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 -- making it to those who desperately need it. 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 -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. >> consumer cellular, this is sam. how may i help you? >> this is a pocket dial.

well, somebody's pocket, i thought i with that you know with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. have a nice day. >> you don't need vision to do most things in life. it's exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. that's the most rewarding thing. people who know know edo. >> 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. israel has intensified its bombing of gaza again, launching 400 airstrikes 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 5700. unicef says the number includes 2300 children. israel says 1400 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. u.n. officials say 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. one-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's formula, provided by wateen's aunt, ala'a abu mukhaimar. >> [translated] 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 called 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. >> [translated] 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. geoff: 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 saqallahs 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's as if he's 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 abu dalal mall. geoff: -- nick: in one of the stores, shoppers flee from an initial airstrike, and then -- in the grocery store on the ground floor, shocked survivors ask for the war to end. >> [translated] 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 guterres 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 has no food, water, or electricity. >> [translated] we're 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's 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 all right. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. geoff: tensions also seem to be growing in the west bank, the other palestinian territory that borders jordan. since the hamas attacks on october 7, 95 palestinians in the west bank have reportedly been killed in clashes with israeli troops, and some with israeli setlers. another 1250 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's authorities have made clear 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 in jenin camp 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. worshippers here deny that. this man is under suspicion from security forces, so we've hidden his face. but he says he is simply trying to protect his community. >> [translated] 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 u.n. says is home to 24,000 people, has been devastating. and many here fear worse to come. across the west bank, the israel defense forces are cracking down, aiming to kill or arrest every possible accomplice of militant groups they're fighting in gaza. this morning in the town of jaba they caught a man they've long hunted. >> [translated] these special forces came and they opened fire and they called over the about skippers -- 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. >> [translated] 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. >> [translated] we feared for ourselves and for the neighbors. now they are bombing in gaza and they may soon do the same in the west bank. we are all with the islamic resistance and we are all united. leila: some hearsay -- 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, but the shooting started anyway. >> [translated] my daughter and

i were sleeping down by the window and they shot at us. he didn't do anything. leila: there were bullet holes all over the doors and walls of the house, and 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. >> [translated] 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, five-year-old adam, to show us what the soldiers told him to do when they arrested his dad and searched the house put -- house, put your hands in the air. left to look after three kids under seven, she doesn't know how she'll cope without her husband.

>> i'm afraid for my children and i'm afraid of the world. can't you see what they're 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 curfew, they can do little more than watch, wait, and worry what comes next. for the pbs newshour, i'm 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, she said she had been through hell. [translated] 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, peter bread -- pita 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 who was released yesterday. for more on 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. mark regev, 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, we understand. if they are still held in gaza, are they at risk 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 will 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 danger for the obviously for the hostages. and -- but i think it's 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 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. so they didn't suddenly become humanitarians. so 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 without that pressurey won't release a single person. amna: you mentioned -- you likened this fight against hamas who have called for the end of israel. as you mentioned, this is an existential threat for israel. new compared that to the u.s. led coalition fight against isis. you've seen this comparison before, that the u.s. 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: well, hopefully we'll 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 six years. they've got a very elaborate system of underground tunnels and bunkers and and defenses. and as i said earlier, when we send our forces in, it could well be very difficult, the fighting. i mean, we will win, but it won't be without cost. amna: mark, when you say get it done, what does that mean? i 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's 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 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: so first of all, i don't deny suffering in gaza. i don't deny the fact that there have been gazan civilians 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, i can't give you more accurate numbers, but

i'm urging people to be skeptical with those. remember the incident with the hospital, where in the end it was conclusively, i think, proved that it wasn't us. but they were talking about 500, 800 casualties. and it was clear afterwards that the numbers were much, much lower. amna: well, do you know how many hamas terrorists you've hit then? mark: well, lots. and if all those 5000 hamas terrorists, that's a good thing. you know, we want to get them. amna: but clearly they're 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 -- when the united states was leading a coalition 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 and between people, innocent bystanders, compares very well to nato and other western forces. amna: and mark, 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 still have combat ongoing and we haven't had ground troops in yet and the situation could change.

but 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, you know, they must die for the crazy cause. amna: but, mark, 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: yes, but it's true because there are hamas targets in the south, but there won't be the same level of -- of heavy fighting, because in the north there, especially under gaza city, there is a network of tunnels and bunkers and and arms depots. we expect very heavy fighting there. i'm not saying it's going to be easy for for those people who 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. mark, thank you for joining us. appreciate it. mark: thanks for having me. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. here are the latest headlines. the united autoworkers 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 dollars. in all, some 46,000 uaw members are now on strike. california regulators revoked the license of general motors's

robotaxis service cruise today, calling the driverless cars "an unreasonable risk to public safety." this comes after a recent series of incidents, including one where a cruise robotaxi ran over a pedestrian. the pedestrian was first hit by a human-driven vehicle, in san francisco. the suspension doesn't include autonomous vehicles that have drivers that can take control, if needed. in china, the government today removed general li shangfu as defense minister. li had been on the job since march, but disappeared from public view almost two months ago. this 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's 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, schoolsand banks across iceland also closed in solidarity with the strikers. 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, their 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 now left with a question -- can anyone get the votes needed to be speaker of the house? lisa desjardins has been following the chaos and infighting on capitol hill and joins us now. lisa, tom emmer around noon eastern was elected speaker designate among republicans and around a couple hours later, he dropped out. lisa: if you were not wearing a seatbelt, you probably would have gotten a political concussion. tom emmer, republican from minnesota, former hockey coach, attorney, and the one in charge of counting votes for the republican conference, thought he had a good chance. he is popular, generally liked and trusted, and he came out

with the biggest number of votes today. however, there were holdouts against him, enough that prevented him from getting the 217 needed to become speaker. after we knew there were holdouts, something else doomed him further, this statement from former president donald trump, who had back -- had been back and forth on mr. amer. he wrote, voting for a globalist rhino like tom emmer would be a tragic mistake. there was the idea trump did not like him, but here it was, the former president going out of his way to kneecap his own party's nominee for speaker of the house. emmer did not have a chance after that and withdrew his nomination. now we are looking for a fourth republican nominee for speaker. geoff: we should say that congressman emmer voted to certified 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's a litmus test for t former president and some republicans. another vote that was a problem, he voted to codify the idea that same-sex marriage is legal in this country. that was raised today. talking to republicans about what is underneath this, we know there are a lot of layers, a power vacuum, trump raising issues, resentments. but gallagher said there are deeper issues as well. >> this is the product of decades of institutional neglect permit -- neglect. you have people who feel no loyalty to congress. it is weak, gone from the most powerful branch of government to the weakest and they are not going to abide by the norms of congressional behavior. it seems if you disagree with

someone on a policy position, like people disagreed on tom emmer's position on gay marriage, it's enough to say you won't vote for him as speaker. we can't operate that way. lisa: we are drifting into an area where it's not clear what rules and laws are in effect. anecdotally, i am getting more texts from my neighbors, even my mom, about this situation. the concern about chaos in the house is expanding. geoff: 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 conferences meeting behind closed doors. they decided to reopen the candidate list. they have a slate of six candidates. i want to talk about two who were in the running this morning that we are watching, kevin hearne, in charge of the senate committee, an important group of republicans.

mike johnson of louisiana, also known as a conservative. their camps have been talking about who is more conservative than the other. they now have to fend with a quasi-new field with four other new candidates tonight. we don't know exactly how this is going to go. we expect the conference will take some votes tonight and if they are able to get someone with a large amount of votes, we could even have a vote on the floor of the house for speaker. there are some saying they want to go all night until they figure that out. we have heard that before. as you and i talk, it is three weeks until our government runs out of funding and that is the same amount of time as we have been without a speaker. so that time can move very quickly. geoff: thank you, we appreciate your reporting, as always. 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 president's 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 dollar 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 vs donald trump. this is about accountability plain and simple. pres. trump: he's a proven liar, as you know, a felon, served a lot of time for lying and we're going to just go in and see that and i think you'll see that for yourself. amna: 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. 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 implicating the former president change anything? andrea: up until now we have had bits and pieces of testimony, accountants, bookkeepers, spreads each -- spreadsheets introduced, documents, and little bits of the story have emerged about how it is that trump -- which a judge already found trump committed persistent broad and 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 these pieces from witnesses who have been

reluctant to testify, but when cohen was sentenced to prison in 2018, he said he wanted to make sure history did not remember him as the villain. this testimony was part of that. he really wanted to say how trump, according to cohen, fraudulently valued his assets. he gave a description of trump saying, i am not worth $4.5 billion, i am worth $6 billion, and he would direct cohen and the chief financial officer to find numbers to, as cohen said, reverse engineer the asset value. cohen was someone very close to trump who was able to tell the full story of how this happened. laura: the judge said trump committed fraud by misrepresenting his wealth. what is at stake for trump and his businesses in new york?

andrea: already there is a parallel procedure to force trump to sell most of his business in new york, and at stake is $250 million, a lot of money for donald trump, for anybody, whether he will have to pay the state, as well as a parade of witnesses and testimony showing how trump fraudulently values his property. his team strongly pushed back and at the end of the day, they leaned into what the former president said, that cohen had been convicted of lying and was not to be trusted. laura: this isn't the only case against trump. he is facing 91 felony charges across four jurisdictions. in georges fulton county today, 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 post election challenges. i look back on this full experience with deep remorse. laura: jenna ellis also said she was relying on advice from lawyers with more experience. how significant are these guilty pleas in georgia, and specifically ellis's testimony and whether that impacts trump and rudy giuliani? andrea: this is all of a piece with michael cohen york, a former attorney who worked with trump. there are three attorneys in georgia who worked with trump who pleaded guilty. jenna ellis is central to this ad says she will cooperate with prosecutors. if this plays out as the cohen case has in new york, we may see details about how this happened.

we see the pattern of people who work with trump feeling he betrayed them and are now deciding they want to do what they can to cut him loose. laura: there is another member of trump's inner circle that appeared to have turned on him. abc is reporting that former chief of staff mark meadows has been granted immunity by special counsel jack smith in exchange for his testimony. what does this mean? andrea: mark meadows was everywhere with trump after the 2020 election, up to january 6. on january 6, we had former staffers testifying about what he knew. if he is talking truthfully, 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: thank you so much for your time.

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 rethinking admissions. hari: the supreme court decision left the burden on these schools, and many have been cautious revealing what they may or may not do since the court issued its opinion. but wesleyan university president michael roth has used it as an opportunity to end the practice of letting students in because of their family connections. what went into the decision to do away with legacy admissions? michael roth: so this is something i've been thinking about for, i'd say, five or six

years. and then this summer when i read the supreme court opinions that were so -- and if i can put it this way, self-righteous about not using affiliation with broader groups to judge an individual's case, and we can't use affiliation with a racial group, i thought to myself, how could we continue this practice? how could we give an advantage just because of who your parents were? hari: wesleyan joins a small group, including johns hopkins, and amherst, which both ended legacy admissions before the court overturned affirmative action. a few weeks after the supreme court's decision, roth took the idea to the board. michael roth: their first reaction wasn't enthusiastic, but i wondered, okay, should i, could i continue as president actually, if i don't believe in the policies?but when you see -- policies? but when you see something that's unfair, you should correct it. the next day they called me and said, we see the 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 over time that says, you know what, this is what the alumni network gets me, is access to people who have succeeded from wesleyan. michael roth: yeah, 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. you benefit from the system. you want your children to benefit from the system. it's a natural thing for a mother and father to want. it's not necessary that an institution, especially a wealthy institution, give the preference to people who already have the benefits of the opportunities you've given them. i also received some messages from alumni who said, bravo, my daughter wouldn't have -- didn't didn't apply to wesleyan because she didn't want to be a legacy. and i told her she'd get in any way. she said, i don't want to be associated with that.

hari: the university says wesleyan's rate of acceptance for children of alumni has always been under 10%. but other analyses have found some elite schools have much wider gaps between legacy applicants and other applicants. a civil complaint that was filed against harvard claimed legacy applicants were nearly six times more likely to be admitted compared to non-legacy applicants. and 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. hari: what is the kind of general or status quo thinking about legacies in the first place today? if it's not about giving your offspring a leg up. michael roth: i do think there's the crass version and then there's the cultural version. the crass version is people are much more likely to donate if their children get in. many children get in because they're the children of alumni. hari: the end of affirmative

action has made the application process even more intense for many students. but because in his opinion, chief justice john roberts wrote universities can still 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 in yonkers, new york, is addressing roberts' statement directly. the college's president cristle collins judd and its head admissions officer kevin mckenna 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. why? >> so as the decision came out and we read the decision and the syllabus that accompanied it, there was very specific language that was guiding us about how we could continue to both explore

that question, but also something we know our students and our prospective students would really 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 quotes roberts' opinion and continues, "drawing upon examples from your life, a quality of your character, and/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." hari: is this a way to circumvent the spirit of what the supreme court decision tried to prescribe? >> it is absolutely not an attempt to try to get students to disclose racial identity. hari: so kevin, what was the conversation like with your legal counsel? when you said, this is kind of what i want to do? >> i think the internal conversations that we had covered a lot of territory. and this wasn't just from a sense of legal obligation, but also ethical within the

admissions office. is this something that we want to put out there, given the risk that 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 court's ruling, students like molly sannoo say the adjustment sarah lawrence has made might have helped her when she was applying to college. >> i'm a first year student here and i had a lot of trouble applying to schools and everything like that. and, you know, my essay questions were kind of like very, very hard for me. and having this new essay question, i mean, it brings out a whole other part of people and finding out where they're from and having sort of a sense of like their community. hari: both sarah lawrence and wesleyan are highly selective, small schools, with fewer than 5000 students each. but how will other universities hand changing admissions criteria? under secretary of education james kvaal says it is a

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

sreenivasan in middletown , connecticut. 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, quote, "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 joins us now. thanks for joining the newshour. it's a bipartisan group of attorneys general from states from west virginia to washington suing meta now. what led to this point and why is the lawsuit being filed now? mr. weiser: in summer 2021, number of state attorneys general were focusing on what we saw as declining youth mental health in 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 frances haugen whistleblowing testimony, the documents she released, our work accelerated. for the last two years, we have put together this complaint. we see a real problem. meta has lied to people, been

deceiving people about their platform, marketing to people under 13, and they failed to protect young people. that's why we are taking this important action. stephanie: to remind viewers, metta owns facebook, instagram, and whatsapp. you're alleging those apps are creatingddictions comparable to other public health threats to teens, such as smoking. in what specific ways are they doing that? mr. weiser: the features designed for these apps, the infinite scroll, for one example, are done with awareness that they drive addictive behavior, that there are no guardrails, 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 using -- are losing sleep, finding

their mental health dissent into not just eating disorders but self-harm, even suicide. they need to take response ability for the platform. we need to better protect young people. stephanie: meta in a statement said it is disappointed by the lawsuits and has introduced tools to make miners' accounts safer. here is a screen that shows examples of how a parent can monitor their child's account. they can see how much time is spent on the app, they can limit time spent. the middle screen shows a notification for something the child reported to the app. the last screen shows who is following them. meta has also introduced full-screen reminders for kids to take a break from screen time when it gets late or they have been scrolling for too long. these are just a few examples of tools parents have at their disposal.

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

hurting and this platform is responsible for that harm. they need to do more. stephanie: i have a preteen and i have to ask, why just target meta and not other popular platforms teens and pre-teens are using, like youtube, tiktok, and snapchat? why target this one company? mr. weiser: this is an industry concern. our concerns are broad. we have publicly announced we are investigating tiktok's behavior. 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 simple message. they knew their platform was harming young people but failed to take actions to protect young people because it could compromise how much money they are making.

we as a bipartisan group of ag's are clear, you cannot put money over the health of our young people. i am a parent of two teens and for me this is personal. young people are hurting, we need to protect them. stephanie: attorney general phil weiser of colorado, thanks for joining us. 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 gop but what he says is its threat to america's 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." welcome to the newshour.

thank you for joining us. you lay out five driving forces on the right that you say are working in concert to end our democracy -- propagandists, the support of a major party, financiers, legal theories to legitimize actions, and shock troops. but i want to begin with this idea of support of a major party because you draw a pretty alarming comparison. in the book you write, what happened within the republican party in 2016 was a repeat of the rise of national socialism in the 1920s and 1930s in germany. you're arguing that the republican establishment's acceptance of mr. trump echoed the german establishment's acceptance of hitler's. what are the parallels you're talking about here? stuart: yeah. you know, it's interesting. for a long time, there was sort of a trope that any time you compared anything to 1930 germany over world war ii, it reduced it to, you know, sort of absurdity. but i take a very different view because i think the parallels are striking. you know, what happened in

germany was that the ruling class, mostly prussian aristocrats, realized that they had lost touch with the working class, and they thought they could control hitler's, that he would be someone who could connect them to the working class and take them into power. and it's really 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 conservatives and trump would adapt to that. it proved to be incredibly naïve and is still playing out. every chance the party has to turn against trump, they go the other direction and embrace him more. amna: there are some along the way who have rung the alarm, mitt romney for example. he criticized donald trump then later considered joining his cabinet. you can't argue some folks

didn't see the danger. is the story that they chose to egg nor it? stuart: it is a fascinating question. it is difficult to find anyone in the republican party will say in private that donald trump was a great leader, that donald trump is someone that they admire on any sort of personal level, and yet they've basically turned over the party to him. and i think that what happened here was that donald trump, in some sort of animal instinct, realized that the republican party ultimately did not believe in all of the things that we had said that we believed. what we said were values turned out to be marketing slogans, and that he realized that if he could give the party power, the party would go along with whatever he wanted. and that literally is what's happened now. and it's extraordinary. i don't think we've seen anything like this in american history, just a complete collapse of a party. but it's the reality. it's the world that we live in and it's not going to change. he's probably going to be the

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

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

higher purpose, you end up in these sort of lord of the flies battles that they're in now. so, you know, no one can stand up there and say to the republican caucus, look, it's really important that x person be speaker because we have important business to do. there's just 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. stu, thank you for joining us. good to talk to you. stuart: thank you. amna: and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i am geoff bennett. inc.'s for being with us. have a great evening. >> major funding for the pbs

newshour has been provided by -- >> pediatric surgeon, volunteer, topiary artist. a raymondjames financial advisor taylor's advice to help you live your life. life well planned. >> carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

this is pbs newshour west, from wbt a studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter school of journalism at arizona state university. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

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