JOHN YANG: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, as the votes are counted, the latest on Spain's general election that could give the far right the most influence it's had since the 1970s.

Then, with millions of Americans under heat warnings, tips on how to stay cool and avoid going to the emergency room.

And a new documentary sheds light on the lasting effects of land loss by black farmers and efforts to reclaim it.

ETERNAL POLK, Director, "Gaining Ground": No one is advertising we're about to lose our land, and oftentimes people don't know what kind of legal recourse they have, what resources are available to them.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Good evening.

I'm John Yang.

Tonight, there is unrest across Israel on the eve of a defining moment, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recovers from an emergency heart procedure.

Netanyahu's doctors gave him a pacemaker last night after he was rushed to a hospital with an irregular heartbeat.

From his hospital room today, the 73-year-old prime minister said he's in excellent health and said he will be in the Knesset Monday when his right wing ruling coalition is set to pass the first part of his judicial overhaul plan.

Opposition to the plan reached a climax this weekend with mass protests across the country.

The bitter disagreement reflects the deep split in Israel between those who want a more secular and diverse nation and those with a more religious and nationalistic vision.

The heat dome that's been over the southwestern United States is beginning to drift to the east that will bring triple digit temperatures to the Plains and Midwest by midweek.

In the Midwest, many places could see the highest temperatures of the year.

Dangerous heat is expected to reach the Ohio Valley and the Mid-Atlantic by the end of the week.

Overseas, the heat is fueling wildfires on the Greek island of Rhodes, the biggest evacuation effort in the country's history.

19,000 people placed in temporary shelters away from the fast moving flames.

In India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, heavy monsoon rains caused flash floods.

In India, water levels are the highest they've been in 45 years due to the unusually heavy rains.

The floods have killed at least 13 people in Pakistan.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban reported 31 dead, with dozens more missing.

Russian missile strikes inflicted severe damage today on dozens of landmarks in the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa, the city's largest Orthodox cathedral, was among them.

At least one person was killed.

22 others, including four children, were injured.

Russia has struck Odesa several times in the past week as Russia targets grain exporting hubs.

Moscow pulled out of a deal that allowed Ukrainian grain shipments to safely cross the Black Sea.

At the Aspen Security Forum this past week, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he's looking for other means of ensuring safe transit.

VOLOYDMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): The Black Sea is the sea of all the nations of ours.

This is not the sea of the Russian Federation.

There is Ukraine, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, and we are talking to all the countries in the Black Sea region.

We have legal relations with everyone but Russia because they think that this is their own sea.

JOHN YANG: This week, NATO and Ukrainian officials are to discuss the Black Sea situation.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend, how to deal with extreme heat and avoid a trip to the ER and why black farmers have lost so much of their land.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Polls in Spain are closed and the vote count is underway in an election that could see the far right return to the government for the first time in nearly a half century.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the early election after suffering big losses in local and regional elections in May.

Pre-election polls showed the conservative Popular Party with a big lead, but short of an outright majority, that could open the door for the ultra-conservative Populist Vox Party to play a key role in forming a governing coalition.

Bonnie Field is a professor of political science at Bentley University.

At this hour, the Associated Press is reporting that with more than half the vote counted, the Socialist Party and the center right Popular Party are neck and neck.

Now, this is different from what the pre-election polls showed.

What do you make of that?

BONNIE FIELD, Bentley University: Yes, the election is turning out to be quite close, close in terms of both the percentage of the vote that the two lead parties are earning and then also very uncertain what the final distribution of the seats will be and therefore who will be able to form a government.

Right now it appears to be up for grabs.

Of course it is still early and so we need to wait final results.

JOHN YANG: As the voters went to the polls, what was on their minds, what was the driving factors and issues in this campaign?

BONNIE FIELD: I think the driving factors and issues have to do with the economy, of course, also how well Spain is doing with controlling inflation.

There are also issues, social issues on the agenda that some voters have in mind, for example, gender equality policy and LGBTQ rights and then also things like climate change.

So both I think economic issues but also social issues.

JOHN YANG: And of course this election is being watched very closely because of the right word drift in so many European countries.

What were the factors that drove that driving that in Spain?

BONNIE FIELD: Yeah, that's a very interesting question.

I would like to add that the far right in Spain is not on the rise compared to the last general parliamentary elections.

It is either stagnant or maybe depending on what the results show at the end of this evening, it could be on the decline.

Vox more than anything is a Spanish nationalist party and it really was opposed to the Catalan push for independence and advocated taking a very strong line against independence leaders, and that's really where it made its electoral breakthrough.

The push for independence in Catalonia really peaked in 2017.

And then Vox had its electoral breakthrough in 2018 in the region of Andalusia, and then became the third largest party in Spain in the second parliamentary elections of 2019.

JOHN YANG: As you say, the Vox Party really is sort of in decline right now.

But ironically, the Popular Party may have to turn to Vox in order to build a coalition.

What does that say about the fact that they are in decline, but they're going to have this outsized influence in the government?

JOHN YANG: Correct.

And we'll have to wait to see if they're on decline or if they're sort of just maintaining their position.

But it is true, though, Vox is not surging electorally.

It is gaining a stronger foothold, sorry, in the institutions.

So it is now governing in more regions of Spain after the May regional and local elections.

It's also governing more municipal governments and depending on the results tonight could end up governing at the level of Spain.

And that has a lot to do with what you just mentioned, which is that the Popular Party has really recovered electoral support after another center right political party called Citizens or Theodallanos has really disappeared from the Spanish political system.

And the Popular Party has been able to concentrate that vote in their hands and therefore increase its own share, which has had an effect on potential parliamentary arithmetic that it could be able to govern either with Vox or with Vox's support.

JOHN YANG: And Vox will have a lot of leverage.

They could have a lot of leverage in forming a government.

What do you think they're going to demand or what would they want to get out of a coalition government?

BONNIE FIELD: Vox is sort of a Spanish nationalist party.

It's very anti-feminist.

It has ultra-conservative social values, so it will look to attain some policy concessions and control potentially over policy areas relating, I think, to cultural and social policies, also potentially a change of policy about immigration.

The parties have a lot in common when it has to do with economic policy, so it wouldn't necessarily be Vox's influence there.

But if there is a right wing government, we are likely to see economic policy changes in a more kind of pro market neoliberal direction from the current sort of social democratic leaning government right now, particularly reducing taxes and things like that.

JOHN YANG: Bonnie Field of Bentley University.

Thank you very much.

BONNIE FIELD: Thank you.

JOHN YANG: With no end in sight to the extreme heat gripping much of the nation, the sizzling temperatures can quickly become hazardous and in some cases, deadly.

Ali Rogin reports on how emergency rooms are dealing with the influx of patients with heat related issues.

ALI ROGIN: Sweltering temperatures continue to scorch parts of the U.S. with millions under heat alerts coast to coast.

In Phoenix, Arizona, the heat has reached 110 degrees for more than 20 consecutive days, inspiring some creative challenges on social media.

WOMAN: Only eating foods I cook outside in Arizona for a day.

MAN: Into the oven you go.

See you tonight.

5 hours later.

MAN: Wow.

They're real cookies.

Warm.

Out of the oven.

Out.

Cheers.

ALI ROGIN: But the record highs can be dangerous for anyone exposed to the heat for too long.

In the past week, there have been thousands of heat related emergency room visits across the country.

Dr. Aneesh Narang is an emergency medicine physician at Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix.

Dr. Nareng, thank you so much for joining us.

Tell me about what you're seeing from patients who come in because of heat related conditions.

DR. ANEESH NARANG, Banner University Medical Center: Yeah, thanks for having me.

So we're seeing quite a spectrum of heat related illnesses, as we normally do this time of the year, and it really exists in a continuum.

So we have some that have mild, I would say heat related illnesses such as dehydration, cramps, heat, rash, swelling.

And then, unfortunately, now we're seeing several cases of patients presenting with the most severe form of heat related illnesses, which is a heat stroke.

And unfortunately, we are seeing many patients every day with us.

ALI ROGIN: Is it more than you've seen in previous years since you've been doing this work or has it been about the same?

ANEESH NARANG: Yeah, I think we're still waiting for the sort official numbers to come in, but I think there's some indications that pre-hospital calls for heat related illnesses are definitely up compared to last year.

And I would certainly say over the last several years, we're seeing a lot more of this.

No question.

I think last year was marked in the numbers we saw.

Unfortunately, you know, 425 people in our community died of heat related illnesses.

And now we're seeing numbers I think, that are very similar, if not more, to this point.

And we still have a long way to go.

ALI ROGI: Walk us through how high temperatures affect the body.

I think we all know inherently that's the case, but I'm curious if you can take us through how it works.

ANEESH NARANG: Yeah, I think at the sort of microscopic level, it is damaging cells and it's inactivating proteins and harming DNA.

So things that we need to live to breathe, to function.

How that manifests for symptoms is varied, of course, but I would say heat exhaustion is the first clue that something is wrong.

With heat exhaustion, you start to feel lightheaded, dizzy.

You have headaches.

You may be vomiting, you may feel like you're going to pass out.

And if you don't get into a cool environment quickly, get undressed, cool down as fast as you can.

Then you're really risk of developing heat stroke.

And really what's happening here is our body's ability to thermoregulate is in haired.

We are no longer able to do that when you reach temperatures that high, and certainly there's a lot of factors into that.

Your ability to sweat, dilating your blood vessels, all those things help promote heat loss.

And now you can't do that when you get to such high temperatures, and you can't get help right away.

And then heat stroke is the most severe form, unfortunately, of heat related illness.

By that time patients are used, they may not be able to talk to you, they may have seizures.

So that is what we're seeing, unfortunately, right now, every day.

ALI ROGIN: And what are the methods you use to treat these various things?

I would imagine that by the time they're coming to the ER, it's not simply about cooling people down.

ANEESH NARANG: Yeah.

So, certainly rapid cooling, though, is a huge intervention for us in what we focus on.

But while we're doing that, we also have to support their breathing.

We got to replace any fluid losses, and we have to treat any complications that come along the way.

So patients who have heat stroke, usually that's above 104 degrees, we are rapidly cooling them.

There's many ways to do this.

I would say the most effective way that we can do in a hospital setting is really we call, like, ice immersion therapy.

We are putting them in a bag.

We are pouring ice with some water that can rapidly cool their temperature back to normal core temperatures within minutes.

If we don't do that quickly, there's a greater chance of short term mortality, long term effects on your organ than your brain.

So that is our focus.

There are many other ways to cool patients down.

Ice packs in the groin, the axilla, the neck fans, spring with lukewarm water just promote evaporative cooling.

But I would say the most effective and quickest way is ice immersion therapy.

ALI ROGIN: How do you think emergency rooms should adjust their protocols for these sorts of emergencies, given that they seem to be on the rise?

ANEESH NARANG: Yeah, I think the most important thing, and luckily in the valley, here in Phoenix, I think we're all very prepared for the summer season is you have to have protocols in place for this to be effective.

You have to have everything in sort of one drawer or one area in the emergency room that you know you can reach to with the appropriate monitoring, with the ice, with the appropriate bags and equipment.

And you have to have a protocol in place before hyperthermia season kicks in.

And your staff, it takes a total team effort to make this effective.

Everybody has to be on board and understand the steps we have to do.

If you have any delay in rapidly cooling these patients, any delay of 20 to 30 minutes or more, now we become now we're behind the eight ball, and now we're talking about severe long term effects as well, or they may not make it, unfortunately.

So, if we protocolize things and have everyone in our staff understanding how this works, we are, you know, set up for success.

ALI ROGIN: And these record temperatures are expected to last through the rest of the summer.

So how can people stay safe?

ANEESH NARANG: Well, I think we always advise patients.

I think it's important for us in the medical community and the public health community to continue to educate the public.

If you need to be outdoors, go early in the morning, four in the morning, five in the morning when temperatures aren't so hot anymore.

But if you can stay indoors, if you don't have an air conditioning unit, go to the mall, go to the free public Library.

As much as time as you can spend in an air conditioned indoor space, the better off you will be.

You need to start off the day drinking water.

If you enjoy your cup of coffee, have a glass of water with it.

You have to continue to maintain your hydration throughout the day.

Wear loose fitting clothes, apply sunscreen.

Do everything you can, though, to not be outside during the peak hours in the day when the temperatures are scorching.

ALI ROGIN: Dr. Aneesh Narang with Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix.

Thank you so much for your time.

ANEESH NARANG: Thank you.

JOHN YANG: In 1910, about 14 percent of U.S. farmers were black, owning more than 16 million acres.

Now, according to the agriculture's latest farm census, only one in 100 farmers is black owning fewer than 5 million acres.

By one estimate, that's a loss of land value of about $326 million.

A new documentary called "Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land" explores how this happened, its lasting effect on black families and their efforts now to reclaim their legacy and create generational wealth.

Emmy nominated Eternal Polk wrote and directed the film and is one of the film's executive producers, along with the television personality Al Roker.

How did this big drop in black farmers and black farmland ownership?

How did this happen?

ETERNAL POLK: Well, there is a little known legal loophole called heirs property, which essentially allows for a person to buy an interest in your property and then force you to sell the land at a low rate or you just lose it because you don't have the funds to fight in the court.

So, imagine you have ten heirs who all have a claim to a property and one of them sells.

And it doesn't matter how big or small the interest of the property that they sell.

Someone who bought that interest can now force you to sell all of it.

So if it's 4,000 acres and they sell one acre, that sale of that one acre will allow the purchaser of that acre to force the sale of all of the land.

And that's pretty egregious when you think about millions of acres that have been lost.

JOHN YANG: As I understand from the documentary, a lot of farmers thought by weaving it to all their heirs, all their children, for instance, it would better, it would be easier to hold on to, but didn't turn out to be the case.

ETERNAL POLK: Well, exactly.

Because their thinking was and it kind of makes sense that you would have to get everyone to sign off on the property sale.

But you do not have to have everyone sign off to sell one portion of the property you're entitled to.

And it especially happens in situations where there's no will or no clear title to the land.

And that's where sort of the chaos sort of comes in with a lot of people being able to have a claim to a piece of property.

And it could be ten heirs if it's one generation, two or three, it could be 40 or 50.

And in some cases, where you have five generations, it could be 200 different people who have a claim to a piece of land.

JOHN YANG: How much of this did you know before you started working on this project?

ETERNAL POLK: Man, it was amazing for this to be such a pervasive issue in the agricultural space that I knew nothing about this particular legal loophole.

Whenever I mentioned this project to anyone and I mentioned what the topic was and what were covering, inevitably someone would say, oh, that happened to me.

Or we're going through that right now.

It's kind of a silent situation because no one is advertising we're about to lose our land.

And oftentimes people don't know what kind of legal recourse they have, what resources are available to them, so they kind of go through it alone.

And this film has really kind of illuminated how real this issue is.

Even now, today, it's still happening and people are taking advantage of this loophole.

JOHN YANG: So on the inheritance law that we talked about earlier, you not just point out the problem, but you do have solutions.

And actually, it seemed to me that if someone is in this situation and pays attention to your film, they know what to do.

Is that a goal?

ETERNAL POLK: It definitely was.

The idea that someone could do something and then take your home and then you have to fight to get it back and you have to fight and pay for it.

It's not just you fight and they say, oh, you fought and you fought it off.

You have to pay for your land that you already own.

Once you go through this whole process, if it comes out unfavorable.

So, because this is such a daunting situation to be in, I really wanted us to show and demonstrate that there were people out here who are doing the work and there are solutions and ways you can monetize land, because that's another big thing.

When you realize how much land you have, the question then becomes how do we take care of it or how do we monetize it?

And I can tell you, no matter what level, economic or educational background someone comes from, inevitably I have someone who comes to me and says, I didn't know this and thank you, because now I know there are resources and options for us with our land.

JOHN YANG: In the documentary, you talk a lot about the or it illustrate the importance of this land to these families in a spiritual way.

Was that something you really wanted to make sure was told in this?

ETERNAL POLK: Yes.

Yes.

I really felt that the land has such a spiritual conversation with people all over the world.

And because of different situations here in the United States, whether it's racism or terrorism, where people were driven off their land or just by some legal manipulation, they lose the land.

We've lost a connection to that land as a general populace, and I think that's a common issue, no matter what background you're from that this connection to the land is not what it used to be.

And I think it's a very spiritual thing that leads to healing for us, for all of the things that come from the earth to the connection to the Earth and what it provides to us in terms of healing and peace and meditation and comfort is something I really wanted to express in the film.

I want people to go back to the land and be connected to it.

JOHN YANG: Eternal Polk, the writer, director and executive producer of Gaining Ground, which is going to be shown at some film festivals coming up in the next several weeks.

Eternal Polk, thank you very much.

ETERNAL POLK: Thank you for having me.

It was a pleasure.

JOHN YANG: Before we go, an update on the Spanish election.

The Associated Press is reporting that Spain's conservative Popular Party is set to narrowly win, but without the majority, it needs to form a new government.

And that is PBS news weekend for this Sunday.

I'm John Yang.

For all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

Have a good week.