PBS News Hour full episode, Aug. 26, 2024

Introduction AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz. GEOFF BENNETT: Geoff Bennett. On the "News Hour" tonight: GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening. I'm Geoff Bennett. AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz is away. On the "News Hour" tonight: The focus  in the race for the White House turns to   the upcoming presidential debate, with  Donald Trump threatening to back out. We meet families in Sudan whose lives  have been devastated by civil war,   with many forced to flee time and again. AL NOUR HABIB, Displaced: The future of my  children is very dark. We have to believe   in we are one nation. AMNA NAWAZ: And author Stephen King reflects on   his long career and discusses  his new book of short stories. (BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour." Vote 2024 With both party conventions in the rearview  mirror, the 2024 presidential campaign enters   its final stage. There are now new questions  about if the candidates will debate at all. And,   today, Donald Trump turned his attention to  national security and Kamala Harris' record. Lisa Desjardins has this report. (APPLAUSE) DONALD TRUMP, Former President of  the United States (R) and Current   U.S. Presidential Candidate: Well, thank you. LISA DESJARDINS: Former President Donald  Trump campaigning in battleground, Michigan,   addressing an annual meeting of  the National Guard Association,   as he seeks a second term as commander in chief. DONALD TRUMP: And it's why I'm here today,   because America's future is under threat  like never before, right at this moment. LISA DESJARDINS: Trump accused the Biden/Harris  administration of disastrously mishandling   the Afghanistan withdrawal. The  Biden administration has said its   decisions were set in motion by Trump's  agreement to pull out American troops. In the chaos exactly three years ago today,   a suicide bomb attack in Kabul left  13 American service members killed. DONALD TRUMP: Kamala Harris, Joe Biden,  the humiliation in Afghanistan set off   the collapse of American credibility  and respect all around the world. LISA DESJARDINS: This morning, Trump laid wreaths  at Arlington National Cemetery in their memory. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris and  running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz were off   the campaign trail today, but they are awash in  cash, reporting a haul of more than a half-billion   dollars since launching a month ago, including  $82 million during last week's convention alone. In the meantime... KRISTEN WELKER, Moderator, "Meet The  Press": Welcome back to "Meet the Press." SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), Vice Presidential  Candidate: Thank you. Thanks for having me. LISA DESJARDINS: ... the man who  wants Harris' current job faced   direct questions on NBC's "Meet  the Press" over the weekend. KRISTEN WELKER: Can you commit, Senator,  sitting right here with me today,   that if you and Donald Trump are elected, that  you will not impose a federal ban on abortion? SEN. J.D. VANCE: I can absolutely commit  that, Kristen, and not only have to veto it. KRISTEN WELKER: So, he would  veto a federal abortion ban? SEN. J.D. VANCE: I think he would. He  said that explicitly that he would. LISA DESJARDINS: Vance also was  asked about his running mate,   specifically Donald Trump's repeated words  questioning if this election will be fair. KRISTEN WELKER: Do you have faith the  2024 election will be free and fair? SEN. J.D. VANCE: I do, Kristen. I do  think it's going to be free and fair.   And we're going to do everything that  we can to make sure that happens. We're   going to pursue every pathway to make  sure, again, legal ballots get counted. LISA DESJARDINS: Trump is signaling he  may bow out of the first head-to-head   debate scheduled for September 10,  writing about host network ABC:   "Why would I do the debate against  Kamala Harris on that network?" The Harris campaign said in a statement that the  issue is more specific, that it wants microphones   to remain on during any debate, and that  the Trump campaign staff has not agreed. Regardless, Monday morning, Trump would  not commit to taking part, as planned. DONALD TRUMP: Let's do it with  another network. I want to do it. LISA DESJARDINS: The two campaigns will both  be on the road this week, the Harris/Walz   campaign touring in Georgia and Trump  focusing on Michigan and Wisconsin. For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Lisa Desjardins. AMNA NAWAZ:   News Wrap We begin the day's other  headlines with extreme weather. A heat dome hovering over the Midwest is  sending some temperatures into the upper 90s,   and meteorologists say that's unseasonably hot  even for summer. Nearly 50 million Americans are   under excessive heat warnings and advisories.  Some temperatures could reach record highs   through tomorrow before that heat settles  over the South by the middle of the week. And over in the Pacific, Hurricane Hone  weakened to a tropical storm over the weekend,   but not before dumping at least a foot of  rain over parts of Southern Hawaii as it   passed the state. Floods shut down  major highways on the Big Island,   and Hawaii is not in the clear yet. Officials are  watching two other storms. One of them shown here,   Hurricane Gilma, could reach  the islands by this weekend. Special counsel Jack Smith is asking a  federal appeals court to bring back the   classified documents case against former President   Donald Trump. The case was thrown out  last month after Judge Aileen Cannon,   who is a Trump appointee, ruled that  Smith's appointment was unconstitutional. In its appeal brief, the special  counsel's team said that Cannon's   decision is -- quote -- at odds  with widespread and longstanding   appointment practices in the Department  of Justice and across the government." Even if the appeals court reinstates the case,   it would be unlikely to go to  trial before the November election. Turning overseas, Russia sent  a massive barrage of about 200   missiles and drones across more than  half of Ukraine overnight and into   today. Ukraine's air force commander said  the attack was the biggest aerial assault   of the war. It killed at least four  people and injured more than a dozen. In Kyiv, residents took shelter underground,   huddling in subway stations. Officials said  power and water supplies were disrupted in   the capital. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy  condemned the attack in a video address. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through  translator): It was one of the heaviest strikes,   a combined one, more than 100 missiles of various  types and about 100 Shahed drones. And like most   previous Russian strikes, this one was just as  vile, targeting critical civilian infrastructure. AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, in Russia,  officials say they intercepted   nearly two dozen Ukrainian drones since  last night. Four people were injured. Dozens of people have died in Southwest  Pakistan in three separate insurgent   attacks across the region. Gunmen killed  at least 38 people in Balochistan province,   which borders Iran and Afghanistan. Separatist  groups have long fought for independence in this   part of Pakistan. Funeral prayers took  place for the victims today after gunmen   blocked off highways, dragged people  out of their vehicles and shot them. They also attacked a police station. The   military said that security forces  killed 21 militants in response. In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has vowed  to toughen the country's knife laws,following   Friday's late-night stabbing at a festival that  left three people dead and eight injured. Scholz   visited the western city of Solingen today and  laid a white rose at the scene of the attack. Investigators believe that the suspect,  who turned himself in over the weekend,   shares the radical ideology of the Islamic State  extremist group. Scholz vowed to take action. OLAF SCHOLZ, German Chancellor  (through translator): This was   terrorism, terrorism against us all,  threatening our lives, our togetherness,   the way we live. I want to make it clear  with regard to the perpetrator that I am   angry and furious about this crime. It  must be punished quickly and severely. AMNA NAWAZ: Scholz also pledged to get  tougher on deportations after German   media reports said the suspect was denied  asylum last year, but was never deported. Two grocery giants, Kroger and Albertsons,  were in federal court today to defend their   plans to merge as the U.S. government tries to  block them. Such a merger would be the largest   among supermarkets in U.S. history. The Federal  Trade Commission says the $25 billion deal would   eliminate competition and raise food prices  during a time when inflation is already high. The grocery chains argue the opposite,  that joining forces would curb costs   and allow them to better compete  with big store rivals Walmart,   Costco and Amazon. The trial  is set to last for three weeks. And it was mostly a down day on Wall Street today,  but the Dow Jones industrial average climbed to a   new all-time high, beating its old record set  back in July. Some major tech stocks fell,   pulling the Nasdaq down by nearly a percent.  The S&P 500 also finished lower on the day. Still to come on the "News Hour": Tamara Keith  and Amy Walter break down the latest campaign   headlines; Americans affected by hurricanes,  heat and floods speak out about the nation's   worsening weather events; and how NASA plans to  get two astronauts stranded in space back home. Civil War A dam in a remote part of Sudan collapsed  this weekend. The United Nations says   at least 20 villages were destroyed  and at least 30 people were killed,   although the death toll could be much higher. The dam is about 25 miles north of Port Sudan  and provided the city located on the Red Sea with   drinking water. Port Sudan is where many civilians  fled because of the country's bitter civil war   between the army and a rogue militia, the Rapid  Support Forces. In total, 11 million Sudanese   have been forced from their homes in what's  now the world's largest displacement crisis. Up to 150,000 people are feared dead and  millions more face unimaginable trauma. In her third report from the front lines in  Sudan with support from the Pulitzer Center,   special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen follows   along with some of the families  desperately searching for sanctuary. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: A perilous  journey inching along the front line,   with only the occasional cover of the mountains. As we're led through the rough sands by  an armed escort of Sudanese soldiers,   black plumes of smoke from fresh shelling rise  through the air. But we're not going to the   battle zone. We're here to meet Sudanese  families trying to outrun the conflict. To get out, they have to make it  through this treacherous strip   alone. This is the northernmost point of Omdurman,   where displaced people arrive having escaped  from front line and RSF-held territory. We're   wearing protective equipment because in recent  days the RSF has been shelling this area. Even as people make it here  after their dangerous journey,   they're still not safe yet. An exhausted mother  who's made it here with her baby and toddler. IMAN, Displaced (through translator): The fighting   is very intense in our area. There's  no food there. We have nothing to eat. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: She's at the very  end of her strength. Her eyes glazed,   she sits, staring, a brief moment of  rest before they have to move on again. IMAN (through translator): We're sick, hungry  and we have small children. We are so tired   of this war. We won't survive.  Living like this is so very hard. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: All these families  arrived just this morning. They are a few   of the millions of civilians traversing  the country, forced from their homes by   this bloody war. If they're lucky, they can  afford a seat in a minibus or a donkey cart,   but, for most, it's an arduous journey on foot,  covering hundreds of miles in the baking heat. They're running from the greatest of horrors,  looting, killing, rape, at the hands of Rapid   Support Forces militiamen. At this construction  site in Qadarif, the air is thick with the trauma   of what they have endured. There are thousands of  people staying in this makeshift reception center. They're practically in the open air,  completely exposed to the heat of the   day and the wind at night. They're hoping  for a spot in an official displacement camp,   but with so many people arriving, there  just isn't space, and many of them have   fled from other displacement camps  that have now been overrun by the RSF. In the past few weeks, the RSF's latest offensive  has swept through the southern state of Sennar,   sending its residents running  for their lives. For most here,   it's far from the first time they have had  to flee. This is the fifth time Salma's   family has been displaced by this war.  Four of her six kids are younger than 5. The journey was long and rough, sleeping  on a blanket on the roadside each night,   fending off snakes and scorpions. SALMA NASSER, Displaced (through translator):  Ten days on the road from place to place until   we got here. When they said they were hungry,  I told them, we're almost there. When they   said they were too tired, I told them we're  almost there. I would point and promise them,   look, your father will be there when we arrive. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: But their father was  not at the end of the long road. He stayed   behind to earn money for his family when they  first fled. Salma hasn't heard from him since. The attacks happen so fast, family members  are often separated. When the RSF descended   on their first displacement shelter,  her neighbor was out trying to find   work. So Salma grabbed the woman's teenage  daughters along with her own kids and ran. SALMA NASSER (through translator): I  couldn't leave them behind. Until now,   there's no news about their  mother, not even a phone call. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: With no work to be had,  they survive on the kindness of others. Volunteers distribute one meal a day  to the families and locals from the   city bring what they have to share.  But now fears of an attack on Qadarif   are growing. Salma doesn't know if  she has the strength to run again. SALMA NASSER (through translator):  A few weeks ago there were shells,   machine guns and snipers. We had to sleep  under the beds. If the RSF comes here,   I am not going anywhere. I will die here.  I can't bear to be displaced yet again. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: With nowhere  to house the onslaught of people,   schools, closed since the beginning of the war,   have become shelters. At this girls school,  students were clamoring to continue classes,   but didn't want to make the temporary residents  homeless. So the principal found a compromise. The girls arrive at the crack of dawn  and take their lessons in the garden.   They have even made space for an extra 250  displaced pupils. Inside the school buildings,   families living in limbo. Amuna (ph)  has been here six months with her   four toddlers. At night, up to 200  people pack these two small rooms. So this is where you have been living? AL NOUR HABIB, Displaced: Yes, this is  the place where I live. This is my family. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Al Nour's family are staying   in the classroom next door. He says they  have seen little international support. AL NOUR HABIB: They have forgotten us,  because we didn't see them on the ground   usually. We see people in Syria. We  see people in Ukraine and something   like that. But I think that this is Africa  or something like this. They let us down. Now we have two months we didn't  receive anything, especially food. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: You haven't  received any aid in two months? AL NOUR HABIB: Yes. No. Yes, two months. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: And how are you feeling  about the future for your children, for Sudan? AL NOUR HABIB: Yes, the future of my children  is very dark and it is very sorrowful. We have   to believe in, we are our one nation, and to  look for the country, yes, as a home for us all. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The recently  opened displacement camp nearby   can't even begin to host this number of  people. Aid agencies on the ground say,   without more funding and access to the areas  hit hardest, there's little more they can do. At schools across the country, similar  scenes. These families have just fled Tuti,   a tiny island in the center of Khartoum  state. Fleeing RSF territory is extremely   dangerous. For Mohamed's family, facing  daily shelling and shooting and arbitrary   arrest by militiamen, the risk of  staying any longer was even worse. MOHAMED AHMED AL-MADANI, Displaced (through  translator): They were firing shells,   which hit houses and people. The bullets were  the worst because they were everywhere. There   was no water, no electricity for 11 months.  People sent us medicine from outside,   but the militiamen confiscated them. People  died because of the lack of treatment. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Both Mohamed and his  wife have diabetes. It was time to go,   but only if they could afford the RSF's hefty  exit bribes. It cost him nearly $1,000 to get   his small family out. life savings he  was lucky to have, unlike many others. No one knows what the future holds now.  And at night, the children go back to Tuti. MOHAMED AHMED AL-MADANI (through translator):  The children are badly affected by the war.   They know the difference between the sounds  of bullets and shells. They're psychologically   unstable and scared. All they talk about  is the militias, even in their games. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Many are fleeing evils  even darker than bombs and hunger. Maha,   whose name we have changed to protect her, was  out running errands in her hometown of Omdurman   when a gunfight broke out. In seconds, her  husband was dead and the RSF had kidnapped her. For six months, she was held captive,  subjected to horrifying abuse. MAHA, Displaced (through  translator): There was beating,   sexual assault and death.  Everything was done to us. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Finally,  they gave her a choice:   "Work for the RSF or we will kill your children." MAHA (through translator): That's where the  torture and training began. They trained us   girls. My role was to be a spy, to  gather information for them. Because   my children were in their hands, I  had no choice but to work with them. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Eventually, she  was caught. Now she spends her days   in a protection center in the army zone,  dreaming helplessly of her three young kids. MAHA (through translator): Until now, I  don't know if my children are alive or dead. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: I tell Maha, we  should stop if it's too much. "No,"   she insists. "People need  to know what's happening." MAHA (through translator): Many other people  have experienced similar things. I am not   the first girl, nor will I be the last. Some  girls were raped in front of their parents.   All Sudanese have been psychologically  damaged by the RSF. We live in fear. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: With the war still raging,  there's little space for healing. Escape,   survive, escape, survive, a nightmarish  cycle playing out on repeat for Sudanese   families who never know if their next stop  will be their safe place or their last. The distances displaced Sudanese families have  to cover to escape the fighting are vast. And   they're often taking the long way around the  mountains to try and avoid the shifting front   lines. Everyone we speak to is telling us that  when the RSF assaults a new town or village,   they attack so fast and so brutally that  civilians have to drop everything and run. Even those who make it as far as Port  Sudan, the military capital on the Red Sea,   are little better off. Children arrive  in dire condition on the outskirts of   the city. Even those who look relatively  healthy turn out to have malnutrition. And even for those with some cash, most  food is unaffordable now. The price of   meat has risen by six times in the past two  months; 75-year-old Khadija has been trying   to make money at the central market since  she arrived here from her besieged hometown.   A sympathetic local gave her some cash to  start a business, but the going is tough. KHADIJA AKBAR ELIAS, Displaced (through  translator): I'm currently living in a   house without a door or window. Rain and  wind are over our heads. We have no money. We fled and left everything behind.  We only escaped with our lives. All   I own is this shawl that I'm wearing.  Do I look like I know the price of a   can of oil now? I don't have the budget  to even ask about it, let alone buy it. LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Homeless, penniless,  constantly trying to outrun the next attack.   This conflict, which has devastated  the lives of millions of Sudanese,   shows little sign of slowing  on its path of destruction. For the "PBS News Hour," I'm  Leila Molana-Allen in Port Sudan. AMNA NAWAZ: There are just 70 days left  until Election Day, and the campaigns are   Politics Monday ramping into high gear. That means there's  a lot to break down this week in politics. And, for that, we're joined by  our Politics Monday duo. That is   Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report  With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR. Good to see you both. AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Hello. TAMARA KEITH, National Public  Radio: Good to be here. AMNA NAWAZ: So, one week after the convention,  the Democratic National Convention, Amy, as you   all know, sometimes candidates get what we call  a post-convention bounce. This is a weird year,   though, so are we seeing that or do we  expect to see that for Kamala Harris? AMY WALTER: That's a really  good question, because,   unlike any other election  we have ever seen before,   where the candidate really just came onto the  scene less than a month before the convention,   she got a lot of that bump before we even got to  Chicago with the base then rallying around her. But, look, she's had the wind at her back, so to  speak, for the last, well, really, since she's   been in this race, and it hasn't abetted. In  fact, if anything, the convention really just,   I think, crystallized the kind of momentum that  she's been able to sustain for the last month. And you have Democrats leaving Chicago, but also  you're feeling it around the rest of the country,   more enthusiastic and energized than  they have been at any point this year,   and I could argue maybe for the last two years. AMNA NAWAZ: Yes. AMY WALTER: So she may get something  of a little bit of a bump out of that. But, overall, I think this is the real question  going forward. And this is what Trump is trying   desperately to stop is that she has been able  to basically control the narrative of this   campaign on the terms that she wants to talk  about, whether it's on issues -- the issues,   like abortion, or putting the economy, the  economic question in terms that work for her. And most important, she's been  able to, even as the incumbent,   grab the change candidate. So people are upset  with the status quo. She's part of the status quo,   but she's somehow managed to also be  the person who's turning the page. If you're Donald Trump, you have  got to find a way to blunt that. AMNA NAWAZ: So if you're Donald Trump right now,   Tam -- and just broaden this  out to both campaigns for us. TAMARA KEITH: Yes. AMNA NAWAZ: This is a condensed timeline now,  70 days left here. You have got a new ticket   late in the cycle on the Democratic side. What  are we seeing from the campaigns at this stage   that tells us what the priorities are, what  the strategies are for this home stretch? TAMARA KEITH: Trump's campaign did put  out a memo over the weekend saying,   there's going to be a bump. Harris is  going to see her numbers rise. Don't   worry. It'll go away. Everybody  sees this and it goes away. And it's not clear because this is such  a tight schedule what is going to happen,   but what I do know is that Trump is campaigning  like he's losing. And what I mean by that is,   he is doing a lot of events. He's  doing a bunch of different types of   events. He is doing everything he can  to wrest attention away from Harris. So, today, what that meant is, he went to  Arlington Cemetery in -- outside of Washington,   D.C. Then he went to a Vietnamese restaurant  in Northern Virginia campaigning with a Senate   candidate, doing these sort of small retail type  events. That's not something he's typically done. AMNA NAWAZ: Yes. TAMARA KEITH: So, is he is doing  everything he can to get attention. Harris, on the other hand, is going to have  a bus tour this week through Georgia. And   what's interesting about that, it's the same  strategy that they employed in Pennsylvania,   which is to say that Atlanta is not Georgia,  that the state has many other areas,   rural areas where there are Democratic voters.  They may be outnumbered, but they could still   hear from the candidate and they could sort  of reduce their losses in some of those areas. So she's doing a bus tour.  It's not just big rallies,   but that both campaigns are running like  it's a real race, because it is a real race. AMY WALTER: Absolutely. AMNA NAWAZ: And there's another factor  that could have an impact in this race   that we know will be one on the margins.  That was Friday's announcement of Robert   F. Kennedy saying he's suspending his  campaign and endorsing Donald Trump. Amy, as you have shown us, we already saw his  support drop after Harris became the nominee. AMY WALTER: That's right. AMNA NAWAZ: Half of his supporters  went to her. But his endorsement of   Trump means what? Do the other half go to Trump? AMY WALTER: That's right. Well, that's the really big question. So it's  true. Before Biden dropped out of this race, just   overall on average national vote about 8 percent  of voters said they were voting for RFK Jr. By the   time, by today, it's now down to half of that.  So you're right. Most of those went to Harris. What's happening now, at least in surveys  that we did a couple of weeks back,   looking just at the battleground states,  those voters who remain Kennedy supporters,   if you push them on the question, reallocate  them, say, all right, if you had to,   who would you support, you can see that almost  half of them say that they are Trump supporters. Now, do they show up, number one, right, or do  they stay home because they are sitting there   because they really liked RFK and they're  disappointed and maybe now they don't   show up for Trump? If they do show up for  Trump, and especially if they show -- if   those undecided voters -- there are still  significant numbers said they're undecided. AMNA NAWAZ: Yes. AMY WALTER: If they combine,  show up for Trump as well,   you're talking about movement of a point or so  or a little under a point. It doesn't look big,   but when we have had the last two elections  decided by 10,000 votes here and 15,000 votes   there, if I'm the Trump campaign, I would be ready  to try to bring those people back into my camp. AMNA NAWAZ: And if you're the Harris campaign,  as we saw, Harris/Walz campaign chair Jen   O'Malley Dillon put out a statement after  RFK Jr. dropped out, basically saying Vice   President Harris wants to earn their support,  also saying this: "For any American out there   who's tired of Donald Trump and looking for a  new way forward, ours is a campaign for you." Are those voters winnable by Harris?  What's their best argument here? TAMARA KEITH: Well, part of that is just  signaling that they take no vote for granted. And, actually, a big part of that is signaling  that, because, as we have been saying,   this is an incredibly close race. It  will, in all likelihood, continue to be   a very close race. And they can't look like  they're just writing off a group of voters. So, sure, they could go nuclear on all of RFK  Jr.'s many liabilities and try to tie those to   Trump, and they will do that too. But this  was sort of the conciliatory thing that you   would expect, saying, we're a big tent. Look at  the convention. They had all these Republicans   for Trump. Today, they announced another  something like 200 Republicans for Trump. They are building a stable of people who they  hope will create a permission structure for   people who feel uncomfortable with  Trump to vote for Harris. That's   not the major thrust of the campaign,  but it's just one of the many angles. They're trying to scoop up little bits of voters. (CROSSTALK) AMY WALTER: And it's a reminder that  the Democratic coalition since Biden   has really been one of bringing in voters who say,  I don't know that I could really vote for Donald   Trump to say, come on in, we are now part of that  anti-Trump party. We're the anti-Trump party. (CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, you heard  Lisa report earlier as well that   there is another debate scheduled. This time,   it would be between Vice President Harris and  former President Trump for later in September. Mr. Trump is now casting doubt on whether  he will actually take part in it. So I   have to ask, do you think it's going  to happen? And does it make an impact? AMY WALTER: Yes. Yes. AMNA NAWAZ: In what way? AMY WALTER: I mean, to Tam's point,  this is now a place where Donald   Trump needs to change the direction of this  campaign and the momentum of this campaign. Back in June, it was Biden who wanted that debate,  because he knew he was running behind. Now it's   Trump who wants to change the focus. And,  listen, ever since Harris got into this race,   the Trump campaign has been very adamant, saying,  look, she hasn't been tested yet. She hasn't been   pushed yet. She hasn't sat down for an interview  yet. She hasn't had to make any specifics yet. Let's see if she's able -- how she's able  to do once she gets under the hot lights   of having to answer a question that's not  on a teleprompter, that's not scripted. TAMARA KEITH: Yes, she has been conducting  a one-way conversation with the American   people. It has not been a two-way  conversation. She hasn't been pressed. And so a debate is an opportunity. This  interview that she has promised she will   do by the end of August, and the end of August is  soon, that will also be a two-way conversation.   And the Harris campaign clearly seems to  want this debate to happen. But they also   are, I think, enjoying, I could say,  getting under Trump's skin about it. AMNA NAWAZ: What do you mean by that? TAMARA KEITH: Well, implying that, well, his  handlers don't want him to have the open mic.   He wants the mic shut down. And so then Trump  gets asked about it, and he's like, oh, no,   I'd be perfectly happy with the mics being open. And then that sort of blows up the negotiations  in the behind-the-scenes debate about the debate. AMNA NAWAZ: I feel like we will continue to have  the debate about the debate until the debate   actually happens. (CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: Tamara Keith of NPR, Amy  Walter of The Cook Political Report,   always great to see you both. Thank you so much. AMY WALTER: You're welcome. Extreme Weather AMNA NAWAZ: The punishing heat hitting much  of the U.S. this week and the downpour that   Hawaii is enduring are just the latest in what's  been a relentless summer of extreme weather. We spoke to people in different  parts of the country about the   impacts of these events and how  they're thinking about the future. KATIE SWICK, Vermont Resident:  Six, eight inches of rain in   24 hours. We're just -- we're not used to that. BEN NGUYEN, Texas Resident: We  bought a generator. And I never   thought I would need a generator  after living here for 40 years. BEVERLY BLACKWELL BOWEN, North  Carolina Resident: As a farmer,   this year has been a very difficult year. LIZ LEIVAS, Arizona Resident: Right now,  in the triple digits that we're hitting,   it's a danger to be outside  between 11:00 and 3:00 p.m. My name is Liz Leivas. I live in Tempe, Arizona. KATIE SWICK: My name is Katie Swick,  and I live in Montpelier, Vermont. BEN NGUYEN: My name is Ben Nguyen,  and I live in Houston, Texas. BEVERLY BLACKWELL BOWEN, North  Carolina Resident: My name is   Beverly Blackwell Bowen from  Reidsville, North Carolina. JUAN DECLET-BARRETO, Union of Concerned  Scientists: My name is Juan Declet-Barreto.   I'm a senior social scientist for climate  Vulnerability with the Union of Concerned   Scientists. Danger season is the term that  we use at the Union of Concerned Scientists. It starts in May, ends in October. The  concerns around danger season are the   increased frequency of extreme weather  events that can occur back to back that   can threaten the population an  almost regular basis. By May 7,   almost 33 percent of the population had been  under at least one extreme weather alert. This number jumped to 50 percent, nearly 170  million people, by May 20. And by June 22,   that number had reached 95 percent.  That's very, very concerning. LIZ LEIVAS: My family has  been here for generations   beyond when this place was a state  or even a territory. And I grew up   outside playing outside. But right now,  you don't see kids playing outside. I am eight months pregnant. And one of the things  that I discussed with my doctor when my feet   started swelling is,how can I reduce it or what's  causing it? And so my doctor shared with me, well,   the heat will actually cause it to swell. So,  if you're starting to swell now, and I was   maybe three or four months in, they're going to be  swollen, my feet, for the rest of the pregnancy. And that was really hard to accept.  And so I ended up buying little ice   packs that I wrap around my feet for the swelling. KATIE SWICK: Last July, my home received 32 inches  of water on the first floor. We spent the next   days and days emptying everything out of the home  and piling it into the front yard. And then... There goes the blue chair. ... a few weeks later, watching it get all  taken away by big cranes and dumpsters. In December, the basement flooded again  three feet. And then this past July,   the basement flooded again. Having to figure  out how to pay a mortgage and rent and get   that money from FEMA, I have just spent so much  time and energy trying to recover and not feel   like -- instead of a disaster happening to me  and not feeling like becoming the disaster. BEN NGUYEN: As a property manager in Houston,  taking care of single-family residential homes,   we are managing things like sinks and doors  needing to be adjusted and small repairs. But   over the last two years, we have shifted into this  disaster recovery company, where we're going out,   taking care of roofs and power outages,  electrical surges, floods, you name it. It's been very challenging. We're shifting from  living and enjoying to preparing and bracing. All   of that really just affects quality of life at the  end of the day, how much we spend enjoying looking   out the window versus stressed about packing  a to-go bag. None of that is exciting and fun. BEVERLY BLACKWELL BOWEN: If I just look  at the month of July alone,8 we had 20   or more days of 90-plus degree. On top of  the heat, we also had a drought condition. With the hurricane that came  through on August 8, we got   probably a little over eight inches of rain. I  have been out there now on the farm eight years.   I have had to deal through tornado to storms.  So it's a challenge. It's very difficult. JUAN DECLET-BARRETO: One of the most sobering  things that scientists have said is that we are   not looking at the worst of climate change,  but we are looking at the minimum sort of   impacts that we will see during our lifetime  and during the lifetime of our children. LIZ LEIVAS: Arizona is   in my blood. It is my roots. My family has  been here for generations. Although it is hot,   I would never want to live where it is  cold. I love the state. I love where I live. But it's just -- it's getting harder to stay. KATIE SWICK: I'm finding it very hard to make a  decision of tearing down a 140-year-old house,   or I elevate it and move back in and have  to deal with fixing it up for the next two   years. Is it going to be high enough for the  next time it happens? I think about these   things too much. It wakes you up in the  middle of the night wondering what to do. BEN NGUYEN: Not once have I considered moving,   until this year when the derecho and Hurricane  Beryl came through. Seeing the power outages,   seeing the damage on the homes, seeing  the excessive heat where A.C.s can't   keep up anymore, it sparked me and my  partner to look somewhere else to live. And we just recently put an offer down  in a house in the Seattle-Tacoma area.   And we're looking to make a big shift and a  big move because we want the stability back. BEVERLY BLACKWELL BOWEN: I  don't see an ending at all,   because each year it continues to get  progressively worse. You have got to be   proactive. You have got to be resilient. And you  pretty much have to think outside of the box now. And how do we as farmers sustain long  term? I don't have the answers to it.   And it's very stressful to even think about. Stuck in Space AMNA NAWAZ: NASA's initial test  launch with the Boeing Starliner   capsule has not worked out well, to say the least. The space agency announced this weekend it's  finally decided that the two astronauts stuck at   the International Space Station, Suni Williams and  Butch Wilmore, will come back on a SpaceX Dragon   capsule next year instead. The pair were initially  sent on an eight day mission in early June. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the  priority has to be safety of the astronauts. BILL NELSON, NASA Administrator: Spaceflight  is risky, even at its safest and even at its   most routine. And a test flight, by  nature, is neither safe nor routine.   And so the decision to keep Butch and Suni  aboard the International Space Station and   bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed  is a result of a commitment to safety. AMNA NAWAZ: So, here to discuss the latest now  is our science correspondent, Miles O'Brien. So, Miles, we know NASA's been weighing whether  to try to bring Suni and Butch home on the Boeing   craft or a SpaceX craft. What do we know about  why they ultimately decided to go with SpaceX? MILES O'BRIEN: Well, Amna, they just couldn't be  certain about the thrusters, which are key here. Now, all of the people making these decisions,  we should point out, lived through the searing   tragedy of Columbia back in 2003, when  the orbiter disintegrated on reentry.   It's really important that these thrusters  work as advertised when they're supposed to,   because it's a very unforgiving, risky  portion of the flight, to say the least. If they come in too hot, that's a problem.  If they come in with not enough speed,   they could skip off the atmosphere. So  since they went through the testing,   they tried to understand the problems with  these thrusters, which manifested as they   approached for docking, and they just don't  feel confident that they know enough about   why they failed to understand if they might  be reliable enough to get the crew home. And so, at that point, there was no logical  or safety rationale to put two human beings   at risk for this return of the Boeing  Starliner. So it will go back uncrewed. AMNA NAWAZ: So, Miles, if they  can't be sure it's reliable,   what does this mean for the future of  the Starliner and also for Boeing's   relationship with NASA? I mean, will  they still work on missions together? MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, I mean, Boeing and  its predecessor companies goes back   to the very beginning of NASA, the first  spacecraft. They have been contractors on,   you name it, just about every program,   including the shuttle and the International  Space Station for that -- for example. There's no indication that there's  going to be a separation of these   two entities. Boeing and NASA will  probably continue to work together,   highly likely. Both -- leaders of  both organizations are saying so. What's really interesting right now is, what  happens on the next flight for Starliner? Will   that be an uncrewed mission to test out  these thrusters, which are so bulky? Or   will they allow astronauts to be a part of  that next flight? That's an open question. AMNA NAWAZ: So an eight-day mission has now  turned into a several-months-long mission.   If the decision has now been made about  how Suni and Butch are going to get home,   why will it take so long to actually  bring them home? Why until 2025? MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, why is it "Gilligan's  Island," people are asking, for sure. Basically, there are no seats for them  to return home on the spacecraft which   are attached to the International Space  Station. They're not going home in the   Starliner. There's a SpaceX Dragon there, but no  seats for them. So what are the options? Well,   they could build a whole rocket for them to  come pick them up, or, much more efficiently,   a crew which is set to arrive next month  is -- has -- it's a four-person crew. Two of those crew members will stay home now,  opening up two seats. And Suni and Butch,   for all intents and purposes, have been  volunteered to be a part of this mission,   which lasts six months into February.  So it's the most efficient for the flow   of the space station, but probably not  the most convenient for Butch or Suni. (LAUGHTER) AMNA NAWAZ: To say the least. What do we know about -- this is what's always  top of my mind -- do they have what they need,   Suni and Butch, who, again,  planned for an eight-day mission? Do they have what they need to get  through these next several months,   or is there going to be some kind of  resupply mission to get them supplies? MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, it's worth pointing out  they went up without suitcases. They had to   make room for a piece of equipment  to haul up to the space station to   fix the water recycling system. So they  didn't even have a change of clothes. Well, there's been a cargo mission arrive just a   week or so ago with 8,600 pounds  of stuff. And at any given time,   NASA has enough clothing, food, consumables  for a four-person crew to last four months. So there's plenty of stores up there.  That's not really the problem. They   will be fine. They're not going to  go hungry. They will have clothing,   et cetera. But they do have a long  mission ahead that they didn't anticipate. AMNA NAWAZ: And what about that  mission to come home as well? I mean,   the fact that they trained to go up and  come back on a completely different craft   than the one they will actually be coming  back on, what does that mean logistically? MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, well, the Dragon  spacecraft is highly automated,   and, obviously, the two-person crew which  will fly up will be fully trained in   SpaceX and Dragon functionality  and the checklist, so to speak. Suni and Butch are test pilots with a lot of  experience. They have flown on the shuttle,   they have flown on the Soyuz, now the  Boeing Starliner, and they will be in   the history books when they go back on the  Dragon, having flown in all four vehicles. But given the fact that they have an experienced  crew with them, and they are well-versed as test   pilots, and they have plenty of time right now,  I guess, to read the manual, I guess it'll be OK. (LAUGHTER) AMNA NAWAZ: Our science  correspondent, Miles O'Brien. Miles, always good to speak with you. Thank you. MILES O'BRIEN: Pleasure. Stephen King AMNA NAWAZ: Fifty years ago,   a 26-year-old rural Maine schoolteacher  wrote a horror novel titled "Carrie." That man, Stephen King, has gone on to  write more than 60 books since. They have   sold between 400 million to 500 million  copies worldwide and have been turned   into films like "The Shining," "Shawshank  Redemption," "Stand By Me," and many more. King invited our senior arts  correspondent, Jeffrey Brown,   to his main home to talk about his latest  book of short stories called "You Like It   Darker" and the long arc of his career. It's  part of our arts and culture series, Canvas. JEFFREY BROWN: In his new collection,  Stephen King writes of the eerie,   the unsettling, the otherworldly  raising its head in this one. He calls it "You Like It  Darker," and he clearly does. STEPHEN KING, Author: Darker means spooky.  It means scary. It means let's exercise our   unpleasant emotions for a while, because I  think that people like the idea of opening   the door and saying, I want it darker. Do  you want it darker? OK, we're in agreement,   and now let's go into the woods together. JEFFREY BROWN: Millions of readers  have taken that dark walk with King,   but we had our own lighter  one with the now-76-year-old. STEPHEN KING: I feel a little bit like,  if I was a car, I'd trade, you know? (LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: Near his woods in Maine, a  state where so many of his tales have been set. STEPHEN KING: I love Maine. I love the  country. I'm not much of a city kid. I   know the people. And I think that they  are stand-ins for people everywhere. I'm going to write about regular people,  ordinary people, in the best way that I know how. JEFFREY BROWN: In the best way,  even in their dark moments? STEPHEN KING: I'm interested in what happens  when regular people are suddenly confronted   with something that's totally out of their  wheelhouse, something that's entirely different. I think that literature in quotation marks  is about extraordinary people in ordinary   circumstances. And what I do are ordinary  people in extraordinary circumstances. JEFFREY BROWN: King himself grew up  mostly in working-class rural Maine,   his mother raising him and his  brother after his parents divorced. He began writing columns for his high  school newspaper and then stories and   more at the University of Maine, where he  met Tabitha, another young writer, now his   wife of 53 years. Early on, the young couple  took on a variety of jobs to make ends meet. STEPHEN KING: I just wanted to support my family,  to be able to say, I'm doing work. My wife also   worked. She worked at Dunkin' Donuts. She  would come home smelling like a cruller. (LAUGHTER) STEPHEN KING: And she looked so cute. JEFFREY BROWN: "Carrie," the 1974  horror novel, and two years later,   Brian De Palma-directed film changed  everything, with Sissy Spacek as a shy,   bullied high school girl with telekinetic  powers. Unforgettable revenge ensues. In his 2000 book "On Writing," King  tells of battling his own demons,   early on with alcohol and drugs, later after  a van hit him on one of his local walks,   leading to years of pain and physical  difficulties felt to this day. Can one write darker without  having a kind of darkness himself? STEPHEN KING: Basically, I'm a perfectly  nice fellow, good family man, good husband,   good father, and all of this stuff that's on  the dark side, it comes out in the stories. And so it doesn't have to come out in life.  I used to think to myself, I could have been   a very bad person, except for the stories  that I tell takes off a lot of the pressure. JEFFREY BROWN: Maybe that's how his  stories work for all of us. Whatever it is,   Stephen King is as much a cultural  icon as any American writer today. So we got all these movie posters from your... Especially when you consider the number of films  and series made from his stories, around 100. STEPHEN KING: My first editor, Bill Thompson, used  to say, "Steve has a movie camera in his head." JEFFREY BROWN: Oh, really? STEPHEN KING: And the story... JEFFREY BROWN: Like you see the story in -- yes. STEPHEN KING: Yes, the stories are very visual. I grew up the first generation with movies  and TV, and they made a big impression   me. So I have a tendency to see things, and  that's part of the pleasure, is the seeing. JEFFREY BROWN: More pleasure has come at  times from rock 'n' roll, the Rock Bottom   Remainders, a band King formed in the 90s with  other writers, including Dave Barry and Amy Tan. For all his success, King admits he wasn't  always happy with the critical reception he got. STEPHEN KING: There was a time when I felt  like nobody will ever take me seriously as   a writer's writer, just as somebody who  makes money. And it did make me angry,   because it seemed to me that there was an  underlying assumption about popular fiction,   that if everybody reads it, it can't be very good. I have never felt that way. I have felt that   people can read and enjoy  on many different levels. JEFFREY BROWN: But you got over worrying  about that at some point, clearly. STEPHEN KING: I got old. And I think  that probably a lot of the critics   who didn't like my stuff are now  dead, so (EXPLETIVE DELETED) them. (LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: Bleep them. STEPHEN KING: Yes, bleep them. (LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: You also wrote in your book  "On Writing," you wrote about not only being   the story's creator, but its first reader. You  want to feel the suspense of the story yourself? STEPHEN KING: Not only do I want  to feel the suspense of the story,   I want to relish the good parts. (LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: You want to enjoy the good parts. STEPHEN KING: Every now and  then, you will say to yourself,   I wrote a really good line there.  Oh, boy, that's really cool. JEFFREY BROWN: But how does he do  it and how generate so many ideas? STEPHEN KING: I can't explain it. That's the beautiful thing about what I  do. It's just like being belted by an idea. JEFFREY BROWN: He cites the  example of the story "Danny   Coughlin's Bad Dream" in the new collection. STEPHEN KING: I was getting out of bed one day,  and I thought to myself, what if an ordinary guy   had a psychic vision in a dream about where a body  was buried, and actually went out there and found   that body? Would anybody believe that he had that  vision, or would they think that he did it? And... JEFFREY BROWN: All right, but wait a  minute. You just woke up thinking that? STEPHEN KING: Yes. Well, no, I didn't wake up  thinking that. I was putting on my pants when   I had this idea, you know? And I put them on one  leg at a time. And I had one leg in my pants. And   I had this idea. And by the time I got the  other leg in, I had almost the whole story. See, and who wouldn't want to  do something like that? I mean,   that's so trippy, but it is  just the way that my mind works. JEFFREY BROWN: Trippy, dark and clearly  having a hell of a writing life. STEPHEN KING: I'm very fortunate to be able to do  what I do. I love to tell stories. And, in a way,   I get paid for something that, in the words of  the late John D. MacDonald, I would do for free. OK, that's good. JEFFREY BROWN: Coming soon  in the Stephen King universe,   several new film and TV adaptations of his work. From the darker side in Western Maine,  I'm Jeffrey Brown for the "PBS News Hour." AMNA NAWAZ: And, online, we  have more from Stephen King,   including what he watches and  reads when he's not writing. That's on our YouTube channel. Our Student Reporting Labs podcast called  "On Our Minds" has a new season focused   on the election and the youth vote. Two new  student hosts, Nico Fischer and Poojasai Kona,   along with student reporters from around the  country, talk with conservatives and liberals,   experts and candidates about the political  issues that matter most to young people. NICO FISCHER: This election year is wild. POOJASAI KONA: And it's drawing us apart. NICO FISCHER: The elections affecting all of  us, even those of us who are too young to vote. POOJASAI KONA: On this special season of "On  Our Minds," student reporters are asking: STUDENT: What does it mean to be an American? STUDENT: Does my vote matter? STUDENT: What is real or fake news? POOJASAI KONA: We're having  conversations with everyone. NICO FISCHER: Conservatives. POOJASAI KONA: Liberals. NICO FISCHER: Experts. POOJASAI KONA: And candidates. NICO FISCHER: As Americans,  we need to come together. POOJASAI KONA: And the way to do that is by... POOJASAI KONA AND NICO FISCHER: ... listening. NICO FISCHER: This is "On  Our Minds: Election 2024." POOJASAI KONA: A podcast by teens for teens. NICO FISCHER: Produced by PBS  News Student Reporting Labs. POOJASAI KONA: Listen wherever  you get your podcasts. AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the "News  Hour" for tonight. I'm Amna Nawaz. On behalf of the entire "News  Hour" team, thank you for joining   us. \