♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the "newshour" tonight. a major tech outage linked to a faulty cyber security update sparks disruptions worldwide. >> i've never seen it like this before, especially in this

airport. geoff: former president trump lays out his vision for another term -- promising to crack down on illegal immigration and reverse climate initiatives. amna: and more democratic lawmakers join the growing chorus calling on president biden to exit the race for the white house. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including jim and nancy built in her and the robert and virginia schiller foundation. the judy and peter bloom cove lord foundation, upholding freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad. >> the john s and james l knight

foundation. more at kf.org. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the newshour. the pressure is mounting on president biden to step aside from his campaign a day after the republican national convention wrapped up with a highly-anticipated speech from former president donald trump. geoff: we'll have more on the shifting political landscape in

a moment, but we start tonight with a tech outage around the globe that halted flights, disrupted emergency services and created headaches for businesses. amna: the underlying problems behind the glitch were fixed by the afternoon, but the ripple effects have lasted throughout the day and may continue well into tomorrow. geoff: and as william brangham reports, thousands of passengers are still trying to get to their destinations tonight. william: it was the glitch felt around the world. today's software failure triggered far-reaching and frustrating outages globally. air travelers were among the most directly affected, with tens of thousands of flights delayed and thousands more canceled. >> i've never seen it like this before, especially in this airport. this airport is my favorite because it's usually getting in and getting out. william: the outage was caused by a faulty software update within microsoft's windows operating system. many users first noticed the problem when they saw the notorious so-called blue screen of death. the faulty update was issued by the cyber security firm

crowdstrike. ceo george kurtz offered a mea culpa this morning on the today show. george: we are deeply sorry for the impact that we have caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this , including our company. so we know what the issue is and we have resolved the issue now. william: the faa temporarily grounded major u.s airlines, including united, american and delta. >> please wait at the passenger lounge. we are not checking in right now. william: with flights stalled, check-ins were brought to a standstill. this passenger in minneapolis was disappointed with his airline's response. >> what's interesting to watch is the airline have no idea what's happening because it is such an issue that they don't have a grasp on yet, at least here at the minneapolis airport. william: across the world, in australia, travelers had to fend for themselves. >> flight's been canceled so now we're trying to find accommodation in sydney, which is not easy. our daughters are trying to do

that online and then we'll have to try to get a flight home somehow, somewhere, sometime, don't know. william: it wasn't just air travel that was affected. hospitals and health care systems overseas were also locked up, forcing the cancellation of appointments and the closing of clinics. massachusetts general hospital had to limit operations, announcing "due to the severity of this issue, all previously scheduled non-urgent surgeries, procedures, and medical visits are canceled today." the outage also impacted 911 call systems in many places, and emergency services in oregon, alaska and arizona. global news outlets like skynews were unable to broadcast their regular programs. >> and a major global i.t. outage is impacting many of the world's largest companies, including us here at sky news. william: in paris, olympic officials say some of their systems were also down. in many places courts were also closed or delayed.

>> we are boarding zone 1 for detroit. william: while the underlying software problem has been fixed, security experts say residual problems could continue for several days. to help us understand more about what went wrong and the broader risks to our system, we turn to bruce schneier. he's an expert in computer security and technology, a lecturer at the harvard kennedy school, and writes the blog schneier on security. thanks so much for being here. help us understand the basics. what is it that went wrong? bruce: basically there are hunched of companies that do small things that are critical to the internet functioning, and today one of them failed. it is a company you probably have not heard of, and wouldn't hear of if it didn't fail. one of the credible things that holds the internet up fell down. william: that simple little glitch today grounded planes,

stopped surgeries from happening, had 911 systems go down. if that can be happening because of an accident, what would happen if there was a motivate of -- was a motivated bad actor getting into these systems? bruce: we have seen that. remember colonial pipeline, where oil stopped flowing on the east coast? we see this again and again. sometimes it is malice. sometimes it is accident. but there are so many critical things that make this network function, and if anyone of them fails, the network fails. william: is it just that we are too over reliant on a concentrated number of companies? bruce: it's concentrated, and the fact that there is no resilience, that it is a very fragile system. a lot of that is the economic spirit redundancies are viewed as an efficient -- is the

economics. redundancies are viewed as inefficient, so they are pulled out of the system. but when the system fails, it fails catastrophically. william: is that the incentive, to build in that redundancy, is it economics principally? bruce: it is economics. we have the technology. i can describe ways that crowdstrike could have rolled out this change incrementally. we could talk about there being a dozen companies doing the same thing so that the disaster is contained, but really it is fundamentally economics. the business incentive is to grow and become critical and run as lean as possible. william: what do you think the downstream consequences for down strike -- for crowdstrike or microsoft will be? bruce: there will be none. what were the consequences for colonial pipeline or the dozens of other incidents like this in

the past few years? we move on. politics is all-consuming. this is a blip. tomorrow i don't think it will be news. william: on a practical basis, for an individual who late last night or today may have done some online transaction, paid a bill, do they need to worry? could this have impacted them in some way? bruce: it could have, if they were flying today, hospitals, a lot of things collapsed. but as an individual there is nothing you can do. you are not in charge of these networks. you don't get to say what products and services you use or not. we are all at the mercy of these large, consolidated systems. when they fail, our life is impacted. the only way to make this change is at the political level, agitate for some meaningful rules here that will keep companies from being this lien -- this lean. william: you know the difficulties of that kind of

thing. one, that is not a constituency organically fighting for this kind of thing. absent that, are there political leaders that could be doing this that could be pressing this in a regulatory way? bruce: there can. i don't think there will be. we have a lot of trouble, especially in the united states, regulating anything. this is not the worst disaster, this is today's disaster. yes, there could be change. i would not expect it. eu is doing better. you see more meaningful regulation there, but even there they are not doing the kinds of things that will make our critical infrastructure more redundant, more resilient. geoff: bruce, thanks so much for being here. bruce: thanks for having me. glad we are on. amna: thank you, william. now a closer look to a momentous week in politics. geoff: first to the republicans, who capped off their national convention in milwaukee last night with a speech from the man who has reshaped the party in his image, former president donald trump.

lisa de chardin has this report. lisa: the balloons rained down from the rafters and donald trump reigned from on stage as republicans cheered on his third republican physical denomination. he is just the sixth american to achieve that for a major party, but the event marking it was all on his brand, an unapologetic show. >> enough was enough! and i said, let trumpamania run wild, brother. let trumpamania rule again. let trumpamania make america great again. >> with a "get tough" theme from hulk hogan, kid rock, and holding -- and ultimate fighting championship ceo dana white. dana: i'm in the tough guy business and the most resilient in the ever met in my life. >> when trump arrived on stage,

the music shifted tone, but the message, literally his name, was still big. to a captivated crowd, the florida republican and made good on the progress - -on the promise of a unifying tone. >> as americans we are bound together by a single fate and shared destiny. we rise together or we fall apart. lisa: he shared the story of surviving last weekend's assassination attempt. mr. trump: the amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if i had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin's bullet would have perfectly hit its mark and i would not be here tonight. lisa: but after that, the tone and rhetoric shifted as trump, staying on brand, repeatedly went off script, repeating some stump speech claims that republicans love, but which don't hold up. mr. trump: under my presidency

we had the most secure border and best economy in the history of our country, in history of the world. we had no inflation, soaring incomes. lisa: we spoke to lou of politifact. >> things like the unemployment rate, wage growth, gdp, these -- the first three years of trump's tenure were not somehow the greatest in the u.s. history. we can find examples of better economies in the 60's for instance. much less the entire world. lisa: another example -- mr. trump: bad things are going to happen. our crime rate is going up while from statistics all over the world are going down. >> that is mostly false. violent crimes, the things that people care probably the most about, have been consistently going down hunter biden. in terms of property crime, particularly motor vehicle

thefts, those are up. there is a grain of truth there, but for the most part, most types of crime, despite all that you hear on tv and from trump himself, actually, if you look at the total number, and the percentage, it's been going down for several years. lisa: as for trump's own criminal history, 34 felony convictions for falsifying business records, that was not mentioned directly, although he did rail against the justice system, employing his convictions by a new york jury were political. >> the democrat party should stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy. lisa: the 92 minute acceptance speech was the longest in modern political history, but not the only speech of note last night. earlier, trump's son eric railing against the changing of confederate base names,

defending his father, and putting his doubters on notice. eric: to all americans watching tonight, the greatest retribution will be our success. lisa: former news anchor tucker carlson brought conservative celebrity and full throated praise of trump. tucker: i have never been to a more fun convention. lisa: one of the most important figures made her impression without saying anything at all. melania trump, absent until last night, walked into the convention floor to loud and warm applause. the gop convention threaded many unusual needles like that, ending with a trump family gathering on stage, aiming to show a unified and organized front, including with vice presidential nominee j.d. vance. he and trump had their first -- have their first joint campaign rally tomoow in grand rapids. for the pbs newshour in milwaukee. geoff: meantime, democrats are

interestingly divided on the presidential nominee. more than 10 congressional democrats called for president biden to step aside, but his campaign insists he's staying in the race. this morning, campaign chair jen o'malley dillon said the president was aware the last few weeks had been tough, but he remains committed to staying at the top of the ticket. >> we have definitely seen some slippage in support, but it has been a small movement. the reason is because so much of this race is hardened already. the people that see joe biden postdebate, they are assured that he is in it to win it. geoff: our white house correspondent joins us now. dillon says the president is in it to win it. what else do you hear from his campaign? >> i am told trump's speech last night emboldened them, they feel

like they got a boost from that. they saw and that speech someone who they say is very beatable. the rhetoric that he used, the mass deportations he talked about, the extremism when talking about immigration, they think they can beat him. president biden, while recovering, issued a statement in response to that speech today, saying "i look forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week to continue exposing the threat of donald trump's project 2025 agenda while making the case for my own record and the vision i have for america." the campaign also held an all staff call today, where the campaign chair tried to boost morale on that as well, saying it has been hard, but they are sticking in this and will not be getting out of the race. geoff: why has this effort to push president biden out of the race picked up steam? this subsided after the assassination attempt of former president trump. lauren: part of it was because of the assassination attempt, so

many democrats paused calling on him to step aside. we expect more lawmakers to call on him to withdraw. in the last 24 hours it has been more than a dozen, including two senators who say president biden should step aside. sources tell me we can expect more lawmakers tonight and over the weekend to say president biden should step aside. despite that, there was some circling of the wagons today. house majority leader -- minority leader, excuse me, hakeem jeffries said he still stands with president biden, the hispanic caucus political campaign arm came out and formally endorsed president biden. but there was some notable comments from senator chris coons, a key biden ally, who at an event in colorado today said president biden is weighing who is the best candidate to win in november, and that biden is hearing from a lot of people, colleagues and the public alike. not definitively saying

president biden is without a doubt staying in the race. geoff: the democratic national convention is not until late august. how long can this go on? lauren: whether democrats support biden staying in or think you should go, they think the situation is untenable and a lot of them want a resolution by monday. they want to come to a resolution. a senior democratic aide tells me the dam feels like it's breaking, and more and more are going to come out. i spoke to a congas woman who supports president biden staying in the race -- a congresswoman who supports partisan biden staying in the race, saying if he steps aside, the party will into chaos. she says her colleagues have not convinced her that everyone will rally behind vice president harris if president biden were to step aside. she feels like there is a bit of separation from reality right now going on amongst her colleagues. geoff: what other democrats then

is the party considering to replace president biden on the ticket? lauren: vice president harris is the first name a lot of democrats mention, including congressman jared huffman, who today called on biden to step aside. he said he think there is widespread support for vice president harris, and that those who are calling for an open convention are outliers. there are some democrats and donors who have mentioned names like pennsylvania governor josh shapiro or governor gretchen whitmer. democrat still try to figure out what to do when it comes to president biden's nomination. geoff: more to come. thanks so much. ♪ amna: in the day's other headlines, the un's top court

says that israel's rule over the palestinian occupied territories is "unlawful." in a sweeping condemnation, the international court of justice in the hague said israel's policies impede palestinians' right to self-determination, and violate international law. the 15-judge panel pointed to the building and expanding of israeli settlements in the west bank and east jerusalem, areas israel captured in the 1967 war -- and called on them to be withdrawn. >> the sustained abuse by israel of its position as an occupying power violates fundamental principles of international law. israel has an obligation to bring an end to its presence in the occupied palestinian territory as rapidly as possible. amna: israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu writing "the jewish people are not occupiers in their own land. no absurd opinion in the hague can deny this historical truth."

meanwhile in israel, and iranian made drone rumbled downtown tel-aviv early this morning -- killing one man and injuring at least 10 others. houthi rebels in yemen claimed responsibility for the attack -- making it the group's first lethal strike into israel. footage circulated overnight of the explosion. by dawn, police swarmed the scene to survey the damage. the israeli miilitary said they're investigating how the drone bypassed the country's air defense system. >> we are in a multi-front war. we work on all fronts and defend the country every day. some of these fronts are close and others are far away. in this event, we are talking about an error. there was a detection. we are investigating all the chains, but it is known, there was no interception. amna: all this as israeli bombs continue to fall in gaza. families mourned today, after 12 people were killed in airstrikes on two refugee camps in central gaza. the government of bangladesh has announced a nationwide curfew, as deadly student protests escalate.

earlier today, security forces used live rounds and tear gas to disperse the crowds. security on the streets of dhaka remains tight, amid ongoing skirmishes between police and demonstrators. a day earlier, local media said 22 students were killed. protesters are calling for changes to a system that reserves 30% of top government posts for relatives of the country's war for independence. they insist the jobs be based on merit. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy urged britain's new government to let his forces strike deeper into russian territory. the uk, united states, and others have placed restrictions on ukraine's use of western weapons in russia. zelenskyy met with prime minister keir starmer at 10 downing street today, and delivered a rare address to a uk cabinet meeting. he was the first foreign leader to do so since bill clinton in 1997. zelenskyy said he was grateful for britain's leadership, but that more needs to be done.

>> right now we are missing the main answer to this question and that is our long range capability. by defending ukraine against the russian advance on kharkiv in may and june, we have proven that we can stop any russian attempt to expand the war. amna: in the meantime, secretary of state antony blinken said that ukraine is on its way to being able to "stand on its own feet" militarily. those comments come amid concerns that a donald trump victory in november's presidential election could impact america's commitment to ukraine's war effort. hundreds of mourners said their final goodbyes to corey comperatore today, the firefighter who was killed during the attempted assassination of former president trump last weekend. a fire engine carrying comperatore's flag-draped casket led a procession to the pennsylvania church where he was a longtime congregant. officials say comperatore lost his life while shielding his wife and daughter from the gunfire. the 50-year-old worked as a

project and tooling engineer. last saturday was the first time he attended a trump event. allen weisselberg was released from rikers island today. the retired chief financial officer for the trump organization served 100 days of a five-month sentence for perjury. he was released early due to good behavior. weisselberg was convicted during the 2023 civil fraud trial against the former president's real estate company. his release comes after peter navarro made an appearance at the republican national convention, just hours after walking out of prison himself. the former trump white house adviser served a 4-month sentence for contempt of congress. and on wall street today, stocks ended lower after that global tech glitch added even more uncertainty to the markets. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 400 points, but is still above the 40,000 point level. the nasdaq gave back more than 140 points, closing out a rough week for tech stocks.

the s&p 500 also ended in negative territory. still to come on the newshour, wall street journal reporter evan gershkovich is sentenced to prison in russia. david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the tumultuous week in politics. and how tornado chasers and scientists are working together to better predict the storms. ♪ >> this is the pbs news hour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: after a rushed, secretive trial, a russian court today convicted american journalist evan gershkovich in a case the u.s. dismisses as a sham. the 32-year-old wall street journal reporter was sentenced 16 years in a high-security penal colony. he is the first american journalist to be arrested by russia on espionage charges since the cold war. to discuss the efforts to free evan and bring him home, we're

joined by almar latour, the publisher of the wall street journal and ceo of dow jones. welcome back, and thanks for joining us. let's start with your reaction to the conviction and the sentence today. were you expecting a 16 year sentence? almar: two reactions, really. we are appalled at the 16 year sentence, it is an insult. it is an assault on free press, on evan, it is terribly distressing, and it is wrong, because all of this is based on false charges, a sham trial, and lies, really, manufactured lies. on the other hand, if you look at the history of autocratic regimes, particularly the one in russia, we know that there is a very high chance for trials like these to end in conviction and

pretty heavy sentencing. we were expecting that to some degree, but still, when it hits, it hits hard. amna: we saw evan today in the courtroom. he was held in that class cage where defendants are held -- glass cage where defendants are held. his head was shaved. how did he look to you? almar: the shaved head happened when he was moved to a new prison facility. he looks a little skinnier than i believe we observed before. you could see that he is resilient, but the russian regime has really applied all the symbolism of making him look like someone who committed a crime. and so that is distressing to see him effectively dressed up like that. just absolutely wrong. the visual cues are not what we want to see.

amna: the speed of this trial has raised a lot of questions about whether the kremlin is trying to use evan for a prisoner swap of some kind. today, secretary of state antony blinken spoke to this. he reaffirmed the admin attrition's commitment -- the administration's commitment to bring not only evan home. >> when it comes to evan, paul whelan in russia, other americans, we are working quite literally every day, looking to see what we can do to get them home. amna: have you gotten any updates from this administration on any of those efforts to free evan, and is a potential prisoner swap on the table? almar: we throughout this ordeal have worked with the u.s. government to try to secure evans release. we generally don't comment on the nature of those conversations and the efforts happening, but sec. and those comments is absolutely right --

sec. blinken and those comments is absolutely right. there are 24/7 efforts taking place to secure his release and also look after the other americans who are held in wrongful detainment. that is about as far as i can go on this topic. amna: you have been in touch with evan's family as well. what can you tell us about how they are doing and whether or not they want to see a prisoner swap? almar: evan's family has been an inspiration throughout all of this. they are so strong in face of something that is obviously so emotional, so hurtful to them, to see their son in activity -- son in captivity and accused things he didn't do, and smeared again by the russian propaganda machine. in face of all that, they in my view are heroic.

they are holding their head above water. of course they want to see their son released as soon as possible, and with whatever it takes. they should speak for themselves. we all as his colleagues want to see him released as soon as possible. amna: before i let you go, the wall street journal no longer has anyone reporting on the ground in russia. many other media organizations don't either. what is the impact of that right now? almar: we are looking at what happens in hotspots from different angles, so just because we are not on the ground does not mean do we are not reporting on something. we actually do have a reporter on the ground in russia, but it is evan, and he is in prison. further on the ground coverage, the environment right now is inhospitable and does not allow

for safe reporting and our view. amna: that is alma latour, the publisher of the wall street journal, ceo of dow jones. thank you for being with us. we're thinking about evan and hope that he's home soon. thanks again. almar: thank you, amna. ♪ amna: it was a major week in american politics with former president trump formally accepting the republican nomination after his assassination attempt, and with president biden vowing to stay in the race for the white house. we will discuss it all now with the analysis of brooks and capehart. that's new york times columnist david brooks and jonathan capehart, associate editor for the washington post. great to see you both. i feel like i have not seen you for a long time. david:hours. amna: we were all together every night of the republican national convention. you were there night after night

as people would say mr. trump has been changed, he is a more contemplative man now after that attempt on his life, that he will deliver a unity message that turned out not to be true when we heard his speech. what did you take away from his remarks? jonathan: what we heard last night was his stump speech. most people -- most people probably did not realize that was his stump speech is because the convention is the one time more people than usual are watching. this was the opportunity for donald trump to re-present himself to the nation after the attempted assassination, but what we saw in the first 30 minutes was sort of new, sort of measured donald trump, but at the 30 minute mark, just about, in came crazy nancy pelosi, and it went downhill from there. it was grievance, it was anger. there was a lot of attention paid to illegal immigration and what he wanted to do about that.

i think it was a missed opportunity on the part of the former president because he's been basically silent for the last three weeks because of the implosion on the democratic side, and yet he took that chance yesterday and just showed the country what his faithful have been seeing for months. amna: did you get a sense of what a second trump administration would look like from those remarks? was that a missed opportunity? david: first i should say it was an extremely successful convention. i thought the spirit was unlike any other convention i have been to. people were joyful, unified. there were a lot of good speakers and memorable moments. there was only one bad speaker, and the problem for the republicans is it was the nominee. i agree it started out well, then it just deteriorated. the guy had only one job. there were box on a teleprompter -- remarks on a tele-project.

he just had to read the remarks and he would be cruising today, but he's incapable of self-control, and capable of non-indulgence. what i took away from the speech was any hope that some people might have had that a second trump term would look different from the first, because the guy is suddenly organized and disciplined. the second trump term looks to be as symbolic and chaotic as the first term was, if it happens, because the guy is incapable of self-control. amna: i read the transcript from his 2016 acceptance speech and there was a lot of the same language, railing against hillary clinton, talking about the failed policies of obama, a lot of similar themes on the forgotten working-class and crime rates. the thing that struck me that was different this year is on illegal immigration. there was much more dangerous,

vicious language, targeting black and brown immigrants, talking about them carrying disease and attacking women and stealing jobs. did that stick out to you? david: yes it did. it is paradoxical in that i cannot remember another ticket where both candidates are married to an immigrant or children of immigrants. i think what has happened is the global populism has done two things. it fed on each other. the marine le pens and donald trumps have fed on this anti-immigrant theme that unites them globally. it has gotten darker and trump's grievance has gotten more menacing. at the same time, maga is a much more intellectually serious movement. it has an agenda, a group of magazines, all of which is personified by j.d. vance. the fact that the teamsters, that the president was represented there, was a sign

that something much bigger here is happening, that the ugliness is true, but the fact that there is a movement here, in the way they have intellectually come together around the agenda. the other, kind of alarming that the level of prejudice seems only to increase. amna: you referenced the implosion within the democratic party. tell me about how what we saw happen in the national convention in milwaukee -- the republican national convention in milwaukee is impacting the democratic ticket. jonathan: it doesn't seem like it is impacting it at all. there was more than one bad speaker. congresswoman marjorie taylor greene, eric trump, speaker johnson, these were people who were also feeding red meat to the trump faithful in the hall. you would think that the democrats would be focused on not just donald trump's speech, but all the other speeches happening in the lead up to

senator vance's speech and don ald trump's speech. instead democrats have been spending all their time trying to push out the sitting president of their own party from running as the nominee. you have the president having contracted covid, being in isolation, having all these people bringing more pressure to bear on him to get out of the race. just as we are on the air, senator sherrod brown just said -- amna: half a minute ago. what does that say to you, that sherrod brown, someone who has known joe biden for as long as he has, in a critical state of ohio, has come forward to do this? jonathan: this tells me the pressure will continue to mount, that it could be that the president will have no choice but to give up his reelection campaign, but the big concern i have is, great, you guys succeed in getting president biden to

give up his presidential bid. you don't say who should be the top of the ticket. if vice president harris is not the top of the ticket, democrats are guaranteed to lose. amna: there is a democratic convention in just a month's time. feels like a very long time away now. how long do you think this kind of turmoil and conversation can go on? david: three or four days. if they have not decided this by monday or tuesday, i think the democratic party is in real trouble. they are undermining, undermining, undermining. either joe biden has to say i'm staying the matter what, and this is over, or else fortune favors the bold. amna: president biden has been saying that. he continues to say, i am in it to win it. david: true, but there are stories coming out that he's shifting his thinking. that raised the sense that is inevitable that he's going to go.

if he's going to go, he has to go, but it has to be in the next few days. on, what happens next i think the democrats will be in big trouble if kamala harris is not on the ticket. nothing comes free in politics. the problem with the democratic process so far, it has been low information. joe biden was not tested in the primaries. the idea that you will have another nominee who is not tested should be alarming to democrats. the idea of a mini primary with press conferences or debates, that is not entirely unappealing, kamala harris might get the nomination, but she should have to earn it, show the country she's capable of doing this campaign. jonathan: not tested? has to earn it? she's the sitting vice president of the united states, who has endured a whole lot of scrutiny in that role. lots of brickbats from within the party, from the other party,

from the press. earn it? she was vice president during covid, during a 50-50 split in the senate, so she was basically chained to that president's chair in the senate chamber, not able to leave washington for more than 2.5 hours so she could cast tie-breaking votes, the most cast by any vice president. i don't mean to pick on you, david, but anyone who says she has to earn it has not been paying attention to what she has done. david: i don't agree with that. amna: go ahead, david. david: i don't mean to say she's not worthy. joe biden was president. he is not out there campaigning. even if it is done over three weeks, it is better than no process. that would be my only point. amna: jonathan, i will give you the last word. jonathan: david, have you seen democrats? my big fear is if you do have this commonsense proposal of an open primary, democrats will

make it a shambolic process, and whoever gets the top spot on the ticket, even if it is the sitting vice president, could be as hobbled as the president they have potentially driven off the ticket. amna: the fact that we are even having conversations about an open convention or whatever it is speaks to these unprecedented times. i'm glad we have both of you to help us understand it all. thank you. ♪ geoff: millions of moviegoers are expected to go see "twisters" this weekend, a sequel to the 1996 blockbuster. it's a summer escapist thriller that you might say goes well beyond the science and true boundaries of tornado prediction. but miles o'brien spent some time during this busy tornado season with actual tornado chasers and meteorologists to

understand the latest research. here's his report, part of a documentary done with the weather app, my radar. miles: how do you know where to go? jordan hall is a man on a mission. jordan: yeah. so i look at forecast models. h triple r in particular and surface models as well. my goal is to shoot close range insane video and sell it to the news networks. miles: with great success. he makes a living chasing tornadoes. jordan: you're good, you're good! storm chaser: we gotta go! jordan: stay still. we're fine. i hear the roar! miles: i sat in his well-equipped suv and watched highlights of this epic storm-chasing season. jordan: this year has been absolutely bonkers since the middle of april. basically been nonstop.

this was the first, one of the first few tornadoes i saw in this car. miles: oh, wow. whoa. whoa. transformers going. you were very close to that, my friend. jordan: and then here in a minute, it's going to, it's going to pipe out right here. miles: holy cow. jordan: that's a strong tornado. that's a violent tornado. miles: is it less risky than it would seem? jordan: i would say so. getting close to these storms always has its dangers. but the biggest risk i think we all face out there is just driving the countless miles that we do and being on the road so much. miles: the 2024 tornado season has been historic. about 100 twisters have touched down in oklahoma alone, leaving death, destruction, and wrecked communities in their wake. right now, the weather service can provide about 15 minutes warning of a tornado.

but the explosion of cloud-based computing power and machine learning are enabling big improvements in forecasting. the cloud is helping researchers understand the clouds. miles: is that really changing your business in a fundamental way? pamela: it's changing it in a really good way. miles: meteorologist pam heinselman is the director of the forecast research and development division at the national oceanic and atmospheric administration's national severe storms laboratory in norman, oklahoma. she and her team are leveraging that compute power to create what they call a warn-on forecast. the goal is to improve the lead time and reliability of warnings for severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and other hazardous weather events. they are running an ensemble of weather models simultaneously. each begins with slightly different data, an effort to account for uncertainties.

with all the things you're doing and are, you know, plan to do. is that going to change appreciably? pamela: i believe with forecasters using that system , we could probably produce a warning out to an hour. miles: but they could not imagine an accurate forecast that far in advance without some intrepid field work to obtain better storm data. among the storm chasers is a fleet of vehicles carrying state-of-the-art sensors and top scientists. okay, so what are we looking at here? erik: so these are the mobile doppler radars. miles: that's where i met veteran research meteorologist erik rasmussen, chief of the field observing forecast support group. erik: these two on the outside are really suited best for seeing the whole storm, and they're kind of less nimble. miles: doppler radar can detect precipitation, and by measuring the shifts in frequency, track the speed and direction of wind within storms. it's hard to think of a more significant breakthrough in severe storm forecasting

technology. and putting doppler radars on wheels has dramatically improved scientists' understanding of tornadoes. erik: we scan back and forth across the storm like this, and then lift the dish up a little ways, do it again and over and over. get a kind of a three dimensional picture of the thunderstorm. miles: they also have a vehicle outfitted with a mobile doppler lidar, which emits pulses of light instead of radio waves. it is more precise than radar. erik: somewhere between like three and ten times more detail . we like the nimbleness too, because now you're working with a full size pickup truck instead of a behemoth. and so this, this can maneuver and find parking places a whole lot more easily. miles: the goal is to park these vehicles near a tornado as it is touching down. no small feat. erik: we have to get close. and so you have to be able to really maneuver. miles: in the early days, researchers didn't have many tools in their toolbox.

and so they relied on 16mm film. the technique is called photogrammetry. erik showed me how it can be used to determine the wind speed of a tornado. erik: here we have hundreds of pieces of right debris that could be tracked. miles: so you could would you go through like frame by frame with and track individual pieces of debris? erik: that is right. then you would go back, measure those motions of the markings, and then enter the data onto punch cards. and do some math and come up with how strong the wind was that was pushing that debris along. miles: technology like doppler radar and lidar may have made photogrammetry obsolete, but they have not answered all the questions, including a crucial one: what are the wind speeds right at the surface? erik: i'm thinking the wind speeds are probably stronger than we would have guessed, and i'm thinking there are a lot more chaotic.

i suspect it's going to be a lot more interesting than we would have assumed. miles: to solve that mystery, he and his team will have to devise new sensors and techniques. he's thinking doppler drones might be the future. for the pbs news hour, i am miles o'brien in norman, oklahoma. ♪ amna: we are at the midpoint of a wnba season that has been like no other. record setting numbers on the court, in the stands and on television. and now, as john yang reports, a big new television deal may signal a new era for the league. john: the wnba has been around since 1996, but it seems that a lot of people may be paying attention to it for the first time. attendance has been the highest since the 1990's and viewership is up 183% from last season.

league play is on pause for this weekend's all-star game in phoenix and for olympic competition starting later this month in france. sabreena merchant is a women's basketball writer for the athletic and she is in phoenix for the all-star game. what accounts for this surge in popularity? sabreena: i think there is a variety of factors, but you really have to drill it down to this year's rookie class, specifically caitlin clark and angel reese, and the dramatic fan followings they brought in from college basketball. they had two of the most highly viewed college games of all time in the 2023 national championship game between iowa and lsu, and then once again in the elite 8 in 2024. and the rivalry between those two and the momentum that it created for college basketball has just taken its step into the wnba. so i think the seeds for growth in the wnba have obviously been planted ahead of time. but i would say that clark and reese have been the accelerant that's created this dramatic rise this year.

john: and clark and reese have been compared to two other players who've shared a rookie year. larry bird and magic johnson. is that an apt comparison? sabreena: i think so. i think we're definitely seeing the wnba at an inflection point, similar to where the nba was in the 1980s. you know, you think about the nba prior to magic and bird and the finals were still being aired on tape delay. and the wnba obviously hasn't been that in recent seasons. but you know, we are talking about a league that had finals games where fewer than a million people were watching. and now every time that there's a game on national television, upwards of seven figures are watching. so there definitely has been a similar boom compared to magic and larry back in the 1980s. i also think that you check a couple boxes in terms of the college rivalry that caitlin and angel had, and also that cross racial comparisons with caitlin and angel, similar to magic and bird. so there are a lot of similar elements. and if the wnba experiences anything close to that cresting in popularity like the nba did, it'll be well worth it. john: you mentioned television.

the athletic is reporting that the new television deal is going to bring the wnba in the first year about $200 million, which is about four times what they're getting now for television. what does that mean for the league, for the individual teams and for the players salaries? sabreena: yeah, i mean, it's $200 million with the existing rights partners, and the wnba already has deals with cbs and ion. they could add on to that deal that is currently with nbc, espn and amazon. so it's possible that even in year one of this new deal, it could be close to 6x what it currently is. so just suffice to say that's a lot of more money that's coming into the wnba. and i think that's going to significantly impact the collective bargaining agreement, the negotiations that are set to take place for this new cba. the wnba players association can opt out of this current cba at the end of this season and write a new one for the start of the 2026 season, and this will be the first time where either the owners or the players are really operating from a position of

strength. and now you can point to all of this revenue that's coming into the league and really make dramatic improvements to player experience. you know, we're talking about improvements to their travel amenities, the hotel rooms that they receive on the road, maternity and parental planning benefits that could be added into the cba. obviously, individual player salaries are a big portion of it. you know, you think about the maximum player salary in the wnba right now is about $250,000. and the lowest player salary in the nba is about $500,000. so to get just a seven figure contract in the wnba might be something that we see on the horizon with this influx of tv money for the wnba players to get a more equitable revenue split. now that we have this $2.2 billion coming in over the course of 11 years, it actually gives the players a leg to stand on in terms of, you know, getting more of that revenue for their salaries. john: what's it going to take to keep this growth going on the same, or can it grow on this same trajectory, or is it just

so steep right now it is going to level off eventually? and what's it going to take to keep building on this popularity? sabreena: i think it is the kind of thing where it's like a positive feedback loop where people start watching the league. they obviously have the entry points of caitlin clark and angel reese, but you know, you tune in for those two and you become familiar with breanna stewart or a'ja wilson or any of the other great stars that exist in wnba this year, and that'll just perpetuate itself. i think this is obviously the steepest we're going to see it, but i don't think that we're necessarily going to see a level off. you know, the more that the wnba gets on tv in nationally televised windows and primetime opportunities, that's going to bring in more and more fans right now. it's kind of a distressed asset in terms of where you see the wnba on tv. it's like really hard to find games. and assuming this new tv rights deal puts them on prime position on espn and nbc and ideally more nationally available networks that are not just hidden on cable or streamers, i think that'll continue the growth, the

quality of play increasing i think is going to help. and all we are seeing with college basketball, all of that interest and popularity in college basketball is just going to continue to make its way into the wnba. john: sabreena merchant of the athletic. thank you very much. geoff: remember there is much more online. and that includes our digital weekly show. this week it's looking at some of the major moments you might have missed from the republican national convention-- that is all on our youtube page. amna: be sure to tune in to washington week with the atlantic tonight for a deep dive on the repercussions of the latest political turmoil. geoff: and on pbs news weekend, with a spotlight on border security this election year, we look at the dangerous path some migrants are taking to enter the u.s. that is the newshour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. have a great weekend. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by --

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