AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.
I'm Amna Nawaz.
GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.
On the "News Hour" tonight: A hurricane turned tropical depression lashes the Gulf Coast, leaving flooded neighborhoods and hundreds of thousands of people without power.
AMNA NAWAZ: As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail post-debate, election officials warned that problems with the U.S.
Postal Service could disenfranchise voters.
GEOFF BENNETT: And on a trip to Kyiv, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court discusses what's being done to hold Russian forces accountable for atrocities committed against Ukraine.
KARIM KHAN, Prosecutor, International Criminal Court: So the suffering is horrendous.
The heartbreak is very real.
And we see so many examples of objects that are civilian, not military, being destroyed and civilians being killed.
(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."
The major storm Francine dumped heavy rain along the Southeast today after flooding New Orleans and coastal communities throughout Louisiana.
AMNA NAWAZ: Francine peaked as a Category 2 hurricane and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people.
It weakened into what's known as a post-tropical cyclone today.
And there have been no reports of deaths or injuries, but there were dozens of rescues.
Stephanie Sy has our report.
STEPHANIE SY: Hurricane Francine crashed into land last night, drenching Louisiana and sending trees down to earth from the streets of Baton Rouge to a family home in Denham Springs.
The Category 2 storm blew winds up to 100 miles per hour.
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): A lot of wind, a lot of water, a lot of lost power.
STEPHANIE SY: Senator John Kennedy appeared alongside Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as he briefed reporters this afternoon.
GOV.
JEFF LANDRY (R-LA): As we begin this recovery, let us care for those family members and our neighbors.
Check on them.
Make sure that they are secure, because that is who we are here in Louisiana.
STEPHANIE SY: Closer to the Gulf, in Houma, Louisiana, flooding blurred the lines between land and sea.
In New Orleans, authorities said 52 floodgates were closed to protect against a storm surge.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's leader, Deanne Criswell, was on the ground to inspect the damage.
She said the state's flood protection infrastructure paid off.
DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA Administrator: The amount of money invested in resilience has really made a difference, from the power outages to the number of homes saved.
STEPHANIE SY: In Morgan City, Francine ripped roots from the ground.
Governor Landry said, at the storm's peak, 450,000 people were without power.
MALIK PHILLIPS, Morgan City, Louisiana, Resident: At first, it wasn't bad at all.
But once the winds pick up and the rain started, it got a little rough, especially with two little kids inside.
They want to cry, they want to scream, and I was like, oh, man.
STEPHANIE SY: Today, residents surveyed the damage and started cleaning up the mess.
MALIK PHILLIPS: I'm going to ride around and see who need help.
That's what you kind of doing things like this, help the elder, help the young folks, help anybody out.
STEPHANIE SY: Francine weakened into a tropical depression as it moved through Mississippi today.
It will continue to lose steam as it approaches which is Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee.
For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Stephanie Sy.
GEOFF BENNETT: With just over seven weeks until Election Day, both candidates fought for votes in battleground states.
Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign said today it raised $47 million in the 24 hours following Tuesday night's debate.
At a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Harris used former President Donald Trump's debate performance to compare their visions for the country.
KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: On Tuesday night, I talked about issues that I know matter to families across America.
But that's not what we heard from Donald Trump.
Instead, it was the same old show, that same tired playbook that we have heard for years.
GEOFF BENNETT: Mr. Trump said today that Tuesday's matchup would be their last, writing on TRUTH Social that there will be no third debate.
He later held a rally in Tucson, Arizona.
DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: As everyone saw two nights ago, we had a monumental victory over comrade Kamala Harris.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris showed up spewing empty rhetoric, the same old lies, meaningless platitudes... offering no plans, no policies and no details whatsoever, nothing.
GEOFF BENNETT: Meanwhile, the Georgia judge handling Donald Trump's election interference case dismissed two counts brought against the former president.
Judge Scott McAfee ruled that state prosecutors lacked the authority to pursue the charges in federal court, but he declined an effort to dismiss the entire indictment.
The day's other headlines begin in Ukraine, where Russian strikes killed three members of the Red Cross.
Ukrainian officials say the workers were hit while unloading an aid truck.
In the northern part of the country, police surveyed the damage by Russian drone strikes on an apartment building.
Authorities say 14 people were injured.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Poland today addressed the growing calls to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons for deeper strikes inside Russia.
He left open that possibility.
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. Secretary of State: As we go forward, we will do exactly what we have already done, which is we will adjust, we will adapt as necessary, including with regard to the means that are at Ukraine's disposal to effectively defend against the Russian aggression.
GEOFF BENNETT: It all comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia has started a counteroffensive in the Kursk border region, pushing back after Ukraine carried out a surprise incursion last month.
Russia said it recaptured 10 settlements today.
In North Dakota, a judge has struck down the state's ban on abortion, saying the law was too vague and the state's constitution enshrines the right to access an abortion before a fetus is viable.
Although today's ruling makes abortion legal in the state, North Dakota currently has no clinics performing them.
The ruling is expected to be appealed.
The Biden administration slapped sanctions on 16 allies of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro today.
They include the head of the country's high court, who reaffirmed Maduro's illegitimate claim of victory in that country's disputed July election, and military leaders, intelligence officials and government officers who the U.S. says are responsible for intensifying repression through intimidation, indiscriminate detentions, and censorship.
Edmundo Gonzalez, who the U.S. says won the election, this week fled into exile after being granted asylum in Spain.
In a rare move today, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland denounced efforts to politicize the Justice Department with the election less than two months away.
His remarks before DOJ employees didn't mention any specific cases or names, but they come amid claims from Donald Trump and his allies that the DOJ has been weaponized to keep the former president from being reelected.
MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. Attorney General: The work you do every day makes a difference.
And the way you do that work makes clear that the public servants of the Department of Justice do not bend to politics and that they will not break under pressure.
GEOFF BENNETT: Garland went on to say that the norms protecting the department from political interference matter now more than ever.
And to economic news, there's new Labor Department data showing the job market and inflation are steadily slowing.
Jobless claims were up by 2,000 last week to a total of 230,000.
That's up from earlier this year, but layoffs remain historically low.
Separate numbers indicate that wholesale prices only rose by a fraction-of-a-percent last month.
And in what could be a precursor to the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates, the European Central Bank today made its own rate cut of a quarter-point, its second cut of the year.
That news helped stocks rise across the board today.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained over 235 points, inching back closer to its all-time high.
The Nasdaq jumped by an entire percentage point, and the S&P finished higher for its fourth straight day.
And hundreds of miles above Earth today, one giant leap for commercial space travel.
A tech billionaire who chartered his own SpaceX flight became the first ever private citizen to perform a space walk.
WOMAN: I have a feeling the crowd is about to go wild.
GEOFF BENNETT: The company livestreamed the moment that Jared Isaacman hoisted himself out of the capsule, spending around 10 minutes in the vacuum of space connected by a tether.
The space walk was just one small step toward possibly settling on Mars and other planets.
Still to come on the "News Hour": we lay out the presidential candidates' divergent positions on immigration; the bankruptcy of a large health system gets political; and a group of urban explorers in Gary, Indiana, find beauty in the decay of an abandoned building.
In a new letter, election officials from across the country say the U.S. postmaster general has not addressed persistent mail delivery delays and has not adequately prepared for the general election.
And that, they say, could cause ballots to miss election deadlines, lead to fewer people voting, and undermine trust in the voting process.
Mail-in voting has already started in Alabama, and at least 36 states allow all of their residents to vote by mail.
I spoke earlier today with Mandy Vigil.
She's elections director for the state of New Mexico and president of the National Association of State Election Directors, one of the groups that issued the letter.
And I asked about what election officials see as the lack of understanding and enforcement of Postal Service policies for handling election mail.
MANDY VIGIL, New Mexico State Elections Director: The USPS has a lot of different election mail policies.
Those policies are in place for good reason.
And the unfortunate reality is that we're seeing an inconsistent application of those policies, which could make a difference in the ability to count a ballot or not.
So, as an example, there's a requirement to postmark ballots.
We are hearing of instances across states where that is not occurring.
And depending on state law, that may prohibit an eligible ballot from otherwise being counted.
GEOFF BENNETT: We know that critical battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Georgia, they all accept mail-in ballots.
All of these states will likely be decided by extremely thin margins.
Do you think that these delivery delays could swing the outcome of the election in any one of these states?
MANDY VIGIL: I think that's something that we are concerned about.
I mean, to your point, this is an incredibly historic election.
Voters do have many ways in which they can participate, and that might vary depending on what state they're in.
But many states, including one like ours in New Mexico, offer an opportunity for voters to participate by mail.
And so voters should have that opportunity without concern that something isn't going to get there in time to be counted.
So we do see contests that when we're looking at a local level could be determined by small margins.
We see changes when it's 100 to 200 ballots.
I have even seen contests where there's a tie in our state when we get down to the local level.
So every ballot is something that we want to feel confident in being able to account for and count appropriately.
GEOFF BENNETT: Well, I reached out to the U.S.
Postal Service yesterday to see how they responded to this letter.
And they say that they're aware of your concerns.
They say that mail is typically delivered in less than three days across the country.
They say they don't believe there'd be any critical election issues resulting from their handling of ballot mail.
And the director of election mail issued a statement that reads this way.
It says: "We are ready to deliver.
We were successful in 2020, delivering a historic volume of mail-in ballots, also in 2022, and we will do so again in November 2024."
Have they done enough to address your concerns?
MANDY VIGIL: No.
That's really the reason that that we felt it was critical to come together as an election community.
This is coming from state down to local election administrators.
So we see these issues across states, across kind of government levels.
And we don't see the change that makes us feel confident in their ability to really address what's necessary for election mail.
It's not about volume.
It's really about reliability and accuracy.
So if we look at their busiest time of year, where they're able to handle holiday Christmas mail, if a Christmas card gets to your friends and family a little bit beyond the deadline, though it might be a little embarrassing, I think that nobody really is really worried about it in the same way when we apply that to a ballot.
So if we are following kind of their standards and expectations of when a voter should receive and then the timeline in which they should return a ballot, but that's not accurate.
We are hearing about ballots coming in weeks, days.
That is critical to being able to count them.
Many states, it has to either arrive on election night by 7:00 p.m., like ours here in New Mexico, or they may have a postmark requirement.
So either way, the post office is a critical partner in making sure that all of those items are aligned and that the voters can trust that it's going to get to us timely.
If it doesn't, that's really where election officials and voters are the ones left paying the price.
GEOFF BENNETT: The postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, his history as a Trump supporter, a Trump megadonor, that has raised questions for some about his motives as the Postal Service sees these slowdowns, these delivery delays.
Is there any reason to think that these slowdowns are intentional, as some Trump critics have suggested?
MANDY VIGIL: You know, I don't think that election administrators as a whole see things in a partisan way.
We're not elected officials.
We're election administrators.
So we have seen issues with the post office in the past.
I think what we can speak to is the fact that it's certainly something that has increased over the past 12 months.
And we certainly don't feel like we're seeing any effort to really make a difference on the pattern across kind of the post office as a whole.
Many states may have positive relationships with their state and local or regional support in the post office.
But that's really just not enough to be able to see kind of the industry adjustments necessary to change this pattern.
GEOFF BENNETT: Mandy Vigil, president of the National Association of State Election Directors, thanks so much for your time.
MANDY VIGIL: Thank you.
AMNA NAWAZ: One of the most divisive issues in this year's presidential race is immigration.
And on the campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have clashed over how to handle immigration policy.
While federal agents reported nearly 2.5 million migrant encounters at the southern border last year, in the last five months, crossings have plunged.
Our Lisa Desjardins has been covering both candidates' plans.
She joins us now.
Good to see you, Lisa.
LISA DESJARDINS: Good to see you.
AMNA NAWAZ: Let's start with the border and border security specifically.
What do we hear from each campaign in terms of how they would handle this issue?
LISA DESJARDINS: Both Trump and Harris have talked about border security.
And in office, both of them have actually increased border security.
But from there, that's where things diverge.
So let's take a look first at Vice President Kamala Harris and what she wants to do.
She has pointed to a particular Senate bill proposal for what she thinks needs to happen on the border as far as security goes.
Here's what she said in the debate.
KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: The United States Congress, including some of the most conservative members of the United States Senate, came up with a border security bill, which I supported.
And that bill would have put 1,500 more border agents on the border to help those folks who are working there right now overtime trying to do their job.
LISA DESJARDINS: On border security, that means 1,500 Customs and Border Patrol agents, but also hundreds of asylum and other new officers.
She also would like to invest in more detection technology specifically to cut fentanyl smuggled in.
Now, that bill, of course, Amna, is the one that former President Trump personally killed, even though it was getting some bipartisan support.
So what would he do as far as border security is concerned?
Let's take a look at the side-by-side here.
He is not proposing to increase the number of border agents, asylum officers or other personnel.
Instead, he is pledging and stressing that he wants to finish his border wall.
Now, Trump's approach to border security is much more about deportation and deterrence than about the actual physical barriers right now at the border.
AMNA NAWAZ: So tell us more about that.
What are we hearing from the candidates in terms of how they want to handle both migrants who are now attempting to cross the border and also the millions who are already here as undocumented immigrants?
LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.
Let's, in this case, start now with former President Trump, because this is a central part of what he is saying and a central part of the debate, of course.
Former President Trump is centered around the idea of having mass deportations, the largest in history in this country, of millions of undocumented immigrants.
He says this would be done by local police, the National Guard, and possibly by active-duty military, with the possibility of increasing detention centers to hold these individuals.
Now, at the debate, Mr. Trump gave his rationale and raised an unproven, debunked idea that Democrats have caused a border crisis to get votes.
DONALD TRUMP: This will be one of the greatest mistakes in history for them to allow -- and I think they probably did it because they think they're going to get votes.
But it's not worth it, because they're destroying the fabric of our country by what they have done.
There's never been anything done like this at all.
They have destroyed the fabric of our country.
LISA DESJARDINS: Now it is not legal, of course, for noncitizens to vote in this country.
And there's no evidence of that happening in large numbers.
Republicans say the problem is it's not tracked well enough, but there really is not that evidence.
As for mass deportations, it isn't clear exactly how that would work.
Trump has indicated that he would have a national dragnet to find undocumented immigrants, perhaps beginning with those who they know are criminals, but how would he find them?
It's unclear.
I spoke with Jennie Murray of the center-right National Immigration Forum about concerns.
JENNIE MURRAY, National Immigration Forum: It's extremely problematic and it's problematic to all folks across the country.
What we're finding is over 75 percent of Americans do not support that type of an approach.
Whether you are conservative or progressive, you likely work alongside someone who might be removed.
LISA DESJARDINS: Murray is someone who pays attention to business concerns and say that kind of dragnet could be a problem for the economy, as I think Laura has reported before.
Now, this is only one of Donald Trump's ideas that I think it's important to highlight, not his only enforcement push.
Now Trump also wants to narrowly scale back asylum and access to asylum in this country, to the degree where it might essentially be closed to most people who seek it.
He also would end refugee resettlement in this country.
His key adviser Stephen Miller says Trump also wants to end DACA.
As our viewers and you know, that's the program for those who are brought here as children, sometimes called dreamers.
Trump has gone back and forth on this program, but his key immigration adviser says he wants to end it.
AMNA NAWAZ: So that's the proposals you pulled together from former President Trump.
What about Vice President Harris?
What are her plans both for undocumented immigrants and also for asylum?
LISA DESJARDINS: Harris has not issued yet a comprehensive immigration plan, but she has said a lot about what she wants to do.
She is opposed, opposed to mass deportations, but she has moved to the right otherwise on this issue.
In 2019, candidate Harris, running for president, then said she thought it should be decriminalized, that people crossing the border, it should not be a criminal offense, but a civil offense.
Now, in the debate, just this week, she said instead that it should be an enforced part of law.
So let's look at exactly what she says she would do.
She says that the border needs to be enforced, that she would make asylum harder, but not as difficult as former President Trump.
She also supports refugee resettlement and she would support a path to citizenship for DACA.
Those on the right say that her ideas fall short of solving the problem.
SIMON HANKINSON, The Heritage Foundation: The Senate bill shows that it does not accomplish really anything in terms of border security or immigration reform.
But, as I said, politically, it's a pretty handy cudgel.
It actually makes the situation worse.
It would lock in about two million illegal crossers a year who would be added to the pile in the sort of limbo that is our immigration asylum processing system.
LISA DESJARDINS: Now, the numbers he mentions assumes this unprecedented level of migration we have now.
We know it's not limited to America.
There is a global migration surge right now.
AMNA NAWAZ: OK, so this is what they're proposing as candidates, right?
You have also been digging into their records, what they have actually done.
What is that show?
LISA DESJARDINS: A couple things.
As President, Donald Trump oversaw 52 miles of new primary border fencing.
He also pushed for a ban on Muslims entering this country.
That was rejected by courts, but he says he still wants to ban many people coming from Muslim countries.
A note on his rhetoric, though, as William in this chair last night pointed out, the words from the Trump and Vance campaign often dehumanize immigrants.
Now, as for Harris, she was appointed to oversee root causes of migration.
Republicans say she was in charge of the border.
No, this was about three countries in Central America.
She did secure $9 billion in aid to help address those root causes of migration.
Her campaign says also that she hasn't been to the border since 2021.
In part, they say she is about substance, not about show.
Regardless, Amna, both of these candidates I think are going to have to talk more about this issue in the next few months.
AMNA NAWAZ: It's a big issue this election year.
Lisa Desjardins, thank you so much.
LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.
GEOFF BENNETT: The International Criminal Court at The Hague investigates and, as warranted, tries people charged with the gravest of crimes.
These days, its prosecutor is busy, focusing on the war in Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas.
Earlier today, Nick Schifrin spoke with the court's lead prosecutor.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Karim Khan is on a trip to Ukraine visiting a children's hospital destroyed by a missile strike, speaking to victims of alleged crimes committed in detention facilities, and held an event with Ukraine's first lady decrying Russian war crimes against Ukrainian children.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan joins us from Kyiv.
Thanks very much.
Welcome back to the "News Hour."
I just listed what you have been doing in Ukraine.
Are you seeing ongoing war crimes committed by the Russian Federation?
KARIM KHAN, Prosecutor, International Criminal Court: We think so, clearly, a lot to investigate, civilians that are being killed, a lot of civilian objects that are being targeted.
You mentioned in the introduction the visit to the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital.
And on the 8th of July, a cruise missile from the Russian Federation, an X-101, hit it.
The suffering is horrendous.
The heartbreak is very real.
And we see so many examples of objects that are civilian, not military, being destroyed and civilians being killed.
And these are areas why we're here.
NICK SCHIFRIN: That attack, of course, is just one of many.
Since your first indictment of Vladimir Putin in March 2023, are you planning to amend your indictment to incorporate what appears to be a vast number of ongoing additional war crimes perpetrated in Ukraine, presumably with the authorization of Mr. Putin?
KARIM KHAN: Well, investigations are organic.
We are going to keep on going, as with the determination, to investigate the various crimes that seem to have been committed in an ongoing campaign, not only against the Ukrainian military born from the acts of aggression, but also causing so much loss to innocent civilian life.
We're trying to build partnerships so that, wherever it is in the world, there's more space for accountability, less space for impunity, and all the levers of justice must be used.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Vladimir Putin recently visited Mongolia, a state party to the International Criminal Court, but Mongolia ignored the arrest warrant for Mr. Putin.
Do you believe Mongolia obstructed justice?
KARIM KHAN: Well, there's a process.
The judges are looking into this.
The judges have a process to inquire, and, if necessary, report any state party for noncooperation.
It's very unfortunate Mongolia didn't execute a judicial order.
But this is the first time since warrants were issued, that President Putin has put his feet on the territory of a state party to the Rome Statute.
I hope it's the exception and not the norm.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But experts I speak to say it was almost inevitable that Putin would visit a state party to the ICC.
Does Mongolia's decision erode the court's effectiveness, and does it give you pause that you made the indictment public?
KARIM KHAN: It doesn't give me pause at all.
There's this diminishing space for tyrants, for fugitives, for individuals who feel that their power give them immunity shouldn't be so sanguine.
NICK SCHIFRIN: You do not have jurisdiction over the crime of aggression at the ICC, but Ukraine is becoming a state party to the ICC, and once they are a member, they're prohibited from committing aggression.
So do you believe that could trigger a problem, given Ukraine's incursion into Russia, in the Kursk province, or do you believe that is an act of self-defense?
KARIM KHAN: Well, I'm not going to speak in abstract, but every state that is attacked has an international right, it's there in the charter, to defend itself.
Countries are not expected to lie down and be assaulted, in fact, not only the right, but often there's a responsibility to defend statehood, constitutions, territory, and people.
NICK SCHIFRIN: I want to switch to Israel and Gaza.
In May, you requested warrants for the arrest of three Hamas leaders, including chief Yahya Sinwar, as well as for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
This week, you called on the ICC's judges to issue those arrest warrants -- quote - - "with utmost urgency."
Why?
KARIM KHAN: Look, Nick, this morning, I woke up.
In Gaza, there was a school being used to house 15,000 people taking shelter, civilians.
It's a designated location.
The secretary-general noted more than 30 civilians have been killed.
Six U.N. staff have been killed.
We're seeing baby after baby destroyed, pregnant women giving birth, stillbirth, to children.
We see, of course, Israelis that are still hostages.
Kfir Bibas was 10 months old when he was so cruelly taken from the kibbutzim.
Those families waiting for their loved ones in Israel have a right to justice.
And Sinwar is subject to our application.
And the people of Palestine, people in Gaza, who want to have food and water, who want to stop waking up in terror as bombs land and the earth shakes, and no place is safe, it seems, including schools, as the secretary-general has mentioned today.
If we don't start supporting the architecture built in the aftermath of the horrors of the Second World War, we're going to get the Wild West in which no political decisions will help and in which people will be emboldened to just do what they want and not care for our children.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Mr.
Prosecutor, this week, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, released this statement -- quote -- "The comparison made by the prosecutor in The Hague between the prime minister and defense minister of Israel, which is fighting numerous Hamas terrorism in accordance with the laws of war, and the war criminal Yahya Sinwar, who executed Israeli hostages in cold blood is pure antisemitism and a moral disgrace of the highest order."
What's your response to that?
KARIM KHAN: Look, this is a trope that is bandied around with abandon, even when it's not only repugnant and completely false.
But, in my particular case, I mean, the record shows who I am.
I was very honored last year to be invited to give the second Elie Wiesel memorial lecture.
They wouldn't have invited an antisemite to give such a message.
Nobody is above the law.
Nobody is beneath the law.
The best of Judaism, the best of Israel is -- complies with the law.
Instead of polemics, instead of trying to discredit individuals, people should submit to the law, make their case.
If it's frivolous, if the case is a tissue of lies, judges have shown repeatedly that they will acquit individuals or throw cases out.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Two of the Hamas officials that you have indicted, Mohammed Deif, the head of the military wing, and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political wing, have both been killed.
Do you consider that justice?
KARIM KHAN: Hamas, of course, is a prescribed organization in many countries.
I don't shed a tear for individuals.
What I do say is that there is a utility to the application of the law.
But, of course, the law is operating in a space in which there are legitimate military targets and there are military operations under way.
I won't speak beyond that because there is a conflict.
But the law has utility, and I'm very much in favor of the equal application of the law.
NICK SCHIFRIN: A week-and-a-half ago, the U.S. and Israel said that Hamas guards holding Israeli hostages taken on October 7 executed those hostages in a tunnel underneath Gaza.
Hamas also continues to use rockets to fire against civilian targets in Israel.
Are you continuing to investigate Hamas actions and do you believe those actions are war crimes?
KARIM KHAN: Absolutely.
Every individual must comply with the law.
We have jurisdiction over the territory of Palestine.
It's abhorrent.
As long as we have jurisdiction, we will try our best to make sure that the arc bends towards legality.
Nobody should feel that they can do whatever they want.
NICK SCHIFRIN: ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, thank you very much.
GEOFF BENNETT: The CEO of the nation's largest private for-profit hospital chain is under fire for ignoring a subpoena to testify before the Senate today.
The hearing looked at the financial collapse of Steward Health Care.
That's a hospital group created by a private equity firm, generated huge fortunes for its investors and its CEO, but left patients in dangerous, sometimes deadly conditions.
William Brangham has the story.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Geoff, Steward Health Care CEO, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, skipped today's hearing where he would have been questioned about his role in the bankruptcy of this nationwide hospital chain.
According to an investigation by The Boston Globe, Steward Health's 30 plus hospitals were some of the worst in the nation.
Six of its remaining hospitals in Massachusetts are for sale and two others have closed.
Several witnesses who worked for Steward provided damning testimony today about the role that corporate profits played in Steward's downfall.
That included a nurse who described one example of how the chain's habit of not paying vendors created horrible circumstances for grieving parents.
ELLEN MACINNIS, Former Nurse, St. Elizabeth's Medical Center: Sadly enough, sometimes, babies die, newborn babies die, and the practice is to place the baby's remains in a bereavement box and take it to the morgue.
Steward didn't pay the vendor and they weren't any bereavement boxes.
And nurses were forced to put babies remains in cardboard shipping boxes.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For more on the downfall of this hospital chain, I'm joined by Mark Arsenault.
He's part of The Boston Globe's Spotlight investigative team that did this series.
Mark, thank you so much.
Just a tremendous investigation that you have done here.
Before we get into the details of how patient care suffered at these hospitals, can you sort of explain the sort of basic architecture of Steward Health Care, how it was started?
What is it?
MARK ARSENAULT, The Boston Globe: Yes, Steward Health Care was founded in Boston in 2010, when a private equity firm known as Cerberus Capital Management bought six hospitals, struggling community hospitals from the Boston Catholic Archdiocese.
Steward then went on quite a buying spree with a real goal to try to get bigger and ended up with more than 40 properties at its peak.
It did a -- what we were calling a chain-defining deal in 2016 with a real estate investment trust from Alabama, whereby Steward sold a lot of the property, sort of the land in the buildings under its own hospitals, and then leased them back, which generated a bunch of money for Steward, more than a billion dollars, most of which went to dividends, not into hospital reinvestment, but also straddled these community hospitals with significant rent lease payments.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Your investigation details this remarkable duality, where investors get incredibly rich, the CEO has got two yachts, while patient care at their hospitals suffer because of incredible stinginess.
Can you describe some of what your team calls the human cost of financial neglect?
MARK ARSENAULT: Yes, absolutely.
I mean, I think there were sort of two categories where Steward really harmed its hospitals.
The one was just the failure to pay for enough staffing.
And this is not just nurses, but also doctors and certain specialists.
And the other category would be failure to pay for oftentimes routine equipment, supplies, maintenance on machines and even maintenance on buildings.
For example, if you don't have wires for pacemakers, then patients who need that procedure have to have a delay.
If you don't have biopsy needles, as that was one of the shortages that we documented, then certain vital cancer-detecting tests are delayed in an area of medicine where early detection is everything.
The team found 15 cases in which a person died after receiving care in a Steward hospital that did not meet professionally accepted standards due to a lack of staff or a lack of supplies and equipment.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: One of the most harrowing stories is a story about a man named Gilberto Melendez-Brancaccio, who was taken to a Steward hospital when he was having a psychiatric break.
Can you tell us a little bit about his experience?
MARK ARSENAULT: Yes, Gilberto.
Yes, this was a hard case.
Young guy, 31 years old, beloved uncle, beloved nephew, had some mental health problems that normally would be managed with medication.
He didn't always take it because he didn't like how the medication made him feel sometimes.
He had a bit of a psychological break.
The police did the reasonable thing and brought him to Carney hospital in Dorchester, Massachusetts, a Steward hospital.
He was restrained in the emergency department chemically and physically restrained.
He was also having some respiratory issues.
And the doctors ordered that he not be left alone, that Gilberto needed one-on-one monitoring continuously.
Unfortunately, the hospital didn't have the people for one-on-one monitoring and he was left alone.
So when his heart stopped, there was nobody there to help him.
There was nobody there to resuscitate him, nobody there to raise an alarm.
And 19 hours after he entered a Steward hospital, they wheeled his body to the morgue.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Some legislators have argued that this circumstance ought to make us rethink the role that private equity plays in hospital management.
And they have proposed some legislative guardrails.
Can you explain sort of what's on the table there?
MARK ARSENAULT: Well, I mean, number one, we heard it today in the Senate hearing, where people just asked for just a ban, or with certain legislation that would require in private equity hospitals or in all hospitals sort of minimum staffing requirements, minimum equipment requirements.
Just, we heard it today before the Senate committee nurses just saying that we just can't let other hospital chains like Steward leave nurses and doctors shorthanded or without the tools they need to do the jobs.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Mark Arsenault of The Boston Globe, a tremendous piece of reporting.
Thank you so much for speaking with us.
MARK ARSENAULT: Right on.
Thank you, William.
AMNA NAWAZ: For decades, producer Dan Slepian has spearheaded documentaries, podcasts and investigative reports for the news magazine show "Dateline NBC."
In 2002, a chance conversation propelled him to start probing wrongful convictions, work he's continued for more than 20 years.
His new book, "The Sing Sing Files," is out now.
And we sat down recently to talk about why this one issue continues to fuel his work.
DAN SLEPIAN, Author, "The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice": You know, everybody thinks they know how the justice system works.
I grew up believing that the justice system worked just the way it should as a kid in Westchester County, a middle-class kid.
And I had a unique perspective from a -- as a "Dateline" producer.
And with that perspective, I was able to see a justice system that I never knew existed, a very dark and ugly underbelly that is really how the system often works.
AMNA NAWAZ: Let me ask you about your entry into that world, because there's this one case in particular, sort of infamous New York case called the Palladium murder back in 1990.
There was a nightclub bouncer who was shot and killed on Thanksgiving Day.
Two men are convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life for that murder.
You called that whole case your window into this world, into the dark side of the justice system.
Why?
DAN SLEPIAN: It was my baptism.
I was out to dinner one night with a detective who I was shadowing a couple of weeks into our project.
And I said: "You must bring this job home with you, everything you see?"
And he says: "I really don't, except this one case has been bothering me."
I'm like: "What's that about?"
And he said that he knew that these two men, David Lemus and Olmedo Hidalgo, were innocent of the murder at the Palladium nightclub on Thanksgiving night 1990.
And I said: "How do you know?"
AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.
DAN SLEPIAN: He goes: "Because I know who really committed the crime."
And so I ended up investigating that case.
I find the real killer.
I get him to Rockefeller Center.
He basically confesses on tape.
The innocent guys spent 15 years in prison.
And eventually after we aired a show back then, the judge overturned the conviction in 2005.
And to this day, not only has the Manhattan district attorney's office never admitted they were wrong,.
They retried the innocent guy.
So, from that perspective, I couldn't believe that people who are guardians of the system, who took an oath to do the right thing, couldn't fix an obvious, tragic miscarriage of justice.
AMNA NAWAZ: And that one case has fueled so many cases you have investigated since then.
You tell the stories of many men in this book, but as you acknowledge, there's one man, J.J. Velazquez, who you say is the soul of this book.
Why is that?
Tell us.
DAN SLEPIAN: He actually shared a wall, a cement wall, he was in the cell next to the guy that I was doing a story about.
And so J.J. wrote me a letter in 2002.
And there was something about J.J.'s letters that really pulled me in.
There was something about his persistence, his eloquence.
AMNA NAWAZ: As a result of your work, years of that kind of work, you get to be there at those moments, like when J.J. is released, right?
And he walks out of prison, and he walks into the arms of his waiting family, his weeping mother.
After the years that you have spent knowing this person is innocent, helping to fight for them to get out, what's that moment like?
DAN SLEPIAN: I obviously was thrilled for J.J. J.J. should never have been arrested 27 years ago.
I had proven his innocence.
He was as innocent as he was alive.
I mean, I did a story about him in 2012, and he spent another decade in prison because of what the Manhattan DA's office did.
So when he got out, I felt joy for him.
But I was not as happy as I thought I was going to be.
And it's not because he wasn't out.
It was because I saw it as something of a failure.
I felt guilt that I knew the truth for so long.
And it speaks volumes about the system that that's what it took.
If it took this to get him out, God help everybody behind him.
It's the tip of the iceberg.
This is a hidden epidemic.
This is a national crisis.
There's only been 3,200, 3,300 people in more than 30 years that have been exonerated in this country.
The most conservative estimates say there's at least 100,000 innocent people right now as you and I are sitting here.
And people go about their life as if it's normal.
AMNA NAWAZ: Sounds like you're still working on these stories.
There are many more to be told.
DAN SLEPIAN: I will never stop working on these stories.
It's embedded in my DNA.
It is my responsibility.
I don't have hobbies.
I don't sleep very much.
I get contacted all of the time by people.
And too many of those claims are true.
AMNA NAWAZ: The stories you document are so powerful.
And I know your work on this continues.
The book is "The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice."
The author is Dan Slepian.
Dan, thank you for being here.
DAN SLEPIAN: I so appreciate you having me, Amna.
Thank you.
GEOFF BENNETT: Beauty, and rebirth, in decay.
It's a vision of urban exploration, restoration, and development now under way across Northwest Indiana.
Jeffrey Brown reports for our arts and culture series, Canvas.
JEFFREY BROWN: It's an American ruin, the once grand long-abandoned City Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana, extraordinary details still hidden in plain sight everywhere.
LORI GONZALEZ, Decay Devils: It's still beautiful.
JEFFREY BROWN: Look at that window.
Wow.
Even as the roofless structure itself barely offers cover from the pouring rain.
Our guides, Gary natives Tyrell Anderson and Lori Gonzalez, urban explorers who've been visiting buildings like this for more than a decade, taking photographs, and, crucially, documenting the history.
LORI GONZALEZ: There's still beauty in destruction.
Like, if you see it and you see all these, like, different beautiful things, you can imagine what it used to look like in its heyday.
TYRELL ANDERSON, Decay Devils: You know that it's not going to be a church as though it once was.
But how can you -- can you beautify any aspect of it to tell the history side of it?
JEFFREY BROWN: A history that for this church dates to 1926, with decades as a segregated, whites-only congregation before eventually closing its doors in 1975.
TYRELL ANDERSON: They refused to integrate, so when people began to move out, their congregation numbers dwindled.
JEFFREY BROWN: It's in some ways a microcosm of Gary's history, an industrial city that's lost more than half its population since the 1960s, driven by fewer steel jobs and white flight.
Today, there are some 10,000 abandoned buildings throughout the city, including Union Station, making Gary something of a mecca for people like Lori and Tyrell who are drawn to urbex, or urban exploration.
I saw on the back of your sweatshirt it says, "I play in abandoned buildings."
So this began sort of as a kind of play?
TYRELL ANDERSON: Yes.
LORI GONZALEZ: Yes.
Yes.
Like, get your camera, jump in a car or rent a car and just go.
JEFFREY BROWN: More than a decade ago, Lori and Tyrell became the backbone of an informal group that called themselves Decay Devils, traveling to cities like Detroit and far beyond to explore and photograph abandoned structures.
TYRELL ANDERSON: It kind of morphed from just buildings because it was like, well, these places kind of have a bad rap.
Well, let's go and learn more about the people and the cuisine and everything else.
And it was like... JEFFREY BROWN: And the history.
TYRELL ANDERSON: Oh, these people are like really cool people.
And so it actually helped us, like, kind of pivot from just going to take pictures and eating to, OK, tell us how you all did this and where did you get the money from?
How did you bring this together?
JEFFREY BROWN: In 2015, Decay Devils became a formal nonprofit, now focused on preserving and even restoring structures in and around Gary, its first project, this train station built with steel reinforced concrete in 1910 just four years after the city was founded.
The station closed in the early 1970s, and after decades of neglect Decay Devils acquired it in 2018 for just $10.
TYRELL ANDERSON: These tunnels actually used to lead to boarding platforms.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.
They have spent years volunteering and raising money to get the outside and inside of the station mostly cleared out.
LORI GONZALEZ: When I first saw it cleaned out, I was like, I could do cartwheels.
It was so clear from not being able to walk in safely and then seeing it now.
JEFFREY BROWN: It is safe to be in here?
LORI GONZALEZ: No, not really.
(LAUGHTER) TYRELL ANDERSON: Not safe.
(LAUGHTER) LORI GONZALEZ: We should be wearing some hardhats.
JEFFREY BROWN: The group estimates it will cost at least $6 million to make the space functional, the hope to turn it into a visitors center with a cafe and space for local vendors and artists.
TYRELL ANDERSON: We're looking at well over 20,000 people traversing this area a day.
Let's make this a place that they need to stop.
JEFFREY BROWN: Selling a vision for an abandoned building in a city where the percentage of people in poverty is nearly three times higher than the national rate is an uphill battle.
EUNICE TROTTER, Indiana Landmarks: This church was designed by a modernist architect.
JEFFREY BROWN: But Eunice Trotter, who heads the Black History Preservation Program of the private nonprofit Indiana Landmarks, says efforts in cities like Gary are crucial.
EUNICE TROTTER: As the buildings are erased, so does the history follow.
It becomes less and less known.
JEFFREY BROWN: We sat down with Trotter at St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, a historically Black congregation with a meticulously maintained building that's received support from Indiana Landmarks.
EUNICE TROTTER: What you see when you drive around Gary, the many abandoned sites, is the result of disinvestment.
Gary is just the best example of the need for Black heritage preservation.
JEFFREY BROWN: Trotter points to another large building in Gary under threat, also with a rich history for the city's Black community.
Built in 1930 as one of three high schools in the state for Black students during segregation, Gary Roosevelt High School housed more than 3,000 students at its peak, a hub of Gary's Black middle class.
But after shrinking enrollment and decades of deferred maintenance, a failing heat system caused pipes to burst in 2019.
It's been vacant since then.
MARLON MITCHELL, Gary East Side Community Development Corporation: Here, a very rich culture was built on Black excellence and professionalism.
And that's what the school really stands for.
We had a fairly good swim team.
JEFFREY BROWN: Marlon Mitchell graduated from Gary Roosevelt in 1989.
He now heads a local economic development corporation that has partnered with Indiana Landmarks to explore other uses for the school.
MARLON MITCHELL: We knew that it wasn't going to be a school anymore.
The population couldn't support that.
But Roosevelt as a school, as an institution meant so much to the community that the community should decide what happens to this building.
JEFFREY BROWN: In May, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Gary Roosevelt one of America's 11 most endangered historic places.
MARLON MITCHELL: This building has much more life left if we breathe into it.
EUNICE TROTTER: We can use some of that space for museum space.
We could use some of that space for a hotel, for an event center, for artists, and on and on.
That's a site that has many, many more years of life with a little love.
And that love is at the tune of $20 million.
JEFFREY BROWN: Twenty million dollars.
EUNICE TROTTER: Twenty million dollars JEFFREY BROWN: Which is a lot of money in a place like Gary... where there are a lot of other needs.
EUNICE TROTTER: There is a lot of money.
But we believe that restoring that school will ignite tremendous restoration for Gary.
JEFFREY BROWN: And that's the goal for Tyrell, Lori and Decay Devils as well, turning their efforts from just play to rebirth and development of their city through reimagining these buildings.
TYRELL ANDERSON: The city has a lot more to offer.
It's a huge city.
Your main thoroughfare might have some abandonment around it.
You just automatically assume that that's what's going to be where you inside the neighborhoods.
And that's not the case.
LORI GONZALEZ: Like, there's people that live here.
We're not a ghost town.
JEFFREY BROWN: Tyrell looks to a world-famous model of what can happen with ruins.
TYRELL ANDERSON: We don't really think about it.
But that is what the Colosseum is.
You get to walk around and look.
(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: Yes, it is a ruin.
TYRELL ANDERSON: That's it.
It is a ruin.
But we know that there is energy here.
It's just along the lines of, how do you properly monetize it and use it to help other things be developed?
JEFFREY BROWN: It's a grand dream, now a challenge for Decay Devils and the boosters of Gary's historic buildings.
For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown inside the ruins of City Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana.
AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.
I'm Amna Nawaz.
GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.
Thanks for joining us.
