AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: Geoff Bennett.

On the "News Hour" tonight: GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz is away.

On the "News Hour" tonight: The focus in the race for the White House turns to the upcoming presidential debate, with Donald Trump threatening to back out.

We meet families in Sudan whose lives have been devastated by civil war, with many forced to flee time and again.

AL NOUR HABIB, Displaced: The future of my children is very dark.

We have to believe in we are one nation.

AMNA NAWAZ: And author Stephen King reflects on his long career and discusses his new book of short stories.

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

With both party conventions in the rearview mirror, the 2024 presidential campaign enters its final stage.

There are now new questions about if the candidates will debate at all.

And, today, Donald Trump turned his attention to national security and Kamala Harris' record.

Lisa Desjardins has this report.

(APPLAUSE) DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Well, thank you.

LISA DESJARDINS: Former President Donald Trump campaigning in battleground, Michigan, addressing an annual meeting of the National Guard Association, as he seeks a second term as commander in chief.

DONALD TRUMP: And it's why I'm here today, because America's future is under threat like never before, right at this moment.

LISA DESJARDINS: Trump accused the Biden/Harris administration of disastrously mishandling the Afghanistan withdrawal.

The Biden administration has said its decisions were set in motion by Trump's agreement to pull out American troops.

In the chaos exactly three years ago today, a suicide bomb attack in Kabul left 13 American service members killed.

DONALD TRUMP: Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world.

LISA DESJARDINS: This morning, Trump laid wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery in their memory.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz were off the campaign trail today, but they are awash in cash, reporting a haul of more than a half-billion dollars since launching a month ago, including $82 million during last week's convention alone.

In the meantime... KRISTEN WELKER, Moderator, "Meet The Press": Welcome back to "Meet the Press."

SEN. J.D.

VANCE (R-OH), Vice Presidential Candidate: Thank you.

Thanks for having me.

LISA DESJARDINS: ... the man who wants Harris' current job faced direct questions on NBC's "Meet the Press" over the weekend.

KRISTEN WELKER: Can you commit, Senator, sitting right here with me today, that if you and Donald Trump are elected, that you will not impose a federal ban on abortion?

SEN. J.D.

VANCE: I can absolutely commit that, Kristen, and not only have to veto it.

KRISTEN WELKER: So, he would veto a federal abortion ban?

SEN. J.D.

VANCE: I think he would.

He said that explicitly that he would.

LISA DESJARDINS: Vance also was asked about his running mate, specifically Donald Trump's repeated words questioning if this election will be fair.

KRISTEN WELKER: Do you have faith the 2024 election will be free and fair?

SEN. J.D.

VANCE: I do, Kristen.

I do think it's going to be free and fair.

And we're going to do everything that we can to make sure that happens.

We're going to pursue every pathway to make sure, again, legal ballots get counted.

LISA DESJARDINS: Trump is signaling he may bow out of the first head-to-head debate scheduled for September 10, writing about host network ABC: "Why would I do the debate against Kamala Harris on that network?"

The Harris campaign said in a statement that the issue is more specific, that it wants microphones to remain on during any debate, and that the Trump campaign staff has not agreed.

Regardless, Monday morning, Trump would not commit to taking part, as planned.

DONALD TRUMP: Let's do it with another network.

I want to do it.

LISA DESJARDINS: The two campaigns will both be on the road this week, the Harris/Walz campaign touring in Georgia and Trump focusing on Michigan and Wisconsin.

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

AMNA NAWAZ: We begin the day's other headlines with extreme weather.

A heat dome hovering over the Midwest is sending some temperatures into the upper 90s, and meteorologists say that's unseasonably hot even for summer.

Nearly 50 million Americans are under excessive heat warnings and advisories.

Some temperatures could reach record highs through tomorrow before that heat settles over the South by the middle of the week.

And over in the Pacific, Hurricane Hone weakened to a tropical storm over the weekend, but not before dumping at least a foot of rain over parts of Southern Hawaii as it passed the state.

Floods shut down major highways on the Big Island, and Hawaii is not in the clear yet.

Officials are watching two other storms.

One of them shown here, Hurricane Gilma, could reach the islands by this weekend.

Special counsel Jack Smith is asking a federal appeals court to bring back the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump.

The case was thrown out last month after Judge Aileen Cannon, who is a Trump appointee, ruled that Smith's appointment was unconstitutional.

In its appeal brief, the special counsel's team said that Cannon's decision is -- quote -- at odds with widespread and longstanding appointment practices in the Department of Justice and across the government."

Even if the appeals court reinstates the case, it would be unlikely to go to trial before the November election.

Turning overseas, Russia sent a massive barrage of about 200 missiles and drones across more than half of Ukraine overnight and into today.

Ukraine's air force commander said the attack was the biggest aerial assault of the war.

It killed at least four people and injured more than a dozen.

In Kyiv, residents took shelter underground, huddling in subway stations.

Officials said power and water supplies were disrupted in the capital.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack in a video address.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): It was one of the heaviest strikes, a combined one, more than 100 missiles of various types and about 100 Shahed drones.

And like most previous Russian strikes, this one was just as vile, targeting critical civilian infrastructure.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, in Russia, officials say they intercepted nearly two dozen Ukrainian drones since last night.

Four people were injured.

Dozens of people have died in Southwest Pakistan in three separate insurgent attacks across the region.

Gunmen killed at least 38 people in Balochistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.

Separatist groups have long fought for independence in this part of Pakistan.

Funeral prayers took place for the victims today after gunmen blocked off highways, dragged people out of their vehicles and shot them.

They also attacked a police station.

The military said that security forces killed 21 militants in response.

In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has vowed to toughen the country's knife laws,following Friday's late-night stabbing at a festival that left three people dead and eight injured.

Scholz visited the western city of Solingen today and laid a white rose at the scene of the attack.

Investigators believe that the suspect, who turned himself in over the weekend, shares the radical ideology of the Islamic State extremist group.

Scholz vowed to take action.

OLAF SCHOLZ, German Chancellor (through translator): This was terrorism, terrorism against us all, threatening our lives, our togetherness, the way we live.

I want to make it clear with regard to the perpetrator that I am angry and furious about this crime.

It must be punished quickly and severely.

AMNA NAWAZ: Scholz also pledged to get tougher on deportations after German media reports said the suspect was denied asylum last year, but was never deported.

Two grocery giants, Kroger and Albertsons, were in federal court today to defend their plans to merge as the U.S. government tries to block them.

Such a merger would be the largest among supermarkets in U.S. history.

The Federal Trade Commission says the $25 billion deal would eliminate competition and raise food prices during a time when inflation is already high.

The grocery chains argue the opposite, that joining forces would curb costs and allow them to better compete with big store rivals Walmart, Costco and Amazon.

The trial is set to last for three weeks.

And it was mostly a down day on Wall Street today, but the Dow Jones industrial average climbed to a new all-time high, beating its old record set back in July.

Some major tech stocks fell, pulling the Nasdaq down by nearly a percent.

The S&P 500 also finished lower on the day.

Still to come on the "News Hour": Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the latest campaign headlines; Americans affected by hurricanes, heat and floods speak out about the nation's worsening weather events; and how NASA plans to get two astronauts stranded in space back home.

A dam in a remote part of Sudan collapsed this weekend.

The United Nations says at least 20 villages were destroyed and at least 30 people were killed, although the death toll could be much higher.

The dam is about 25 miles north of Port Sudan and provided the city located on the Red Sea with drinking water.

Port Sudan is where many civilians fled because of the country's bitter civil war between the army and a rogue militia, the Rapid Support Forces.

In total, 11 million Sudanese have been forced from their homes in what's now the world's largest displacement crisis.

Up to 150,000 people are feared dead and millions more face unimaginable trauma.

In her third report from the front lines in Sudan with support from the Pulitzer Center, special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen follows along with some of the families desperately searching for sanctuary.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: A perilous journey inching along the front line, with only the occasional cover of the mountains.

As we're led through the rough sands by an armed escort of Sudanese soldiers, black plumes of smoke from fresh shelling rise through the air.

But we're not going to the battle zone.

We're here to meet Sudanese families trying to outrun the conflict.

To get out, they have to make it through this treacherous strip alone.

This is the northernmost point of Omdurman, where displaced people arrive having escaped from front line and RSF-held territory.

We're wearing protective equipment because in recent days the RSF has been shelling this area.

Even as people make it here after their dangerous journey, they're still not safe yet.

An exhausted mother who's made it here with her baby and toddler.

IMAN, Displaced (through translator): The fighting is very intense in our area.

There's no food there.

We have nothing to eat.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: She's at the very end of her strength.

Her eyes glazed, she sits, staring, a brief moment of rest before they have to move on again.

IMAN (through translator): We're sick, hungry and we have small children.

We are so tired of this war.

We won't survive.

Living like this is so very hard.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: All these families arrived just this morning.

They are a few of the millions of civilians traversing the country, forced from their homes by this bloody war.

If they're lucky, they can afford a seat in a minibus or a donkey cart, but, for most, it's an arduous journey on foot, covering hundreds of miles in the baking heat.

They're running from the greatest of horrors, looting, killing, rape, at the hands of Rapid Support Forces militiamen.

At this construction site in Qadarif, the air is thick with the trauma of what they have endured.

There are thousands of people staying in this makeshift reception center.

They're practically in the open air, completely exposed to the heat of the day and the wind at night.

They're hoping for a spot in an official displacement camp, but with so many people arriving, there just isn't space, and many of them have fled from other displacement camps that have now been overrun by the RSF.

In the past few weeks, the RSF's latest offensive has swept through the southern state of Sennar, sending its residents running for their lives.

For most here, it's far from the first time they have had to flee.

This is the fifth time Salma's family has been displaced by this war.

Four of her six kids are younger than 5.

The journey was long and rough, sleeping on a blanket on the roadside each night, fending off snakes and scorpions.

SALMA NASSER, Displaced (through translator): Ten days on the road from place to place until we got here.

When they said they were hungry, I told them, we're almost there.

When they said they were too tired, I told them we're almost there.

I would point and promise them, look, your father will be there when we arrive.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: But their father was not at the end of the long road.

He stayed behind to earn money for his family when they first fled.

Salma hasn't heard from him since.

The attacks happen so fast, family members are often separated.

When the RSF descended on their first displacement shelter, her neighbor was out trying to find work.

So Salma grabbed the woman's teenage daughters along with her own kids and ran.

SALMA NASSER (through translator): I couldn't leave them behind.

Until now, there's no news about their mother, not even a phone call.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: With no work to be had, they survive on the kindness of others.

Volunteers distribute one meal a day to the families and locals from the city bring what they have to share.

But now fears of an attack on Qadarif are growing.

Salma doesn't know if she has the strength to run again.

SALMA NASSER (through translator): A few weeks ago there were shells, machine guns and snipers.

We had to sleep under the beds.

If the RSF comes here, I am not going anywhere.

I will die here.

I can't bear to be displaced yet again.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: With nowhere to house the onslaught of people, schools, closed since the beginning of the war, have become shelters.

At this girls school, students were clamoring to continue classes, but didn't want to make the temporary residents homeless.

So the principal found a compromise.

The girls arrive at the crack of dawn and take their lessons in the garden.

They have even made space for an extra 250 displaced pupils.

Inside the school buildings, families living in limbo.

Amuna (ph) has been here six months with her four toddlers.

At night, up to 200 people pack these two small rooms.

So this is where you have been living?

AL NOUR HABIB, Displaced: Yes, this is the place where I live.

This is my family.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Al Nour's family are staying in the classroom next door.

He says they have seen little international support.

AL NOUR HABIB: They have forgotten us, because we didn't see them on the ground usually.

We see people in Syria.

We see people in Ukraine and something like that.

But I think that this is Africa or something like this.

They let us down.

Now we have two months we didn't receive anything, especially food.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: You haven't received any aid in two months?

AL NOUR HABIB: Yes.

No.

Yes, two months.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: And how are you feeling about the future for your children, for Sudan?

AL NOUR HABIB: Yes, the future of my children is very dark and it is very sorrowful.

We have to believe in, we are our one nation, and to look for the country, yes, as a home for us all.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The recently opened displacement camp nearby can't even begin to host this number of people.

Aid agencies on the ground say, without more funding and access to the areas hit hardest, there's little more they can do.

At schools across the country, similar scenes.

These families have just fled Tuti, a tiny island in the center of Khartoum state.

Fleeing RSF territory is extremely dangerous.

For Mohamed's family, facing daily shelling and shooting and arbitrary arrest by militiamen, the risk of staying any longer was even worse.

MOHAMED AHMED AL-MADANI, Displaced (through translator): They were firing shells, which hit houses and people.

The bullets were the worst because they were everywhere.

There was no water, no electricity for 11 months.

People sent us medicine from outside, but the militiamen confiscated them.

People died because of the lack of treatment.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Both Mohamed and his wife have diabetes.

It was time to go, but only if they could afford the RSF's hefty exit bribes.

It cost him nearly $1,000 to get his small family out.

life savings he was lucky to have, unlike many others.

No one knows what the future holds now.

And at night, the children go back to Tuti.

MOHAMED AHMED AL-MADANI (through translator): The children are badly affected by the war.

They know the difference between the sounds of bullets and shells.

They're psychologically unstable and scared.

All they talk about is the militias, even in their games.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Many are fleeing evils even darker than bombs and hunger.

Maha, whose name we have changed to protect her, was out running errands in her hometown of Omdurman when a gunfight broke out.

In seconds, her husband was dead and the RSF had kidnapped her.

For six months, she was held captive, subjected to horrifying abuse.

MAHA, Displaced (through translator): There was beating, sexual assault and death.

Everything was done to us.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Finally, they gave her a choice: "Work for the RSF or we will kill your children."

MAHA (through translator): That's where the torture and training began.

They trained us girls.

My role was to be a spy, to gather information for them.

Because my children were in their hands, I had no choice but to work with them.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Eventually, she was caught.

Now she spends her days in a protection center in the army zone, dreaming helplessly of her three young kids.

MAHA (through translator): Until now, I don't know if my children are alive or dead.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: I tell Maha, we should stop if it's too much.

"No," she insists.

"People need to know what's happening."

MAHA (through translator): Many other people have experienced similar things.

I am not the first girl, nor will I be the last.

Some girls were raped in front of their parents.

All Sudanese have been psychologically damaged by the RSF.

We live in fear.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: With the war still raging, there's little space for healing.

Escape, survive, escape, survive, a nightmarish cycle playing out on repeat for Sudanese families who never know if their next stop will be their safe place or their last.

The distances displaced Sudanese families have to cover to escape the fighting are vast.

And they're often taking the long way around the mountains to try and avoid the shifting front lines.

Everyone we speak to is telling us that when the RSF assaults a new town or village, they attack so fast and so brutally that civilians have to drop everything and run.

Even those who make it as far as Port Sudan, the military capital on the Red Sea, are little better off.

Children arrive in dire condition on the outskirts of the city.

Even those who look relatively healthy turn out to have malnutrition.

And even for those with some cash, most food is unaffordable now.

The price of meat has risen by six times in the past two months; 75-year-old Khadija has been trying to make money at the central market since she arrived here from her besieged hometown.

A sympathetic local gave her some cash to start a business, but the going is tough.

KHADIJA AKBAR ELIAS, Displaced (through translator): I'm currently living in a house without a door or window.

Rain and wind are over our heads.

We have no money.

We fled and left everything behind.

We only escaped with our lives.

All I own is this shawl that I'm wearing.

Do I look like I know the price of a can of oil now?

I don't have the budget to even ask about it, let alone buy it.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Homeless, penniless, constantly trying to outrun the next attack.

This conflict, which has devastated the lives of millions of Sudanese, shows little sign of slowing on its path of destruction.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Leila Molana-Allen in Port Sudan.

AMNA NAWAZ: There are just 70 days left until Election Day, and the campaigns are ramping into high gear.

That means there's a lot to break down this week in politics.

And, for that, we're joined by our Politics Monday duo.

That is Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

Good to see you both.

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Hello.

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Good to be here.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, one week after the convention, the Democratic National Convention, Amy, as you all know, sometimes candidates get what we call a post-convention bounce.

This is a weird year, though, so are we seeing that or do we expect to see that for Kamala Harris?

AMY WALTER: That's a really good question, because, unlike any other election we have ever seen before, where the candidate really just came onto the scene less than a month before the convention, she got a lot of that bump before we even got to Chicago with the base then rallying around her.

But, look, she's had the wind at her back, so to speak, for the last, well, really, since she's been in this race, and it hasn't abetted.

In fact, if anything, the convention really just, I think, crystallized the kind of momentum that she's been able to sustain for the last month.

And you have Democrats leaving Chicago, but also you're feeling it around the rest of the country, more enthusiastic and energized than they have been at any point this year, and I could argue maybe for the last two years.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

AMY WALTER: So she may get something of a little bit of a bump out of that.

But, overall, I think this is the real question going forward.

And this is what Trump is trying desperately to stop is that she has been able to basically control the narrative of this campaign on the terms that she wants to talk about, whether it's on issues -- the issues, like abortion, or putting the economy, the economic question in terms that work for her.

And most important, she's been able to, even as the incumbent, grab the change candidate.

So people are upset with the status quo.

She's part of the status quo, but she's somehow managed to also be the person who's turning the page.

If you're Donald Trump, you have got to find a way to blunt that.

AMNA NAWAZ: So if you're Donald Trump right now, Tam -- and just broaden this out to both campaigns for us.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: This is a condensed timeline now, 70 days left here.

You have got a new ticket late in the cycle on the Democratic side.

What are we seeing from the campaigns at this stage that tells us what the priorities are, what the strategies are for this home stretch?

TAMARA KEITH: Trump's campaign did put out a memo over the weekend saying, there's going to be a bump.

Harris is going to see her numbers rise.

Don't worry.

It'll go away.

Everybody sees this and it goes away.

And it's not clear because this is such a tight schedule what is going to happen, but what I do know is that Trump is campaigning like he's losing.

And what I mean by that is, he is doing a lot of events.

He's doing a bunch of different types of events.

He is doing everything he can to wrest attention away from Harris.

So, today, what that meant is, he went to Arlington Cemetery in -- outside of Washington, D.C. Then he went to a Vietnamese restaurant in Northern Virginia campaigning with a Senate candidate, doing these sort of small retail type events.

That's not something he's typically done.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

TAMARA KEITH: So, is he is doing everything he can to get attention.

Harris, on the other hand, is going to have a bus tour this week through Georgia.

And what's interesting about that, it's the same strategy that they employed in Pennsylvania, which is to say that Atlanta is not Georgia, that the state has many other areas, rural areas where there are Democratic voters.

They may be outnumbered, but they could still hear from the candidate and they could sort of reduce their losses in some of those areas.

So she's doing a bus tour.

It's not just big rallies, but that both campaigns are running like it's a real race, because it is a real race.

AMY WALTER: Absolutely.

AMNA NAWAZ: And there's another factor that could have an impact in this race that we know will be one on the margins.

That was Friday's announcement of Robert F. Kennedy saying he's suspending his campaign and endorsing Donald Trump.

Amy, as you have shown us, we already saw his support drop after Harris became the nominee.

AMY WALTER: That's right.

AMNA NAWAZ: Half of his supporters went to her.

But his endorsement of Trump means what?

Do the other half go to Trump?

AMY WALTER: That's right.

Well, that's the really big question.

So it's true.

Before Biden dropped out of this race, just overall on average national vote about 8 percent of voters said they were voting for RFK Jr. By the time, by today, it's now down to half of that.

So you're right.

Most of those went to Harris.

What's happening now, at least in surveys that we did a couple of weeks back, looking just at the battleground states, those voters who remain Kennedy supporters, if you push them on the question, reallocate them, say, all right, if you had to, who would you support, you can see that almost half of them say that they are Trump supporters.

Now, do they show up, number one, right, or do they stay home because they are sitting there because they really liked RFK and they're disappointed and maybe now they don't show up for Trump?

If they do show up for Trump, and especially if they show -- if those undecided voters -- there are still significant numbers said they're undecided.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

AMY WALTER: If they combine, show up for Trump as well, you're talking about movement of a point or so or a little under a point.

It doesn't look big, but when we have had the last two elections decided by 10,000 votes here and 15,000 votes there, if I'm the Trump campaign, I would be ready to try to bring those people back into my camp.

AMNA NAWAZ: And if you're the Harris campaign, as we saw, Harris/Walz campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon put out a statement after RFK Jr. dropped out, basically saying Vice President Harris wants to earn their support, also saying this: "For any American out there who's tired of Donald Trump and looking for a new way forward, ours is a campaign for you."

Are those voters winnable by Harris?

What's their best argument here?

TAMARA KEITH: Well, part of that is just signaling that they take no vote for granted.

And, actually, a big part of that is signaling that, because, as we have been saying, this is an incredibly close race.

It will, in all likelihood, continue to be a very close race.

And they can't look like they're just writing off a group of voters.

So, sure, they could go nuclear on all of RFK Jr.'s many liabilities and try to tie those to Trump, and they will do that too.

But this was sort of the conciliatory thing that you would expect, saying, we're a big tent.

Look at the convention.

They had all these Republicans for Trump.

Today, they announced another something like 200 Republicans for Trump.

They are building a stable of people who they hope will create a permission structure for people who feel uncomfortable with Trump to vote for Harris.

That's not the major thrust of the campaign, but it's just one of the many angles.

They're trying to scoop up little bits of voters.

(CROSSTALK) AMY WALTER: And it's a reminder that the Democratic coalition since Biden has really been one of bringing in voters who say, I don't know that I could really vote for Donald Trump to say, come on in, we are now part of that anti-Trump party.

We're the anti-Trump party.

(CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, you heard Lisa report earlier as well that there is another debate scheduled.

This time, it would be between Vice President Harris and former President Trump for later in September.

Mr. Trump is now casting doubt on whether he will actually take part in it.

So I have to ask, do you think it's going to happen?

And does it make an impact?

AMY WALTER: Yes.

Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: In what way?

AMY WALTER: I mean, to Tam's point, this is now a place where Donald Trump needs to change the direction of this campaign and the momentum of this campaign.

Back in June, it was Biden who wanted that debate, because he knew he was running behind.

Now it's Trump who wants to change the focus.

And, listen, ever since Harris got into this race, the Trump campaign has been very adamant, saying, look, she hasn't been tested yet.

She hasn't been pushed yet.

She hasn't sat down for an interview yet.

She hasn't had to make any specifics yet.

Let's see if she's able -- how she's able to do once she gets under the hot lights of having to answer a question that's not on a teleprompter, that's not scripted.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes, she has been conducting a one-way conversation with the American people.

It has not been a two-way conversation.

She hasn't been pressed.

And so a debate is an opportunity.

This interview that she has promised she will do by the end of August, and the end of August is soon, that will also be a two-way conversation.

And the Harris campaign clearly seems to want this debate to happen.

But they also are, I think, enjoying, I could say, getting under Trump's skin about it.

AMNA NAWAZ: What do you mean by that?

TAMARA KEITH: Well, implying that, well, his handlers don't want him to have the open mic.

He wants the mic shut down.

And so then Trump gets asked about it, and he's like, oh, no, I'd be perfectly happy with the mics being open.

And then that sort of blows up the negotiations in the behind-the-scenes debate about the debate.

AMNA NAWAZ: I feel like we will continue to have the debate about the debate until the debate actually happens.

(CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: Tamara Keith of NPR, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report, always great to see you both.

Thank you so much.

AMY WALTER: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: The punishing heat hitting much of the U.S. this week and the downpour that Hawaii is enduring are just the latest in what's been a relentless summer of extreme weather.

We spoke to people in different parts of the country about the impacts of these events and how they're thinking about the future.

KATIE SWICK, Vermont Resident: Six, eight inches of rain in 24 hours.

We're just -- we're not used to that.

BEN NGUYEN, Texas Resident: We bought a generator.

And I never thought I would need a generator after living here for 40 years.

BEVERLY BLACKWELL BOWEN, North Carolina Resident: As a farmer, this year has been a very difficult year.

LIZ LEIVAS, Arizona Resident: Right now, in the triple digits that we're hitting, it's a danger to be outside between 11:00 and 3:00 p.m. My name is Liz Leivas.

I live in Tempe, Arizona.

KATIE SWICK: My name is Katie Swick, and I live in Montpelier, Vermont.

BEN NGUYEN: My name is Ben Nguyen, and I live in Houston, Texas.

BEVERLY BLACKWELL BOWEN, North Carolina Resident: My name is Beverly Blackwell Bowen from Reidsville, North Carolina.

JUAN DECLET-BARRETO, Union of Concerned Scientists: My name is Juan Declet-Barreto.

I'm a senior social scientist for climate Vulnerability with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Danger season is the term that we use at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

It starts in May, ends in October.

The concerns around danger season are the increased frequency of extreme weather events that can occur back to back that can threaten the population an almost regular basis.

By May 7, almost 33 percent of the population had been under at least one extreme weather alert.

This number jumped to 50 percent, nearly 170 million people, by May 20.

And by June 22, that number had reached 95 percent.

That's very, very concerning.

LIZ LEIVAS: My family has been here for generations beyond when this place was a state or even a territory.

And I grew up outside playing outside.

But right now, you don't see kids playing outside.

I am eight months pregnant.

And one of the things that I discussed with my doctor when my feet started swelling is,how can I reduce it or what's causing it?

And so my doctor shared with me, well, the heat will actually cause it to swell.

So, if you're starting to swell now, and I was maybe three or four months in, they're going to be swollen, my feet, for the rest of the pregnancy.

And that was really hard to accept.

And so I ended up buying little ice packs that I wrap around my feet for the swelling.

KATIE SWICK: Last July, my home received 32 inches of water on the first floor.

We spent the next days and days emptying everything out of the home and piling it into the front yard.

And then...

There goes the blue chair.

... a few weeks later, watching it get all taken away by big cranes and dumpsters.

In December, the basement flooded again three feet.

And then this past July, the basement flooded again.

Having to figure out how to pay a mortgage and rent and get that money from FEMA, I have just spent so much time and energy trying to recover and not feel like -- instead of a disaster happening to me and not feeling like becoming the disaster.

BEN NGUYEN: As a property manager in Houston, taking care of single-family residential homes, we are managing things like sinks and doors needing to be adjusted and small repairs.

But over the last two years, we have shifted into this disaster recovery company, where we're going out, taking care of roofs and power outages, electrical surges, floods, you name it.

It's been very challenging.

We're shifting from living and enjoying to preparing and bracing.

All of that really just affects quality of life at the end of the day, how much we spend enjoying looking out the window versus stressed about packing a to-go bag.

None of that is exciting and fun.

BEVERLY BLACKWELL BOWEN: If I just look at the month of July alone,8 we had 20 or more days of 90-plus degree.

On top of the heat, we also had a drought condition.

With the hurricane that came through on August 8, we got probably a little over eight inches of rain.

I have been out there now on the farm eight years.

I have had to deal through tornado to storms.

So it's a challenge.

It's very difficult.

JUAN DECLET-BARRETO: One of the most sobering things that scientists have said is that we are not looking at the worst of climate change, but we are looking at the minimum sort of impacts that we will see during our lifetime and during the lifetime of our children.

LIZ LEIVAS: Arizona is in my blood.

It is my roots.

My family has been here for generations.

Although it is hot, I would never want to live where it is cold.

I love the state.

I love where I live.

But it's just -- it's getting harder to stay.

KATIE SWICK: I'm finding it very hard to make a decision of tearing down a 140-year-old house, or I elevate it and move back in and have to deal with fixing it up for the next two years.

Is it going to be high enough for the next time it happens?

I think about these things too much.

It wakes you up in the middle of the night wondering what to do.

BEN NGUYEN: Not once have I considered moving, until this year when the derecho and Hurricane Beryl came through.

Seeing the power outages, seeing the damage on the homes, seeing the excessive heat where A.C.s can't keep up anymore, it sparked me and my partner to look somewhere else to live.

And we just recently put an offer down in a house in the Seattle-Tacoma area.

And we're looking to make a big shift and a big move because we want the stability back.

BEVERLY BLACKWELL BOWEN: I don't see an ending at all, because each year it continues to get progressively worse.

You have got to be proactive.

You have got to be resilient.

And you pretty much have to think outside of the box now.

And how do we as farmers sustain long term?

I don't have the answers to it.

And it's very stressful to even think about.

AMNA NAWAZ: NASA's initial test launch with the Boeing Starliner capsule has not worked out well, to say the least.

The space agency announced this weekend it's finally decided that the two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, will come back on a SpaceX Dragon capsule next year instead.

The pair were initially sent on an eight day mission in early June.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the priority has to be safety of the astronauts.

BILL NELSON, NASA Administrator: Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and even at its most routine.

And a test flight, by nature, is neither safe nor routine.

And so the decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is a result of a commitment to safety.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, here to discuss the latest now is our science correspondent, Miles O'Brien.

So, Miles, we know NASA's been weighing whether to try to bring Suni and Butch home on the Boeing craft or a SpaceX craft.

What do we know about why they ultimately decided to go with SpaceX?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, Amna, they just couldn't be certain about the thrusters, which are key here.

Now, all of the people making these decisions, we should point out, lived through the searing tragedy of Columbia back in 2003, when the orbiter disintegrated on reentry.

It's really important that these thrusters work as advertised when they're supposed to, because it's a very unforgiving, risky portion of the flight, to say the least.

If they come in too hot, that's a problem.

If they come in with not enough speed, they could skip off the atmosphere.

So since they went through the testing, they tried to understand the problems with these thrusters, which manifested as they approached for docking, and they just don't feel confident that they know enough about why they failed to understand if they might be reliable enough to get the crew home.

And so, at that point, there was no logical or safety rationale to put two human beings at risk for this return of the Boeing Starliner.

So it will go back uncrewed.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Miles, if they can't be sure it's reliable, what does this mean for the future of the Starliner and also for Boeing's relationship with NASA?

I mean, will they still work on missions together?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, I mean, Boeing and its predecessor companies goes back to the very beginning of NASA, the first spacecraft.

They have been contractors on, you name it, just about every program, including the shuttle and the International Space Station for that -- for example.

There's no indication that there's going to be a separation of these two entities.

Boeing and NASA will probably continue to work together, highly likely.

Both -- leaders of both organizations are saying so.

What's really interesting right now is, what happens on the next flight for Starliner?

Will that be an uncrewed mission to test out these thrusters, which are so bulky?

Or will they allow astronauts to be a part of that next flight?

That's an open question.

AMNA NAWAZ: So an eight-day mission has now turned into a several-months-long mission.

If the decision has now been made about how Suni and Butch are going to get home, why will it take so long to actually bring them home?

Why until 2025?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, why is it "Gilligan's Island," people are asking, for sure.

Basically, there are no seats for them to return home on the spacecraft which are attached to the International Space Station.

They're not going home in the Starliner.

There's a SpaceX Dragon there, but no seats for them.

So what are the options?

Well, they could build a whole rocket for them to come pick them up, or, much more efficiently, a crew which is set to arrive next month is -- has -- it's a four-person crew.

Two of those crew members will stay home now, opening up two seats.

And Suni and Butch, for all intents and purposes, have been volunteered to be a part of this mission, which lasts six months into February.

So it's the most efficient for the flow of the space station, but probably not the most convenient for Butch or Suni.

(LAUGHTER) AMNA NAWAZ: To say the least.

What do we know about -- this is what's always top of my mind -- do they have what they need, Suni and Butch, who, again, planned for an eight-day mission?

Do they have what they need to get through these next several months, or is there going to be some kind of resupply mission to get them supplies?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, it's worth pointing out they went up without suitcases.

They had to make room for a piece of equipment to haul up to the space station to fix the water recycling system.

So they didn't even have a change of clothes.

Well, there's been a cargo mission arrive just a week or so ago with 8,600 pounds of stuff.

And at any given time, NASA has enough clothing, food, consumables for a four-person crew to last four months.

So there's plenty of stores up there.

That's not really the problem.

They will be fine.

They're not going to go hungry.

They will have clothing, et cetera.

But they do have a long mission ahead that they didn't anticipate.

AMNA NAWAZ: And what about that mission to come home as well?

I mean, the fact that they trained to go up and come back on a completely different craft than the one they will actually be coming back on, what does that mean logistically?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, well, the Dragon spacecraft is highly automated, and, obviously, the two-person crew which will fly up will be fully trained in SpaceX and Dragon functionality and the checklist, so to speak.

Suni and Butch are test pilots with a lot of experience.

They have flown on the shuttle, they have flown on the Soyuz, now the Boeing Starliner, and they will be in the history books when they go back on the Dragon, having flown in all four vehicles.

But given the fact that they have an experienced crew with them, and they are well-versed as test pilots, and they have plenty of time right now, I guess, to read the manual, I guess it'll be OK. (LAUGHTER) AMNA NAWAZ: Our science correspondent, Miles O'Brien.

Miles, always good to speak with you.

Thank you.

MILES O'BRIEN: Pleasure.

AMNA NAWAZ: Fifty years ago, a 26-year-old rural Maine schoolteacher wrote a horror novel titled "Carrie."

That man, Stephen King, has gone on to write more than 60 books since.

They have sold between 400 million to 500 million copies worldwide and have been turned into films like "The Shining," "Shawshank Redemption," "Stand By Me," and many more.

King invited our senior arts correspondent, Jeffrey Brown, to his main home to talk about his latest book of short stories called "You Like It Darker" and the long arc of his career.

It's part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

JEFFREY BROWN: In his new collection, Stephen King writes of the eerie, the unsettling, the otherworldly raising its head in this one.

He calls it "You Like It Darker," and he clearly does.

STEPHEN KING, Author: Darker means spooky.

It means scary.

It means let's exercise our unpleasant emotions for a while, because I think that people like the idea of opening the door and saying, I want it darker.

Do you want it darker?

OK, we're in agreement, and now let's go into the woods together.

JEFFREY BROWN: Millions of readers have taken that dark walk with King, but we had our own lighter one with the now-76-year-old.

STEPHEN KING: I feel a little bit like, if I was a car, I'd trade, you know?

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: Near his woods in Maine, a state where so many of his tales have been set.

STEPHEN KING: I love Maine.

I love the country.

I'm not much of a city kid.

I know the people.

And I think that they are stand-ins for people everywhere.

I'm going to write about regular people, ordinary people, in the best way that I know how.

JEFFREY BROWN: In the best way, even in their dark moments?

STEPHEN KING: I'm interested in what happens when regular people are suddenly confronted with something that's totally out of their wheelhouse, something that's entirely different.

I think that literature in quotation marks is about extraordinary people in ordinary circumstances.

And what I do are ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

JEFFREY BROWN: King himself grew up mostly in working-class rural Maine, his mother raising him and his brother after his parents divorced.

He began writing columns for his high school newspaper and then stories and more at the University of Maine, where he met Tabitha, another young writer, now his wife of 53 years.

Early on, the young couple took on a variety of jobs to make ends meet.

STEPHEN KING: I just wanted to support my family, to be able to say, I'm doing work.

My wife also worked.

She worked at Dunkin' Donuts.

She would come home smelling like a cruller.

(LAUGHTER) STEPHEN KING: And she looked so cute.

JEFFREY BROWN: "Carrie," the 1974 horror novel, and two years later, Brian De Palma-directed film changed everything, with Sissy Spacek as a shy, bullied high school girl with telekinetic powers.

Unforgettable revenge ensues.

In his 2000 book "On Writing," King tells of battling his own demons, early on with alcohol and drugs, later after a van hit him on one of his local walks, leading to years of pain and physical difficulties felt to this day.

Can one write darker without having a kind of darkness himself?

STEPHEN KING: Basically, I'm a perfectly nice fellow, good family man, good husband, good father, and all of this stuff that's on the dark side, it comes out in the stories.

And so it doesn't have to come out in life.

I used to think to myself, I could have been a very bad person, except for the stories that I tell takes off a lot of the pressure.

JEFFREY BROWN: Maybe that's how his stories work for all of us.

Whatever it is, Stephen King is as much a cultural icon as any American writer today.

So we got all these movie posters from your...

Especially when you consider the number of films and series made from his stories, around 100.

STEPHEN KING: My first editor, Bill Thompson, used to say, "Steve has a movie camera in his head."

JEFFREY BROWN: Oh, really?

STEPHEN KING: And the story... JEFFREY BROWN: Like you see the story in -- yes.

STEPHEN KING: Yes, the stories are very visual.

I grew up the first generation with movies and TV, and they made a big impression me.

So I have a tendency to see things, and that's part of the pleasure, is the seeing.

JEFFREY BROWN: More pleasure has come at times from rock 'n' roll, the Rock Bottom Remainders, a band King formed in the 90s with other writers, including Dave Barry and Amy Tan.

For all his success, King admits he wasn't always happy with the critical reception he got.

STEPHEN KING: There was a time when I felt like nobody will ever take me seriously as a writer's writer, just as somebody who makes money.

And it did make me angry, because it seemed to me that there was an underlying assumption about popular fiction, that if everybody reads it, it can't be very good.

I have never felt that way.

I have felt that people can read and enjoy on many different levels.

JEFFREY BROWN: But you got over worrying about that at some point, clearly.

STEPHEN KING: I got old.

And I think that probably a lot of the critics who didn't like my stuff are now dead, so (EXPLETIVE DELETED) them.

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: Bleep them.

STEPHEN KING: Yes, bleep them.

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: You also wrote in your book "On Writing," you wrote about not only being the story's creator, but its first reader.

You want to feel the suspense of the story yourself?

STEPHEN KING: Not only do I want to feel the suspense of the story, I want to relish the good parts.

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: You want to enjoy the good parts.

STEPHEN KING: Every now and then, you will say to yourself, I wrote a really good line there.

Oh, boy, that's really cool.

JEFFREY BROWN: But how does he do it and how generate so many ideas?

STEPHEN KING: I can't explain it.

That's the beautiful thing about what I do.

It's just like being belted by an idea.

JEFFREY BROWN: He cites the example of the story "Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream" in the new collection.

STEPHEN KING: I was getting out of bed one day, and I thought to myself, what if an ordinary guy had a psychic vision in a dream about where a body was buried, and actually went out there and found that body?

Would anybody believe that he had that vision, or would they think that he did it?

And... JEFFREY BROWN: All right, but wait a minute.

You just woke up thinking that?

STEPHEN KING: Yes.

Well, no, I didn't wake up thinking that.

I was putting on my pants when I had this idea, you know?

And I put them on one leg at a time.

And I had one leg in my pants.

And I had this idea.

And by the time I got the other leg in, I had almost the whole story.

See, and who wouldn't want to do something like that?

I mean, that's so trippy, but it is just the way that my mind works.

JEFFREY BROWN: Trippy, dark and clearly having a hell of a writing life.

STEPHEN KING: I'm very fortunate to be able to do what I do.

I love to tell stories.

And, in a way, I get paid for something that, in the words of the late John D. MacDonald, I would do for free.

OK, that's good.

JEFFREY BROWN: Coming soon in the Stephen King universe, several new film and TV adaptations of his work.

From the darker side in Western Maine, I'm Jeffrey Brown for the "PBS News Hour."

AMNA NAWAZ: And, online, we have more from Stephen King, including what he watches and reads when he's not writing.

That's on our YouTube channel.

Our Student Reporting Labs podcast called "On Our Minds" has a new season focused on the election and the youth vote.

Two new student hosts, Nico Fischer and Poojasai Kona, along with student reporters from around the country, talk with conservatives and liberals, experts and candidates about the political issues that matter most to young people.

NICO FISCHER: This election year is wild.

POOJASAI KONA: And it's drawing us apart.

NICO FISCHER: The elections affecting all of us, even those of us who are too young to vote.

POOJASAI KONA: On this special season of "On Our Minds," student reporters are asking: STUDENT: What does it mean to be an American?

STUDENT: Does my vote matter?

STUDENT: What is real or fake news?

POOJASAI KONA: We're having conversations with everyone.

NICO FISCHER: Conservatives.

POOJASAI KONA: Liberals.

NICO FISCHER: Experts.

POOJASAI KONA: And candidates.

NICO FISCHER: As Americans, we need to come together.

POOJASAI KONA: And the way to do that is by... POOJASAI KONA AND NICO FISCHER: ... listening.

NICO FISCHER: This is "On Our Minds: Election 2024."

POOJASAI KONA: A podcast by teens for teens.

NICO FISCHER: Produced by PBS News Student Reporting Labs.

POOJASAI KONA: Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us.

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