wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the “newshour” tonight, a major tropical storm hits southern california for the first time in over 80 years, causing floods and fears of mudslides. geoff: president biden visits maui to survey the destruction

as the recovery effort continues and the death toll grows. amna: and many states look to confront the growing mental health crisis with laws and policies that would make it easier to involuntarily hospitalize people. >> coercion can be an effective way to move people into care environments. the key is how are we transitioning people into less restrictive settings? ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the "newshour." the william and flora hewlett

foundation, for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting instituations to promote a better world. at hewlett.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and 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. amna: good evening and welcome to the "newshour." southern california has been battered by historic rainfall, floods, and mudslides, the

latest in a string of disasters wreaking havoc across the country. but, so far, there are no reports of major damage or injuries. geoff: adding to the anxiety, a 5.1-magnitude earthquake rattled an area north of los angeles on sunday. but it was not linked to tropical storm hilary. as the storm now barrels north, some 17 million people are under flood and high wind advisories, watches, and warnings. as the sun rose over southern california today, residents woke up to an extremely rare sight, floodwaters rushing through their desert paradise. over the weekend, hilary became the first tropical storm to make landfall in the southern part of the state in more than 80 years, dumping half-a-season's worth of rain in the worst-hit areas. scientists say that extreme weather events like this are exacerbated and occurring more frequently due in part to climate change. d.j.: it is a bit unprecedented. we've had storms before, but

never anything quite this windy and rainy at the same time. geoff: this morning, weather officials downgraded hilary to a post-tropical storm. and, in all, the damage wasn't as bad as some forecasters feared. still, it battered baja california in mexico, where several homes collapsed and one person drowned. when it arrived on u.s. coastlines, it brought chaos to an area where droughts are far more common than this type of deluge. school districts in san diego and los angeles shut down today. los angeles mayor karen bass said the city remains on high alert. mayor bass: it's not to say that many angelenos have been -- not been impacted by the storm, whether they woke up without power or were unable to get through streets due to flooding and mudslides. as you know, sometimes, damage can occur in the hours and days after a storm hits. geoff: the rain has saturated california's inland deserts and valleys. palm springs, a popular resort

town, declared a state of emergency, as cars and pedestrians trudged through standing water. the storm knocked out the city's 911 system. elsewhere, mud and debris blanketed roadways. landslides caused some to collapse entirely. juan: if this road floods, there is no way in or out. geoff: residents in victorville feared for their homes, as the water levels rose seemingly out of nowhere. juan: all that started within an hour or two, and then just kept piling up, up, and the water keeps coming further back up the street, and just more and more. geoff: as the skies in southern california begin to clear, hilary is projected to keep weakening as it pushes northward into nevada. ♪ vanessa: i'm vanessa ruiz in for stephanie sy, with "newshour west." here are the latest headlines. president biden is in maui to visit survivors of the wildfires that decimated parts of the island nearly two weeks ago.

he's joined by the first lady. they surveyed the damage and are meeting with local officials about the ongoing response efforts. the president promised the federal government will help maui for as long as it takes to recover. the confirmed death toll stands at 114 people, with more than 800 still missing. meanwhile, at least two people have now died in wildfires burning in washington state. the blazes ignited friday and are still uncontained. they've scorched roughly 20,000 acres, and destroyed more than 250 structures in their path. across the border, firefighters have had some success battling the flames in canada. in the northwest territories, they've held back a blaze threatening the capital, yellowknife. they also weakened a major inferno around lake okanagan in british columbia. but prime minister justin trudeau warned the fires' catastrophic effects will be felt for some time.

pm trudeau: people are fleeing for their lives. they're worried about their communities. and canadians from coast to coast to coast are watching in horror the images of apocalyptic devastation and fires going on in communities that so many of us know and so many of us have friends in. vanessa: a new report out today from human rights watch claims that saudi arabian border guards have killed hundreds of ethiopian migrants trying to enter their country from yemen. they say guards repeatedly used machine guns and explosives to attack unarmed migrants, including women and children, at close range. armed conflict inside ethiopia, along with drought and famine, have forced more ethiopians to make the dangerous journey through yemen to saudi arabia. the u.s. and south korea began their annual joint military exercises today amid increasing aggression from the north. the 11 days of drills are larger

than in years past. tens of thousands of soldiers are expected to take part. all of this coming as north korean state media reported leader kim jong un observed the test-firing of strategic cruise missiles. back in this country, former president donald trump has agreed to a $200,000 bond in the georgia election interference case. the bond agreement bans him from intimidating co-defendants and witnesses. the former president was charged along with 18 others last week. it was his fourth criminal indictment. trump announced tonight he'll go to atlanta thursday to surrender. alabama can enforce a law banning puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender children. a federal appeals court panel today reversed a judge's ruling that temporarily blocked the ban. a trial is scheduled for april on whether to permanently block the law. still to come on the "newshour," a popular weight loss drug may prevent heart attacks but remains costly.

also, tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. an artist examines the legacy of the vietnam war, and its impact on his own life. 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. geoff: as president biden surveys the damage in maui, emergency crews, local officials, and residents are still assessing the scope of loss from the wildfires. so far, officials have confirmed that the fires led to more than 110 deaths, and most of those individuals have yet to be identified. more than 1000 federal officials remain on the ground. troubling questions and anger have emerged as well about the role of hawaii's biggest power utility, the response by local and state governments, and a lack of critical communication

when residents most needed it. for the latest on what that perspective is like on the ground, we're joined by marina riker, a reporter for the honolulu civil beat, who is based in maui. thank you for being with us. marina: and thank you so much for having me. geoff: and we should say that, as you are covering the aftermath of these wildfires, you were also directly affected by it. the rental home where you were living was consumed by the fires. you shared this before and after photo with our team. tell us what this experience has been like for you. marina: yes, so i would say i actually -- mostly, i have been dealing with my own home and disaster and, whenever i can, trying to work on the side, because it's been extraordinarily chaotic. but, yes, my home burned down in kula, which was one of a couple of wildfires that broke out on august 8. geoff: the day of the fires, how were you able to evacuate? marina: a separate fire from the one that took my house actually broke out a few miles away from

me earlier that morning, so we were already on edge, because this sort of a thing has not happened, at least in my lifetime growing up here. i don't remember anything like this ever happening. so we were already on edge. we were preparing our go bag. we have three cats. we decided to catch them and put them into carriers. and, sure enough, around -- we think around noon that day, a fire broke out about two properties over from us. and in the hours that followed, the smoke was so bad. and then we saw flames. so that's when we just we made to get -- we made the call to get out before an evacuation -- an evacuation order had been issued. geoff: and, as i understand it, you were denied fema assistance at first, which is remarkable, really, given that you're someone who knows how to navigate the system. tell me more about that and what folks there are coping with. marina: as someone who has had to actually cover natural disasters in the past and actually write about fema and other relief programs, i think

the big thing that i have realized as someone who, yes, also lost their home, it's not like government officials are directly reaching out to you to give you this information. you have to find it yourself. you have to try to figure out, what do you do with the home debris? how do you apply for fema? what web sites do you go to? what other relief programs are there? so, i mean, in the case of fema -- and this is going to happen, i mean, at rental properties all over -- all over maui -- because my landlord had already submitted an application for damage, then, when i went to submit one online, it was denied, because it's the same address. so, fortunately, i was able to troubleshoot and call someone. but it's been super confusing. geoff: as you well know, there are major questions about the cause of the wildfire, the electric utility's role in them, questions about why officials didn't sound the alert system, concerns about how residents were cut off from cell service. generally speaking, what do residents want to see in terms

of accountability? marina: there's so much. i think the big question -- and, i mean, that was just my own question as a resident going through this -- was, i mean, when our home burned down, cell phone reception was so limited that i don't know if there was an emergency alert sent. we didn't get one. there was -- i did see a news release later that afternoon. but i think it's just folks want to see better communication, of course, and these disasters, in hopes it saves lives. but then also, in the rebuilding, like, they want to see communities lead these efforts. and what the community that i'm from in kula needs is going to be totally different than what the community in lahaina needs. so this -- i think everyone just wants to make sure that residents are not left out and that residents take the lead in rebuilding these communities. geoff: speaking of rebuilding, the governor there says it will take years and billions of dollars. what does the future look like for folks in maui? marina: the one positive thing

in all this is, i can't even begin to say how much support we have seen just even from our own neighbors. and, i mean, communities are really coming together, i think, to lead the charge in the rebuilding efforts. but, yes, this is -- i mean, it's absolutely devastating. there aren't even really -- i mean, and devastating just feels like such a small word to describe the magnitude of this. there's just the deadliest disaster we have had in hawaii and the deadliest wildfire in modern history in the u.s. so it's going to be very slow. but i think the big point is, we want to see communities lead the rebuild, and have them -- have their voices heard in that process of how we're going to recover from this. geoff: to the extent that you have been able to focus on your work, do you have a sense of where that reporting will head next in the work that you do for the civil beat? marina: well, so, it's really interesting, because i actually worked as a reporter in texas when hurricane harvey hit.

and i had very minor home damage, but nothing -- not like this, where my home is leveled, and i have nothing, and i had to try to go rebuy some toiletries, because i just don't have anything anymore. and i think, for me, it's changed the way i see reporting in terms of the information that i need, as someone who's lost my home, is totally different than the information that the general public might need. so, for me, i mean, i'm hoping that that will help me out ask better questions and figure out what we're -- what we actually need in terms of information to, like, help the families going through this. geoff: marina riker, thanks so much for your time. and our thoughts are with you and everyone affected by these wildfires. marina: thank you. ♪ amna: this weekend, the results

of two latin american elections seem to reflect a desire for democratic change. in ecuador, a millennial entrepreneur will face the establishment leftist candidate in a run-off. and guatemalans elected an anti-corruption politician who overcame establishment assaults on democracy in a key u.s. ally. nick schifrin reports. nick: when the corrupt ones came from for guatemalan democracy, they missed the crusader. bernardo arevalo told guatemalans, yes, they could fight corruption, and he and his party came out of nowhere to overcome a political establishment that tried to silence him. last night, his supporters celebrated a watershed election they hoped heralded a better future. bernardo: what the people shout about is, enough of so much corruption. nick: arevalo reached out to urban and young voters in latin america's most populous and one of its most unequal countries. widespread poverty and food insecurity accelerated by climate change, as well as

widespread crime, has spiked migration. more guatemalans risk the journey north to try and enter the u.s. than from any other latin american country. but, in the end, voters chose the politician who vows to block what he calls the establishment's political persecution of its enemies. juan: a change for something good, that's what we hope for, that they don't let us down once again. nick: in ecuador, that hope helped push 35-year-old entrepreneur daniel noboa to second place in the first round of voting. he's the son of a former presidential candidate and from one of ecuador's richest families, but he ran as an outsider, appealing to female and younger voters. daniel: the most ignored demographic -- and we can see it -- is the youth, also a lot of female votes. nick: he will face the front-runner and establishment leftist, luisa gonzalez. the country faces an unprecedented wave of violence,

including the assassination of presidential candidate fernando villavicencio during the campaign. and security and the economy are likely to be the key issues in ecuador's run-off election scheduled for october. for more, we turn to will freeman. he's a fellow for latin american studies at the council on foreign relations. will freeman, thanks very much. welcome to the "newshour." let's start in guatemala. how significant is bernardo arevalo's election? will: we're talking about the most historic election in a generation, maybe two, maybe three. this is guatemala's best shot at turning the corner from decades of corruption, of capture of the state by criminal organizations. arevalo is giving guatemalans a sense of hope that i don't think they have had, that i haven't seen in my time visiting the country for years. and let's hope that he's able to deliver on those promises. nick: and yet how surprising is it that he was able to overcome a system that was frankly stacked against him and other critics of the government? will: well, surprising in several respects.

i mean, it's not only that he overcame an attempt by the judicial system to remove him from the race. he and his team weathered security threats that they were telling me about firsthand days ago. it's also that they campaigned with basically no budget. i mean, they were up against a rival who was financed to the tune of millions. they were traveling around in their own personal cars visiting rural villages. i went with them, i saw they recycled the same fliers from campaign stop to campaign stop. we're talking about a campaign that was built entirely on ideas. and, amazingly, in this context in which that never happens, it worked. nick: the united states revoked the visas of the attorney general and a judge, both of whom the u.s. labels corrupt. the european union, the organization of american states pthn did those moves, especially by the u.s., make a difference? will: you know, i do think that they sent a clear and strong message to antidemocratic elements in guatemala's political class that an attempt to out -- overthrow these elections, to overturn the

results would come with serious consequences. now, i still think that most of the credit should go to guatemalan civil society, should go to the campaign of arevalo, which really mustered the bottom of support you needed to make sure there was a free and fair process here. but the support from the u.s., the e.u., the organization of american states, that was all essential. and i think had those international actors not been paying attention, we might have seen a really different and more troubling outcome here. nick: arevalo does not control any other piece of the government. congress, the courts are stacked against him. what are the challenges he's going to face, even perhaps in security, especially given that he doesn't take power until january? will: the first and i'd say the biggest challenge is that the three criminal cases launched against his party without evidence remain open. now, for the moment, he is riding high. he has this groundswell of support. that doesn't protect him from one of these baseless prosecutions. i'm worried that members of his party could be put under a pretrial detention. if not that, certainly, i think we're going to see the opposition in congress pass a very limited budget this fall

that goes into effect the next year. i think we're also going to see them try to stack the judiciary with even more judges aligned with their interests. so, really, it's all going to put a lot of obstacles in front of his agenda from day one. nick: let's switch to ecuador. who is daniel noboa, and how surprising is it that he finished second? will: well, daniel noboa is the 35-year-old son of alvaro noboa, a longtime presidential candidate in ecuador and one of ecuador's richest men. he comes from a family fortune, and he himself doesn't -- daniel doesn't have much experience in politics. he's served in congress for one term, ran previously for president. but he's not a household name. look, i found it surprising. then, again, i will be honest with you. in most first round elections in latin america these days, it's like rolling a dice. nick: and rolling the dice in an election marked by violence. how concerning is it that ecuador, of all countries -- we didn't expect this -- ecuador suffered the kind of political violence that we saw during this campaign? will: this is tragic.

no one expected a presidential candidate like fernando villavicencio to be gunned down in public. and, in fact, after that, two other candidates, including noboa himself, were caught -- were caught up in crossfire of shoot-outs between criminal gangs. so i think it's going to make it very hard to develop a normal democratic election, to carry on with campaign activities. what has me most concerned is that i'm not sure that either of the two candidates that made it to the run-off for october 15 really have a serious agenda to tackle this problem. nick: and i don't want to overemphasize any connections between these two elections. the backstories here are very different. but are these two elections signs for those in the region advocating for democracy, advocating for free and fair elections? will: i do think we see a parallel. but it has more to do with the failings of the state. so, although democracy is holding steady in a lot of latin america and a lot of countries, it's actually been fine, it hasn't collapsed, what we are seeing are state institutions

that are increasingly debilitated by corruption, which increasingly fail to stand up to organized crime. you're seeing that in mexico. you're seeing it almost everywhere south. and so i think what we will see in both these cases is, whoever is elected the next president of ecuador, and certainly in the case of arevalo, they will have a short honeymoon period. they might be the outsiders for now. but, in six months or a year, the will be the president. they will be the one who's bearing some responsibility for whether these problems are solved or not. so, my message to presidents in latin america these days are, honeymoons are short. and, really, it's just an unforgiving landscape for politicians these days. nick: will freeman of the council on foreign relations, thank you very much. will: thank you. ♪ geoff: the nation's obesity epidemic is growing. nearly 42% of all american adults are considered obese. now new findings about an fda-approved weight loss drug may lead to even more demand for

a medication that can be both life-changing and expensive. william brangham has the latest. william: roughly 100 million americans suffer from obesity and its many associated health risks. obesity takes a terrible economic toll as well, costing this country an estimated $200 billion a year. a new weight loss drug called wegovy has shown, according to one study, that it not only can help with obesity, but it might also cut the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other heart problems by 20%. but there are real concerns about potential side effects. for a closer look, we are joined by dr. michael blaha. he's director of clinical research at the johns hopkins ciccarone center for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. dr. blaha, very good to have you on the "newshour." before we get to talking about this drug, could you just remind us of the connections between obesity and heart disease? dr. blaha: yes, sure. as you said, obesity is extremely common, and it's

linked with so many forms of cardiovascular disease. obesity itself is an inflammatory condition. it raises your blood pressure. it can cause diabetes and other risk factors. and it's linked to atherosclerosis of the arteries, which puts you at risk for heart attacks and strokes. it also raises the risk of heart failure and atrial fibrillation, a heart rhythm abnormality, too. so, really, obesity underpins many of the chronic cardiovascular conditions that we treat in a cardiology practice. william: ok, according to this one study -- and only parts of it have been released -- but it indicates that wegovy could prevent up to 1.5 million heart attack, strokes and other events over the course of 10 years. if that's true, with all the caveats there, how big a deal is that? dr. blaha: this is a really big deal, in my opinion. we have waited for a long time to be able to treat obesity in clinical medicine and actually lower cardiovascular events. and as a cardiologist, we haven't paid much attention to obesity, because we couldn't do anything about it and affect our

outcomes. but now, with the potential on the horizon to better treat obesity and lower cardiovascular disease, you have the attention of cardiologists and other specialists who treat cardiovascular disease. so this is a really big deal. and i think it's finally going to change the paradigm on the way we think about obesity, the way we treat obesity. and there's a lot more to work out. and, as you mentioned, we need to see the results of the actual study. william: walk me through some of the ways in which it might be a paradigm shift for your profession. dr. blaha: most of our patients don't lose weight. in fact, most of our patients gain weight over time, or, if they lose weight, they can't keep it off. so obesity underpins so many of the chronic diseases that we treat. obstructive sleep apnea is one. that can lead to hypertension that becomes hard to treat. cholesterol abnormalities. of course, diabetes. i mentioned before the myocardial infarctions, the heart attacks and the strokes, but also the heart failure, the chronic heart failure that's troubling for many of our patients, and the atrial fibrillation, which is becoming epidemic.

so it underpins so much of what we do. so we treat many of the complications of obesity in our practice right now, but we never get to the root cause. and this is it's been so frustrating over so long is, we're just treating the manifestations of obesity. it's a very costly way of doing things, compared to actually treating the underlying -- underlying causes of all the problems. william: as i mentioned, there are some concerns about complications or side effects with these drugs. what is your understanding of those? and what do people need to know about that part of it? dr. blaha: these drugs are really well-known, actually, because we have been using them in the diabetes space for over a decade. so now we have approval to use these -- some of the same medications at higher doses for weight loss, or at least one in particular. so we have learned a lot in the clinical arena about how to use these drugs. and, absolutely, there are side effects. in fact, the side effects are closely associated with their mechanism of action. and i could briefly say that the way these medications work is they slow the emptying of food from the stomach. they signal hormonal changes that put us in that fed state,

so we feel satiated and not hungry anymore. and they also work directly on the brain to reduce hunger. so, some of the side effects are those very things, ithey are beyond what a patient can tolerate. so you can get full bloating feeling in the stomach after a big meal. you can get nausea, sometimes vomiting, or diarrhea. they are largely controllable with diet changes. so it's very important, if a patient were to consider a medication like this, that this isn't in lieu of diet and exercise. it's with diet changes. william: and if someone starts on these drugs, is it a they take them for a short period of time? are they taking them for the rest of their life? what is that? dr. blaha: if you stop taking these medications, patients do regain weight. at least most of them are regaining weight, maybe not all the weight, but much of the weight. so it's really shifting the thinking about obesity towards that of a chronic disease. we take blood pressure medications for hypertension, and we expect that our blood pressure will go back if we stop them, and same with our cholesterol medications. we sort of assume that, if you

stopped taking them, the cholesterol will go up. but this hasn't really been worked out so much in the obesity space. but as we learn more about the disease and think of it as a chronic disease, it sort of makes sense then that the medications need to be there to exert their effect. so we hopefully will learn a lot more about the maintenance phase of pharmacologic treatment for obesity over time. but, right now, it looks like you do need to stay on the drug to get the maximum benefit. now, of course, in the meantime, we'd like our patients to have thorough diet and lifestyle changes that might help them keep the weight off. so it's really, once again, diet, exercise and the drugs. william: i know you're not in the business of health insurance, per se. but there is a question as to, as these drugs show their promise, whether or not health insurance and particularly whether medicare ought to cover them. is it your opinion that these do offer enough benefit that that really ought to be a consideration? dr. blaha: it's my opinion, based on this trial that's been run and the size of the trial and how well it was run, that

the evidence is going to be sufficient for the fda to approve these weight loss drugs, wegovy, in particular, for cardiovascular risk reduction. and having that fda approval for cardiovascular risk reduction will then open up an opportunity or at least put pressure on payers like medicare to cover this medication more broadly. and we have been waiting for this. we have anticipated this trial as a pivotal moment to see, is this going to be drug that many people will benefit from, or is this one that we will keep this more of a niche product for maybe severe obesity? and it looks like we're going to have broad-based cardiovascular benefits. so, absolutely, we're going to see much broader coverage, i think. william: all right, dr. michael blaha of johns hopkins medicine, thank you so much for being here. dr. blaha: yes, my pleasure. thank you. ♪ amna: across the country, states are trying to tackle the growing mental health crisis. some are enacting laws and

policies that would make it easier to hospitalized or detain the severely mentally ill against their will or through voluntary court-ordered treatment. as the ranks of the homeless swell, california is taking steps toward compelling more mentally ill patients into care. as stephanie sy reports from san diego, it is as controversial as ever. stephanie: jennifer parramore rescues dogs and cats and pretty much any creature in need of care and love. but her dogs ranger and dolly are her support. and the day we were with jennifer, she needed them. you're coming off of sort of a manic state that you have been in for -- for how long? jennifer: yes. over a month, i think over a month now, yes. and it can last, it can last weeks. stephanie: what does that feel like? jennifer: everything is elevated. everything is heightened. everything is hyper. you feel like you're the funniest person in the world. you feel like you're the prettiest person in the world. stephanie: parramore has schizoaffective disorder.

jennifer: the bipolar is more pprevalent than the schizophrenc part. but the violent part, the aggressive part, the really erratic part, that's the schizophrenia. stephanie: 31-year-old jillian is jennifer's daughter, but also one of her mom's caretakers. in fact, jillian often refers to her mom as sister. when jillian was little, jennifer was in and out of her life. jillian: she ended up getting three strikes for petty theft, and ended up in the prison system. and it was in the prison system that she was diagnosed. unfortunately, she spent a lot of time in solitary confinement for behaviors. stephanie: jillian blames the criminal justice system for robbing her of a mother. jillian: i didn't know jennifer was my parent until i was 12 years old. i missed out on so much of that time. and because her mental illness wasn't treated early on, she doesn't have very many memories of me.

that's starting to fade. and so we don't get to have the relationship that we should have had. what if i let you have chicken nuggets? jennifer: all right, i will go for chicken nuggets. jillian: ok. thank you. stephanie: now that jennifer is in her life, jillian worries that a new california law raises the specter of institutionalization, which she calls another form of prison. jillian: right before this interview, we had a whole meltdown. that happens every day. that is also ok. we are allowed to have bad days. everybody is allowed to have bad days. we don't get imprisoned for having bad days. we don't get our rights taken away for having bad days. stephanie: the new law will make it easier to court-order behavioral treatment plans for individuals with severe mental illness through so-called care court. here's how it works. a family member, behavioral health provider, or member of law enforcement petitions a court on behalf of someone with untreated schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder. after that, a court can order a clinical evaluation, and then a care plan that may include

treatment, medication, and housing. if the person fails to complete treatment, they could be considered for even longer-term state oversight. the approach is part of california's effort to address homelessness. san diego is one the pilot counties that will begin implementing the care court in the fall. on this hot july day, police dismantled a sidewalk encampment downtown. it's a familiar scene in the golden state, where it's estimated that nearly a quarter of the unhoused suffer from serious mental illness. chronic homelessness is the result of multiple system failures, not just individual choices. the mentally ill cycle through the public health system, the housing system, and the criminal justice system. they may get some help along the way, but many of them end up back on the street. anita fisher knows this all too well. anita: as a mother, you always

think, did i miss something? stephanie: the pictures from her son pharoh's early days as a medical specialist in the army did not foretell what was to come. anita: my son pharoh is 45 years old. and for the last 22 years, he's lived with a co-occurring condition of schizophrenia and substance use disorder. there have been wonderful periods of recovery where he is in treatment, on his medication, and that's the person who i fight for. but it takes so long to get him back into treatment. once he stops his medication, he starts to self-medicate with street drugs and alcohol. and that, of course, leads to trouble. and then he's arrested. stephanie: fisher believes care court would offer a pathway for her son to obtain treatment he may not know that he needs. anita: when you have especially been on a several-year journey, and you know that they're saying, no, i'm not sick, i

don't need help, that's the point where there may need to be an involuntary direction. and i know people don't like that word. if it saves his life, if it saves him from ending up on the street, if it saves him from ending up having to be in handcuffs. stephanie: luke bergmann, the head of behavioral health for san diego county, will be leading the efforts to implement the new system. luke: care court was meant to be an alternative that would use the specter of the court to motivate people to engage in care who wouldn't likely otherwise be motivated to engage in care. stephanie: he says the care court stops short of involuntary treatment, but a new proposed law in california, currently expected to pass, could radically expand who qualifies for coerced care. senate bill 43 would redefine who qualifies as gravely disabled, making it easier to

detain individuals in psychological distress against their will. it would include people with severe substance use disorders, like anita fisher's son. she supports the bill. anita: when i read that law, he was meeting every single word of it. no one is talking about sticking someone in an institution for years and years and years just because they have a mental health challenge. no, we're just talking about getting them treatment sooner. luke: there are many, many people with serious mental illness who need help with basic aspects of activities of daily living. coercion can be an effective way to move people into care environments. the key is, how are we transitioning people into less restrictive settings? stephanie: but david cohen, a ucla professor and former social worker, says that there isn't much data on the success of forced mental health treatment.

prof. cohen: it suggests that it drives people away from the mental health care system. it retraumatizes people who have often been traumatized. it's a hit and run. it leaves the scene as soon as real problems appear, in fact. stephanie: the trend toward involuntary treatment worries keris myrick, a mental health advocate. she herself was dinosed with schizophrenia in her 30's. keris: my first involvement with the mental health system was through involuntary hospitalization, which was very traumatic. and the police came to my door. mine is not the worst. some people don't make it out alive. stephanie: myrick has concerns about california's new courts for the severely mentally ill. keris: the idea of being able to get the treatment and/or supports that you need at the time when you're most vulnerable involving a court? as an african american, i -- the idea of courts, it's just not a

friendly place. stephanie: ucla researcher david cohen says the seriously mentally ill may need a form of asylum, one that's voluntary. prof. cohen: we do need a place for people who can't take care of themselves. stephanie: you're saying that there may need to be some sort of asylum for certain types of people? prof. cohen: yes, absolutely, but not with the coercion. but what is asylum? it's shelter. it's space. it's books. it's drugs if they want them. probably, 80% of it is just finding shelter for people. stephanie: jennifer parramore has a safe place, just a few blocks away from daughter jillian. she credits getting the right dose of lithium with helping her get her symptoms under control. even still, she has relapses. jennifer: when i'm going into the hospital, i have given up. i know that i can't make decisions for myself anymore. i give up. i'm tired of running from the devil out here, exhausted. stephanie: running from the devil? jennifer: yes. stephanie: what does it mean to

run from the devil? what are you referring to? jennifer: just trying to stay one step ahead of my mental illness. stephanie: it feels like the devil -- jennifer: oh, yes. yes. stephanie: haunting you, mental illness? jennifer: all the time. it's your mind controlling you, and not you controlling your mind. stephanie: but it's her battle to fight, she says. jennifer: it is my choice. it should always be my choice. stephanie: for the "pbs newshour," i'm stephanie sy in san diego. ♪ amna: it's the beginning of one of the most anticipated weeks of the presidential campaign so far. republican candidates are set to debate in wisconsin. but there will be one notable absence. former president donald trump, leading in the polls, is instead set for processing in a georgia jail. who better to talk about this busy week than our politics monday team?

that is amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter and tamara keith of npr. great to see you both. thanks for being here. let's talk about this. the first debate now just two days away, hosted by fox. here's a look at who has qualified for the debate stage so far, meeting all the thresholds, those nine candidates there. we just mentioned, of course, mr. trump will not be there. we should also mention francis suarez and perry johnson say they have qualified, but the rnc 's deadline to confirm participants, it's 9:00 p.m. eastern tonight, so that could change. amy, trump won't be there. but the man running a distant second to him so far in most polls, ron desantis, will be there. what does a good debate night look like for him? amy: yes. well, first, let me start by saying trump will be there, but he won't be there. trump is going to be overshadowing all of this. and to your point that, even after the debate, we're going to find out, has he turned himself in yet in fulton county? what about this interview he's doing with tucker carlson? will he make some news there

that may overshadow what happens in the debate? so he will have a presence even though he won't be. and, of course, many of -- he won't be there physically. and, of course, the candidates will be asked about him. amna: right. amy: but desantis is right. he's the person that has so much riding on this. earlier this year, he could make the case credibly that it was basically a two-person race between he and donald trump. now a lot of candidates are starting to be nipping at his heels as he has descended. that's not a place you want to be in polling is going down this way since earlier this spring. amna: yes. amy: and there is this one opportunity in this debate to sort of settle things down. now, can he win this debate? perhaps. and i think, for him, winning would look like not -- one, not slipping any further, not making any mistakes, and, two, that the other potential challengers to his second-place status, tim scott and vivek ramaswamy, do not overshadow him, because that

is really the biggest threat to him right now, is that he's no longer the candidate in second place. amna: but, tam, as you know, mr. trump has had a commanding lead. we saw that in this latest iowa poll out today as well. those caucuses are still five months away. but that is a pretty strong lead there, 42% for mr. trump, in second place there mr. desantis at 19%. as amy mentioned, he's not going to be at the debate physically. he's sitting down for an interview with tucker carlson, who was formally ousted from fox. but what does that say to you about who he's trying to reach and who he doesn't care about speaking to? tamara: so, he is running like an incumbent president. and hey, he never admitted that he lost the last race. he's not running like someone who lost and is scraping his way back. he's running like the president of the united states who doesn't need to dignify this with his presence. and an actual incumbent wouldn't attend one of these debates

either. so, he is doing what he does best, which is get absolutely everybody to talk about him. there will be clips from the tucker carlson interview, whether they're played during the debate or after the debate. he's making it extremely awkward for fox, which is, of course, a feature, not a bug. it's all part of what he does. and i think, for ron desantis, the challenge is, are they all going to focus on him, or everybody else on that stage? and it's a really big stage? or will they focus on trump? the problem is that, for most of them, there is no applause line attacking trump. there's no applause line at all attacking trump, because most of the people who are watching that debate are locked in to vote for trump already. amna: what about president biden? is he going to be watching? what's the white house saying? [laughter] tamara: well, principal deputy press secretary olivia dalton was asked about it today on air force one. and she said, "i hope he isn't

watching for his sake," though she doesn't know whether he will be watching or not. the biden campaign and the democratic party are planning a lot of rapid response, because, of course, the one other person who can get applause for these folks is attacking joe biden or kamala harris. so, he certainly could take a hit in this debate. and so they're also putting out $25 million in ads over the next several weeks, basically trying to convince voters that the economy is good and that joe biden should get credit for it. amna: amy, the other interesting thing from those iowa polls was that 40% of the caucus-goers said their mind is made up, 52% said they're persuadable, right? what does that say to you? amy: right. so, if you are a not-trump candidate, you say, well, look, there's still majority of people out there who say, they could be open to something. now, you and i could be open to a lot of things, and that at the end of the day we don't follow through on, right, like eating certain foods or doing certain things. we may when we get there say,

well, actually, i am not going to follow through on that. that's the first. amna: follow-up questions to what you just said. amy: yes, i know, we will get to that in a minute. but the more important thing about that 52% number of people who say they're open to somebody else, when you look under the hood, right now, those voters are not coalescing around another candidate. amna: right. amy: donald trump still gets 27% of those voters. ron desantis gets 25%. and another chunk of those votes go to tim scott. so, fundamentally, the challenge feels very similar -- for non-trump candidates feels very similar to where we were in 2016. even if trump's base is not as big as these polling numbers suggest, it's more like 35% or 40%, that is enough to win if the people who are looking around for somebody else end up splitting their vote between multiple candidates, which is why this is really a race -- this debate is a race for who is in second place. who can now lay claim to being

the one candidate that everybody else who doesn't want trump to be the nominee should rally around? amna: tam, meanwhile, we have got a possible split screen here of the debate and the other candidates and mr. trump turning himself in to a fulton county jail. he's now facing four separate indictments, 91 charges total. is there any sign you have seen that the mounting legal challenges could just cause him to collapse under the weight at some point? tamara: they're not, i think, a lot of republican base, base voters who have read those indictments, simply speaking. they are not interested in it. they -- the former president and his allies and many of his opponents, in fact, have ld the groundwork for republican voters to feel as though it's all rigged against trump, they're all out to get trump, everything is corrupt. so why would they care about these indictments? these indictments just prove that the establishment doesn't

these indictments just prove that the establishment doesn't want trump to be president again. that is the message that republican base voters have taken from this. i don't know what could potentially move the needle, except maybe an actual trial and if that trial is televised. and many of these courts won't allow cameras or even, like, electronic communications from inside the courtroom, and you're dealing with sketches. so it's -- and we also don't know when any of these trials could actually get set, when these dates will actually happen, because there are going to be numerous appeals and other efforts on the trump side to slow it all down. amy: and we saw in some other polling, national polling that was out this week by cbs, that even among those voters who tam rightly points out don't think that he did anything wrong, they still see him as the most electable candidate, the most likely to beat joe biden. so the idea that having all of these indictments is going to weigh him down against biden, that's not what republican voters believe right now. amna: and he's only gotten stronger over time, as we have already seen. amy: that's right. amna: amy walter, tamara keith, always good to see you. thank you.

amy: thank you. tamara: thank you. ♪ geoff: an exhibit at the new museum in new york explores the legacy of the vietnam war through the film and sculptures of an artist whose own life has been defined by that very legacy. jeffrey brown takes a look for our arts and culture series, canvas. ♪ jeffrey: in the opening scene of "the unburied sounds of a troubled horizon," a vietnamese folk song plays over a strange scene, a flower pot in a field, which we slowly realize is fashioned from a bombshell. artist and director tuan andrew nguyen. tuan: i was thinking about the landscape and how beautiful the landscape is, but just right below the surface of the land lays like this memory of the war that is still very volatile.

jeffrey: the film is part of an exhibition titled radiant remembrance at the new museum in new york by the 47-year-old vietnamese-born, american-raised artist, winner of this year's prestigious joan miro international art prize. works in different forms and shapes, video installations, archival photographs, freestanding sculptures, all exploring narratives of often forgotten or lost history. tuan: my work is very much about the power of memory, the power of storytelling as an act of political resistance, to remember something, to retell something and tell the story. jeffrey: that hasn't been told before. tuan: that hasn't been told before, that isn't being acknowledged by dominant narrative. jeffrey: "the unburied sounds of a troubled horizon" is a fictionalized version of a grim

reality in the quang tri region of central vietnam, where the u.s. military carried out some of the most ferocious and destructive bombing in history. and, to this day, unexploded ordnance, or uxo, litters the landscape, killing and maiming civilians. the film tells the story of a young woman who ekes out a living scavenging and selling metal from the bombs, but also making sculptures of them that have an eerie resemblance to those of the american artist alexander calder, who she learns died the year she was born. for nguyen, this is about loss, hauntings, reincarnation, the possibility of healing. in that sense, it goes on. tuan: it goes on. jeffrey: and never ended. tuan: and it's never-ending here for the people there. i think that's the history that we have to kind of remember. war doesn't end when we think it does.

jeffrey: for the exhibition, nguyen has crafted his own large sculptures, a large bomb bell, and a mobile of metal from scavenged ordnance tuned to a frequency thought to help heal people suffering from ptsd. tuan: they have an amazing resonance. you can kind of feel the vibrations, turning material that was meant to destroy into something that heals. jeffrey: in fact, all this hidden and continuing history is tied to nguyen's own story. he was born in vietnam just after the war. his father was a former south vietnamese draftee. when nguyen was two, the family escaped by sea as so-called boat people to a refugee camp in malaysia. they were eventually accepted into the u.s. as refugees. do you have any memory of that? tuan: i don't remember the experience on the boat or the refugee camp.

my -- one of my earliest, first memories was the plane ride from malaysia to san francisco. i think i was crying so much that the flight attendant gave me a dennis the menace comic book. and i remember that. [laughter] jeffrey: as your first exposure to western culture? tuan: but also my first memory, like, being kind of in the air, and then getting this graphic object about a young boy who was causing a lot of problems. dennis the menace. jeffrey: he grew up in oklahoma, texas, and southern california hearing stories of his homeland. and after college and art school, he went back to vietnam to live with his maternal grandmother, a poet, writer and journalist who had stayed behind. nguyen has lived in vietnam ever since, now with a family of his own.

and he's made films about other continuations of history, french colonial soldiers from senegal who fought in vietnam and had relationships and children with vietnamese women. he worked with the contemporary senegalese-vietnamese community in dakar to document part of that little-known story. and he's crafted other works about mixed communities and migrations we rarely hear of. he himself has relatives in martinique in the caribbean that date to french colonial wars. for all this, he credits the stories he was told in childhood. tuan: refugees, for those that are displaced, especially children, stories become not only a relic of a previous life. they're a kind of inheritance. but they also -- jeffrey: one you don't know. tuan: one you don't know. and, sometimes, when i was growing up, i felt like i would never know, because access to vietnam was -- seemed impossible

back then. but these stories also simultaneously kind of very aggressively propel you into a future. that's the impact of storytelling on me. i think that has kind of impressed deeply upon my psyche and the way that i think about making art. jeffrey: that art can now be seen through september 17. for the "pbs newshour," i'm jeffrey brown at the new museum in new york. geoff: and a factual correction before we go. earlier in the program we said guatemala is latin america's most populous country. in fact, it is central america's most populous country. we regret the error. and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by.

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