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is provided by... woman: a law partner rediscovers her grandmother's artistry and creates a trust to keep the craft alive. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, your passions and the way you enrich your community. life well planned. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" 'o and this is bbc world news 'o america. tonight at the democratic national convention, the attention is on tim walz as he formally accepts his nomination to be the democratic party ticket for vice president.

and donald trump continues his swing state tour in north carolina, holding his first outdoor rally since the assassination attempt last month. hello and welcome to world news america i'm caitríona perry. the spotlight turns to tim walz for the third night of the dnc in chicago. now running mate to vice president harris and will accept the vice presidential nomination hours from now and will make his own formal introduction to the nation. the veteran, former high school teacher and coach is expected to talk about his upbringing on a farm in nebraska and the freedoms perceived to be under threat by donald trump. he will speak on the stage among other big names in the party including former president bill

clinton, house speaker nancy pelosi, josh shapiro, and pete to judge. -- pete buttigieg. governor walz gained attention for calling republicans weird, ally lion often repeated. democrats are rallying behind the harris ticket, including president obama, who praised governor walz last night here. i have been speaking with representative seth modem about the message tim walz needs to send in his speech tonight. >> fundamentally he needs to introduce himself to america. and the good news is he is a great guy. he is first -- he's one of the first people i met when i came to congress. i'm a veteran myself and he is a great guy.

that is exactly who he is. he is down to earth and understands the challenges and concerns of middle-class america, including people geographically in the middle of america who have been struggling . i think when people get to know him they will see he is someone you can trust. he has integrity, is honest, approachable, relatable. i really want to see that come through tonight. i think that is the most important job he has to do. caitríona: i enjoyed by democratic congresswoman from florida stephanie murray -- murphy and rodney davis of the chamber of congress, thank you for joining us. it is the business end of things tonight when we will hear from governor walz. what are you hoping to hear from him? >> i am looking forward to hear him introduce himself to the american people and share with us what his upgrade --

upbringing says about what his values are. when you know his values you know what they are willing to fight for and so much of this is about vibes and values and i look forward to hearing what he has to say. caitríona: voters are also looking for substance. will we hear any policy outlined? >> i am sure you will and i have heard quite a bit of policy at this convention so we would be a mistake to say there has not been policy. one of the biggest policy elements we have heard is about health care and access for women in particular to health care, but we have also heard about economic issues and addressing affordability issues so there has been quite a bit of policy in addition to the excellent vibes and values. caitríona: from a republican perspective, where governor walz

comes from and his qualities, you know him from your time in congress. what threat does he pose to republican party? >> tim walz was an excellent vice presidential pick for kamala harris. someone she is comfortable with and who can talk about being from the midwest and having midwest values. those states will determine the election. tim walz was a good friend of mine when we were in congress. we played on congressional football team together and he will show america who he is and he will talk about what he has done in congress and as the governor of minnesota and frankly, it is pretty cool to have someone you know that well be able to go up on stage and accept the nomination for vice president. however, as a republican voter, you will also see him fall in line to what ever harris wants when it comes to her policy objectives. she has yet to outline what

those are across the board on major issues and these are the types of issues people will be asking for out of harris on walls. caitríona: we have yet to hear from vice president harris and we expect policy to be outline then. another person we will hear from tonight is former president bill clinton. what role will he have in this campaign, particularly in transitioning to the next generation of the democratic party when it is not necessarily what he represents. >> he represents a time when democrats, the nonwhite, not college-educated and the rural areas, he won so he is a complement to what governor walz has to say.

when you look at the sunbelt path or the rust belt you have to have democratic surrogates and candidates be able to speak to this particular set of voters in order to put together the coalition you need to win. caitríona: will he be on the campaign trail? >> i imagine all those we have seen on the convention will be on the campaign trail and i think there is commitment within the democratic party to be supportive and they understand the urgency of now and there will be as many hands on deck as possible to get the message out over the next 76 days. caitríona: ronnie the democratic party has past presidents here united together. the republican party did not have former president george w bush. he does not campaign for trump. >> i would have loved to see him

there. i think bush was a great president and an even better person. but i am not going to get into the discussions about what president george w. bush wants and thinks about the republican nominee. the voters have spoken, the voters in my party want trump to be his -- they are nominee again and i hope the democrats spend as much money as they can campaigning in the sunbelt. i hope the campaign all throughout the southeastern states and forget to spend as much in georgia as they have in the past because georgia and the rust belt will be what determines who the next president is. caitríona: that seems to be the case, stephanie, will it come down to those three states on georgia? >> i think there is quite a significant [inaudible]

underway on in georgia it is an opportunity to build on the momentum stacey abrams ably put together that took over the top two senators we have from georgia today and i think there is a lot of existing infrastructure to build on in those states and certainly the resources to build the machine but again, this is a campaign that has been building and i expect all of the states will get the attention necessary. caitríona: speaking about battleground states, let us turn to republican nominee donald trump and his running mate, jd vance are in north carolina, another key state. they are holding a joint campaign event there. it's trump's first outdoor rally since last month's attempted assassination in pennsylvania last month. that attack left one bystander dead and grazed donald trump's

ear with a bullet. today he was surrounded by bulletproof glass. he addressed supporters in a speech saying his campaign would be about national security, speaking to the crowd in asheboro he touched on global military spending and gave some of his reaction to what has been happening here in chicago. trump: it's all they talk about, trump, we have driven them crazy, they have trumped arrangement syndrome and we've driven them crazy and they should be driven crazy they've done a terrible job for our country and every single way there has never been a single thing they've done well except cheat and lie and they lie about statistics and they lie about the crime numbers the crime numbers didn't look good and then they found out many of the worst places were not included in the numbers and that was done by the ei which is sad four years ago our country was strong and respected like never before our allies admired us, our enemies feared us because everyone knew that as an

american president i was all about putting america first, that is true, under my leadership we rebuild the united states military created space for us and made our allies pay their fair share and they dues and you know we went to nato we say you have to pay. caitríona: while donald trump appears in north carolina, other members of the republican party have been here at the democratic national convention, among those slated to speak tonight are adam kinzinger, who served on the congressional committee investigating the january 6 insurrection and olivia troye, former national security official in the trump administration and former advisor to mike pence. also jeff duncan will give a speech. i want to put that point to you both. when we hear from the

republicans, stephanie, and you know representative kiggans in your well, what impact does it have on other -- representative kissing her well, what impact does it have on other voters? >> i think it provides a permission structure for people who do not want to vote for trump but need permission structure to vote for a democrat. i would say that adam kinzinger is a veteran and i think for people who have served this country in uniform and taken the oath to defend the country against threats foreign and domestic, they view this election through that lens, through the oath to protect the country and i think adam has made very clear that he does see trump as a threat both on the january 6 committee and saw in great detail the efforts to overturn the free and fair

election and that of course is a challenge, a dangerous challenge for our democracy and even as we sit here today, the former president is laying the groundwork for potentially again challenging the election. we have a process in the u.s., once the votes are cast, if you think something went awry you can go that route but after all the courts have ruled i think as americans we have an obligation to accept the outcome and move on and i think adam sees very clearly that that is not what happened in 2020. caitríona: you were in the capital january 6. stephanie is describing -- will it be an issue for people who do not want to vote for trump as a result of what happened? >> there will be voters that

will decide not to vote for trump because of what happened january 6 and that is their choice, that is what makes america great, people can vote for who they want in the privacy of their own homes and their own ballot box. so when you see people like my friend adam come to the dnc, it was not a coincidence that adam and liz cheney and the republicans on the select committee, i actually introduced the bill that would have permitted a bipartisan equally divided commission rather than a politically run select committee and because i did that it is one of the reasons donald trump endorsed against me and i was one of the original people selected to serve at the selective committee but nancy pelosi decided at the time that she wanted adam and liz who she had talked to before the committee was put together to be

two of the republicans. and that is ok, it is her prerogative to do so. it's a terrible precedent she said by having the majority party selects what the minority members would be on the committee but in the end, this is adam kinzinger, this is jeff duncan, and the other republicans who were here will be here because they have an extreme dislike for donald trump, and that is ok. but let's see long-term if they will remain republican or be like stephanie grisham and say i am now democrat. i think once you speak at a democratic not convention, i don't care who it is for, probably going to be a democrat. caitríona: we will wait to see what happens tonight and indeed at the election in november. thank you both very much. earlier we heard from a

childhood friend of vice president harris and she shared some personal anecdotes about her friend. ♪ >> good evening. i am stacy johnson baptiste and this is my mom, doris johnson. [applause] we are so excited and honored to be here with you. kamala and i have known each other for a long time. we met at burke would head to school and hit it off immediately and became each other's very first best friend. our moms also became fast friends. >> and on weekends, we would pile into my 1966 mustang and

her mom would sit in the front with me and maia and stacy and kamala would sit in the back and off we would go to a movie or some adventure. >> my mom still has that mistake. -- my mom still has that mustang. caitríona: my apologies, that is obviously not my interview with stacy. earlier i spoke with marilyn senator ben cotton and he -- maryland senator ben cotton and he discussed the challenges in the middle east. >> we have to be hopeful. it's a very challenging situation and i think secretary blinken did the right thing by putting it out and israel has accepted it and now it is up to hamas. hamas calls -- because the

crisis and now it is time to end it with cease fire and release of hostages. we have to keep international pressure on hamas. at this point there is no reason for optimism but i do think the biden administration is doing the right thing. caitríona: we have seen cross-border strikes and one person has been killed in lebanon in the past few hours. what are your concerns around the conflict escalating further? >> i'm extremely concerned. not only on the border with hezbollah but also the houthi attacks and militias. we are concerned of escalation by proxies. international diplomacy and the u.s. has been successful in preventing widescale escalation. there are as bullet -- there are episodes and those could expand and we are doing everything we

can to make sure that does not happen. caitríona: protesters are deeply unhappy with the biden administration approach to what is happening in gaza. should the biden administration be doing things differently? >> i think they have put the focus on hamas where it should be. israel has the right to defend itself. we want to get hostages returned and want to help palestinians and there is no future for security in the region and we need to get a regional security agreement and that is exactly what the has been attempting to do. we have been pretty open about the needs for humanitarian assistance and the need to have an off ramp to get to peace in the middle east but we also recognize that hamas is the reason for these recent tragedies and we need to make sure there is a solid future for israel and palestine. caitríona: the strikes on

schools and shelters, which israel says they are targeting hamas but women and children are being killed, should the usb port and greater pressure on israel and conditioning military aid -- should the u.s. be putting greater pressure on israel and conditioning military aid? >> hamas is placing their people surrounding hospitals and where civilians are located. israel needs to be very attentive to civilian losses. we have been direct open about our concerns. we have gotten some commitments from israelis and we recognize it as a challenge and we think we all need to do better. but hamas is what needs to be dealt with, they are the ones that caused this tragedy. caitríona: another note on the presidential campaign, nbc news is reporting that robert f. kennedy, jr. could drop out of

the race by the end of the week. u.s. media reports his campaign has been running out of money. he says he will deliver a major announcement at the end of the week in arizona so we will wait to see what happens. and president biden and vice president harris spoke with benjamin netanyahu today on the phone about a potential cease fire and hostage release deal with hamas and discussed efforts to de-escalate regional tensions shortly after israel military confirmed it killed a senior commander on a strike in a car in lebanon. [indiscernible] was in the vehicle when the strike happened. it is the first attack on a member of fatah since october 7.

the shelling took place in southern lebanon on -- and the senior official accused israel of attempting to ignite regional war after israel hit a hamas weapons storage location and killed four hezbollah fighters. hezbollah launched rockets into the golan heights. reporter: a violent day of attacks between hezbollah and israel with hezbollah carrying out a number of attacks targeting israeli positions including two major attacks with drones on rockets and israeli military said more than 50 rockets were fired in one attack on hezbollah said this was in response to an overnight attack by israel targeting a weapons

depot used by a group in the eastern part of lebanon so an attack that happened deep inside lebanese territory, the second night in a row that a weapons facility used by hezbollah was struck by the israeli military and what is interesting is this comes as the defense minister of israel says this is part of their strategy and in preparation for anything that might happen here in lebanon so there is obviously the fear that this conflict between hezbollah and israel that has been relatively contained could escalate and become a major confrontation, there was almost no expectation that international mediators will be able to reach a cease-fire and hostage release deal between israel and hamas which was the main hope to de-escalate tensions along the lebanon -israel borders of these attacks

will likely continue and again there are concerns that violence could escalate and become an all out war. caitríona: italian authorities say one person is missing inside a sunken yacht off the coast of sicily. five bodies were found today and have been able to recover four. british businessman mike lynch and his 18-year-old daughter hannah are among those missing, and jonathan blumer and his wife judy and in addition to the five bodies found today the body of the boats chef was recovered monday. the last zoo elephant in south africa has been released into the wild after 43 years in captivity. charlie was captured in zimbabwe when he was only two years old to join the circus and is now at

his new home, a luxury resort with a thriving population of elephants. you can stay up-to-date with all our days news at bbc news.com /news and see what we are working on at any time on your favorite platform. there is a lot going on here at the dnc in chicago and what republican candidates are doing on the campaign trail. that announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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geoff: evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz at the democratic national convention. on the newshour tonight. after the obamas make the case for a kamala harris presidency, minnesota governor tim walz prepares to formally accept the