July 15, 2020 - PBS NewsHour full episode

In the weeks since the death of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests over police brutality, racial inequality and the legacy of slavery in this country, Hollywood has been having a reckoning of its own. Jeffrey Brown reports.

African Americans face immense disparities across a broad range of categories, including economic. That history of disadvantage is making the current problems of COVID-19 even worse. Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports.

California is enduring an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. But one community has succeeded at keeping the virus at bay -- offering potential lessons on what happens when early action to respond to the pandemic is taken. Meiying Wu and Alyson Stamos, reporters at the University of California, Berkeley, share this story from San Francisco’s Chinatown.

In June, the World Health Organization announced the good news that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo was over. But now, the country is grappling with a new health challenge: COVID-19. Special correspondent Monica Villamizar reports in partnership with the Global Health Reporting Center.

In our news wrap Wednesday, the largest retailer in the U.S. announced it will require customers to wear face coverings inside its stores. Walmart’s policy affects more than 5,000 locations, including its Sam’s Club stores. Also, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is back home after being hospitalized for a possible infection. She spent Tuesday night at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.

California was one of the earliest states to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic -- but now it’s struggling. More than 6,700 people are hospitalized statewide, and Tuesday saw over 140 deaths. As officials scramble to implement new restrictions, residents are growing more concerned about the situation. Californians share their fears, and Yamiche Alcindor talks to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf.

The coronavirus rages on -- and so does the rhetorical battle over it. Some 137,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, and more than 3.5 million are infected. While Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor, says the U.S. needs to “call a timeout” to get the virus under control, the Trump administration disagrees. Yamiche Alcindor reports and joins Amna Nawaz to discuss.