typical, people expect typical behavior from them but they've got a brain injury. >> woodruff: and, year learning. how some schools are doing away with summer vacation in order to achieve a more balanced schedule for students.me >> today'scan school calendar was created for the

19th centu farm and factory economy and hasn't kept pace edth the needs of our changing economy and the of families in today's world. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonig's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> knowledge, it's where innovation begins. it's what leads us to discovery and motivates us to succeed. it's why we ask the tough qutions and what leads us the answers. at leidos, we're standing behind those working to improve the world's health, safety, and efficiency. leidos.

>> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. te babbel. a language app thes real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> and with the ongoing support of these institions: >> this program was made porible by the corporation public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

tonight,uff: greece is a nation in mourning tonight, after wildfires killed at least 74 people near athens. they died monday when the flames, fanned by gale-force winds, swept through sea-side resorts. 200 other people were hurt. james mates of independent television news has our report from mati. >>nseporter: as so often hap in these tragedies, it wasn't the intensity that killed, but the speed at which they traveled. wildfires are a normal part of summer in the hills around athens. locals tend to take little tice and only rarely have to leave their homes. ngat was not normal last night was a wind blowio force nine and pushing the flames directly toward seaside resorts perched t edge of the aegean. asny realized too late the mortal danger thatacing towards them. ewe group of 26 people raced for the sea but just aozen meters short were cut off. reports suggest they died in a

huddle hugging each other. in the aftermath this morning, we found panagiotis dagalos hunting foany clue as to what happened to his wife, kaliope he told me how they and their child were caught in their car, surrounded by flames. >> the fire came here very quickly so we lost the chance to take the car and run away because all the cars, you know, onr behind the other. and the road is blocked. the first thing we thought is how to get the baby and run away. but i think my wife didn't make it. >> reporter: 700 people are believed to have esche flames by jumping in the sea. it is truly tragic just how close some of the victims were to safety. they've cleared this now to the side of the road but this is the aftermath of the gridlock as people fled in panic looking foa thty of the sea. ctd despite the fact that the water's no more than 30 meters away some didn't make it.

outside his house today, harris told us how concern for his dogs onalmost made him wait too >> i was staying with my dogs until the smoke got in the ge were starting to suffocating and then we left the house with my dogs.bu even this 100 meters that ito had to deach the sea, it aus a very difficult task for me at that moment b the cars were burning. t reporter: there will be three days of national mourning and an almost unimaginable death toll from fire like this. and even then, greeks are thankful this didn't happen on a weekd when the resort of mat would have been jam-packed with athenians escaping the city heat one very small mercy. >> woodruff: that report from james mates of independent television news. a heat wave over asia is taking a growing toll. officials in japan said today record temperatures have claimed ov least 80 lives over the past

two weeks. thousands have been sent to hospitals. meanwhile, yet another heat wave is broiling the southwestern u.s., with triple digit readings. power grid operators in california are urging people to limit usage duri rilimit usage during peak s to avoid blackouts. in laos, hundreds of people ar in laos, hundreds of people are missing after part of a hydro- electric dam collapsed last night. officials confirmed at two deaths. the dam complex was being builtt in southn laos, and was hit by days of monsoon rains. the resulting deluge engulfed whole villages and forced more than 6,600 people to flee. rescue efforts continued into nee night. president trump down the tough talk on iran today. he had tweeted sunday night that if iran threatens the u.s., it culd face, "linsequences the s of which few have ever suffered." today, he addressed ore veterans ofgn wars convention in

kansas city, missouri, and seemed to tout pspects for peace. >> and iran is nothe same country anymore, that i can say. and we'll see what hapns. we're ready to make a real dealt not the det was done by the previous administration which was a disaster. >> woodruff: mr. trump pulled out of the 2015 iran nuclear deal in may. the u.s. will begin reimposing sanctions in less than two weeks. on north korea, the president welcomed word that pyongyang may be dismantling its main satellite launch site. t said it shows his summit with kim jong un made a difference. the website "38 north" released new satellite images of the site. they show demolition of various facilities. secretary of state mike pompeo addressed the issue as he and defens with their australian counterparts in palo alto, lilifornia. >> it'd be entirely consistent

with the commitment that chairman kim made to president trump when the two of them weres uh, gapore together. he made that commitment to them orally.in we've been prefor there to be inspectors on the ground when that engine test facis dismantled consistent with chairman kim's commitment. >> woodruff: on a related issue, president trump also said today he hopes the nor o will soon har more remains of americans killed during the korean war. he gave no tetable. israel shot down a syrian thghter jet today, and sai plane had breached its airspace. social media video swed contrails from two patriot missiles fired at the jet. the israelis said they first tried to warn the pilot off. syrian officials said the warplane was flying inside syrian territory. they said one crewman was killed, and a second was killed, and a second was missing. turkey and israel had a fiery exchange today, over a new statute that defines israel as a jewish nation-state.

in ankara, turkish president recep tayip erdogan condemned the law in provocative terms. >> ( translated ): with this listion, it is proved without doubt that israel is the world's most zionist, fascist, e.cist state. there's no difference betwee there's no difference between obsession with a pure race and the belief that these ancient lands are just for the jews. the soul of hitler, who led the world to a great catastrophe,ri han again within some of israel's officials. >> woodruff: israeli primeer minienjamin netanyahu fired back in a tweet that accused erdogan of "mang syrians and kurds." ivanka trump, the prt's daughter and senior tivisor, is sh down her namesake fashion company. shcited the need to focus her work at the white house. her brand had come under fire for manufacturing clothes in china. she also faced ethical questions about winning trademarks in china since her fath took office.

and, on wall street, blue chips advanced, on upbeat earnings reports. the dow jones industrial average gained 197 points to close near 25,242. the nasdaq fell one point, and the s&p 500 added 13. nill to come on the newshour: plans to prop up farmers hurt by the u.s. trade war. the white house threatens to take away security clearances from former top officials. the underestimated risks of drinking while pregnant, and much more. >> woodruff: president trump's escalating trade war with u.s. allies and china comes with a cost. today, the trump administration maved to mitigate the damage to one group: u.s. farmers. the department of agriculture w announced l provide $12 billion in emergency relief to

offset the effects of tariffs. speaking before a grof veterans of foreign wars, mr. trump argued his trade strategy isorking. >> you have to see these trade deals i'm working on. they're a disasterun we're losingeds of billions of dollars with individual countri a year. we're making tremendous progress. they're all coming. they don tariffs put on them. they're all coming to see us. and the farmers will be the biggest beneficiary. watc (applause) we're opening up markets. tsu watch what's going to happen. just be a little patient. >> woodruff: critics of the president's plan were quick to respond, with some of the harshest comments coming from members of his own party. republican senator ben sasse of i spoke with one of them, republican senator ben sasse of nebraska and asked for his response to mr. trump's claims of success. >> whenever you're having a

trade war, something is going wrong. when there is more trade in thew world, america. frankly, our trading partners win as well, because trade is ai win. but when you have tariffs, that will lead to more tariffs, which ad to moreariffs, which lead to more tariffs, which means less trade, which means amerans lose. we lose as consumers and we lose as producers. i think that quote from the president, it's important to point out what a bilaterrade deficit is. we've had one with mexico for 40 years in a row. that means they sell us more stuff and we t sellm more services or they invest in the united states. so regularly the president obsesses over bilateral trade product deficits where oftentimes it's not a problem at all, and with mexico and the u.s., we've had win-win for 40 years in a row. with china we have different problems, and he's right part of that, but that quote, that doesn't really represent what is happening in trade. that's going tod to less trade, and that means america loses. we wanca more ame winning. >> woodruff: senator, will iis $12 billion, though, that the administrati announcing

today in help to farmers, will that make a difference? >> no. so first of all, we should back up andni rec that american farm centers general, but especially nebraska farmers and ranchers, i live in the most productive state in the history of agriculture right now. our people feed the world. they don't want bailouts. they want more trade. and so when you have tariffs that are bad and then you try to balve them with bailouts, anothe thing, you're not heading in a good direction. yore trying to make america 1929 again. the people in my state want to feed theorld. we want more markets and more trade. >> woodruff: let me quote the head of the national pork producers couil, who said today, "yes, this is a tough time," but he said, "i commend the president for taking steps to provide much-needed relieffao ers who are in the crosshairs of this trade war. >> well, i appreciate people trying to make the best lemonade they can out of a bad situation some youear a lot of ag groups

needing to distinguish between the short term and the monium and the term. we should be focused on the medium and long term. what we want is more trade. you can't find pork producers og cornwers or bean guys or cattlemen around the u.s., you can't find people who think this a great moment for america. they think we sit on the precipice of something really dangerous. they want more trade. right now the straight's approach is leading to more brinksmanship and more tariffs. we can do better than this. >> woodruff: do you believe, or let me ask you this way, do you think the president is feeling polital pressure o this? are you and other senators, other members of congress going to thehite house try to change his mind? >> so i talked to the president regularly about stuff like this. one of the things i want toth commen president for is he definitely has the listening hear. he's always willing to talk with you and he and i have a pretty healthy wrestling match on these topics. we obviously don't see eye to e on trade. i'm arguably the most pro free trade senator in this body, so

we don't see eye to eye, but he is willing to listen. the problem is he's reallyse ed about bilateral trade product deficits, and he thinks if you have a trade product deficit, that it's like a real ettate transaction that went wrong and sng took advantage of you. that's not usually what it means. it usually means one country might be selling us good and we're selling them services or they're making invessoents. the president listen, but right now the approach isn't heading in the right direction.w druff: so you don't see a sign he may be changing his mind irn any way o backing off in any way? and the other part of my question is, any chance congress might pass some sort of... might move to enhance its own free trade authority? >> yeah, we should do that. so i support lots of differente legislatehicles that would claw back powers that belong to the congress. so when go back and do constitution 101, it says right in there, article 1, whi is the congress, article 2 is the executive branch, article 1 has the power of tariffs. article 1 has the power of trade

negotiations, andhis institution, frankly, is really, really impotent. for about years in a row, you have a bunch of people in congress, both house and senate, both democrats andoepublicans, frankly love their incumbency more than they like making hard choices, soeople have punted power to the executive branch for a really long time. the things theresident is doing, they're ill-advised, but oiey're not illegal because the congress has been what's called statutory delegation to give the presidentwexecutive for these negotiations. we should take those powers back, and the congress should start doing some of the tough business of why the peopl sent us here. we should be opening up more markets, and we should have more trade. t now the president's approach is leading us in the wrong correcf:on. >> woodr finally, just to come back to today's move by the department of agriculture, this $12 billion in aid, you're saying that's not going to make any difference at all? >> all across the country, we we have bean prices at ten-year

lows. we have lots of farmers in my state. they've been in my office three consecutive weeks. i have heard frohelots of at home, heading to church and heading to the store and little league over this weekend. you have bean farmers that a really scared, becse those producers are looking at current stock market prices that are less than their cost of production, let alone making any money to pay for their kids' food. they're looking at losing money. so this number, $12 billion, it's an attempt to put a bandaid ch a problem that's much, larger. the bean losses alone are nearly $12 billion this year. that's one product area. trade wars don't work. trade wars are never won. they're always lost by both sides.mo we nee trade, not more bellicose threatening. >> woodruff: as of now, no signs that this is a policy that's going to change. senator ben sasse of nebraska, we thank you. ha>>s for the invite.oo

>>uff: trade is not the only area where republicans are questioning the president. a threat issued from the white house yesterday to possibly revoke security clearances of icx former national security and intelligence ols set off bipartisan criticism. nick schifrin has the story.ai >> schifrin: oforce one this evening, a white house spokesperson said the president "has beg the mechanism" to revoke the clearances. the half dozen tgeted have all been critical of the president. press secretary sarah sanders, who first announced the threat to revoke yesterday, sd the former officials' comments on the administration's russiain policy werpropriate. today, speaker of the house paul ryan, said this about president trump's motives: >> i think he's trolling people anestly. >> schifrin: to taut this, i'm joined by jeffrey smith, former general counsel for the c.i.a.nd former general counsel for the senate armed services committee.

is it appropriate for the white house or the president vo threaten to former national security officials' clearance? >> no, it's not. "inappropriate" is too week a word in my opinion. i can understand why the president is angry, but thepo wy to r is to respond with a factual response, not to seek to intimidate and bully those who have spoken out against him. former officials who have devoted their lives to this country, ty do not deserve to be treated this way. they have the right to sigak, and it'sy inappropriate for the president to seek to thtimidate or bully them. >> schifrin: what'impact of this, not only on these foer officials, but is the any impact on current intelligence officials who might brief the president or the white house? >> yes, i think there is. it injects an element of fear into the system.nc the cleais essential to ore performance of your job, and there are rulesow you get clearance and there are rules

for how a clearance is revoked. the president has just publicly taid that these clearances m be revoked that's never happened before, not even in the mccarthy or nixon era. and what that does is itreates an atmosphere of fear in the national security community that if an individual serving officer speaks, even perhaps in pr within the confines of his or her own agency, a politically appointed person might listeto that and think they're being disloyal and report them, and the president could say, well, that's... they should lose their clearance. this element of fear is dangerous, and it willause people to hesitate to tell the truth. >> schifrin: we heard the white usspokesperson on air force one talk about beginning the process. can the president just do this?a he just say that the clearances should be revoked, and would they be revoke >> not without breaking all the rules that have been created by executive order. there is an executive that lays out the "adjudication guidelines" for how a person is aluated for a clearance as

well as what happens if a person no longer meets those guidelines. the president just simply can't say, thiperson has revoked the clearances. if that's what he thinks should happen, then he should issue a new regulation that says anyone who speaks and is critical of e policy of the government no longer is entitled to a clearance. >> schifrin: on the other hand, doesn't the administration have a point? these former officia or many former officials, don't they monetize their clearances? don't that they got in government in order to get private-sector jobs? doesn't the administration have a point there? >> i'm not sure what the connection is between monetizing their clearances to perform legitimate work for companies or to advise the government and the criticism that ms. sanders made yesterday that they have somehow politicized their clearances. i don't understand the logic there. it is certainly true that when obu leave the government you have a continuingation to protect classified information.

rou have toct classified information. if you disclose it, it's a crime. if you do any of the other things that could cause you to clearance -- alcoholism drug abuse, financial problems, and so on -- you could lose a yoearance, but not for speaking mind, not for criticizing the president, particularly by former officials. they write books. they teach classes. they contribute to debate. it's an abuse of the president's ncwers, and i hope the ages will resist it. >> schifrin: you used the word "abuse" there, but the president, the white house argues that these former officials are basically idusing the prt. you had john brennan calling president trump's performance with vladimir putin nothing short of treasonous. jim clapper compared the president to a russian intelligence asset. is that appropriate for senior officials? is that language that's appropriate for senior officials to use? >> i will leave to them whether it's appropriate. i understand their concern about what the president is doing. s point simply is that the president's responuld not be to seek to revoke their

clearances, but he should respond in kind by saying, what you say is not true. but many of his responses, it seems to me, ring hallow. his actions with respect to russia are not consistent with, in my judgment, what really should be american interests, and it's inexplicable. these are officials who worry terribly about this countr and what he is doing. >> schifrin: jefferey smith, f:ank you very mh. coming up on the newshour: so called "duck boats" under scrutiny for its safety record after a deadly accident. the pros and cons of year-round school. o and the looming deadline- unite separated migrant families.

but first, the dangers of drinking while pregnant. amna nawaz reports from minnesota on the challenges families face whare living with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.la the effect a lifetime and there is no known cure. it's the second of her two stories on the subject. >> nawaz: the de campo salles house is a hive of activity. olivia helps out in the kitchen. natasha trains the family dogs. and overseeing it all, are mama sue and mama jo, susanna and her wife, jo-lynn. their dream of starting a family came true when they adopted tasha from russia at just 18 months old. but back home in minneapolis, they noticed unusual behavio >> she was not able to sit still like the other kids. she had a lot of sensory needs. she would cry for hours. i had to hold it really tight

and rock h for probably an ur and a half to two hours and sh >> nawaz: early on, doctors noted tasha's hyperactivity and inability to focus, and diagnosed her with a.d.h.d. but treatment didn't help. years and several tests later, when she was nine, tasha was diagnosed with fetal alcohol s.spectrum disorder, or f. >> it was scary. you know it's like ok what's hef what's hure going to be? you know what's the next 20 years going to look like. wd you know from what we heard it sounded prey bleak. but then once you kind of get past that first shock then you just dig in, getnto gear and go. of nawaz: ruth richardson, of the minnesota organi the minnesota organization on fetal alcohol syndrome, says because symptoms can overlap with other disorders, doctors often miss an f.a.s.d. diagnosis. >> those kids who really have what we see as an invisible disability where they don't have any of the sort of physical manifestations of the disability

but they've got this brain injury, those kids are at such high risk of falling through the cracks because they look alpical, people expect typical behavior from them but they've behavior from them but they've got a brain injury and because of that those kids are oftentimes set up for failure within our communities. >> nawaz: tasha is now 16 years old. do you remember when your parents first told you about f.a.s.d? >> i think i was like nine and i was like i don't really care. so like i was young i was like ok i thought it was likea. h.d. but it didn't really affect me eden i was younger it kind of affee more when i was like in high school because then i really started noticing stuff younawaz: like what woul notice? >> i noticed that i got more angry and more irritable and nere impulsive. like there is thisime one of my friends dared me to jump out the bus window and so i did. >> nawaz: to jump out of the bus window while it was mo >> no it was like stopping. >> nawaz: still. >> yeah. >> nawaz: did you hurt yourself? >> no i dn't hurt myself because i'm a gymnast and everything.

so i do the landing orhatever. >> nawaz: olivia, who's also 16, joined the family a few years ago when she needed a stable place to live. she'd been dgnosed with bipolar disorder at a young age, but the de campo salles' knew her birth mother drank while she was pregnant and olivia was ultimately diaosed with f.a.s.d. in 2015. >> i don't really think about it that i have an f.a.s.d. really. it's just you know i mean it never really comes up at all i look perfectly normal to everyone else. >> nawaz: because doctors don't know how much alcohol can cause f.a.s.d., the official guidelines say that no amount is safe during pregnancy. still, according to the c.d.c., about one inen pregnant women in the u.s. report having atal least onholic beverage while pregnant. why? mixed messages from doctors-- not all of whom advocate for total alcohol abstinence, and from the mediawhere conflicting studies can lead too using headlines. pediatrician judith eckerle says because so many individual cause so many individual health factors play a role, the

safest medical advice is tong avoid drint all during pregnancy.ri >> genetics, non, age, how well your liver functions, how pregnancies you've had. there are just so many different factors, that we actually do know impact, we just don't know what combination, or what exactly makes that child have f.a.s.d. owhat prevents it. >> nawaz: doctor yasuko yamamura is a specialist in high risk obstetrics. when it comes to f.a.s.d., shesa , the assumptions, that younger, less-educated women are more at risk, are wrong. at the highest risk are college- educated women, over the agef 35. >> a lot of women will say there's no conclusive evidence about a drink every now and again, so if i'm pregnant why should i change my behavior? >> you know i think the absence of conclusive evidence doesn't necessarily imply that there is evidence of absence of harm, right? so i think if they're properly educated and advised by their ob

provider that the safest course would be to completely avoid ricohol consumption during pregnancy, that many women would choose to follow that advice. >> nawaz: because of interestic from elected ols years ago, minnesota today in many ways is on the front lines of f.a.s.d. in terms of resources and research. but vocates and medical experts say even now their single biggest hurdle is awareness. t s is a disability that has so much stigma around it that io keeps peopletalking about it. secrets and stigma, those are things that keep people quiet. rohait also keeps people from getting the helpthey need. >> i just felt ashamed. i felt the shame like you know o would drink alcohol when they're pregnant. >> nawaz: carol peterson lives in northern minnesota, with her daughter kylene,do7, and their "papa jack". 28 years ago, carol unexpectedly became pregnant. >> i kepsaying "this can't be right. it can't be true. no." and then the thought came to me that i had been drinking. i had been drinkg every day and so i was scared.

>> nawaz: as kylene grew, carol says she pesred doctors about developmental delays and behavioral issues. >> she would just start raging rage screaming trying to grab you kick you, hit you. >> nawaz: for a few seconds, a few minutes? >> oh no. it would go on for hours, hours. >> nawaz: it took six years before kylene was officially diagnosed with f.a.s.d. >> they sent me home with literature and i just i thought i am going to learn this as well as i possibly can and do everything i can possibly do toa help h undo this, try to undo it what i had done. >> nawaz: why was it so important to you? >> i wanted her to he best life she could have. i fe bad that i had taken something away from her. >> nawaz: all these years later, she says her family finds it difficult to talk about

kylene's f.a.s.d. her daughter will needt.ifelong supp right now, carol is her sole caregir. >> sometimes when she gets angry with mor starts having a meltdown she starts saying why did you have to ink with me. why did you do this. i'm mad at you. but for the most part she knows i love her.lo >> nawaz: , carol says, she hopes can make up for past mistakes.s and a story shad to share, so that others won't do the same.ne for the pbhour, i'm amna nawaz in northern minnesota. >> woodruff: amna and our hewshour team have more on story behind the story and what they learned reporting on fetal alcohol disorder. you can read it online at pbs.org/newshour.

>> woodruff: for many years, duck boats have been a popular novelty tourist ride in a number of places around the country. t as john yang reports, last week's deadly accident in branson, missouri is putting questions about the safety ofhi those es in the spotlight once again and some are asking whether they are properly regulated. >> yang: in indianapolis last r night, a prayer vigil fonemb meers of one family killed in lay week's duck boat traged near branson, missouri. safe experts say the dangers d k boats have been well- documented for nearly two decades. peter goelz was managing director of the national transportation safety board in the late990s. >> this was not an accident that came out of the blue. we've seen this before and it' tragic that action hadn't been taken. >> yang: the amphibious vehicles were built during world war two as military landing craft.

today they operate as land-and- water tourist attractions in many u.s. cities, including boston and washington, d.c. late thursday, a duck boat tour on table rock lake in missouri capsized during a severe storm, killing 19 of the 31 passengers aboard. video shot by people nearby show the doomed vessel battling near- hurricane force winds and quickly sinking as it takes on water. >> be advised we have strong >> yang: the boat's operators ventured out despite storm warnings. tia coleman lost nine family members, including her husband, and three children. only she and a nephew survived. >>since i've had a home it always been filled with little feet and laughter and my husband. i don't know how i am going to do i >> yang: ripley entertainment, the orlando based owners of the

duck boat that sank last week, said in a statement that they "are cooperating with all federal and state authories involved in the investigation." last week's accident was similar to a 1999 sinking in arkansas that killed 13 people. that boat was outfittewith a canopy roof, just likene in last week's accident. after investigating the arkansas accide, the n.t.s.b. concluded that the canopy "was a major impediment to the survival of the passengers". intended to protect riders from the weather, safety investigators say passengers can be trapped beneath the canopies as the boat takes on water and sinks. in the 1999 arkansas accident, seven of the 13 dead were found l inside, four of them pinned beneath the canopy. >> we found those to be a virtual death trap, that with those canopies in place, it was very hard if the boat went down for people to escape unless they were really good swimmers or were sitting in the very outside

seats. wvehicle, which weighs over four tons, once it reached a critical level of flooding iic sank very quy. n >> yang: the.s.b.'s investigation led to several safety recommendations, including removing the canopies uck'smproving the duck's buoyancy buoyancy the n.t.s.b. has no enforcement powers. >> we sent out 30 letters to the operators of duck boats at the time. 14 of them never responded at all. >> yang: the other 16 simply acknowledged getting the letter since 1999, more thatwo dozen other people have died in duck boat accidents both on land and water. at least three government agencies, including the coast guard and the national highway traffic safety administration, share responsibility for duck boat safety. >> because these vehicles kind of slip through the cracks i terms of regulation and oversight-- you know, is it a

bus? is it a seagoig vessel? who really calls the shots? they tend to get very ttle scrutiny. >> yang: until tragedy strikes, as it did last week on this picturesque missouri lake, claiming 17 lives. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> oodruff: for many students and their families, summer isos sact: a nice long break from school to recharge and refresh.ts but studn about 4% of public schools in the u.s. attend schools that operate on a year-round schedule. supporters of the idea say they can stop a loss of learning and lyboost achievement especior eaw-income students who need school over the break. special correspondent lisa stark of our partner education week visited onsuch school in holt, michigan, part of our weekly segment, making the grade.

>> so everybody get a little space here so they can get the proper grip. >> reporter: it's the start of summer break in holt, michigan and tennis camp is in full swing. one of a number of summer activities on tap for middle schooler lucia frost who wasfo readschool to end. so you're on summer vacation. >> yes, it was great. it feels good. finally! >> reporter: but for her younger sister caico, class is still in sessio >> 77 divided, okay your turn, 77 divided by 7. >> reporter: caico's school- sycamore elementary is one of two in this district that uses a so-called year-round, or balanced calendar. there are no additional school days, still around the typical 180, but those days are divided up differently. in a year-round calendar, summer cation is shorter, about half of the usual 10 to 12 weeks, anr are one to two-week breaks sprinkled throughout the year.wo so whad you say to kids

who don't know about the balanced calendar? >> not enough time. elwould tell them that it like you get more breaks, but asu still learn as much as you need to be educated. >> reporter: mom kelly frost is ffan. >> i think it's ni the i think that by having the shorter summer, i still think r freedom getting their fr outside. >> reporter: some 3,700 scols in the u.s., around 4% of schools, use a balanced calendar. in some cases it's to manage overcrowding, to stagger schedules so one schl can handle mudents. but at many schools, such as sycamore, the hope is to boost student achievement, with more consistent education. >> i think that it gives us continuity and over time we can spread our learning out a little bit and take thinga little more deliberately. >> reporter: long summers though

are part of the americanur cult and can be a magical time for some families. c any attempt nge the school schedule often causes an uproar. here's harvard's jennifer davis. >> the current school calendar is so ingrained in the american society and family life that it's very hard to change. >> reporter: davis believes thil scchedule is way out of date. >> today's american school calendar was created for the 19th century farm and factory economy and hasn't kept pace with the needs of our changing economy and the needs of milies in today's world. >> ihink the shorter summers are bett for education. i think the longer summers, they're out too long. >> reporter: long summer breaks can be a time of learning loss, known as the summer especially for low-income students who may not have the money for camps, classes or summer activities to keep their

minds active. every summer, low-income l studene about two months in reading skills, while middle- income students hold their own. in math, most students, regardless of income, lose some math skills. matthew boulay heads the national summer learning association. >> the real problem with summer learning loss, that is not simply what happens over one summer, but the problem of loss summer after summer afr summer. >> reporter: sycamore elementary hopes to reduce that loss with the balanced calendar. it's the district's highest poverty school. over half of students qualify for free or reced-price lunch. if we do the school the way e 've always done it, we're going to get the ssult we always have. so by changing the calendar,hi that's one t that we can modify to potentially make a icfference. >> reporter: dist superintendent david hornak also heads up the national association for year round education.

he admits this schedule can be a tough sell, opponents argue teachers and students lose out on summer jobs, for parents, it may be hd to find childcare during school breaks, and coaches worry about scheduling hi school sports. and in the summer, air conditioning can be costly for schools. errnak understands these concerns, but insists a balanced calendar just makes sense. >> i think that's something we should take a longer look at. we are spending millions and millions of dollars nationwide remediating the gaps that the traditional calendar in fact creates.r: >> report sycamore, internal measures show students here are not losing ground during the summer break. principal steve garrison says you can see the difference when students return after the short summer vacation. >> we don't have a long six to eight weeks of trying to getki caught up. we start right off, second week, instruction starts after our routines are set. >> reporter: despite th

>> reporter: despite the enthusiasm here for the year- round schedule, the data on its effectiveness are quite mixed. it is not clear that going to aa nced calendar will improve learning or raise test scores.dy a 2015 sound although year round students pull ahead durins the summer bdents on a traditional nine-month calendar .atch up and pull ahead during the rest of the ye >> well it is basically the same 175 180 days spread out differently across the year, and since total instruction doesn't increase, total learning time don't increase either. >> reporter: sycamore has tried to add learning time, byfe ng voluntary academics and activities during school breaks but some researchers arguet's easier to boost instruction time without tossing out the traditional calendar by simply intending school hours, adding extra days and offsummer school. still at sycamore, they're convinced the year-round

schedule is what's best for students and teachers. >> i love having shorter breaks more frequently, i really feelt that better for my, my level of energy and enthusiasm for teaching >> reporter: those regular breaks are a big hit with caico too.wa >> i reall to stay on the balanced calendar. >> reporter: why? >> it just makes me more happy- >> reporter: so caico's just fine with waiting for her summer vacation, even as her sister is already off and running.pb for thnewshour and taucation week, i'm lisa stark in holt, michigan. >> woodruff: now, the latest omi es separated at the border. a federal court has ordered tha a federal cot has ordered that more than 2,500 children between the ages of five and 17 separateunder the president's

"zero tolerance" policy be reunited with their families b thursday. the trump administration is working to meet th deadline. in a court filing last night, the administration also thdicated that more th migrant parents may have deported without their children. the federal judge overseeing the government's plans is holding a hearing in san diego as we speak. and our amna nawaz has been first, you have some new information on how quickly some of these separated families are going to be reunited. >> thadgs right. the just got an update from the government lawyer. that call is still ongoing. he's getting an update as we speak. grsically, they're dealing with kids age 5 to 17, p of 2,500 or so kids. about 1,600 of those were declared eligible for reunification. the government said they've already reunifieover 1,000 of those children. the judge asked, do you expect to meet the deadline to have all of those kids who are eligibleun ed by thursday.

that is the deadline the judge se the lawyer for the governmentd, actually ses, that is my understanding that will happen. wat's surprising, because remember, judy, evh the kids under five, they missed the deadline. they say they're going to meet it. >> woodruff: so they're moving quickly. >> they aro >> woodruff:ck to this deportation argument. the aclu, the government, they're maki their arguments. what are you hearing? >> right now the big number is c 900 thaght our attention. in the latest fight, the government said they have 900 parents who are currently slated for deportation. what that means under the current rules, parents have basically t days to decide, i'm going to leave with my child or without my child. leaving without the child means they go to another family member, to a spoor, or they stay in government custody. theff aclu, the plain in this case, is taking they need more time. we want to extendathat to seven to give them time to meet with the kids, spend some time, talk to lawyers, figure out their options. the government is saying they don't have time or resources to do that.oo >>uff: what we were talking about a moment ago, it

turns out the government may have already deported some 400 parents without their children. hat's right. 463 was the other number in the latest filing that caught a lot of people's attention. interestingly, a few minutes ago in this latest call, the government still doesn't have af lot ofmation about where those parents are or under what conditions they were deported without their children. but you have to think back, the kids under five, of that group, which was a much smaller group,r were 12 parents in that group deported without their children. e government said they had a lot of trouble finding them and trying to reconnect them with their kids. you can't imagine how they're going to do that with 463 in this case. >> woodruff: and as i iserstand it, the government is saying some of said they were going... they wanted to leave without their children. what do we know about that? >> that's right. alnthe parents have the opt to waive reunification. the government, the latest number so far is 127 parents agreed to waive that right. judy, we have to remember, in some cases the parents have to

make a call, if i'm going tobe leave, mt least i'll leave my child in perhaps safer conditions than the kids we were leaving in our home country. we don't have details bend that in terms of the circumstances of them agreeing to do that, but that number right now is 127. woodruff: okay. finally, amna, you've been following what's been going on with this little three-year-old girl separated from her grandmother alst five weeks ago at the border. >> that's right.uf >> woo give us an update on sophie. >> so three-year-old sophie had another call with her mother yesterday. it was about ten minutes long. her mother reports that basically every time sophie cries and begs to come home each time they talk. her mother continues to move through the process.ow they have caught the attention, this story, of aig group called int families together. it's a small volunteer force that's connected sophie's family with a numtr of local supp groups. they now have some kind of financial support. there's a gofundme account that's started. they're helping to drive them around to lawyers' appointments and fingerprinting appointments.

they're in the vetting process. sophie is now in about four and a half weeks. there is no certainty ahead. the parents, herother still has to be vetted for approval. sophie has to be approved for release.th ere is still some uncertainty ahead for this little girl. >> woodruff: and we should y the vid we were just showing was you following the grandmother and sophie as they were attempting t come across the border some weeks ago. >> that's right. >> woodruff: amna nawazon stayinhe story. thank you so much. gh thanks, judy. >> woodruff: now to our newshour shares, something interesting that caught our eye. brain mccarty's photographs focus on conflict zones as seen through the eyes of children. a five-year tour of an exhibition of his work has already made stops in houston, texas and little rock, arkansas, and he shows no signs of slowing do. the newshour's julia griffin has this profile. this profile. >> reporter: brian mccarty's camera chronicles the horrors of war. but unlike other war

photographers, his subjects are plastic-- locally-found toys carefully arranged to recreate the experiences of children traumatized by conflict. it's all part of mccarty's ongoing "war-toys" project. >> "war-toys" is a photo series about children's experiences of war. through an art therapy based, approaildren essentially become art directorsy photos of locally found toys. >> reporter: mccarty's photographs are base drings children do in art therapy sessions organized by aid groups and united nations agencies. then, with the help of dolls, tanks another playthings from nearby vendors, he uses a camera's lens to tell the child's story, often at the exact ot where the trauma occurred. >> i harness what they have witnessed, what they have been through and give it to audiences that normally maybe wouldn't look at these things or think .bouthese things. >> reporter: the resulting

igotographs depict the cost of conflict with a nt dose of pop culture. an iraqi boy haunted by the memory of soldiers shooting civilians at an islamic state- controlled checkpoint. a syrian refugee, isolated andvi plagued by sr's guilt, after her family was killed in that country's conflict. and the iraqi girl whose drawing of a flower revealed a woman stoned to death by isis for not wearing the correct face veil. since 2011, mccarty and therapist myra saad have worked with hundreds of b with hundred from iraq, syria and other conflict-ridden nations in the middle east. >> ( tran the bridge.is about it was destroyed. we crossed it while it was broken.wa dizzy. i was scared. >> reporter: whether they draw literal representations or use enmbols, like an uncolored elephant that repra dead sibling, war-toys provides its young participants an outlet to process their emotions, and helps viewers relate to far off

tragedies. re you get this thing where people no matter where they are people no tter where they are, if they had been around toys, if it has bn part of their lives growing up, they will connect to this, and especially again for western audiences where it is so easy to st people in war zones, whether they be arab, kurdish, whatever, as the others. r orter: but staging nearly 150 photos in war-torns areas comes with its own hazards. mccarty must regularly navigate shrapnel a other rubble. he has been targeted by islamic ate snipers. and he once used only a flashlight to create a photograph of families sneaking thout of isis territory, a time, triggering a camera strobe on the outskirts of mosul, iraq was considered too risky. still, mccarty hopes his efforts are worth the risks. >> i went in to this project, from a very academic, artistic point of view. all of that of went out the window when i saw a little girl coloring in pools of blood for the first time. you instantly become an activist artist, there is no way to not connect with this.

sorry, i am going break out, but yeah there is no way not to want to affect change and do what you ca >>yeporter: mccarty posts m of his photographs his instagram ispage, and exhibitions of work are planned in saginaw, michigan and beirut, lebanon next year. he hopes to expand his project to ukraine, african nations gripped by civil war even of the u.s. plagued by gun violence. and with no obvious end to conflict in this world, war-toys ries tveran set es that never conclude concludes. for the pbs newshouri'm julia griffin. >> woodruff: later tonight on pbs, frontline presents an investigation into abuse by united nations peacekeepers.

"u.n. sex abuse scandal" examines how and why the problem of abuse and exploitation has persisted despite the u.n.'s efforts to stamp it out. the film uncovers new cases, tracking down survivors who were as young as 10 when they were >> reporter: thereal were 72 gations of exploitation and abuse in the u.n.'s congo mission between may and september 2004. >> all of this is utterly immoral and cpletely at odds with our mission. >> reporter: u.n.et sey-general kofi annan sent his special adviser zeid ra'ad al-hussein to investigate. he was shocked byhat he found. >> i listened to what victims were saying.ll it was rdisturbing. i said it was akin to a lifeguard jumping into a pool, and instead of saving someone who was drowning, they actually drown them almost.

it seems to be as cruel as that. >> reporter: five months later zeid published a report but criticized the u.n.'s ownat investns into allegedbu sexual. he said the main reason offenders often evaded justice was because the u.n. had no criminal jurisdiction over its peacekeepers. he u.n. is not a soverei body. at the most, the u.n. can dismiss someone from service, but it cannot conduct its own trials. that is for the governments themselves to do. if the state does nothing or shielding the individual,st impunity e so it was these sorts of issues which i found astonishing at the time. >> woodruff: "fronghine" airs toon most pbs stations. >> woodruff: frontline airs tonight on most pbs stations. on the newshour online right now, thousands of visitors flocl to newfod every year to catch a glimpse of the dramatic

icebergs off the coast. but taken as awaign of global omg and shrinking glaciers, a good thing. we look at this booming tourismb business ourite, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for wnight. i'm judruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. r all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon >> major funding for the pbs newshour h been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-le conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, real-life conversations in a new language. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide.rp >> carnegie ation of new york. supporting innovations in

education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporatioadfor public bsting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. in captisponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> funding for "new scandinavian cooking" is made possible by the following... and... seafood from norway. ♪ [ wind howls ] >> ♪ i'm free ♪ ♪ >> ekstedt: hi, and welcome to "new scandinavian cooking." i am niklas ekstedt, and today, we are in my hometown of stockholm. the sun is shining, and all the coffee shops are filled with people. in scandinavia, we drink an enormous amount of coffee. why is that? that is what i am going to find out day. and i'm going to meet this amazing baker, petrus, and also, i will be going to colombia

to seere