geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: i'm on the nevada's. president biden's son agrees to plead guilty on tax and firearm -- federal tax and firearm charges. geoff: an update on the search for a tourist submersible that went missing near the wreckage of the titanic. amna: and, a rare pilot project seeks to make up for widespread learning loss from the pandemic by extending the school year. >> we're seeing this epochal crisis in learning loss, and this widening achievement gap. and there's just been this real reluctance to just look at in the eye and recognize how much we have to do so. ♪

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thank you. geoff: welcome to the newshour. amna: the president's son is admitting to tax and gun crimes, but is unlikely to spend time behind bars after reaching a deal with prosecutors. geoff: hunter biden is set to plead guilty to a pair of federal misdemeanor charges for failing to pay his taxes. the agreement also calls for him to admit to felony gun possession. he won't face prosecution, so long as he remains drug-free for two years and doesn't commit additional crimes. the deal promises a potential end to hunter biden's ongoing legal saga. but the political drama is far from over. to tackle the legal and political implications, we welcome in npr justice correspondent carrie johnson, and adam entous, an investigative correspondent for the new york times. thank you both for being with us. this investigation was in the works for five years across two administrations. president biden cap and place the trump appointed attorney who oversaw the probe to avoid the appearance of interference.

remind us what prompted the investigation and how we got to this point. >> there were a number of reports in 2018 the prompted the justice department to launch an investigation into hunter biden. the u.s. attorney in delaware during the trump administration opened the probe. this covers a period in hunter biden's life when he was in the throes of drug addiction and making poor decisions, including decisions about his finances which came home to roost with the plea agreement. >> donald trump and other republicans are suggesting hunter biden got special treatment and this is a slap on the wrist. here is how kevin mccarthy described it. >> continues to show the two-tier system in america. if you are the president's political opponent, the doj tries to put you in jail.

if you are the president's son, that is not the case. >> how does the plea deal compare with how any other american continue -- accused of similar wrongdoing might get? >> one message is they want to treat like cases alike. in this case it is unusual for the justice department to bring these tax charges against somebody who has read aid their tax bill as hunter biden has. it is fairly unusual to bring an unlawful of a weapon charge by someone addicted to drugs absent some pattern of violence or lawbreaking. if you look at the record and consider what the supreme court did last year in amending the system of gun regulation in this country, allies of hunter biden and former prosecutors suggest this plea deal is actually harsher on hunter biden than it might be on someone else with

his background and pattern of conduct. rather than being favorable, it could be harsher in part because of who he is and the political environment. geoff: the white house released a statement reading, the president and first lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. we will have no further comment. hunter biden is 53 years old. addiction has haunted him for much of his life. what was happening with him during this period that was subject to the doj investigation? >> hunter has been struggling with alcoholism since the early 2000 but his brother beau would take him to rehab, make him go to alcoholics anonymous meetings. his brother dies in 2015 and after that, basically the safety net disappears. hunter doesn't have his brother

anymore, so hunter really goes into a deep depression. during this period, the alcoholism comes back and he tries crack cocaine. he is instantaneously addicted to it. that is the context. i think you need to understand what is going on with joe biden during this point. he had just lost his son beau. the way hunter spoke to family and friends was scary. he would say things like, you think the wrong son died. the context is fear within the family that hunter himself, they were afraid for his future. that is the context. he was trying to make money to basically pay for a lifestyle his family had that they couldn't afford at that stage, so he is getting into business deals which certainly raised

ethical questions. he was making decisions about, personal decisions about himself and what he was doing that reflected his state of mind, which was, he was using drugs all the time. the tax charges and gun issue are at this terrible moment when he basically can't keep track of anything in his life. geoff: let's talk about the politics. republicans trying to win back the white house have tried to link hunter biden's legal problems with his father and suggest they were both in on corrupt deals together in china and ukraine. does anything in your reporting or resulting from this doj investigation support that? >> there is sort of this rule in the family that goes back before hunter, that involved joe biden's brother jimmy. he was also in business.

they wouldn't talk about business with joe, who was a senator. that was the family rule. hunter wouldn't tell his dad about what he was doing. when he joins the board of burisma in ukraine, he doesn't tell his dad. his dad finds out from reading clips sent to him by aides at the white house. he calls his son at some time after this and says, i hope you know what you are doing. hunter responds by saying, i do. that was it. there was no more discussion about it. geoff: republicans promise to step up the investigations into the biden family. how will this case affect the effort moving forward? >> we heard from jim jordan, chairman of the house judiciary committee, republican from ohio, and james comer, head of the house oversight committee,

republican from kentucky, who say they are full steam ahead on the biden family investigations. they are pressing hard, the fbi, for documents in these biden family investigations. one thing that jumped out of me was the u.s. attorney in delaware said the investigation is ongoing. we don't know where it will end. hunter biden's lawyer says he hopes things have resolved but we don't have the green light from prosecutors. it is unclear the scope of the investigation, how much longer it might go. it was interesting today to see two federal prosecutors from baltimore sign on to the plea documents. lawyers who have prosecuted corrupt police officers in baltimore, which could be a clue as to the ongoing nature of the investigation. geoff: carrie johnson and adam entous, thank you both. >> thank you.

♪ stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. here are the latest headlines. a federal judge in florida set august 14th for former president trump's documents case to go to trial. he's pleaded not guilty to illegally keeping classified records and obstructing justice. the trial is set to be held in fort pierce, florida. the date is widely expected to be pushed back. searing heat and soaring demand forced the texas power grid operator to call for conservation today, for the first time this year. days of heat index readings in the triple digits have forced people to cool off any way they can. and dogs are taking dips, too, as pet owners look for cool-down spots. meanwhile, power outages from weekend storms meant another day without air conditioning for more than 200,000 customers across the south. a federal judge today struck down an arkansas ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

judge jay moody ruled that, quote, "the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients." the arkansas statute was the first of its kind, but at least 19 other states now have similar laws. in greece, nine egyptian men appeared in court in one of the mediterranean's deadliest migrant shipwrecks. they arrived at a courthouse in kalamata, and pleaded not guilty to human smuggling and other charges. the tragedy also prompted new calls for change by europe's top elected official. >> it is horrible, what happened. and the more urgent is that we act. we need among us clear rules, for example, that everyone coming to the european border is treated everywhere in the same manner. stephanie: so far, a search has recovered 82 bodies, with 104 survivors. but new accounts say as many as 750 people were aboard the crowded fishing trawler that sank.

a riot at a honduras women's prison left at least 41 women dead. most of the victims were burned to death, and there are reports some were shot or stabbed. honduras's president blamed the fire and violence on a gang that burst into the cell block. a federal jury in new york has convicted one american and two chinese men of trying to bully an expatriate in new jersey into returning to china. federal prosecutors say today's verdict is a victory against a chinese campaign to threaten and silence critics living abroad. beijing says the effort is actually aimed at corrupt officials who flee overseas. secretary of state antony blinken says he expressed deep concern about china's military ties to cuba during his trip to beijing this week. he spoke today in london, as new reports surfaced about chinese activity on cuba. at the same time, blinken said the u.s. and china are working to ease tensions. >> china also sees the utility

and importance of having greater stability, but a lot of work remains to be done. and of course, there are very profound, very significant differences. stephanie: russia launched a fresh barrage of missiles and exploding drones into ukraine early today. ukrainian forces said they repelled most of the attacks around the capital, kyiv. other strikes reached lviv in the western part of the country. the ukrainians also released footage of their own attacks, purportedly hitting russian tanks in the southeast as part of an ongoing counteroffensive. india is making huge new aircraft buys ahead of the prime minister's state visit to washington this week. air india finalized an order today for 470 planes from boeing and the european consortium airbus. earlier, budget carrier indi-go ordered a record 500 airliners from airbus. the u.s. also reportedly plans to sell jet engines to india. and, in northern nevada, tens of

thousands of blood red crickets are swarming the countryside, eating everything they can, including each other. they're covering highways, and when they're crushed, residents say they smell like burning flesh. locals are even using vacuums to get rid of them. the invasion could last until mid-august, at least. still to come on the "newshour," tensions rise as violence erupts again between palestinians and israelis in the west bank president biden meets with tech leaders to discuss the future of artificial intelligence the director of the national institute on aging weighs in on the fight against alzheimer's disease a drag performer explains what the art form means to her. and much more. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from wbt a studios in washington and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at there university.

amna: the international effort to find and rescue a missing submersible is continuing tonight. the u.s. navy is also sending crews and special lifting equipment to help if the missing craft can be found. the challenges are enormous, the situation becoming ever more desperate. rescuers are racing against the clock, and a dwindling oxygen supply, to find the submersible lost at sea. >> this operation is our top priority right now. >> this afternoon, u.s. coast guard officials in boston updated the public on what they called an incredibly complex operation. >> since sunday, the coast guard has coordinated search efforts with the u.s. and canadian coast guard, international guard aircraft, and the polar prince, which has searched a combined area of 7600 square miles, an area larger than the state of connecticut. to date, those search efforts have not yielded any results amna: for the five passengers on board, time is of the essence. >> we know there's about 40 hours of breathable air left, based on that initial report. amna: owned by washington-state

based oceangate expeditions, the vessel, known as the titan, takes passengers deep into the sea to view wreckage of the titanic, all for about $250,000 per person. the submersible began its descent sunday morning, near where the titanic went down, about 400 nautical miles south of st. johns, newfoundland. all contact was lost about an hour and 45 minutes after it began its dive. no one at the surface knows why. the day before, one of the passengers, british billionaire hamish harding, said this year brought the worst winter in newfoundland in 40 years, but a weather window had just opened up to attempt a dive. rescuers report the water in the area is fairly calm, but their search covers a vast expanse of ocean, both on the surface and below. the titanic's wreckage rests about 12,500 feet, or more than two miles, underwater. that's equivalent to ten empire

state buildings stacked on top of each other, more than twice the depth of the grand canyon. those on board the vessel include harding, chairman of the company action aviation. also will board -- aboard the vessel is oceangate founder and ceo stockton rush, shahzada dawood, a british-pakistani executive at one of pakistan's largest conglomerates, and his son suleiman, and french explorer paul henri-nargeolet, director of the company that owns the rights to the titanic's wreckage. rescuers today say their focus is on locating the vessel, though ifound, it's unclear how or if they could retrieve it. >> we have a group of our nation's best efforts in the -- experts in the unified command. if we get to that point, those experts will be looking at what the next course of action is. amna: for more on the search, and how a possible rescue could be carried out, i'm joined by retired u.s. navy submarine captain, david marquet

captain, welcome. you heard what rescuers are up against. if the vessel hasn't surfaced in a while, how are they carrying out this search? what are they doing? >> there are two components. there is the search on the service, you can cover wide areas with airplanes and fly quickly. it is getting dark, but during the day you can use eyes. i'm confident if the ship were at the surface, it would have been found by now. the titanic is to blend a half miles down. it is a different story. you hope if they are in there and are capable, they would be making noises, using underwater telephones or banging on the hull of the submarine. those sounds would be picked up by sonar.

we are not hearing that. i'm fearful something catastrophic has happened, because when there is an abrupt termination of communications that would signal multiple systems going down at once or one catastrophic failure. amna: if they located the vessel, what can they do? can they tell it to surface >> there is no ability to rescue people underwater on this type of ship. you need two ships with the same kind of surface, and they could come together. this ship doesn't have the type of service. the rescue ships that have that surface don't go that deep and have been retired. we need to get the ship to the

surface. we need to use lifting equipment that comes under aled that can go up. or we drop a 2 mile cable with a hook on it and we have the are ovi -- rov down low and we can reel it up to the surface. this takes time because we need to get the equipment to newfoundland and on the ship out of the wreckage of the titanic, which is 400 miles away. amna: in the submersible industry, leaders sent a letter to the pilot of the vessel expressing concern he wasn't sticking to their standards and warning of catastrophic potential. does that surprise you? >> that was reported in newton

-- in the new york times. we see the tug of innovation where innovation might get ahead of regulation and the governing laws in terms of these particular vessels. it goes back and forth. i admire the spirit of innovation, pushing the boundaries, not wanting to be fettered by rules written in the industrial age but at the same time these are people's lives. in the u.s. navy we take great care of our submarines. they are designed both -- with multiple redundancies. if we need two pumps we put in three. we use procedures like if we haven't used the submarine in a while, even before we go to see we will test everything, then we

will test in shallow water, run around with flashlights and check everything. it is a very deliberate, slow process. it is hard to see how a commercial company will have that many resources. it is a harsh environment. it is 380 times atmospheric pressure at that depth. amna: david, thank you for your time. geoff: there was more violence today on the occupied west bank, as israeli settlers were shot and killed by palestinian gunmen. it followed a bloody raid by israeli forces yesterday in the northern west bank, and is raising fears of escalation. here's stephanie sy.

stephanie: near the israeli settlement of eli in the occupied west bank, palestinian attackers gunned down four israeli settlers at a gas station. according to an israeli newspaper, three of the victims were young men, 21 and under. the fourth victim was 63. four others were injured. both gunmen were also killed, one by an armed civilian, the second by israeli forces. prime minister benjamin netanyahu called the assailants murderers. >> i want to say to all those who seek our souls, all options are open. we will continue to fight. stephanie: hamas said the gunmen were members who carried out the attack in retaliation for a deadly israeli raid in the jenin refugee camp yesterday. palestinians are mourning five people killed in that raid, including 15-year-old ahmed saqer, whose family grieves. what was a routine israeli raid against suspected palestinian

militants became even more serious as the israeli troops left. a roadside bomb exploded under two israeli military vehicles, an unusual weapon in the west bank. israel deployed a helicopter gunship, the first time in two decades it used an armed helicopter over the area. >> the use of israeli helicopters, you know, firing missiles into the area, that is really a huge escalation. stephanie: shibley telhami is a senior fellow of the center for middle east policy at the brookings institution. he fears that with today's attack on israeli settlers, violence could intensify. telhami says the recent burst of violence is linked to the expansion of israeli settlements in the west bank. >> we have calls by the israeli national security minister, who has been from the far right ben-gvir, who has been calling

now for very major measures in the west bank against the palestinians, including the return of targeted assassinations and destruction of buildings. stephanie: he says this is linked to israeli settlements in the west bank. >> there is a lot of despair. stephanie: israel announced a new round of settlement expansion, 4000 units, as a top american official was arriving. from washington, the state department said the u.s. was deeply troubled. >> it is a perfect storm, whereby you've got a vacuum in the west bank built by militant groups, and you have a government in israel that has elements to it that would like to not just have no two states, but preclude it ever happening in the future.

stephanie: david makovsky is the director of the koret project on arab-israel relations at the washington institute. he says that far-right policies in israel have further weakened the palestinian authority. earlier this year, minister of finance bezalel smotrich seized taxes earmarked for the pa. and just this week, smotrich was given authority for settlement planning in the west bank. >> the finance minister in israel, mr. smotrich, who represents more of the hardline factions, he has not been providing the support that the security establishment wants to bolster the pa. the more there are vacuums in governance, the more it gives space for these groups, these terror groups to operate. stephanie: settlers are taking matters into their own hands with reports of revenge attacks against palestinians mounting tonight. for the pbs newshour, i'm

stephanie sy. ♪ geoff: in san francisco today, president biden convened a meeting of artificial intelligence experts to weigh its risks and opportunities, and consider the role of the federal government in regulating the technology. following all this closely is ryan calo. he's a professor of law and information science at the university of washington. welcome back to the program. given all of the warnings about ai's present and potential future, discrimination, misinformation and privacy, how should the federal government approach regulating ai without stifling innovation? >> it is hard. the biden administration recognizes the transformative power of ai and is worried about rival nations getting better at

ai than we are. it is hard to deny that there are real consequences. it is not totally ready for prime time. there are things you mentioned, privacy, misinformation. geoff: the eu is taking steps towards passing what would be the first major log regulating art of visual intelligence that would ban real-time facial recognition, require more disclosure for programs that use artificial intelligence. how is the eu moving so weakly? -- so quickly? could they be a model for other countries? >> absolutely. the european parliament passed a draft of the ai act that does the things you mentioned, regulates ai, bands stuff they are not interesting they -- interested in seeing. what this shs is that it is

possible, and it would be wise, to have regulation around artificial intelligence. they are ahead of us because it is a different culture and thought process about technology in the eu. in the u.s. we are more concerned about making sure we capture the productivity and efficiency and innovation, even the military edge something like ai could confer. we are concerned about killing the goose that lays the golden egg. in europe they are more precautionary. geoff: how long might the process taken this country? it took 50 years to regulate cigarette. regulating social media is an open question. might this come down to companies themselves establishing guardrails? in silicon valley, ai is all anybody can talk about.

>> all we have is a blueprint for an ai bill of rights, which is similar to the one the obama administration worked on years ago. we haven't moved a lot. what would have to happen is congress would have to be involved or individual states would have to pass laws. congress and individual states will be worried about regulating too heavily. but it shouldn't be left to the companies to make these kinds of decisions, but -- because left to their own devices, that is what we see with stuff like the internet. they aren't going to fully address or mitigate the big range of harm to the environment or job displacement, bias, privacy, disinformation, they aren't going to internalize that. i hope we make a move like europe but i'm not holding my breath. geoff: can we talk about the

promise of ai setting aside the risk assessment for a second? what generative artificial intelligence can do is extraordinary. original essays, composing music, generating code. what is on the horizon? >> the fact that we have moved from artificial intelligence spotting patterns to actually coming up with output that is as good as a human in some contexts is really powerful. my hope is that will be able to unleash a lot of productivity and creativity within the arts, music. i hope it will help people with differences. people who are differently abled , accomplishing their goals. my son made a birthday card using artificial intelligence. he struggles with writing. there is a lot of potential there.

and we shouldn't deny that, but there are also some real harms and if this is truly a transformative technology of our age, one of the things that needs to transform is our legal institutions and laws. geoff: brian, thank you -- ryan, thank you. >> think you. ♪ amna: after years of work, there's been some progress in the fight against alzheimer's disease, the incurable brain condition that affects more than six million americans. several new drugs have shown small but positive results in reducing the cognitive decline associated with the disease. william brangham has our look at the breakthroughs, and what they could mean. >> earlier this month, an fda advisory panel unanimously agreed the drug known as "leqembi" modestly slows the progression of alzheimer's. the fda is expected to give

final approval next month. a similar drug, known as "donanemab," has also shown promise in clinical trials. it, too, could see fda approval as soon as this year. the results from these drugs are modest, and there are concerns about certain side effects, like brain bleeding and swelling. for more on these advances, and what obstacles lie ahead, we're joined by dr. richard hodez. he's the longtime director of the national institute of aging at the national institutes of health. so good to have you on the program. as you know, researchers have been trying for decades to find some crack in the alzheimer's armor. now we have some help with these new drugs. when you look at the current -- the clinical results so far, how promising do these seem to you? >> i think you've put it very well in context. for the first time, this is a set of results, which, in the analysis of

experts who review the findings is a clear, significant impact on slowing the course of disease, where there is discussion is the magnitude of this change. but where i think we would all agree is that this is an important first step that holds promise of improving by working upon this foundational initial finding to do even better and get a better ratio if you will of a positive effect, prevention treatment, and side effect, which are also significant in these findings and recommendations that are forthcoming from them. >> you mentioned that the drugs slow the progress of the disease. explain why that is significant. >> alzheimer's disease is, we recognize now, is a slowly progressive disease, so that the findings of abnormalities in the brain actually begin years, even decades before the appearance of symptoms, and then there's slow

progression varies from individual to individual. so that, in effect, if these treatments were capable of not totally reversing or curing the disease, but slowing it to a point where people retain their function, their ability to be independent, interact with family, have meaningful life of high quality, this would indeed be an important outcome of the treatment. >> you mentioned the issue of side effects. i know there is an ongoing debate over whether medicare should cover these treatments given the comparison of benefits to the side effects. how do you weigh those side effects in comparison to the benefits? >> what i think we need to do and research going forward is to understand which individuals are most likely to profit from the treatment, which individuals are at higher risk. and this information provides a basis, then, for patients' families and their care providers to make an individualized judgment about the cost-risk benefit for any individual case. in the meantime, it's going to

be important for us to conduct research to better identify who are the best candidates, who are least likely to have the adverse effects, and this kind of research is already ongoing. >> there are still so many questions and mysteries about this disease and who gets it and why we get it. we are learning more about risk factor errors and possible prevention. what is the best knowledge on that front? >> very important. in addition to looking for cures, treatments, the ability to intervene, to decrease risk or prevent, is enormously important. a few years ago, nih commissioned, from the national academies, an analysis of what we knew about risk factors, and what we knew about how we could reduce the risk of disease and the risk factors for which there was the best evidence that intervention could help, or three, identified at that point, 1 -- control of blood pressure, the other maintaining cognitive activity, and third, physical activity. now, since the time of that

report, one of them, blood pressure control, has been shown in a randomized clinical trial. this is the gold standard of a test for causal impact, that by more intensively controlling blood pressure in people in mid age and older age, there was significant decrease in the appearance of lesions in the brain, which we're seeing in alzheimer's disease and decrease at'a stage that oftenrment. precedes dementia. so this is as good as it gets, if you will, in terms of direct evidence that controlling blood pressure makes a difference. in the meantime, there are going -- ongoing trials to see whether controlling diet or physical activity, or cognitive training will have a similar effect >> you have spoken about the need to increase the racial diversity among people who we do research with. can you explain? that might seem self-evident but why is that so important? >> well, it's important that a couple of levels we can start with sort of the the moral, ethical imperative that that we need to conduct research that

has the opportunity to benefit all the people in our country, for that matter globally. to do so we have to have an inclusion of people with that kind of diversity in our clinical studies and trials. and beyond that, moral imperative. this is not just hypothetical, we have very compelling findings to demonstrate that the risk that's imposed by a genetic variant in white, caucasian european descent does not have the same risk in an african american population. there are differences, genetic as well as in experience and life exposures. that mean that individuals of different parts of our population are likely to have different pathways to alzheimer's disease, and so likely to benefit differentially from treatment. we're only going to know that if we include a diverse population in our research studies. geoff: thank you so much for your time. >> thanks so much for the opportunity to speak with you.

♪ amna: the school year has either ended or is just wrapping up in most of the country. as another year finishes, there are still real concerns about learning loss dating back to the pandemic, and the ongoing struggles for students to catch up. laura barron-lopez has our latest conversation on that subject. laura: amna, the federal government gave schools $190 billion to help them re-open, recover and respond to the impacts of the pandemic. that aid can be used for tutoring, adding teachers, summer learning and other ways of helping. some of that money has been spent for those purposes, but fears remain about the long-term impact of learning loss from remote schooling. alec macgillis has been reporting on efforts to deal with this, including in richmond, virginia, as part of a joint story for the new yorker and propublica. he joins me now.

you have reporteextensively on the magnitude of learning loss including in richmond, virginia, as well as other places across the country. how big is that gap and is it among all students? >> the gap's just enormous. i mean, it's really kind of hard for us to comprehend just how enormous this gap is. i've talked to a lot of experts in this field, and they're just completely alarmed by how enormous the achievement gap has gotten, the disparities that have gotten in these last couple of years. we've actually been very successful in this country in closing some of the racial and economic disparities in our schools in the last couple of decades. and they've just blown completely wide open over these last couple of years because of these the school closures and the shift to remote learning, and there's just a lot of evidence now that the longer that districts stay closed, the the worse the learning loss was. and it just so happens that a lot of the districts that stayed close to the longest were in inner cities and urban centers where you where you have a lot of black students, hispanic

students who have now suffered by far the most from from the shift to remote learning. nda:la ric yts at scephoouol ist grading students more generously, or giving them more opportunities to improve their grades. does that mask the problem? >> it does. there was one of the experts i spoke to called the urgency gap, were a lot of families, a lot of parents, are not aware of just how dire the situation has become, because they're seeing their kids still getting decent grades because there's not a general recognition among teachers that kids have, of course, been through a lot and that we should kind of, you know, take it somewhat easier on them as a result. and but meanwhile, you're seeing these standardized test scores that have just fallen off a cliff for a lot of students in this country, really to a degree that the researchers and economists have never seen before. one economist describes this as having just a massive economic effect on par with the great recession, basically because skills and learning in

this country are so directly tied to income. you're going to see a lifelong effect for these students and the communities in which they live. really a lifelong loss to their economic well-being and livelihood. laura: and you took a particular look at richmond, virginia, where the student body is nearly entirely black. and there was a push for year round schooling, essentially a 20 day or sorry, a 200 day calendar. what was behind that push? >> the recognition that there's just been so much time lost and that the key real challenge now is finding additional time to to make up some of that lost ground. richmond schools stayed closed the longest of any district in virginia. the test scores reflected that. one estimate is that students there lost two years in math, math learning. and so there was a big push to basically add time to the calendar to somehow extend the school year, add more days to the school year for some students, and shrink the summer

vacation so that there's less of that summer slide, somehow just build more time into the calendar forither all the students or at least some of the students. and so i went there to tell that story of how this one city was trying to make up for the lost time. laura: that extended calendar came from a few places. some school board members, some parents, white people in particular appeared to be more opposed to some teachers. why did they oppose it? >> there are various arguments against the extended calendar and a shorter summer break, including very practical things like, well, we already scheduled our summer vacation, we've already got a summer job. we don't want to have to change those plans then. but then there was a more general sense of why are we disrupting the way things have always been done at a time when it's already been so much disruption? we just need to get everyone back to normal, back to the normal routine. the argument on the other side, of course, was that this is exactly the moment when we need to do something different because we've lost so

much. it is exactly the time when we need to to really just completely change the way that things have always been done. because what was done before simply is not going to be enough to make up all of that lost ground. laura: and in the end, roughly 1000 of the district's 22,000 students will be in school this summer. for those extra 20 days that are on the calendar. what's your takeaway from the struggle to approve this one pilot project for such a small number of students? >> yes. in the end, only two schools ended up getting this one pilot, such a very, very small kind of step forward for for this one city. and to me, it just was a sign of how really strong the complacency and the inertia had become on this issue. there has been, it has been striking how much the national educational debate shifted to culture issues, how much that's been driving the media coverage of schools. meanwhile, we're seeing this epochal crisis in

learning loss and this widening achievement gap. and there's just been this real reluctance to just look at in the eye and recognize how much we have to do so. but meanwhile, i did see some of these educators in richmond who did recognize this, and are fighting as hard as they could to move forward. it will be interesting to see how these couple schools in this one city do with these extra 20 days that they're getting laura: that's alec macgillis with new reporting in the new yorker and propublica. thank you so much. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: by many measures, drag is more popular than ever. at the same time, there's a growing number of states passing or debating laws to restrict or ban it entirely. but what does drag represent to those who create it? jeffrey brown has this look for our arts and culture series, canvas.

>> ♪ sounds like she's singing ♪ ♪ >> a show at nightgowns, a monthly revue at the new york city club, le poisson rouge. >> welcome to nightgowns. >> it's been running, in different forms and venues, since 2015, and been adapted into a streaming docuseries, showcasing many of today's leading drag performers. its founder and host, 36 year old sasha velour. >> drag is heightened performances of geer. so we take all the ideas that make characters in this world, which are always gendered ideas, and we twist them around, exaggerate them, invert expectations, and create something new in the mixing of seeming opposites. >> sasha, who is gender fluid and uses she-her pronouns in drag, gained national attention in 2017 as winner of season nine -- >> the winner is, sasha velour.

>> as winner of season nine of the hit reality competition show rupaul's drag race. she rocked the crowd with her so-called big reveal. and that is the title of her new book, one that explores the history and art of drag, and her own life in it. >> i wanted to present drag as an art form that is also tied to a community and that is a site for people to advocate for change. >> what's the art in drag? how do you define that part of it? >> from beginning to end, drag is an art. we think about the colors and the textures. we tell a story on stage. some people dance, other people sing live, some people tell stories or jokes. i lip sync, which is a tradition in drag as well. and there's just artistry in the appearance. we paint our faces like a painting, design costumes that go even wilder

than contemporary fashion, bigger and more colorful. and it's a place to have fun, to try things, to experiment. >> it is a place to have fun and experiment. but also a place for saying something? >> yes. the thing i want to say is, first of all, that queer people, that non-binary and trans people are normal, that we can have beautiful lives in the world. and that it's, it's good to be truthful about who you are, to exaggerate it if you want, or simply not to hide from it. >> i think the disconnect for many people would be that you're appearing in a way that does not appear normal. >> why is that, i would ask? >> why is that? >> that's so funny to me because any time, when you watch the morning tv, they have as much

makeup on as i do. it's just they don't have any fun with it. [laughter] so this is very normal. it's just that i make strong and personal choices that are bolder than the things most people are willing to do. so i guess in that sense, i'm not afraid to look abnormal because i know this is just as normal as everyone else. >> the book explores the history of drag, including new york's ballroom scene in the 1920s and 1930's. participants in the 1969 stonewall uprising and key figures who've pushed boundaries along the way. it also presents more personal stories and photos. sasha grew up in a loving and accepting family in central illinois, child of a russian history professor and academic editor, and always loved dressing up. >> learning about drag showed me a different way that made just as much sense, maybe even more sense. it showed me a path for people, regardless of what

gender they are, to create characters and tell stories that they connect with. i've always known who i was. i wanted to share this history of drag, this history of queer and trans people and the art and communities that they make, is because i needed that context personally to understand how i fit into the world. >> so should drag be understood as a performance? as an identity? as both? >> drag is definitely a performance. even when it's not onstage, it's purposefully exaggerated and over the top. sometimes, it is connected to the real queer identities that we have, outside of drag, too. of course, when i feel most natural, i don't dress like this. but in a weird way, i think something truthful about me is best understood through the makeup and the styling. >> so there is a connection to identity. >> there is a connection to identity. but we don't think that drag is real. drag is a

very needed escape from reality into a world that has more freedom. >> is it a political act? should it be understood that way? >> not always. i think sometimes drag is just for fun. just to, or sometimes for a job, a chance to entertain people, to make money. to have a party, to put on a great show. but there is something political about this space that has always been welcoming to people of all gender expression. >> according to the aclu, 20 states have introduced drag ban bills. three states, arkansas, florida, and north dakota, have laws against adult performance that could be applied to drag, while missouri and tennessee two,, explicitly ban drag performances in public spaces or in front of minors. recently, the tennessee law was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge. >> they are trying to convince

people not to be gay, and we believe everyone should have freedom of choice over their own body and their own life. we create a space, our goal is to create a space where that's possible. >> and how worried are you about this moment we're in? >> i'm not worried for myself. i've been at this for a while, and i've seen the tide shift even in the ten years that i've been doing drag. and i know how -- but i do worry for people in more rural areas, like the place where i grew up in central illinois. people, young people without access to a strong community. i think that's who's going to be affected the most. >> the new laws come as, arguably, drag is more popular than ever in the culture, with national shows like "rupaul's drag race," drag brunches and story time events in many cities. >> people are going to drag shows. they're introducing drag to young people. that feels new. for us, it feels exciting, because we remember being kids

and not having the same access to that knowledge. the hopeful thing is that so many minds have been changed already. and it's, it's not a question for us. this is, this is not a debate. we know that our identities are real and our community helps people and saves lives, allows us to live our lives. and it's going to be impossible to go backward. >> alright, the book is "the big reveal." sasha velour, thank you very much. >> thank you so much. ♪ geoff: that is the newshour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by --

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