amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on "the newshour" tonight. scores of civilians are killed and injured in a strike on a hospital in gaza as the war between israel and hamas worsens. amna: house republicans fail to choose a leader again in a first round of voting, leaving the

house without a speaker and congressional business at a standstill. geoff: and. students and universities put more emphasis on college admissions essays in the wake of the supreme court's affirmative action decision. >> the supreme court made a ruling, and that doesn't change my identity. it doesn't change what i'm interested in and what my like what i've achieved. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. >> pediatric surgeon, volunteer, topiary artist. a raymond james financial advisor taylor's advice to help you live your life.

life, well-planned. >> actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. i'm excited to be part of a team driving technology forward. i think that's the most part in thing. people who know, know bdo. >> the john s and james l knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.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. geoff: welcome to "the newshour." it's a horrific night in gaza, where an airstrike hit a hospital, killing hundreds. who hit the hospital is in dispute. amna: palestinians and others said it was an israeli bombing. the israel defense forces say it was an errant missile fired by the militant group islamic jihad in gaza. geoff: the fallout has been swift. condemnations of israel have poured in from turkey, jordan, many gulf countries and beyond. and a scheduled meeting with leaders in jordan has been canceled. president biden still left this afternoon for a visit to israel tomorrow. amna: from israel, leila molana-allen again begins our coverage. >> in the dark of the night, chaos.

paramedics carry the dead after explosion at a key hospital in gaza city. packed with thousands of wounded gazans seeking refuge, their sanctuary engulfed in flames. gaza's health ministry said there were hundreds killed. [indiscernible] >> we are in the er and suddenly there was a huge explosion. >> the doctor was in the hospital's operating room at the time of the massacre. we spoke to him by phone. >> it was a massacre. [indiscernible]

>> after the explosion, protests erupted in the middle east and in the west bank, palestinians flooded the streets, calling for palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas to be ousted. in gaza, it had already become a hub for thousands of displaced palestinians seeking shelter. she left her house after her street was bombed. her daughter has special needs. >> bombs and rockets are everywhere there. what is happening is not acceptable. these are children we are talking about. children with fear in their hearts. how do these children deserve this? >> another airstrike today hit a refugee camp in central gaza.

residents rushed the wounded into ambulances to try to save them. for the survivors, only wails of sorrow. but israel said the strike targeted hamas command center. and killed so far the most high-profile militants known to have been successfully targeted. at a press conference today, prime minister netanyahu accused thomas of committing multilayered war crimes. >> not only is it targeting and murdering civilians with unprecedented savagery, it's hiding behind civilians, their own civilians. >> it seems there is no safe zone for palestinians amid israeli bombardment. this residential building was also destroyed today in a southern city in the area of the evacuation zone. >> we were told that the south was safer. we were displaced from our homes

but we found that death follows wherever we go. >> across the border, as israel braces for war, authorities are doing what they can to evacuate the towns and cities that lie along the border with gaza. it's just a few days since we were last here, but the difference is clear. now it is a ghost town, the streets deserted, the pavement covered in shattered masonry and roof tiles because there have been so many strikes on this town in the last few days. >> it has evacuated more than 80% of its residents. for some, leaving home in the midst of such trauma is a step too far. we met an 86-year-old survivor last week. her daughter, unable to reach her since yesterday and frantic with worry, called us. so we went to check on her. when we last saw gina, she was stubborn and furious. now after days of endless rocket

attacks and with all her friends and neighbors gone, she is in despair. >> where is my government? i would hit them back right away. don't wait. all week we are waiting for entrance to gaza. for what? you have decided? so go in! don't build up the tension! this tension is killing us! >> no matter the urgent calls from her children every five minutes and the rockets raining down overhead, she will not budge from this front porch, where she has sat for 60 years. >> where would i go at this age? and i don't care about myself,en being kidnapped. i told my daughter i will not leave my home, only by death. >> as we leave, gina sits alone once more, watching and waiting for what is to come. others here want to go, but have no idea where. when hamas fighters invaded her town just over a week ago, single mother sima yekhshekel snatched up her three young kids and ran for her life.

she's been putting herself up in a hotel just outside tel aviv since then, but can't afford it anymore. she returned home on saturday to a fridge full of rotting food, no electricity and a home in chaos. >> no one in sterodt help me. they give money, it does not come to me. they give me cookies, i don't need this. they send me this. i don't need this. come see what happened. >> while she was away her neighbour's house had been hit by a rocket, sending huge shards of shrapnel ripping through her doors and ceiling. sima has been offered refuge in an evacuation hotel in the mixed neighbourhood of east jerusalem, but says that is not an option for her. >> with three children, it's very difficult for me. >> so what are you going to do? >> stay here. maybe i will live, maybe i will die.

>> many across the country, including israelis who supported the rights of palestinian civilians, they now feel the same. it is us or them. >> we just had a massive alert go off for rockets coming overhead here on the highway as troops assemble for the war. >> just a mile from the border, these war staging areas are in clear sight of hamas rockets as our villages and towns along the gaza border. the death toll would be much higher but for israel savior, the iron dome system. the state-of-the-art defense system detects and intercepts incoming rockets in real time, but overwhelmed by an assault on this scale, some slip through the net. but the idf says the past week marks the most intense missile assault from gaza they have seen. in the 2014 gaza war, hamas launched 5,000 rockets in 50 days. this time, they've already launched 6,000 in just over a

week. >> we're seeing many many more rockets and far more advanced rockets being launched into israeli communities. >> civilians on both sides of the border here are praying for peace, but preparing themselves for an even bloodier war. for "the pbs newshour," i'm leila molana-allen on the israel-gaza border. amna: for more on the day's fast-changing development, i'm joined by my colleagues foreign affairs and defense correspondent nick schifrin and white house correspondent laura baran lopez. let's begin with that news of the day of this horrific strike on the hospital in gaza. the israeli defense forces say it was not them. many believe it was the israelis. what do we know at this point >> it is competing claims, as you say. israeli defense forces say it was not them, they said that pretty quickly after the strike. in the last 10 or 15 minutes i got in that statement about four or five times. what they just said a few minutes ago was that they've gone back and done an analysis

of what they call their operational system and they blame rockets fired by what they call terrorists in gaza that passed by the hospital at the time it was hit. they say it was from multiple sources of intelligence and indicates islamic jihad was responsible for what they called a failed rocket launch that hit the hospital. again, that's what the israeli defense forces are saying. palestinians are saying it was an israeli airstrike. just some context, in the past, israel has hit hospitals in this war and in the past. we have also seen palestinian groups fire rockets that misfire and land in gaza, so the competing claims will continue. amna: what have we heard from the white house about this? have they been able to weigh in or see any evidence about who was behind this attack? >> when it comes to the evidence, they are not saying who they believe was responsible for the strike.

a white house official did issue a statement just moments ago saying that the president's in -- sent his deepest condolences for the innocent lives lost in the hospital explosion in gaza. and he wished a speedy recovery to the wounded. and that ultimately the president is not going to be making the jordan portion of his trip, after consulting with king abdullah of jordan. also due to a day of mourning announced by the palestinian authority, president biden considered it best that he not do that second portion of his trip. he agreed to remain in close contact with the leaders in hopes of speaking to them in the coming days, but that takes a big portion about of the desired stops in his trip. amna: what are the implications of the summit not happening?

nick: it's the implications of the strike, the images have been fast forwarded through the entire region and through the world and it will make that containing of this or so much more difficult. let's think about the summit, what president biden needs his help from one of the summits participants, the president of egypt. he is now not going to be able to talk to him. they need egypt to open the rafah crossing to allow humanitarian aid and president abbas not being willing or able to meet president biden, again, someone the president needs to try to keep a lid on violence, especially through the west bank and jerusalem. and of course king abdullah of jordan oversees the holiest sites in jerusalem, a key figure that has been close to the

united states for so many years, and if this war is going to be contained, all three of those figures are going to need to participate with the united states and what it is trying to do to prevent hezbollah and prevent iran from entering this war. if these leaders are not willing to even be seen in public with the president, containing this war becomes much more difficult. amna: we should stress we still don't know a lot, especially in the fog of war. there are disputed claims about this horrific hospital strike. what does it mean for the relationship between the u.s. and israel? president biden has pledged that the u.s. will stand with israel. does that change the landscape moving forward? >> i think so far president biden has been very clear that he plans to continue showing solidarity with israel, that he is continuing to go on this trip. he arrived at joint base andrews just moments ago to head to israel to meet with israeli

prime minister benjamin netanyahu in person. and when he has those face-to-face conversations, sources close to the white house tell me he is still going to try to stress the point that nick was making, which is that it is very important to the administration that this is a contained conflict, that it does not escalate. and that also they will try to focus on making sure that civilians in gaza are out of harms way as much as possible. of course the inability to go to jordan really hurts the president's ability to prioritize that second part of what his mission was on this trip. but it is something he will be talking to netanyahu about. amna: that's our white house correspondent, laura baran lopez. nick, you've been continuing to cover this horrific ongoing story. many hostages still held by hamas.

what can you tell us? nick: one of president biden's most pressing concerns is the fate of as many as 13 americans being held hostage by hamas. they are among some 200 hostages in gaza, with more than 30 nationalities. i spoke to american families of the missing, about what they want president biden to do. and about their anguish. on the morning of october 7, hamas rampaged, terrorized, and burned and murdered their way through the israeli kibbutz. with a small, they kidnapped the most vulnerable, the community's and youngest residents, -- oldest and youngest residents, including an israeli americans son. >> my son is a 35-year-old father of two little daughters, and his wonderful wife is pregnant and in her seventh month.

he is the son every father, every parent would want to have. a gift to us all and a gift to everything and everyone he touched. nick: as best you can tell, what happened to him on the day of the attack? >> they descended upon the kibbutz and proceeded to kill anyone they could find or take into captivity anyone they could find. so he got back to his house with his wife and two little daughters and made sure they were secured inside a bomb shelter. for approximately the next hour he was in hand-to-hand combat with terrorists who were trying to break in -- they had already broken into his house, but break into that bomb shelter. he continued communicating often -- off and on with the remnants of the security team and his wife until about 9:30, and after that, no contact whatsoever. nick: i am a father too, and my kids are a lot younger than

yours. i cannot imagine what you're going through. i will just ask a single question and you answer it anyway you want. what do you want the world to understand that you are going through right now as a father and a grandfather? >> i'm sorry, nick, i can't answer that question. i just can't. i understand where it is coming from. i can't. i apologize. it's too much. it's just too much. pres. biden: there's not a single thing worse than having someone you know and love, not knowing their fate. >> it left no doubt in my mind that the president specifically and his administration are totally committed to finding the hostages. not just the american citizens, but everyone, returning them home.

nick: how do you balance the need to eliminate hamas, as the israeli government has promise, with the need to save your son? >> it's an impossible challenge. two things are true at once. that organization and its heads must be destroyed. we cannot continue living like this in these communities. that is an absolute truth. and it is an absolute truth that i and the other families of the hostages want these babies, young men and women, grannies and grandpas, we want them back, for them to live the lives that they were meant to. nick: what is your message to president biden as he goes to israel? >> my understanding is that our goal is to get the hostages, the american hostages, and i pray we also get the other hostages from other countries and from israel.

>> abigail is a beautiful little girl, growing up the youngest of three children. she is just a kind, sweet little girl. nick: during the attack, the gunman killed abigail's mother and chase down her father and two older siblings. >> while they were running, he was shot and killed. the two older kids ran home and locked themselves in the closet. the little girl managed somehow to get to a neighbor and knock on the door. they took this child in. the family that took her in, the husband went outside to see what he could do. when he came home, his wife and three kids and abigail are missing. so that's where we are right now. i think she is in gaza, and i

hope and pray being taken care of enough that she is ok. it is heart-wrenching. it's really hard. it's so hard, and it hurts so bad. nick: the only proof of life of any of the 200 or so hostages is from this hamas video. the family of a 21 year old today told the media they want this propaganda video shown. they want the world to do everything to bring them back home. you want the u.s. to push until the hostages, including your great-niece can be saved. >> they understand that we need to get the hostages out. american hostages and other hostages. and so i do hope that it will be delayed, what i hope it gives time for the people on the other side to get to places where they will be safer. that is my hope. nick: that is all the families of the missing can do, hope that

their loved ones can somehow be saved. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. ♪ vanessa: updating our top stories, the white house says the number of americans killed in the hamas attacks on israel is now 31. police in brussels killed a tunisian man accused of gunning down two swedish soccer fans on monday. the man was shot dead after an hours-long manhunt. prosecutors said he posted a video calling himself an islamic state fighter and condemning quran burnings in sweden. >> obviously, the link between the burning of quran and the nationality of the victims seems

easy to make, but you need evidence, you need proof. it seems that in one of the communications he made, it was indicated that burning the quran was a red line that should not be crossed. but these elements have yet to be verified. vanessa: authority said the gunman was known by police that was being sought for deportation. there is no word on how he was able to obtain the gun he used in the attack. russian president vladimir putin arrived in china today to visit a top ally in his war against ukraine. chinese president xi jinping greeted him beijing ahead of a forum on the belton road initiative. xi launch the program a decade ago to expand china's global influence. the two leaders will meet tomorrow for bilateral talks. the supreme court of india has declined to legalize same-sex marriage and instead, tossed the issue back to its parliament. the justices said it is not up to the country's courts to make laws but urged the government to uphold of lgbtq rights.

activists say they hoped for a different outcome. >> that a commission would have made lives so much easier because we live in a society where the state does not recognize a lot ofeople around us, even though there is some acceptance, but not acceptance which we are entitled to. vanessa: prosecutors in new mexico say they will try to re-charge actor alec baldwin on a fatal shooting back on a movie set back in 2021. they say they plan to present evidence to a grand jury in the next two months based on new information. an initial charge of involuntary manslaughter was dropped last april prosecutors said the gun in question might have malfunction. the leader of the college sports governing body warned against imposing too much regulation on compensation for athletes. ncaa president charlie baker and others address the senate hearing today.

he warned that smaller schools may abandon sports programs all together. still to come on the newshour, a legal settlement bars the federal government from implementing migration policies that separate families. how a supreme court decision has made the college essay more important than ever. >> 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: in the first round of balloting for the next house speaker, congressman jim jordan got 200 votes from his gop colleagues, short of the 217 he needs. but the ohio republican is closer to the gavel then he's ever been before. lisa desjardins has a look at his controversial record in congress. lisa: jim jordan. the firebrand in the house

republican conference. now with his sights onhands on the speaker's gavel. the ohio congressman first arrived in washington in 2007, having served a dozen years in the state house and senate. a champion wrestler in college, he started his career as an assistant coach for the ohio state university wrestling team in the 1980s and 90s. working with team doctor richard strauss, who the university later found had molested dozens of student wrestlers over two decades. when the university investigated in 2018, several former students claimed jordan knew about sexual abuse and harassment by strauss and failed to report it. >> i don't understand why jimmy would say that he didn't know when i personally, as a team captain, had conversations with him. lisa: jordan has repeatedly denied any accusations of wrongdoing. >> i knew of no abuse, never heard of it, never had any reported to me. if i had, i'd have dealt with it. lisa: in congress, jordan was a founding member of the far-right freedom caucus, where he gained

a reputation for forgoing suit jackets and for his combative, in-your-face style of politics. >> jim jordan was never known as a compromiser, as a deal cutter. lisa: republican charlie dent served with jordan in congress until 2018. >> he was known better for blowing up deals than he was for putting them together. lisa: as a rank-and-file member, jordan changed the game, attempting to extract gains with the threat of a government shutdown. former speaker john boehner, who jordan helped push out of the position in 2015, dubbed jordan a legislative terrorist. >> john boehner probably would have rather set himself on fire than given jim jordan any position of authority. lisa: in recent years, jordan became a staunch ally of former president donald trump, who even awarded jordan the presidential medal of freedom in the closing days of the trump administration. the former president endorsing jordan in his bid for speaker. >> i think jim jordan will be a great speaker of the house. lisa: their strong ties were on display in the days after the

2020 presidential election, when trump claimed the election was stolen. jordan echoed and amplified those doubts. and worked on plans to keep president trump in power. >> something doesn't feel right here. our president got 9 million more votes this time than he did four years ago. lisa: in the days leading up to the january 6 surrection, jordan, trump and other freedom caucus members held a discussion on strategies for delaying the certification of the electoral vote, according to the house january 6 committee report. and the day before, the committee wrote, jordan texted white house chief of staff mark meadows, passing along a memo advising that vice president pence should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all. jordan and trump spoke several times on january 6 and the day culminated with jordan joining many of his republican colleagues to object to the certification of the electoral college vote. jordan has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, saying the committee has twisted the evidence. he refused to comply with a

subpoena to testify. jordan's history pushing for trump's stolen election lies could be politically toxic for some moderate republicans in swing districts next year. >> every republican who casts their vote for him is siding with an insurrectionist against our democracy. lisa: democrats have already begun attacks that could be central to the 2024 campaign. >> i could see democrats trying to tie every republican to jim jordan and the more extreme positions he has taken over the years. he brings a style of politics that i think will make members in those pragmatic and swing districts, pragmatic members in those swing districts very, very anxious. lisa: but at the same time, jordan is beloved by the conservative and trump base, seen as someone who will knock down washington-style politics and entitlement. >> jim jordan is strategic, scrappy, tough and principled. he is a mentor, a worker, and above all, he is a fighter. lisa: since republicans gained

the house majority in january, jordan's been a champion for conservatives who want the party to aggressively go after the biden white house. and he has, as judiciary committee chairman, pounding away at investigations into the president. and his son hunter's business dealings. and jordan is a key figure in the impeachment inquiry into president biden, appointed to the role by ousted speaker kevin mccarthy. he spoke at its first hearing, last month. >> we know all kinds of false statements have been made by the white house. joe biden's made them. lisa: no witness, however, presented evidence of wrongdoing by biden, and one said there was not enough to impeach. but as speaker, jordan will have to find a way to work with the white house and a democratic-controlled senate on big issues, with a government shutdown looming next month. >> i always thought jordan was better in the opposition where he could be against things rather than being for things. he's going to have to be for things if he's a speaker in a republican majority. lisa: now jim jordan also hopes

to be one in charge of wrangling a narrow republican majority. that brings us to tonight, where jim jordan, the original rebel in modern republican politics, is now trying to quash a rebellion against his own attempts to become speaker. geoff: as we mentioned, jim jordan fell 17 votes short of the 217 he needs to become house speaker. did he expect to lose that many members on the first round of voting? lisa: it depends on who you ask. i think it was a bigger majority then he and republican allies were expecting. as you say, he received 200 votes, but there were 20 republicans who voted for someone else, and there were a slew of other ideas including steve scalise, the former nominee for speaker who lost just last week. then we see hakeem jeffries receiving the most votes of anyone today, to 12 votes. so indeed that is a problem.

we know that at least one of those no votes has switched to jordan, but there are others i'm also told who will be going the other way. tonight, a strange kind of tension. i have reporting that the jordan camp and some aligned with steve scalise are shooting barbs at each other at a time when jim jordan needs to be broadening his attack, he is in a skirmish with steve scalise. geoff: it's been two weeks since kevin mccarthy was ousted, paralyzing the chamber. how is the gop explaining yet another show of disunity and dysfunction? lisa: there are a few republicans still trying to cast the blame on democrats, but most admit the obvious, that it is the failure on their part and perhaps political culture itself. we talked to those who support jim jordan and what they thought

after this vote today. what is your reaction to this vote? >> i think we are a mess. i think my constituents believe we are dysfunctional. we need to get back in there. >> i still believe he can unite this conference. what i've said a few times today is we have to recognize that it may not happen in the first ballot. it took pope francis by ballots to get elected. i think somewhere between the five and 15, that's where we will see this end. >> it can't go on much longer. and i'm concerned because we are chasing this emotional theater instead of the actual things that could be great stress to this republic.

>> this is the only branch of government that we control, and i think it is important to keep us in power as a check on joe biden and the senate. lisa: do you control this chamber? are you able to govern? >> i think we will get to a speaker soon. lisa: those who oppose jordan today are taking a lot of heat from callers around the country. i spoke to one, mike kelly of pennsylvania. he said it was now just about jim jordan, but the idea that steve scalise won fair and square and here are group of republicans who refuse to accept it. here is mike kelly. >> there's a thing called integrity that should be the basis of what everyone thinks and what they believe. that was the loss of that integrity because it was not what some people wanted. lisa: could you consider changing to jordan at any point?

>> no, i can't, because we already had elected somebody to be our speaker. i have nothing against jim jordan, i just don't like when people break the rules because it's not something they like. lisa: and a sign that there are not more people being swayed by jim jordan is that there is not another vote scheduled tonight. so it does not seem like they want to roll the dice again tonight. geoff: what about the other 16 republicans who are opposed to jim jordan. what are they giving us the reason? lisa: kay granger, when jim jordan was nominated today, i saw her sit in her seat, one of the only republicans who did not applaud. it's notable that we saw several of the no votes, there are real

doubts about jim jordan, another voice i want to highlight, the congressman we talked about before. his reason for voting no today he said is because jim jordan would not answer a simple question, does he still believe, or did he ever and does he believe now that the 2020 election was stolen? he says that jim jordan has not answered that question and he has a real concern that this is an election denier who could be speaker. for that reason, he is a no. geoff: the next boat is scheduled for tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern. lisa, thank you. ♪ amna: a new proposed settlement from the biden administration would allow migrant families who were separated from their

children at the southern border here to stay in the u.s. for three years and apply for asylum while getting aid. more than 4,000 children were separated from their families during the trump administration as part of a zero-tolerance policy. officials have identified and reunited just over 3000 kids since then. if a judge accepts the settlement, it would also prevent the u.s. government from separating families for at least 8 years. this case was brought in large part by the aclu, which settled with the government. its lead counsel, lee gelernt, joins me now. thanks for joining us. as part of the settlement, families will receive up to a year of housing aid, legal, medical and behavioral health aide, family members can live and work in the u.s. under parole while asylum claims are processed, and other family members that were previously denied asylum can reapply. those feel like really broad terms. what's your reaction those terms? >> we've been negotiating this for 2.5 years and we are pleased

we have finally reached an agreement. as you said, there are two basic parts the settlement. the first part is backward looking, to provide benefits for the families that were brutally separated during the trump administration. it will help find and reunite the families, provide certain medical, legal and housing assistance, and most importantly, a specialized process for them to seek asylum so they are never sent back again. the second part of the settlement which you also mentioned was indispensable, from our standpoint. which was, going forward, no more zero-tolerance policies. that is -- for eight years, if any future administration tries to do it, we would be back in court, hopefully no other administration is thinking about this again, but if so we would file a new challenge based on

the precedent. so we are thrilled for these families. there a lot of work to implement and they're still up to 1000 children we believe not with their parents. this is now years later, these children have largely own up not knowing their parents. there is a lot of work to be done, but this is a critical start. amna: we know the previous administration had stated their intention to make good on this. this was back in october of 2021. >> we believe that these families, given what we have done to them, deserve to be able to be in the united states, to remain in the united states and not suffer instability anymore. amna: this issue of instability, you mentioned a specialized asylum process. we know a number of asylum claims are eventually denied, even if they take months or years to process. is there any guarantee for these

families or could they end up having their asylum claims rejected and being deported? >> you are putting your finger on exactly the right point. we need a congress that can grant green cards -- to remain in this country and not separate them or have them sent back. i hope congress will consider and try to do that. in the meantime, what we can do with the executive branch was the specialized asylum process. we hope the families who are deserving of asylum get asylum. you're absolutely right, some of these families could be denied asylum and sent back home. amna: we know the administration is still working to reunite some 1000 families, do you have any update on those efforts? >> they fall into a variety of categories, some have still not been found because the trump

administration did not keep records. we are looking all over the world to find these families. we will not stop until we find them. some are in a better situation and are in the queue. hopefully within the next few months, many more will come back. the judge asked us in the beginning of the case, do you expect to find all these families? and we said we really don't know, but we won't stop trying until every last one is found, and that is all we can do at this point. we have been working on it for years and will continue to work on it for as many more years as necessary. amna: when you step back and reflect on this moment in time, this practice of separating children from their families, it's really one of the darkest chapters in our modern history and had echoes in the previous dark chapters, times of enslavement and internment and so on. does this offer an end to that chapter? >> you are asking the exact right question.

it is one of the darkest chapters. this is far and away the worst thing i've ever seen, gratuitous, intentional cruelty, little babies being pulled apart, screaming and begging, don't take me away. the settlement is a critical start, but as you said, can make everything right. -- cannot make everything right. it won't erase this chapter from u.s. history and it won't ultimately make all the families whole. children and families were so traumatized. a three year old boy was separated for 10 weeks. the time he got home, he would just stand by the window looking to see if men were going to come and take him away again. we are dealing with thousands of little children who were traumatized. the sense of vulnerability that anything could happen to them. so the settlement won't make everything ok, but it is a critical start in our view.

amna: thank you, we appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. geoff: students applying to colleges now where the first class to deal with the impact of the supreme court's decision to overturn affirmative action. for many high school students, this annual rite of passage is now trickier than ever to navigate. special correspondent hari sreenivasan takes a look for our higher education series, rethinking college. >> i am quite nervous. >> kind of nerve-racking. >> these feelings are not uncommon for kids applying to college, but now students have one more question on the subjective part of their application, the essay. in its ruling this summer, the supreme court said colleges and universities taking race into

account during admissions for violating the equal protection's clause. overnight, thousands of prospective college students wondered how race could or would factor into their applications. >> it really narrows down what you are able to write about, which i didn't like. >> but many still hope to distinguish themselves or their essays. chief justice roberts wrote, universities can still consider an applicant's discussion about how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise. >> where does the stress level peak on admissions? >> a prep school in new mexico, prior to this he worked in admissions departments at several colleges. >> it has been confusing. for some it was a little intimidating. many say we hear you're not able to mention race at all.

students can still be themselves, don't change her plans or your strategy right now. but the essay is the one place where the students do have a chance to have a discussion with the supreme court. >> college knowledge helps students have that discussion. it's a program offered by the academy to help kids prepare their college applications and it has a high rate of success getting kids into colleges. this year the class is focused on helping kids write about their backgrounds in a way that colleges can take into consideration. >> it doesn't mean that students can talk about it. it means there are certain limitations on what admissions officers can use that information for in their decision-making process. >> student anxiety has been so high that the academy now offers the class multiple times a week. >> students therefore need to be

prepared to convey way that their culture, their ethnicity and background has impacted their lives, has changed the person they are and the person they will bring to the college campus with them. >> it's not crystal clear how colleges will deal with the question of the supreme court decision. >> colleges are changing the supplemental questions they are asking students to complete. that includes stories of their background, tell me something interesting about yourself. >> i spoke to three seniors at the academy. they are all from diverse backgrounds. i asked them about what the decision meant for them and how they are presenting to present themselves to colleges. >> ultimately they are asking for our identity and who we are. >> they know the essay is the way to give the admissions committee a chance to know them. >> i currently live in two

separate worlds, almost. what has it been like to live in these two worlds? >> it doesn't change my identity, what i'm interested in and what i've achieved. i kept a lot of what i've said about being latina especially from new mexico. >> in the beginning, i didn't have much about race in my essay. my mother side of the family is from guyana. but i don't look that way. >> we met with her parents at the albuquerque museum where her mom works as the head curator. the court's decision was personal. >> is someone who has the experience of being a person of color, moving through these kind of systems myself, i think i had a great sense of sadness, because one of the most important things that happened to me in my educational experience was getting to be around and know students from

all over the world. >> sydney's father taught in a public school in new mexico and worries about the students who don't have her father's advantages. >> i'm more concerned about the school that i worked at in a very poor area, where virtually none of the parents ever had a college education. >> there is a resource gap where lower income students who attend generally public schools have a counselor to student ratio that might be 250 to 1. it might be 500 to 1. in the case of my daughter, it was 600 to 1 counselor. >> his previous experience gives him invaluable insight into the inner workings of colleges. our college admissions departments sitting down with their legal department and saying, what is the question i

can ask which gives me a good idea of who this person is, that it being illegal? >> i think almost every college admission office in america is having conversations with legal counsel about how to do this in a way that is both with respect to the law, but also with respect to the institutions interests. >> you still give the story that you want to convey to colleges. >> kids are still getting pointers on the common app and test optional schools, along with warnings that using artificial intelligence to write your essays is anything but intelligent. >> even if you do use ai to help you plan or focus on a topic, they expect in the end that you can honestly say that the essay is ultimately your own. >> for these students, that

means acknowledging their heritage. >> that's what i'm trying to show, that i care about my community and i do it by preserving my culture. >> the navajo word meaning beauty and harmony. it's kind of like my journey. >> just because i look the way that i do, that does not define my experiences and what i have grown up with. so don't judge a book by its cover. >> judging an application is just what college committees will have to do in the next few months. how they factor in race, that is their test. ♪

amna: in a recent report, the gates foundation laid out the staggering numbers on maternal mortality and offered several interventions it says could save the lives of 2 million mothers and babies by 2030. here is melinda french gates take on prioritizing and investing in women's health. and a note that the bill and melinda gates foundation is a finder of the newshour. >> healthy moms mean healthy babies, and healthy moms are the center of the family, which means they are also the center of the community and they are center to our community. -- two hour economy. so when a mom does well, her children do well. and so i think of a mom that i met a long time ago in kenya. she said to me when she is holding her little baby in her hands, her newborn baby, she said, i want every good thing for this child. her name was marianne, and i thought, she encapsulates what every mom wants, which is every good paying for their child.

-- every good thing for their child. >> 800 moms diet a day in childbirth. and by the time you finish watching this brief but spectacular episode, another mom will die in childbirth. many of the interventions for maternal health are actually quite simple. it's using something you already have and that we all use, so that a mom doesn't get infected at the time of the birth. or it is iv iron. yet in so many of these low income settings, those simple interventions and tools are not making it out to where moms give birth in health care facilities. when i travel to malawi several years ago, i actually saw a baby that was likely to see out the day, a very healthy newborn, and one who had been born on the road. and the mother had died, and that baby, because of the birth

complications, was unlikely to see out the day. here in the united states, a woman is three times as likely to die in childbirth then in another high income country. and it has to do with the system failure, a system that doesn't listen to women, a system that is biased, a system that doesn't spend enough money rolling out the innovations we know that work. the single biggest barrier preventing us from saving these moms lives in childbirth is not focusing on them and saying, this matters. i met a group in africa who had really said, enough is enough. we are tired of seeing our sisters, our moms, our wives die in childbirth. let's do something about it. and they listed what was keeping women from having adequate health care systems, and then they took action. and i thought, you know, that's what it takes, a group of committed individuals to say, women in our community matter.

i was lucky enough to be with my daughter and her husband at the birth of their own daughter. and to see your own beautiful, healthy daughter give birth to another healthy baby girl is just one of the most joyful times in life. it made me all the more committed that in this next generation, women have fantastic health care on the day that their baby is born, and all the way through their pregnancy. my name is melinda french gates. this is my brief but spectacular take on taking birth safer for moms and babies. amna: you can watch more brief but spectacular series on pbs.org/newshour/brief. and that's "the newshour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, this is

sam. how may i help you? >> it's a pocket call. well, somebody's pocket. >> that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security, at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> you're watching pbs. >> this is pbs newshour west,

from weta studios in washington, and from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ >> you're watching pbs.

pati: green gold, the nickname for a plant that at one time made yucatán one of the wealthiest states in the world. production boomed. money flowed, and haciendas were the center of it all. today i meet preservationist daniel chiyean at hacienda tamchen, once abandoned, but is now a luxury resort. daniel: you can see paints, all of that original. ♪