AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: Scores of civilians are killed and injured in a strike on a hospital in Gaza, as the war between Israel and Hamas worsens.

AMNA NAWAZ: House Republicans fail to choose a leader again in a first round of voting, leaving the House without a speaker and congressional business at a standstill.

GEOFF BENNETT: And students and universities put more emphasis on college acceptance essays in the wake of the Supreme Court's affirmative action decision.

SYDNEY MARKS, Student: The Supreme Court made a ruling, and that doesn't change my identity.

It doesn't change what I'm interested in and what my -- like, what I have achieved.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

It's a horrific night in Gaza, where an airstrike hit a hospital, killing hundreds.

Who hit the hospital is in dispute.

AMNA NAWAZ: Palestinians and others said it was an Israeli bombing.

The Israel Defense Forces say it was an errant missile fired by the militant group Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

GEOFF BENNETT: The fallout has been swift.

Condemnations of Israel have poured in from Turkey, Jordan, many Gulf countries and beyond.

And a scheduled meeting among President Biden, Jordanian, Egyptian and Palestinian leaders in Jordan has been canceled.

But President Biden still left this afternoon for a visit to Israel tomorrow.

AMNA NAWAZ: From Israel now, Leila Molana-Allen again begins our coverage.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: In the dark of the night, chaos.

Paramedics carry the dead after an explosion at the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, packed with thousands of wounded Gazans seeking refuge, their sanctuary engulfed in flames.

Gaza's Health Ministry said there were hundreds killed and wounded.

DR. FADEL NAIM, The Islamic University of Gaza: Around 7:00 in the evening, we were still working in the hospital in the O.R.

And, suddenly, we hear a very big, huge explosion.

The false ceiling fall on our heads.

And they came in the O.R., said there's an explosion in the hospital.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Dr. Fadel Naim was in the hospital's operating room at the time of the massacre.

We spoke to him by phone.

DR. FADEL NAIM: As I went outside, I saw a massacre, everywhere, dead bodies, and people were cut in pieces.

They are people who are looking for safety and came to the hospital because it's a safe place.

It's a massacre.

It's a big massacre.

All people are afraid from being bombed again, and have many little girls with the nurses and our technicians.

They are afraid.

They are crying.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: After the explosion, protests erupted in the Middle East.

And in the West Bank, Palestinians flooded the streets, calling for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to be ousted and condemning the attack.

The Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza, where the wounded were rushed, is already overwhelmed.

And it had already become a hub for thousands of displaced Palestinians, seeking not just healing, but shelter.

Nariman Jamal Al Kombarji left her house after her street was bombed.

Her daughter has special needs.

NARIMAN JAMAL AL KOMBARJI, Gaza City Resident (through translator): We ran away.

Bombs and rockets are everywhere there.

What is happening is not acceptable.

These are children that we are talking about, children with fear built up in their hearts.

How do these children deserve this?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Another Israeli airstrike today hit the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

Residents rushed the wounded into ambulances to try and save them.

For the survivors, only wails of sorrow.

But Israel said the strike targeted a Hamas command center and killed Ayman Nofal, so far the most high-profile militants known to have been successfully targeted.

At a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz today, Prime Minister Netanyahu accused Hamas of committing multilayered war crimes.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Minister: Not only is it targeting and murdering civilians with unprecedented savagery.

It's hiding behind civilians, their own civilians.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: And as civilians try to evacuate, it seems there's no safe zone for Palestinians amidst Israeli bombardment.

This residential building was also destroyed today in the southern city of Khan Yunis, an area in the evacuation zone.

ATTAF WAHDAN, Displaced From Northern Gaza (through translator): We were told that the south is safer.

They displaced us from our homes, so we came to Khan Yunis, as we have children, and it is safer.

But we found that death follows wherever we go.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Across the border, as Israel braces for war, authorities are doing what they can to evacuate the towns and cities that lie in range of fire along the border with Gaza.

It's just a few days since we were last here in Sderot, but the difference is clear.

People were afraid then.

They were thinking about leaving.

Now it's a ghost town, the streets deserted, the pavements covered in shattered masonry and roof tiles, because there have been so many rocket strikes on this town over the last few days.

Sderot has now evacuated more than 80 percent of its residents, but, for some, leaving home in the midst of some of the worst such trauma is a step too far.

We met 86-year-old Holocaust survivor Gina last week.

Her daughter, unable to reach her since yesterday and frantic with worry, called us, so we went to check on her.

When we last saw Gina, she was stubborn and furious.

Now, after days of endless rocket attacks and with all her friends and neighbors gone, she's in despair.

GINA HALFON, Sderot, Israel Resident (through translator): Where is my government?

I would hit them back right away.

Don't wait.

All week, we are waiting for entrance to Gaza.

For what?

You have decided, so go in.

Don't build up the tension.

This tension is killing us.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: But no matter the urgent calls from her children every five minutes and the rockets raining down overhead, she will not budge from this front porch, where she's sat for 60 years.

GINA HALFON (through translator): Where would I go at this age?

And I don't care about myself when you see small children being kidnapped.

I told my daughter I will not leave my home, only by death.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: As we leave, Gina sits alone once more, watching and waiting for what's to come.

Others here want to go, but have no idea where.

When Hamas fighters invaded her town just over a week ago, single mother Sima Yekhshekel snatched up her three young kids and ran for her life.

She's been putting herself up in a hotel just outside Tel Aviv since then, but can't afford it anymore.

She returned home on Saturday to a fridge full of rotting food, no electricity, and a home in chaos.

SIMA YEKHSHEKEL, Sderot, Israel Resident (through translator): No one in Sderot helped me.

They give money for Sderot.

It's not come to me.

They give me this.

Who cares?

I don't need this.

Look, they send me this.

I don't need this.

Come see what happened.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: While she was away, her neighbor's house was hit by a rocket, sending huge shards of shrapnel ripping through her doors and ceiling.

Sima has been offered refuge in an evacuation hotel in the mixed neighborhood of East Jerusalem, but says that's not an option for her.

SIMA YEKHSHEKEL: They say only Jerusalem.

There are a lot of Arabs with me.

I'm alone with three children.

It's very difficult for me.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: So what are you going to do?

SIMA YEKHSHEKEL: Stay here.

Maybe I will live.

Maybe I will die.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Many across the country, including Israelis who once expounded negotiation and supported the rights of Palestinian civilians, now feel the same: It's us or them.

We have just had a massive alert go off for rockets coming overhead here on the highway as troops assemble for the war.

Just a mile from the border, these war staging areas are in clear sight of Hamas' rockets, as are the civilian towns and villages along the Gaza border.

With hundreds of incoming rockets every day, the death toll would be much higher but for Israel's savior, the Iron Dome system.

The state-of-the-art defense system detects and intercepts incoming rockets in real time, but overwhelmed by an assault on this scale, some slip through the net.

The IDF says the past week marks the most intense missile assault from Gaza.

They have seen.

In the 2014 Gaza war, Hamas launched 5,000 rockets in 50 days.

This time, they have already launched 6,000 in just over a week.

MAJ. LIBBY WEISS, Israeli Defense Forces: And so we're seeing many, many more rockets and far more advanced rockets that Hamas is launching to Israeli communities.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Civilians on both sides of the border here are praying for peace, but preparing themselves for an even bloodier war.

For the "PBS NewsHour," Leila Molana-Allen on the Israel-Gaza border.

AMNA NAWAZ: For more on the day's fast-changing developments, I'm joined now by my colleagues foreign affairs and defense correspondent Nick Schifrin and White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez.

Nick, let's begin with that news of the day of this horrific strike on the hospital in Gaza.

The Israeli Defense Forces say, it wasn't them; it was an air into Islamic Jihad strike, but many people still believe it was the Israelis.

What do we know at this point?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Well, it is competing claims right now, as you say, Amna.

The Israeli Defense Forces say it was not them.

They have said that pretty quickly right after the strike.

And I think even in the last 10 or 15 minutes, I have got that statement again from IDF officials about four or five times.

What they just said a few minutes ago was that they have gone back, they have done an analysis of what they called their operational system, and they blame rockets fired by what they call terrorists in Gaza that passed by the hospital at the time it was hit.

They say it was from multiple sources of intelligence, indicates Islamic Jihad, as you said at the top, was responsible for what they called a failed rocket launch that hit the hospital.

Again, that is what the Israeli Defense Forces are saying.

The Palestinians are saying it was an Israeli airstrike.

In the past, just some context here in Gaza, Israel has hit hospitals in this war and in the past.

And we have also have seen Palestinian groups fire rockets that misfire that land in Gaza.

So, the competing claims will continue.

AMNA NAWAZ: Laura, what have we heard from the White House about this?

Have they been able to weigh in or see any evidence about who was behind this attack?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: When it comes to the evidence, Amna, they aren't saying who they believe was responsible for the strike, but the -- a White House official did issue a statement just a moments ago, saying that the president sent his deepest condolences for the innocent lives lost in the hospital explosion in Gaza and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded, and that ultimately the president is not going to be making the Jordan portion of his trip.

After consulting with King Abdullah of Jordan and also due to the mourning, the day of mourning announced by President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, President Biden considered it best that he not do that second portion of his trip and agreed to remain in close contact with the leaders and hopes to be speaking to them in the coming days.

But that takes a big portion out of his desired stops for this trip, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: Nick, one of the reasons President Biden wanted to make that trip to Jordan was to try to contain this from becoming a regional larger conflict.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: What are the implications of that summit not happening now?

NICK SCHIFRIN: It is the implications for the summit not happening, the implications of this strike.

The images have been fast-forwarding through the entire region and through the world, and it will make that containing of this war so much more difficult.

Let's just go through and think about the summit.

What President Biden needs is help from one of the summit's participants, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the president of Egypt.

He is now not going to be able to talk to him.

And they need Egypt to open the Rafah Crossing into Gaza in order to allow humanitarian aid and American citizens leave from Gaza.

Laura just mentioned the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, not being willing or not able to meet the president, President Biden, in Amman, again, someone that the president needs to try and keep a lid on violence, especially into the West Bank and Jerusalem, and, of course, King Abdullah of Jordan.

Jordan oversees the holiest sites in Jerusalem, a key, key figure that has been close to the United States for so many years.

And if this war is going to be contained, all three of those figures are going to need to participate with the United States in what it's trying to do to try and prevent Lebanese Hezbollah, to try and prevent Iran from entering this war.

But if we see this day of rage across the region, if these leaders are not willing to even be seen in public with the president, containing this war becomes much more difficult.

AMNA NAWAZ: Laura, we should stress we still don't know a lot, especially in the fog of war.

There are these disputing claims about this horrific hospital strike tonight.

But what does this mean for the relationship between the U.S. and Israel?

President Biden has pledged that the U.S. will stand with Israel.

Does that change the landscape moving forward?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: I think that, so far, President Biden has been very clear that he plans to continue showing solidarity with Israel, that he is continuing to go on this trip.

He arrived at Joint Base Andrews just moments ago to head to Israel to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in person.

And when he has those face-to-face conversations, sources close to the White House tell me that he is still going to try to stress that point that Nick was making, which is that it's very important to the administration's that this is a contained conflict, that it does not escalate, and that also they are really going to try to focus on making sure that civilians in Gaza are out of harm's way as much as possible.

So, of course, the inability to go to Jordan really hurts the president's ability to prioritize that second part of what his mission was on this trip, but it's something that he will be talking to Netanyahu about.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez.

Laura, thank you.

Nick, in the meantime, I know you have been continuing to cover this ongoing story, horrific and unimaginable, of the many hostages, Americans among them, who are still held by Hamas.

What can you tell us?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, one of President Biden's most pressing concerns is the fate of as many as 13 Americans being held hostage by Hamas right now.

They're among some 200 hostages with 30 different nationalities.

And I spoke to American families of the missing about what they want President Biden to do and about their anguish.

On the morning of October 7, Hamas gunman rampaged, terrorized, and burned and murdered their way through the Israeli kibbutz of Nir Oz.

With a smile, they kidnapped the most vulnerable, the community's oldest and youngest residents, including Israeli-American Jonathan Dekel-Chen's son, Sagui.

JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN, Father of Hostage: My son Sagui is a 35-year-old father of two little daughters.

And his wonderful wife is pregnant in her seventh month.

He's the son every father, every parent would want to have, a gift to us all and a gift to everything that he touched and everyone who he touched.

NICK SCHIFRIN: As best you can tell, what happened to him on the day of the terrorist attack?

JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN: They descended on the kibbutz between 6:30 and 7:00 in the morning.

They proceeded to kill anyone they could find or taken into captivity anyone they could find.

Sagui got back to his house with wife and two beautiful little daughters, made sure that they were secure inside the connected bomb shelter, and then, approximately for the next hour, and -- was in hand-to-hand combat with terrorists who were trying to break into his house.

They had already broken into his house, but break into that bomb shelter.

And he continued communicating off and on with the security, with the remnants of the security team and his wife until about 9:30 for -- so, for an hour, and, after that, no contact whatsoever.

NICK SCHIFRIN: I'm a father of two.

My kids are a lot younger than yours.

And I cannot imagine what you're going through.

So I will just ask this simple question, and you answer it in any way you want.

What do you want the world to understand that you're going through right now as a father and a grandfather?

JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN: I -- I'm sorry, Nick.

I can't answer that question.

I just can't.

I understand where it's coming from, and I can't.

I apologize.

It's too much.

It's just too much.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: There's not a single thing more and more worrisome than have someone you love, someone you adore, adores you, and not knowing their fate.

NICK SCHIFRIN: On Friday, President Biden spoke to Dekel-Chen and more than a dozen families of Americans held hostage by Hamas.

JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN: It left no doubt in my mind that the president specifically and his administration are totally committed to finding the hostages, not just the American -- American citizens among them, but everyone, and returning them home.

NICK SCHIFRIN: How do you balance then the need, it sounds like you believe, to eliminate Hamas, as the Israeli government has promised, with the need to save your son?

JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN: It's an impossible challenge, Nick.

I mean, two things are true at once.

That organization and its heads must be destroyed.

We cannot continue living like this in these communities or in -- deeper into Israel.

So, that is an absolute truth.

And it's an absolute truth that I and the other families of the hostages want these babies, young men, young women, grannies and grandpas, we want them back for them to live the lives that they were meant to.

NICK SCHIFRIN: What's your message to President Biden as he goes to Israel?

LIZ HIRSH NAFTALI, Great-Aunt of Hostage: My understanding is that our goal is to get the hostages, the American hostages.

And I pray we also get the other hostages from other countries and from Israel.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Liz Hirsh Naftali is the great-aunt of Abigail Moore (ph) Idan, believe kidnapped from the kibbutz of Kfar Aza.

LIZ HIRSH NAFTALI: Abigail's a beautiful 3.5 year-old little girl growing up the youngest of three children.

She's just a kind, sweet little girl.

NICK SCHIFRIN: During the attack, gunmen killed Abigail's mother and chased down Abigail's father and two older siblings.

LIZ HIRSH NAFTALI: While they were running, Abigail in her father's arms, he was shot and killed.

The two older kids ran home, locked themselves in the closet.

The little girl managed somehow to get to her neighbor and knock on the door.

They took this child in.

The family that took her in, the husband went outside to see what he could do.

When he came home, his wife and three kids and Abigail were missing.

So that's where we are right now.

I think she's in Gaza and I hope and I pray being taken care of enough that she's OK.

It's heart-wrenching.

It's really hard.

It's so hard, and it hurts so bad.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The only pro of life of any of the 200 or so hostages is from this Hamas video.

The family of 21-year-old Mia Schem today told the media they want this propaganda video shown, and they want the world to do everything to bring them back home.

Do you want the U.S. to push for a delay until the hostages, including your great-niece, can be saved?

LIZ HIRSH NAFTALI: They understand that we need to get the hostages out, American hostages and other hostages.

And so I do hope that it will be delayed, but I also hope that it gives time for the people on the other side to get to places where they will be safer.

That's my hope.

NICK SCHIFRIN: That is all the families of the missing can do, hope that their loved ones can somehow be saved.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: Police in Brussels killed a Tunisian man accused of gunning down two Swedish soccer fans on Monday.

The man was shot dead after an hours-long manhunt.

Prosecutors said he posted a video calling himself an Islamic State fighter and condemning Koran burnings in Sweden.

ERIC VAN DUYSE, Spokesperson, Belgium Federal Prosecutor (through translator): Obviously, the link between the burning of the Koran and the nationality of the victims seems easy to make.

But you need evidence.

You need proof.

It seems that, in one of the communications he made, it was indicated that burning the Koran was a red line that should not have been crossed.

But these elements have yet to be verified.

GEOFF BENNETT: Authorities say the gunman was known by police and was being sought for deportation.

There's no word on how he was able to obtain the gun he used in the attack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in China today to visit a top ally in his war against Ukraine.

Chinese President Xi Jinping greeted Putin in Beijing ahead of a forum on the Belt and Road Initiative.

Xi launched the infrastructure program a decade ago to expand China's global influence.

The two leaders will meet tomorrow for bilateral talks.

The Supreme Court of India has declined to legalize same-sex marriage and instead tossed the issue back to its Parliament.

The justices said today it's not up to the country's courts to make laws, but they urged the government to uphold LGBTQ rights.

Activists say they hoped for a different outcome.

SHIVANGI SHARMA, Attorney (through translator): The recognition would have made lives so much easier, because we live in a society which does not, sadly, recognize -- the state does not recognize a lot of around us, even though there is some acceptance, but not the acceptance which we are entitled to.

GEOFF BENNETT: It's not clear if the justices actually set a mandate for the Parliament to act.

Prosecutors in New Mexico now say they will try to recharge actor Alec Baldwin in a fatal shooting on a movie set back in 2021.

They say they plan to present evidence to a grand jury in the next two months based on new information.

An initial charge of involuntary manslaughter was dropped last April when prosecutors said the gun in question might have malfunctioned.

The leader of college sports' governing body warned against imposing too much regulation on compensation for athletes.

NCAA President Charlie Baker and others addressed a Senate hearing today.

Baker said schools need leeway to address the issue without laws that treat athletes as employees.

CHARLIE BAKER, President, NCAA: School,s conferences and the NCAA are making changes to the benefits that we provide and to enable enhanced benefits while protecting programs from a one-size-fits-all approach.

We support codifying current regulatory guidance into law by granting student athletes special status that would affirm that they are not employees.

GEOFF BENNETT: At the same time, Baker said that, without some national standards for compensating athletes, smaller schools may abandon sports programs altogether.

On Wall Street, stocks had a mostly tepid Tuesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 13 points to close at 33997.

The Nasdaq fell 34 points.

The S&P 500 was down a fraction.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": a legal settlement bars the federal government from implementing migration policies that separate families; and how a Supreme Court decision has made the college essay more important than ever.

In the first round of balloting for the next House speaker, Congressman Jim Jordan got 200 votes from his GOP colleagues.

That's short of the 217 votes that he needs.

But the Ohio Republican is closer to the gavel than he's ever been before.

Lisa Desjardins has this look at his controversial record in Congress.

LISA DESJARDINS: Jim Jordan, the firebrand in the House Republican Conference, now with his sights on the speaker's gavel.

The Ohio congressman first arrived in Washington in 2007, having served a dozen years in the state House and Senate.

A champion wrestler in college, he started his career as an assistant coach for the Ohio State University wrestling team in the 1980s and '90s working with team doctor Richard Strauss, who the university later found had molested dozens of student wrestlers over two decades.

When the university investigated in 2018, several former students claimed Jordan knew about sexual abuse and harassment by Strauss and failed to report it.

DUNYASHA YETTS, Former Ohio State University Wrestler: I don't understand why that Jimmy would say he didn't know when I personally, as a team captain, had conversations with him.

LISA DESJARDINS: Jordan has repeatedly denied any accusations of wrongdoing.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): I knew of no abuse, never heard of it, never had any reported to me.

If I had, I'd have dealt with it.

LISA DESJARDINS: In Congress, Jordan was a founding member of the hard right Freedom Caucus, where he gained a reputation for forgoing suit jackets and for his combative in-your-face style of politics.

FMR.

REP. CHARLIE DENT (R-PA): Jim Jordan was never known as a compromiser, as a deal-cutter.

LISA DESJARDINS: Republican Charlie Dent served with Jordan in Congress until 2018.

FMR.

REP. CHARLIE DENT: He was known better for blowing up deals than he was for putting them together.

LISA DESJARDINS: As a rank-and-file member, Jordan changed the game, attempting to extract gains with the threat of a government shutdown.

Former Speaker John Boehner, who Jordan helped push out of that position in 2015, dubbed Jordan a legislative terrorist.

FMR.

REP. CHARLIE DENT: John Boehner probably would have rather set himself on fire than given Jim Jordan any position of authority.

LISA DESJARDINS: In recent years, Jordan became a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, who even awarded Jordan the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the closing days of the Trump administration.

The former president endorsing Jordan in his bid for speaker.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: I think that Jim will be speaker of the House.

LISA DESJARDINS: Their strong ties were on display in the days after the 2020 presidential election, when Trump claimed the election was stolen.

Jordan echoed and amplified those doubts and worked on plans to keep President Trump in power.

REP. JIM JORDAN: Something doesn't feel right here.

Our president got nine million more votes this time than he did four years ago.

LISA DESJARDINS: In the days leading up to the January 6 insurrection, Jordan, Trump and other Freedom Caucus members held a discussion on strategies for delaying the certification of the electoral vote, according to the House January 6 Committee report.

And the day before, the committee wrote, Jordan texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, passing along a memo advising that Vice President Pence should "call out the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all."

Jordan and Trump spoke several times on January 6, and the day culminated with Jordan joining many of his Republican colleagues to object to the certification of the Electoral College vote.

Jordan has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, saying the committee has twisted the evidence.

He refused to comply with a subpoena to testify.

Jordan's history pushing for Trump's stolen election lies could be politically toxic for some moderate Republicans in swing districts next year.

REP. KATHERINE CLARK (D-MA): Every Republican who casts their vote for him is siding with an insurrectionist against our democracy.

LISA DESJARDINS: Democrats have already begun attacks that could be central to the 2024 campaign.

FMR.

REP. CHARLIE DENT: I could see Democrats trying to tie a Republican to Jim Jordan and the more extreme positions he has taken over the years.

He brings a style of politics that I think will make pragmatic members in those swing districts very, very anxious.

LISA DESJARDINS: But, at the same time, Jordan is beloved by the conservative and Trump base, seen as someone who will knock down Washington-style politics and entitlement.

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): Jim Jordan is strategic, scrappy, tough and principled.

He is a mentor, a worker, and, above all, he is a fighter.

LISA DESJARDINS: Since Republicans gained the House majority in January, Jordan's been a champion for conservatives who want the party to aggressively go after the Biden White House.

And he has, as Judiciary Committee chairman, pounding away at investigations into the president and his son Hunter's business dealings.

And Jordan is a key figure in the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, appointed to that role by ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

He spoke at his first hearing last month.

REP. JIM JORDAN: We know all kinds of false statements have been made by the White House.

Joe Biden's made them.

LISA DESJARDINS: No witness, however, presented direct evidence of wrongdoing by Biden, and one said there was not enough to impeach.

But, as speaker, Jordan will have to find a way to work with the White House and a Democratic-controlled Senate on big issues, with a government shutdown looming next month.

FMR.

REP. CHARLIE DENT: I always thought Jordan was better in the opposition, where he could be against things, rather than being for things.

And he's going to have be four things if he's in -- the speaker and holding the majority.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now Jim Jordan also hopes to be the one in charge of wrangling a narrow Republican majority.

That brings us to tonight, where Jim Jordan, the original rebel in modern Republican politics, is himself trying to quash a rebellion against his own attempt to become speaker.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Lisa, as we mentioned, Jim Jordan fell 17 votes short of the 217 that he needs to become House speaker.

Did he expect to lose that many members on the first round of voting?

LISA DESJARDINS: That depends on who you ask.

I think it was a bigger total than many Jordan allies were expecting.

Let's look at exactly what that vote total looked like.

As you say, he received 200 votes, but there were 20 Republicans who voted for someone else.

And there were a slew of other ideas there, including Steve Scalise, the former nominee for speaker who lost just last week.

Then we see Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, receiving the most votes of anyone today, 212 votes.

So, indeed, that is a problem.

We know that at least one of those no-votes for Jordan has switched tonight to Jordan, but there are also people, I'm told, who may be going the other way, a very difficult moment for Jim Jordan, and also this, tonight, a strange kind of tension, Geoff.

I have reporting that the Jordan camp and some allied with Steve Scalise are now shooting kind of barbs at each other.

At a time when Jim Jordan needs to be broadening the tent, he's in sort of a skirmish at the moment with Steve Scalise.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, look, it's been two weeks now since Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, paralyzing the chamber.

How is the GOP explaining yet another show of disunity and dysfunction?

LISA DESJARDINS: There are a very few number of Republicans now still trying to cast the blame on Democrats, but the vast majority of Republicans admit the obvious here, that this is a failure on their part, not just of cohesion, but perhaps political culture itself.

First, I want to play some sound.

We went and talked to those who support Jim Jordan and what they thought after this vote today.

LISA DESJARDINS: What's your reaction to this vote?

REP. DAN MEUSER (R-PA): I think we're a mess.

I think my constituents believe that we're dysfunctional, and now we're showing that we're dysfunctional.

I mean, we need to get back in there.

REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS (R-NY): I still believe he can unite this conference, and we will see that if that happens today.

And what I have said a few times today is, what we have to recognize is that may not happen on the first ballot.

It took Pope Francis five ballots to get elected.

So I think somewhere between the five of Pope Francis and the 15 it took Kevin McCarthy to become the speaker, that's where we will see this thing land.

LISA DESJARDINS: How concerned are you about this?

REP. DAVID SCHWEIKERT (R-AZ): It can't go on much longer.

And I'm concerned because we're chasing sort of this emotional theater, instead of the actual things that could bring down or create great stress to this republic.

LISA DESJARDINS: Why should Americans return you guys to power after seeing what's happened here the last two weeks?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): Well, we're the only - - this is the only branch of government that we control.

And I think it's important to keep us in power here as a check on Joe Biden and the Senate.

LISA DESJARDINS: But do you control this chamber?

I mean, are you able to govern?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: I think we will get to a speaker soon.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, those who opposed Jordan today are taking a lot of heat from callers around the country, talk radio sort of ginning up support for Jim Jordan.

But I spoke to one, Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, and he said this wasn't just about Jim Jordan, but about the idea that Steve Scalise won fair and square, and here are a group of Republicans that refused to accept it.

Here's Mike Kelly.

REP. MIKE KELLY (R-PA): If we can't follow our own rules, if we break our own rules, there's a little thing called integrity.

This should be the basis of everybody's -- what they think and what they believe.

For me, that was the loss of that integrity, the breaking of our own rules because it wasn't what some people wanted.

I don't believe that's any reason to do what we're going through right now.

LISA DESJARDINS: Could you consider changing to Jordan at any point?

REP. MIKE KELLY: No, I can't, because we already had elected somebody to be our speaker-designate.

And it's not -- it's nothing against Jim Jordan.

I have nothing against Jim Jordan.

I just don't like when people break the rules because it's not -- it's not something they like.

LISA DESJARDINS: And a sign that indeed there are not more people being swayed tonight by Jim Jordan is that there is not another vote scheduled tonight, Geoff.

So it does not seem like they want to roll the dice again on a speaker's vote, at least not tonight.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, we heard from Congressman Kelly there in your conversation with them.

What about the other 16 Republicans who are opposed to Jim Jordan?

What are they giving as their reason?

LISA DESJARDINS: Let me quickly highlight two others that were significant, the first, House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger.

When Jim Jordan was nominated today, I saw her sit in her seat, one of the only Republicans who did not applaud.

Now, it's notable that many -- that we saw several of the no-votes come from appropriators.

There are real doubts about Jim Jordan and whether he would try to shut down government or end up shutting down government or lead to an appropriations mess.

Now, another voice I want to highlight, Ken Buck, that congressman we talked about before.

His voting for -- his reason for voting no today he said is because Jim Jordan would not answer a simple question.

Does he still believe or did he ever, I guess does he believe now that the 2020 election was stolen?

Ken Buck says that Jim Jordan has not answered that question.

He spoke to him last night, and he is a real concern that this is an election denier who could be speaker.

And, for that reason, he is a no.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the next vote is scheduled for tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.

Lisa Desjardins on Capitol Hill for us tonight.

Lisa, thank you.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: A new proposed settlement from the Biden administration would allow migrant families who were separated from their children at the Southern border to stay in the U.S. for three years and apply for asylum while getting aid.

More than 4,000 children were separated from their families during the Trump administration as part of a zero-tolerance policy.

Officials have identified and reunited just over 3,000 kids since then.

If a judge accepts the settlement, it would also prevent the U.S. government from separating families for at least eight years.

The case was brought in large part by the ACLU, which settled with the government.

Its lead counsel, Lee Gelernt, joins me now.

Lee, welcome back.

Thanks for joining us.

LEE GELERNT, Attorney, American Civil Liberties Union: Thanks for having me back.

AMNA NAWAZ: Now, Lee, as part of this settlement, families will receive up to a year of housing and legal and medical behavioral health aid.

Family members are allowed to live in the U.S. under parole while their asylum claims are processed.

Other family members who were previously denied asylum can reapply.

Those feel like very broad terms.

What's your reaction to this settlement?

LEE GELERNT: Yes, we're very happy with the settlement for the families.

I mean, we have been negotiating this for two-and-a-half years, and we are pleased that we have finally reached an agreement.

And, as you said, there are two basic parts to the settlement.

The first part is backward-looking to provide benefits for the families that were brutally separated under the Trump administration.

The Biden administration will help us find the remaining families, reunify them at government expense, and the U.S. provide certain housing, medical, legal assistance, parole to remain in the country, work with authorization, and, most importantly, a specialized process for them to seek asylum so they're never sent back again.

The second part of the settlement, which you also mentioned, was indispensable from our standpoint, which was, going forward, no more zero-tolerance policies.

And that lasts for eight years.

If any future administration tries to do it again, we would be back in court showing the settlement.

After eight years, hopefully, no administration is ever thinking about this again.

But if so, we would go back and simply file a new constitutional challenge based on the precedent.

So we are thrilled for these families.

There's a lot of work to implement.

There are still, as you said, up to 1,000 children, we believe, not with their parents.

This is now years later.

These children have largely grown up not knowing their parents.

There's a lot of work to be done, but this is a critical start.

AMNA NAWAZ: We know the administration had previously stated their intention to make good on some of this earlier.

Here in fact is what the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, said back in October of 2021.

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security: We believe that these families, given what we have done to them, deserve to be able to be in the United States, to remain in the United States and not suffer instability anymore.

AMNA NAWAZ: Now, Lee, this issue of instability, you mentioned the specialized asylum process.

We know a number of asylum claims are eventually denied, even if they take months or years to process.

Is there any guarantee for these families or could they eventually end up having their asylum claims rejected and being deported?

LEE GELERNT: So you're putting your finger on exactly the right point.

We needed Congress, and only Congress can do it, to grant green cards to ensure that all these families, in which our U.S. government intentionally afflicted harm on them, remain in this country and not re-separated, not sent back to danger.

That was the only way of guaranteeing it.

That moment seems to have passed, although I hope Congress will consider again trying to do that.

But, in the meantime, what we could do with the executive branch was this specialized asylum process.

We hope that the families who are deserving of asylum get asylum.

You're absolutely right.

Some of these families could be denied asylum and sent back home.

AMNA NAWAZ: We know the administration is still working to reunite some thousand families or so who were separated.

Do you have any update on those efforts?

LEE GELERNT: So, they fall into a variety of categories.

Some, we just still haven't found.

And that's because the Trump administration didn't keep records.

And we and our partners are looking all over the world for these families.

We hope to find them.

We will not stop until we find them.

Some are in a better situation.

We have contacted them, and they're in the queue to come back.

And so, hopefully, within the next few months, many, many more will come back.

But the judge asked us right in the beginning of the case, do you expect find all these families?

And we said, we really don't know, but we won't stop trying until every last one is found.

And that's all we can do at this point.

We have been working on it for years, and we will continue working on it for as many more years as is necessary.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lee, when you step back and reflect on this moment in time, this practice of separating children from their families, it's really one of the darkest chapters in our modern history and had echoes of previous dark chapters, right, our times of enslavement and internment and so on.

Does this settlement, does this moment, does this offer sort of an end to that chapter of sorts?

LEE GELERNT: Yes, again, I think you're asking the exact right question.

It is one of the darkest chapters.

I have been doing this work for more than three decades at the ACLU.

This is far and away the worst thing I have ever seen, gratuitous, intentional cruelty, little babies being pulled apart, screaming and begging, don't take me away, don't take me away.

This settlement is a critical start.

But, again, as you said, it can't make everything right.

It won't erase this chapter from U.S. history.

And it also won't ultimately make all the families whole.

I mean, these children and parents were so traumatized.

One family we just were working with, a 3-year-old boy was separated for 10 weeks.

By the time he got home, he would just stand by the window looking to see if men were going to come and take him away again.

I think that's what we're dealing with, thousands of little children who were traumatized, this sense of vulnerability that anything could happen to them.

So, no, this settlement won't make everything OK, but it's a critical start, in our view.

And we know the perfect can't stand in the way of doing what we can.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Lee Gelernt of the ACLU joining us tonight.

Lee, thank you.

We appreciate it.

LEE GELERNT: Thank you for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: Students applying to colleges now are the first class to deal with the impact of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn affirmative action.

For many high school students, this annual rite of passage is now trickier than ever to navigate.

Special correspondent Hari Sreenivasan takes a look for our series Rethinking College.

STUDENT: I am quite nervous.

STUDENT: Kind of nerve-wracking.

STUDENT: Kind of just stressful, as always.

HARI SREENIVASAN: These feelings are not uncommon for kids applying to college, but now students have one more question around the most subjective part of their applications, the essay.

STUDENT: I feel like it's become almost a competition.

HARI SREENIVASAN: In its ruling this summer, the Supreme Court said colleges and universities taking race into account during admissions were violating the Equal Protections Clause.

Overnight, thousands of prospective college students wondered how race could or would factor into their applications.

LUKE LASKEY, Student: It really narrows down what you're able to write about, which I don't like.

HARI SREENIVASAN: But many students are still hoping to distinguish themselves through their essays.

In his opinion, Chief John Roberts wrote: "Universities can still consider an applicant's discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise."

When is the sort of stress level peak on college admissions processes?

RAFAEL FIGUEROA, Dean of College Guidance, Albuquerque Academy: November 1.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Rafael Figueroa is the dean of college guidance at Albuquerque Academy, a prep school in New Mexico.

Prior to this, Figueroa worked in admissions departments at several colleges.

Has this been confusing for students?

RAFAEL FIGUEROA: It has been confusing.

And, for some, it was a little intimidating.

We had students saying, we hear you're not going to be able to mention race at all.

We hear we're not going to be able to write about that.

We hear we're going to have to scrub everything.

Students can still be themselves.

Don't change your plans.

Don't change your strategy right now.

But the essay is the one place where the students do have a chance to have a discussion with the Supreme Court.

DEAN JACOBY, Albuquerque Academy: If you have a college that you want to see... HARI SREENIVASAN: College knowledge helps students have that discussion.

It's a program offered by the academy to help kids prepare their college applications, and it has a high rate of success getting kids into colleges.

This year, the class is focused on helping kids write about their backgrounds in a way that colleges can take into consideration.

DEAN JACOBY: That doesn't mean that students can't talk about it.

Right?

It means that there's certain limitations on what the admissions officers can use that information for in their decision-making process.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Student anxiety has been so high since the ruling that the academy now offers the class multiple times a week.

STUDENT: I'm constantly thinking about the college essay.

RAFAEL FIGUEROA: Students therefore need to be prepared to convey the way that their culture, their ethnicity, their background has impacted their lives, has changed the person who they are and the person who they will bring to the college campus with them.

JEFF HUANG, Founder, CollegesLike: It's not crystal clear how colleges will deal with the question of the Supreme Court decision.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Jeff Huang once led the admissions at Claremont McKenna College.

JEFF HUANG: Colleges are changing the supplemental questions that they are asking students to complete that include stories of your background.

Tell me something really interesting about yourself.

HARI SREENIVASAN: I spoke to three seniors at the Academy, Matthew White, Sydney Marks and Ani (ph) Field.

They're all from diverse backgrounds.

And I asked them about what the decision meant for them and how they're planning to present themselves to colleges.

SYDNEY MARKS, Student: Ultimately, what they're asking for is our identity and who we are.

HARI SREENIVASAN: They have listened to their counselors and know that the essay is the way to give the admissions committees a chance to know them.

MATTHEW WHITE, Student: I have kind of lived in two separate worlds, almost, because I'm an urban Native, so I don't live on the reservation.

So it made me really rethink like, what has it been like to live in these two worlds?

SYDNEY MARKS: The Supreme Court made a ruling.

And that doesn't change my identity.

It doesn't change what I'm interested in and what my -- like, what I have achieved.

And so I kept a lot of what I said about being a Latina, especially from New Mexico.

ANIKA FIELD, Student: In the beginning, I didn't have much of about my race in my essay.

My mother's side of the family is from Guyana.

I want to honor and appreciate my mom's side of the culture, but I don't look that way.

HARI SREENIVASAN: We met with Sydney's parents at the Albuquerque Museum, where her mom, Josie Lopez, works as the head curator.

The court's decision was personal.

As JOSIE LOPEZ, Mother of Sydney Marks: As someone who has the experience of being a person of color moving through these kinds of systems myself, I think I had a great sense of sadness, because one of the most important things that happened to me in my educational experience was getting to be around and know students from all over the world.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Sydney's father, Alan Marks, who taught at a public school in New Mexico, worries about the students who don't have his daughter's advantages.

ALAN MARKS, Father of Sydney Marks: I think she's a strong enough student that she will get into college somewhere.

I'm more concerned about the school that I worked at in a very poor area, which was some indigenous, but mostly Latino school, where virtually none of the parents ever had a college education.

JEFF HUANG: There's a resource gap here, where lower-income students who attend generally public schools have a counselor-to-student ratio that might be 250 to one, might be 500 to one.

In the case of my daughter, it was about 600 to one counselor.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Huang now runs a free Web site called CollegesLike.com to help lower-income students find resources and schools similar to the ones they're interested in.

His previous experience gives him invaluable insight into the inner workings of colleges.

Are there college admissions departments sitting down with their legal departments and saying, what is a question that I can ask which gives me a good idea of who this person is without it being illegal as deemed by the Supreme Court?

JEFF HUANG: I think almost every college admission office in America is having conversations with legal counsel about how to do this in a way that is both with respect to the law, but also with respect to the institution's interests.

RAFAEL FIGUEROA: You still need to be you.

You still give the stories that you want to convey to colleges about you.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Back at the college knowledge classes at Albuquerque Academy, kids are still getting pointers on the Common App and test-optional schools, along with warnings that using generative artificial intelligence to write your essays is anything but intelligent RAFAEL FIGUEROA: Even if you do A.I.

to help you plan or focus on a topic, they expect it in the end that you can honestly say that the essay is ultimately your own.

HARI SREENIVASAN: For these students, making their essays their own means acknowledging their heritage.

SYDNEY MARKS: I think that's what I'm trying to show, that I care about my community and I do it by preserving my culture.

MATTHEW WHITE: I talk about a word called hozho, which is a Navajo word meaning beauty and harmony.

And it's kind of like on my journey, I'm trying to find Hozho and that beauty and harmony and walking in that way.

ANIKA FIELD: Just because I look the way that I do, that does not define my experiences and what I have grown up with.

So don't judge a book by its cover.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Judging an application is just what college committees will have to do in the next few months.

How they factor in race, that's their test.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Hari Sreenivasan in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

AMNA NAWAZ: In a recent report, the Gates Foundation laid out the staggering numbers on maternal mortality and offered several interventions it says could save the lives of two million mothers and babies by 2030.

Here is Melinda French Gates' take on prioritizing and investing in women's health.

And a note that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a funder of the "NewsHour."

MELINDA FRENCH GATES, Co-Founder, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Healthy moms mean healthy babies, and healthy moms are the center of the family, which means they're also the center of the community, and they're center to our economy.

And so when a mom does well, her children do well.

And so I think of a mom that I have met a long time ago in Kenya, and she said to me when she's holding her little baby in her hands, her newborn baby, she said: "I want every good thing for this child."

And her name was Mary Ann, and I thought she encapsulates what every mom wants, which is every good thing for their child; 800 moms die a day in childbirth.

And by the time you finish watching this Brief But Spectacular episode, another mom will die in childbirth.

Many of the interventions for maternal health are actually quite simple.

It's using something we already have and that we all use, azithromycin, so that a mom doesn't get infected at the time of the birth.

Or it's I.V.

iron.

Yet, in so many of these low-income settings, those simple interventions and tools are not making it out to where moms give birth in health care facilities.

When I traveled to Malawi several years ago, I actually saw a baby that was likely to see out the day, very healthy newborn, and one who had been born on the road and the mother had died.

And that baby, because of the birth complications, was unlikely to see out the day.

Here in the United States, a woman is three times as likely to die in childbirth than in another high-income country.

And it has to do with a system failure, a system that doesn't listen to women, a system that's biased, a system that doesn't spend enough money rolling out the innovations that we know that work.

The single biggest barrier preventing us from saving these moms' lives in childbirth is not focusing on them and saying, this matters.

I met a group in Africa who had really said, enough is enough.

We're tired of seeing our sisters die in childbirth, our moms die in childbirth, our wives die in childbirth.

Let's do something about it.

And they listed what was keeping women from having adequate health care system.

And then they took action.

And I thought, that's what it takes, is a group of committed individuals to say, women in our community matter.

I was lucky enough to be with my daughter Jen and her husband, Nayel, at the birth of their own daughter.

And to see your own beautiful, healthy daughter give birth to another healthy baby girl is just one of the most joyful times of life.

It made me all the more committed that, in this next generation, women have fantastic health care on the day that their baby is born and all the way through their pregnancy.

My name is Melinda Gates Foundation.

This is my Brief But Spectacular take on making birth safer for moms and babies.

AMNA NAWAZ: And you can watch more Brief But Spectacular videos at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.