captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, august 28: the u.s. reaches a target of resettling 10,000 syrian refugees this year. as refugee children from around the world prepare for the first day of school in new york city. >> i have many friends. we play together. i like here. it's very good. >> sreenivasan: and, a discussion about free speech with an editor who controversially published cartoons of the prophet mohammed. next on "p.b.s. newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires.

sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. this is pbs newshour weekend. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. the united states this evening is on the verge of a milestone. tomorrow the u.s. will meet president obama's target of resettling 10,000 refugees from syria's civil war by the end of the federal government's fiscal year on september 30. that's according to the american ambassador to jordan. ambassador alice wells met today in amman with some of the several hundred syrians about to leave to start new lives in this country.

the resettlement program has become an issue in the presidential campaign, with republican nominee donald trump charging the refugees pose a potential security threat. but ambassador wells said syrian refugees are subjected to rigorous screening measures conducted by the department of homeland security, the state department, and the f.b.i., which include in-person interviews and a review of biographical and fingerprint information. the process used to take 18 to 24 months but since april has quickened to three. following referrals from the united nations refugee agency, just over half the applicants to the u.s. are approved. an estimated five million refugees have fled syria since the civil war began there five years ago-- the most going to turkey, jordan, lebanon, and germany. turkey's involvement in the syrian war intensified today. turkish tanks and warplanes pounded positions controlled by a rebel kurdish militia supported by the unites states. turkey says 25 kurdish militants were killed, while a human rights monitoring group said at

least 35 villagers also died in the attacks. turkey has said it is just as concerned about curbing kurdish expansion in syria as it is about fighting islamic state militants there. searchers in earthquake- devastated central italy say they believe they've located more bodies in the rubble of hard-hit town of amatrice, but are unable to reach them. no survivors have been found today in the wake of the wednesday quake struck which killed at least 290 people. italian prosecutors have opened a building-codes fraud and negligence investigation after some buildings collapsed only a few years after they had undergone costly renovations to withstand earthquakes. museums all across italy are donating today's ticket sales to the reconstruction effort. at the vatican, pope francis prayed for the victims and said he plans to visit the earthquake zone as soon as possible. germany's economy minister gave a thumbs-down today to the ongoing free-trade talks between the united states and the european union. sigmar gabriel, who's also germany's vice-chancellor, said that while no one is willing to admit it, talks over the transatlantic trade and

investment partnership have failed. gabriel said that in 14 rounds of talks over three years, the e.u. and the u.s. have been unable to agree on a single item. he said europe is refusing to" submit" to american demands. chicago police have arrested two men for the shooting death of nykea aldridge-- a cousin to n.b.a. star dwyane wade-- as she was walking with her baby near a school on friday. brothers darwin sorrells junior and derren sorrells are charged with first-degree murder for their stray gunfire that struck aldridge in the head and arm. police say the suspects were firing at a third man and that aldridge, a mother of four, was not the intended target. her child was unharmed. as of last week, chicago had recorded 2,228 shootings, including 441 homicides this year, an increase of nearly 50 percent from the same period of time last year. yesterday, republican presidential nominee donald trump sparked controversy when he tweeted the shooting was

proof that african-american voters would vote for him. on c.b.s. today, trump campaign manager kellyanne conway was asked what he meant. >> he's been trying to make the case that the increase in random crime and senseless murders, the poverty, joblessness, homelessness in some of our major cities, is unacceptable to all of us. >> sreenivasan: what are scientists saying about the decrease in the number of earthquakes in oklahoma? find out online at www.pbs.org/newshour. in the philippines, in the two months since president rodrigo duterte took office with a promised crackdown on illegal drugs, the national police say they have gunned down more than 700 suspected drug dealers and users who resisted arrest. more than 1,000 other police- involved killings are under investigation. the wave of extrajudicial killings has brought condemnation from human rights groups. joining me from san francisco for some insight into the

violence in the philippines is paul henson, the north american bureau chief of the filipino channel. thank you for joaning us. are people in the philippines who voted for the president now becoming concerned about the lack of due process? >> there is a growing concern, but let me put it in context, first. the president, he won the last election by a margin of about six million over his strongest competitor, this is the population that is tired of criminality in the philippines that wants change. i guess what people weren't expecting were the methods that the government is willing to undertake in order to stamp out crime and corruption in the streets. there is growing concern right now that due process is involved that those supected of being involved in the drug trade are not being respected in terms of their constitutional rights to due process. and there is also fear that innocent people, may be involved in the killings. and this collateral damage as well, one of the recent

collateral damages of the a 5-year-old girl who was gunned down by motorcycle-riding gunmen who were targeting her grandfather who was allegedly involved in drugs. there are innocent people involved in this all-out campaign that's where the fear is coming from. >> sreenivasan: put it in context for an american context, how big is the drug problem in the philippines? >> there's been a recent study by the agency that nine out of ten, that's 9 2% of localities or villages in met toe manila have drug related cases. that's one out of five localities that is a very big chunk of the population of the philippines. there's also been a study by the united nations that the philippines is number one in terms of the use of methamphetamine hydrochloride the number one in east asia. a lot of this problem is really boosted by poverty as well as unemployment in the philippines. and the big e problem is that

the drug money and corruption seeped in to the grass roots level but also in law enforcement among justice officials, it's a problem of narco politics as well. >> sreenivasan: he famously gave a national speech where he called out judges, he called out members of congress and said these are people that are associated with this. has this crackdown actually nabbed some of the big fish the king pins that are bringing the drugs boot philippines? >> that's what the people are looking out for, because this number, the number of people being killed, it's amounting to around 1,900 now in total these are street criminals, these are petty pushers and drug users. what the people want to see are more of the syndicate leaders and the big bosses to be apprehended and put behind bars. that is what is can lacking still in this campaign. >> ninan: what about the sort of civil sight how are they pushing back? >> well, there's been a big protest rally in the last two

weeks, people are really concerned are taking out to the streets to air their grievances say that this executions are not right, even the vice president of the philippines who comes from the opposing party has said that this is not right, that people should speak up and make their voices heard. >> sreenivasan: paul henson of the filipino channel, thanks so much. >> thank you very much, my pleasure. >> sreenivasan: when the danish newspaper "jyllands-posten" published a dozen cartoons of the prophet mohammed in 2005, including one depicting the prophet with a bomb in his turban, it stirred outrage in the muslim world. protesters set fire to danish embassies, and the paper's culture editor at the time, flemming rose, was the target of an assassination plot. rose was in new york recently and i sat down with him to discuss those events, their impact on free expression, and the differing views on free

speech around the world. is free speech absolute? >> no, i don't think so. i think the united states, in fact, you have the best possible protection of speech anywhere in the world, the first amendment. but of course, anywhere in the world, also the united states you do have limitations on speech. i think the key that any society would need is criminalization of insighting of violence, i don't think anyone should have right to incite violence. and call on citizens to call up to kill other people. and there is a difference in the understanding of society to add in the u.s. and in europe, in the u.s. you need a clear and present danger, that is words should be followed by immediate action. in europe you can be convicted of inciting violence even though

may not be a risk of immediate action following words. personally, i am more inclined to favor the americans interpretation. >> sreenivasan: you've written in the past about the distinction between words and deeds. in some ways that we sometimes limit speech because we equate speech with actual act. >> yes. that is exactly what dictators do. and why do dissidents behind the iron consider ton end up in labor camps because their criticism of the government was being seen as almost physical attacks on the government. that they were undermining the socialist in socialist europe. and if you go back in history, it was church basically, with

the sensor ship. the church perceived any criticism of religion or the church as a physical attack and you had the right to kill people who burned on the stake or -- and killed them for other means. as soon as you began to distinguish between words and deeds, first you worked out a doctrine that meant that people of other faiths have the right to live and practice their faith. even though it wasn't the majority faith and later on you are also step by step the right to different speech. distinction between words and deeds is in fact crucial and it is a distinction between lib balance democracy and a dictatorship screen under your broad definition of defamation

of character i'm sure you're critics have tried to point out wasn't inviting the cartoons a defamation of a religious character, wasn't it almost an incitement of other people to rse up against this kind of -- did you know this was going to happen? >> no. and that's one of the reasons why i'm looking at this issue in the way i do. i mean, i did not have any bad intentions or about censorship when it comes to islam and there were artists, translators, writers, who were submitting themselves to censorship and some people were saying, no, this is not the case, that was the context in which those cartoons were committed to start a debate about this and to test if there were censor sip is in fact or not. and secondly, there was based in

fictional fear or in real fear. ten years later i would say that we have to answer those questions in the affirmative, yes, there was censorship and that's understandable because people have been killed. i myself have bodyguards around the clock. so, the fear is based in reali reality. >> sreenivasan: aren't publications already self censoring on a whole host of issues? this might be too graphic, too violent for our audience, this is something that i don't want to share, just that editorial act and saying collectively in the newsroom or institution, this is not what we're going to publish. those are acts, right? >> yes. the fact that you have a right to publish something doesn't mean it's always prudent and wise to do so. but the fact of the matter is that i think your news program

and the newspaper where i work and other newspapers around the world, they publish things the that offensive to some people out there every day. the problem is, that it's only becoming a challenge when people react it to in a violent way or they start to threaten and intimidate. >> sreenivasan: you've probably done a hundred interviews with institutions all over the globe, even the institution that you're speaking with now, we're probably unlikely to air the images of the cartoons in question, right? are we part of the problem or we self censoring or living in cultural fear or as you said, prudent for institutions to make this choice on whether or not the image needs fob associated with the story. >> i would say after the killing of my friends, i think it would have made sense to show viewers

or readers why they were killed. we are now just having a general conversation about freedom of expression, i don't think necessarily that that requires to show the readers that part of my story. but if you have violence, why were these people killed, i would say as an editor that it would be relevant, that it would make sense to show the audience why they were killed. there is no automatic relationship between the publication of those images and the violence. between the image of the violence there are individuals who have -- they are not animals, they are not small children, they are able to make a qualified judgment about how to react. and i think treat them as adults not as small kids or animals without an adjustment.

>> sreenivasan: for most students across the country, the first day of school is right around the corner. and here in new york, there is an academy that has spent the last six weeks helping a unique group of children prepare. newshour weekend's ivette feliciano has the story. >> reporter: this summer, 118 students, from ages five to 20, attended the "refugee youth summer academy," known as" rysa," here in manhattan. >> i like rysa teachers! >> you get to learn more about different things you don't know. >> i have many friends. we play together. i like here. it's very good. >> reporter: this year's class hailed from 29 different countries-- stretching across southeast asia, the middle east, russia, africa, and latin america. all of them come from families who have been granted asylum or refugee status in the us, some of them fleeing civil war, gang violence, and natural disasters

in their home countries. the international rescue committee started rysa 17 years ago to prepare these students for the new york city public school system. during the six week program, they get a taste of american school life, taking not just english and math classes, but also dance, music, art, and physical education. rysa director kira o'brien says acclimating to a foreign school system is just one of many hurdles refugee children face. >> things like language, things as simple as which direction a light flip switch goes. these are things that we might always take for granted, but kids are learning about every single time that they step outside of their apartment, that they go onto a subway. they're always learning something new. >> reporter: 18 year old binta diallo arrived from the west african nation of guinea three years ago. at that time, even setting foot outside her family's new apartment was difficult. >> we don't know where we're

going. everybody feel very sad. like, knowing they left everybody in their country and then came here. >> reporter: she enrolled in rysa a month after arriving and says the program helped her make the transition. >> my first summer here was, kind of like little bit nervous. but when i get here, i see like, i see white, black, a lot of people. nobody, like, feel left out. here, like, we were like, as a family, everybody cares for each other. >> reporter: o'brien says rysa provides refugee and asylee kids with an environment where they can bond with students from different backgrounds. >> i have friends! she's my friend! she's my friend! i have many friends! >> it provides them with a community of like-minded students, right. that they are not alone in this. in their classrooms they might not have another student that speaks their home language or knows what, kind of, food they eat at lunch or knows what a hijab is. it's when you build a community of students who are like, "hey,

i've done that, too." or, "i felt that way at lunch time before," that you are really building strength within students. that they know that each other are out there. >> reporter: that community has been helping 16 year old bikash shrestha, who moved here from nepal three months ago. >> they are so totally awesome. they were saying everything with me and i'm saying everything with them. how they came to, like, new york. why they came. and how is their country? and we're sharing about our cultures. food. traditions. everything. it was nice to meet them. it was my pleasure to meet them. >> reporter: diallo participated in this summer's program as a counselor assisting teachers with younger students. she says rysa helped bring her out of her shell. how did your experience here help you transition to your normal school? >> here, like, be able to communicate with people. i just wanted, like, to be able to be used to communicate with other people.

so i always choose, like, to sit with people. some of them don't even speak english. but we always feel like listen and laugh. >> reporter: o'brien says the small triumphs of making friends or asking questions are crucial part of student development. >> we have had other students who have said their first words in english with us. they're now writing, you know, full sentences. kids who are coming in and asking questions, showing us that they are engaging. it might seem, like, miniscule that a kid raises their hand. but that kid could have been working up to that for the past three weeks. so we really want to celebrate that. >> "you are never alone. we are with you and we believe in you." >> reporter: this month, rysa held a graduation ceremony for its 2016 class. the new york city public school year begins next month. >> i believe so strongly that our kids need this. and if we're gonna have an education system that reflects our city and who we have here, we have to honor that. >> the rysa is an-- best part of my life. and i never gonna forget about this program. i think i'll come next year too

for here. success sided the late charles kuralt. he's retiring after. almost half a century on tv with cbs but he'll still see you on the radio. on the "newshour" tomorrow, with amy walter, that's it for this edition of pbs weekend, i'm hari sreenivasan thanks for watching have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by:

and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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