captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> ifill: good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff.: >> ifill: on the newshour tonight, republicans reach forsh the reset button. donald trump's unconventional campaign's missteps frustrate a g.o.p trying to keep the focus on hillary clinton. >> woodruff: also ahead this wednesday, i sit down with wikileaks founder julian assange to talk about the coming release of more confidential material on the democratic party and hillary clinton's campaign. >> it's a wide range of materials. it covers a number of important issues. >> ifill: plus, the enduring nature of jellyfish-- why these unusual creatures are thriving in a world increasingly damaged by humans. >> they seem to be capable of doing things physiologically that can't be described by their

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> ♪ love me tender ♪ love me true we can like many, but we can love only a precious few. because it is for those precious few that you have to be willing to do so very much. but you don't have to do it alone. lincoln financial helps you provide for and protect your financial future, because this is what you do for people you love. lincoln financial-- you're in charge. >> md anderson cancer center. making cancer history.

>> bnsf railway. >> xq institute. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation.e committed to building a moreda just, verdant and peaceful world.ul more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.wa and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.e thank you. >> ifill: the presidential campaign was dominated today byn reports that donald trump's presidential campaign is taking on water, and may need a rescuee trump brushed aside all talk of internal division, and of growing defections. we will have a full report, right after the news summary.

>> woodruff: in the day's other news, president obama commuted the prison sentences of 214 federal inmates-- almost all of them, non-violent drug offenders. the white house said it's the largest number of commutations in a single day since at least 1900. it is also part of president's effort to address sentencing rules that he considers overly harsh. >> ifill: kansas congressman tim huelskamp, a tea party favoritea has lost his republican primary battle. during his three terms, he had feuded repeatedly with g.o.p. leaders, and it cost him his seat on the house agriculture committee. that boosted challenger rogerha marshall, who won 57% of the vote on tuesday. >> woodruff: there is reporting today that the u.s. organized an airlift of $400 million-- in cash-- to iran, last january.. it came just as tehran released several jailed americans, and as a nuclear deal was being implemented.pl the "wall street journal" reports the money was part of settling a disputed, 1970s arms

deal.97 republicans called it "ransom"-- but the white house rejected that: >> this all came to a head ato the same time because we are addressing and resolving longstanding concerns with iranian behavior. the united states, undernd president obama, has not paid a ransom to secure the release of americans unjustly detained inse iran. and we're not going to pay a ransom. >> woodruff: officials say theoo payment had to be made in cash because international sanctions on iran barred any other method. >> ifill: a u.n. commission reports islamic state fighters in syria are still holding thousands of minority yazidis a sex slaves or fighters. they were captured two years ago at sinjar in iraq. thousands more fled the city,s but the militants killed 5,000 yazidi men. that, in part, prompted u.s. airstrikes against isis. >> woodruff: for the first time, a u.s. law enforcement officer is facing federal terrorism charges-- for allegedly trying to aid isis. a transit policeman in

washington, nicholas young, was charged today. the f.b.i. says he wanted to help the group buy mobilelp messaging apps. >> ifill: north korea drew new condemnation today for firing a ballistic missile that landed in japanese waters.c the missile flew more than 600 miles, and part of it splashed down within 200 miles of japan's coastline. that prompted the u.n. security council to meet in emergency session this afternoon in new york. >> woodruff: in eastern ukraine, new signs of escalating combat between russian-backed rebels and ukrainian government troops. u.n. human rights officials say casualties in june were the highest in nearly a year. that is despite peace accords that called for withdrawing heavy weapons.he >> ifill: 300 people escaped with their lives today in a spectacular plane crash in dubai. they were on an emirates flight from india that slammed down on the runway as it tried to land. the passengers got out just before the plane burst into flames.

>> while landing, i think the engine or something burned, so the smoke was coming inside. so immediately they asked us tot evacuate. we have escaped from theom emergency exit, so we were jumping down. >> ifill: one firefighter died battling the blaze, and traffic was stopped for several hours, but later returned to normal. >> woodruff: back in this country, the state of alabama refused parole for thomas blanton, jr. in the murder of four young black girls, half a century ago. they died when ku klux klansman bombed their birmingham churchha in 1963. blanton was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison, after the f.b.i. reopened the case. >> ifill: the obama administration warned congress today that it will run out of money to fight the zika virus by month's end. the warning came as government researchers said they've begun their first clinical trial of a vaccine. so far, congress has deadlocked

on the president's request for $1.9 billion in emergency spending. >> woodruff: and, wall street managed to break a losingee streak. the dow jones industrial average gained 41 points to close at 18,355. the nasdaq rose 22 points, and the s&p 500 added six. still to come on the newshour: donald trump picks another fight with g.o.p. leadership; wikileaks founder julian assange on leaks that target the democratic party; why jellyfish are filling the oceans, and much more. >> ifill: it has been a whirlwind day for the trump campaign, which is in fullh damage-control mode. as lisa desjardins reports, the republican ticket is working tot get back on the offensive.e >> reporter: the assurances came from donald trump himself,

during a town hall in daytona beach, florida-- that he is in control of his campaign. >> the campaign is doing reallye well. it's never been so well united. i would say, right now it's the best, in terms of being united, than it's been since we began., >> reporter: and more came from paul manafort, the man nowm running trump's campaign, during a "fox news" interview. >> the campaign is focused. the campaign is moving forward in a positive way. the only need we have for interventions is for some media types saying things that aren't true. >> reporter: this, after a swirl of stories looking at doubts within republican ranks about trump, and possible divisions within the trump campaign.tr this morning trump ally and former house speaker newt gingrich, on "fox business" said trump needs to recalibrate.sa >> i think some of what trump has done is just very self-ha destructive. >> reporter: and last night,r: hewlitt packard c.e.o. meg whitman, a major fundraiser, told "the new york times," "i'm voting for democrat hillary clinton"-- becoming one of the highest-profile republicans to do so.

also today it was widely reported that some high-level republicans, including party chairman reince preibus, may meet with the nominee-- soon-- to talk about his approach. all this after a "washington post" interview in which trump jumped between topics and refused to endorse house speake paul ryan and senator john mccain. that on top of trump's weekend interview with "abc news", which sparked controversy about whether he thinks russian forces are in ukraine, and about his pushing back at the khan family, who lost their son in the line f of duty in iraq. today, some damage control-- during a phone interview with "fox news," trump's running matw indiana governor mike pence sai he is endorsing paul ryan.id >> i talked to donald trump thil morning about my support for paul ryan, our longtime friendship. he strongly encouraged me to endorse paul ryan in next tuesday's primary, and i'm pleased to do it. >> reporter: the swirling splinters on the right are fast fuel for trump's opposition. a pro-clinton super pac release

this ad today: >> he doesn't have the temperament or judgment to control himself. >> we're about to turn over the nuclear codes of the united states to an erratic individual. >> reporter: as for hillary clinton herself, she spent today in colorado. >> i'm thrilled to have this chance to visit. >> reporter: while her running mate, virginia senator tim kaine, introduced himself to north carolina voters, talkinghi up their plans to aid small business. >> as we are looking at economic plans and i'm out basically talking about jobs, that we focus on the growth of small businesses. >> reporter: north carolina is a key battleground, so, noba coincidence it's where mike pence will campaign tomorrow. >> ifill: and lisa joins me at the table now. lee centennial park you've lisa, you've been talking to folks all day long. give me ata certain, how concerd are mainstream rank-and-file republicans about the campaign? >> one question, what is rank

and file? leadership is concerned. the republican party chairman reince priebus is "furious" witw donald trump. these are not words that are thrown around in such a place. and that's a problem for donald trump because he needs the rnc's operation to get out the vote. usually candidates do. also members of congress are coming out openly and sayingay they are not voting for trump. there are two significant republicans from swing states that trump wants. >> ifill: trump says the party is as united as ever before. what do his supporters say? >> i talked to the chairman of his campaign in south carolina. he says this is all a complete disconnect. the washington republican establishment doesn't get what's happening on the ground. he says trump voters and the voters they want aren't talking about the khan family. they're thinking about their own vacations. they're thinking about their owa

jobs. and he said he does not thinkhi this is a long-term hit for donald trump. >> ifill: and yet he's talking about the money department. >> they trump campaign raised $0 million in the last month, a little below the clinton toll, $90 million, but it's a huge improvement showing the trump campaign along with the rnc can raise money. >> ifill: all right, lisa desjardins, thank y for more on the splinters withit the grand old party, we are joined by charlie sykes, conservative talk show host and editor-in-chief of the websiteti "rightwisconsin.com"; andco matthew dowd, chief political analyst for abc news. he is a former adviser to the republican national committee, and in 2004, served as president george w. bush's chief strategist. welcome, gentlemen. charlie sykes, you're in wisconsin. sea saw whaten happened today wh paul ryan. mike pence went one way. donald trump went the other way. and reince priebus caught in th middle. should there be... the word we keep hearing is "intervention." should there be an intervention

under way? >>io give credit to matthew dowd because he tweeted that out, that it was time for an intervention. yes, absolutely. you have to understand they were trying to make a play for wisconsin. reince priebus, of course, is the key to all of. this he was the one who brokered the deal with ryan and trump and got scott walker to flip-flop on all of. this and then mike pence is the bridge to conservatives in wisconsin where donald trump has not done well. and what did donald trump do yesterday but come right behind mike pence and blow up that bridge. so obviously you have this sense that this campaign is a dumpster fire inside a nuclear meltdown, and they absolutely need an intervention. and what happened in wisconsin where donald trump is comingmi here on friday, and he's coming into very, very hostile territory, almost no leading republican will be at that rally, and at some point they're going to have to do a reset of some kind. >> ifill: but we saw the fund-raising numbers. he's still doing well in some situations.

we heard him today talk about unity. so where is he really? is this just people who never liked him not liking him anymore? >> well, this is less u.s. constitution and more articles of confederation type of unity in the course of this. i don't see any unity at this a point in time. and you get the sense that there's a whole bunch of republicans. they can't force him off the ballot. donald trump will win. i think there is a more of a chance of the milwaukee brewersb winning the world series this year than donald trump getting off the ballot. but i think what could happen is republican senate candidates, republican congressional candidates begin to basically design all their come pains completely separate and apart from donald trump. i think this is a big concern. it comes at the worst possible time for donald trump in the aftermath of the two conventions. people thought this would be a slow period, but, gwen, it sets up the tone for what will happeh in the fall. and it puts him at a huge disadvantage. i feel bad for mike pence. donald trump ought to call mike pence the janitor, because he spends most of his time cleaning

up the mess that's left in aisle one, two, three, four, and five. i think he has to straighten this out, but i don't know iff donald trump has it in him to straighten this out. >> ifill: what has donaldas trump been doing right and what has he not been doing as right since his convention? >> well, he's been getting a lot of attention, hasn't he? what he's been doing wrong is almost everything. in the last six days rather than going after hillary clinton, he's gone after the gold star moms. he's lied about the nfl letter. he's thrown crying babies out of his rally and picked fights with prominent republicans. i think what you're having, maint you is right, in the last 24, 48 hours, there is this growing recognition that, youh know what, it's not going to happen. he's not going to pivot. he's not going to grow up. he's not going to become more presidential. and i think republicans had been talking themselves into thinking, okay, you know, donald trump was one way during the primary, but he's absolutely assured us and reince priebuse has assured us that he's going to change his ways. he's going to become more

responsible. and it can't get any worse. well on a daily basis it's gotten worse and worse andnd worse. and the stories that you're seeing about the disillusion in the republican party are absolutely true. andlu the stories you're hearing out of the trump campaign have the ring of truth because it doesn't look like he's listeninn to anybody. so how does a 70-year-old man change his temperament and his character and his judgment? you can change the positions and the language of a campaign, but how do you become somebody different than who you are? and i think what we're seeing is who donald trump is, and it's very, very frightening to a lot of republicans right now. >> ifill: matthew we saw him come out today and talk aboutbo the secret or whatever it was shipment of money to iran and make the connection between what he said was a deal that had been cut for a bad deal and how iran had benefited from that. that seemed like it was sticking to message. so he is not incapable of sticking to message. >> no, he's not incapable of it. but he seems incapable of

sticking to a message for more than 15 minutes or more than 30 minutes. presidential campaigns are stories. they're long narratives, multi-chaptered stories. you have to build each chapter in order to convince voters at the end of the story they need to go with you as opposed to the opposition. the thing i think that frustrates republicans most iss this is a winnable race against hillary clinton. she's very up upon lar, but the problem is she's running against someone more unthe rested and more disliked at this point ini time. what's causing huge concern, is wow, this is a race we could have won, even with donald trump. the funny thing is even with donald trump and all the mistakes, he's only five or six points behind in this environment against a candidate like hillary clinton. but if he keeps doing this and can't stay with a message longer than a half hour or longer than an hour, hillary clinton iss going to win a race that in most years she should be unable to

win. >> ifill: charlie sykes, a scwawnsderred opportunity to goo after hillary clinton? much., very one top republican told me last night, you know, if donald trump as of the convention had just gone off to a desert island and had said nothing, he probably would be ahead in the polls. what you have here is trump is defeating trump.p. and that's what is so frustrating because hillaryin clinton has actually had a very, very bad week. and yet you would not know it because donald trump has really masked her problems. what i think you have is you have republicans trying to talk themselves into thinking thingsp will get better, but at thist point that's the triumph of hope over experience. and i think that's why you might see in the next three or four days more and more republicans either withdraw their support, distance themselves. i don't know how many you will have say they'll vote fore hillary clinton, but once that starts, and i don't know what matthew thinks about, this i get the sense it might be a dam breaking. once you have one problem republican backing away, that others are going to see this as

permission to say, you knowo what, we do not want to be part of. this we do not want to go down with the anchor of donald trump, because right now it's not just the presidency. it is all the down ballot races. i think you have a republican party that's looking into the abyss if they cannot get donald trump to clean up his act. >> ifill: matthew, you can answer that question, but i also want to you to answer this: paul manafort, the campaign chairman, said for all intents and purposes, donald trump is thena person running the campaign is. that a good or bad thing? >> a physician shouldn't be your own doctor. i've been involved in a lot of campaigns where they think they're going to run their own campaign. they figure out quickly that's a bad idea. candidates don't have the objectivity to look and see what you need to do. to answer charlie's question, i agree with him. i think you can see that coming. i think the first sign of you seeing that coming is that there will be republicans start voting and saying they're going to vote

for gary johnson, the libertarian on the ballot. they'll begin to see republicans say gary johnson ought to be included in the debate. i don't think it's, as charlie said, i don't think you'll see a bunch of republicans go to t hillary clinton because they think that's as dissatisfactory a choice as donald trump, is but i think aot of republicans will decide gary johnson is the best place to go against donald trump. >> ifill: matthew dowd and a charlie sykes, another 24 hours and perhaps we'll get another story line. thank you both very much. for the record, we did try to reach out to the trump campaign, and they declined to provide a spokesman. thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: while the republican party has seen its share of conflicts this week, recent events have also unearthed discord within the ranks of the democrats as well. the hacking of democratic national committee emails-- experts say by the russianrt

government-- and the posting of emails on wikileaks, led to the resignation of d.n.c. chairwoman debbie wasserman schultz and other top officials, and exposed rifts within the party. but the revelation also caused speculation about how wikileaks got them, and why they released them. so, we decided to talk to julian assange, the founder of wikileaks, from the ecuadorian embassy in london, where he has been holed up for four years, to avoid extradition to the u.s. i spoke with him a short while ago. julian assange, welcome. you said this week that wikileaks is going to be releasing more of theyore information that was hacked fros the democratic national committee in different batches. so when will the next batch come? >> i'm afraid i must correct you, judy. i didn't say we would be releasing information that has been hacked from the dnc. we said that we have a significant amount off

information, and the information itself is significant, and it pertains to hillary clinton's campaign. and we will be releasing it in several batches as we are finished with the journalistic w work on each batch. >> woodruff: so are you sayingi this is different from what was hacked from the dnc and the democratic congressional committee? >> you have dnc leaks, which is what we do, and you have dnc hacks, which is an issue that goes back several years. there's been a lot of confusion, which has been pushed by thed hillary clinton campaign to try and confuse hacking of the dnc by a wide variety of actors over the last two years, and our publication of 20,000 e-mails from the dnc. >> woodruff: let me just pursue that, though. in terms of what wikileaks has, you've said you're analyzing the material and you're looking at which media partners to work with.

i think you said to get the "maximum uptake" from it. can you tell us anything tonighh about what's in that material?l >> it's a wide range of material. it covers a number of important issues. there's a variety of natural batches and some thematic constellations that we'ret working on. it's interesting material. we have done enough work now that we are comfortable with the material's authenticity, and so now it's a matter of completing format, layout, make it easy and accessible and so that journalists can easily extract material from it and also the general public. >> woodruff: what would you consider a successful outcome from all this? we know that already four top officials from the democratic national committee have resigned. what would you consider the

successful outcome, the most damage that could be done from this? >> well, wikileaks began ten years. we take leaks, we take material of political, ethical and historical experience. we verify it and we publish it and we write a synopsis about it. and we also engineer media operations to get the best understanding of that material and we place it in our library, which is available to everyone, has more than 10 million documents in it now. it's truth that would otherwiser not have come before the public. it's led to court case, civil litigation, criminal process and also contributes to public understanding during the moments

of political competition. >> woodruff: let me ask you about what you consider a successful outcome here, because we know you've made clear your strong feelings about hillary clinton. you wrote back in february, and i'm quoting now, "she's a war hawk who gets an unseemly emotional rush out of killing people. she shouldn't be let near a gun shop much less an army. she certainly shouldn't become president." so i think why shouldn't the american people assume there's a political motive here? >> well, flip it the other way around. let's say that i personally -- personal is different to my function as an editor, but say personally i loved hillary clinton, would wikileaks stillil publish this material? of course it would. otherwise we would be censoring. that's our mandate. it's interesting to think about what media organizations would not publish such materials if it

was given to them. i think that's a very interesting question. so my position as an analyst is, yes, hillary clinton is a war hawk, but the statement was made within the context of the early phases of the democratic primaries. it is by no means an endorsement of donald trump. >> woodruff: but you still would oppose her becoming president, which is what you wrote? >> well, my personal analysis is if you are concerned about u.s. foreign policy and getting into foolish wars, then hillary clinton is not your woman. on the other hand, i mean, neither is donald trump. >> woodruff: bottom line, why shouldn't the american people look at this and say, this is an effort to undermine the clinton campaign, the democratic party? >> well, i can reveal the source

of the information today. the source of the information is the democratic party. it is debbie wasserman schultz.s it is the chief financial officer. it is the communications officer , all of these people that have just been tried. that's the source of the information that's known. as to who the intermediaries are, that's another question. it's also a little bit concerning to see the mccarthyist attempt to frame trump as some kind of russian conspirator. i think that's extremely problematic. but the kind of mccarthyist his staira, trying to depict one of the candidates as somehow a man curian candidate i think is a bit disturbing, and also a push for journalists to reveal

their sources is disgusting. >> woodruff: i want to giveiv you a chance to say what you believe, julian assange, but wikileaks, we know, argues for transparency. it's part of your very mission. and so isn't this an extension of that, transparency about where this explosive material came from, how it fell into your hands? >> we know exactly where it came from. it came from materials that were just published. it came from the dnc. >> woodruff: you're saying the future batches will be material from debbie wasserman schultz,eb the former head of the dnc, and others, am i hearing you correctly? >> we haven't said what we are going to publish precisely. we're working on it. we want it to be a big of a surprise because it encourages public uptake an interest, which all material is. >> woodruff: julian assange, we thank you for talking to us.

>> thank you, judy. >> ifill: now that they've won their respective party nominations, donald trump and hillary clinton are eligible to receive classified intelligence briefings. director of national intelligence james clapper indicated the offers for suchth briefings are going out this week. but what kind of secrets will trump and clinton become privy to? some partisans have been suggesting neither candidate can be trusted with thatit information. margaret warner has been looking at genesis of those briefings, and she joins me now. o margaret, when did this become a political football? >> just in this election, gwen. this has been going on ever since harry truman became president and didn't even know about the manhattan project in 1945 and decided he didn't want any future president-elect to be faced with. this it's just gone on and some candidates use it a lot. some candidates don't avail themselves much.

but this year, as you said, partisans have been attacking both candidates as being untrustworthy with the information. at the aspen security conference last week, james clapper, the dni, said he had "no hesitation" and, in fact, teams of professionals had already been assigned to each candidate.s but there was a lot of scuttlebutt. there were a lot of questions at this conference, quite frankly, as to whether or not trump would even avail himself of them since he said he knows more about isis than the generals. >> ifill: how does it work? do they go to the c.i.a.? does the c.i.a. go to them? >> it's a combo of both. it depends on whether they have asked for the overview or a deep guide on one topic. they might make a hotel room secure. they might set up which is so-called a skiff, a special secure facility. otheri time they have to go to a

local f.b.i. office. but the scope of the information is really broad general intelligence assessment. there's no discussion of covert operations, for example, so if someone were saying, who is your source in the iranian government, i'm not allowed to rise, that changes dramatically when someone becomes a president-elect. then there are teams literally,t i'm told, at the headquarters of each candidate and the next morning it's delivered to him or her the presidential daily brief. >> >> ifill: which is the top-secret documents. >> that's d covert ops. none of that will be revealed now. >> ifill: has that ever been withheld? >> no, never withheld, but many don't avail themselves. ronald reagan had only one.on bill clinton had only one. this is all according to great history law. >> ifill: why wouldn't you avail yourself snow. >> as it'sav been explained to . think about the next 98 days. these men and women are focused

on winning. they're focused on the debates. they're focused on the money raising. they're focused on the state-by-state count. their level of interest may not be as high as we think it should be. secondly, one senior intelligence official, actually mike hayden, a former director and deputy director of the n.s.a. said, you know, they don't want too know too much because they don't want to be caught in the debate and say, can i say that? where can i get that information? >> has that ever happened where someone has inadvertently blabbed. >> apparently not that anyone could think of. as hayden said, they know it's akin to the death penalty to let something like that slip, but if i may go on, it's a huge difference in the level of intelligence that's given at this stage and mike morrell, former deputy director and director temporary of the c.i.a., had to brief mccain and palin. and he said, so you walk in with john mccain from armed services committee and intel committee, one of the greatt

experts in the senate, immediately it's going very deep. he knows a lot. but he said, you know, with sarah palin, it's like national security 101, and it's very broad and it's very general and you have to give a lot of history. that will probably apply this time with trump and secretary clinton. as one said to me, secretary clinton will probably walk inwa and say, so where were we? she's learned these secrets for a long, long time, even though not in the last two years. >> ifill: do vice presidential candidates get them, too? >> yes, they do. >> ifill: so the only person of the four without washingtonn experience is donald trump. briefing 101, as you put it. margaret warner, thank you soha much. >> my pleasure. >> woodruff: a series of federal court decisions in the last few weeks could change the rules about how many americans will be casting their votes this

november. william brangham has the latest on these rulings. >> brangham: voting rights supporters have won a series of remarkable victories in the last few weeks. what they contend is a much needed push-back against what they say are discriminatory voter-i.d. laws. since 2008, ten states-- almost all governed by republican legislatures-- have passed laws tightening the requirements for the kind of i.d. you need in order to vote, or made other changes to when and how votes get cast. but several federal courts have now ruled that some of thoseno laws are discriminatory. on monday, a federal judge blocked north dakota's voter- i.d. law, saying it impinged on the rights of native americans. the judge wrote: "no eligible voter, regardless of their station in life, should be denied the opportunity to vote." last friday, a federal court ruled that north carolina's new voting laws had been intentionally designed to discriminate against minorities, saying these "new provisions target african-americans with almost surgical precision." and then in july, another court

ruled that texas' voter-i.d. laws also hurt minority voters, and ordered the laws changed before november, saying, "it would be untenable to permit a law with a discriminatory effect to remain in operation for that election." joining me now to wade through these changes is u.c. irvine law professor richard hasen. he writes what's called the "election law blog." so professor, help me understand this. the courts have been saying, not so fast, states.er generally speaking, what haveha the states been doing with their voting laws in recent years? >> well, most of these, but not all of these challenges involve new strict voter identification laws. every state has some way of identifying voters, but if you narrow the number of identifications that are acceptable, and a lot of people don't have those i.d.s, you run the risk of disenfranchising people who are otherwise eligible to vote. so in cases out of wisconsin, north carolina, north dakota and texas, just in the last few

weeks, we've seen those laws struck down in the case of north carolina, or in the case of these other states, softened so people who lack one of these narrow forms of i.d. can find or work around a different way to be able to prove their identity and cast a ballot. >> brangham: what is it the courts have been saying these laws do? what do they find so objectionable about them? >> well, the rulings are not all the same. in north carolina, as you mentioned, the court thought that the law was intentionally discriminatory against african-americans. while there is not necessarily that the state of north carolina acted with racial hatred or animus, but they knew this law would make it harder for african-americans to vote, and they did that anyway, and in part doing it knowing that african americans tend to vote for democrats and this was a republican legislature as it was in all of the states that you mentioned, passing new restrictive laws in order to gain some political advantage. >> brangham: supporters of

these laws have been saying all along that these were made to prevent voter fraud. i know in the north carolina case, the judges ruled there was really no evidence that's happening. is there evidence that voter fraud is happening or is a problem in other states? >> well, you know, it depends on the kind of voter fraud you'ree talking about. the term is thrown around loosely, but the kind of voter fraud that a voter identification law would be impersonation fraud, i go into the polls pretending to be someone else.n this turns out to be very, very rare. it's not the way that when election manipulated happens.ap the kind of fraud we tend to see, which is still rare, falls into one or two categories. it's election officials messing with the ballots or something to do with absentee ballots, someone buys absentee ballots and votes them how they want. these types of abdifficults are

not at all addressed by these laws, which only make sure that someone who shows up makes sure he or she is who they say theyy are. >> brangham: you've probably heard that donald trump believes this november election could be stolen because of fraud. he says if people don't have an i.d., what's to stop them from going in and voting ten times? >> well, that sounds like someone who has never been to a polling place. you can't go in for ask for a ballot and they trust you. there is a roll and a list. every state identifies you somehow. it might be that you give your signature. your signature is on the line. you can't vote ten times. it's a silly thing to say, except i think it's dangerous to call the integrity of eintleex question because our very democracy depends upon those who are on the losing side having faith the votes are fairly and accurately counted. >> brangham: is there

potential that recent changes could cause confusion? >> there is certainly the potential for confusion. just now today in texas, the state of texas and the plaintiffs agreed to a set of rules for how people who lack one of the narrow forms of i.d. will be racial to vote, by providing a utility bill or a different kind of identification. in wisconsin, they're still litigating over what the rulest will be. and in north carolina, northor carolina indicated today they may go as far as the supreme court to try to get their law, which had been reversed, put back on the books in time for november. but i think it's a real danger that as we get closer to the election, voters may not know, for example, in texas, that if they lack one of those narrow forms of i.d., they will still be eligible to vote if they're otherwise eligible to cast a ballot. >> brangham: rick hasen from uc >> ifill: it's that time of the

summer when many folks are heading to the beach. but along parts of the southeasa coast, vacationers may run into some unwanted visitors-- as the national weather service has issued hazard warnings caused by jellyfish found in myrtle beachl south carolina. that's temporary, but what's not are the persistent numbers of the slimy creatures populating the waters of the ocean. science correspondent mileste o'brien reports, just in time for the summer, for our weekly series on the "leading edge" of science and technology. >> reporter: on beaches, in harbors and beneath bays all over the world, jellies are on a roll. and it appears it's a stinging rebuke of us-- from mother nature herself. >> jellyfish are thriving in environments that are damaged by the human activities. >> reporter: marine biologist jenny purcell is a research r associate at western washington university in bellingham. she studies huge aggregations of

moon jellyfish, or smacks, that have exploded in puget sound.. >> human populations have increased. the pressure on the oceans had increased and the jellyfish populations have increased. so it's very hard to put a cause and effect on that, but the correlations are certainly there. >> reporter: there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that it's happening-- but arriving at har numbers is like nailing jelly to a wall. >> because there have been, so few jellyfish scientists,, there's a critical shortage of jellyfish data. we don't know how many jellyfish or even what jellyfish are there. >> reporter: but at aquariums all over the country-- >> jellyfish-- oh, whoa. >> reporter: ...there is plentye of concrete proof jellyfish fascinate us. >> cute but dangerous. >> reporter: they are nature's lava lamp. a morbidly mesmerizing marquee attraction. >> penguins, hard to beat penguins.tr >> reporter: yeah. >> sharks, hard to beat sharks.

but i would say that jellies come in a strong third, rather consistently. >> reporter: steven bailey is the curator of fishes at the new england aquarium-- smack dab on boston harbor, if you will.u bailey is a card-carrying "jellyhead." >> they seem to be capable of doing things physiologically that can't be described by their body plan, by the structures that they possess. >> reporter: this got me intrigued... >> this is actually the fifth floor of the aquarium, considered like, sort of thee, attic... >> reporter: so i asked senior aquarist chris doller for ais behind the scenes tour. okay. so, this is--- where are we now? >> this area is affectionatelyre known as area x. >> reporter: area x is the one of the most prolific jellyfish nurseries in the nation. they keep about 13 species here, a small but varied selection of the 200 large-- and 800 small-- types of jellyfish in the world.

they are all cnidaria, the same phylum as anemones and corals-- among others. >> they're so simple, yet so complex.le there's a huge variety of jellies. you can get very colorful jellies, you can get very iridescent jellies. we have some fluorescente jellies. >> reporter: no brain, no blood, no spinal cord-- just muscle, nerves and stinging cells to kill prey, and inadvertently bother beach-loving humans. how often you get stung? >> i try not to, but it's almosi a daily occurrence. >> reporter: yeah, i bet. >> yeah. >> reporter: so what does a grizzled pro use? warm water or vinegar. >> i think the worst sting i t ever got was from a flower hat jelly. >> reporter: some jellies bear more than a resemblance to as plant. the "lagoon" and "upside down" jellyfish species are among those that are photosynthetic; their tissue becomes a home for algae, and the jellies use it for energy. all they need is sunshine to stay alive. >> that brown that you see in

the tissue, that's all algal cells, so basically they are harvesting within them yet, the plant is sort of living in their tissue. >> reporter: jellyfish reproduce sexually and asexually. most adults send sperm and eggs into the water, creating small larvae that grow into polyps. they reproduce by cloning-- over and over and over again. voila! a jellyfish smack.is they're not schooling in the classic sense, right? t >> right. the way they budd off, it's just pure numbers and they're all sort of drifting in the sameng current. they don't migrateey intentionally. they just had to go where the ocean takes them. >> reporter: they go with the flow? >> go with the flow, yeah. >> reporter: on the move, they are constantly grazing. so why are they thriving? many jelly species reproduce faster in warmer water, soro climate change has an impact.n but right now, researchers say overfishing is the biggest cause of the jellyfish bonanza. >> people have fished out fisheries, the fish which are

competitors with the jellyfish. so with the fish being fished out, there is more food left fog the jellyfish. >> reporter: and they will eat almost anything. they also don't mind living in troubled waters-- like the hugeu oxygen-starved "dead zone" in the gulf of mexico. it is caused by nutrient-rich fertilizer flowing down the mississippi.i. it creates a lot of algae that depletes underwater oxygen levels.ls that means fewer fish-- and more food for the jellies. so algae blooms and jellyfish smacks go hand in hand. the guy who has that perfect lawn right down to the river, if you will, when he goes to the beach and he gets stung by a jellyfish, he actually has some culpability. >> i would say that that's rather poetic, yes. >> reporter: maybe one solution is to start eating them more. in florida, georgia and the carolinas, a new kind of fishing industry is emerging-- entrepreneurs are harvesting cannonball jellies, pickling them, and exporting "jelly balls" to asia, where they are considered a delicacy.ia have you ever eaten a jellyfish? >> i have.av >> reporter: how is it? >> didn't enjoy it.

>> reporter: no surprise.te they have no taste, are chewy as an eraser, and pack precious little caloric value. i guess that means we can eat a lot of them, if we like. but there is little concern we might fish these guys into oblivion. >> i think the jellyfish will persist after the armageddon. >> reporter: they started on earth more than 500 million years ago, so why not go for a billion? the cockroaches of the sea, t perhaps, but in the smackdown for fans, the jellies win, tentacles down. miles o'brien, the pbs newshour, boston. >> woodruff: now, a new look at the terrible cost of slavery in america. it comes in a work of fiction, one that combines gritty realism with a leap of the imagination:

what if the underground railroao was an actual train? in fact, "the underground railroad" is the title of colson whitehead's novel. he spoke with jeffrey brown earlier this summer at "book expo america" in chicago. >> brown: let me ask you to sort of introduce what you've done here. it's a novel, but... >> it's not the traditional novel about slavery. the main protagonist is 16 and 17 will living on a cotton plantation. when conditions deteriorate, she's convinced to flee north on the underground. when i first came up with the idea many years ago, i thought, what if the underground railroad was a actual railroad, literally underneath the earth. >> brown: explain that. the underground railroad was a system, an idea, it was people, place, but not a real railroad. >> no, there were people who

were sympathetic to slaves and arranged safe havens and got people north, hid them, moved them station to station, and it was not a literal underground railroad, but i think a lot of people when they first hear about it, when they're kids, they think it's a actual subway, so what if it actually was an underground train system, how would that work. >> brown: you said this came too many years ago? >> about 16 years ago. i knew if i tried it then it wouldn't work. i wasn't up to the task. it seemed to big for me. if i got older, wiser, became a better writer, i might be able to tackle it. so every couple years between books i would pull out my notes and think, am i ready? each time it was no. so i'd do a different book. >> brown: why no? in what way were you not ready? >> well, the subject is so huge. how do you wrap your head

around, completely around the atrocity of slavery? how can you make people that you care about, your character, and put them into this horrible system and create a realistic story? so i think if i tried it 16 years ago, it would have been much different. i'm older now. i have kids. and i know what it is to contemplate having a mother sold in front of you, ving your children sold, seeing your siblings, your friends tortured, beaten, and so i think now in my mid-40s. i have more of an idea of what family means, and that's very much important to the character in my book and creating a realistic family structure for my plantation character. >> brown: i was wondering if you were worried or putting it off because of the mix of taking the horror of that real history and the reality of those real lives, but then putting it into this kind of gulliver's travels with there is a kind of fantasy

aspect to it. >> well, yeah. i think a couple years ago the fantasy would have been much more pronounced and much broader. now i think the magic realism dial is like set on one as opposed to ten or a spinal tap 11. so each state you go to is a different state of american possibility. south carolina is a benevolent pa tern listic state where slaves are given programs for racial uplifted. north carolina is a white supremacist state. so each stop is an island in the gulliver's travels. >> brown: one that you've imagined. >> yes, but it's treated in a very deadpan, matter of fact way. so while i am stretching the truth or tweaking reality, it is still much grounded in what we would call, you know, the truth. >> brown: once you opened it up that way, was it freeing as a writer? >> very liberating. once you have a literal

railroad, you're bringing a fantasy element that allows you to do different things. and so i bring in the tuskegee s experiment.ur i bring in sort of naziism andch white supremacy. and even though it takes placeno in 1850, i'm allowed to have these different modes and bring in a lot of differentsl aspectst american history in a way i. couldn't if i was speaking to the facts. >> brown: because all of it isdi fraught territory today? >> it's fraught.soor people have asked, was iin inspired by ferguson or black lives matter.y you know, the fact is that white people in authority have been refusing the black body for centuries. look to ferguson a few months ago to find someone being gunned down by a policeman. in the 1850s before there was any police force in the south, the authority was the slave patroller, and the slave

patroller could stop any black person, free or slave, and demand to see their papers. if you didn't have your papers or an excuse for being off the plantation, you would be beateno put in jail, brought back to your master, and that's analogous to stop and frisk. right now, when i was younger, more threatening looking, i would be stopped, i would be searched. what are you doing in this neighborhood? so i'm not addressing contemporary ills. i'm addressing the sort of problems that have been around since the beginning of the country. and hopefully by the end i've learned something in finishing the book. >> brown: you used to doubt whether it would ever be finished? >> yeah. i had a concept called the get hit by a bus draft. that's like the draft you wantwa in case you get hit by a bus an hour later, will people understand what you're trying to do? you're working on a novel for

years, and then something happens to you in the middle, no one will know what you're trying to do. if you can just get that hit by a bus draft... >> brown: i never heard that one before. that's when you know you're okay. >> yes. the copy editor, people will know what you're up to. >> brown: i don't know if you want to put that out in the self-help for writers book.. >> i think all my writing tips are grim. my students definitely have gotten used to that. >> brown: all right. the new novel, the coming novel is "the underground railroad." colson whitehead, thank you so s much. >> thanks a lot. >> woodruff: online, you can watch many more of jeff's author interviews from "book expo america" and other booka" festivals. you will find them at www.pbs.org/book-view-now. >> ifill: also on the newshour online right now, margaret warner pays tribute to the firsr arab scientist to win a nobel prize, ahmed zewail, who died yesterday. in the wake of the egyptianak revolution, the pioneering chemist had high hopes of rebuilding the country to

nurture the next generation. learn more on our web site, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: and tune in later tonight. on "charlie rose": newly retired police commissioner bill bratton on the issues still facing the new york police department. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> md anderson cancer center. making cancer history. >> xq institute. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most

pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world, by building resilience and inclusive economies.us more at www.rockefellerfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

this is nightly business report with tyler mathson and sue herera. t expected. hiring. but will low skilled workers be the ones to power economic growth? lo. oil near $40 a barrel, energy companies are dealing with some familiar challenges. companies iing in monitor closely what yo those stories and more tonight on nightly business report for good evening, everyone. >> welcome, everybody. well, the dow sthaps its seven-day losing streak. more on that in moment, but we begin at the intersection of