captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday august 24... an american hostage has been released in syria. isis gains strength and control in iraq and syria, while the white house weighs military options the strongest earthquake in 25 years rocks northern california. and in our signature segment, from the philippines: will a new reproductive healthcare law slow down one of asia's highest birth rates? next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:

corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, thanks for joining us. a major earthquake registering 6.0 struck northern california overnight. more than 120 patients were treated with quake related injuries at a local hospital, many from heart attacks and as many as half dozen with critical injuries. the quake also left at least 16 buildings uninhabitable and power outages throughout napa county. it was the strongest in the bay

area in the past 25 years. the epicenter was approximately ten miles south of american canyon. governor jerry brown declared a state of emergency for southern napa. emergency crews are working to restore power to thousands of homes and looking for any natural gas leaks. historic buildings in downtown napa were damaged and officials said there were more than 60 water main breaks in the area. >> two years has been released. u.s. government officials have confirmed that peter thee oh curtis was held by an al qaeda linked group in syria after being kidnapped in turkey in 2012. tool to secure the release of other american hostages in syria. also today the islamic militant group i.s.i.s. continued its

gains against the yrn government celebrating the takeover of the tabqa airbase in northeastern syria, the government's last stronghold in the area. lawmakers here continue to express outrage over the execution of american journalist iraq's foreign minister called for international help in its battle against i.s.i.s. lawmakers here continue to express outrage over the cs to attack inside the u.s. >> they've expressed a will here at the home land. that's partly of their agenda to drive us out of the mideast. if our ground forces tell us that we need forces to defeat i.s.i.s, so be it. >> we have to begin with the presumption that there could be such a threat but to jump from what they've done which is horrific particularly the murder of mr. foley to the assumption that they're going to be an immediate and within days threat

to us here in our home land i think you don't jump to that assumption. >> britain's ambassador to the united states says his country is close to identifying the man seen on the video at james foley's execution. >> there are sophisticated voice technologies to be sure who this person is before very long. >> home town of rochester new hampshire. >> it seems to be pace of change here in the u.s. attitude and involvement in syria or in air strikes has changed dramatically just in the last 24 or 36 hours. >> yes, there's no question that the beheading of james foley changed the calculus for the administration here and the rhetoric ramped up almost immediately. you heard secretary of state j.k. said they're wickedness that has to be destroyed.

the pentagon is escalating its efforts to identify targets inside syria. they're looking at expanding the air campaign in iraq. i think militarily, they could expand this fairly quickly. i think what we need to see in the coming week is whether there's a political will to move in this direction, and you'll probably remember it was a year ago that we were having a similar conversation after president assad was accused of the chemical weapons attack that killed thousands of people and president obama was asking for air strikes in syria then as well. >> whether or not the islamic state is a threat to the home land. >> yes. well and there's no question they're a growing threat to americans. from the islamic state's perspective, they're saying that the air strikes in iraq that president obama authorized are an attack on them. and now they're turning their focus on us.

now, the question is are they a threat to the continental united states and that's very much open for debate. martin dempsey, the top general for america, said recently as this week that he believes they are a regional threat, that they're a threat to the region but that they couldn't stage any kind of 9/11 type attack on the united states. as you'll hear a lot of people say, the enemy has a vote on this and they're clearly turning their focus on us and we don't know what that means. the biggest concern is these foreign fighters like the man who apparently beheaded james foley who had a british accent and ties to england. whether those could come back in ones or twos or threes and attack. >> would that be a declaration of war? >> yes, well this is the debate i think we'll have to see play out this week and i think the

administration is trying to figure out what their rationale would be. the initial signals from the administration might be that they use the brought self defense argument that they would be attacking islamic state fighters that they believe are an imminent threat to americans. but there are those in congress that believe that the president can and should come to them for support for authorization for a broader war, and the president himself has indicated that he's willing to do this and has thought about doing it this is past -- it in the past. we have seen him change his thinking on this in the past and we don't know exactly where they will come down. >> all right, dion nissenbaum from the wall street journal, thank you so much. >> thank you >> sreenivasan: at least seven people were reportedly killed today in gaza, as israeli air strikes continued in the region and gaza militants fired rockets into israel. a seven-story office building was hit in gaza and a 12-story apartment tower was leveled yesterday, injuring up to 30 people.

israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has warned gazans to leave any structure used by hamas as they are all considered targets. peace talks between the palestinians and israel collapsed last week. italy has rescued more than 3,000 migrants at sea this weekend and the italian navy has recovered at least 19 corpses from the mediterranean sea since friday. thousands of migrants make the treacherous and often deadly trip from north africa to europe each year. the breakdown of order in libya has led to an increase in attempted crossings. on friday a boat carrying up to 200 people capsized off the coast of libya. ukraine celebrated its independence day today with a military parade displaying rows of soldiers and armored vehicles. pro-russian rebels countered with a parade of their own, marching captured ukrainian soldiers through donetsk. despite the tensions, attempts at finding a resolution continue-- german chancellor angela merkel was in kiev yesterday to meet with ukrainian president petro poroshenko and called for a two-sided ceasefire.

and russian president vladimir putin will meet with poroshenko on tuesday. now to our signature segment. last month we brought you a story from the philippines about the slow and often frustrating recovery following the deadliest typhoon on record. tonight, another story from there, a nation with a population of more than 100 million that is growing increasingly concerned over how to care for its people. with one of the highest birth rates in asia, some there are hoping that the recent passage of a controversial reproductive health act will slow population growth. special correspondent mark litke reports. >> reporter: it's 8:00 a.m. at the jose favella hospital in the philippine capital, manila. in the past 12 hours there have been about 40 births, a fairly average night for one of the world's busiest maternity wards.

>> as you can see, there's more patients than there are resources for them. >> reporter: dr. silvia de la paz, the chief obstetrician here, says they manage the crush as best they can, often putting two beds together as a tandem bed for four mothers and four newborns. and from these overcrowded hospital wards, out into the teeming slums of the city, it's easy to see this country is in the midst of a population explosion, what some are calling a crisis. the philippines today has one of the highest birth rates in asia with a population that has more than doubled over the last three decades from 45 million to 100 million. once the mothers and their newborns leave the maternity hospital, many are going to return to places like tondo, this gritty neighborhood right

on the edge of manila. it's a place where families struggle to get by on one or two dollars a day at best. here very young children scavenge through garbage in search of something to sell for a few dollars to help support their families. families in asia's most catholic country that have had little or no access to contraception or family planning advice-- families that often get larger by the year. vilma lopez has ten children, ages one to 20. she had her first child at 19. >> we didn't plan it, it just happened every year. it's just easy for me to get pregnant. >> reporter: manila is now one of the most densely populated urban area on earth-- so congested, some are forced to seek refuge in local cemeteries, where they eat and sleep on tombs and mausoleums. >> in the philippines, there is family planning, but it is

available only to the rich, to those who are able to afford to go see doctors, to buy pills. >> reporter: esperanza cabral, a former health secretary of the philippines, has been sounding the alarm on the population crisis here, a population growing fastest among the poorest filipinos, those whose need for birth control is the greatest. >> for the poor among us, it is often an aspiration, something they want to do but are not able to do. >> reporter: dr. silvia de la paz says teen pregnancies are at an all-time high. >> with the lack of contraceptives, so what else will they do? have babies-- more and more babies, you know. so it's a sad picture. >> reporter: for years the u.n. has urged the philippine government to take action, to provide free contraception and family planning for the poor. recent surveys indicate eight in ten filipinos now agree.

but the philippines' most powerful institution, the roman catholic church, has fought family planning policies every time they are raised. in a country where more than 80% are practicing catholics, the church has dominated nearly every aspect of life in the philippines for more than 400 years, it's moral authority and political power rarely challenged, especially when it comes to reproduction. abortion here is strictly illegal although rare exceptions are made if the health of the mother is at risk. outside the vatican it is the only country in the world where divorce is still not allowed. and while the philippine church says it is not opposed to natural family planning-- avoiding intercourse when a woman is most fertile-- it remains opposed to all forms of artificial contraception.

contraception in the eyes of the church is still immoral? >> yes. >> reporter: you do believe it leads to promiscuity among other things? >> yes. >> reporter: if the people of the philippines are in support of population control and contraception, and they want their children to learn in school proper family planning education, why would the church oppose any of that? >> the church promotes parenthood. only let it be responsible parenthood. the church has never said, "go ahead, multiply as much as you like or that... and let the good lord provide." no, no, no, no, no. the church preaches responsible parenthood through natural family planning. >> reporter: but changes are now underway in the philippines that could help slow the population boom. this past spring, after a 15- year battle that went all the

way to the filipino supreme court, a new reproductive healthcare law took effect. it requires the philippine government to fund family planning health clinics, provide affordable contraception, and launch comprehensive sex education in schools. former health secretary cabral, one of the most prominent supporters of the new law, says it's about time. >> it's a victory for all filipinos, especially women and children. the law can make a very big dent in our problem with poverty and population. >> reporter: so is this a defeat for the catholic church? >> i think so. >> reporter: the fight went on for 15 years and, with all due respect, archbishop, the church lost. >> yes, yes-- what's new? the church teaches, the world does not listen. if the church teaches and the

world listens, that would be a first-class miracle. >> reporter: but before the bill was implemented, the church and its supporters won some major concessions from supreme court, effectively diluting the law: private hospitals owned by religious institutions will not have to provide family planning options or even refer patients to hospitals that will provide the services. minors seeking birth control pills or condoms will require parental consent. and married women will have to have their husbands consent if they want to undergo a fertility procedure like inserting an iud. >> our main concern is that we're looking at women and young girls have the right to choose, you know, freely and responsibly, the number of children they want and when they want them. >> reporter: klaus beck is the head of the united nations population fund in the philippines. while he cheers the passage of the reproductive health care law here, he says that for the law

to be effective it must empower women to make their own choices, which the current law now limits. without those choices many women may still feel the need to seek out abortions. here in manila, that means a visit to what could be described as an abortion black market, right outside the 400-year-old church of the black nazerene. right alongside the rosary beads and statues of saints, shopkeepers openly offer a variety of herbs and potions, promising to induce menstruation as a way to end unwanted pregnancies. for the equivalent of five dollars, we were able to buy this concoction-- what the vendor described as an herbal remedy, a brew that's supposed induce miscarriages in the first trimester of pregnancy. others may find it necessary to find someone in these back alleys to perform an abortion. we met up with a woman called rose who did not want to be identified on camera.

rose says she has assisted doctors performing hundreds of abortions. >> every day we had three to five patients, because it would only take 15 minutes for each procedure. >> reporter: according to the center for reproductive rights there are more than 500,000 illegal abortions in the philippines every year. an estimated 1,000 women die every year of complications from those procedures. while the limitations of the new reproductive health care law are clear, former health secretary cabral is optimistic that it will eventually lower the number of unwanted pregnancies and eventually slow the population growth. >> even though the pragmatic purpose of the bill is not population control, as we know from other countries, if you give mothers a chance, what actually happens is the population rates go down. >> reporter: for cabral and many

others in the philippines, failure is not an option. the need to control this country's population growth is becoming a matter of survival for filipinos today-- a matter of survival from the cradle to those graveyards, where people are now living as squatters, because they have nowhere else to live. >> sreenivasan: see more from one of the world's busiest maternity wards in the philippines. visit newshour.pbs.org. as we reported yesterday, there are now are more than 2,6oo confirmed or suspected cases of ebola and more than 1,400 deaths resulting from the virus. all of the cases have originated in west africa. for the latest on the health crisis we are joined via skype from accra ghana by drew hinshaw of the wall street journal. >> we saw some disturbing images out of of liberia and neighborhood here, people were starting to fight back against the police.

have tensions eased? >>reporter: tensions right now are a little bit easier than they were a while ago but the fundamental problem in liberia, one is really one of government mistrust is still there. this is a country that fought a 14 year civil war one of the most horrific in modern memory. there is a real gulf between the governed and the government and the fundamental problem which is that people think that ebola is a conspiracy or a government started rumor is still there. and right, while there is not a class right now there is a real probably that there will be more in days to come especially as people get hungry in the quarantined neighborhood. >> the fear spreads faster than the virus to does. -- does. >> when people panic, they start disbelieving people they have believed all their lives, their community leaders, healers and a

community leader, doesn't have as much sway when this pops up in their neighborhood. >> david, do the neighbors there have a plan established for it, are they calling for outside assistance? >> they are the first to tell you they are making this up as they go along. i think what happened was in april there was a dip and everyone thought okay this virus has burned out. then it swamped these governments in june and july. what you're supposed to do is trace person to person. if i have it who have i touched while contagious. you monitor that, you monitor who they touch when they're contagious. we're way past that point where liberia and sierra leone can do that. >> going in and out of liberia, the health care workers their stories are even more compelling. doctors in nigeria were trying to strike out of some fear and concern for themselves so in

populations like sierra leone and liberia, who is there to care for these paicialts? >> exactly. -- patients? >> exactly. doctors were on strike before ebola got there, over another issue. in liberia and sierra leo they they -- lee oan they didn't have rubber gloves. medicines sans frontiers, things like that you get so many aid groups, logjam at the airport. when you run at the monrovia airport, a country that has been abandoned by aid groups, that have long standing relationships with liberia. >> drew hinshaw, joining us via

skype in accra, ghana, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> >> sreenivasan: starting tomorrow, the newshour begins a week-long look at those who are rethinking college to make it more accessible and affordable in an uncertain job market. here's an excerpt from one of the reports, about a university program with no credit hours, no professors, and no classes. >> for more than a century, higher education has relied on the credit hour. students earn credit for hours spent in class. in turn, credits add up to a college degree. >> under a traditional common law definition -- >> and while the credit hour is still the mainstay at southern new hampshire university, a private institution of 17,000 students, questions the very value of the college classroom. president palmer blank, says the

nation invests too of the credit hour. >> we give financial aid every year based on the credit hour but the credit hour is really good at one thing or principal thing which is telling people how long you sat, how long you were in class. not good at telling people what you actually learned. >> launching college for america an online degree program with no classes no professors and no credit hours. >> rather than measuring how long someone sat, the credit hour construct, we actually have a program that measures what you learn and we at times throw it out the window. >> how is it similar to online universities that have existed for years now? >> almost all online are universities, is based on the course. we don't have credit hours or course he but we have 120 competencies. what we don't care very much about is time. and that is such a fundamental

reversal of the basic structure of higher education. >> before we leave you tonight, the earthquake which struck the napa region has been upgraded to 6 much 1. and emergency workers are trying to keep electricity restored. peter theo daifs, and funeral of michael brown the unarmed teenager who was shot by darren wills will take place tomorrow. and lately word, richard attenboro has died at the age of 90. that is newshour, thank you

for watching. made possible >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org erertztzerer

>> the graduation recital is probably the biggest performance you give at curtis while you are there. , i was lucky enough that this is you get to do a recital of anything you want, and i said ok, these are the pieces i want to play. >> the greats of tomorrow, today on stage at curtis. ♪ >> the poulenc sonata is a piece that's not played as often as it should be, i think. it is a piece that either people won't know it or they know it and they love it. it is a pie w