captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, extreme conditions-- more than 200 people are dead as western canada is crippled by a record- breaking heat wave. then, an uncertain future-- the top u.s. commander in afghanistan warns the country could descend into civil war following the departure of american troops. plus, a dramatic turnaround-- bill cosby is released from prison after his sexual assault conviction is overturned and, coming back from covid-- many school districts intensify their summer programs to make up for the learning loss during the pandemic. >> typically, in a 9.5 month

school year, our kids made 9.5 months of growth or more. what we saw during the pandemic was that they made 5.3 months in literacy and 7.2 months in math. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org.

>> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these 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. >> woodruff: parts of washington state, oregon, and idaho spent another day baking in sweltering temperatures. rolling blackouts continue in spokane, washington, which hit a

record 109 degrees yesterday. president biden lamented the brutal heat during a virtual meeting with the governors of western states. >> the extreme heat we're seeing in the west is not only a risk amplifier for wildfires. it's a threat in and of itself. people are hurting. it's more dangerous for kids to play outside. roads are buckling under the heat. again, i need not tell all of you. >> woodruff: meantime a dangerous heat wave in canada is slowly starting to ease. it scorched the pacific coast province of british columbia, with temperatures 30 to 40 degrees fahrenheit hotter than normal; one city recorded a reading of 122. the plains of alberta and manitoba provinces have also been blasted. at least 233 people died in british columbia between friday and monday alone. that's about 100 more than the normal four-day average.

joining me now to discuss this is david phillips, senior climatologist at environment canada, the canadian government department responsible for environmental policy. mr. phillips, thank you so much for joining us. tell us, what is canada dealing with right now? >> well, judy, it's unprecedented historically. we've never seen this before. the last warm temperature that we've always talked about in canada was back in yellow grass back 84 years ago. we have seen this week just 400 records haveeen broken in the west and that's just the warm temperatures during the day. and these are not jst a tenth of a degree warmer than the previous record. we are seeing just -- it's like a different world for us here. we are the second coldest country in the world and the snowiest, and we are dealing with something that we're not used to, and it's so extreme, it's long-lasting and, as you

mentioned, it's beginning to have health effects and environmental effects and certainly economic effects. >> o'donnell: and what do you know about the science that's behind this heat wave? what is causing this? and, of course, everybody wants to understand, is it connected to climate change? >> well, you know, judy, it is really a dome. it's like putting a dome stadium over an area from the arctic circle down to california, and what happens in that dome is the air gets trapped. nothing can -- it can't leave. it gets progressively warmer and squeezes down and just gets hotter and hotter, and no weather can ge in the way. of course, we often say, every time we see an extreme eventwe say, well, is this climate change, and i think we've hidden enough behind the fact that we say, well, climate change doesn't create weather, heat waves and forest fires and hurricanes, but, judy, what it does is it contributes to it. there are many factors that

create extreme weather, physical factors, but now we're realizing there are human far,, and this heat wave would not have been nearly as brutal and deadly if it hadn't been for what's coming out of our tailpipes and smoke stacks. >> o'donnell: who is most affected? >> judy, it's the elderly, of course, it's infants who don't have the sweat glands, it's the outdoor workers, the homeless, it is people with health-related illnesses, and that's why we're seeing so many deaths, but a lot more emergency entrances you know, we still have lockdown situations in canada, and, so, breathing through a prasic on these kind of temperatures is just -- you know, just brutal, and people don't go outside, ople are moving from their homes to hotels because they don't have air conditioning. only less than half the people in western canada have air conditioning. so it's something we've never dealt with before and we're trying to cope with it, and the only good news is that maybe in five or six days it will be

history, but, boy, it will take it is tollefore we get there. >> o'donnell: it sounds as if you're saying the government and the people of canada were jut not prepared for this. >> well, it was well foreclosed, judy, but -- for casted, judy, but it's so fundamentally different. it's like rewriting the climate of canada to deal with thi you don't want to over or underdesierntion you want to match the existing conditions. but this is really a dress rehearsal, almost the opening act of what we'll see more of it. i hope we learn from it and know it can occur again and it won't be 83 years before we break another record. so i think we ed to prepare for it. >> o'donnell: you do expect this kind of weather to return in the future? >> slool, judy. you know, weather repeats itself. so if it's physically possible to get this, it could only ramp up that much more and more frequently. so i think this is a kind of a

lesson from nature. it's giving us a heads-up and hopefully we're smart enough to pay attention to it. >> o'donnell: david phillips, environmentalist with the canadian government. thank you very much. >> you're welcome, judy. >> o'donnell: back in the u.s., the med could examiner of multnoma county reports 45 deaths due to extreme heat since friday. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, search teams recovered four more bodies from a collapsed condominium tower in surfside, florida. with the search in its 7th day, the number of confirmed dead reached 16, with more than 140 still missing. but officials insisted they aren't giving up hope. >> there's been some talk by the families, they've asked me if the search is gonna stop. you know, are we going to turn

this from a rescue to a recovery and i appreciated the governor's comments just a few minutes ago where he basically said we're not leaving anybody behind. this is gonna go until we pull everybody out of there. this is our number one effort. >> woodruff: officials said they're also watching a pair of potential tropical storms in the atlantic ocean that could hit south florida in the days ahead. an indigenous group in canada reports finding another 182 sets of human remains near a former school in british columbia. the school for indian children near cranbrook was operated by the catholic church until the early 1970's. hundreds of other unmarked graves have been found at two similar sites in canada. back in this country, actor bill cosby was released from prison in pennsylvania after the state supreme court overturned his sexual assault conviction. arrived home, in suburban

philadelphia, hours later, having served nearly three years of a 3-to-10 year sentence. we'll take a closer look, later in the program. there's word tonight that former defense secretary donald rumsfeld, who championed the wars in iraq and afghanistan, has died. his family says he passed away tuesday in taos, new mexico. nick schifrin reports on his life and legacy. >> schifrin: a navy veteran and republican congressman from illinois, donald rumsfeld was america's youngest defense secretary during the cold war. he was also its oldest, when he oversaw the wars post-9/11, and served amid deep and lasting controversy. on the morning of september 11, 2001 he was a stretcher bearer, ferrying wounded from the pentagon. >> the fact is in this battle against terrorism there is not silver bullet. >> schifrin: he was an architect of both the afghanistan and iraq wars under president george w bush. and he propagated the now debunked argument, saddam hussein harbored weapons of mass destruction.

>> what do you make of the statement made by iraqi government, stated by the iraqi government yesterday, that iraq has no weapons of mass destruction and is not developing them? >> they are lying. next. >> schifrin: rumsfeld was also a key proponent of the u.s.' use of what he called enhanced interrogation. others call it torture, including at baghdad's abu ghraib prison. the wars continued and casualties climbed, but rumsfeld dismissed complaints troops they were ill-prepared. >> as you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time. >> schifrin: shortly after the 2006 midterms, then-president bush fired rumsfeld. today mr. bush called rumsfeld“ a man of intelligence, integrity, and almost inexhaustible energy, [who] never paled before tough decisions, and never flinched from responsibility.” >> woodruff: donald rumsfeld was 88 years old.

on the pandemic, the head of the c.d.c., dr. rochelle walensky, said today that mask guidelines will be left to local officials. that's after los angeles county urged a return to wearing masks in indoor public spaces, as the "delta" variant spreads. meanwhile, north korea's leader kim jong un blamed the country's senior officials for what he called a "great crisis." north korea previously claimed to have no infections. the u.s. house of representatives voted today to create a select committee to investigate the january assault on the u.s. capitol. it will include 13 members, mostly democrats. all but two republicans opposed the action, and they traded jibes with democrats over which side is being more partisa >> most fundamental to any objective investigation is being free from political influence and partisan bias, unfortunately this resolution fails to meet that basic benchmark.

>> come on, give me a break. i mean, we had a bipartisan commission, equally divided, equal subpoena power, they voted against it. the minority leader of this house whipped against it, and fought against it and convinced the senate to try to kill it. >> woodruff: there is no deadline for when the select committee is to make its report. former president trump spent this day at the u.s.-mexico border as he makes his return to public view. he toured a section of unfinished border wall outside weslaco, texas, and attacked president biden for rescinding his policies on migrants. the appearance came as prosecutors in new york are expected to charge the trump organization with tax-related crimes, tomorrow. in myanmar, the military government began releasing some 2,300 prisoners. they include demonstrators who protested against the military coup last february and some journalists. the government says those released did not take part in any violence.

there's no word on how many others might remain behind bars. and, on wall street, stocks mostly edged higher in quiet trading. the dow jones industrial average gained 210 points to close at 34,502. the nasdaq fell 24 points. the s&p 500 added five points, for another record close. still to come on the newshour: chaotic ballot counting leaves the results of the new york city mayor's race in question. college athletes gain the power to receive compensation for their likenesses. many districts intensify summer school programs to combat learning loss during the pandemic. and much more.

>> woodruff: the u.s. is on the verge of completing a unilateral, and unconditional withdrawal from afghanistan, nearly 20 years after it invaded. and the outgoing u.s. military commander has delivered a new, stark warning about the future of the country. nick schifrin is back with me now. nick, good to have you with us to talk about this, as well. what are the military leaders saying they believe could happen? >> yeah, this is, perhaps, as blunt and pessimistic a statement as the military has ever made about afghanistan. it's also the first time that the biden administration or the military has publicly acknowledged the ultimate risk of this withdrawal. this is general scott miller the u.s. commander in kabul telling journalists civil war is certainly a path that can be visualized, if this continues on the trajectory it's on right now. that should be a concern to the world, and it's certainly a concern to t region for creating an environment where there's even more violence than there is today. so what's behind this warning?

the first thing, taliban strength. since the u.s. announced it's withdrawal, the taliban have seized some 50 districts across the country, some not so important but others critical, and could cut off kabul from the other parts of the country. second, afghan army weakness. across the country, we are seeing examples to have the afghan army surrendering to the taliban. that's what you're seeing there, surrendering to the taliban, instead of the fighting. the speed with which they have given up territory has surprised the fg a and u.s. governments. division, these are civilians re-creating local militaries, harkining back to a time in afghanistan where the country was ruled or not ruled because there were so many local militias overseen by warlords, so it's pretty grim. judy, there's an intelligence community assessment that kabul could fall within six months but there are also assessments that kabul could hold on even if it

loses other parts to have the country. but the bottom line, the u.s. will not be there to save the afghan military or government. >> o'donnell: pretty ominous. nick, given this, is that affecting the timetable for u.s. troop withdrawal? >> in a short answer no. the afghan government asked the u.s. to delay the withdrawal, but the withdrawal other than the airport and the embassy is eminent. take a look at this video from bagram air base outside kabul. these are hundreds of service members leaving bagram. this is really the heart to have the u.s. effort in central afghanistan. this is the symbol of the withdrawal imminently moving over to the afghans. but details are withstanding of the withdrawal. first of all, contractors who service afghanistan, he continues are leaving, the administration is trying to figure out where to do the services outside of afghanistan. the airport, turkey is agreeing to protect the airport, as you see right there, but turkey is asking for u.s. service members

to stay there and asking for n.a.t.o. reimbursements. lastly, the embassy, hundreds of service members will stay to guard the giant embassy compound in the heart of kabul. you see it there. the ughs says it needs u.s. troops to secure that embassy and needs an embassy to continue to support afghanistan in the future, but the taliban reject that. the taliban have never said that they would allow u.s. troops to stay there. and, so, a senior military official tells me today, if the taliban attacked the embassy, they will have to evaluate whether they can keep it open. other officials admit to me they do not know whether the embassy is sustainable. >> o'donnell: and finally, and quickly, nick, a lot of concern about the interpreters and other afghan citizens who have been helping the u.s. over the last 20 years. >> reporter: 17,000 interpreters, tens of thousands of their family members have applied for special immigrant visas. for some of them, this is life and death. some 300 of them have been killed since 2014. the plan is to evacuate them to

a u.s. territory, not to a third country. the administration is still working on specifics, but the military says they're ready and able to do that at any point, as long as the u.s. and turkey can figure out how to secure that airport. and, so, at this point, the administration emphasizes the billions of dollars of continuing support, the ongoing training and highlights that there are no u.s. casualties right now and won't be. but the senior afghan officials i talked to say that their country is being abandoned and they are very, very worried about the future of afghanistan. >> o'donnell: and no wonder. ni-- nick, thank you. >> reporter: thank >> woodruff: it's been more than a week sce polls closed in new york city, but still no call on the democratic prima results that will likely determine the next mayor of america's largest city. one cause for the wait, a new

system of voting called ranked choice, which lets voters list up to five candidates on their ballot. but the counng took a confusing turn yesterday. yamiche alcindor reports. >> alcindor: for the new york city board of elections, it's been a cotic 24 hours. yesterday, on their results webpage, the city posted some unofficial results, including 135,000 new ballots. those results showed that the lead of the current frontrunner, eric adams, had significantly narrowed against his two closest competitors, maya wiley and kathryn garcia. but hours later, the city removed those additional ballots. officials said a software error had included sample, test votes in the official tally. here to help us understand what went wrong and what it means for ranked choice voting, i'm joined by christina greer. she's a professor of political science at fordham university. christina, thank you so much for being here. what is going on? why all the confusion?

>> new york city voters decided to use rank choice voting for municipal elections. this is a period instead of having winner take all, 40% or more and being declared the victor, this is a system that counts all ballots. eric adams is in the lead, but we still have absentee and affidavit ballots that need to be counted. until all the ballots are counted, we do not know who the mare of new york city will be. it will most likely be another week or two because those absentee ballots have to be post madam speaker by june 22, but they still can come in up until a week later. and, so, the board of elections is just now starting to count over 100,000 absentee ballots that aren't even in the tally that we had on election night. >> reporter: mmm. and why did new york city, the largest city in the united states, why did it implement rank choice voting and what are the benefits supposed to be? >> well, the benefits are supposed to be, when we've looked at a place like minneapolis or sphraps, to include candidates, female

candidates of color to give them a better opportunity because ostensibly if you can vote up until five people, you possibly don't have to think strategically in the way that a lot of people do. so we know that, in past elections, people might say, well, i really like this candidate but because she is a woman she has no chance of winning so i'll vote for my second or third choice. this gives voters an opportunity to say i do like this particular candidate and write them first, and you don't have to be as strategic as people have been in the past. it's a little complicated because some people are still strategic with their ballots. others who are critics of the system say there wasn't enough education to explain whether or not you should vote for your ideal candidate, up to all five or just choose three, and part of the confusion is that the board of elections didn't really want to put out too much literature explaining this process during 2020 because they didn't want to confuse voters because we did not use rank choice voting in november of

2020 for the presidential election. >> reporter: and eric adams, the frontrunner right now, he has filed a lawsuit. what's that going to mean for what happens next and how -- and whether or not, i should say, new yorkers really ultimately trust these results? >> right, so filing lawsuits isn't terribly uncommon, andrew i can't think filed a lawsuit before the -- andrew yang filed a lawsuit. eric adams is an insider outsider type status and his concern is that, you know, those in power don't necessarily want him to be $110 mayor of new york. the concern for people like me is the longer it takes to count the ballots, confidence in the system eroads from voters who think there could be discrepancies or inconsistencies or corruption. but we're trying to explain to new york city voters with the complex system we're a city of almost 9 million people. even though the turnout is low, it's about 25% of the voting

eligible population, it's more important to get it right than fast. >> reporter: how do you see this issue in new york city connecting with the larger conversation we're having nationally when it comes to false claims of voter fraud, the g.o.p.--backed laws restricting voting. >> sometimes there's competence and sometimes fraud. right now we're looking at incompetence and restructuring of the board of elections in new york city needs to happen and those are conversations that need to extend well i don't election date. sadly, the two have been conflated. depending on who's victorious whenever we get the ballots, it depends on whether or not their opponents actually raised claims of fraud or just inconsistencies. >> reporter: incompetence, not fraud. we'll keep that going and keep that in mind. thank you so much, christina greer offordham unirsity. >> thanks, yamiche.

>> woodruff: the decision by the pennsylvania supreme court to overturn the sexual assault conviction of bill cosby stunned many today. the court said cosby's due process rights were violated when he was charged in 2015 for a 2004 assault. during an earlier civil trial involving cosby and one of his accusers, a prosecutor said that any statements cosby made in that trial could not be used against him in a later criminal case. the reversal was a high-profile blow to a conviction in the me too era. neama rahmani is a trial attorney in los angeles and a former federal prosecutor. mr. rahmani, this has, as we said, take an lots of people by surprise. in a nutshell, what did the court decide? >> judy, you said it, stunning. i think we were all surprised when the supreme court -- pennsylvania supreme court

issued its opinion today. we thought there might be an issue with the prior bad acts witnesses. that was something they focused on during oral arguments, an issue litigated at trial and appellate court. thoswere the other victims that testified particularly in bill cosby's second trial, but they went in a very different direction and they focused on the statements made during a civil deposition, and not only did the court go so far as to exclude these statements in violation bill cosby's fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination, they essentially said bruce castor, the former district attorney, gave bill cosby a deal and they enforced this agreement that would preclude subsequent district attorneys from actually prosecutor bill cosby. so this was unprecedented, unexpected and, frankly, unheard of. >> o'donnell: and we should say mr. castor was one of the attorneys representing former president trump in his trial before the united states senate after impeachment. but i want to ask you, you

mentioned this is unprecedented. so as the stateupreme court looked at this, what was it that they said the court, in making the original decision that sent mr. cosby to prison, had overlooked? what didn't happen here that was supposed to happen? >> well, what the pennsylvania supreme court did is they construed one of castor's press releases, which he signe to be some sort of agreement. so, normally, as a prosecutor, if you wanto get past someone's fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination, usually offer them immunity, then the privilege goes away because there's no risk of criminal prosecution. or do a non-prosecution agreement, what acosta gave to epstein in miami, but a decision not to prosecute, that's something that prosecutors do every single day, and to issue a statement to the press in a high-profile investigation like bill cosby, that's something that's routine. so what the supreme court did

there in pennsylvania is to say that that was actually an agreement which was shocking because normally an agreement requires a criminal defendant to give something up, and bill cosby really gave nothing up here aside from testimony in a civil case. >> o'donnell: is there recourse, mr. rahmani, for the prosecution in any way here? >> there really isn't, at least stateside, judy, the doors are closed. had the pennsylvania supreme court simply suppressed the evidence, the damaging statements and drug use and sexual activity that bill cosby made in a civil deposition, then the district attorney's office could go back and retry the case. but since they took it so far and said that there's actually an agreement not to prosecute, state prosecutors have their hands tied. they cannot go after bill cosby anymore. now, there's a small window of possibility that the federal government, the department of justice, could charge bill cosby. i think it's very unlikely. they rarely get involved in these type of state rape cases,

but that's a possibility, though very unlikely. >> o'donnell: and just quickly and finally, this is taking place as we say in the #metoo era when those who have committed either sexual assault or sexual assault harassment are to be held accountable more than ever. is this going to effect the movement in that direction? is this providing some sort of -- do you believe it will provide some sort of chilling effect? >> judy, absolutely. this is a huge blow and a setback for the #metoo movement. we know as prosecutors that sexual assault is by far and away the most underreported crime in this country. victims are hesitant to come forward. when they do, prosecutors don't take these cases, even though they are righous cases because they're afraid of losing because of proof issues. now you have the victims that have testified not only once but twice in very public criminal trials to see their abuser walk free not because he's factually

innocent but because of a constitutional technicality and an agreement made by a district attorney who's no longer in office. it's very disheartening and my heart goes out to the victims, they have been through so much. >> o'donnell: attorney and former federal prosecutor neama rahmani, thank you very much. >> thanks for having me, judy. >> woodruff: it is a game changer for college sports. after years of pressure, in and out of court, the n.c.a.a. moves to allow athletes to make money. john yang helps explain. >> yang: judy, beginning tomorrow, college athletes across the country will be able to make financial deals that capitalize on their celebrity-- what's called "name, image and likeness." even before today's n.c.a.a. vote, iowa basketball player jordan bohannon introduced an

apparel line and wisconsin quarterback graham mertz unveiled a trademarked logo. it's a big departure from the n.c.a.a.'s long-held stance that athletes should only get scholarships and stipends for living costs. kevin blackistone is an espn panelist, journalism professor at the university of maryland and a sports commentator for the "washington post." kevin, thanks for being with us. "name, image and likeness." what exactly does that mean? what are athletes going to be able to do starting tomorrow? >> well, they'll basically be able to do what colleges have been doing with them for eons, and that is take their name, their fame, their jersey numbers, their nicknames and turn them into some dollar bills to stick in their back pocket. it is a major step but it is also a step that i think the ncaa has been pushed to do by so much litigation that it's lost in court and by the precious

being brought upon it by -- not only by student athletes but by a lot of people who represent student athletes. >> reporter: you write in "the washington post" that you don't think this is enough. you say, for one thing, this money isn't coming out of the college coffers, it's not taking away anything from what they're collecting. >> right, exactly, and that's the thing that kind of gets me that i can't take my eyes off. the real problem is that these players, most of whom, by the way, are black males when you talk about the revenue generating sports of basketball and football, are generating gazillions of dollars for the ncaa. well, the ncaa through the decision which is pushed by the supreme court about a week ago is still not giving up any of that money to the athletes. basically, what they're saying is, you know what? you want to earn money on your own? then go out there and do it. just like you and i when we were growing up and we wanted to earn a few bucks by cutting the

neighbor's grass, that's basically what they're allowing them to do. so they're not getting any workers' comp benefits, they're still not getting long-term healthcare, which is really the things they need as college athletes in order to really survive and thrive in this particular game. >> reporter: the ncaa's argument is not giving the athletes more money, not giving them anything beyond scholarships is what distinguishes their product. what do you say to that? >> well, i think it's bogus. basically what the ncaa is still doing and what the courts basically allowed them to do because they really didn't rule on this is to say that the college game is an amateur game and that is what is hog wash. everybody who goes to a college game is either handing over money or making money, everyone except the athletes who everyone goes to see, and that's really what needs to be fixed. so maybe this is a foot in the door of fixing that problem, but

that right now is all it is, and unless and until that gets fixed, i'm hard pressed as a fan add as a journalist to really celebrate all what has happened in the past week. >> reporter: as you noted, the ncaa really has been pushed into this. there were stot laws about to take effect tomorrow. they wanted to level the playing field, as it were, across the country. last week, the supreme court punched big locals in the amateurism argument. do youhink we're going to see more? >> um, i think that, down the line, we're going to see more. i think there will be more smart lawyers who will be able to bring more lawsuits against the system that exists, and i think the fact that now you are basically saying, okay, these athletes really aren't amateurs because they are able to earn some money off to have the sport that they play really is going to take the cover off of what's

been going on in college sports for a very long time. you know, the funny thing about this is, john, is that the architt of the modern ncaa, walter byers, basically wrote a memoir back in the mid 1990s called "unsportsmanlike conduct, exploitation of the college athlete." he explained everything he did with college sports and pointed out the problems with it. and finally, now, all these years later, people are coming to grips with it, and these athletes need to be treated like the employees of the industrial complex of higher education and athletics combined that they really are. >> reporter: kevin blackistone, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: summer is here, but the disruptions caused by the pandemic are affecting summer plans of some students and teachers.

educators around the country are scrambling to help students catch up. many are utilizing billions in federal stimulus funds to beef up their summer school programs. stephanie sy visited two atlanta-area school districts to see their approach toward helping for middle schoolers. >> all right, have a good day, love you. >> sy: it's 8:00 on a mid-june morning, and instead of enjoying summer break, 12-year old christopher jones is headed to school. >> christopher was an a/ student, honor roll student, before the pandemic. and when the pandemic came his grades dropped b, c, d. >> sy: like other schools, john lewis invictus academy, where christopher goes, shut its doors in march of 2020. when it reopened in earlier this year, 80% of its 950 students chose to stay virtual, but not christopher. home was not exactly conducive to learning. >> my gosh, it was hard.

while i'm on zoom, my mom cussing out my brother, my dog is barking, so you know, my teacher is always telling me to mute myself. >> i am who i am, not who you think i am. >> sy: to address these challenges, educators are now pouring millions of dollars of federal stimulus funds into rigorous summer programs to try and catch kids up, says atlanta superintendent lisa herring. >> the core business of our school system, and school systems across the county, is teaching and learning. it was disrupted. we have a responsibility to do something immediately for our children. >> who's the main character? >> sy: what that means in atlanta public schools is a full-day “9-4” summer school that principal ramon garner says homes in on the basics. >> the really big difference for this summer academic recovery is that it is focused on math and english, 90 minutes each content area. so, this is a total of three

hours that kids are getting specifically in those content areas. >> 13.16 plus 5.90. >> sy: watching her son lose ground is what worries moneisha white, a single parent who works the night shift as a lab technician. >> with the pandemic i see a lot of stigmas put on low income kids, that they're not learning. >> sy: you don't want him to be- - >> no, i don't. >> sy: to become a statistic like that. >> no. >> sy: here in atlanta and across the nation, the pandemic hit students of color harder than their white counterparts. a mckinsey and company study predicted all students could be nine months behind in math but black and hispanic students could be as much as a year behind. >> this is a high poverty area. our school is a title one school, 100% free and reduced lunch. and so, home life, for some of our students, can be very, very

challenging. >> lunch, friends, here you go. >> sy: the summer program provides food-- breakfast, lunch, weekend meals to take home on fridays and snacks. >> after you put your sugar in it, shake, shake, shake. >> sy: hands-on afternoon sessions such as the science of ice cream making and flag football are meant to acclimate students back after a year and a half of social distancing. for many tweens, middle school is fraught with academic and social challenges that the pandemic made harder. >> they're growing, they're going through puberty, so their bodies are changing. oh my gosh, they're very awkward at that age. >> a big part of middle school is the social aspect. being able to be in the classroom with students, being able to see your friends, being able to eat lunch every day. things that in the past we've taken for granted. >> sy: the amount of learning loss during the pandemic is still difficult to pin down, standardized tests were

cancelled last year, then re- instated when many students were still doing virtual learning, making the assessments unreliable. >> we know that our kids need us more now after this event than ever before. >> sy: but chief academic officer cliff jones in atlanta's fulton county school district has received some troubling data through a partnership with georgia state university. >> typically, in a 9.5 month school year our kids made 9.5 months of growth, or more. what we saw during the pandemic was that they made 5.3 months in literacy, and 7.2 months in math. >> so, harmonee, when you finish, will you put yours over there? >> sy: a rising 8th-grader at sandy springs middle school, harmonee jackson is having to attend summer school for the first time. before the pandemic forced school online, she regularly got 90s out of a hundred on her math tests. i know it's going to be hard to ask this, but what was your lowest score during the

pandemic, during virtual. >> it might have been a 50. >> sy: how did it feel to get the 50? >> it was really shocking, because i know i've always been super good at it, and then suddenly you're seeing these low scores, and you're like, what happened? >> sy: principal laurie woodruff wants it to feel like camp. that means literature discussions in an outside courtyard, a scavenger hunt to teach the pythagorean theorem, and building a roller coaster to demonstrate basic physics. >> oooh, that's great. no child wants to be in summer school, right? so we've tried to make it a very welcoming place that they want to be here. >> being in the classroom is the best. >> sy: do you feel like you're starting to regain the confidence? >> i really am. i'm already starting to get the 90s back that i used to start getting. >> sy: that's amazing! to help students like harmonee,

fulton county doubled the number of schools offering summer classes, expanded course options, and opened the program to all students. but finding enough teachers was a challenge, even after thousand-dollar bonuses were offered. >> our teachers, quite honestly, are exhausted. i could have probably put about 30 more kids in summer school, had i had more teachers. >> sy: summer school is just one tool in bringing kids up to grade level. research shows more time in the classroom during the regular year and specialized tutoring programs also help. both school districts have no illusions that a few weeks in the summer alone can combat the covid slide. >> our belief is not that everything will be resolved at the end of june 2021. >> we know that we have to have a long-term perspective on our plan moving forward. this can't be made up in one year. >> sy: both atlanta public and fulton county districts have three-year plans to get students back up to speed.

summer programs are voluntary, unlike regular school, and registration fell short of district goals, meaning many students will lag behind in the fall. but for some, like harmonee, there are signs of progress. >> i'm so happy that the excitement is back on her face. i definitely know without the summer school program she would not be prepared. as a rising 8th grader. >> when i see the faces get off the school busses every day, i see those kids smiling, and they're coming back every day because, you know, they could very well not come, but they show up. >> sy: and now that the pandemic is easing, schools are trying to show up for them. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy in atlanta. >> woodruff: as the pandemic filled american hospitals and brought life to a near standstill in 2020, the

longstanding opioids epidemic was only intensifying, essentially out of sight. as amna nawaz reports, that epidemic's death toll, once centered on rural, largely white parts of the country, appears to have shifted more heavily to urban, african americans communities. >> nawaz: judy, the centers for disease control and prevention estimate that more than 92,000 americans died of overdoses in the 12 months ending last november. it's the highest nber ever recorded and a 30% jump over the prior year. the c.d.c. data is not broken down by race, but researchers at the university of california found the largest increase in overdose deaths was in african americans-- a 50% jump over 2019. in missouri black men are now four times more likely than a white person to die of an overdose. dr. kanika turner is a st. louis physician whose work centers in neighborhoods hard hit by addiction. she joins us now. dr. turner, welcome to the "newshour" and thank you for being here.

those numbers are just striking. tell us a little bit, especially over this past pandemic year, what's been driving those numbers? >> i think what's driving the numbers is definitely multi-factorial. i think a few things on the streets with the drug supply changing, with the pandemic. so we bent through the shutdown. we saw a significant change in the drug supply. whenever you see a change in the drug supply that could increase a risk for someone's overdose. on the streets we saw a lot of fentanyl and fentanyl an alogs. with the shutdown, we saw heroin return to the streets. where heroin is not as pote nent as fentanyl, whenever you have a significant change and people go back to using fental, we increase someone's risk for overdose. other things that took place, the stay at home order, you were no longer able to safely use, we had to get into the hands the drug to reduce the verses, because there were significant

delays for nine one within and emergency responses delayed in responding to overdoses to the home. when we look at the healthcare system, we had to quickly transition to telemedicine, and that was unheard of in the addiction world being able to offer telemedicine for substance abuse services. so the pandemic ripped the band-aid off our healthcare system and unroofed many disparities and inequities we are dealing with now and unfortunately our black males have continued to suffer during this time. >> reporter: you live and serve patients in a neighborhood where this is all playing out in a real way. tell us what you're hearing as patients and seeing on the frot line as a doctor. >> my patients are saying cocaine is pretty much the drug of use and people are exposed to fentanyl, not knowing this h. we need to test for drugs and if something sin heard of in if streets, that's a luge thing we need to talk about because you don't know what supply you're

getting now. >> reporter: what about the access to the treatment and the treatment for the patients once they're in any kind of treatment facility. what about that? >> that's a huge issue as well when you think about access. if we look at the location of treatment centers and where those are located at, now there's a big push to do more on the primary care level specifically at my clinic and a few others, but just access, transportation, getting from one place to another, that's a huge issue. you have to think about how many doctors are wavered to want to prescribe and practice in this area. it's another issue. i can't leave out systemic racism that's inherent and embedded in our healthcare system. so even if you get somebody to show up to care, we have an issue if they feel like they're not being welcomed or are stigmatized, they are less welcome to come back to see you. so we have issues with getting people in care and keeping people in care. it goes back to the federal policies put into place that disproportionately affected our

black and brown community, the draconian laws, the mandatory sentencing laws, to me, we need to start humanizing this and stop criminalizing this and coming from a perspective of being punitive. so looking at it from that perspective that we need to start focusing on the people that matter and not being dictated by the laws and policies put in place to care for people because no law or policy should be able to speak for someone's care. >> reporter: so you were among those leading the charge to stem soaring death rates. we have steams going on churches, mobile units, narcan backpacks handed out, the reversal drugs. is it enough on the ground? >> i definitely appreciative of all the effor. i think we need to teach people how to safely use. narcan is just one aspect for harm redetection in definitely reversing the overdose. i think that's great. we know overdoses occur. about 80 to 80% of time in

someone's home. but i think we need to educate people on how to safely use and that's something that's uncommon. we don't talk abou that, but we need to teach people how to safely use so that you won't die, and we can see you again. >> reporter: that is there are kanika turner, a physician in st. louis, missouri, joining us tonight. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. >> woodruff: throughout this past month, l.g.b.t.q. communities in the u.s. have been celebrating pride in cities and states around the country. corporate america has made itself a part of that, too, by increasingly tapping into pride month and trying to showcase its efforts to increase diversity and inclusion. but there are concerns pride has lost some of its political focus and important issues are not being addressed. lisa desjardins has our conversation. >> desjardins: judy, companies

not only celebrate the month but actively market around it as well. there's a term for that: "rainbow capitalism." wal-mart and target, have pride-related ads; ikea has pride-themed "love seats," and capital one bank had this feel-good splashy video. but for many l.g.b.t.q. individuals, it's hardly good times. several states, including florida have passed new restrictions, including on transgender athletes. hate crimes remain too frequent. murders of trans individuals are at a new high. it's leading to questions about the purpose of pride month. karen tongson is an author and professor of gender and sexuality studies at the university of southern california. you know, some people might think corporations are using pride symbols, more people are puing rainbow symbols on their twitter feeds and they tnk that's support. but why would you say it's a concern? >> well, i think we must understand that it's gesture

of support, but gestures of support, nice words, visible images of solidarity aren't always enough and they're often never enough, actually. and so it's not that people are angry that corporations are showing some effort at making a gesture to l.g.b.t. communities, but it's like what backs it up? what is there behind that gesture? is there anything substantial in material that will actually help transform the world that we are in and make itetter for us? >> desjardins: we're having this conversation, you and i, right now, because this is the last day of pride month. but what is the trade off there? >> well, there are endless memes and twitter accounts devoted to corporations in the month of june showing an image of a happy l.g.b.t. couple or person and then corporations on july 1st,

which reverts back to exactly the same iconography of straight couples and business as usual. and all we hope is for sustained attention and commitment from these corporations, organizations and anybody who expresses allyship beyond the month of june into perpetuity on our behalf. >> desjardins: and some corporations that are doing this say we're raising awareness and in some cases we're raising money, for example, donating some of the sales that they're bringing in from l.g.b.t.q. merchandise to causes that are related. i hear you saying you want something substantial. what do you believe that corporate america should be doing? >> i think that many of us in the l.g.b.t. community are interested in a larger series of systemic changes, policy changes at every level and some money towards maybe a popular cause here and there. sometimes, like marriage equality was a kind of

mainstream popular cause for a period of time, isn't enough to address the deeper, systemic issues that often perpetuate the oppression of l.g.b.t. people, especially of color, the those who are unhoused, trans people who are have violence committed against them. all of the things that actually many americans are fighting for around systemic equality, the end of white supremacy, etcetera. and i think l.g.b.t. folks see that they're part of a broader movement that we need to make deeper changes to our system, to our culture in order to have a more just world. >> desjardins: we're now seeing sort of more visible presence, more attention on different parts of that community, the transgender community, non binary, meaning people who don't see gender as either or. can you talk about the tension and the communications over those groups and how they see this movement? >> i think that we have to consider whether or not certain groups who've attained certain

privileges within that l.g.b.t. acronym have to maybe consider abdicating some of their agenda in order to incorporate what we benefit the most folks under that l.g.b.t.q. plus acronym and whether or not there's true inclusion, acceptance and understanding for trans non binary folks and others in the community, those especially who don't share the same privileges and wealth so that we can achieve and attain a truly transformative change from our perspective. >> desjardins: important conversations that we will keep following. karen tongson at the university of southern california, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: a news update before we go: the university of north carolina-chapel hill's board of trustees votes to accept tenure for journalist nikole hannah-jones, author of the "new york times" 1619 project. the board's initial rejection

sparked intense criticism. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: we offer a variety of no- contract wireless plans for people who use their phone a little, a lot, or anything in between. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> and with the ongoing support

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