The candidates in the 2024 election are finally clear. Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will be the Democratic candidates.

The stock market tumbled on Monday. The S&P fell over 3 percent in a single day. There has been, however, a slight rebound as the week has continued.

Meanwhile, overseas, Israel is bracing for expected retaliation from Iran and its proxies following the assassinations of a senior Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah leader, Fuad Shukur, in Lebanon late last month.

This week, an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was held in the Saudi port city of Jeddah. More than 50 members of Muslim-majority nations met to discuss the killings.

The global economy has been unstable this week. But nowhere more so than Japan, where the stock market plummeted by 12 percent on Monday. It was the worst single day since 1987.

We cover all this and more during our News Roundup.

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How do you tie together the stories of ancient Egypt, Robin Hood, Freddy Kreuger, and Hamlet – on a single stage?

Well, through time travel, of course. But also with the minds and talent of a group of actors at Sing Sing correctional facility in New York.

Such a play – titled "Breakin' the Mummy's Code" – was made possible through a program called RTA: Rehabilitation Through the Arts. It was born in 1996 after a group of incarcerated men at Sing Sing put on a few theater productions. They decided they wanted those productions to be something more – an organized group that could bring the power of theater to people inside prisons.

The program's story is now on the big screen in the film "Sing Sing." We talk to the people who made the movie possible.

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It's been a brutal year for wildfires. Nearly 100 are raging right now across the U.S. And the season's peak hasn't even arrived.

In California, the Park Fire has gobbled up 400,000 acres since July 24, making it the fourth-largest blaze in state history.

Worsening wildfires are a result of climate change, which has created drier, warmer conditions.

That's dangerous for those in the path of the flames – but also downwind. Kids' lungs are especially vulnerable to the smoke. Their growing bodies are more at risk from climate change's effects – like worsening air quality and rising temperatures – than adults.

We discuss the impact of rising temperatures on children.

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Airfares have gone up 25 percent in the last year. And the average U.S. driver spent 42 hours, or a full work week, in traffic congestion last year.

Enter trains.

A record number of people are hitting the tracks. While passenger trains have been a common mode of transportation for centuries, the country has never had a dedicated high-speed rail line.

That's expected to change in the next few years with two high-speed rail lines currently under construction in the Southwest and several more in planning phases across the country.

We discuss how high-speed rails could change the landscape of transportation in our country.

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is the man of the hour.

The Democrat will join Vice President Kamala Harris on the ticket come November as her pick for vice president.

He was selected from a group of Democratic officials including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

He's expected to appear alongside Vice President Harris at her rally today in Philadelphia.

We discuss how Vice President Harris' choice might appeal to Democratic voters nationwide.

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Kamala Harris is scheduled to start campaigning with her new running mate tomorrow which means a decision is fast approaching.

Two of the three candidates hail from swing states, indicating a desire to appeal to moderate voters. Harris met with Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz yesterday.

Moderates are an important group in this election, especially for Democrats. A 2022 Gallup poll suggests the percentage of Americans who hold either moderate or conservative political positions is tied. But liberals remain the smallest group at 25 percent of the population.

We unpack who these voters are, what we get wrong about them, and how they could shape the presidential election.

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The National Association for Black Journalists invited former President Donald Trump for an on-stage interview on Wednesday.

Iowa's abortion ban went into effect this week.

And, in global news, Israel says two major leaders of Hamas were killed this week.

While the U.N. Human Rights Office issued a report saying tens of thousands of Palestinians have been arbitrarily detained by Israeli authorities since Oct. 7.

We cover the most important stories in America and around the world in our weekly News Roundup.

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In most places in the U.S., if you see a pothole or broken streetlight, you can contact the city to request a repair. But response times vary dramatically.

In Memphis, Tennessee, it takes an average of five days for the city to fill a pothole upon a citizen's request. Louisville, Kentucky, and Miami Florida, complete the task within a couple of weeks.

But, in New Orleans, citizens wait an average of 355 days for a pothole to be filled.

Our "Local Spotlight" series hits the road. We highlight the meaningful investigative journalism happening in your communities.

For this installment, we head to Louisiana and talk about the recent series from the Times-Picayune called "Broken City: Inside New Orleans' Chronic Dysfunction."

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It's been called the largest IT outage in history. A simple security update took down over 8 million machines, affecting industries from airlines to broadcast news to hospitals.

The buggy update came from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike and affected systems using Microsoft.

Since that outage a couple of weeks ago, CrowdStrike and Microsoft have run their own investigations into what happened. But the federal government is also looking for answers. A House committee is calling on CrowdStrike's CEO to testify about what happened.

And the Department of Transportation is launching an investigation into Delta, which experienced ongoing delays for days after the outage.

We discuss how security update caused a global IT meltdown and how to prevent it from happening again.

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James Baldwin is one of the most celebrated American writers of the 20th century. He wrote novels, essays, short stories, poetry, and even a screenplay. He's best known for his affecting prose, his depth of thought, and his clear moral vision for the country.

Some 40 years after his death, much of what he had to say about America continues to resonate.

This week, Baldwin would have turned 100 years old. In a moment when Democracy is at risk, when wars abroad are being protested at home, when race continues to shape American politics, what can we learn from Baldwin about this moment that's not so different from his own?

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