AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: The political impact of former President Trump's arraignment becomes clearer, as Republicans in one early voting state reacts to his legal troubles.

SARAH LONGWELL, Longwell Partners: They were very clear that the indictments actually made them want to support Trump more.

AMNA NAWAZ: And millions face hard financial questions, as the resumption of student loan payments approaches.

GEOFF BENNETT: Plus: Conflict and instability still grip Sudan, as multiple militia attacks a city in West Darfur.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

The Federal Reserve is hitting pause on its push for higher interest rates, at least for now.

The Central Bank today decided not to raise rates for the first time in 15 months.

AMNA NAWAZ: But the Fed also indicated it may still hike rates by another half-a-percentage point this year to slow growth and curb inflation.

Chairman Jerome Powell said that's because the latest economic data is stronger than expected.

JEROME POWELL, Federal Reserve Chairman: Growth estimates moved up a bit.

Unemployment estimates moved down a bit.

Inflation estimates moved up a bit.

And all three of those point in the same direction, which is that perhaps more restraint will be necessary than we had thought at the last meeting.

GEOFF BENNETT: The Fed's goal is to bring inflation down to a 2 percent annual level.

Right now, it's still running at twice that number.

Now to the day's other news.

Nearly 80 people drowned off the coast of Greece in one of the worst migrant disasters this year.

They had sailed from Libya on a fishing boat, trying to reach Italy, when the vessel sank.

As many as 500 people may have been on board.

More than 100 were rescued as the day progressed.

Survivors were taken to a warehouse in the Greek port city of Kalamata.

YANNIS KARVELIS, Greek Regional Health Director (through translator): It is indeed a tragic situation, a very difficult situation with a very large number of shipwrecked people, a number that I think we have not faced in the past to such an extent and volume.

GEOFF BENNETT: U.N. migration officials say more than 17,000 people have died or disappeared trying to cross the Central Mediterranean since 2014.

Officials in Northern Nigeria have confirmed at least 106 people died after their overcrowded boat capsized early Monday.

The boat was carrying up to 300 people back from a wedding when it overturned after hitting a log in the river.

Police say at least 144 people were rescued, and the search continued today.

In Ukraine, Russia stepped up aerial attacks overnight trying to blunt a counteroffensive by government forces.

In the south, new shelling in Odessa destroyed buildings and littered streets with shattered glass.

In the east, rescuers pulled people from wreckage left by missile strikes.

In all, at least six people were killed.

Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was honored today with a national day of mourning and a state funeral.

A somber procession took place inside the Duomo cathedral in Milan.

In his eulogy, the city's Roman Catholic archbishop acknowledged sharp divisions over Berlusconi's legacy.

MARIO DELPINI, Archbishop of Milan (through translator): When a man is a character, he is always on stage.

He has fans and detractors.

He has people cheering for him and people hating him.

He was a man with a desire for life.

GEOFF BENNETT: Outside, tens of thousands of supporters chanted Berlusconi's name and waved flags for A.C. Milan, the football club he once owned.

Berlusconi died Monday at the age of 86.

China announced a strategic partnership with the Palestinian Authority today, expanding its influence in the Middle East.

President Xi Jinping welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Beijing.

They signed an agreement to strengthen economic ties and promote an independent Palestinian state.

Lawmakers in Europe are moving to set the world's first broad rules on artificial intelligence.

The European Parliament voted today to ban certain types of A.I., such as facial recognition and public surveillance.

And ChatGPT and similar services must disclose all A.I.-generated content.

ROBERTA METSOLA, President, European Parliament: Going forward, we are going to have to need clear boundaries and limits on artificial intelligence.

And, here, there's one thing that we will not compromise on.

Any time technology advances, it must go hand in hand with our fundamental rights and democratic values.

GEOFF BENNETT: Separately, European Union regulators ordered Google to sell parts of its lucrative digital advertising business, in a bid to foster more competition.

The company said it will oppose the move.

At the White House, President Biden vetoed a bill that would block new rules on heavy-duty truck pollution.

Republicans in Congress have argued the rules will make trucks too expensive for small businesses.

The president said the mandates will reduce harmful air pollution and lead to fewer premature deaths.

A jury in Oregon says electric utility Pacific Corp must pay punitive damages in the Labor Day weekend fires of 2020.

The fires destroyed more than 5,000 buildings and killed nine people.

The jury found that downed power lines sparked the flames because the utility left them energized.

Today's verdict, plus an earlier finding, could run into the billions of dollars.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez filed paperwork today to enter the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

He did so just a day after former President Donald Trump appeared in a Miami court on federal charges.

The 45-year-old joins a crowded Republican field and is vying to be the first sitting mayor elected president.

Wall Street searched for direction today with the Fed announcement on interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 232 points to close it 33979.

The Nasdaq rose 53 points.

The S&P 500 gained just three points.

And the man who discovered that whales could sing has died.

Roger Payne passed away Saturday in Vermont.

Back in 1967, he realized the haunting sounds on an underwater recording were actually whales communicating through song.

He even produced an album called "Songs of the Humpback Whale" that galvanized global efforts to save them from extinction.

Roger Payne was 88 years old.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": the exiting White House COVID response coordinator on preparing for the next pandemic; killer whales exhibit strange behavior in encounters with boats off the coast of Spain; and the founder of a recycling nonprofit gives a Brief But Spectacular take on sustainable fashion.

AMNA NAWAZ: The news of former President Trump's federal indictment comes as the Republican primary field is very much still taking shape, and its potential impact on the 2024 race and Republican voters remains unclear.

Judy Woodruff was in Des Moines, Iowa, yesterday for her America at a Crossroads reporting project to listen in on a couple of voter discussions led by conservative pollster Sarah Longwell.

Since it was the day of the Trump arraignment, she made that the focus of the first of two reports on what Iowa Republicans are thinking.

This was produced with our friends at Iowa PBS.

SARAH LONGWELL, Longwell Partners: How many of that Donald Trump was indicted last week?

Raise your hand.

How many of you have heard that Donald Trump was indicted for a second time recently?

Everybody knows.

OK JUDY WOODRUFF: From the 16 Republican voters we gathered yesterday evening, there were strong reactions to the second indictment of former President Donald Trump.

RAMONA FISCUS, Republican Voter: I think he's being set up.

WOMAN: Oh, yes.

Yes.

SARAH LONGWELL: Tell me why.

RAMONA FISCUS: Well, it's just too arranged.

Everything is just too arranged.

And when the FBI went in and raided his property at Mar-a-Lago, how do we know what they did and what they didn't do?

JUDY WOODRUFF: We had asked pollster Sarah Longwell, who also publishes the center-right Web site The Bulwark, to assemble two panels of GOP voters in the studio of Iowa PBS.

I observed from the control room as she asked how they're thinking about politics, policy, and current events at this moment, when candidates are already descending upon their state ahead of next year's caucuses, and as the news of the second Trump indictment had been breaking.

SOPHIA DETLEFSEN, Republican Voter: It's baloney.

(LAUGHTER) SOPHIA DETLEFSEN: I think, I mean, just why isn't Biden indicted?

Just because he gave them back at an appropriate time?

I mean, really?

He did exactly the same thing.

MATT THOMPSON, Republican Voter: You have a current president who is siccing all of the DOJ on a potential candidate, that's never happened.

SARAH LONGWELL: They really feel like the country is going in the wrong direction.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Afterwards, Longwell, who has conducted hundreds of hours of sessions like these across the country, helped guide me through the discussion.

What most struck you in these two conversations with Iowa voters who have supported Donald Trump for the last two presidential elections?

SARAH LONGWELL: I was actually struck mainly by how much they sound like every other focus group I do with two-time Trump voters.

They were very clear that the indictments actually made them want to support Trump more, which is really consistent.

I mean, we have been asking people for several months, how are you -- how does it make you feel when you hear that Trump's indicted?

Does it make you want to support him more, support him less?

Out of the 58 people that we have asked, 26 of them said it makes them want to support Donald Trump more.

Only two said less.

They're a little bit mixed on whether Trump is exactly the right person to be the person who comes back, but, still, after January 6, after the indictments, after everything, still a lot of support for Donald Trump.

How many of you distrust the FBI?

MATT THOMPSON: The three-letter agencies, the DOJ, the CIA, the FBI, I think when the country was formulated, the best of intent was to put some of these organizations or governing bodies in place.

But how they're being manipulated now and they're being weaponized is the bigger concern.

KEVEN ARROWSMITH, Republican Voter: I'm kind of frustrated by it, because, on one side, it seems like were all going all out on President Trump.

And, on the other side, the wheels of justice are going very slow, doesn't seem to be like equal amount of resources being devoted to looking into Hunter Biden's laptop.

PETER CRABBS, Republican Voter: And what about Hillary Clinton?

(CROSSTALK) PETER CRABBS: I mean, Hillary Clinton had all this stuff, and she was never indicted.

BRENT BEAN, Republican Voter: You have got the DOJ, you have got the FBI reporting up to Biden.

Ultimately, this goes up to Biden.

So why wouldn't you want to take out your toughest political opponent?

And this is election interference like we have never seen before, and its disguised as, Trump's a bad guy.

SARAH LONGWELL: How many of you wanted Hillary Clinton to be indicted for her -- OK. Did you think she should go to jail?

WOMAN: Yes.

SARAH LONGWELL: She did?

WOMAN: Absolutely.

WOMAN: Yes.

SARAH LONGWELL: Because Trump at the time said that she should go to jail for mishandling classified information.

MAN: Yes.

SARAH LONGWELL: Do you think he should be held to the same standard that he was setting for Hillary Clinton, or do you think that it's different for some reason?

NOLA RYAN, Republican Voter: I think he said that.

When you understand his personality and how he words things, he said that in jest.

He didn't -- I think he's just trying to paint a word picture.

But should she have gotten some sort of punishment?

Yes.

Yes, I think so.

MATT THOMPSON: He's entitled to declassify whatever he wants to declassify.

So -- and other presidents that have left office have had classified documents.

They were not treated the same way as Donald Trump is being treated.

It is a two-tiered justice system in this country, for sure.

There's no doubt about it.

SARAH LONGWELL: The biggest thing is that they really don't have a lot of faith or trust in the FBI or in the Department of Justice to prosecute this fairly.

And I hear this always from Republican groups, and you hear it from Republican elected officials too.

And the conservative media really talks about this.

They say they're out to get Trump.

There's a two-tiered justice system.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And bringing up the Hillary Clinton... SARAH LONGWELL: Right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: .. .server, the classified documents, that other -- that President Biden took home, for example.

SARAH LONGWELL: Yes, which you can see, actually.

I mean, Joe Biden, there's been a lot of classified documents that they found on his properties.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

SARAH LONGWELL: Mike Pence, they found classified on his properties, Mike Pence.

And so, for voters, they oftentimes think, well, I don't understand.

It seems like a lot of these elected officials keep taking classified documents home.

And they don't always see the difference between Trump being told, hey, you have to return those documents, and then refusing to do so or lying to the FBI when he was asked.

JUDY WOODRUFF: That deep-seated distrust extended to the 2020 election results and their aftermath too.

SARAH LONGWELL: How many of you believe Joe Biden was legitimately elected president of the United States?

How many of you believe that the election was stolen or rigged in some way?

OK, everybody.

What about January 6?

How do people feel about January 6?

WOMAN: Setup.

WOMAN: Yes.

WOMAN: Setup, 100 percent setup.

(CROSSTALK) PETER CRABBS: You go look at the videos showing the Capitol Police walking these people through the Capitol, talking, no problems whatsoever.

And then they turn around and say, they attacked us, in essence.

The videos show a whole different story than what they're saying happened.

MARY CIRLIGEL, Republican Voter: I personally don't think that, like, he was calling people to like, do -- like, I watched like what he said and everything.

And, like, I mean, he didn't say anything to me, like, in watching it, that was like, oh, yes, he's telling them to go and, like, storm the Capitol.

(CROSSTALK) MARY CIRLIGEL: Like, I didn't feel -- I personally didn't feel like that, that what he said was so inflammatory that he was just trying to, like, tear the country apart.

MAN: And they are still arresting people two years since it happened.

KEVEN ARROWSMITH: He loves this country.

I can't believe that somebody that loves this country would want to cause people to fight like that.

And he is against wars.

(CROSSTALK) RON MCFARLAND, Republican Voter: He is not the typical politician.

And his words aren't what we call polished.

And he will just blurt it out.

SARAH LONGWELL: Do people want to vote for a Republican candidate who is committed to pardoning the people from January 6?

MAN: Yes.

WOMAN: Absolutely.

WOMAN: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Returning to Trump's own legal battles, it seems very little of what comes next will sway this group.

SARAH LONGWELL: So, let's say Trump is found guilty of these charges.

He goes through the courts and they find him guilty.

Raise your hand if it makes you support him more.

Raise your hand if it makes you support him less.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And President Trump retained some measure of support even among those who think he likely committed a crime.

BRIAN ALLEN, Republican Voter: I read the indictment, and it's plain as day that he broke the law knowingly.

Whether the DOJ came after him, which I think is very plausible, and why they're ignoring Hunter Biden's laptop, I think, is a separate issue.

But it is clear he broke the law, and I think it's time for him to go away.

And I appreciated for what he did for the country during his four years.

But I think that he is part of the problem.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But when asked if he would vote for Trump if he was the nominee running against Biden... SARAH LONGWELL: If Trump's the nominee versus Biden, what would you do?

BRIAN ALLEN: I would vote for him for the third time.

SARAH LONGWELL: You would.

BRIAN ALLEN: I think that it's that significant.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, given that and the fact that there are potentially more indictments to come against former President Trump, where are we headed?

SARAH LONGWELL: Well, it's a little counterintuitive, but one of the things about Donald Trump, and this has been true whether its his two impeachments, or whether it is now his second indictment, there's this thing that happens that I call the rally-around-Trump effect, where Republican voters, when he -- they feel like he's being attacked, they tend to support him even more.

And so that's -- it creates kind of an energy that also allows Trump to really suck up all the oxygen.

We're always talking about Trump.

And so, ultimately, it does tend to help him that.

If he continues to get indicted, we continue to talk about Trump all the time, it's really difficult for some of these other 2024 challengers to make an affirmative case for themselves.

You can sort of see why, from listening to the voters.

They don't like when people attack Trump.

JUDY WOODRUFF: With so much yet to unfold, and more than six months to go before the Iowa caucuses, these focus groups and a consensus of polls suggest President Trump, despite his troubles, or because of them, holds on to his lead in a crowded Republican field.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Judy Woodruff in Des Moines, Iowa.

AMNA NAWAZ: And in weeks ahead, Judy will hear more from these Iowa Republican voters about the state of the country, our divisions, and what a path forward looks like.

She will be visiting other states to hear from panels of Democratic voters as well.

GEOFF BENNETT: In just a matter of days, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on whether President Biden's plan for student debt forgiveness can go forward.

It comes at a major moment for borrowers, who may have to restart those loan payments this fall.

William Brangham gets some perspective about those concerns and what borrowers may need to think about.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The president's plan would forgive as much as $20,000 of student loan debt for many borrowers.

Before that plan was put on hold, over 16 million people were approved for that forgiveness.

And, if enacted, that could cost the government as much as $400 billion.

While that's been playing out, for three years since the start of the pandemic, interest and principal payments on federal student loans have been paused, but they're set to resume in just a few months.

All this has left a lot borrowers worrying about what's ahead.

Here's what a few of them told us.

And none of these people are just out of school.

They work in education and for local government agencies.

DANIEL CASSELY, Massachusetts: My name is Daniel Cassely, and I'm located in South Weymouth, Massachusetts.

CAROLANNE FRY, Oregon: My name is Carolanne Fry.

And I'm a fourth-generation Oregonian living in Portland Oregon.

CHRISTOPHER WATERS, Delaware: My name is Christopher Waters.

I am located in Wilmington, Delaware.

DANIEL CASSELY: If the Supreme Court does wind up striking down the Biden forgiveness program, it's just going to prolong the things that I'm looking forward to really in life, being able to retire maybe sooner, helping my son, who is 11, to be able to go to college.

CAROLANNE FRY: Yes, it's going to be a lot of recalculating, definitely tightening.

Won't be able to put money into savings, which is very scary for me as, like, a single person living more paycheck to paycheck.

CHRISTOPHER WATERS: I think having that burden come back, and not having any type of relief, would be almost catastrophic, as costs have gone up, as prices have gone up, as the cost of education has even gone up over the years.

DANIEL CASSELY: Paying almost $400 a month for the next 12, 13 years is a lot of money.

CAROLANNE FRY: I think that my payments will probably be about $400 hours a month, which is quite a significant amount of money for me.

I live alone.

CHRISTOPHER WATERS: For me, finance will most definitely tighten up.

There would be almost an instant -- a bill due instantly, and a lot of money that, for me personally is -- for me personally is a lot of money.

DANIEL CASSELY: I do see the benefits of going to college.

However, it needs to be a very financially stable way to do things.

CAROLANNE FRY: Getting that college education was so key to me having some stability in my life.

And I feel like I had to take out that debt.

CHRISTOPHER WATERS: When I -- I think of myself, when I went to undergrad, my undergrad total cost me, at most, $25,000.

If my -- if my children decide to go to the same university, it would cost them about $125,000 for the same -- for the same university.

CAROLANNE FRY: Even with the $20,000 that is in front of the Supreme Court right now, debt forgiveness, I would still have about $30,000 in debt left over.

CHRISTOPHER WATERS: I haven't been on an income payment plan since almost like March 2020.

And that pause has allowed me to put money in other places, the rising cost of rent, rising cost of food, rising costs of just everything.

And incorporate -- incorporate a payment of $300 back into my budget every month would be would be -- would be -- it'd be almost the same as almost if I bought another car.

CAROLANNE FRY: We elected President Biden with this promise of the student loan forgiveness.

And I don't know when he promised that if he fully knew it could go through.

Like, we were all just hoping.

But it's really looking bleak.

And there are a lot of people who are significantly depending on that forgiveness.

And to have that kind of rug pulled out from underneath them is not going to be a good look.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, given these potentially significant changes, we wanted to get some perspective on how borrowers ought to be planning.

Julia Carpenter focuses on that for The Wall Street Journal, and she joins us now.

Julia, thank you so much for being here.

As we were hearing, these federal student loan payments were suspended at the start of the pandemic, and then they kept getting renewed and renewed and renewed and renewed.

Is there any chance that they could get renewed again?

JULIA CARPENTER, The Wall Street Journal: President Biden said earlier this year that payments will resume in the summer.

And now that we know there is a Supreme Court decision looming on forgiveness, that is almost impossible that we would see another delay.

We know now August 30 is when payments are set to resume, and people will have until October to make payments.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, how many people are we talking about that are going to suddenly see, as we were just hearing from those three, they're going to suddenly start to see these payments come due?

JULIA CARPENTER: Millions.

Millions.

I mean, fewer than 2 percent of borrowers continued making payments on their student loans during the payment pause on interest accrual.

And everyone else took the pause as an opportunity to either get their financial lives in order during the pandemic or a break in interest, which had been ballooning their balances.

So, some 30 million people are going to see their accounts resume as of August.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And so, as you're saying, broadly speaking, what did people do with those savings?

Did people bank any of that?

Did most people just start to spend more?

Did -- I mean, inflation, obviously chewed into some of that as well.

JULIA CARPENTER: I talked to a lot of borrowers who saved it.

I talked to a lot of borrowers who said, finally, this is my chance to put this money away, save for a rainy day, stock up that emergency fund I have always been told that I should have.

But I talked to a ton of borrowers who said it just disappeared.

They saw their grocery bills higher.

They saw their car payment higher.

They started going back to the office, and they were paying more on gas than they had been in months previous.

And the money that they had intentionally earmarked for student loans was sort of sucked up into the day-to-day expenses.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, separately, we are -- as you were mentioning, this Supreme Court ruling is coming any day now.

Can you just remind us what President Biden wanted to do and then what the court might do?

JULIA CARPENTER: The original plan promised $10,000 to borrowers with federal student loans with income under $125,000.

And for couples, that's slightly different.

If you were a Pell Grant recipient, you are eligible for up to $20,000 in forgiveness, again, same income restrictions.

So qualified borrowers would see their balances lowered as a result of this plan, which, of course, now is being debated.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, I know you're not a financial adviser and don't even play one on TV.

But I know you have talk to a lot of them for your job.

What should people be doing who might have these sudden payments reappearing on their - - on their balance sheets?

What should they be doing in advance of this?

JULIA CARPENTER: Every financial adviser I spoke to about this had the same advice, which was, hope for the best, plan for the worst.

So, if you're a qualified borrower, if you would be eligible for up to $20,000 in forgiveness, these financial advisers are saying to plan as though you won't be getting forgiveness.

That way, should forgiveness be ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, you won't be taken by surprise.

You will have planned in advance.

Looking at your cash flow, looking at your existing financial plan, and seeing where you could cut or where you could move money or where you could reallocate in order to free up room for that payment to be reabsorbed is the best-case scenario.

And then, if the plan is ruled constitutional, and you receive forgiveness, then you still plan for the worst and you won't be taking those risks.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Do you think -- this touches back on this larger financial literacy issue.

Do you think borrowers get enough advice and education to understand how interest payments work and how -- what they're really signing up for when they sign up?

JULIA CARPENTER: I always ask that question when I interview borrowers.

I always ask them to go back to when they were 18, when they were deciding where to go to college and how much they would be paying for college.

And, without exception, every single person says they wish they had had greater education as to that question.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The point of going into debt, obviously, is to go to college, and then you get a better job, theoretically, and better income, and you can pay that debt off.

Do we generally know, as a society, how that has panned out for people?

I mean, has it been a wise investment for most people?

JULIA CARPENTER: We know that people with college degrees attain higher incomes.

That's clear.

But what we don't know is how student loan balances affect that earning power over time.

I was just interviewing someone earlier today who attended one year of college and is still carrying a student loan balance as a result.

So, if you have accrued debt as a result of attending some college, those are the people who are often hurting the most.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Right.

The critics of student loan forgiveness argue, you knew what you were signing up for, to some extent.

It is not the government's job to bail you out if you got over your skis with these kinds of payments.

What do advocates of forgiveness say in response to that?

JULIA CARPENTER: I speak with a lot of borrowers who say that interest is the enemy here, that they have watched their student loan balances grow, that their incomes have not been able to keep up with payments, that their earning power has stagnated, and they would love nothing more than to be able to eliminate this debt and pay down their loans.

But, as a result of the interest, they're unable to.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Julia Carpenter of The Wall Street Journal, thank you so much for helping us wade through this.

JULIA CARPENTER: Thank you for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: A pro-democracy regional governor was assassinated today in Sudan, as fighting intensifies between Sudan's armed forces and the rebel Rapid Support Forces.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed during two months of fighting.

Nearly two million people have fled their homes, and hundreds of thousands of people have escaped to neighboring countries like Egypt, Chad, Ethiopia, and South Sudan.

U.S.- and Saudi-led talks to broker an end to the war have so far failed.

Meantime, as Stephanie Sy tells us, nearly half of Sudan's remaining population is in dire humanitarian need.

STEPHANIE SY: Gunfire, explosions, men with guns now rule the Sudanese capital, these are the sounds and sights of civil war.

Khartoum is a city burning with thick plumes of smoke and violence everywhere.

A power struggle between Sudan's armed forces and its rival faction, the Rapid Support Forces, has turned residential streets into war zones.

Not even children are spared.

The smallest coffins are the heaviest.

Last month, the state-run Al Mygoma Orphanage said nearly 70 children had died of fever and starvation, including two dozen babies.

DR. ABDALLAH ADAM, Mygoma Orphanage: Sadly, I witnessed most of the their deaths and funerals.

So, our message to the world, evacuate the orphans from Khartoum to a safe city with a safe pathway.

STEPHANIE SY: Nearly 300 children who survived at the orphanage were rescued by a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

But 14 million children in Sudan remain trapped and in urgent need of lifesaving support.

Yet the warring factions attack hospitals and loot aid warehouses, further crippling essential infrastructure already on the brink of collapse.

More than 70 percent of medical centers in Khartoum and adjoining cities have shut down since the war began.

Thousands have fled, Nada Elwasila.

NADA ELWASILA, Escaped From Sudan: It was terrible and terrifying, scary, the hours, the days that they went through, with all the sound of missiles and gunshot and screaming, and crying.

STEPHANIE SY: Elwasila, an American citizen, was trapped in Khartoum.

She escaped with her 11-year-old daughter, Amira (ph), in a harrowing week-long journey to Port Sudan on the Red Sea and then to Saudi Arabia.

NADA ELWASILA: If you didn't roll down the window, the car window, real fast, they may kill you, shoot you.

All my concern was my little girl.

Like, I can fight until I get killed before they rape me.

But what about her?

What is going to happen if I die and she is on their hands?

STEPHANIE SY: It's been impossible to shield her daughter from the horrors of war.

NADA ELWASILA: They were two little girls got killed by missiles.

And she saw that.

I didn't mean to let her see that, but she didn't sleep all night.

And she, like, was holding me and crying.

Why they got killed?

Why this war is going on?

Why?

What's going on in Sudan?

STEPHANIE SY: Here, another mother who fled for survival.

MUHJAH KHATEEB, Escaped From Sudan: I realized Khartoum is not a safe place for us anymore.

STEPHANIE SY: Muhjah Khateeb once worked at a refugee camp in Khartoum and is now a refugee herself.

She fled with her son Tijuba (ph) in South Sudan.

MUHJAH KHATEEB: The health situation is so bad.

I lost one of my relatives because of asthma, because she couldn't get a hospital.

STEPHANIE SY: She worries for those left behind.

MUHJAH KHATEEB: Sudan is facing a starvation crisis.

People in Khartoum are starving.

STEPHANIE SY: The power struggle in Khartoum has reignited the conflict in West Darfur.

The very schools that were once shelters for the internally displaced have been burned to the ground.

Darfur is a state the size of Spain and Western Sudan bordering Chad.

It has been the epicenter of conflict for over two decades.

In 2003, interethnic violence was brutally crushed by the government-backed Janjaweed Arab militia, leaving 300,000 civilians dead.

The Janjaweed gave birth to the RSF, which, along with other Arab militias, is behind the recent and ongoing slaughter of civilians in Darfur.

The "NewsHour" received videos from local human rights activists from the worst-hit city of El Geneina late last month, before widespread power outages and communication blackouts isolated Darfur.

"This used to be a mosque.

There are grave human rights violations," the man who shot this video says.

Satellite images confirm entire villages have been reduced to ashes, crucial civilian infrastructure, government buildings, courts and markets all destroyed.

Today, the governor of West Darfur, Khamis Abakar, was killed in El Geneina by the RSF.

This video purportedly shows the moment he was taken.

He had accused the group of genocide.

Nearly 1,000 civilians have been killed in Darfur.

Getting information has been challenging, but, over the past two weeks, the "NewsHour" has been able to obtain pictures and audio messages from people trapped there.

AYESHA YAHYA, Sudan (through translator): There is a big catastrophe in West Darfur.

We aren't able to find water to drink or food.

We go five to six days without finding food to eat.

Those who are injured have no hospitals to go to.

We don't have any of the resources we need here in West Darfur.

STEPHANIE SY: The latest reports from Darfur-based activists warn of sexual violence and an acute health care crisis.

ABDEL MONEM ABDALLAH, Sudan: WE were near El Geneina when the attacks started.

We couldn't even find a midwife to deliver my pregnant sister.

STEPHANIE SY: This message came in Monday.

JAMAL ABDALLAH KAHMIS, Sudan (through translator): Seventeen people are dead and 37 injured right around us.

We're all confined to one area of less than a mile.

The biggest crisis is that there's no food or medicines.

In hospitals, all surgeries have stopped for four days because of a lack of oxygen and anesthesia.

STEPHANIE SY: It's an SOS call.

JAMAL ABDEL, Sudan (through translator): We have tried to send you photos and videos, but we weren't able to.

The situation is very bad.

The health situation is the worst.

We hear of cases of cholera.

We are in dire need of help.

There's blood and filth and dead animals on the streets and the fires are always raging.

STEPHANIE SY: With international humanitarian organizations having no access to Darfur, at least 100,000 refugees have crossed the border on foot and horseback to Chad.

But with the rainy season approaching there and services strained in already crowded camps, it is far from a sanctuary.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the earliest days of the pandemic, when little was definitively known about COVID-19, Dr. Ashish Jha emerged as an authoritative and trusted voice on public health and the other controversial issues.

Today, he's the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, a job he's held for over a year.

But with the public health emergency officially over, he's leaving the Biden administration this week and returning to his role as the dean of Brown University's Public School of Health.

Before he leaves Washington, he joins us here now.

Welcome, Dr. Jha.

Thanks for being here.

DR. ASHISH JHA, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator: Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, the public health emergency is officially over.

Your last day is tomorrow.

DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: Should people take this to mean they no longer have to worry about COVID?

DR. ASHISH JHA: People should take this to mean that we're in a much better place with COVID.

And we are, right?

Infections, hospitalizations, death, all of them are some of the lowest level that we have seen in the pandemic.

We have widespread availability of vaccines and treatments.

We're at a point where we can manage this virus.

Of course, the virus can still take unexpected turns as it has.

And we have spent a lot of time in the last year preparing in case that happens.

And if that happens, we will be ready for that too.

AMNA NAWAZ: Where we are right now is still with something like over 750 people still dying a week of COVID, about 100 a day.

Correct me if my numbers are wrong.

Is that our new normal?

We should expect those numbers to continue?

DR. ASHISH JHA: It is about 100 a day.

I still think that's too high.

It is some of the lowest we have seen in the pandemic, but still too high, because, if you just annualize it, it's 36,000 deaths a year.

That's a lot.

I think we can continue to drive that number lower.

We know what to do, keeping -- getting people up to date on their vaccines, treatments.

If we do those things, 90 percent of the deaths that are still happening, people were not up to date on their vaccines.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, let's talk about that, then, because the virus has shown the ability to continue mutating.

You have said this before.

Current vaccination rates among Americans, only 17 percent of Americans have gotten that new updated bivalent booster.

How worried are you about another spike from another more dangerous variant?

DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes, so it's certainly possible.

It's hard to predict.

And I think none of us would have predicted Omicron when it first showed up.

So it is hard to predict what's going to happen with the virus.

What we know is, the vaccines, as long as people stay up to date, remain terrific at preventing serious illness.

They are extraordinarily good.

So we have to keep that message going.

I think we have to keep educating the American people, particularly important for higher-risk people, seniors, those who are immunocompromised, but really good for everybody.

AMNA NAWAZ: But those numbers do remain so low when it comes to uptake on the boosters.

I mean, why do you think that is?

You have talked before about misinformation playing a role, but also the fact that a lot of people saw, when vaccines didn't necessarily prevent transmission, they got sick, they got better, it was sort of like vindication.

They don't need to get the shot.

DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: At this stage, how do you convince people to get that shot?

DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes.

Yes.

So there are a couple of things.

I mean, first of all, I agree that, like, not as many people got vaccinated as I had hoped, as we -- I think we all had hoped, everybody in public health.

I think there's a couple of things there.

One is, of course, people had gotten a lot of COVID vaccines in the months leading up to it.

So it's not like a new thing.

And so a lot of people felt like, well, I have gotten my two shots or three shots.

Maybe I'm OK.

The second is, Amna, there has been just a tremendous amount of bad information out there about these vaccines.

And that has made it much harder to break through.

We have tried.

I know that people in public health community, physician leaders have tried.

It has been hard.

My hope is, moving forward, that we get to a point where we're likely to have a new vaccine this fall.

And FDA will make that decision.

People go and get their annual flu vaccine, if they see this as a routine part of care.

I don't -- every time I get a flu vaccine, I don't think, is this my 28th flu shot or 29th flu -- I just think, it's my annual flu shot.

AMNA NAWAZ: Right.

DR. ASHISH JHA: For most people, if they think of it as their annual COVID vaccine, they get it when they get their flu shot, I think it'll make it an important difference.

AMNA NAWAZ: If it should be something that's is annual, as FDA seems to indicate it will be, is that the kind of thing you think states should start to, say, require for children, the same way they do for other immunizations?

DR. ASHISH JHA: You know, this is going to be a decision by local districts, schools, states.

Flu shots are largely not required by very many folks, except in health care.

So, as a physician, my hospital has required a flu shot every year.

I would have gotten in anyway, but I was required to.

I think you will see that in a lot of facilities, in a lot of health care facilities.

But the flu shot COVID shot, both of them are going to end up being things that are going to make an enormous difference.

And I think you're going to see strong encouragement.

I don't know that we're going to see a lot of requirements.

I think some local districts might decide to do that.

But I think that's probably not likely.

AMNA NAWAZ: I want to ask you about long COVID too, because I don't think we talked enough about it sometimes.

There's some studies that have said something like 16 million Americans have some version of long COVID, maybe 65 million people worldwide.

What kind of resources and support should be made available... DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: ... considering the potential health care impact this is going to have on us?

DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes, that's a great question.

Look, first of all, long COVID is a real phenomenon.

We know people, when they get infected, a small proportion of those people end up having substantial symptoms that can be quite debilitating for the long run.

Here's what we know about long COVID.

We know that if you're up to date on your vaccines, you're much less likely to get long COVID.

So that's good news.

There's some preliminary evidence, if you get treated during your initial course of infection, that may reduce your list -- risk of long COVID.

That all said, there's still many Americans who have it.

My view is, there are two or three things.

One is, we need a lot more research - - and NIH is driving a lot of this research - - on understanding long COVID.

It's probably various -- it's multiple conditions, not one.

We're going to see trials of new therapies against long COVID.

And then, of course, we need to provide support for people, both in health care and, if they're really disabled, their disability support.

All of that, the administration is very focused on.

The president has tasked us to develop a comprehensive plan that the administration is working on to take care of people with long COVID.

AMNA NAWAZ: Are we better prepared today than we were 14 months ago, when you took office, than we were at the beginning of the pandemic, for the next pandemic?

Are we better prepared?

DR. ASHISH JHA: Undoubtedly.

Undoubtedly.

So, it's interesting.

I mean, even among my public health friends, there's a little bit of fashion of like, oh, we're even worse off than we were three-and-a-half years ago.

That is just not true.

Let me make the case.

First, we have built up over the last two-and-a-half years -- under this administration, we have built up a national wastewater surveillance system that allows us to have a much better understanding of what viruses are spreading in which communities.

We did not have that three-and-a-half years ago.

Our testing infrastructure is better.

We have developed and invested in building and manufacturing vaccines in the United States.

So, the next time there's a new pandemic, if we can quickly develop a new vaccine, we can manufacture enough not just for America, but for the world.

We have made substantial investments.

Are we fully prepared for future pandemics?

No.

There's a lot of work still to do.

We need resources to do a lot of that work.

And that's why partnership with Congress is important.

But we are undoubtedly better than where we were.

AMNA NAWAZ: When you look back at what we have lived through, right, since January of 2020, over six million Americans have been hospitalized due to COVID.

Over one million Americans died.

DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: Over a million Americans died, and the enormity of that data does not seem to line up with where we are day to day in our reality right now.

In some parts of the country, it's almost like it never happened, to some degree.

How do you, in your role, how do you reflect on that?

DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes, so my reflections are, first, it has been an enormous toll on the American people, 1.1 million Americans.

If you think about it, their family, their friends, it has affected tens of millions of Americans very directly, that loss of that loved one.

I think it is -- I think we are starting to see some people try to do a little revisionism of, it was never that bad, we should have never done any of the things that we did to try to protect people.

And I remind them we had refrigerated trucks outside of hospitals because the morgues were full.

So, I think it has been incredibly costly.

I think we have to learn the lessons to make sure we are better prepared.

That is the best way to honor the folks, the people who have passed away and we have suffered in this pandemic.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Dr. Ashish Jha, the outgoing COVID-19 White House response coordinator.

Dr. Jha, thank you so much.

DR. ASHISH JHA: Thank you for having me here.

GEOFF BENNETT: A small group of orcas is causing a lot of damage to boats off the Iberian Peninsula, raising questions about why the orcas are doing it.

Stephanie Sy looked into it and has this report.

STEPHANIE SY: In the middle of the night last October, Artur Napoleao was sailing miles off the coast of Portugal to deliver a boat to a client.

As a professional skipper and sail instructor, it's a journey he's taken many times before.

ARTUR NAPOLEAO, Professional Skipper and Sail Instructor: At 4:00 a.m., it was my turn to go to sleep.

So, I went down.

I start taking my nap, and, 30 minutes later, boom.

STEPHANIE SY: He ran up to the deck to find the boat surrounded by a pod of orcas.

ARTUR NAPOLEAO: They mess around for five minutes, and then they went to another boat more far away from me, like one, two miles.

STEPHANIE SY: But the pod returned, not once, but three times, the visits spanning over several hours, well after sunrise.

ARTUR NAPOLEAO: I got really scared, until I realized, until I saw the orcas and see their moments and how gentle they were when I stopped the boat.

STEPHANIE SY: In the past three years, hundreds of boat and orca interactions have been reported off the coasts of Portugal, Spain, and Morocco.

According to the Spanish research group GTOA, in 2022, there were 207 reported interactions in the Strait of Gibraltar alone.

The strait is a narrow waterway that separates Spain and Morocco.

And the meetings are not always gentle.

Just last month, killer whales surrounding a boat sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar were met with loud noises, an attempt by the crew to scare them off.

The pod rammed the boat continuously for over an hour, managing to remove the rudder.

With seawater gushing into the boat, the experienced crew of four issued a mayday call, and were eventually towed to shore unharmed.

In another recent instance off the coast of Spain, three orcas repeatedly struck a yacht, causing it to sink entirely after Spanish Coast Guards rescued the crew on board.

RUI ALVES, Creator, Orcas.pt: We are having one incident every day, on average, OK?

There are days we have two or three.

STEPHANIE SY: To better track these events, Rui Alves started this Web site last year to log orca encounters.

It connects a network of sailors who share geographic locations of sightings and attacks along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts.

This map shows incidents reported just this month.

RUI ALVES: So, for me, it was an idea.

If you spread the word about something that happens in an area, people will avoid that area.

Maybe they will keep the boat and say, I don't sail today because there are many orcas at that point.

I will sail tomorrow, or maybe I will go in another direction.

STEPHANIE SY: Orcas living near the Iberian Peninsula are a distinct subpopulation and a critically endangered one.

But why these orcas are repeatedly damaging boats is something experts are trying to understand.

One theory making the rounds?

Revenge.

Some scientists believe an orca named White Gladis suffered a traumatic injury from a boat, and may be teaching other orcas how to attack similar vessels.

But Monika Wieland Shields, director of the Orca Behavior Institute, says that kind of activity would be uncharacteristic of the animal she studies.

Play is a more likely explanation, she says.

MONIKA WIELAND SHIELDS, President, Orca Behavior Institute: It's just not something that we have seen, for whatever reason.

They're the top predator in the ocean.

They're capable of attacking and killing all kinds of species that are around them.

But they have never targeted that talent or that predator-like behavior towards humans.

STEPHANIE SY: Despite the killer whale nickname, orcas are the largest species in the dolphin family, and no humans have yet to report major injuries from the boat confrontations.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

AMNA NAWAZ: Camille Tagle is the co-founder and creative director of FABSCRAP, which is a textile recycling nonprofit.

Textiles generate 21 billion pounds of waste that goes into landfills every year, and FABSCRAP works to divert that waste either by downcycling or giving the fabric new life.

Tonight, Tagle shares her Brief But Spectacular take on textile waste, fashion, and sustainability.

CAMILLE TAGLE, Co-Founder and Creative Director, FABSCRAP: When I was really young, I think I was always just mesmerized by dresses and gowns and all of the really beautiful, elaborate fashion pieces that I would see go down the runway.

Looking back, I was really fortunate to have made it in the industry as a designer, being at runway shows, having gowns go down the red carpet, having my designs featured in major retailers.

But when I was seeing all the waste that was accumulating from that design process and how much personally I was adding to the waste, it really made me ask myself, what is my contribution to society?

Commercial textile waste is a huge issue that that is normally not really seen or known about because it's very much an industry practice.

It's estimated that commercial textile waste is actually 40 times greater than residential waste.

For me personally, it was a very tough decision to kind of walk away from essentially a dream job, a career that I had worked my entire life.

But moving away from design and opting towards work in sustainability has been something that I have never regretted.

FABSCRAP is a textile recycling nonprofit.

And I started this with my co-founder, Jessica Schreiber.

When we met, we realized that, with each of our backgrounds, we would essentially accomplish maximum diversion from landfill.

Jessica had a background in sanitation.

And so she really understood collection and recycling.

And my background was in fashion design.

And so I really understood the importance of the material.

The way in which we keep fabric out of landfill is to sort it by hand.

This is how we decide if a fabric is downcycled into insulation, or if it can continue its life with reuse.

If the fabric is large enough to be reused, then we put that towards our thrift store, and the prices are discounted.

One of the biggest barriers to sustainability really comes down to awareness.

And that's both for companies and consumers.

Consumers really have a lot of power.

One of the best ways that you could really make an impact is supporting brands who are doing more sustainable and ethical work with your dollar, when shopping for an item, really thinking about the longevity of that piece, what the end of life would be once you're done with it, that it's super important to keep fabric out of landfill and away from incineration.

The more that we can extend the life of a fabric or anything that we actually use or consume on the day-to-day is going to be super important for us to combat climate change.

My name is Camille Tagle, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on textile waste and fashion sustainability.

AMNA NAWAZ: And you can watch more of our Brief But Spectacular series on our Web site.

That's PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.

And join us again here tomorrow night, when the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief will discuss the war in Ukraine.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

Thanks for joining us and have a great evening.