geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the "newshour" tonight, the supreme court says colleges cannot consider race in admissions, a ruling that has widespread implications for the future of higher education. geoff: the texas power grid struggles to cope with system-wide stresses caused by the brutal heat wave. amna: plus, doctor burnout and high costs for patients lead more americans to choose alternatives to insurance-based health care. >> it honestly used to scare me to go into the hospital. not for the needles or the doctors or the sickness or anything, but just for the price of it. ♪

>> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> for 25 years consumer cellular has been offering no contract wireless plans designed to help people do more of what they like. our customer service team can help find the plan that fits you. to learn more visit consumer cellular.tv. ♪ the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. the carnegie foundation 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. ♪ amna: welcome to "the newshour." the u.s. supreme court today dealt a major blow to affirmative action in higher education, striking down race-conscious admissions programs at harvard university and the university of north carolina. geoff: in rulings divided along ideological lines, the court's six-justice conservative majority said the schools discriminated against white and asian-american applicants by using race-conscious policies that benefited students from underrepresented backgrounds. chief justice john roberts, who

has long been skeptical of such policies, authored the majority opinion. he wrote, "many universities have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual's identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned, but the color of their skin. our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice." amna: this afternoon at the white house, president joe biden criticized the rulings and said the country cannot abandon its pursuit of a more equal system of higher education. president biden: i know today's court decision is a severe disappointment to so many people, including me. but we cannot let the decision be a permanent setback for the country. we need to keep an open door of opportunities. geoff: we start our coverage tonight with "newshour" supreme court analyst marcia coyle. it's great to have you here. we should say the ruling was not unexpected.

but as recently as 2016, they upheld rulings. help us understand how this ruling appends decades of precedents. >> there has been of fundamental divide on the constitutionality of race preferences. can services -- conservatives believe it is unconstitutional. the court has said that it is one of the very few reasons the court will allow race preferences. it today up and did what it has done for many decades. geoff: chief justice roberts notes and should be construed as prohibiting consideration of race.

so some have taken it to mean an applicant can write an essay about how race has affected their life but how does the use of affirmative action run afoul of the constitution? >> they cannot use it as a factor in admissions. it cannot be a dominant factor or the determinant factor. it cannot be used in a negative way. but the court did sort of leave the door open on everne will have to wait to see how this plays out to admissions applications or essays in which an applicant discusses how race really affected their life, whether inspirational or not. geoff: justice jackson recused herself from the harvard case but participated in the north carolina case and she wrote a

scathing dissent, part of which reads this, "with let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces colorblindness for all by legal fiat. but deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life." tell us more about what she wrote come along with justice so the so i are. >> there is nothing in the 14th amendment that prohibits race conscious measures and they both oppose the idea of a colorblind constitution. this is something justice thomas has advocated for decades. justice jackson used her dissent to specifically address how the university of north carolina admission policy worked and how the policy has worked to the

benefit of everyone, not just the students who get racial preference and she also felt that the court was ignoring the facts of life on the ground in order to impose the colorblind rule. geoff: marcia coyle, thank you so much for your analysis. we appreciate it. amna: the fallout of the court's decisions will have major implications on colleges and universities across the country, but one university that knows the impact of ending raced-based admissions all too well is the university of michigan. joining me now to talk about all of this is university of michigan president, santa ono. welcome and thank you for joining us. your university scrapped your affirmative action plan years ago because of the state a so you have not been taking race into account in admissions. how is your institution impacted today? >> thank you. the decision to ban affirmative action here happened 17 years

ago so we have not considered race. we have used multiple strategies. holistic review, pathways programs, and really looking for first-generation generation students to build a diverse class. a lot of times we lost a lot of ground when affirmative action was banned but we are making significant progress now. amna: critics will say you saw a drop in black undergraduate enrollment in those years but the university pivoted to focus on including low income students rather than looking at race but it hasn't worked. why is it failing? >> that approach is not as efficient an instrument to accomplish diversity. the critics are right, we didn't lose quite a bit of ground but we have learned a lot in the interim and i want to share with

other institutions facing this today. amna: other institutions that cannot consider race like ucla and berkeley have managed to improve black enrollments to what are they doing that you have not done yet? >> we have started to increase black and latino and native american enrollment recently. we tried a different -- a number of different approaches and they take time to stand up. we see progress and we would love to share what has been difficult along the way. amna: are you speaking with other you university and college leaders who are concerned about today's ruling? >> we speak on a regular basis with the biden administration and department of education. we are talking about things that work and things that are challenging. as a higher education sector we

are all committed to a diverse student body and the benefit it provides so we are sharing that with the doe and working together. amna: can you give us a concrete example of one step universities can take? >> there are a number of things that work. the pathways program where you go into diverse communities and work with the school systems on students and families and prepare them to apply to the institution. they are then more a successful and the application process and matriculate at higher numbers. that is successful. the other is to use a holistic approach. let us look at -- look less at standardized tests and look instead at what the student has accomplished.

i believe colleges and universities should look at the issue of legacy admission. several college -- college admissions are legacy admissions and that does not work to diversify the student body. amna: you say you remain convinced racial diversity is one of the many important components of a broadly diverse student body. there are people who will say they are not sure that is true. in light of today's ruling, what have you seen in your career that says to you this is a value that should continue being held up? >> if you are a college, fortune 500 company, news agency, a diverse team is a stronger team. it is true for the education

system. if you go to a class and laboratory if you see a diverse student body, i see the interaction that occurs and what they learn from each other. amna: thank you for your time. geoff: for a different perspective, we turn now to author and non-resident scholar at georgetown, richard kahlenberg. he served as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in both cases and has long made the argument for what he calls the pitfalls of race-based affirmative action. you described this ruling is a step forward for the country. in what ways? >> it is a victory for low income working-class class students of all races. harvard and university of north carolina currently bring together fairly well off students, economically well off students of all races, which is much better than an

overwhelmingly privileged upper all-white class but they do not seek socioeconomic diversity. harvard students come from the richest 1/5 nationally of the black and latino populations. you have 15 times as many rich and unc and what we experienced where unit -- where affirmative action has been banned that universities will not give up on racial diversity. they find new ways to promote racial diversity and i think what we will see is that they will do the hard work of recruiting working-class students, providing them with financial aid to make sure

universities remain racially diverse and will become more economically diverse. geoff: looking at the data, counting on economic status does not work as well as including some form of consideration of race in the admissions process, which is to say it does not remedy what affirmative action was established to resolve, which is discrimination based on race. >> i have a different reading in the data.

so in the harvard in the unc cases, we ran models on what would happen if you stopped using race and instead provided a break to economically disadvantaged students. i've gotten rid of some of the unfair preferences for legacy applicants for children of faculty. children of donors, and you were able to produce robust levels of racial and ethnic diversity, much more economic diversity. and we see in states where formative action was discontinued, that in seven of the 10 they were able to get as much black hispanic representation as they had in the past using race are a couple of outliers. university of california, berkeley, ucla, university of michigan, but in recent years, ucla and uc berkeley have admitted their most diverse classes in 30 years, according to the universits themselves. so the amicus briefs in some cases try to make the case that they haven't done well. in fact, they've done quite well. geoff: you mentioned legacy admissions. we just heard the president of the university of michigan say that schools should look at that process. how should colleges and universities rethink this issue of legacy admissions in light of the supreme court, striking down affirmative action in college

admissions policies? >> i edited a book back in 2010 called "affirmative action for the rich" about legacy preferences. i think they're very, very, very difficult to justify under any circumstances, but especially today, after the u.s. supreme court's ruling on the use of race, i think it becomes even less defensible to use preferences. geoff: president biden suggested the schools keep open the door of opportunity and he offered an alternative path. president biden i propose a new standard where colleges take into account the adversity a student has overcome when selecting applicants. students first have to be qualified applicants. ey need the gpa and test scores to meet the school standards. geoff: the president says once

the standard is met, adversity -- adversity should be considered. is that suitable? >> absolutely and i am glad president biden made those remarks. my contention is that a conservative u.s. supreme court decision today will paradoxically lead to a set of liberal public policy initiatives that make the system fairer, that provide a break to economically disadvantaged students. and the use of race has always been highly controversial in american politics and the initiatives that were put forth in a number of states almost always pass an anti race based affirmative action initiatives. by contrast, there is strong public support for giving a preference in admissions to economically disadvantaged students, and also for a number of the other important policies, getting rid of legacy preferences, increasing the number of community college

students who transfer. what's important is to make sure that we find ways to reflect the realities of race in this country, the history of racial oppression, by considering things like the wealth of an applicant, because a low wealth applicant who overcomes odds and does well, despite the obstacles , deserves a leg up, and those will disproportionately be black and hispanic students, given the enormous wealth gap by race and ethnicity in america. geoff: richard collenberg is an author and non resident scholar at georgetown university. thanks so much for your perspectives, we appreciate it. >> thank you. ♪ amna: in the day's other headlines, a former florida sheriff's deputy was found not guilty of felony child neglect and other charges for failing to stop the parkland school shooter in 2018.

scot peterson was overcome with emotion as the judge read the verdicts. he was outside the building as the gunman killed 17 people inside marjory stoneman douglas high school. the charges carried a maximum sentence of nearly 100 years in prison. extreme heat scorching the south has claimed 14 lives and shows no signs of letting up. forecasters say the high temperatures and humidity will spread eastward in the coming days. farther north, smoke from canadian wildfires is still blanketing parts of the midwest and east coast. washington d.c., detroit, and chicago recorded some of the worst air quality in the world. the pentagon confirmed a chinese spy balloon did not collect any intelligence when it flew over the united states earlier this year. the balloon spent 8 days in north american airspace before president biden gave military orders to shoot it down off the east coast. officials said u.s. counter-measures taken at the time helped prevent surveillance

during its flight. france is bracing for a third night of protests and unrest following a fatal police shooting of a teenager in paris. authorities have now charged the officer who pulled the trigger with voluntary homicide. lisa desjardins has the latest. lisa: in this paris suburb, outrage is growing. as are numbers, with thousands today turning out to protest the police killing of a local young man. the teenager's mother called for this march and helped lead it from atop a flatbed truck. his name echoed with local leaders and in this chant, "justice for nahel." >> young nahel, his honor was saved thanks to cameras. by killing nahel, they killed our child. lisa: the video of the killing by officers who stopped the car for an alleged traffic violation immediately sparked anger. a policeman fired at close range as the car started to drive.

the 17-year-old has been publicly identified only as nahel m. he was of north african descent. for the third day in a row, demonstrators have taken over the streets of several parisian suburbs, demanding justice. cars set ablaze, scores of police have been injured, and protesters arrested. a curfew is now in place in at least one area where a tram was set on fire. and both outcry and violence have spread to at least three other cities in france. french authorities announced 40,000 officers would be deployed across the country to contain further unrest. >> these acts are totally unjustifiable, and i want to thank all those who worked overnight, as the night before, to protect these institutions and bring back calm. lisa: but fueling the anger are long-running complaints of police mistreatment of minorities. and the memories of riots in 2005, when two teenagers died running from police. nahel's death is the second police killing during traffic stops this year.

french prosecutors stress that a murder investigation is underway. meanwhile, flowers were laid near the site of the shooting, notes of grief and anger both on the rise. amna: former vice president mike pence made a surprise visit to kyiv today in a show of support as ukraine fends off russian aggression. the republican presidential nominee met with president volodymyr zelenskyy, and later reiterated his pledge to arm ukraine. mike pence: as i learned from president zelenskyy and his security team, the ukrainian military is making steady advances against the russians, and i assured him that for my part, we'll continue to do everything in our power to make sure that we provide the ukrainian military with the support they need. amna: mr. pence is the first republican presidential candidate to visit ukraine during the campaign. a british court of appeals struck down a u.k. government

policy that would send asylum seekers 4,000 miles away to rwanda. the judges ruled that while deportations to safe countries are legal, relocating migrants to rwanda specifically is too unsafe. >> there is a real risk that persons sent to rwanda will be returned to their home countries where they faced persecution or her inhumane treatment, when in fact they have a go claim for asylum. in that sense, rwanda is not a safe third country. amna: the decision is a blow to british conservatives, who have pledged to stop migrants from making the dangerous journey to the u.k. by boat. british prime minister rishi sunak said his government will appeal to the uk's supreme court. the u.s. economy is showing more signs of resilience. the commerce department reported the american economy grew at a 2% annual rate in the first quarter of this year. that's a sharp upgrade from the agency's previous 1.3% gdp estimate.

meanwhile, the labor department said jobless claims fell by 26,000 last week to 239,000, the largest drop since 2021. that news boosted most stocks on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average climbed 270 points to close at 34,122. the naaq fell off a fraction of a point. and the s&p 500 added 19. a passing to note tonight. christine king farris, martin luther king jr.'s last living sibling, has died. in the decades following her brother's 1968 assassination, she joined his widow, coretta scott king, to help promote his legacy. she also helped build the king center in atlanta, georgia to help champion his philosophy of nonviolent resistance. christine king farris was 95 years old. and finally, the new york yankees are celebrating their pitch perfect win against the oakland a's. yankees right-hander domingo germán didn't let a single oakland batter reach first base

last night, leading his team to an 11-0 victory. it was only the 24th perfect game in major league baseball history. still to come on the newshour, burnout pushes an increasing number of doctors to leave the insurance-based system. a new cosmic discovery leads to greater understanding of the space time continuum. sesame street supports ukrainian children traumatized by war, plus much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from washington and arizona state university. geoff: a record heat wave and connections to climate change are highlighting growing concerns around america's power

grid. reporter: as texas and much of the south broils right now, more people are dialing up their air conditioning to stay safe. in fact, in texas, which operates its own electrical grid, demand for power there hit an all-time high this week. that puts enormous stress on utilities and power lines at the very moment they're also being impacted by the extreme heat. michael webber is a professor of energy resoues at the university of texas at austin, author of several books, and chief technology officer at the venture fund energy impact partners. thank you so much. when we talk grid what infrastructure are we talking

about plants? >> all of that you got to the power plants that make the electricity, the transmission lines give electricity from the power plants to the cities and then the distribution lines that move it around the city and then eventually get to our meters and our appliances like our air conditioner, so it's that whole system up to the meter that really is what we call the grid. >> you are in texas right now, almost all climate models say more and more intense heat waves . will our grids nationally be able to handle the stress? >> it's going to be a strain. we basically have built our grid for the weather in the past, we built out the transmission system, mostly from the 1930s, 1970s, a lot of our modern power plants we built in the 70s and there are some newer ones, but 80's. it was cooler, and we need to prepare the system for a future which means as you said, more frequent and intense heat waves

. we're going out in texas in the high temperatures of high demand america might be the new normal next year might be harder, so they can prepare for that and that means making sure the power plants reliable. that also means that the transmission lines or power lines are reliable. it also means things like more efficient air conditioners and veterans like the homes are equipped to do to make a whole system more robust. reporter: one of the things i was struck by in my research is how texas is really a leader in renewable energy and solar farms growing like crazy in texas and saving a ton of money for ratepayer. but i understand that there's also a lot of conservative pushback, arguing that renewables are not reliable and they're not sturdy for the future. what is the record show on that front? >> we have a lot of wind, a lot of solar and batteries. so we're on the edge of this in many ways on the cleaner technologies, but also a lot of nuclear, coal and gas. we've got a mix of just about everything in texas. the potical pushback really pushing for this idea that winds are not reliable, but what we found in february 2021 storm that led to the deaths of hundreds of people on a massive blackout was the natural gas

infrastructure, the natural gas quality. and we're finding out that solar power plants really perform well when it's sunny outside, no surprise. those days are hot. so solar has been particularly helpful for us right now. especially since we have like eight to 10 gigawatts of thermal power plants these traditional power plants like coal and gas on wind, solar is really helpful. the hottest days it's not so windy. so it's good to have a mix of everything and renewables in particular, have been stepping up in these heat waves and taking a lot of money while also avoiding a lot of emissions or forming projects. we don't need water cooling. water is scarce in texas. we're getting a lot of benefits for robles but truthfully we have a diverse mix, and that's where we are. reporter: so operators of your grid in texas have been urging people in the midst of this heat wave to cut back voluntarily on the usage of electricity. you argued in a terrific column in the new york times that that's it we're skeptical of that idea and you argue that we ought to pay people to dial

their electrical use. make that case. >> absolutely. so we can ask people in their better angels to voluntarily conserve. now back to her answer or turn off non critical appliances and that will work a little bit, some people will do that. but if we paid people at dollar per afternoon people won't , absolutely dial back or crinkle their home so we can use financial incentives to encourage people to reduce their demand and turn down the demand is same as picking up a power balance on grid. there are cities like chicago who are doing that now. we need this in a widespread way and turning off the demand will be a lot faster to employ a lot cleaner and a lot cheaper than building a bunch more power plants. that's for sure. reporter: going forward we need much bigger investment in the grid across the country. why is it that we have pushed off this investment for so many years?

>> for many people investment sounds like spending and spending sounds bad but we do need it for the future. electricity is central to a modern economy and if we look towards the future with electric heat pumps and electric vehicles, we are going to be doubling or tripling the grid and that means investment. we want to clean things up and grow the economy. this is a great opportunity. people arrested and and it sounds -- people are reticent and it sounds expensive. the benefit is to have a cheaper cleaner, and that's really useful. reporter: will we be able to reap the benefits you are describing? >> i think we will. it will start to take off more quickly and people will see the

benefit of all the jobs created and the excitement around having a better system and i think that will start happening. i think it is gonna happen quickly and surprise us by how it -- by how easy it was in the end. reporter: thank you so much for being here. >> thank you for having me. ♪ amna: the american medical association says the u.s. faces a growing shortage of physicians, especially those in primary care fields, like internal medicine, mental health and pediatrics. by 2034, the group predicts a shortfall as much as 48,000

primary care doctors driven by population and demographic trends and burnout. fred de sam lazaro found one doctor-patient model that may benefit both, one piece of the patient revolution. the story is part of his series agents for change. fred: deep in wisconsin's northwoods, kristen dall-winther is living her dream. from pancake breakfasts to seeing her kids off to school, dall-winther savors these moments before heading to work at birchwood family medicine, a clinic she started two years

ago. >> i grew up watching dr. quinn medicine woman and idolizing her and forming a relationship with patch adams the doctor, not robin williams, who played him in the movie but really just got , inspired around what how he delivers care in a way that really doesn't take cost too much into consideration. fred her first stop after med : school was the mayo clinic, where she spent ten years; financially rewarding, she says, but at great personal cost. >> it was beaten into you in training that you just need to work constantly. i would work from 6:00 a.m. until midnight and then put my babies to bed. when i was at mayo, i had 3000 patients that said, she's my primary care doctor. and here, our practice closes that 6:00. just by the nature of math, i have five times as much time with every patient. fred it has had a cost, this : time financial: a 60% pay

cut. when she hopes to recover as the clinic grows to the 600 patient cap she has set. it's now at just under 400. adult patients pay 80 dollars a month for what's called a membership. it buys unlimited clinic visits, 24/7 access to dall-winther, typically using a secure app, and significantly discounted imaging and labs tests done right in the clinic, like a comprehensive metabolic panel or cmp, a blood analysis to check a patient's metabolism and chemical balance. >> the difference is astounding. cmp, a metabolic panel at mayo or marshfield, they're going to bill $134, around there for a cmp. here, it's $4.50. and that's true across the board, for every lab, every x ray or radiology exam, every medication. fred: her birchwood clinic is part of a business model called direct primary care, practices that avoid insurance billing wherever possible. some 2000 clinics across the u.s today use variations on this model. for patients like 25-year-old russell bacon, it's the difference between having and not having health care. his job as a heavy machinery operator doesn't offer health insurance.

>> it honestly used to scare me to go into the hospital. not for the needles or the doctors or the sickness or anything, but just for the price of it. they don't tell you how much they're gonna charge you and it could be $100, or it could be $1500. that's a tough pill to swallow sometimes. fdsl but 80 bucks a but -- that is a tough pill to swallow sometimes. but $80 a month is very affordable. $80 is unbelievable. fred that level of care is what : draws patients like tiana kristensen, she has health insurance but opted to pay the clinic membership fee. now expecting her second child, she values the more personalized care here. >> not that we didn't like the healthcare system we had before, they did great, we had great physicians we had good care, it's just being such a big system, you fall through the cracks and that's no fault of any provider at all. it's just the way that it is when you're dealing with that many patients. fred: it might bring more

satisfaction to patient and doctor, but small clinics like these likely add further stress to a system that's already stretched thin. >> one of the major problems in healthcare delivery is the shortage of primary care health professionals. there are substantial shortages. the baby boomer generation which , makes up a significant portion of physicians are retiring. fred robert berenson, himself a : retired primary care doctor, served with the federal centers for medicare services and is now at the urban institute. besides retirements, he says fewer medical graduates now opt for primary care. aside from the daunting insurance perwork, he says, their work is valued far less than that of specialists by insurers, including the largest: medicare. >> the medicare fee schedule assumes that a dermatologist takes 29 minutes to freeze a wart with liquid nitrogen, a process that is not even a procedure that takes about 15 seconds. and the payment is as much or i think a little more than a physician spending 15 minutes pfrntedat: itand iehe says atto raise primary care reimbursement have proven difficult amid rising health care costs overall. >> when i discuss this issue with private health insurers say

-- insurers and say why don't you increase the payment to primary care doctors so it will pay off in the long run, their basic answer is that we do not focus on the long run. so congress needs to step up in terms of medicare, but it doesn't. and that goes to the whole issue of ection financing and all those issues, which are above my paygrade. fred so the trend is just the : opposite of the birchwood model. large group practices now employ about two thirds of all primary care doctors in america. many are oed by insurers and even private equity investors. >> there are a lot of morally injured doctors who are living everyday with that conflict of what they believe and how they how they wanted to deliver care. but they're up against a system where they feel trapped to some degree, you know, and they're

having to just kind of play along to exist. the people that i see here, i do an exhaustive dig into their old records. it's shocking and kind of horrifying at how common i find things that have fallen through the cracks. and that's just the nature of doing medicine in 15-minute increments. fred: in a system of ever-larger health care organizations, dall winther says she feels fortunate to be able to practice medicine as it traditionally has been in america, in a small independent clinic. for the pbs newshour, i'm fred de sam lazaro in birchwood, wisconsin. amna: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. ♪

geoff: let's expand our horizons a bit wider and look at important findings that are literally about space, time and the cosmos as we know it. you might remember albert einstein theorized that as heavy objects move through space and time, they create ripple effects in the fabric of our universe. now, an international team of scientists have detected new evidence of that. researchers found new signs of gravitational waves -- waves that are affected by huge movements such as the collision of black holes. these are no small matters. our science correspondent, miles o'brien, is here to break it wn. what are gravitational waves? >> they are ripples in the fabric of time and einstein predicted them in 1915 and they were verified by a ground-based observatory in 2015.

what this latest discovery does is prove they are more ubiquitous and found at longer wavelengths. we are talking about a project funded by the national science foundation. they have been working on this for 15 years. it is worth spending a couple moments trying to understand gravitational waves. jeffrey at oregon state university gave me a little lesson we can sink our teeth into. >> one way to think about it is if you think about space-time as being jello, you have this, it's a little bit more firm than a regular jello, but you have jello and the space in between the sides of the jello gets jiggled by these really massive objects.

and so you can imagine, you know, smack it in one side of a big giant cube of jello and a wave would pass through that cube of jello. and so things would compress and expand as that perturbation moves through the chunk of jello. geoff: help us understand the scientific significance. >> the laser beam observatory from 2015 was like galileo pointing his telescope at jupiter. now we are talking about much more complicated and larger telescopes, if you will, looking at other wavelengths. in this case a wavelength that could be one light year long and scientists have hypothesized that gravitational waves would have a background hum of them but it was impossible to be detected with any ground-based observatory to see these ripples at that magnitude. geoff: i am still -- i am struck

by the chaotic nature -- quixotic nature of the endeavor. how did the scientists do the work? >> imagine an observatory half the size of our galaxy. they took advantage of pulsars, which are dead stars that are very dense on the size of our city. they used pulsars, dead stars, which have predictable rotating begins and you can really set your clock to it. and if there is any change in them you can infer something is happening, in this case a great educational -- a gravitational waves that is changing. so they were able to pick up subtle changes and identify

where they infer to be these gravitational waves. geoff: do scientists know what caused the ripples in the gravity? >> they think it might be super massive black holes. space is a rough place and the idea is they are taking out these gravitational waves but now i am officially getting in deep for a history major so let's go back to jeff at oregon state university for his best current hypothesis. >> it's most likely from an ensemble of millions of black hole binaries, supermassive gargantuan sized black holes that live at the centers of galaxies. when two of them settle in after a galaxy merger, that's when they give off the gravitational waves that we're looking for. but we aren't there yet. geoff: so what is next?

what questions do the scientists hope to answer? >> they want to hone in on individuals and help connect the dots between these bouncing around massive black holes and long gravitational waves and in so doing, create a cosmic archaeology, understand more about how the universe formed and where it is going and doing that by listening to the home of the universe. -- hum of the universe. geoff: miles o'brien, i always joy having you here. >> thank you. amna: the experience of war is an enduring trauma for anyone, but it is especially hard on children. death, displacement, doubts, and fear acutely damage children's psyches and their ability to cope. but trusted friends are now

aiding ukraine's children. geoff: the sesame workshop, which has produced the iconic children's program for decades, is being used in ukraine to help children experiencing what none should ever have to withstand. special correspondent jane ferguson reports for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> educating children at times of war demands much from teachers. these ukrainian children -- these are made especially to help children cope with strong emotions, communicate with each other and escape the pressures of war. all in the ukrainian language. >> children are surrounded by constant information of the war and it affects them. they become more anxious. my clinic works with children with special needs and it affects them especially. theyecome more emotionally unstable.

reporter: this woman runs a small school near kyiv. she and her staff are fighting to help little minds grow, despite the stresses they must endure. >> the videos sesame street provides are interactive and so children are interested in pay attention. the cartoons evoke emotions and distracts them from the horrors of war. because children have become more anxious and vulnerable during the war, attention span is limited. we have to change the activities for children to keep the interested and occupied. this is why having games for them is helpful. reporter: war mpox children differently than adults. -- war impacts children differently than adults. >> the prolonged stress or

exposure to trauma can delay development and mental well-being. reporter: this is the director of sesame workshop and oversees the creation of content most helpful to children of war. so far, half a one million ukrainian children have watched this content since the project launched. >> i am a producer but the education team aids our experts and linguistic advisers who guide us to understand what it is that kids really need. how do we address the needs of children as they experience war and as they are being picked up in the middle of the nht and off to another country or city and at the same time understanding they are still learning, they are still

children, they need cheerful moments in their lives and how do we create content for the parents to talk to children. reporter: some of the answers come from experience. sesame street first launched for syrian children in 2018. that content focused not just on learning traditional school subjects but also how to cope with overwhelming emotions and communicate them to others. over 5 million judge dearie in children -- over 5 million syrian children access them. in ukraine sesame workshop has developed online content for families, profiling children living through the war, like this child who chose to talk

about his passion for dance. like so many ukrainian children, just getting an education is a challenge. schools have been repeatedly closed because of the danger. >> when they had attacks i had to learn online at home. after that we tried to go back to school for two weeks and then home for two weeks but later there were black outs and no electricity so we had some difficulty with the internet and learning. but i was still able to keep up sohow and ended the school year with good grades. there was an error laid alert during our graduation ceremony and we all -- there was an air raid alert during our graduation ceremony and we all had to run into the shelter. reporter: the videos are on youtube and the sesame street website. >> almost all subjects you can

find videos about them on youtube, watch them, and learn something. reporter: learning online has become an opportunity for ukrainian children not to let the world hold back their education. having access to the internet helps parents keep their minds engaged. >> my favorite lesson is english. i actually learned most of english not from lessons, but from youtube videos. sometimes i watch videos about computers because this is my hobby. i have tons of memory cards so i can consist -- i can experiment with different windows versions. when i grow up i want to become an i.t. specialist. reporter: it sounds like you are

on your way. >> yeah. i already could code for little programs for windows. reporter: that is really impressive. that is amazing? does youtube help you learn coding? >> definitely. reporter: many feel the same. >> everything we do is based on research and in the early months we looked at the landscape. where do ukrainians get most content? what are they comfortable showing their children? we found that predominantly, ukrainians, we use youtube content. reporter: this video captures the life of a little boy. his mother moved with him to the carpathian mountains, far from the front line of fighting.

the video explores life in their unique rural setting. >> the main goal of the videos is to show that ukraine is very big and diverse and rich in traditions on the influence of these different cultures cannot be underestimated. the carpathian mountain region has three distinct cultural identities. reporter: even though they are far from the front lines, their children are separated from their fathers, who are helping with the war effort, and risk being bombarded by fighting. >> they are prepared to take care of themselves because only when they have strength and read -- resources can they take care of children. i do not think children should know certain things about the war like how many people have been killed and injured. they should just know the general information, that our country has been invaded, our soldiers are defending our country, often at the cost of their lives. reporter: sesame workshops are

now developing more content for parents where experts help them know what to do when children are afraid and how to cope themselves with the pressures of parenting during conflict. the videos are also being broadcast in partnership with ukraine's largest tv children channel. plans to move to satellite candles are underway. it is a rare blessing for children of war to still have axis -- to still have access to the internet and tv and the effort to mitigate some of war's office -- some of the war hardships. ♪ amna: and remember, there's much more online. follow us on tiktok, where john

yang further breaks down today's supreme court landmark affirmative action decision and what it means for college admissions going forward. geoff: and join us again here tomorrow night, when the supreme court is expected to issue a ruling on president biden's student loan forgiveness plan. that's 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 -- ♪ the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including leonard and norma clorevine, and koo and patricia yuen. >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. a raymondjames financial advisor taylors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. >> the ford foundation, working

with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. and friends of the newshour. this program was made possible by the corporation of public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪

♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. the ukrainian people pay the highest price. then -- >> congress cannot behalf like ostriches in the sand when it comes to a.i. >> as governments struggle to rein in a.i., microsoft president brad smith joins me to weigh the risks and the rewards. also ahead, how an aggressive putin looks from georgia. another country living under his constant threat. we hear from the georgian president. plus -- ♪ let's make it a better life ♪ ♪ and leave it for the kids ♪ >> rock legend graham nash talks love, music, and making a