♪ geoff: good evening, i'm geoff bennett. amna is away. the middle east on edge. israel and its allies ready their defenses, anticipating

retaliation for strikes against hezbollah and hamas leaders. the trump campaign is hacked in the latest foreign interference in the u.s. presidential election. and is there a future for social security? the benefits gap that could leave millions of americans with a hole in their retirement safety net. >> we are so bad at fixing this problem. this problem has been so evident since 1990. ♪ >> 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. and the judy and peter bloom kovalova foundation. >> two retiring executives turn

their retirement stored greyhounds. your purpose and the way you give back. life well planned. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at hewlett.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 white house said today that the u.s. and israel believe iran and its proxies across the region could launch a significant attack in the coming days. feel surreal says it is on peak readiness and the u.s. accelerated the deployment to the region to deter iran and defend israel despite ongoing diplomatic efforts to prevent an attack. our story starts in an israeli city and some scenes of war in this story are graphic. >> in 10 months of war, israel's third-largest city and its largest port have emerged in touch, but today haifa and israel are worried and attack could come at any point. which is why the emergency preparedness chief leo resnick

works from a bomb shelter. they have been on high alert past 10 days after israel assassinated a senior commander in beirut and a political leader was killed in an explosion after this event in tehran. >> we are waiting for them to shoot. >> they made their threat to haifa's port specific in drone footage. hezbollah has more than 150,000 rockets and missiles that can reach 95% of israel. israel is not ready for the onslaught. >> we don't have enough bomb shelters for the citizens. >> which is why the hospital is taking no chances, moving to thousand beds three stories below street level to its underground garage. under the advice of the deputy director.

>> warm water, cold water, suction, everything that doesn't exist, this is a hospital floor. >> it has a fully functional emergency room and an operating theater to deal with the kind of injuries they may see coming. >> shrapnel, direct hits, regular trauma, war trauma. >> the hospital is equipped to last one week without resupply and plans to host families if necessary. >> if we come down here and it is terrible outside, we could close the doors and not need to open them at all for 72 hours. we have enough water, food, oxygen, energy. >> to help defend israel and try to deter iran, the defense secretary lloyd austin made a rare announcement he had deployed a guided missile submarine, the uss georgia, to the middle east and accelerated

the deployment of the abraham lincoln carrier strike group. the national security council spokesman talked to reporters today. >> we have to be prepared for what could be a significant set of attacks, which has increased our force posture in the region even in just the last few days. >> the biden administration believes the best way to calm regional tensions is a gaza cease-fire that would release israeli hostages and palestinian prisoners. the u.s. and other mediators have called for formal cease-fire talks to resume thursday, but it is not clear if hamas will show up. until there is a cease-fire, in cause that the israeli military continues a new campaign against tom austin the south. and to late for the woman who had hoped to shield the child. her heartbreak turned to rage, among those killed today, her nephew. >> my nephew's brain was hanging

out of his head. where is the humanity? we are dying, we are dying, we are dying every minute, every second. where is the humanity? >> a wave of humanity evacuated yet again, tens of thousands in khan yunis urged to flee by israeli leaflets, the fourth evacuation order issued this month. israel accused hamas of fighting within the population to fire rockets. israel also says the school turned shelter struck this weekend killed more than 30 terrorists. palestinians say nearly 100 died as they prayed. for the pbs news hour, i'm nick schifrin. ♪ geoff: we start the day's other

headlines in russia. ukraine's top military commander says his forces now control 400 square miles of russian territory in the region of kursk. it is the first time ukrainian military official has commented on the gains of last week's surprise incursion. for their part, russian authorities say more than 121,000 people have evacuated the area so far and that 12 civilians have been killed in the fighting. russian president putin today told a meeting of top officials that the attack is an attempt to give ukraine a better negotiating position for future peace talks. >> it is becoming obvious and clear now why the key of regime had refused our proposals to return to a peaceful settlement plan and the proposals of interested and neutral mediators. it appears the west is fighting us with the hands of the ukrainians. geoff: ukraine's operation is the largest attack on russian soil since the war started 2.5

years ago. in greece, a wildfire is raging on the outskirts of athens, forcing hundreds of people from the city's northern suburbs. the blaze was about nine miles from the city center. get started on sunday afternoon, sending flames as high as 80 feet into the air. some 700 firefighters worked today to extinguish the flames as residents fled through thick clouds of smoke. some stayed behind to protect their homes. >> the wind would go in one direction, then in the other. the smoke was suffocating. i couldn't see, my eyes teared up, i couldn't breathe, i was 60 yards from the house and couldn't even see it. >> the fires have been fanned by intense winds and bone dry conditions after recent heat waves. june and july were the hottest months ever recorded in that country. an earthquake rattled los angeles around midday today.

the 4.4 magnitude quake was centered near the highland park neighborhood in the northeast section of the city. according to the u.s. geological survey, it could be felt as san diego and as far east as the palm springs desert region. there were no initial reports of injuries or damage. it comes less than a week after a 5.2 magnitude quake it the area. divided in administration has rolled out a broad new effort to improve customer service experiences by cutting down on wait times and redtape. it would include requiring companies to make it just as easy to cancel a subscription or membership as it was to sign up. it would crackdown on so-called doom loops and connect people with a live representative with a touch of a button and it would urge health-care care companies to allow consumers to file their claims online. at today's white house press briefing, the press secretary said companies that prioritize profits over people. >> americans are tired of being

played for suckers and president biden and vice president harris will continue to use every tool available to protect americans from corporate greed and practices that hit people in their pocketbooks. geoff: the proposals build on earlier administration efforts such as providing airlines with cash refunds and to reduce hidden fees to consumers. an administration official says none of them would require congressional approval. mars may be hiding an ocean of liquid water deep below its surface. that is according to a groundbreaking new study from the university of california that used data from nasa's now defunct insight lander. it suggests the water is stored in rocks 7-10 miles under the ground and could cover it miles deep.

they could then seek out signs of microbial life. stocks ended little changed ahead of a highly anticipated report on inflation wednesday. the dow jones industrial loss wednesday. nasdaq eked out again adding 35 points. the s&p 500 ended in on the day. the work of a famed, secretive street artist banksy has been popping up all over london. eight new paintings have appeared in the past week or so. all of them depictions of animals. the latest work shows a rhinoceros climbing on top of a real-life broken down car. just yesterday, onlookers gathered around the police call box that he turned into a fish tank for puranas. other works included a stretching cat on a building and mountain goat perched precariously on a ledge among others. still to come, tamera keith and

amy walter break down the latest from the heated presidential race. how one battleground state is testing voting machines to ensure accuracy and a special exhibit explores an art form now band. >> 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. geoff: vice president kamala harris and former president donald trump spent their weekends on the road making their appeals to voters. they each held rallies as concerns flooded the internet about cyber security threats and false allegations involving artificial intelligence. laura baran lopez has more. >> it was a weekend marathon of rallies. both candidates on the campaign trail. but for the third presidential election in a row, foreign interference has again cast an ominous shadow.

on saturday, former president trump claimed his campaign had been hacked and suggested iran was to blame. it stems from a microsoft report one day earlier detailing a spearfishing incident from june, where iranian military intelligence sent fake emails to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor. it is unclear what the breach achieved, but several media organizations say they have received anonymous emails. the fbi is investigating the hack. the incident didn't distract the former president from peddling lies about his opponent. he reposted an image of a harris rally falsely claiming she used artificial intelligence to fabricate the crowd size. photos and videos from the event showing thousands of supporters gathered at an airplane hangar easily disproving the conspiracy theory.

the harris campaign posted, this is an actual photo of a 15,000 person crowd in michigan. meanwhile at a rally in las vegas, harris made a new pitch to service workers, a key constituency in nevada. >> when i am president, we will continue our fight for working families of america. [applause] including to raise the minimum wage. and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers. [applause] >> it echoes a similar stance taken by her rival, a rare instance of political overlap. but one quickly rebutted by trump, who accused harris of copying him and said the difference is she won't do it. another target of republican criticism, harris' vp pick, minnesota governor tim walz and his military record.

namely a resurfaced clip from 2018 where walz implied he had been deployed to a combat zone. >> those weapons of war that i carried in war. >> the campaign said he misspoke, but arkansas senator tim cotton demanded more. >> now even the campaign has acknowledged he has made past inconsistent statements and i think you should answer questions about those statements. >> as for trump's running mate, j.d. vance made the rounds on sunday shows. he tried to walk back trump's apparent willingness to ban abortion medication and said mass deportations should start with one million people. >> president is absolutely right. you cannot have a border unless you are willing to deport some people. i think it's interesting that people focus on how you deport 18 million people, let's start with one million. he argued ultimately it is trump, not him, who voters care about. >> 99% of the country don't vote

on who the vice presidential nominee as. they are voting for donald trump or kamala harris, not jd or tim. >> president biden expressed his support for the harris ticket on cbs sunday morning, his first sit-down interview since dropping out of the race last month. >> it was a great honor being president. i think i have an obligation to the country to do the most important thing, which is we must defeat trump. >> capping off a busy weekend with more campaigning ahead. for the pbs news hour, i'm laura baran lopez. geoff: we are going to shift our focus back to the new reports that u.s. elections continue to be targeted by foreign actors, with microsoft outlining an iranian cyberattack on an active presidential campaign. the company declined to specify which campaign was affected, but former president donald trump said on truth social it was his, posting that one of his campaign

websites was hacked by the iranian government. it comes after the office of the director of national intelligence warned that it continues to observe foreign influence operations by russia, china, and iran aimed at disrupting november's election and undermining american democracy. to help with these new reports in context, we are joined by the chief intelligence and public policy officer at sentinel one and the former director of cybersecurity and -- at infrastructure security agency. >> thanks for having me. geoff: what stands out to you about this apparent cyberattack on the trump campaign? what would iran stand to gain by hacking the campaign and distributing potentially sensitive information? >> it is important to note that the hack piece and the leak piece are separate. we may not have certainty whether they are related, whether this robert individual that allegedly emailed politico or others is sharing information that was stolen from the trump campaign.

i think what is most significant and remarkable about this activity is that it to me signifies what i have been calling the russification of iranian intelligence operations. when you look at the 2016 election, it characterize the russian efforts along three prongs. first is going after election infrastructure, the second is hacking campaigns. if you go and look at that microsoft report from this past friday, it talks about iranians trying to continue to stoke discord and discontent for the first time in the nation. and yes, hacking a campaign. what we are seeing again is echoes of the past from a different country. what do the game? chaos. that is the immediate point,

getting in there and undermining the electoral process and targeting someone they don't have a lot of affection for and that is former president trump. geoff: when it comes to foreign influence campaigns by russia, china, iran, did they have similar goals? >> absolutely not. the one goal they do share is chaos. it is undermining the confidence to provide the basic services. in some cases, they may have preferences. they may want one candidate versus the other, but a lot of the time it is about targeting audiences back home to show them things aren't that great over there. we are better off with us as your leaders. and that obviously is not the case, particularly for russia. geoff: in this instance, the

trump campaign is saying they are targeted by iran. >> i think what we are seeing right now is like an iceberg, you are only seeing the tip that is out of the water. i fully expect both the biden campaign previously and the harris campaign to have been targeted and it is likely happening right now at this very moment and continuing to happen. much like the trump campaign will continue to be targeted. that will continue going forward and that will be from any manner of threat actor. geoff: we know what happened back in 2016 when the clinton campaign was targeted by russia. those leaks were damaging and you could argue were a major factor in the outcome of that election. how do you navigate this imperative of making sure the public is adequately informed

without elevating the works of about actor? >> i think this does speak to journalistic efforts. they need to review whether it is appropriate to release. the voters need to be attuned to the fact that foreign adversaries or enemies are trying to get into our heads. it is not just the campaigns. it is the american voter. we have to keep in mind that american voters decide american elections and we need to take a pause and understand and not let them be successful. geoff: how can americans make sure the information they are accessing and consuming online and via social media is trustworthy? >> it goes to that thing of going to credible, authoritative voices. if you have a question about

election, don't listen to some random person on x for facebook or whatever, go to the election official webpage. they are primed for the -- just those sorts of inquiries and research. if something you see online resonates with you and gets the lizard brain going, pause for a moment and ask why you are being targeted. do a little bit of research to confirm what you are reading. geoff: i want to ask about a recent social media post by donald trump where he falsely claimed that harris was inflating her crowd sizes the artificial intelligence. it is one thing when you talk about disinformation from a foreign actor. what are the implications of that? >> you have to kind of accept the fact that in elections for decades if not longer, there

have been misrepresentations and flat out lies, that is part of the process in part of elections in the united states, but i think that is the overarching thing that is being targeted. and the incentive structures, meaning how do they benefit from this? what kind of angst and anger do they get generated? that is in favor of the stories, these boldfaced lies. i would expect we would be more of it. geoff: thank you so much for your insights. >> thank you so much. ♪ geoff: a reset in the race for president? fresh bowling shows the democratic ticket having an edge

in three key states. >> hello. >> hello. geoff: vice president harris leads former president trump in three key battleground states according to surveys, michigan, pennsylvania, and wisconsin. walk us through the numbers because this is still a competitive race. >> those are the three battleground states that if harris were to win the one of those three in a single electoral vote in nebraska, she would win. she could lose all the sun belt states and still win the electoral college. what you are noticing and we have talked previously about where her success has come, she has consolidated the democratic base. a lot of folks sitting on the sideline who were either not happy with biden or were

uninspired by biden or were thinking about voting for a third-party candidate, they have now consolidated behind harris' candidacy. why that matters is the two sides of equal interest in the election. the parties are equally interested and enthused. what about the other people in the race who still haven't checked in? that is where we will see two things going on for the next 80 number of days we have left. the trump campaign fighting to define harris will be number one. the second will be to define what the race is about. if you are harris, you want the race to be about turning the page. and about donald trump's liabilities. if you are trump, you want to make this about the fact that harris is not a new base, she is

part of the incumbent party, the incumbent party that many voters say they are disappointed in. geoff: there are some vulnerabilities that harris has. voters prefer, trump on immigration and the economy. harris's economic policy is expected to rollout this week. what should we be expectng? >> and democrats broadly, so any democrat, a generic democrat would probably have the same issue with the economy and immigration. voters for a long time have felt republicans are stronger on the economy and immigration. harris in her stump speech has been alluding to where she is likely going with her policy exactly know what that will entail in terms of the rollout, but she

talks about prices are too high. i'm going to bring those prices down. the way she talks about bringing prices down is taking care of junk fees. she talks about it in a way that leans more strongly on the i know it is rough out there. i think we are going to see that. when she was in nevada, she announced she supports something former president trump announced several months ago, which is the idea of not taxing tipped wages for service workers. she is specific it is for service workers. some of the critics of trump's proposal is that it also, lawyers and hedge fund people could change their income to be tips instead of wages. in terms of harris and this proposal, none of it is really fleshed out. there is still no policy section on her website. there was one at one of the

biden presidential campaign website, but it is three weeks in and they are headed toward the convention. partially, she is in a race to just keep the momentum and the good vibes and the very excited democrats, keep that going as long as she can. geoff: over the weekend, donald trump was still focused on crowd sizes. he is famously obsessed with this issue of crowd sizes and there was this brazenly false claim about harris' crowd size in detroit. he is suggesting she used artificial intelligence to make the crowds appear larger. he is saying that the crowd in fact did not exist. you were there. >> i was there. it definitely existed. the second she walked off air force two the crowd went absolutely wild. you know what it reminds me of? trump rallies.

trump rallies from an earlier era when he would roll into an airport, buzz over the airport, and just have incredible excitement when he got off the plane. geoff: him saying something like this, doesn't it create an opportunity for democrats to make it a referendum on donald trump? before it was a referendum on donald trump. critics say he is now not just dishonest, but delusional. >> listen, we were all at the rnc together and we were told by many as the convention that this was a different more discipline donald trump, that even the attempt on his life had altered the way he sees the world and how he is going to operate, obviously that is not the case. when he feels like he is losing, when he feels like things are out of his control, that is when you see the lashing out in the

comments on social media. it is really not surprising to watch that happen. the other thing that is happening that is frustrating trump and the campaign is kamala harris is getting a benefit of the doubt even though she is part of the incumbent party. people see her as different because she is not an older white guy. she walks out another stage and that is turning the page on what this election looked like a month ago. i think that is also frustrating to them because they can no longer be the outsider change candidate. she is the incumbent being able to be changed at the same time. we still have 80 plus days, you are seeing the advertising starting to rollout. it is more disciplined than trump is, but if trump doesn't stay on message, we will find out soon enough. we have a debate on september 10 to see how that works out. he makes it more about himself, that definitely helps her.

geoff: the harris campaign, their tactics are different. as evidence of that, they posted a social media message on donald trump's own social media site, truth social, basically trolling him because of his obsession about crowd sizes. this is not something we have seen in this way with democrats going on offense like this. >> it is somehow more on brand for the younger harris to have the very same staff be much more actively into trolling them they were when biden was the nominee. they are absolutely trolling trump. the thing about crowd size is he has always measured things by the size of his crowds and he has been able to tell things that his crowds were always bigger. during the clinton campaign, there was never this level of an excitement for hillary clinton. there was never this level of

excitement for joe biden during covid. trump is used to running a campaign where he has the biggest crowds and he can say, i'm winning, i can see it in front of my eyes. now, there is someone else generating crowds just as big or bigger and that is a really tough adjustment that is coming at the same time as the pull movement. we should note that the pull movement is not dramatic. this is still an incredibly close race. incredibly close race that will be decided by a very small number of people. >> and when harris was announced as the candidate, there were a lot of democrats who said, i don't know how this is going to work out, the one thing i know she can do better than joe biden is to get underneath trump's skin and that has obviously worked out. geoff: the campaign has sought to make them smaller. you could argue by joe biden talking about him as a nexus dental threat made him a bigger

figure. the harris-walz campaign is trolling him and calling him weird. what are the implications of that? >> it is to keep them off talking about these things then making the case that harris is not change. his argument would be four more years of a bad economy. instead when you are debating about crowd sizes and who was weird and not weird, for your average voter, they just go back to their image that they have of donald trump and that is problematic for the trump campaign. geoff: we will see you both next week at the democratic national convention in chicago. thanks so much. >> you're welcome. ♪ geoff: 70 million americans

receive social security benefits today, but the program is paying out more than it is taking in. our economics correspondent looks at the worrying financial gap and what can be done about it. >> social security, the program most seniors rely on to support them in old age. but it is running out of money. social security takes money from us workers today, the payroll tax, to pay recipients, yesterday's workers once they are at least 62. more workers than recipients? the money accumulates in a trust fund. but fewer workers, more recipients and the fund gradually drains, as is happening now. >> in the early 20 30's, the social security trust fund on the retirement side will exhaust its reserves. >> that is a social security expert. >> money will keep coming in from the payroll tax, but if nothing is done, benefits will

be cut and no one wants that. >> as social security recipients, my wife and i sure don't, neither do the 70 million plus baby boomers born in our wake, nor do you, i assume. do you think the money is going to run out? >> i have an inkling it might. >> do you think the money will be there? >> i hope so. it comes out of my check every week. i hope it does. >> do you think the money will be there? >> god, i hope so. >> i would say no. >> there is plenty of reason for concern, says the lead author of the guidebook i helped write years ago, get what's yours. >> the system is completely bankrupt. whatever fix they come up with is going to be a much bigger burden on our kids and grandchildren. >> the coming generational storm was written back in 2004 and has been sounding his alarm ever since. >> the way we are going is either catastrophically cutting benefits or catastrophically

raising taxes. we are always doing too little, too late, relying on future generations to be large in number and very productive in order to pay older people. we are allowing each generation of old people to expropriate their kids and say, don't worry, you will get your chance to expropriate your kids. >> even if nothing is done, beneficiaries will still get 79%, almost 80% of the amounts of money they will get now. >> a lot of older people are surviving just on social security. cutting their living standard by 20% is just not acceptable. >> so, will social security beneficiaries take a big hit in just a few years? >> i would say i'm not worried at all because no congressman or congresswoman could go back to his or her district if that happened. >> the democrats have long promised no cuts. and the republican campaign now claims the same. >> in the republican platform,

all in capital letters is a commitment not to take a penny out of social security or medicare. ♪ >> but former president donald trump has now also said -- >> seniors should not pay taxes on social security. [applause] >> but that would actually deplete the social security trust fund sooner and mainly benefit the wealthiest recipients. on together hand, there are fixes. one example -- >> if they increased the payroll tax by 2% on the employee and 2% on the employer, that would solve the problem for 75 years. >> right now, it is 6.2% that the employee and employer pay each. >> right. >> this would ba.2 percent and 8.2%. >> that would solve the problem. >> for 75 years. we are still in a point on the cost side where costs are rising

because the ratio beneficiaries to workers is rising. but we are getting closer to the point where that is going to level off. once that is leveled off, you will be in a position where if we fix it for 75 years, it is fixed forever. >> a second fix. >> increase the taxable wage base. >> there is a cap on how much of a workers earnings are taxed for social security. this year, $168,600. it rises each year with the average wage, but the cap use to 90% of all earnings. now, with rising inequality and ever more income at the top, it only covers 80%. >> there are a lot of people who say just take the caps off and make the rich pay. i come down on just raising it to the old 90% target and moving along. >> that would hike this year's cap to about $300,000 and cover about 20% of the shortfall.

if they cap were removed entirely, it would cover 70% of the shortfall. why not just remove the cap? >> if you take it off and don't give people any benefits in return, it really breaks that link between contributions and benefits, which i think could endanger the popularity of the program. >> ok, here is a third fix. >> invest some of the trust fund in equities. >> in stocks. . why is that a good idea? >> over the long run, stocks have earned higher returns than bonds, which is what is in the trust fund now. they also are higher risk, so you have to be careful when you are talking about this that it doesn't sound like magic money. >> overtime, investing some in stocks would probably help. a fourth fix was one last enacted in 1983, the last time social security was reformed. >> raise the retirement age. life expectancy is going up. it only makes sense to have people wait until they get their

benefits. >> but not everyone can wait. even though you get 43% more at age 70 than at 65. why not wait until 70 when you get more money? >> when you are working a blue-collar job, sometimes it is a little too late. >> because it is too hard on your body. >> a lot of wear and tear. >> i think you want to do something that just raises the age at which you get full benefits for those who can work longer. and those people are people in the top half of the income distribution. >> so, why haven't politicians done anything? on this, she couldn't agree more. >> nobody wants to raise taxes or cut benefits. >> it is political dynamite. it is the third rail of politics. congress is more concerned about the next election than the next generation. >> meanwhile, waiting exacts its price. >> some options do disappear. >> investing funds in the stock

market for example. >> a prerequisite is a trust fund. as a trust fund goes to zero, that one sort of goes off the table. >> i asked my 20-year-old grandson joe what he makes of all this. as you know, your grandmother and i get substantial social security benefits. do you think you will get those kind of benefits when you are my age? >> no, i don't think so. i would say that i would hope at least for me personally that my income would becoming more so from the investments that i've made, the network that i've made. i'm not planning to rely so much on social security. >> joe says he is typical of the younger generation. >> we have a lot of doubt and uncertainty, especially about the u.s. government at least in the circles i'm in. it is hard to have confidence in any current system.

>> final verdict, will social security continue to be there or not? >> something will be done, but it will be too little and too late and it will impose your burdens on our kids and it will not be fixed. >> we have been talking about this, procrastination is the long-running team. >> we are so bad at fixing this problem. it is so evident since 1990. i don't think we will move on this until 2030, so a 40 year lag between the time the problem is identified and fixed is a little long for my taste. >> a little long and socially security doomsday, we may be facing bigger problems by decade's and. ♪

geoff: wisconsin is holding congressional and state primary elections this tuesday and they are seen by some as a critical dry run for november when the battleground state will play a crucial role in deciding the next president. election officials have been increasingly transparent about the mechanics of voting to help boost confidence. >> in mcfarland, wisconsin, a small village outside the state capital, madison, they are stress testing the tools of democracy. the deputy administrator is checking therefore ballot counting machines. >> we put them right side up and backwards and upside down, proving to people that you can put the ballots in any way, shape, or form, and it will still read the results they are supposed to. >> this state requires the test within the 10 days of the election.

officials scan pre-marked ballots through the tabulator's and compare the machine count to the expected result. a perfect count is required for any machine can be used on election day. in her eight years as clerk, she says she has never had one problem with the machines. after they contest, the council reset to zero, the tabulator's are sealed and they are locked in >> a sealed room. >>there are four cameras in each of the corners. >> state law and the wisconsin election commissions require these tests to be open to the public so citizens can understand the security protocols in place. she says she is alarmed by the threats made toward election workers in recent years, but hopes this transparency will increase trust in the system every >> there is nothing to hide, the public has the ability to watch all parts of the

process. the statutes outlined, the ability for observers, i think that is really important. it is important for people to know that there is transparency and they can watch any of the various processes and none of the processes are done in secret. we are here to do our job and carry out the laws and uphold democracy. >> elections are decentralized in wisconsin, run by more than 1800 different clerks in their local jurisdictions, which cuts the chance for widespread fraud, but that hasn't stopped a plague of accusations and misinformation. after the 2020 presidential election where joe biden won wisconsin by roughly 21,000 votes, republicans in the state claimed the process was rigged and launched a slew of recounts, audits, investigations, and lawsuits. the republican-controlled legislature also tried unsuccessfully to oust to the administrator of the wisconsin

election commission. but each of the postelection reviews found that the 2020 results were fair and accurate. this cycle in verona, wisconsin, during early voting in tuesday's state and local primary, a steady stream of the city's 9500 registered voters used ballot drop boxes. those were approved by the state supreme court last month. >> they are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. they do have security cameras on them and they are very secure. >> inside city hall, the clerk and her team conducted their state-mandated tests of the city's eight vote tabulator's. they prepared a stack of test ballots designed to pressure the machines. >> we purposefully make some mistakes like over voting or cross voting so we know the machine is working correctly. >> the real test comes on election day.

they are confident the results will once again be accurate. >> after tuesday's primary, the work starts almost immediately to prepare for november's presidential election. >> this is a good practice round for us. we are hopping right back into another election and we are preparing ballots for november. there is not a lot of time off here. >> wisconsin clerks will start sending absentee ballots for the presidential election next month. for the pbs news hour, i'm william brangham. ♪ ♪ geoff: grimshaw is a traditional 19th-century art form now seen through much wider context and a contemporary lens. it is an exhibit that challenges old assumptions and the product itself.

jeffrey brown went to the new bedford whaling museum to look for our arts and culture series canvas. >> it is a story of contact, impact, connections. great adventure and great loss. humans and animals across two oceans over someone hundred years. in the exhibition titled the wider world and scrimshaw, the stories told are objects. >> they are records of individual experiences and what those individuals were doing whether they were in communities that were regular ports of call for whalers or whether they were whalers themselves, they were having the six ordinary experiences. >> the romance of sea adventures, the fascination with whales themselves. it is part of the experience here. visitors are greeted by an 8000 pound juvenile blue whale skeleton. in a gallery next-door, there is

a different kind of window. it is the traditional art form of carving or engraving on of the bones, teeth, and ivory of marine mammals, typically whales and walruses. it is most associated with 19th-century whaling, and industry long centered, think hermann melville and moby dick, here in new bedford. the whaling museum in what is still a port city with a working harbor hosts the world's largest scrimshaw collection. but for this exhibition, it wanted to set those objects in a larger context or conversation, among a wide range of works by the indigenous peoples with whom whalers came into regular contact throughout the pacific. this busk was a regular part of women's fashion in the 19 century, used to stiffen corsets and made of whalebone. this had an unusual pattern

carved into it. >> it is a navigation chart used in parts of the pacific to learn the patterns of swells and currents to move from island to island. >> so by the people they were connecting with. >> exactly, with pacific islanders. the idea that someone who was on a whaling vessel was also inscribing it was something that would have been culturally significant for pacific islanders was quite tantalizing. >> scholars have long studied this collision of cultures and the often negative political, environmental, and other consequences. this exhibition tries to tie into the research and make artistic connections to today. >> it has been spoken as a lost art form, but i like to think of it as it has been sleeping in my practice has awakened it. >> from new zealand, this artist is part of a small island some 1500 miles to the northeast.

eight years ago, she took up the traditional art of making bark cloth paintings. where she says the practice is all but gone. it has been rare for her to even see older versions and then she got an email with a photo from the new bedford whaling museum, which owned this well-preserved work brought back on a yankee whaler. >> i was so confused because i was like what is this doing in new bedford? what is this doing so far away from home? it is in good condition and that in itself is absolutely bright and vibrant, like the day it would have been made and then there is of course a ship inside one of the patterns, so that also talks about that colonial history and really placing this in that time period. >> the museum commissioned her to create a new work, the kind of conversation with the old. with her own imagery and patterns of the sea and its animal life. she believes she is the first

practitioner in more than 100 years and says it was her grandparents who first asked her to take it up. why was that important for you to do to take on? >> it is important to me because i was asked. >> by them. >> i was asked by them, they asked me. and they worked six days a week. my nana worked up until she was 60. why wouldn't i take on that responsibility of being asked? because it is so important that my culture is shared. but they were not able to continue these practices. it is important because they asked me and i'm a granddaughter from the pacific. >> and other contemporary artist updating and bringing urgency to the 19th-century story, courtney and leonard of the seneca indian nation based on eastern long island new york. her work at the museum part event ongoing project she titled breach, looks at past under told

stories including members of her tribe that sailed on whaling trips. scrimshaw studies by her are made of ceramic and she addresses it as moral, legal ownership of the land and environmental, including today, see rise. >> you grow up with the water and you understand your relationship to place in your responsibility to place, whether one choosing to have that be their life's work is up to them, but at least for myself living back home, we do have rising waters, so when you are living in a place where the waters rise , you realize that time is of value in many different ways. geoff: as the exhibition shows, today marine mammals such as whales and walruses have legal protections. the trade of whale and walrus bone and scrimshaw is heavily regulated. it can be unsettling to

experience these objects made of the bones and teeth of some of the earth's most magnificent creatures. i asked the chief curator how she sees it. >> it is a hard thing. if you really think about what we are surrounded by in here, there is an intense amount of death. it is sometimes overwhelming if you really sit with that, the number of whales and walrus and other species represented by these materials, but i hope that what people come away with is a sense of survival of tradition and of craft and communities, of the whales themselves. geoff: the wider world in scrimshaw is on through november 11. i'm jeffrey brown at the new bedford whaling museum in massachusetts. ♪ ♪ 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 spending part of your evening with us. good night. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- ♪ supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfound .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. ♪

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