JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening. I'm Judy Woodruff.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: Election Day in Alabama. Voters head to the polls to decide
a Senate race marked by controversy.
Then: beyond Jerusalem -- what President Trump's decision to recognize the contested city as
Israel's capital means for the entire region.
And as we near the somber anniversary of the Newtown shooting, how those affected by the
tragedy are helping other schools prevent similar attacks.
MICHELLE VIGOA-SUAREZ, Teacher: When Sandy Hook came, they gave us the power to say,
wait a minute, we can stop this. Why are we going to sit back and say, well, we will react
when it happens?
JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: All eyes are on Alabama today, as voters in the Southern state choose their
next U.S. senator in a special election.
It was originally expected to be a little-noticed race with no real competition.
But, as John Yang reports, due to state politics and sexual misconduct claims, the contest
between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones has come down to the wire.
JOHN YANG: Embattled Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore saddled up today, going on horseback
to vote at the fire station in Gallant, Alabama.
Asked if he had a message for the multiple women who have accused him of sexual misconduct
when they were teenagers, Moore replied, "Tell the truth."
He also had a message for Alabamians.
ROY MOORE (R), Alabama Senatorial Candidate: Well, I think they out to go out and vote
their conscience. And we have a tremendous turnout state. The nation is watching this.
JOHN YANG: If Moore wins, Republican senators have promised he will face an ethics investigation.
ROY MOORE: We will take those problems up when we get to the Senate, when we win.
JOHN YANG: His opponent, Democrat Doug Jones, cast his ballot in a Birmingham suburb.
DOUG JONES (D), Alabama Senatorial Candidate: This is an important time in Alabama's history.
And we feel very confident of where we are and how this is going to turn out, but, more
important, we feel so good about what we have done and what we have said to the people of
Alabama and to the people of the United States.
JOHN YANG: Jones hoped to win the votes of Republicans who've drawn the line at the accusations
against Moore.
TRACY JAMES, Alabama: I am being loyal at its most courageous by saying I hold my party
to higher standards than Roy Moore.
JOHN YANG: Some Moore supporters say they doubt his accusers.
WOMAN: These are allegations. And in America, I believe it still holds true that everyone
is innocent until proven guilty.
JOHN YANG: Moore's campaign remained controversial to the very end, his closing rally in Midland
City. Former White House adviser Steve Bannon railed against Republicans who'd distanced
themselves from Moore.
STEVE BANNON, Former White House Chief Strategist: There's a special place in hell for Republicans
who should know better.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
JOHN YANG: That seemed aimed at Ivanka Trump, who has said there was a special place in
hell for people who prey on children.
Moore's wife tried to put down accusations of anti-Semitism.
KAYLA MOORE, Wife of Roy Moore: Fake news would tell you that we don't care for Jews.
I tell you all this because I have seen it all, so I just want to set the record straight
while they're here.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
KAYLA MOORE: One of our attorneys is a Jew.
JOHN YANG: The candidate himself made a final pitch.
ROY MOORE: If you don't believe in my character, don't vote for me.
JOHN YANG: At his own closing rally last night, Democrat Jones called on voters to choose
the right path.
DOUG JONES: And I think we're going to see it tomorrow, that the majority of the people
of Alabama say that it is time that we put our decency, our state before political party.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
JOHN YANG: In recent days, some Alabamians answered their phones to hear the voice of
President Trump.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Roy Moore is the guy we need to pass our make
America great again agenda.
JOHN YANG: Others heard a robo-call from President Barack Obama backing Jones. His message? "This
one's serious. You can't sit it out."
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm John Yang.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And now to two people who have been on the ground today talking to Alabamians
about this contest.
Don Dailey is news director at Alabama Public Television. He's covered the state for three
decades. And the "NewsHour"'s own Daniel Bush, who has been reporting in Birmingham and some
smaller cities that are farther to the north.
It's good to see both of you.
Don Dailey, I'm going to start with you.
You have been talking to voters today at different polling places. What are you seeing?
DON DAILEY, Alabama Public TV: I'm seeing a lot of enthusiasm.
I think what was most noticeable to me today at the polling places that I visited was the
turnout was noticeably larger than it has been in both the primary and the runoff elections.
Both of those saw turnout below 20 percent. We have seen a lot of action at polls today.
We have actually seen lines, and that's something we didn't see in the Republican runoff election,
nor in the primaries. The secretary of state here is still sticking with his projection
that we will see up to 25 percent. That would obviously be a significant improvement, but
still rather low, considering all that's perceived to be at stake in this election.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Dan Bush, you were out, as we said, also talking to voters around
the state, specifically looking for Republicans who had supported President Trump. What were
you hearing from them?
DANIEL BUSH: That's right, Judy.
So, I spoke to a mix of Republicans farther north outside of Birmingham, areas where Donald
Trump won in 2016 by upwards of 75 or more percent. And, now, some had mixed feelings
about the allegations against Roy Moore. Some said they believed him. Some said they weren't
sure.
But most of the people I spoke with said that, ultimately, they can't bring themselves to
vote for a Democrat. They said that, for them, their priorities are social issues, abortion,
same-sex marriage, and other issues, and ultimately that far outweighed the allegations against
Roy Moore.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Don Dailey, how does that square with what you have been hearing from voters,
especially today, as they were having to make a decision?
DON DAILEY: I spoke with pretty much a cross-section of voters today, and they were pretty entrenched,
on one side, the Roy Moore supporters deeply behind him on some of the very issues that
Dan mentioned there.
Doug Jones supporters, by and large, saying they're embarrassed by the allegations against
Roy Moore and they would like to send someone to Washington who they feel like wouldn't
embarrass them, which has also been something that Doug Jones has been playing up a lot
in his campaign ads in Alabama in the run-up to the election.
He has said emphatically: I won't embarrass you, Alabama.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Don, are you sensing that people have made up their minds mostly in
the late -- in the last few days? Have they had their minds made up earlier? What did
you see there?
DON DAILEY: Some people we talked to as late as yesterday were telling us that they were
still on the fence on this issue. There were enough Republicans who were rattled by the
allegations who told us yesterday that they were going to have to make a last-minute decision
when they went into the voting booth, but there were just as many who said they had
their minds made up.
There were some who have told us that they had their minds made up about Roy Moore even
before the sexual misconduct allegations arose, given the past controversies that have followed
him.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Dan, I think both of you -- well, part of the story over the last few weeks
has been the reaction of women voters in Alabama, women -- Republican women in particular.
What did you -- what did you take away from talking to them?
DANIEL BUSH: You know, it's interesting, Judy, because there wasn't a very big difference
between women Republicans and men.
The women that I spoke to basically all said that, although they didn't condone Roy Moore's
behavior, whether they believed it or not, they still ultimately felt that they had to
vote for a Republican.
And it's notable. And this election is showing how deep partnership runs in a race with a
pretty stark choice. Female voters who said that they would be upset if those allegations
were true still end up voting for Roy Moore on the issues alone.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All right. Well, we're going to be talking to both of you as the night
goes on and tomorrow. Dan Bush with the "NewsHour," Don Dailey with
Alabama public Television, thank you both.
DON DAILEY: Thank you, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day's other news: Thousands of firefighters in Southern California are
racing against the clock to prevent a massive wildfire from spreading into nearby neighborhoods.
The Thomas Fire has burned more than 234,000 acres in just over a week. But it's still
only 20 percent contained.
William Brangham has our report.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: With flames hundreds of feet high, the Thomas Fire burned across coastal
ridges near Santa Barbara. It's the ninth straight day this fire burned in California.
Overnight, in the foothills, residents watched the blaze in awe and horror.
MAN: We have a great view every day here of what's going on. And it's creeping up, it's
creeping up, it's creeping up, and today is the scariest day so far.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Now the fifth largest fire in the state's history, the Thomas Fire expanded
northwest from Ventura County to Santa Barbara. The fire continues to march deeper inside
Los Padres National Forest and up the coastline.
On those hard-to-reach ridges, crews started their own controlled fires, burning dry grass,
in the hope that the larger blaze won't then be able to spread to the homes below.
CAPT. DAVE ZANIBONI, Santa Barbara County Fire Department: What the purpose of this
is, is to burn off this whole bowl of vegetation and create a huge buffer between the east
end of Santa Monica Canyon and the west End of Santa Monica Canyon.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The challenge lies in finding safe footing on the deep canyon walls for
firefighters to take a stand. Below, ash-covered plants looked like a fresh snowfall, while
smoke suffocated neighborhoods.
WOMAN: Mandatory evacuations.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Tens of thousands of people remain evacuated across the affected counties.
Officials say the blaze has destroyed more than 680 homes, including Arthur Hurtz's,
whose house, and everything around it, burned down to the ground.
ARTHUR HURTZ, Fire Victim: It's charred tree trunks. There is no vegetation. It's like
-- it's just dirt. It's like sand. It's like completely gone.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This roaring blaze shows no sign of slowing, as warnings about the
unpredictable Santa Ana winds and continued lack of moisture extend through the week.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham.
JUDY WOODRUFF: California officials estimate that it's cost more than $48 million so far
to fight the massive Thomas Fire.
Federal terrorism charges were filed against the suspect in yesterday's failed New York
City subway bombing. Prosecutors said that Akayed Ullah, an immigrant from Bangladesh,
wanted to set off a homemade bomb during the morning rush hour to -- quote -- "maximize
destruction."
Meanwhile, in Washington, President Trump again called on Congress to overhaul the nation's
immigration system, in the wake of a pair of terror incidents carried out by immigrants.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: There have now been two terrorist attacks
in New York City in recent weeks carried out by foreign nationals here on green cards.
The first attacker came through the visa lottery and the second through chain migration. We're
going to end both of them. The lottery system and chain migration, we're going to end them,
fast.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Yesterday's blast happened less than two months after an immigrant from
Uzbekistan plowed his truck into a bike path near the World Trade Center, which led to
the deaths of eight people.
President Trump is facing a new wave of calls for a congressional investigation, after more
than a dozen women accused him of sexual misconduct.
Our Lisa Desjardins has more on that and on the growing number of other sexual misconduct
allegations that have recently come to light.
LISA DESJARDINS: From Democrats in Congress, who pushed two of their own to resign last
week, a turn to the president.
REP. BRENDA LAWRENCE (D), Michigan: Mr. President, you don't live under a different set of rules.
LISA DESJARDINS: Today, 54 Democratic congresswomen called on the House Oversight Committee to
investigate allegations President Trump groped or otherwise sexually harassed women before
he took office.
®MD+IT¯®MD-IT¯REP. LOIS FRANKEL (D), Florida: Sexual abuse will not be tolerated, whether
it's by a Hollywood producer, the chef of a restaurant, a member of Congress or the
president of the United States. No man or woman is above the law.
LISA DESJARDINS: The president has denied all charges. But New York Senator Kirsten
Gillibrand and five other senators have said he should resign.
In a tweet, the president swung back, writing that Gillibrand previously came to him -- quote
-- "begging for campaign contributions," saying she -- quote -- "would do anything for them."
That set off a reaction firestorm of reaction -- from the senator herself.
SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D), New York: It was a sexist smear attempting to silence my
voice. And I will not be silent on this issue.
LISA DESJARDINS: And others on the left. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal:
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), Connecticut: The president's tweet this morning against
Senator Gillibrand was a disgraceful sexist slur.
LISA DESJARDINS: White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the president's tweet was
in no way sexual.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, White House Press Secretary: I think only if your mind is in
the gutter would you have read it that way.
He's obviously talking about the political partisan games that people often play.
LISA DESJARDINS: Also on the Hill today, a New York Times report detailed the inner workings
of Republican Representative Blake Farenthold's office, calling it a hostile work environment
rife with sexual innuendo.
The Texas congressman used $84,000 of taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment claim
with a former staffer three years ago.
Allegations of sexual assault also hit the sports world today. The NFL Network suspended
three of its analysts after a former stylist, Jami Cantor, accused them of inappropriate
touching and showing her their genital. Cantor claims four additional employees also sexually
harassed her.
And a CBS News report chronicled recent sexual assault and harassment of female cadets at
the U.S. Air Force Academy, something the Pentagon says has been on the rise since 2007.
EMILY HAZEN, Former Air Force Academy Cadet: I was sexually assaulted my freshman year.
And the sexual harassment I endured eventually made me leave.
LISA DESJARDINS: The women interviewed by CBS say the Academy failed to report the attacks
or reprimand their attackers.
The head of the Academy defended how they handle such cases, but also said:
MAN: I'm disgusted by those reports, I mean, just like you.
LISA DESJARDINS: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is speaking out against
two of President Trump's most controversial court nominees.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa told CNN that he's advised the White House
to reconsider the nominations of Jeff Mateer, who was tapped to become a federal judge in
Texas, and Brett Talley, who was selected to serve in Alabama. Both have faced scrutiny
over controversial remarks they have made in the past.
The stock market was mostly mixed today, but two indexes again his record highs. The Dow
Jones industrial average surged 118 points to close at 24504, a new record. The Nasdaq
fell more than 12 points, and the S&P 500 rose four, a record for it as well.
And a passing of note: San Francisco's mayor died unexpectedly overnight. Democrat and
former civil rights lawyer Ed Lee became the first Asian-American to lead the city in 2011.
Lee oversaw a technology-driven economic boom, and worked to create more affordable housing.
He was also a staunch defender of San Francisco's sanctuary city policy toward immigrants. Ed
Lee was 65 years old.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": five years after the Sandy Hook shooting, schools identify
students who could pose a threat; the global consequences of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's
capital; on the ground with agents enforcing an immigration crackdown; a new book on Nelson
Mandela's presidential years; and much more.
This Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, is expected to take a
vote that could have significant implications for Americans' access to the Internet.
The FCC is expected to roll back rules that were imposed to protect what's called net
neutrality, regulations passed during the Obama administration. The idea was to ensure
that Internet providers, including big companies like Verizon, Comcast and AT&T, treat all
content on the Web equally, that they provide a kind of open highway, and are not allowed
to charge more or even block your ability to see content from other companies, like
Netflix, Facebook and Google.
The FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, is pushing to kill the Obama era rules, saying they actually
aren't helping consumers. He argues the Web needs less regulation.
We interviewed Pai when he first released the proposal.
And, tonight, we hear from a Democrat on the commission, Mignon Clyburn, who is opposed
to the move.
Commissioner Clyburn, thank you for being with us.
So, what is it about Chairman Pai's move that you object to?
MIGNON CLYBURN, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission: It leaves the consumer in a regulatory
free zone. No one is looking out for their best interest.
The question is simple: Do you as a consumer control your experiences online, or will it
be that multibillion-dollar Internet service provider? It's very simple.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, he has argued -- and you know this very well. He says, what we
have got now, thanks to the Obama administration, are heavy-handed government regulations. He
says they discourage innovation, that investment in these companies is down as a result of
these regulations.
MIGNON CLYBURN: There are no credible studies that show that investment is down.
The Internet rules that we have in place today, the open Internet rules that we passed in
2015, they threw away over 700 rules and 25 provisions that we governed ourselves back
in the old telecom era.
So, the rules are light-touch, forward-looking, and they take into account that the Internet
today is different than it was even 10 years ago. Internet service providers are sometimes
in the content business. Some of them own their media -- own media companies.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.
MIGNON CLYBURN: So, the question is, will they have the incentive to advantage, to promote,
to give favor to them to their own content? Or will there be an even playing field? And
that's the question. And that is at risk.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Again, I know you're familiar with Mr. Pai's pushback.
He's saying, well, we have had is heavy regulation and what we need to go back to is, in his
words, light-touch regulatory environment like what we had from the late '90s through
2015, when the Obama administration imposed these new rules.
MIGNON CLYBURN: Well, my answer is this. These rules that we have today were built on an
era that started back in 2005, when there were Internet principles put in place, because
there were issues. And the FCC back in 2005 said, we need an
agreement. Internet service providers, you need to treat applications and services and
access over the Internet equal. They said that. But the voluntary posts that they created
back then because of the number of complaints that we had, it was obvious that it didn't
work.
We needed to codify or put those rules on paper in place. And that's what we have today.
And the Internet has thrived. And our individual experiences, they have just ballooned because
of the certainty we have that we know protections are in place, that no one can favor or block
traffic when it comes to my experiences over the Internet.
But that is at risk coming Thursday.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Commissioner Clyburn, you have also -- you have been openly saying that you're
concerned about what this could mean for communities of color. What are you referring to there?
MIGNON CLYBURN: We would have never heard about Ferguson, Missouri, but for the Internet.
People on the ground were telling the stories. And then and only then did the rest of the
media ecosystem weigh in and cover it. So you have got communities that no one else
is listening to. They're telling their own story. They're promoting their own products.
Their services are now part of the lexicon of the American experience. But if we go back
to the days where there are no protections, where an Internet service provider can suppress
your experience, can favor someone else's traffic, cannot tell your story, then so many
communities of color, poor, rural communities, we wouldn't hear about them.
They would, in essence, not be on the media map, and that would be a shame if we go back
to the days where you had gatekeepers.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, specifically, what are you worried that, say, a Verizon or a Comcast
could do?
MIGNON CLYBURN: I worry that if there's MignonClyburn.com, and Verizon has a competing business with
MignonClyburn.com, then they would favor that experience or the trapping that would promote
their company or their business interest, and mine would be at risk.
So it is about an even playing field. It is about small start-ups being able to compete
if they have a superior product.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, just yesterday, in an apparent attempt to address some of these criticisms,
Chairman Pai came up with a proposal. He said, there has been this agreement between the
FCC and the Federal Trade Commission whereby, once this takes effect, the FTC is going to
be given the responsibility of going after these Internet providers if they engage in
unfair practices.
MIGNON CLYBURN: The FTC is an agency that has absolutely no experience when it comes
to net neutrality protections.
The FTC is an agency that doesn't play in this space when it comes to utility or telecommunications
providers. These are the same providers that give us Internet access. And if you don't
have any experience or if you don't have the authority, which the FTC doesn't, I believe,
then who is there to protect you?
And so that memorandum of understanding, that agreement was an afterthought.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally, this vote is expected the happen on Thursday. It's expected the
chairman is going to prevail. He's got the majority. But once that happens, they're going
to be court challenges. Do you expect this is going to go on for some time?
MIGNON CLYBURN: I do, which will create uncertainty in the market.
We have a system that is the envy of every other country in the world. Why break it?
Why cause disruption? Why?
JUDY WOODRUFF: FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, thank you very much.
MIGNON CLYBURN: My pleasure.
JUDY WOODRUFF: This week marks a somber anniversary: the mass shooting at an elementary school
in Newtown, Connecticut.
In the five years since, many of the parents who lost their children that day have been
pushing to reduce gun violence.
One group, Sandy Hook Promise, has taken that effort right into the schools.
Special correspondent Lisa Stark of our partner Education Week traveled to Miami to visit
the first school district to implement the program.
It's part of our weekly segment, Making the Grade.
LISA STARK: Miami's John Ferguson High School spills over with more than 4,000 students,
the largest school in the district.
DANIELLE JATTIN, Student: There's a lot of isolation around.
JULIAN ZARATE, Student: Especially in a school this big.
CAROLINA BLANCO, Student: Because it's very hard for some students to fit in.
LISA STARK: These students are working to change that.
SHANTELLE MARTINEZ, Student: And we just want to make sure that everybody knows that they're
not alone.
LISA STARK: Their motivation? A tragedy that happened five years ago and nearly 1,400 miles
away, the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, 20 children,
6- and 7-year-olds, and six educators gunned down by a troubled 20-year-old.
NICOLE HOCKLEY, Mother of Newtown Victim: No one should ever lose a child in these sorts
of circumstances, especially when it's preventable.
LISA STARK: Nicole Hockley's 6-year-old son, Dylan, died in his first grade classroom,
her grief magnified by what she found out afterwards.
NICOLE HOCKLEY: I had always assumed that our shooter had snapped.
And it was a moment of clarity, and furious clarity, for me to find out that he had exhibited
signs and signals throughout his life, and that this was a very typical mass shooting.
LISA STARK: Hockley's mission now:
NICOLE HOCKLEY: We want to prevent other tragedies from happening by teaching people to know
the signs of violence.
LISA STARK: She and other Newtown parents started Sandy Hook Promise and enlist students
in their fight. Their free training has been used in 4,000 schools and youth organizations.
It includes Start With Hello, an activity which encourages students to interact, and
a program called Say Something, teaching students to tell an adult if they see signs someone
may be a threat to themselves or others.
NICOLE HOCKLEY: This isn't about snitching or being a tattletale. This isn't about getting
someone in trouble. This is about getting them help.
LISA STARK: The nation's fourth largest school district, Miami-Dade, has signed on. Sandy
Hook Promise trainers have visited more than 100 schools here.
JULIAN ZARATE: A lot of atrocities in schools, school shootings and such, stem from students
who were either bullied or isolated. And so by dealing with this problem, we're hoping
that we can minimize anything coming up in the future.
LISA STARK: Dewey Cornell, who has analyzed school violence for decades, says that is
precisely the point.
DEWEY CORNELL, University of Virginia: You don't prevent a forest fire by waiting until
all the trees are ablaze. You pay attention to all the campfires and make sure all the
campfires are taken care of.
And we have incidents of bullying all the time in our schools. And the more that we
can do to deal with these minor conflicts before they escalate into more serious ones,
the better off we will be.
LISA STARK: Reducing violence in schools isn't just about reaching students. Experts who
have studied the issue say it's also important that teachers and administrators react sensibly
to any safety concerns.
MAN: Is a student posing a threat, all right? Is a student on a path toward an attack?
LISA STARK: A team from every school in Miami-Dade is learning how to identify, evaluate and
handle possible threats. They're taught to take threats seriously, but not to overreact.
DEWEY CORNELL: We had a child who chewed his pop tart into the shape of a gun, and was
suspended from school. After the Sandy Hook shooting, a first grader in Maryland went
pow-pow with finger, and was suspended from school.
These are fearful overreactions that send a really negative message through the school.
LISA STARK: Cornell, who developed this threat assessment training after the Columbine School
shooting in 1999, believes districts that use zero-tolerance policies make their schools
less safe, students less likely to report concerns.
MAN: If the threat is vague or somebody is clearly angry, you want to err on the side
of caution.
LISA STARK: This training includes exercises. What should a school do if a student threatens
to beat up another, and what if a teen has a hit list?
The goal, not to automatically expel the student, but to address the underlying problem.
VIRGINIA VALDES, Miami-Dade County Public Schools: What I'm taking away today is that
not everything can be solved with a suspension. It takes really bringing those students together,
letting the victim feel heard, letting the one who did the bullying understand what he
or she did. It's really changing our mind-set.
LISA STARK: Advocates say this can be more effective than turning schools into fortresses,
because most school shootings are carried out not by an outsider, but by a student.
DEWEY CORNELL: We have done a series of controlled studies over the past 15 years showing that,
when schools use our model, their suspension rates go down, their bullying goes down, and
the threats aren't carried out.
LISA STARK: The Sandy Hook training isn't one and done. Schools pledge to keep awareness
high.
At Ferguson, the Psychology Honor Society sponsors numerous events. You have heard of
speed-dating? The students here have a new version: speed-friending.
DANIELLE JATTIN: We got people from different grades and we put them all in the gymnasium,
and each of them had two-minute conversations. And then you can see that people were, like,
laughing, people who had never met each other. People were having full on conversations.
LISA STARK: An effort they believe has paid off.
CAROLINA BLANCO: In one of the speed-friendings, there was a student that was having a problem,
and he opened up to it. So, we brought the attention to one of his teachers, and that
really helped him to cope with his problems and talk about them more.
LISA STARK: Other activities include encouraging students to join someone eating alone, and
to pass positive notes to friends and strangers.
Ferguson High School psychology teacher Michelle Vigoa-Suarez heads up the ongoing activities,
inspired by Sandy Hook Promise.
MICHELLE VIGOA-SUAREZ, Teacher: Before they came, I didn't really value what I could do.
It was kind of like, I thought of it as, well, it's a society problem, and let's just pray.
But when Sandy Hook came, they gave us the power to say, wait a minute, we can stop this.
Why are we going to sit back and say, well, we will react when it happens?
LISA STARK: It's hard to measure how much of a difference all this really makes. Sharon
Krantz oversees the effort in the Miami-Dade schools.
SHARON KRANTZ, Miami-Dade County Public Schools: You know, this is prevention, so you don't
really know what you prevented. But I know that we are making it OK to speak up, we are
making it OK to include people.
NICOLE HOCKLEY: There have been times that we have reached out to different communities
and families.
LISA STARK: Nicole Hockley points to anecdotal reports indicating their Say Something training
has stopped suicides and possible shootings.
In California, students reported a classmate's threatening online post. In Ohio, students
overheard shooting threats, and alerted school officials.
And how does that make you feel?
NICOLE HOCKLEY: Sometimes, it takes me out at the knees, if I'm honest with you, because
it's incredibly elating to know that we have just been able to help someone else. But it's
never going to be enough.
LISA STARK: Hockley says it only encourages her to take her message to more schools, to
redouble her efforts.
For Education Week and the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Stark in Miami, Florida.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Last week, President Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel and
promised to move the U.S. Embassy, currently in Tel Aviv, to the Holy City.
The announcement overturned decades of U.S. policy, but it was met with less outrage than
many feared.
Now, how the decision may echo in the region and beyond, and to special correspondent Nick
Schifrin.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Judy, the president's announcement was dramatic, but the immediate response has
been relatively muted. That doesn't mean, though, there aren't longer-term strategic
consequences.
To consider that, I'm joined here in the studio by Paul Salem. He's the senior vice president
for policy analysis, research and programs at the Middle East Institute. And Ryan Crocker,
who served as ambassador to six countries across the Middle East and South Asia, he
joins us from Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School, where he is diplomat in residence.
Paul, it seems that there are a couple reasons that we haven't seen more violence. One of
them perhaps, all politics are local, in this region as well, and also maybe it's not a
surprise that the U.S. supports Israel, right?
PAUL SALEM, Middle East Institute: Yes.
I mean, first of all, it wouldn't be correct to measure the long-term impact by the amount
of protests and violence. In the Palestinian communities, both in Gaza and the West Bank,
Palestinians are exhausted. They have been dispirited for a long time. They had very
little hopes that there was actually a peace process.
This was very aggravating for them, but doesn't come as a big surprise. And they -- many of
them don't think having another violent intifada will get them any further.
In the Arab world, there's a lot of sympathy for the Palestinian cause, and this issue
of Jerusalem has sparked a lot of emotions and some protests. But most Arabs are also
mired in their own domestic problems, their domestic politics. The big uprisings of 2011
were really about domestic issues, so people care, but they don't want to ruin their own
country or have a revolution because of it.
And the final part, which is Iran and its allies, Hezbollah and so on, who have been
organizing protests also don't want them to get out of hand or turn violent, because they
are pretty happy with the way things are.
NICK SCHIFRIN: So, Ambassador Crocker, perhaps not only a little Palestinian fatigue, but
also perhaps regional fatigue?
RYAN CROCKER, Former United States Ambassador to Iraq: These things can take a long time
to manifest themselves.
So, I wouldn't immediately rush to the conclusion that, well, this issue is no longer significant,
there wasn't any violence. I think that significance may only come clear in the months ahead.
NICK SCHIFRIN: No, and actually quite the opposite. What I think we're talking is those
longer-term strategic influences or impacts.
So, Paul Salem, one of them seems to be on the peace process. But it's just the peace
process, the effect. It's about impacts for the larger region, isn't it?
PAUL SALEM: Right.
The impact on the peace process, the peace process really wasn't going anywhere, most
probably, but this really maybe puts an end to even the semblance of having a peace process.
It also, in the Palestinian context, weakens President Abbas, who would have been any partner
even for stabilization, and strengthens Hamas, who has now called for a third intifada.
In the wider Middle East, it undermines and weakens America's partners, Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
UAE, Bahrain, and other who have worked with the U.S. on issues relating to Iran, but also
were hopeful that there would be a peace plan they could be part of. It weakens and undermines
them.
The ones perhaps who are happiest, other than the Israeli government itself, which certainly
is very happy, are Iran and its allies and Russia's President Putin. We saw President
Putin immediately take a victory lap, visiting Syria, Egypt, and Turkey all in one day, denouncing
the Jerusalem decision, while also declaring victory in Syria and other places.
And it's been a great gift to Iran and Hezbollah, who have wanted to change the narrative from
the carnage of Syria, which they have been embroiled in, to reviving the issue of Jerusalem,
which is a very evocative issue, and pose as the champions of Jerusalem. So, they're
in a middle of a rebranding. And this couldn't have come at a better time for this.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Ambassador Crocker, is that right? Does this help Russia? Does this help
Iran? Does this make it a little more difficult for the Sunni Arab states in the region who
President Trump has wanted to ally with to ally with him in the future?
RYAN CROCKER: I'm not sure it will have that much impact. Jordan and Egypt, the two Arab
states with peace agreements with Israel, have survived worse shocks than this.
I would watch Saudi Arabia, though. I do not expect to see significant criticism coming
out of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, again, for the reasons Paul was talking about. They
have other more immediate issues that concern them, like where the kingdom is going in general.
Yemen, Iran, these are the issues that are occupying the bandwidth, not Jerusalem.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And I think it's important to also broaden out the discussion and ask
whether the impact will actually be felt beyond the region.
On Friday, the United Nations Security Council held an extraordinary session in which they
actually called an emergency session thanks to something the United States has done.
And let's listen now to Matthew Rycroft -- he's the British permanent representative to the
U.N. -- criticizing President Trump and the United States.
MATTHEW RYCROFT, Permanent British Representative to the United Nations: We disagree with the
U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to begin preparation
to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
It is not in line with Security Council resolutions, and it is unhelpful in terms of prospects
for peace in the region.
NICK SCHIFRIN: So, Paul Salem, is one of the long-term impacts actually less on the region
and more the U.S. relationship with the rest of the world?
PAUL SALEM: I do think so. And I think it's in line with a set of policy decisions that
President Trump has taken to kind of dismantle American global leadership, whether by design
or by instinct, on issues of climate change, the Pacific trade agreement.
And this decision violates decades of U.S. policy, violates U.N. Security Council resolution,
violates international law, in the sense that he's recognizing, at least in East Jerusalem,
territory that was occupied by force in 1967, and doing it in a way that clearly flaunts
any idea of consultation beforehand or working with allies.
It seems to be part of how President Trump and some of his advisers seem to view America's
role in the world.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Ambassador Crocker, is that how you see it, a lack of U.S. leadership
and other countries step into a vacuum?
RYAN CROCKER: Well, clearly, the U.S. has been backing away from its traditional leadership
role.
I would have to point out, though, it didn't start with President Trump. It started with
President Obama. So we kind of -- and we saw that most clearly, I think, with the refugee
crisis, where we just were not a player.
So, yes, the backing away is -- it's real, and it's potentially quite significant. And
I'm sure that the French and the British will try to step into this.
But there's another bigger question there. Can they do it? And I would have to suggest
that neither Britain nor France nor the two together can be an adequate substitute for
the role.
There are voices now coming out of the region saying, OK, we get it. No more two-state,
two-capital solutions. It will be one state, one capital, with guaranteed equal rights
for all of its people.
But I think you may see some fairly dramatic things said in the months ahead.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Ambassador Ryan Crocker joining us from Princeton University, and Paul Salem
from the Middle East Institute, thank you very much to you both.
PAUL SALEM: Thank you, Nick.
RYAN CROCKER: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order giving Immigration
and Customs Enforcement officers greater flexibility in arresting undocumented immigrants. The
order also ended the Obama era policy of prioritizing violent criminals and gang members for deportation.
Last week, the agency credited the changes with a sharp drop in apprehensions at the
U.S.-Mexico border and a surge in arrests of undocumented immigrants already living
in the United States.
As P.J. Tobia reports, critics say those arrests are creating fear in immigrant communities,
but agents say they are simply enforcing the law.
MAN: We got three targets today. We're going to start in order A, B, then C.
P.J. TOBIA: Just before 5:00 a.m., a dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents
gather in a strip mall parking lot, reviewing their targets for the day.
MAN: Surveillance shows That an individual fitting this description leaves at 5:00.
P.J. TOBIA: These men and women enforce President Trump's promise to crackdown on illegal immigration.
ICE asked that their officers' faces be obscured for security reasons.
The agents roll out. Their unmarked SUVs turn into a Virginia neighborhood.
MAN: It might be this house here.
MATTHEW MUNROE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement: We will identify all the individuals in the
house, and anybody that's in there of interest to us, either criminal history, is in the
country illegally, public safety threat, we will make those arrests.
P.J. TOBIA: Agents are staking out the home of a Bolivian man with two DUIs and two misdemeanors.
They're eventually let into the house.
The man they're looking for isn't there, but one arrest is made. While investigating the
whereabouts of their target, ICE agents discover a different undocumented man.
MAN: Watch your head.
P.J. TOBIA: Collateral arrests like this one have become more common under President Trump.
Under Obama, this man may not have been arrested at all, to the frustration of some agents.
Matthew Munroe is an assistant field director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He's
worked on immigration enforcement for more than two decades.
MATTHEW MUNROE: The target wasn't here at this point, but the -- there were a number
of other individuals in the house that we conducted consensual interviews with, and
one of them was identified as an individual who was in the country illegally.
P.J. TOBIA: At the processing center, the man undergoes questioning. They discover he's
a Nicaraguan national who entered the U.S. illegally in 1988.
Since President Trump took office, immigration arrests are up 42 percent. ICE estimates,
nationwide, they make 400 arrests a day. ICE has arrested 37,000 undocumented immigrants
without criminal records. That's a 145 percent increase over fiscal year 2016.
MATTHEW MUNROE: There have been times in the past that policies have been such that we
have been focused on just certain classes of illegal aliens or people in the country
who are subject to removal. Nowadays, it is, anybody who is in the country illegally is
subject to arrest.
P.J. TOBIA: How is this a different environment than at any other time in your career?
MATTHEW MUNROE: We are enforcing the laws that we were sworn to uphold, and that's what
we're doing nowadays.
P.J. TOBIA: Anyone in ICE custody will eventually find themselves in an immigration detention
center, like this one outside of Farmville, Virginia. Every day, ICE holds between 30,000
and 40,000 immigrants in custody. Next year, the White House is aiming to increase that
number by 20 percent.
Once they arrive at the detention center, they're separated based on factors like immigration
and criminal history. Detainees can meet with a deportation officer to answer questions.
Often, they will act as translators for one another.
But the one question they won't get answered is when they might be deported. The agency
says that information is a security risk.
Macario Diaz Morales (ph) was held in the Farmville detention center for a month-and-a-half.
He was released on bond in early November. We met his wife, Areli Vea Reyna, a few days
later at their lawyers' office, the Legal Aid Justice Center.
Immigration raids in their community made the family too scared to speak to "NewsHour"
in their neighborhood. Our cameras might draw unwanted attention. Areli says she was getting
in her car to leave for work one morning when an ICE agent approached her in the driveway,
asking for her husband.
ARELI VEA REYNA, Husband Detained by ICE (through translator): I would like to speak with him.
OK, I told him. He's asleep. And I left, opened the door and went inside. I closed the door,
but didn't close it well. It was a bit open. After I called him, I went back, and they
were already inside.
P.J. TOBIA: Macario illegally crossed the border into the U.S. from Mexico in 2006.
That same year, he met Areli. She had also come from Mexico, but had been in the U.S.
since 1996. They have five children, three from her previous marriage.
Before he was detained by ICE, Macario supported the family. Areli now works construction to
make ends meet. She says that first night after ICE detained her husband was the hardest.
ARELI VEA REYNA (through translator): It was the first night in 12 years. I had never been
apart from him, nor had he been apart from the kids. It wasn't easy, because I had to
work and help them move forward, pay for what needed to be paid. And when he spoke to me,
he told me not to let him go, not to let him die alone. It's hard.
P.J. TOBIA: According to ICE, Macario was picked up as part of a targeted enforcement
operation, like the one we rode along with. A misdemeanor arrest in July flagged him for
deportation.
MATTHEW MUNROE: They have the potential to be arrested and removed from the United States.
That is the fact. That's the laws that are on the books. It's the mission that we have
been charged with enforcing. From the president, to the secretary, to the director of ICE,
this is what we're going to do.
P.J. TOBIA: As for Macario and his family, he is waiting for approval to join a non-immigrant
U-visa his wife has. Areli is waiting to hear back on her own green card application.
ARELI VEA REYNA (through translator): I understand that the country has its rules, has its laws.
And maybe we have broken that law of coming illegally. One comes for work because of necessity
to move the family forward. And I think, I hope he doesn't go back to Mexico and that
he stays with the family.
P.J. TOBIA: What happens next depends, in part, on what the court decides. They will
find out if Macario can stay lawfully in the United States or if he will be deported back
to Mexico, a life-changing decision, out of their hands, made by a system that's playing
by new rules.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm P.J. Tobia in Washington.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now: a possible turning point in South Africa.
Its ruling party, the African National Congress, is expected to replace its leader, Jacob Zuma,
this weekend. Whoever is chosen could also replace Zuma as the country's president in
the 2019 general election.
But as Zuma and his party have been marred by accusations of corruption, some South Africans
are reevaluating the legacy of the party's most famous member, Nelson Mandela.
With the recent release of a book on the life and words of Mandela, Jeffrey Brown has a
special edition of the "NewsHour" Bookshelf from Johannesburg, South Africa.
JEFFREY BROWN: Four years after his death, Nelson Mandela remains the larger-than-life
symbol of historic change in South Africa, the man who led a liberation movement against
the white apartheid regime from prison, before being released in 1990.
Now comes a new look at the political struggle that followed and Mandela's five years as
president of a newly democratic nation.
MANDLA LANGA, Co-Author, "Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years": I took on the project
because I believed in the man, number one, and I respected him, but, much more importantly
I felt that his words needed to be heard far and wide.
JEFFREY BROWN: Mandla Langa, best known in South Africa as a novelist, worked from drafts
Mandela himself wrote toward a never-finished memoir of his presidential years.
The result is "Dare Not Linger," partly Mandela's words, partly Langa's, presented as a sequel
to Mandela's 1995 memoir, "long Walk to Freedom," which sold some 14 million copies worldwide.
For Mandla Langa, this was personal. An activist in the anti-apartheid struggle, he was arrested
in 1976 and spent years in exile.
MANDLA LANGA: Those years were rough, and those years were also full of despair. Mandela
was the person that we looked to even when we were in the camps in Angola, when we were
in the most horrific places. This was one name that kept us -- that made us to keep
the faith.
JEFFREY BROWN: So, when you took on this project, was it frightening or daunting?
MANDLA LANGA: I had a dream, and in the dream, it was as if Mandela was telling me that I
must not write nonsense. I must write his words, as it were, in the most correct form.
JEFFREY BROWN: So he's admonishing you, get it -- do it right?
MANDLA LANGA: He was admonishing me, do it right, get it right, yes.
NELSON MANDELA, Former South African President: The promotion of the spirit of reconciliation
and nation-building is something that we should all unite and try and achieve in our country.
JEFFREY BROWN: Mandela faced infighting among black African factions and continued resistance
from some white Afrikaners used to wielding power.
He spoke to the "NewsHour"'s Charlayne Hunter-Gault in 1994 on the eve of his election to the
presidency.
NELSON MANDELA: The problem that we face today is that we are dealing with a group of men
and women who are produced by apartheid, who can talk about democracy in a way different
from what you and I understand by democracy.
We also had another tendency from the liberation movement of people who want to continue resisting,
even at a time when we are preparing to govern. We have to reconcile those two tendencies.
JEFFREY BROWN: The new book captures Mandela addressing internal problems while regularly
meeting other leaders on the world stage.
Mandla Langa came to see Mandela, the political leader, as a strong, forceful presence.
MANDLA LANGA: There has been now and then that kind of imputation that he was just a
figurehead. He was very, very hands-on from the very -- at the very beginning.
He was alive to the fact that he needed to exert his own authority on the situation.
When he dealt with the Afrikaner generals, he knew that this was a gamble, because, on
the one hand, there was this crisis of expectation from the black people, that he has come out,
he has got to lead us, and he must not sell us out.
JEFFREY BROWN: And everything's going to get better quickly.
MANDLA LANGA: Quickly, yes.
JEFFREY BROWN: Years later, it's clear that, while things got better for many, an economic
apartheid persists for millions of blacks, and South Africa is regularly cited as one
of the world's most unequal nations. The new book comes out amid a renewed national
debate over the nation's progress since its turn to democracy. Some we spoke to questioned
whether Mandela's commitment to reconciliation came at too great a cost, and they see an
unfulfilled legacy.
MPHO MATSIPA, Wits University: I think a lot was given away, and I think too much was given
away.
JEFFREY BROWN: Wits University lecturer Mpho Matsipa.
MPHO MATSIPA: Many South Africans, including myself, imagined that the future would be
one that is more just, where there isn't so much inequality, where inequality doesn't
continue to be so racialized and gendered.
And so I think that current material realities are in themselves a testament to -- or they
are a challenge to that legacy.
JEFFREY BROWN: But another view sees enormous progress against all odds, and the Mandela
legacy fully intact. Albie Sachs, a leading figure in the anti-apartheid
struggle, helped write the country's new constitution and was appointed by Mandela to serve as a
justice on the nation's highest court.
ALBIE SACHS, Former Judge: The institutions of democracy are functioning now. And they
give the new generation, who are impatient with what they see as the slowness, the tardiness
of change, who are demanding more rapid transformation, but they have got the weapons and the instruments
to do that.
I would give three cheers, not one, not two, three cheers, maximum cheers, to Mandela and
his generation for fulfilling their life's mission, which was to tear down apartheid
and install democracy.
JEFFREY BROWN: Amid this debate, author Mandla Langa thinks the timing is right for the new
book on Mandela's years as president.
MANDLA LANGA: We are living in the most confusing time as South Africans, and I believe that
that we need to look back on where we were, what we were, and how we were.
And I think that those moments, that past, which made us the kind of people we are, a
symbol of that past was Nelson Mandela.
JEFFREY BROWN: With "Dare Not Linger," Langa hopes Mandela's words and deeds can continue
to guide his country today.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in South Africa.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Fascinating.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.
On Wednesday, science correspondent Miles O'Brien explains the effect climate change
has on California's wildfires.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
Join us online, where we will have the latest results in the Alabama Senate race, and again
here tomorrow evening.
For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, and we'll see you soon.