Leaves families scrambling to find rides for their kids at the start of a new school year. Access to transportation is really access to education. Across the country we are also seeing an increase in chronic absenteeism. Geoff and with more children becoming social media influencers, one state works to ensure they are getting paid for their work. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the newshour including leonard and norma core fine. The william and flora hewlett foundation. For more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at hewlett. Org. And with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Geoff welcome to the newshour appeared on this labor day, President Biden has touted unions in play down the threat of an auto worker. President spoke today in philadelphia. He emphasized the number of jobs created since he took office and noted the new energy of organized labor. Separately, the president said he does not think the United Auto Workers will walk out but with the strike deadline just 10 days away the unions leader said he must know something we do not. Russian president Vladimir Putin says he is not ready to renew a deal on ukrainian grain shipments just yet. It has been two months since moscow pulled out of the agreement that guaranteed safe passage for ukrainian vessels hauling grain in the black sea. Today putin met with turkish president erdogan who helped broker the original deal. Afterward he insisted the west must make the first move. We will be ready to consider the possibility of reanimating the grain deal as i told the president today as soon agreement on the thing restrictions on the export of russian Agricultural Products are fully implemented. Geoff for his part, president erdogan said he is ready to negotiate a new agreement and p believes one can be reached in a short time. In a report from the uns Nuclear Agency shows iran may be slowing its pace of uranian richmond. The Associated Press as a competent a document finds the iranian stock pile is growing at its lowest rate since 2021. The slowdown could indicate tehran is trying to ease tensions with the u. S. Amid negotiations on prisoner swaps and frozen assets. The first african Climate Summit kicked off today in kenya. Where than a dozen heads of state gathered in nairobi. Cans president said africa needs help but can also help reduce global greenhouse you missions. For a very long time, we have looked at this as a problem. It is time he flipped and looked at it from the other side. In africa, we can be a green Industrial Hub that helps other regions achieve their Net Zero Strategies i20 50. Geoff as the summit convened, hundreds of protesters marched in nairobi. They pressed the worlds wealthiest countries to deliver on pledges of financial assistance. Thousands of people at the annual burning man festival in nevada began living today. Bad weather had blocked the main road out since friday but crews managed to reopen it. William brangham has the latest. They have spent three days stranded in the remote Black Rock Desert of nevada after the normally hot dry landscape was transformed into slick sticky mud. The socalled burners who come to this vibrant arts and culture festival in the desert tried their best to keep their spirits up. We are thriving out here at birmingham men in spite of all the chaos. I had no doubt the Burning Man Community was going to support each other. The rains began friday night turning desert sand to thick puddles. By saturday the more than 70,000 visitors were told by organizers to shelter in place and conserve their food and water. Earners usually spend about nine days in black rock city, the town they specifically construct for the event about 100 miles outside of reno. The festival is renowned for its towering art installations, eccentric costumes, since of community and selfexpression with ample partying aroundtheclock. Because of the rain, the path in and out of the festival usually a two lane road was impassable. Dont get stuck in the mini river. Others attempted to leave on foot. Among them dj and music producer diplo who posted he and Comedian Chris Rock and a few other notable strict five miles through the muck until they could hitch a ride. Both the partying and the communal spirit continued despite the weather. This has given us the opportunity to rise to radical selfreliance and to support each other in the community and im having the best time. Organizers say the rain and mud will not stop the festivals final iconic ritual. The burning of a towering 60 foot manlike effigy. It will be set alight later tonight appeared for the pbs newshour, im william brangham. Geoff one death has been reported at the festival, a man in his 40s, but organizers say it was not related to the weather. A passing of note, Steve Harwell, the longtime lead singer of the rock band smash died today at his home in boise, idaho. He formed the band in 1994. They scored two platinum albums. Here they are performing the Grammy Nominated allstar in a music video in 1999. A now, youre in allstar, get your game on, go play all that glitters is gold only shooting stars break the mold geoff Steve Harwell was 56 years old. Still to come on the newshour, the ongoing him italian crisis in sudan becomes even more dire. Tamra keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. Hazardous wildfire smoke highlights the nations shortage of doctors to treat respiratory issues. This is the pbs newshour. From w eta studios in washington and in the west from the Walter Cronkite school of journalism at Arizona State university. In the middle of war, a shakeup at ukraines highest level of government. The defense minister summit at his resignation after president zelenskyy yesterday announced plans to replace him. His successor is Rustem Umerov, a lawmaker whose family is from crimea. The move comes in the midst of president zelenskyys efforts to fight corruption in his government and inside the military. I believe the ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with the military and society at large. Now Rustem Umerov should lead the ministry. For more we turn to the deputy executive director of the Ukrainian Branch at transparency international, a Global Network aiming to fight corruption. So his removal comes in the wake of a number of Corruption Scandals involving ukraines ministry of defense. Earlier this year the ministry faced blowback for allegedly purchasing food for soldiers at inflated prices. What more can you tell us about the ministry of defense, how it has been mismanaged and how it has overpaid for basic supplies . The scandal you mentioned just now about food, this is one of the scandals. A more recent one is about the closing for the soul the clothing for the soldier, the winter jackets and i think this is one of the drops in order to push for the dismissal of the current defense minister. This is not a oneday event. It has been leading to this. The current minister has not mentioned any nice enough arguments to convince the president and other state officials and the citizens he actually managed the ministry well enough. His dismissal and his resignation is very much expected. Even though he achieved a number of Success Stories during his time as ministry chair, obviously the scandals were a little too much. How much of this change in leadership at the Defense Ministry has to do with president zelenskyys desire to join the European Union and as a part of that eliminate corruption within the ranks . That is a very good question because i think joining the European Union has been the biggest topic and on the highest priority list for ukrainians. This type of scandal, especially corruption related, they do not help the agenda and efforts of ukraine to move toward the european values. President zelenskyys reaction to the scandal, the dismissal and possibly appointing umerov i think is an attempt to address the concerns everyone around him has as to the corruption related scandals in the ministry of defense. Tell us more about the defense minister who is set to take over. He is a crimean lawmaker. He has been involved in prisoner of war exchanges. He was part of the team that negotiated the plexi grain deal. What background does he bring to the deal . He for the last year was the head of state Property Fund which is a pretty important and big institution in ukraine. Before the Property Fund, he was a member of the parliament but not of the ruling party. He was quite successful in his position during the last year as the head of state Property Fund. He managed to revive the function. He started selling the russian related assets confiscated by the state. There is this cautious optimism as to his nomination on the ministry of defense position but obviously the role of the ministry of defense, ministry of defense is definitely more important and consists of more functions than he was fulfilling at any position before. So only time will show us especially after the situation with all the Corruption Scandal and the resignation of resnick ikov. What does this all mean for the war . Even though all the current scandals do not relate specifically to the arms, you need soldiers. You need the army to handle the arms. You need them to be well fed. You need them to be wellequipped. That is what the current scandal, the current unhappiness with the ministry is related to. If the ministry of defense will work properly as a clock and there will be proper procurement systems in place, this will help to spend the Money International partners and the United States provide us to use in an effective manner and to get the progress on the front lines as soon as possible. The deputy executive director of the Ukrainian Branch at transparency international. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for the opportunity. This labor day comes at a moment when unions and workers are flexing their power. The Writers Strike is entering its fourth month while actors are striking too. In two weeks autoworkers may very well take to the picket line. Ups drivers ratified and historic contract this summer. Employees still face significant battles and employers are still coping with shortages of workers. In School District across the country many are facing a shortage of bus drivers. Allie rogan takes a closer look. Alana and her husband were gearing up for the school year in charlottesville, virginia they learned their middle sons bus route was canceled. We were aware they had been struggling and we received notice students were not guaranteed to have a bus that would take them to their schools but we did not actually know for sure there was a problem until we received an email about two weeks before School Started saying one of my children would not be bused to his school. So you are like doing the mental calculations and the gymnastics being like how can i make of this work with our family now . A recent usa today analysis found at least one instance of a major schoolbus shortage in in every state in the u. S. Joanna is the ceo of hop skip drive, an organization that helps districts access supplemental transportation for students. We have had a School Bus Driver shortage for over a decade. That shortage was exacerbated by covid with a large number of drivers retiring early and we are just not finding enough people in the pool that want to be school draw School Bus Drivers for districts to higher the number of drivers they need. She says more is at stake for students than many realize. Access to transportation is really access to education. Across the country we are also seeing an increase in chronic absenteeism to it is really impacting our ability to get kids to school which affects learning outcomes, affects education but also affects stress levels that families are feeling every day. Laura has been a School Bus Driver for 18 years in Washington State. I dont really have the time to get to know any of the students like i used to. It is more good morning kind of smile and nod when they get on the bus and then say goodbye at the school. The issue is in part due to low pay. The average bus driver in the u. S. Makes 41,270 per year. We are in the middle of several other districts that are in the same situation of drivers shortages. It really hurt us that two of our neighboring districts pay significantly more and offered hiring bonuses so we lost 10 drivers to another district just for that reason. The dire situation is requiring districts and parents to outsource. In philadelphia a Pandemic Program paying parents a stipend to do the driving is still in effect. Each family is paid 300 a month. That is per household if they are willing to take their children to school and pick them up. If they are not willing to pick up their students in the afternoon, they are paid 150 a month. Back in charlottesville, alana took matters into her own hands in a vehicle which the family already owned. I drive a 15 passenger van. I did start out talking to other moms to find out if we could carpool but the problem is they did not have enough room in their cars. And so the wall to middle School Shuttle idea was hatched. Smith no offers rides to and from her sons middle school for five dollars each way. My dream would be the higher end of the bus driver next week and say im glad i could help out for a couple weeks and i go back to doing all the other things i normally do. From on this issue im joined by amalia. She is the ceo and executive director of the National Association for pupil transportation. Thank you for joining us. There was a bus Driver Shortage last year and the situation this year is the same if not worse. Why is that . I do think it is acute. It has been going on for at least 10 years before the pandemic. During the pandemic, there was a great number of retirements as well as bus drivers are hourly employees. While during the pandemic, many School Districts use their transportation people to deliver free and reduced lunch, curriculum, even mobile hotspots. An awful lot of drivers did not get hours during the pandemic so they would be looking at other areas. Also the pay for drivers. In many instances it is not it does not support a lifestyle they might need. It is not necessarily competitive today. You previously noted some drivers got drums with major producers like amazon. As that led to what we are seeing today . If you look around the country it not matter where you go. Everyone is hiring whether it is amazon or ups or any of them. Our School Districts or tsa. We have a work shortage in america. I think in our transportation industry, a lot of our folks found they were able to get jobs with guaranteed numbers of hours, guaranteed benefits and the difference between driving a truck load of packages and driving an Iconic School bus, not the safest vehicles on the road today for of children is a pretty big stretch and i have to tell you those packages dont really talk back to you at times and they are pretty easy to handle. To that point School Bus Drivers are such an important part of a childs day. They get to know the children. They can flag when something seems amiss with the children. Plus as we have come to learn, there are rigorous certifications School Bus Drivers must meet. So the fact there are the shortages, are School District having to compromise for who they hire for these incredibly important and build positions . And skilled positions . I dont know of any districts compromising the requirements because the requirements are very spelled out in terms of licensure, experience, background checks. One of the ways to solve the issue is not to change or lessen the requirements for School Bus Drivers. The way we need to address this issue is we need to look at all the elements of it, make sure drivers are getting guaranteed numbers of hours, make sure they have a fringe benefit package that is competitive. Make sure they have training in areas. Today at a bus stop you dont know who is going to be there other than the children you are picking up so they need extra assistance in deescalation and professional development. You have been monitoring the issue closely. What are some of the solutions you see individual School Districts implementing that have worked . This is a yearround issue and right now because of issues that have popped up in the news, we are all focused on it. This is a yearround issue. The most successful districts do recruit, train and retain all year long looking at ways to make sure they are successful. They have done work to make sure they are competitive in their salary and fringe benefit. I know in v