amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the “news hour” tonight. >> we're on offense and we've got the ball, we're driving down the field. geoff: vice presidential

candidate tim walz gives democrats a pep talk before all eyes turn to kamala harris' speech here on the last night of the democrat national convention. amna: we hear from members of a crucial voting bloc about what democrats need to do to win their votes. >> do you think that democrats have taken black voters for granted? >> what i see is they assume that our vote is guaranteed. geoff: and ukraine's president visits the border area where his country's forces launched an incursion into russia. what ukraine stands to gain or lose from capturing russian land. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs news hour" has been provided by. >> a law partner rediscovers her grandmother's artistry and creates a trust to keep the craft alive. a raymondjames financial advisor gets to know you, your passions, and the way you enrich your

community. life well planned. >> carnegie corporation of new york, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. more information at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

geoff: welcome to the “news hour.” it's the final night of the democratic national convention here in chicago, which has been unlike what anyone expected just a month ago. in a few hours, vice president kamala harris is set to accept her party's nomination for president and outline her vision for the country. amna: harris' running mate, minnesota governor tim walz, set the stage for her last night as he introduced himself to the american people and accepted his nomination, all with some midwestern flare. ♪ night three at the dnc featured rising party stars. >> that is a story of america. amna: a parade of celebrities. >> what's up, dnc? amna: and a musical nod to minnesota. >> ♪ let's go crazy ♪ ♪ amna: but the state's governor and evening's headliner, tim walz, was introduced by this group. >> come on out, scarlets. amna: former members of the high school football team he once

coached. >> thank you. amna: in the biggest speech of his political career, walz introduced himself to america as a small town kid, former national guardsman, and high school teacher whose students inspired him to run for office. >> they saw in me what i had hoped to instill in them, a commitment to the common good. an understanding that we're all in this together. amna: peppering his speech with the familiar campaign message of freedom. >> in minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make. and even if we wouldn't make those same choices for ourselves, we've got a golden rule. mind your own damn business. amna: with his wife gwen watching on, walz recounted their fertility struggles before having their daughter hope, and son gus. >> hope, gus, and gwen, you are

my entire world, and i love you. amna: bringing 17-year-old gus to his feet in tears, as he pointed to the stage, saying, that's my dad. >> i am letting you in. amna: the harris-walz campaign has embraced a direction best summed up in a single word. >> joy. joy. joy comes in the morning. >> kamala harris is the president of joy. >> joy! amna: a message underscored in a surprise appearance by hometown hero oprah winfrey. we won't be set back, pushed back, bullied back, kicked back, we're not going back. amna: several speakers, in fact, issued sharp rebukes of vice president kamala harris' opponent, former president donald trump, including by house minority leader hakeem jeffries. >> donald trump is like an old boyfriend who you broke up with, but he just won't go away.

bro, we broke up with you for a reason. >> so the next time you hear him, don't count the lies. count the i's. amna: former president bill clinton warned of complacency post-convention, as the shadow of his wife hillary clinton's 2016 loss still looms over the party. >> we've seen more than one election slip away from us when we thought it couldn't happen. when people got distracted by phony issues, or overconfidence. amna: and once again, this democratic convention relied on republicans to help make the case for their candidate. like former mike pence advisor, olivia troye. >> you aren't voting for a democrat. you're voting for democracy. amna: in stark contrast to the

raucous cheers, a somber, steady chant broke out, as the parents of israeli-american hamas hostage, hersh goldberg-polin, took the stage. calling for a ceasefire and speaking directly to their son. >> hersh, hersh. if you can hear us, we love you. stay strong. survive. amna: but outside the arena, a frustrated group of uncommitted delegates staged a sit-in after learning their request for a palestinian-american speaking slot was denied by the dnc. the top of the republican ticket, meanwhile, worked to counter-program in battleground arizona. >> comrade kamala harris, i ll her comrade because she is a radical left marxist, she wants open borders.

amna: trump's running mate, senator j.d. vance, spoke at a sheriff's office in georgia. >> what a dynamic duo they make. a dynamic duo for people who don't like law enforcement, a dynamic duo for people who want to make our streets less safe. amna: back in chicago, democrats are gearing up for the convention's grand finale and the historic moment their candidate will accept her party's nomination for president. geoff: let's go this evening to the convention floor where our white house correspondent laura barron-lopez is standing by. what can we expect to hear from vice president harris later this evening? laura: an official said that vice president harris will share her story, the story of being raised by -- and her decision to become a prosecutor. she will also emphasize what democrats call the dangers of project 2025 and fundamentally underscore her patriotism and where she wants to take the country, striking a contrast with donald trump. amna: as we have heard again and again from speakers it is just

over two months to go before the election. what do voters want to hear from vice president harris? laura: many of the democrats i spoke to including lawmakers do not want detailed white papers from vice president harris. they don't think she needs to be putting out 10 point policy plans. i spoke to a senator from hawaii you says he wants harris to really emphasize her vision and direction for the country in an honest way for voters and do that over and over again. but not to box yourself in, because you never know what the makeup of congress is going to be if you are trying to negotiate on legislation. also, a number of voters have told me and democrats that they want to hear her really lien in on border security and immigration. some voters said they also -- that harris is still undefined for them and they want to hear more from her on the economy and abortion. geoff: there is lingering tension between the harris campaign and dnc organizers in the so-called uncommitted movement. where does that stand? laura: last night the democratic

national committee denied the uncommitted delegates's request to have a palestinian-american speaker on the main stage. and delegates told us they had been talking to the campaign for months about this, the campaign had been speaking to them every day this week and had ultimately tried to get them to stop a sit-in they started after the request was denied. we spoke to some of the uncommitted delegates and a told us they felt as though the bat they asked for was a bare minimum of having a palestinian-american speaker take the stage. they were not asking necessarily for any major change in policy at the convention. of course they do want a change in policy, but not here. and they said they are democrats, they would like to be able to move towards harris. but at this point they are very frustrated that their main request was denied. amna: as we know kamala harris will be the headliner tonight but who else should we expect to hear from tonight? laura: we are going to be hearing from a number of

democrats including senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts and senator mark kelly of arizona. his wife, gun control activist gabby giffords, is also expected to speak, as well as governor gretchen whitmer of michigan. she will be talking. maya harris, kamala harris's sister, is going to be talking to the arena ahead of the vice president's acceptance speech. one thing i would like to add is when i was talking to lawmakers about the vibes here, they said one big difference, there has been a lot of differences -- comparisons between kamala harris and barack obama in 2008. they feel this campaign is about all democrats and people writ large. they felt like obama's campaign was much more about his persona and the celebrity of obama. amna: laura barron-lopez on the convention floor, thank you. meanwhile, political parties traditionally don't compete too vigorously with each other's conventions, usually the

opposing presidential candidate holds few, if any, events. this year the trump campaign is rejecting that model. during the democratic convention, the former president had one of his busiest campaign schedules of the cycle. to discuss the trump campaign's plans and view of the democratic convention, we are joined by lisa desjardins who covers the trump campaign for us. take us through what exactly the trump campaign is doing and what messages they are trying to send. lisa: try and imagine a blank map of the united states. that is usually what it looks like for the opposing presidential candidate in this convention. now let's look at what is happening with the trump campaign. this is where the former president has been this week and here is where his vice presidential nominee has been. look at those estates. those are the key states that the teams are fighting for pretty both republicans and democrats. arizona, wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, and north carolina, a state that we see trump really wants to protect.

you get from that map not only the important states, but also the fact the trump campaign and trump campaign sources tell me they feel they need to step up their game. they also point out they did not get the chance to directly rebut their opponent kamala harris at their convention because she was not yet the nominee. so they feel they have to hit the ground running as much as possible starting right now. amna: as we have heard the harris campaign is centered on a message of freedom as central to their campaign. has the trump team now settled on any kind of message? lisa: those who have been listening to trump events this week have seen he has tried out different tactics and messages, but sources in trump world tell me they think that is settling down into a three point attack. the first was something you reported on, this idea that kamala harris is liberal to the extreme, and that nickname he settled on it seems like,

comrade, law -- she's part of a democratic republic, she is obviously not a communist. the other two things, border and immigration. that is where we saw the former president today. the other one, the economy. this is the most important one for the trump campaign and they know it. one source told me there is a race right now to define kamala harris on the economy and they said if harris is able to project herself as a change agent versus someone who is to blame for the economy, then it is game over. that republicans and trump need to define her as someone responsible for the problems as she tries to define herself as someone who can solve them. amna: even as the trump campaign works to push their own messages , what we know about how the former president and his campaign team are reacting to what is happening here at the democratic convention? are they watching? lisa: they are absolutely

watching. j.d. vance today talked about that on the trail that he has been watching. what are they saying about it? they are paying attention and saying the democrats are void of substance, they are trying to say that they are focused more on trump. and he is keeping count on how many references he has pretty they are also noticing the republican speakers including stephanie grisham who spoke tuesday, former press secretary to donald trump. here is what she said at the convention on tuesday. >> i saw him when the cameras were off. behind closed doors, trump mocks his supporters. he calls them basement dwellers. on a hospital visit one time when people were dying in the icu, he was mad that the cameras were not watching him. he has no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth. laura: -- lisa: in response they wrote,

stephanie grisham is a stone co ld loser. she's a liar and a fraud. trump will not just be watching tonight, he will be posting on social media. he said he will do a live play-by-play tonight. tonight is kamala harris's night, but donald trump does not like being out of the spotlight and that is how he will attempt to get back in it. amna: lisa, thank you. geoff: georgia is one of a handful of states that could determine the winner of this year's presidential election. for more on thatlet's bring in senator raphael warnock. welcome back to the “news hour”" it is good to have you here. kamala harris continues to cut into donald trump's previous polling lead in key battleground states to include georgia. is georgia in play? sen. warnock: absolutely.

georgia is very much in play. i know little something about how to win that state. i have done it twice. as i move around the state i was there at their first rally following the announcement that she would be the likely nominee. you could not contain the energy and the excitement not only in that room but on the ground as i move all across georgia. and i have to say the former president may be offering a little bit of help as he flies into georgia because he has no impulse control. he cannot help himself. he attacks the sitting governor of georgia who happens to be a republican while they are focused on that internal fight and their problems. we are going to remain focused on the problems of the people of georgia and the american people. geoff: we spoke with south carolina's congress in jim clyburn last night and he had something of a warning for the harris campaign. he said it is great they have had this historic fundraising

haul, but you cannot just spend that on tv and radio ads. you have to be in the community. you cannot just talk about the investments in hbcu's, you have to go and engage the students. do you see a campaign that is as aggressive to match the level of energy we have been seeing in this arena all week? sen. warnock: i think whip clyburn is exactly right about that. you have to be on the ground in these communities. i experienced that in my own campaign and it is an important playbook. people want to feel you are walking with them even as you work for them. now, we only have about 75 days. those of us who are surrogates have to be in these places as well and there is a path to get that done. geoff: as we have been talking about this evening there is this undercurrent of division about the campaign's approach to israel policy, whether or not a

palestinian-american should be given a speaking slot on the stage. in your speech monday night you spoke of wanting all of god's children to be ok. poor children of atlanta, of israel, of gaza. how do you see this issue being resolved among democrats, and do you think a palestinian-american should have a speaking slot at this convening? sen. warnock: listen, president biden and vice president harris have been clear throated that we need a cease-fire. and we need an immediate cease-fire. so that work continues. if it were a simple issue it would be resolved already. certainly my heart goes out for the palestinian people who have endured so much pain during this war and even prior to this war. by the same token, you can't help but feel your heartstrings being tugged at as you watch that couple lesson i talk about their young son who is now a hostage of hamas. so let's end the war, bring the

hostages back home, and let's find the path towards a two-state solution. that is what we need. that is the only way that you can have a situation in which israelis and palestinians can live in peace side-by-side. geoff: in your speech monday you issued a clear warning about gop voter suppression efforts. georgia is in many ways ground zero for that effort. you have a number of trump loyalists, right-wing republicans who now have a majority on the georgia state election board, an unelected board that have approved rules that could delay the certifying of the vote if donald trump loses. what is being done in georgia to protect the integrity of the vote? sen. warnock: i want to underscore what you said. they are literally changing the rules right now in the midst of an election. by the way, that sounds like a desperate party. that sounds like somebody who knows they are losing the argument and so already they are trying to position themselves not to certify the race.

part of what we have to do is we have to have lawyers and the infrastructure on the ground to challenge all of these machinations that i fully expect. but we don't agonize, we organize. and we have to turn out our people so that our ween is unassailable. at the same time we have to have infrastructure on the ground. when we had my second run off in this last race i literally had to sue the state of georgia so that the people of georgia could vote there in the first weekend of the runoff. and then when i one they appealed and i had to win again. then they appealed and i had to win again. so we will remain vigilant both in terms of the legal side of this as well as the electoral work we have to do. geoff: i am saving my most pressing question for last. we were talking about how georgia won the roll call monday night. lil' jon fired up the georgia delegation during the dnc's

musical roll call. who had the idea to call up li'' jon and do the roll call and that way? sen. warnock: i wish i could take credit for that but this is georgia, this is how we roll. not only did georgia win the other night in the whole history of roll calls, from john kennedy to lil' jon, georgia wins. geoff: we can't argue with that. senator raphael warnock, thank you very much for coming by. sen. warnock: thank you so much. amna: kamala harris is just hours away from making history as the first black woman of indian descent to accept a party's nomination for president. and earlier today, i spoke with washington congresswoman pramila jayapal, the first indian-american woman in the house and chair of the progressive caucus, about harris' historic nomination. welcome back. you are chair of the house progressive caucus. tell us about what you make of this ticket's policies you have seen so far.

are they progressive enough for you and your colleagues? rep. jayapal: this is a terrific agenda that the biden/harris administration has laid out. but now that the harris/walz campaign is laying out, i think it is really clear they are going to provide economic opportunity and freedom for everyone across this country for her focus on housing, very critical. nobody can afford a place to live across the country. per focus on raising taxes on the wealthiest corporations, very important. also the care economy. the work she has done around child care and long-term care. taking care of families come a paid leave, these are critical issues. and of course our freedoms pretty the freedom to vote, the freedom to make choices about our own body. those are all essential pieces she has already talked about that are big parts of her agenda. amna: you have disagreed with the biden/harris administration on a few policies. immigration, israel's war on gaza.

the want to see a potential president harris break more dramatically from the policies of the biden/harris administration on those two issues? rep. jayapal: on immigration it was really that i believe we have to of course secure the border and get more resources into immigration judges and asylum officers, but we have to fix the underlying system. democrats have the solution to that and the biden/harris administration introduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would have modernized our system for we just have to be able to pass that. that has border pieces in it but you cannot fix the border unless you fix the underlying system and have more legal pathways for people to come in pretty i feel confident that vice president harris as president will continue to pursue those critical reforms to modernize our immigration system. on the war on gaza, i think there is an opening here. she has been extremely sympathetic and empathetic to the palestinian people and the plight of what is happening in

gaza in particular. i think the opportunity to make progress on changing u.s. policy and making sure we are not providing weapons that are killing people in gaza. we need to apply our own domestic laws. we are not quite there yet but i always say protection -- perfection may not be on the ballot but real progress is. there is no question we can organize towards a better policy under a harris/walz campaign and we will not be able to do that under donald trump. amna: as you have seen members of the uncommitted movement including the few dozen uncommitted delegates staged a sit in here yesterday after they learned they would not be allowed a speaking slot on the main stage at the dnc, do you believe they should have been allowed that opportunity to speak? rep. jayapal: i do and i have made that clear to the campaign. i think if you are going to highlight the incredibly powerful stories and pain of the

people that have been -- essentially been caught in this horrible conflict -- and i was so moved by the heartbreaking stories of rachel and john last week, the hostage family. i have met with them directly and spoken with them. every american hearing that story wants to bring the hostages home. and i think every american hearing the stories of palestinian americans who have lost dozens of family members in gaza would also feel that same empathy and determination to end this war and to end the killing in gaza. maybe there still a chance, i don't know, but i wish we could hear that from the main stage as well because at the end of the day this is about everyone being seen and heard. and i think the harris/walz campaign has been so good and the vice president herself and governor walz are so good at letting people know that they are part of our democratic fabric and that they matter,

that their voices and stories matter. amna: they will be a historic moment here tonight when your party puts forward a black woman, of south asian this and, to accept your party's nomination for the presidency. you have made history in your own way. is the significance of that moment something you have reflected on? rep. jayapal: i reflect on it all the time. when we were casting our votes for washington state for the vice president we actually said her full name because it was important to us. we have the first south asian party chair as well in washington state and it is really meaningful. one of the magical things about this ticket is that no matter who you are there is an identity that you can connect with. if you are middle-class, working-class, kamala harris and tim walz have that connection. if you are a south asian american, indian-american as i am, you see yourself in her as well.

if you are black you see the opportunity. if you are a woman you see the opportunity. if you are a white rural voter you see the opportunity. tim walz came out of a red rural district. and so i think this is a moment where we really can unite the country under kamala harris and tim walz and we can say no to the politics of division and fear and hatred and we can say yes to the politics of freedom and opportunity, respect, dignity and humanity for all. amna: congresswoman pramila jayapal, thank you for joining us. rep. jayapal: great to speak with you. geoff: in dozens of speeches, democratic leaders have drawn a sharp contrast between how kamala harris and donald trump would govern. we're going to add context to some of what we've heard in chicago. and for that, we're joined by politifact editor in chief katie sanders. thank you so much for being here. let's start with what we heard from former president bill clinton.

last night he said democrats have created 50 times more jobs than republican. >> since the end of the cold war in 1989, america has created about 51 million new jobs. i swear, i checked this three times, even i couldn't believe it. what's the score? democrats 50, republicans 1. geoff: so he says he checked it three times. was he right? katie: he is right on the numbers, but there's extra context that's needed. so we rated this mostly true. so the numbers are accurate. democratic presidents have benefited from significantly more job gains going back to that precise 1989 starting point. you have to listen to that. that omits the any job gains that were seen during the reagan years, right? but i think the extra context is that we would want viewers to know, presidents are not all powerful.

it's not as if it's all the work. former president clinton might want to share some of that credit with the republican-led congress that governed legislatively while he was in office, so there's some squishiness there. if you go back even further, the democrats still have a jobs gain. it's about 70% going back to the eisenhower years till now. but i think the big thing to know is that democratic presidents have overseen economic recoveries, and that's really just a stroke of bad luck in some cases for the republican presidents who lost jobs. geoff: let's fact-check we heard from pete buttigieg about crime numbers. >> donald trump rants about law and order, as if he wasn't a convicted criminal running against a prosecutor. as if we were going to forget that crime was higher on his watch. geoff: so was crime higher during the trump era? katie: this is one of those quintessential lines that is very broad that we've been hearing from speakers this week. we rated this claim half true.

violent crime did spike in 2020. that coincided with the pandemic, with george floyd protests, but it was a very notable spike for violent crime. but pete buttigieg was being brought here. he said crime. and if you look at property crime, it actually went up in 2022 under president biden. so it's more complex than he's letting on. but generally it did see an increase during the trump years. geoff: another issue has been the conservative heritage foundation's policy roadmap, known as project 2025. and among the claims speakers have said that project 2025 would increase taxes on the middle class, eliminate the department of education, require reporting of miscarriages to the government and make it easier to fire civil service employees. what did your fact check find? katie: we have heard those again and again this week. i think the ones that are more straightforward are about civil servants and about closing the department of education. project 2025 does say that. so that is true.

and former president trump shares the perspective. as far as like the broad tax increase, i thought that was interesting. we heard kamala harris on the campaign trail talk about how this plan would increase taxes on middle class families by $3900. people might hear that and be like, oh no. it's not a tax increase, it's correlates with trump's 10% tariff idea that he's been proposing, which would have an effect and raise the cost of a lot of everyday items, but $3900 is very specific. it's also higher than any other estimate we've seen from groups that study this kind of thing. so i would say that seems exaggerated for now. as far as miscarriages, the plan does call out current abortion data collection practices. it's voluntary. some states like california don't participate. and project 2025 says they want to know more about the number of spontaneous miscarriages that are happening in state hospitals

in addition to abortions and other types of data. so it does call for that data collection, but that is not exactly what we heard on stage. geoff: you were with us at the republican national convention as well. when you compare the rnc to the dnc, which gathering had the greatest fidelity to the facts? katie: certainly there's been some exaggerations this week, or very broad claims. but i think it's hard to compare anyone with the amount of falsehoods that you hear at a campaign rally from former president trump. if you remember his speech, we were doing a lot of fact checking in the moment of things we've heard again and again and again. so i think that is challenging to stack up against any other gathering, really, for the facts. with kamala harris's speech tonight i wonder if she is going to stay broad and vague, focus more on her biography versus going into specific claims. we will have to see.

her campaign speeches have not had a similar style to say the least as former president trump. geoff: thank you so much. you can see more fact checks from this week's democratic national convention and from the ongoing presidential race online at pbs.org/newshour. amna: kamala harris has reset the presidential race but questions remain if one crucial democratic voting bloc will turn out in similar numbers to previous years. laura barron-lopez spoke with several black men about what harris needs to do to win their vote. >> i would love to know what makes her kamala as opposed to joe biden's vice president. laura: in milwaukee, this 39-year-old says he is still learning about kamala harris. how did you vote in the 2020 election. >> i voted against trump. laura: so, for joe biden? >> you could say that. [laughter] laura: he says there is still no way he would vote for former president donald trump.

but he is uncertain if he will cast his barrett for harris or stay home. do you think democrats have taken black voters for granted? >> for sure. from my perspective, what i see is they assume that our vote is guaranteed. laura: black voters, especially women, are expected to once again overwhelmingly support democrats this november. and enthusiasm has surged for harris. though president biden won 91% o f the black vote in 2020, republicans made marginal gains with black men with trump winning about 12% of them. and this year polls from before harris entered the race showed trump's support among black men had climbed to about 20%. >> there are a lot of folks were open to it. laura: rod adams runs a social justice nonprofit he started following the murder of george floyd.

today his group organizes conversations among the young black men. some of them he says are open to voting for donald trump. >> i think the black men who voted for democrats for the past several elections, they want to do that but they also want to be courted. these are folks living paycheck-to-paycheck. there has not been a plan laid out for them and because of that, folks feel like even if they vote for harris their communities won't change. >> i seem to be doing very well with black males. laura: the former president attractive win over black voters at the margins in key states. >> why should black voters trust you? laura: last month while speaking to a gathering of black voters in chicago, trump said immigrants were taking quote, black jobs. >> a black job is anybody who has a job, that is what it is. laura: and questioned the vice president's racial identity. >> is she indian or is she black? >> the morning which receipt

trump make racist attacks on kamala harris, we're going to see some of the black coalition come back to kamala. laura: he also says harris needs to focus on issues lack voters care about most, including raising the minimum wage, lowering the cost of housing, and criminal justice reform. he is supporting harassment he says concerns remain about the fact she was a former prosecutor. >> kamala harris has spent decades fighting violent crime. >> a lot of black voters call her a cop and say she was one of the drivers of mass incarceration in california. some of that is misinformation folks have been traumatized. me particularly, my mom and dad went to prison. all of my siblings are felons. i have dealt with issues in the common adjuster system as well. that is one of our kitchen table issues. laura: back in wisconsin, many voters don't need any more

convincing. >> her background and upbringing inexperience, -- upbringing inexperience, it defines what -- laura: he and his wife are excited about kamala harris. >> even if you don't feel we are ready for a black president, i guess the question is do we feel we are ready for four more years of donald trump? laura: across town this 34-year-old voted for trump in 2016 and 2020. >> voted for trump because i thought it would be better for jobs. finding better jobs and i guess helping me and other people i know find a place to work. laura: was it better? >> no. not at all. laura: he says he regrets voting for trump. he likes some of what he has heard about harris's plans on making housing more affordable but he is skeptical it will actually help him. are you going to vote at all? >> no. probably not.

she doesn't really appeal to my current circumstances and the things i have going on. as well as a lot of people i know. it's broken promises, fake promises. talking about doing certain things they are not going to do. laura: black voters staying home this year is a fear for this provocative -- this progressive organizer. >> the largest group is people who don't vote. that is always a concern. laura: he is the director of an organization working to boost voter turnout in communities of color. earlier this week we joined him on what he calls the blackest bus in america as it rolled through chicago's south side. while he admits many black men distressed the political system, he says they remain one of the most reliable below -- voting blocks for democrats. >> black men are reliably going

to vote 85% for a democratic candidate. whatever critiques i may have of democrats in general, of biden, even of kamala harris, at the end of the day trump is not delivering on anything that benefits our community. the only thing he is concerned about is what benefits himself. laura: that is a message antoine carter agrees with. and while he is more excited with harris at the top of the ticket, he wants to hear more. what did she need to do at the end of the day to when your vote? >> she needs to, one, kind of put something on paper, let me see something. things like the economy, education. i have a 12-year-old in the seventh grade. just making sure that neighborhoods are safer and schools have more rigor. i know the president cannot do it all, but the president puts people in place to make those decisions. laura: the harris campaign says they are already seeing a shift

among black men towards the vice president. for the "news hour," i'm laura barron-lopez in chicago. amna: a canadian rail official says that one of the nation's two major freight operators will end its lockout immediately to get trains moving again. geoff: for that and all the day's other news, we turn now to william brangham who's in our washington studio. william: that's right. it has been a dramatic day for canada's railroad industry which plays a major role with trade in the u.s. the end of the lockout came just an hour after the labor minister ordered canada's two major operators into arbitration to settle a labor dispute. earlier today trains across canada had come to a screeching halt when management and unions had failed to reach a deal by last night's deadline. workers had been seeking better protections, saying long hours

can cause dangerous fatigue. canada's labor minister announced the order this afternoon, saying he hoped the action would reassure the country's trading partners. >> canada is a trading nation. our government will do everything in its power to preserve the stability and certainty that our railways and entire economy are renowned for the world over. william: according to an estimate by the relevant association of canada, half of canada's exports travel by rail. u.s. regulators approved new covid-19 vaccines today. the shots are designed to target the most recent strains of the virus, plus any variants that might arise this winter. pfizer and moderna are set to begin shipping millions of doses within days. the cdc has already recommended the shot for everyone six months and older. this comes amid a summer wave of covid cases across the country. turning to the middle east, a u.s. official says talks have

resumed in cairo over a so-called bridge proposal that could lead to a ceasefire in gaza. today, palestinians officials said at least 16 people were killed by air strikes in the gaza strip overnight and through the morning, including small children. this comes as the uss abraham lincoln aircraft carrier has arrived in the middle east, amid concerns that iran will launch a retaliatory strike against israel. iran blames israel for the death last month of a hamas leader in tehran. the italian coastguard says the body of british tech magnate mike lynch was recovered today from the wreckage of the yacht that sank off the coast of italy on monday. the 59-year-old had been on holiday on the yacht, having just been acquitted of multiple fraud charges in the u.s. recovery crews have found six bodies so far. lynch's 18-year-old daughter, hannah, is still unaccounted for. the justice department announced charges today against a

guatemalan man for his alleged role in the deaths of dozens of migrants inside a tractor-trailer in texas in 2022. rigoberto roman miranda orozco is charged with six counts of migrant smuggling resulting in death or serious bodily injury. he's the first person arrested outside the country to face charges in connection to the incident, when 53 migrants died in sweltering temperatures. authorities say they're sending a message to other traffickers. >> if you seek to profit off the backs of these migrants over their livelihood, we will pursue you, and we are going to make sure that justice is had. william: miranda orozco, who rejects the charges against him, faces up to life in prison if convicted. on wall street today, stocks ended lower ahead of a highly-anticipated speech by federal reserve chair jerome powell on friday.

the dow jones industrial average lost 177 points on the day. the nasdaq dropped nearly 300 points, weighed down by some of the biggest names in the tech sector. the s&p 500 also ended lower, losing about 50 points. and we have a unique passing of note, australia's sphen the penguin has died. the male gentoo penguin was one-half of a so-called penguin power couple, with his male partner, magic. same-sex couples are not uncommon in the animal kingdom. they were together for six years, shared a nest, and even raised two foster-chicks. they became international icons, immortalized on floats at pride celebrations, and appearing in documentaries. such penguin monogamy is also not limited to sphen and magic. the majority of all penguin couples stick together for life. perhaps a lesson for us all. sphen the penguin was 11 years old.

♪ >> this is the "pbs news hour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. william: ukraine's president today visited near the site where, two weeks ago, his troops launched a surprise incursion into russia. volodymyr zelensky said ukraine captured more territory and russian soldiers in russia's kursk region. moscow said it foiled a ukrainian attempt to seize land in the neighboring region of bryansk. and meanwhile, ukraine is continuing its efforts to bring the war into russia using long-range drones. nick schifirn has more. nick: in southwest russia today, a ferry carrying fuel for occupied crimea went up in smoke. as did a russian airfield 170 miles east of ukraine's border. never before has ukraine had so

much long-range capacity to bring the war into russia. which is what it continues to do on the ground, in kursk. ukrainian soldiers post videos attacking, and trying to encircle russian reinforcements. they launch cluster munitions on bridges and makeshift crossings that russians would need to use to redeploy. ukrainians are also digging in, to try and hold territory that kyiv calls a buffer zone. the russians in kursk also appear ready for a long fight. state tv showed new bomb shelters in the regional capital. ukraine controls about 450 square miles of russian territory. russia said today it blocked two new ukrainian incursions to the west. but kyiv hopes holding this territory can reduce attacks inside ukraine, and give ukraine leverage in future peace talks, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy said today after his first visit here since the incursion. >> to drive the occupier from our land, we must create as many problems for the russian state

as possible on its own territory. nick: russian president vladimir putin delivered his own analysis today, claiming that ukraine attacked a russian nuclear power station. ukraine labeled that the pot calling the kettle black, since russia two years ago seized ukraine's zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. and in eastern ukraine today, soldiers are struggling to prevent russia from seizing more territory. russians have moved within six miles of pokrovsk, a key ukrainian logistics hub whose capture could help russia expand its control of the donetsk region. the fighting has been fierceand personal. when a small ukrainian drone approached a russian soldier, he headbut it and survived. both sides have hard heads when it comes to their missions. >> we will stand here, kill them to the end, so that they do not go further, so they do not enter pokrovsk. they will not enter, we will not

let them. nick: but the russians are advancing so quickly, today, much of pokrovsk evacuated. including the most vulnerable. viktoria carries her newborn to an unknown future, no idea if their home will remain ukrainian. >> it's so sad, i want to cry. this is what i feel. i don't want to go anywhere. i want to be at home. nick: home is where love resides, and today love feels lost. many of their fathers, force to stay behind, forced to watch their sons through the window, forced to say goodbye, hoping it's not farewell. william: indian prime minister narendra modi will visit kyiv tomorrow for the first time since the full scale invasion. he said today in neighboring poland, there should be a negotiated end to the war. for more on ukraine's incursion into russia, russia's advance in

the east, and the overall war, we turn to silly -- we have now seen ukraine say for the last two weeks that its goals is to create a buffer zone and create some kind of average true negotiations. is that a good strategy? john: this is what they have as their best shot. we have a very attritional boar and russia has better stamina compared to ukraine. it is almost impossible for ukraine to recapture lost territory, especially given the scope of western military assistance. so they had to go unconventional and this is the best take. nick: can 450 square miles of russian territory really give --

>> it should be a dialogue. nick: we saw earlier ukrainian soldiers digging in obviously expecting a russian attempt. can they hold this? john: ukrainian units need to do three things. first they should dig in a complex architecture like russian strong points in the south. that botched the ukrainian offensive last year. second, this area should be under air defense umbrella of the ukrainian military. and third, ukrainian units shouldn't outrun their artillery and their rocket support. nick: u.s. and ukrainian officials confirmed to me that

they have not seen russian soldiers reinforcing the lines in kursk from the main areas of fighting in eastern ukraine. but u.s. officials confirmed to me also that ukrainian forces pulled some of the soldiers, their own soldiers, in prokovsk in order to invade, in kursk. so what is the impact of this kursk operation, could it have on ukraine's ability to hold in the east? >> this was a gamble that ukraine had to take because even if they amassed their troops in the pokrovsk front, the operation wasn't going well for kyiv. for a long time kyiv has been losing territory in the east inch by inch, day by day, to the russian incursion. both offensive campaigns have a good chance to go well, and i wouldn't be surprised to see ukrainians capitalizing on their

gains and digging in in kursk. and i wouldn't be surprised by seeing the ukrainian flag in kursk in the forthcoming months. likewise, i wouldn't be surprised to see the russian combat formations fully invading across eastern ukraine in the forthcoming weeks or months. nick: what would be the impact if russian forces did seize pokrovsk? >> pokrovsk is the hub of transportation in the east, and that would that would open many options for the russian military to capitalize on. i think one direction that they might go is to further advance into eastern ukraine and complete the conquest of donetsk region, which is the epicenter of the russian military strategy in the east. russian military strategy in the east is very territorial. nick: and finally, we've seen more and more long range strikes.

one on the black sea today, another at an airbase, deep into russia yesterday on moscow itself. what's the impact of ukraine's being able to launch all these rikes? >> at the geopolitical level, it is exposing russia's nuclear bluff to the west. this is not the first time that the ukrainians are hitting deep russian territory. and none of these attacks triggered a russian tactical nuclear response. that should tell something to the west. militarily, these strikes are important because the ukrainians are hitting russian bases hosting aircraft and glide bombs. the third thing that it is doing is that along with the kursk offensive, striking deep inside russia is ukraine's one and only option to show some offensive footing. and it is also a calling to the west to lift all the caveats and restrictions, all the western military assistance not to hit

inside russia, the russian territory. nick: thank you very much. ♪ geoff: and let's hand it back to chicago. there is more coverage of this democratic national convention online including from our own judy woodruff reflects on the women who paved the way for kamala harris to make history as the first woman of color to lead a major party's ticket. that is on our instagram account. amna: and of course we will be here all night on this final day of the democratic national convention. you can join us for live coverage that will be capped off with vice president harris's acceptance speech. our new special begins 8:00 p.m. eastern. and that is the "news hour" for tonight. geoff: we will see you back here very soon. >> major funding for the "pbs news hour" has been provided by.

the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the "news hour," including leonard and norma klorfine, and the judy and peter blum kovler foundation. >> the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. and friends of the "news hour." this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its

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♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. >> america, hope is making a comeback. >> can kamala harris rebuild the obama coalition? midway through the democratic convention, i ask congresswoman