♪ amna: good evening and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on "the newshour" tonight... use of force -- three arkansas police officers are suspended after a video emerges showing them brutally assaulting a suspect during an arrest. then... facing starvation -- we're in south sudan, where a dire hunger crisis only grows worse, as the head of the world food program warns against a looming global catastrophe. >> you've got conflict. you have climate shocks. you have the covid economic ripple effect. it's like a tsunami on top of a tsunami. amna: and... at the extreme -- euro's rivers are drying up in a record heatwave, locking up shipping routes and raising new concerns about the climate crisis. all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funding for "the pbs

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after the latest headlines. pfizer asked the fda today to authorize its latest covid vaccine which targets omicron sub-variants. moderna is expected to follow with its own application soon. the fda has ordered the re-formulated vaccines for a fall booster campaign. the nation's top infectious disease expert and the white house's chief medical advisor, dr. anthony fauci, announced today he will retire in december. fauci became the face of the government response to the pandemic, and came under political attacks. today, fauci called his tenure the honor of a lifetime. russia today blamed ukraine's secret services for a weekend car bombing that killed 29-year-old tv commentator darya dugina outside moscow. on sunday, investigators searched the scene. she'd been driving a car owned by her father, an ultra-nationalist and outspoken supporter of president putin. ukrainian officials have denied any involvement.

in ukraine, new shelling today near a nuclear power plant that's now the object of international concern. rockets and mortar shells landed a few miles from the zaporizhzhya plant. ukraine blamed russian forces. the u.s. state department says it warned moscow last week to halt military operations near the plant. police in pakistan have filed terrorism charges against former prime minister imran khan. the charges came after khan threatened to sue police officers and a judge at a massive rally in islamabad on saturday. today, hundreds of his supporters blocked any attempt to arreshim at his home. later, a judge temporarily released him on bail, and khan gave a defiant speech at a seminar. mr. khan: the most positive thing about all this is that the people of our country have woken up. they have become so aware that i am confident that the "genie of awareness" that has come out of the bottle is not going to go back into the bottle again, no

matter how hard anyone tries. it is my belief that, god willing, this is going to carry the country forward towards real freedom. stephanie: khan was ousted from office earlier this year after months of economic and political turmoil. he has been holding mass rallies in a bid to return to power. the u.s. and south korea today kicked off their biggest joint military training drills in years. tens of thousands of american and south korean troops are expected to take part. the exercises will continue through september 1. the war games come as north korea is ramping up its nuclear weapons and missile development. back in this country, former president trump has asked a federal judge to block the fbi from reviewing classified material seized at his florida home. he called today for a special master to be appointedo oversee the review. he also asked for more information on the documents that were carted away by agents. heavy rain across the dallas-fort worth, texas area flooded streets and drowned cars today. in dallas county, a 60-year-old woman was killed when her

vehicle was swept away. at least 7 inches had fallen across the area by this morning. cars, trucks and vans were stranded in flash floods. police warned people to stay off the roads, and emergency crews answered dozens of rescue calls. flooding also breached a levee near the arizona/new mexico state line, forcing evacuations and putting the small town of duncan under inches of water. in southern utah, rescue workers expanded their search foa lost hiker in zion national park who was stranded amid torrential flooding. in economic news, ford motor company announced it's cutting 3,000 white-collar jobs as part of a transition to electric vehicles. that's about 6 percent of its full-time salaried work force in thu.s. and canada. california governor gavin newsom vetoed a bill today that would have allowed supervised drug injection sites to open in certain cities. newsom said he was worried about

unintended consequences. he directed state and local leaders to create statewide operating standards for drug injection sites. still to come on "the newshour"... amy walter and annie linskey preview tomorrow's primaries in florida and new york... public health experts sound the alarm about new polio cases found in the u.s... rapper noname gives her "brief but spectacular" take on community learning... and much more. >> this is "the pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: a new video shared widely online is raising questions once again about police use of force. three law enforcement officers in arkansas have been removed from duty after bystander video captured two of them beating a suspect during an arrest, while the third holds him down. police said officers were

responding to threats made at a convenience store in mulberry, about 140 miles northwest of little rock. authorities have not suggested the suspect was armed. state police are now conducting an investigation. it's a graphic video so we are only showing a bit of it. as seen on social media, the 27-year-old man is pinned down, then punched and kneed repeatedly. later in the video, his head seems to be slammed to the ground as well. the man was taken to a hospital and later arrested. this afternoon, arkansas governor asa hutchinson criticized the officers' conduct. gov. hutchinson: that is reprehensible conduct in which a suspect is beaten in that fashion. we saw a glimpse of that, it is under investigation. we don't have all of the details, and certainly, that suspect had a history of concern that was legitimate for the officers. but what that response was was not consistent with the training

that they received as certified officers with the arkansas law enforcement training academy. that will be investigated by the state police. amna: some reaction now to this incident and the larger questions around use of force. alex vitale is a professor of sociology and coordinator of the policing and social justice project at brooklyn college and the cuny graduate center, he is the author of "the end of policing." welcome to "the newshour." thank you for being with us. i want to ask you off the bat, what was your reaction when you saw this video from arkansas? alex: it is obviously a deeply distressing example of police use of force. on the one hand, it is clearly a very high level of violence for what seems to be an overall not very threatening situation. but on the other hand, it is part of a pattern we have seen of police use of force to manage situations where, in many cases, police should not be involved in

the first place. amna: based on what you know about police training, there is a lot we do not know about the circumstances before the video, but given what you know, are there circumstances under which this kind of force would be justified? alex: some of it, perhaps. but then when we see the suspect, on his stomach, with three officers on top of him, and then his head ing bashed into the concrete, i think by almost any measure, that is going to turn out to be an excessive use of force. to use the hand strikes and that kicking is actually a standard trained set of procedures for managing a noncompliant suspect who is resisting arrest. amna: videos like this continue to emerge. i can't tell you how many i have shown in my feed in several months. it is typically because someone sees it, pulls out their phone, and starts to record.

the worry becomes how many more incidents like this are not being captured or recorded? is that a valid worry? alex: i think we do have more detailed information about police involved killings, when police kill someone. the sad fact is that there has been no change in that number in the last several years. if anything, the number has gotten greater. despite several years of demands that police make reforms, reduce the levels of violence, american police continue to kill three americans pretty much every day in the united states. amna: but about not lethal killing? we were talking about excessive use of force. the other thing i should raise is body cameras have come up as an argument that would help hold police accountable and prevent those excessive uses of force. have we seen that? alex: unfortunately, we don't have good data on this. police have consistently refused to report this data in a way that would allow us to make good comparisons over time. what i think is clear is body cameras have not been the

panacea that people thought they would be. increasingly, we see officers either with their own body cameras, or with someone filming them, the officers clearly aware, as they were in this case, that they were being filmed. it just does not seem to make any difference. amna: at the federal level, we should point out, president biden did sign an executive order this spring revising the use of force guidelines. that is just for federal law enforcement. that does not apply to the some 18,000 police departments across america. when it comes to revising use of force guidelines, standardizing it in some way, having more accountability, how do you do that across all of the nation's police departments? alex: it is extremely difficult. we have over 18,000 independent law enforcement entities in the united states. overwhelmingly under local control. what we have seen is even when these local forces do tighten their use of force guidelines,

it does not produce the desired results. minneapolis, in the wake of the michael brown killing in ferguson, missouri, did tighten up its use of force policies, added body cameras, created de-escalation training for officers, and it just did not matter when he came to the -- matter when it came to the killing of george floyd. amna: you mentioned george floyd. i think the big question is, if that killing was not a transformative moment, then what is, what will it take? alex: i think there have been some changes in the direction that we were hearing demands for on the streets following the minneapolis uprising. and that is a growing number of cities looking at ways of reducing the role of policing by creating new public safety infrastructures. i think there is some evidence in this case in arkansas that this person was having a mental health crisis, and we know between a quarter and a half of all people killed by police in the united states are having a mental health crisis. a growing number of cities are

creating new nonpolice crisis response teams that are integrated into 911 systems, and that gives them a better way to respond to these calls that does not end up resulting in this kind of high-level use of force. amna: is there a city you can hold up as an example that provides a blueprint for other police departments? alex: i think one city that is doing a good job on this specific issue is denver, colorado. they recently created what they call the star program that utilizes trained mental health and outreach workers to respond to mental health crisis calls, a homeless person in distress, may be person in distress, may be someone in distress related to a substance use. this is producing very positive outcomes. the pilot program was so successful that denver is radically expanding it. we have new research that shows there are crime reductions in the areas where these teams are

operating. amna: that is professor alex vitali of the policing and social justice project at brooklyn college joining us tonight. thank you for your time. alex: you arwelcome. ♪ amna: record-breaking drought continues to scorch wide swaths of sub-saharan africa, from somalia in the east to niger in the west. humanitarian groups say tens of millions are going hungry and conditions are being made worse by the ripple effects of russia's war on ukraine. correspondent fred de sam lazaro has our report from one of the rst affected countries -- south sudan, where nearly two thirds of the population face acute hunger. [babies crying] fred: by many measures, south sudan is one of the worst places on earth to be a child.

vivid reminders of this greet workers who actually measure the fragile arms at this nutrition center in the capital, juba. almost every infant checks in in the red zone, severely malnourished. on the day we visited, christine dire brought in her two year old, esther... a two year old who weighs 11 pounds, she says. that's less than half the normal weight range for her age. christine: there was no food for us in the house. so this child got anemic and they told me that she was malnourished. fred: jacqueline marco was here with her 8 month old, rose jima. jaqueline: i'm breastfeeding, but there is not enough milk. sometimes there's no food for the whole week. we have to go to the neighbors and ask for food. fred: does she know how much rose jima weighs? translator: 2 kilograms. fred: two kilos. so that's 4.5 pounds, for an eight-month old child. it's very likely she weighed more than that as a newborn. dr. loha: malnutrition at such a

young age, especially under 2 years of age, causes significant cognitive challenges, neurological development, cognitive development are all affected. fred: dr. mesfin loha is the country director for world vision, a large christian charity that contracts with the united nations to deliver services here. so the future of south sudan in so many ways is quite literally shriveling away. dr. loha: without support to turn the tide of this devastation, it is going to be a big problem. fred: the children's struggle could be a metaphor for their young country. born a decade ago after a long separatist war, south sudan has been battered by unrelenting civil conflict. more than two million of its citizens remain refugees in neighboring countries and a similar number have been driven into crowded camps, overwhelming those trying to provide assistance. the supply of basic foodstuffs has dwindled in warehouses like

these, as the u.n's world food program has run out of money to restock them. and the wfp has had to reprioritize. as one official put it, taking away food from the hungry feed the starving. sibonakaliso: there's nothing as difficult as trying to convince someone who is hungry that there's someone who is who is hungrier, that you neeto prioritize someone else. fred: sibonakaliso mpala is with world vision's facilities in the northern town of malakal, a region where the small farmers have seen their livelihoods devastated by erratic weather in recent months. all around this soggy camp, the land remains water-logged and many people fear there's a lot more rain on the way. sibonakaliso: we're seeing the effects of climate change right at the front because we do have cyclic drought. and then more recently, we've been seeing worsening flooding, and that affects, really affects the abilities of the communities to cope.

they cannot cultivate. fred: so instead of scaling up, you're actually scaling down. sibonakaliso: scaling down, yes. fred: across the country, internal refugees, like nyaluak gai, who heads a household of seven children, have been forced to live with less... much less. when we visited early this august, she showed us her monthly rations -- sorghum, already half gone; cooking oil, fast running out; and some beans, all gone and a lot of august still to go. this is sufficient for one meal a day for 10 days? what do you do for the rest of the time? nyaluak: whenever this runs out, we go to the bush to look for wild fruits or bring in firewood for sale. and we can use that little money we get from selling firewood to buy other food in the market. fred: rounding up the perfect storm with conflict and climate change, the war in ukraine. it's sent prices soaring for fertilizer, fuel and food, hitting big buyers like the world food program and small

ones like jane kiden, who have beaten the odds and eked out a life outside of camps. jane: now in the market things are very expensive and i cannot afford to buy food for my children. fred: she belongs to a group that tends a community garden, one way to cope with the scarcity. a single mother of eight, she also does domestic work around town when she can find it. we visited early the next morning as she prepared a pot of porridge made from fermented sorghum. it's rich in carbohydrates and protein, but there's just one cup per child to last the whole day, or if she doesn't find work, until the next morning. another lost dream -- jane was forced to pull out 3 of her 6 school age children. jane: i wanted all my children to go to school.

i tell them that i can't send all of them because of the money. of course they keep quiet, but deep down, i know they are not happy. fred: 9-year-old adiyah is one of the lucky siblings. she attends a nearby school with no frills, no school lunch, and no guarant her mother can continue to pay her tuition of about $100 paid over the school year. it's the same uncertainty at the nutrition centers. the world food program says it expects supplies of this protein rich paste, intended for severely malnourished children, to run out by the end of august. it's all the more painful given how effective the simple nutrition therapy can be. 10 month old ivan has been on it for three weeks and was brought in by his mother evelyn juri, for a follow up check. a relief, a green light for a moment of simple happiness that, his mother fears, may be all too fleeting, as she awaits word on

whether her baby's care package may be the last one in a while. evelyn: it is why my child is a little bit better than before. but if it's gone, he goes back to where he was. fred: in july, the u.s. government added $117 million in ergency aid for south sudan. even with that, the u.n. says it's raised just about a barely a third of what's needed here, in a world beset by humanitarian crises and blindsided by the one in ukraine. for the "pbs newshour," this is fred de sam lazaro, in juba, south sudan. amna: fred's reporting is a partnership with the undertold stories project at the university of st thomas, in minnesota. now we turn to nick schifrin, who picks up a reporting on the global food crisis. nick: for more on the challenges not only in south sudan but all of east africa and a larger look at issues coming out of the ukraine war, i am joined by executive director of the world

food program, david beasley. welcome back to the newshour. we just heard in that story that wfp has less than half of the money it needs in south sudan. and fred reported some people will go hungry at the end of the month if the money does not come in. how acute is that problem? david: it is a very serious proble it is a very serious problem all over the world. we are facing an unprecedented food crisis globally, south sudan is no exception to the rule right now. the republicans and democrats have been fighting over everything, agreeing on nothing. but they did come together, they came up with an additional $5 billion of food security around the world. that will have a major impact. we have to get more nations to step up. as you are saying, south sudan, we don't have enough money. the u.s. cannot do it alone. other countries need to step up, particularly the gulf states with oil prices being so high, their net profits increase in billions of dollars per week. there is no reason at all,

especially the gulf states, to step up in countries in the region like somalia and ethiopia and syria and yemen. places like that. nick: let's look at the larger question of east africa. you in -- the u.n. says 37 million people across seven countries from djibouti to uganda are expected to face a cute food insecurity this year. you were recently in somalia where we have seen a 260 percent increase in children under five with severe malnutrition. when you look at the regional challenge, how overwhelming does it seem? david: it's heartbreaking. you can't believe this has happened in 2022. here we are -- you just came out -- you have got conflict, u have climate shock, covid economic ripple effects, then you have oil prices and fertilizer, just on top of everything. it is like a tsunamin top of a tsunami. i was justn my literally the

last few days, in the drought stricken areas of somalia and northern kenya, as well as ethiopia. many of these places, their livelihood is 100% livestock. and the livestock are dying by the millions as we speak. i was talking to mothers and fathers who are heartbroken. they have no money, they have no hope. they say, what happens if the world food program is not that? dutch is not there -- is not there? if we don't come in with relief? mother after mother said, we will start dying like the animals. if we don't come in, it is not just that people will die. you will have destabilization, radicalization, and mass migration. these alone will cost a thousand times more than coming in and helping people stabilize their lives and give them hope at a time like this. nick: we are talking about failure to get funding, especially in east africa. the international rescue committee pointed out the appeal for ukraine was 85% funded. why do you think there is such a

disparity? david: i don't know. i know i have been fighting hard to get dollars -- starving child, i don't care where that child is, we have a moral obligation to reach that child, whether they are in ukraine or in somalia or ethiopia or guatemala or afghanistan. because children are children. if we don't reach them, if they don't die, will be radicalized or they will have limitations because of health restrictions, the wasting and stunting we have talked about. the entire country pays a price. the world pays a price. we have an obligation to help children. here is what really upsets you. when you think about the simple fact that there is $430 trillion worth of wealth on the planet toy, and any child in the world dies from hunger, it is a disgrace on humanity. nick: let's zoom in on ukraine. we have seen the brave

commander,he first wfp funded ship leave ukraine for the northern horn of africa, carrying 23,000 tons of wheat. why is that the only ship so far that is left ukraine for some of the countries that need it most? david: there is a lot of issues, but we are making great progress. i have been saying it is critical to open the port to calm the markets around the world. it is starting to happen, we have our first ship of 23,000 metric tons which is moving forward. that will go to the djibouti port to help feed the people in ethiopia. that 23,000 will serve about 1.5 3 million people over a 30 day period. we have another ship that will be 7000 metric tons, hopefully be moving out next week, which will reach over 2 million people. that will go to yemen. all of that food is needed right now immediately and urgently to save lives. everyday matters right now. every day makes a difference in the life of a child who is not getting the food they need. nick: many of the ships that have left ukraine were already

full of food that had been ordered before the invasion, and were sitting there before the russian invasion. it sounds like what you are saying is we are about to see more ships leaving for the places that need it most. david: this is a global crisis. ukraine plays an important part. russia and ukraine alone has 30% -- ukraine alone grow 30% of the world supply of wheat. the droughts we are facing around the world, you can only imagine the problems we will have harvesting in the coming year, and you talk about the fertilizer crisis. you have got a perfect storm already in 2022. 2023 could be worse if we don't get ahead of this. we have got to get ahead of this in a comprehensive way. ukraine has a very important part of it. nick: as the u.s. has been very clear, it has not sanction iced -- has not sanctioned any fertilizer or food export from russia. but the u.s. has sanctioned transportation companies, banks, insurance companies that would do the business of exporting from russia. has this deal allowed an

increase in the exports from russia, fertilizer and food? david: we have all been working on that. there are a lot of nuances. we have been talking to the banks, insurers, and what happened in the ukraine opened up the port has alleviated that pressure. i think the breakthroughs taking place as we speak, it is not an easy process. banks, transporters, shippers, as well as the insurers, are very cautious about it, regardless of what is said. i think the united states state department has reached out and has tried to alleviate those concerns so that we can address this extraordinary perfect storm globally. it is critical all fertilizer starts moving around the world. nick: david beasley, executive director of the world food program, always a pleasure. thanks very much. david: thanks, nick. ♪ amna: across europe, rivers have

sunk to historic lows because of brutal heatwaves fueled by climate change. in britain, conservationists are urging the government and water companies to plant trees, and restoring wetlands to counter devastating droughts. meanwhile the source of the legendary river thames has dried up and moved several miles downstream, further than its er gone before. special correspondent malcolm brabant has been in search of the vanishing headwaters. malcolm: normally, you find the source of the thames near this pub, 100 miles west of london. now the name is misleading, because this aquifer has run dry. alisdair naulls works for a nonprofit striving to make britain's rivers more resilient. alisdair: what special is the limestone. about 65% of the water that comes into the thames is coming from down there. we are taking too much out and we are not allowing it to be this great big, lovely, cool, shading watery sponge that it has always been. this is so much greener than it

was just four or five days ago. it was just ocher. if you're kind of used to the thames in london, which obviously it's such a big, iconic, famous river, if you've visited london and want to know where it starts, it starts there. so if we just come dowhere. there you go. that's the start of the thames. it is maybe a little bit underwhelming, but this is the source of the thames. malcolm: in normal times, what would we see? alisdair: well, in normal times, you would see this. this source does dry up each year. pretty much. but you can come here when you've got normal levels of rain and you've had a normal wet winter. and we'd be still in a pond. -- and we would be stood in a pond. malcolm: we headed east along the river's normal course. deep water? there wasn't a trickle. moisture from recent light rain had evaporated. but eventually there were signs of life near a meadow in cricklade, known as the first

town on the thames. so at last, i'm standing in the river thames and we found flowing water. but we had to drive eight miles from the original source towards london to be able to find it. at the moment the water is up to my ankles, but in better times it would come up to my knees. mainland europe has been similarly afflicted. in serbia, the danube is impassable in places and no longer blue, shrunk by heat and water extraction to help this year's harvest. the stresses on nature alarms marine expert marija trivuncevic. marija: the circumstances are dire. although it hasn't been the worst yet, the trend indicates that things will only get worse. malcolm: france's longest river, the loire, resembles a mediterranean beach. the consequences could be disastrous for vineyards reliant on its water. in italy, the river po's low levels have hit hydo-electric power production, commercial shipping and all manner of agriculture. in switzerland, shrinking glaciers, rivers of ice, are

another spectre of looming catastrophe. this year the melt at the morteratsch glacier is twice as bad as the previous worst case. belgian hiker lisa neyt -- lisa: you talk about it, but you don't see it always in nature, the consequences, and now you really see it. oh my god, i was here 15 years ago and now the snow is gone and the rivers and the mountains are not there anymore. malcolm -- dr. wainwright: rivers are very, very good barometer as to the health of the of the natural environments. and when rivers dry up, there are significant consequences for all other ecosystems. malcolm: dr. lawrence wainwright specializes in europe's blighted rivers. coming to britain from hot australia was a shock. dr. wainwright: this has been a huge wake up call for the uk a for all of europe that this is not some far off distant thing. it's not our children's children. this is now. it's very, very serious. the consequences are potentially devastating across all aspects of society, economically, socially.

malcolm: the consequences will be particularly dire for germany, europe's economic powerhouse. barges carrying german goods to the sea along the rhine are bearing lighter loads or have stopped completely because the river is now so shallow. dr. wainwright: the last time this happened was in 2018. and mind you, this time is worse. we saw, what, three quarters of economic growth go down by by by half a percent. and that may sound quite small, but it's very, very significant. we're talking billions of euros here. and the biggest problem, of course, is that we combine this with all of the other compounding factors going on at the moment. rising cost of living. inflation. this energy crisis. and the surge in energy bills around the world. so things are already in trouble. malcolm: back to the thames, halfway to london, and hydrologist hannah cloke. hannah: you can see here that the water level is very, very low. malcolm: the levels have been exacerbated by abstraction to compensate for britainasting 20% of its water through leaks. hannah: we've been taking a lot of water out of the riverss well to irrigate our crops in

terms of keeping the crops growing and making sure they've got enough water, but also for drinking water and industry as well. malcolm: evidence of the crisis is in the colour of the landscape. alisdair: it's quite interesting to see the autumnal colors of these trees. they are dropping so many leaves -- yellow, brown, blackened leaves. the trees are dropping in response to this heat stress. so when we think about rivers, you've got to think of those blue and green arteries that flow through our countryside with life in them and all down them. and all of that life is under stress. malcolm: critics accuse water companies of maximising profits and not investing enough in rivers or infrastructure. so what can be done? alisdair: we've got to really plan, invest in putting the wetness ba into nature because it is very, very good at managing water. it has done it for 4.5 billion years. put trees back in the right

place. let's bring back wetlands. let's create wetlands. let's allow our peat bogs to thrive. all of these environments hold water. malcolm: can you feel that? alisdair: theain? yeah, it's great, isn't it, but it's not enough. it's not enough. malcolm: heavier rain should help the source of old father thames to come back here. but the fear is that being parched will be an annual event. for "the pbs newshour," i'm malcolm brabant in england. ♪ amna: it has been two weeks since the fbi conducted a court-approved search of former president donald trump's home, and we are starting to get a sense for how that and other investigations around mr. trump are influencing republican voters.

and tomorrow, new york and florida hold primary elections that will test the direction of the democratic party. to analyze all of this, we turn to amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter. and annie linskey of "the washington post." tamara keith is away. we are so glad to have both of you. we have new nbc poll numbers that i would love to get your take on those, investigations into former president trump. the majority of peoplesked, say that they want those to continue. the party breakdown is interesting. amy, 92% of democrats say the investigation should continue. 27% of republicans. 67% of independents. does that number surprise you? amy: i think going into the hearings on january 6, the feeling was that this was not going to change voters' opinions about the focus of the election, salicethisssn thupng mtelectns i think what has happened over the course of the last few weeks is the attention has been almost

solely on president trump and the role he played on january 6. there has been no defense on the part of republicans to make this a more complicated or maybe muddy the waters on this issue because republicans boycotted the january 6 committee. then you put on top of it mar-a-lago and the focus on the other legal challenges, shall we say, for the former president in places like georgia and new york. for the last few weeks, what voters have been hearing a lot about, whether they are paying attention or not, but in the ambient noise has been about donald trump, the election denial, and the questions around whether or not what he did was illegal in a place like georgia. i think voters do care about it. what we are going to have to find out is whether it is more important to them than other issues that we know are on the table. amna: there have been questions

also whether these investigations could drive voter enthusiasm among republicans. annie, i want to ask you about democratic voter enthusiasm. enthusiasm, as the polls show among republicans, remain high. about 68%. it is striking when you look at these numbers. this is a new nbc news poll. when you look at the growth among democratic voters who say they have a high interest in the midterms, it is now at 66%. they basically closed the gap with republicans, up from 61% in may and 50% in march. what do you make of that? annie: when i have been talking to democratic and even republican strategists, they are acknowledging they initially thought abortion in the roe v. wade decision would be helpful for democrats around the margins. i think what is happening and what democrats and republicans are saying is that they were wrong about that. it seems like it has caused a bigger shift in voter enthusiasm among democrats than they had initially thought.

it is rare for a strategist to admit that they are wrong halfway through, before there has been an election, but you are seeing it with increasing voter registration among women and across-the-board in a number of states. the other piece is abortion has been in the news in a way that a lot of people did not anticipate. they did not realize you would have these national stories about a 10-year-old becoming pregnant and her family feeling she needed to cross state lines to get the care that was needed. i think these stories, there has been a drumbeat of them over the summer, to where there has been -- it has not faded from the news the way that i think many expected that it would. amy: i also think many republicans thought that the mar-a-lago search with increase -- search would increase republican enthusiasm. i heard, this is going to help the base. it has been opposite. when you look at the nbc poll,

29% of democrats now say this is a top issue for them the , threat of democracy. 17% of republicans feel similarly. it has energized some, but it has energized the other party. not republicans. annie: that threat to democracy number was interesting. amna: you continue to track primary races leading up to the general election in november. we have had a lot of focus about the republican races, what it means for the direction of the party. tomorrow, new york and florida, a couple big primary races there that have a lot to say about the direction of the democratic party. what is at stake here as you look at it? what are you watching? amy: we were talking about this earlier. i am more interested in a special election happening tomorrow then the primaries. you are right, there is a lot of focus on the primaries because in new york, you have a number of well-known, longtime democratic incumbents. some are facing off against each other. the districts are redistricted.

but the district we are paying attention to is in the hudson valley. this is a very evenly divided district. biden won it by two points in the last election. this is a place where we are going to get our first road test on the messaging, especially on abortion. democrats leaning into the issue of abortions. republicans, leaning into the economy and inflation. again, it is a special election, it is in august, so we have to be careful to put those caveats out there. it certainly can give us aense for what voters, how those issues are playing with voters in the swing districts that republicans absolutely need to win if they will have a big night in november. amna: what are you watching? annie: when you look at the primaries, and this is a rare week where there are some big democratic primaries. for the last few weeks it has always been focused on the republican side. but with the democratic primaries, there are some big tension points. one is with sean patrick maloney. he is the head of the democratic congressional campaign

commite, the top democrat who is in charge of getting other democrats elected. he is facing a tough challenge from the left. the -- his people say he feels comfortable, that conventional wisdom is that he should be fine. but it is august. and it is very hard to pull in these races and you don't really know what the shape of the electorate is going to be. that is where you could have the biggest headline. of course, if he loses, it would be an earthquake for democrats. but even if it comes close, it will be a test of the progressive wing of the party, and how much strength they have. so far this year, there strength -- their strength has been mixed. this is when to give you either a capstone of wow, they have this unexpected strength then you will have a new progressive star coming out of new york, and we know how that looks. or it is an establishment

strikes back narrative. it will be one of the two. amna: it is august and i have to ask, we have not seen much of president biden or vice president harris out on the trail. they are coming off a couple of big wins legislatively. does this surprise you? amy: they may go out to sell the big wins they have had. but you are not going to see a lot of democrats inviting them to come and campaign. the other thing in the poll that puts a little bit of cold water on enthusiasm among democrats is the fact that president biden's job approval rating is still very low, especially by historical standards. only at 42% job approval rating. his handli the economy deeply underwater. he is still not exactly popular. i think what has happened is these past few weeks, the focus has been on the former president. not on the current president. that has actually -- and abortion. which i agree with. and that has actually helped democrats more than the success that biden and democrats in congress have had.

amna: will we see more of them on the trail? annie: well... in some places. [laughter] the washington post did a piece where we polled 60 campaigns, 60 democratic campaigns to say do you want joe biden and kamala harris to come? most of them did not respond to us. the ones that did, there was a lot of hesitation. amna: silence sometimes speaks volumes. annie linskey, amy walter, thank you so much. annie: thank you. amy: you're welme. ♪ amna: polio had been considered and from the u.s. since 1979, when the last known case of the original strain of the polio virus was detected. and around the globe, a successful vaccination campaign has decreased cases by 99.9%. but now, the virus seems to be gaining a foothold once again in countries that thought they were

free of it. william brangham has our look. william: that's right. in the past few months, polio has re-emerged in the western hemisphere. eight cases have been detected in israel this year and the virus has been found in london wastewater. now it is back here in the united states as well. in july, an unvaccinated man in rockland county, new york was infected and paralyzed by this preventable, but incurable virus. sewage samples taken in new york city show the polio virus had likely already been spreading for months. to discuss, i am joined by dr. yvonne maldonado, she's chair of the american academy of pediatric's committee infectious diseases and professor of pediatrics at stanford. great to have you back on "the newshour." we have this one case of an unvaccinated man in new york getting polio and developing paralysis. and there is evidence that it is circulating in new york's wastewater.

help us understand the context. how troubling are those examples? dr. maldonado: it is concerning. i think people who are vaccinated should not be concerned, but those who are unvaccinated, this is a real red flag. the reason is that we have not seen polio in the united states since the 1970's and 80's and polio was declared eliminated from the western hemisphere in 1984. the fact that we are starting to see not only a case of paralytic disease, but polio in the wastewater is really concerning for ongoing community transmission. and people who are unvaccited are at risk for developing paralysis. william: as you mentioned, there is this good vaccine, almost every kid in america has to get it to go to public school. yet we are seeing this spread in communities where the vaccination rates are not so high. the hasidic jewish

community in upstate new york, in particular. is that a problem? do you understand why those communities have such low rates? dr. maldonado: we don't know the particulars of this particular county, but we do know the rates are low. we don't know why. but we do know this is a community that had a sustained measles outbreak a few years ago. and a lot of thought was really due to lower vaccination rates. by the way, in general, around the country, since the covid pandemic, have seen some pockets of under vaccination around the country. not clear why that is. perhaps people just never were able to get out to their providers to get their vaccines during the shutdowns. but it itime to think about getting children and young adults vaccinated if they are not up-to-date. william: given that most of the country does have pretty decent coverage, is it your sense that we should expect cases to go up nationwide or not? dr. maldonado: i do think that this could mean that we might

have sporadic outbreaks. it is a real lesson for us to remember to check on our immunizations for our children. and for adults as well. this vaccine is available for all ages. but i am not worried, because most of the country has high vaccination rates. these vaccines work, presumably for life. we generally don't need boosters. but there may be pockets around the country of individuals who have low vaccination rates. in those populations, i would be particularly concerned. william: shifting to what is happening elsewhere in the world, we came so close in so many nations to eradicating this virus. but there has been some faltering in that and polio is getting its foothold again. what is driving that globally? dr. maldonado: back in the 1980's when the world health organization declared they would eradicate polio, we had hundreds of thousands of cases of polio

around the world. and over those years, what has happened is we have reduced the number of polio cases last year to a handful of cases all around the world with high levels of detection capacity. only able to find a few cases. this year, the number is up to a little under two dozen cases. we are still concerned that the numbers are not gone. but we are making progress. the concern now is that with covid, resources being -- taking up the time and energy that needs to continue other vaccinations, that we will miss out on our ability to continue to vaccinate children against polio as time goes on. one of the concerns from the global level is that we keep those vaccination efforts up. that is really the way to eradicate this disease and make sure children are safe around the world. william: it seems like in an echo of covid, equitable

distribution of the vaccine is still an issue here. plus, getting people to take that vaccine when it is delivered. dr. maldonado: at this point, what has merely been a problem around the world, is where you see pockets of outbreaks, these are primarily low resourced countries where they have very few resources to actually give out vaccines. the vaccines themselves are not highly expensive. but the administration costs and operational costs may be substantial for some of these countries. some of these are areas of conflict where it has been hard to get people in to get vaccinated. we are really trying to make sure that at the global level, there are resources put in to making sure that we can complete this task. william: dr. yvonne maldonado, thank you for being here. dr. maldonado: thank you. ♪ amna: noname is a rapper and

founder of the noname book club, which encourages readers to support local bookstores and books by authors of color. the club now has 14 chapters across the u.s. tonight, noname offers her "brief b spectacular" take on community learning and solidarity. noname: being someone who was raised by entrepreneurs, my mother owned her own bookstore and my grandparents owned their own landscaping company, i was going off the mentality that i was raised behind. i definitely tweeted that capitalism was not evil, that it was a tool. a lot of people pushed back and were very expressive about how wrong they felt that i was. i started doing my own research and realized there is a whole structure in place that keeps people poor, keeps people isolated and marginalized no matter how hard they try. i started going through the

rabbit hole of reading and learning more about systems that keep people oppressed. i started reading "wretched of the earth" soon after i found george jackson's "blood in my eye.” he spoke a lot about the need for social revolution. i really wanted to form a community, like to have a book club. i selfishly thought there might be people who in the meeting could help me understand the material that i was struggling to get by myself. the book club is basically a space where we can read books that are written predominantly by black folks, and usually have some sort of political theme. right now, we have about 14 chapters. i felt it was important toot just have chapters across the country on the outside, but also to have book club chapters inside of prisons and jails. because i think information should be free and accessible to everybody. one thing the state is really good at is making us feel alone in our experiences.

it is important to be in solidarity with our community, even the people who we don't get to see. we receive letters from our members on the inside all the time. just yesterday, my friend emailed me a picture of one of our members and his family. he just finished a book and he was going on about how much he loved it and how excited he is to be in the program. those connections are really cool to me. that is also one of my favorite books. having more spaces where we can have more challenging and radical conversations about the world we live in, how we contribute to violence, and destruction. i want to be in community with folks who are learning about not only how those structures came to be, but had to dismantle them. i am noname, and this is my "brief but spectacular" take on community learning and solidarity. amna: you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. and that is the newshour for

tonight. i am amna nawaz. join us online and again tomorrow evening for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you for joining us. we will see you soon. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no contract plans and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restored -- restorative justice and meaningful work through investments and transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at

macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions -- ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >> this is "the pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, ption content and accuracy.]

♪♪ -"cook's country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table. we're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes. we go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook, and we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today. we bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you. this is "cook's country." ♪♪ today on "cook's country," lawman and bridget make japanese steakhouse steak and vegetables. i tell the wild story of benihana's founder "rocky" aoki. adam shares his top picks for cast-iron skillets, and bryan makes julia charred cherry tomatoes with bell peppers and zzarella.