captioning sponsored by newshour proctions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the road ahead-- as the senate continues to work through the massive infrastructure package, we examine the potential investments made in the cotry's water systems. then, the covid economy-- the recovery continues but questions remain about the strength of the job market, inflation, and variants of the coronavirus. and, lebanon in crisis-- a year after the explosion that shook beirut, the country is beset by a catastrophic economic collapse. >> my country has betrayed me. i have no peace. no peace of mind, no peace of life.

i feel like a prisoner who is sentenced to death. >> 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 pblems-- 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: the world has reached a new covid-19 milestone tonight: 200 million infections, and counting. that includes some 615,000 in the united states. a few countries are already offering booster vaccinations, as the aggressive delta variant spreads.

but today the world health organization called for delaying boosters for two months, until more countries can get vaccine. >> high-income countries have now administered almost 100 doses for every 100 people. meanwhile, low-income countries have only been able to administer 1.5 doses for every 100 people due to lack of supply. >> woodruff: in washington, the white house argued the u.s. has enough vaccine for boosters, if needed, and for shipment to other countries. also today, illinois bece the latest to mandate face masks for public school students this fall. new york governor andrew cuomo faced even more pressure today to resign over sexual harassment allegations. the associated press reported a majority of state assembly members support impeachment proceedings, if he does not step down. the three-term democrat denies

state investigation findings that he harassed at least 11 women. the government of mexico is suing big-name american gun makers and distributors. the suit was filed today in federal court in boston. it charges the companies' business practices have aided gun trafficking and fueled bloodshed. mexico is seeking $10 billion in damages. in lebanon, violent protests erupted on the first anniversary of a deadly explosion at the port of beirut. as night came on, demonstrators fought with police, who used tear gas and water cannon outside the parliament building. earlier, crowds denounced corruption and the failure to hold senior officials accountable for the explosion. >> ( translated ): it is a painful memory. we remember our victs. they called them martyrs but in fact they are victims. victims of their corruption, victims of the authority's negligence and victims of their deals. they do not deserve to be in power.

>> woodruff: the beirut explosion killed at least 214 people and wounded thousands. we'll return to this, later in the program. the british navy reports that hijackers who briefly captured a tanker outside the persian gulf, have now left it. they seized the vessel yesterday off fujairah, a major port in the united arab emirates. radio transmissions indicated the gunmen were iranians. there's been no explanation of why they seized the ship. the european union promised aid today to greece and neighboring nations facing a wave of wildfires. one major fire charred scores of homes, businesses and cars just north of athens on tuesday. thousands of people fled, but some stayed behind, told harrowing stories today. >> ( translated ): there were explosions all around, bam, boom, the utility poles were falling, there were explosions inside homes and cars. it was like we were in hiroshima

or something, something like this has never happened here. >> woodruff: in neighboring turkey, another fire reached an electric power plant, forcing evacuations. back in this country, california's largest wildfire is growing again as hot, gusty weather returns. flames and smoke from the "dixie" fire painted skies a glowing orange on tuesday. the fire jumped containment lines, prompting evacuation orders to another 15,000 people. a trump-backed republican and a moderate democrat have claimed nominations in ohio, for open seats in the u.s. house of representatives. democrat shontel brown won tuesday's primary in a cleveland district, over a progressive rival. she is favored in november's special election. and, mike carey won the g.o.p. primary in a columbus district, with former president trump's support. he faces a democratic opponent this fall.

on wall street, stocks mostly slumped on news that private- sector employment was weaker than expected last month. the dow jones industrial average lost 323 points, nearly one percent, to close at 34,792. the nasdaq rose 19 points. but, the s&p 500 slipped 20. and, at the summer olympics, daily covid-19 cases in tokyo reached a new peak at more than 4,100, with four days remaining in the games. in the competition, american sydney mclaughlin broke her own world record and won the gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles. still to come on the newshour: despite a strong housing market, questions remain about the larger economic recovery. confronting the biden administration for the controversial expulsion migrants to mitigate covid-19. lebanon in crisis - a year after a massive explosion. plus much more.

>> woodruff: millions of americans lack safe drinking water and wastewater overflows pour bacteria into our rivers and lakes. lisa desjardins has more on how the bill could help. >> desjardins: the bill would be the largest federal investment in clean water in american history. and it is aimed at some large issues. as many as 22 million americans get their drinking water from systems with lead pipes, known as potentially toxic. and twice as many americans rely on systems found in violations of safe water standards.

the senate infrastructure bill would spend about $50 billion to overhaul these systems. to dive into this more, i'm joined by erik olson, senior strategic director for health and food at the natural resources defense council. erik, let's stuart with the big picture here, how serious are the issues with clean ter in this country right now and how is there bill trying to tackle them? >> well, unfortunately, the whole issue of water infrastructure has been out of sight and o of mind. we've got water systems all over the country that are falling apart, that are aging, many of them 50 to 100 years old. so it's a huge problem nationwide in all 50 states and it's not just the lead pipes, but it's also things like combined sue we are overflow with raw sue going into lakes and streams, it's contaminated water with toxic chemicals. so, it really is time to make these investments, it's a wise

time with low interest rates to make these investments, so we're glad the senate bill will start to address these problems. >> reporter: we wanted to get our hands around what this means so we reached out to one of the many communities affected and one senate staffers went to when they tried to write one versionov this bill, jackson, mississippi, where they have been under water boil alerts off and on much of the year. we talked to the mayor about the aging system and what that means for his residents. >> when i think about the challenges of families in jackson, you know, we have to realize that how they feel is more than just a mere filling of inconvenience. it is fear associated with the inability to get water in their homes. and, so, residents are tired, right? they want to know that their lives have value, they want to know that, you know, they don't have to live in substandard conditions.

>> reporter: one to have the problems jackson has is a money problem, like many lower-income communities, which include many communities of color, they just can't afford he large costs of new water infrastructure. can you talk about how this bill tries to tackle those problems in particular? >> with -- what we've seen in black and brown and tribal communities across the country is this disproportionate lack of investment with infrastructure water problems that are really severe in many of these communities. a lot of these lead pipes, a lot of contamination with toxic chemicals and frankly sewer systems that are falling apart, drinking water supplies that aren't up to the task. so we're seeing a nationwide problem that affects all 50 states, it affects communities all over but especially hits hard in some of these lower-come communities and communities of color across the country. >> reporter: i know from our reporting the bill tries to set

aside some money to make it easier for those communities to get grants they don't have to pay back. you mentioned lead pipes, those are something many communities across the country, doesn't matter your income level, have and a lot of toxic chemicals, pfas, a lot of people may know that because it goes into nonstick pans, but that kind of chemical so hard to pull out of water once it's in there. there's $25 billion dollars to deal with these things. does that solve the toxic chemical problem? what does it do? >> so there are two chunks of money that are specifically directed to those two issues you mentioned. one is there's $15 billion to help pull out some of the lead pipes in the country. so the estimates from the environmental protection agency are it's going to cost at least around w45 billion, maybe more than that, to pull out all the lead pipes, so we're putting a down payment of around $15 billion that will take care

of maybe a third of that problem. the other issue you mentioned are these forever toxic chemicals called pfas, used in nonstick pans as you mentioned, but in a lot of other uses, also. they're used bidely and still are in some places as firefighting foam and often just sprayed out on to the ground and seeped into the groundwater, ran off into streams, and they've contaminated tens of millions of people's drinking water now. so they're very hard to get out to have the water, you have to treat them with advanced technology, so the bill does put $10 billion towards pulling some of those out of our water. >> so sounds like this definitely would do something significant, maybe not solve the problem. you know, you mentioned tribal communities and we know those are the areas of the country with the least access to water at all. we also wanted to hear their thoughts. i spoke to the president of the navajo nation today. >> 30 to 40% of our najo

people do not have running water. people drive miles, hours just to get water to their homes. it's not just about drinking water, it's about agriculture, it's about getting water to our livestock, getting water to our farms here because that is also what sustains life here. >> reporter: so he's hopeful about this bill, but can you take us through -- that's a big problem, lands with no water infrastructure. what does this bill do for that if it passes? >> we have tribal lands all over the country and if their water problems date back to the 1800s when a lot of the reservations were created. native manners were forced on to these reservations in most cases and often about clarity about where the water was supposed to come with from and they're still living with the problems. it includes $3.5 billion specifically for the indian health service to help with

sanitation. there's very limited funding really specifically targeted to pep help drinking water. >> reporter: erik olson, we're talking about big dollars but also big problems. we appreciate your time. >> it's my pleasure. thank you for having me on. >> woodruff: now, the prospects ahead for the economy, jobs and housing as the country grapples with the pandemic. let's start with the ever-rising costs of housing-- what's behind it and the concerns over affordability for tens of millions. according to the latest s&p core logic case-shiller index, nationally home prices were up almost 17% over the last year. in some markets, buyers and sellers are looking at even larger hikes. economics correspondent paul solman has the story for our series, "making sense."

>> reporter: boise, idaho: a bustling downtown, space for walks galore, watercraft of every description, and compared to west coast cities not far away, safer, quieter, cheaper. no surprise the place is booming, especially given covid, says realtor kevin rush. >> we see a lot of people moving here that can work wherever they want to work. you know, it's like, wait a minute, i'm kind of reevaluating my life. >> reporter: nationwide home prices soared to a yet another record high in june, thanks to historically low interest rates, lack of supply, and the rocketing cost of new construction for builders, says teshuh toosawkuhvich of cbh homes. >> lumber. there's been a copper shortage. there's been concrete difficulties. we have so many materials that are just difficult to get. >> reporter: boise is a poster child for the housing price boom. in its metro area, in the past year, the median sale price surged to $525,000, 40% higher

than 12 months ago. >> we've basically been seeing offers go 40, 50, sometimes 100,000 over the asking price and 11 to 20 people that might be in, you know,aking offers. so we've got these bidding wars that are just unbelievable. >> reporter: boise born realtor becky enrico-crum has been working round the clock. >> we're not sleeping this year at all. and that's okay. i mean, we can sleep when we're dead, right? >> reporter: the boise market was already heating up well before the pandemic. >> prices have been escalating double digits for four or five years now. it just got accelerated and turned a little bit crazy in the last six to eight months. >> reporter: that's a windfall for sellers like wade tracy, who bought his house just outside town four years ago. >> we paid about 305, maybe 310, and then we just sold it for 620.

>> reporter: tracy is now moving his family to far cheaper rural ohio with his newfound capital. >> we sold it for cash. they didn't want any appraisals, no home inspections, nothing. it was as is. >> reporter: the buyer? >> he's a police officer from san francisco. he's going to do an early retirement. >> reporter: they're coming from all over california. >> this is the kitchen... >> reporter: caitlyn smith, a writer, moved with her husband from encinitas, north of san diego. >> we had to do an escalation clause in order to get the house. >> reporter: how much did you offer? >> we offered about 20,000 over. >> reporter: and got their house for $394,000. if it were in encinitas? >> it would probably be a million dollar home. >> reporter: smith can work at home in her new neighborhood... >> this is my office... >> reporter: ...because her company went fully remote at the start of the year. >> you don't need to be in the big city anymore. and i think a lot of people really realize, like mental health and quality of life are more important during covid. and wanting to land somewhere that's just a little slor, a

little quieter, a little nicer. >> reporter: casey and justin killian relocated from seattle. >> we sold our home in seattle which was 1200 square feet, and we were able to purchase a home here in boise for the same amount of money and basically double or triple the amount square footage we got. >> reporter: the kilians now work from home, pay less for daycare. but to get into this market, they had to be strategic. >> we realized quickly that houses were going within a day. and if you had any contingencies whatsoever. so the contingency of selling your home, you were not competitive. so we had to first sell our home in seattle before we could even compete in this market. >> we were classic millennials crashing on my mom's couch for about three months. >> reporter: justin's from boise but left for the coast after college. it's become an a much more cosmopolitan city since. >> boise back in the late '80s, early '90s when i grew up here and comparing that to now, it's a way more exciting place to be.

>> five years ago, i would not have moved here. >> reporter: but to some in this conservative state, the urn influx can seem like an invasion. >> it's definitely causing heartburn across the valley for the locals. >> reporter: matt baker developed the housing in this area. >> if you're coming in from california, you're going and getting those license plates changed to idaho as quick as you can. that is a fact. >> reporter: john cahbinah moved here from sacramento. did you change your license plates right away because you didn't want to be known? california? >> we haven't! >> reporter: cobbinah, originally from ghana, and his wife pamela sue came here to escape sacramento's rising homelessness and blue politics. but the license plates? >> we were driving, house- hunting. somebody held a sign, go back to california, and so we come in, we park in the garage so nobody sees the license plate. so we make sure we lock, we lock >> reporter: much of the

resentment is economic. with wages nowhere near keeping up with home prices, locals are out of the bidding. >> our first time homebuyers that we've always been able to put into homes, you kn, that qualify for a loan that just came out of college that have a really nice job, but they don't have an extra 40 or $50,000 extra to win a bidding war to get in. those people are priced out. >> reporter: like boise plumber ryan kenkey, who makes $50,000 a year, has saved up, and has a strong credit score. he and his girlfriend looked for months. >> we got a loan for 300,000 to go out and look and everything that was priced underneath 300,000 just immediately had offers some cash that were way over. this is the new normal for house-hunting. >> reporter: not getting the house. >> not getting the house. >> reporter: so kenkey is renting instead. but for disabled vietnam vet gary wiltermood, even renting is becoming impossible. he's lived in a house at the edge of a boise trailer park

for 15 years. the owners want him out. >> they have tried every maneuver to get me out of there. they can put in like four or five apartment places in a property that i'm on. >> reporter: but other boise rentals are out of reach. >> so i'm priced out of the market. i can't find a place. i'm so desperate. i don't know what to do. >> reporter: as wiltermood's lawyer brian stephens puts it: >> if you're even a low income person, it's very hard time to be in boise. >> reporter: there are signs of cooling off in recent weeks. inventory is up and developers e scrambling to build more. but as always happens while cities grow, neighborhoods gentrify, there will be losers like gary wiltermood. >> there's a statement. some gave all, some still give. on my vietnam sticker. well, i gave my life for this country and this is how i end up.

>> reporter: ryan kenkey isn't desperate, but he does hope boise realstate prices come back down to earth. are you rooting for the californians, the seattle folks, to say, wait a sec, this isn't what we bargained for? >> i would be lying if i said there wasn't a part of me that didn't hope that something would change like that to be able to allow me to get a home. but it's-- everyone's doing what's best for them, that they can make another state's wages and live way more comfortably here. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, this is paul solman in beckoning boise, idaho. >> woodruff: let's pick up now on questions about the costs of housing, as well as larger concerns about jobs and economic growth. mary daly is the president of the federal reserve bank of san francisco. she is part of the fed's board governors that votes regulay on key decisions about interest rates, jobs, inflation,

and the fed's role in the economy. mary daly, welcome back to the "newshour". we appreciate your being here. paul solman's report just now, housing prices going through the roof, not just in boise but in many parts of the country. how concerned are you? >> well, it's hard. it's hard on the people who can't get the housing. they've grown up in these communities that suddenly lots of people have flooded into with cash on hand to purchase those homes, and then they are displaced or they have to wait, they can't purchase homes. so that's hard. in terms of concern, you know, i see it as a diffence in supply and demand. it will resolve itself as more supply comes online, and in boise, idaho, for instance, you're already seeing that supply come online. building is rampant there. if you tour that area, you see homes going up everywhere. so over time, it resolves itself, but it's not there yet. and for the communities struggling with this, it's o hardship right now.

>> woodruff: and you are saying it is going to resolve self. but some are saying what we're seeing now is a housing bubble that could burst at anytime, meaning a sudden drop in prices. we saw the federal reserve governor for splois james bullard, and i'm going to quote from something he said this week, he said the biggest concern for me is in the mid 2,000s we had a housing bubble and watt we learned from that experience is if these prices go down precipitously, there they went down 30%, that caused tremendous problems in the u.s. and global economy. he said housing is a very interest sensitive sector so we are feeding into an insipient housing bubble. >> so let me tell you what i see when i'm out in the communities and we study this and look at the research of who's buying homes. one of the things that's very reassuring about the housing market now is the people buying the homes are very well prepared to pay for them. they have a lot of wealth, they're able to take the wealth and spending in the housing

market, they're getting lower interest rates, but they're buying owner occupied housing. if you look back into the housing bubble, the one that caused so much pain and suffering just a decade ago, it was really people buying second, third homes, speculating and those thingcaused repercussions throughout. they were also highly leveraged. so american households buying homes arreally in good shape in terms of balance sheet, so right now i see this as principally a supply and demand in balance and one to resolve itself as we go forward. >> woodruff: but would you acknowledge that the fed has, to a degree, played into this by keeping interest rates so low? >> low interest rates, as you said, allow people to purchase homes and refinance homes, even if they're staying in the one they own, have more money to spend and help themselves through the pandemic, buy cars, but it ao helps small businesses get low costs of capital which help them keep

their businesses en, so our low interest rates are supporting a whole myriad of activities through the economy and that's helping the economy get through the pandemic and get back the full employment and price stability. >> woodruff: governor daly, i want to ask you about this because at the other end of the spectrum as you know well there are renters having a hard time making those monthly payments. we have the new federal moratorium reinstated just yesterday by the biden administration. is this going to be enough to help them and, if not, what more needs to be done? >> well, i want to go back to something that we've said since the start of the pandemic -- as goes covid goes the economy, and what we're seeing is we're not fully beyond covid, and people are still very disrupted from dealing with a global pandemic. they lost their jobs, they lost their livelihoods, they were on the brink of losing their homes, housing insecurity is really critical. so we really have to get through this fully, and getting

vaccinated and getting through covid will help this be enough. so your point is this enough? well it depends on covid, if vid can go fully behind us, then we can get fully back into economic activity, and people can get jobs, pay rent, landlords can pay their mortgages, and we're going back to an economy we recognize and actually miss. >> woodruff: i want to ask you about another aspect of the economy and that, of course, is inflation. there's a key indicator we know the fed watches very closely. it jumped 3. -- 3. w5% last month from a year earl eh, the fastest twelve month surge since st. 91, it's a personal consumption price index. does this suggest the fed needs to change course when it comes to inflation? >> not to my mind. the inflation spikes we're seeing can be traced back to key sectors that are getting their feet back under them trying to reopen. so airline prices, travel and

leisure prices in general are really contributing to the spikes that we see in inflation. used car prices which were related not to just reopening and people wanting cars, but the fact that semiconductor supply is constrained because it was pushed down by covid and hasn't fully come back up. so there's huge demand surging and supplies not keeping up, and some of the prices are just catching up, like airline prices were very low during the depths of the pandemic and returned to normal and causes a big spike in inflation. so if you put tall the details together, it foreshadows and forecasts a temporary spike in inflation that lasted longer than we wanted for sure, it doesn't mean a few days or months, it could last all the way to next year but it won't say there forever, and it's just a reflection of an economy that's reopening and the supply can't keep up with the reopening demand, but it will. that's the reassuring thing i'd like to listeners to hear is supply responds and will come

back online. you saw that in the lumbe prices, they went up, peaked and came back down. >> woodruff: in connection with that circling back to what we talked about earlier, you said a couple of days or weeks ago, strong economic recovery is going to allow the fed, the central bank to slow its asset purchases before the end of this year. are you now prepared to say that is definitely going to happen? >> i'm not prepared to say it's definitely going to a happen because we're a data dependent fed and the end of the year is far away at this point in terms of counting the delta variant and other things that could happen, so i'm looking for conned progress in the labor market, continued putting covid behind us, rising vaccination rates, the things that are so fundamental to us saying that the economy has achieved that metric of substantial further progress. right now, my modal outlook is that we will achieve that metric later this year or early next, but, again, data dependence, that's how we've gotten this far

and will make good policy going forward. >> woodruff: but it's something that looks likely at this point? >> my modal outlook, the one that's most likely to happen, is we'll do something on the asset front, asset tapering, by th end of this year, early next. >> woodruff: you mentioned employment. you wrote a blog post yesterday expressing your confidence that the number of americans who are righnow, if you want to call it sitting on the sidelines, not getting back into the laor market yet. the a lot of jobs are going unfilled right now in this country. your argument is that's only temporary. how can you be so confident? >> well, you know, my confidence is build on the fact that i have been through this a couple of times. i have been a labor economist since the mid 1990s starting at the fed and, in the mid 90s and especially in the last expansion, the same concerns were we heard -- employers couldn't find workers, ty were

worried workers were never coming back, that the great recession we spoke about earlier with the housing crisis made it impossible for workers to come back -- they didn't have the skills, maybe preferences changed, maybe people didn't want to work anymore -- and none of that proved to be true. my confidence really comes back to a simple phrase, americans want to work. they know it's what is important to their livelihood, communities, families, and giving them the opportunity to work by ensuring we don't presume that they don't want to and calling it a day, that's how i get the confidence, judy, that you referred to. >> woodruff: yet as you yourself said a moment ago, there is this delta variant, the unknown course to come of this covid pandemic. how much of a monkey wrench is that throwing into your -- anybody's ability to be confident that this economy is going to be okay? >> well, you know, i said a moment ago, focused entirely on

data dependence, this delta variant, it's already taken too many lives, too many hospitalizations, it's starting to hamper activity across the country, and, really, it's about getting vaccinated and getting this thing behind us. that is the part that's so important. but if we don't keep up with it, then it could definitely slow the rate of growth in our economy. right now i don't expect it to derail the recovery in the united states, but it's already very seriously interrupting the recoveries in the global economy, and that itself is a head wind on u.s. growth. so it is a serious issue, one that i consider an important risk and one that we need to look out for, but importantly, most importantly is get vaccated and we can get through this. >> woodruff: mary daly, president of the federal reserve bank of san francisco, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the grim first

anniversary of the beirut port explosion comes amid the ongoing collapse of lebanon's economy, by some measures, one of the three worst globally since the 1850's. shortages food, medicine, fuel and a near-worthless currency have been exacerbated by inept and corrupt governance. the reuslt: widespread suffering and a sense of national doom. from beirut, special correspondent leila molana-allen reports. >> reporter: dawn breaks over beirut. with it, the first light many will see today; for months now, much of lebanon has been without powr overnight. but day brings only a little respite. in the surbs, raeda al bitar is preparing for another day of organising her life around her chores. >> right now we don't have electricity, we have generators. the electricity we have from the private generator is not enough for the elevator. >> reporter: and how much government electricity are you getting at the moment?

>> oh, not much, maybe one or two hours. >> reporter: lebanon hasn't had reliable national electricity for decades. but this summer, the usual few hours of outages per day have soared to more than 20. the only other option, for those who can afford it, is pricey private generators. >> ( translated ): for the last month they've asked for 3m liras. 3m liras is more than i get paid every month. >> reporter: but now even those are failing thanks to a dire diesel shortage, leaving people without any power at all for up to 12 hours a day, as temperatures soar. on the highway nearby, raeda's husband samer is facing another exhausting new lebanese ritual; hunting for gas. >> all our plans are based on the availability of fuel. look at this, this is the station for filling fuel. the line is about 30 cars. >> reporter: for weeks now, lebanon's fuel pumps have been running on almost empty. the country doesn't have an official public transport

system, and the unofficial system is made up of cars and minivans, which need fuel too. if you want to get around, live your daily life, get to work? your only option is to sit in the sweltering heat, and wait. and the government has scrapped fuel subsidies, making scarce fuel increasingly unaffordable too. as tensions rise, fights are breaking out at gas stations across the country, and many have closed altogether. he says he's been waiting here for four hours to fill up today. because samer and raeda work in different areas, they can't share a car, so she has to endure the same process. and when she gets to work, she's just stepping from a personal crisis into a public one. raeda is the head pharmacist at lebanon's biggest public hospital, rafic hariri in beirut. as well as struggling to keep the hospital and its life-saving equipment running with so little power, they're constantly short of vital medications. so a lot of these shelves are empty, what are you missing at the moment? >> i'm missing a lot. most of the time i'm missing antibiotics.

>> reporter: the cupboards are bare. they've struggled to get the drugs they need since the economy took a nosedive two years ago. but now the shortages aren't just threatening lives; they're taking them. >> it's a disaster. >> reporter: and you experienced this yourselwith a member of your family? >> ( translated ): yes, my brother in law. he couldn't find his medication at several pharmacies. he thought it's okay, he can survive without it for a few days. but what actually happened is he had a brain hemorrhage, and later on he died. medication that cost 15,000. >> reporter: that's less than a dollar now. that shouldn't happen, that's not supposed to happen. >> reporter: cardiac units across lebanon have seen a surge in admissions as patients >> actually, it's falling day by day, i can only imagine how many people have gone through that.

how many people, they don't have voices to be heard. nobody can tell their story, and they just died. >> reporter: private businesses aren't faring much better including her'er's import company which sustained the family for decades. ishmael worked all his lifeto support his four children, put them through university and give them a comfortable life. he hopped to retire and spend his remaining days relaxing with his grandchildren. now the crisis has taken all that away, even his savings are gone. >> i feel that my >> i feel that my money has been stolen. >> reporter: do you feel let down by your country? >> yes. i feel that my country has betrayed me. i have no peace. no peace of mind, no peace of body. i feel like a person who is sentenced to death, who is awaiting death. >> reporr: ismail isn't the only one who feels his money and

his future have been stolen. lebanon's currency has lost more than 90% of its value; once 1,500 lira to the dollar, it's now around 20,000. people's life savings, stuck in the bank, have been wiped out. for those who are still lucky enough to have jobs, the minimum wage is now worth about $35 a after another fearful, draining shift at work, it's time for raeda to fight more fires at home. on the way, she has to tackle the grocery store; as always these days, she has no idea just what she'll be able to feed her family with the cash she has in her wallet. the average price of goods and services has quadrupled since june 2019; and basic essentials now cost seven times what they once did. >> reporter: that's $40. at the old rate, which is still

basket, she finally finds something that's affordable-- a jar of mayonnaise. back home, it's time to make dinner. there's no power? >> no powe >> reporter: raeda does everything she can to still give seven-year-old ahmad food he likes. >> what are you cooking mum? >> i'm going to cook this for today with a little bit of rice and some meat, that's all. >> i don't want to be a vegetarian, because meat is a lot more tasty. >> reporter: samer is an accountant. between them, he and raeda have nearly two decades of higher education and multiple degrees. they used to earn well; now their combined monthly salary is worth just $250. in 18 months, raeda and her family have go from working hard to live a comfortable life, to struggling each day to make ends meet. >> not in my scariest dreams did i ever imagine that everything is going to fall apart at once. >> reporter: the al bitars were one of thousands of families who took to the streets in october 2019 to call for a better future for lebanon.

instead, they've been plunged into the abyss. >> we rose our flags. we were there and our children were there. really we believed that we were going to make a change. and then all our dreams were crushed. >> reporter: those days of hope are long gone. almost every day sporadic demonstrations break out, as angry lebanese light tires and dumpers on fire and block roads to protest the dire conditions they face in every element of daily life. but few believe things will improve. now, they're simply trying to survive. they don't know how long they can. >> people are walking around like zombies. but the eyes are desperate. for the first time in my life, i can understand why someone would

take himself a his children on a boat and throw themselves into the sea. because he can hear his child crying of hunger. because we have reached a hopeless end. it's so hard for me to say hopeless, but it's hopeless. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm leila molana-allen in beirut. >> woodruff: on many immigration-related issues, president biden has taken a very different track than president trump. or in some cases, even reversed course. but that's not the case for several key issues at the

southern border. in fact, earlier this week, the biden administration extended a trump-era order that expels migrants seeking asylum during the pandemic. amna nawaz looks at the issues in play. >> nawaz: judy, the policy in question is known as title 42, and it's now been used by two administrations to exp undocumented migrants, the biden administration had planned to phase it out. the centers for disease control says it's extending title 42 to prevent the spread of covid at holding facilities. some families arexempt, as are this comes as the government reports a record number of migrants trying to cross the border. more than 900,000 migrants have en expelled since the policy first took effect. advocacy groups say the policy is inhumane. and the a.c.l.u., which has been negotiating to end it, will resume a lawsuit against the government legal authorities. the lead attorney for the a.c.l.u. on this issue and he joins me now. welcome back to the newshour. thanks for joining us. so we should mention you had

brought the lawsuit against the trump administration. inherited that policy, kept it in place. you've been negotiating with them. why are you going back to court now? >> we're going back to court because there's no end in sight. you know, we were hoping that the biden administration would eventual say enough's enough. and but now it's clear that it's not ending. and c.d.c. has now issued a new order doubling down on the policy. you know, when the biden administration approached us in the beginning of taking office and said, look, the trump administration depleted the asylum system. we need some more time to build capacity. will you give us a little time and negotiate? and what we said is, okay, but we want desperate families to have a pipeline to get in. in the meantime that's happened. we're grateful for that. thousands of lives have been saved through that humanitarian pipeline. but what we said is ultimately you have to end this policy. and so we negotiated month after month after month and finally it became clear they weren't going

to end the policy. and i think what's critical about the c.d.c. order is that the government is hiding behind c.d.c. but c.d.c. repeatedly deflects back to d.h.s. and the white house. and people ought to look at the c.d.c. order very carefully, because it does not say this is a problem that can't be solved. we have to send families back to danger without a hearing. it simply says d.h.s. needs to take the proper mitigating steps and protocols. it repeatedly says that. and that's what we're upset about, as d.h.s. had seven months to take those steps and didn't take those steps. >> nawaz: i just want to be clear about this, because you're absolutely right. the white house will say we are following the public health experts. the scientists on the c.d.c. did extend this policy and d.h.s. said they will enforce it, as c.d.c. tells them to. but they're arguing there's a public health emergency at a time where covid cases are rising across the country, especially with the spread of this delta variant. you're saying they could fix it if they wanted to, but they don't want to. >> absolutely, i think that

that's what's so important to ok at what c.d.c. is actually saying, c.d.c.'s medical professionals not saying this is not a problem, this is a problem we can't solve. you need to send these families back to danger. they are simply saying you need to take the mitigating steps. they haven't taken those steps. we don't know what we can do to push them other than going back to court. it seems like something other than public health justifications are at play here. and that's what public health professionals have said. and what i think is really happening is that the border is sort of t of sight, out of mind, and it's become this abstract issue. i mean, i am down here at the border talking to people. and what they te you is the united states government is literally pushing families back across the border. cartels are waiting for the families. the minute they oss, they're being kidnapped. evy possible thing is happening to these families, horrendous, horrific abuse. i mean, the country is in a much better place than it was when we brought this suit.

vaccines are readily ailable. testing is readily available. i mean, at first and back in the trump days and early, biden, the governor, was saying, well, our personnel would be a danger. they've long had the opportunity to be vaccinated. so i think everything is going by the wayside. and the biden administration is now coming up with one excuse after another, not to end title 42. no one is being cavalier about covid, but there are steps they can take. we can't keep sending families with little children back to danger. >> nawaz: but even when you look at the number setting aside covid restrictions are concerns at the moment. they are seeing record encounters, recidivism is very high. we should point out we have people repeatedly trying to come again and again and being encountered, the vast majority, single adults being expelled immediately. but there's also a growing number of unaccompanied children coming across the border. most families who are also, we should mention, are being allowed to enter into the united states. can our system, which we know has been vastly under-resourced for years, handle if, as you say, title 42 go away, could

the system even handle that? >> oh, absolutely. we have more than enough resources to do it if we want. i mean, this is there's a will. there's a way. i mean, first of all, let's just back up. the law requires us to give asylum hearings. there is no question that the united states government has the capacity to do this. and it's just not as many people as the government suggesting because the same people are trying over and over. if we just process them once, then it'not nearly the numbers that the government's putting out. >> nawaz: ali, while we have you, we knowou've been working with the federal government and their task force that was set up to reunite separated families under the trump administration. hundreds of families, hundreds of parents, we should say, still haven't been located when that task force was set up months ago. where are those efforts today? >> yeah, we are still looking for approximately 300 families we haven't found. we also need to reconnect with hundreds and hundreds of families we did connect th during the trump administration, but couldn't offer them anything. i think the biden administration

is negotiating with the a.c.l.u. in good faith and constructive constructively. but there are more than a thousand families we think still need to come back, needs to be found and brought back. we are hoping to have a system in place in early fall that will allow all those families to come back. each day that goes by where a child doesn't see their parent is as a day too much. >> nawaz: we'll certainly be following that story as well. that is lee gelernt of the a.c.l.u. joining us tonight. thank you so much for your time. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: prison can be brutal. it can also be the scene of remarkable change. jorge antonio renaud spent 27 year behind bars where he discovered the power of poetry. he is now national criminal

justice director at latino justice, where he advocates for reform in texas and beyond. tonight, he gives his brief but spectacular take on re-imagining incarceration, part of our arts and culture series, canvas. >> i don describe myself as a poet. i think you let other people do that. but yeah, i love poetry and it will always be a piece of me, i think. this time that will not scream, sleep phones, its flames around me, ashes, filmmaker, cheeks. this time i welcome the jailers keysthey soothe with a well- known exactness. the sound of my surrender. i first went to prison when i was 20 years old, and i'd been drinking and, i was stopped. and a, as i am wanting to do, i got a little mouthy with a police officer and they arrested me.

they put me in the county jail and they put me in a tank of men who had already been convicted of crimes and were awaiting transfer to t.d.c.j., the texas prison system. and i was drunk and i was young and i was strong and i was a boxer. and none of that mattered, i was attacked and i was beaten and i was raped. i didn't know who i was. i was lost. i was, you know, in this sen of shock and, you know, just, and i ended up two weeks later, i took my father's 36 and i walked into a church's fried chicken there in beeville and i robbed it. and i received a five-year sentence for that. it doesn't get any easier to talk about getting raped. i don't think it does to anybody. never really addressed, never really talked to anybody about what had happened. i wasn't going to admit it. i was a young, strong chicano. i mean, i'm a man, you don't, you know, there was obviously something wrong with me and that was weak and, ended up getting

into drugs and went back in september of 1980 on with a 28 year sentence for aggravated robbery. i adjusted to prison life by immediately asserting my willingness to commit violence, yet i was also one of the few guys on the wing who was going to college. i was helping people write their, their appeals. and i would help them write letters to their families. i have often said that we are where we are in our criminal justice system, because we, we have failed to imagine anything other than what has been presented to us, throughout our history, right? and that has been punishment. by having conversation with individuals about the concept of rehabilitation and what that actually means. you say, okay, what would happen if the program that you think are so necessary for someone to come out of prison, rehabilitated were offered to that person before that person went to prison. and wouldn't the value of those programs adhere to that individual when th learn something from them. and at that point, if they say, yes, well then what's the point in prison?

the demonstrable harm that happens to people who are in cages, we know what that is. we have become enamored of t idea that there are certain individuals who were just crime prone. and then you mry that to the idea that the only recourse is to one call the cops, two have them arrested three, have them convicted four of them incarcerated. i mean, you get to where we are now. this time, i will not quarrel with chains. i have no room for scars, and i will feed my bones to their bracelets. my name is jorge antonio raud, and this is my brief, but spectacular take on re-imagining incarceration. >> woodruff: very powerful. and you can watch all of you can watch all our brief but spectacular episodes at: pbs.org/newshour/brief. the olympics offer a chance for the globe to gather, watching athletes compete at the highest

level. but some athletes are also using the olympics as a chance to give human rights and social justice a spotlight on the world stage. explore how they are speaking up on our website, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. 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: >> our u.s.-based customer service reps can help you choose a plan based on how much you use your phone, nothing more, nothing less. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv

>> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by

newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

is your family ready for an emergency? you can prepare by mapping out two ways to escape your home, creating a supply kit, and including your whole family in practice drills. for help creating an emergency plan, visit safetyactioncenter.pge.com

a little preparation will make you and your family safer in an emergency. a week's worth of food and water, radio, flashlight,

batteries and first aid kit are a good start to learn more, visit safetyactioncenter.pge.com hello, everyone. and welcome to "amanpour and again." here's what's coming up. >> for those that have counted california out, eat your heart out. >> fighting for his own political life. he joins me from sacramento. and -- >> stories bring us together. >> read "love and nature." i talked to turkish british novelist about her latest novel and the power of story telling. then -- >> a report from iran where this week revolutionary hard liner becomes president threatening even worse relations with the