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. amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the newshour tonight, israel ramps up its aerial assault in gaza where civilians continue to be caught in the crossfire and little aid is making it to those desperately in need. amna: in a whirlwind day on capitol hill, republican lawmakers consider numerous candidates for speaker of the house, but once again fail to

come to a consensus. geoff: and colleges rethink their admissions, including giving preference to legacy students in the wake of a supreme court decision. >> one of the reasons people choose to go to a highly selective school is because of the network it makes available to you. all the more reason not to let families hoard the wealth. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson, and camilla in george smith. >> consumer cellular, this is sam. how may i help you? >> this is a pocket dial. well, somebody's pocket, thought

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>> 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. israel has intensified its bombing of gaza again, launching 400 air strikes today across the palestinian territory. amna: the gaza health ministry run by hamas reports more than 700 people were killed, bringing the overall palestinian death toll to 5,700. unicef says the number includes 2300 children. israel says 1,400 of its citizens were killed in the hamas terror attack that ignited the war. geoff: meantime, 20 more trucks loaded with aid stood by in egypt today, but none were allowed into gaza. un officials said they hope to make the crossing tomorrow. amna: but constant bombing and quickly dwindling necessities mean the humanitarian crisis in gaza is growing worse almost by the hour.

nick schifrin reports on what that means for those under fire, in the war zone. nick: today, gaza is a land of endless loss. 1-year-old wateen lost her mother last night in an israeli airstrike. she died protecting her two children, wateen and twin brother, ahmed. they had been fed only on breast milk. now, it is formula, provided by wateen's aunt, ala'a abu mukhaimar. >> after the airstrike she doesn't recognize us. and a while ago there was an air strike and she started to scream. nick: wateen is injured, but at least she's alive. there is no word for the parent who loses a child. this is khan younis, in southern gaza, this morning, the aftermath of what palestinians call an israeli air strike on a residential building. down the street, residents refused to leave this site. and abdullah teish refused to

leave his daughter's body. a neighbor, provided a final, goodbye kiss. >> i don't want to let her go. this is my daughter, i want as much time with her as i have before we bury her. nick: he embraces her all the way to khan younis's nasser hospital. even though she will never again embrace him back. gaza's hospitals are also its morgues. names are written on the body bags, including meriam ezat saqallah. the saqallas say their loss is all consuming. they are burying 50 members of their extended family. >> i have lost all my family, my entire family and the relatives that we hosted. we have lost them. nick: israel says the strikes in khan younis and all their strikes, target hamas terrorists, who operate from within residential neighborhoods. gaza today is defined by death and displacement. but as muslim and jewish religious texts teach, despite

the darkness, whoever saves a soul, it is as if he has saved mankind. rescue workers celebrated an airstrike survivor, in the nuseirat refugee camp. but only for a moment. the apparent target here was a home, right above the dalal mall. >> abu dalal mall was full of palestinians, civilians, who came to the mall, to buy their things, their food. suddenly the israeli air force attacked the building, attacked the dalal mall. nick: in one of the stores, shoppers fled from an initial airstrike, and then, in the grocery store on the ground floor, shocked survivors ask for the war to end. >> this is indescribable. god is greater than these disbelievers. god is greater than israel. god is greater than america. >> no party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law. nick: 2500 miles away, the

security council debated calls for a cease-fire. secretary general antonio guterres. >> to ease epic suffering, make the delivery of aid easier and safer, and facilitate the release of hostages, i reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. >> mr. secretary-general, in what world do you live? nick: israeli foreign minister eli cohen called for gueterres to resign. >> how you can agree to ceasefire with someone sworn to kill, and destroy your own existence. how? nick: with no ceasefire in sight, the international focus is also on humanitarian aid. today in khan younis, residents lined up for single pieces of bread. president biden said today, aid wasn't arriving fast enough. diab faris says he had no food, water, or electricity. >> we are killing each other

just for some bread. think of us. since this morning, children have not eaten. i swear no one has eaten. think of us, look at us and what is happening. nick: it is the grim reality of gaza today, that when stalked by hunger and death, gazan children write their names on their skin, so their bodies can be identified if buried under rubble. and after this deadly day, gaza, its parents, and its kids, are not alright. for the pbs newshour, i am nick schifrin. geoff: tensions also seem to be growing ever more concerning in the west bank, the other palestinian territory that borders jordan. since the hamas attacks on october 7th, 95 palestinians in the west bank have reportedly been killed in clashes with israeli troops, and some with israeli setlers, and another 1,250 have been arrested. the israeli government says they are going after terror targets and cells there. newshour special correspondent leila molana-allen was in the west bank city of jenin and has this report.

leila: the occupied west bank long scarred by sporadic clashes between israeli soldiers and palestinian fighters in displacement camps, and between israeli settlers and palestinian farmers. in response, israeli authorities enforce harsh restrictions until calm is restored. but since the october 7 hamas attacks, israel has made clear that the gloves are off. with increasingly violent raids and clashes spreading across the west bank daily. and now, a rare sight in the west bank and a major escalation, israeli airstrikes. this weekend, the idf struck this mosque with an airstrike. two people were killed. israeli authorities say underneath it is a compound being used by hamas and islamic jihad to plan attacks. worshipers here deny that. this man is under suspicion from security forces. we have hidden his face. but he says he is simply trying to protect his community. >> they are liars.

there used to be a tunnel here, but they already bombed that months ago. they bombed the place where the children make their paintings because there is no other place in the camp for children to play . leila: he says the psychological impact of using such a weapon in the densely populated camp, which the un says in home to 24,000 people, has been devastating. and many here fear worse to come. across the west bank, the israel defence forces are cracking down aiming to kill or arrest every possible accomplice of militant groups they are fighting in gaza. this morning in the town of jaba they caught a man they have long hunted. >> the special forces came and they opened fire, and they called over the loudspeakers: yahya fakhouri, come out or we will demolish your house over your head. leila: 34-year-old yahya had been hiding from the idf for six months, but went out to visit his family today. they say an informant turned him in.

>> he is a leader in islamic jihad and is wanted by the israelis, they wanted to catch him. they had a spy with them who was covering his face when they came to search the house. leila: after they arrested him, soldiers found weapons including m-16s stashed away. his aunt says the family is traumatised from the raid, but she still supports the men they call resistance fighters in their community, who she believes fight for all palestinians. >> we feared for ourselves and for the neighbors. now they are bombing in gaza in they may do the same in the west bank. we are all with the islamic resistance and we are all united. leila: but some here say that as israel tracks down wanted terror suspects, innocent civilians, many of them children, are bearing the brunt of these increasingly hostile raids. ali hammour came out of his house this morning when ordered to come about the shooting started anyway. >> my daughter and i were

sleeping down by the window and they shot at as. he did not do anything. leila: there are bullet holes all over the doors and walls of the house. it was 6:00 in the morning when israeli soldiers started shooting through this window where the kids were. ali was imprisoned for seven years as a teenager after slinging rocks at idf soldiers. salsabil says he's stayed out of trouble since they married eight years ago. but this morning, they came for him. >> he didn't do anything, i don't know why they want to arrest my husband. my little girl saw her father being beaten and she called out for her daddy. leila: ali's father asks his grandson, 5-year-old adam, to show us what the soldiers told him to do when they arrested his dad in search the house. put your hands in the air. left to look after three kids under seven, she doesn't know how she will cope without her husband. >> i'm afraid for my children

and i'm afraid of the world. can't you see what they are doing to us? leila: as the strikes on gaza intensify, and israel prepares for a ground invasion, palestinians across the west bank say they feel constantly under suspicion. trapped inside their towns and villages by an increasingly strict israeli curfew, they can do little more than watch, wait, and worry what comes next. for the pbs newshour, i am leila molana-allen in jaba, the west bank. amna in tel aviv today, the first public account of what it's like to be a hostage of hamas. 85-year-old yocheved lifshitz was kidnapped from her home and taken to gaza on october 7. she was released yesterday, and today, said she had been "through hell." >> they rampaged through our kibbutz, they kidnapped me, laid me on a motorbike. the guys hit me with sticks on the way. they didn't break my ribs but it

was very painful and made breathing very difficult for me. we started walking in the tunnels where the earth was moist, and it was always humid. we reached a hall where we gathered, some 25 people . they were very kind to us and made sure we were clean and fed. we ate the same food that they did, pitta bread with cheese and a cucumber, that was a meal for a whole day. amna: lifshitz also accused israel's defense forces of not taking previous security threats seriously. israel estimates hamas is still holding 220 hostages including the husbands of lifshitz and the other elderly woman hostage released yesterday. for more on all the hostage situation and the larger war, i spoke earlier with mark regev, a senior advisor to the israeli prime minister and a former israeli ambassador to the u.k. welcome back to the newshour. thank you for joining us. mark: thank you for having me. amna: let me start by asking about those hostages. more than 200 people, 30

different nationalities. if they are still held in gaza, are they at risk in the continued bombing? [10.9s] -- in the continued bombing? mark: i think there are a lot of people at risk. and when we send our troops into the ground, they'll be in danger too. hamas is a formidable enemy. it's capable of the most atrocious brutality, as you've reported on the newshour. and our young men going into battle will face a fanatical, suicidal, dangerous enemy. and unfortunately, i'm afraid they'll be putting their lives on the line. there's dangers for the hostages. but i think it is unfortunately unavoidable. we have to remove hamas from power. we have to destroy its military machine. amna: with regards to the 200 people still held, though, if there was still potential for a cease fire that led to their immediate release, would you support that? mark: we would argue that the

only reason we've had these, you know, four people released so far is because of the strong pressure on hamas. they didn't suddenly become humanitarians. they are only releasing the people they have released. the four out of the over 200, because of strong pressure on them. and we think if we keep the pressure up, the military pressure, the international diplomatic pressure on their allies, specifically on qatar, that will deliver more releases. without that pressure, they won't release a single person. amna: you likened this fight against hamas who have called for the end of israel. this is an existential threat for israel. you compare this to the us led coalition fight against isis. you've seen this comparison before that the us led coalition dropped some 2500 bombs a month across iraq and syria. in that campaign. israel dropped some 6000 bombs in this first six days of this war alone on a much smaller area

in gaza. so how do you explain that, that level of firepower? mark: hopefully we will get it done quicker. that's one of our goals. but it could take longer than many israelis would hope, because hamas has been in power for 16 years. they've got a very elaborate system of underground tunnels and bunkers and defenses. and as i said earlier, when we send our forces in, it could well be very difficult, the fighting. we will win, but it won't be without cost. amna: when you say get it done, what does that mean? what does mission success look like? mark: there has to be a new reality in gaza, a more peaceful reality, a more secure reality. the people in southern israel have to feel that they can rebuild their homes and reestablish their lives. and the people in gaza deserve better. amna: and in that new reality, who will govern gaza? mark: it is clear we don't want to stay in gaza, that any israeli presence there will be temporary to destroy the hamas military machine. and i think after that, we can

talk about all sorts of options. those options are being discussed in meetings with foreign interlocutors. but i'm at this stage not at liberty to go into any detail. amna: i need to ask you about the level of civilian casualties as a result of those bombings, though, because you've said before that israel will take maximum steps to not to avoid -- to avoid civilian casualties. as you know, the gaza health ministry now says some 5000 palestinians have been killed in the last 17 days. including women and children. i just wonder how you square saying that you're avoiding civilian casualties as much as you can. and that number of 5000. mark: first of all, i don't deny suffering in gaza. i don't deny the fact that there have been gazan civilians have been killed in the crossfire between us and hamas. but i would urge you, please, to be cautious with the numbers that come out of the hamas -controlled ministry of health in gaza. amna: sure. do you have more accurate numbers? mark: no, i can't give you more urging -- you more accurate numbers, but i'm urging people to be skeptical with those who

remember the incident with the hospital, where in the end it was conclusively, i think, proved that it was not us. but they were talking about 500, 800 casualties. and it was clear afterwards that the numbers were much, much lower. amna: do you know how many hamas terrorists you have hit then? mark: lots. and if and if all those 5000 hamas terrorists, that's a good thing. you know, we want to get them. amna: clearly they are not. all 5000 are not. do you do you know how many hamas members or leaders you've hit? mark: we can only estimate. we actually if we compare our numbers, like in any combat situation, like when the united states was leading a coalition that say, to get isis out of mosul, there were civilian casualties. we think our ratio between civilian and combat casualties, between the people we want to get in, between people, innocent bystanders, compares very well to nato and other western forces. amna: if i may, well, what what is that ratio? what are those numbers? mark: i'm not at liberty to discuss that. i apologize. because we're still got combat ongoing and we haven't had ground troops in yet and the

situation could change. what i would say is this. we are trying to make a maximum effort to avoid collateral damage. hamas, unfortunately, has the opposite goal. and here is something that i think needs to be said. when we're asking civilians to leave areas of expected heavy combat, hamas is telling them to stay. and they must die for the crazy cost. amna: if i may, many people tell us they fled the north to the south, and then there was israeli bombing in the south as well. mark: it's true because there are hamas targets in the south, but there won't be the same level of heavy fighting. because in the north, especially under gaza city, there is a network of tunnels and bunkers and arms depots. we expect very heavy fighting there. i'm not saying it is good to be easy for those are internally displaced. but the idea is to find an area where they can be safer and with the international community, make sure they have their elementary needs until the fighting is over. amna: mark regev, senior adviser to the israeli prime minister, former israeli ambassador to the

u.k. arc, thank you for joining us. appreciate it. mark: thanks for having me. geoff: in the day's other headlines, the united auto workers expanded its 40-day-old strike again. the latest addition is a gm plant in arlington, texas with 5000 workers. it makes highly profitable large suvs, including the chevy tahoe and cadillac escalade. this morning, a handful of workers there began manning picket lines after the company announced a quarterly profit of $3 billion. in all, some 46,000 uaw members are now on strike. crews in louisiana spent much of the day clearing wreckage after a so-called super fog triggered sweeping highway pileups. seven people died monday in crashes involving 158 vehicles near new orleans. cell phone video shows cars, trucks and trailers crushed and

in some cases, burned. officials blamed marsh fire smoke combined with dense fog that sharply cut visibility. in china, the government today removed general li shangfu as defense minister. state media announced it, but gave no explanation. li had been on the job since march, but disappeared from public view almost two months ago. it follows the ouster of cheen-gong as foreign minister in july. thousands of women across iceland, including the prime minister staged a one-day strike today to protest gender inequality. they took to the streets to speak out against pay disparities and violence against women. organizers said today's action is in the tradition of a similar walkout nearly half a century ago. >> it is about gender equality. we have been fighting for it for decades, and this day is very special for us, for women in iceland because we all skipped work 48 years ago and we are doing it again today.

because the gap is still there and we are fighting against it. amna: businesses, schools, and banks across iceland also closed in solidarity with the strikers. on wall street, stocks got back in the win column, held by solid -- helped by solid corporate earnings reports. the dow jones industrial average gained 205 points to close at 33,141. the nasdaq rose 121 points, 1%. the s&p 500 added 30 points. still to come on the newshour, former president trump appears in a new york court to hear testimony from his former lawyer. meta in the legal crosshairs as dozens of states accuse the tech giant of harming children's mental health. and a new book from a former republican strategist raises alarms about the state of the gop. >> 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: house republicans have lost another speaker nominee, the third this month. pushback from former president trump and his allies doomed congressman tom emmer's bid and he withdrew just hours after getting the nomination. republicans are left with a question, can anyone get the votes needed to be speaker of the house? lisa desjardins has been following the chaotic infighting on capitol hill and joins us now. tom emmer around noon eastern was elected speaker designate among house republicans. by 4:30 eastern, he dropped out. what happened? lisa: even if you are wearing a seatbelt today, you probably would have gotten a political concussion. this was a wild extraordinary, another time in the house of representatives. tom emmer, the republican from minnesota, attorney, and also the one in charge of counting votes for the republican conference, thought he had a good chance. he is popular, someone who is generally well-liked, and

distrusted. he came out with the most number of votes. he was the nominee. however, there were holdouts against him. enough of them that prevented him from getting that 217 needed to become speaker. after we knew there were holdouts, then something else happened that doomed him further. it was this statement from former president donald trump, who had been back and forth on mr. amer. he wrote, voted for a globalist rhino republican in name only by tom emmer would be a tragic mistake. there was the idea that trump did not like him, but here it was, the former president going out of his way to kneecap his party's oh nominee for speaker of the house. emmer did not have a chance after that, and withdrew his nomination altogether. it was sort of a surprise turn. now we are looking for a fourth republican nominee for speaker. geoff: we should say that congressman emmer, unlike 147 other house republicans, he

voted to certify joe biden's win. to what degree did that contribute to his failure to consolidate support among house republicans? lisa: it was absolutely a factor. it is a witness test for the former president and the republicans here. another vote is that he voted to codify the idea that same-sex marriage is legal in this country. that is something that was raised today. talking to republicans about what is underneath this, we know there are a lot of layers, there is trump exercising influence, there are resentments. one republican, mike gallagher, said there are more deeper issues as well. >> this is a product of decades of institutional neglect. so if you have people who feel no loyalty to the institution of congress, because it's weak, the most powerful branch of government are the weakest. they are not going to abide by the rules of congress or the norms of congressional behavior. it just seems like if you disagree with someone on one policy decision like a lot of

people disagree with emmers position on gay marriage i guess, that's enough to save you won't support him for speaker. we can't operate that way. lisa: drifting into the outer room, an area where it is not clear what rules and laws are in effect. anecdotally, i'm getting more texts from my neighbors, even my mom, about the situation. the concern of the chaos in the house is expanding. geoff: the house had -- the house has been rudderless for more than three weeks. what happens next to the degree that anyone knows? lisa: as you and i are talking, the house congress is meeting behind closed doors. they have decided to reopen their candidate list. they have a slate of six candidates. . i want to talk about two of them at the top, who were in the running this morning that we are watching. kevin hart, in charge of the republican study committee. and also mike johnson of

louisiana, also known as a conservative. behind the scenes, they are cans of who is talking about who is more conservative than the other. they have to defend with a new field with other candidates tonight. we don't know how this is going to go. we expect the conference will take votes tonight. if they are able to get someone with a very large amount of votes, we could even have a vote on the floor of the house for speaker. there are some who are saying they want to go all night until they figure that out. we have heard that before. meanwhile, as he went i talked, it is three weeks until our government runs out of funding. that is the exact same amount of time as we have been without a speaker. that time can move quickly. geoff: lisa desjardins, thank you so much. we appreciate your reporting as always. lisa: you're welcome. amna: donald trump is facing

legal hurdles on several fronts both civil and criminal, in both state and federal courts. and today it was some of the former presidents' closest former aides who were pointing the finger at him. laura barron-lopez picks up the story. laura: amna, in new york, the state attorney general's $250 million civil fraud trial against trump and his company is in its fourth week. today, trump's former attorney and fixer michael cohen took the stand for their first face-to-face confrontation in five years. cohen put the blame squarely on trump for inflating the value of his assets. the war of words began before they entered the courtroom. >> this is not about donald trump versus michael cohen or michael cohen versus donald trump. this is about accountability plain and simple. >> he is a proven liar, as you know, a felon, served a lot of time for lying. and we are going to just go in and see that and i think youa™ll . she will see that for yourself. laura: andrea bernstein covers

trump legal issues for npr and hosts the new podcast "we don't talk about leonard" from propublica and "on the media." she was in court today and joins me now. thank you so much. this fraud trial in new york is in its fourth week. what role does michael cohen play in this case, and how does his testimony today directly implicating the former president change anything? andrea: up to now, we have had a lot of bits and pieces of testimony, accountants, bookkeepers. there have been spreadsheets introduced, documents. and little bits of the story have emerged about how it is that trump, a judge already found that trump committed fraud. the question is, was there a conspiracy? and how much money does trump have to pay back to new york state? there have been all of these pieces by witnesses who have been reluctant to testify.

but cohen is in a different category. when cohen was sentenced to prison, back in 2018, he said that he wanted to make sure history did not remember him as the villain in the story. this testimony was part of that. he merely wanted to say how trump, according to cohen, fraudulently valued his asset. he gave this description of being called into trump's office and trump saying, i'm not worth $4.5 billion, i'm worth $6 billion. he would direct cohen and the chief financial officer to go back and find numbers to reverse engineer the asset value. this is what he did. somebody very close to trump who was able to tell the full story of how this happened. laura: the judge said trump committed fraud by rep -- by misrepresenting his wealth. once at stake for trump and his businesses in new york? andrea: already, there is a

procedure going on, a parallel procedure, to force trump to sell most of his business and activity in new york. at stake is $250 million, which is a lot money for donald trump, for anybody. about whether he will pay the state, as well as this. of witnesses and testimony, showing the enemy of how trump fraudulently values his property. his team strongly pushed back. at the end of the day, they leaned into what the former president said, that cohen had been convicted of lying, and that he was somebody who was not to be trusted. laura: this is not the only case against trump. as you know, he is facing 91 felony charges across four jurisdictions. in georgia's fulton county, a third former lawyer for trump, jenna ellis, pled guilty and expressed regret. >> in the frenetic pace of attempting to raise challenges to the election in several states, including georgia, i

failed to do my due diligence. i believe in and i value election integrity. if i knew then what i know now, i would have declined to represent donald trump in these postelection challenges. i look back on this full -- this whole experience with deep remorse. laura: she also said she was relying on advice from lawyers with more experience than hurt how significant are these guilty pleas in georgia? and specifically, alice' testimony, and whether or not that impacts trump and rudy giuliani? andrea: this is all about peace with what we see. michael cohen in new york, a former attorney who worked closely with trump. now there are three attorneys in georgia who work with trump who have pleaded guilty. elis, central to this, said she will cooperate with prosecutors all along. case has in new york, i thinken willie macy a lot of intimate -- i think we may see a lot of intimate tales of the anatomy of

how this happened. you see this pattern of people who worked with trump feeling he betrayed them, and are now deciding that they want to do what they can to cut him loose. laura: with the 30 seconds we have left, there is another member of trump's inner circle that appears to have turned on him. abc is reporting chief of staff mark meadows, former chief of staff, has been granted immunity by special counsel jack smith in exchange for his testimony. what does this mean? andrea: mark meadows, as he has said, was everywhere with trump, after the 2020 election back to january 6. en january 6, we have had his former staffers testifying about what he knew. he knows a lot. if he is talking truthfully, i think we will learn a great deal about what the former president did and did not do in the run-up and aftermath of january 6. laura: andrea bernstein of npr, thank you so much of -- thank you so much for your time.

andrea: thank you. ♪ geoff: the u.s. supreme court's decision last summer to limit the use of race in admissions was a game changer for colleges. while the ruling's biggest impact is on the most selective schools, a pre-pandemic survey found nearly a quarter of all colleges considered race to some degree. as part of our "rethinking college" series, special correspondent hari sreenivasan looks at how some schools are looks at how some schools are rethinking admissions. >> the supreme court decision left burden on the schools, since the court issued its opinion. but michael roth has used it as an opportunity to end the practice of letting students in because of their family connections. 20 into the decision to do away with legacy admissions? >> this is something i have been thinking about for five or six

years. then this summer, when i read the supreme court opinions, that were so self-righteous about not using affiliation with router groups to judge an individual's case, and we can't use affiliation with a racial group, i thought to myself, how can we continue this practice? how can we give an advantage because of who your parents were? hari: he joins a small group, including johns hopkins and amherst, which ended legacy admissions before the court overturned affirmative action. if you weeks after the supreme court's decision, roth took the idea to the board. >> their first reaction was not enthusiastic. and i wondered, should i continue as president? and if i don't believe in the policies, when you see something that is unfair, you ought to correct it. the next day, they called me and said, we see her point, we should do this. hari: what about the argument

that alumni and legacies and generational affiliation with the university helps create community? a benefit of our time that says, this is what the alumni network gets me. his access to people who succeeded from this place. >> one of the reasons people choose to go to a highly selective school is because of the network it makes available to you. all the more reason not to let families ordered the wealth. you benefit from the system, you want your children to benefit. it is a natural thing for a mother and father to want. it is not necessary that an institution, especially a wealthy institution, give the preference to people who already have benefits of the opportunities you have given them. hari: i also received messages from alumni who said, bravo, my daughter would not -- did not apply because she did not want to be a legacy. i told her and she didn't

anyway. she said, i don't want to be associated with that. the universities as the rate of acceptance for children with alumni has been under 10%. other analyses have found some elite schools have wider gaps between legacy applicants and other applicants. a civil complaint filed against harvard claimed legacy applicants were nearly six times more likely to be admitted compared to non-legacy applicants. this summer, a new analysis of several elite schools found children of alumni were nearly four times as likely to be admitted as applicants with the same test scores. what is the general or status quo thinking about legacies in the first place today? if it is not about giving your offspring a leg up. >> do think there is the crass version, and then there is the cultural version. the crass version is people are more likely to donate if their children get in. many children get in because they are the children of alumni.

hari: the end of affirmative action has made the application process more intense for many students. but because, in his opinion, chief justice john roberts wrote universities can consider an applicant's discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise. the college essay is how many students are hoping to distinguish themselves, and highlight diversity in their backgrounds. sarah lawrence college in yonkers, new york is addressing the statement directly. the college's president and is headed mission officer believe this encourages applicants to think about how the ruling affects them. >> you made the decision to almost cut and paste the decision of the supreme court as one of the essay prompts. >> the decision came out, we read the decision, and the syllabus that accompanied it. there was specific language that was guiding us about how we

could continue to explore that question, but also something we know our students and prospective students would engage in. what do you think this decision means for you? hari: as one of three possible prompts and a supplement to the common application essay, the college quot roberts's opinion, and continues drawing on examples of your life, quality of your character or a unique ability you possess, describe how you believe your goals for a college education might be impacted, influenced, or affected by the court's decision. is this a way to circumvent this paired up with the supreme court decision tried to prescribe? >> it is absolutely not an attempt to try to get students to disclose racial identity. hari: what was the conversation like with your legal counsel? he said this is what i want to do. >> i think the internal conversations we had covered a lot of territory this was not just from a sense of legal

obligation, but also ethical within the admissions office. is this something we want to put out there, given the risk some students might feel like they have to relive past injustices or traumas? hari: as schools and kids grapple with the changes brought about by the ruling, students like molly say the adjustments sarah lawrence has made may have helped her when she was applying to college. >> i am a first-year student here. i had a lot of trouble applying to schools. my essay questions were like, very hard for me. having this new essay question, it brings out a whole other part of people and finding out where they are from, and having a sense of their community. hari: both sarah lawrence and wesleyan are highly selective small schools with fewer than 5000 students each. how will other universities handle change again missions criteria? under secretary of education

james says it is a challenging time for the entire higher education system. >> one of the things we saw in the states that banned the use of race in admissions was a change in who was applying to all types of colleges, not just the most selective colleges. it is important for students to continue to aspire because even our most selective campuses, all types of students belong there. it is important for all types of colleges and universities to have a plan for how they will react to the changing landscape. hari: he has noticed leaders in higher education are being proactive. >> i have seen a renewed sense of urgency about trying to build an inclusive higher education system. there is not going to be a single silver bullet. there is a lot of work to do across-the-board. hari: it is work universities and colleges will have to embrace in order to navigate the

changing landscape. for the pbs newshour, i am hari sreenivasan. ♪ amna: more than 40 states, plus the district of columbia, have sued meta, the parent company of facebook and instangram, accusing the tech giant of building addictive features into its popular social media platforms that contribute to a youth mental health crisis. stephanie sy looks into what's behind the lawsuits. stephanie: amna, 33 states filed a federal lawsuit in northern california today. it claims meta is in violation of consumer protection laws and children's online privacy laws. the district of columbia and eight other states filed a separate lawsuit. in the larger, 233-page suit, the states say meta uses "powerful and unprecedented

technologies to entice, engage and ultimately ensnare" young people. phil weiser is the attorney general for colorado and helped lead the suit. and us now. thank you for joining -- draining the newshour. it is a bipartisan group of attorneys general from states ranging from west virginia to washington, suing meta. what led to this point, and why is the lawsuit being filed now? phil: in the summer of 2021, and number of state attorneys general were focusing on what we saw as declining youth mental health. and a connection to social media platforms. they were addictive, they took people down dark holes. and we thought, there could be a connection here. after the francis halligan whistleblowing testimony, the documents she released, our work accelerated. for the last two years, intensively collaboratively, we have put together this complaint. we see a real problem.

meta has lied to people. they have been deceiving people about their platform. they have been marketing to people under 13. and they failed to protect young people. that is why we are taking this action. stephanie: just to remind viewers, meta owns facebook, instagram, and whats app you're alleging those apps are creating addictions comparable to other public health threats to teens, such as smoking. in what specific ways are they doing that? phil: the features designed for these apps, the infinite scroll feature, for one example, are done with an awareness that they drive addictive behavior. that there are no guard rails. that young people are not self-regulating and that they are adopting these technologies to their detriment. all the while, their public statements are, these platforms are safe. young people have nothing to worry about. that's not right. we know young people are losing sleep. they are finding their mental

health really descend, sometimes lodges eating disorders, but into self-harm, even suicide. they need to take responsibility for the platform. we need to better protect young people. stephanie: meta did turn down our interview request. in a statement, says it is disappointed by these lawsuits. and argues it has introduced dozens of tools to make minors accounts safer. , to show our viewers some of these tools. here is a screen that shows different examples of how a parent can monitor their child's instagram account. they can see time spent on the app, they can click a button to set a limit on time spent on the app. the middle screen shows a notification for something their child reported to the app, and the last screen shows who is following them on the app. meta has also introduced these full screen reminders for kids to take a break from screen time when it gets late, or when they have been scrolling for too long. attorney general, these are just a few examples of tools parents

have at their disposal. what else are you asking of meta? phil: let me start with a threshold concern related to the federal child online privacy protection act. meta, under federal law, cannot and should not be marketing to young people, collecting data without parents awareness or consent. they are doing just that. meta has identified young people 11, 12-year-olds as an untapped and valuable audience, and engage in behavior in violation of federal law. we are bringing this federal action under that law. moreover, they have said at meta , don't worry, there is no harm from the platform. by their internal research tells us otherwise. it tells us they know young people are losing sleep, are facing addictive behavior that takes them down dark holes. these tools can and in some cases may even be valuable. but in the mainstream, and in the overwhelming cases that we know about, young people are

hurting. this platform is responsible for that harm. i need to do more. stephanie: i have a preteen, and i have to ask this, why just target meta, and not other popular platforms that teens and preteens are using? like youtube, tiktok, and snapchat. why target this one company? phil: this is an industrywide concern. our concerns are brought. we have publicly announced we are closely investigating tiktok's behavior and ultimately, we need to make sure we are protecting kids wherever they are engaged online. this is our starting place. this lawsuit against meta, the statements made by the whistleblower, the internal awareness of the company tell us a very simple message. they knew that their platform was harming young people, and yet they failed to take the actions to protect young people because it could compromise how much money they are making on their platform.

we as a bipartisan group of ag's in this lawsuit are clear. you cannot put money over the health of our young people. i am a parent of two teens. for me, this is personal. we know young people are hurting. we need to protect them. that's why you have so much state ag engagement on this matter. iser of colorado, thank you phil for joining us. phil: thank you. amna: stuart stevens has spent the majority of his decades-long career getting republicans elected to political office. but his latest book is a warning to the country. not just about the current state of the g.o.p but what he says is its threat to american democracy. i spoke with stuart earlier today about the book, "the conspiracy to end america: five ways my old party is driving our democracy towards autocracy".

stuart stevens, welcome to the newshour. thank you for joining us. in your book, you layout five driving forces on the right that you say are working in concert to end our democracy. we list them as propagandists the support, of a major party, financers, legal theories to legitimate actions and shock troops. i want to begin with this idea of support of a major party. you draw an alarming comparison. you write, what happened within the republican party in 2016 was a repeat of the rise of national socialism in 1920s and 1930s germany. you are arguing the republican establishment's acceptance of mr. trump echoed the german establishment's acceptance of hitler's. what are the parallels you are talking about? stuart: for a long time, there was a trope that any time you compared anything to 1930's germany or world war ii, it reduced it to absurdity. but i think -- i take a different view.

i think the parallels are striking. what happened in germany was the ruling class, mostly prussian aristocrats, realized they lost touch with the working class. they thought they could control hitler. that he would be someone to connect them to the working class and take them into power. it is exactly what happened with the republican party. mitch mcconnell said he was confident that trump would change. that they would change trump. they were the mainstream conservative and trump would adapt to that. it just proved to be incredibly naive and it is still playing out. every chance the party has to turn against trump, they go in the other direction. and they embrace him more. amna: there are some along the way who have rung the alarm, so to speak. mitt romney, for example, whose campaign you ran in 2012. he criticized donald trump but then he consider joining his cabinet. you can't argue some folks did not see the danger.

is the story here that they chose to ignore it? stuart: it is a fascinating question. it is very difficult to find anyone in the republican party who will say in private that donald trump was a great leader, that donald trump is someone they admire on a personal level. yet, they have basically turned over the party to him. i think what happened here was that donald trump, some sort of animal instinct, realized the republican party ultimately did not believe in all of the things we said we believed. what we said were values turned out to be marketing slogans. he realized if he could give the party power, the party would go along with whatever he wanted. and that literally is what has happened now. it is extraordinary. i don't think we have seen anything like this in american history. . just a complete collapse of a party. but it is the reality. . it is the world we live in.

it is not going to change. he is probably going to be the nominee. there is a good chance he will be reelected president. amna: you do talk about the impact of money in the chapter on the people who finance candidates. that many donors who you say are complicit in helping to destroy democracy. why isn't there any effort to get those big-money donors off the sidelines to coalesce around another candidate that could potentially be to mr. trump, if republicans don't want him to be their candidate? stuart: i think this is a case in the primary where money is not going to matter. tim scott supposedly had backings of wealthy individuals who put unlimited money and it. it really did not matter. there is not a market in the republican party of any size that is anti-trump. this is the thing that is difficult for a lot us to grasp. the republican party wants to be what donald trump has turned it

into. the party -- there is nobody forcing them to support donald trump. they don't have to. trump has made it acceptable to embrace your worst self. once that becomes acceptable, it is very easy, it is sort of addictive. now that is where the party's. it has become a grievance party. amna: what about when you look at what is happening among house republicans right now. their inability to elect a speaker. is that dysfunction related to any of this or is that separate and apart? stuart: i think it is completely related to it. at the core, there is no governing principles to the republican party. what does it mean to be an american conservative today? i worked in the party for 30 years, i have no idea.

when you lack that ability to unite a party over a higher purpose, you end up in these lord of the flies battles that they are in now. nobody can stand up there and say to the republican caucus, it is really important that x person b speaker because we have important business to do. there is nothing there that anybody can point to and say, this is what the republican party stands for with any credibility. amna: the book is "the conspiracy to end america: five ways my old party is driving our democracy towards autocracy." the author is stuart stevens. thank you for joining us. good to stop -- good to talk to you. stuart: thank you. that is the newshour for tenant. i am amna nawaz. geoff: i'm geoff bennett thanks for being with us. have a great evening.

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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. ♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. in gaza, israel's relentless bombing continues, as the humanitarian crisis grows. i ask leading journalist ilana dayan, are israelis united behind their government's response? then, we hear from inside gaza about the humanitarian disaster there. and from the archive, we take a look back tooo