♪ judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on "the newshour" tonight... storm surge -- hurricane ian batters cuba and gains momentum as it heads toward florida, triggering evacuation orders for millions of residents. then... widespread unrest -- iran cracks down on demonstrators protesting the death of a young woman in police custody. and... continuing education -- four-year institutions try to make it easier for students to transfer from community colleges in hopes of boosting enrollment. jennifer: i didn't actually have to fill out any applications to come to george mason. they did all of the paperwork for me. all i had to do was just keep my good grades.

judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no contract wireless plans designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can find the plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumerllular.tv. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the newshour, including the andersons and smiths. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation, fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. ♪

♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. judy: hurricane ian is bulking up again and bearing down on florida's west coast. the storm lost some punch over western cuba today, then began regaining strength. it could bring 130ile-an-hour winds, 2 feet of rain and a -- eight teen inches of rain and

a 10-foot ocn surge to florida, later tomorrow. william brangham begins our coverage. william: along florida's gulf coast today, they're preparing for the worst, bracing for what forecasters say could be a potentially historic catastrophe. >> we're at least 100 meters from the beach. we're trying to take precautions for damages, but they're unavoidable, especially when a hurricane unleashes the force that it does. william: across the state, shelves were emptied of water and needed supplies, while long lines grew to fill sandbags for a last line of defense. those who aren't hunkering down took to the roads. today, more than 2.5 million floridians are under some kind of evacuation order. >> it's gonna kick up a lot of water as it comes in. william: from sarasota, governor ron desantis said it was not too late to act. gov. desantis: and you don't need to evacuate to another state, you don't need to evacuate hundreds of miles away, the key is to be on high ground

in a safe structure. william: and at the white house, president biden urged americans to folloofficial guidance. pres. biden: citizens in the potential impact area should obey the instruction of local officials. evacuate when ordered and be prepared for the storm when it comes. william: earlier today, ian ripped through western cuba, with fierce rain and strong winds striking the tobacco-growing province of pina del rio. it's forced tens of thousands to evacuate, and cut power to over a million more. others chose to stay put and ride out the heavy conditions. >> yes, i am worried, but work is work and i am a security guard so ieed to go to work, whether there's lightning, thunder or rain. william: after passing cuba, ian is expected to intensify into a larger, more powerful storm as it feeds on the warm waters of the gulf of mexico. because of global climate change, sea levels are higher,

and in some places warmer, both of which can add additional fuel to storms. forecasters warn the coast from fort myers to the tampa bay region are most at risk of life-threatening storm surge. tampa, which is home to more than 3 million, is particularly exposed. much of it sits on low-lying ground, and has seen rapid development along the coast in recent years, a combination which makes it one of the most storm-vulnerable cities on earth. tonight, with their homes boarded, many residents can do little but wait and hope. for "the pbs newshour," i'm william brangham. judy: the approach of ian prompted rescheduling of various sporting events. and, the january 6 committee in congress cited the storm as it canceled tomorrow's planned hearing in washington. now, for the latest on the hurricane's projected path and the risks ahead, i'm joined by jamie rhome, the acting director of the national hurricane center.

welcome. tell us right now what is the location, the latest information you have on the location of this storm, and its trajectory as you see it. jamie: as of 5:00, ian is about 230 miles south of sarasota, starting to close in on florida. movement is about 10 miles per hour but it will start to slow down as it approaches and moves over the state. it is a category three hurricane , maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour. unfortunately it's looking like a multi-hazard event will unfold as this relatively large hurricane sweeps across the florida peninsula. we will have heavy rain and flooding inland, really significant and potentially life-threatening storm surge toward the southwestern coast of florida, south of tampa down around fort myers and port

charlotte, a band of heavy rain developing along the i-4 corridor, and damaging wind as the hurricane moves across the state. judy: when you say multi-hazard catastrophe, what does that mean for the people who live in florida? who should be thinking about evacuating? how far inland? and who should basically be hunkering down? jamie: that is a very good question, thank you for asking it. we evacuate in this country because of storm surge. if you are in a storm surge evacuation zone or hurricane evacuation zone, and your order to evacuate, you must do so. if you are not in hurricane evacuation zone, you should probably stay put in less you are not in a well bit home -- well-built home. if you are in a mobile home or rv, that is different.

but if you are in a well-built home and not in the evacuation order, you should probably stay put. judy: is that message getting to the people who need to hear it? jamie: i think so. the lead time on this particular system was really historic. i've been here 23 years and i was struck by the fact that we were able to predict a major hurricane days in advance. developing over the northwest caribbean and moving into the gulf of mexico. i can remember a time when that forecast would not have been possible. i really think people have been hearing the message and taking action. judy: we just heard in that report from my colleague about the tampa area and particularly vulnerable. what is it about that part of florida that makes it so vulnerable? jamie: it is the entire west coast of florida. everyone likes to focus on tampa but it is the entire west coast of florida. owing to held this system will

come inland, we think the peak surge will maybe be closer to fort myers versus tampa, but tampa will get the heavy rain shield. heavy precipitation and flooding. judy: we will be watching it closely and i know you are too. jamie, thank you very much. jamie: thank you. judy: now, let's hear more about the preparations and the concerns in the tampa area. william brangham is back with that. william: as we've been reporting, major evacuations are continuing this evening, and officials are warning about a significant storm surge that could hit tampa and southwest florida hard. jane castor is the mayor of tampa and she joins me now from the emergency operations center in the city. thank you so much for being here. could you give us a sense of how preparations are going right now? mayor castor: actually we are finished with preparations, we and in that for quite some time,

but we have called for a mandatory evacuation in zone a. if you are not familiar with tampa, we have 120 miles of coastline in our city. zone a are those individuals in close proximity to the water. we have evacuated individuals in that zone. we have given out over 50,000 sandbags. we have prepared as much as we can in the city of tampa. our residents are heeding the warnings and leaving for higher ground. we told them, you don't have to leave the state, just get to higher ground, out of the storm surge, which at this point is still anticipated but doing 10 and 15 -- anticipated to be between 10 and 15 feet, which is catastrophic. william: the head of fema today echoed a concern some people share that residents might not

heed warnings in part because it feels like, especially along the gulf coast, there are warnings quite often, into the residents of your city might not have had much experience with a direct hurricane coming into their neighborhood. are you confident people are going to heed the warning and get out while they can? mayor castor: yes, all indications we have seen on our interstates and expressways, individuals are leaving northward and easterly out of the city of tampa. i think looking at the severity of the hurricanes the last couple of years, even the most seasoned of us floridians understand a 10 to 15 foot title search is not something to take for granted, and you certainly don't need to see if you can ride that out. as for newer residents in our

community, hopefully they will heed that warning as well and understand this is not something that we should wait and see what happens. we need to get out of the way of this. as we like to say, you hide from the wind and run from the water. we are trying to get everyone out of the way of the storm surge. william: as you know, much of your city is very low lying number and there has been a lot of development right along the coast because everyone likes to live near the beach. those two factors, the low-lying and lots of people living near the water, makes your city one of the most vulnerable, consideredne of the most vulnerable cities to this type of storm surge. how much does that worry you, that this could be an unprecedented event for your city? mayor castor: that certainly is a concern for me, but what is most concerning is our geographic layout in the tampa bay area. our bay is very shallow.

the original predictions of hurricane ian stalling right outside of tampa bay anywhere from 24 to 48 hours, dropping to 30 inches of rain on us with 10 to 15 foot title searches -- surges was nothing short of catastrophic. that concerns me a lot more than the development or the idea that individuals are not going to get out of harm's way. william: i know you spoke with president biden, you are among several mayors that spoke with him today. what did you convey to him about what you most need now and what you might need later? mayor castor: first and foremost, i conveyed my appreciation. we have had incredible collaboration not only on the local level in the tampa bay with partners in hillsborough county, that in the state, with the state emergency manager, and on the federal level with fema.

everybody has been very collaborative. they have resources staged all over. as far as governmental resources, we have them in our community or they are being staged and available. and talking to our private partners, with our electric companies, talking to the communications providers, gas companies, just making sure everybody has those resources pre-positioned to be here as soon as the wind stops blowing. william: mayor jane castor, we wish you the best and hope you get through the storm ok. thank you for talking with us. mayor castor: thank you, i really appreciate it. ♪ judy: in the day's other news, voting concluded in russian-occupied regions of ukraine, and pro-moscow officials say all 4 voted to formally join russia. the announcement followed hours

of counting ballots in hastily-arranged referenda that much of the world had rejected. ukraine's president also dismissed the vote in translated remarks to the u.n. security council. pres. zelenskyy: this is an attempt to steal the territory of another state. this is a very cynical attempt to force the male population in the occupied territory of ukraine to mobilize into the russian army in order to send them to fight against their own homeland. judy: meanwhile, former russian president dmitry medvedev insisted moscow is not bluffing about its potential use of nuclear weapons against ukraine. natural gas leaks along russian pipelines in the baltic sea have triggered questions of possible sabotage. video from sweden showed gas bubbles boiling to the surface today above the nord stream pipelines. monitors registered explosions before the leaks. in poland, the prime minister charged it was clearly deliberate as he opened a new pipeline to bring gas from

norway. pm morawiecki: today we faced an act of sabotage. we don't know yet all the details of what happened, but we see clearly that this is an act of sabotage. an act which likely means a further step of escalation of the situation in ukraine. judy: other officials in the baltics suggested russia damaged its own pipelines to increase pressure on europe for supporting ukraine. in japan, a state funeral in tokyo honored former prime minister shinzo abe, who was assassinated in july. he'd already had a private funeral. today's ceremony took place as thousands of protesters marched. they opposed abe's pro-military record and the cost of the state funeral. back in this countryjury selection began for stewart rhodes, founder of the far-right oath keepers, in the january 6th attack on the u.s. capitol. he and 4 others are accused of seditious conspiracy, in one of the most serious cases arising from the riot.

the trial in washington, d.c. could take about 5 weeks. the u.s. senate moved this evening to advance a bill that funds the federal government through mid-december and prevents a government shutdown this weekend. that came after west virginia democrat joe manchin dropped his provisions to streamline and speed up permitting for energy projects. republicans had objected to those provisions. sen. mcconnell: our democratic colleagues decided to put in extraneous partisan language. in fact, a poison pill. this extraneous poison pill is not related to keeping the government open. it was not negotiated across the aisle. sen. schumer: because american families should not be subject to a republican manufactured government shutdown, senator manchin has requested and i have agreed to move forward and passed the recently filed continuing resolution legislation without the energy independence and security act of

2022. judy: republicans have roundly criticized senator manchin since august, when he helped to pass a major budget and climate bill that he had initially opposed. americans on medicare will pay lower premiums next year for part b, covering most doctors' visits and outpatient care. the 3% decrease is the first in a decade. program administrators said today it's due in pt to unexpected savings on a pricey alzheimer's drug, and to other, unspecified factors. the biden administration today announced a goal of ending hunger in the u.s. by 2030. the strategy calls for expanding benefits to help low-income americans buy food and for promoting healthy eating and exercise. also today, the u.s. transportation department gave final approval to building the first nationwide network of electric vehicle charging stations. the 5-year project aims to

install a station with high-speed charging ports every 50 miles along interstate highways. and, on wall street, stocks had a mixed day as recession worries hovered over the market. the dow jones industrial average lost another 125 points to close at 29,135. the nasdaq rose 26 points. the s&p 500 slipped 7. still to come on "the newshour"... many puerto rico residents remain without power more than a week after hurricane fiona made landfall... universities partner with community colleges to help more transfer students earn bachelor's degrees... cheating allegations rock the chess world... and much more. >> 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.

judy: protests, led largely by women, have spread in iran and around the world, sparked by the death of a young woman in the custody of iran's so-called morality police. mahsa amini was arrested because she was allegedly not wearing the required head covering. now, thousands of iranian women are saying enough is enough. amna nawaz has more. amna: over the last ten days, astonishing images have emerged from across iran. women burning their head scarves, cutting off their hair, and marching in the thousands, chanting "death to the dictator" -- all to protest the regime's hijab requirement for women. in cities worldwide, solidarity marches have sprung up, from syria to greece to california. but in iran, the protestors are facing a crackdown by authorities in the streets and online. for the latest on the ground, we are joined by special correspondent reza sayah who is in tehran.

thank you for joining us. it is the middle of the night there and we know many of these protests tend to kick off after the sun goes down. what is the latest? reza: today was a religious holiday in iran so the streets were very quiet. it is important to point out that during these protests, during the daytime, things have been quiet, but when the sun goes down and nightfall comes, that is when protests happen. when the sun went down tuesday night, the big question again, are protesters coming out? obviously there are severe restrictions here, the authorities have severely curtailed internet service, blocked messenger apps like whatsapp that has roughly 50 million users in iran and has blocked services like instagram. we have had to drive around town to monitor the situation and also monitor secondhand accounts

of protests that can be independently verified. and monitor amateur videos posted online, those can be independently verified either. that said, over the past 24-40 eight hours, seemingly, and we say this with caution, there has been a decrease of amateur videos posted online. that could be because people are having a tough time uploading videos, or it could be because the protests are abating. it is unclear and we can't report that with certainty. amna: so hard to get liable information, we are lucky to have you. we should mention that the death sparked what are the first major protests in iran 2019, which was sparked by a rise in fuel prices. those protesters were met with a brutal crackdown. you mentioned they have responded in the streets.

is there a concern that the longer this goes on, the crackdown will become more brutal? reza: i think there is a concern. what is interesting is the response by the government has evolved over the past 12 days. soon after mahsa died, the government signaled they sympathized with these protesters, or at least that's what they tried to convey to quell the protests. the supreme leader sending an a ide to her home. an official vowing to investigate the matter. when that did not quell things, and when he came back to iran, the crackdown got severe. the past several days, more than 70 people killed, 1200 arrested. we are seeing more activists and journalists arrested, i personally know a fellow journalist who was detained for

up to 24 hours. if indeed these protests are dying down, it could be because of the intensityf the crackdown. it also could have to do with the fact that theserotesters, as valiant as they are, they don't have leadership, they don't have a strategy. how long can you sustain the fight with a security apparatus like iran's like that? amna: what did this lead to? are using something fundamentally different from previous protests that says this will lead to any change? reza: it is impossible to say what this will lead to come up what it drives home again is there is a lot of grievance here, a lot of anger and frustration. any event can spark protests like this. this time it was a woman's wish to express herself the way she wants to, and that sparked protests. what is interesting is riding

this wave are other sectors of the population who are facing a struggling economy, there is joblessness, unemployment, inflation. they joined in. you also have celebrities, actors, television hosts, they haveoined in with their voices. that is something we have not seen. what we have seen in the past is despite these voices, the government has the power, they have the weapons, and they usually have snuffed out these protests. i know a lot of people who don't like this government, inside and outside iran, want to push the narrative that this time it is different and these protests are a legitimate threat to the government. then you have the government pushing their own narrative that this is no big deal and thin will calm down. we will see what happens in the coming down. amna: reza, thank you.

♪ judy: now to the aftermath of hurricane fiona and its lasting impact on puerto rico. more than a week after the storm hit, the island's electric utility says more than two-thirds of its customers' power has now been restored. but, as laura barron lopez reports, for the hundreds of thousands still in the dark, patience is wearing thin. laura: the hum of generators - and the remains of people's lives, stacked outside their homes -- filled thstreets of yauco, in southwest puerto rico, on monday, eight days after hurricane fiona made landfall. resident: we've spent a week without water or power. the authorities haven't done anything for us. we are in rough shape, we lost everything. laura: that sense of desperation was also evident in the long lines at gas stations across the island.

people continued to fill up cans to fuel generators powering their lights, water pumps, refrigerators, and more. cesar: my generator and my fridge are broken. many things broke down. i had to throw away over 100 pesos in food yesterday. that is really awful. laura: and there's growing anger with the island's power operator, luma energy, for moving slowly to restore power to the hundreds of thousands of people still in the dark. ramon: you know how this goes. there is no money and what happens to us? what happens with luma? what happens with the governor? they do nothing. we are abandoned here, we don't even have water, they don't send water to our neighborhoods, nothing. laura: fiona hit five years after hurricane maria -- a catego five storm with winds over 100 miles per hour that devastated the island, killing thousands. fiona was just a category one storm, but its flooding has devastated the island, washing away bridges, ruining homes and cars, and initially leaving more than a mlion americans without

electricity. in caguas, in central puerto rico, maria nieves martinez showed us around her house as she cleaned up what was left. maria: everything got ruined. i don't have the boxes to throw them away because everything got ruined. all of this is garbage, even this new air conditioner we bought that we were going to install got damaged. everything got wet, this was too much. laura: because of the continued blackouts, martinez says her groceries have gone bad multiple times. and the power failures are hurting the island's most vulnerable residents, too. jorge: right now on the eighth day, we still have hospitals without light, without electricity. they're running on a generator. laura: jorge rivera is a doctoral candidate in public health at the university of puerto rico. the island's healthcare had already been weakened by hurricanes irma and maria, recent earthquakes and the covid pandemic. and now, rivera says, many hospital are relying on

generators. jorge: in puerto rico there are more than 60 hospital centers where thousands of lives depend on or are connected to a ventilator or depend on medication that will get ruined due to the lack of electricity or another service. for example, the dialysis centers. people who depend on the dialysis process depend entirely on electricity. if there is no electricity, the person can die. laura: for decades, puerto rico's power grid was run by state-controlled prepa, whose infrastructure was badly damaged by maria. then in june of last year, a private consortium of american and canadian companies called luma took over operations and maintenance. israel: nothing have improved. and we are paying a very expensive service. we are one of the most expensive services in the united states. laura: israel melendez ayala is a historian and anthropologist in san juan. before fiona even hit, he says that under luma, his electric bill nearly tripled this year and blackouts were frequent. he blames decades of corruption and negligence -- including with prepa -- for the problems today.

israel: when the government give the contract to luma, it was to improve the electricity services and to upgrade it too. i mean, the electricity infrastructure of puerto rico is so verold. i mean, when the the corps of engineers came over here after and after maria, they found that they were equipment of the 1940's. you know, this is the level of how old and how the negligence from the government on the electric infrastructure in puerto rico. laura: since maria, the federal government has allocated nearly $13 billion for rebuilding the grid and public utilities. but so far less than half of that has been spent by luma and prepa. luma says they expect 91% of customers to have power by friday -- if there's enough capacity. still, many in puerto rico expect a long road to recovery and to a more dependable power grid. for "the pbs newshour," i'm laura barron lopez. ♪

judy: a short term funding bill was unveiled late last night as the deadline to fund the federal government fast approaches. preventing a shutdown is just one of a laundry list of items lawmakers are scrambling to tackle before leaving town for the midterm election season. our congressional correspondent lisa desjardins is here with the latest. as we know, we are just three days from the deadline for getting the funding figured out. where does congress stand? lisa: a funny thing happened the past couple of hours, this complicated knot of short-term funding ses to be twisting in the senate. as you reported earlier, senator joe manchin, a key figure in the funding fight, stepped back and removed his requirement for this short-term funding bill, which was as we talked about last week, permitting reform,

specifically dealing with energy permitting. he said he realized -- he did not say it this way -- but he realized he did not have the most to get by the procedural hurdle. rather than hold up the short-term funding bill with his demand, he took the demand off. now if we look at the senate floor as we speak, this is actually the quiet sign of progress, look at that. no drama. as you know, in the modern senate, when it is wyatt, normally that is a good sign -- when it is quiet, usually that is a good sign. let's talk about what will be in this funding bill. these must pass vehicles are important. funding through december 16. in addition, $12 billion in ukraine aid, some of it to the government of ukraine, some of it military. there's also $3 million that will be transferred to help with resettlement of afghans who made

it to this country. $20 million for mississippi water infrastructure. also some housing money in this as well. i will be a significant bill not just for continuing to fund the government, for specific problems. judy: there also critics out there. what do they say? lisa: it is simple, democrats and the biden administration are disappointed because the presidt's request for help with monkeypox and coronavirus is not in this bill. one of the reasons it is not is the president himself saying on 60 minutes a week ago that, in his words, the pandemic is over. the white house said we still have work to do. republicans are using it to say we don't want to fund that. judy: that is happening and we know it is a busy week in general. tell us about the january 6 committee, announcing today they are postponing or canceling tomorrow's hearing, which had been scheduled right up until now. also where we stand on electoral

reform. lisa: an interesting day today on capitol hill, little bits of news that are important. the generate six postponement, let's read the statement. i know you reporteis earlier. they wrote in light of hurricane ian, we have decided to postpone tomorrow's proceedings, we are praying for the safety of those in the storm's path. one of the representatives on the january 6 committee is a florida representative. her district is in the path potentially of the hurricane. it is more internal, not on the gulf coast, it should not be a category three that reaches her. but that is a faor. also multiple sources are telling me that the committee did not want to compete with potential cable news coverage of a hurricane bearing down. they want people to watch their hearing and they did nothing tomorrow would be a good opportunity. they were concerned about safety but also concerned about viewership, and that is one

reason this will be postponed indefinitely. not a lot of time before the midterms and we don't know if we will see this before the election. judy: and on electoral reform, what are you hearing? lisa: a breakthrough on that as well today. in the senate, the senate rules committee passed its version of a bill that would refm the electoral count act, trying to prevent a january 6 style run at overturning the election results. that has 14-1, only senator ted cruz was a no. senator mitch mcconnell came out today and said he supported the reform. we should watch for that to come together again after the midterm elections. we are watching for the stock act, a bill that would prevent embers of congress from trading stocks while in office. that could get a vote in the house this week, but the votes are close. it's not clear it has the votes to pass. judy: a lot going on and you can

tell we are getting close to congress having to finish up. lisa: nothing like the clock to motivate congress. judy: lisa desjardins, thank you. ♪ as four-year colleges and universities look for ways to boost enrollment and reach underrepresented students, a growing number are focused on community colleges, transfer studen who tend to be racially and socioeconomically diverse. at some of the nation's most selective colleges, transfer acceptance rates are now higher than first-year acceptance rates. but many community college students still struggle with the transfer process and completing degrees. special correspondent hari sreenivasan reports for our series, "rethinking college." >> being a transfer student comes with struggles. hari: it has been a topic on

social media. youtube. tiktok. and even an nbc sitcom. >> will you be attending the transfer ceremony? hari: the community college transfer process is often a bumpy ride. most students at a community college wants to earn a bachelors degree, but very few do. according to the community college research center, out of every 100 students who want to, only 31 will transfer to a four-year institution, and only 14 will complete a bachelor's degree. one of the biggest hurdles, transferring credits. students typically lose about 40% of their credits and they transfer, often due to not taking the right courses for their majors, or the four-year institution not accepting their credits. that hurdle and others mean that very few transfer students, only 8%, are able to successfully

complete one of the cheapest route a bachelors degree -- two years at a community college and two years at a four year institution. 25-year-old northern virginia resident jennifer aguilar is on track to do that. jennifer: i didn't have to fill out any applications to come to george mason, they filled out the paperwork for me. i just had to keep my good grades. money -- me and my advisor signed up her classes and they did the whole thing. hari: aguilar graduated last spring from northern virginia community college. she is now at her first semester -- in her first semester at george mason university, and is part of unique partnership called advance. the goal of the program is to help students like aguilar who want to earn a bachelor's degree but may face passenger -- may face challenges getting there. jennifer: i did not think i would be attending george mason. it feels unreal. right out of high school i

wanted to go to college but i couldn't even afford community college. i started working at various restaurants and it got to a point where i told myself, i need to do something with my life, i want to get an education. i've always had a dream of becoming a psychologist. hari: launched in the fall of 2018, advance offers eligible nova students automatic admission at george mason while they are completing their associates degree. on a recent evening, advance students and their families gathered for a welcome event on the george mason campus. advance is one of the small but growing number of dual admission programs around the country between two-year and four-year institutions designed to ease the transfer process. but nova and george mason have other supports as well. including 87 academic pathways or majors that allow advanced students to earn an associates degree and a bachelors degree in

four years. that educational route saves advance students about $15,000 compared to students who spent four years at george mason special financial aid for advanced students helps reduce the costs even more. >> at its heart, advance is about making transfer effective. hari: ann is the president of nova, the second largest community college in the united states. ann: when you look at our partnership with mason, even before advance, we sent the majority of our transfer students to mason. when you look at the ability to graduate after two years, it wasn't what it should be. that is the nexus of advance, we are giving students the transparent information so they know from the jump when they sign up exactly what it will take to graduate in two years or less, and more than 90% of the advance students now do that. hari: the program, open to all

nova students meet eligibility criteria, including a 2.0 gpa or higher, has grown from about 150 students four years ago, to 3300 today. about 40 percent are low income and majority are students of color. 80% are still enrolled at nova one year after joining the program, that is 20 points higher than the national retention rate for community college students. nova students in the program have access to the george mason campus and some take classes there as part of their major. >> since i had already been here because of my previous nova experience, i felt really welcome. i knew my way around the library because i usually would spend time there. to be honest, i feel like this is my home now. >> we do have students being integrated socially, academically, into the mason culture before making that hard transfer. hari: jason dodge is the

director of the advance program. he and his team are leaders of the advance program. they use state intuition dollars from both institutions and contributions from donors. jason: we have moved from being transfer ready to be major ready. the difference is -- the differce between english and engineering requirements are crucial. we try to bolster the services we have. hari: including meetings with coaches that help students navigate courses and offer supports for challenges outside the classroom. this is one of those coaches. she works with more than 500 advanced students. about 10 years ago, she was a student at nova who found the transfer process difficult to navigate >> i was low income so i wanted to make sure the money that was going toward my classes was going to count.

and that it would transfer to a bachelors degree. i work with a huge population of low income students at nova. i think it is not only understanding what that means from a financial aid standpoint, a credit standpoint, but a life standpoint. i understand wt it is like for them to have to work to pay the bills, or to contribute financially to their family. and the weight that they carry with that. hari: one of the most important ways students are supported is less visible. >> we have enough courses to fill that pathway. hari: faculty collaborations and meetings. >> we wanted to give them more hands-on. hari: like between amy richardson, a professor of engineering at nova, and collin rigell, a professor of mechanical engineering at mason. these meetings have been essential, according to gregory washington, president of george son university.

he says it is not always easy. gregory: it requires people to sit together in a room, it requires people on both ends to modify classes and make them work together. all of those hurdles are real ones but we provide the proper pathway in they can achieve and will be successful. we can say we have learned that. hari: jennifer says after she graduates, she hopes to get a masters and possibly a phd. jennifer: there are not a lot of psychologists that speak spanish, i can bring out my spanish and help the community and help people like me. hari: george mason is currently expanding the advance model to other community colleges around the state. for the pbs newshour, in northern virginia. ♪ judy: one of the greatest chess champions of all time is

accusing a fellow player of cheating, sending the chess world into chaos. william brangham is back now to explain. william: judy, this is the biggest scandal the game has seen in decades. 31-year-old norwegian magnus carlsen is the current world chess champion, and last night he explicitly accused 19-year-old american hans niemann of cheating in past games, and lying about it. in a recent match, niemann beat carlsen, and carlsen then pulled out of the tournament, issuing some cryptic comments. but he was more explicit in his statement yesterday, saying, "we must do something about cheating, and for my part going forward, i don't want to play against people that have cheated repeatedly in the past." he offered no further proof for his accusation. niemann has admitted to cheating when he was 12 and 16 in what he said were inconsequential games, but denies foul play when he played carlsen, or in any other

major tournaments. here to unpack it all for us is grandmaster maurice ashley. he was inducted into the u.s. cheshall of fame in 2016. maurice, an honor to have you on "the newshour." thank you so much for being here. to reiterate, there is no evidence we have seen that niemann cheated, but carlsen in his statement said in the game where he lost to the younger player, niemann seemed to not be concentrating at key moments and seemed to be playing far beyond his abilities. i wonder what you make of this accusation. maurice: well, this is an incredibly difficult situation for chess, chess fans like myself have been involved in the game for four decades. to hear this kind of allegation is truly troubling. and coming from the world chess champion, maybe the greatest player who's ever touched the chess piece. that is truly troubling and

devastating for the young man. let's not make any bones about it. but what evidence does he have? he says that he can't reveal anything unless hines gives him permission. who has ever heard of an accuser asking for the accused to give permission or information against them? it is really a strange situation. william: carlsen is the highest ranked player ever, but he is not infallible. he has lost there seem to be two possibilities here. either niemann is the greatest up and comer in the game or there was foul play. where do you come down on that? maurice: well, let's be clear. magnus has lost to players of niemann's age and even younger. in fact, he lost in india to

a 16 years old. you can lose this by being the greatest player in the game. it's possible to lose a chess in an individual game. now, beating magnus in a whole match. six or seven games, for example. well, that's a tall order indeed. so this one game, magnus did not play very well and admittedly made some mistakes. so it's possible that in this individual matchup, he simply lost. but he felt based on how hans was acting and on some kind of data that he must have had from beforehand, that this particular game, it's one of those he says, no, he doesn't think that the kid played above board. william: underlying all of this is computer processing has gone so good that with my phone here, using a good chess engine, i could beat carlsen. how do officials protect against that kind of cheating? maurice: well, this is a real issue for the international chess federation and for

federations old white. during a chess tournament, you are not allowed to bring in that trusty cell phone. and yes, programs now are so sophisticated that even magnus couldn't take down your smartphone. however, they do have all these scanning devices, the tsa like level, to check to make sure no electronic devices are being brought into the playing area, into the playing hall. but can you detect absolutely everything? that is the question. and even if a player does not have one of those phones, computer programs, what if they have a device hidden in their ear or somewhere on their person with somebody else on the outside, an accomplice is watching the game live during a broadcast and is maybe sending some kind of signal? one buzz means a bishop, two buzzes means a knight. players like hans are go enough to figure it out on their own with just that scant information by itself. so that is the trick, to try to stop something like outside interference. william: and again, we should

say there are all sorts of wild rumors about different devices or signals hans might have been getting in the game but there is no evidence of that. carlsen in the statement said cheating is an existential threat to the game of chess. do you believe that is true? maurice: absolutely. i'm simply terrified for this game that i love so much and have been a part of for much greater than half of my life. but the reality is chess, in chess information is everything. i mean, we study chess books. we pore over encyclopedias of chess openings and study games from the past so that we can get key ideas in order to defeat our opponents. but if you can just get information at the click of a mouse or a buzz in your ear or somewhere else on your body, then you simply upend everything that is fair in the game. and if it's widespread, which, by the way, it's not just hans.

other players have been caught in the past. he's not the only one. he's not the first. and unfortunately, he probably will not be the last. and this presents a real threa to the purity of our game and moving forward, particularly online chess, where it has thrived, how do you police all of this? it is a big problem for the officials overseeing all this. it's not something that will go away any time soon. william: that is maurice ashley, chess grandmaster. thank you for being here. maurice: thanks for having me. ♪ judy: like millions of americans, karen robertson of iuka, mississippi believed in conspiracy theories, until one day she had an experience that convinced her to challenge her own beliefs. she spoke about that moment with student reporter makenna mead, who is with mississippi public broadcasting's youth media project. their conversation is part of

our student reporting labs series on misinformation, "moments of truth." karen: it was easier to believe that there was someone or something out there to get you. and that's why my life was as bad as it was. [laughter] hi, i'm karen robertson. i'm 30 and i'm a single mom. we're here to talk about the fact that i actually believed in conspiracy theories once upon a time ago. makenna: so can you tell me, like a couple of the conspiracy , theories that you believed in? karen: there was one that i don't even know how to describe it. apparently our birth certificates look like some type of like shipping things where we are selling stuff to china. basically china owns us or something crazy. there's a movie called zeitgeist. they are trying to show you that a lot of what you've been taught isn't factual.

at some point they go on to 9/11 being an inside job. i kind of just straddled the fence on that one. makenna: what resonated with you about the conspiracy theories? karen: i was in an abusive relationship that i didn't realize at the time was abusive. i was trying to make the world make sense and it was easier to believe that it was a bad place and something was out to get you. and that's why my life was where it was at and as bad as it was, than it was to realize i had made bad choices. makenna: can you tell me why you kind of went off and researched all of the things that you believed in? karen: there was a very specific night that caused this. this guy and i were talking and he knew about all these different conspiracy theories that i did. then towards the end of the conversation, he was like, get this -- flat earth. and i was like, i thought he was joking. and he's like, dude, there's evidence that the earth is flat.

a little while later, i saw him use a very, very hard drug.[...] and it made me realize maybe if i am thinking ke someone like that, i should reconsider my belief system. the very next day, ictually searched how tdisprove a conspiracy theory. a month or maybe less went by before my brain just kind of clicked and i was like -- all of this is a bunch of hogwash. makenna: if you could go back in time and you could talk to a younger version of yourself that believed all those years ago, what would you say to her? karen: i definitely would tell her that things are going to get better, because i think that was part of her problem. it's hard to change minds. but that would ultimately be really cool if just a couple people could decide to go look up something and challenge their own beliefs. that's going to be the moral of my story, because when i challenged my beliefs, it

changed my world. and it made my life better. judy: what a great conversation. we salute student reporting labs and makenna mead. on "the newshour" online, read about how building solar panels over california's canals is generating power and saving water -- as part of the state's effort to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2045. that is at pbs.org/newshour. and that's "the newshour" for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at "the pbs newshour," thank you, please stay safe and 'll see you soon. >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. a raymondjames financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned.

♪ >> carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. the target foundation, committed to advancing racial equity and creating the change required to shift systems and accelerate equitable economic opportunity. 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.]

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