wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. amna: good evening. geoff: climate scientists declare this summer the hottest in the northern hemisphere in history. the impact being felt across the globe. amna: after all 19 defendants in the georgia election subversion case plead not guilty, the judge weighs questions of when and how a trial will proceed. geoff: and. the head of the world food program in afghanistan details the increasingly dire plight of the millions facing severe hunger.

>> we're having to choose between families that are hungry and those who are starving. how do you tell a mother who's asking us for assistance and holding a hungry child that her child may not be hungry enough? >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by. the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson. >> consumer cellular, this is sam, how may i help you? >> this is a pocket dial. thought i would let you know at consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. have a nice day.

>> the john s and james l knight foundation fostering informed communities. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: extreme weather is hitting europe with catastrophic consequences. at least eight people have died there after severe storms. amna: in brazil, at least 31 more people died from flooding. and here in the u.s., more than

80 million americans are living through blazing temperatures and yet another heat alert. it all comes as the planet reached an alarming milestone this summer. william brangham has the story. reporter: in southeastern europe, torrential rains brought havoc. flash flooding in central greece has destroyed entire streets, flooded homes, and destroyed cars. in some greek towns, over 20 inches of rain fell in just ten hours. >> this has never happened before here. there was a lot of water, and for many hours. for 24 hours it was nonstop, the amount of water was unbelievable. reporter: greek authorities say this storm, dubbed daniel, brought the most extreme rainfall on record, up to nearly 30 inches in one day in some places. in turkey, rescuers on boats had to save people stranded by the floods. officials say the city was pounded by one month's worth of rain in less than six hours.

like toys in a bathtub, people's vehicles floated through the streets. one man's furniture shop was destroyed after water swept cars into his store. >> we came here after our neighbors called us. when we got here there was water up to the ceiling of our store. there was nothing we could do. we were helpless. reporter: in neighboring bulgaria, an overflowing river wiped out a campsite, sweeping trailers into the black sea. and in south america, where it's winter now, a storm in southern brazil brought deadly flooding that inundated entire towns. >> i was able to climb to a neighbor's apartment. it was frightening. people on roofs were asking for help. it was like a scene from a horror movie. reporter: it's all part of a larger pattern of meteorological extremes. disasters that climate scientists say are becoming more frequent and more intense as the earth continues to warm.

just days ago, greece saw the end of weeks of deadly wildfires, and western europe is in the midst of an unusual september heat wave. the u.n.'s weather agency says this is the hottest summer ever recorded in the northern hemisphere. it reported that august was 2.7 degrees fahrenheit warmer than pre-industrial averages. let's delve a little deeper into this extreme weather and its calamitous impacts. we are joined again by climate scientist gavin schmidt. the director of nasa's god art institute for space studies -- goddard institute for space studies. very nice to have you back on the news hour. in addition to these extreme weather events we're seeing. we're also getting a better understanding of how a warming world is harming human health. there was a recent analysis by the washington post and carbon plan that indicated that in just seven years, half a billion people globally will be exposed

to extreme heat for at least one month a year even if they can get out of the sun. a study in lancet found that the number of heat related deaths of elderly people rose by 68% in recent years. i mean, it seems that we are making life on earth increasingly hazardous in ways that we are not at all prepared for. do you think that that's overstating it? >> no, i think that's exactly right. we have systems and infrastructure in place that help us deal with the climate that we had, but climate is changing. we are pushing our living space into areas, into temperatures that we have never experienced. and we're seeing that this summer particularly. we're seeing this kind of in the long term trends. we are moving out of society's comfort zone.

and that means that places that were prepared for a certain spread of temperature and a certain number of extremes are now being hit with larger extremes. they're being hit with higher temperatures, more intense rainfall, and the structures that we have, the infrastructure is just not being able to cope with that. but what we're seeing now is that is that those things that were one in 100-year events are now one in 50-year, one in 30-year, once a decade, and soon conceivably could be an every year, every couple of years event and that's the difference. it's not that these things have never happened before. it's not that we've never had a heat wave. it's not that we've never had strong rainfall or droughts. but the frequency and intensity of these features is increasing, and we can see that in the statistics around the world. reporter: i want to ask you about our understanding about the role that climate change plays in all of this, because it's just as you're saying, we have had hot summers and forest

fires and flooded areas well before climate change came along, but we know a warming world is increasingly complicit. how do you counsel people to understand those connections? >> well, we have that noise, the weather noise that has always been there, a function of atmospheric dynamics of function of el nino events in the trouble -- the tropical pacific, but we have a shifting baseline. every decade for the last 50 or 60 years, the planet has warmed and we've been talking about this. scientists have been talking about this for many, many decades. and so we're talking increase intensity and frequency of heat waves. we're talking about increased intensity of rainfall events . when we have a drought we're talking about ever drier soils because the air is taking out more moisture from the soils. we're talking about increases in sea level, both because the water itself is expanding as it gets warmer, but it's also because we're melting ice around the world, and that's adding to

the total mass of the ocean and so slowly but surely and acceleratingly we are seeing sea levels rise and we're seeing the consequence of that in nuisance flooding and storm surge damage. reporter: given all of that it does seem that cutting our use of oil and coal and gas is increasingly critical. and as we've reported, and others have, that there is a genuine revolution underway in renewable energy globally that is going on. do you think that even if we hit our most optimistic projections for controlling emissions and controlling warming, how much of this damage is still baked in? >> so good news, bad news, right? if we stopped emitting carbon into the atmosphere tomorrow, which obviously is not going to happen, then temperatures would not rise any further right? so that means that any further increases from where we are now

are really under our control. we have agency. what we choose to do as a society makes a difference to how much warmer it's going to get. unfortunately, it's very hard to go back, right, so it's very hard to now suddenly call the climate back to where it was in the 1980s or in the 20th century. and so what we're seeing now, in some sense, maybe baked in, but we're not baked into further increases and further acceleration in that system. reporter: thank you so much for being here. >> thank you very much for having me. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west, here are the latest headlines. a growing challenge to keep former president trump off republican primary ballots next year took a step forward.

six republican and unaffiliated voters in colorado filed suit to bar him from that state's primary ballot, citing the u.s. constitution's 14th amendment. the post-civil war provision says no person shall hold any office, civil or military, under the united states who shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion. the suit cites mr. trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, and his support for january 6th rioters. a federal judge in new york ruled today that mr. trump defamed the writer e. jean carroll a second time. carroll already won 5 million dollars after a jury found the former president sexually abused her, and falsely claimed she lied about it. now, the judge says other trump remarks were also defamatory. the second trial will focus on additional damages. a federal judge in texas has ordered the state to move a migrant barrier in the rio grande, back to the riverbank. in july, the state placed large

buoys along a stretch of river where migrants frequently cross. the biden administration challenged the move. the state said it will appeal today's order. russia has carried out one of the deadliest attacks in months, in eastern ukraine. a missile strike tay killed at least 17 people. it happened in the donetsk region, and came as secretary of state antony blinken visited kyiv. ali rogin has our report. >> in broad daylight, this quiet shopping street became the latest scene of russian carnage. the blast left a trail of horror. damaging about 30 market stalls, including shops, and a pharmacy. diana khodak is an employee who survived. >> i only saw a flash and then shouted to my colleagues, lie on the floor. everything was covered in smoke and fire started. reporter: the fire's victims:

ordinary civilians, carried from the market in body bags president volodymyr zelenskyy called the attack terrorism. >> those who know the city and its layout can clearly say that it was civilian infrastructure . reporter: far from the frontlines, russia also targets port cities along the danube river. ukraine's main route for exporting grain since russia pulled out of a deal allowing use of the black sea. the most recent drone attack appeared to detonate on nato territory, in the romanian town of plauru across the danube. >> such a situation would be a serious violation of the territorial integrity of romania and nato. reporter: back in kyiv today, a surprise visit from secretary of state antony blinken, on a two-day trip to meet with top ukrainian officials. >> we need president putin to understand he cannot outlast ukraine. he cannot outlast ukrainian supporters. ukraine is going to grow stronger. reporter: blinken announced more

than $1 billion in additional military and economic aid. and for the first time the u.s. will also send depleted-uranium munitions. the u.s. says they present no radiological threat and are effective armor-piercers against russian tanks. as ukrainian troops continue their grinding counteroffensive. since june ukraine has liberated more than a dozen villages, on the march to the strategic city of melitopol, close to russian-occupied crimea. but in the meantime, back in kyiv, a different type of victory. >> our friends at mcdonalds were very eager to be back in ukraine reporter: a celebration of a uniquely western icon. for the pbs newshour i am ali rogin. stephanie: the u.s. aid announced today is part of a package already approved by congress. the united nations now estimates that months of fighting in sudan have uprooted more than five million people. clashes between the army and a rival paramilitary force in khartoum erupted in april and

show no signs of abating. the u.n. says most of those displaced remain inside sudan. in nigeria an appeals court today rejected three challenges to president bola tinubu's election win last february. opposition parties argued he was ineligible to run because among other things he is actually a citizen of guinea. tinubu denied the allegations. nigerians anxiously awaited the results at a time when high prices and hunger have left many people desperate for stability and relief. >> we cannot say the government is not trying, but things are tight. we beg them to attend to the needs of the country so that everything will be fine for us because since they assumed office, everything has been difficult and it's not like it -- they should please have mercy on the poor ones, have mercy on the country by fixing it. stephanie: the court's decisions can still be appealed to nigeria's supreme court.

abortion will no longer be a federal criminal offense in mexico. the country's supreme court imposed that standard today in a sweeping decision. it's part of a broader trend across latin america decriminalizing abortions. spanish soccer player jenni ermoso is accusing the now-suspended president of the spanish soccer federation of sexual assault. luis rubiales kissed her on the lips after last month's "women's world cup final." senate minority leader mitch mcconnell says he has no plans to step aside. mcconnell froze up in public twice,. -- twice in recent weeks. but, on tuesday, the capitol physician said he does not have a seizure disorder, and has not suffered a stroke. today, the kentucky republican dismissed any talk of calling it quits. >> do you have any plans to retire anytime soon? >> i have no announcements to make on that subject? i'm gonna finish my term as leader and i'm gonna finish my

senate term. stephanie: mcconnell is 81 years old. aides say he's had bouts of lightheadness since a fall in march left him with a concussion. there's a new hole in the great wall of china thanks to two construction workers who wanted a shortcut. police say the pair used an excavator to carve a dirt road through a broken-down section of the wall. they say the damage is beyond repair. it happened hundreds of miles from restored sections of the great wall near beijing. the two workers have been arrested. still to come on the newshour, alabama's republican backed congressional map is rejected for a second time. historical records reveal more instances where indigenous children were separated from their families to attend boarding schools. a major rise in near-collisions of airplanes prompts investigation. plus, an elite school of music works to increase access for

students with disabilities. >> this is the pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. >> for the first time, we are seeing inside the courtroom for a hearing about one of the indictments of donald trump. the former president was not in the georgia courthouse today. he and his 18 co-defendants pleaded not guilty to racketeering charges last week. prosecutors laid out a timeline for the potential trial. one they say could last four months and rely on more than 150 witnesses. and the judge ruled at least two defendants, trump attorneys kenneth chesebro and sidney powell, will be tried together, likely in october. stephen fowler is a reporter for georgia public broadcasting. he was following today's hearing and joins us from atlanta. good to see you. attorneys for sidney powell and kenneth chesbro wanted to separate the cases from each other and from the 17 other

defendants. why did they want that and how did that go over with the judge today? >> first and foremost the two of them wanted to request speedy trials. under georgia state law they are allowed to request a trial within a certain amount of time after they were indicted. there request was granted. they will head to trial october 23. each one may be arguments that they should be tried separately arguing the things they were charged with under the 98 page indictment were part of separate buckets of alleged crimes that did not overlap with each other. the judge was not convinced and did rule today at the end of the hearing that the two of them will stand trial together. we still do not have an answer if that means the other 17 will join them next month as well. >> the judge did seem to stick to the october 23 trial start date for kenneth chesbro and likely for sidney powell as

well. we know the fulton county district attorney would like to try all 19 defendants together. the calendar is getting very crowded. when it comes to cases mr. trump and his associates are facing. i want to look at the calendar. there is a trial, a civil fraud trial for chesbro and moving into the new year of course there's a civil trial in the e. jean carroll case. two months later, federal trials january 6, the hush money trial mccraw new york, and the trial mr. trump is facing in his handling of classified documents. the question is how likely is it this georgia trial for all 19 defendants actually goes through and starts in 47 days? >> it is potentially likely for the two that requested the trial. many of the defendants have argued they should be separate because they don't want a speedy trial and there are several things playing out across two delay this even further.

you have several defendants including drums for -- trump's former chief of staff mark meadows arguing the case should be heard at the federal level and dismissed. at the same time you have the fulton county das office are giving it would take four not counting jury selection. it is important to note that in the fulton county courthouse there is another racketeering case going on. jury selection has been going on for eight months without a single juror selected. it is possible this case could be heard some point next year and could overlap with the time people have to go to the ballot box and decide who the next president will be. >> unlike mr. trump's federal trials, this trial in georgia is being live-streamed. the fulton county major cases always are. it is truly historic that way. our people in georgia actually tuning in? are they paying attention to this? >> it is still very early in the

process. there was a spectacle of the indictments being handed down and also the spectacle of trump and his motorcade turning himself in to the fulton county jail. but all the legal wrangling's guarantee that when the trial actually does come, sometime in 2024, you could have the televised trial of a former president and the republican nominee for president if he wins the primary coming at the same time with voters in georgia, izona, and michigan, and the rest of the country are deciding whether or not they should send him back to the white house. this unprecedented access is going to dominate the 2024 discussion no matter who is sent to trial when. >> some of the defendants are trying to move the trial to a federal court. there is additional severance motions to be considered filed not only by former president trump, also by john eastman, ray smith, david schaefer.

does today's hearing and the judge's decision on these cases have any bearing on the other motions? >> the judge did mention he's very sensitive to the fact there are 19 defendants, 19 defense strategies, and all of these motions coming into play -- it's going to be on expedited timeline. next week there should be another hearing going through another batch of motions. most of the motions were for defendants saying we don't want a speedy trial, don't lump us into october 23rd, but the fulton county district attorney argues all 19 need to be tried together because this is a massive conspiracy and instead of having a jury hear the same defendants and the same witnesses and the same presentation multiple times over multiple months, to knock it out all that once. it is a tight timeline, a complicated case, and one we should have more answers by the end of next week at what pace this will go for all 19 defendants including former president trump.

>> stephen, great to see you. thank you. geoff: in a growing pattern across the south, key states have come under legal fire for drawing congressional maps that discriminate against black voters. laura barron lopez has more. >> delivering a harsh rebuke of lawmakers, federal lawmakers shut down alabama's new congressional map after being ordered to create a second majority black district. republicans instead chose to define the u.s. supreme court. violating the law under the voting rights act. alabama is just one of a handful of southern states that are litigating congressional districts. mavs in florida, louisiana, and georgia have been challenged for diluting the power of black

voters. following this closely is npr's ponzi low on. thank you for joining us today. the three-judge panel in alabama came down hard on the state's new map yesterday saying the law requires the creation of an additional district that affords black alabamians like everyone else a fair and reasonable opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. the 2023 plan plainly fails to do so. you have followed this closely. what happens next now that this has been struck down? >> now the court has appointed experts to come up with three proposals, three congressional maps for the state of alabama. those proposals are due later this month and the judges will eventually review those maps. all sides of the case will be able to bring up objections. there might be a hearing. ultimately the court is going to

decide which map ends up being used for next year, the 2024 elections. but there might be a potential complication because the state of alabama has also said it is planning to appeal this ruling by the three-judge court to the u.s. supreme court. there could be a request here they are expecting soon from the state of alabama asking the supreme court to pause lower court's ruling. they could potentially cause the mapmaking process -- pause the mapmaking process. this alabama case has already been reviewed, by the supreme court. the supreme court weighed in in june and issued a ruling upholding this lower court's ruling calling for additional district that would give black alabamians realistic opportunities to select their preferred candidates for the u.s. house. it is an open question whether the supreme court will be willing to revisit this.

>> two alabama republicans think the outcome is going to be different when they take this back to the supreme court? >> that is what it looks like based on their court filings and multiple citations of this concurring opinion by supreme court justice brett kavanaugh. one of the two conservatives who join three liberal justices in upholding the lower court ruling earlier. they are thinking potentially it looks like they could flip the boat of justice -- flip the vote of justice kavanaugh and get a different ruling about what this alabama state legislature can do in it's congressional map. right now the supreme court has ruled it needs to have an additional district. >> under the state's proposed map alabama would keep its one current black majority district, represented by a democratic member. how has this impacted black voters' ability to be

represented equally? >> this case -- talking about redistricting, we are talking about the power of each voter's vote. under section two violations under the voting rights act, voters of color can cast their ballots but it may not mean much because the districts they are drawn into by mapmakers, oftentimes state legislatures, takes away their powers. the outcomes of the elections are predetermined. the question is what is the power of black voters in alabama? there is a finding that the power of black alabamians is diminished, the voting power. that there should be at least two districts where black voters make up the majority or something close to it. so they have a real shot at picking their preferred candidates to represent them in congress. right now they don't have that. amna: alabama --

>> alabama is not the only state that might need to add a majority black district. louisiana and georgia are being confronted with voting rights violations. what implications could that have for 2024? >> there's a trial going on in georgia this week. there's a hearing coming up in louisiana for that case on congressional maps up in the air. the way things are playing out, if they continue, the supreme court does not change its mind about what it believes, how section two of the voting rights act should be interpreted, there would be more majority black districts in southern states by the time of the 2024 elections. those districts are likely to elect democrats. more democratic pickups could change who controls the u.s. house after next year's elections. republicans have a very thin majority. democrats could take back the house after 2024. >> thank you so much for your time.

>> the united nations world food program has announced a lack of funding is forcing it to stop feeding some of the most vulnerable people in the world. some 15 million afghans, more than a third of the country, struggle to get their next meal. as nick schifrin reports, the largest humanitarian organization in afghanistan is scaling back as hunger is rising to record levels. >> in eastern afghanistan, a mother has nothing to offer her 11 children, except one meal a day of tea and bread. and her husband abdul haq struggles to repair a life he calls broken, since the world food program cut them off. >> when we received assistance, we lived a better life. now, we don't get anything and now we only eat once a day. world food program needs to not only continue its assistance, but increase it.

>> the 15 million people who do not know where their next meal comes from in afghanistan, we're only able to provide 3 million people with emergency food assistance. reporter: hsaio wei lee is the world food program's afghanistan country director. >> we're having to choose between families that are hungry and those who are starving. how do you tell a mother who's asking us for assistance and holding a hungry child that her child may not be hungry enough? and it comes to just very difficult conversations, conversations that we shouldn't have to make and choices that we should not have to make. >> there's no shortage of humanitarian crises. the war in ukraine has produced more european refugees than any moment since world war two. just today, u.s. ambassador to the u.n. linda thomas-greenfield is visiting sudan's border, calling for more funding. that donor fatigue has pushed wfp's afghanistan funding shortfall to $1 billion.

that's particularly challenging when wfp had been reducing the numbers of acutely hungry and now needs to preposition food before the winter. >> what we need to avert is people who find themselves without any food in the winter. by then it is too late for us to be able to help. we need to avert children from being malnourished and having to seek malnutrition treatment that they can't even access in the winter. that is the catastrophe we need to avert. reporter: years of drought and economic crisis mean afghanistan's catastrophe is not only a lack of food. 29 million, nearly three quarters of the country, need assistance. and those who are most powerless are the most hungry. more than a million mothers and children are malnourished. including those treated at this wf p supported clinic. >> the women who come here say that their husbands don't have jobs. they are poor and vulnerable and

say that they can't afford to eat more than once a day. they even say that they have to send their children into the streets to beg. reporter: and the taliban continue to erase women from society. afghan women are barred from secondary education. visiting national parks and amusement parks. and most jobs. the only reason wfp has afghan female workers, is a temporary exemption. >> what's your message to the taliban leaders who are supposed to be deciding whether these exceptions can become permanent? >> half of the people that we serve are women and girls. and it is absolutely critical that we have female staff who are able to engage, who are able to understand what is needed. reporter: going back to how we started this conversation, what is your message to the international community as you have to make these difficult decisions about cuts? >> the people that we serve, the women that we serve, that i meet, they are teachers, shopkeepers who have lost their jobs. they are girls who have dreams to be a pilot, to be doctors or

even journalists. and they've lost their dreams. the emptiness that they feel should not be exacerbated by the pain of a hungry stomach. reporter: without more help, that pain and hunger will extend, to the next generation . for the pbs newshour, i am nick schifrin. geoff: for more than a century, hundreds of thousands of native american children were forced to attend boarding schools, many of them supported by the federal government in the name of assimilation and tied to land possession. those schools stripped children of their language and cultures. and they suffered abuse, neglect, beatings and forced child labor. deaths are estimated to be in the thousands. stephanie sy focuses on new

findings about the role of churches and religious groups. stephanie: a federal probe into native american boarding schools has been underway since 2022. but recently a nonprofit group identified even more schools. the national native american boarding school healing coalition has found 523 boarding schools operated across 38 states, including 115 previously unidentified schools that were largely run by christian churches. the largest concentration of schools were in oklahoma and the four corners region of the southwest, home of the navajo nation. the nonprofits, deputy chief executive officer is samuel torres. he joins me now to discuss this new research. thank you so much for joining the newshour. i understand your latest research found dozens more boarding schools that were operated in hawaii as well as oklahoma. talk about that, and the other

significant findings you've uncovered. >> well, we're grateful for the opportunity to continue to work on this type of project building on top of that 408 federally funded or supported schools, identified in collaboration between the department of the interior and ourselves at the healing coalition, we felt it was really important to build off of that and really make sure that we're including the scope of those 115 institutions where evidence has not been shown to connect the federal government to those boarding schools. it's really important for those institutions that we've identified in oklahoma and alaska and hawaii among many other states, where there are an increased number of those institutions where really were starting to scratch the surface on how to identify the role of those christian denominations of the federal government of the administrators and the operators of those of those schools. >> the christian denominations involved, which include the roman catholic church have begun their own investigations into

the boarding schools. they ran. what do you expect to come of that? and do we have a full picture of any abuse that occurred at the schools? >> i think it's important to state initially that while there is much more known about what what happened at those federal indian boarding schools than the privately controlled ones, i it is this is where those archival records are really profoundly important to be accessed. to be able to understand what the depth of those details looks like. what we do know, though, is that the treatment and methods for operating indian boarding schools largely utilized a lot of the same strategies towards a central goal of assimilating native children by what we've heard so often in our own work, individuals being deprived of the influences and connections of their families, their communities, of their tribal nations, often being punished for speaking their own language,

practicing their traditions and at times, even experiencing severe punishment, sexual abuse, spiritual abuse and even death. so we really just are continuing to still asking the same kinds of questions on what has happened at these institutions. we are told and and hear the stories of our relatives, our friends, those that were connected with at the healing coalition about how they were treated in these institutions. whether they be in federally operated institutions are in privately controlled ones. and quite honestly, the time is now for us to be able to look into what that treatment was like from those records source because we have those stories, and it's not that these stories have not been told. it is that they haven't been listened to, and if they can be coupled by the access of these documents, we can start looking at in a more comprehensive effort, a fuller scope of of what happened at these indian boarding schools, whether they

be federally controlled or privately run. >> it was back in 1969 from what i understand that the u.s. senate issued several 100 pages of a report on the native american boarding school system and that did lead to some reforms. i just wonder samuel what you would like to see happen now, as more and more of this comes to light. >> what we've we've never seen to this point is a comprehensive investigation that actually in a culturally responsive way, bring in boarding school survivors and ask them to share their testimonies. the healing coalition is calling for a truth in healing commission on u.s. indian boarding school policies act currently passed out of committee and waiting for a senate floor vote. senate bill 17 23. we are hoping for the bill to be introduced and passed out of committee in the house of representatives as well. we're looking for a multi year commission process that does more than just brings these questions to the table.

it asks communities, native leaders, tribal leaders, to come in to help support this process and ultimately will publish a series of calls to action that will provide a blueprint for how do we restore that which was disrupted? >> samuel torres with the national native american boarding school healing coalition. thank you so much. >> thank you for your time. >> there has been an alarming number of near miss collisions between airplanes, a problem that is more common than previously understood according to a recent investigation by the new york times. in a review of faa reports in the nasa database, the times found at least 46" involving commercial air flights in july. and runway incursions that could

lead to accidents are up 25% higher than a decade ago. to break down what is behind this and what can be done we are joined by our aviation correspondent miles o'brien. let's lay out some definitions. what does the faa mean by near miss or close calls? miles: there's a bubble around every aircraft. the size varies depending on where the aircraft happens to be. it could be a number of miles at altitude. but as you get closer to the airport it shrinks. it could be anywhere between three and 6000 feet. distance between two aircraft arriving and departing at an airport. anytime you get inside that bubble, that is technically considered an incursion and something that should be reported. there are degrees of severity within that. you can imagine something within 6000 feet, more than a mile, if it is just inside that bubble, might not be that big a deal.

if it gets more close than that, the attention level goes up. as it should. >> what accounts for the uptick? what is the faa saying about that? miles: statistically the faa says it does not bear itself out. according to faa statistics if you level out these statistics based on the number of arrivals and departures, over a million arrivals and departures, there have been 31 incursions this year. that is on is a client from the peak right after the covid it was 34 per million. having said that there has been a flurry of activity which has a lot of people at the aviation world a little worried. the light is flashing yellow. may red. -- maybe red. at the heart of it is the flying public is back with a vengeance

and the airline industry after the pandemic lost a lot of people in control towers and in cockpits and has not been able to respond quickly enough to this surge in air travel. geoff: you mentioned the shortage of air traffic controllers. i remember reporting on that 10 years ago. why is the problem so persistent and why is it acute now? miles: it got worse during the pandemic. it has been a consistent problem staffing control towers and facilities. during the pandemic a lot of controller training was eliminated because of distance, spacing requirements due to the pandemic. at any given time, 20% of controllers are training for or getting started at a new position. that caused a huge training backlog once the pandemic was over.

because of the reduced staffing inside these facilities. they are working long hours, working overtime, working strange shifts. and to say this is a stressful job is a bit of an understatement. the faa is trying to hire but they are behind the power curve here. hiring 15 or 1600 controllers, it will be four or five years before they are up to speed. geoff: adding to the shortage of air traffic controllers, there's a pilot shortage. miles: there's a lot of reasons for this. after the last fatal airline crash in the u.s., which was in 2009, a remarkable 14 year safety record by the way, congress increased the number of hours required for pilots to fly commercially to 1500. that has raised the bar for

young pilots to get in the game. the military is producing fewer pilots for the airlines. the airlines are trying to respond by training more young people themselves but also during the pandemic a lot of pilots took early retirement. there's a big gap right now. it takes a long time to fill cockpits with qualified pilots. geoff: the faa often accused of being slow to incorporate new technology. is that part of this as well? miles: to their credit, there are technologies that are important, including collision avoidance systems on board aircraft, which help save the day as a last resort. at the end of the day this is a system that is built around spinning radars, 1950's technology. that is what dictates the separation bubble. the separation bubbles i was telling you about.

you could reduce them if you had a more instantaneous satellite driven system that did not rely on those radars. as a pilot one of my biggest concerns and complaints is we rely too much on talking on the radio, vhf radio. there are all kinds of opportunities for misunderstanding, miscommunication, which can lead to problems. geoff: aviation correspondent miles o'brien. thank you very much. miles: you are welcome. amna: in a series of reports, jeffrey brown has looked at the intersection of arts and health. recently he traveled to boston to see a program bringing music into the lives of people with disabilities. it is for our arts and culture series, canvas. reporter: 11 year old ashton kiprotich on the cello.

and the ukulele. ashton, i saw you play the cello and i saw you play the ukulele. which is your favorite? >> both of them. reporter: both of them! >> i would never say that i dislike them. reporter: 24 year old shania ward on the keytar, her mother donna gibbons-ward watching. every time i see you performing, you're smiling. you have a beautiful smile. >> thank you. why are you smiling so much? are you happy with the music? >> yes, i'm happy with the music. >> music is her thing. she listens to it all the time. reporter: why do you think music became her thing? >> i think it helped her to -- >> helped me to learn. reporter: music for learning, connecting, for sheer joy. shania and ashton are students at this is the berklee institute for accessible arts education, part of the berklee college of

music in boston. founded in 2007, it started small with a focus on autism, but has expanded to serve more than 300 people of all ages with disabilities of all kinds. >> every person can learn in the arts, can grow in the arts, can create, can in this case make music. so i think you have to start with that belief. reporter: rhoda bernard heads the institute, which she says is the only such program offered at a college or university. the goal: to develop and share new ways to reach and teach this community while expanding the field of arts education. >> arts educators are generally trained to teach the way they were taught. there are long standing traditions in how the arts have been taught and those -- reporter: meaning what? >> like the conservatory tradition of what a private lesson looks like. often the arts can be more of a teacher-centered kind of approach, where the teacher is showing what they want and the students are responding. and to make it more accessible means providing more entry

points. providing students with more ways to engage with material and more ways to show what they know and are able to do than just the conventional. reporter: that means meeting the individuals where they are, incorporating aspects of special education into teaching music and the arts in private lessons and also in group settings. the institute holds a wide variety of classes every saturday, including many ways to play together. rock band, chorus, an i-pad ensemble, and more. there's also a two week summer camp. >> we're creating a place where they're accepted for who they are, where they belong. a place of yes. these are folks who hear a lot of no. this is a place where it is yes you can. so there's a constant asset-based belief in all of the students who hear so much deficit language. so, that's the first, but then

reporter: that goes to who they are and how they're accepted in the world. >> absolutely. creating that environment and then providing them with what they need and watching them flourish. reporter: ashton kiprotich, diagnosed with autism when he was nearly two years old, didn't speak until he was seven. he still has difficulty processing thoughts into speech. but here, his mother kelly phillips says, teachers like miles wilcox really get it, offering love and patience, as well as training in how to hold a bow. and music somehow brings out something different in her son. >> he struggles with processing, auditory processing disorder. and so it's really, there's a lot of delay in getting answers from him. we see that. with music, i don't see that happen at all. it is just there. he is very spontaneous.

he plays in different keys. he'll sit down and play something he's heard that he's never seen the music for. reporter: did that surprise you? >> very much. and i have to say school has not really been easy. language acquisition has been exceptionally difficult. but then you see in music he will sit down and be part of an ensemble, knows where to come in, knows timing-wise, knows it all. and it's a little baffling to me, you know, when you compare those two things. reporter: ashton, is music easy for you? easier than other things? >> yes. reporter: why can you play music so well? >> because i can. reporter: shania ward, diagnosed with mild intellectual delay, also takes full advantage here: singing in the rock band, taking lessons with her teacher nadia

castagna morin. shania's mother, donna gibbons-ward, says the institute has given her daughter greater confidence and autonomy. >> i wanted her to be among her peers and for her to be free. and for her to gain, you know, she loves music. so being here, you are free. reporter: you mean free in a way that she's not as free in the rest of the world? >> you know, society always judges us and looks down on people and, you know, other kids point fingers and laugh at you when you are different. here you can be free. that is what i mean by free. you can be yourself and, you know, just express yourself however you want and that makes her happy with the music so she's happy. >> music always makes me feel happy. sometimes like when i feel like i'm upset or like getting mad or frustrated, i usually listen to

music. i always, like, take a break and listen to music and calm myself down, with my headphones on. and in here i definitely like to learn music. i definitely, i listen to my music teachers. reporter: in fact, shania, who's about to enter a specialized college program, wants to be a music teacher herself. why is that important for you? >> because i want to be a teacher to help younger kids and older kids learn how to be smart and be like me. reporter: a big part of the mission here, says rhoda bernard, is training a new generation of arts educators in accessibility practices. in addition to offering a masters program, she and her team run professional development training programs around the world. but it remains a work in progress.

if this is so obvious, as it is to you, why isn't it everywhere? >> i think it's taken the education profession and particularly the arts education field a long time to understand the wide range of difference in how people learn, in what people bring into the classroom. and then because there are established frameworks that don't allow for that, there's a struggle. we're in that struggle now. and it's, it's moving. even in the 20 years or so that i've been doing this work, i've seen a lot of movement. and i'm really excited for what the next generation is going to bring. reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at the berklee institute for accessible arts education in boston. geoff: as always there's a lot more online including how new medical guidance aims to help

doctors better identify the links between long covid and mental health. that is at pbs.org/newshour. amna: join us again here tomorrow night, when we'll speak with republican presidential candidate asa hutchinson. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: i am geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with 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 jim and nancy pilsner. and kathy and paul anderson. >> consumer cellular, this is sam. how may i help you? a pocket dial. with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is our thing. have a nice day. reporter: the ford foundation working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. funding for america and

crossroads was provided by. 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. this is pbs newshour west from weta studios in washington and

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