♪ judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, covid on the rise. spike in infections and deaths. and a renewed push for vaccinations. and then the road ahead, we check in on the latest from congress. is this the moment they finally agree on funding the infrastructure project? the desperate journey. the greek government targets migrants as europe struggles with the refugee crisis. >> it is like going from one war to another. i did not find anything better here. judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." ♪

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judy: new requirements for covid vaccinations gathered momentum today, as concerns over rising cases grows. the u.s. department of veterans affairs became the first federal agency to require shots. about 115,000 of its front-line health care workers will be required to get vaccinated within the next two months. there were similar moves on both coasts of the country. california governor gavin newsom said his state will require proof of covid-19 vaccination for all state employees and health care workers beginning next month. if employees don't get vaccinated, they must get tested weekly. in new york city, mayor bill de blasio said municipal workers either must get vaccinated by mid-september or take weekly tests. if not, they risk losing pay. both officials outlined thei reasoning.

governor gavin newsom: we're at a point in this epidemic, this pandemic, where choice, an individual's choice not to get vaccinated is now impacting the rest of us, in a profound and devastating and deadly way. mayor bill de blasio: september is the pivot point of the recovery. september is when many employers are bringing back a lot of their employees. september is when school starts full strength. september is when people come back from the summer. september is when it will all happen. judy: one major labor union signaled that it may fight the changes. separately, nearly 60 major medical organizations issued a call for mandatory vaccinations for all health care workers. more than 40 percent of all nursing home staff are still not fully vaccinated. for his part, president biden announced today that people suffering from long-term symptoms of covid could qualify as having a disability under the federal americans with disabilities act. today is the 31st anniversary of that law. individuals would get additional

protections from discrimination in employment and housing. but they have to be assessed to qualify. let's focus more now on today's news around mandatory vaccinations. dr. ezekiel emanuel helped organize that statement from those mecal groups. he's the co-director of the healthcare transformation institute at the university of pennsylvania. dr. zeke emanuel, welcome back to the "newshour." i think many people assumed that the majority or all health care workers are already vaccinated. but that is not the case, is it? dr. ezekiel emanuel: no, there are many health care workers that are not vaccinated, unfortunately. in long-term care facilities for , example, about 60 percent of the workers are vaccinated. but that means 40 percent are not vaccinated. judy: and so what is the impetus behind this move today, as we were saying, almost 60 major medical organizations saying it should be a requirement, mandatory that health care workers be vaccinated?

dr. ezekiel emanuel: well, our motivation is that we're health care workers. we're caring for patients. patients come first. it's our obligation to promote their health and well-being. and one of the ways we do that is by taking vaccines. we take the influenza vaccine, the hepatitis vaccine. and in the midst of covid-19, we're supposed to take the covid vaccine to protect our patients, whether they are elderly, they're children who can't be vaccinated, or they're immunocompromised cancer patients or organ transplant patients. we need help and protect them. and the best way to do that from covid is to get vaccinated. judy: but this pandemic obviously has been going on now for over a year-and-a-half. what has precipitated this right now? dr. ezekiel emanuel: judy, to be honest, i began urging mandates of health care workers three months ago, in the middle of april. i think we tried -- you know it

, is always better to have people do things voluntarily. we were hoping, if you got a vaccine, you made it readily available and you made it free, people would get vaccinated. but, unfortunately, in the country, only about half the country has been vaccinated. and in health care, it might be slightly higher, but it is still not 100 percent. and if you can't induce people to get the vaccine by all of these other mechanisms, then requiring them to fulfill their ethical obligation is something we have to move to. it's not the first resort. it's a last resort. judy: what do you think the response is going to be? how many health care facilities do you think are going to require their employees to do this? we saw veterans administration â” -- we saw the veterans administration, that is a federal agency, do this today. that's a lot of workers. but what about the private sector? dr. ezekiel emanuel: first of all, some of the private sector

has already mandated that their workers get vaccinated. i'm proud that i'm at the university of pennsylvania, and our health system was probably the first large academic health system to actually mandate all of our employees get vaccinated. i think actually having all of these professional societies and groups representing doctors and nurses, physician assistants and pharmacists, long-term care facility workers will give them a good reason to now mandate that their workers get vaccinated too. so i think, you are going to see a lot more private employers, health systems, doctors mandate , that their workers get vaccinated to be able to intersect witheople and keep their jobs. judy: and what difference does it make if they are holdouts among hospital groups or others who say, we just can't do that, we are worried he lose may employees? dr. ezekiel emanuel: well, what is interesting is that, when

houston methodist required it, there was a lot of chatter on twitter, on social media that people will quit, they will take them to court. turns out that over 99.5 percent of the work force of 26,000 got vaccinated, and just a few people decided they didn't want a vaccine and they would rather quit. similarly, there are long-term care companies that have required their workers to get vaccinated. and the vast majority, 95-plus percent, in some cases, 100 percent, have been vaccinated. so, i think the fear that workers are going to quit in large numbers is a fear not borne out by the cases that we have. judy: dr. zeke emanuel, where do you stand on mandating masks right now? as you know, the white house is saying that's not for us to do. that is not something we're looking at right now. what do you think should happen in that regard? dr. ezekiel emanuel: well, i will tell you, i think this delta variant is very transmissible. it's transmissible much earlier, and there are -- people get a large -- or expel a large amount of virus that can get to other people. i think, when you are indoors you should definitely wear a , mask even if you are vaccinated. it is a small

inconvenience. if you go into a grocery store or a pharmacy for 10, 15 minutes, that is not onerous. similarly, i think if you are , outdoors, but in a large crowd, i would wear a mask. it is not rlly inconvenient. and we should not make it more than it is. it is not like a lockdown. for the vast majority of us who are vaccinated, wearing a mask for a short period of time, even for an hour-and-a-half on a flight, is, i think, absolutely essential. judy: do you think it is something the federal government should be mandating in more places? dr. ezekiel emanuel: well, i think the federal government has mandated it in places like airports. i think we should enforce that mandate. it is kind of lax in a lot of places i have seen. i think the cdc will have to issue its recommendation. i happen to agree with the american academy of pediatrics that masking in classrooms is a good idea, because that is an extended period of time where lots of people are going to be together in a room in close quarters. so i think it's very important to revise the recommendation. that will then be implemented at the state and local level.

judy: dr. zeke emanuel, we thank you very much for joining us. dr. ezekiel emanuel: hank you, judy. i'm quite honored to be here. ♪ stephanie: we will return to judy woodruff and the full show after the headlines. the u.s. combat mission in iraq will wrap up this year. within 18 years after it began. president biden made it official today during an oval office visit by the iraqi prime minister. pres. biden: to continue to be available and train and to deal with isis as it arises. stephanie: there are now 2500 u.s. troops in iraq. it is unclear how many of them will remain. in afghanistan, the united

nation reports more women and children have been killed in fighting this year than in any similar period since 2009 when the deaths were being counted. total civilian casualties have risen 47% from a year ago as you i sources complete a withdrawal. china complained about u.s. policy today in person talks outside beijing. usw dairy secretary of state -- the u.s. deputy secretary of state met with chinese officials. the chinese blamed washington in what they call a stalemate in relations. >> the meeting is another important high-level exchange. fundamentally, because some americans portray china as an imagined enemy. they hope i demonizing train it that they could shift the public discontent over political, economic, and social issues. they will never succeed. stephanie: the u.s. side called the meeting say frank and open discussion.

back in this country, a wildfire in northern california, the largest in the state is threatening more than 10,000 homes. the dixie fire was less than a quarter contained today and had burned across 300 square miles and forced evacuations in several small communities. authorities in south florida have identified the last of 98 people killed when a condominium tower collapsed in june. the news today was announced four weeks after the building came down in the middle of the night in surfside. search teams officially concluded their work at the site on friday. former senator barbara boxer was assaulted and robbed today and oakland, california. a statement said she was not seriously injured. police said the incident is under investigation. recently retired senator mike enzi of wyoming is in the hospital today after baking his neck and a bicycling accident on friday in his hometown gillette. he was first stabilized at a local hospital before he was flown to a hospital in colorado.

police do not suspect foul play. the man who chaired the trump presidential inaugural committee thomas baruch pleaded not guilty today to illegally lobbying for the knighted arab emirate the billionaire arrived at a federal court in new york and was met by a protester calling him a traitor that he said he is 100% innocent. at the tokyo olympics, japan leads the united states in gold medals eight to seven tonight heading into the women's team gymnastics final drink simone biles tomorrow. team usa will be seeking its third consecutive team gold medal. early into tomorrow morning for american fans, the u.s. will face japan for they softball gold medal but a typhoon that is predicted could delay some of the competition. still on the newshour, fears of a return to dictatorship abound in tunisia after the president suspends parliament. the greek government targets

migrant advocates as the refugee crisis continues. a manufacturing training program offers an economic lifeline to disadvantaged teens. plus much more. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from w eta studios in washington and from the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism. judy: on capitol hill, bipartisan infrastructure deal talks have run into a little washington gridlock. to help us understand where negotiations stand right now, our lisa desjardins. hello, lisa tell us, where does , everything stand? what is the latest hang-up? lisa well, in this up-and-down : quest for a giant infrastructure bill for the country, i have to say this is the largest speed bump that these bipartisan negotiators have run into. over the weekend, as these negotiators were working around the clock and with the white house to see if they can just

finish that final, i guess, 5 percent that is left to negotiate, they ended up discovering that they really are perhaps farther apart than they realized. i want to take a look right now at exactly what the remaining issues are on the table in this bipartisan infrastructure discussion. there's quite a few of them. so, there you go. one of the first issues -- and we have been talking about this before is transit funds and how , much public transportation is funded in this vs. highways and bridges. democrats want more money for public transit than republicans would like. another issue, wages for those who actually construct and carry out this infrastructure bill. democrats would like to include part of an old law here in america that would say these workers should be given the wages that match roughly the local wages in the area where they are working. infrastructure bank, this is an idea on the table from both parties, but there is a question of how much federal funding should go to this concept of a public-private bank to help for

infrastructure. a really big one that could affect states and towns is how much of the covid relief money tt has already been passed by congress should be pulled back and should be used for infrastructure instead. and, finally, one i want to talk about at length, water projects. this is the issue that caused a major snafu over the weekend, a major block between the parties. and the person really raising objections is someone outside of the bipartisan group that is negotiating, senator tom carper, a democrat of delaware. he chairs the environment and public works committee. and late last week, he started raising objections to what he saw in the bipartisan deal. he is someone who has pushed very hard for a different bipartisan water bill. and he said he will -- in fact, objects so strongly that, unless they include the bill that he passed and the full funding for it, that he personally will block any bipartisan infrastructure deal. a lot of folks aren't sure if he really would or not, but this is

really a major hangup. he wants more money to fix lead pipes, especially for depressed communities, and also to clean up a chemical called pfas. that's something a lot of us experienced at home in things like nonstick plates or nonstick pans. but it's something that in our waterways really builds up and lives a long time. it affects drinking water. so these are the issues on the table right now. as we speak, judy, it's not clear how and when they will be able to work this out. judy: it's a lot of different pieces to be resolved, lisa. so what is the sense right now at the capitol? are they going to be able to come up with a al or not? lisa: right. i'm checking my phone as we speak, because lawmakers, those -- that senate gang of 10 is meeting right now to see if they can actually hash out an agreement again on this final kind of 5 percent that's left in this deal. they wanted to have this written by tonight. we're going to have to wait and see. i will tellou this. people have been working around the clock on this. staff is exhausted. some senators are

exhausted. there's a lot of frustration that a very big problem has come up in the last minute. but there still is a sense that somehow this will get through, somehow there will be what i call a senate rainbow. there'll be a big storm and then all a sudden the sun will come out. how they get there, we never know, but in the next day or two, a lot of hope for a rainbow. judy: all right, we will call it the lisa desjardins rainbow. we're remembering that, lisa. thank you. lisa: i will take it. judy: tunisia's president today suspended parliament indefinitely and fired the country's defense minister. it comes one day after he unilaterally fired the prime minister. nick schifrin reports on moves that critics call a coup one decade after the arab spring.

nick schifrin: in the birthplace of the arab spring, a crisis of democracy. tunisian president kais saied said he had to remove the prime minister and suspend parliament in order to save the state. >> today i have taken , responsibility. those who claim that this matter is related to a coup need to revise your constitutional lessons. nick schifrin: tunisians have been protesting a covid-19 spike, a failing economy, and called for the actions that saied took. but democracy watchers and the opposition party, called the moves a coup. supporters of the moderate islamist party that holds the most parliament seats clashed with the president's suorters. >> the decisions by president kais saied are not correct, against the constituon and reality. nick schifrin: in washington, the biden administration was not ready to use a label.

jen psaki: a determination about a coup is a legal determination. and we would look to the state department to conduct a legal analysis before making a determination. nick schifrin: and to discuss the events in tunisia and the u.s. response, i'm joined by sarah yerkes, a senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace. sarah yerkes, welcome to the "newshour." so, was this a coup? sarah yerkes: from where i stand, it is a coup. i think him if you look at the constitution, the way the president is justifying this there is no way that you read this that looks like it is justified. nick: saied he is an outsider. but while he was campaigning, he did warn that he wanted to direct democracy, rather than a parliamentary democracy. we know what his intentions are? sarah: unfortunately, he is really a black box. you don't know what his long game is. it seems right now that he's looking to consolidate power in the hands of one person, and that person happens to be him.

so, i think, in the long run, he's probably trying to turn tunisia into more of a presidential authoritarian system than a parliamentary one. but, unfortunately, he hasn't really told us yet what his long-term plans are. nick: what are tunisian so excited about today. -- today? sarah: tunisia, unfortunately, is undergoing multiple crises at the same time. the biggest one right now is the pandemic they are having their , worst covid numbers of the entire pandemic as we speak. and people are understandably very frustrated, very angry. the health system is collapsing. so, people took to the streets this last time over that, over the failure of the government to adequately address the pandemic. they're also facing tremendous economic challenges. and so people are just really frustrated and fed up with this government. and we have seen cuts to subsidies of food and fuel recently but also fundamental political infighting. sarah: absolutely.

from the get-go, the president and the prime minister have really been at odds with each other. even though the presiden handpicked at the prime minister, they have just been fighting with each other. they have been publicly undermining each other. in this opportunity came for the president to unseat the prime minister, he seized the opportunity. nick: tunisia was the only success story in the arab spring. why did these events -- what do these events say about democracy in tunisia 10 years later? sarah: i don't want to yet put sort of democracy and a coffin. i think tunisia's democracy still has a fighting chance. i think if we look at the way , these protests are being reported upon, the way that people are allowed to go into the streets, the way that people can criticize the government, they can go out there and call this a coup, and they're not getting arrested, that shows that democracy is alive and that it is functioning. this is a major threat to tunisia's democracy i think when we look back at this in six

months, maybe a month, i might have something different to say. but for now, i do think that we should still consider that democracy alive. nick: so you just said what the u.s. and europe should do. today, the u.s. spoke with senior tunisian government officials early -and released a statement saying that no one should stifle democratic discourse or take any actions that lead to violence. what should the u.s. do? sarah: i think the u.s. should be out there making much older statements andrankly calling this a coup. that needs to go through the crack legal channels. frankly, i think that is what we are seeing is that the united states is kind of hiding it's time. nick: i want to switch gears to our rack. the iraqi prime minister, mustafa al-kadhimi, was in the white house with president joe biden. president biden announced the end of u.s. combat msion in iraq. but american troops have not been fighting combat in iraq. they have been advising and assisting.

why is it important for the u.s. to make the statement politically to help the iraqi prime minister? sarah: i think first of all, , this fits into biden's greater world view, in that he's trying to get the united states out of the middle east. but domestically for the iraqis , and for kadhimi, i think this is helpful to him. this helps show him the united states is no longer this kind of shadow hangg over them. he's facing all sorts of pressure to get the united states out. and so i think this is a little bit of a gift that biden is giving kadhimi in order to help him achieve his own domestic goals. nick: sarah, thank you. ♪ judy: fifty-seven migrants are presumed dead today off the coast of libya, as refugees and migrants continue their desperate journey to europe. but in the country that's borne the heaviest load amid the crisis, police in greece have launched a human trafficking prosecution against nonprofits that help asylum seekers try to avoid being pushed back at sea to turkey.

last week, special correspondent malcolm brabant reported on violent pushbacks by the greeks at sea. as malcolm also found, pushbacks are happening on the river evros along the land border between greece and turkey. malcolm brabant: it took persistence for huda and her three children to reach greek soil. they were pushed back to turkey three times, before finally crossing the sea to the island of samos. can you just describe to me how you feel about the way in which you have been treated? >> we were it's like going from one war to another. i didn't find anything better here than the life i was living. malcolm brabant: the palestinian family's three pushbacks happened on the treacherous evros river, a militarized zone dividing greece from turkey. can you describe what happened when you were pushed back?

>> they pushed us back in a very aggressive way. on the way back to turkey, we were ordered into a vote meant for just for three or four people. they put 32 people in altogether with some syrians that work with. they put us all in the river and sent us back. they told us, two days before, someone fell in the water and died. they said: "if you return here, you will have the same fate." malcolm brabant: this kurdish woman is laying low in the greek capital, athens. she's afraid turkish agents will kidnap her, take her back to turkey and throw her in jail. she's a vocal opponent of turkey's increasingly authoritarian president erdogan and fled to greece to seek political asylum. like these migrants, she boarded a small boat and paddled across the evros river to the european union side, but was pushed back by greek border guards, in breach of international conventions stipulating that asylum seekers should not be expelled if their lives or freedom are at risk, and especially not back into the arms of their persecutors. >> being a refugee is a right, unfortunately, because if only

everyone could live freely and economically secure, if only there were no wars in people's countries. but they all exist. and people have the right to live. they have the right to a better life, without going to prison, without being killed. malcolm brabant: spyros oikonomou of the greek council for refugees is outraged by pushbacks of any kind. >> it's the most blatant violation of international human rights law. it actively places in danger, people's lives and their rights. i don't really see anything being more dreadful. and, in all honesty, it's an international shame. malcolm brabant: greece is currently erecting a donald trump-style wall along the evros. greece has the dilemma of feeling abandoned by its european union partners, because so many nations refuse to accept migrants. and, at the same time, it's obliged to defend the e.u.'s borders. >> we don't want to be the gateway to europe for the smuggling networks. we don't

want to be the gateway for millions of people to enter the european union through greece and end up in all the member states of the european union. but we still feel we're alone, greece, italy, spain, malta, and cyprus, the five mediterranean countries, in tackling the pressure from migration. malcolm brabant: the battle over the greek pushbacks is heating up. the police on the greek islands next to the turkish coast have just launched a prosecution against international nonprofits and some individuals who help asylum seekers and who've criticized pushbacks. the police say they may be well-meaning, but they have committed felony crimes, such as people trafficking and espionage. veteran humanitarian and political analyst panayote dimitras is fighting back. he's been to greece's supreme court to demand that a prosecutor investigates hundreds of pushbacks by the state. >> europe should be more ashamed than anybody else, because it's their orders that are to be carried out by all the other players. it is their policies, their agreements that are at the root of the problem. malcolm brabant: what a difference five years makes.

spring 2016, and portuguese coast guards are racing to rescue syrians in distress off the island of lesbos. the portuguese were contributing to the european border agency frontex and saving lives. fast-forward to this decade and footage of a romanian frontex ship apparently pushing back migrants towards turkey. in a damning report, the european parliament has condemned frontex for failing to uphold its human rights obligations. frontex, based in warsaw, responded by saying it would look into the parliament's recommendations about improving. >> europe should change. and, if europe changes, every other player will be forced to change. malcolm brabant: dimitras is disturbed by a european trend of criminalizing pro-migration nonprofits. these people were saved off the coast of libya in june as they tried to reach italy. their rescuers were from doctors without borders, whose ship, the geo barents, replaced other

vessels outlawed in italian waters. after landing the migrants in sicily, the ship was detained for 24 days for what the nonprofit described as punitive reasons. but it was released today. >> since the beginning of 2021 up until now, at least 790 people have been confirmed dead or missing. the need to be back at sea is imminent. we cannot let people perish at the deadliest sea border of the world. malcolm brabant: back on the greek island of samos, huda has now been granted asylum. the greeks accepted she was escaping conflict and poverty, but, above all, protecting her children from an extremely abusive father. >> i want my children to be in a place where they are not afraid. i want them to be safe. i want them to study. i want them to be likeny children, like any child that loves to play, th goes to school, that finds a familial environment, where there's respect for their childhood.

malcolm: in athens, the kurdish asylum seek your issued this appeal. >> all of europe, all of the world has to be against this. we cannot turn our backs on people who had to escape wars and dictatorships that our very own states foster. if we are not able to stop wars and migration, we have to make sure that they happen in humanitarian conditions. malcolm brabant: what's drawing migrants to the european union are its democratic and humanitarian principles. currently, all along its frontiers, critics argue those values are being tarnished, and they wonder, how long will the hypocrisy continue? for the "pbs newshour," i'm malcolm brabant in athens. ♪ judy: even as the labor picture in the united states improves post-pandemic, the manufacturing

sector is still struggling with a shortage of workers and raw materials. an analysis by deloitte found that over two million manufacturing jobs will be unfilled through 2030. for his making sense reporting, paul solman looks at a program that's preparing inner-city high school students for high-skill, high-paying factory jobs. it's the latest in our work shift series, which focuses on navigating the job market in this time of covid and the future. paul solman: ok, here's a dream confluence. first, the problem kid from inner-city louisville. >> growing up in a troubled neighborhood i would have been wrong place, wrong time, probably end up in the system. >> next, a potentially problem high school. >> this is a school that's 80 to 90 percent free and reduced lunch. a third of the kids in this school qualify for english second language or special education services. so what you're talking about is a school with significant

at-risk population. >> finally, a huge local manufacturer with jobs that cannot fill. >> we currently don't have enough workers to continue to run our factories, whether it's here in louisville or in georgia or alabama or tennessee. >> you see where this is going right? but stick with me. , admittedly, just one company, one school, only a few kids, but they're trying something pretty new here, because they have to, the economy has to. let's start with the kid. >> i would have been one of those just working in a fast-food restaurant. and i didn't want my future to be that. not at all. reporter so, what was he doing : in school? neal's mother is taneda thompson. >> fighting, walking out of class, getting smart with the teachers. you name it. >> getting into trouble? >> staying in trouble from pre-k until ninth grade. he took

lighters to school one time and tried to light a girl's hair on fire. i don't know. reporter but, today, as a high : school senior? >> none of that. >> diagnosed with adhd and odd, oppositional defiant disorder, her son was medicated from age 5. >> he's been off of it for about a year now. and he hasn't been to his therapist in about three years. reporter: as of 10th grade, a transfiguration. >> i literally do research about engineering technology so i can get more mental stage and stuff. so i know how a refrigerator is made. i know how a dishwasher's made. i know how car's made. something new every day. that's how i want to use the rest of my days. reporter jaquez neal is now a : star student, working his butt off, headed to college next fall, in large part because doss high school reinstituted vocational ed. >> pick a category and a dollar amount. reportersing every trick in

: the book to make even the most boring parts of it palatable. >> worker safety for 100. reporter this is how teacher : greg ash preps students for their certified production technician exam. >> material handling for 400. >> drains should be protected when unloading what? reporter but the main attraction : here, hands-on learning. >> i don't want to sit there and talk about it. i want to be hands-on. so once i learned that we got a lab, i was intrigued. i was happy. no hesitation. i was like, yes, get me in there, get me in there. reporter is the key to it that : you have got a shop like this, that you have stuff you can physically be doing? >> yes, i have a lot of resources. now that i'm in a lab, it's like i can go in there and build anything that i want. it's fun. like, it's the best thing ever. >> sitting behind a desk for 90, 100 minutes, it doesn't work for him. but education like this, an alternative, works for him perfectly. and he has excelled in it. reporter the program has kept : charles malone going too. >> i had built a can crusher at

one point. reporter: a cam crusher? ha >> with pneumatics. way better than a classroom, for sure. reporter: his mother had what she thought were loftier aspirations for him. >> i did want him to go to college, but he had no interest in college. i kind of thought you had to get a college education to do something. but this turned my thoughts around. reporter perhaps even more to : the point, says county school superintendent marty pollio, education like this makes sense in every sense of the phrase. >> when kids see a skill that is going to specifically leado something, a certification, a high-paying, high-skilled, high-wage job, they're much more likely to be engaged in the school. reporter and that's where ge : appliances, now owned by the hands-off chinese firm haier, comes in, with a program called gea2day, outfitting doss high school with a manufacturing lab, luring kids into two-day-a-week paid apprenticeships at its ginormous factories nearby. as sophomores, they can go to ge appliance park and they can see what they're learning in the classroom relates to real-world experience. then, as juniors,

they are usually going to work for them during summer works program. and then their senior year, for the ones that are 18, get to co-op on mondays and fridays through the gea2day program and get even more real world experience. reporter: and get paid. >> and get paid. reporter starting at $15.50 an : hour, plus benefits. and high schoolers aren't the only ones who work two days a week. so does jayme maskey, whowitched from full-time after giving birth to her first child. >> i picked the program because i wanted to be there for my son and watch him grow. reporter: haylee miles is in college. her friends ask why she works in a factory. >> and i tell them they have a tuition reimbursement program. i work there two days a week, and it helps pay for college. reporter renee jumper is older, : 47. but, during covid, she felt her kids needed her help with schoolwork. >> working two days a week at gea has enabled me to homeschool them. >> we thought we were targeting high school stents that maybe weren't thinking about going to

college, but a lot of women showed up and came to work, and did phenomenal. reporter but wait a minute, i : said to gea's a.j. hubbard, most people think manufacturing is in long-term decline in this country, and now the robots are coming. so why are you trying so hard to find people to fill jobs that might not be there? >> i don't know that manufacturing is declining. we have added 100 robots here, but we have added 1,000 jobs just in the last year. robot: and the -- reporter: and the robots? >> even though we are adding robots -- reporter: valerie hughes. >> it is elevating the skill set of the individuals that we need in the jobs. reporter: technical skills like those doss high is now trying hard to teach to meet the demand out there. but doesn't superintendent pollio worry about education serving business, and doing so to the detriment of a broader education?

>> so i have been asked many times, are you forcing a kid to choose their career as a 15- or 16-year-old? and so what i usually say is absolutely not. our job as a school district is to make sure kids are engaged and passionate and college- and career-ready and give them multiple pathways along the way. >> there are so many doors that can be opened and the possibility is endless. reporter jaquez neal is headed : to college in the fall. but he's got a vocational fallback, high-tech manufacturing. for the pbs newshour, paul solman. ♪ judy: this could be another make or break week in washington from infrastructure negotiations to the first hearing of the january 6 select committee and the effort to convince americans to get the covid vaccine. john yang is here to help make sense of it all witour politics monday team. >> for that as always, the

politics monday team, including tamra keith from npr. welcome to you both. the lead segment on the show tonight, covid. even though july 4, president biden said we would be celebrating our independence from covid and we woul have 70% of americans vaccinated, is there aanger that the president's agenda, what he wants to talk about is going to or has been overtaken by something that is largely out of his control? >> everyone was celebrating on july 4 and it felt great. and then reality has been setting in a the delta variant has another agenda. and the fact is that we are now three weeks out from the july 4 goal of 7 adults vaccinated and it is still not quite there. 69% according to the latest numbers. axa nations have once again started picking up just a little

bit. but there is only so much that president biden can do and he has -- he and the administration are sort of stuck in between people who say, don't you dare tell me what to do, don't mandate and on the others, people in public health and a huge number of medical associations saying, no, you really should talk about mandates. we need to break through. and t biden administration has continued to error on the side of caution of not wanting to make it seem that the stamp of big government is trying to make people do something and the result is that it is slow going. these individual conversations. individual persuasion. and the fight about a week ago with the social media companies trying to tamp down on misinformation. >> we know that all of this is true and we also know that for democrats politically, that

democrats would have loved to see going into the 2022 midterms and economy on the rebound, a public health crisis in the rearview mirror. i think we were all at that place we have been talking nonstop about t infrastructure bill and the human infrastructure bill and the american families plan and yet, we got pulled back into the reality at a public health crisis is not over until it is actually over. the hard part about the convincing piece is that this was from june but the kaiser foundation polling founder -- there is a difference in vaccinated adults between people saying, i am nervous and i want to wait it out and i don't know if i'm going to get it versus the -- i am never getting this. not surprisingly -- not surprisingly, the folks that say i am never going to get it overwhelmingly, those are republicans, about 60 7% of

those identify as republicans and white. the folks that say, i am waiting it out, i will wait and see, that is a more diverse group of people both in terms of political ideology and race. >> and yet republicans seem to be changing their tune. we had an interesting op-ed from sarah huckabee sanders, a great defender of president trump. she is running for governor and she talked about -- she was taking advantage of president trump's operation warp speed -- the president -- president trump did develop -- the vaccine was developed under his administration but she also blamed president biden and vice president harris for undercutting confidence in the vaccine. she is walking a very fine line. >> we saw the republican governor of alabama, out and say this is unvaccinated people that are doing this to us.

we are seeing multiple higher-level republicans, steve scalise, the number two on the republican side in the house got his first vaccination shot last week or the week before that, there is the push on but the reality is, if these numbers do continue to bear out once we got into july that the kaiser foundation showed us, there still might be that solidly committed group of people who are not going to budge no matter who tells them -- the real question is if there will be mandates in place. the veterans administration said today, well, if you are a health care worker, you have to get vaccinated in new york and california. that may be the only way you are going to see movement with that group. >> at the top of the show we also heard the infrastructure deal. it was about a mth ago that president biden walked out of the white house with a bipartisan group of senators saying they had agreed to the

framework. they have had trouble filling in the framework. what are the potential rewards and risks of continuing to try to negotiate a bipartisan agreement even as the recess is rushing toward us? or the democrats going on their own and just passing a democratic vote? >> i am going to roll out an old cliché about political organizations where nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to and that is the stage that these negotiations are currently end. in terms of risks and rewards, certainly, there is a backup plan. democrats could just roll parts of the bipartisan infrastructure deal that they like into the american family plan that amy was talking about earlier. they could just roll that in and do it with mccright votes alone. the only challenge is that democratic votes alone are not a guarantee and there are some

democrats that are really set on the idea of a bipartisan portion of this. so being able to say this does contain important bipartisan elements and so part of this may be whether the biden white house and other democrats, if these bipartisan negotiations fail, if they can convince their fellow democrats that they tried. >> we are in an environment where compromise and bipartisanship are not the deal they once were. >> and it is getting harder especially when we see the kinds of people that seem to be attracted to office. any of them like -- many of them like the fight more than the fixing. the other reality and the challenge for the biden administration is we spent all this time talking about process and not a lot of time talking about what is in the package and it is not getting delivered especially when you're talking about infrastructure. that is gre to get a deal done

but it takes a long time to fix roads and put in new pipes. >> tomorrow, the first meeting of the house committee investigating january 6. seven democrats and two republicans. liz cheney and adam kinzinger both voted to impeach president trump. neither of them were the traces of kevin mccarthy. is this starting office something that will produce results that will be widely accepted? >> it is hard to see a scenario that will produce results that are widely acceptable. kevin mccarthy describes the republicans as pelosi republicans. i don't even know what that is. they are definitely real republicans. the thing is that they are not trump republicans. it is not about bipartisanship anymore, it is about whether you are a trump person or you are not. when it comes to this investigation, everyone on the committee are not a trump person how they convinced that -- how

they convinced trump people that this was not a fact fighting mission is not clear. >> there is some part of you that if you look at this you would say, is speaker pelosi driving a wedge into the republican party? it would be an effective way if there was a wedge that would actually work. when it comes to donald trump, there is a handful who are on the side of -- we need to investigate more. >> if there was a wedge to drive off, this would work. thank you very much. ♪ judy: for women with breast cancer, losing one or both breasts in the course of treatment can be a shattering experience. as maya from san diego reports,

a tightknit group of women at a retirement home in escondido, california is helping to lessen the challenges associated with mastectomy, one loving and skillful stitch at a time. it is part of our ongoing arts and culture series, canvas. >> it is like riding a bicycle. you don't forget. reporter: in her cottage at the retirement home, pat anderson's creativity has not slowed down over the years. after a long career as a textile designer, she still enjoys making yarn by hand at --on her spinning wheel. >> everything you wear starts with this process. reporter: her friend is here. >> this is the first thing that i made. reporter: she admires her creations from the 1970's. >> house neat. reporter: they call this tranquil home, the magic place

because it has become the setting of their new friendship as well as a surprisg new grassroots movement. >> it stands for sisterhood of the boobless wonders. reporter: they are breast cancer survivors and part of a trio of knitters that have taken comfort into their own hands. >> here theyre. they are nothing more than a specially designed accessory. reporter: in the six years since pat made the first prototype, the project has helped more than 1200 women across the country who have undergone mastectomy surgery. >> all women's clothing is designed to accommodate the bust contour. so, if that is gone, your clothing doesn't fit right and you end up feeling dumpy and unkempt. reporter: pat says most of all,

it shows and until now the only official solutions offered to patients are surgical procedures and silicone prosthetics. busters on the other hand -- >> this weis less then an ounce. they are soft, washable, natural and normal looking. reporter: at first glance, busters may look simple -- >> they are easy to make. reporter: pat says there is a very specific technique. and she has probably patented the design. >> we have a contour here but it has to be flat on the back. reporter: what makes them more unique, unlike prosthetics, is they are customizable by size by adding or removing the filling. >> almost a full cup size larger or smaller. reporter: every last detail has been considered. >> the cheerful colors remind women that they are breast cancer survivors and not victims. repoer: each pair takes about

eight hours to knit. it is a real labor of love. >> what do you think of something like this? >> color wise? reporter: pat stepped into hell. >> she was in front of me at the buffet line and i asked her if she needed any help knitting. >> you know she is a good neighbor. reporter: when fellow resident, bernice found a lump on her breast -- >> i said just mop it off. reporter: medicare covered the cost of the peracetic. >> i waited on my postal scale. it weighs two pounds and it was hot in the summer and it could even be cold in the winter. i don't think anyone would choose this. reporter: since she was introduced to busters, she says this breast sits in the box. >> now i have a better choice. reporter: gratitude usually

comes with donations. that goes towards sponsoring another woman's hair. from one survivor to another. >> there is life after breast cancer. reporter: as per pat anderson, she says busters is her final project. >> how many almost 89-year-old women can say they are still doing something that makes a difference? reporter: and much like the nylon blend chosen for its strength and softness, these survivors exude that same resilience. they are paid with a product that lasts down to the final, thoughtful stitch. judy: and they are making a difference. what a wonderful story. and that is the newshour for tonight. i am judy woodruff. wine is online and again here tomorrow evening. stay safe anwe will see you soon. >> major funding for the "pbs

newshour" has been presented by -- >> cfo. caregiver. eclipse chaser. raymondjames financial advisor taylor's advice to help you live your life. life well planned. >> consumer cellular. johnson & johnson. bnsf railway. the kendeda fund committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendeda fund.org. ♪ supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfou

nd.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions -- ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ this is pbs newshour west from weta studios in washington, and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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