captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening, i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight, desperate to flee-- chaotic scenes in kabul as thousands struggle to leave afghanistan, just days ahead of a full u.s. withdrawal. then, on the border-- the supreme court reinstates the controversial trump-era "remain in mexico" policy for asylum seekers, complicating an already critical situation. and, new collar jobs-- efforts intensifto match people without college degrees with employers who need to fill better paying jobs as income inequality widens. >> why is there such a difference in earngs between people who are college graduates and people who are not in this

country? it's simply not the case that not having a bachelor's degree means that you don't have skills to contribute. >> nawaz: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries.

on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by conibutions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> nawaz: the u.s and allied evacuation of afghanistan is now flying out thousands of americans, allied personnel, and afghans every day, as a biden- pronounced deadline looms for a complete withdrawal in less than one week.

the first of the nearly 6,000 american troops have left, and many thousands more afghans and americans await. to date, 82,300 people have now been evacuated by the united states from kabul since august 14th. 19,000 have been flown out in just the last 24 hours by the u.s. and its partners secretary of state antony blinken said today more than 4,500 americans plus their families have now been evacuated. up to 1,500 americans may still be in afghanistan, trying to leave, he added. lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> desjardins: outside the kabul airport, throngs still desperately try to get past the razor wire barriers. many stand and wait in an open sewer. the biden administration has faced heavy pressure to answer exactly how remaining americans and afghan allies will be brought out. out front today answering questions: secretary of state antony blinken. >> i take responsibility. i know the psident has said he

takes responsibility. and i know all omy colleagues across government feel the same way. >> desjardins: blinken seemed to try and quell the panic in kabul by saying he expects the taliban will let people leave even after the u.s. is gone. >> we will use every diplomatic, economic, assistance tool at our disposal working hand in hand with the international community first and foremost to ensure that those who want to leave ghanistan after the 31st are able to do so. >> desjardins: but trusting the taliban in the past was a life- and death risk. u.s. officials have acknowledged that evacuation flights will slow down in the coming days in order to reduce the number of u.s. and coalition troops and the many tons of equipment brought back to afghanistan. fear has become paralyzing for some at risk, including one afghan man who spoke with newshour by phon he worked for the afghan government and an american news outlet. >> if they recognized me that i was working with the government,

with different organization, they might cut me, i-- my, my, my, my, my small daughters they afraid of these things. they're crying. they are always crying. and they're asking please save us, save us. >> desjardins: he urged the u.s. to extend the deadline for withdrawal. >> somebody has to take me as soon as possible. but if biden government extend this program, it will be much better to find a way to give me time to find a way to go there to the airport and take me there. even now, i cannot go today. believe me, if i go to the washroom, my daughter and my sons, they are crying. even my wife. >> desjardins: pentagon spokesperson john kirby said the u.s. has been adamant with the taliban who should be allowed through >> we've been very clear with taliban leaders about what credentials we want them to accept. people that we have made clear to the taliban that want to have access through the checkpoints have been able to get through, by and large, again with caveats. so it hasn't been a big problem

to date. >> desjardins: but that's not what everyone on the ground says. newshour spoke by phone with one american citizen as he drove to the airport. he says he reached out to the u.s. embassy but never heard back. >> i'm a u.s. citizen. my wife, she has a green card and my two kids was born in boston, massachusetts. and right now the situation is really tough, as you know. i came, i think it was on july 13th. on the u.s. embassy website, there was an email address that i could send an email and i could request embassy assistance. and i did that. i just got the auto-reply and i didn't get anything else other than that. and then i was just waiting for last three days for a response and i didn't receive anything. >> desjardins: he finally got help from a u.s. senator. >> desjardins: yesterday, president biden reaffirmed the u.s. would stick with the august 31st evacuation deadline despite pleas by some world leaders and members of congress to prolong the mission. the president did say there were contingency plans being drawn up

to stay longer. but sources involved in the effort to evacuate afghans, cluding members of congress, tell newshour that the situation on the ground is glaringly different: that the american process remains a bottleneck and there is no way everyone can be out by august 31 under current conditions. some world leaders said that they'll continue evacuations until the deadline, but would not be able to go past that without the u.s. support. >> desjardins: meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in afghanistan remains catastrophic. according to unicef officials, one million children under the age of five will be severely malnourished by the end of the year if no action is taken. >> in addition to the conflict and crisis that we've seen, in addition to the malnourishment crisis we're seeing, in addition to the fear and anxiety across the country, afghanistan is a country in drought. people don't have enough water. >> desjardins: the world food program estimates 14 million people in afghanistan today are struggling to put food on the table.

>> desjardins: the worsening economy in afghanistan is troubling for many. >> ( translated ): there is no work, and in the previous system of the islamic emirate, our work was against the law, everyone is scared and i work in fear. >> desjardins: as some grapple with a frightening future, for many afghans the next day or two remain crucial, and desperate, as the window to leave seems to be closing fast. >> ( translated ): people are leaving, my brother, because they are afraid of complications in the future. people are afraid for their lives, brother. >> desjardins: for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> nawaz: as you just heard, lisa, and not jane ferguson, narrated our lead story. that's because jane and videographer eric o'connor were flown from kabul this morning on a u.s. air force evacuation flight, to an american air force base outside doha, qatar. she's working with the support of the pulitzer center, and i spoke with jane just a few minutes ago.

jane ferguson, we are all so glad that you are safe and out of the country. just descre for us, if you can, what was that process like? what did i take to leave? what did kabulirport look like as you were leaving? >> reporter: i am still not at thevery far end of my destination, it has taken that long. but kabul airport itself was more orderly on the inside than it had been before. you could see the uptake in those planes coming in and out. it is still a six, seven-hour wait once you make it through the gate and you register. and the register system is fairly system. they're taking passports and data. but once you get registered for a flight, anticipate six or seven hours, which is a vast improvement. there are people who have gone to the airport and waited for days for a flight in the past. and then, essentially, once the flight comes for you, you're only allowed

to bring limited luggage. so we see several hundred people are guided down the tarmac towards this huge d-17, these massive, massive military aircraft, which can carry massive amounts of people and cargo. and you're seeing families, people clutching little children, very little luggage people come with a tiny amount, perhaps a small handbag, and that's it. small children, elderly -- there was someone on our flight who was an elderly lady in a wheelchair. and everybody literally climbs up the back of the ramp and into the aircraft. once inside, everyone just sits down and holds on the best they can. there is -- it is so crammed that there is barely enough room to lie down. some people can if they're lucky, and most people are just sitting cross-legged, children are sleeping, and the flight from kabul to qatar, it is only about three, four hours.

so that's relatively comfortable. but once people get to this end, there is still a lot -- there is still a backlog of people here. the hangars are still full. we sat on the tarmac for over an hour on the plane. when we disembarked the plane, it is seemingly hot here. this is the persian gulf in the summer. the people have been on the plane and they had to wait outside on the tarmac for nearly two hours because they were waiting to go into a hangar. those hangars are so full of eople, that the american soldiers told us it could be a six to eight-hour wait to get inside a hangar just to start getting processed. and that's even before people have gotten on a flight to the united states. it is an arduous and long journey to safety. >> nawaz: jane, we are seeing some of this stunning pictures and videos that you have been shooting along the way, documenting your journey out, and some of the

people with you on that journey. tell us a little more about who else was on that plane, on that military aircraft? are they from other nations, afghans? what is the sense once they get to this transit center in doha. >> reporter: we were a small group of journalists. other than us, i believe everybody was afghan on the flight. we managed to chat with a few people. these are military aircraft, so they're very, very loud. you have to shout at people to talk just because of the noise on the inside. but we did manage to talk to a few, and they were relatives of interpreters. i believe a fair group of people on our flight were those granted the special immigrant visas, that the military interpreters that worked with the u.s. military people were granted. i believe t that is who they were. there were lots of small, small children and also the elderly.

so large families traveling together. the atmosphere was very much, though, one of people who are exhausted. only had they gone through the horrendous journey of getting and through kabul airport, which we're all very well aware of now, but they also lived through the collapse of their own state, the uncertainty of the last 10 days. and so people look exhausted, but there is a certain sense of relief. it is a very strange atmosphere on these planes because obviously there is deep sadness. there is a grief and a trauma of leaving home behind. anyone who is getting on an evacuation flight during a war is not choosing to leave. and -- so there is that sadness. but you're also surrounded by so many tiny children, whose entire lives will likely be lived in a different country as a result of this. so there is a real sense of history, of a history that is personal for these people, but also on a huge scale for their country,

when you're inside and watching these different generations watching their lives change overnight. >> nawaz: jane, you have covered afghanistan for years. on this last trip, you were back there for over 10 days, i believe. what is it that told you that now was the time to leave? >> reporter: this has been the most l logistically challenging assignment i have done in my career. we have had to reassess and question our judgment and choices all day, every day. because it is unprecedented. we have never been in a country taken over by a group known as terrorists took over. and where state institutions have collapsed. i've covered coups and civil wars and revolutions, and they're very different from this. and so towards the end, as we were all watching what president biden would do with that august 31st deadline to pull out completely, that really impacted our decisions, and everyone's decisions,

on how and when to move. we were in constant contact with the military, with the -- we also had a large contingency here, for flights out. we were told although the deadline might be august 31st, that doesn't mean that people like us, foreign journalists, can just show up at the airport on august 30th or 31st and hop on a plane. it seems in the next day or two, getting on flights can become more difficult. so journalists have the choiceyou can either stay on and take your chances with the airport closing afterwards, and being in the country with only the taliban control and an airport that is not operational, or try to hop on one of these flights. and as with all journalists, i want to be on the last one possible so i could continue to do my work as much as i can. and we went to the airport, and this is the one that the american military put us on. i'm grateful for the opportunity to get out safely.

but i still -- every journalist i think feels the same way, maybe they could do more, maybe could stay longer. we always have that tug, that conflict of feelings. >> nawaz: jane, you're newshour family, and i'm sure many more people are so glad that you and your reporting partner, eric oo'connor are safe. and we know you'll continue to follow this in the weeks and months ahead. please stay safe. >> reporter: thank you. >> nawaz: we step back for a broader look at >> nawaz: we step back for a broader look at the looming deadline to evacuate with: matt zeller, co founder of "no one left behind," a non-profit dedicated to getting interpreters, their families and others who work with the u.s. out of afghanistan. he is an army veteran, a former c.i.a. analyst; and wrote a book about his experience, "watches without time: an american soldier in afghanistan." and we also are joined by john sifton. he is the asia advocacy director at human rights watch. thank you to you both. and thank you for making

the time. matt, just to put this in context, 82,000 people evacuated in a matter of days. it is an enormous undertaking. they absolutely get credit for that, the administration. but how does what has been done so far compare to the existing need on the ground? >> it was done at the 11th hour, and for those who are advocating that this be done months earlier, it will haunt us for the rest of our lives. the number i keep telling people that the biden administration will be judged on is not the number of people who we saved -- let's be clear, that is a heroic effort, state department officials, veterans and diplomats and aide workers, home online trying to help afghans get to the airport, they're heros. but we could have gotten every single person out. and so we need to be clear, we're gog to be leaving a lot of people behind. the association of wartime allies has been spending

the better part of the last week working with hundreds of data scientists here in washington, d. the "new york times" will be publishing a story in the next day or two on this. our estimation is we're leaving behind somewhere between 175,000 people. >> nawaz: john, that number is just stunning. is there any chance -- the u.s. is evacuating tens of thousands of people a day, is there any chance everyone gets out by that deadline? >> i think one of the things to recognize is that it is not just interpreters and people who work in the u.s. military. the united states and its nato partners have lists of people who will be granted entry into their countries because of their work for media companies, for u.s. organizations, for human rights groups, and for other reasons. and so when we talk about who is there, who is outside the airport waiting to get access, it is not just u.s. citizens. it is not just the interpreters who helped the u.s. military. it is human rights defenders, lawyers and

advocates and academics and their families, and many other people who are going to be targeted by the taliban because of the work that they did. and when we say we need more time, when we say president biden needs to focus on the political issues here, not the technical issues of meeting a deadline, but on the political issues of going back to the taliban and saying, we need to work out a few more days to get people out -- we're talking about people on a list. we're not talking about an unlimited number of afghans who are going to seek refuge. make no mistake, there will be many, many thousands -- hundreds of thousands of afghans who will seek ref july fourth refuge coming years. but we're talking about people who have already been authorized or pre-authorized for access to the united states and nato partners, whose names are on lists at the kabul airport. just get those people -- if we can get them out, we'll still have many

people left behind, but at least that, and that demands an extension of the deadline which requires further negotiation with the taliban. >> nawaz: what kind of extension are we talking about john? what would you like to see? >> i can't put a number on it, and the taliban is ultimately going to decide. but the point is the taliban has already agreed to allow what is going on rit now. and that should tell us everything we need to know. the taliban is not going to attack when they know what will happen if that occurred. they know that the united states is leaving. it is just question of working out the particulars. the other issue is access to the airport. even if people are -- even if there is an extension given, the taliban and the united states have to work out the differences about how people are getting to the airport. secretary blinken suggested today that they have told the taliban how that can happen, but the reality on the ground, we're hearing every hour and every day, up until 20 minutes before this interview, is that people can't get to the airport because they're not able

to make it through a check point. they're not able to make it through. >> nawaz: matt, i want to ask you about that deadline, because we want to remind people that that was set by the biden administration. do you think they should abide with it? what sort of extension are you suggesting that it would take to get that many people out? and do they risk getting into a firefight if they stay past the deadline? >> we're talking about an additional five days. the association of wartime allies has a daily tracker we've been putting out since may. we're trying to convince the biden administration to do the evacuation even back then. at the current pace, we could get every person we're seeking to take out, everyone on the lists, out by the 5th of september. we need an additional five days. i completely agree with the other panelist, we should be negotiating this

one thing. if we -- i also agree with his analysis. i think the taliban have made the calculus that we are going t leave, and they can push us around, and if we were to get forceful and say back to them, no, we're staying until it is mission complete, and if you want to take your shot at us, it will risk a shooting war, they're probably stand down. they know they won. they got the country. they don't want to fight us for these people. so the choice to leave on the 31st really, truly is a choice to abandon and betray them. >> nawaz: matt, is the u.s. in a position to bargain at all in these last days when it is on its way out? >> yes. we're still the most powerful military on the planet. cloaked in more power than any of our nearest allies combined. if you take the other 10 leading nations inato, their military combined

don't add up to ours. we have the means, but unfortunately this entire time we have lacked the will. >> nawaz: john, what are you thin thinking about when you think about what we could potentially leave behind? >> obviously the situation is going to be a catastrophe. and there are other issues about whether the international community will recognize the taliban in some capacity and allow some of the humanitarian assistance that is vitally needed to afghanistan. you asked about leverage, and that is it. the taliban are not stupid; they recognize that they cannot survive without some level -- some level of international recognion that allows them to get access to not just emergency humanitarian aid, but also developmental assistance, and even recognition of the u.n. that allow to begin to have a monetary policy and access to i.m.s. there are huge bargaining chips on the table.

the united states can't act like because they lost the war they don't have any cards t play. that's not the case. >> nawaz: if the administration does not extend that deadline, what do you worry about? >> the profound death that is coming. we have already started to see it. we know that the taliban are going door to door throughout afghanistn, now inside kabul. that they're disappearing, our wartime al lyings in the middle of the night, never to be seen again by their families. there is video of them shooting dead an interpreter as he attempted to get to the airport. he said on the video, they've beaten me, they've beaten me, and he grabs his wife and they shoot him. i've been warning our hole coalition -- every one of us has been warning this is going to happen, that we could have saved the people. and we still can. there is still time. they're not dead yet, but they will be, and quite soon. and when that happens, we have to know that we played a part in that death.

we chose to abandon them. >> nawaz: we are now just days before the luming deadline on august 31st. matt zeller and john sifton, thank you very much for joining us tonight. ♪♪ >> nawaz: in the day's other news, the world health organization warned that its probe of covid-19's origins has stalled, and that the trail is growing cold. in geneva, agency leaders said it's still impossible to say if the virus leaked from a lab in china, because beijing refuses to share its own findings. >> we have heard from chinese colleagues that some studies are underway from some public statements that they have made recently. so, again, we want the origins work to remain scientific, transparent, urgent and inclusive. >> nawaz: at the same time, a number of reports said a u.s. intelligence review also proved inconclusive. in other developments, new york

state confirmed it's had nearly 12,000 more covid deaths than previously acknowledged. and, the pentagon formally ordered that all u.s. troops be vaccinated as quickly as possible. in northern california, the "caldor" fire rained more ash over the lake tahoe basin, leaving a thick yellow haze that closed school districts for a third day. the giant fire was within 20 miles of the resort region along the nevada border, with thousands of firefigers trying to block its advance. around its perimeter, the fire is threatening thousands of homes and buildings. graphic new video has emerged of a louisiana state policeman beating a black man during a traffic stop two years ago. the associated press obtained body-cam footage of trooper jacob brown jumping from his vehicle and running at aaron bowman, who was already pinned down by other officers. moments later, brown struck bowman 18 times with a heavy- duty flashlight. bowman recalled the beating, earlier this month. >> i kept thinking i was going

to die that night, becau all i could do was breathe, you know, and try to keep myself from just going out, because he got my face mashed down in a puddle of water. >> nawaz: bowman suffered multiple broken bones and later, filed a civil suit. trooper brown resigned last march, and faces state criminal charges. the incident followed the death of another black man, ronald greene, in police custody in louisiana. both cases are under federal investigation. a select congressional committee demanded reams of records from federal agencies today, as they look into the january assault on the u.s. capitol. the house panel is looking at then-president trump's communications and actions before and during january 6th, when a mob of his supporters stormed the building. the committee also wants phone records of some members of congress. a federal judge has handed down the first sentence in a plot to kidnap michigan governor gretchen whitmer. ty garbin was given six years

and three months in prison today. he pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors. five more men face federal charges, and others are charged in state court. the f.b.i. say they schemed to abduct whitmer over covid restrictions. and, on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 39 points to close at 35,405. the nasdaq rose 22 points. the s&p 500 added 10. still to come on the newshour: many renters and landlords face an uncertain future as eviction assistance money remains backlogged. why vaccination efforts for school-age children face multiple roadblocks. efforts intensify to match people without college degrees with employers who need to fill better paying jobs. plus much more.

>> nawaz: now, to the u.s. southern border. the supreme court ruled against the biden administration in its attempt to end the trump-era remain in mexico policy that forced migrants to stay in mexico while seeking asylum. while its future is unknown, another policy to rapidly expel migrants during the pandemic remains in place. we check in with robert moore, founder of the non-profit news organization, el paso matters. >> nawaz: bob moore, welcome back to the newshour. thanks for making e time. just explain to us the supreme court move now. what is this operational change at the border? how does it change how things are being processed right now? >> in the short-term, it doesn't change anything really. title 42 is the main method, both the trump and biden administrations have us for the last year and a half to try to keep people from crossing the

border. longer term, it could have some implicions if mexico agrees to receive more m.p.p. recipients and if the biden administration does put the court's ruling into effect. that is a little further down the road. realistically, even if m.p.p. does go back into effect, it won't have a noticeable difference over what we're seeing now. the truth is most of the migrants coming to the border are not being allowed to cross. last year and before it was for m.p.p. , but since march of 2020 it has been title 42that stpped that flow with some exceptions for families and unaccompanied children. >> nawaz: and it is title 42, that's what it is called. when you talk about what is happening at the border, most people are not being alled in. and that's most single adults, and single adults constitu the majority of people crossing. bumany families are and all unaccompanied children

are. what are we seeing at the u.s. southern border? >> we're seeing a continuation of developments that have been going on for close a decade now, where you have families from -- increasingly we're seeing people come from other parts of latin-america as well because of the title 42 compulsions we've been talking about, you have something of a revolving door that has been going on for the last year or so at the border, where the u.s. government kicks people out. they go back to mexico, and they immediately try to recross in other areas. that, in part, is driving up some of the numbers we're seeing. but the main challenge remains the economic and instability issues that people are facing in central america. >> nawaz: what about specifically in texas? i know governor gregg abbott has been a vocal critic of the biden administration's policies, and he has taken

unilateral actions of his own, including moving national guard troops to the region. what are they able to do at the border? >> so governor abbott tried to both politically and practically exploit what he sees says a lack of focus on the border by the biden administration. so he sent both the department of public safety troopers and the national guard down to the border region, primaryly down to what is known as the rio grande valley area. and we have not seen this nearly as much in al in el paso. as of this week, the governor allowed national guard to begin in forcing texas state law on issues such as trespassing as a means to apprehend migrants crossing the border. this raises some legal issues, especially with at asylum-seekers. and the governor also announced yesterday they're allowing the national guard to begin working on the border

walls, they call it. the governor has vowed to use state funds and donated funds to continue the expansion of the wall that began in the trump administration, but that the biden administration has largely halted. >> nawaz: bob, when you look and take a step back, this administration's messaging on immigration stands in stark craft to the previous one. but i do wonder operationally, for the president biden administration saying we promise a safe policy, are you seeing a marketed difference between what is going on the border now versus three or four years ago? >> i think the human rights organizations would say there is not a substantial difference indeeds on the border between the biden adnistration and the trump administration largely because of the title 42 compulsions that are going on. we continue to see, as i mentioned earlier, this outflow from central america that is not going to abate with any border

policies we adopt because that doesn't directly address those conditions that are out there. certainly on our part of the border, things are not as hectic as they were in 2019. that is not the case in the rio grande valley. in south texas, things are very hectic on both sides of the border as communities try to grapple with the large number of migrant families in particular that are arriving. >> nawaz: that is bob moore part of the news organization "el paso matters." always good to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> nawaz: the clock is ticking away once again for those who could face eviction this fall. a moratorium on evictions is set to expire in early october, or possibly even sooner. the biden administration is pushing states, cities, and counties to tap into more

federal aid, and get it to those who need it. but, as john yang tells us, new data shows those efforts are moving much slower than needed. >> yang: amna, the treasury department said today that in july, it distributed $1.7 billion in rental assistance, bringing the total amount to 5.1 billion. but that's only a fraction of 46.5 billion congress has allocated for that purpose. meanwhile, as the supreme court decides whether to strike down a new eviction moratorium, the latest census data show that eight million households say they are behind on rent, and 3.5 million say they face likely eviction in the next two months. rachel siegel is a "washington post" economics reporter. >> rachel siegel, thank you so much for joining us. why, quite simply, if you can there is a simple answer -- why is this money taking so long to get to the people who need

it? >> well, thank you for having me. and i'll try to give you a simple answer, with the caveat that this has been such a complicated process for so many months. first, there was no infrastructure going into the pandemic to quickly get emergency rental relief into the pockets of people who needed it quickly. and so what happened was that states and cities essentially had to set up the application programs in an emergency. and they were dealt with technical glitches and overwhelmed systems that at times had to be shut down. people didn't know where apply, or if they didn't have internet how they could apply at all. that is a huge obstacle to getting money to renters and landlords. at the top, there are questions what more the biden administration could have done to streamline application policies, but unfortunately we're dealing with some of the questions as some people might be on the virge of eviction. >> you say that the states and localities had to

build these systems from scratch. are there some places that did it well and other places that seem to be lagging? >> there are. and i think a common thme among places that did it well is that everyone ran into issues, but some places put in the time and the effort to fix some of those problems that they ran into at the beginning. for example, in harris county, which covers most of houston, texas, officials there realized there was a lot of confusion among reters and landlords if they should apply to the county program or to the city of houston. when officials realized that, they merged the two programs together and stripped away a huge layer of confusion that was blocking money from getting out. as a result, harris county has led the charge in helping to get to the money allotted to help people. >> this moratorium is going to end at some point. it could end in october, as the biden administration wants it to, or it could end sooner

if the supreme court says it has to end. will that mean that the money will go away? or will the rental assistance program continue without the moratorium? >> the rental systems' money doesn't vanish once the moratorium expires in october, or if it is struck down sooner. but it is really hard to imagine how people will be able to be helped by the money once the moratorium is no longer in place. because it has taken so long for those payments to go out, that if there is someone who has a filing against them, or you think you'll be removed from your home in a few days, it is heartbreaking, but it is hard to imagine that that money would be able to reach you in time. >> the money is not only important to tenants, but also to some small landlords who need this money to pay mortgages. you talked about the biden administration trying to streamline the process. is that still ongoing? what sorts of things are they continuing to do with this process as we race towards the deadline, the

ending of the moratorium? >> so the biden administration has put a lot of emphasis on ways that state and local programs can make applying as simple as possible. administration officials were telling me just last night that they still get questions from program administrators saying, well, are you sure we ca list these requirements? that makes us a little nervous. what if money goes into the wrong hands? at thipoint the answer is do what you can to make this as easy as possible. some places still require the cooperation of tenants and landlords. some places require extensive documentation that landlords and tenants say they don't have. as you mentioned, part of the goal here is to make landlords whole as well. the moratorium esn't wipe away rental payments that are due. it is supposed to keep renters in their home and pay landlords the bills they're also owed. >> rachel siegel of the "washington post," thank you very much. >> thank you for having

me. >> nawaz: the makers of the leading vaccines in the u.s. all said today they have new data showing that an extra shot of can boost protection significantly. they also announced plans to ask the f.d.a. to appre their boosters. it may happen as early as next month. but even as the biden administration is preparing for boosters, the plans to vaccinate kids of all ages with their first shots are lagging. william brangham explores those concerns. >> brangham: amna, just 32% of kids from 12 to 15 have been fully vaccinated. that compares with 52% of the overall u.s. population. while the efforts to vaccinate those kids began later than adults, a number of public health experts say those numbers are lower than expected. and, for children who are 11 and younger, no vaccine has not yet been approved. the timeline for those approvals

have been sliding back this summer. for more on this, we turn again to d peter hotez. he's the dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine, and the co-director the texas children's hospital center for vaccine development. >> brangham: dr. hotez, great to you you back on the "news hour." as i mentioned, only a third of kids between 12 and 15have been vaccinated thus far. does that worry you? what is your sense about that? >> doctor: here is why it really worries me because that number nationally only tells a part of the story because, in fact, those numbers are far lower down here in the south. so if you look at, for instance, the 12 to 17-yeaolds, the numbers are about a third that of the northeast. and so while in states like vermont and massachusetts, new england states, mid-atlantic states, you're doing pretty well in terms of

vaccinating most of the adults and adolescents. down here in the sou, adolescents are unvaccinated for all practical purposes, and that's why you're seeing as delta variant is raging through the south, so many young people, including kids, get hospitalized. so figuring out how to correct those regional differences will be really important. >> brangham: what is your sense about that? do you have a good lever we can pull to help get those numbers up? >> doctor: i think we need to understand it better and some of the social science behind it. but so far a lot of it looks like defiance. defiance among conservative groups, especially among the younger adults who feel it is unnecessary or these are being used for political gain somehow because of the vast disinformation campaign. and i think it is probably a lot of young parents as well, thinking the same thing for their adolescent kids, that they don't need it or that the vaccines are somehow unsafe. and, you know, they're in

this disinformation bubble. so think that's really critically impornt in correcting this because what we're seeing now in the number of pediatric hospitalizations, even pediatric i.c.u. admissions, is unprecedented now in this phase of the pandemic. >> brangham: so moving to a slightly younger generation of kids, we know there are a lot of anxious parents who are wondering when their 5-year-old to 11-year-old kids might get approval for a vaccine. when you look at how the f.d.a. is doing this process -- and i know we're not privy to the inner workings of that -- do you feel they're striking the right balance between caution and the urgency of this pandemic? >> doctor: i think so because the stakes are somewhat higher for the little kids. if the f.d.a. gets it wrong, it has not only a chilling effect on the vaccine program, but it

could affect measles, mumps, rubella, and all of the other vaccines we give of to infants and young children. so the bar is always higher for young children to begin with. i think the f.d.a. is trying to thread to needle behind the urgency to prevent pediatric hospitalizations from covid-19, and yet making certain they've got an adequately powered study in terms of number of kids and length of protection to look for any type of safety signal. >> brangham: i want to ask you this question about boosters. we have heard the heads of all of the vaccine manufacturers say our boosters do provide good protection. the administration, the c.d.c., the f.d.a. all seem to be going forward with a booster campaign. do you believe that the evidence is there that that is the right move? >> doctor: there is certainly the evidence there we are seeing declines in protection against virus protection. it has gone from 90% to

40% to 50% for the pfizer and biontech vaccine. is it declines in efficacy versus the delta variant? i think that is something we need to sort out. the other big question is we don't have the data yet to look at breakthrough hospitalizations, and that is going to be important. we're hearing anecdotally from colleagues that up to 20% of hospitalized patients are now vaccinated, others say it is much less. we need that data fully presented. then the question is going to be: do you roll out a third immunization on the premise that protection against infection is the tip of thspear and hospitalizations will inevitably follow, or do you wait for the breakthrough hospitalizations? that's the kind of discussion going on. >> brangham: dr. peter hotez, barely college of medicine, always good to see you. >> thank you so much.

>> nawaz: the pandemic has made this a most unusual time in the labor market. millions of lost jobs are not filled yet. yet, there are reports of labor shortas in many sectors and a large percentage of workers who say they are looking for a new job. for some without a bachelor's degree, job prospects were bleak even before the pandemic. paul solman looks at a program that is offering better opportunities. it's latest in our "work shift" series. >> reporter: adquena faine's last job, before the pandemic: driving for uber and lyft in virginia. >> i was driving so much i would lay down and try to take a nap or go to sleep, you know, and i still felt the vibrations of the car. >> reporter: no time or money to finish college, barely able to feed her daughter and pay for a hotel room after foreclosure on their home. >> before i got on the road to drive, i would stop and forage in the woods or like on the side streets. >> reporter: you were actually

foraging for food at some point? i never heard that before. >> people'd stop and ask, oh what are you doing? and i'm like, oh, nothing, because i don't want anybody to start coming to pick my food! >> reporter: in louisiana, jennifer burgess went straight from high school to dog training. >> for 15 years. i've actually trained over 10,000 dogs. >> reporter: and so how much money did you make? >> on my best year ever, maybe 28. >> reporter: $28,000? >> my best year ever. >> reporter: mariana perez was 20 when she emigrated from mexico in 2005, without a high school degree, or even any english, spent nine years working in a north carolina nail salon. >> i used to work 60 to 70 hours a week. >> reporter: 60 to 70. >> yes, i had no benefits. we don't have any vacation paid. so if you don't work, you don't earn money. >> reporter: on the plus side however ... >> i miss some of my clients that were very, very nice people. >> i love working with dogs. >> reporter: but the pay...

>> i went from $6.10 an hour to $11.25 an hour over 15 years. >> reporter: two problems have plagued the u.s. economy for decades now: income inequality, and young folks not working at all. low pay for those with just high school or less is an obvious explanation. >> 60% of americans in the workforce today do not have bachelor's degrees. >> reporter: but, asks economist byron augeeste: >> why is there such a difference in earnings between people who are college graduates and people who are not in this country? it's simply not the case that not having a bachelor's degree means that you don't have skills to contribute. 30 million today have the skills based on the work they're doing for jobs that pay at least 50% more than the jobs they're in. >> reporter: mnwhile, employers are begging for employees, boasting $20 an hour where once $15 was thought magnanims. but $20 an hour is barely $40,000 a year.

>> these are the computers ... >> reporter: okay, time for one more player in this story: ibm, once the icon of high tech in america. >> these machines are things of gleaming, vari-colored metal and numerous flashing lights. >> reporter: selling and servicing huge computers, big blue and its big machines were attacked by little apple with its mini mac back in 1984. ibm was worth 30-something times the value of apple as a company back then. today, apple is worth 16 times as much as ibm. and yet ibm has survived, by cutting costs drastically, including layoffs, changing its business, outsourcing, and it still employs 350,000 people worldwide. here in the u.s., however, it finds itself competing for talent with the trendier apple googles and startups. so kelli jordan spearheads ibm“" new collar” initiative. >> back in 2016 we really started looking at how we could fill roles that we had just struggled to fill in other ways. just saying you don't quire a

bachelor's degree brought in a whole new slate of candidates that we never would have uncovered. >> reporter: and you knew this was coming, right? the new collar candidates are folks like faine, burgess, perez, and in new york, ray rodriguez who spent 11 years working his way up to assistant store manager at a big drugstore chain. >> i used to make 46,000 a year and then it dropped down to 40. >> reporter: as you got promoted. >> right. it was salary. and then they changed it to hourly. >> reporter: but that wasn't the worst of it. >> oh, my god. when i walked in the bathroom one day, i seen feces everywhere. it's like, how do you get it on the wall? and then there's a couple of times where people passed out in the bathroom. >> reporter: shooting up. >> shooting up, and we gotta call the paramedics. >> reporter: rodriguez, supporting a family, was desperate to get out oretail. >> i used to always picture people with their nine to five jobs, weekends off. they don't gotta work nights. there was times where i would

have to work overnights as well. and i was always like, oh, i wish i could have a job like that. >> reporter: why couldn't you get out? >> without a degree it seemed lke everywhere else was the same. >> reporter: and then he hea of ibm's electronics lab apprenticeship, applied, got an interview. were you scared? >> yes, i was scared. this is a dream job. the nine to five that i've been dreaming about for years and yes. this is what i was looking for. >> reporter: so what was it about these folks that got them into ibm? >> things like a growth mindset, that wlingness to constantly challenge and put themselves out there, take that little bit of a risk and build their skills on a very regular basis. >> the rapid advance of ibm technology... >> reporter: ibm is trading on its long history of training its employees to scale up its apprenticeships, investing $65 million, as well as plenty of federal money, into earn-while- you-learn programs that usually segue into permanent jobs. the company says at least half its u.s. jobs no longer require

a bachelor's degree. but for those without one, even applying can be a challenge. take faine's online interview for her apprenticeship. >> so i had this old laptop that is decrepit and nd of takes an hour to start up to boot up. and when i try to do the webex, it fails. i'm crying, like tears are pouring out of my eyes. this was my shot and i just blew it. >> reporter: burgess had a similar snafu. >> on my way to the ibm interview, my car actually died on side of the road. and my, my parents had to come and help me because it overheated. and then i get to the interview and it dies in the garage and i have to, in heels and a dress, push it into the parking spot. >> reporter: and all these folks were intimidated by the name ibm. >> in my mind, ibm is this big computer company, white men, suit and tie, carrying around a briefcase, business savvy with all of the technical jargon.

this is for the b-7000 8.2. >> reporter: but look who's talking technical now. can anybody learn to do what you do? >> i think anybody with the drive to can. >> it doesn't matter what you are or your background is. it doesn't mean that your brain can't do it. now go ahead and walk forward. >> reporter: despite her canine credentials, jennifer burgess is now a project manager, or maybe it's because of them. >> it's very similar to dog training. because it's about training the humans to be able to do what you need them to do. when they are good though you need to give some form of reward. >> reporter: give folks like this a chance, and there are hidden bonuses for the employe lower pay than the highest priced talent; higher loyalty. >> because they gave me the opportunity that other people did not. >> i'm not going anywhere. did you not hear where i came from? >> reporter: and with that, a final warning to those of you in

corporate america from byron augeeste. >> we hear about labor shortages, we hear about skills shortages. we hear about a war for talent. if you overlook half the talent pool in the united states, that is not a good talent strategy. and serious smart companies are realizing that an enormous opportunity is among those that do not have bachelor's degrees. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, paul solman in north carolina. >> nawaz: and the news update before we go, a federal judge in michigan has imposed disciplinary sanctions on sydney powell and eight other attorneys for donald trump's presidential campaign for abusing the court system. the ruling states they should have investigated the former president's voter fraud claims more and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. 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 prograwas 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

[dramatic music] - hello everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company," here's what's coming up. - [translator] regional issues, or ballistic issues are non-negotiable. - [christiane] iran's new hardline president. what does the election of ebrahim raisi mean for the future of the country, and reviving the nuclear deal? then, giving space to black artists. the young curator with a mandate to shake up the art world. antwaun sargent joins me, plus. - as wsay in mississippi, i found myself looking down a stupid end of too many gun barrels. - [christiane] world-renowned astrophysicist, hakeem oluseyi on his unlikely journey from the street to the stars. and finally, little amal's journey, the giant puppet refugee trekking from turkey to manchester,