♪ judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, democrats' chances of holding onto the house in november get a boost with the victory over former vice presidential nominee sarah palin in alaska special election. and fighting the virus. cdc advisors recommend another round of boosters specifically designed to fight the omicron variant. and the stolen year. the long-term effects of school shutdowns during the pandemic become apparent as students return to the classroom. >> the latest numbers suggest that for elementary school students very well be three more years at this pace before they would pick up their expected

trajectory of math and reading. judy: all of that and more on tonight's pbs "newshour." ♪ >> major funding for the pbs "newshour" has been provided by -- >> fidelity dedicated advisors are here to help you create a wealth plan designed with tax sensitive strategies. plans focused on tomorrow while you focus on today. it is the planning effect from fidelity. >> the kendeda fund committed to advancing resrative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendeda fund.org. carnegie corporation of new york.

supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement and the advancement of international peace and security at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and 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. judy: a major political upset in alaska last night as a democrat won the states only seat in the u.s. house of representatives. former state legislator won a

special election to replace former congressman don young who died earlier this year. republican opponents included former vice presidential nominee and governor sarah palin and nick pallets. they will face off again in november. it is also the first election for the state using rank joys voting. joining me now to discuss her wind is the congresswoman. congratulations. we looked at this and there were originally dozens of people in this race. alaska has only been represented in congress in the house by a republican for 50 years. you are running against two well-known republicans. >> like you say, it was a large field of 48 and luckily this year we are using the rank joys voting system and i think --

rank choice voting system and i think alaskans had an appetite for candidates that wanted to stick to the issues and not get involved in artisan pettiness and i think that really helped my campaign. judy: you mentioned that it was rank choice and i think what surprised a lot of people is something like 30% of your opponents vote went to you. he has a republican and ura democrats. how do you figure that? >> i think alaskans tend to vote for the person and not necessarily the party affiliation. i think folks that are interested in public policy and making sure our economy stays on track and we are doing things to try to manage our inflation and logistic supply chain issues and things like that did find me appealing. i served 10 years and the state house of representatives and i served in a bipartisan way.

i was instrumental in reestablishing our bush caucus which is 10 house districts off the road system representing remote districts. typically our caucus of 10 had five republicans and five democrats. although i was in the minority the 10 years i served in the legislature, i was an effective legislator. i was able to bring home capital projects and build coalitions to get alaska moving forward. judy: you would be the first native alaskan to serve in congress but i noticed you said last night that you are much more than just your ethnicity. what does that mean? >> clearly it is of significance that an alaskan native is now part of our congressional delegation even if it is just the short term. alaskan natives have been here a very long time and we have not

been reflected in the democratic process or among policymakers at the table with a position at the table. but alaska is a very diverse stage. we have people from all over the world. the anchorage school district has over 90 languages spoken in homes. clearly we are a very diverse people across our state but we have a common future. i really want to make it clear that i intend to represent all alaskans regardless of their ethnic background. judy: you are not saying that you file special responsibility to represent native alaskans. >> well, that is certainly there and it is significant that we now have representation representing alaska's first people but alaska natives only comprise about 16% of the alaskan population and we have to make sure that because we

only have one congressman for the entire state of alaska, we have to make sure that one person is working on behalf of all alaskans. judy: you mentioned the raise is over but in two months you will be running a race all over again. the regularly scheduled election. your communications person was telling one of my colleagues that it will be difficult. how do you think it will be different? >> i will be multitasking. i will be doing my very best to make sure our constituent relations team is doing everything they can to make sure that alaskans have their constituent needs met. you mentioned our congressman passed away in march and his office has been closed for a number of months. our congressional delegation only has three people. having that person missing leaves a huge gap in our very

small congressional delegation so i will be working hard to make sure at front is taken care of. i need to make sure that i am learning the lay of the land in washington, d.c. and building quality and positive relationships with colleagues and seeing where i can work at building coalitions to overcome some of alaska's challenges and capitalize on our opportunities but i am very focused on november because that is what we are almost interested in, the two year siege. judy: republicans are trying to tie you to the national democratic party. president biden the last few days has been talking about in assault weapons ban. is this something you would support? >> i will need to look more carefully at the details of that proposal. i think it is noteworthy that my hometown had the first school

shooting in our nation. i think many of us, i am a mom and a grandmother and i am very concerned abt this epidemic we are seeing but i do want to make sure that alaskans understand that i am a staunch advocate for second amendment rights. i myself have 176 long guns in my home. we are avid hunters. we are very tied to our subsistence resources and having access to wild game. and the most important factor in terms of being a successful hunter is having access to guns and ammunition. judy: let me ask you find lay, does your win -- let me ask you finally, does your win spell good news for your party? >> i don't think there is much good to be made from making

predictions especially political predictions. i am not one to want to jinx things so i will reserve just -- i will reserve judgment until november 8. judy: congratulations again. the newly elected congresswoman from alaska. thank you. >> thank you, judy. ♪ judy: in the days other news, president biden readying new attacks on what he calls extremist threats to democracy without naming former president trump but leaving a clear impression that he and his supporters are behind him. mr. biden will make an important address in philadelphia tonight combining tough talk about those threats with an appeal more traditional republicans and american values.

>> the president will never shy away from talking about his predecessor. this is so much bigger than any one party, or any one person. it is an optimistic speech about where we are as a nation and where we can go. judy: mr. trump said today that if he becomes president again, he would issue full pardons to those that stormed the u.s. capitol on january 6. he also said he is supporting some of them financially. a federal judgeeard arguments today on whether an outside expert should review government documents from the trump estate in florida. former president's lawyers called for a special master to separate out private material and records protected by attorney-client privilege. federal prosecutors say they have already done that and the judge said she will rule later. the cdc advisers and doors updated booster shots for use this fall. that leaves it to the cdc

director to give final approval. pfizer and moderna boosters are designed to protect against the original virus and the omicron variant. we will return to this after the news summary. a federal study finds the pandemic caused dramatic learning losses for the nation's nine-year-olds. the national center for education statistics says average map scores dropped 7% since 2020, the first decline since testing began. average reading scores of fell five points and that was the most in 30 years. in ukraine, nuclear inspectors are inside an endangered power plant. they arrived today to assess damage from fighting around the site. lisa desjardins has our report. reporter: inside a war zone, mission to over disaster. u.n. nuclear experts made it to the nuclear plant, europe's largest, a place caught in the

crossfire of ukrainian and russian shling. [explosions] reporter: it runs -- it rests along a river inside a battle zone. it is held by russians but operated by ukrainians. both sides agreed to the access by iaea. the six reactors make this plant particularly perilous. >> weighing the pros and cons and having come so far, we are not opping. we are moving now. reporter: fighting near the plant has gone on for six months. sparking international outcry. >> the warning lights are flashing. reporter: and fears of a meltdown that would dwarf chernobyl. dust today shelling shutdown one reactor and set off emergency procedures. ruians publicly are stressing stability. >> we are doing everything to

ensure the plant is safe and for the iaea mission to carry out its plans. reporter: after assessing the threat the iaea says a team will stay there two demilitarized the plant and avoid a tragedy. judy: taiwan is sounding the alarm on china's wargames saying they have been simulating attacks on u.s. navy ships. report to taiwan's our lament said the chinese aim to block foreign vessels from approaching the self ruled island by 2035. china claims taiwans a renegade province. in this country the u.s. military says reports of sexual assault rose 13% last year over the year before. the numbers released today also show some 36,000 troops reported unwanted sexual contact. that was up from 20,000 in 2018. the increases may refle in part the easing of pandemic

restrictions on military bases. new york began enforcing a ban on guns in sensitive locations today after the u.s. supreme court struck down previous restrictions. in preparation, workers put up on freezone signs in times square. they warned that firearms are for been even if the carrier has a permit. and in california, lawmakers narrowly rejected new restrictions on concealed weapons early today. and on wall street, stocks had a mixed day ahead of tomorrow's jobs report for august. the dow jones industrial average gained 146 points. the nasdaq fell dirty one points. the s&p 500 added 11. still to come on the newshour, the united nations releases a scathing report on china's human rights violations against ethnic uighurs. the secretary of veteran affairs

discusses -- discusses efforts to expand health care for veterans. how the u.s. military uses videogames to recruit young people plus much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from the view eta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: americans could start getting doses of new covid booster shots as early as next week. that is because the cdc advisory panel approved two new covid booster vaccines from pfizer and moderna today. geoff bennett has more. reporter: while the rate of covid-19 deaths has fallen sharply, deaths are still holding steady at more than 400 per day. pfizer and moderna have redesigned the vaccines to be more effective against the latest and more transmissible omicron subvariants. health officials hope the

reformulated boosters will provide americans with the most up-to-date protection and keep a lid on hospitalizations and deaths. questions remain on how effective they will be. for more on this i am joined by an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at new york universities grossman's school of medicine and a senior fellow at the kaiser family foundation. this is the first time that the covid vaccine has been reformulated. pfizer has updated boosters for people 12 and older and moderna's boost version is for adults. for which groups will these updated vaccines be the most effective? >> the same groups who have been at higher risk all along will benefit the most from a vaccination with these updated boosters. that is to say people that are 50 and up. people who are immunocompromised. those are the groups that will

benefit the most in terms of prevention of severe disease, hospitalization and death. if you fall into one of those categories, you should be lining up to get one of these updated boosters as soon as possible. reporter: what about people that have already been infected with covid and likely have some level of immunity? >> this is an impornt question. what i would say in terms of timing of doses is that ideally you would wait 3-6 months after your last covid infection or repeat six months after your last vaccination before getting an additional dose of vaccine. infections do provide some level of immunity but they do so at risk of complications. the immunity is not better than what you get from vaccination. you should think about it as equivalent to one dose of vaccine. reporter: the approval process

for the reformulated vaccines was fast tracked. they were approved without data from human trials. the head of cdc said the consequences could be worse if we wait. there are people that will hear that and will be concerned. should they be? >> from a safety perspective, i think there is very strong agreement, consensus among scientists that the vaccines are safe. the formulation is essentially the same. all of the other ingredients are the same as with the original vaccines. the tweak has been to the mrna code so there is a better match with the spike protein of the ba.5 sub variant two. and you have the code for the original virus. but otherwise there is no difference in the vaccination makeup. reporter: there is so much focus on vaccines these days because

so many places, they are all but gone in terms of mask mandates and social distancing. tell me more about thinking the vaccine is a silver bullet. >> i think we are putting too much on vaccines to get us out of the pandemic. they are one, too, and three most important tools in the toolbox but they do not prevent all infections. they reduce the risk of infection but not to zero and they do not prevent all transmission. it is important to understand that people should be taking other measures. when you visit your grandmother at the nursing home, you may still want to mask even if you are fully vaccinated. the risk is that people think they are in vulnerable, they will not -- they are in vulnerable, when in fact, if we want to reduce the

death rate we need to think about implementing other things. reporter: the federal government is running out of money to fund the covid response namely due to congress' reluctance or unwillingness to provide additional funding. what do you see as the real world consequences of a funding shortfall? the government will not be able to provide uninsured americans the vaccines and test they have been relying on. >> the fund to cover testing, treatment, and vaccination of uninsured people has already run out of money a few months ago. u.s. government is going to be purchasing or has purchased the boosters for the fall but that will be the last time the u.s. government has funding to purchase covid vaccine for the american people. what that means is that you will have individual health care systems, individual insurance companies having to negotiate directly with pfizer and moderna

to purchase vaccines. they will not have the same purchasing power to help negotiate the best price. and they will also be in competition with other countries like the u.k., other european countries to purchase those vaccines. we could find ourselves in a weaker position to negotiate pricing of the vaccines and of course uninsured people, people who have worse insurance who may have more difficulty accessing the vaccines that we can get. reporter: thank you for your insights. ♪ judy: as we reported, new test results show a significant drop in test scores and learning for elementary school aged children in the united states. the declining in reading and math for nine-year-olds is the

largest in decades. math scores dropped even more among black students and the declines were sharpest among students still struggling with basic math skills and simple reading. this all comes amid great concern regarding learning loss, what should be done and what schools and politicians should do about it. john yang has the latest. reporter: it has been a long road back for many schools and families since march 2020 when the pandemic shut things down. most went to remote learning and in some cases for more than a year. while some students, teachers and families liked it and many others did not and there were deep divisions over when to fully reopen in person learning. a long-time education reporter for npr and herself a peer has chronicled that period and its wider impact in a boat, the stolen year: how covid changed

children's lives and where we go now. thank you so much for joining us. what do we know now and what can we say about the learning loss that students and children experienced during the pandemic? >> they are really concerning especially when you consider the 2021 and 22 school year was not the recovery year that many had hoped. chronic absenteeism continued as did shutdowns. the latest numbers suggest that for elementary school students, it will be three more years at this piece before they would pick up their expected trajectory of math and reading. and for middle school students the picture is bleaker. it may take longer. reporter: is that something that is likely to be with us for a while? you say three years but even beyond that, are there ripple effects? >> we are thinking -- we are speaking of averages but students are individuals. to me the biggest area of

concern is dunes that disengage and go on a path to dropping out altogether. we have already seen a downturn in college rates. in big cities, los angeles for example, they said they were missing 50,000 students on the first day of classes. they do not know where many of those kids are. are they unrolled somewhere else or have they dropped out and gone into paid work? reporter: what to do about schools and when to come back was such a contentious issue for so long. looking back, are there ways this could have been handled better? >> i was in the privileged position of being an education reporter at the beginning of the shutdown and i knew the consequences would be serious. as the year continued, and i saw the lack of leadership on so many levels, a full toated endorsement from the public health authorities on the importance of in person schools was not forthcoming.

we did see that in other countries and that is how our pure nations particularly in europe really committed to reopening despite the fact that they were dealing with waves and they open schools and preference to other public accommodations. in the u.s. we took two paths. red states opened everything without restrictions and many blue states opened businesses, restaurants and bars without opening up the schools full-time. reporter: and what was the effect of that? you talk about the red states versus blue states and so much of the pandemic was politically tinged. talk about how that affected this debe about what to do about schools. >> it affected it terribly. the rhetoric following president trump was that we needed to get back to normal and big nor precautions or that -- and big nor precautions or that they were not important and that did not build trust.

i spoke with teachers that were terrified about going back to school without precautions in place. on the others of things in blue states it seemed in reaction to that they're formed this attitude that we should have zero covid before we go back to school and that led to terribly detrimental impacts on children as the pandemic dragged on. it seemed harder and harder to understand why schools would be subject to restrictions that we were not seeing in other parts of society. reporter: another thing that was accentuated was the inequality. how did the differences in race and social -- socioeconomic status, in geography you talked about the red versus blue states but how did that affect students and their experiences during the pandemic? >> this started the day school shut down. the school food program is the second largest food program in

the country and it feeds 30 million kids. when it switched to handg out sandwiches and parking lots, a lot of kids went hungry hunger soared to levels that researchers told me were unprecedented in modern days in quick weeks right after that shutdowns. as it dragged on we saw that communities of color, black and hispanic and asian american countries were more cautious about the virus and they suffered more deaths from the virus because they had essential workers in their intergenerational households and that fed into a sense of general mistrust and oftentimes an unwillingness to come back to school in person. that led to disparities on who had access to and confidence in in person learning. reporter: you are from new orleans and you covered hurricane katrina. are there any parallels to what happened to schoolchildren and the effects of hurricane katrina and the pandemic? >> this is a situation i looked

at for parallels. and you think about schools shutdowns in the modern era, we are talking about pandemics and civil wars and natural disasters. in the -- in the united states, the only analog is the hurricane that closed schools for almost a full semester. what i learned from following is at the impact on those children in learning they caught up in a couple of years, those that reenrolled in the city of new orleans. but in trauma in their life trajectory, you could see the impact on high school graduation and college going rates 10 years afterwards. reporter: for your book you followed individual families. what stands out to you? >> there were so many different paths that families followed even within the family. a child i think about a lot was seven years old when the pandemic hit and he is a middle child of a siblings.

when schools shut down her mother had to go to her essential job and often times lock the door on the kids. he got out and climbed into a window of an abandoned house and was shot in the leg by a young man inside. thankfully, he recovered but there are so many children's stories we may never know because they were unseen and they were unsafe. reporter: the book is the stolen year: how covid changed children's lives an where we go now. thank you very much. ♪ judy: late last night the u.n. human rights chief released a report accusing the chinese government of possibly committing crimes against humanity against minority muslim uighurs in the western -- in a

western province. the report reiterated much of what the u.s. government and independent researchers have said about beijing's campaign against the group but it was the first time the accusations were leveled by the u.n.. nick schifrin reports. reporter: on the banks of this river, uighur victims of chinese detention did not need a u.n. report of what they had survived. can you describe for us what the detention center was like? >> they brought everyone in there because they called us suspicious. there is unimaginable pressure inside. every day they would toss us a little bread and water so we would not die and every day they would interrogate 15 or 20 of us with unbearable brutality. reporter: we met him three years ago and he says he was detained in 2017 in what he called a prison for brainwashing. >> in 10 hours of clasthey would tell us in one day was the same as the next. the goal was to change our

minds, our faith, and our beliefs. aging has long called some uighurs extremists and separatists that needed to be reeducated with chinese language and skills. the former ddts -- the former detainees that we interviewed said it was a façade that hid what was really happening. in this drone video prisoners in blue with shaved heads were kept blindfolded and are led away one police officer per prisoner. today's report details the tensions patterns of torture. and it concludes the extent of arbitrary and is criminal taurine detention of members of uighur and other predominantly muslim groups may constitute international crimes in particular crimes against humanity. beijing says the camps have been closed and calls report a farce. >> those so-called assessment report was manufactured by the

united states and western forces and it is completely illegal and invalid. reporter: the author of the report, the former president of chile, was herself detained and tortured under a military dictatorship of pinochet. in may she visited china to conduct her own research but human rights defenders criticized her for pulling her punches. >> i said from the outset what this visit was. it was not an investigation. reporter: her term ended last night. she said she was taking the greatest care to deal with chine feedback and release the report 13 minutes before midnight. for more on this we turn to sophie richardson, china direor at human rights watch. come back to the newshour. last month human rights watch said this report had at its stake the reputation and legacy of the author, the credibility of her office, and the trust of all victims. are you satisfied by the report?

>> this report should have come out a year ago because the damage and harm endured by the uighurs inside and outside of the country could have been mitigated. but it is nonetheless an important reflection of the scope and the scale of abuses across the region at the hands of the chinese government with a strong suggestion that those rise to the level of crimes against humanity. reporter: how impressive is it that the u.n. suggest that the chinese may be committing crimes against humanity? >> it is unprecedented. it would've been helpful to have this assessment years ago. the latest crisis took on new momentum in 2017. but the authorities were planning as early as 2014 specifically to commit systemic human rights violations. we have to look at this report and wonder what could have turned out differently if this

report had come sooner. reporter: what might follow it in terms of investigations or government actions do you think? >> many of the issues that the report identifies have been identified elsewhere but it is the imprimatur of the office that lends a certain momentum andredibility that in turn places pressure on or gives governments necessary facts to go into a body like the united nations human rights council and start arguing it is time to establish a formal investigation that could gather evidence and make recommendations about actual prosecutions. reporter: and the council meets in a few weeks. on the other hand, the report does notse the word "genocide" which the u.s. government has used nor does it have a number appeared the u.s. government says there are 1-3 million

uighurs that have been detained by china. senator marco rubio says it downplays the severity of the chinese communist party's crimes. >> the report downplays the scope and scale of abuse or whether it has put forward an assessment that is a playing defense partly by drawing on chinese sources in addition to having spoken to victims. part of the office's goal was to provide governments in particular with a very solid facts and to leave out that which they could not definitively confirm so that the governments that are likely to take this assessment foard could be confident they are arguing on strong analytical and factual grounds. reporter: it is important to put an underlying and that in that this report does not only use a testimonies. it also uses china's -- chinese government sources.

>> that is playing good defense. beijing's media response was to say this is a u.s. conspiracy. it is hard to do that when your own governments documents are being quoted extensively throughout the analysis. reporter: you and the others in the u.s. have been sanctioned by the chinese government because of "meddling in chinese affairs." >> if that is the chinese perspective, they probably should not have signed up to human rights treaties that allow for scrutiny by the united nations. as well as the human rights council. reporter: it is difficult but do you believe this report can provide any comfort or recognition to so many victims and their families of chinese detention? >> i think this is one of the

most important aspects of the report that finally uighurs around the world see at least some of the nightmare they have lived validated and reflected by the world's premier human rights agency. the key now is for governments to respond to this report and take it forward to end this nightmare for uighurs and to actually presume accountability -- pursue accountability and deny china impunity. reporter: thank you very much. ♪ judy: a new law known as the pack act overhauls how the department of veterans affairs processes disability claims from veterans sickened by exposure to smoke from burn pits and other toxins in a rack, afghanistan

and elsewhere. we talked to the man in charge of carrying out this major reform. reporter: in the past, veterans had to prove their sickness was connected to their service in the military. often impossible to do. but with the passage of this act a veteran only must prove they were deployed to one of the countries listed in the act and how one of 23 different conditions such as brain cancer, asthma or chronic bronchitis. let's discuss this and other issues facing former service members with dennis mcdonough. mr. secretary, welcome back. the president signed the act three weeks ago. the v.a. has said it will not begin processing those claims until january of next year. how quickly will veterans seeking benefits under this act, how quickly can they expect to receive them? >> we will not begin processing the claims until january 1.

we are in the process of establhing new regulations. that is as quickly as we can do it. importantly, when the president signed the bill last month in august, every condition will be effective as of that date. the important thing for our veterans to know is please file now irrespective of your claim or condition. we will make sure that we begin compiling those claims immediately. we will begin processing them in january. we are -- we have been preparing for this and we are in the process of hiring an additional 2000 personnel and we will require a couple thousand on top of that. we have been working on automating claims. claims that in many instances took months are now taking days. that is still technology that we are getting up to speed. and we are looking at the process itself to make it more efficient and straightforward and transparent.

we have work to do. reporter: it is still four months before you begin processing. my understanding is that as of last month you still had a backlog of pending claims of over 950,000. what is the timeline veterans could expect to receive benefits? >> good question. the backlog of claims and the backlog is defined as a claim that has been pending for 125 days or longer is 145,000 claims. not 945,000. reporter: weeks, months? >> until we see individual claims i won't make any commitments but we are hiring more and making the process more straightforward and we are automating it. we should not be the only organization in this country that is not automatic -- automating claims. reporter: there are still holes -- there is a condition called

constrictive bronchiolitis. there is no treatment or cure. under the metrics currently used you have to establish a disability rating which can help grant benefits to the veterans. people who have this do not qualify for anything. they have to appeal to get anything. you said you were looking into this. have you closed the loophole? >> we have been working the issue of constrictive bronchiolitis. the tests to prove the existence of it is actually as intrusive in many cases as the disease itself. i don't have news on that yet. we will continue the process. we will ensure we are getting all of the available science on all of these conditions. reporter: but you have not changed the way the disability rating is assigned to this. >> except for the statute signed

by the president. it ensures this will begin to be processed january 1. reporter: new number is. a pentagon survey released by -- a pentagon survey released on sexual assaults. the numbers are the highest they have ever been. sexual assaults among women service members grew 35% from 2018 up to 2021. only one out of every five troops and up reporting their assaults. we are talking about over 35,000 active duty service members. what is the v.a. currently doing and what more should be done to support the physical and mental trauma of those survivors? >> first of all, the numbers are obviously concerning. any individual incident of what we call military sexual trauma

is one too many. first point. second point, this has been a priority for us both in terms of ensuring that veterans feel safe to come in v.a. to seek care making sur that active duty service members who want to come into a vet center to get support , mental health support because they have been or they are a survivor of this kind of activity -- reporter: do you find people accessing those services? >> i do not have a claims number but there are two things i want to make clear. one, claims. we are dramatically improving our ability to make those determinations and make them in a way that is reassuring to and supportive of survivors. the second thing is we have ongoing services today are available not just for veterans but also for active-duty service members who are victims of

military sexualrauma at our vet centers. we have vet centers in ever state across the country. if there is an active duty service member or a veteran survivor of this kind of treatment, we urge them to come in and get care. reporter: i would like to ask you about abortion access. the v.a. cares for 300,000 female veterans of childbearing age and in july you said you were closely watching to see how states were reacting if there was a diminishment of services and since then we have only seen more states an further restrictions. you have been waiting to cf the v.a. is able to offer abortion services? >> we are looking at the rolling and have been since we saw the leaked opinion. we are making an assessment on

the impact on veteran patient safety. that is our number one priority. reporter: what does that mean? just access to abortion services? >> that means, do our veterans have access to the care that they need when they need it. our reproductive services have not included abortion counseling. we are looking at it now in light of the restrictions in order to ensure patient safety. their life and their well-being and their health. we are taking a look at whether we need to be in a position to offer those services. we are taking that very seriously. reporter: have you spoken to the president about this? i have not. reporter: you mentioned the leaked draft opinion was several months ago and the ruling itself was in june. when do you feel you will have the information and you believe

you have the legal authority as well? >> we do have the legal authority. reporter: i guess the question is why have you not done something? >> the question you are asking and i do not have an announcement today but we are looking at it very seriously. reporter: secretary of veteran affairs, denis mcdonough, thank you. ♪ >> thank you. judy: from veterans to new recruits, the u.s. military is intensifying its efforts to meet young people where they spend their time, online and on their devices. as john yang reports in this report there are critics who say the new recruiting methods also raise new concerns. reporter: among the make-believe superheroes and stormtroopers at the san antonio car show and comic convention, the air force hopes to find its next generation of real-life warriors.

in a hall filled with iconic cars from tv shows and movies, the air force's star attraction, a 70 foot trailer filled with touch screen games and f-35 fighter jet simulators. the staff dart -- the staff sergeant -- >> this is extremely valuable. i am not down here by myself. i have been in places by myself with a table. reporter: the price of admission, giving air force recruiters contact and demographic information. he says the games are intended to reflect real life skills like diffusing an explosive device. >> i have probably blown up -- >> i would say so. reporter: it is an in person effort by the pentagon to meet generation z.

almost 90% of them play games on phones and other devices so what better way to get their attention. >> the basic rule in recruiting is go where your market is. reporter: the major general is commander of the air force recruiting service. >> if we are looking at the average recruiting population, 17-24, we have to be where they are in those virtual spaces. reporter: last year the air force released two new free games. one is called command the stacked aimed at 13 and older. it is an augmented reality mission simulator that uses a real satellite scans. the games can be played on the air force website or downloaded from app stores and they are promoted through targeted online advertising. >> about 80% of all of our advertising and outreach is done online and virtual spaces. broadly it is done on twitter, snapchat and facebook.

reporter: altar showed gen z that they have a place in a service that this year marks its 75th anniversary amid what pentagon officials say is the toughest recruiting environment across the military and decades. >> it is been an unusually difficult recruiting markets. our recruiters have gone out after covid. reporter: among the big reasons, about three quarters of americans do not meet the qualifications because they are overweight, have a criminal record, did not graduate from high school or do not meet another requirement. and a shrinking military means fewer people have connections to the military. by 2017, it was 15% had a parent that had served. recruiters also say gen z is more skeptical than their elders. that is seen here in this video.

the pentagon's use of gaming and recruiting -- in recruiting is drawing criticism. >> this is to block recruitment processes. reporter: in 2020, ocasio-cortez tried unsuccessfully to kill the army and navy e-sports live -streaming. >> right now currently children on platforms are bombarded with banner ads that link to recruitment sign-up forms that can be submitted by children as young as 12 years old. these are not educational outreach programs but recruitment forms for the military. reporter: not all service branches think e-sports is a good idea. in 2020 the marine corps said it

would not field a team. issues associated with combat are too serious to be game of e-ified in a responsible manner. he is a leader of a gamers for peace, antiwar veterans group whose members of livestream to counter what they call the military entertainment complex. >> the recruiters have access to kids and kids are consuming recruiter content in any environment. their guard is down and no one else is around to monitor what an adult is telling them. we are trying to soften the impact and influence the -- and influence that recruiters have on children. reporter: an air force veteran was a drone program technician. >> if you are trying to attract people into the military using

a videogame, you are attracting them do something that it is not -- that is not real. and in that way, what happens to these young people should they experience the realities of war will be devastating. reporter: the top recruiter in the air force which does not have an e-sports team despite its videogames acknowledges the criticisms. some people say the games are too realistic and they desensitize people to young -- young people to these acts. >> as a parent and grandparent, i would encourage a lot of involvement in what is right for each individual because it is important that people understand that real life and real warfare is not a game. reporter: and he says encouraging those younger than the military's minimum enlistment age to play the games is not the same thing as actively recruiting them.

>> we are not recruiting anyone under the age of 17. there are a lot of young americans that we want to inspire through a variety of different ways so they are thinking about the military as a career. reporter: help me understand the difference between inspiring and recruiting. >> it really is about an active conversation. and they are 17, we will get that conversation started in earnest about the steps you take to join the air force or the space force or any other service. under 17, we are not having those conversations. it is not appropriate. reporter: at the convention, the gaming display struck a chord with nick volker brown, sophomore who plays football at the university of texas at san antonio. had you been thinking about the air force at? >> i had not think -- i had not thought about it until i got in there. reporter: what is your plan a?

>> nfl. reporter: a may be the air force hopes they can turn into a yes. judy: so fascinating to learn about that. thank you john yang. that is the "newshour" for tonight. i am judy woodruff. join us online and again tomorrow. please stay safe and we will see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> for 25 years consumer cellular has been offering wireless plans. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that services you. ♪ >> the ford foundation working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. ♪ and with the ongoing support of

these individuals and institutions and friends of the newshour including leonard and norma and patricia using. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ and friends of the "newshour." ♪ ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station om viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

hello, everyone and welcome to "amanpour and company," here's what's coming up. our special show on the life and legacy of a historic figure, mikhail gorbachev, the last leader of the soviet union. his impact on russia and on the world with nina khrushchev, who joins us from moscow, historian and great granddaughter of nikita khrushchev. plus. >> history is a fickle lady, and you can expect surprises from history, but i do know that i did what i did, and that i can be proud of it. >> gorbachev in his own words, we look back at my revealing interviews with him. then. >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. >> how this