June 9, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

In our news wrap Wednesday, the U.S. will reportedly buy 500 million more doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to donate to 92 countries and the African Union, the United Kingdom recorded its highest daily count of new COVID cases since February, and a government probe determined police did not forcibly clear racial justice protesters from area near the White House for a President Trump photo op.

Since the 2020 election, laws restricting voter access passed in 14 states across the U.S., all with Republican-controlled state legislatures. They've sparked outrage from voting rights groups and from two former co-chairs of the Presidential Election Commission. Democrat Bob Bauer, who served under the Obama campaign, and Ben Ginsberg, a Republican election lawyer, join Judy Woodruff to discuss.

This week, we heard the case against President Biden's plan to create free tuition for community college students nationwide. And now, we hear from John King, former U.S. secretary of education under President Obama, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to be Maryland’s next governor. He joins Judy Woodruff to discuss why he believes community college should be free.

In one of the largest private sector donations of its kind, the Mastercard Foundation announced it will give $1.3 billion over the next three years to vaccinate 50 million people in Africa. Fewer than 2 percent of the people there have gotten a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, far lower than many wealthy countries. Ajay Banga, Mastercard's executive chairman, joins Amna Nawaz to discuss.

With the pace of vaccination in the U.S. slowing, the Biden administration’s goal of getting 70 percent of adults inoculated with at least one shot by July 4 is looking harder. Given that, a month-long campaign has begun with incentives from state governments, sports leagues, and businesses meant to get people to roll up their sleeves. William Brangham reports.

A day after the release of a Senate report detailing the widespread security failures in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, we spoke with one of the police officers on the scene that day. Officer James Blassingame, a 17-year veteran of the Capitol Police who is involved in a civil lawsuit against former President Trump, joins Lisa Desjardins to discuss his experiences when a violent mob stormed the Capitol.