i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett on the "newshour" tonight, here at the democratic national convention, leading democrats make the case for a kamala harris presidency, while the candidate herself takes her message to voters in the swing state of wisconsin. amna: a rare look from on the ground in sudan where a brutal civil war has stolen people's food and livelihoods. >> people are talking, they even tell me not to plant, asking why are you planting? the rsf will take all the crops, they won't leave anything, and people will starve and die. geoff: and a summer surge of covid cases highlights the difficulty in keeping up with the ever changing virus, with updated vaccines expected this fall. ♪ >> 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 anderson and smith. >> working to advance inclusive democracies. learn more at the website. >> fostering informed and engaged communities. more at the website. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions from viewers like you.

thank you. geoff: welcome to the news hour. former president barack obama is set to headline the second night of the democratic national convention here in his political hometown of chicago. mr. obama will speak in support of kamala harris, the party's newly minted standard-bearer, delivering what a campaign official says will be a "forceful affirmation" that harris is the right leader for the moment. amna: the former president's appearance comes one night after the sitting president, joe biden delivered a fiery speech in , defense of his decision to step aside, and in support of harris. laura barron-lopez has been watching it all closely and is on the convention floor now. laura? laura: geoff and amna, the first night of the dnc began to tell the story of kamala harris but it was also a moment for the party to mark the people who created this pathway for her to ultimately rise and to chart a

new pathway for democrats. >> i would like to introduce my father, your 46th president of the united states, joe biden. laura: president biden took the stage with an embrace from his daughter, ashley. wiping a tear from his eye, as delegates and attendees did the same. >> thank you, thank you, thank you. laura: greeted by a sea of signs that read "we heart joe," and chants of his name. the crowd gave him a standing ovation that lasted nearly five minutes. it was a scene that could have been his own party nomination on the final night of the convention. but this was more of a goodbye. president biden: let me know in my heart when my days are through. america, america, i gave my best to you. i've made a lot of mistakes in my career, but i gave my best to you.

for 50 years, like many of you, i've given my heart and soul to our nation. laura: and a passing of the torch to kamala harris. president biden i promise i'll : be the best volunteer harris and walz's camp have ever seen. laura: biden made no secret of the pressure he faced to bow out one month ago, saying he harbors no hard feelings. president biden all this talk : about how i'm angry at all the people who said i should step down that's not true. ,laura: he focused on his accomplishments, together with vice president harris. president biden we've had one of : the most extraordinary four years of progress ever, period. when i say "we," i mean kamala and me. laura: earlier, harris praised the man e hopes to replace. vp. harris: joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you'll

continue to do. we are forever grateful to you. laura: and, the night ended with the two hugging on-stage. vice president harris could be seen saying, "i love you so much." the program also acknowledged those who made harris' moment possible including the last , woman nominated by the party , hillary clinton. >> together, we have put a lot of crack's in the highest, hardest glass ceiling. laura: most of her speech focused on the weight of the moment and the fight ahead. >> i wish my mother and kamala's mother could see us. they would say, "keep going," women fighting for reproductive healthcare are saying, "keep going." families building better lives, parents stretching to afford

childcare, young people struggling to pay their rent, they're all asking us to keep going. laura: in one of the night's more emotional moments, the personal stories from women impacted by abortion restrictions, a mobilizing force for democrats. stories like kaitlyn joshua of louisiana. >> because of louisiana's abortion ban, no one would confirm that i was miscarrying. i was in pain, bleeding so much my husband feared for my life. no woman should experience what i endured, but too many have. laura: but outside the convention center, scenes of potential dissent that could still hinder democrats as dozens protesting the war in gaza broke past a security barricade . multiple people were arrested, and protestors vowed more demonstrations this week. >> we've got to have common sense public safety and if we don't have public safety, we don't have anything. laura: the republican ticket also plans counterprogramming around the convention.

today, at two events in midwest battleground states, former president trump and running mate jd vance bashed biden and harris on crime, despite violent crime being down across the country. >> you can't walk across the street to get a loaf of bread, you get shot. you get mugged, you get raped, you get whatever it may be. and, you've seen it, and i've seen it. and it's time for a change. we have to bring back our cities. we have these cities that are great cities, where people are afraid to live in them now. they're fleeing the cities of -- afraid to live in them now. laura: back in chicago, it's the obamas that take center stage tonight. but neither harris nor vice presidential nominee tim walz will be at the convention themselves. instead campaigning in the swing state of wisconsin, less than 100 miles away. in fact, amna and geoff, harris and walz are at the same venue in milwaukee where donald trump was named the republican presidential nominee for the third time. andthe night two theme here in chicago will contrast a harris presidency with another trump term.

-- and what a second trump term would look like with the democrats focusing heavily on project 2025. amna: take us back to that speech but president biden you mentioned at the top of your report. you were on the convention floor among all the delegates. what was the reaction as he was addressing the crowd? laura: it was a thunderous reaction there were a lot of signs that said, thank you, joe. we love you, joe. a source close to the president that was here in the arena said they were stunned by the reception that president biden received last night and president biden really wanted to make clear that he is in this fight, that he doesn't harbor any bad feelings about what happened in the last month that led to him dropping out of the race, and that he wants to be on the trail for harris. some of the sources close to

biden believe he could be most effective in districts where he is possible -- popular in swing states and where he can help her make that argument to voters that might still be undecided. geoff: let's shift our focus to tonight pick what is on the agenda? walk us through it. laura: it is a night of high-profile guests. senator bernie sanders as well as tammy duckworth are expected to speak tonight and we are also going to hear from second gentleman doug. michelle obama, the former first lady, as well as former president barack obama is going to be the keynote and there will be a ceremonial rollcall because as our viewers know, kamala harris was already clinching the nomination but this ceremonial rollcall is going to start with delaware as a tribute to president biden and thent will end on california and minnesota in a signal that they are sending harris and walz off onto the campaign trail with their

full support. another notable thing tonight is that we are going to hear from some republicans including stephanie grisham, former press spokesperson in the trump administration, as well as a republican mayor from arizona who has endorsed harris. amna: the program did run very long. it ended up pushing mr. biden's speech out of prime time. how is the convention addressing that? laura: the convention spokesperson said they ultimately blamed the fact that there was so much applause. they said that was why, for other speakers, that that was why they were delayed and they ultimately ended up having to cut parts of their program including a 10 minute video that was supposed to play before president biden speech about his legacy and his time in office and they said they are going to try to make real-time adjustments to the convention and make sure that they are on schedule tonight as well as for the rest of the night.

geoff: the arena is filling up behind you. give us a sense of the move as you have been talking to delegates on the floor. how are folks feeling? laura: they will be in wisconsin. third visit there. they will not be here tonight but everyone still expects the energy and the enthusiasm to be palpable here. i spoke to the congressman from michigan, a swing state, and he said that it really feels like 2008 to him and that he hasn't felt this kind of energy. he ultimately thinks the fact that there's only some 77 days between now and november that that could actually help harris 's campaign. he thinks it will make it easier to maintain this energy in this enthusiasm. he also said he does hope that harris really differentiates herself from president biden on one specific issue and that is the issue of israel and gaza and he said it could be as temple as harris endorsing more conditions on aid to israel.

he thinks that is something she needs to be to speak to voters in his state and he thinks it is really important for her to continue the economic message especially around housing. geoff: a ton of great reporting there. laura, thanks as always. for more on the evening's events, we are joined here in chicago by illinois senior senator to urban. welcome back to the news hour. you have known joe biden for decades he's capping a half-century of public service. what we had last night, he defended his record and he also made an impassioned case for kamala harris. how do you think the campaign will use him on the campaign trail looking forward and how does vice president harris navigate this new moment where she has to define herself without necessarily breaking away too far from the biden presidency? sen. durbin: joe biden has been my friend for 30 years plus. i had a chance to talk to him privately in the last few days and i can tell you that was an

important statement in his speech last night. he said, i love this job but i love my country even more. those few words really defined his situation. he realizes he would love to continue as president but that is not going to happen because of his age. i think he is going to be a very valuable asset for all democratic candidates get i would welcome joe biden to any corner of illinois and i mean it. the most conservative republican area. guarantee you reach the crowd in that area, too. he can do the same thing for kamala harris. geoff: is the ticket better positioned to win the white house? sen. durbin: i'm not sure. i think joe could have won it in a very close race but what has happened in the several weeks since kamala harris has been our nominee is an amazing display of energy and spirit. you can feel it in this hall. the majority coalition that we think we have on the democratic side is dedicated to making sure that she winds --.

wins. you can criticize us for going along. i bet you half of that time was applause, spontaneous applause that could not be stopped. it is an indication of the spirit of this convention. geoff: you spoke at the dnc last night and he focused your remarks fairly heavily on the economy. you called donald trump that boss. polls show that the vast majority of americans still give him high marks on his handling of the economy. how do you account for that disconnect? sen. durbin: he is one of two presidents in the history of the united states that have fewer americans working when he ends his term in office then he did in the beginning. only two good and you look at that and say, well, how could you have a successful economy when you have 6 million more people unemployed? that is a fact. there are some serious challenges on the economic front. we understand it on the democratic side but the notion that donald trump, with his skyrocketing tax cuts for the wealthiest people, the highest

deficit in four years of any president, i mean, those are realities on the economic side as well. geoff: i want to talk about the future of the supreme court because that is a resident issue for lots of democrats. president biden said the next president will likely have the chance to fill two vacancies on the supreme court and right now, there is this groundswell of calls for increased checks and balances as it relates to the supreme court it's -- put a supreme court's code of ethics pmi have not subpoenaed them to testify at a hearing focused on judicial ethics? sen. durbin: the committee has wells that are different than the house in one of those rules and says unless you have a bipartisan request for a subpoena, you have to be prepared to defend it against a filibuster. we don't have six votes. they refuse to. imagine we have one supreme court justice who has received, we believe, up to $4 million in

undisclosed gifts, did not report them to anybody, and now he is refusing to be held accountable by the court. nine people believe they are above the law. that has got to change. the court, its strength, integrity, honesty, it has been attacked by at least one member of the court and should be the subject of ethics reform on bipartisan basis. geoff: how do you view your role as chair of the senate judiciary committee and the authority that you have to the court accountable such that you can do that? there are democrats who criticized the committee for not doing more. >> i can tell you this. if you can count, and that is the first job as whip of the senate, you know we don't have 60 votes for ethic roof -- ethics reform. i have yet to hear a republican senator successfully defend clarence thomas. don't even try anymore. as long as they can get decisions from the court from a

political point of view, they will not even touch ethics. the american people on a bipartisan basis completely disagree with that position. geoff: the congresswoman introduced -- against the justices. is that something you support? sen. durbin: i don't see any point in doing that, to be honest with you. i know she is a stress and frustration with the court and i share the frustration but that's two things that are meaningful and possible. geoff: what about the senate proposals that president biden introduced? term limits for justices, a binding code of ethics, a constitutional amendment overturning the court's decision allowing sitting presidents to violate criminal law. sen. durbin: focus on ethics. the other two require a 60 vote majority as well as constitutional vision, some people believe. when it comes to ethics, we can do that by stature. we should do it on a bipartisan basis. there is no excuse and no

defense. generous gifts from billionaires, some of whom appear before the court and he refuses to recuse himself. it is a clear case on a bipartisan basis where ethics is required. geoff: you say democrats don't have the 60 votes. we spoke with gary peters on this program last night. he chairs the senate campaign arm and he says he thinks democrats, even with this tough senate map can't get to 51 democrats in this next election. are you that optimistic? sen. durbin: gary is our quarterback, retaining a democratic majority in the senate so i stand by his analysis. he's got much better information than i have. the spirit of this chicago convention i think is going to help a lot of challengers as well as incumbents running for reelection. amna: what do you expect to hear from barack obama tonight? you were instrumental inis decision to run into thousand eight and he probably could not have done it without you.

sen. durbin: good to have him back home again. he and i speak from time to time he had his take on some of these issues is unique. the two of them will be a fascinating evening. geoff: great to see you. thank you so much for your time. amna: among the crucial battleground states this election is michigan. part of the democrats so-called blue wall. the stakes are even higher this cycle because of a highly competitive and closely watched senate race in the state. the representative is the democratic party's senate not many and i spoke with her moments ago. congresswoman, welcome back to the news hour. thanks for being here. you are running for an open senate seat against mike rogers. how has your race shifted or changed since the top of the democratic ticket changed? what have you seen? >> it is hard to overstate the amount of energy that has been generated by the change. i did not totally anticipate it. whether it is in our cities, our

suburbs, even our conservative areas, people are walking into democratic offices, saying, hey, i never come to one of these things but how do i volunteer? we have seen a number of people signing up to volunteer just going through the roof and i think people feel really positive. they want a generational shift and president biden did an incredibly patriotic thing but you can feel that desire to kind of move on and from him but also from trump. i think people want to feel good again. that is something the top of the ticket change has really helped with. amna: you know something about winning very tight races. your race currently is rated tossup. you feel like your chance has improved because the ticket changed? >> letter turnout among democrats will be very high. i think we are seeing really big enthusiasm, particularly young people and people who said they were not going to vote before the change. so we definitely see that change.

in michigan, you need good voter turnout. swing voters, that is who really decides elections. the race is not over by any means. i tell people, don't get so high that you can't actually do the work to win this election. it is far from over in august. amna: how do you get to those independents? we are going to be hearing from a lot of republican voices, something that the harris/walls ticket wants to -- walz ticket wants to work in. you don't have to be a democrat to support us right now. how do you reach them in the state of michigan? >> i would not be here without them. moderate republican women who have voted in michigan with democrats over the last six years, you have to do a couple of things. you have to go to places democrats don't usually show up, conservative small towns. you have to go to red parts of the state of michigan where they have not seen a democrat show up

in 40 years. show them that you are a reasonable, practical person. in my case, a national security person, cia officer by training, and then he had to talk about issues that affect both pocket boats and their kids. you can have all the highfalutin concepts in a policy paper that you want. if you are not talking about people's pocketbooks and their kids, you are not talking to everybody. to me, that is a big lesson that democrats should be using across the midwest and we are really excited that finally, the midwest is getting recognition. we have a midwesterner m.v.p. walls -- in vp walz. in michigan and in the midwest in general, we all know people like tim walz and we all know people like jd vance. we know the coach, the teacher that you love, the guy who is going to teach you how to drive and make you keep them for cables in your car and we all know people like jd vance who are all about splitting people

apart, dividing people, that angry guy, you know, at the town meeting. i think the vision that most of us want is a positive vision of midwest values and i think tim walz does a great job of embodying that. amna: there is a challenge we see for this ticket. you have navigated really well walking the very difficult line back home in michigan and that is among the more progressive and younger voters, more than 100,000 people voted uncommitted in michigan's primary, protesting the biden administration's policy be in the middle east. they want to see a different policy, not just a different message. you think this ticket should articulate the dferent policy to win those voters back? >> they should be transparent about their policy. no one is ever going to agree with their elected officials 100% of at that time, trust me -- of the time, trust me. they need to show transparency. what are you going to do? how is it the same, how is it different? how do you engage with people? we had this big rally.

vice president harris flew in and tim walz flew into detroit and she took the time behind stage before the cameras were on, before she was on stage, to talk with a bunch of leaders for the uncommitted movement. not everyone chooses to do that. certainly on the trump campaign, it is not looking to do that. it's also about listening and hearing people and letting them into the conversation and that is something that i think this campaign is trying to do differently. amna: you are running for an open senate seat. it is a tough electoral map for democrats this fall. are democrats want to keep the majority? >> i think they are. it will be a slim majority. people just want team normal. they want reasonable people who are willing to work across the aisle and have that push and pull as good americans do, right? the two-party system has worked for us for a long time but it is out of whack right now so i think people look around and they say, look, i just want the

most normal thing i can get and i think that is vp harris and tim walz. amna: congresswoman running for the senate seat there. thank you so much. geoff: meantime, secretary of state antony blinken has been stressing the urgency of getting a gaza cease-fire deal over the finish line. amna: for that and all the other days headlines, we turned to william brangham in our washington studio. william: secretary blinken is on his ninth trip to the region since fighting began and he says the u.s. will do everything possible to get hamas on board with the current cease-fire proposals. today, he met with negotiators in egypt and cutter a day -- qatar, the day after a proposal that would bridge gaps in negotiations but many challenges remain. benjamin netanyahu says his military wants lasting control over two strategic corridors inside gaza which is a

nonstarter for hamas. in ohio today, blinken said that condition is not included in the so-called bridging proposal that netanyahu agreed to. >> that plan, among other things, as i said, includes a very clear schedule and locations for withdrawals. it is so clearly in the interest of all concerned, starting with israel, to bring this to a close. william: iran says it could be a long time before it retaliates against israel over the killing in tehran last month of a hamas leader. they blame israel for that acumen. israel's military says it recovered the dead bodies of six hostages during an overnight raid in gaza. a group rest of -- representing hostages families say the men were kidnapped alive during the october 7 attack. the army did not say when or how they were killed. separately, gaza health authorities say at least 10 people were killed in an israeli

airstrike on a school that was sheltering some 700 people. israel says strike targeted hamas militants who had set up a command center inside. russia and ukraine are both making military gains in two different geographical areas of their ongoing conflict. russian forces are advancing on the eastern ukrainian city while ukraine pushes you deeper into russia's cursed region. ukraine's military chief said his troops now control nearly 500 square miles of that territory and russian sources say ukraine has destroyed or damaged all three bridges over the river in western russia. meanwhile, ukraine's president, volodymyr zelenskyy, visited a hospital today that cares for military personnel. in a recorded message, he warned of the dangers facing the strategically and eddie. >> army chief -- facing them.

>> it is a difficult situation but the guys are doing everything to destroy the occupier. >> elsewhere, and oil depot in russia's southwestern region has been burning for three days w after it was hit by ukrainian drones. more than 500 firefighters are reportedly working to contain the fire. in the u.s. in the state of maine, an independent commission found that the army reserve's and local police missed several opportunities that could have prevented a mass in lewiston last fall. the army reservist killed 18 people and himself in the deadliest shooting in that state's history. in its final report, the commission found the local sheriff's office could have taken card into custody earlier under the state's yellow flag law and that the army reserve's did not provide card proper mental health care or address his possession of multiple weapons. the commission chair described a

series of missed opportunities. >> members of his army reserve unit presented a full and complete accounting of the facts the sheriff's office might have acted more assertively in september. >> after the shooting, the army conducted its own investigation and disciplined three leaders for dereliction of duty. the legislature passed new gun laws including a three day waiting period for purchasing a gun. on wall street today, stocks snapped a recent winning streak although the losses were limited. the dow jones industrial average slipped around 60 points. the nasdaq also lost around 60 after eight consecutive winning sessions. the s&p 500 also ended the day a bit lower. and we have a unique passing of note. the woman believed to be the world's oldest person has died. maria bran-yas was born in san

francisco in 1907, that's a decade before the united states entered world war i. her family moved to spain when she was young, and she died there at a nursing home in the catalan town of olot. her social media account called her "super catalan grandma" with a bio that read: "i am old, very old, but not an idiot." she was 117 years old. according to the gerontology research group, her passing leaves tomiko ih-tooka of japan as the new oldest living person. she is 116. still to come on the "newshour", the desperate shortage of food and medical care in war-torn sudan, and what you need to know about the latest covid surge. >> this is the pbs news hour from w eta studios -- weta studios and from arizona state university.

geoff: harris has seen a surge in support with latino voters, up from where president biden had been polling. amna: harris and the democratic party still have work to do to motivate these voters who are critical to a winning coalition. we are joined by maria, ceo. welcome back to the newshour. thanks for being here. there has been a reset with latino voters in just the last month. your own polling shows that kamala harris has 60% support. there is another poll that shows that harris is up 19 points in battleground states when biden led by just five. what are you attributing that shift to? maria: she has been cultivating a lot of young latinos since she ascended into her vice presidency so people are very familiar with who she is. the biggest challenge is that they like her but they want to get to know her better. but the poll was with gq r,

2000 latino voters in key battleground states, and the biggest take away was not only was kamala leading among the democrats, but she was taking away roughly 17 points away from kennedy, and believe it or not, she was also taking away from trump. head today, trump right now is at 29% versus with biden, he was at 38%. geoff: it's the younger latino voters that account for that? maria: disproportionately, yes. to give you an idea, since he was -- since there was a changing of the guard, we registered 36,000 individual voters. as of today, we registered over 100,000. 65% of them are under the age of 25. i have been doing this for 20 years. i have never seen anything like it. amna: she is at 60% in your latest poll but biden in the

last election was at 65% so she is still pulling behind where he was. why are democrats having trouble assuring that up? maria: because we have not had the convention. because in august of 2020, biden was at 50. so we don't see the surgeon of enthusiasm until postconvention after labor day when all of a sudden, americans are going back to school, back to work, paying attention and for whatever reason, -- there is an opportunity for the democrats to cement states even like arizona where biden won by 10,000 registered voters. kamala harris has the opportunity to capture 162,000 latino youth that have turned 18 since biden was elected. geoff: there was an ad that was focused on latino voters and she really leaned into her personal story, talking about the fact that she is the daughter of immigrants and really trying to

make inroads with that community based on her identity and personal story. how resident is that? -- resonent is that? maria: because she was the daughter of an immigrant single mother, it really resonates. what they are going to ask for next is what are you going to do differently than the biden -- than biden did for us? the biggest challenge he has had is communicating how he has changed there every day. they were skeptical. with her on top of the ticket, they are very open to what is the possibility for an extended four-year term. amna: there has been this long-term trend, weakening of enthusiasm among latino voters who are not a monolith. but there has been really since obama a weakening, presidential election by election. what do you attribute that to

and what do you want to see from harris that could first that trend? maria: the way latinos vote isn't that they are trending to the republicans. it's that they are not enthusiastic necessarily so they stay home. what they want to be able to demonstrate is that not only is there a vision for the present but also for the future. the more that the harris campaign can talk about economy, small business, that she -- small business capitalism. there are so many young latinos who are entrepreneurs. that will penetrate because the republicans have been trying to pick people often say the democrats are antibusiness. no, i am small business capitalist. that will open up a whole different conversation. geoff: we should apologize for talking to the national anthem. this timing is out of our control. the harris campaign has said that they see multiple paths to election through the blue wall

but also through the sun belt states. air xana, nevada, in large part because of the large number of latino voters. are there other states that might now be in play because of a similar population? maria: there is an opportunity even in pennsylvania. a growing electoral base, you have a potential senate pick up in a place like texas because of the volume of young people that are anxious to jump in the game but there has to be a real strategic investment there. amna: there is the key issue of immigration that we know is really resident particularly with some border communities and we saw many of them actually go for -- trump -- in the last election. how should this ticket message on this issue that has did have old -- that has bedeviled the administration? maria: go to the root of the problem and start creating

investments. the more that she couches what is happening at the border as a western hemisphere issue and that we need more people involved, not just government, but our canadian friends, mexican friends, colombian friends, for example, and business, then we can have a conversation with the american people of how do you ashley talk about the undocumented people who have been here for 20, 30 years? what the president did in june where he granted authorities first spouses of undocumented immigrants goes along way. that was roughly 2 million family households that were impacted with the narrative of we have to fix the border and be tough on it but we have pathways to safeguard the folks that are already here. amna: thank you. always good to see you here. thank you for being here. we are going to have much more special my coverage of the convention right here in chicago throughout this evening but first, we are going to go back to william in washington. william: sudan's army has been

locked in a brutal civil war with a militia known as the rapid support forces or rss. -- rsf. that fighting has devastated the country and triggered the world's largest displacement of people. the u.n. is now warning of famine in some areas. sudan is one of the most difficult places for journalists to enter, but the news hour secured rare access to report what's happening there on the ground. that work is supported by the pulitzer centre. in her second in a series of reports, special correspondent leila molana-allen travelled to leila molana-allen travelled to cities on the front lines in central and south-eastern sudan where she met the people caught in the middle of this violence. william: ravaged. after a year and a half of war, this is what remains of the sudanese capital khartoum's residential suburbs, once home to millions. the bullet-battered streets tell a story of hand-to-hand combat; craters from missiles fired at close range ripping through walls and rooftops every few yards.

a century-old mosque scarred by hails of gunfire; the area's largest bank incinerated. life-saving hospitals, gutted. >> the rsf occupied the hospital? >> yes, as a base. when the army, the saf, liberated this place, the militia bombed it and destroyed it. william: -- leila: after months of fighting, the sudanese army has managed to recapture this area. but danger isn't far; just across the nile in khartoum city, the rapid support forces continue to shell, shoot and raid. not a single street is unscathed by the violence. the ache of loss echoes through the eerie silence here. blocked off from the main cemetery by the constantly shifting front lines, civilians have been burying their family members killed in the fighting here, in a makeshift cemetery in the grounds of an old football field where kids used to play. a few former residents wander, shellshocked, through once familiar alleyways, hoping to find their homes still standing

or collect abandoned possessions. but one family never left. mariam adam is 75. as the rsf swept through town last spring, their neighbours fled in terror. but when militiamen came to their door, the adams refused to leave. >> we've seen everything that happened here. we saw the lights of weapons shoot across the sky; we heard all the sounds, and we're still here. a shell hit the house, shattering the glass and walls. that was the first shell that hit our home, injuring me here and here. william: maryam's brother was killed, but miraculously, the rest of the family survived. for a year, they lived on almost nothing, sheltering in their stone house as the bombs rained down. >> when the area was under the control of the rsf, they cut off the water and electricity. last fall, we had to drink rainwater because there was no other water. william: schools have been shut

since the start of the war. all 5-year-old abak wants is to see her friends and teachers. she doesn't know who's still alive. >> i love studying. they were teaching me the letter "a" for apple, "b" for boy and "c" for chicken. i have friends at school, but the teacher left, and the kindergarten closed its doors. william: as we embrace, their emaciated bodies tell how these proud elders gave everything they had to the younger family members. there's more food and water here now, but nothing's guaranteed; . >> this has not exhausted me. i am happy because i am still standing. i am a fighter. we hope to god that sudan returns to how it was. leila: just a few streets away, battles rage on.

the emergency room is rammed with panicked, injured families. the ibrahim's home was just hit by an rsf shell. sot al kheir ibrahim, omdurman -- by an rsf shell. >> we went to the mosque, and on our way back,shells started falling on us like rain. on the streets, and on the houses, and we were running everywhere. leila: al kheir's brother tijani believes nothing is being done to protect civilians in this war, sot tijani ibrahim, omdurman resident -- civilians this war. >> children, women, and the elderly, unarmed. they have nothing to do with the saf or rsf, nothing to do with politics. every home has become a grave. why all this? for democracy? overseas, they announce democracy and human rights, they speak beautifully, while acting despicably. and here we are in sudan, dying by the weapons they provide while they say "no more war!" leila: even here, they're not safe. the hospital has been hit five times already in as many months. targeting hospitals in a

conflict is a war crime. all of omdurman's hospitals have been hit multiple times by shelling and small arms fire throughout the course of the war. most of them aren't functioning anymore. here at al-nao hospital, the only surgical hospital still working, each time there's a strike, they patch up the damage, and carry on. four days after the newshour left, al nao was hit again. omurman's largest private hospital already lies in ruins. the al buluk children's hospital has only just managed to reopen after being shelled last month. here, overstretched doctors work to save young lives under the constant threat of attack. >> i can't even find words to describe this. hospitals are places where people to come to find sanctuary. i myself have been a victim of a stray bullet two months ago while i was working. william: -- leila: dr. musaddal specialises in infant malnutrition, a brutal side effect of the war which is devastating sudan's children.

mugahed is just 10 months old. he has acute malnutrition. >> we get a lot of new admissions, a lot of cases under the age of 5, 6 months. some cases come in from rsf controlled territory, which come in very bad shape. cases of severe, severe malnutrition. leila: mugahed's little body can't cope. his lungs are failing. he weighs just half what he should at this age. >> it's heartbreaking. really, it's heartbreaking. leila: the hospital sees more than 100 cases like this each month. families like mugahed's are trapped behind fluid front lines, with little access to food and water. undernourished mothers can't produce the breast milk their babies need. risking the journey to get them here is the only chance to save them. but they don't always make it.

nine-month-old ukran, named for another bitter war of survival, has had so little nutrition in her early life that her organs are failing. >> we fled here, most of us walked on foot. it was very tough. some people couldn't walk, and others couldn't find food. we left everything behind, even my children's birth certificates. leila: zakya's husband was killed in an attack. if ukran survives, zakya must she must now raise her and her three other children alone, with no home and no breadwinner. the level of need across the country is staggering. with little government or international aid, sudanese communities are rallying to provide. each evening, these displaced women in omdurman gather to bake sorghum bread, much cheaper than wheat. the next morning, eager lines down the block to collect rations of bread, lentils, rice and broad beans; all paid for by donations from locals and sudan's diaspora.

this will be the only meal many of these families eat today. if nothing is done, by fall millions of people will be starving to death. qadarif's rolling green hills and idyllic pastoral scenes belie the growing threat. this region is sudan's bread basket. but the rsf has already captured the neighbouring agricultural states. home to sudan's largest grain reserve stockpiling thousands of tons of food, qadarif's farmers are terrified that they're next. >> yes, people are talking, saying that the rsf are coming. they even tell me not to plant, asking why are you planting. the rsf will take all the crops, they won't leave anything, and the people will starve and die. leila: rsf forces are closing in on qadarif in a pincer movement. an rsf victory here would be nothing short of catastrophic for the country's dwindling food supply. as hundreds of thousands of the

elderly, the injured, the desperate mothers and their weary children search in vain for a safe place to wait out this war, and enough food to survive it, international leaders meet this week promising to find solutions. few here believe that help is coming. for the pbs newshour, i'm leila molana-allen in qadarif, sudan. ♪ geoff: -- william: as summer winds down, much of the u.s. is experiencing another covid surge . it's biggest wave we've seen in at least two years, and hundreds of people are still being killed every single week by this virus. according to the cdc's analysis of hospitalizations, 25 states in the u.s. have or likely have rising numbers of covid infections. and the spread is nationwide, in the west, the south, the midwest, and the northeast.

i recently spoke with dr. eric topol. he's the founder and director of the scripps research translational institute and i asked him what was behind this uptick. >> right, william, well, it, there's a significant rate of infections, perhaps around 1 million people, infected americans per day. uh, there are 3 factors that are contributing. one is that there's a variant, uh, which is distinctly more challenging to our immune system, uh, and that's the so-called kp 311. second is that we have immunity waning because more than 6 months from a booster shot or an infection. uh, we have a hard time to, to recognize and deal with the virus. and third, of course, is that we've largely abandoned any mitigation measures. so these three things together are causing the biggest summer wave of infections. not necessarily hospitalizations, then we've seen over the past couple of years. well, on that point, uh, apart from the concerns over long

covid, as you're saying, hospitalizations and deaths are the things that we really do worry about. what does the data indicate is going on in that regard? >> fortunately, there hasn't been a big spike in hospitalizations or deaths. so we do have that immunity that's been built over the last 3 to 4 years that's helping to prevent severe disease. it it's still current. we're still having, as you mentioned, uh, some increases in the hospitalizations, but not nearly as high as we've seen when this level of infections uh or manifest. but as you mentioned, and you touched on, we're going to see more long covid, unfortunately, because that can happen even after a mild infection. >> so let's talk about protective measures. are we back to the point where people like yourself would be recommending masking in crowded places. i mean, do you, do you wear a mask if you go into a crowded place or travel on an airplane? >> i sure would recommend that, yes, because uh we have a lot of circulating virus right now, uh, and it's a challenging one and we're waiting a new booster, but we're somewhat vulnerable more than we have been.

so yeah, using a high quality mask like a k 95 and 95 is really gonna help uh reduce the likelihood of getting an infection, as you mentioned, william, particularly when you've got crowd, public transportation, places. where you just don't know, uh, and there's a lot of people out there that could be carrying the virus. >> and what about that issue about the booster? should people who are concerned get the current one? should they wait for the next one? when will the next one be? will it be more targeted? >> yes, it'll be more targeted. it's directed towards a variant called kp2, which is pretty darn close to what we're dealing with right now. it's going to be available in the first week of september. the problem is here and now we've still got a few weeks to go to get to that point. and so if you got the old

booster, uh, it'll provide some protection. but it's not nearly as well aligned with the new one. so it would have been great if that new one had been ready much earlier when this wave got its roots many weeks ago, but we still have a few weeks to go and certainly for high risk people, uh, 65 and older, immunocompromised, it's gonna be really important to get the new booster and possibly even a booster now if someone is anticipating a significant risk that they're being confrond with. >> i understand you, you think there's some promise with nasal vaccines. what's happening on that front? >> the u.s. has invested, but not enough in a couple of nasal vaccine programs, but this is what we need, william, to get us out of the woods because our biggest problem right now is we're not able really in any significant way to stop the infections. and the risk of long covid. and the small but persistent risk of severe covid hospitalizations and fatalities. so we've got to double down,

triple down on the nasal vaccines because there's been so much recent work to show that this is feasible. it's just a matter of getting the clinical trials done and scaling up manufacturing, but, you know, i'm quite confident that we'll have a nasal vaccine. we should have had it by now. in fact, even more than one. but we're moving in slow mode. we're not putting in the resources like we did for the initial shots back in 2020. so we got to take that more seriously. this is our big vulnerability right now is infections. william: and is it your sense that the nasal vaccine in and of itself is more effective or simply because of ease of delivery, more people would take it. >> well, both, i mean taking a spray, even if it's every 3 or 4 months, that would be great, uh, because it's basically uh creating this nasal mucosal immunity, it shouldn't be at all variant sensitive, that is, as we keep seeing more virus

evolution and tougher variants, the nasal spray should provide higher efficacy against infections. so for many reasons, um, the ease of use and the protection it will. for this should be, uh, you know, a very high priority, which is not getting right now unfortunately. william: as you have well seen and given the number of infections we're seeing around the country, the urgency amongst the general public does not seem that strong. it seems like people are treating this like a cold, the flu, kind of just this seasonal thing that's an irritant. do you think that that's progress that we are starting to see it as a a nuisance as opposed to something much more grave. >> well, here's the problem is for many people, it is like a cold. it is, uh, y know, it's in the same family of coronaviruses that caused common cold. the problem is it's a much tougher virus for some people and it's like a lottery where it could then weeks later lead to long covid and we're still

seeing that even with the current virus and people who were previously very healthy. so we can't predict who's going to have the the serious sequela of a mild infection. of covid and that's really something why we have to prevent infections and of course, even though some people are not winding up in the hospital. they're getting pretty sick. they're having to be out of work or missing out on a vacation or whatever, we, we really got to get our arms around this infection problem and we haven't done it yet. william: all right, doctor eric topol, always great to speak with you. thank you so much. >> thank you, william. william: let's head back to chicago now, where amna and geoff are hosting special coverage of the democratic national convention. geoff: thank you.

remember there's a lot more , online, including a look at why this year's convention is here in chicago and not in a swing state like it has been in recent years. that's on our instagram. amna: and be sure to join us again here shortly for live coverage of tonight's convention lineup, that includes a speech from former president barack obama and an interview with speaker emerita nancy pelosi. our pbs special begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i am geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with us and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular. this is sam. how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. well, somebody's pocket, thought i'd let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> carnegie corporation of new york, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for

education, democracy, and peace. more information at cardi get our. -- carnegie.org, and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. >>

wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. ♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. the stage is set for the democratic national convention in chicago with a burst of enthiasm for kamala harris. i'm joined by democratic

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