geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna nawaz is away. on the "newshour" tonight, israeli airstrikes leave craters where apartments once stood at a gaza refugee camp. while in washington, congress considers whether to send more aid to israel and ukraine. the u.s. supreme court takes on

questions of free speech and social media in cases involving public officials blocking followers. and, west virginia university cuts jobs and academic subjects in the face of budget shortfalls. could this become a nationwide trend? >> the lack of transparency and sheer amount of cuts is decimating the trust that faculty has here and this is not just affecting those small majors. it's affecting everybody. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson, and camilla and george smith. >> pediatric surgeon.

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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the "newshour." for a fifth day, israeli troops pushed into gaza on the ground, and israel's military reported its first soldiers killed in action there. from the skies, a punishing air campaign continues tonight, with a strike that killed many palestinians in the northern part of the gaza strip. hamas militants said they would release foreign hostages in the coming days, and some badly-wounded palestinians may soon be allowed into egypt for treatment. leila molana-allen reports. leila: gaza, cloaked in black

smoke for yet another day, as israel's airstrikes and ground invasion show no signs of slowing. tanks line the border and israel said it has infiltrated the network of hamas tunnels below the gaza strip. an israeli strike hit the jabaliya refugee camp, where israel said it targeted hamas infrastructure, killing its leader in northern gaza, but the blast also killed and wounded hundreds of civilians. crowds of men dug through the rubble to reach trapped victims underneath. the pain of the loss is unbearable in gaza, trapped in this war where few are spared. >> here they are, children. we are filling up bags with children, we are placing them in bags. leila: body bags lined up outside a nearby hospital. inside, chaos, as overworked doctors rushed to treat the injured. >> children, women, elderly. we have no idea what to do, there are injured everywhere. leila: gazans are trying desperately to survive the

airstrikes. and under siege, a growing humanitarian crisis. most extreme is the water shortage. with an israeli blockade on fuel, water cannot be pumped or desalinized. residents wait in line for hours to fill their jugs with clean water. >> the people are miserable, there are lines everywhere. even if you find a drop of water, you will find a line of thousands. you go out in the morning at 7:00 a.m. and you go home after sundown just so you can get two good gallons of water for your home. leila: in washington, u.s. officials reiterated support for israel and sought to clarify the american role in the conflict. p>> all of us know the imperatie of standing up with our allies and partners. leila: secretary of state antony blinken and defense secretary lloyd austin testified before the senate over an aid package that would send more than $105 billion to israel and ukraine. >> i think it's important to

remind ourselves that what happens in ukraine and what happens in israel matters not to just ukraine and israel. it matters to us. it affects our national security as well. leila: the hearing was interrupted more than once by protesters, their hands painted blood red. >> ceasefire now. leila: blinken defended u.s. policy, while stressing the need for humanitarian aid. >> in each and every one of these conflicts, people are suffering. and i think it's profoundly who we are to want to do everything we can to assist them. leila: the request has bipartisan support in the senate, but the republican-controlled house wants to carve out funding for israel, leaving ukraine for later. >> this is all one fight and we have to respond in a way that recognizes that.

if we start to peel off pieces of this package, they'll see that, they'll understand that we are playing wack-a-mole, while they cooperate increasingly. leila: the war in ukraine has not seen major changes on the battlefield for months, while the war between israel and hamas threatens to explode into the wider region. israeli tanks line the border with lebanon, trading fire with hezbollah and other militant groups. israel shot down drones and missiles launched from yemen by houthi militants. the iranian-backed group said their attacks will continue until israel stands down. >> the yemeni armed forces affirm that this operation is the third in support of our oppressed brothers in palestine. leila: meanwhile in the occupied west bank, tensions threaten to boil over after another raid. a funeral for a 70-year-old man killed by israeli forces. as the violence spreads, palestinians wracked with grief and pulsating with anger filled the streets. for the "pbs newshour," i'm

leila molana-allen in the west bank. geoff: for analysis of israel's ground offensive in gaza and concerns about the war potentially spilling over into a broader regional conflict, we turn to former commander of u.s. forces in the middle east, retired general frank mckenzie. he's now executive director of the global and national security institute at the university of south florida. thank you for being with us. gen. mckenzie: glad to be with you. geoff: israeli troops have fought on the streets of gaza before during the first and second intifadas. what makes this current ground operation different? gen. mckenzie: this is a far more comprehensive operation. they are proceeding methodically. i think with four objectives. they want to minimize casualties, idf casualties, israeli army casualties. they want to minimize casualties among the population of gaza.

they want to get after the command-and-control structure of hamas. and i think they want to recover their hostages. these are difficult objectives and it will be slow going for them. geoff: what risks and challenges does hamas' extensive labyrinth of tunnels pose? gen. mckenzie: you are fighting in multiple dimensions. you are fighting on the surface of the earth, tanks moving, soldiers. underneath, there is a sewer system. underneath that, there is a comprehensive tunnel system that hamas has put in over many years. then, you are fighting at very low altitudes where israel has robots and drones, but hamas will fly some of those too. it is a multidimensional struggle. ultimately, the technical advantages of a force like the idf will be challenged in these close fightings road becomes infantry combat. there will be tanks and fire

support involved, but it will be a very methodical approach and they have to be careful of the tunnels. i know they have given the tunnels a lot of thought. i know they will use robots and other sophisticated measures to get down there. geoff: how long might this last? what is your assessment of israel's ability to sustain ground combat over the long-term potentially? gen. mckenzie: they've had a while to get themselves set. they have mobilized a significant portion of the military. i think we need to consider this in terms of months. i don't believe it will be days, weeks i believe it will take some time because they will be methodical. i realize there is frustration over there of innocent people dying in gaza. but, i actually believe the idf is doing the best they can to try to minimize the civilian casualties. even at the same time while hamas is doing their level best to maximize civilian casualties. we think of the hostages as

shields, but it is far more than that. a population of gaza is a shield for hamas, and they will wield it to the maximum extent they can to protect themselves and enforce the israelis to make tough decisions on what they target and don't because they will play this out in the information space as we have just seen in the reporting. geoff: as we saw in the report, there was an airstrike today that israel said was aimed at hamas militants. it had a densely populated neighborhood in northern gaza, left a massive crater, left extensive damage and death. are there tactics, weapons, munitions the israelis could do to go after hamas without destroying entire neighborhoods and killing so many civilians? gen. mckenzie: it is hard to do because hamas has chosen as a matter of policy to embed their organization into hospitals, mosques, schools, and high density population areas. that is a fundamental tactic of

hamas. i believe israel is doing the best they can to deal with it, to minimize the human cost on the ground to innocents. unfortunately, it will not be a perfect campaign. it will be a very bloody, harsh campaign and hamas has designed it that way. geoff: i want to ask you about the effort to rescue hostages. the pentagon's top policy official said american commandos on the ground in israel of helping locate the more than 200 hostages seized by hamas. help us understand the nature of that relationship, that partnership given that u.s. special operation forces are not assigned any combat roles in israel. gen. mckenzie: we should begin by noting that is really special operation forces are amongst some of the best in the world -- israeli special operation forces are amongst some of the best in the world. geoff: are you back with us, sir? gen. mckenzie: i believe i am. geoff: pick up where you left

off. gen. mckenzie: i think we should begin by recognizing israeli special operation forces are very capable and battle tested. our forces are also very unique and capable and battle tested. they can share techniques and procedures. they can talk about best practices. there are a lot of things we can do that don't involve putting u.s. soldiers into combat. geoff: on the potential for escalation, what is the decision matrix for hezbollah and getting involved? gen. mckenzie: it is my personal judgment that has below does not really care about the suffering that is going on in gaza and that will not prompt them to enter. they will enter if they see a strategic opportunity and that would be israel gets avidly -- heavily bogged down in gaza. if they sent the national political mood is such they can gain a strategic objective. they will make a very strategic calculation on that. the iranians may or may

not press, it is what is best for the organization in lebanon. he's had better days in lebanon than now given the battering the economy has taken. he's in a very different position in lebanon than 10 years ago when they last fought a significant fight with israel. he will have to balance that. i think it is far from certain that has below will come in. there's always the danger of error on either side that can spark something to get them into the fight. i think they will be very cold-eyed. the same thing for the iranians. their continued attack against u.s. forces in iraq and syria is very concerning and that might have the possibility of escalation. i hope we are sending all the signals we can, diplomatic and terms of force deployment to convince them this is not the time to come into this fight.

this is not the time to escalate. geoff: retired general frank mckenzie, thank you for your insight. gen. mckenzie: thank you. ♪ geoff: in the day's other headlines, capitol hill is grappling with new domestic threats in the wake of the israel-hamas war. at a senate hearing today, homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas confirmed a rise in hate towards arab-americans, muslims, and jews. and fbi director christopher wray acknowledged that jewish communities have been uniquely targeted. >> when you look at a group that makes up 2.4% roughly of the american population, it should be jarring to everyone that that same population accounts for something like 60% of all religious-based hate crimes. and so, they need our help. geoff: wray also warned that

hamas' actions in the middle east could inspire other terrorist attacks, including by violent extremists in the u.s. the senate also confirmed jack lew to be the next u.s. ambassador to israel at a critical moment in the country's war with hamas. lew previously served as treasury secretary under president obama. the u.s. hasn't had a senate-confirmed ambassador to israel since july. michigan's attorney general has ended prosecutions over flint's tainted water without making any criminal convictions. the decision comes after the state's supreme court rejected an effort to revive charges against former governor rick snyder and others accused of wrongdoing. in 2014, the city switched its water supply to the flint river, but didn't properly treat the water for lead. tens of thousands of flint residents were exposed to dangerous levels of lead. at least 12 people died from legionnaires' disease. and some residents of the majority-black city say they're still grappling with long-term health issues.

the biden administration is deepening its crackdown on so-called junk fees, this time by proposing new rules on retirement advisers. the guidelines would require advisers to recommend plans that are in the customer's best interest, instead of trying to boost their own bottom lines. president biden made the announcement today at the white house and said the move was necessary to protect retirement security. >> if this rule is finalized as proposed, it's going to protect workers that are saving through their retirements. it'll protect seniors who are being exploited. it'll protect many trustworthy financial advisers out there who are doing the right thing from unfair competition. geoff: the president has also tried to eliminate hidden junk fees in other areas, like concert tickets, hotel reservations, and airfare. in pakistan, afghan refugees are fleeing the country in droves ahead of the government's fast-approaching crackdown on migrants living in the country illegally. a wall of trucks formed along border areas as families crammed

the cargo beds with their belongings. they have until tomorrow to leave or face deportation. afghans say they were given just one month's notice. >> we lived nearly 40 years in pakistan, but they did not accept us, nor give us any documents so we can stay. but, the disappointing thing for us is that the government should have given us at least one year to leave. now, we are on our way to afghanistan and winter is coming and there will be no work for us there. geoff: u.n. agencies say afghans make up the bulk of pakistan's migrant population at more than two million. some 600,000 afghans fled to pakistan after the taliban takeover more than two years ago. a record 6.9 million people have been uprooted by the decades-long conflict in congo. that's according to new data from the u.n.'s migration agency. it says it's one of the world's largest humanitarian crises. most of those who've been displaced come from congo's eastern provinces, taken over by armed groups seeking natural resources.

and, stocks closed higher on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average gained 124 points to close at 33,053. the nasdaq rose 62 points. the s&p 500 added 27. still to come on the "newshour," maine law enforcement faces scrutiny after revelations that a mass shooter's family flagged his concerning behavior. alabama jail officials are accused of putting pregnant detainees at risk in the name of protecting unborn children. and a pulitzer prize winner reflects on his family's experience of war and exile in a new memoir. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: the u.s. supreme court heard arguments in two key cases today about how public officials use social media. the cases explore whether two school board members in

california and a city manager in michigan violated the first amendment by blocking constituents posting criticism on their personal social media pages. the constituents in the cases believe these social media pages were actually operating as an extension of government work. to help us understand the stakes here, i'm joined by our supreme court analyst, marcia coyle. it is always good to see you. marcia: good to see you. geoff: you are in the courtroom for the three hours of proceedings. what is the question that the justices were considering today in both arguments? marcia: the challenge for the justices is to determine how can you know when a public official is speaking in his or her official capacity or personal capacity on their personal webpages? the distinction is important because if it is in the official capacity, what we call a state actor, the first kicks in. that public official could be

held liable for violating the rights of someone who may have been blocked. geoff: in the one case, there is james fried, the city manager in michigan. he has a personal facebook page where he mostly posted about his family, but he also posted about covid and other city related matters. and he blocked from his facebook page a man named kevin linky after he posted criticism of the ways in which fried was handling the pandemic. so our team spoke with both men about how they see the case. here is what they have to say. >> schoolteachers, police officers, firefighters, school custodians like my grandfather was, can't go home and talk about what happened at work? just think the chilling effect that would have on those people. i have a right to free speech. in the middle of a covid pandemic, i have a right to communicate with my friends and family and what's going on in our lives, what's going on with our community. >> he can say that this was his personal page.

i don't necessarily disagree with that. the issue is that when he started blurring the lines and started putting out policy directives that couldn't be found anywhere else. he then created a public forum, and therefore, the protection of the first amendment kicked in. and by blocking stuff he didn't like or stuff that was critical of him, you know, we felt that he was trying to silence us. geoff: tell us more about how the justices interpreted those arguments? marcia: during the three hours, there were lots of hypotheticals about what kind of posts on a social media page could constitute either private speech or official speech. there was even mention of donald trump and even taylor swift entered the conversation. geoff: because donald trump when he was president, he blocked people. marcia: on twitter which is now known as x. his case was out because he's no longer president. what's happening in the arguments is that the lawyers were trying to offer the

justices a variety of tests for how to make this distinction beeen the two. the public officials really want a clearly defined, kind of rigid test that says basically, if you are fulfilling a duty on your personal webpage or you are demonstrating authority, then you are state action. and the first amendment will apply. and the individuals were blocked, their lawyers were telling the court that is too narrow of a test and we think you need a broader test. one lawyer described it as are you doing your job test, which looks at the content of the page, the appearance of the page, and the function that the public official serves. the justices had some qualms about both tests. one was considered a little too narrow and would chill speech. the other was considered too broad. i think ultimately, justi ce kagan hit the nail on

the head. she said what makes these cases hard is there are first amendment interests on both sides. public officials have every right to engage in the kind of speech you and i do to talk about their jobs, to talk about someone in the grocery store, talk about family, friends, pets. an individual has a right to be able to access information, government information that may be important to their lives, as well as share in the conversation on that page with other commenters. i think they are struggling here not only with what is the right test, but also what is a social media page or account? there was a comment by chief justice roberts at one point who said, basically, what is it? a gathering of protons or what? is this really property? it is a dilemma for them and

they've got opportunities. i could not tell which way they will go on this at all. geoff: these two cases, they are not the only social media cases coming towards the court. it is such a sign of the times that social media is so big. marcia: lots of issues. they have three more cases they will be looking at probably in the new year. the cases today are significant in their own right as to what they will do in terms of speech. when you put them together with the other three cases, it becomes a huge term for not only social media but also for the first amendment. geoff: marcia coyle, i would never block you on social media. marcia: thank you. geoff: thank you for your insight and analysis. ♪ geoff: lewiston, maine is in mourning after last week's shooting that killed 18 people

and injured 13 others. it's the worst mass shooting in the state's history and questions remain over why it wasn't prevented despite warning signs. laura barron-lopez has the latest. laura: geoff, mainers are still feeling this loss. joshua seal was one of four members of the deaf community killed. he leaves behind four children and his wife, elizabeth, who is also deaf and speaks here through an interpreter. >> i want the world to remember him, his passion, his love, his patience, his kindness, his motivation, his zeal for life. his ability to get things done and his humor. laura: along with the grief, there's growing scrutiny about why law enforcement didn't find or stop robert card before the shooting. his friends and family and the army reserve all reported

concerns about his behavior and access to guns to police months before the shooting, according to documents released by the sagadahoc county sheriff's office. we've now learned that in may, card's family told police he was experiencing paranoia and hearing voices. they also reported he had 10 to 15 firearms. in july, card's army reserve unit sent him to a psychiatric hospital for two weeks. in early september, card told a friend he was going to commit a mass shooting. then, on september 15, deputies went to card's home but didn't find him. they sent an alert to other law enforcement agencies stating he was "armed and dangerous." on september 16, police returned to card's home, found his car, and reported hearing someone inside who would not answer the door. on october 18, just one week before the attack, police canceled the alert. for a closer look at this, i'm joined by margaret groban, a retired federal prosecutor and law professor at university of maine school of law.

margaret, thank you so much for joining. can you recall a shooting like this where multiple active warnings right before the shooting occurs and they go nowhere? margaret: well, i think you have to kind of look at it in context, looking at it in hindsight, which is 20/20. it looks like all these dots have been connected. but, i doubt that those dots were all connected ahead of time, and so, law enforcement was really limited in what they could do in this situation. although it's a tragic situation, i think the mental health crisis and the access to firearms, especially an assault weapon, is what led to the tragedy here. laura: so, are you saying that essentially at the time, that all of these warnings were occurring that potentially police and the army reserve and others were just not communicating with each other? margaret: no, i can't speak to that. i don't know what was happening within that law enforcement community because i'm not a part of that. but, i know that the laws that were available to them to try and stop this kind of shooting from happening are extremely

burdensome and would have been very difficult to use in this situation. laura: and so, law enforcement appeared to try to find robert card prior to the mass shooting, but didn't and then they dropped their alert on him. is that a breakdown of procedures under maine's yellow flag law? margaret: under maine's yellow flag law -- glad you raised that -- the person has to be taken into protective custody in order for the procedure to start to then get a mental health assessment and then go to the judge. unlike in states, many states that have red flag laws where the family could have gone directly to the court and ask for an intervention for relinquishment of the firearms. so, they didn't find mr. card, so they couldn't take him into protective custody and get the procedure started. so, i think a procedure that didn't require those steps would be beneficial for our state going forward. laura: would you say then that the law enforcement officers couldn't have done much more than they already did? margaret: well, i don't know those circumstances.

i don't feel like commenting on them, but i know absent taking him into protective custody, and when they went to the house and he did not respond, what what were their options? to get a warrant for his arrest? what options did they have going forward? but the family could not on their own have gone to the court and asked for relinquishment of firearms that much. we do know. laura: if maine had a red flag law in place, what could have happened differently? margaret: what could have happened is that the family who expressed concern -- it looks like a brother, a sister, an ex-wife and a son all expressed concern about mr. card and they could have gone directly to a court, given their evidence that they had that he might pose a danger to himself and others, and asked for an order to relinquish his firearms. or they could have gone and tried to get mr. card voluntary, involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, so those could have been two avenues that they could have pursued. laura: based on the information that we have so far, and we know that more is likely to probably

come out, but beyond the red flag law, do you think that there's anything else that maine could change about its gun laws that could prevent a situation like this in the future? margaret: i certainly do. and i know that everyone is looking at the specific facts and you want to target, you know, did this person act correctly? did this person act correctly? but, the bottom line is that this was someone in a mental health crisis who had access to assault weapons. absent the assault weapon, there would not have been a mass shooting. we do not have an assault weapon ban in maine, and it was easy for him to obtain those weapons. laura: professor, you mentioned that these laws can be quite burdensome. could you expand on that a little bit? margaret: yes, in order to get the yellow flag laws, i said first law enforcement must be called. they must take a person to protective custody, which means putting them in the back of a patrol car, which can be an extremely difficult and dangerous situation for law enforcement. then, they have to get a mental health assessment, which shows that person is a danger to themselves or others, and then

they have to go to the court. to get the court to determine whether or not that person is a danger to themselves or others. so, it's a three-step process. in red flag states, all you have is a one-step process where judges determine dangerousness every day of the week when they set bail, when they sentence someone, they make those determinations and maine has instead imposed two additional steps that i think are not in the best interest of our state. laura: professor margaret groban of the university of maine, thank you so much for your time. margaret: thank you. ♪ geoff: west virginia university made headlines in the world of higher education this year when it announced it was making major cuts to some academic programs and faculty. and there's concern about whether other public universities may follow suit. special correspondent hari

sreenivasan has the story from morgantown, west virginia for our series, "rethinking college." hari: on-campus protests over social issues can be a typical part of the college experience, but these west virginia university students are protesting for a different reason. they're speaking out against the budget cuts their university has made. >> what do we say to gordon gee? hari: it's part of their ongoing fight against the elimination of programs by west virginia university president gordon gee. tucked into the foothills of the appalachian basin, the state's largest university is home to more than 24,000 students. the school's long-serving president announced the cuts this summer. on the chopping block, almost 8% of its majors and up to 5% of its faculty positions. among the majors eliminated, biometric engineering systems and almost all foreign languages, though there will be a few classes remaining in spanish, french, arabic, and chinese as electives.

>> all of this change is kind of scary. hari: the school's decisions have left students, like felicia carrara, who is majoring in international and russian studies, in limbo and unsure of the future. >> i thought that when i chose my college, i would have a pretty set path for four or five years, and that after, i would be able to figure things out, but i would have a degree under my belt. hari: president gee first ran the land grant university from 1981 to 1985. under the morill act of 1882, states were given federally-controlled land to create colleges. they offered research and educational opportunities to people in the state, especially those in rural areas. over time, many of the original schools became large public universities, like west virginia. gee says when he returned for a second term, he wanted the school to keep pace with where he thinks the future of education is headed. >> when i came back, i could see

that starting to be some fundamental changes. we started on the non-academic side, hired mckinsey, asked them to to tell me how could i change the university in order to impact the state. hari: you're looking at cutting, i want to say 32 majors, 169 faculty. >> i'm counting on it being enough. actually, due to retirements and a variety of other things, it's going to be about 70 faculty. we will still be one of the most comprehensive, robust universities in the country with well over 300 majors. hari: what was the criteria, which department? >> we base it on facts. and the fact was, you know, if you have a large number of faculty members teaching few students, that's where you start off. if students are not graduating and getting good jobs, that's one of the things you take a look at. hari: critics say the rollout of cuts has been messy and confusing. >> you'd basically choose two more classes from the whole menu. hari: jonah katz met with this student for the first time to tell her he can't be her

advisor. she came from spain in august. >> the week that she arrived here, she found out that the department is likely to be eliminated. hari: katz is an associate professor with tenure at west virginia university. his job was cut. >> the provost's office has settled on eliminating my department and the program in which i teach. hari: what do you think the impact of these cuts will be to the university? >> i think the level of reputational damage that the university is going to take will not be survivable or sustainable. i don't think that this will be a viable research university in five to 10 years. and it essentially means that there's no real tenure here anymore. and so, nobody is going to come teach here unless they have absolutely no other choice. hari: since the announcement of cuts, dozens of faculty and students have protested the university's decision to eliminate certain programs. and in early september, the faculty voted to pass a no confidence resolution in gee's leadership, calling for the budget cut process to be frozen.

you've got a huge no confidence vote from the faculty. >> i got a third of them. if you're a university president right now, everyone's getting no confidence vote because it's a tough environment. hari: one of the main issues confronting the university, a $45 million deficit. gee says the school lost revenue due to the pandemic and declining enrollment, but students and faculty believe he spent money on projects which ultimately don't benefit the school. everybody is looking at this shortfall now. they're saying, hey, mr. president, why did you spend $100 million on the business school or another $40 million on a football team building? >> the answer to that is the fact that we have invested wisely. you know, people will say, well, gee, you know, you had overextended or over-budgeted. but, the reality is this -- we've spent about $300 million in capital projects. our business school is one of our great growing areas. and we wanted to invest in it and you know we raise a lot of private money for that. hari: where the cuts are concerned, gee says they are necessary to ensure future growth. >> we're cutting back in order

to pour money in. that's the whole point. we're making the kind of decisions that will allow us to be able to invest in the programs that we think are going to be essential for our institution. hari: what's the role of the state here? >> i will say that since i returned that the state has been very supportive of our institution. we've lost dollars because the whole state had to cut back. hari: last year, west virginia lawmakers changed how public colleges and universities are funded in the state, giving priority to majors in engineering, education, and information technology. many of the university's cuts approved by the board of governors last month reflect that. so, what happens to public uiversities, especially in states like west virginia? if you really want that kind of liberal arts, language arts, everything else, you've got to go somewhere else? >> no, absolutely not. remember, i said we have over 300 academic programs. no one needs to leave the state to get a great education, a great liberal arts, a great academic, a great science, a great stem, a great medical education. no one needs to leave the state. hari: how many of you are

directly affected by the programs that are on the chopping block or being scaled back? how many of you have to rethink what you're going to do to graduate? the students in this room are part of the west virginia united students union, founded this july as a direct result of the cuts. how many of you feel like the university is hearing your concerns? gee says his administration has been clear about the changes. these students do not agree. >> the thing about these cuts and the narrative proposed about how they are only affecting these small departments is that it is not the case because the lack of transparency and sheer amount of cuts is decimating the trust that faculty has here. this is not just affecting those small majors, it's affecting everybody. >> when i first came to this university, what i wanted to do was i wanted to go to med school

and like know spanish so that i could treat patients in their native language. and i mean, i kind of changed course completely there. >> i think that a lot of students are being forced into majors that have like a big paycheck waiting for them when they graduate because tuition has gotten so high. >> what's happening at west virginia, i think, is sort of an atom bomb has gone off and it's sort of slow moving. it's something that's happening on a much smaller scale around the country. hari: lisa corrigan is a professor at the university of arkansas who has written about west virginia university. she says other land grant universities like texas a&m and the university of utah are making similar changes. what do you think other schools are watching about how this all plays out? >> depends on what kind of institution they are and what kind of state they're in. some as a cautionary tale and some as an opportunity. and i think you're going to see a split happen as other universities either follow in

line and/or repudiate it completely. hari: last week, in his state of the university address, president gee outlined his vision for wvu as a modern land grant university, promising that regardless of cuts, every student would be afforded a well-rounded education. as for these students, they told us they plan to continue their fight. >> something that the student union is trying to do is build student power. hari: if there is power in numbers, then these students are on the right path. since july, their group has grown to more than 400, with more lining up to join. for "pbs newshour," hari sreenivasan, morgantown, west virginia. geoff: you can watch more of the stories in our series "rethinking llege" on our website, pbs.org/newshour. ♪ a federal civil rights lawsuit is raising concerns about the treatment of pregnant detainees at an alabama jail and the

potential harm to their unborn children whom the law claims to protect. stephanie sy has more. stephanie: ashley was arrested in march 2021 after law enforcement said she tested positive for methamphetamines. she was two months pregnant. the rest of her pregnancy was spent in the detention center in alabama where she says she gave birth in a jail shower without any medical help. a lawsuit filed by the advocacy group pregnancy justice alleges that leading up to the birth, she was denied regular access to prenatal visits, forced to sleep on a thin mat on a concrete floor, and during 12 hours of labor, the suit says staff only gave her tylenol for pain. the suit claims her story represents a disturbing pattern of inhumane treatment at the jail. for a closer look, i am joined by dana sussman, director of

pregnancy justice. thank you for joining the newshour. what i listed earlier does not begin to describe what she says she experienced. how dangerous was that shower delivery for her and her baby and how are they doing now? dana: thank you for having me. ms. caswell endured 12 hours of unassisted, unmedicated labor, and later learned she had a placenta obstruction which causes significant blood loss. she labored and asked for help repeatedly and repeatedly,. she did not even give birth in the jail's medical facility. she was accompanied to the shower and refused help even while she stood and knew the baby was coming. only when she believed she was going to pass out from the blood loss did the county jail staff person catch the baby.

then, she passed out on the floor of the shower and continued to bleed significantly. eventually, she was brought to the hospital where she needed several iron transfusions because of her blood loss. and when she gave birth and lost consciousness, the county jail officials or staff members that were with her took her baby and proceeded to take pictures with her baby while ms. caswell was undressed, regaining consciousness, and continuing to bleed. the inhumane treatment that she experienced shocks the conscience and we filed a lawsuit along with our partners, the southern poverty law center, to seek redress for the harms and trauma that she endured. ms. caswell is in the women's prison in alabama, so she remains incarcerated. but, she is overwhelmed by the support she has received and the

legal team that is behind her. and the other women that have come forward and shared their experiences at the county jail. stephanie: how many other women have similar stories from that facility? dana: we have identified three other women in three years leading up to ms. caswell's labor that experienced similar treatment when it came to laboring without care, including one who gave birth in the jail just a year prior. and another who tragically lost her baby because her water broke and she was not transported to the hospital for five days and then later delivered a stillborn baby. we know this is a pattern and we also know of dozens of other women who have experienced mistreatment in the jail. anything from lack of postnatal care after delivery to lack of mental health services and treatment, and the medication

that they are prescribed. the harms in this jail and the mistreatment and rights violations are vast, and years long. stephanie: following reporting on this, the jail said last year it no longer detains pregnant women awaiting trial on these endangerment laws. what else do you hope to gain from this lawsuit? dana: i just want to clarify that the da's office has shifted its bond policy. the bond conditions at the county jail for women who are charged with chemical endangerment of a child, and by the way, this is a law but does not mention pregnancy. it was passed by the legislature not intended to apply to pregnancy, but has since been used by counties in alabama to target pregnant women. the county targets more pregnant women than any other county in the state. 93% of chemical endangerment charges in etowah county are

women, the vast majority are mothers. what we hope to achieve with this lawsuit is first redress. we are seeking damages for her experience. of course, money does not change what happened to her, but that is the form of redress that the law allows. we want to continue to shine a light on the inhumane human rights violations that are occurring in the county jail. and we want the jail to change its practices. if etowah county is going to incarcerate or detain more pregnant people than any other county in the country that we know of, they need to take care of those -- they have a legal and constitutional obligation to provide medical care to those pregnant and postpartum women. stephanie: dana sussman with the group pregnancy justice, thank you for joining us. dana: thank you for having me. ♪

geoff: recently, an event featuring the writer viet thanh nguyen at the 92nd street y, one of new york's leading cultural institutions, was cancelled. the organizers cited nguyen's public criticism of israel. it's just one example of how the israel-hamas war is roiling cultural and educational organizations in this country. the vietnamese-born, pulitzer prize-winning author has long written on themes of war, refugees, and exile, now most directly and personally in a new memoir about his own family's experience. jeffrey brown spoke wi nguyen about "a man of two faces" before this conflict began for our arts and culture series, canvas. jeffrey: on a recent afternoon just outside los angeles, viet thanh nguyen brought us to golden deli, a favorite vietnamese restaurant. to try the fried spring rolls, and talk of exile, secrecy, divided identity. the lives and histories that

have made him "a man of two faces," the name of his new memoir. >> when i was growing up, my parents told me that i was 100% vietnamese. 100%. and whenever they said american, they meant other people, not us. so they definitely wanted me to stay vietnamese. the united states was where we live, but it wasn't, i think, their idea of a permanent home. jeffrey: literally, they thought they might go back or you might go back or you could somehow? >> yeah. i think a lot of refugees think that way. you always have to live here and work and survive. my parents became citizens. jeffrey: survival was a central theme of his family's life. his parents were born in the 1930's during the french colonization of vietnam. they moved to the south in 1954, and then in 1975 when nguyen was four, fled to the u.s., refugees twice over. they eventually settled in san jose, california, dealing with

traumas physical, including a hold-up at the grocery story his parents owned in which they were shot and injured. and psychological, never quite leaving the past behind. we continued our talk at his pasadena home. >> for me, history was really present because i felt that history was rippling through all of us vietnamese refugees, through our bodies and our emotions, because we wouldn't speak about history necessarily in the house. but people would be angry, people would be sad, people would be torn up by all these emotions, not just my family, but every other family i ever interacted with. jeffrey: stories became a way to both escape and forge his own identity through the books he read and, eventually, his own writing. >> i had to not acknowledge to my parents that what i really wanted to be was a writer, because i felt that writing was how i could save myself and also hopefully save them in some way, like save their stories and in some way impact the country in which i was living and growing up in. jeffrey: that puts a lot of

weight on you as a writer. >> a self-imposed weight. jeffrey: self-imposed, which you feel. >> i feel because i believe stories can do all these things. jeffrey: his debut novel, "the sympathizer," about a north vietnamese spy in the south vietnamese army who then lives among the u.s. refugee community, took in all this history. the new memoir borrows from its opening line, "i am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces." >> growing up as a refugee in san jose, california, i felt like a man of two faces. i was an american spying on my vietnamese parents, but i was a vietnamese person spying on americans when i stepped out of the house. and so with this memoir, the only way i could really write it was to imagine "the sympathizer" writing about me. i had to pretend i was someone else writing about me to gain some distance from myself. because part of the subject of this book is how difficult it is

for us to know ourselves. jeffrey: and how difficult for what he terms "americatm" to know itself and its often destabilizing role in the world. there is a sharp political critique here. also of how popular culture, the movies most of all, shape and distort our sense of history, other people, and war itself. indeed, nguyen refers to his memoir as a war story, just not in the way we typically think of one. >> in the 20th century, wars killed more civilians than killed soldiers. so, why are civilian stories not typically thought of as war stories? and so when i think about the fact that my family was displaced, that it was fractured, that we left people behind, that my parents' lives were destroyed and had to rebuild them. to me, even though my parents were never soldiers, these are war stories. jeffrey: one person left behind, an older sister. >> i didn't even realize i had a sister until we got a letter

from her when i was like nine years old. never came up. so, that was my life. jeffrey: you realized she had been left behind. >> and who was this person? what happened to our family? what have we never talked about? and so that was really a defining element of my life, is trying to figure out how the personal conflicts and emotions and anxieties that are present in all families were present in my family, but they were shaped also by this terrible, terrible history. jeffrey: it's a history that deeply affected his mother, who died in 2018. nguyen presents her as a successful, self-made woman, but one who also struggled with mental illness. >> and went to the psychiatric hospital three times in her life. that was never something we talked about outside of the family. her illness will always be a mystery, because what happens inside of us, who knows what combination of genetics and psychology leads to this kind of

experience. but i also surmise, i can guess that everything she underwent as someone who grew up in 40 years of war and colonization and being a refugee twice and being separated from her family, not seeing her siblings for 25 years, not being there when her own mother passed away, her mother passed away in vietnam when she was in the united states. that must have had an impact on her, must have shook her. jeffrey: i knew you first as a fiction writer. what was it like to write about yourself? >> writing about myself was very difficult. that is why i had to put some distance. what does it mean to to delve into these family experiences that were so painful? and so i think that, in fact, i become a better writer, but also hopefully a better human being, a better father, because i could finally engage with these things that have been so difficult for me to confront for 30 and 40 years.

in the penultimate chapter, the book addresses my own children. they're 10 and three. maybe one day, they'll read the book. or maybe they'll never read the book. i have no idea, but it was very important for me in that chapter to say, i hope they never feel the need to write a memoir. but if they do, they have my blessing. jeffrey: the memoir, "a man of two faces," was longlisted for this year's national book award. for the "pbs newshour," i'm jeffrey brown in pasadena, california. ♪ geoff: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. remember, there's much more online, including some spooky stories this halloween. learn more about how science and medicine are woven through our modern vampire mythology at pbs.org/newshour. i'm geoff bennett. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for

joining us. have a happy halloween. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, how can i help you? this is a pocket dial. i will let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. have a nice day. ♪ >> carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by

contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

pati, voice-over: these two sisters in mérida may not always see eye to eye... [laughs] [speaking spanish] pati, voice-over: but together, they make their versions of the famous spice pastes known as recados that yucatán is famous for, and they use one of them, the recado blanco, to cook a steamy relleno blanco. [speaking spanish] pati, voice-over: then, in the fertile fields of hacienda uxmal,