July 16, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

The United States government Friday warned Americans about the risks of doing business, studying, or investing in Hong Kong. The U.S. also sanctioned Hong Kong officials, accusing them of eroding the city’s freedoms as China continues to force its will on Hong Kong. Nick Schifrin reports with Michael Hirson, the China lead for the Eurasia Group, an international business consulting firm.

In our news wrap Friday, Oregon's Bootleg Fire — the largest of dozens of wildfires now burning in the U.S.— became so intense that fire crews had to pull back overnight for their own safety. Russia warned that the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan is causing chaos across the wider region. A federal judge in Texas found the DACA program was created illegally by former President Obama.

In western Germany this week, whole cities seem to be underwater after days of heavy rainfall filled rivers to capacity and quickly turned into flash flooding. As parts of Europe dig out of this latest weather disaster, the European Union this week revealed an ambitious climate change plan. William Brangham discusses the plan and its impact with NASA's senior climate advisor Gavin Schmidt.

The White House warned Friday about a surge of COVID cases in some states and the connection with low vaccination rates and misinformation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported about 33,000 new cases Thursday — up from a 26,000 average a week ago. Total cases rose about 70% over the same week. Lisa Desjardins discusses the trend with Arkansas epidemiologist Dr. Jennifer Dillaha.

Like Canada, America has a painful history of creating boarding schools to assimilate Native American children, leading to trauma, abuse and death. For more than 150 years, Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced into far away boarding schools. But now there's a reckoning and a new federal investigation underway. Judy Woodruff discusses it with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

Over the past several days, the PBS NewsHour looked at America’s broken child care system and some of the programs trying to address the challenges. In this final part of our series “Raising the Future: America’s child care dilemma,” special correspondent Cat Wise and producer Kate McMahon examine a key question confronting the country: What now?

New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including the assimilation of Indigenous students in Indian boarding schools, President Joe Biden's budget plan, the child tax credit, and the latest reported in books on the Trump administration.