August 24, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

In our news wrap Tuesday, U.S. public health leaders urged businesses and governments to impose vaccination mandates. The Paralympics opened in Tokyo despite Japan's worst COVID surge yet. The death toll in Tennessee's flood disaster was revised down to 18, with three people still listed as missing. New fighting has broken out between Israel and Hamas — the worst since their 11-day war in May.

Bill Pinkney chronicled his solo sail around the world as the first African American to do it the hard way — around the great Southern Capes — in his 1992 video diary and documentary. Special correspondent Mike Cerre has his story, and the life lessons his journey imparts, from Puerto Rico.

For the past 40 years, Ruben Garcia has served as the director of the Annunciation House, an organization that works with people on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to help people immigrate or determine their next steps after deportation. Tonight, he shares his Brief But Spectacular take on how by protecting and embracing refugees, we build stronger societies.

Afghan women and girls are anxiously waiting to see what their lives will look like under Taliban rule. Amna Nawaz speaks to Pashtana Durrani, founder and executive director of Learn, a nonprofit she created to ensure women and girls have access to education in Afghanistan, about the future fate of Afghan women. Durrani fled her home in Kandahar when the Taliban took control and is in hiding.

The U.S. House of Representatives is back in Washington for a rare August session. Their agenda is to move forward on potentially trillions of dollars of spending. With a narrow majority, Democrats need every vote. And 10 moderates have been throwing up roadblocks for Speaker Nancy Pelosi's timeline. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins discusses with Oregon Rep. Kurt Schrader.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, roughly 60% of frontline healthcare workers said that pandemic-related stress had negatively affected their own mental health — in a poll taken before the delta variant that filled hospitals even more. For more on how hospitals are facing this now fourth surge, William Brangham is joined by Mary Mahew, the president of the Florida Hospital Association.

In Haiti, the death toll from this month’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake continues to rise. More than 2,200 people are confirmed dead, with 344 still missing. John Yang reports on how the earthquake has led to a new set of challenges for Haitians.