wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the "newshour" tonight, a major tropical storm hits southern california for the first time in over 80 years, causing floods and fears of mudslides. geoff: president biden visits maui to survey the destruction, as the recovery effort continues and the death toll grows.

amna: and, many states look to confront the growing mental health crisis with laws and policies that would make it easier to involuntarily hospitalize people. >> coercion can be an effective way to move people into care environments. the key is, how are we transitioning people into longer-term care in less restrictive settings? ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by. ♪ >> the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the newshour, including leonard enormous, -- and norma. the will and -- william and

flora hewlett foundation, supporting institutions to promote a better world. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: good evening, and welcome to the newshour. southern california has been battered by historic rainfall, floods, and mudslides, the latest in a string of disasters

wreaking havoc across the country. but so far, there are no reports of major damage or injuries. geoff: adding to the anxiety, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake rattled an area north of los angeles sunday. but it was not linked to tropical storm hilary. as the storm now barrels north, some 17 million people are under flood and high-wind advisories, watches, and warnings. as the sun rose over southern california today, residents woke up to an extremely rare sight, floodwaters rushing through their desert paradise. over the weekend, hilary became the first tropical storm to make landfall in the southern part of the state in more than 80 years, dumping half a season's worth of rain in the worst-hit areas. scientists say that extreme weather events like this are exacerbated, and occurring more frequently, due in part to climate change. >> it is a bit unprecedented. we've had storms before, but never anything quite this windy

and rainy at the same time. geoff: this morning, weather officials downgraded hilary to a post-tropical storm, and in all, the damage wasn't as bad as some forecasters feared. still, it battered baja california in mexico, where several homes collapsed and one person drowned. when it arrived on u.s. coastlines, it brought chaos to an area where droughts are far more common than this type of deluge. school districts in san diego and los angeles shut down today. los angeles mayor karen bass said the city remains on high alert. >> it's not to say many angelenos have not been impacted by the storm, whether they woke up without power or were unable to get through streets due to flooding and mudslides. as you know, sometimes damage can occur in the hours and days after a storm hits. geoff: the rain has saturated california's inland deserts and valleys. palm springs, a popular resort town, declared a state of emergency as cars and pedestrians trudged through

standing water. the storm knocked out the city's 911 system. elsewhere, mud and debris blanketed roadways. landslides caused some to collapse entirely. >> if this road floods, there is no way in or out. geoff: residents in victorville feared for their homes, as the water levels rose seemingly out of nowhere. >> like, all that started within an hour or two, and then just kept piling up, up and the water keeps coming further back up the street, and just more and more. geoff: as the skies in southern california begin to clear, hilary is projected to keep weakening as it pushes northward into nevada. ♪ amna: in the day's other headlines, president biden is in maui to visit survivors of the wildfires that decimated parts of the island nearly two weeks ago. he's joined by the first lady. they'll survey the damage by helicopter, and meet with local

officials about the ongoing response efforts. the confirmed death toll stands at 114 people, with more than 800 others still missing. officials say they've searched 85% of the disaster area. meanwhile, at least two people have now died in wildfires burning in washington state. the blazes ignited friday, and are still uncontained. they've scorched roughly 20,000 acres, destroying some 200 structures in their path. across the border, firefighters have had some success battling the flames in canada. in the northwest territories, they've held back a blaze threatening the capital of yellowknife. they also weakened a major inferno around lake okanagan in british columbia. but prime minister justin trudeau warned, the fires' catastrophic effects will be felt for some time. >> people are fleeing for their lives. they're worried about their communities, and canadians from coast to coast to coast are watching in horror the images of apocalyptic devastation and

fires going on in communities that so many of us know, and so many of us have friends in. amna: more than a thousand wildfires are still burning across canada, making it the worst wildfire season the country has ever seen. former president donald trump has agreed to a $200,000 bond in the georgia election interference case. that's according to a court filing signed by the fulton county district attorney and mr. trump's legal team. the bond agreement also bans him from intimidating co-defendants and witnesses. the former president was charged along with 18 others last week. it was his fourth criminal indictment. a new report out today from human rights watch claims that saudi arabian border guards have killed hundreds of ethiopian migrants trying to enter their country from yemen. they say guards repeatedly used machine guns and explosives to attack unarmed migrants, including women and children, at close range.

the armed conflict in ethiopia's tigray region, along with drought and famine, have forced more ethiopians to make the dangerous journey through yemen to saudi arabia. the u.s. and south korea began their annual joint military exercises today amid increasing aggression from the north. the 11 days of drills are larger than in years past. tens of thousands of soldiers are expected to take part. that comes as north korean state media reported leader kim jong un observed the test-firing of strategic cruise missiles. and, stocks were mixed on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average lost 37 points to close at 34,463. the nasdaq rose 207 points. the s&p 500 added 30. still to come on the "newshour", an anti-corruption outsider triumphs in guatemala's presidential election. a popular weight loss drug may prevent heart attacks, but remains costly.

tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. an artist examines the legacy of the vietnam war, and its impact on his own life. plus much more. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from wbt a studios in washington and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: as president biden surveys the damage in maui, emergency crews, local officials, and residents are still assessing the scope of loss from the wildfires. so far, officials have confirmed the fires led to more than 110 deaths, and most of those individuals have yet to be identified. more than 1,000 federal officials remain on the ground. troubling questions and anger have emerged, as well, about the role of hawaii's biggest power utility, the response by local and state government, and a lack of critical communication when residents most needed it.

for the latest on what that perspective is like on the ground, we're joined by marina riker, a reporter for the honolulu civil beat who is based in maui. thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. geoff: as you are covering the aftermath of these wildfires, you were directly affected. the rental home where you work living was consumed by fire. you shared this photo with our team. tell us what this experience has been like. >> mostly i have been dealing with my own home and the disaster, and trying to work on the side. it has been extraordinarily chaotic. my home burned down in one of a couple wildfires that broke out august 8. geoff: the day of the fires, how did you evacuate? >> a separate fire broke out a few miles away from me earlier that morning.

we were already on edge. this sort of thing hasn't happened in my lifetime growing up here. i don't remember anything like this happening. we were already on edge, preparing our bags, we decided to put our cats into carriers and we think around noon that day, a fire broke out about two properties over from us. in the hours that followed the smoke was so bad. we saw flames and that is when we made the call to get out before the evacuation order had been issued. geoff: you were denied fema assistance at first, which is remarkable given that you know how to navigate the system. tell me about that and what folks are coping with. >> as someone who has had to cover natural disasters in the past and write about fema and relief programs, the thing i

realized as someone who also lost their home, it is not like government officials are directly reaching out to you to give you this information. you have to find it yourself. you have to figure out what to do with the home debris, how to apply for fema, what websites to go to, what other relief programs are there. in the case of fema, and this will happen in rental properties all over maui, because my landlord had submitted an application for damage, when i went to submit one, it was denied because it was the same address. i was able to troubleshoot and call someone but it has been confusing. geoff: there are major questions about the cause of the wildfire, the electric utilities, questions why the officials didn't sound the alarm system, how residents were cut off from self-service. what do residents want to see in

terms of accountability? >> there is so much. the big question, and this was my question as a resident going through this, when our home burned down, cell phone reception was so limited that i don't know if there was an emergency alert sent. we didn't get one. i saw a news release that afternoon but i think it is just, folks want to see better communication of course, amid disasters in hopes it saves lives. also in the rebuilding. they want to see communities lead these efforts. the community i'm from will be totally different from the community in lahaina. everybody wants to make sure residents aren't left out and take the lead in rebuilding these communities. geoff: speaking of rebuilding, the governor says it will take years and billions of dollars. what does the future look like for folks in maui?

>> i can't even begin to say how much support we have seen from our neighbors and communities coming together. i think to lead the charge in the rebuilding, and it is absolutely devastating. devastating feels like a small word but there is the deadliest disaster we have had in hawaii and the deadliest wildfire in the history of the u.s. but the point is, we see -- we want to see communities rebuild and have their voices heard in that process of how we are going to recover. geoff: you have been able to focus on your work. do you have a sense of where that reporting will head next in the work you do? >> i worked as a reporter in texas when hurricane harvey hit.

i had minor home damage, but nothing like this were my home was leveled and i have nothing and i have to go buy toiletries because i don't have anything. for me, it has seat -- changed the way i see reporting in terms of the information i need. it is different from the information the general public needs. i'm hoping that will help me ask better questions and figure out what we need in terms of information to help families. geoff: thanks for your time. our thoughts are with you. >> thank you. amna: >> the results of two

latin american elections seemed to reflect the desire for change. guatemalans elected an anti-corruption politician. nick schifrin reports. >> when the corrupt ones came from -- for democracy, they missed the crusader. bernardo arevalo told guatemalans they could fight corruption. he and his party came out of nowhere to overcome a political establishment that tried to silence them. his supporters celebrated an election that they hope harold's a better future. >> with the people shout about is, enough with corruption. >> he reached out to young voters in one of latin america's

most unequal countries. food insecurity on poverty, and widespread crime, spiked migration. more guatemalans risked the journey north to try to enter the u.s. than from any other country. voters chose the politician who vows to block what he calls the persecution of enemies. >> the change for something good is what we hope for, that they don't let us down again. >> in ecuador, that pushed 35-year-old entrepreneur daniel to second place in the voting. he is the son of a former candidate. he ran as an outsider, appealing to female and younger voters. >> the most ignored demographic is the youth. and a lot of female votes. >> he will face front-runner and leftist luisa gonzalez.

the country faces unprecedented violence including the assassination of a presidential candidate. security and the economy are likely to be the key issues in ecuador's runoff election, scheduled for october. for more, we turn to will freeman. he's a fellow for latin american studies at the council on foreign relations. thanks and welcome to the newshour. let's start in guatemala. how significant is bernardo arevalo's election? >> the most significant election in maybe three generations. this is guatemala's best shot in getting out from decades of corruption. he has given guatemalans a sense of hope that i haven't seen in my time in the country. let's hope he can deliver. >> how surprising is it that he was able to overcome a system that was frankly stacked against him and other critics of the

government? >> surprising in that it is not only that he overcame an attempt to remove him from the race. they weathered security threats. they told me about those days ago. they campaigned with basically no budget. they were against a rival financed to the tune of millions. they were traveling in their own personal cars, visiting villages. i saw how they recycled the same flyers from stop to stop. this campaign was built on ideas and amazingly, it worked. >> the u.s. revoked the visas of the attorney general and a judge , both of whom the u.s. labeled corrupt. the eu and american states spoke out and it came to the selection. did those moves by the u.s. make a difference? >> they sent a strong message to antidemocratic movements that an attempt to overthrow elections

and overturn the results would come with consequences. most of the credit should go to guatemalan society, the campaign of arevalo, but the support from the u.s., the eu, the organization of american states was essential and had those actors not being -- not paid attention, we might see a different outcome. >> bernardo arevalo doesn't control any other part of the government. what are the challenges he will face, especially given that he doesn't take power until january? ask the biggest challenges the three criminal cases launched against his party without evidence remain open. for the moment he has a groundswell of support but that doesn't protect him. i'm worried members of his party could be put in detention. i think we will see the opposition congress pass a

limited budget that goes into effect next year. we will see them stacked the judiciary with more judges aligned with their interests. it will put a lot of obstacles in front of his agenda from day one. >> who is daniel noboa and how surprising is it that he finished second? >> he is the 30 five-year-old son of a long time presidential candidate in ecuador and one of the doors richest men -- ecuador's richest men. he doesn't have a lot of experience in politics. he served one term in congress come around once for president but not a household name. i found it surprising, but in most first elections these days it is like rolling the dice. >> in an election marked by violence, rolling the dice, how concerning is it that ecuador of all countries, we didn't expect this, ecuador suffered the kind of political violence we saw during this campaign? >> it is tragic area nobody

expected a presidential candidate to be gunned down in public. two other candidates including noboa were caught up in the crossfire of shootouts by criminal gangs. it will make it hard to develop a normal democratic election and carry on with campaign activities. what has me concerned, i am not sure either candidate that made it to the runoff have a serious agenda to tackle the problem. >> i don't want to over emphasize connections between these two elections, the back stories are different but are these two elections signs for those in the region advocating for democracy and free and fair elections? >> i think we see a parallel but it has more to do with the failings of the state. democracy is holding steady in a lot of countries but we are seeing state institutions

increasingly debilitated by corruption, which increasingly failed to stand up to organized crime. you see that in mexico. what we will see in these cases is, whoever is elected in ecuador, certainly arevalo, will have a short honeymoon period. they will be the president, the one who is bearing responsibility for these problems. my message to presidents in latin america, honeymoons are short and it is unforgiving for politicians these days. >> will freeman, thank you so much. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: the nation's obesity epidemic is growing. nearly 42% of all adults are considered obese. now, new findings about an fda approved weight-loss medication may lead to even more demand for a medication that can be both

life-changing and expensive. william brangham has the latest. william: roughly 100 million americans suffer from obesity and its many associated health risks. obesity takes a terrible economic toll as well, costing this country an estimated $200 billion a year. a new weight loss drug called wegovy has shown, according to one study, that it not only can help with obesity, but it might also cut the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other heart problems by 20%. but there are real concerns about potential side effects. for a closer look, we are joined by dr. michael blaha. he's director of clinical research at the johns hopkins chika roni center for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. dr. blaha, very good to have you on the news hour. before we get to talking about this drug, could you just remind us of the connections between obesity and heart disease? >> yeah, sure. as you said, rbc

-- obesity is extremely common, and it's linked with so many forms of cardiovascular disease. obesity itself is an inflammatory condition. it raises your blood pressure, can cause diabetes and other risk factors, and it's linked to atherosclerosis of the arteries, which puts you at risk for heart attacks and strokes. it also raises the risk of heart failure and atrial fibrillation. heart rhythm abnormality, too, so really, obesity underpins many of the chronic cardiovascular conditions that we treat in a cardiology practice. william: according to this study, only parts have been released, it indicates this drug could prevent 1.5 one million heart attacks, strokes, and other events over the course of 10 years, if that's true, with all the caveats there. how big a deal is that? >> this is a really big deal. in my opinion, we've waited for a long time to build a treat obesity and clinical medicine and actually lower cardiovascular events. and as a cardiologist, you know we haven't paid much attention to obesity because we couldn't do anything about it and affect our

outcomes. but now, with the potential on the horizon about a treat obesity and lower cardiovascular disease, you have the attention of cardiologists and other specialists who treat cardiovascular disease. so this is a really big deal, and i think it's finally going to change the paradigm on the way we think about obesity, the way we treat obesity and there's a lot more to work out. and as you mentioned, we need to see the results of the actual study. william: walk me through the ways in which it might be a paradigm shift for your profession. >> most of our patients don't lose weight. in fact, most of our patients gain weight over time. obesity underpins so many of the chronic diseases that we treat obstructive sleep apnea is one that can lead to hypertension becoming hard to treat. cholesterol abnormalities, of course diabetes. and i mentioned before, myocardial infarction and heart attacks and strokes. but also the heart failure, the chronic heart failure that's troubling for many of our patients. and atrial fibrillation, which is becoming an epidemic so

it underpins so much of what we do. so we treat many of the complications of obesity in our practice right now, but we never get to the root cause and this is what has been frustrating over so long. we are just treating the manifestations of obesity. it's a very costly way of doing things compared to actually treating the underlying causes of all the problems. william: as i mentioned, there are some concerns about complications or side effects with these drugs. what is your understanding of those? and what do people need to know about that part of it? >> these drugs are really well known actually, because we've been using them in the diabetes space for over a decade. so now we have approval to use some of the same medications at higher doses for weight loss, or at least one in particular. so we've learned a lot in the clinical arena about how to use these drugs. and absolutely there are side effects. in fact, the side effects are closely associated with their mechanism of action. and if i could briefly say that the way these medications work is, they slow the emptying of food from the stomach. they signal hormonal

changes that put us in their fed states. we feel satiated and not hungry anymore, and they also work directly on the brain to reduce hunger. so some of the side effects are those very things. if they are beyond what a patient can tolerate, you can get a full bloating feeling in , the stomach after a big meal. you can get nausea, sometimes vomiting or diarrhea. they are largely controlled with diet changes. so it's very important if a patient were to consider a medication like this, that this isn't in lieu of diet and exercise. it is with diet changes. william: and if someone starts on these drugs, do they take them for a short period of time? are they taking them for the rest of their life? what is that? >> if you stop taking these medications, patients do regain weight. most of them have regained weight, maybe not all of it but much of it. so it's really shifting the thinking about obesity towards that of a chronic disease. you know, we take blood pressure medications for hypertension. we expect that our blood pressure will go back if we stop them. and same with our cholesterol medications. we sort of assume

that if you stop taking them the cholesterol goes up. but this hasn'really been worked out so much in the obesity space. but as we learn more about the disease and think of it as a chronic disease, it sort of makes sense, then, that the medications need to be there to exert their effect. so we hope we will learn a lot more about the maintenance phase of pharmacologic treatment for obesity over time, but right now it looks like you do need to stay on the drug to get the maximum benefit. in the meantime, we like our patients to have a thorough diet and lifestyle change that might help them keep the weight off. so it's really once again about diet, exercise and drugs. william: you are not in the business of health insurance, per se. but there is a question as to whether these drugs show their promise, whether or not health insurance, and particularly, whether medicare ought to cover them. is it your opinion that these do offer enough benefit that that really ought to be a consideration? >> it is my opinion, based on this trial that's been running, the size of that trial and how well it was run, that the

evidence is going to be sufficient for the fda to approve these weight loss drugs, wegovy particularly, for cardiovascular risk reduction. and having that fda approval for cardiovascular risk reduction will then open up an opportunity or at least put pressure on payers like medicare to cover this medication more broadly, and we've been waiting for this. we've anticipated this trial as a pivotal moment to see, is this going to be a drug that many people will benefit from? or is this one that you know will keep as more of a niche product for maybe severe obesity, and it looks like we're going to have a broad based cardiovascular benefits. so absolutely, we're going to see much broader coverage i think. william: all right, dr. michael blaha. johns hopkins medicine. thank you so much for being here. >> my pleasure. thank you. ♪ amna: across the country, states are trying to tackle the growing mental health crisis. some are enacting laws and policies that would make it

easier to hospitalize or detain the severely mentally ill against their will or through voluntary court-ordered treatment. as the ranks of the homeless swell, california is taking steps toward compelling more mentally ill patients into care. as stephanie sy reports from san diego, it is as controversial as ever. stephanie: jennifer parramore rescues dogs and cats, and pretty much any creature in need of care and love. but her dogs, ranger and dolly, are her support. and the day we were with jennifer, she needed them. you're coming off of sort of a manic state that you've been in for for how long? >> over a month, i think. over a month now. and it can last weeks. stephanie: what does that feel like? >> everything's elevated. everything's heightened. everything's hyper. you feel like you're the funniest person in the world. you feel like you're the prettiest person in the world. stephanie: parramore has schizo-affective disorder.

>> the bipolar is more prevalent than the schizophrenic part. but the violent part, the aggressive part, the really erratic part, that's the schizophrenia. stephanie: 31-year old jillian is jennifer's daughter, but also one of her mom's caretakers. in fact, jillian often refers to her mom as "sister." when jillian was little, jennifer was in and out of her life. >> she ended up getting three strikes for petty theft, and ended up in the prison system. and it was in the prison system that she was diagnosed. unfortunately, she spent a lot of time in solitary confinement for behaviors. stephanie: jillian blames the criminal justice system for robbing her of a mother. >> i didn't know jennifer was my parent until i was 12 years old. i missed out on so much of that time. and because her mental illness wasn't treated early on, she doesn't have very many memories of me that's starting to fade. and so we don't get to have the

relationship that we should have had. what if i let you have chicken nuggets? >> i will go for chicken nuggets. >> thank you. stephanie: now that jennifer is in her life, jillian worries that a new california law raises the specter of institutionalization, which she calls another form of prison. >> right before this interview, we had a whole meltdown. that happens every day. that is also ok. we are allowed to have bad days. everybody is allowed to have bad days. we don't get in prison for having bad days. we don't get our rights taken away for having bad days. stephanie: the new law will make it easier to court-order behavioral treatment plans for individuals with severe mental illness through so-called "care court." here's how it works. a family member, behavioral health provider, or member of law enforcement petitions a court on behalf of someone with untreated schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder. after that, a court can order a clinical evaluation, and then a care plan that may include

treatment, medication, and housing. if the person fails to complete treatment, they could be considered for even longer term state oversight. the approach is part of california's effort to address homelessness. san diego is one the pilot counties that will begin implementing the care courts in the fall. on this hot july day, police dismantled a sidewalk encampment downtown. it's a familiar scene in the golden state, where it's estimated that nearly a quarter of the unhoused suffer from serious mental illness. chronic homelessness is the result of multiple system failures, not just individual choices. the mentally ill cycle through the public health system, the housing system, and the criminal justice system. they may get some help along the way, but many of them end up back on the street. anita fisher knows this all too well. >> as a mother you always think, did i miss something?

stephanie: the pictures from her son pharoh's early days as a medical specialist in the army did not foretell what was to come. >> my son, pharoh, is 45 years old. and for the last 22 years, he's lived with a co-occurring condition of schizophrenia and substance use disorder. there have been wonderful periods of recovery where he is in treatment, on his medication, and that's the person who i fight for. but it takes so long to get him back into treatment once he stops his medication, that that -- and he starts to self medicate with street drugs and acohol. and that, of course, leads to trouble. and then he's arrested. stephanie: fisher believes care court would offer a pathway for her son to obtain treatment he may not know that he needs. >> when you've especially been on a several year journey, and you know that they're saying,

no, i'm not sick, i don't need help, that's the point where there may need to be an involuntary direction. people don't like that word but if it saves his life, if it saves him from ending up on the street, if it saves him from ending up having to be in handcuffs. stephanie: luke bergmann, the head of behavioral health for san diego county, will be leading the efforts to implement the new system. >> care court was meant to be an alternative that would use, you know, the specter of the court to motivate people to engage in care who wouldn't likely otherwise be motivated to engage in care. stephanie: he says the care court stops short of involuntary treatment, but a new proposed law in california, currently expected to pass, could radically expand who qualifies for coerced care. senate bill 43 would redefine who qualifies as gravely disabled, making it easier to detain individuals in psychological distress against

their will. it would include people with severe substance use disorders. like anita fisher's son. she supports the bill. >> when i read that law, he was meeting every single word of it. no one is talking about sticking someone in an institution for years and years and years just because they have a mental health challenge. no. we're just talking about getting them treatment sooner. >> there are many, many people with serious mental illness who need help with basic aspects of activities of daily living coercion can be an effective way to move people into care environments. the key is, how are we transitioning people into longer term care in less restrictive settings? stephanie: but david cohen, a ucla professor and former social worker, says that there isn't much data on the success of forced mental health treatment. >> it suggests that it drives

people away from the mental health care system. it re-traumatizes people who have often been traumatized. it's a hit and run. it leaves the scene as soon as real problems appear, in fact. stephanie: the trend toward involuntary treatment woies keris myrick, a mental health advocate. she herself was diagnosed with schizophrenia in her 30s. >> my first involvement with the mental health system was through involuntary hospitalization, which was very traumatic. the police came to my door. mine is not the worst. some people don't make it out alive. stephanie: myrick has concerns about california's new courts for the severely mentally ill. >> the idea of being able to get the treatment and or supports that you need at the time when you're most vulnerable involving a court? as an african-american,

the idea of courts -- it's just not a friendly place. stephanie: ucla researcher david cohen says the seriously mentally ill may need a form of asylum, one that's voluntary. >> we do need a place for people who can't take care of themselves. stephanie: you're saying that there may need to be some sort of asylum for certain types of people? >> yes, absolutely. but not with coercion. what is asylum? it's shelter. it's space, it's books, it's drugs if they want them. probably 80% of it is just finding shelter for people. stephanie: jennifer parramore has a safe place, just a few blocks away from daughter, jillian. jennifer credits getting the right dose of lithium with helping her get her symptoms under control. even still, she has relapses. >> when i'm going into the hospital, i've given up. i know that i can't make decisions for myself anymore. i give up. i'm tired of running from the devil out here. exhausted. stephanie: running from the

devil. what does it mean, to run from the devil? what are you referring to? >> just trying to stay one step ahead of my mental illness. stephanie: it feels like the devil. >> oh, yeah. >> hunting you. mental illness. >> all the time. it's your mind controlling you, and not you controlling your mind. stephanie: but it's her battle to fight, she says. >> it is my choice. it should always be my choice. stephanie: for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy in san diego. ♪ amna: it's the beginning of one of the most-anticipated weeks of the presidential campaign so far. republican candidates are set to debate in wisconsin. but there will be one notable absence, former president donald trump, leading in the polls, is instead set for processing in a georgia jail. sy week than our politicsthis monday team. that's amy walter of the cook political report with amy

walter, and tamara keith of npr. great to see you both. let's talk about this. the first debate is two days away hosted by fox. here is a look at who has qualified so far. we mentioned mr. trump won't be there. francis suarez and perry johnson say they have qualified but they haven't confirmed. the deadline is tonight. the man running a distant second to trump, ron desantis, will be there. what does a good debate night look like for him? >> trump will be there but he won't be there. trump will be overshadowing all of this. even after the debate we will find out, has he turned himself in yet? what about this interview he is doing with tucker karlsson? will he make news there that may

overshadow what happens in the debate? we won't -- you won't be physically there. but desantis is the person that has so much riding on this. this year he could make the case credibly that it was a two person race between he and trump. now a lot of candidates are starting to be nipping at his heels as he has descended, going down since earlier this spring. and there is this one opportunity in this debate just sort of settled things down. can he win the debate? perhaps. for him, winning would look like not slipping any further, not making any mistakes, and two, that the other potential challengers to his second-place status, tim scott and vivek ramaswamy, do not overshadow

him. because that is the biggest threat to him, that he is no longer the candidate in second place. >> trump has had a commanding lead in the latest iowa poll. caucuses are five months away but that is a strong lead, 42% for trump. in second place, desantis 19%. he will not be at the debate physically, sitting down with an interview with tucker karlsson. what does that say to you about who we he is trying to reach? >> he is running like an incumbent president. and he never admitted that he lost. he is not running like someone who lost and is scraping his way back. he is running like the president of the united states who doesn't need to dignify this with his presence. and an actual incumbent wouldn't

attend one of these debates either. he is doing what he does best, which is get everybody to talk about him. there will be clips from the tucker karlsson interview, whether they are played during or after the debate. he is making it awkward for fox, which is a feature, not a bug. it is all part of what he does. i think for ron desantis, the challenge is, are they all going to focus on him or, everybody else on the stage, and it is a big stage, or will they focus on trump? for most of them there is no applause line attacking trump. there is no applause line at all attacking trump. most people watching the debate are locked into a boat for trump already. geoff: what about -- amna: what about president biden? >> the press secretary was asked

on air force one and she said i hope he isn't watching for his sake, although she doesn't know. the biden campaign and demoatic already are planning rapid response. the one of the person who can get applause for these folks is attacking joe biden or kamala harris. he could take a hit in this debate. they are putting out $25 million in ads over the next several weeks, trying to convince voters that the economy is good and joe biden should be president. amna: the other interesting thing from the iowa polls, 40% of caucus-goers's their mind is made up. 52% said they are persuade-able. >> if you are a notch trump candidate, the majority of people say they could be open to something. we could be open to a lot of things and at the end of the day, we don't follow through.

like eating certain foods, doing certain things, we might say actually, i will not follow through. that is the first. the second thing is, we will get to that in a minute, the more important thing about the 52% number of people who said they are open to somebody else, when you look under the hood right now, those voters are not coalescing around another candidate. donald trump still gets 27% of those voters. ron desantis gets 25% and another chunk go to tim scott. fundamentally, the challenge feels very similar to 2016. even if trump space is not this big, if it is more than 35% or 40%, that is enough to win if the people who are looking around for somebody else wind up splitting their vote between multiple candidates, which is why this debate is a race for who is in second, who can lay

claim to being the one candidate than everybody else who doesn't want trump to be the nominee should rally around. amna: we have a possible split screen of the debate and the other candidates. mr. trump turning his in -- himself and in fulton county, facing four separate indictments, 90 one charges. is there any sign that the mounting legal challenges could cause him to collapse? >> there aren't a lot of republican base voters who have read the indictments, simply speaking. they aren't interested in it. the former president and his allies and many of his opponents have laid the groundwork for republican voters to feel as though it is rigged against trump, they are all out to get trump, everything is corrupt so why would they care about these indictments? these indictments prove the establishment doesn't want trump to be president.

that is the argument republican base voters take from this. i don't know what could move the needle except may be an actual trial. if the trial is televised, many courts won't allow cameras or electronic communications from inside the courtroom and you are dealing with sketches. we don't know when any of these trials could get set, when these dates will happen because there will be numerous appeals and other efforts on the trump side to slow it down. amna: we saw in other national polling by cbs that among those voters who don't think he did anything wrong, they still see him as the most electable, the most likely to beat biden. having all these indictments weighing him down, that is not what republican voters believe. emmy walter, tamra, good to see

you. ♪ geoff: an exhibit at the new museum in new york explores the legacy of the vietnam war through the film and sculptures of an artist whose own life has been defined by that very legacy. jeffrey brown takes a look for our arts and culture series, canvas. ♪ >> in the opening scene of "the unburied sounds of a troubled horizon", a vietnamese folk song plays over a strange scene, a flower pot in a field, which we slowly realize is fashioned from a bombshell. artist and director tuan andrew nguyen. >> i was thinking about the landscape and how beautiful the landscape is, but just right below the surface of the land lays like this memory of the war that is still very volatile. >> the film is part of an exhibition, titled "radiant

remembrance," at the new museum in new york by the 47 year old vietnamese-born, american-raised artist, winner of this year's prestigious joan miro international art prize. works in different forms and shapes, video installations, archival photographs, free-standing sculptures, all exploring narratives of often forgotten or lost history. >> my work is very much about the power of memory, the power of storytelling as an act of political resistance, to remember something, to retell something. >> that hasn't been told before. >> that hasn't been told before or that isn't being told, that isn't being acknowledged by the dominant narrative. >> [speaking vietnamese] >> "the unburied sounds of a troubled horizon" is a fictionalized version of a grim reality in the (kwang tree)

-- in the quang tri region of central vietnam, where the u.s. military carried out some of the most ferocious and destructive bombing in history. and to this day unexploded ordinance, or uxo, letters the landscape, killing and maiming civilians. the film tells the story of a young woman who ekes out a living scavenging and selling metal from the bombs, but also making sculptures of them that have an eerie resemblance to the american artist alexander calder , who she learns died the year she was born. for nguyen this is about loss, hauntings, reincarnation, the possibility of healing. in that sense, it goes on. >> it goes on. >> and never ended. >> and it's never ended for the people there. i think that's the history that we have to kind of remember. war doesn't end when we think it does.

>> for the exhibition, nguyen has crafted his own large sculptures, a large bomb bell, and a mobile of metal from scavenged ordnance, tuned to a frequency thought to help heal people suffering from ptsd. >> they have an amazing resonance. you can kind of feel the vibration. turning material that was meant to destroy into something that heals. >> in fact, all this hidden and continuing history is tied to nguyen's own story. he was born in vietnam just after the war. his father was a former south vietnamese draftee. when nguyen was two, the family escaped by sea, as so-called "boat people", to a refugee camp in malaysia. they were eventually accepted into the u.s. as refugees. do you have any memory of that? >> i don't remember the experience on the boat or the refugee camp. one of my

earliest, first memories was the plane ride from malaysia to san francisco. i think i was crying so much that the flight attendant gave me a dennis the menace comic book. and i remember. >> really? your first exposure to western culture? >> but also my first memory. kind of being in the air, and getting this graphic object about a young boy who was causing a lot of problems, dennis the menace. >> he grew up in oklahoma, texas and southern california hearing stories of his homeland. after college and art school he went back to vietnam to live with his maternal grandmother, a poet, writer and journalist who'd stayed behind. nguyen has lived in vietnam ever since, now with a family of his own.

and he's made films about other continuations of history, french colonial soldiers from senegal who fought in vietnam and had relationships and children with vietnamese women. he worked with the contemporary senegalese-vietnamese community in dakar to document part of that little-known story. and he's created other works about mixed communities and migrations that we rarely hear of. he himself has relatives in martinique in the caribbean that date to french colonial wars. for all this, he credits the stories he was told in childhood. >> refugees, for those that are displaced, especially children, stories become not only a relic of a previous life. they're a kind of inheritance. but they also -- >> one you don't know. >> one you don't know. and sometimes, you know, when i was growing up, i felt like i would never know, because access to vietnam seemed impossible back

then. but these stories also simultaneously kind of, very aggressively propel you into a future. and that's the impact of storytelling on me. i think that has kind of impressed deeply upon my psyche and the way that i think about making art. >> that art can now be seen through september 17th. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at the new museum in new york. geoff: a factual correction, earlier in the program we said guatemala is latin's most populous country. in fact, it is central america's most populous country. we regret the error. that is the newshour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding has been provided by.

♪ >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. a raymondjames financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. >> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendeda fund.org. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at mack brown.org -- macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for

broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪

wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. >> i love it deeply. i believe it is a paradise. >> an exclusive interview with the running mate of