geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna nawaz is away. on the “news hour” tonight -- >> their brutal order is over and they are free. geoff: high-profile americans held in russia are released as

part of the biggest east-west prisoner swap since the cold war. emergency crews struggle to contain rapidly spreading wildfires burning through large swaths of the western u.s. and former president donald trump doubles down on the remarks he made about ve president harris at a convention for black journalists. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs news hour" has been provided by. >> a law partner rediscovers her grandmother's artistry and creates a trust to keep the craft alive. a raymondjames financial advisor gets to know you, your passions, and the way you enrich your community. life well planned. >> 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 individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the “news hour.” the waiting, the worrying, and the dreadful wondering are over tonight for three americans jailed in russia and their families. journalists evan gershkovich, alsu kurmasheva, and former u.s. marine paul whelan are heading

home tonight after an extraordinary deal struck among the u.s., its allies, and the russian government. a fourth person, a u.s. green card holder, vladimir karamurza, was also released. nick schifrin starts our coverage. nick: in 80 years of u.s.-russia and u.s.-soviet spy swaps, today's was the most complex. two dozen people on one ankara turkey tarmac -- russian dissidents, convicted russian spies, and detained americans who will be coming home, and spoke to their family members in the oval office, on a day president biden called historic diplomacy. >> this is an incredible relief for all the family members gathered here. it's a relief to the friends and colleagues across the country who have been praying for this day for a long time. nick: among those released, 32-year-old wall street journal reporter evan gershkovich, the first journalist since the cold war sentenced in a russian court for spying. >> i've got a medical condition

that prohibits this. nick: former american marine paul whelan, detained by russia six years ago. russian-american radio free europeradio liberty correspondent alsu kurmasheva, sentenced to 6.5 years for spreading false information. they posed for a photo with u.s. officials as they flew home. also released, american resident and russian-british activist vladimir karamurza. >> this personal accountability may well be the only thing that will make them think twice. nick: he's a pulitzer prize winning journalist and pro-democracy activist who lobbied congress to create the magnitsky act, the u.s.' most well known human rights sanctions. he was twice poisoned, but kept returning to russia, to try and create the democratic future he envisioned, as he told me back in 2016. >> we believe in the rule of law, we believe in human rights. we believe that russia should enjoy the same democratic institutions that the rest of europe enjoys. nick: to get them out, the u.s. worked with germany, slovenia, norway, and poland that held

russian intelligence agents convicted of crimes, who are now handed back to russia. most notably, vadim krasikov, who murdered a russian dissident in a german playground. president vladimir putin lauded his work to tucker carlson. >> that person, due to patriotic sentiments, eliminated a bandit in one of the european capitals. nick: slovenia is releasing russian sleeper agents artem dulsev and anna dulseva, who posed as argentinians. the administration says their part of today's deal, was finally secured in a phone call between president biden and slovenian prime minister robert golob on july 21, just hours before president biden withdrew from the presidential race. the u.s. is releasing what a senior administration official says are three russian intelligence officials, each convicted by u.s. courts for cyber crimes, hacking, and sanctions evasion. >> it is difficult to send back a convicted criminal to secure

the release of an innocent american, and yet sometimes the choice is between doing that and consigning doing that person basically to live out their days in prison in a hostile foreign country. nick: a u.s. official tells "pbs news hour" the central intelligence agency tried to secure earlier versions of this deal, in january 2023, the slovenian sleeper agents, for whelan. in march 2023, the slovenian sleeper agents and two other russian agents, for whelan and gershkovich. each was rejected by russian intelligence, which each time demanded krasikov. germany's willingness to send krasikov began as an attempt to try and release former opposition leader alexei navalny. that deal was initially agreed to by president biden and chancellor olaf scholz in early february. but before navalny's name could be formally offered to russia, navalny died in a russian penal colony. u.s. officials say they negotiated for months, including a letter from biden to scholz, and germany finally agreed to

release krasikov in return for some of navalny's former allies in russian detention, including lilia chanysheva, and ksenia fadeeva. russia is also releasing well known russian human rights defender oleg orlov, and political prisoners sasha skochilenko, and ilya yashin, jailed for criticizing the war in ukraine, all of whom get new lives in germany. >> they stood up for democracy and human rights, their own leaders threw them in prison, the united states helped release them as well. nick: but not all americans got out. army staff sergeant gordon black, who's been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for theft, will remain in russian detention. as will american teacher marc fogel, convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2022. his mother malphine met with former president donald trump in butler, pennsylvania on the same day of his failed assassination attempt.

as for those released, putin welcomed the russian spies and their families home. and the american families felt relief. they will soon see their loved ones for the first time in years, and miriam, alsu kurmasheva's younger daughter, will celebrate her 13th birthday. >> now she gets to celebrate with her mom. that's what this is all about. families. able to be together again. like they should have been, all along. nick: for the pbs “news hour,” i'm nick schifrin. geoff: jon finer is president biden's deputy national security adviser and i spoke with him about the prisoner swap moments ago. welcome back to the "news hour." all told this was among the most complex prisoner swaps undertaken since the cold war. the deal was in the works for the last two years as i understand it, and ultimately came together in the last two weeks. what were the key inflection point? how did this all happen? jon: there were a few key aspects of this deal that speak to the approach that our

administration and president biden have taken to foreign policy since we got here. one is diplomacy. we have said from the beginning diplomacy would be the hallmark of our foreign policy and that includes diplomacy at the level of the president who made a call to a fellow head of state, the prime minister of slovenia, one hour before telling the country in the world was no longer going to be running in this year's election to try and free up one more aspect of this deal and was ultimately successful. it is that sort of face-to-face and person-to-person diplomacy at the core of our policy. second is allies and partners. the president has said his worldview was predicated on rebuilding and revitalizing america's reliance is. you saw a half-dozen alliances coming together today with different aspects of the deal which ultimately led to getting it done. the third is execution. this was highly complex. it involved a wide range of countries, complicated logistics all coming together on the same day and it was executed without a hitch and as a result of that a large number of people who would otherwise be held captive are going to be coming home

including three americans and one legal permanent resident of the united states. geoff: why now? why did vladimir putin view the deal as being in his best interest? jon: i am the last person who will speak to the mindset of vladimir putin. that would be a question better placed to others pretty one of the things you realize having worked now on a number of these deals even though this one was the most complex is the sort of moved on their own speed. they are long and agonizing times in which you feel not a lot is getting done. you try to be created and come up with new solutions and problem solve, have conversations and ultimately things can end up moving faster than anyone anticipates and that is what happened here. we wish we could have done that sooner. ultimately we believe we got it done in a timely fashion that has led to people now be home spending time with their families before too much longer and we are happy about that. geoff: to what degree does this signal any sort of rate through of tensions between the u.s. and russia, and might any of this

successful diplomacy be put to use to help bring an end to russia's war in ukraine? jon: to be honest i would caution anyone from drunk too many broader conclusions about the u.s. and russia relationship aced on this deal. that is not the course we are on, what you just described. we are obviously in a very difficult place, completely on opposite sides of the conflict in ukraine and i don't see that changing anytime soon unless russia makes a significant set of changes and we don't anticipate that. what we had here was a target of opportunity. an opportunity to get some people home who otherwise would continue to be held in an unconscionable situation. we took that opportunity. otherwise we are continuing with our approach certainly with ukraine more and our broader approach to the world on its current course and speed. geoff: while this nightmare is ceainly over for those released there were other americans who were left out of this exchange. namely mark fogel, an american

sentenced to 14 years of hard labor in russia, and a u.s. russian citizen facing charges of treason for allegedly donating $51 to a ukrainian charity in the u.s. what is the administration doing to secure their release at this point? jon: there continue to be a number of americans included -- are held under difficult circumstances, including americans in syria and afghanistan and other places around the world. this administration has made enormous commitment from before the time we came into this office, from the transition to the biden/harris administration, to do what we could to get these people home. the president has an extra ordinary track record of doing that and we are going to continue to work on those cases and all cases of americans held who should not be until the end of this administration. geoff: deputy national security advisor jon finer. thanks for joining us this evening.

now let's get some additional perspective on the prisoner swap. nick schifrin has that. nick: to discuss the larger implications of today's events, we turn to andrew weiss. he's a former state department official who served in the george h.w. bush and clinton administrations. he's now vice president for studies at the carnegie endowment for international peace. thank you very much and welcome back. as we showed a few minutes ago russian president vladimir putin welcomed home all these russian spies and their families on a big red carpet with big flowers. what message is he sending? andrew: vladimir putin goes to great lengths to wrap himself in the valor of the russian security establishment but all that covers up a pretty unpleasant fact is russian spies has been arrested all over the world and are caught red-handed doing bad stuff including the hitman in the berlin case. so what vladimir putin is doing by putting on such a big show is covering up for the continued underperformance of his security establishment and acting like

they are big heroes. they are screw ups, they are not heroes. nick: the u.s. offered two different trades before today. for whelan by himself, then whelan and evan gershkovich, including the two so-called russian sleeper agents caught in slovenia. both were rejected and the message the u.s. got was, call us back when you have krasikov. why is he so important to putin? andrew: there are indications they know each other personally. the wall street journal has a wonderful piece that appeared sometime today that says they potentially work together when vladimir putin was deputy mayor in the 1990's. this is a career russian intelligence operative who has presumably conducted a variety of assassinations in various parts of the world including in moscow, and who claims to have gone to shooting ranges and done other things with the vladimir putin. so there seems to be a connection between the men.

and you saw when he came down the jetway today, vladimir putin hugged him. nick: we have talked multiple times about how the different security apparatus conflict each other. could there be a dispute among intelligence agencies inside russia over who to release, and the fsb, putin being a former kgb colonel, with the fsb win that fight? andrew: they are intended to avoid power consolidating in any corner so that vladimir putin can divide and rule. what we have seen rather than the russian security establishment backing away from confrontation is leaning in. we have seen reports of russian intelligence services trying to assassinate the ceo of a senior defense manufacturer. we have seen them conduct sabotage operations pretty would vladimir putin says we are at war with the west we need to

take him at his word. nick: why would he agree to this deal now before the u.s. election instead of waiting? andrew: vladimir putin is a cold-blooded operator who is tactical and who believes in being transactional. for him to get what he thinks is a good deal for ages they have been working to get the hitman released, this is a person serving a life sentence for conducting a targeted killing in broad daylight. for him this is a good deal. if you look at the other russians coming out of detention , these are people russians wanted back. intelligence operatives rolled up in poland, norway, pennsylvania, as well as in u.s. courts. all these debates about it deal come down to numbers and accounting game is really complicated. u.s. officials today are at pains to saying we are getting 16 people out and the russians are getting it back. it is not an apples to apples comparison. nick: and yet putin did not

release other americans. marc fogel included. why might he withhold some of them? andrew: they are bargaining chips. there are other russians they want back. there are people russians will continue to take into attention. any americans foolish enough to go visit russia, even for family reasons is at risk. president biden made a point of that today sandy underlying message of today's good news is people need to steer clear of travel to russia. nick: you have had an extensive career in government. how complicated would it have been to coordinate all the european countries and u.s. agencies and russian agencies to get this done? andrew: that is what is truly unprecedented about today. it is a multi-but dimensional problem -- multidimensional problem. the german role is absolutely critical. that was a key demand from the russian side pretty that the german support this deal would not have come together.

nick: andrew weiss, thanks very much. geoff, back to you. geoff: as mentioned, one of the americans not released today is teacher marc fogel, who was sentenced to 14 years in a russian penal colony in 2022. he was arrested in 2021 at a moscow airport for carrying medically prescribed marijuana. earlier this evening, before i spoke with the deputy national security adviser, marc fogel's sister anne joined us from her montana home. anne fogle, thank you for being with us. anne: thank you for having me. it's really important that i tell marc's story. geoff: while some families are rejoicing today as they've been reunited with their loved ones, your family still has to wait. how are you doing? how are you holding up? anne: it's been a heart wrenching 36 hours. i spoke with mark yesterday morning on the phone, and he -- when i realized that he was still in the penal colony, and

everyone else had been pulled out of their penal colonies, my heart really sank. but it's really hard to give up hope. and for the entire day i roller coastered thinking about that. the penal colony is about 4.5 hours from moscow, and i thought that maybe they would be driving him down, or it was just really hard to let it go. geoff: yeah. when you spoke with him, what did he say? what did he tell you? how is he doing? anne: he was kind of in the dark. he knew that something was going on, and then he saw a little bit of news about paul. they're constantly playing the television and news stations in the penal colony that he's in. and so he knew something was going on, but he doesn't speak russian, so he wasn't exactly sure. and he called and i i didn't want to -- i know this is

crushing him. so i didn't want to tell him what i knew. but we at that point in time, we were calling our senators and calling the ambassadors that we've been in touch with, and we were trying to get something activated for him. and so it was a crazy day of phones and messaging and emailing. and it's all for naught. geoff: the national security adviser, jake sullivan, said today that the administration is working to secure your brother's release from russia. have you heard anything from the administration? anne: no, we've never heard from the -- my sister in law and i did talk to jake sullivan about two years ago. but mark has never been prioritized.

you know, he was convicted under the same code as brittney griner, but he was never designated as wrongfully detained. and we don't have the nba behind us, and we don't have the wall street journal behind us. so it's been very difficult for us to get our man out. geoff: your mother, your 95-year-old mother filed a lawsuit in june against the u.s. state department over its failure to declare mark fogel as wrongfully detained. why do you think he hasn't received that designation, and how has it complicated efforts, in your view, to secure his release? anne: i don't think he's been designated because i don't think he's important enough. as i said, we just don't have the notoriety, the celebrity status. and believe me, the worst part of this process is being pitted against other americans. i don't want that. no one wants that. mark doesn't want that. geoff: when we started our conversation, you said you wanted to get your brother's story out. what do you want folks to know about your brother, marc?

anne: i want you to know that marc has had an outsized impact on the world, essentially because he has taught internationally for so many years. he has thousands of students that he has taught, and he is -- there's not a hall of fame for teaching, but he is the best of the best. and you have one of his students in your newsroom as we speak. he has students all over the world, writing to him, praying for him, making movies about him. we need justice. he needs to come home. he needs to be with his family. his wife and sons need him. and this is absolutely unfair that they did not bring him home with the greatest, historic prisoner swap since the world war. i wish i could be more steady,

perhaps, and saying these things, but i feel very wronged for marc. and he needs to come home. and the biden administration has nothing to lose. they should have brought him home. geoff: anne fogel, our thoughts are with you, your family, and your brother, marc. thanks again for your time this evening. we appreciate it. anne: thank you for having me. ♪ geoff: concerns about a growing conflict in the middle east start our day's other headlines. that's after israel's military confirmed an airstrike last month had killed the leader of hamas's military wing, muhammad deif. also today, iran's supreme leader attended the funeral in tehran for another hamas leader, ismail haniyeh, who was killed in an attack this week. israel has not claimed responsibility.

while in beirut, mourners paid their respects for hezbollah commander fuad shukr, who was killed in an israeli strike in lebanon's capital on tuesday. addressing the crowd, hezbollah's leader threatened retaliation, saying the conflict had entered a new phase. for his part, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said his country is ready for any response. >> israel is highly prepared for any scenario, both defensively and offensively. we will exact a very heavy price for any act of aggression against us from any arena. geoff: in tel aviv, israelis took to the streets to mark 300 days since the october 7 attack, and called for an immediate release of hostages still being held in gaza. the air force has concluded that a deadly osprey crash off the coast of japan last year was caused by a quote, catastrophic failure in a gear box. the investigation also found that the pilot ignored warnings

to land the aircraft. the crash killed eight service members and led to a monthslong grounding of all military ospreys. it was one of several osprey crashes in recent years that killed 20 service members overall. a new york appeals court has rejected donald trump's attempt to have the gag order in his hush money case lifted. a panel found that the judge in the trial, juan merchan, was right to extend parts of the order until mr. trump is sentenced in september. separately, mr. trump's defense team has asked that merchan be recused from the case for a third time. in a court filing, they cited an alleged conflict involving the judge's daughter and her ties to vice president kamala harris, who is now likely to be mr. trump's opponent in the november election. senate republicans blocked legislation today that would

have expanded the child-tax credit for low-income families, and extend some corporate tax breaks. in doing so, they torpedoed a bipartisan, $79 billion tax bill that the house had overwhelmingly approved. republicans are betting that they can push through a more conserviate tax bill next year, if they win control of congress and the white house. the department of transportation proposed a rule today that would ban airlines from charging parents to sit with their children. under the proposal, children 13 years or younger must be allowed to sit with their parent or guardian for free. if adjacent seats aren't available when booking, families can opt for a full refund or wait for a seat to open up. and if one doesn't, they can re-book for free. the biden administration says the rule could save a family of four up to $200 in seat fees. on wall street today, stocks dropped after recent data sparked worries about an economic slowdown. the dow jones industrial average fell nearly 500 points, or more than 1%. the nasdaq lost 400 points, falling back towards the 17,000 point level. the s&p 500 also ended sharply lower on the day.

and, spoiler alert, we have more results from the paris olympics. the all-around final for women's gymnastics was packed with stellar performances, but in the end, gold went to the greatest of all-time. simone biles can now add a record sixth olympic gold to her resume. another american, suni lee, got the bronze. and swimmer katie ledecky made history by capturing silver in the 4-by-200 freestyle relay. that's ledecky's 13th olympic medal, making her the most decorated u.s. female olympian, ever. looking at the overall medal count, and team usa has solidified its lead with 37 medals, including gold medals today in swimming, rowing, and fencing events. still to come on the “news hour,” we speak with voters about how the shakeups in the presidential race have shifted their views. key conspirators of the 9/11 attacks now held in guantanamo are set to plead guilty. what's in the deal. and a new book on the international strongmen who work

together to end democracy. >> 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. geoff: an especially active fire season is exacting a huge toll across several western states. a series of fires have turned deadly in colorado, where at least one person was found dead. in california, more than 5800 personnel, 500 fire trucks, and 40 helicopters are battling a fire larger than all of los angeles. the park fire, as it's known, is the country's largest and has ballooned to historic proportions in just over a week. stephanie sy has the latest. stephanie: this is the view for firefighters on the front lines of california's park fire. the blaze, believed to be

started by a local man's burning car, is now the fifth largest in state history. >> i have not personally seen a fire grow so fast in such a short amount of time. stephanie: in just a week, nearly 400,000 acres burned across four counties, forcing thousands of evacuations and destroying hundreds of structures. in rural cohasset, california, dave tehan and his son jonathan are both members of the county fire department. while they battled to protect their town, their own homes were lost to the flames. >> i feel luckier than some of the people here because we do have a few things, not very much, but a few things to hold in our hands that survived. the friends that i've known for so many years have just stepped up and shown so much support. you know, i feel rich in that.

stephanie: kristy and michael daneau also live in cohasset. they lost their house to another fast-moving fire six years ago, in paradise, california. now, this is all that remains of the home where they rebuilt their lives. they had no fire insurance. >> the most important things i grabbed was me and my brother and sister have my mom's ashes, along with my dad. so i was able to grab a few little pictures, and her ashes. stephanie: the park fire's explosive expansion is nearly unprecedented, says ucla climate scientist daniel swain. >> this is definitely a top tier event in terms of how quickly it moved across the landscape in those initial days. some of the fastest rates of spread over that initial 24 to 48 hour period that we've seen on a wildfire in this part of the world. stephanie: nearly 100 fires are currently burning across the west, and 4.5 million acres have already burned this year, about a million above average. this week, multiple blazes broke out across colorado's front

range, killing at least one person and forcing residents to flee their homes near denver. governor jared polis has now activated the national guard to assist with logistics. meanwhile, in oregon crews are stretched thin, battling more than 30 separate fires. >> i've lived here all my life and never, never seen it this way. stephanie: to make matters worse, another brutal heatwave is forecast to turn up the temperature this weekend, a dynamic that swain says continues to drive the intensity of this year's fire season. >> it has become a very active season. and a big part of the reason for this is that nearly the entire western half of the country, as well as the western half of canada, have experienced, much like california has, record-breaking heat in recent weeks over a very long and sustained period. so all of that extra heat, even following what was a relatively wet winter in some places, has

really dried out the vegetation, in some cases to near record dry levels. stephanie: and that means there's plenty of fuel for the fires yet to burn. for the “pbs news hour,” i'm stephanie sy. ♪ geoff: former president donald trump is facing backlash for calling vice president kamala harris' racial identity into question when he addressed a black journalists convention yesterday. that's as the vice president herself wrapped up a series of events aimed at speaking directly to black voters. our laura barron lopez has more. laura: delivering the eulogy before hundreds of mourners at fallbrook church in north houston today, vice president kamala harris bid farewell to a friend, the late texas representative sheila jackson lee, who served in congress for nearly three decades, and became one of its most influential black members.

>> to honor her memory, let us continue to fight, to realize the promise of america. a promise of freedom, opportunity, and justice. not just for some, but for all. laura: harris, remembering a fellow black woman trailblazer, as her own racial identity is being attacked by her rival, donald trump. speaking to a historically black sorority yesterday, harris slammed her opponent hours after the republican nominee questioned her racial identity. >> donald trump spoke at the annual meeting of the national association of black journalists. and it was the same old show, the divisiveness and the disrespect. and let me just say, the american people deserve better. laura: trump was asked if harris, who is poised to be the first black and south asian woman to become a presidential nominee, was a dei, or diversity

hire, as some of his republican allies have said. >> she was always of indian heritage, and she was only promoting indian heritage. i didn't know she was black. until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black, and now she wants to be known as black. so i don't know, is she indian or is she black? laura: in spite of the backlash, trump is digging in, posting this to his social media platform, thanking harris for the quote, nice picture that showed the love of your indian heritage. and at a rally in pennsylvania last night, the trump campaign displayed news headlines that referred to her as an indian-american senator. the former president accused harris of faking her identity. >> in her speech in atlanta last night, kamala harris even tried to outbrand a new southern accent -- did you hear her new accent? laura: harris is biracial, the daughter of an indian mother and jamaican father. and her black identity, a key part of her history as the member of a historically black

sorority, while a student at a historically black college. today, at the u.s. southern border, trump's running mate tried to put the spotlight back on policy, namely, immigration. vice presidential nominee j.d. vance toured an unfinished section of border fence in arizona, and blamed harris for the biden administration's border policies. >> has kamala harris done anything you've asked her to do? she is the border czar -- has your border czar done anything you've asked her to do? and the answer is no. laura: harris, however, was never charged with overseeing border security. instead, she was tasked with addressing root causes of migration, and why people flee their countries of origin. and with 96 days till election day, the breakneck pace of campaigning for harris and trump is just beginning. the trump campaign said today it raised nearly $140 million last month, trailing the $200 million harris raised in the first week

of her campaign. harris could be the official democratic nominee by monday and will hold her first rally with her yet-to-be-named running mate next tuesday in philadelphia. for the “pbs news hour,” i'm laura barron-lopez. geoff: for voters who have not firmly decided which presidential candidate to support, the events of the last month, including an assassination attempt and a new democratic candidate, have dramatically reshaped the race. lisa desjardins connected with the type of voters likely to decide the election before and after these shakeups. lisa: >> i feel despondent. i feel there is no good choice. >> i feel overall really disappointed and really hopeless. lisa: we will highlight a few now. in june they were unhappy. >> frustrated.

disappointed. let down. lisa: but just weeks later, extraordinary events changed the race. an assassination attempt raised a new image of truck followed shortly by a new partner in the race, trump choosing ohio senator j.d. vance as his running mate. just days later. >> i have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. lisa: biden was out of the race and vice president kamala harris was in. but what did all of this mean for voters? from ours, we have a snapshot of the change. it was large for this 22-year-old in miami about to go to law school. here is how she felt over a month ago. >> i have not a lot of confidence that things are going the way they should in this country. lisa: her feelings now? >> i feel joyful, so excited. lisa: she is finishing a gap

year before law school, and is herself an immigrant from cuba. she crossed the border as a four-year-old and sees her family as part of the american dream. she also sees immigration policy as failing both migrants and the border itself. a democrat, she trusts harris more than trump to improve things. she has questions about harris, but she is ready for a new generation, and all the memes harris has sparked. >> she is definitely energizing me. i love to think that i am a serious consumer of news, but i love when charliexcx tweeted that harris was a brat. >> it was almost like a cloud was lifted. lisa: in new mexico she has a -- she's a graduate student working multiple jobs. she has a full life, trivia nights and getting outdoors. but rent is high and she barely gets by. she believes both parties are failing people like her. she wants to vote third-party, but in june was worried about

that helping trump. this was her then. >> we have these two candidates that don't care about people in my situation. and year after year i am watching things for me and my friends and people in my community get worse. lisa: and now. >> i feel a lot better voting for a third party now that i know that the democrats are putting up a candidate that has a really good chance i think. lisa: what about a group trump especially needs, unhappy uncritical republicans? so, a few things have happened since we last talked. >> it has been quite an experience. i told you i was not too excited for this election cycle. i guess it has probably been the most exciting one we have had in a while. lisa: he is a teacher, family man ends sports fan. in june he was undecided. >> this is the first year i am

not as excited as i would've been in the past. that is where my disappointment lisa: but three weeks leader -- later the assassination trump put trump in a more humanlike for him. >> it helped to make him more personable, i guess you would say. so in a way, in terms of the vote, it moved me closer to a trump vote. lisa: he watched the republican convention thinking perhaps trump would be a unifier. and for 25 minutes, he heard a candidate he could support. but then the speech anzac's thoughts -- and zach's thoughts changed again. >> it became a lengthy stump speech and that lost me. i was hoping for a call for unity and that did not happen the way i expected it to. and so, that initial move closer kind of got washed with some of those things later. lisa: now he is looking at harris, considering her seriously, and saying her vp

decision could make the difference. zach's experience with pennsylvania governor josh shapiro has been good. >> if josh shapiro gets elected, i would probably going from leading to trump currently to leaning harris at that point. i still want to hear what everybody has to say. lisa: another unsure republican. >> if it was tomorrow, they would be a lot of prayer. lisa: steve runs his own travel agency in alabama. in june he had mixed feelings. >> on the one hand discouraged, but on the other hand encouraged because we have a process that has been around a while, and it still does a very good job. lisa: he remains disappointed but is trying to move past it, even as he still doesn't love the candidates or how they got here. >> i wish kamala harris had gone through the process. i wish there was someone other than trump. but this is where we are at, and it is up to me as a voter to continue to look deeper. lisa: one more decider in a swing state, georgia voter lauren in june. >> frustrated. lisa: she felt neither trump nor

biden listens to voters. and now with harris as a candidate? >> i feel differently. i feel more positive. i feel like maybe she's more in touch than he is. of course she is younger and she's female. lisa: she works for the social security administration and finds joy in travel. while she had been more anti-trump before, she now sees reasons to like harris. >> something feels different. i don't know what that is. but yeah, i'm a little more hopeful. lisa: something feels different. for voters, for the deciders especially, the race is not over. it's restarting. for the "pbs news hour," i'm lisa desjardins. ♪ geoff: the man accused as the mastermind behind the september 11 terrorist attacks, and two

accomplices, have agreed to a plea deal in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. the development comes 16 years after their prosecutions started. ali rogin has the latest. ali: the three men, khalid sheikh mohammed, the alleged leader behind the attacks, and walid muhammad salih mubarak bin attash, and mustafa ahmed adam al hawsawi, all agreed to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences. the men have been in custody since 2003 and initially charged in 2008. but there have been years of legal delays, due in part to the brutal torture the men were subjected to while in detention. in a letter, government prosecutors said they recognized the deal would be met with mixed reactions among thousands of family members who lost loved ones, but they called it the best path to finality and justice in this case. for a closer look, i'm joined by wall street journal reporter jess bravin. he is author of "the terror courts, an account of military trials at guantanamo bay."

thank you so much for joining us. how did this deal come to be and why is it happening now? jess: this deal was under negotiation since 2022 and it was not the first time a deal like this was considered pretty for years prosecutors thought that a deal for life sentences in exchange for guilty pleas would be the only way out. an earlier effort was quashed by higher ups in the pentagon. this one began in 2022, has continued as some of the defendants, ksm and the other two decided they were ready to get some finality for their own fate and move forward. it really accelerated in the last two weeks. there was a court session at guantanamo bay. prosecutors and the defense attorney said they were ready to wrap it up and try to get this case closed. ali: prosecutors had sought the

death penalty but the alleged torture the defendants underwent for years complicated those proceedings. how did that factor into this decision? jess: it was essential. right after 9/11 when courts -- reports began emerging about brutal treatment of enemy prisoners, tortured as president obama called at one point, began to emerge, there were questions about how would this affect any future trials. there were legal experts that warned it would make it very difficult if not impossible to prosecute people if they were severely mistreated by the government while in custody and that is exactly what has happened. these detainees wanted to bring in evidence of how they were treated by the cia. one had been waterboarded and beaten, all kinds of things had been done to them that the united states would not tolerate for its own citizens. and they want to bring in evidence saying any statements they made were affected by torture. a lot of pretrial wrangling over a decade has been over what can

the defendants introduce about their treatment. then there was a second factor was under a doctrine sometimes called unclean hands the government is punished by courts when it commits his conduct in a trial. and abusing defendants in custody is misconduct. so it is possible that even if they were convicted and sentenced to death, on appeal at higher court might sanction the government by taking the death penalty off the table. so the death penalty seemed to be a bridge too far given the mistreatment of these prisoners after they were captured by the u.s. ali: what we know about how the families of 9/11 victims are responding to this? jess: it is a total mixed bag. there are thousands of families of victims and as you would expect, their opinions are crossed again. there are some who feel nothing short of death is appropriate. based on their actions, it would be hard to say if the death alt is appropriate for anyone. it would not be appropriate for them. others simply oppose the death

penalty. many americans and people around the world philosophically or morally oppose the death penalty for anybody, and some of those are among the victims' families. and some take the prosecutor's point of view, ideally they could pursue capital punishment for these defendants, but it is just time for closure and time to end this proceeding and move forward. one of the features of the deal is there will be a sensing hearing where the defendants will testify but they will have to answer questions from the victims family is in for many of those families looking for answers, looking for some sense of the accused perpetrators, that hearing will be the substitution for a full trial about what happened in the lead up to 9/11. ali: what happens next? where do these defendants spend their life sentences? jess: again, it is not fully been approved by all the proceedings that have to happen, but the plan is they will next enter a plea, probably within a week or a month from now.

next year will be the sentencing hearing, and after their sentences confirmed they will likely spend it right where they are now, at guantanamo bay. the technical status of their detention will change, they will be sentenced prisoners. but in terms of their day-to-day lives, probably not much will change. they will be looking at the same four walls they are looking at right now for the rest of their lives. ali: jess bravin covering this every step of the way, thank you so much for joining us. jess: you bet. thank you. ♪ geoff: today's historic prisoner release from russia was thanks to the diplomatic work of a group of democracies. freeing over a dozen people from the autocratic regime of vladimir putin. but as william brangham reports, a new book examines how autocracies are gaining power, and what they're doing with that power. william: in her new book, pulitzer prize winner anne

applebaum punctures the commonly held image of an isolated autocrat. instead, she documents the often interconnected ways these strongmen rise to power, how they bolster each other, and then work in tandem to undermine democracy. the book is called "autocracy, inc., the dictators who want to run the world." and anne applebaum joins us now. welcome back to the "news hour." anne: thank you. william: can we start with a definition? because people throw out socialist, fascist, communist, often without knowing what those terms really mean. what is an autocrat, and who are the autocrats out there that we would know? anne: an autocrat is someone who seeks to rule with no checks and balances, with no checks on his authority, with no judges, no media, no intermediary figures or institutions, who wants to control everything that happens in the state and to make all the decisions. and the autocrats who i'm most interested in are the ones who not only want to have that

system at home, but who are interested in protecting people who want to create those systems abroad. so the book is mostly about russia, china, iran, north korea, venezuela, and a host of others, zimbabwe, azerbaijan. there's a list of them. and increasingly, they operate as a network. they seek to protect each other and also to disrupt the democratic world. and that's because the language of the democratic world, meaning rights laws, rule of law, justice -- william: accountability. anne: accountability, transparency. those things are harmful to them. and of course, that's the language of their own internal oppositions. and so, they need to undermine the people who use it. and if they can, discredit it. and that's part of what we're seeing happen now around the world. william: one of the stereotypes that you try to puncture here is this idea that they really don't have shared interests, that they

work individually to oppress and terrorize their own citizens, but don't really care so much about what happens elsewhere. what is it that they do see as the value in helping -- what does xi see in helping putin or putin in north korea, for instance? anne: well, some of it is pragmatic. so, putin gets ammunition from north korea, and he gets drones from iran, and he gets components for his defense industry from xi. and some of it is a little bit more than that. so, xi may have an interest in not seeing putin fail, because if putin fails that speaks badly of autocratic systems, it speaks badly of the kinds of leaders who rule with absolute power. and it might have a negative impact on him. they worry a great deal about the autocric club and the fate of its members. william: your book is dedicated to the optimists out there, and i wonder, when you look at how the west and nato stood up to

putin's aggression in ukraine, does that give you a sense of optimism, that the forces of democracy can be marshaled against autocracy? anne: it really did. i mean, it was a moment -- nobody was really sure what would happen when russia invaded ukraine in a full scale invasion in 2022, and the degree to which not just the old west, you know, europe and america, and not just nato, but the entire democratic world rallied. there's something like 50 countries who participated in the defense of ukraine or the aid of ukraine. the flip side is that i don't think we fully understood at the beginning of the war the degree to which there was going to be an autocratic network that was going to support -- william: supporting him with arms and money. anne: that arms and money and support of other kinds. and we need to now begin thinking about how to counter that. and people are beginning to think about it. but, you know, a little like everything, a little late. william: this is not a book

about donald trump. i mean, he gets a few passing mentions and a good chunk of the last page of your book. but you do write that if he were reelected and uses the tools of executive power against his perceived enemies that it would quote, then it would be the blending of the autocratic and democratic worlds would be complete. do you think donald trump would be an autocrat? anne: he certainly says so. i mean, sometimes he says so in a kind of jokey way. i'll be dictator for one day. sometimes, he says so in the language he uses about whether it's about president xi, who he admires, or president putin, who he admires, or even the dictator of north korea, who's driven his country into poverty and isolation, who he also admires. so he's telling us what kinds of people he admires. he has very few kind words for american allies or for fellow democracies. it's really the absolute people with absolute power that he wants to be like. you can also hear in the language he uses, whether it's about judges or whether it's about the media or whether it's out american institutions of

other kinds, about the electoral system, maybe above all, that he has great disdain for the institutions of democracy and the rules that were set up to make sure that power is checked in our country and that the executive isn't a king. and those are disturbing traits. and they would be, you know, they would be disturbing at any time in history, but they're particularly disturbing now when we have the rise of so many leaders with absolute power around the world who would love to have a transactional american president to do deals with. william: people who live in democracies love to think that, when pressed, that the system will be robust and stand up to this. i mean, that was what many people thought happened during the first trump administration, that the system held. do you think that that's naive? anne: it can be naive. i mean, there is a pattern. you can see it with viktor orban, for example, of people who lose elections, people like donald trump, who believe they are owed power or they deserve power, who lose elections and who come back in a second term and say, right, this time i'm

not going to make that mistake again and who then change their electoral system, in orban's case, change the constitution, change the judicial system, in order to make sure that they never lose. the attention that's paid, for example, to project 2025, which is a project of the heritage foundation, which describes exactly how you would do that, and which sounds remarkably like what's happened in other countries, including, by the way, in venezuela. that was how hugo chavez took over. this isn't necessarily a right wing or a left wing project. it's just an anti-democratic project. and the fact that he will be surrounded by people like that is disturbing. william: the book is called "autocracy, inc, the dictators who want to run the world." anne applebaum, great to see you. thank you so much. anne: thank you. ♪ geoff: and that is the "news hour" for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. for all of us here at the "pbs

news hour," thanks for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs news hour" has been provided by. the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the "news hour," including leonard and norma klorfine, and the judy and peter blum kovler foundation. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. and friends of the "news hour." this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

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♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. the middle east on edge. regional tensions rising aer hamas' political leader is lled on iranian soil. israel says it doesn't want war, but is preparing for all possibilit