June 24, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

President Joe Biden's infrastructure deal announced Thursday is a $953 billion plan that is the product of months of negotiation with Congress. But for many on the left, the bill does not go as far as they had hoped to tackle the country's infrastructure issues. For a view of the making of this deal from inside the West Wing, Judy Woodruff speaks with White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

President Joe Biden's infrastructure deal announced Thursday is a $953 billion plan that is the product of months of negotiation with Congress, including Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia. Warner was one of 21 senators to negotiate the bipartisan plan announced Thursday, and was also at the day's White House meeting with the president. He joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the deal.

In our news wrap Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi officially announced a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. President Biden pledged that thousands of Afghan interpreters for the U.S. military will be evacuated as the Afghanistan withdrawal continues. Biden also extended an eviction ban another 30 days, to July 31, for Americans unable to pay rent during the pandemic.

Miami rescuers on Thursday searched the ruins of a beachfront building after it collapsed before dawn, killing at least one person and leaving at least 99 missing in the rubble. John Yang reports on the collapse, and Judy Woodruff is joined by phone with more from the mayor of Surfside, Charles Burkett.

A new study found that between 2018 and 2020, U.S. life expectancy decreased by the biggest margin since World War II. The pandemic took an outsized toll in America compared to other countries, with life expectancy as a whole dropping by nearly two years. But for Black and brown Americans, the toll was even worse. William Brangham discusses the study's findings with lead author Dr. Steven Woolf.

Critical race theory, or CRT — often a graduate-level framework examining how the legacy of slavery and segregation in America is embedded in its legal systems and policies — has become the source of a political flashpoint across the country. The debate over its potential role in school curricula has roiled school districts and state legislatures nationwide. Amna Nawaz reports.

Jubi Arriola-Headley is a Black, queer poet and first-generation American whose work explores themes of manhood, vulnerability, and joy. He recently released his debut collection of poems, “Original Kink.” As part of our arts and coverage series, CANVAS, he gives us his Brief But Spectacular take on the call to write, and the world that has shaped him.