GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: A major tech outage linked to a faulty cybersecurity update sparks disruptions worldwide.

BECCA MAYNARD, Stranded Passenger: I have never seen it like this before, especially in this airport.

GEOFF BENNETT: Former President Trump lays out his vision for another term, promising to crack down on illegal immigration and reverse climate initiatives.

AMNA NAWAZ: And more Democratic lawmakers join the growing chorus calling on President Biden to exit the race for the White House.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

The pressure is mounting on President Biden to step aside from his campaign a day after the Republican National Convention wrapped up with a highly anticipated speech from former President Donald Trump.

GEOFF BENNETT: We will have more on the shifting political landscape in a moment.

But we start tonight with a tech outage around the world that halted flights, disrupted emergency services, and created headaches for businesses.

AMNA NAWAZ: The underlying problems behind the glitch were fixed by the afternoon, but the ripple effects have lasted throughout the day and may continue well into tomorrow.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, as William Brangham reports, thousands of passengers are still trying to get to their destinations tonight.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It was the glitch felt around the world.

Today's software failure triggered far-reaching and frustrating outages globally.

Air travelers were among the most directly affected, with tens of thousands of flights delayed and thousands more canceled.

BECCA MAYNARD, Stranded Passenger: I have never seen it like this before, especially in this airport.

This airport is my favorite because it's usually getting it out.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The outage was caused by a faulty software update within Microsoft's Windows operating system.

Many users first noticed the problem when they saw the notorious so-called blue screen of death.

The faulty update was issued by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

CEO George Kurtz offered a mea culpa this morning on "The Today Show."

GEORGE KURTZ, CEO and Founder, CrowdStrike: We're deeply sorry for the impact that we have caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies.

So we know what the issue is.

We're resolving and have resolved the issue now.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The FAA temporarily grounded major U.S. airlines, including United, American, and Delta.

WOMAN: Please wait on the passenger load.

We aren't checking right now.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: With flights stalled, check-ins were brought to a standstill.

This passenger in Minneapolis was disappointed with his airline's response.

MATT JORDAN, Stranded Passenger: What's interesting to watch is that airlines have no idea what's happening because it is such an issue that they don't have a grasp on yet, at least here at the Minneapolis Airport.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Across the world, in Australia, travelers had to fend for themselves.

CHRISTINE POULTON, Stranded Passenger: Our flight's been canceled, so now we're trying to find accommodation in Sydney, which is not easy.

Our daughters are trying to do that online.

And then we will have to try and get a flight home somehow, somewhere, sometime.

Don't know.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It wasn't just air travel that was affected.

Hospitals and health care systems overseas were also locked up, forcing the cancellation of appointments and the closing of clinics.

Massachusetts General Hospital had to limit operations, announcing -- quote -- "Due to the severity of this issue, all previously scheduled, non-urgent surgeries, procedures, and medical visits are canceled today."

The outage also impacted 911 call systems in many places, in emergency services in Oregon, Alaska, and Arizona.

Global news outlets like Sky News were unable to broadcast their regular programs.

WOMAN: And a major global I.T.

outage is impacting many of the world's largest companies, including us here at Sky News.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In Paris, Olympic officials say some of their systems were also down.

In many places, courts were also closed or delayed.

While the underlying software problem has been fixed, security experts say residual problems could continue for several days.

So, to help us understand more about what went wrong and the broader risks to our system, we turn again to Bruce Schneier.

He's an expert in computer security and technology, a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, and writes the wonderful blog Schneier on Security.

Bruce Schneier, thanks so much for being here again.

Help us understand the basics here.

What is it that went wrong?

BRUCE SCHNEIER, Harvard University: You know, basically there are hundreds of companies that do small things that are critical to the Internet functioning.

And, today, one of them failed, this company you have probably never heard of and wouldn't hear of if it didn't fail.

It's one of many.

I mean, the details are geeky, but basically one of the critical things that holds the Internet up fell down.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: OK, but that simple little glitch today grounded planes, stopped surgeries from happening, had 911 systems go down.

I mean, if that can be happening because of an accident, I mean, what would happen if there was a motivated bad actor getting into these systems?

BRUCE SCHNEIER: We see that.

Do you remember Change Healthcare, when no one got prescriptions because of ransomware?

Remember Colonial Pipeline,where oil stopped flowing in the East Coast because of ransomware?

We see this again and again.

Sometimes, it's malice, sometimes it's accident, but there are so many critical things that make this network function.

And if any one of them fails, the network fails.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So is it just that we are too overreliant on a concentrated number of companies?

BRUCE SCHNEIER: Yes, it's concentrated and the fact that there's no -- no resilience, that it's a very fragile system.

And a lot of that is the way -- is the economics, right?

Redundancies are viewed as inefficient, so they're pulled out of the system because of profits, but that ends up with a very fragile system.

It all works great when it works.

When it fails, it fails catastrophically, which is what we saw today.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So is that the incentive here?

Is that to change -- to make a meaningful incentive, to sort of build in that redundancy?

Is it economics principally?

BRUCE SCHNEIER: It's economics.

We have the technology here.

I could describe ways that CrowdStrike could have rolled out this change incrementally and caught this before it was a disaster.

We can talk about maybe there being a dozen companies do the same thing, so that the disaster is contained.

But, really, it is fundamentally economics.

The business incentive is to grow and become critical and then run as lean as absolutely possible.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So what do you think the downstream consequences for CrowdStrike and/or Microsoft will be?

Or will there be none?

BRUCE SCHNEIER: There will be none.

What were the downstream consequences for Colonial Pipeline or Change Healthcare or the dozens of other incidents like this in the past few years?

We move on, right?

Politics is all-consuming.

This is a blip.

Tomorrow, I don't even think it's going to be news.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: On a practical basis, for an individual who late last night or today might have done some online transaction, paid a bill, transferred money, do they need to worry?

Could this have impacted them in some way?

BRUCE SCHNEIER: I mean, they could have if they were flying today, if they wanted to needed 911 services, hospitals.

A lot of things collapsed.

But, really, as an individual, there's nothing you can do.

You're not in charge of these networks.

You don't get to say what products and services are used or not.

We are all at the mercy of these very large consolidated systems.

And when they fail, our life is impacted.

The only way to make this change is at the political level, right?

Agitate for some meaningful rules here that will keep companies from being this lean.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But you know the difficulties of that kind of a thing.

One, that's not a constituency that's naturally out there that's organically fighting for this kind of a thing.

Absent that, are there political leaders that could be doing this, that could be pressing this in a regulatory way?

BRUCE SCHNEIER: I mean, there can.

I don't think there will be.

We have a lot of trouble, especially the United States, regulating anything.

And this is certainly not the worst disaster.

This is just one of many.

This is today's disaster.

So, yes, there could be change.

I wouldn't expect it.

E.U.

is doing better.

You see more meaningful regulation there.

But even there, they're not doing the kind of things that will make our critical infrastructure more redundant, more resilient.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Bruce Schneier of Schneier on Security, thanks so much for being here.

BRUCE SCHNEIER: Yes, thanks for having me.

Later on.

AMNA NAWAZ: Thank you, William.

And now to a closer look at a momentous week in politics.

GEOFF BENNETT: First to the Republicans, who capped off their national convention in Milwaukee last night with a speech from the man who has reshaped the party in his own image.

That's former President Donald Trump.

Lisa Desjardins has this report.

LISA DESJARDINS: Balloons rained down from the rafters, and Donald Trump rained from on stage, as Republicans cheered his third presidential nomination.

He is just the sixth American to achieve that for a major party, but the event marking it was all on his brand, an unapologetic show... HULK HOGAN, Former Professional Wrestler: Enough was enough.

(CHEERING) HULK HOGAN: And I said, let Trumpamania run wild, brother.

Let Trumpamania rule again.

Let Trumpamania make America great again.

LISA DESJARDINS: With a get-tough theme from wrestler Hulk Hogan, singer Kid Rock, and Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White.

DANA WHITE, President, Ultimate Fighting Championship: I'm in the tough guy business.

And this man is the toughest, most resilient human being that I have ever met in my life!

LISA DESJARDINS: And when Trump arrived on stage, the music shifted tone, but the message, literally his name, was still big.

To a captivated crowd, the Florida Republican initially made good on the promise of a unifying tone.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny.

We rise together or we fall apart.

LISA DESJARDINS: He shared the story of surviving last weekend's assassination attempt.

DONALD TRUMP: The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin's bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be here tonight.

LISA DESJARDINS: But after that, the tone and rhetoric shifted, as Trump, staying on brand, repeatedly went off-script, repeating some stump speech claims that Republicans love, but which don't hold up.

DONALD TRUMP: Years ago under, my presidency, we had the most secure border and best economy in the history of our country and the history of the world.

We had no inflation, soaring incomes.

LOUIS JACOBSON, PolitiFact: So we call that false.

LISA DESJARDINS: We spoke to Lou Jacobson of PolitiFact.

LOUIS JACOBSON: But for all the standard metrics, things like the unemployment rate, things like wages, wage growth, GDP, these - - the first three years of Trump's tenure were not somehow the greatest in the U.S. history.

We can find examples of better economies in the '60s, for instance, much less the entire world.

LISA DESJARDINS: Another example: DONALD TRUMP: Bad things are going to happen.

Meanwhile, our crime rate is going up, while crime statistics all over the world are going down.

LOUIS JACOBSON: That is mostly false.

So, violent crimes, the things that people really care probably the most about, have been consistently going down under Biden.

In terms of property crimes, at least some kinds of property crimes, particularly motor vehicle thefts, those actually are up.

So there's a grain of truth there.

But for the most part, most types of crime, despite all that you hear on TV and from Trump himself, actually, if you look at the total number and the percentage, it's been going down for several years in a row.

LISA DESJARDINS: As for Trump's own criminal history, 34 felony convictions for falsifying business records, that wasn't mentioned directly, though he did rail against the justice system, implying his convictions by a New York jury were political.

DONALD TRUMP: The Democrat Party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy.

LISA DESJARDINS: The 92-minute acceptance speech was the longest in modern political history, but it was not the only speech of note last night.

Earlier, Trump's son Eric raised culture notes, railing against the changing of Confederate base names, defending his father, and putting his doubters on notice.

ERIC TRUMP, Executive Vice President, Trump Organization: To all Americans watching tonight, the greatest retribution will be our success.

LISA DESJARDINS: Former news anchor turned podcaster Tucker Carlson brought conservative celebrity and full-throated praise of Trump.

TUCKER CARLSON, Former FOX News Anchor: I have been to many conventions.

I have never been to a more fun convention.

LISA DESJARDINS: But one of the most important figures made her impression without saying anything at all.

Melania Trump, absent until last night, walked into the convention floor to loud and warm applause.

The GOP Convention threaded many unusual needles like that, ending with a Trump family gathering on stage, aiming to show a unified and organized front, including with vice presidential nominee, J.D.

Vance.

He and Trump have their first joint campaign rally tomorrow, just across Lake Michigan in Grand Rapids.

For the PBS "News Hour," I'm Lisa Desjardins in Milwaukee.

GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, Democrats are increasingly divided on their presidential nominee.

More than 10 congressional Democrats today called for President Biden to step aside.

But his campaign insists he's staying in the race.

This morning, campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon said the president was aware that the last few weeks had been tough, but he remains committed to staying at the top of the tick ticket.

JEN O'MALLEY DILLON, Biden Campaign Manager: We have definitely seen some slippage in support, but it has been a small movement.

And you know this.

The reason is because so much of this race is hardened already.

The more and more people that see Joe Biden out there post-debate, they are reassured that he is in it to win it and he can do that.

GEOFF BENNETT: Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, joins us now.

So, Jen O'Malley Dillon says the president is in it to win it.

What else are you hearing from the campaign about his path forward?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, my Biden world sources are telling me that Trump's speech last night at the Republican National Convention emboldened them.

They feel like they got a boost from, that the morale saw a boost.

And they saw in that speech someone who they say is very beatable.

The rhetoric that he used, the mass deportations he talked about, the extremism when talking about immigration, they think that they can beat him.

And President Biden while recovering at Rehoboth issued a statement in response to that speech today, saying -- quote -- "I look forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week to continue exposing the threat of Donald Trump's Project 2025 agenda while making the case for my own record and the vision that I have for America."

The campaign also held an all-staff call today, where Jen O'Malley Dillon, the campaign chair, tried to boost morale on that as well, saying that, yes, it's been hard, but they are sticking in this and they're not going to be getting out of the race.

GEOFF BENNETT: Laura, why has this effort to push President Biden out of the race, why has this picked up steam?

Because this really subsided after the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, part of it was because of the assassination attempt that so many Democrats paused them coming out to call on him to step aside.

But we expect more lawmakers to come out and calling on him to withdraw.

And within the last 24 hours, as you noted, if it's been more than a dozen, including two senators who have said that President Biden should step aside and pass the torch.

And sources told me that we can expect more lawmakers tonight and over the weekend to come out and say that President Biden should step aside.

Despite that, there was some circling of the wagons today.

House Majority Leader Hakeem -- Minority Leader, excuse me, Hakeem Jeffries said that he still stands with President Biden.

The Hispanic Caucus political campaign arm, BOLD PAC, came out and formally endorsed President Biden.

But there was some notable comments from Senator Chris Coons, a key Biden ally, a senator from Delaware, who at an event in Colorado today said that President Biden is weighing who is the best candidate to win in November and that President Biden is hearing from a lot of people, colleagues and the public alike, so not definitively saying that President Biden was without a doubt staying in the race.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the Democratic National Convention, as you all know, that's not until late August.

I mean, how long can this go on?

What are Democrats telling you about that?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Democrats -- whether Democrats support President Biden staying in or think that he should go, they say that the situation is untenable, and a lot of them really want a resolution by Monday.

They want to come to a resolution.

A senior Democratic aide told me, though, that the dam feels like it's breaking and that, again, more and more are going to come out.

I spoke to Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, who supports President Biden staying in the race, saying that she's worried that, if he steps aside, the party will descend into chaos and that there aren't -- the colleagues that she talks to, she says that they aren't -- they haven't convinced her that everyone will rally behind Vice President Kamala Harris if President Biden were to step aside.

And so she really feels like there's a bit of separation from reality right now going on amongst her colleagues.

GEOFF BENNETT: So what other Democrats then is the party considering or are some lawmakers considering to replace President Biden on the ticket?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Vice President Kamala Harris is the first name that a lot of Democrats mention, including Congressman Jared Huffman, who today was one of the Democrats that called on Biden to step aside.

He said that he thinks there's widespread support for Vice President Harris and that those who are calling for an open convention are outliers.

But there are some Democrats and some donors who have mentioned names like Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro or Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

So there's no clear consensus right now, Geoff, as Democrats still try to figure out what to do here when it comes to President Biden's nomination.

GEOFF BENNETT: All right, more to come.

Laura Barron-Lopez, thanks so much.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other headlines: The U.N.'s top court says that Israel's rule over the Palestinian-occupied territories is -- quote -- "unlawful."

In a sweeping condemnation, the International Court of Justice in The Hague set Israel's policies impede Palestinians' right to self-determination and violate international law.

The 15-judge panel pointed to the building and expanding of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas that Israel captured in the 1967 War, and called on them to be withdrawn.

NAWAF SALAM, Presiding Judge, International Court of Justice (through translator): The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying violates fundamental principles of international law.

Israel has an obligation to bring an end to its presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as rapidly as possible.

AMNA NAWAZ: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted swiftly online, writing -- quote -- "The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land.

No absurd opinion in The Hague can deny this historical truth."

Meanwhile, in Israel, an Iranian-made drone rumbled downtown Tel Aviv early this morning, killing one man and injuring at least 10 others.

Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack, making it the group's first lethal strike into Israel.

Footage circulated overnight of the explosion.

By dawn, police swarmed the scene to survey the damage.

The Israeli military said they're investigating how the drone bypassed the country's air defense system.

REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, Spokesperson, Israeli Defense Forces (through translator): We are in a multifront war.

We work on all fronts and defend the country every day.

Some of these fronts are close and others are far away.

In this event, we are talking about an error.

There was a detection.

We are investigating all the chains, but it is known there was no interception.

AMNA NAWAZ: All this as Israeli bombs continue to fall in Gaza.

Families mourned today after 12 people were killed in airstrikes on two refugee camps in Central Gaza.

The government of Bangladesh has announced a nationwide curfew, as deadly student protests escalate.

Earlier today, security forces used live rounds and tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Security on the streets of DACA remains tight, amid ongoing skirmishes between police and demonstrators.

A day earlier, local media said that 22 students were killed.

Protesters are calling for changes to a system that reserves 30 percent of top government posts for relatives of the country's war for independence.

They insist the jobs be based on merit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Britain's new government to let his forces strike deeper into Russian territory.

The U.K., United States and others have placed restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western weapons in Russia.

Zelenskyy met with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street today and delivered a rare address to a U.K.

Cabinet meeting.

He was the first foreign leader to do so since Bill Clinton in 1997.

Zelenskyy said he was grateful for Britain's leadership, but that more needs to be done.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President: Right now, we are missing the main answer to this question, and that is our long-range capability.

By defending Ukraine against the Russian advance on Kharkiv in May, June, we have proven that we can stop any Russian attempt to expand the war.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the meantime, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Ukraine is on its way to being able to -- quote -- "stand on its own feet militarily."

Those comments come amid concerns that a Donald Trump victory in November's presidential election could impact America's commitment to Ukraine's war effort.

Hundreds of mourners said their final goodbyes to Corey Comperatore today, the firefighter who was killed during the attempted assassination of former President Trump last weekend.

A fire engine carrying Comperatore's flag-draped casket led a procession to the Pennsylvania church where he was a long time congregant.

Officials say Comperatore lost his life while shielding his wife and daughter from the gunfire.

The 50-year-old worked as a project and tooling engineer.

Last Saturday was the first time he attended a Trump event.

Allen Weisselberg was released from Rikers Island today.

The retired chief financial officer for the Trump Organization served 100 days of a five-month sentence for perjury.

He was released early due to good behavior.

Weisselberg was convicted during the 2023 civil fraud trial against the former president's real estate company.

His release comes after Peter Navarro made an appearance at the Republican National Convention just hours after walking out of prison himself.

The former Trump White House adviser served a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.

And on Wall Street today, stocks ended lower after that global tech glitch added even more uncertainty to the markets.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost nearly 400 points, but still above the 40,000-point level.

The Nasdaq gave back more than 140 points, closing out a rough week for tech stocks, and the S&P 500 also ended in negative territory.

Still to come on the "News Hour": Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is sentenced to prison in Russia; David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart weigh in on the tumultuous week in politics; and how tornado chasers and scientists are working together to better predict the storms.

After a rushed, secretive trial, a Russian court today convicted American journalist Evan Gershkovich in a case that the U.S. dismisses as a sham.

The 32-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter was sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.

He's the first American journalist to be arrested by Russia on espionage charges since the Cold War.

To discuss the efforts to free Evan and bring him home, we're joined now by Almar Latour.

He's the publisher of The Wall Street Journal and CEO of Dow Jones.

Almar, welcome back, and thanks for joining us.

ALMAR LATOUR, Dow Jones CEO/The Wall Street Journal Publisher: Thank you, Amna.

Great to be here.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let's just start with your reaction to the conviction and the sentence today.

Were you expecting a 16-year sentence?

ALMAR LATOUR: Well, there's two reactions, really.

We're appalled at the 16-year sentence.

It's an insult.

It's an assault on free press, on Evan.

It's terribly distressing.

And it's wrong because all of this is based on false charges, a sham trial and lies, really, manufactured lies.

On the other hand if you look at the history of autocratic regimes, particularly the one in Russia.

We know that there's a very high chance for trials like these two, and then a conviction, and a pretty heavy sentencing.

And so we were expecting that to some degree.

But still, when it hits, it hits hard.

AMNA NAWAZ: Of course, we saw Evan today in the courtroom.

He was held in that glass cage, where defendants are held.

Held his head has been shaved during his 16 months in detention.

How did he look to you?

How did he seem?

ALMAR LATOUR: The shaved head is somewhat recent.

And it happened when he was moved to a new prison facility.

He looks a little skinnier than I believe we observed before.

You can see that he is resilient.

But the Russian regime has really applied all the symbolism of making him look like someone who committed a crime.

And so that's distressing to see him effectively dressed up like that.

It's just absolutely wrong.

The visual cues are not what we want to see.

AMNA NAWAZ: Now, Almar, as you know, the speed of this trial has raised a lot of questions about whether or not the Kremlin's trying to use Evan for a prisoner swap of some kind.

And, today, at the Aspen Security Forum, Secretary of State Antony Blinken actually spoke to this.

He reaffirmed, though, the administration's commitment to bring not only Evan home, but another American who's also held by Russia.

Take a listen.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. Secretary of State: When it comes to Evan, when it comes to Paul Whelan in Russia, other Americans, we're working it quite literally every day, looking to see what we can do to get them home.

AMNA NAWAZ: Almar, have you gotten any updates from this administration on any of those efforts to free Evan?

And is a potential prisoner swap on the table?

ALMAR LATOUR: We throughout this ordeal have worked with the U.S. government to try and secure Evan's release.

We generally don't comment on the nature of those conversations and the efforts that are happening.

But Secretary Blinken in those comments is absolutely right that there are 24/7 efforts taking place to secure his release and to also look after the other Americans who are held in wrongful detainment.

So that's about as far as I can go on this topic.

AMNA NAWAZ: I know you have been in touch with Evan's family as well.

What can you tell us about how they're doing and whether or not they want to see a prisoner swap to bring him home?

ALMAR LATOUR: Well, Evan's family has been an inspiration throughout all of this.

They are so strong in the face of something that is obviously so emotional and so hurtful to them, to see their son in captivity and being held in the way that he is and accused of things that he didn't do and smeared again and again by the Russian propaganda machine.

And so, and faced with all that, they, in my view, are heroic.

They're holding their head above water.

And, of course, they want to see their son released as soon as possible, and with whatever it takes.

But they should speak for themselves.

We all, as his colleagues, want to see him released as soon as possible.

AMNA NAWAZ: Before I let you go, I should ask.

The Wall Street Journal no longer has anyone reporting on the ground in Russia.

Many other media organizations don't either.

What's the impact of that right now?

ALMAR LATOUR: Well, we are looking at what happens in hot spots from different angles.

So, just because we're not on the ground doesn't mean that we aren't reporting on something.

And we actually do have a reporter on the ground in Russia, but it's Evan and he is in prison.

But as to further on-the-ground coverage, the environment right now is inhospitable and does not allow for safe reporting, in our view.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Almar Latour, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, CEO of Dow Jones.

Almar, thank you for being with us.

We're thinking about Evan and hope that he's home soon.

Thanks again.

ALMAR LATOUR: Thank you, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: It was a major week in American politics, with former President Donald Trump formally accepting the Republican nomination after his assassination attempt, and with President Biden vowing to stay in the race for the White House.

We will discuss it all now with the analysis of Brooks and Capehart.

That is New York Times columnist David Brooks, and Jonathan Capehart, associate editor for The Washington Post.

Great to see you both.

I feel like I haven't seen you for a long time.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Hours.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: Listen, we were both -- we were all together every night of the Republican National Convention.

You were there as, night after night, Jonathan, people would say, Mr. Trump has been changed, he's a more contemplative man now after that attempt on his life, that he's going to deliver a unity message.

That turned out not to be true when we heard his speech.

What did you take away from his remarks in the end?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, what we heard last night in Milwaukee was his stump speech.

Now, most people probably didn't realize that was his stump speech, because the convention is the one time when maybe more people than usual are watching.

This was an opportunity for Donald Trump to re-present himself to the nation, certainly after the attempted assassination -- the assassination attempt.

But what we saw in the first 30 minutes was sort of new, sort of measured Donald Trump.

But at the 30-minute mark, just about, in came "crazy Nancy Pelosi," and it went downhill from there.

And so it was grievance.

It was anger.

There was a lot of attention paid to illegal immigration and what he wanted to do about that.

And I just think it was a missed opportunity on the point -- on the part of the former president, because he's been basically silent for the last three weeks because of the implosion happening on the Democratic side.

And yet he took that -- took that chance yesterday and just showed the country what his party, what his faithful have been seeing for months now.

AMNA NAWAZ: David, did we get a sense, did you get a sense of what a second Trump administration would look like from those remarks?

And, to Jonathan's point, was that a missed opportunity?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I mean, first I should say, I think it was an extremely successful convention.

I thought the spirit was unlike any other convention I have been to.

People were joyful.

People were unified.

There were a lot of good spirits, speakers, a lot of good, memorable moments.

There was only one bad speaker, and the problem for the Republicans, it was from the nominee.

And so I agree with Jonathan that it was -- it started out well and then it just deteriorated.

And what it said to me, the guy had only one job.

There were remarks on a teleprompter.

All he had to do was read the remarks, and he would be cruising today.

But he is incapable of self-control, incapable of non-self-indulgence, incapable of non-narcissism.

And so what I took away from the speech was any hope that some people might have had that a second Trump term would look different than the first Trump term because the guy is suddenly organized and disciplined, that hope has to go out the window.

I mean, the second Trump term looks to be as shambolic and as chaotic as the first Trump term was, if it happens, because the guy's incapable of self-control.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, David, I actually went back and I read the transcript from his 2016 acceptance speech, and there was a lot of the same language.

I mean, there was railing against Hillary Clinton back then, talking about the failed policies of Obama, a lot of similar themes on the forgotten working class and crime rates and so on.

The thing that struck me about -- that was different this year was particularly on illegal immigration.

There was much more dangerous, kind of vicious language, targeting really Black and brown immigrants, talking about them carrying disease and attacking women and stealing jobs.

Did that stick out to you at all?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I did.

It's paradoxical.

And I can't remember another ticket where both candidates are married to an immigrant or children of immigrants.

But I think what's happened is that global populism has done two things.

One, it's fed on each other.

The Orban, the Giorgia Melonis, the Marine Le Pens, and the Donald Trump's have fed on each this anti-immigrant theme as the thing that unites them globally.

And so it's gotten uglier and darker.

And Trump's grievance has gotten more menacing.

At the same time, MAGA is a much more intellectually serious movement than it was.

It has an agenda.

It has a group of intellectuals.

It has a group of magazines, all of which is personified by J.D.

Vance.

And the fact that the Teamsters, where - - the president was represented there, was a sign that something much bigger here is happening, that Trump's grievance and the ugliness is true.

But the idea that there is an intellectual movement here on defense of the working class, that is also true.

And so I think both those realities, one kind of impressive, the way they have intellectually come together around that agenda, and the other kind of alarming, that the level of prejudice seems only to increase.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, you referenced the implosion within the Democratic Party right now.

Tell me about how what we saw happen inside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee is impacting what's happening on the Democratic ticket right now.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, it doesn't seem like it's impacting it at all.

But I just want to push back on one thing that David said.

There was more than one bad speaker.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Eric Trump, Speaker Johnson, these were people who were also feeding red meat to the Trump faithful in the hall.

Now, you would think that the Democrats would be focused on not just Donald Trump's speech, but all the other speeches that were happening in the lead-up to Senator Vance's speech and Donald Trump's speech.

But, instead, Democrats have been spending all their time trying to push out the sitting president of their own party from running as the nominee of their party.

And you have the president, having contracted COVID, in isolation in Rehoboth, having all of these people bringing more pressure to bear on him to get out of the race just as we're on the air.

I don't know if you have reported yet.

Senator Sherrod Brown just said that the president... JONATHAN CAPEHART: ... should give up his reelection bid.

AMNA NAWAZ: What does that say to you that Sherrod Brown, someone who has known Joe Biden for as long as he has... AMNA NAWAZ: ... in a critical state of Ohio, that he's come forward to do this?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: This tells me that the pressure is going to continue to mount, that it could be that the president will have no choice but to give up his reelection campaign.

But the big concern I have is, great, you guys succeed in getting President -- President Biden to give up his presidential bid, but you don't say who should be the top of the ticket.

And I will say it again.

If Vice President Kamala Harris is not the top of the ticket, Democrats are guaranteed to lose.

AMNA NAWAZ: David, there is a Democratic Convention in just a month's time.

I say just, but feels like a very long time away right now.

(LAUGHTER) AMNA NAWAZ: How long do you think that this kind of turmoil and conversation and uncertainty can go on?

DAVID BROOKS: Three or four days.

If they haven't decided this by Monday or Tuesday, I think that the Democratic Party is in real trouble.

They just can't make him look -- they're undermining, undermining, undermining.

Either Joe Biden has to say, I'm staying, no matter what you say, I'm staying, and this is over, or else the favor -- fortune favors the bold.

Some group of Democrats... AMNA NAWAZ: But, David, in his defense, President Biden has been saying that, right?

He continues to say, I am in it.

I'm in it to win it.

DAVID BROOKS: True.

But at the same time, there are stories coming out that he's shifting his thinking and things like that.

So that's raised the sense that it's inevitable that he's going to go.

And so, if he's going to go, he has to go.

But it has to be in the next few days, or else he's fatally weakened by being constantly drip, drip, drip of undermine.

On what happens next, I think the Democrats would be in big trouble if Kamala Harris was not on the ticket.

On the other hand, nothing comes free in politics.

The problem with the Democratic process so far is that it's been a low-information process.

Joe Biden got this far because he wasn't tested in the primaries.

And the idea you're going to have another nominee who's not tested should be a little alarming to Democrats.

So the idea of a mini-primary, with press conferences or debates, that is not entirely unappealing to me, that Kamala Harris may well get the nomination, but she should have to earn it.

She should have to show the party in the country that she's really capable of doing this campaign.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, what do you make of that?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Not tested?

Has to earn it?

She's the sitting vice president of the United States, who has endured a whole lot of scrutiny in that role, lots of brickbats from within the party, from the other party, from the press.

Earn it.

She was vice president during COVID, during a 50/50 split in the Senate.

So she was basically chained to that president's chair in the Senate chamber, not being able to leave Washington for more than two-and-a-half-hours, so she could get back and cast tie-breaking votes, the most tie-breaking votes cast by any vice president.

Anyone who says -- well, I don't mean to pick on you, David, but anyone who says she has to earn it hasn't been paying attention to what she's done.

And the... DAVID BROOKS: I don't agree with that.

I don't mean to say that she's not worthy of it.

AMNA NAWAZ: Go ahead, David.

DAVID BROOKS: But Joe Biden was president, and he just wasn't out there campaigning.

And the process of campaigning, even though -- if it's done over three weeks, is better than no process.

And so that would be my only point.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, I will give you the last word here.

We have 45 seconds.

(LAUGHTER) JONATHAN CAPEHART: David, have you seen Democrats?

(LAUGHTER) JONATHAN CAPEHART: I mean, my big fear with Democrats is that if they -- if you do have this commonsense proposal of an open primary, Democrats will make it a shambolic process, and, in the end, whoever gets the top spot on the ticket, even if it's the sitting vice president, could be as hobbled as the president they have potentially driven off the top of the ticket.

AMNA NAWAZ: I will just say the fact that we are even having conversations about an open convention or a mini-primary or whatever it is speaks to these unprecedented times.

I'm so grateful we have both of you, Jonathan Capehart and David Brooks, to help us understand it all.

Thank you.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thanks, Amna.

GEOFF BENNETT: Millions of moviegoers are expected to go see "Twisters" this weekend.

It's a sequel to the 1996 blockbuster.

It's a summer escapist thriller that you might say goes well beyond the science and the true boundaries of tornado prediction.

But Miles O'Brien spent some time during this busy tornado season with actual tornado chasers and meteorologists to understand the latest research.

Here's his report, part of a documentary done with the weather app MyRadar.

MILES O'BRIEN: How do you know where to go?

Jordan Hall is a man on a mission.

Ripe for tornadoes, is that the idea?

JORDAN HALL, MyRadar Storm Chaser: Yes.

So I look at forecast models, HRRR, in particular.

And then I will look at surface models as well.

My goal is to shoot close-range, insane video, and sell it to the news networks.

MILES O'BRIEN: With great success.

He makes a living chasing tornadoes.

JORDAN HALL: You're good, you're good.

MAN: Get in the car, bro.

We got to go.

JORDAN HALL: We're good.

We're good.

MAN: We're not good.

Let's go.

JORDAN HALL: Stay still.

Stay still.

We're fine.

I hear the roar.

MILES O'BRIEN: I sat in his well-equipped SUV and watched highlights of this epic storm-chasing season.

JORDAN HALL: This year has been absolutely bonkers since middle of April, basically been nonstop.

This was the first -- one of the first few tornadoes I saw in this car.

MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, wow, wow, whoa, whoa, whoa.

MILES O'BRIEN: Transformers going.

You were very close to that, my friend.

JORDAN HALL: And then here in a minute, it's going to pipe out right here.

MILES O'BRIEN: Holy cow.

JORDAN HALL: That's a strong tornado.

That's a violent tornado.

MILES O'BRIEN: Is it less risky than it would seem?

Put it that way.

JORDAN HALL: I would say so.

Getting close to these storms always has its dangers.

But the biggest risk I think we all face out there is just driving the countless miles that we do and being on the road so much.

MILES O'BRIEN: The 2024 tornado season has been historic.

About a hundred twisters have touched down in Oklahoma alone, leaving death, destruction and wrecked communities in their wake.

Right now, the Weather Service can provide about 15 minutes' warning of a tornado.

But the explosion of cloud-based computing power and machine learning are enabling big improvements in forecasting.

The cloud is helping researchers understand the clouds.

Is that really changing your business in a fundamental way?

PAM HEINSELMAN, Director, Forecast Research and Development Division, National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration's: It's changing it in a really good way.

MILES O'BRIEN: Meteorologist Pam Heinselman is the director of the Forecast Research and Development Division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma.

She and her team are leveraging that compute power to create what they call a Warn-on forecast.

The goal is to improve the lead time and reliability of warnings for severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and other hazardous weather events.

They're running an ensemble of weather models simultaneously.

Each begins with slightly different data, an effort to account for uncertainties.

With all the things you're doing and are -- plan to do, is that going to change appreciably?

PAM HEINSELMAN: I believe with the forecasters using that system could probably produce a warning out to an hour.

MILES O'BRIEN: But they couldn't imagine an accurate forecast that far in advance without some intrepid field work to obtain better storm data.

Among the storm chasers is a fleet of vehicles carrying state-of-the-art sensors and top scientists.

OK, so what are we looking at here?

ERIK RASMUSSEN, NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory: So these are the mobile Doppler radars.

MILES O'BRIEN: That's where I met veteran research meteorologist Erik Rasmussen, chief of the field-observing forecast support group.

ERIK RASMUSSEN: These two on the outside are really suited best for seeing the whole storm and they're kind of less nimble.

MILES O'BRIEN: Doppler radar can detect precipitation and, by measuring the shifts in frequency, track the speed and direction of wind within storms.

It's hard to think of a more significant breakthrough in severe storm forecasting technology.

And putting Doppler radars on wheels has dramatically improved scientists' understanding of tornadoes.

ERIK RASMUSSEN: We scan back and forth across the storm like this and then lift the dish up a little ways, do it again and over and over, get a -- kind of a three-dimensional picture of the thunderstorm.

MILES O'BRIEN: They also have a vehicle outfitted with a mobile Doppler lidar, which emits pulses of light, instead of radio waves.

It is more precise than radar.

ERIK RASMUSSEN: Somewhere between like three and 10 times more detail.

We like the nimbleness too because now you're working with a full-size pickup truck, instead of a behemoth.

And so this can maneuver and find parking places a whole lot more easily.

MILES O'BRIEN: The goal is to park these vehicles near a tornado as it is touching down, no small feat.

ERIK RASMUSSEN: We have to get close, and so you have to be able to really maneuver.

MILES O'BRIEN: In the early days, researchers didn't have many tools in their toolbox, and so they relied on 16-millimeter film.

The technique is called photogrammetry.

Erik showed me how it is used to determine the wind speed of a tornado.

ERIK RASMUSSEN: Here we have hundreds of pieces of debris that could be tracked.

MILES O'BRIEN: So you could - - would you go through, like, frame by frame and track individual pieces of debris in all directions?

ERIK RASMUSSEN: That's right, yes.

And then you go back, measure those motions of the markings, and then enter the data onto punch cards and do some math and come up with how strong the wind was that was pushing that debris along.

MILES O'BRIEN: Technology like Doppler radar and lidar may have made photogrammetry obsolete, but they have not answered all the questions, including a crucial one: What are the wind speeds right at the surface?

ERIK RASMUSSEN: I'm thinking the wind speeds are probably stronger than we would have guessed, and I'm thinking they're a lot more chaotic.

I suspect it's going to be a lot more interesting than we would have assumed.

MILES O'BRIEN: To solve that mystery, he and his team will have to devise new sensors and techniques.

He's thinking Doppler drones might be the future.

For the PBS "News Hour," I'm Miles O'Brien in Norman, Oklahoma.

AMNA NAWAZ: We're at the midpoint of a WNBA season that's been like no other, record-setting numbers on the court, in the stands and on television and now, as John Yang reports, a big new television deal that may signal a new era for the league.

JOHN YANG: The WNBA has been around since 1996, but it seems that a lot of people may be paying attention to it for the first time.

Attendance is the highest it's been since the 1990s and viewership is up 183 percent from last season.

The play is on pause right now for this weekend's All-Star Game in Phoenix and for Olympic competition starting later this month in France.

Sabreena Merchant is a woman's basketball writer for The Athletic.

She is in Phoenix for the All-Star Game.

Sabreena, what accounts for this surge in popularity?

SABREENA MERCHANT, The Athletic: I think there's a variety of factors, but you really have to drill it down to this year's rookie class, specifically Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and the dramatic fan followings they brought in from college basketball.

They had two of the most highly viewed college games of all time in the 2023 national championship game between Iowa and LSU and then once again in the Elite Eight in 2024.

And the rivalry between those two and the momentum that it created for college basketball has just taken its step into the WNBA.

So I think the seeds for growth in the WNBA have obviously been planted ahead of time, but I would say that Clark and Reese have been the accelerant that's created this dramatic rise this year.

JOHN YANG: And Clark and Reese have been compared to two other players who've shared a rookie year, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

Is that an apt comparison?

SABREENA MERCHANT: I think so.

I think we're definitely seeing the WNBA at an inflection point similar to where the NBA was in the 1980s.

You think about the NBA prior to Magic and Bird and the finals were still being aired on tape delay.

And the WNBA obviously hasn't been that in recent seasons, but we are talking about a league that had finals games where fewer than a million people were watching.

And now, every time that there's a game on national television, upwards of seven figures are watching.

So there definitely has been a similar boon compared to Magic and Larry back in the 1980s.

I also think that you check a couple boxes in terms of the college rivalry that Caitlin and Angel had and also the cross-racial comparisons with Caitlin and Angel similar to Magic and Bird.

So there are a lot of similar elements.

And if the WNBA experience is anything close to that cresting in popularity like the NBA did, it'll be well worth it.

JOHN YANG: You mentioned television.

Your -- The Athletic is reporting that the new television deal is going to bring the WNBA in the first year about $200 million, which is about four times what they're getting now for television.

What does that mean for the league, for the individual teams and for the players' salaries?

SABREENA MERCHANT: Yes, I mean, it's $200 million with the existing rights partners, and the WNBA already has deals with CBS and ION that they can add on to that deal that is currently with NBC, ESPN and Amazon.

So it's possible that even in year one of this new deal, it could be close to 6X of what it currently is.

So just suffice to say that's a lot more money that's coming into the WNBA.

And I think that's going to significantly impact the collective bargaining agreement, the negotiations that are set to take place for this new CBA.

The WNBA Players Association can opt out of this current CBA at the end of this season and write a new one for the start of the 2026 season.

And this will be the first time where either the owners or the players are really operating from a position of strength.

And now you can point to all of this revenue that's coming into the league and really make dramatic improvements to player experience.

We're talking about improvements to their travel amenities, the hotel rooms that they receive on the road, maternity and parental planning benefits that could be added into the CBA.

Obviously, individual player salaries are a big portion of it.

You think about the maximum player salary in the WNBA right now is about $250,000, and the lowest player salary in the NBA is about $500,000.

So to get just a seven-figure contract in the WNBA might be something that we see on the horizon with this influx of TV money.

For the WNBA players to get a more equitable revenue split, now that we have this $2.2 billion coming in over the course of 11 years, it actually gives the players a leg to stand on in terms of getting more of that revenue for their salaries.

JOHN YANG: What's it going to take to keep this growth going on the same -- or can it grow on the same trajectory, or is it just so steep right now it's going to level off eventually?

And what's it going to take to keep building on this popularity?

SABREENA MERCHANT: I think it's the kind of thing where it's like a positive feedback loop, where people start watching the league.

They obviously have the entry points of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, but you tune in for those two, and you become familiar with Breanna Stewart A'ja Wilson or any of the other great stars that exist in WNBA this year.

And that will just perpetuate itself.

I think this is obviously the steepest we're going to see it, but I don't think that we're necessarily going to see a level-off.

The more that the WNBA gets on TV in nationally televised windows and prime-time opportunities, that's going to bring in more and more fans right now.

Like, it's kind of a distressed asset in terms of where you see the WNBA on TV.

It's, like, really hard to find games.

And assuming this new TV rights deal puts them on prime position in ESPN and NBC and ideally more nationally available networks that aren't just, like, hidden on cable or streamers, I think that will continue the growth.

The quality of play increasing, I think is going to help with the growth.

And everything that we're seeing in college basketball, all that interest and popularity in college basketball is just going to continue to make its way into the WNBA.

JOHN YANG: Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic, thank you very much.

SABREENA MERCHANT: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: And our thanks to you, John.

Remember, there is much more online, and that includes our weekly digital show.

This week, it's looking at some of the major moments you might have missed from the Republican National Convention.

That's all on our YouTube page.

AMNA NAWAZ: And be sure to tune into "Washington Week With The Atlantic" tonight for a deep dive on the repercussions of the latest political turmoil.

GEOFF BENNETT: And on "PBS News Weekend": With a spotlight on border security this election year, we look at the dangerous path some migrants are taking to enter the U.S. And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us and have a great weekend.