August 11, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

Across the U.S., school mask mandates are dividing communities. In Mississippi, a state hard hit by a coronavirus surge, the Oxford School District had ruled masks were optional for students and staff. But the school superintendent, Bradley Roberson, overruled them, mandating face coverings. The move has drawn criticism from many parents and the board. Roberson joins William Brangham to discuss.

Democrats on Wednesday passed a blueprint for a $3.5 trillion bill to expand family, health and environmental programs. It is a massive investment, to be spent on American families and to combat the climate crisis. But it faces a rocky political road. Democrats are pushing a particular budget process to make it happen. Lisa Desjardins joins William Brangham with more.

Experimental research is aiming to help paralysis victims regain their sense of touch. Miles O’Brien reports on a project run by the Cleveland Functional Electrical Stimulation Center, which is a consortium of the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, MetroHealth Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals of Cleveland, and the Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute.

In our news wrap Wednesday, jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is facing new criminal charges ahead of elections next month, crews in northern California encounter new flare-ups from the Dixie Fire, dozens of fires raging in Algeria have now claimed at least 65 lives, and New York state's incoming governor, Kathy Hochul, promised to change the culture in state government.

Authorities in parts of Russia are now mandating vaccination, in the face of high COVID-19 infections and record deaths. Just 25 percent of adults are fully inoculated in the country. With four domestic vaccines available, Russians are not facing any shortages, but the government is struggling with widespread skepticism. Special correspondent Julia Chapman reports.

The Taliban on Wednesday seized three more Afghan provincial capitals and a local military headquarters in northern Afghanistan. The insurgents now hold some two-thirds of the nation as the U.S. and NATO finalize their withdrawal after decades of war. Bill Riggio, a senior fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the editor of their Long War Journal, joins Stephanie Sy to discuss.

Drinking water and restrooms are readily available to most school children in America. That is not the case across the developing world. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on schools coming together around water as part of his series, "Agents for Change."

Despite the successful passage of the Senate's bipartisan infrastructure bill, Washington is still a city known for polarization. But as author George Packer recently explained in an interview with Judy Woodruff, the divisions in our country are greater and deeper than we realize.