Nearly 8 months after he was taken captive by hamas. Amna and. A closer look at this consequential Supreme Court term, the cases heard, and ideological divide on display. This appears, especially this term, to be a very confident court willing to step into some of the most divisive issues. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by you dont need vision to do most things in life. Its exciting to be part of the team driving the technology forward. I think thats the most rewarding thing. People who know, know bdo. A law partner rediscovers her grandmothers artistry and creates a trust to keep the craft alive. Life well planned. Certified Financial Planner professionals are proud to support pbs newshour. Professions are committed to acting in their clients best interest. More information at lets make a plan. Org. The kendeda fund. Carnegie corporation of new york, working to reduce Political Polarization through philanthropic support. For education, democracy, and peace. More information at carnegie. 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. Amna welcome to the newshour. Police in riot gear broke up an encampment at ucla overnight and arrested protesters after another day of high tensions on campus. That followed earlier violence from counterprotesters. Geoff so far, more than 2000 people have been arrested in the last two weeks. While many protests have been peaceful and many of the arrested are not students, the past week has seen a series of escalating confrontations, occupations and shutdowns. That led President Biden to condemn violence and disorder today following the latest developments in los angeles. Overnight hundreds of propalestinian protesters at ucla defied warnings to leave their encampment. And just before dawn, police tore down the tents and arrested more than people. 200 the Police Response was still underway, when President Biden spoke at the white house and drew a line between dissent and disorder. Pres. Biden so let me be clear, peaceful protest in america. Violent protest is not protected. Peaceful protest is. It is against the law when violence occurs. Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. Its against the law, vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations. None of this is a peaceful protest. Geoff the president , when asked by a reporter, said the National Guard should not be deployed to respond to the protests. When asked if the protests have made him reconsider his policies in the region, the president said no. Back in los angeles, police faced growing criticism for a delayed response to tuesday nights assault on the protesters camp site at ucla. The citys mayor and californias governor have complained, and students today were still angry. I think its especially galling for a lot of protesters because less than 24 hours ago, the protesters in this encampment were attacked by more than 200 unidentified counterprotesters who showed up in the middle of the night and assaulted the encampment for seven hours and the police didnt show up for the first three or four, and then when they did, they sat around and they watched for another hour and a half. There is no riot here, why are you in riot gear . Geoff elsewhere, police also broke up a protester encampment at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire last night and arrested 90 people. Today, the schools president defended the action. In a statement, sian beilock said, last night, people felt so strongly about their beliefs that they were willing to face disciplinary action and arrest. While there is bravery in that, part of choosing to engage in this way is not just acknowledging, but accepting, that actions have consequences. Hands off palestine, hands off students. Geoff in oregon, protesters occupying a Portland StateUniversity Library were cleared out of the building by police. Please stay behind police lines. Geoff once outside, protesters dismantled police barricades. But while some protests are intensifying, others are coming to an end. Officials at the university of minnesota reached a deal with propalestinian demonstrators to disband their encampment today. As part of the agreement, organizations involved in the protest will get to meet with the universitys board of regents next week to discuss how the school should divest from companies with ties to the israeli military. New york police also released body cam video from tuesday when officers swept into Hamilton Hall at Columbia University. They cut through chains and faced barricades of furniture before arresting protesters. More than 100 people were arrested. Given the video of these clashes and the rising number of Police Called to campuses, its easy to lose track of where protests have been generally peaceful. But Wesleyan University in connecticut has largely had a peaceful encampment so far. There has been some vandalism and significant tensions on campus, but not at the level weve seen at some other schools. Michael s. Roth is the president of Wesleyan University and joins us now. Thank you for being with us. Why hasnt wesley and seen the level of disruption, certainly not the level of violence weve seen on other campuses. What accounts for that, and how are you approaching this . It makes me nervous to hear you say that. It just takes a few bozos to turn a peaceful protest into Something Else many of these other schools, it has been nonstudents and people who are looking for fight or for confrontation to turn things toward mayhem or disorder. In the case of ucla, counter protests that were violent themselves. Students are protesting our bearing witness to a disaster in gaza, wanting to engage in discussions with their fellow students, with their faculty and staff members. Sometimes even with me, although they want me to do stuff i dont agree with. They want the university to divest from companies that do business with israel. I dont think thats a sensible idea, but i do think having more conversations about what we can do to bring peace to the middle east makes a lot of sense, and im proud the students arent just worried about their finals, theyre worried about a very important issue in world affairs. Geoff whats your reaction to what weve seen transpire at ucla over the past 48 hours and at Columbia University with the nypd clearing a campus building . I think when people break into a building and start destroying property, one has to get Law Enforcement to help. Thats really unfortunate, but i do think is the president of dartmouth said, actions have consequences, and those actions demanded a response. Ucla is complicated because of the rule that counter protesters played when they attacked the encampment. What weve tried to do it wesley and wesley and his to keep people talking to each other. After all, you only learn from talking to people who dont share your point of view. Youre not going to learn a lot from talking with someone who agrees with you. Geoff how do you balance freedom of expression with student safety in a situation like this . I am a pragmatist. I wrote a book called safe enough spaces, which is about how you make these judgments. You dont want to make the place too safe but you dont wanted to be so unsafe that you are afraid to learn. You want to find a middle ground where people can listen to ideas, even offensive ideas, and find out why someone else holds those ideas, and maybe in the and, learn from them. We have tried to do that by cultivating a culture of conversation across difference. And in these days in america, that is hard because people retreat to their own ingroups, but our faculty, staff and students have worked hard keep lines of communication open, because students at wesleyan do not stay in their own lane. They talk to each other. That habit makes it easier to prevent the outgrowth of violence. Geoff what do you make of this argument we have heard from professors in some cases that institutions of Higher Learning are not so tolerant of demonstrations these days and that universities are so afraid of the political blowback from lawmakers that they are being overly aggressive in how they are responding to this . I think each case is a little different. As you pointed out, when we looked at the video, there are a lot of campuses where there is peace. They dont make it on the news. Its not as exciting to watch a peaceful demonstration. But i do think in some cases the pressure by lawmakers to do something, to show they are doing something or perhaps donors to show that they are tough, this is counterproductive. We need to show that we are educational and congress is not the institution to give lessons on how to cross difference or be educational. Professors and president s have to have the courage to stand up to donors. We need to create safe enough spaces, peaceful campuses where people can agree and disagree across lots of differences. Geoff Wesleyan University president michael roth, thank you for your time. Thank you. Stephanie here are the latest headlines. Hamas announced it is sending a delegation back to egypt, a possible sign of progress in talks of a ceasefire with israel. The group said the goal is to work to an agreement. A u. N. Report said it will take until at least 2040 to repair all the destroyed homes in gaza. The report estimated that nearly 80,000 Housing Units have been flattened in the war. U. S. Intelligence Officials Say irans allies have paused attacks on american troops. At least for now. Groups linked to tehran have carried out strikes against u. S. Forces in the middle east after the war in gaza began but the director of national intelligence, avril haines, said the situation has calmed. Iranian aligned militia groups broadly pause conducting such attacks though it is not clear how that will last. Stephanie she says there is no assessment yet on when militia attacks might resume. Former President Trump has stepped up his threats to reject novembers president ial Election Results if he does not win. He was asked specifically about wisconsin and told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel if everything is honest, i would gladly accept the results. If it is not, you have to fight for the right of the country. The former president made similar statements in 2016 and in 2020. President biden stopped in charlotte, North Carolina today to speak with the relatives of four Law Enforcement officers killed this week. They were shot trying to serve a warrant. He met with the local police chief and others at the Charlotte Airport before seeing the families in private. The European Union will send more than 1 billion in aid to lebanon to curtail the flow of migrants to cyprus and italy. Lebanon hosts more than 785,000 Syrian Refugees plus hundreds of thousands of others. In beirut today, European UnionCommission President ursula von der leyen appeared with the lebanese Prime Minister and president of cyprus on the aid deal. We are committed to maintain legal pathways open to europe, and resettle refugees from lebanon to the European Union. At the same time, we count on your good cooperation to prevent illegal migration and to combat migrant smuggling. Stephanie the eu has arranged similar funding deals with egypt, tunisia and mauritania in a bid to tighten border controls and human smuggling. In southeastern china, the death toll from a collapsed highway has risen to 48. On wednesday, state tv showed cranes lifting vehicles crushed after tumbling through the section of road that gave way in guangdong province. It followed a month of heavy rains. State officials in maryland announced today that rebuilding the Francis Scott key bridge and baltimore will take four years and nearly 2 billion. The span collapsed in late march, when a container ship rammed into a support column. Six members of a road crew were killed. On wednesday, a fifth body was recovered. The sixth worker has not yet been found. Part of interstate 95 in connecticut will be closed for days after a gasoline tanker truck crashed today on a bridge over the highway. The wreck shut down the main northsouth highway linking new england with new york. Traffic was backed up for dozens of miles. The governor said the bridge will have to replaced. Inner light, the county of maui is suing major cell phone carriers over widespread Service Outages caused by last years wildfire. The lawsuit alleges the surface blackout left people unable to receive evacuation alerts. The lawsuit alleges 911 dispatchers were not notified about a Service Blackout that left officals unable to send evacuation alerts. Maui county is a defendant in multiple lawsuits over its Emergency Response to the fire. And, a European Court has sided with italy, against the getty museum in california, in a fight over an ancient greek statue. The victorious youth sculpture dates from 300 to 100 bc. It was pulled from the sea bottom, by italian fishermen, in 1964. Italy argues it was illegally sold to the museum in 1977. Getty Officials Say theyre considering a further appeal. Still to come on the newshour. After a second gag order hearing the prosecution in former President Trumps hush money trial continues case. Young voters in michigan weigh in on President Biden and the upcoming election author eddie glaude junior discusses his new book on how ordinary americans can be the heroes of our democracy. Plus much more. 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. Amna more than 100 hostages are still held captive by hamas. Among them, eight americans, including the bodies of three americans confirmed dead, and five believed to still be alive. Israeliamerican keith siegel was kidnapped from his home in southern israel during the hamas attack on october 7th. I spoke with his niece, hanna siegel, earlier today about the status of hostage negotiations and her familys relentless work to bring her uncle home. Hannah, welcome to the newshour. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much for having me. Amna so your uncle keith siegel was one of the hostages in a video that hamas released last week. Youre wearing the number 208 to represent the number of days that he has now been held. As a policy, we dont show those videos, but i just wanted to ask what you thought when you saw him and when you heard his yeah. It was it was surreal. I mean, its its the first time that weve seen him or heard his voice in over 208 days. My aunt aviva, who is a hostage survivor and was held and released, in november in the ceasefire deal, they were held together. And so when she came out, she was able to tell us a little bit about how hes doing. But since then, we didnt know if he was alive or how he was. I think there was an immense sense of relief just to hear his voice and see his face. And its devastating. I dont know how to describe what its like to look at a Family Member in that situation. He talks. The first thing he says is, i love you and i hope youre okay to our family. And he talks about passover, and he also talks about hearing bombs nearby. There are so many facets to this and so many ways in which were worried about him. Amna there is a moment in the video where he does break down. I cant imagine how difficult this must be for you and your family to watch that. But how did he seem to you after all this time in captivity . I mean, his voice. Its him, its him. And that was that was one thing that gave me a lot of comfort. But hes gaunt. He looks weak. He looks older. You know, hes being hes being held underground. I worry every single day. You know, i remember when aviva was released, she told me that they were starting to starve. And that was a long time ago. So i think about that a lot. Amna you know that a deal to release him remain stalled right now. And you said earlier this week something that stuck with me. You said you dont or youre not sure, rather that its actually in Prime Minister netanyahus political interest to make a deal. What did you mean by that . You know, there have been deals on the table in the past. Theres a lot that happens in these negotiations. Its hard to keep track. Im obviously not on the inside, but from what i do know and from what ive seen. He hasnt made those deals. It hasnt always been clear that hes ready to lean in and prioritize the hostages over anything else. And so i guess what i would say is, i hope that Prime Minister netanyahu prioritizes his own citizens, the hostages, before any Political Considerations and gets this deal done. I think one thing that weve seen over the last six months with hamas, is that the deals dont get better. You know, weeks ago we were talking about 40 hostages potentially in this next round. That number has gone down. Every single day that go