>> sreenivasan: and, as millions of women share their stories of sexual abuse, we hear one actress' story of harassment at the hands of harvey weinstein. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> babbel. a language app that teaches language. language. >> collette. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: confusion reigns in washington tonight over an effort to save the subsidies in obamacare. two senators, republican lamar alexander and democrat patty murray, had announced an agreement. then, the president entered the fray. lisa desjardins has the story. >> reporter: from president trump and the white house, multiple statements in 24 hours left heads spinning on exactly where he stands on a bipartisan health care fix. first, positive words yesterday afternoon. >> and they're coming up, and they're fairly close to a short- term solution. >> reporter: then, last night at the conservative heritage foundation, a seeming rebuke. >> while i commend the bipartisan work done by senators alexander and murray--and i do commend it-- i continue to believe congress must find a solution to the obamacare mess instead of providing bailouts to insurance companies. >> reporter: he echoed the same concern this morning on twitter. democratic minority leader chuck schumer responded on the senate floor, saying the president is going back on his word and appears confused. >> the president ought to know what he is talking about. on this one, he has no idea what it's about. >> reporter: finally, this afternoon, white house press secretary sarah sanders said the president is opposed to the deal as it stands now. >> the bill is a step in the right direction, but it is not a full approach, and we want something to go a little bit further. >> reporter: the job of untangling it all fell to republican senator lamar alexander, trying to craft this deal to stabilize health care markets. he spoke with mr. trump this morning. >> you know, some people think the president doesn't know what he's doing around here. i don't think that. i give him full credit for engineering this bipartisan agreement. he told me that he wanted to encourage me, but that he would review it, as i would expect a president to do. >> reporter: soon after that, the president stressed his main concern. >> if something can happen, that's fine, but i won't do anything to enrich the insurance companies. >> reporter: so would the compromise enrich insurers? let's look. the billions in continued subsidies here are to cover co-pays and deductibles for lower-income americans. but here's how that works. insurance companies are meant to be a kind of middleman. insurers pay the doctor for those poorer individuals' costs, and the government sends insurers the subsidies as a kind of repayment. without the subsidies, insurers legally still must cover these costs for poor americans. so, to make up the money, they've made it clear they would raise premiums. and some already are. republican senate sources say the president is worried that insurers could take advantage of that money flow, but senator alexander insists the bill has provisions to police it. so, where do the bill's chances stand? the president wants some changes. schumer says all or most democrats will vote yes. and alexander, not one to overstate things, says this. >> i would predict before end of the year that this agreement will become law. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> sreenivasan: as the confusion played out in washington, 19 state attorneys general filed suit to continue the health care subsidies under obamacare. the president announced last week that he'll cut off the payments to insurance companies. in the day's other news, attorney general jeff sessions insisted he never lied to the senate judiciary committee about his conversations with the russian ambassador during the presidential campaign. at a hearing today, he bridled at democratic senator al franken's accusation that he'd "moved the goalposts" on the nature of his discussions. >> the goalpost has been moved. first it was, "i did not have communications with russians." which was not true. then it was, "i never met with any russians to discuss any political campaign." which may or may not be true. now it's, "i did not discuss interference in the campaign." >> let me say without hesitation, i conducted no improper discussions with the russians at any time regarding the campaign or any other item facing this country. >> sreenivasan: sessions has recused himself from the justice department's investigation into russia's election meddling. president trump had new criticism today for former f.b.i. director james comey over the hillary clinton email probe. he complained again that comey decided to clear clinton before she was even interviewed. that's based on newly released draft statements by comey from may 2016. f.b.i. officials say it was already clear that no charges were warranted. on another issue, the president faced fallout over the death of army sergeant ladavid johnson, in niger this month. congresswoman frederica wilson says she was with mrs. johnson when the president called. the florida democrat told "the washington post" that mr. trump said, "he knew what he was signing up for, but i guess it hurts anyway." the sergeant's mother confirmed it, but the president denied it, and white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders went after wilson. >> this was a president who loves our country very much, who has the greatest level of respect for men and women in uniform and wanted to call and offer condolences to the family, and i think to try to create something from that, that the congresswoman is doing, is frankly, appalling and disgusting. >> sreenivasan: the "post" also reported on another incident today. it quoted the father of a soldier killed in afghanistan as saying the president offered $25,000 from his personal account, but never followed through. we'll get more detail on all of this after the news summary. the death toll in northern california's wildfires rose to 42 today. officials in sonoma county found the remains of the latest victim, as they searched hundreds of burned homes. meanwhile, fire crews made new gains overnight with the help of cooler weather and low winds. a two-time olympic medalist says the former team doctor for u.s. women's gymnastics sexually abused her for years. mckayla maroney is the highest profile athlete to come forward in the scandal. in a statement today, she said dr. larry nassar began molesting her when she was just 13. he's awaiting sentencing on a child pornography charge, but has denied any sexual abuse. more questions tonight about drug pricing. a new study finds the costs of injectable cancer drugs, approved since 1996, rose an average of 25% over eight years. that's far higher than the rate of inflation. the study was based at emory university and published in the "journal of clinical oncology." and on wall street, health insurers and i.b.m. fueled a surge in stocks today. the dow jones industrial average gained 160 points, more than half a percent, to close above 23,000 for the first time. the nasdaq rose just a fraction, and the s&p 500 was up two points. still to come on the newshour: chinese president xi jinping cements his power in a grand political display. an arizona congressman on the future of the democratic party. the long, slow process of removing bombs in former isis strongholds. and much more. >> sreenivasan: army corporal dillion baldridge was killed in afghanistan in june. he and two fellow soldiers were gunned down by an afghan police officer suspected of an insider attack. baldridge's father was disturbed by the details his son's death and expressed that to president trump in a phone call. mr. trump then apparently took an unusual step for a commander in chief: he offered money. dan lamothe helped break that story for the "washington post" and joins me now. thanks for joining us. so what-- how did this phone call go? >> yes, so several weeks after the soldier's death, the president made a call to north carolina, where the father lives. they had a conversation that the father describes mostly as respectful. the father expressed some frustration with the way that the death gratuitiy, basically a benefit that the family received, was going to his ex-wife, and the president's response caught him by surprise. he said, "well, i'm going to make sure we write you a $25,000 check,", you know, basically for your troubles. >> sreenivasan: and did that check ever arrive? the white house said they sent it late today. >> yes, so we reached out this morning and received no response for several hours. as of today, the father had not received a check, so the assumption here would be that the check had not been sent until we reached out to the white house this morning to verify this father's report. >> sreenivasan: and you discovered this conversation in kind of the-- the story has a larger context pup reached out to several different family, gold star families for what happened after their family member died. >> yes. i mean, we've got this larger conversation this week. it's a very sensitive, very politically charged conversation. and at the center of it are grieving families, we thought it was important to reach out to those grieving families. some of them, understandably dnot want to speak to us, but quite a few did. and we found half of the ones we reached-- reached 14 thrirch families who had lost loved ones since trump became president-- half of them had received calls from the president, half of them had not. mat jort of the ones who had not were upset when they heard his comments earlier this week that he had called all of them. >> sreenivasan: there were even some families or one family that had not received anything, no phone call or even a letter. >> right. and you wonder what's going on there. because that is something that is typically generated. there are form lettere! letteret that the president then signs. there was a time at the height of the iraq war when we had hundreds of american carb ultimates per month. we're now looking at something on the order of several dozen this year, so it's a much smaller amount. so for this to slip through the cracks at this point is very much a surprise. >> sreenivasan: how different is this from when you say logistically, when you think about the number of casualties that were happening in the middle or the height of the iraq war, the afghanistan conflict, how different is this time period than what perhaps president bush and president obama were dealing with? >> it's smaller. during the afghan war we were talking 400, 500 american fatalities per combat. at the height of the iraq war, we were talking several hundred per month. at this point, we do have casualties, each one is sad, but it's a much smaller number. and for the white house to have not kept up was a surprise. >> sreenivasan: already, dan lamothe of the "the washington post." thank you so much for joining us. >> sreenivasan: president xi jinping opened china's twice-per-decade communist party congress today with a lengthy list of his achievements during his first five-year term, and his vision of where he hopes to take his nation. but beyond the words, xi is asserting power like no chinese leader in decades. william brangham reports. >> reporter: the applause, the music-- it was a reception befitting the commanding role that xi jinping has taken since being named party leader, five years ago. he opened today's proceedings by hailing reforms he's put in place, and proclaiming a "new era" for china. >> ( translated ): the chinese nation has realized a great leap from declining in modern history to twisting its fate fundamentally and continuously moving to prosperity. >> reporter: over 3.5 hours, xi laid out his vision to shape the nation of 1.4 billion people into what he called a "great modern socialist country" over the next three decades. >> ( translated ): achieving the great rejuvenation of the chinese nation will be no walk in the park, and it will take more than drum beating and gong clanging to get there. the whole party must be prepared to make more arduous, strenuous efforts. >> reporter: susan shirk is chair of the 21st century china center at the university of california san diego. >> xi jinping has a vision of china's role in the world that is much more ambitious than anything we have seen before. talking about china kind of moving toward the center of the world and having a lot more influence than it did before. >> reporter: in his address, xi largely ignored the question of political reforms in china, and he didn't mention president trump or north korea's nuclear weapons program. but in a rare move, he did acknowledge that-- with global demand weakening-- there were challenges facing china's export-driven economy. >> ( translated ): while china's overall productive forces have significantly improved and in many areas our production capacity leads the world, the more prominent problem is that our development is unbalanced and inadequate. >> reporter: xi was one of the first foreign leaders to meet with president trump. >> the relationship developed by president xi and myself, i think is outstanding. >> reporter: that was decidedly warmer than mr. trump's past criticism of china and its economic and trade policies but other u.s. officials are more critical of beijing's actions. >> china, while rising alongside india, has done so less responsibly. >> reporter: secretary of state rex tillerson today criticized china's aggressive displays of economic and military power, particularly its expansion on man-made islands in the south china sea. >> we will not shrink from china's challenges to the rules- based order, and where china subverts the sovereignty of neighboring countries and disadvantages the u.s. and our friends. >> i think there are things to worry about in chinese foreign policy that are mostly related to these maritime sovereignty issues and to a kind of bullying in asia, but the global ambition could turn out to be positive. >> reporter: susan shirk says china has filled a vacuum left by the united states' withdrawal from global agreements like the trans-pacific partnership and the paris climate accords. perhaps the most important thing to watch for in the next few days is who xi establishes as his likely successor. >> that is why there is a lot of speculation now that he may be trying to, much like putin, to stay on beyond his normal term. or to rule behind the scenes even after he retires. >> reporter: president trump will be traveling to beijing to meet xi next month. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. >> woodruff: and now to our series of conversations on the future of the democratic party. i sat down with democratic congressman ruben gallego at the walter cronkite school of journalism. he has represented phoenix in congress since 2015, and is a marine corps veteran who served in the iraq war. i began by asking him what's at stake in the fight over healthcare. >> well, what's at stake is the rising premiums on millions of americans, and according to the c.b.o., one million americans not having health insurance next year in 2018. the lamar swrld-patty murray compromise seems good on paper. it's going to pay out the subsidies for the insurance market for the next two years. it does give some flexibility to states about what is covered and how the money is used. i'm waiting to see what-- what those details are. >> woodruff: so let's talk about your party, the democrats. it's been almost a year since the democrats took a serious drubbing in the 2016 elections. what shape is the democratic party in now? >> well, certainly, i think we're in better shape. and largely because we have a lot more grassroots activism that has taken the party and really molded us i think into a stronger party. our fund-raising now is largely based on small-dollar donors. you see, you know, people from all walks of life coming out of the shadows to run for office. we're winning special elections, and in parts that we shouldn't be wing like oklahoma, different, you know, new hampshire, and districts that were trump districts. >> woodruff: you said when it came time for a vote for minority leader in the house last november, that it was time for the party to learn from its mistakes in last year's election. you said it needed new leadership. you supported congressman ryan of ohio over nancy pelosi to be the house minority leader. do you still feel that nancy pelosi should be replaced? >> well, at that point, i did feel like it was time for her and leadership to go in general because i think we did not-- we definitely had not learned the lessons of what just occurred. right now i think-- you know, we are midstream. it would be very chaotic for us to change leadership right now. i think it's important for leader pelosi to do her job and do it well. but, also, i think it's also important for everyone to recognize she is accountable. >> woodruff: you also said a year ago that you agree well the american people the message coming from the election was that people are upset with the status quo in washington. is the status quo still what exists in washington? or has president trump, whose come in and been a disrupter, changed all that? >> the message that people are seeing-- are feeling right now is that it's very chaotic right now. and the presidency is supposed to bring some level of calmness and some level of certainty. and the fact that it's not happening, not only is it not happening, it's that he is the prime cause of this unease has changed the tone. i still believe the democrats need to have a strong message. we need to have i a strong economic message, not just the everyday status quo, not just your usual punchlines of training people for the futures of tomorrow, the jobs of tomorrow. that doesn't do anything. we need people to know that we're not just talking about them. we're fighting for them. >> woodruff: you actually praise aid subject i want to tak about. a lot of people look at democrats and say your message right now is all about anti-donald trump, that there's not enough of a positive message. what is the positive message of democrats right now? >> look, our positive message is that we are the party that's going to protect this country. first of all, we're going to protect frudonald trump. number two, our message is the message that we're also going to protect your paycheck. we're going to make sure that you're going to make better wages and receive all the benefits and dignity you deserve from work, and we're going to protect you in terms of national security. donald trump is a threat. donald trump is a threat to our national security. we don't know how far his collusion went with the russians, or at least his administration. we know he is destabilizing our alliances all around the world, and we're better when it comes to national security than donald trump is and the republican party. >> woodruff: what the president is saying is the only thing democrats are doing right now is obstructing his agenda? >> he is talking about his agenda versus america's agenda, and that's not true. for example, the murray-alexander bill, a bipartisan bill that has worked through-- >> woodruff: this is health care. >> the health care bill was stopped midway because the president wanted to do repeal and replace. now, they've-- they're coming back with this bill. and president trump is again rejecting the compromise. what donald trump means by "compromise" is we just are supposed to agree with him. this is not land development. this is not some piece of property in, you know, manhattan. we work together. we build something together. it's not like-- it's not going to be the way that he wants it, and that's the way the american public is demanding it. >> woodruff: i want to ask you about an issue important, all over the country, especially here in the state of arizona, and that is immigration. what do you expect congress is going to do about the so-called dreamers, the young immigrants who came to this country undocumented, brought here by their parents. the president has said he's going to stop protecting them, but he's asking congress to do something about it. what do you think will happen? >> well, again, this is the president, you know, showing no leadership and just passing the buck. and we're going to pick it up. i think at the end of the day, we're going to protect our dreamers. we're going to make sure they have a pathway to citizenship. i don't know how that looks. at the same time, we're not going to say, you know, dreamers are allowed to stay in this country and will not be deported, but the parents, we're going to put them in the process of deportation or increase the chance of them being deported. we just have not going to be playing-- we are not going to bargain with human lives. >> woodruff: already, congressman ruben gallego from the state of arizona, thank you for talking with us. >> thank you for having me. >> sreenivasan: we move from congress to the controversies swirling around the white house. john yang has more on the day's politics. >> yang: thanks, hari. we turn back to president trump's exchange with the family of a soldier killed in action earlier this month, and the president's role in the bipartisan effort to stabilize the health insurance market. for that, i'm joined by karine jean-pierre. she's a senior adviser to moveon.org, a contributing editor to bustle, an online women's magazine, and a veteran of the obama administration. and, matt schlapp. he's the chairman of the american conservative union and the former white house political director under president george w. bush. matt, karine, welcome. karine, let me start with you. we heard the reporting about the journalistic scrutiny into these telephone calls, contacts, the president has with gold star families, not just the phone call yesterday. but others. the white house is pushing back saying it's disgusting that journalists are looking into things. but hasn't the president brought this on himself in some sense by make the comparison between what he does and what previous presidents do? >> that's exactly right. that's how he started off the week. he wanted to change, i'm assuming, the press because the day before he started turning the story around. we were talking about moron and adult care center. so here's the thing-- this is-- this is not new. this is a tv episode in a reality world that we have seen before. he kicked off his presidential campaign, attacking john mccain and his military service. he also, once after he got the republican nomination back in 2016, he attacked another gold star family, the kahn family. so this is a reoccurring kind of position. and then he starts off the week saying, oh, obama and presidents bfore him didn't do the same-- cannot didn't do that, didn't have a kind of how to honor soldiers. and so did bush, which is somebody that you worked for. so there is a pattern that is quite bizarre and disturbing for a president, a commander in chief to vp. >> yang: matt, what's your take. >> i think the pattern is on his critics, and i think the critics have enjoyed trying to act like there is somehow a disrespect for the commitment of our military and their families. and i think it's actually just the opposite. i think if you look at the support that he gets from military families and the military across the country, i think they're very appreciative of what he's doing to reenergize them, and the approach he has on these basic issues of our national security. and i think the people who are making politics about this are the people who oppose him politically. i just think there are some things that just aren't political. and i think when we have dead men and women from the battlefield, i just don't think it's political. maybe one president will handle it one way. maybe another president will handle it another way. maybe not all presidents handle every phone call or every interaction perfectly. but they're trying to do their best to console somebody who's got a terrible loss. and i think when we put this in-- make it all about politics and what people's reactions are. what i care about is i want our commander in chief to console the family of the fallen, and i'm glad he does it. >> yang: but, matt, didn't the-- the president raised this. he started this discussion on monday when he was asked about the public silence-- his silence about the four green berets shild in i can ger, and he brought up this cam son to president obama in particular. >> you can say it's a question, but you can also say it's a charge, and the charge was that he is not quickly enough or often enough calling the families of those who have lost a loved one on the battlefield, and what he was trying to say is that's not accurate, and it's not accurate to say that all presidents do it a certain way, and quite frankly, it's not accurate to say that president obama called all these families, which is what we saw with the example of generalicleeicleet ad loss of his son. i don't criticize president obama for the way he handled his contact with the familys. i don't criticize president trump with the way he's trying to console people. i don't criticize president bush, and i saw him do it. it's a tough thing to do. and sometimes, by the way, those parents give you a piece of their mind, and that's part of it, too. and i think there should be a zone of privacy around this, and i think what we're doing is it we're sullying the central focus of this which is the sacrifice of one american to put their body and their lives to protect the rest of us. >> yang: let me stay with you and turn to health care. we heard the president just yesterday talk about how this bipartisan effort by senators alexander and murray, to try to figure out sort of an interim step to stabilize the health insurance markets while they work on repeal and replace of the affordable care act. but then today, he comes out and sails that he's against it. what's the president doing here? what's going on? >> well, he's driving his head of legislative affairs crazy, i'm sure. but, no, there is method to his madness, which is what he's trying to say is that we can get a deal on these payments to make sure that premiums are affordable for working class people. but in order to do that, you have to compromise. and this is where senator schumer and speaker pelosi, they have to decide, if they want to get these c.s.r. payment dns, he's going to need to get some things done that republicans want to see done in health care reform as well, some of the aspects of the previous bills that have failed in the senate. this is true on daca. this is truly trua all these issues. the president is definitely willing to come up with a compromise, but it's not just on that issue. it's gog have to be coupled with some other issues. so i think there's a real chance to get something done on this. but at the end of the day, there's no more important thing for republicans than to actually do what they said they would do, which is repeal and replace obamacare. >> yang: so, karine, is this up to the democrats to get this thing through or the republicans? >> i think this bipartisan deal was amazing. it's hard to get republicans and democrats to agree today is wednesday. so the fact that this happened is actually a big deal, and i think the only reason he would oppose this is if you want the preme umass to go up and you want to sabotage the health care system. this is what the american people sent them to do on the hill, which is work together and bring something forth. and the other part about this that's really bizarre to me is nearly every piece of legislation that republicans have brought forth on health care since donald trump has been president, has had a c.s.r. component to it. so what's the difference here? this is something that will help poor and sick people get health care. this is a very simple fix. it really will help the health care individuals-- >> he's willing to fix this question around c.s.r.s, but it has to be do yo coupled withe other reforms. >> then he's politicizing it just like he does with gold star families. >> it's democrats and republicans working together. >> and that's the part that i don't understand. you finally have that. why are you pushing it away? why are you opposing it? this is a great thing. >> answer is because it's not just about a fix of c.s.r.s. that's one tiny little sliver of health care. >> but it's important for right now. it's important to make sure that poor people and sick people get health care. >> the people i deal with want to see the whole thing repealed and replaced, not just a sliver. >> well, republicans couldn't do that. they had about three, four tries-- >> okay, gout me there. >> that's right. >> you got me there. >> you've got the house. you've got the senate. you've got presidency. >> you sound like a tea party person. >> i'm just telling you the facts. >> yang: karine jean-pierre, matt schlapp, thanks so much. >> sreenivasan: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: we hear first-hand from an actress who says harvey weinstein sexually harassed her. and, the celestial phenomenon that has opened up a vast field of research. but first, the de facto capital of the islamic state-- raqqa, in syria-- fell yesterday to u.s.-backed forces. however, the largest city the miliants once held was mosul, in iraq. they were ousted from it in july, after a brutal, ten-month long fight that killed thousands. now, a new major task: finding and destroying the isis mines, booby traps and bombs that litter the city. special correspondent marcia biggs reports from iraq. >> reporter: it was once a center of learning for over 6,000 students of technology, agriculture, and medicine. today, mosul technical institute's classrooms are burnt to the ground, laboratories reduced to rubble, books charred and shredded. it's one of the city's five universities ravaged by the islamic state and the battle to oust it. now that the battle is over, a new danger looms-- the trail of land mines and booby traps left by isis. so this is the wire, and this is where it was buried. >> yeah, they would cut the asphalt and then they lay the wire in and put the main charge here. >> reporter: we spent the day with christian, a team leader from janus global, a security and risk management firm hired by the u.s. government to sweep and clear major areas of unexploded ordinance and mines. he's not allowed to show his face or use his last name, for security reasons. >> there's actually two more on that road before we get to the target building, that have to be excavated and or rendered safe. >> reporter: so the first building you have to clear, you have to get rid of the i.e.d.s on the road to that building. >> yes. >> reporter: it's a long process. >> it is, but that's what makes it interesting. >> reporter: the united states has sunk $30 million this year into clearing former isis territories all over northern iraq. under this program, janus has already cleared 727 buildings, removing 3,000 i.e.d.s, which they say isis was producing on assembly lines at an industrial scale. but state department officials and experts say the number of unexploded ordinance in mosul itself is unprecedented. what's your first line of attack, in terms of trying to clear mosul? >> our priority is more the community rather than the individual. you know, infrastructure, you've got schools, power, sewer, water, so that the area can accept people back into it. and then once this stabilization phase is over, we can move into the individual homes, so that they can be safer. >> reporter: clearing mosul is a process that they say could take years, even decades. so janus is training local iraqis to do the job, sending them out as a front line search team, then investigating and removing any suspicious items themselves. >> we're not going to be here the whole time, so when it's our time to leave, they'll have the capacity, built from us and the mentoring we've done, so that they can do it on their own. >> reporter: how are they doing? >> a lot of them are very apt to learn, they're quick, they're smart. >> reporter: fawzi al nabdi is the team leader for the iraqi local partner. he's cleared mines all over iraq for the last six years. whatcha got? >> ( translated ): we are ready for this, because it's my job and i love it. the americans are here to complete our work and help us. they have greater experience than we do. if we find any mines, we have to stop and they will investigate it and make a plan to remove it. >> reporter: but he says mosul is the biggest project he has ever seen, and we're told it could take at least a month to just get the campus cleared of mines. only then can they start cleaning it up, so that students can resume classes. this itself is a huge task. isis fighters closed the university back in 2014, and used it as a military base. as coalition forces pounded isis targets, this seat of higher learning became a battleground. ghassan alubaidy is the institute's dean. >> ( translated ): isis used our university to manufacture mines and bombs. for this reason it was target of airstrikes in the beginning. they struck the institute nine times, and they struck our workshops, too. now we can't use them. >> reporter: the former commander of coalition forces in iraq, lieutenant general stephen townsend recently listed 81 locations where bombs were dropped, but had not yet exploded. facilities used to make weapons were often on the list of high value targets for the coalition. so now those places are twice as likely to contain dangerous items. so this was once a workshop for electrical engineering students, you can still see the lab tables here. it was hit by an airstrike in 2015. afterwards, members of the university staff found bomb- making instructions among the rubble. this was likely an isis bomb making factory, and judging by the crater, a high value target. despite the damage, dean alubaidy says he'll hold classes this fall in alternate buildings, until the campus is ready. he's expecting registration to be in the thousands. students who lost three years of education during the fighting, and don't want to lose another one. >> ( translated ): on our facebook pages, we found a great number of students posting that they were full of encouragement to come back. for us, it was unbelievable, we couldn't imagine it, to see how many students wanted to start again. how they were dreaming of the first day of classes, when they could sit in front of the teachers again and start to live their lives again. >> reporter: next door, mosul university has already started classes. students even volunteered to help in the cleanup. but across the river, west mosul was the site of isis's last stand and bore the brunt of the battle. it's densely packed old city, with its flattened buildings, is a challenge for mine sweeping. >> ( translated ): most of the homes here were full of mines. and just here in front of us, a man with two kids came back to his home, and when he opened the door, the bomb killed him and his kids. >> reporter: ahmed younes fled back in early july with only the clothes on his back. residents have been virtually banned from returning to his neighborhood on the outskirts of the old city, but ahmed said he got special permission, in order to retrieve some personal items. >> ( translated ): we came on our own. we got permission to come, but they are not responsible if anything happens to us. >> reporter: right now, there is no plan to begin clearing the old city or even to determine how many mines there are. it is still out of bounds to anyone but the iraqi security forces. so the janus team is focusing on progress in the rest of the city, building by building, bomb by bomb. >> whoever made this device had a set goal, and to allow him to win, people get hurt. so you kind of compete against him, to be better than him, to take it out before people can get hurt. you're winning the battle against isis, if you can. yeah, one i.e.d. at a time. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm marcia biggs in mosul, iraq. >> sreenivasan: tune in later. "frontline's" latest film, "mosul," was on the ground filming the fight as it unfolded street-by-street and house-by- house. that's tonight on pbs. >> sreenivasan: let's turn to the continuing fallout and reaction to the harvey weinstein story. yesterday, weinstein resigned from the board of his production company following numerous revelations of sexual harassment and several allegations of assault. more than three dozen women have said weinstein harassed them. while weinstein has admitted to behaving inappropriately, he has said he did not physically assault anyone. one of those women is katherine kendall. she was a 23-year-old actress who met weinstein in 1993. she alleges that he invited her to his apartmnt in new york where, she says, he took off his clothes and asked for a massage. as other actresses began coming forward about their painful experiences, she also went public with her own story. she joins me now from los angeles. first, thanks for joining us, and i don't want to relive something that's painful for you, but are you taking a public stance on it. for people who don't know your story, what happened? >> well, i was-- you know, a young actress, and i had had a formal meeting at the miramax office earlier that day, and then at the end of the meeting, which i thought went really well, he invited me to come to screenings. he said, "welcome to the miramax family,", you know, "come to premieres, screenings, et cetera. in fact, there's one this afternoon. would you like to come?" and i said, "sure." and i ended up going to see a movie with him. it ended up just being a movie, not a screening, but the film "red rock west," and, you know, that's when i had this sinking feeling that something wasn't going right. and then after the movie, we walked for a few blocks, and he said he needed to go up to his apartment to get something, and would i just come with him real quick. and i sort of said no, and we went back and forth on that for a minute. it was sort of a negotiation with him always, trying to sort of stand my ground, but then be convinced it was okay. i did go into his apartment. once there, we talked for a long time about art and movies, and i felt like he was treating me like an intellect. >> and felt like the meeting was going really well, and sort of continued. i didn't feel unsafe once i was in there. and at one point then, he got up to go to the battle room. he came back in a robe and asked me to give him a massage. and i was extremely uncomfortable. and i was like, "no." you know "i'm not comfortable with that." and we went back and forth on that. and then he went back to the bathroom again, and came back this time completely naked. and, you know, that changed it entirely for me, too. it just took it to the next place. it was completely disorienting, and i was scared, you know. i was really scared. and then it became sort of a cat-and-mouse game of how am i going to get out of there? it's hard to make sense of what someone is trying to do to you when they're fully naked, and they're, you know, i'm 105 pounds. he's a large man, standing between me and the door. and, i mean, i felt very resolute, like i will definitely get out of here somehow. but i'm not-- i'm not sure-- i'm not sure what's going to happen here. you know, a lot was going through my head. and he said, "well, if you won't give me a massage, will you at least show me your breasts." and it was just-- you know, it was all in all other an extremely humiliating experience for me. even though i got away, i felt like something had still-- like something horrible had just happened to me. >> sreenivasan: you know, in the immediate aftermath, did you tell someone about it? because you've said before that you felt ashamed? >> i did. >> sreenivasan: even though you were the victim. >> i did. it's really interesting how that happens. and i think, you know, i'm older now, and i've done some work on myself, and i've learned that a lot of people feel that way. it's-- it wasn't just me, but the "just me" feeling that this is my fault. this must have only happened to me. there's something wrong with me, is so common when somebody perpetrates against you. >> sreenivasan: what were the-- >> and i did. i told my mom. and i told some good friends. but, you know, one of the things that happened was i didn't want them to tell anybody. you know, people wanted to help me, but they didn't know how, and i didn't want them to try too hard because i didn't want it to backlash. i was scared. and i think that it's important to remember that we don't really come from a cult that you are supports women in talkin talkint sexual harassment. in my-- in my experience, that is. and, you know, i just haven't felt like it was something i was going to get support on. >> sreenivasan: you know, how long-- >> in the bigger picture. >> sreenivasan: how long did this feeling last, or i guess, what are the longer term ripple effects here? did it shake your confidence in your abilities? >> i think it did. i think it did. i think it did. i think it made me feel like, wow, you know, that was a wash. he wasn't interested at all in what i had to say or, you know, he didn't see any talent there, intellect there. he was assessing the situation the whole time for something else. and i think that-- that did hurt. you know, i wish it didn't. >> sreenivasan: yeah. >> but he had produced so many movies that i thought were wonderful, and it was-- it's hard when someone has made art that you love, and how do you stay attached to liking their art, but feeling conflicted about them? and yeah, i think it does have long-term effects. i think you tuck it away. and then for me, also, i realized that it came back when i would see his name or see him in person. i would start to sort of tremble all over again. i mean, i wouldn't think about him on a daily basis or anything for years. and then i'd see him, and i would think, "oh. i don't feel well. i gotta get out of here." you know, it would bring up so much emotion. and the most recent one was the woman in new york, the italian model, you know. i felt so, so enraged when i saw what happened there and that they-- the police had him, and that then he got away, and then she was being dragged through the press as somebody who just, you know, wanted a payout, et cetera. >> sreenivasan: you be, in the wake of that, there was a friend of yours had tweeted, "at some point, all the women who have been afraid to speak out about harvey weinstein are going to have to hold hands and jump." this was back in 2015. from your twitter account you said, "agreed." it seemed like you almost had the opportunity to come forward. what made you want to come forward now? has this become a turning point in the industry? >> this is a turning point. it's a turning point. there are so many times when i thought about it, and then felt like-- there were times i thought about it and thought, "i have nothing to lose i'll just do it." and i didn't have the strength or the courage yet. and i think somebody like jodi kantor, doing the story for "the new york times," the fact that she thought it was a story at all was startling to me. and made me feel like, wow, something is going to be done. and i knew she had told me-- i mean, they were looking for women that this had happened to because they'd been hearing rumors for so long, that it happened to so many people. and she told me other people were coming out. and i thought i can'tue know, when i watched rose mcgown or any of the other actresses come forward, or ashley judd, i just thought, they look strong to me, and i don't want to be the one that stays silent. >> sreenivasan: katherine kendall-- >> i want to stand beside them. >> sreenivasan: katherine kendall, thank you very much for speaking with us. and hopefully there are other people that are empowered by you coming forward. >> i hope so. thank you. >> sreenivasan: astrophysicists and astronomers all over the world are celebrating a golden moment this week-- the announcement of a scientific finding that has nobel prize written all over it. they witnessed the collision of two incredibly dense neutron stars and found a scientific holy grail. it provides further proof that albert einstein was a genius-- relatively speaking. the findings help us understand the universe better, and as a result, we now know where all the gold and silver and platinum in the world comes from. it's the focus of our "leading edge" segment this week, and science correspondent miles o'brien joins me now. tell me yare they so excited about this? >> it's a textbook changer, hari. it happened in august, and it began with two observations. one of gravitational waves, ripples in space time, if you will, followed right on its heels by the recording of a gamma ray burst. this set off this amazing scientific full-court press that led to this discovery. the focus of all this, hari, are neutron stars and the collision of two of them. neutron stars are what is left over after a supernova, a star burns out. these things are the densest things we know of in the universe. these, at the focus of this story, were about the size of boston. and yet they have a mass that is 50% greater than our sun. they're relatively rare to have two of them collide. it happens once about every 100,000 years, in our galaxy, the milky way, hari. >> sreenivasan: did all these people just get lucky when all their beepers and bells and whistles started going off that something was afoot? >> luck favors the prepared scientist, i guess, in this case. it began with the ligo instrument. this team recently won the nobel prize for a discovery in 2015 of these gravitational waves, wrinkles in space time, that proved out einstein's theory of relativity. it did that by detecting the collision of black holes. now, in our business of television, we prefer our science illustrated. so when they discovered that there might possibly be a collision of neutron stars, that includes an explosion and some light and that made people feel a little more excite. in august, the ligo instrument detected one of these gravitational waves, but it was ever so slightly different. it happened a little longer because these neutron stars move a little slower than black holes. another instrument, subsequently, the feremy, which is an orbiting instrument, detected a gamma ray burst. scientists thought they were hot on the trial of one of these neutron star collisions and they started scrambling. ego burger is part of the team. he's at harvard. >> as soon as we received an alert from the ligo instruments telling us they detected a gravitational wave force, we started calling observatories all over the world where we have programs that are ready to go for that purpose. we gave them the coordinates of the source in the sky where they would have to point the telescope, and as soon as they pointed a telescope in that direction, we could look at the images coming in. >> working together, the gravitational wave astronomers and its light wave astronomers were able to kind of pinpoint this location very quickly, sort pwhere it was happening, a galay that is 130 million lite years away. and it turns out it was much more than a light show. once they were able to find it and they watched this explosion unfold, they were able to really record the entire electromagnetic spectrum. and in it, they were able to see the distinct sghtz of all kinds of elements, including these heavy lementz-- gold, silver, and platinum-- proving that furnace, that explosion is what creates those particular elements. >> sreenivasan: so now that we know where some of these heavy elements come from, what do scientists do with that information? >> well, it would be nice to go out and get the gold, wouldn't it, hari? it's 130 million light years away. it's a little bit of a problem. somebody actually calculated how much gold would have been createed by this particular collision. just so you know, it comes out to about 10 octillion doctors' worth. one followed by 270s. so we could quit our day jobs, hari. but, obviously, scientists are not as focused on the gold themselves. for them, knowledge is gold. duncan brown browne is a fizzibs professor at syracuse university. >> this really is a new type of astronomy. we're now bringing together all the tools that humans have to bear on observing the universe. we can feel ripples in space time. we can see the light from things colliding out there in the universe and exploding and the light from stars. and bringing all these tools together is going to allow us to learn so much more about the universe. >> sreenivasan, you know, give me a sense of this collaboration. right now in the united states we kent get two parties to agree on, some but you're talking about different teams from all over the world responding at the droch a hat. >> yes. and there are case where's astronomers will line up observatories to look at events, and they collaborate on these things. but as best we can tell, this is unprecedented in its scope and its speed of response. it was really lightning fast once the word got out. about 70 observatories, ultimately, were pointed at this unprecedented event. >> sreenivasan: now, all this happened just last august, but, really, it happened when the dinosaurs were walking around. >> year, it's a little bit of a mind bender. when you look at this event, 130 million light years away, it took that long for the light to reach us. so really it happened 130 million years ago. and that gives you an idea of how old the universe, and it also gives you an idea of how these particles, which are created so far away, ultimately have really great meaning to us. we end up wearing them. it's bling. >> sreenivasan: all right, miles o'brien, thanks so much. >> you're welcome, harvey. >> sreenivasan: on the newshour online right now: the on-field protests by n.f.l. players against racial injustice have become a political flash point. a harvard professor explores the cultural expectations black pro athletes face in america, and why wealth can't buy freedom from discrimination. that and more is on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> tonight on charl rose mike wall expas his new history of new york city. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm hari sreenivasan. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> bnsf railway. >> collette. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world, by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at www.rockefellerfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs. ♪ > pati: everybody comes from somewhere. even if that somewhere is a tiny town in oaxaca, it can produce alex ruiz, one of the most famous chefs in mexico, and alex loves coming home to his farm where he always finds friends, family and amazing food. in my kitchen, delicious food for my family is also cooking. >> i love the smell. i love what it does to my kitchen. >> meatball in a rich guajillo sauce, and a bright chepil rice. >> mmm. >> try that. (pati laughs) >> home and family. that's where we all come from. ♪