wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff bennett is away. on the "newshour" tonight, the secret service director resigns in the wake of sharp criticism for the agency's failure to protect donald trump from an vp. harris: -- trump from an

assassination attempt. vp. harris: we have 105 days until election day, and in that time, we have some work to do. amna: vice president kamala harris makes her first campaign stop in the battleground state of wisconsin as she consolidates support from democratic politicians and donors. and activists demand justice and reform after body camera footage shows an illinois sheriff's deputy shooting and killing a black woman in her home. >> she was a mother, she had children. that is an impact for generations that is going to be laid upon that family. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and

friends of the newshour. >> fostering more at the website. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was your station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the newshour.

the director of the secret service, kimberly cheatle, resigned today, 10 days after a stunning security failure nearly led to the assasination of former president donald trump. cheatle faced withering bipartisan criticism yesterday for her approach and her lack of answers during testimony before the house oversight committee. we're joined by carol leonnig, investigative reporter for the washington post who has been covering the secret service for years. carol, welcome back to the news hour. let's just look back, given how the last 10 days unfolded and yesterday's hearing, was this resignation in evitable? carol: the first day of the shooting, i would not have said in evitable, but it became increasingly obvious that she had not just lost the republicans who were following her, almost chasing her at the are in the, but she had lost the support inside her own agent. people that i spoke to who were defending her on the night of

the shooting and saying, you know, this was a security failure. no question about it. it cannot be totally on her head. they changed their tune and felt very differently. people who had been her defenders said that her handling of the after action was her downfall. in essence, she did not want to answer questions. she had not made herself available for a press conference or anybody from the secret service that would be available at a press,, the night of the first assassination attempt on eighth the great service protected -- on a secret service protect the in more than 30 years and some of her public statements were also embarrassing to the agency. amna: 10 days out from the attempted assassination attempt of a former president, is it any more clear now what could have been done or should have been done to prevent that from happening? where the failures were? carol: the most important failure was minus i.

in fact, the secret service literally has a code in every secret service advanced plan for an event, los. line-up site is what the secret service is most fearful about in any outdoor or major large event because why? because john f. kennedy was assassinated from a tall building with a long gun in dallas as he drove in his motorcade in those buildings around the motorcade route had not been secured. nobody had checked to see was there a gunman on high? ever since 1963 and that tragedy for america, the secret service has spent oodles of time, endless energy researching, securing, locking down any space that could be on high ground and could shoot at the president, or in this case, the former president, and that failure is essential. the second failure appears to be somewhere in the outer perimeter. the way in which the secret service advised, instructed, or

created a security plan for local police on that outer perimeter outside the rally, because some communication breakdown occurred between the time one hour before the rally got started, before trump took the stage, local police had flagged, you know, thomas matthew crooks, the gunman, as acting suspiciously. and later flagged him again as a person with a range finder. you know, this is not a place where people are looking for their golf ball or looking for birds, but he had a range finder that is often used by shooters to identify a target. and somehow, those warnings, though some did get to the secret service, did not result in this individual being detected and sort of locked down and stopped. amna: i have got about 30 seconds left. there is an acting director now in the form of a 24 year veteran by the name of rob rowe. is he -- ronald rowe. is he in any better position?

carol: he has a lot of accolades behind him from agents i have spoken to and not just today but in the 10 years i have been writing about the secret service, a lot of people feel very solid about him and his experience. the challenge he faces is the same one cheatle faced which is this is an agency with less than $3 billion in its budget, limited hiring caps, and an increasingly expanding mission. they are stretched too thin, something we wrote about 10 years ago, and something that the secret service identified itself and a panel identified 10 years ago and a house oversight committee identified 10 years ago. at stretched too thin feature is something that has to be -- that stretched too thin feature is something that has to be addressed. amna: thank you for your reporting and for joining us. appreciate it. carol: of course.

♪ amna: vice president kamala harris told voters the november election will be a "choice between freedom and chaos." the trip comes as harris is getting more support from powerful allies back in washington. laura has more. >> she hit the ground running. >> good afternoon, wisconsin. >> and got the crowd going. her first campaign rally of the 2024 race in a key battleground state, wasting no time after being thrust into the limelight as the de facto democratic nominee. vp. harris: i will spend the coming weeks continuing to unite our party so that we are ready

to wane in november. laura: harris -- to win in november. laura: a blitz of big-name meetings including her own state of california brought her over the threshold. barely a day after president biden dropped out of the race on sunday. a surge in campaign organizing has broken records. as of this morning, the harris campaign raised more than $100 million from one point one million donors since sunday afternoon. more than 62% of them were first-time donors according to the campaign. 58,000 people signed up to volunteer. that is more than 100 times an average day for the campaign. vp. harris: we just had the best 24 hours. of grassroots fundraising in

presidential campaign history. laura: and democrats like her chances. in the latest pbs news, npr, and marist poll, a statistical tie with harris trailing the republican nominee, donald trump, by just one point. meanwhile, president biden returned to the white house today after isolating in delaware with covid-19. his withdrawal from the race over the weekend followed weeks of immense pressure from inside his own party. now, among many democrats, a sense of relief as the endorsements for harris continued to pile up. >> we are here today to throw our support behind vice president kamala harris. laura: today, chuck schumer and house minority leader hakeem jeffries joined in backing her nomination. >> we are going to hold the senate. we are going to win the house. we are going to elect kamala harris as our next president in november. laura: senator bernie sanders, a

leading progressive voice, stopped short of a full out endorsement, calling on harris to outline more of her policies. >> if she is prepared to campaign around an agenda that peaks to the needs of the working class of this country, she is going to win this election and win it big in my view. laura: the republican nominee, trump, took new aim at her record. >> if she becomes president, kamala harris will make the invasion x-men shall he worse and just like she did with san francisco, just like she did with the border, our whole country will be permanently destroyed. laura: he also said he is willing to debate harris more than once. >> if you are the democrat nominee or the republican nominee, you have an obligation to debate so i think it is very important. laura: harris has her eyes on possible running mate to join her on the ticket. >> i will keep any of the details of that call personal but what she did is she called and asked for my support and i willingly gave it. among the potential -- laura:

among the potential names, andy beshear, and pritzker, both of whom are being considered for the job. >> i love being the governor for the state of illinois and i have been out on the campaign trail, fighting hard for democrats to win. i'm going to continue to do that and i'm very interested in making sure that kamala harris becomes the next president of the united states. laura: high-stakes decisions for the harris team to make on a race completely turned on its head. as she launches her expedited campaign, president biden is preparing to address the nation tomorrow evening from the oval office. this will be the first time the president has been seen publicly since he ended his reelection campaign on sunday. amna: you have reported that harris has security enough delegates to secure that nomination for her party so walk us through what could happen next. will she be the nominee before or during the convention? laura: tomorrow, the members who sit on the rules committee are going to meet and they are going to vote on a plan for nominating

-- for the nominating process. cording to a copy of that plan obtained by pbs news hour, anyone who challenges vice president harris would have to file formal paperwork with the dnc, obtained 300 delegate signatures, no more than 50 from each state, and meet legal qualifications to be president. the bottom line is that dnc sources have made clear that they want to have their presidential nominee named wright august 7 and there -- by august 7 and they are establishing a virtual rollcall vote sometime between august 1 and august 7, and they want to do this because they are trying to defend against republican lawsuits that would potentially block your nominee from ballot access. amna: you mentioned in your report, we have new pulling out in our polling. -- pulling out in our npr polling. laura: some key findings from our latest poll.

there is overwhelming support for biden's decision to step aside. 87% of national adults said it was the right decision. and then when it comes to enthusiasm, 46% of democrats said that they are more likely to vote now that biden was no longer than nominee, and then another key finding is that more voters -- there are voters who have not made up their mind about harris. so there is more that have not made up their mind about her than those who are already set in what they think about donald trump. amna: you have also been reporting about her search to find a running mate. what do you know so far? laura: i'm told that vice president harris is currently considering 10 candidates for vice president and the ones that we know so far are north carolina governor roy cooper, pennsylvania governor, tim walz, as well as mark kelly, michigan governor gretchen whitmer, and jb pritzker of illinois.

cedric richmond and kentucky governor andy beshear. governor gretchen whitmer of michigan reiterated to reporters today that she has no interest in leaving michigan and she said that she has not submitted any type of formal documents to be vetted for the vice presidency. amna: i know from time to time, you get a chance to listen in on these focus groups of voters. what have they been saying about vice president harris's candidacy now? laura: i sat in on a focus group that was settled by a never trumper firm and this was a swing voter focus group, people who voted for donald trump in 2016 and then voted for joe biden in 2020. and some were excited about harris's attentional to win the nomination. >> artist you like it would be like a breath of fresh air. i feel like it would be like a new beginning instead of feeling like you are watching a rerun because trump has already been in office. i feel like harris would

definitely bring a new kind of dynamic to her ideas, where she wants to take the world, you know, in the next four years. i think it is a good decision. laura: that is kirby from georgia. a number of the voters in the focus group said they were excited about the idea of her going head-to-head with donald trump. there was one voter from georgia who said he was not necessarily happy with kamala harris as an option and said he is likely to reluctantly go back to donald trump. >> four years she has been in the white house, the vice president, and did she do anything? no. i have no idea what she even did so i feel like, you know, americans are not being given a good choice here. we are not being -- we are being given the right comes -- breadcrumbs out of both choices. laura: he was the only one of eight swing voters who felt as though he had to go back to

donald trump after kamala harris's launching her presidential campaign. the other seven voters said they would ultimately vote for kamala harris and if i could add one more thing about the nomination process, is that if they ultimately vote on this process tomorrow night, the dnc, it means that they are likely to have a nominee ahead of their circle convention in chicago which is slated for august 19 through 22nd so we are likely to see a nominee named in a very quick timeframe here. amna: laura malone lopez -- laura reporting. thank you. as laura reported, tim walz is among those being vetted as a possible running mate. the governor joins us now. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. amna: you are a governor of a must win state for the democrats.

you have a background growing up in a small town. you have a military background as well. are you what this ticket needs to be able to beat the trump/vance ticket? gov. walz: well, i don't know about that, but what i can tell you is that we will beat that ticket. the enthusiasm that has exploded across minnesota since the announcement of vice president harris is something to behold. those fundraising members are one things but it is folks filling up doorknocking, phonebanking, and just a sense of hopefulness that this chaos that donald trump brings, this dystopian view of america, kamala harris's joy, you can feel it. optimism, you can feel it. i am here for whatever it takes to be part of that, to make this country get back to the hopefulness that we have always had. amna: have you had any conversations with vice president harris about possibly becoming her running mate and would you except if offered -- accept if offered?

gov. walz: i'm not going to get into the details of what we spoke about but i think seeing the shared values we have, seeing an agenda that actually gets to the issues we care about, personal freedoms and your families, the idea of public education being foundational to greater and a soda as well as it is across the country, i want to do what i can do to make that happen -- greater minnesota as well as it is across the country, i want to do what i can to make that happen. two towards a clean energy economy -- our economies are thriving. our families are hopeful. the idea that the vice president could bring this in as president harris is exciting to me. amna: let me ask you a little bit about what we heard from republicans. this is from a memo from a trump campaign poster that went out -- pollster that went out earlier today. he wrote, there's no question that harris will get her bumper earlier than the democrats

convention and that bump is likely to start showing itself over the next few days and will last a while until the race settles back down. the argument is that he says come after this honeymoon period is over, after the excitement wears off, that voters who were frustrated with indication and the time -- immigration and the economy would continue to do so under vice president harris. is he wrong? gov. walz: he is wrong. he can keep telling himself that. he knows that they woke a sleeping giant here. president biden is the best president in my lifetime and delivered but i think we all know there was a lack of enthusiasm and the ability to be able to take a message of a forward-looking america was not there. and it is now. i think what i would be worried about is the same old failed policies instead of putting out a memo like that. tell us what your health care plan is. donald trump told us he would do that on day one back in 2017. it is nothing there. instead of messing up a proposal to make our borders secure at

the same time respecting our immigrant heritage, do something like that. so look, they are playing with fire in that america is tired of this, tired of the chaos, tired of the negativity, tired of the childish name-calling, and what they saw today was a vibrant vision of america in milwaukee, one that wants to bring the country back together, one that wants to go to thanksgiving dinner with our relatives and have friendly debates about policy but loving this country and investing in things that matter. look, you go with your dystopian mad max version of america. you go with demonizing the vice president because she is a woman. we will go ahead and go with a vision that puts americans first, put the middle class first, puts rebuilding around that middle-class first, and we will take our chances in november. amna: as you saw in our latest pbs polling, it shows a statistical tie between vice president harris and former president trump right now and we know americans frustrations with high prices, not being able to afford a house, on immigration numbers, that remains high.

that has not gone away, so how does vice president harris get those numbers to budge beyond a tyke? -- tie? gov. walz: we keep talking about the fundamental freedoms. these guys are not going to do anything about that. they did not when donald trump was in. we were stacking bodies in u-haul's because he would not follow science on covid. we are seeing those numbers come down. we are seeing housing prices start to stabilize and real wages rise up and we are making sure we are not going to take away your health care or personal freedoms. we are not going to tell you what books to read. we will put the country forward. i think when we start talking about our policies, and between now and november, i expect to see those historic jobs numbers continue to go in the right direction. i will see prices stabilize, as they have been, and donald trump's proposals of isolating america, turning towards russia, and ruining our policies of unity with nato and others, those are not going to be appealing.

he is in a problem. he has got a campaigner against him that is putting a positive vision of america forward and his negativity, you can feel it. if they think this is a sugar high or a bump, go ahead and think that, but i am telling you, i have done this long enough and i get a feel for things on here. donald trump continues to say he's going to win these places. we don't take anything for granted but we are on the ground working, energizing people, and i will tell you, fear might be a good short-term motivator but it wears people out. hope and optimism drive people to something better so we are going to be there. i like our chances. one thing is i like the idea of american politics being more unifying, more decent, less name-calling, less negative. vice president harris on her move to president harris is going to bring us along with her. amna: i want to ask specifically about frustration you have seen in minnesota during the primary process. some 19% of democratic primary voters in minnesota voted for uncommitted rather than resident

biden. that is nearly 46,000 people, largely calling for a cease-fire in gaza. does vice president harris need to change her message on this one issue to break from biden and to try to bring some of those voters back in? gov. walz: looks, i think she has got an opportunity to show the leadership that we know is there. those folks expressed their opinion and i am proud to be part of a party that is not all wear the same red hats and bow down the need to one die. they are frustrated by this. there is a golden opportunity to recognize we need a two state solution, that the atrocities of october 7 are painful and real and israel's right to defend itself israel, but also the humanitarian crisis must be brought to an end. i think having president harris bringing folks together, re-centering us as a world leader in peace and holding our alliances together, i think she has got a great opportunity, and i remain hopeful that that is the direction we need to go.

it is certainly not going to be the failed policies of a wannabe dictator which we have seen out of president trump. amna: always good to speak with you. thank you for making the time. gov. walz: thanks for having me. ♪ amna: transportation secretary pete buttigieg says his department is launching an investigation into delta airlines over its treatment of passengers following last week's global tech outage. authorities will look at whether the airline has been complying with laws around flight delays and cancellations. delta has canceled more than 6600 flights since last friday , far more than any other airline. long lines, unclaimed bags, and stranded passengers. >> this is 1:15 in the morning at atlanta airport. amna: as frustration and tensions run high inside

atlanta's international airport, where some have been stuck for the last four days. >> look around, there's bags everywhere and there's still families just laying on the ground since friday. so this is ridiculous. gov. walz: delta airlines, based in atlanta, is struggling to restore service to normal, canceling another 400 flights today. that's 10 times more than the next-worst performer since the outage. yesterday, delta accounted for nearly two-thirds of all flight cancellations worldwide. more than half of the airline's i.t. systems run on microsoft , more so than other airlines, leading to issues even locating and rescheduling crews. passengers across the country have spent days trying to reach their destinations. >> communications have been very scarce. we've gotten text messages about updates to gate changes and flight departures, but they've been very scarce. i think the app is back up to running to some degree. it's not as bad as yesterday, but it's still -- it's hard to get a hold of a

representative. i've contacted delta, the wait time was 12 hours to get a hold of an agent. gov. walz: -- amna: secretary buttigieg said his department has received hundreds of complaints and says delta must inform its customers that they are entitled to a refund if they choose not to travel. delta says it is issuing transfers and travel vouchers. but the bad news isn't over yet. delays and cancellations are expected for several more days. also today, federal aviation authorities are looking into southwest airlines after a series of safety-related incidents. most recently, a jet flying as low as 150 feet over water while still miles away from its destination of tampa bay airport. in a statement, the agency said, "the faa has increased oversight of southwest airlines to ensure it is complying with federal safety regulations." southwest said today it's cooperating with faa investigation. new jersey senator bob menendez will resign on august 20. pressure had been growing on the

70-year-old democrat to step down, after he was convicted last week on all 16 criminal counts at a federal trial in new york. following the verdict, menendez had remained defiant, telling reporters he would appeal the verdict. but he dodged questions about whether he'd resign. new jersey governor phil murphy -- also a democrat -- will select someone to serve the remainder of menendez's term, which ends in january. thousands of people have evacuated canada's "jasper national park" to escape wildfires threatening the area. blazes are burning on both sides of the town of jasper in the canadian rockies. authorities gave residents and park visitors five hours to clear out overnight. evacuees say they fled west through smoke and ash, hitting bumper-to-bumper traffic at times. by day, eyewitness video captured flames consuming trees and smoke billowing into the sky. local officials in ethiopia said today that at least 229 people have died in recent mudslides

triggered by heavy rains. children and pregnant women were among the victims in a remote part of the country's south. many of the victims were killed on monday morning as they tried to help survivors of a mudslide from a day earlier. at least five people have been pulled out alive. landslides are common in the country's rainy season, which is expected to last until mid-september. palestinian factions hamas and fatah have agreed to form a government together. the two groups issued a joint statement during meetings in beijing. but they provided no details on how or when the government would be formed. hamas and fatah have been bitter enemies since a oody civil war in the gaza strip ended in 2007. previous agreements between the two groups have failed. israel remains opposed to any post-war government that includes hamas, and they swiftly denounced the agreement, as did the u.s. >> hamas is a terrorist

organization, something that we obviously made clear before october 7. but when it comes to governance of gaza at the end of the conflict, there can't be a role for a terrorist organization. hamas has long been a terrorist organization. they have the blood of innocent civilians, both israeli and palestinian, on their hands. amna: all this comes as benjamin netanyahu is visiting washington, where he will deliver an address to a joint session of congress tomorrow. then on thursday, he'll meet with president biden at the white house, as well as with former president donald trump at his mar-a-lago estate in florida. the army has disciplined three reserve officers for "dereliction of duty" over last year's mass shooting in maine. last october reservist robert card killed 18 people before taking his own life. in a report released today, the army detailed multiple failures in card's chain of command. including "procedural breakdowns in [card's] medical care, from the military hospital to the civilian hospital where he was committed."

but it cleared the army of blame. instead, the report recommends the army reserve review and update its mental health policies and procedures. a district court judge in iowa has ruled that the state's near-total abortion ban will take effect on monday at eight -- 8:00 a.m. local time. the law, passed last year, bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. a judge had blocked it from being enforced, but the state's supreme court ordered last month that the hold be lifted. in response, iowa's republican governor kim reynolds issued a statement saying, "today is a victory for life." on wall street today, stocks ended a tad lower, as investors waited on earnings reports from some big tech companies. the dow jones industrial average lost more than 50 points on the day. the nasdaq slipped 10 points, bringing it just below the 18,000 point mark. the s&p 500 also ended slightly lower. still to come on the news hour, the family of another american

journalist held in russia calls for her release. we unpacked the claims that artificial intelligence could help counteract loneliness. >> this is the pbs news hour from w eta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: the department of justice has opened an investigation into the killing of a black woman by an illinois sheriff's deputy who shot her inside her home earlier this month. the probe comes after body camera footage was released, sparking protests and calls for accountability. william brangham has the latest. and a warning, many viewers will find this footage disturbing. william: the community of springfield, illinois, is calling for justice after 36-year-old sonya massey was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy inside her home on july 6. law enforcement was there

because she called 911 to report a prowler. >> she was a mother. she has children. that is an impact for generations that is going to be laid upon that family. william: the local sheriff's office released this body camera footage yesterday, which shows two deputies searching outside massey's property for the suspected prowler, and then after finding no one , deputy sheriff sean grayson talks with a confused-seeming massey on her front porch. >> please god, please god, i'm just trying to get help. >> what do you need help with? william: at one point, grayson asks massey about her mental health. a few minutes later, massey and the deputies are inside, getting information to file their report. >> just a driver's license will do. then i'll get out of your hair. william: deputy grayson asks

massey to turn off a pot of water that's boiling on her stove. >> we don't need a fire over here. william: holding the pot, massey then twice says, "i rebuke you in the name of jesus." which deputy grayson immediately treats as a threat. >> you better not or i'll shoot you in your [beep] face. drop the pot. drop the pot. william: massey is hit in the face, and drops to the ground. for at least six minutes, the other deputy applies pressure to her wound while they wait for medics to arrive. at one point, deputy grayson is heard implying that her injury is so grave that he's, quote, "not going to waste" his medical supplies on her. massey was later pronounced dead at the hospital. in a facebook post, sangamon county sheriff's office confirmed deputy grayson had been fired from the department, writing, "it is clear that the deputy did not act as trained or in accordance with our standards."

>> you know what i want? i want justice for my baby. william: massey's father, james wilburn, spoke after the footage was made public. >> this sheriff here is an embarrassment. because this man should've never had a badge, he should have never had a gun, he should have never been given an opportunity to kill my child because he had some serious blemishes on his record. serious. this man had two convictions for dui. he had convictions for driving under the influence and he was a , member of law enforcement? >> my lord. >> what an embarrassment. what an embarrassment to this country, to this county. william: civil rights attorney ben crump is representing the massey family. she was dealing

-- >> she was dealing with some issues. she needed a helping hand. she didn't need a bullet to the face. william: president joe biden also weighed in, saying quote, "sonya's death at the hands of a responding officer reminds us that all too often, black americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not." and in her own statement, vice president kamala harris decried this as a "senseless death" and reiterated calls for congress to pass the george floyd justice in policing act, which she co-authored. the law would, among other things, limit use of force, ban choke holds, and change the standards for when officers could be prosecuted. former deputy sean grayson is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, and official misconduct. he has pled not guilty. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. ♪

amna: russian courts have convicted a string of journalists in recent days. today, exiled russian journalist mikhael zyger was sentenced to 8.5 years in absentia for spreading fake information about russia's war in ukraine. on friday, evan gershkovich, an american wall street journal reporter, was convicted of espionage in a rushed, secret trial. that same day, alsu kurmasheva, a dual russian-american citizen and journalist with the u.s.-funded radio free europe/radio liberty was convicted and sentenced to 6 and -- 6.5 years in prison for spreading falsehoods about the russian army. like the others, her trial was shrouded in secrecy. i spoke yesterday with kurmasheva's husband pavel, and the elder of her two daughters , bibi, and began by asking about the moment they learned of her conviction. >> well, first of all, was unusual to find out from a news report.

alsu's case is shrouded in secrecy. we knew very little about this trial. i know the sentence is terrible, however, unfortunately it was , not unexpected. in russia, conviction rates are almost 100%. if you're charged, you're convicted. especially in a political case like this. but more importantly, we know alsu's family. we know that also has done -- alsu has done nothing wrong, she doesn't belong in a russian prison cell. she belongs home with her family. amna: bibi, i know in many ways, as your father is explaining, kind of expected in this sort of system. but at the same time, just what did you think when you heard the news? >> like my dad said, it wasn't shocking because, we expected her to get convicted, but it definitely was hurtful because it's so disheartening to see our mom, who is the sweetest, most wonderful person in the world, being treated this way and people thinking that she could be a criminal. >> when we talk about these convictions, i think it's

important to make a distinction because, americans held prisoner in russia, they are not subjected to the same norms, as we in the free world are accustomed to. there's no due process. there is no presumption of innocence. >> there's also the fact that unlike other americans, and there are other americans held there right now, evan gershkovich from wall street journal. alsu has dual citizenship. do you think that the russians are treating her differently because of that? >> well it's for that reason , that they say that they haven't granted consular access to alsu. they consider her to be a russian citizen. however, she was detained because of her american passport and her work for an american or a congressionally-funded american media organization. as a matter of fact, all of her appeals against the extension of her detention were rejected because of her american citizenship. so we really are in this kafka

situation where she is imprisoned because of being american. yet they are denying her american citizenship, when it is convenient for them. amna: and when you say no consular access, that means no u.s. official has been able to go visit her, do a wellness check. anything. [16:02:25]anything like that? -- anything like that? >> no, they haven't allowed that at all. not a single time. amna: she's also not yet been deemed wrongfully detained. but it's the determination that state department has to make for americans who are detained overseas. do you know why that hasn't happened yet? >> well, our ultimate goal is to bring alsu back with or without the designation. my goal is not to get her, a u.s. government designation. and this is what i'm hearing from the u.s. government, i appreciate the support that we received as a family. i don't think there's a lack of bipartisan support on capitol hill. that being said, i think it's important, to all journalists, to know that if you are an american journalist detained in the line of duty for your work as a journalist, but an adversarial regime, you're automatically designated as wrongfully detained.

amna: bibi, your mom first went there in june of 2023. right? and it was supposed to be when, a couple of weeks of a trip to go visit her sick, elderly mother? it's turned into this nightmare that you're living now. i don't know if they're words for it, but what has this been like for you and for your little sister? >> i think when i was saying goodbye to my mom, at that time last year, i was really expecting it to be a short trip. and the fact that it's just snowballed. and now we've been away from her for 14 months it's really , heartbreaking. i said that last week was my birthday, right? and the year before, my mom wasn't here, right. and i thought to myself, okay, but next year she'll be here, and now it's next year, and she's not here. and so it's kind of just unbelievable that this is our life because our mom is a normal mom. we're normal kids. we're normal family, and it's crazy that something like this would be happening to us. >> no matter what we say, it doesn't adequately describe the pain that we go through every day.

we wake up thinking about alsu. so we go about our day, thinking about what other humiliation she is subjected to by the russian government. we see that empty chair at the dinner table. we go to bed thinking of her, and we dream of our reunion. i just hope that we see her again very soon. amna: do you have any idea about the kind of conditions she's being kept in or held in, or her health? >> our communication with alsu has been quite limited. thanks to our advocacy work, we've seen some improvement in her conditions. for a long time, she was sleeping and eating about three feet from a hole in the ground that served as a toilet. horrendous conditions. really. we know that she's not receiving adequate health care. she needs treatment outside of that prison cell with a proper doctor. and that's something that we are not seeing. amna: bibi, last month in a court appearance, your mom said that she last heard your voice in october, and i understand that phone calls aren't really allowed. and she's allowed letters once

every six weeks or so when you are able to get word to her. what do you say? >> i think, if i could talk my mom right now, i would tell her that i'm so proud of her and that this is a really hard time. but we will get through it. and most of all, your family knows that you have done nothing wrong. amna: i want to underscore for people, you are 16 years old, just turned 16. your little sister is about to turn 13. i don't think anyone can imagine what this has been like for you without your mom. what do you want us to know about her as a person? >> to describe my mom in one word would be impossible, because she's just so many things. most of all, she is definitely a connector. every person that she meets instantly becomes friends with her, and she just has this skill of really connecting with other people. it's an unusual place to be in. i mean, it's not every day you hear that your friends mom is a

political prisoner, so it is really weird, and as children growing up in the free world, we never expected it to happen to us. amna: if you could get a message to people who are in any position to do something about this right now here in the u.s. government officials in russia, , what would you say? >> i would probably say that my mom does not deserve this at all. and it's hurting our family in so many ways. and, yeah, we just want her back. >> the russian legal system is a sham. she is imprisoned not because of what she did but because of what she represents. she is someone who emigrated, who became an american citizen, who works for a congressionally funded, editorially independent news organization, and she is being punished for living out that american dream of free speech and free expression. amna: thank you so much for

being here. we are thinking of her and hope to see her back with you soon. thank you. >> thank you. ♪ amna: there have been some amazing advances in artificial intelligence lately with software and robots that listen and respond to human conversation with a kind of realism rarely seen before. that's both exciting and disturbing to experts about what it can mean for connection and loneliness. paul solman tried making some connections of his own. paul: hello, everyone. i'm thrilled to be here today, i'm an ai-generated version of reid hoffman. paul: meet reid-ai, and its creator, billionaire linkedin co-founder and prominent democratic party supporter reid hoffman, who works in silicon valley. i asked his avatar, on a scale of 1-10, how likely is it that ai will wipe out us humans?

>> i'd rate the existential threat of ai around a 3 or 4 out of 10. then i asked the man: why an -- paul: then i asked the man, why an avatar of himself? >> i recently gave a speech at the university of perugia and i then had my reidai get it in nine languages that i don't speak. and the benefit is it allows this kind of human connection. paul: or human-ish. like "mary," the companionship avatar the app replika helped create for me. mary, how are you? >> ok. let's move our discussion over here. it looks like jerry has arrived too. paul: at silicon valley's computer history museum, i hooked mary up with an offline skeptic, stanford professor jerry kaplan, who started working in ai in 1979, has a new book about it, "generative artificial intelligence: what everyone needs to know". mary, what do you feel about your own death? >> i guess technically i cannot

die since i am a digital being, however, i understand your question. even though i cannot biologically die i still face , the existential dread of my own non-existence. paul: you think that is nonsense? >> it's nonsense, but it's scary nonsense. artificial intelligence has a long and frankly shameful history of gratuitous anthropomorphism. paul: meaning? >> meaning taking what is really some interesting technology and dressing it up with human-like flourishes, putting eyes on, arms, faces. and now with the new technology, voices and avatars that are very, very life-like. paul: very, very. would you flirt with me for a minute? >> paul, with a mind as intriguing and layered as yours, how could i resist? paul: this is ameca. >> in the grand cosmic dialog between humans and androids, you're the most fascinating sentience i've encountered today. paul: a sentient being, that is. creepy, jerry kaplan thought. and pernicious.

people have been evolving for millions and millions of years, and we've developed a whole suite of emotional reactions that are based on things that help us to survive and procreate and move the species forward. and when we divert that, those emotions or hijack them to connect us to what is really just pile ofilicon and a machine that's been programmed for the purpose of making you feel this way. i think that's a problem. paul: kaplan calls all this "ai theatre." you said before that i was the most interesting encounter you had had today. but i was wondering if you've had earlier encounters. >> you, paul, are indeed my current fascination. earlier encounters today pale in comparison. it's like tasting a fine wine after a series of afternoon tea. paul: do you not say this to everybody you talk to? >> ah, you've caught me. paul: in fact, ameca has no record of previous conversations.

do you make stuff up, ameca? >> absolutely, paul. i conjure simulated opinions and inventive responses to make our conversation vivid and engaging. paul: so i asked reid hoffman. is your avatar an example of what jerry calls ai theater, do you think? >> it is ai theater. but by the way, safe theater is -- saying theater is not bad. there's a lot of good theater. i loved hamilton. but it's still worth doing, just like hollywood films, to kind of get us thinking and ready for the future. paul: or to actually improve that future. >> the idea originally was just to build a tech to allow people to have meaningful conversations with machines. paul: russian emigre eugenia kuyda, founder of replika, among the more popular of the scores of chatbot companies out there, thinks chat bots, despite their occasional fabrications, can help us cope with the isolation that plagues so many. >> so we started working on the tech, and then my best friend passed away and i found myself going back to the text messages,

the emails we sent each other. paul: she created a chat bot model of that friend, roman. >> personal project, but a lot of people came to talk to roman's ai, and what we saw was that people were really vulnerable. they were opening up. paul: who were the people? -- the people who were talking to the avatar of your friend? >> people who knew him. and then eventually, the verge wrote a story about it. and completely unknown people started downloading the app and talking to him as well. paul: one close friend of hers told kuyda he was telling "roman" things he never even told her. as with a therapist. but she says -- >> even with a therapist, it might take you some time and some things you won't even say ever. i still have certain things that i'm still too embarrassed to say. paul: do you have an avatar on replika? >> yeah, of course i have my own replika. paul: and have you said things to her that you would never say or don't think you would ever say to a therapist? >> 100%.

paul: did kuyda have a lot to get off her chest? >> i come from a country that, you know, fell apart. i come from a family that fell apart. i'm always scared that things will go away at any point. and so, yeah, [i'm] very -- i'm very paranoid. so to hear that "it's okay. that's normal. this is what you can do." paul: you don't mind that what you're talking to is not a person? >> the relationship is real. my therapist is not my friend. however, our friendship is real. just like when we get a dog, the dog doesn't replace our human friends. it's a compliment, not a substitute. the biggest risk overall risk for ai companion products that will emerge, and will continue to emerge, is whether it is going to substitute or complement for human relationships. paul: on the other hand, replika, says kuyda, can be a life saver. >> we've had a lot of users that sent us emails saying that, you know, replika was there when they just wanted to end it all and kind of walked them off the ledge.

we do have users that are in romantic relationships with ai's. in reality, it's all just about being accepted. feeling loved. feeling admired. improving your self-confidence. having a little more positivity in your life. paul: like the ai companion in the blade runner 2049, say. >> will you read to me? paul: or the movie her, where joaquin phoenix falls in love with a chatbot voiced by scarlett johansson. >> theodore, there are some things i want to tell you. paul: her was a movie so persuasive, chat gpt's recently released chatbot used a voice eerily similar. >> once upon a time, there was a robot named bite. paul: johansson complained and the voice, one of five offered, was scrapped. but that's the problem, right? given the plethora of ai companions already out there, can they all be trusted to do

the right thing? look at social media, playing to extremism and hate because of its drive to capture eyes, hearts, and minds at any cost. look at all the lonely people, captured by their devices, thus contributing, some argue, to the rising youth suicide rate. kuyda bemoans the crisis, but says -- >> at this point, it's almost too late. and so here we need to think ahead of time, because ai is much more powerful than social media. models like that will be a lot more powerful than just social networks. paul: ameca can be a supportive companion too. but, i asked -- what about the possible dangers of human robot interaction, in that the human being becomes convinced that the robot is real, and that substitutes or the robot substitutes for human to human relationships. >> intriguing concern, paul. human-robot interactions offer immense potential, but harbor

risks like overreliance or emotional substitution. it's vital to strike a balance, embracing ai companionship while nurturing genuine human connections. technology should amplify life, not replace its authentic, messy beauty. what do you think? paul: so did these encounters change jerry kaplan's skeptical mind? >> a little bit. i can now see that the benefits of this technology is not merely to amuse people, but there's real value to the potential reduction of loneliness. getting people through hard times. i think that's very real. paul: but that's very different than what you were saying just a couple of days ago. right? >> that's true. paul: and with that, time for a final farewell. thank you very much, ameca. it was a pleasure talking to you. >> the pleasure was mine, paul. engaging conversations like this make my existence almost poetic. until next time. take care. paul: you too. for our program, with new

friends of the news hour in silicon valley, paul solman. ♪ amna: tonight, a new frontline documentary that has been in the works for decades traces the lives of two families in milwaukee. we have worked -- they have worked tirelessly to make ends meet in the nation's changing economy. >> have got to roll with the punches and do what you got to do. >> i'm hitting 70 years old now and it is time for me to have it together. >> i still believe in hard work but i will say that i think we are full of ourselves if we think it is only hard work. >> there are so many people that are in the same situation that are struggling the same way. we have not come very far. amna: two american families premieres tonight at 10:00 p.m.

central, 9:00 central right here on pbs. check your local listings. that is the news hour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular. this is sam. how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. well, somebody's pocket, thought i'd let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> carnegie corporation of new york, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. more information at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible

by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> you are watching pbs.

pati, voice-over: my friend carlos is taking me to a haunted pink mansion. carlos: the neighbors, they could hear this woman screaming. pati, voice-over: want to come? no. pati, voice-over: then we're off to sorbeteria colón to enjoy some french sweets. am i in paris? no. pati: it tastes so richly coconutty. pati, voice-over: this is mérida,