AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening and welcome.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: New data shows prices on some goods are beginning to tick up, and the president's tariffs are a key factor.

AMNA NAWAZ: A State Department report pulls back some of its criticisms of human rights violations around the world.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the world's largest hunger crisis.

Millions face famine and displacement amid the intensifying civil war in Sudan.

FATMA YAQOUB, Displaced Mother (through translator): We are suffering so much from no food, no water.

We are hungry.

Our children are naked.

We have nothing to eat but animal feed.

There is no water.

We have nothing.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

New inflation figures show President Trump's tariffs are starting to have an impact on consumer prices.

Overall inflation held steady at 2.7 percent year over year, but so-called core inflation, which is closely watched by the Fed and does not include volatile food and energy prices, ticked up 3.1 percent.

That's the largest increase in five months.

AMNA NAWAZ: The report was the first from the Bureau of Labor Statistics since President Trump fired its commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, earlier this month, accusing her without evidence of rigging economic data.

That firing came just hours after the release of a weaker-than-expected jobs report.

Late yesterday, the president nominated her replacement, E.J.

Antoni, chief economist at The Heritage Foundation.

That's a conservative think tank.

For more now, we are joined by Michael Strain.

He's the director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

Michael, thanks for joining us.

Let's just start off with these new inflation numbers, overall inflation holding steady.

It was helped, we should note, by drops in gas and energy prices.

But the fact that core inflation did tick up, how do you look at that?

What's behind it?

And what does it say about the overall economy right now?

MICHAEL STRAIN, American Enterprise Institute: Thank you.

I think it's troubling.

As you say, we saw an increase in core inflation.

This has, I think, become a trend.

I think we can say that we are in an economy where underlying inflation seems to be accelerating.

Importantly, underlying inflation is accelerating from a level that's already too high.

So we have inflation that's well above the Fed's target and inflation that seems to be accelerating.

AMNA NAWAZ: And what's the role of the tariffs in all of this, especially given the sort of staggered rollout we have seen, the on-again/off-again nature of the president's tariffs policy?

Is that fueling some of that inflation here?

MICHAEL STRAIN: Yes, the tariffs are clearly playing a role.

And you can see that some of the goods that are most exposed to tariffs are showing pretty substantial increases in their prices.

I think the worst is yet to come when it comes to tariff-driven inflation.

I think, over the next few months, we're going to see more and more evidence of the tariffs showing up in inflation.

A lot of the inflation that we are seeing in the data is driven by underlying strength in the economy and not necessarily driven by the tariffs.

And so the worry is that we have both happening at the same time.

AMNA NAWAZ: I want to ask you too about what we were just reported, how the president has now announced that E.J.

Antoni is going to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics after the previous head was fired.

We should note Mr. Antoni is someone that Steve Bannon had been pushing for, someone who said on Bannon's podcast that it should be a MAGA Republican that President Trump knows and trusts to lead the agency.

It now looks like he's tapped to do that.

He's also long criticized the BLS and the way that it does the work.

So what do you think about this choice to lead the agency?

Can you trust the numbers moving forward?

MICHAEL STRAIN: I think that we should absolutely go into this trusting the numbers.

I am extremely confident that the previous BLS commissioner, the previous head of the agency did not rig the data.

Part of my confidence comes from the fact that it's just really hard to rig the data.

And it will be hard to rig the data under the next BLS commissioner as well.

So we should have confidence in the data until there's a reason not to.

And that could come in the form of career staff raising alarm bells about things that are happening inside the agency.

It could come from evidence that the information the agency is putting out.

It doesn't match other data we have or isn't internally consistent.

So we should always be alert.

But I think our default assumption should be that the integrity of the data will remain.

AMNA NAWAZ: This is someone we should know, E.J.

Antoni, who in an interview earlier this month with FOX Business Digital suggested that BLS' monthly jobs methodology was flawed.

He went on to say this: "Until it's corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job report, but keep publishing the more accurate, the less timely quarterly data."

He said: "Major decision-makers from Wall Street to D.C. rely on the numbers,.

A lack of confidence in the data has far-reaching consequences."

Do you think -- Michael, do you think that's a good idea to suspend that monthly jobs report?

MICHAEL STRAIN: I think that would be a terrible idea.

And I hope that that was just a throwaway comment that Mr. Antoni gave in an interview and not something that he would attempt to pursue were he put - - were he made BLS commissioner.

I think it's something that senators in the confirmation process need to ask him.

And I think journalists should be asking him about his views on that as well.

And I'm hoping that it was just a one-off comment he made in an interview before he was nominated to this position.

AMNA NAWAZ: I have just got about 30 seconds left, but I need to ask you about President Trump's comments online today about the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell.

He once again demanded online that Powell lower interest rates and also seem to threaten him with legal action related to renovation costs at the Federal Reserve building.

How do you look at this, Michael?

Is this political interference or intimidation?

What's going on?

MICHAEL STRAIN: I think it's absolute political interference and intimidation.

It is a threat to the long-term prosperity of the economy to have the president involving himself in monetary policy in this way, to have the president bullying the Fed chairman.

I think Mr. Powell has displayed an enormous amount of integrity and has dealt with this bullying and harassment very well.

But what President Trump is doing is dangerous, and it should stop.

AMNA NAWAZ: Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute, thank you for joining us.

MICHAEL STRAIN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: The day's other headlines start with President Trump's temporary federal takeover of policing in Washington, D.C.

The first of some 800 activated National Guard soldiers were seen on the streets of the nation's capital today.

Separately, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said today that a surge of some 850 federal law enforcement officers started yesterday.

The city's Democratic mayor, Muriel Bowser, insists that police chief Pam Smith remains in charge.

Bowser also spoke about making the most of the heightened security presence.

MURIEL BOWSER (D-Mayor of Washington, D.C.): What I'm focused on is the federal surge and how to make the most of the additional officer support that we have.

How we got here or what we think about the circumstances right now, we have more police and we want to make sure we're using them.

GEOFF BENNETT: Also today, the White House said it would increase its crackdown on homeless encampments, offering those affected the option of moving into a shelter or a drug treatment facility.

Those who refuse face fines or even jail time.

In Texas, GOP leaders say they will call a second special session of the state's legislature if Democrats don't return to work by a Friday deadline.

Governor Greg Abbott also threatened to keep at it until the Republican agenda is passed, saying -- quote -- "There will be no reprieve for the derelict Democrats who fled the state and abandoned their duty."

STATE REP. DUSTIN BURROWS (R-TX): There being 95 members present, a quorum is not present.

GEOFF BENNETT: The announcement came shortly after the Texas House once again failed to meet a quorum this morning.

A group of Texas Democrats left the state earlier this month to block voting on a redrawn congressional map that could help Republicans claim five additional seats in Congress.

Democrats say it amounts to cheating.

Police in Texas say the man who shot three people in a Target parking lot opened fire randomly.

The attack took place in Austin yesterday afternoon with back-to-school shopping under way.

The victims include a Target employee who was collecting carts, a 4-year-old, and her grandfather.

Police say the shooter had been previously arrested for domestic violence and assault.

Today, officials said he had a history of mental illness, but said they were unaware of a specific diagnosis.

LISA DAVIS, Austin, Texas, Police Chief: For someone to have this -- the capacity to take the life of three innocent people and a 4-year-old child, as we move forward in looking more into this, it will be interesting to kind of peel that back and see where those failures took place.

GEOFF BENNETT: Following the shooting, the 32-year-old suspect reportedly stole two cars before being subdued with a Taser and arrested.

He's currently being held on capital murder charges.

In the Middle East, Israeli planes and tanks struck Eastern Gaza City overnight and today, killing at least 11 people.

Bystanders rushed victims away from the scene of one strike, where witnesses say a man selling water was killed.

Israel says it tries to avoid civilian casualties and blames Hamas for operating in densely populated areas.

Meantime, Gaza's Health Ministry says five more Palestinians died of malnutrition in the past day.

That comes as foreign ministers from two dozen countries issued a statement today saying the suffering in Gaza has reached what they called unimaginable levels.

They're calling on Israel to allow unrestricted aid into the territory.

In Europe, wildfires are burning in areas from one end of the continent to the other.

Overnight in Spain, firefighters battled a blaze that surrounded the capital, Madrid.

Emergency services said one person was killed.

Meantime, to the east, in Turkey, evacuees were whisked away from the encroaching flames by boat.

In Montenegro, residents there returned to their homes today only to find everything destroyed.

DRAGANA VUKOVIC, Resident of Piperi, Montenegro (through translator): Everything that can be paid for and bought can be compensated, but the memories that burned in these four rooms cannot be.

The most important thing is that there were no human casualties, but what happened yesterday was truly like something out of a horror film.

GEOFF BENNETT: Authorities say the flames are being fueled by an extreme heat wave that's simmering the entire continent.

Temperatures in some areas topped 104 degrees.

Climate change experts say Europe is warming faster than any other continent.

Tennis Hall of Famer Monica Seles is speaking publicly for the first time about her neuromuscular autoimmune disease.

The nine-time Grand Slam winner says she was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, or M.G., back in 2022, which causes muscles to weaken and tire quickly.

The 51-year-old said she learned she had the condition after experiencing double vision and weakness in her arms and legs.

Seles made the announcement shortly before the start of the U.S. Open with the aim of bringing attention to the disease.

MONICA SELES, Former Professional Tennis Player: When I got diagnosed, I was like, what?

So this is where I will -- can't emphasize enough I wish I had somebody like me speak out about it and just raise awareness.

GEOFF BENNETT: Seles won her first major title back in 1990 at the age of 16.

At one point in her career, she spent 91 weeks in a row as the world's number one player.

On Wall Street today, stocks rallied after the latest inflation data fueled new hopes for interest rate cuts.

The Dow Jones industrial average dumped nearly 500 points.

The Nasdaq added nearly 300 points.

The S&P 500 also ended sharply higher.

And pioneering jazz vocalist Sheila Jordan has died.

From a whisper to a warble to a wail, Jordan used her voice to startling effect, helping forge a legacy as one of the genre's most daring improvisers.

Despite her talents, Jordan's career never entirely took off.

As a single mother, she worked as a secretary in New York to help pay the bills.

And she also battled addiction.

In 2012, she was named a jazz master by the National Endowment for the Arts, often described as the nation's highest honor for jazz.

And Jordan never stopped working, releasing her final record, "Portrait Now," just this year.

Sheila Jordan was 96 years old.

Still to come on the "News Hour": the recent shooting at the CDC highlights the increasing threats health workers are facing; and an unusual effort to boost artists of color.

AMNA NAWAZ: The State Department released its annual human rights report today, but, unlike years past, this edition has come under scrutiny for what it's not reporting about many issues and countries with poor human rights records.

Nick Schifrin is here now to discuss the report and to look forward to this active week of renewed Trump diplomacy with Russia.

Good to see you, Nick.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thanks, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let's talk about this report.

What is different in this year's report from years past?

NICK SCHIFRIN: The report removes stand-alone sections on women's rights, LGBTQ rights, and discrimination on racial or ethnic lines.

It strengthens criticisms of countries that Trump and his administration have clashed with diplomatically and weakens criticism of some of the administration's allies.

So let's take one example, El Salvador, which, of course, as you know well, is the strongest regional immigration partner for the United States.

Last year's report, the last one written by the Biden administration, reads in part -- quote -- "Significant human rights issues included credible reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings and forced disappearance, torture or cruel and human or degrading treatment or punishment by security forces, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, arbitrary arrest and detention."

That paragraph actually goes on for double that length in the last Biden administration report.

It has been replaced by this sentence: "There were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses" -- quote, unquote.

So that's the kind of change that you see.

Today, Tammy Bruce, the State Department spokeswoman, was asked specifically about the El Salvador report.

She didn't engage with the text, but said this about the administration's approach: TAMMY BRUCE, State Department Spokesperson: Each administration, like with President Trump, reflects a value system and an agenda and a vision that convinced the American people to vote for them.

It needed to change, based on the point of view and the vision of the Trump administration.

It certainly promotes, as does our work, a respect for human rights around the globe.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Another example, Amna, Israel.

The Biden administration's last report was more than 100 pages.

This is less than a fifth of that.

It removes most of or almost all of the criticisms of the Israeli government.

But on the other hand, this year's report increases criticisms of South Africa, which, of course, the Trump administration has clashed with diplomatically, and increases criticisms of Brazil for targeting Jair Bolsonaro, the former president who, of course, tried to launch a coup against the current government more than two years ago.

AMNA NAWAZ: Some dramatic changes there.

So when you talk to folks in the human rights community, what are they saying about this report?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Historically, this report has been very important for the community and also for individual human rights advocates around the world, because it's appeared in war crimes cases.

It appears in individual asylum cases.

It appears in academic research.

But parts of this year's report do not match that historic credibility and accuracy, argues the deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Washington office, Nicole Widdersheim.

NICOLE WIDDERSHEIM, Deputy Washington Director, Human Rights Watch: We feel like this has been the politicization of a very credible, useful human rights tool that really lent credibility to the whole entire exercise of the State Department for the last couple decades.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Widdersheim says the report is accurate on some countries, places like Afghanistan and Haiti.

But those countries are the very places that the Department of Homeland Security has removed protections for refugees living in the United States.

NICOLE WIDDERSHEIM: And they document terrible things that are happening right now in Afghanistan, particularly to women and children, the same with Sudan, same with South Sudan, relatively accurate read on Ethiopia, Haiti.

And yet, at the same time, they're canceling protection for Afghans, for Haitians, for Venezuelans, for Nicaraguans.

And they're sending people back to these countries to be victims and sending them back into peril.

NICK SCHIFRIN: State Department spokesman Tammy Bruce said today the new report removes -- quote -- "politically biased demands and assertions."

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, Nick, I know you're also reporting on the war in Ukraine, this upcoming summit.

What are you hearing from European leaders and from the White House about what to expect from this Friday summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin?

NICK SCHIFRIN: The Ukrainians and the Europeans are especially worried that President Trump could make a deal about Ukraine without Ukraine in the room directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Today, Zelenskyy said that Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from all of Donetsk, all of Eastern Ukraine, including parts that Ukraine still controls and that Russia doesn't occupy.

He rejected that and said today that Ukrainians would reject any deal made directly and only between President Trump and President Putin.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): It is impossible to talk about Ukraine without Ukraine, and no one will accept that.

So the conversation between Putin and Trump may be important for their bilateral track, but they cannot agree on anything about Ukraine without us.

I truly believe and hope that the U.S. president understands and realizes that.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, the White House downplayed expectations, calling Friday's summit -- quote -- "a listening exercise" for President Trump, emphasizing that it was President Putin who actually requested it.

Putin has talked and his allies have talked about normalizing relations with the United States, going beyond Ukraine, talking about things like nuclear stability, possible economic deals, direct flights, but, today, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt rejected that.

QUESTION: Is President Trump open to those kind of peripheral conversations or is this directly focused on ending the war in Ukraine?

KAROLINE LEAVITT, White House Press Secretary: I think this conversation on Friday is focused on ending the war in Ukraine, as far as the president's perspective goes.

Those conversations, I think the president is interested in having, but his main priority right now is ending this war and to stop the killing that has gone on for far too long.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And the war does go on, Ukraine struggling to hold the line.

This video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense just today shows Russian soldiers raising Russian flags in the eastern province of Donetsk.

Amna, the timing for Ukraine could not be worse.

It could allow Putin to paint Ukraine in dire straits during that summit.

AMNA NAWAZ: A lot is happening on that front.

I know you're going to continue to cover it all.

Nick Schifrin, thanks, as always.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: We are learning more about last week's shooting at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, which has shaken many in the field of public health.

Authorities say the 32-year-old gunman fired nearly 200 rounds at six buildings on the CDC campus.

One police officer was killed, and the suspect was later found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Authorities also say the gunman believed the COVID-19 vaccine was to blame for his mental health problems, including depression and thoughts of suicide.

In the days since, CDC staff have spoken out about what they describe as dangerous rhetoric and rising hostility.

Joining us now to discuss this is Dr. Megan Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health and professor of emergency medicine.

Thank you for joining us.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, Yale University: My pleasure.

Thanks so much for having me on tonight.

GEOFF BENNETT: We have seen reporting that many CDC staff are dreading returning to work, many still deeply shaken after last week's shooting.

From what you're hearing, what's the general mood among health care and public health workers right now?

DR. MEGAN RANNEY: Well, I have spent the weekend talking to friends and colleagues within the CDC, within state and local public health departments, as well as within health care across the country.

And I will say the mood is one of both fear and frustration or maybe even anger, fear because folks were shot at.

And it is by the grace of God that only one person died on Friday evening.

Frustration and anger because it's felt by many that this was almost inevitable, that at some point the violent rhetoric that is experienced online or sometimes that some of us have experienced in person being yelled at us was eventually going to turn into actual physical threats.

GEOFF BENNETT: On that point, at a press conference this morning, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations at a search of the shooter's home turned up documents expressing what they described as discontent with the COVID-19 vaccinations.

Tell me more about how this rhetoric, the misinformation about vaccines have played a role in this tragedy and have complicated the work that you and your colleagues do.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY: Yes, so it's a little bit early to know all the details about the shooter and the shooting.

But what is absolutely true is that there -- instead of there being discussion or debate about science, a reasoned evaluation of the relative risks and benefits of interventions, instead, what's happening is that an entire group of people, scientists, public health workers, health care professionals, are being dehumanized and even demonized and blamed for things that are often not their fault and may not even be the fault of, say, for example, the vaccine.

We have seen a rise in that violent rhetoric online over the past few years, but that coupling of I am in pain and suffering to I must take that out on individuals who are working in health-related fields, that is relatively new and quite scary and I think reflected in the shooting.

GEOFF BENNETT: Secretary Kennedy, known for his anti-vaccine views, he visited the CDC yesterday, issued a statement condemning the shootings.

The new CDC director did essentially the same thing.

Do gestures like that meaningfully change the tone and climate?

DR. MEGAN RANNEY: I think it's too early to say.

I think that gestures matter, right, after a mass shooting.

Having those gestures after things like -- if I go back to something like 9/11, right, which was a terrorist attack, and, in many ways, this was a terrorist attack, those gestures, those symbolic acts do make a difference, understanding that just because only one person died it does not mean that this was not a severe attack with severe consequences both in the short and long term for the psychological well-being of people that work in this field, as well as potentially for their physical health.

Again, those gestures matter.

But gestures alone are not enough.

We also need to think about, how do we actually ensure the physical safety of people working in public health and health care?

How do we have an emergency response system that is better?

I have heard stories from people who were at work on Friday night who only knew that there was an ongoing shooting because friends or colleagues texted them.

They otherwise would have walked out into the line of fire.

So, thinking about that physical safety, thinking about psychological safety, how do we support people, the survivors of this shooting, who again may not have sustained physical wounds, but have certainly sustained psychological wounds.

And, of course, if we are worried that someone is in crisis and has been radicalized and is in danger of hurting themselves or others, how do we take steps to make sure that person does not hurt themselves or others, does not have access to a firearm in that moment of crisis?

GEOFF BENNETT: Here's what Secretary Kennedy had to say last night on Scripps News when he was asked about disinformation and preventing something like this from happening again.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary: We don't know enough about what the motive was of this individual, but people can ask questions without being penalized.

And there was attacks on the NFL the other day for -- by a shooter who was concerned that he got a brain injury from playing football.

And nobody blamed The New York Times for spreading that disinformation that football can cause injuries.

GEOFF BENNETT: How do you see the comparison he's making there?

DR. MEGAN RANNEY: There are two parts.

The first is, of course, we want people to be able to ask questions and get trustworthy answers.

There are times where we don't know the answer yet.

We're still researching or exploring, and we should be honest when that is so.

But sometimes we do know the answers, and then we need to share that closest approximation of the truth that we have.

So I don't think anyone's saying that we shouldn't be asking questions.

What we are saying is that the asking questions should not be accompanied by violent rhetoric that implies that public health professionals, scientists, or health care providers are somehow out to cause harm or deserve to be hurt or killed.

The other side of that, of course, is to acknowledge that football does cause injury, including CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

We know that.

That's why we have changed helmets and padding and all kinds of things.

Was it football that caused that man's mental illness that led him to then go to New York City and shoot up an office building?

That link is unclear.

And so I think, in this case, can vaccines or certain vaccines sometimes cause side effects?

Of course.

Is the risk greater than the benefit?

No.

For the vast majority of vaccines, certainly all that are FDA approved, we know that they are the safest and most effective way to prevent illness.

And, finally, even if this person did experience a side effect from the COVID vaccine, which does sometimes rarely happen, was that the cause of his mental illness?

We don't know, anymore than we know whether or not it was CTE that caused the man to shoot in New York.

But what we do know is that the answer to being sick physically or mentally should never be violence against another human.

GEOFF BENNETT: Dr. Megan Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health and professor of emergency medicine, thank you for joining us.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we should mention the CDC started promoting a fund-raiser to help the family of the officer who was killed in the line of duty, DeKalb County Officer David Rose.

He was married with two children, and his wife is expecting their third child.

Secretary Kennedy visited the police department on Monday and met with his widow.

AMNA NAWAZ: This week, at least 40 people have been killed by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces as fighting intensified in the Western Darfur region.

Over the last nearly 2.5 years, a brutal civil war between that paramilitary RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces has killed tens of thousands of people and created the largest hunger and displacement crisis in the world.

Over 14 million people, more than a quarter of the population, have been displaced within and outside of Sudan, and the city El Fasher in Darfur faces famine and has for over a year.

Stephanie Sy brings us this update.

And a warning: Some of the images in this story may be disturbing.

STEPHANIE SY: This is the way to El Fasher in Darfur, Western Sudan, by donkey.

No aid enters here,a generation of its children facing starvation, eating animal feed to ease the gnawing hunger.

A famine was declared in the Zamzam camp in El Fasher more than a year ago.

FATMA YAQOUB, Displaced Mother (through translator): We are suffering so much from no food, no water.

We are hungry.

Our children are naked.

We have nothing to eat but animal feed.

There is no water.

We have nothing.

MOHAMMED ELDOUDA, Spokesperson, Zamzam Camp: The risk of using animal feed to eat is dangerous TO our health.

We are in acute starving and acute hunger.

STEPHANIE SY: Mohammed Eldouda works at Zamzam.

With hundreds of thousands living here, it's Sudan's largest internally displaced persons camp.

Eldouda filmed these videos.

For over a year, the camp and the city has been under a suffocating siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

MOHAMMED ELDOUDA: Our civilians in El Fasher, from the morning, they are chasing, they are searching for the things to make or to prepare the meal or their food.

Because of the siege of El Fasher, nothing can enter, not the humanitarian aid, not goods.

STEPHANIE SY: What began as a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the RSF, has escalated into a brutal civil war.

Sudanese cities are the battlegrounds.

And while Sudan's army is accused of war crimes, the paramilitary RSF is accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

In March, the Sudan army took back the capital city of Khartoum, which was captured and held by the RSF for nearly two years.

But, in April, the RSF declared a parallel government based in Darfur, a large region in Western Sudan of more than seven million people that has been the site of gross atrocities for two decades.

It is now largely controlled by the RSF, with the exception of the besieged El Fasher.

Another hot spot in the conflict, Kordofan, has become a strategic crossroads for both sides in the conflict.

The RSF killed dozens of people there in the last few weeks in one of the most deadly episodes of violence in this nearly-2.5-year conflict.

ADNAN HEZAM, International Committee of the Red Cross: International community, the world should be -- not ignore what is happening now in Sudan, because every day there is further escalation.

STEPHANIE SY: Adnan Hezam, the spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, spoke to the "News Hour" from Port Sudan.

ADNAN HEZAM: We are talking about 25 million people who need assistance in different aspects, food, shelter, water, medication, everything.

What we are witnessing, there is no respect for international humanitarian law.

So, the ICRC, since the eruption of this conflict, remind and urge all the parties involved in the conflict to respect the law, to spare the lives of civilians.

STEPHANIE SY: Their lives are precarious, caught in a cycle of famine and disease, a cholera outbreak, and on top of that, malaria.

The ICRC warns that Sudan's health infrastructure is at the brink of collapse, with 80 percent of facilities shut down.

Most people in conflict areas have no access to health care, and even those who do rely on these makeshift clinics.

In a village outside El Fasher, Huda Ali and her family escaped famine, but not the war.

She's pregnant and already the mother of four.

HUDA ALI, Displaced Mother (through translator): Until now, my husband the father of my children, has not come back to us from El Fasher.

I had fled with the children.

We have family members that are still missing.

STEPHANIE SY: And, everywhere, so much trauma.

Enaam Abdallah only 19, is haunted by what she's witnessed.

ENAAM ABDALLAH MOHAMMED, Displaced High School Student (through translator): They killed the people.

They killed people in front of us.

They took the girls in front of us and raped them.

STEPHANIE SY: Rape and starvation deployed as weapons of war in a part of the world that fears it's been forgotten.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's an arts organization focused on supporting contemporary Black and brown artists and opening doors to artists of color worldwide.

As senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown reports, Indigo Arts Alliance is doing all of this from its home in an unlikely place.

Maine.

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

JEFFREY BROWN: And we are walking on your poem.

ARISA WHITE, Poet: Yes, they are.

JEFFREY BROWN: But you want us to.

ARISA WHITE: Yes, that's the point.

JEFFREY BROWN: A walk in the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens with poet Arisa White, who was commissioned to create a work within this natural setting.

Her response, a mirror poem or palindrome that can be read forwards or backwards step by step.

ARISA WHITE: So you actually get to determine the pace of your reading and the pace of your contemplation.

JEFFREY BROWN: Now an associate professor of English at Maine's Colby College, White credits the Indigo Arts Alliance, where she was an artist in residence, with helping her adjust to her new surroundings.

ARISA WHITE: I moved here in 2018 from the San Francisco Bay Area, but originally from Brooklyn, New York, and sort of left these huge communities, these major cities.

JEFFREY BROWN: And very diverse places.

ARISA WHITE: Absolutely diverse in all sorts of amazing ways.

And so there was that sense of isolation.

And Indigo Arts Alliance felt like a hub.

It is a home for me.

It gave me a way to connect to different artists throughout the state.

And so I felt like I had a place as a result.

JEFFREY BROWN: In fact, this day at the botanical gardens in Boothbay, Maine, was part of a three-year partnership with Indigo.

WOMAN: Welcome, everyone.

JEFFREY BROWN: Called Deconstructing the Boundaries, it involved artist talks, workshops in clay and beading, and discussions of public life today.

It's also brought new artworks to the gardens, including this sculpture called In the Voice of Trees by Indigo's co-founder Daniel Minter.

DANIEL MINTER, Co-Founder, Indigo Arts Alliance: It's the ideas, people who want to make connections.

We're reaching out to build community with people who wish to make connections.

JEFFREY BROWN: It was Daniel's wife and Indigo co-founder, Marcia Minter, whose work first brought the couple to Maine in 2003, when she was recruited by L.L.

Bean as a marketing executive.

It seemed a good career move, but the Minters had concerns about coming to a state then and still one of the least diverse in the nation.

MARCIA MINTER, Co-Founder, Indigo Arts Alliance: And at a point where the conversation got serious, I said to the recruiter: "I can't move someplace where my son is not going to see someone that looks like him."

JEFFREY BROWN: But they also saw an opportunity towards something larger through art.

Marcia Minter spent 16 years at L.L.

Bean before she and Daniel founded Indigo in 2018 in Portland, where the group now owns an 8,000-square-foot artist-in-residence studio and community space.

MARCIA MINTER: I realized that there could be a place for us, and we decided to give it a shot.

That doesn't mean the path has been easy.

That doesn't mean that we have been welcomed with open arms at every turn.

It has not been easy.

We have really had to build community here.

We have had to seek and find community of all kinds, not just other Black people or other brown people or indigenous folk, but people, period.

And because that was the only way that we could stay here, we made it our mission.

JEFFREY BROWN: Building connections through art and history has been a major part of Daniel Minter's own practice, also based in Portland, where he works in many forms, including sculpture, painting, collage.

He's also illustrated more than a dozen books for young readers, winning numerous honors.

And a large-scale immersive installation he created is featured in a major exhibition on the transatlantic slave trade, In Slavery's Wake, organized by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, now traveling to museums around the globe.

DANIEL MINTER: This is one of the first images I did to help tell that story.

JEFFREY BROWN: He's also told a little-known piece of Maine's history of racism through a multiyear project exploring a small mixed-race community on Malaga Island just off the Maine coast, active from the Civil War until 1912, when the state forcibly removed its residents.

DANIEL MINTER: I sought, uncover this history, yes, and also connect this history.

So we know the story.

We know this.

We just don't know that it was happening in Maine.

We just don't know that it was happening this far north.

JEFFREY BROWN: But why?

I mean, why as an artist?

And why take on that story through art?

DANIEL MINTER: Because it is the responsibility of an artist to make the unseen seen.

JEFFREY BROWN: To that end, Indigo also supports scholarly research and archival projects to study and preserve the work of artists of the past, and most prominently offers time, space and future connections through its residency programs for Maine artists such as Candice Gosta, as well as artists from further afield, such as Aisha Tandiwe Bell, who works with a variety of materials, including clay.

AISHA TANDIWE BELL, Artist: For this particular project, I was looking at how mythology and parables are created and where their foundations are.

JEFFREY BROWN: Bell, who lives and works in Brooklyn, has had other artist residencies.

Indigo, she says, offers a special kind of comfort and energy.

AISHA TANDIWE BELL: Especially in the art world, it's a very small brown and Black community, right?

So, often, when you're in those spaces, you are one of or the only.

I think you're often, if not always thinking about how you present yourself, your work in a different -- it's just a different level of self-consciousness and awareness in those spaces.

ALEJANDRA CUADRA, Artist: I will eventually finish this in one of the hands that's going to hold this basket.

JEFFREY BROWN: Another artist this summer, Alejandra Cuadra.

But with a real message here.

ALEJANDRA CUADRA: Yes, with a message.

JEFFREY BROWN: Don't break.

ALEJANDRA CUADRA: Don't break.

JEFFREY BROWN: Born in Peru, raised in Massachusetts, where she still lives, Cuadra says art has always been her way of responding to the world around her, especially with all that's impacting her community now.

ALEJANDRA CUADRA: It's hard times.

It's challenging times.

And I think, as an immigrant, I feel it.

And, again, I think it goes back to feeling like I have a voice when I'm voiceless.

JEFFREY BROWN: Like arts organizations around the country, Indigo Arts Alliance has recently lost grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Daniel and Marcia Minter say it now depends on robust individual and private foundation donor support.

Does your work change at a moment like this?

MARCIA MINTER: Oh, no.

(LAUGHTER) DANIEL MINTER: No, no, no, no, it doesn't change.

MARCIA MINTER: It becomes more important.

DANIEL MINTER: Yes, it becomes... MARCIA MINTER: It just is a testament to how important that work is and also how the people that are so frightened by the global majority are so in need of places and spaces like ours, because we are their opportunity to learn a lot about who they are.

JEFFREY BROWN: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in Boothbay, Maine.

GEOFF BENNETT: We will be back shortly.

But, first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's a chance to offer your support, which helps to keep programs like this one on the air.

For those of you staying with us, as Americans take their summer break, many are visiting Europe.

And some are following the advice of travel writer Rick Steves, the host of "Rick Steves' Europe" on PBS stations.

GEOFF BENNETT: John Yang traveled to Washington State to speak with him.

Here's another look at his conversation that first aired on "PBS News Weekend."

JOHN YANG: You've got gargoyles.

RICK STEVES: We've got these, I think are the only functioning gargoyles this side of the Mississippi.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): These stone carvings would fit right in on Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

But this is Rick Steves multimillion dollar travel company in Edmonds, Washington, a Seattle suburb.

RICK STEVES: You know, gargoyles do two things.

They, they scare away the evil spirits.

JOHN YANG: Of course.

RICK STEVES: And they also provide a storm drain for when it really rains hard and on a good rainy day, the water comes and the Notre Dame in Paris.

JOHN YANG: Yeah, yeah.

RICK STEVES: At Rick Steves Europe, JOHN YANG (voice-over): Steves researches some of his guidebooks himself.

He spends three months every year in Europe filling notebooks with his observations.

What to see, where to eat, where to stay.

RICK STEVES: So this would have been 2016 and I did Florence, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Venice.

And so I would go and my responsibility was to visit the places in the book with other people helping.

And I would always have my mole scheme and I would jot all my notes and I still, I can't begin to read that now, but I can read my writing for 24 hours and then it expires because I can read that short handy.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): Here in Edmonds, a staff of about 100 works on his best selling guidebooks aimed at first time travelers.

RICK STEVES: Up next, we're going to the Italian Riviera.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): On his podcasts.

RICK STEVES: This is Travel with Rick Steves.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): And on his long running TV series on PBS stations nationwide.

RICK STEVES: Here in Iceland, we experience both the power of nature and the beauty of nature.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): In Europe about 240 guides lead dozens of bus tours each year.

Steve said he discovered the transformative power of travel in 1978, when he was 23.

That summer, he and a friend spent six weeks going from Turkey to Nepal, the storied hippie trail.

RICK STEVES: It was the epic road trip, Istanbul to Kathmandu.

The Beatles were hanging out with the Maharashi India, you know, and it was a perfect time in my life.

I remember this is the last year people could do the hippie trail, 1978.

The next year, the Shah fell and Ayatollah Khomeini turned Iran into a theocracy.

The next year, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

And as a war zone, you couldn't travel through that, so there's no more hippie trail.

JOHN YANG: But you didn't know that at the time.

RICK STEVES: I didn't know that at the time.

In fact, I was clueless about everything political at the time.

I was just a 23-year-old looking for adventure in the world.

And it was my coming of age trip.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): He kept a journal on that trip and put it away years ago.

But he dug it out during the pandemic.

and I read it and it was vivid, it was candid, it was raw.

It was before I was a travel writer.

And every day, every moment, I'd be capturing vivid details.

To me, it was like somebody nets butterflies as they flitter by.

You know, these when you're traveling, when you're far from home and something really cool happens, you go, this is what just makes my trip sparkle.

But it's gone and there's another one.

And what I wanted to do, I felt this need to write it down so I could save it.

This has been Main Street for me ever since I was in seventh grade.

And I don't know when you travel.

It's easy to travel when you know where your home is.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): His family moved to this quiet city on Puget Sound when he was 12.

It's where he practices his own brand of philanthropy and activism.

RICK STEVES: We'll just go out there until the police tell us we can't do it anymore.

But this is -- JOHN YANG: You're not allowed to sit here.

RICK STEVES: Well, we will be allowed to sit here when this is a traffic free piazza in the center of our beautiful little town.

JOHN YANG: So we're engaging in a little civil disobedience.

RICK STEVES: Civil disobedience.

So every once in a while.

Hello.

Every once in a while I like to just sit here and imagine it was traffic free.

Yeah, this is.

I call it the piazza.

You know, in America we need the piazza.

Why is Italy my favorite country?

In one word, piazza.

Communities coming together.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): He makes numerous public appearances like this one in Bellevue, Washington.

RICK STEVES: We have the American dream.

Not everybody has our dream.

JOHN YANG: There's a moment in the journal we describe a serendipitous event in India and you say that this is the moment, sort of moment that makes you choose travel.

Can you read that?

RICK STEVES: Yes.

This is really a moment.

On the road out of town, we came upon four beautiful women carrying huge baskets of grass on their heads.

I goofed around with them a bit, discovering that they had a sense of humor.

And then I made my move.

Crouching under the giant hat of hay, I looked a woman right in the eye, sharing the shade of all that hay.

So suddenly, so close together from opposite worlds, yet sharing the same planet with our noses just inches apart.

It was the kind of moment that makes me choose travel.

JOHN YANG: Choose travel?

RICK STEVES: Yeah, choose travel.

Well, that's the kind of moment that travel should be.

It's getting up and close.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): In August 2024, Steve set out on an unexpected journey.

He was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

It's something he talks about openly.

RICK STEVES: My personality, I guess, is to try to look on the bright side of things.

And I thought, I don't know the language.

This is all new to me.

I'm going to learn, I'm going to be okay.

And if I'm not, I've had a good life, you know?

JOHN YANG (voice-over): He was declared cancer free in February just as his book was published.

RICK STEVES: The ships that go out here.

Next stop, Tokyo.

You know, I just love that it's a reminder of a big world.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): From his home overlooking Puget Sound, Steve says he'll continue to preach his message that travel is more than just bucket lists and selfies.

RICK STEVES: You got to get out of your comfort zone.

You got to create a situation where serendipity is constantly knocking on your door.

And then you got to say, yes, come on in.

That's where you get those travel experiences.

That's the best souvenir.

It stays with you for the rest of your life.

It stays with you for the rest of your life.

GEOFF BENNETT: When it comes to travel and especially booking airfare, there are new concerns around how artificial intelligence might be used to set prices.

AMNA NAWAZ: The worry comes after Delta Air Lines announced it was using A.I.

to help adjust prices on some of its flights.

In this report that first ran on our digital platforms, producer Tim McPhillips takes a look at how travelers should approach buying plane tickets and how all consumers can help guard themselves against A.I.-driven custom pricing.

TIM MCPHILLIPS: You may have heard that Delta is using artificial intelligence to help set some airfare prices.

That sparked fears that the airline could create a custom price for you, using your data to find how much you would be willing to pay for a ticket.

But while Delta says they aren't doing that, they are using A.I.

to help them adjust prices in response to market forces faster than humans can.

Here are three things to know if you're booking airfare now and whether custom pricing could impact you in the future.

One, if you're booking airfare now, the same old adages apply to find the best fare.

Delta is testing A.I.

to help set prices on limited flights, about 3 percent of fares for now, moving to 20 percent by the end of the year.

But while A.I.

might help prices move up and down faster, we currently all still see the same price.

So, for a better deal, it's still a good idea to be flexible, which may mean flying on lower-demand days, like Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday.

Consider alternate airports in the areas you are traveling to and from.

Use flight comparison tools like Google Flights to easily compare cities, dates, and airlines.

If you're flying round-trip, check to see if two one-way tickets are cheaper than a round-trip booking.

And consider budget airlines or basic economy tickets on mainline carriers.

But if you do so, just be sure to pack light to avoid extra fees.

Two, much of the fear sparked by Delta's announcement comes from what Delta or any other airline or other company, for that matter, could do.

JAY ZAGORSKY, Boston University Questrom: What I do hear from many businesses, they're saying that, by using A.I.

models, they're able to get both higher revenue and higher profits.

And that tells me A.I.

is effective.

TIM MCPHILLIPS: Jay Zagorsky is a professor at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University.

JAY ZAGORSKY: We don't have any idea right now which companies are using A.I.

and which are not.

And this is the problem I have with A.I.

pricing.

It's not transparent and it can be taking advantage of people who are not financially sophisticated.

TIM MCPHILLIPS: A.I.

could eventually help you get a better deal.

JAY ZAGORSKY: A.I.

can actually come up with custom prices.

You can see a price on the shelf, and if you attempt to linger in that aisle a little bit, we can send you a custom ad, hey, 10 cents off or 5 percent if you buy two of them right now.

TIM MCPHILLIPS: But there is real worry that A.I.

could be used to harness vast amounts of data to build a consumer profile on you and charge you a custom price based on that information.

And that means that your personalized price could be lower or much higher than, say, what someone else looking at that exact same product sees.

Here's Reuters transportation reporter David Shepardson speaking to Ali Rogin on "PBS News Weekend."

DAVID SHEPARDSON, Reuters: The example that a couple members of Congress made last week was if someone went and looked at an obituary, right, and then went to an airline pricing Web site, would they be more likely to pay more money because presumably they were looking at an obituary of a family friend or so on?

TIM MCPHILLIPS: Three, so how can you guard against A.I.-driven custom pricing?

JAY ZAGORSKY: How do you defeat A.I.?

Well, A.I.

runs on data.

The less data you give A.I., the worse its prediction.

TIM MCPHILLIPS: Professor Zagorsky recommends a few things.

Use cash for in-store purchases when you can.

That won't leave a data trail of what you're interested in or how much you have spent.

Clear your cache.

According to the FTC, new A.I.

programs could use your browsing history to help set prices for products.

And, third, consider using a VPN, which hides your I.P.

address and encrypts your Internet traffic.

If, like myself, you're worried that using cash might hurt your credit card rewards-funded vacation: JAY ZAGORSKY: My response is pretty straightforward.

Those rewards, those points, they're getting you some benefit, but you have to pay for those benefits.

And how are you going to be paying for those benefits in the future?

One way is by giving A.I.

information, so it can charge you the maximum price.

TIM MCPHILLIPS: And for those of us who grew up on the Internet and may have given up on privacy to participate in the digital world: JAY ZAGORSKY: Yes, you don't think there's any downside for you losing your privacy in this digital world.

But I'm here to tell you that customized pricing is going to cost you a lot.

And by maintaining your privacy, even if you're doing absolutely nothing wrong, you're probably going to pay less money in the future.

TIM MCPHILLIPS: For PBS News, I'm Tim McPhillips.

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

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

For all of us here at the "PBS News Hour," thanks for spending part of your evening with us.