PBS NewsHour : KQED : May 27, 2024 6:00pm-7:01pm PDT : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive (2024)

♪ amna: good evening. geoff: a wave of deadly tornadoes leaves a path of destruction across much of the country as forecasters predict an above average number of hurricanes this season. amna: global outcry after 45 people are killed in an israeli strike on a tent camp in rafa. geoff: on this memorial day, how

advancements in technology are helping identify the 80,000 missing u.s. service personnel missing in action. >> every one of these is a fallen hero. the least we can do is honor them by continuing to push the science and bring them home. ♪ announcer: major funding for the pbs newshour been provided by -- ♪ announcer: the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour including leonard and norma klorfine and the peter and judy blume kovar foundation. >> two executives turn their focus to greyhounds giving these former race dogs a chance to win.

a raymond james financial advisor gets to help you. life well planned. announcer: the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at hewlett.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the newshour.

tonight we are tracking two major stories. global outcry continued after an israeli airstrike on a tent camp in rafa killing dozens of palestinians. we will have more on that shortly. geoff: back here in the u.s., our emergency responders and crews are continuing to search through the wreckage from a wave of tornadoes that hit the south. 22 were killed including four children. the storms cut brutal paths of destruction through many towns. >> over here! geoff: terrifying scenes during a weekend of tumultuous storms and officials are warning of more dangerous weather to come. over the holiday weekend tornadoes four through four states in the south. in valley view, texas winds hit 135 miles per hour.

more than 200 buildings were damaged including this gas station where people were sheltering. >> it was scary. it was the most horrific thing i've gone through. >> nearly one third of texas counties are in a state of emergency. the governor spoke shortly after seeing the devastation. >> it has been a harrowing week with lives lost, property reduced to rubble. the hopes and dreams of texas families and small businesses have been crushed by storm after storm. geoff: across oklahoma the strong winds uprooted trees and toppled the power lines. earlier today rescue efforts continued as arkansas governor sarah huckabee sanders toured ravaged areas. heavy rain lashed arkansas overnight.

in kentucky, the governor andy beshear declared a state of emergency earlier today. this morning more than 187,000 kentucky citizens were still without power. >> we are working to get generators from our sources in the state and around it. we are providing assistance from the state level to our counties. geoff: this weekend's weather came after a week of severe storms across the nation. last tuesday, a tornado killed five and injed dozens in iowa. forecasters warned residents from alabama to new york to stay on high alert as the storm moves east. may and june tend to be the most active months for tornadoes in the u.s. but some experts say this tornado season looks to be the most active since 2017. to get a better understanding as hurricane season approaches we are joined by the chief meteorologist from w fla tv in

florida. how intense is this season compared to seasons past? >> we have seen a lot of severe weather especially in may. the second most active we have seen since 2010. we have seen a lot of tornadoes, close to 1000 across the u.s. given what we have seen in the past couple decades or so, it is an active year. part of the reason is this huge heat dome in central america that has not moved. it has been stubborn. it set up a front across tornado alley. it is stuck. we have the jet stream riding along the front over an area prone for severe weather because that is where the cold air from the pacific northwest and the hot air from the gulf collide. it has been excessively severe in that area. geoff: do we know what is causing the front? >> a stagnation in weather patterns.

the heat dome across mexico and central america is epic. ask ago sitting broke their -- mexico city broke their all-time record highs two days in a row. we are seeing temperatures over 120 degrees. this persistent extreme heat wave partly fueled by human caused climate change is causing everything in the atmosphere to stagnate. this jet stream is stuck and creates rounds and rounds of severe weather and tornadoes. geoff: there has been some observation that when we have tornadoes we have a more concentrated series of them. do we have an understanding of what accounts for that? >> you are talking about the fact that the atmosphere is more primed when we have outbreaks. there is not necessarily a signal for more tornadoes were or more severe weather over the last 30-40 years. one thing we notice and the computer models pick up on is

that when the atmosphere is primed, it is more than it used to be. during outbreaks, the outbreaks tend to be bigger. geoff: in hurricane season, it is expected to be more intense. we could see a half dozen hurricanes category three or higher. what should folks know about that? >> first of all we are transitioning out of el niño. during la niña seasons we see twice the number of hurricanes. this summer is likely to be a la niña. number two, across the atlantic basin we have unprecedented heat with water temperatures at record levels. not just across the main basin. in the caribbean and the gulf of mexico, as you raise water temperatures, storms have more

high octane fuel to get stronger. we expect not only more named storms but also likely more hurricanes and probably significantly more major hurricanes which we are concerned about. geoff: and that is connected to climate change as well. >> to some degree it is. the climate change raises the baseline temperatures of the atlantic ocean. in the atlantic and the tropics we see a 2-3 degree fahrenheit increase in water temperatures over the last 50 years. when you have that much more fuel come you have stronger storms. some of it is a climate change said no. the other part of it is natural variability. geoff: geoff is the chief meteorologist from tampa, florida. thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. >> you are welcome. ♪ amna: more now on yesterday's

israeli airstrikes on a tent camp in rafa. at least 45 palestinians were killed according to local health officials. israel said it was targeting two hamas leaders. this comes just days after the international court of justice ordered israel to halt its offensive. panic and horror in rafa last night as flames rage through the camp for displaced palestinians. after an israeli airstrike triggered a massive blaze. civilians burnt alive. and children decapitated. rescuers rushed to help anyone pulled from the rubble. >> we were sitting at the door of the house safely. we heard the sound of a missile. we went into the house and found a girl and a young man that had been cut into pieces. amna: by sunrise a charred skeleton of the tent camp was all that remains. survivors search the ashes for

anything to salvage. a prayer map, pairs of shoes and a koran now destroyed. >> we were praying and we were getting our children's beds ready to sleep. we heard a very loud noise. fire erupted around us. all the children started screaming. amna: the strike heads the southernmost tip of a neighborhood in rafa. israel's military said it occurred outside the designated humanitarian area including an area where it had ordered palestinians to evacuate earlier this month. the airstrike targeted and killed two top hamas commanders using small warhead precision guided. the casualties were outstanding. prime minister benjamin netanyahu pledged to investigate

calling the civilian deaths a tragic mistake. >> despite our best efforts, unfortunately, technical failure happened last night. we are investigating the case and will present the conclusions because this is our policy. amna: israel has said it is working to eliminate the last hamas battalions in rafa and which continues to fire on israel. after the top u.n. court ordered israel to halt its operation this week, it has triggered a new wave of condemnation. italy's defense minister. >> i have the impression that israel is spreading hatred. routing hatred that will involve children and grandchildren. amna: the french president said he was "outraged" by the israeli strike saying the operations must. there are no safe areas in rafa for palestinian civilians. ♪

geoff: in the days other headlines, a government official in papa new guinea says more than 2000 people were buried alive in friday's landslide. that figure is roughly three times and earlier u.n. estimates. the landslide crushed a village in a mountainous area. as of monday only five bodies had been recovered. villagers are using sticks, shovels, and hands to dig in the mud. an international organization is leading the response. the chief of mission say locals are trying to protect the bodies of the dead. >> because of the sensitivities involved with mourning and grieving, we have been told that until yesterday, people were not welcoming heavy machinery

because they would like to preserve the integrity of the corpses. geoff: the same official says the damage to the roadways and the risk of more landslides have complicated rescue efforts. spain pledged to provide ukraine with more air defense missiles as part of a package announced last month. in madrid today, the ukrainian president thanked spain's prime minister per his commitment but said his forces will need seven additional patriot air defense systems to launch the missiles in order to keep up with russia's onslaught. >> russia uses over 3000 guided aerial bombs against people per month. spain cannot close the issue. there are enough patriot systems in the world. we need to work together to put pressure on russia as well as our partners to give us the opportunity to defend ourselves. geoff: the additional spanish aid comes as the death toll from the attack on a hardware store

rose to 18. iran has enlarged its stockpile of uranium. it is near weapons grade levels. according to a confidential report from the international atomic energy agency. they have 313 pounds enriched up to 60%. that is an increase of nearly 15% from the last report from the watchdog and february. uranium enriched to 60% purity is just a short step away from weapons grade levels. i ran has stepped up in richmond since 2016 when donald trump unilaterally withdrew the u.s. from the nuclear deal with world powers. iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful but the iaea has warned the country has enough material to manufacture several nuclear bombs if it chooses to. it has been a day of remembrance and reverence as the nation marks memorial day.

arlington national cemetery hosted its 156th annual observance ceremony today. president biden honored the sacrifice and service of our fallen troops. he laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. he reminded the nation what those service members were defending. president biden: decade after decade, these warriors fought for our freedom and the freedom of others. because freedom has never been guaranteed, every generation has to earn it. a fight for it. defend it in battle. between the greed of a few and the rights of many. geoff: this afternoon, thousands gathered along constitution avenue in washington, d.c. to watch the national memorial day parade. this year's event was led by surviving world war ii service members. ahead of anniversary of d-day.

and a passing of note. a basketball legend, bill walton, has died after a long battle with cancer. he won two championships with ucla before going on to win two more titles in the nba. the larger than life center was once the league m.v.p. and was enshrined in the hall of fame in 1993. he became a beloved broadcaster. the american sportscasters association named walton one of the top 50 sportscasters of all time. nba commissioner adam silver said today he was truly one-of-a-kind. bill walton was 71. still to come, a look at how policing has changed four years after the murder of george floyd. we break down the latest political headlines. and members of the class of 2024 reflect on their unique school experience. announcer: this is a pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of

journalism at arizona state university. amna: we return now to the is -- israeli airstrike in rafa yesterday which killed scores of civilians. what we know about what happened and the wider significance. we have two views. the associate professor at rutgers university and a human rights lawyer. thank you for joining us. we reported that the prime minister netanyahu said it was a tragic mistake and israeli officials will investigate. what questions do you want to see answered from that investigation? do you think you will get those? >> what we saw yesterday was the burning to death of civilians by the plastic tents meant to shelter them which means they died in agony. not only have they been put through a genocide but even in death they are put through indescribable pain and suffering. at this point we need to be asking questions about the systematic nature of israel's campaign which the icj has said is plausibly genocide.

it is the duty to prevent genocide, not to punish it. after the third icj decision, why does this operation continue knowing full well that hamas cannot be defeated militarily and that in the outcome, now some 40,000 civilians, 13,000 children, have been killed and the hospitals destroyed and universities does right. 80% of the population sheltering in the south with no safe zone. amna: israel says it is going after the last stronghold of hamas and they point out that hamas continues to launch missiles into israel and they argue that they hide behind the billion. -- civilians. >> does anyone believe this? the only nuclear power in the middle east, 234 days, all of the arsenal and impunity and they have not been able to diminish the military power of hamas. hamas was launching rockets from

the very area that israel said it it cleared out. american intelligence officials have told us that israel cannot defeat hamas militarily. we have been insisting that you cannot defeat hamas militarily. it is part of the national and political fabric of palestinians and they must be engaged with diplomatically. and yet, even after 234 days, this staggering civilian death toll and israel nowhere closer to defeating hamas. amna: you are mentioning the political wing is part of the political fabric of the palestinian movement. how do you think of it from the jewish perspective when they say this is a force that has called the end of the jewish state? how could you ask them to find a way to live a long hamas? >> this is not an objection from jewish people around the world. this is an objection from zionists. be they muslim zionists, they

believe in a state that is exclusively a jewish demographic majority at the expense of an indigenous population whose land must be taken from them and who must be constantly dispossessed and forced into exile. this equation in and of itself is unsustainable. it has been determined as a form of apartheid by human rights legacy organizations as well as israeli human rights organizations. apartheid is a regime by which law and policy is used in order to maintain the racial superiority of one group over another. it is only through the thorough dehumanization of the racial other that this genocide as is possible. that it has been accepted. that babies be burned alive in plastic tents for their displacement who are suffering from a famine without access to hospitals and burn units where

we can still be asking the question about whose safety is now at risk and should be prioritized. amna: that is nora, a human rights lawyer and associate professor from rutgers university. thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. amna: we now turn to a retired israeli colonel. she was a legal advisor to the israel defense forces and is now senior research fellow at the israel institute for national security studies. as you heard, the prime minister said the civilian deaths were a tragic mistake and also a mistake when the aid convoy from world central kitchen was hedge. -- hit, killing seven. a question people have is why one of the best funded entering militaries in the world keeps making these deadly mistakes. >> it is a terrible situation. we are trapped in this war threatening us in israel and we are being attacked from all sides.

it seems to us, an existential threat. we know we look strong. we are strong. but the threats are huge. the issue of rafa -- it is important because this is the landholder between palestine and egypt and we know they got their supplies from there. there are a lot of tunnels. amna: it was the icj ruling last week that ordered israel to halt this military offensive in rafa which is a critical point so how is it not in violation of the order? >> they did not say it must halt the operations in gaza. what it said is that israel must halt its military offensive in any other actions in rafa which may inflict on the palestinians conditions of life that could bring about the physical destruction in whole or in part. this is limited to what is covered by the genocide convention. israel is not carrying out a

genocide. amna: it says the state of israel must immediately halt its military offensive that could bring about physical destruction in whole or in part. 45 civilians were killed. that is physical destruction in whole or in part, is it not? >> genocide has the element of intent. israel has done what it can to avoid destruction and indeed, what happened here is a tragedy but again, what has to be checked is how did it happen. israel, according to an initial explanation is that it was using accurate ammunition. perhaps some fire broke out. civilians get killed. it is terrible and tragic. it does not mean there was an intention. and it does not mean there was a genocidal intention. amna: some will argue that hamas is inseparable from the palestinian national movement that sprang from oppression and

those conditions persist and killing every last fighter of hamas will not eliminate that. what do you say to that? >> i think we have to beat hamas, at least the military structure. if hamas continues to control the gaza strip, that means not only israel lost the war and this is dangerous because iran and other enemies are looking. but it also means there will be no prospect for peace. hamas is opposed to peace. other speakers talking about no zionist entity. this is not about ending the occupation and finding a peaceful solution to the conflict.

i meet palestinians and other activists and i hope the moderate palestinians don't go after the notion of israel having a right to exist. if hamas remains in power, there will never be a resolution. amna: that is a retired israeli colonel now with the israel institute of national security studies. thank you for your time. we appreciate it. >> thank you. ♪ geoff: this past saturday marked four years since the murder of george floyd at the hands of police in minneapolis. floyd killing caused a global uprising and police reform. four years later there has been some backlash to change is set in motion and in some cases public attitudes have shifted. to assess where things stand with police reform we are joined by the head of the center for

police equity and is a professor of psychology at yale university. we know at the federal level that george floyd justice in policing act has stalled but at the state and local levels, how much would you say policing has changed since may 2020? >> when we talk about policing, we can talk about that at multiple levels. we can say the culture of policing itself. we can talk about attitudes around policing. i assume you mean the policies that regulate policing. it is a mixed bag. we have had some places that looked to abolish their entire police department replacing it with departments of public safety and others making incremental change. some of the incremental change bands on chokeholds, those have moved forward. and attempts to reduce police budgets have maintained as well. post the murder spike in 2021 and 2022, we found ourselves

unable to maintain the broad spread momentum. what we can say, the good news is in multiple municipalities, there are example projects, things that move forward that people are looking at saying this could be the way we make good on the moral and part of -- imperative that came post george floyd and the political realities that came in the backlash of that. in places like denver that had the star program. they have replaced law enforcement with mental health response. in austin and the full states like washington state and connecticut set to eliminate low-level traffic enforcement by police. it is a mixed bag. exciting stuff and some backsliding. i don't think we are done with the analysis of the full consequences of that moment. geoff: given your point, the degree to which politics have changed. conservative states and some progressive areas have passed

tough on crime laws. are there key structural reforms to policing that are practical that would be effective? >> i want to reset. we are talking about the term reform. it has a particular meaning. reform means making the systems we have better. there are some things we can do that can produce reforms. there is another thing we have to be working on which is entirely building out new systems and replacing the ones we've got. both-and are necessary. i talked about washington state and connecticut looking to band low level traffic enforcement by police. there is no idence that doing that makes anything any safer. crashes are not reduced to buy it and communities don't feel safer and law enforcement doesn't want to be doing that. it is a kind of reform. that folks can get behind and improve public safety and the efficiency of collecting whatever enforcement we might need and it gets law enforcement

out of the places they don't need to be. we won't stop the cycle of seeing the ugliness that we saw unless we invest upstream so communities are not in crisis and the first place. if communities are in crisis, what we send will never be sufficient. we have cities like evanston, illinois, ithaca, new york and berkeley, california that are working to increase their spending on the social safety net so folks don't have to call out for emergency medical, fire or law enforcement in the first place. geoff: broadly speaking in the wake of george floyd's murder, there were a lot of promises and

millions of dollars spent on racial justice efforts, efforts aimed at rethinking policing. what is your take on the status? >> you saw a lot of twitter activism and political statements made and commitments of money. those commitments did not always come to fruition. a lot of corporations said we need to do better internally. and it turns out not as much got spent in that way as we had hoped. we had a lot of unison polities saying we were going to invest in upstream resources to keep people from being in crisis and we will take it from police budgets but we know that police budgets have expanded and not shrunk. there are few cities where those budgets have shrunk at all. what i would say is as a country we were not ready, again, for this moment. it is not that it has not happened before. we were not ready for anything

on that scale. we had great ability for acute empathy and for in the moment decisiveness and commitments. but we had not strapped in for the long-haul which is what is necessary to manage a system and reform, alter and replace a system that is $115 billion annually. that is how much we spend on law enforcement. it is no less complicated than education and health care and won't be easier to give ourselves the systems of public safety that we need than it is education and health care. the good news is there was a wake-up call to the country. and there are people that understand that the ways we have been trying to keep folks safe in crisis, the aftermath of a lack of investment, does not make sense. it is not cost-efficient, just

or right. a more fulsome consideration, a more fulsome conversation has been sticky. as we get individual municipalities that are winning on some of these issues demonstrating that new directions can keep communities safer, i am optimistic we will see that start to grow. geoff: the chair of african-american studies and professor of psychology at your university. thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. ♪ amna: on this memorial day nearly 81 thousand american service personnel remain missing from previous wars. the vast majority lost in world war ii. there is new cutting-edge technology to identify remains once thought unidentifiable. as nick schifrin reports it is allowing the u.s. military to fulfill its promise to leave no one behind. >> in the town of ohio this weekend, a funeral 80 years in

the weights. -- waiting. nobody here has ever met the man they call uncle jack. a staff sergeant, jack mccoy but his great grand niece clutches at his memory. >> he was a very handsome man. they have always talked about him, always. i feel i know him. though i never got to meet him. reporter: in 1941 at 18 he graduated from high school and listed in the u.s. army air forces. he wanted to become a pilot as he wrote home from boot camp. >> ps, future pilot i hope. reporter: he ended up a gunner on american bombers and on for february 24th, 1944 he was on what was supposed to be has last mission on board a liberator. >> some of the spectacular

missions deep into germany. reporter: dropping thousands of bombs on germany. the plane was hit by german fire. two parachuted out and survived but coy and five others were never heard from again and there remains were not identified. >> he still has his beard in it. reporter: for years all that remained passed down was a small collection of his personal belongings. >> we have a lot of photographs of him in his uniform. we have a lot of his pins and medals he had on his uniform. we have a lot of letters. reporter: including one written to coy by his mother weeks before he died ahead of his 21st birthday. >> we are here hoping to see you by your birthday. oceans of love, mom. and his birthday was in july. wow.

it is really hard to read. reporter: but then, more than 70 years after he enlisted and his plane crashed jack coy's niece received a letter before she died in 2020 that would bring nostalgia to life. >> the army contacted my mom and wanted to know if we could give dna because they are still trying to identify remains back from world war ii of the soldiers that were lost. i looked at her and said we need to do this. >> it is amazing, the honor that it is that we are bringing their loved ones home. reporter: tim mcmahon is the director of the dna identification lab and using new technology they identified a handful of his remaining bones. >> every one of these missing

servicemembers is a fallen hero. they gave up their life to defend what we believe in so the least we can do is honor them by trying to continue to push the science to bring them home. reporter: the scientists that worked in a dover, delaware lab use cutting-edge techniques. they are often 5-7 years ahead of crime labs. the alleged golden state killer -- >> and much like technology that solves cold cases, the lab use technology to identify servicemember remains. what condition do they arrive in? >> mostly what we get from world war ii, korea and vietnam, though they have been in the environment for 50-80 years, our methods have been optimized to get those. reporter: next-generation sequencing use magnets to allow scientists to extract dna.

>> it allowed us to get a result and because of that, since 2016 we have 162 identifications of fallen heroes that would not have been made without that new methodology online. >> we as a country have an obligation, sacred promise made not just to the servicemember but to their families who long for answers. reporter: the director of the defense pow mia accounting agency. using anything they can find even buttons, they recover, identify and repatriate americans missing from every conflict from world war ii to operation iraqi freedom. his agency recovers remains through fieldwork like this honey 15 operation in vietnam's province. among his biggest challenges,

1576 u.s. service members still missing in vietnam. >> witnesses are aging and dying. having access to those firsthand witnesses, the fact that they were jets coming in at the ground at 600 miles per hour. the soil acidity in vietnam has the ph of 11 so often times our teams are only able to find teeth or degraded bones. >> in that sense it is safe to say that time is of the essence. >> absolutely. time is our biggest enemy as well as numbers, year numbers. -- sheer numbers. reporter: the majority of remains are considered unrecoverable but that still leaves tens of thousands that can be recovered bringing dignity to those that made the ultimate sacrifice. >> it is a covenant made with the servicemember fulfilled to the family but also fulfilled to the nation. it sends a strong signal, we

will fulfill that youth -- ethos of never leaving a fallen comrade behind. it strikes a chord when hometown son or daughter come home. reporter: and so it was for oregon, ohio. and uncle jack and his family, the day before memorial day. does it mean something even more special the fact that you are doing this on memorial day weekend? >> yes. i wanted to make sure that not only that we would never forget our own uncle. i wanted to make sure that everyone out there remembers them all for memorial day because they sacrificed their lives for us and for this country and we need to remember them and thank them. reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. ♪

amna: this memorial day marks the beginning of a new phase of the 2024 presidential campaign. we take stock of where the race stands. amy walter of the cook political reporter and tamera keith of npr. great to see you. memorial day kicks off the summer campaign season. where folks are paying attention with the first debate a month away. there is new data from the swing state project. it is worth looking at some battleground state polls because they show mr. trump leading in six out of seven of the swing states. nevada, north carolina, georgia, pennsylvania, michigan. it is only in wisconsin that mr. biden and mr. trump are currently tied. polls are a moment in time and not predictive.

what stood out to you? >> the reason we did those surveys is we wanted to look at swing states. the race for 270 electoral votes go through these states. the next president is the one who is successful there. we wanted to get a sense of not just what is going on big picture. we wanted to ask questions and test, especially for conflicted voters, what are the things moving them to think about one versus another. what we came away with is at least for today the election is being viewed by most voters through an economic lens. more than anything else. the issue of cost -- when we say the economy, for these voters it means cost. the cost of living. how much stuff costs. the challenge for biden is that not only are people very upset about the cost of things and they do blame biden. he has low job approval on that.

when you take it further and say, think about a four year term for donald trump or another one for biden, who will handle this better? that is where trump succeeds. he is winning voters. who will bring costs down? only 40% think biden. if the economy is the driver, this is where donald trump has the biggest advantage. amna: you were just in north carolina. did that ring true? >> i was focused on black voters, group of voters at the -- that the biden campaign acknowledges they have a problem with or at least a big challenge they need to address. they are trying to have these

conversations early. i went out with a democratic party official in north carolina. we went around a predominantly black community. he went to a barbershop. the message was pretty clear. their lives have not gotten better. in one way or another the quote was repeated, i vote for democrats all the time and i voted for joe biden but my life has not changed for the better. i only met one voter who said he would vote for donald trump because of that. he is a small business owner and he feels the former president would be better for small business owners. everyone else was like i don't love biden. i don't feel like my life is better. there is frustration with the lack of feeling that things have changed. and a desire for something better. but that is the challenge that the biden campaign faces. these should be biden voters and they should be enthusiastic. they are definitely not. amna: we know president biden on the campaign trail has talked

about the improvements to the economy and he talks about the democracy being on the ballot. he was talking about this at a graduation ceremony at west point this weekend. president biden: from the very beginning, nothing is guaranteed about our democracy and america. every generation has an obligation to defend it and protect it and preserve it. and to choose it. now it is your turn. amna: former president trump has been reaching outside some of the battleground states in new york and in new jersey and he went to the libertarian convention and got a mixed reaction. mr. trump: now i think you should nominate me or at least vote for me and we should win together. amna: some boos and some cheers. what's the strategy here? is there room for mr. trump to expand? >> to the point about african-american voters and what we saw in our own polling, it was similar with latino voters.

there is a pathway here for donald trump to win over some voters that did not show up in the last election or who may be voted for biden. they are trying to expand the map beyond the states. they are talking about going into minnesota and virginia. minnesota has not voted for a republican for many years. about 40 years since you have seen that happen. joe biden carried the state by seven points. polls have come out showing it to be close in part because of what we are seeing in our own polling that biden does not have the base enthusiastic. though voters that turned out for him in 2020, they are not necessarily voting for donald trump but they are not engaged. if you are the trump campaign, take advantage of that. nothing is better for a

candidate then momentum. it sends a signal to the other team like -- we are far ahead and you guys should be depressed. amna: how worried is the biden campaign about chipping away at the margins? >> what donald trump is doing is the power of positive thinking like he has always done. minnesota, new jersey, they are all in play. and his buildings are taller than the math says they are. there is an element of the power of positive thinking. in terms of the biden campaign, they are actively reaching out to nikki haley voters. they are working on a plan to have republicans talking to republicans who may have concerns about democracy issues and other things where donald trump does not perform as well. the fact they are looking to try to win over republicans means

there is a very real possibility that we are seeing a shift in the electorate. divided along educational lines and some other shifts where the biden campaign is thinking about its electorate as different then it was four years ago. amna: and with the economy at the top issue, i have to point out from something -- i have to point out something i saw in paris guardian. 56% of people believe the u.s. is experiencing a recession. it is not. 49 percent believe the s&p 500 is down, it is not. 49 percent believe unemployment is at a 50 year high but it is at a 50 year low. what do you make of that? >> when people feel upset about how much stuff costs, that is bleeding into -- if things cost

so much, the overall economy must be doing poorly. when we ask voters that question , how do you measure the economy in your own life? it was not the stock market or unemployment or even how much was coming into their household. it was how much things cost. >> this is also a sign there are issues with the way people are getting information. these are clear facts that people are not feeling and they are not seeing in their sources of information. and that is a real challenge that we all as a society face. it is also a big challenge for the person asking for a second term. amna: tamera keith and amy walter, thank you. always great to see you. ♪ geoff: with graduation season in full swing the class of 2024 is reflecting on a highly unusual four years of school.

their freshman experience was marked by pandemic lockdowns that was just the first in a chain of momentous global events. we spoke to some members of this class about how they are looking back and forward. >> i am a senior in high school in minneapolis. >> my name is aidan booker and i am a graduating senior from ohio. >> i just graduated from buffalo performing arts. i live in buffalo, new york. >> i am 22 years old and just graduated from georgia tech with a degree in engineering. >> i am a graduating senior at the university of california davis. >> our class definitely experienced a lot of turbulence and uncertainty. >> everyone that lived during this period i think shares a

unique bond that has never been seen before. >> i think it is really crazy to see everything that has happened. am i living a dream? this cannot be real. >> i think the past four years can basically be described as living out a history book. covid pandemic. protests. the russia-ukraine war. or what is happening in the middle east. it is basically living out everything you would see in history book. it is unsettling to me. >> i think about the contrast a lot -- the march. it will only be two weeks and i will come back to the december gloom of -- when is this going to end? you cannot go back to normal after that. there was no going back to normality. >> our entire freshman year was online. sophom*ore year it was still online.

the entire high school year you are sort of transitioning and getting back into the groove of talking to people and adjusting to that face-to-face connection. we definitely had the worst. >> i am about 11 minutes away from where george floyd was murdered in may, 2020. i remember the days after that, my history teacher completely had gotten rid of whatever content that she had planned for us. she was honestly like -- disregard this. we don't need to talk about this, history is happening right now. we dedicated those days of class to talking and feeling. those few weeks in may, with everything that happened in june, july and august, that shape what i wanted to do for

the rest of my life and supplemented my academic curiosity in the field of civil-rights. >> it is so easy for people of my generation to be pessimistic. we have all the reason in my opinion to be pessimistic about our future. but there is people actively working not to be and i think that is something to celebrate. restlessness at what good the future can hold for us even if it seems there are odds stacked against us. >> living through covid as it emerged in real time before us basically threw me out into the real world without any preparation. here is the real world now. 50,000 people are dying a week of this disease. and you and the rest of society have to figure this out now. good luck. >> i would describe it as chaotic and scary but also being able to notice things more and being able to have a better

understanding of things and still find the happiness in the small things that we do. or were able to enjoy. >> hard times make strong people. we are not grateful it happened. looking back in retrospect i think it taught us a lot about ourselves as people. we got to in a way focus on ourselves and what we want to do in the future. >> without the past four years and everything that has happened in our nation, i don't feel i would have been fully equipped to take on the world if these things had not happened at such a young age for me and my fellow classmates. the human i am today i think would not be as optimistic as she is because i feel i have seen the bad, we have experienced the bad and been in the bad and to know that there is a lot of hope for how bad his situation can get and it can turn around. ♪

amna: remember, there is always much more online including a look at a program that has been providing covid vaccines for uninsured adults and why it is ending. that is at pbs.org/newshour. geoff: join us tomorrow night as we got the latest as closing arguments begin in former president donald trump's hush money trial. amna: on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. announcer: major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> cunard is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with cunard the world awaits. a world of flavor. diverse destinations.

and immersive experiences. a world of leisure and british style all with cunard's white star service. ♪ announcer: supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at mac found.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions -- ♪ announcer: this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪

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