wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. ♪ geoff: good evening. on the news hour tonight, the middle east on edge. israel and its allies ready their differences anticipating

retaliation for strikes against hamas and hezbollah leaders. the trump campaign is hacked in what appears to be the latest foreign interference in the presidential election. and is there a future for social security? the benefits cap that could leave many americans with a hole in their safety net. >> we are so bad at fixing this problem. this problem has been evident since 1990. ♪ announcer: major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- ♪ the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the news hour including leonard and norma horrifying and the judy and peter bloom kohler foundation. >> two retiring executives

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contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the news hour. the u.s. and israel believe iran and its proxies across the region could launch a significant attack in the coming days. israel says it is on peak readiness and the u.s. accelerated the deployment of forces to the region to try to deter iran and defend israel despite ongoing diplomatic efforts to prevent an attack. our story starts in the israeli city of haifa and a warning that some scenes of war in this story are graphic. reporter: in 10 months of war, israel's largest city and port have emerged untouched but today haifa and israel are worried an attack could come at any point. >> and since the seventh of october, we are working from here. reporter: which is why hyphens are emergency preparedness chief

works from a bomb shelter after being on high alert for the last 10 days after israel assassinated a senior hezbollah commander in beirut and a leader was killed in an explosion after this event in tehran. >> we are waiting for something to happen. reporter: in june hezbollah made its threat to hyphens port explicit. thanks to iranian support, hezbollah has more than 150,000 rockets and missiles that could reach 95% of israel and israel is not ready for a possible onslaught. >> the biggest challenge today is that we don't have enough bomb shelters for the citizens. reporter: which is why the hospital is taking no chances and has moved 2000 beds, three stories below street level to an underground garage. >> look up, oxygen line, warm

water, cold water, suction. everything that doesn't exist and no regular garage. reporter: it has a fully functional emergency room with an operating theater to deal with the kinds of injuries they fear are coming. >> we mainly prepare for conventional war. regular trauma. we are also ready to treat some other talks a lot -- toxicological attacks if they happen. we know the potential is there. reporter: the hospital is equipped to last one week without resupply and plans to host families of necessary. >> if we come down here and it is terrible out there with bombing and bombing, we can close the doors and not need to open them at all for 72 hours. we have enough water, food, oxygen, energy. reporter: to help defend israel

and try to deter iran this weekend lloyd austin made a rare announcement that he had deployed a guided missile submarine, the uss georgia to the middle east and accelerated the deployment of the strike group, the uss abraham lincoln. john kirby spoke to reporters today. >> we have to be prepared for what could be a significant set of attacks which is why we have increased our force capabilities in the region even in the last few days. reporter: the biden administration believes the best way to conquer regional tension is a gaza cease-fire and the release of prisoners. the u.s. along with mediators qatar and egypt have called for formal talks to resume on thursday but it is unclear if hamas will show up. but until a cease-fire is an gaza, the israeli middle -- the israeli military is using a new campaign in the south. it was too late for those that

arrived to this hospital and too late for the woman that hoped to shield the child. the heartbreak turned to rage. among those killed today, her nephew. >> my nephew's brain was hanging out of his head. where is the humanity? we are dying. we are dying. where is the humanity? reporter: a wave of humanity today evacuated again tens of thousands in an area designated by israel as a humanitarian zone urged to flee right israeli leaflets. it is the fourth of actuation order issued this month. israel accused hamas of hiding among the population to fire a rocket. israel also said the school turned shelter struck this week and killed more than 30 terrorists while the palestinians say that nearly 100 died while they prayed. ♪

reporter: here are the latest headlines. ukraine's top military commander says his forces control nearly 400 square miles of russian territory in the region of kursk across from ukraine's northeastern border. it is the first time a ukrainian military official has commented on the gains of last week's surprise incursion. russian authorities say more than 121 thousand people have evacuated the area so far and that 12 civilians have been killed in the fighting. the russian president today told a meeting of top officials that they are attack is an attempt to give ukraine a better negotiating position for future peace talks. >> it is becoming obvious and clear why the kyiv regime

refused our proposals to return to a peaceful settlement plan as well as the proposals of neutral mediators. it appears the west is fighting us with the hands of the ukrainians. reporter: ukraine's operation is the largest attack on russia's soil since the war began. in greece a wildfire is raging on the outskirts of athens forcing hundreds of people from the northern suburbs. the blaze was about nine miles from the city center and at least one person has died. it began sunday afternoon sending flames as high as 80 feet in the air. some 700 firefighters worked to exchange -- extinguish the flames. some residents stayed behind to protect their homes. >> the wind would go in one direction and then in the other. the smoke was suffocating. i could not see. my eyes teared up. i could not breathe. reporter: the fires have been

fanned by intense winds and bone dry conditions after recent heat waves. an earthquake rattled los angeles midday today. though 4.4 magnitude quake was centered near the highland park neighborhood in the northeast section of this eddie. according to the u.s. geological survey it could be felt as far south as san diego and as far east as palm springs. there were no reports of injuries or damage. it comes less than a week after a 5.2 magnitude quake hit the area. the biden administration has rolled out a new effort to improve customer service experiences by cutting down on wait times and red tape. the initiative spans a range of federal agencies and would include requiring companies to make it just as easy to cancel a subscription or membership as it was to sign up. it would also crackdown on doom loops and connect people with a

live representative. and it would urge health-care companies to allow consumers to file their claims online. administration officials say the proposals would not -- require congressional approval. a live interview scheduled for this evening between donald trump and elon musk ran into technical problems on elon musk's social media platform x. according to musk the site experienced a massive attack. he said the interview would be limited to live viewing but would be posted later. a former colorado clerk was found guilty today in a security breach of her counties election computer system. tina peters was accused of helping a man gain unauthorized access to voting equipment in 2021 which later became compromised. prosecutors said she became fixated on voting problems after becoming involved with pro-trump election denials marking the first prosecution of a local

election official related to 2020 election conspiracy theories. an international sports arbitration panel denied an appeal that might've allowed a usa gymnastics star jordan childs to keep her olympic bronze medal. the international gymnastic federation changed the metal ranking over the weekend putting a romanian gymnast in third place and overruling a last-minute scoring appeal that had led to jordan childs meddling. usa gymnastics called today's decision disappointing and said it would pursue other routes to appeal. mars may be hiding and oceans where the water the below its surface according to a groundbreaking new study out of the university of california that used data from nasa's now defunct inside lantern. it suggests the water is stored in rocks 7-12 miles underground and could be enough to cover the planet in a notion about a mile deep. researchers believe the water

likely seemed down billions of years ago when mars had rivers and lakes. still to come on the news hour, tamra keith and amy walters rake down the latest from the heated presidential race. and and on the ground look at how one battleground state is testing voting machines to ensure accuracy. and a special exhibit explores a 19th-century art form that is now banned. ♪ announcer: this is the pbs news hour from w eta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: vice president kamala harris and former president donald trump spend their weekends on the road taking their appeals to voters. they each held rallies as concerns flooded the internet from cyber security threats to false allegations involving artificial intelligence. reporter: it was a weekend

marathon of rallies. both candidates on the campaign trail. but for the third presidential election in a row, foreign interference has again cast an ominous shower -- shadow. on wednesday trump claimed his campaign had been hacked suggesting that iran was blamed which stemmed from a microsoft report detailing a spearfishing incident from june where iranian military intelligence sent fake emails to high ranking officials from the presidential campaign. it is unclear what the breach achieved but several media organizations say they have received anonymous emails with documents from the vp vetting process. the -- the fbi is investigating the hack but it did not stop the former president from peddling lies about his opponent. he reposted images falsely claiming she used artificial intelligence to fabricate the

crowd size. photos and videos from the event showing thousands of supporters gathered at an airplane hangar easily disprove the conspiracy theory and in response to harris campaign posted saying this is an actual photo. meanwhile at a rally in las vegas, harris made a new pitch to serve as workers, a key constituency in nevada. >> when i am president we will continue our fight for the working families of america. including to raise the minimum wage and eliminating taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers. reporter: it echoes a similar stance taken from her rival. a rear instance of political overlap. prompt accused harris of copying

him saying the difference is that she won't do it. another target of republican criticism, harris' vp pick and his military record. namely a resurfaced clip from 2018 where he implied he had been deployed to a combat zone. >> the weapons of war that i carried -- >> the campaign said he misspoke but tom cotton demanded more. >> i respect the service of all veterans including tim walz but now even the campaign has acknowledged that he has made inconsistent statements about his service. reporter: as for trump's running mate, j.d. vance, he made the rounds on sunday shows. he tried to walk back prompts apparent willingness to ban abortion medication and said mass deportations should start

with one million people. >> president trump is right. you cannot have a border unless you are willing import people. let's start with one million. reporter: he argued that ultimately it is donald trump and not him that most people care about. >> they don't vote on who the vice presidential nominee is, they are voting for donald trump or kamala harris. >> today the president returned to the white house after a weekend in delaware. his first sit-down interview since dropping out of the race last month. president biden: it is a great honor to be president. i have an obligation to the country to do the most important thing that i can do which is that we must defeat donald trump here reporter: capping off a busy weekend with more campaigning ahead. geoff: we will shift our focus back to the new reports that u.s. elections continue to be targeted by foreign actors with microsoft out lighting what it says -- outlining what it says

is an iranian cyberattack on the trump campaign. on saturday former president donald trump said on truth social that it was his campaign boasting that one of his campaign websites was hacked by the iranian government. this comes after the office of the director of national security warned in july that it continues to see operations from russia and china and iran. to help put these new reports in context we are joined by chris krebs, the chief intelligence and public policy officer at sentinel one and the former director of cybersecurity agency. thank you for being with us. what stands out to about this apparent cyberattack on the trump campaign? what would iran stand to gain by hacking the campaign and distributing potentially sensitive information? >> i think it is important to note that the hacked piece and the leak piece are separate.

we may not have certainty as to whether they are related. whether the individual that anonymously emailed is -- that is sharing information stolen from the trump campaign. but, i think what is most significant and remarkable about this activity is that to me it signifies what i have been calling the rossa vacation of iranian military operations. that means that when you look at the 2016 election as laid out in the assessment of 20, it characterized the russian efforts to influence the elections along three prongs. first is going after election infrastructure, the second is hacking campaigns. if you go and look at that microsoft report from this past friday, it talks about iranians trying to continue to stoke discord and discontent for the first time in the nation.

and yes, hacking a campaign. what we are seeing again is echoes of the past from a different country. what do they gain? chaos. that is the immediate point, getting in there and undermining the electoral process and targeting someone they don't have a lot of affection for and that is former president trump. geoff: when it comes to foreign influence campaigns by russia, china, iran, did they have similar goals? >> absolutely not. the one goal they do share is chaos. it is undermining the confidence in our government's ability and democracy in general to provide the basic services. that is the topline strategic objective. but, in some cases, they may have preferences. they may want one candidate versus the other, but a lot of the time it is about targeting audiences back home to show them -- look things aren't that great

, over there. we are better off with us as your leaders. and that obviously is not the case, particularly for russia. geoff: in this instance, the trump campaign is saying they are targeted by iran. should we also expect similar actions taken against the harris campaign or the biden campaign previously? >> i think what we are seeing right now is like an iceberg, you are only seeing the tip that is out of the water. there is a lot more that is going on that either has not been discovered or publicly reported. i fully expect both the biden campaign previously and the harris campaign to have been targeted and it is likely happening right now at this very moment and continuing to happen. much like the trump campaign will continue to be targeted. that will continue going forward and that will be from any manner of threat actor. but there it is china, russia, and even north korea. geoff: we know what happened back in 2016 when the clinton campaign was targeted by russia. those leaks were damaging and

ultimately you could argue were a major factor in the outcome of that election. how do you navigate this imperative of making sure the public is adequately informed without elevating the works of a bad actor? >> i think this does speak to journalistic ethics and responsibility of the platforms and outlets that receive this information. and using good judgment as to whether it is appropriate to release. the voters need to be attuned to the fact that foreign adversaries or enemies are trying to get into our heads. we are the targets. it is not just the campaigns. it is not the election system itself. it is the american voter. we have to keep in mind that american voters decide american elections and we need to take a pause and understand and not let them be successful. geoff: how can americans make sure the information they are accessing and consuming online

especially and especially via social media is trustworthy? >> it goes to that thing of going to credible, authoritative voices. if you have a question about an election, don't listen to some random person on x or facebook or whatever, go to the election official webpage. they are primed for just those sorts of inquiries and research. if something you see online resonates with you and gets the lizard brain going, pause for a moment and ask why you are being served that information. and feel free to do a little bit of research to confirm what you are reading. geoff: i want to ask about a recent social media post by donald trump where he falsely claimed that harris was inflating her crowd sizes the -- via artificial intelligence. it is one thing when you talk about disinformation from a foreign actor. but when you have this bad information put out by the nominee of a major party what

, are the implications of that? >> you have to kind of accept the fact that in elections for decades if not longer, there have been misrepresentations and flat out lies, that is part of the process and part of elections in the united states, but i think that is the overarching information ecosystem that is being targeted. and the incentive structures, meaning how do they benefit from this? what kind of angst and anger do they get generated? that is in favor of the stories, these boldfaced lies. i would expect we would be more -- i would expect that we would see more of it until the voters hold officials accountable. geoff: thank you so much for your insights. >> thank you so much. ♪

geoff: a reset in the race for president? fresh polling shows the democratic ticket having an edge in three key states. time now for amy walters of the cook political report with amy walter and tamra keith from npr. >> hello. >> hello. geoff: vice president harris leads former president trump in three key battleground states according to surveys, michigan, pennsylvania, and wisconsin. walk us through the numbers because this is still a competitive race. >> those are the three battleground states that if harris were to win the one of -- were to win just those three and a single electoral vote in nebraska, she would win. she could lose all the sun belt states and still win the electoral college. what you are noticing and we have talked previously about where her success has come, she

has consolidated the democratic base. a lot of folks that were sitting on the sideline who were either not happy with biden or were uninspired by biden or were thinking about voting for a third-party candidate, they have now consolidated behind harris' candidacy. why that matters is the two sides of equal interest in the election. their partisan bases are equally interested and enthused. what about the other people in the race who still haven't checked in? that is where we will see two things going on for the next 80 number of days we have left. the trump campaign and the harris campaign fighting to define harris will be number one. the second will be to define what the race is about. if you are harris, you want the race to be about turning the

page. and about donald trump's liabilities. if you are trump, you want to make this about the fact that harris is not a new base, she is part of the incumbent party, the incumbent party that many voters say they are disappointed in. in terms of handling some key issues. geoff: there are some vulnerabilities that harris has. according to this new survey. in that voters preferred donald trump on two key issues on , immigration and the economy. harris's economic policy is expected to rollout this week. what should we be expecting? >> and democrats broadly, so any democrat, a generic democrat would probably have the same issue with the economy and immigration. voters for a long time have felt republicans are stronger on the economy and imgration. in terms of the economy harris , in her stump speech has

been alluding to where she is likely going with her policy rollout and we don't exactly know what that will entail in terms of the rollout, but she talks about prices are too high. i'm going to bring those prices down. the way she talks about bringing prices down is taking care of junk fees. that -- and many of the things that president biden has been talking about but she talks about it in a way that leans more strongly on the i know it is rough out there. i think we are going to see that. when she was in nevada, she announced she supports something former president trump announced several months ago, which is the idea of not taxing tipped wages for service workers. she is specific it is for service workers. some of the critics of trump's proposal is that it also, lawyers and hedge fund people could change their income to be tips instead of wages.

in terms of harris and this proposal, none of it is really fleshed out. there is still no policy section on her website. there was one on the biden presidential campaign website, but it is three weeks in and they are headed toward the convention. partially, she is in a race to just keep the momentum and the good vibes and the very excited democrats, keep that going as long as she can. geoff: if vice president harris is shifting her focus to policy, over the weekend, donald trump was still focused on crowd sizes. he is famously obsessed with this issue of crowd sizes and there was this brazenly false claim about harris' crowd size in detroit. he is suggesting she used artificial intelligence to make the crowds appear larger. he is saying that the crowd in fact did not exist. you were there. >> i was there. it definitely existed.

the second she walked off air force two the crowd went absolutely wild. you know what it reminds me of? trump rallies. trump rallies from an earlier era when he would roll into an airport, buzz over the airport, and just have incredible excitement when he got off the plane. geoff: him saying something like this, doesn't it create an opportunity for democrats to make this race more of a referendum on donald trump? before it was a referendum on biden and his age. critics say he is now not just dishonest, but delusional. >> listen, we were all at the rnc together and we were told by many at the convention that this was a different and more disciplined donald trump, that even the attempt on his life had altered the way he sees the world and how he is going to operate, obviously that is not the case. it is the same donald trump.

when he feels like he is losing, when he feels like things are out of his control, that is when you see the lashing out in the comments on social media. it is really not surprising to watch that happen. the other thing that is happening that is frustrating trump and the campaign is kamala harris is getting a benefit of the doubt even though she is part of the incumbent party. people see her as different because she is not an older white guy. she just walks out on the stage and that is turning the page on what this election looked like a month ago. i think that is also frustrating to them because they can no longer be the outsider change candidate. she is the incumbent being able to be change at the same time. we still have 80 plus days, you are seeing the advertising starting to rollout. it is more disciplined than trump is, but if trump doesn't

stay on message, we will find out soon enough. we have a debate on september 10 to see how that works out. he makes it more about himself, that definitely helps her. geoff: the harris campaign, their tactics are different. as evidence of that, they posted a social media message on donald trump's own social media site, truth social, basically trolling him because of his obsession about crowd sizes. this is not something we have seen in this way with democrats going on offense like this. >> it is somehow more on brand for the younger harris to have the very same staff be much more actively into trolling them they -- into trolling then they were when biden was the nominee. they are absolutely trolling trump. the thing about crowd size is he has always measured things by the size of his crowds and he has been able to tell things that his crowds were always bigger.

during the clinton campaign, there was never this level of an excitement for hillary clinton. there was never this level of excitement for joe biden during covid. trump is used to running a campaign where he has the biggest crowds and he can say, i'm winning, i can see it in front of my eyes. now, there is someone else generating crowds just as big or bigger and that is a really tough adjustment that is coming at the same time as the pull movement. we should note that the pull movement is not dramatic. this is still an incredibly close race. incredibly close race that will be decided by a very small number of people. >> and when harris was announced as the candidate, there were a lot of democrats who said, i don't know how this is going to work out, the one thing i know she can do better than joe biden is to get underneath trump's skin and that has obviously

worked out. geoff: the campaign has sought to make them smaller. you could argue by joe biden talking about him as a nexus -- about him as an existential threat made him a bigger figure. the harris-walz campaign is trolling him and calling him weird. what are the implications of that? >> it is to keep them off talking about these things then making the case that harris is not change. his argument would be four more years of a bad economy. four more years of open borders. instead when you are debating about crowd sizes and who was weird and not weird, for your average voter, they just go back to their image that they have of donald trump and that is problematic for the trump campaign. geoff: we will see you both next week at the democratic national convention in chicago. thanks so much. >> you're welcome. ♪

geoff: 70 million americans receive social security benefits today, but the program is paying out more than it is taking in. our economics correspondent looks at the worrying financial gap and what can be done about it. >> social security, the program most seniors rely on to support them in old age. but it is running out of money. as our paychecks make clear social security takes money from , us workers today, the payroll tax, to pay recipients, yesterday's workers once they are ateast 62. more workers than recipients? the money accumulates in a trust fund. but fewer workers, more recipients and the fund gradually drains, as is happening now. >> in the early 20 30's, the social security trust fund on the retirement side will exhaust

its reserves. >> that is a social security expert. >> money will keep coming in from the payroll tax, but if nothing is done, benefits will be cut and no one wants that. >> as social security recipients, my wife and i sure don't, neither do the 70 million plus baby boomers born in our wake, nor do you, i assume. do you think the money is going to run out? >> i have an inkling it might. >> do you think the money will be there? all these headlines about social security running out of money. >> i hope so. it comes out of my check every week. i hope it does. >> do you think the money will be there? >> god, i hope so. >> i would say no. >> there is plenty of reason for concern, says the lead author of the social security guidebook i helped write years ago, get what's yours. >> the system is completely bankrupt. whatever fix they come up with is going to be a much bigger burden on our kids and grandchildren. >> and economist wrote the

coming generational storm was written back in 2004 and has been sounding his alarm ever since. >> theay we are going is either catastrophically cutting benefits or catastrophically raising taxes. we are always doing too little, too late, relying on future generations to be large in number and very productive in order to pay older people. we are allowing each generation of old people to expropriate their kids and say, don't worry, when you are old you will get , your chance to expropriate your kids. >> even if nothing is done, beneficiaries will still get 79%, almost 80% of the amounts of money they will get now. >> a lot of older people are surviving just on social security. cutting their living standard by 20% is just not acceptable. >> so, will social security beneficiaries take a big hit in just a few years? >> i would say i'm not worried at all because no congressman or congresswoman could go back to

his or her district if that happened. >> the democrats have long promised no cuts. and the republican campaign now claims the same. >> in the republican platform, all in capital letters is a commitment not to take a penny out of social security or medicare. >> but former president donald trump has now also said -- >> seniors should not pay taxes on social security. [applause] >> but that would actually deplete the social security trust fund sooner and mainly benefit the wealthiest recipients. on the other hand, there are fixes. one example -- >> if they increased the payroll tax by 2% on the employee and 2% on the employer, that would solve the problem for 75 years. >> right now, it is 6.2% that the employee and employer pay each. >> right. this would be 8.2 and 8.2.

>> that would solve the problem. >> for 75 years. we are still in a point on the cost side where costs are rising because the ratio of beneficiaries to workers is rising. but we are getting closer to the point where that is going to level off. once that is leveled off, you will be in a position where if we fix it for 75 years, it is fixed forever. >> a second fix. >> increase the taxable wage base. >> there is a cap on how much of a workers earnings are taxedor social security. this year, $168,600. it rises each year with the average wage, but the cap use to cover 90% of all earnings. now, with rising inequality and ever more income at the top, it only covers 80%. >> there are a lot of people who say just take the caps off and make the rich pay. i come down on just raising it to the old 90% target and moving along.

>> that would hike this year's cap to about $300,000 and cover about 20% of the shortfall. if the cap were removed entirely, it would cover 70% of the shortfall. why not just remove the cap? >> if you take it off and don't give people any benefits in return, it really breaks that link between contributions and benefits, which i think could endanger the popularity of the program. >> ok, here is a third fix. >> invest some of the trust fund in equities. >> in stocks. why is that a good idea? >> over the long run, stocks have earned higher returns than bonds, which is what is in the trust fund now. they also are higher risk, so you have to be careful when you are talking about this that it doesn't sound like magic money. >> still, over time investing , some in stocks would probably help. a fourth fix was one last enacted in 1983, the last time

social security was reformed. >> raise the retirement age. life expectancy is going up. it only makes sense to have people wait until they get their benefits. >> but not everyone can wait. even though you get 43% more at age 70 than at 65. why not wait until 70 when you get more money? >> when you are working a blue-collar job, sometimes it is a little too late. >> because it is too hard on your body. >> a lot of wear and tear. >> i think you want to do something that just raises the age at which you get full benefits for those who can work longer. and those people are people in the top half of the income distribution. >> so, why haven't politicians done anything? on this, she couldn't agree more. >> nobody wants to raise taxes or cut benefits. >> it is political dynamite. it is the third rail of politics. congress is more concerned about

the next election than the next generation. >> meanwhile, waiting exacts its price. >> some options do disappear. >> investing funds in the stock market for example. >> a prerequisite is a trust fund. as a trust fund goes to zero, that one sort of goes off the table. >> i asked my 20-year-old grandson joe what he makes of all this. as you know, your grandmother and i get substantial social security benefits. do you think you will get those kind of benefits when you are my age? >> no, i don't think so. i would say that i would hope at least for me personally that my income would becoming more so from the investments that i've made, the network that i've made. i'm not planning to rely so much on social security. >> joe says he is typical of the younger generation. >> we have a lot of doubt and

uncertainty, especially about the u.s. government at least in the circles i'm in. it is hard to have confidence in any current system. >> final verdict, will social security continue to be there or not? >> something will be done, but it will be too little and too late and it will impose your burdens on our kids and it will not be fixed. >> we have been talking about this, procrastination is the long-running team. -- procrastination is the long-running team. -- theme. >> we are so bad at fixing this problem. it is so evident since 1990. i don't think we will move on this until 2030, so a 40 year lag between the time the problem is identified and fixed is a little long for my taste. >> a little long and socially -- a little long but not

socially security doomsday, we may be facing bigger problems by decade's end. ♪ geoff: wisconsin is holding congressional and state primary elections this tuesday and they are seen by some as a critical dry run for november when the battleground state will play a crucial role in deciding the next president. election officials have been increasingly transparent about the mechanics of voting to help boost confidence. >> in mcfarland, wisconsin, a small village outside the state capital, madison, they are stress testing the tools of democracy. the deputy administrator is checking therefore ballot -- is checking their four ballot counting machines. >> we put them right side up and backwards and upside down, proving to people that you can

put the ballots in any way, shape, or form, and it will still read the results they are supposed to. >> this state requires the test within the 10 days of the election. to ensure the systems are running correctly and counting ballots accurately. officials scan pre-marked ballots through the tabulator's and compare the machine count to the expected result. a perfect count is required for -- before any machine can be used on election day. in her eight years as clerk, she says she has never had one problem with the machines. after the test, they counts or reset to zero, the tabulator's are sealed and they are locked in a sealed room. >>there are four cameras in each of the corners. >> state law and the wisconsin election commissions require these tests to be open to the public so citizens can understand the security protocols in place. she says she is alarmed by the

threats made toward election workers in recent years, but hopes this transparency will increase trust in the system >> there is nothing to hide, the public has the ability to watch all parts of the process. the statutes outlined, the ability for observers, i think that is really important. it is important for people to know that there is transparency and they can watch any of the various processes and none of the processes are done in secret. we are here to do our job and carry out the laws and uphold democracy. >> elections are decentralized in wisconsin, run by more than 1800 different clerks in their local jurisdictions, which cuts the chance for widespread fraud, but that hasn't stopped a plague of accusations and misinformation. after the 2020 presidential election where joe biden won wisconsin by roughly 21,000 votes, republicans in the state claimed the process was rigged and launched a slew of recounts, audits, investigations, and

lawsuits. the republican-controlled legislature also tried unsuccessfully to oust to the administrator of the wisconsin election commission. but each of the postelection reviews found that the 2020 results were fair and accurate. this cycle in verona, wisconsin, during early voting in tuesday's state and local primary, a steady stream of the city's 9500 registered voters used ballot drop boxes. those were approved by the state supreme court last month. >> they are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. they do have security cameras on them and they are very secure. >> inside city hall, the clerk and her team conducted their state-mandated tests of the city's eight vote tabulator's. they prepared a stack of test ballots designed to pressure the machines. >> we purposefully make some

mistakes on the ballots like over voting or cross voting so we know the machine is working correctly. >> the real test comes on election day. they are confident the results will once again be accurate. >> after tuesday's primary, the work starts almost immediately to prepare for november's presidential election. >> this is a good practice round for us. we are hopping right back into another election and we are preparing ballots for november. there is not a lot of time off here. >> wisconsin clerks will start sending absentee ballots for the presidential election next month. for the pbs news hour, i'm william brangham. ♪

geoff: scrimshaw is a traditional 19th-century art form now seen through much wider context and a contemporary lens. that is the goal of an exhibit that challenges old assumptions and the product itself. jeffrey brown went to the new bedford whaling museum to look for our arts and culture series canvas. >> it is a story of contact, impact, connections. great adventure and great loss. humans and animals across two oceans over some 100 years. in the exhibition entitled the -- entitled, the wider world and scrimshaw, the stories told are objects. >> they are records of individual experiences and what those individuals were doing whether they were in communities that were regular ports of call for whalers or whether they were whalers on shipboard or themselves, they were having these extraordinary experiences. >> the romance of sea adventures, the fascination with

whales themselves. it is part of the experience here. visitors are greeted by an 8000 pound juvenile blue whale skeleton. but in a gallery next-door, there is a different kind of window. it is the traditional art form of carving or engraving on of the bones, teeth, and ivory of marine mammals, typically whales and walruses. it is most associated with 19th-century whaling, and industry long centered, think hermann melville and moby dick, here in new bedford. the whaling museum in what is still a port city with a working harbor hosts the world's largest scrimshaw collection. but for this exhibition, it wanted to set those objects in a larger context or conversation, among a wide range of works by the indigenous peoples with whom whalers came into regular contact throughout the pacific. this busk was a regular part of women's fashion in the 19 century, used to stiffen corsets

and made of whalebone. this had an unusual pattern carved into it. >> it is a navigation chart used traditionally in parts of the pacific to learn the patterns of swells and currents to move from island to island. >> so not by the yankee whalers but by the people they were connecting with. >> exactly, with pacific islanders. the idea that someone who was on a whaling vessel was also inscribing it with something that would have been culturally significant for pacific islanders was quite tantalizing. >> scholars have long studied this collision of cultures and the often negative political, environmental, and other consequences. this exhibition tries to tie into the research and make artistic connections to today. >> it has been spoken as a lost art form, but i like to think of it as it has been sleeping in my

-- and my practice has awakened it. >> from new zealand, this artist is part of a small island some 1500 miles to the northeast. eight years ago, she took up the traditional art of making bark cloth paintings. where she says the practice is all but gone. it has been rare for her to even see older versions and then she got an email with a photo from the new bedford whaling museum, which owned this well-preserved work brought back on a yankee whaler. >> i was so confused because i was like what is this doing in new bedford? what is this doing so far away from home? it is in good condition and that -- and the ink itself is absolutely bright and vibrant, like the day it would have been made and then there is of course a ship inside one of the patterns, so that also talks about that colonial history and really placing this in that time period.

>> the museum commissioned her to create a new work, the kind of conversation with the old. with her own imagery and patterns of the sea and its animal life. she believes she is the first practitioner in more than 100 years and says it was her grandparents who first asked her to take it up. why was that important for you to do to take on? >> it is important to me because i was asked. >> by them. >> i was asked by them, they asked me. and they worked six days a week. my nana worked up until she was 60. -- 70. why wouldn't i take on that responsibility of being asked? because it is so important that my culture is shared. but they were not able to continue these practices. it is important because they asked me and i'm a granddaughter from the pacific. >> and other contemporary artist updating and bringing urgency to the 19th-century story, courtney

anne leonard of the seneca indian nation based on eastern long island new york. her work at the museum part of the ongoing project she titled breach, looks at past under told stories including members of her tribe that sailed on whaling trips. scrimshaw studies by her are made of ceramic and she addresses it as moral, legal ownership of the land and environmental, including today, see rise. -- sea rise. >> you grow up with the water and you understand your relationship to place in your responsibility to place, whether one chooses to have that be their life's work is up to them, but at least for myself living back home, we do have rising waters, so when you are living in a place where the waters rise , you realize that time is of value in many different ways. geoff: as the exhibition shows, today marine mammals such as whales and walruses have legal protections. the trade of whale and walrus

bone and scrimshaw is heavily regulated. it can be unsettling to experience these objects made of the bones and teeth of some of the earth's most magnificent creatures. i asked the chief curator how she sees it. >> it is a hard thing. if you really think about what we are surrounded by in here, there is an intense amount of death. it is sometimes overwhelng if you really sit with that, the number of whales and walrus and other species represented by these materials, but i hope that what people come away with is a sense of survival of tradition and of craft and communities, of the whales themselves. geoff: the wider world in scrimshaw is on through november 11. for the pbs news hour i'm , jeffrey brown at the new bedford whaling museum in massachusetts. ♪

geoff: and that is the news hour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. for all of us here at the pbs news hour, thanks for spending part of your evening with us. have a good night. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- ♪ 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 pbs news hour west from washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.

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