captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> sreenivasan: and i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: on the newshour tonight, it's the eve of the final presidential debate: hillary clinton prepares behind closed doors, while we consider donald trump's claims of a media conspiracy. >> sreenivasan: also ahead this tuesday, john yang reports from nevada, where a republican split on donald trump creates a close race for a crucial senate seat. >> woodruff: and, as the international community struggles with a refugee crisis, how uganda is becoming one of the most welcoming countries for those fleeing conflict. >> camps tend to confine people, whereas in uganda when refugees arrive, they are issued legal i.d.'s that entitle them to go anywhere in the country to find a job, start a business, put

their children in school. >> sreenivasan: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> 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. >> woodruff: it's three weeks to go till election day, just 24 hours until the last presidential debate, and charges of vote fraud and media bias are swirling. today, the current occupant of the white house dismissed such talk, and rebuked the candidate behind it. it was a rose garden welcome for the italian prime minister, and president obama used it to call out donald trump on his claims of a rigged election. >> you start whining before the game is even over? if whenever things are going badly for you or you lose, you start blaming somebody else? then you don't have what it takes to be in this job. >> woodruff: trump shot back this afternoon in colorado springs:

>> that they even want to try and rig the election at the polling booths, where so many cities are corrupt, and you see that, and voter fraud is all too common. and then they criticize us for saying that. >> woodruff: running mate mike pence joined in, visiting republican party offices in rural north carolina that were firebombed over the weekend, he insisted voter fraud is a reality, and called for voters to be on the lookout: >> encouraging supporters to take the opportunity to be involved in a respectful way to provide accountability at polling places. >> woodruff: pence also complained of media bias and what he called "scant coverage" of negative news about clinton. the latest such news involved communications between the f.b.i. and a senior state department official who wanted one of clinton's e-mails reclassified.

it was not. but last night, in green bay, wisconsin, trump charged there's "collusion" in the obama administration to help clinton. the candidate's wife, melania, was on cnn, claiming that the sexual assault allegations against her husband are not true. >> i believe my husband. i believe my husband. this was all organized from the opposition. >> woodruff: former "people magazine" writer natasha stoynoff is one of the accusers: she stated that trump forced himself on her in 2005, and today the publication reported that six of her colleagues and close friends corroborate her account. meanwhile, hillary clinton remained out of the public eye today, even as poll after poll offered her good news. "the washington post" reported she has a clear advantage in the latest survey of battleground states. and a "usa today" poll found 68% of young voters favor the

democratic nominee, to 20% for trump. all of this sets the stage for tomorrow night's third and final encounter between the two nominees, this one, in las vegas. >> sreenivasan: in the day's other news, iraqi forces slowed their advance on mosul, in its second day, as they reached larger towns on the outskirts. humanitarian groups warned the city's one million people could face a disaster. but president obama said plans are in place to avert a crisis. we'll explore the situation in mosul, later in the program. >> woodruff: next door in syria, russian and syrian fighter jets halted strikes on aleppo today, ahead of their call for a short- term stop to all fighting on thursday. it's meant to allow humanitarian aid into the ravaged city. but in moscow, the russian defense minister warned militant groups to evacuate, when the fighting stops. >> ( translated ): we call on the leadership of countries that have influence over armed groups in eastern aleppo to convince their leaders to stop military action and abandon the city.

everyone really interested in the fastest possible stabilization of the situation take genuine political steps and not continue shuffling political papers. >> woodruff: thursday's pause in the fighting is set to last eight hours. a united nations spokesman complained today that's not nearly enough time to get humanitarian convoys in and out of aleppo. >> sreenivasan: a temporary halt to the fighting in yemen is also in the works. the country's warring factions agreed today to a 72-hour cease- fire, beginning shortly before midnight wednesday. it's to allow much-needed humanitarian aid to be delivered. >> woodruff: in iran, a court has sentenced an iranian- american businessman and his father to 10 years in prison, each. siamak namazi was detained a year ago. his 80-year-old father was arrested in february. today's announcement says they were sentenced for "cooperating with the hostile government of america." >> sreenivasan: back in this country, for a fifth straight year, social security recipients and federal retirees will get just a tiny bump in benefits.

the annual cost-of-living hike announced today is three-tenths of a percent. the average monthly social security payment is $1,238 dollars. that means the increase for the coming year will be less than $4 a month. >> woodruff: stocks closed higher on wall street today, lifted by strong earnings in the the dow jones industrial average gained 75 points to close at 18,161. the nasdaq rose 44 points, and the s&p 500 added 13. >> sreenivasan: and, the original ruby slippers from "the wizard of oz" will get a makeover, if the smithsonian can raise $300,000. it's asking the public to help, on the crowd-funding website "kickstarter." the ruby slippers are nearly 80 years old, and showing their age, at the national museum of natural history in washington. the institution wants to repair them and build a new display. still to come on the newshour: what's driving the idea that the media is rigging the election. a tight race in nevada as democrats try to take back the senate.

the looming humanitarian crisis in iraq, and much more. >> woodruff: claims of news media bias in politics are certainly nothing new. but what of donald trump's accusations that the press is actually responsible for "rigging" the presidential election against him? to explore that notion, we are joined by jim rutenberg, media columnist for the "new york times," and bob lichter, director of the center for media and public affairs at george mason university. we welcome both of you to the program. i'm going to start with you, bob lichter. donald trump is saying that the media an i'm quoting, that the election is being rigged by what he calls "the dishonest, distorted media pushing hillary clinton." you've studied the american media for, what, decades?

is there a grain of truth to what he says? >> well, when people say the maida are biased, they usually mean somebody is getting too much attention, more than he deserves and his coverage is more favorable than he should get. donald trump is a news magnet. he gets more attention than anybody else, but a lot of that attention compares him either with hitler or mussolini, so study shows what our eyes see that, trump gets a lot of coverage, that his coverage is very negative, he has managed the considerable feat of getting more negative coverage than hillary clinton, who has issues in her own right, so you could make a case there is bias. i think the question is whether the traditional definitions of bias apply to such a non-traditional candidate as donald trump. >> woodruff: jim rutenberg, how do you see this? you write about this stuff frequently for the "times." >> i think i would agree with that assessment to a degree. one thing is that donald trump's candidacy has been so amazing

and hazouri this -- it has this can't-look-away quality. he says things we're not used to hearing. some of the things are about appearances of women, what have you, what we heard on the "access hollywood" leaked tape of him discussing his behavior with women, the description of groping, the press is going to cover that and it's going to be negative, but it is what it is, a pretty accurate description of what he said in that tape for instance. >> woodruff: take us a little bit further. what donald trump, bob lichter, what donald trump is saying is that the media is in collusion with the clinton campaign. what evidence is there that that could possibly be true? >> well, they've been so nice to her about her e-mails is a piece of evidence. it's perfectly obvious, and studies show that her coverage is more negative than positive. >> woodruff: there was one story about a member of the clinton organization passing

along information ahead of a debate. is that right? >> yep. there was that one story. and then there is the issue of her not turning these over, which has been raised many, many times by donald trump and by journalists. so i think they're just... there isn't a case that can be made that the media have gone soft of hillary clinton. she's not getting great coverage either. >> woodruff: in fact, and bob lichter just referred to this, jim rutenberg, the media, especially television media, can be credited for giving donald trump a lot of air time, a lot of print space during the primary period. >> this drove his republican competitors for the nomination crazy. there was one analysis that my newspaper wrote about where the figure that was used in terms of "free media," this was the value of the extra air time he got from the news networks was some $2 billion. no candidate came close. so he draws the cameras. it can be a good thing for him. sometimes it's a bad thing for him.

right now it's not going so well. >> woodruff: how do you put this in historical perspective, bob lichter? we know the role of the press has changed in this country. i mean, you have talked about how 17th, 18th centuries, we had a partisan press in the united states. >> donald trump should go back a couple hundred years and see the nasty things that were said about adams and jefferson. it's only the 20th century that the press has taken on the role of being an objective arbiter, trying to be fair and balanced and objective. in a way it releases journalists from the responsibility of saying i'm presenting this from my point of view. it's nobody's point of view. i'm being fair all around. donald trump makes that really hard to do. this is man who insults members of his own party. he bullies his opponents. he says things that are demonstrably untrue. what do you do with that as a journalist to be objective without becoming negative in a way that opens you to charges of media bias? i think trump has done a good

job of defaming the media to some degree. >> woodruff: jim rutenberg, you have also written about how donald trump has singled out the press at his campaign rallies to the point where members of the press have felt uncomfortable and worse. >> well, two major networks are now using security at his rallies, and it's a kind of he'll direct the crowd at the assembled press. and i have covered many rallies in my career where that hasn't happened with the exception of maybe sarah palin toward the end of '08 and when she was flirting with her own presidential run. other colleagues i have talked to who are much older than i am referred me back the george wallace and some of his rallies were tense. the national guard was there protecting the press. but this is insane territory to be in as a country where this is a conversation we're having. >> woodruff: jim rutenberg, staying with you, i want to come back to something you quoted this week in one of your columns. a senior editor at the web site

american conservative, rob drayer i think is how you say his name, he said, "mainstream journalists are interested in every kind of diversity except the kind that would challenge their own prejudices, those include bigotry against conservative religion, bigotry against rural folks and bigotry against working-class and poor white people." that's pretty sweeping, isn't it? >> it's a sweeping generalization, but that said, we're not perfect, and for what most of our conversations so far have been a defense of the press, but the press, let's face it, a big part of the country is primed to believe what donald trump is telling them about the press, and the press needs to definitely take a look at itself and look if there is something to it. there is a cultural mindset that i think even goes across the ideological divide of the mainstream news media. the "wall street journal" editorial page and "the new york times" editorial page agree on certain things like free trade that this crowd feels is, you know, threatening their livelihoods and their country. >> woodruff: at the same time, we know that... you have talked,

bob lichter, about the need for american, frankly for journalists to rethink the way we write about, not just donald trump, but the people who have been supporting donald trump. >> i think jim rutenberg was quite right. journalists, national media journalists are part of an elite, and they know government elites, they know business elites, and it's these elites that donald trump is running against, and as a result, he stirs the populism of his supporters who also feel that the elites are running away with the country, although i think it's overstated to say that these are kind of pez ntses with pitchforks. there is a kind of bice in that portrayal of his supporters. there are some of those people, but they obviously wouldn't be running in the 40 odd percent of the public if there were nobody

like that. >> woodruff: no question about that. bob lichter, jim rutenberg, thank you both very much. >> woodruff: from the press, we turn to nevada for the newshour's latest on-the-ground report. a split amongst republicans, paired with sluggish growth in construction, means jobs are front and center, and a key senate race is now in play. john yang reports, part of our continuing series on poverty and opportunity in america, "chasing the dream." >> when news breaks, we talk about it. >> this is news talk 840 a.m. >> yang: the sun rises over t >> yang: the sun rises over the nevada desert, one day closer to the election, and heidi harris is talking to the biggest audience of any las vegas morning radio talk show host. a hot topic: the very tight senate contest between republican joe heck and democrat catherine cortez masto. >> i tried to watch the debate, i did. >> therefore i cannot in good conscience continue to support

donald trump. >> yang: heck shook up the race when he jumped off the donald trump bandwagon after the now- infamous "access hollywood" tape surfaced. now some trump supporters say they're dumping heck-- like rob. >> we're trying to send a message. we put donald trump there for a reason, and that's how i feel. i'll be voting for donald and the ballot questions, but not for joe heck. >> yang: harris, a reluctant trump supporters, says she hears that a lot from listeners. >> i don't know how many of them are going to vote for her instead of him, catherine cortez masto, but i think they're going to stay home and not vote for heck, which essentially gives her a free vote. >> reporter: with early voting about to begin, it's become a big campaign issue. heck was pressed on his about- face last week in a televised debate. he said it was a personal decision. >> as an emergency room doctor, i've taken care of too many

women who've been victims of sexual assault. my wife was a victim of domestic abuse in a previous relationship. >> reporter: cortes masto wasn't buying it. >> let's call this for what it is: congressman heck was worried about his political career. >> yang: it was heck's last public appearance before leaving for a week-long army reserve assignment at the pentagon, where he's "general heck." nevada's desert and mountains can feel remote, but its politics are surprisingly typical: since 1908, it has failed to vote for winner of the white house just once. and this year it may decide who controls the senate: analysts say it's republicans' best shot at winning a democratic-held seat. it's attracting outsized interest-- and money. >> who else has sunk millions in to elect joe heck? nearly $49 million worth of ads,

many in spanish in this state that's about 30% latino. whoever wins the race will become only the fifth person to elected to the seat since 1933, replacing senate democratic leader harry reid who's retiring after 30 years in office. heck served in the nevada state senate and was elected to the house in 2010. cortes masto is a former federal prosecutor and two-term nevada attorney general. even before his un-endorsement, heck said he disagreed with trump's remarks about women and minorities. this week, cnn published an audio tape of heck, authenticated by his campaign, at closed a las vegas fundraiser. >> i want to support him, i really do, but he has got to change his tone and he's got to be-- i don't want to make him into a politician or make him into the same thing he is running against. but he has got to realize he is not going to win this race by appealing to the 20% or 30% of

the republican base" >> yang: gun store-owner bob irwin, a republican backing trump, said he's disappointed by heck's decision, which he blames on new campaign advisors. >> i think the new guys are trying to make a politician out of him. he's not a politician. i thought he should just simply rise above the fray and talk about obamacare and creating jobs by changing the tax structure to bring businesses into the country and so forth >> yang: while disappointed, he says he'll still vote for heck. iowa republican senator joni ernst, a trump supporter standing in for heck this weekend, seemed to open the door to ticket-splitting. >> we need to separate the presidential race from what is really important right now-- the united states senate race as well. that's what joe is running for. >> yang: cortez masto welcomes hillary clinton's embrace, appearing with her last week in las vegas.

>> there's going to be things that we disagree on, but that's part of the process, right? and then we work together and find compromise along the way. that's how it should work. >> yang: president obama will visit to campaign for her this coming weekend. the onomy is a big issue in both the senate and presidential races, which polls show both very close. no state boomed like nevada until the recession, when it went bust like no other state. when the real estate bubble burst, the carpenters union went from 18 million man-hours a year to two million. frank hawk is the union's business manager. >> 2009 we had a record amount of suicides in out local here. we were losing about 15 a month to suicides. people were cashing in their retirement to save their houses only to lose them anyway. 2010, we had a record amount of cardiac arrests for people under 45 and that was due to stress.

>> yang: the union backed heck when he ran for the house, but now they're behind cortes masto, with members going door-to-door for her and the rest of the democratic ticket. david damore is a political scientist at the university of nevada las vegas. >> what's missing from the return here of the economy is those construction jobs. those were a real driver and as opposed to being, you know, $10 an hour jobs, they're 30, $40 an hour jobs there and they have >> yang: that blue-collar frustration is driving some of trump's support. >> he's also, of course, mobilizing white working class whites and he did very, very you have a smaller share of college-educated people in nevada, so some of the sort of cultural movement away from the republican party isn't quite so strong in nevada. >> trump is mobilizing latino voters in a way we haven't seen.

sunday night on the west side of las vegas, friends and family gathered for dinner in the kitchen, and politics in the living room, watching a spanish- language rebroadcast of the heck-cortez masto debate. since january, activist jose macias has helped dozens of latinos become citizens so they can vote next month. >> we have to go out there and really show the numbers, the power we do have. because a lot of candidates think that we don't have power when they're talking to rallies, attacking mexicans, attacking women, people of color. the reason that working for the vote, we have to make sure that we tell them that we do matter. >> yang: mobilizing to try to help decide who wins the white house and the senate. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang in las vegas.

>> sreenivasan: one subject that's sure to come up in the final presidential debate is the state of the american economy, and more specifically, the state of the american worker. during the primary season, in what now seems ages ago, we looked at americans' attitudes toward the economy. we have an update tonight with our partners at "marketplace" and "frontline," part of our series on "how the deck is stacked." the unemployment rate may now stand at five percent officially and more than 10 million new jobs have been created during the obama administration. but a new survey done by "marketplace" and edison research found nearly a third of people are afraid of losing their jobs within the next six months, and almost 40% of people say they are losing sleep over their financial situation. "marketplace" host kai ryssdal is with us again. kai, when we first did this a year ago, we expected things to get better. why are people more anxious now and less financially secure? >> the thing about the economy, hari, is that we measure it in

numbers, things like the unemployment rate, but people experience it through how they feel. what they're feeling now is anxiety, possibly because the election is drawing near, possibly because they sense that the headline numbers of unemployment at 5% and grow domestic product growing at a percent and a half, plus or minus, they're not seeing that in their lives while food prices are going up and gas is bopping around, $2.5, $3 a gallon, whatever it is. people don't feel that security they'd like to feel seven years into an economic expansion. >> sreenivasan: all the numbers you rattle off, what's interesting is your survey revealed a lack of trust in the data itself. >> to to me anyway was one most of interesting and disturbing things about this entire survey. we asked people whether they trust government economic data, consumer spending, the unemployment rate, all of that stuff. 25% of all americans completely distrust government economic

data. then you drill down and ask them to who they're voting for and how they feel about government data, 48% of donald trump voters distrust government data. 5% of hillary clinton voters distrust the economic data. if you look at what's happening out there on the campaign trail and some the rhetoric from the trump camp and the candidate himself, it stands to reason his voters will distrust that data. >> sreenivasan: speaking of distrust there is this feeling your survey is picking up on is the system being rigged. 62% of americans say that the system, the economy is rigged, and when you break this down, 66% of trump supporters say it's rigged for those who get government assistance. 52% of clinton supporters say it's rigged for white americans. regardless of who you ask, they still think the deck is stacked against them. >> right. they think the desk is stacked against them. it's interesting who they think the deck is stacked for.

in about 90% of all responses, people think it's stacked for politicians, for corporations and the rich. what you see here is this divide we're seeing now out in the economy at large between those who have asset, those who have income, those who have wealth and those, as we've been talking about for a long time now, who simply don't, and the income inequality gap in this country and how it's playing out in this election. >> sreenivasan: kai, are you surprised by these results? are the pollsters surprised? >> we had a whole lot of long conversations about this, partners at edison research. i think it breaks down along two lines. first is on the distrust in government, on the feeling that the economy is rigged, that plays directly from what we see happening out on the campaign trail. we know donald trump and his surrogates say all the time, the economy is rigged, the election is rigged, and this is sort of the fallout from that. but also we're seeing a shift now from what happened in the primaries, where you had people like bernie sanders and like donald trump saying the economy is rigged, and those numbers now

are coming home to roost. the other thing is that the numbers on income inequality and who they think it is rigged for can't come as a surprise, because what we've phone for years now is that the gains in this economy go to the top 1 3-bg9, the rest of it, the other 99% just don't get the gains. and we're seeing that play out both on the campaign trail and also in this survey. >> christa: all right, kai ryssdal of "marketplace" and our partners on "frontline" on how the deck is stacked. thanks so much. >> you bet. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: a country where refugees have been welcomed with open arms. and teaching politics in an unusual and at-times crude election. but first, the fight over mosul, and taking back the last major stronghold in iraq for isis. we take two looks at it now, with a jeffrey brown

conversation with the head of a humanitarian group, and to begin, this report from the front by john irvine of independent television news. [gunfire] >> reporter: keeping enemy heads down. the gunfire gives kurdish soldiers the chance for a quick look over no-man's-land. they want a glimpse of home. these men are from what will be the next village liberated, having fled from there in june 2014. they can hardly wait to run. but while some people will soon be going back home, others are having to flee. they have just left mosul. there are a few more dangerous undertakings than escaping the clutches of isis and crossing over, but they managed it carrying a few belongings and a white flag. regarding the battle, with the

help of coalition air strikes still smoldering today, the kurds did make important gains. under normal circumstances, the city of mosul would be just ten minutes drive away, however, for time being, the advance here has been halted because advances elsewhere have not gone so well. these iraqi forces want to wait for their colleagues to catch up before pressing ahead. in a house in a captured village, we saw rooms full of piles of earth. i.s. go to great lengths to hide their tunnels from coalition drones. these networks amounted to extensive living quarters underground. we saw only a faction of one system in what is a small village. what must the defenses in mosul be like? >> brown: for a closer look at what faces civilians caught in the crossfire, i'm joined by david milliband. he's the former british foreign secretary, now president and c.e.o. of the international rescue committee.

welcome to you. i assume that a lot of people right now face this immediate difficult choice of whether to flee the city if they can or remain behind and see what happens. >> you're absolutely right. we have our own staff now northeast and south of the city. about 1,000 people have so far left since the fighting began. we've been talking to them, and the perilous choice that they face is between staying put and waiting to see how the fighting develops, and on the other hand trying the find their way out of the city using all their savings for transport and taking the risk with landmines and other kinds of interference. it is a perilous choice and a terrifying one. >> brown: today president obama said, "it's not something i expect will be easy, but it's perhaps not been publicized enough the degree of planning, assets and resources we've devoted to this important problem." i wonder as the fighting begins, how much can the interest in

refugees and humanitarians play into the actual fighting strategy? what do you see? >> i think there are two things that are important. first of all, we have to say loud and clear for all those who are engaged in the fighting that attention to and respect for humanitarian needs is absolutely imperative. anyone with any knowledge of iraq, never mind any concern about the future, knows that the way in which the war is prosecuted has a big impact on what comes afterward. secondly, there has been a lot of planning. the united nations coordinator for iraq is an outstanding public servant, the head of the high commission on refugees is in baghdad at the moment, and the planning has been serious, but the truth is if the numbers rise to the kind of levels the u.n. fears, anything about 500, 750, a million people, on that sort of scale, even at a quarter of a million scale, that will overwhelm camps being set up. so we're putting such emphasis on the need to support those who flee the city and don't find

themselves in camps but instead are staying with friends, are staying overnight in mosques, are finding informal ways of surviving. and it's very important that they get support, as well, in addition to those who make it to the camps that are being set up. >> brown: the u.n. has already reported in spite of appeals, it had not received additional funding for emergency camps and all the aid it thinks it might need. how would you describe the shortfall at this point? >> i think that 60,000 tents have been put in place. if you think they could support a family, you can do the numbers yourself. at the time of the united nations general assembly last month, the u.n. reported that the funding was only 30% to 40% of what was needed. now, obviously we don't know the kind of exodus that's going the take place, but everything the president said today suggests that the fighting is not going to be over quickly, and therefore we have to prepare for a long struggle in which the humanitarian needs grow, both inside the city and outside who

have their lives disruptedded for not just weeks but probably months. >> brown: we talked last night about the program, how long it will take. i see the same reports that you do today, longer than perhaps people even thought. so when you think about those longer-term needs from the humanitarian aspect of this, what's most important, what's crying out? >> i think three things need to be preeminent. first of all, all men and boys over the age of 14 are going to be screened when they leave the city. screened for obvious security reasons. it's imperative given the lessons in fallujah and elsewhere that those independent monitoring of those screening arrangements. otherwise the fear of persecution is going to lead to chaos and frankly to dangerous decisions being made by individuals. secondly, we need to make sure that as the camps fill up, those outside camps get better support. the best means of support is to get them cash because it's a market economy and these people will have used up their savings to get out of the city.

the third element is obviously the situation of those still trapped inside. there are a lot of fear of landmines and other need for specialist help to help those civilians who are inside the city, even before you get to the new buildings afterward. >> brown: briefly, if y could, to the extent there are many militaryorces involved in this, is it clear who isn charge? is that a concern, as well? >> i think it's a very dangerous situation for the stafff an n.g.o. like ours. these are local iraqi people. they're local people who are working for us. of course, it's a sovereign government. the legitimate government of iraq is in charge. but you're right to point out the multitude of different factions and the danger of civilians being caught in the cross fire. that's why at an absolute minimum, effective coordination across those supporting the iraqi government is absolutely imperative. >> brown: david milliband of the international rescue committee, thank you. >> thank you very much.

>> woodruff: next, in a world struggling to accommodate a record number of refugees, one country has been notably welcoming. special correspondent fred de sam lazaro has a report from uganda, part of his agents for change series. >> reporter: nakhivale, in southern uganda, looks like any other dusty rural african town. what's remarkable is that almost none of its 113,000 residents are ugandan. ethiopia? all of these grade school children and their parents are refugees. rwanda? burundi? congo? all told, 13 nations are represented in this crowded nakhivale school, their families fleeing conflicts across a wide swath of east africa and finding haven in one of the world's most hospitable countries to refugees

in uganda refugees are placed in settlements and not camps and the government says there's an important difference. camps tend to confine people, whereas in uganda when refugees arrive, they are issued legal i.d.'s that entitle them to go anywhere in the country to find a job, start a business, put their children in school. refugees in rural areas are given a small plot of land to farm. others migrate to the urban areas. among the earlier arrivals in recent years are somalis their enclaves in the capital, kampala, are well established with small businesses and mosques, a predominantly muslim community in a mostly christian nation. mohammed abdi runs this grocery story with his partner zahara hassan. >> ( translated ): we have very many ugandan customers and we are friends. i am one of the somali elders in the community and we interact with the elders of the ugandan community whether leaders in

this distract or region and we are friends and they welcome us. we're very happy, we're like one people. >> reporter: and one scholar who's studied refugees in uganda sys there's reason to be happy >> we showed in the capital city of uganda, kampala, 20% of refugees own businesses that employ someone else. and of those they employ, 40% are citizens of the host country. so refugees can contribute to the host societies that they're part of. >> reporter: oxford university's alexander betts says uganda is the exception in a world where refugees face widespread hostility-often stoked by politicians. >> it's all too easy to have a race to the bottom in terms of political standards where provincial and municipal politicians, or national politicians, say, 'these people are a burden, we have to keep them out.' >> reporter: and while many politicians, especially in western democracies, must tread carefully on this issue, betts says its not a problem in uganda, where one man rules virtually unchallenged. >> president museveni has been

able to adopt refugee policies that are a little different in part because there are lower standards of accountability to the public. now, not having democratic standards is definitely not something to celebrate, but it highlights the difficulties for democracies to open up their economies to non-citizens. >> reporter: recent history might also account for uganda's hospitality to refugees. president yoweri museveni himself lived in exile for years during and after the bloody dictatorship of idi amin. museveni's rebels took power 30 years ago >> there's been a history of violence, conflict that often has turned violent in this region. >> reporter: zac niringiye is a bishop in the anglican church of uganda. >> south sudan, rwanda, burundi even congo and even uganda. i think that that has created a sense of being hospitable because you never know, it may be your turn next.

>> reporter: despite praise for its hospitality, life within that proverbial ugandan compound is far from perfect for refugees. their number has doubled in the past five years to more than half a million, most recently from separate conflicts in burundi and south sudan. many, like ababesh gebraslassie remain haunted by the ordeal that brought them here. >> ( translated ): my husband was killed, my son was killed and also my daughter. >> reporter: a son and daughter died in their escape from eritrea, part of the exodus of hundreds of thousands from a country notorious for human rights abuses. her son-in-law made it to libya but died in the mediterranean. gebreslassie survived the journey of thousands of miles on foot and on trucks with her then six-year-old twin son and daughter. but she made a wrenching decision to leave two older teenaged children behind.

>> i feared if we all died, like my son who was shot, i left them so that our family can survive, can be represented. >> reporter: they are still there now? >> i don't know. i don't know. >> reporter: along the way, she also took custody of her orphaned granddaughter, sara, who's now four. >> ( translated ): i don't care if i die here but i want a better future for my children and that's not possible without a good education. >> reporter: that's not likely in the crowded school her children attend, crowded with 120 students in each classroom and perhaps because of that, teachers who aren't very sympathetic. there are severe consequences for being late, for instance. they beat you? >> yes. >> reporter: who does that? >> the teachers. they make you clean the toilet and pick up the rubbish. >> reporter: they don't understand, she said, that i'm late because i've gone to fetch water and helped my mother with the chores. in the end, ugandan and international officials say it

boils down to resources or a lack of them. uganda may be hospitable but it has a gross domestic product of just $600 a year per person. nakhivale's school is funded by the u.n.'s refugee agency. it gives uganda some $200 million annually in refugee aid-- a fraction of what's needed, but not likely to increase amid the demands on donor governments for refugees out of syria, iraq, ukraine and elsewhere. charles yaxler is the u.n agency's spokesman in uganda. >> around the world humanitarian financing is arguably at breaking point. currently humanitarian appeals for south sudanese and burundian refugees in uganda, both of those appeals are severely under-funded, we've received less than a quarter of the money we need for 2016 and that leaves real gaps in our humanitarian response, it means we're not able to provide the education support for children such as

better schools, more schools, more teachers. >> reporter: that does not bode well for the future of abebesh gebraslassie's twins, who shared their dreams in halting, shy english. >> when i grow up i want to be a doctor and help my mother. >> reporter: how about you, david, what would you like to do? >> i wish to be a pilot. >> reporter: a pilot? where would you like to go? >> every place. america and everywhere. >> reporter: possible, but like their chance of a good education here, with lottery-like odds. america admitted 70,000 refugees last year. the u.n says there are 65 million displaced people in the world today. for the pbs newshour, this is fred de sam lazaro in nakhivale, uganda. >> woodruff: fred's reporting is a partnership with the undertold stories project at the

university of st. thomas, in minnesota. >> sreenivasan: as we know, tomorrow's the final presidential debate. tens of millions of voters will be watching. but there are other audiences too, including middle and high school students around the country, who are often watching and even tweeting as part of their civics or government classes. during this campaign season the nature of what's being discussed, particularly questions about sexual assault and other tough rhetoric, makes this a different year for teachers and students. that's the focus of this week's "making the grade" segment. we begin in an a.p. government class at t.c. williams high school in alexandria, virginia. >> i guess the first question i would pose to you is why? why actually watch these things? anybody have thoughts on why you're drawn to this? >> sreenivasan: andrew orzell is getting his seniors ready for

tomorrow night's debate. some of the students are not feeling enthused about what the candidates might want to focus on. >> i almost stopped watching the last one. it was getting so combative. it was hard to follow. >> i as a teacher honestly have been frustrated by this. normally one of the things we get into is ideology of liberals believe this, conservatives believe this. presidential debates usually show that. you're not getting to see the liberal arguments versus the conservative. >> sreenivasan: even, so orzell is assigning his students to watch again. he asked whether the debates might change anyone's mind and their expectations if the tone was similar? >> i feel like trump has the most to gain because he's like... he was down 11 points. now it's 9 points. so he has a higher chance of winning. >> i would say the person who has the most to lose would be the american people because if

we become engrained in the idea that this is the normal tone of our political rhetoric and discourse of the country, then we're not going to expect more in the future. and it's potentially damaging to democracy as an institution in america if more years to come. >> sreenivasan: orzell is expected to discuss it in class on thursday, and pierre laboy says he hopes the focus will be different than last time. >> we'll hear arguing about locker room talk, and it's just like instead of talking about what matters, we're talking about each other and negative aspects. i don't think that's good. >> sreenivasan: that's an issue many teachers are grappling with. s >> sreenivasan: well, that's an issue that many teachers are grappling with. some 90% of high school students take at least one civics class. so how are teachers dealing with this kind of campaign? we hear from richard house. he teaches seventh grade civics at gunston middle school in arlington, virginia. and chris cavanaugh teaches government to junior and seniors at plainfield high school in indiana. richard, let me start with you. you're talking to an audience that's just turning into teenagers. you had them watch debate one. you did not assign debate two.

what were their impressions? >> i think a lot of them were entertained, but i also tried to bring it back to let's focus on the issues, that hateful rhetoric doesn't have a place in my classroom, and when we're talking about the debate, when we're discussing it, we're going to focus on the issues. for the first debate, i had them pick two or three issues that were focused on the debate. what did each candidate say about them. then we can have a classroom discussion. i do not want to take time to focus on some of the personal behavior the candidates have exhibited and some of the negative behavior. they know what i expect of them and the expectations i have when they walk into my classroom. this election should be about policy and it should be about the issues and focusing on them. >> sreenivasan: chris, your high school students, what did they think so far? >> i think they have been turned off by the rhetoric. you try to get them to focus on the policies and not the

politics. but as with having older students, you want to allow them the freedom to be able to discuss some of the issues and some of the rhetoric that's been used in the debates. so it's been a tough road the hoe, so to speak. >> sreenivasan: chris, staying with you for a second, how do you navigate some of these topics, especially ones as teenagers, sexuality, sort of locker room talk, all of that that came up, all the sort of personal attacks that the candidates took on each other. how do you discuss it? >> i think i try to couch it in historical terms in the fact that, you know, i think mudslinging is nothing new in american politics, not new in politics period. you need to go back to the roman states of cicero. one of my favorites is to discuss the election of 1800 where jefferson accused adams of having hermaphrodite cal tendencies and adams said that jefferson had a malado father.

so slinging mud is nothing new in american politics. it's tough to get the kids to sort through that and to get to those policies. and to be able to lay those policies side by side to get to see the -- see what the candidates are proposing. >> sreenivasan: did the students notice what was and what was not being talked about? >> i think there was definitely a notice of the issues they were focusing on, but at the same time, they're middle schoolers. there's a certain maturity level there. they notice what these candidates are saying and the hateful rhetoric coming out of their mouths. so you have to forewarn them. we're not going to focus on that. we're going the take the high road. some of the things coming out of these candidates' mouths, i don't want them coming out of yours. i want them to formulate their own opinions, but at the same time, they also have to know in my classroom bigotry and hate does not have a place. >> sreenivasan: richard, what about the administration or parents, knowing these

conversations are happening in the classrooms of their children. have they been supportive? >> i think so. my goal this year has been to bring certain current events to light in my classroom. we focus on police brutality. we talked about colin kaepernick's protest. and after that i got an e-mail from a parent thanking me for bringing those issues to light. they were able to have a substantial conversation about police brutality and privilege, something they normally might not have had at the dinner table. i think parents are appreciative when teachers do bring to light certain issues that are currently going on in our country. >> sreenivasan: chris cavanaugh, how do you walk the line of teaching them how to think and not what to think? >> i think it's important to listen to richard speak. i think it's important to create that environment where it's a safe environment, especially for my students, being a little bit older and maybe further along in the political socialization process. to have them have a safe

environment to express those ideas and then to get them to examine themselves. i like the play devil's advocate quite a bit with my students regardless of what they support and the challenge them on those views to get them to re-examine their own views and thankfully, you know, we're well aware of fact checking organizations that exist so we can go back and fact check debates to see what the candidates have said and huh well it holds up under scrutiny. >> sreenivasan: richard, how do the facts play into it? technically they're coming into your classroom. they're expecting you to help them see what is true and what isn't. how do you get that across? >> i think a lot of times it's my job to guide their thinking, but not tell them what to think. give them the resources out there so they can go out and do the research and formulate an opinion on their own. for example, today we were talking about voting. we registered to vote for a mock election we'll have in with

weeks. then we focused on voter i.d. laws. i presented information on these are how voter i.d. laws impact people across this country. i posed the question: do you think this is done because of voter fraud, or is it done to place an unnecessary burden on minority voters? i wanted them to be able to form late their own opinion. it's my job to present them with the information they need, but it's their job to form their own opinion. >> sreenivasan: chris new york this day and age, your students can be fairly active during the debate. the next morning when you look through their twitter feeds or facebook comments, what are you looking for? >> honestly, i try not to do that. i have only had a couple kids where i've had to go back and say, you know, what they posted perhaps is not encouraged debate. it doesn't push the debate or conversation forward. you know, you want to avoid the politics of the personal attacks. so there have only been a couple kids that i've had to admonish for that.

so we try to... it's difficult because we're trying to promote civic discourse, civil discourse, and unfortunately we don't see that in the adult world as much as... we don't see it modeled for them as much as it should be. >> sreenivasan: chris cavanaugh from plainfield high in indiana and richard house from gunston middle school in arlington, virginia. >> thank you for having me. >> thank you. >> woodruff: tonight on "frontline," a joint investigation with pro publica into efforts to combat isis on the european continent. "terror in europe" looks at government attempts to counter extremism, revealing missteps and systemic breakdowns in the runup to the "charlie hebdo," paris and brussels attacks. >> as recruits returned to europe, the authorities in france anne belgium were

overwhelmed. >> ( translated ): every week people would come back from syria. there was nothing accept syria. it was all about syria. there were so many cases related to syria that people who should have been watched just could not be. clearly we can't do everything, and we didn't have the means. we still don't to monitor all of this. >> ( translated ): that brings up the issue of having to make choices. that is among all the possibilities of targets to monitor, thousands of targets to monitor, it's necessary to make choices. >> in june 2014, french spy chiefs made a fateful decision. for the last three years they had been monitoring al qaeda veterans. meanwhile, another associate had just been released from prison. french domestic intelligence now

decided to stop watching them and shift surveillance resources on to the growing threat from isis. >> sreenivasan: "frontline" "terror in europe" airs tonight on most pbs stations. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening for a look ahead to our special live coverage of the presidential debate starting at 9:00 p.m. eastern. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide.

>> 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 and individuals. >> 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 sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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