Trial begins pitting several state Attorneys General against META – August 18, 2026

Good evening. It's Tuesday, August 18th. I'm Scott Baba. Opening statements begin in a multi-state litigation against tech giant meta in a case where states are seeking billions of dollars and damages for social media harms to children. About to walk into the federal courthouse for our first day of trial against meta, meta, designed and deployed a dangerous product that knowingly visited mental health harms on our children. They knew how dangerous it was and they lied to the public about how dangerous it was. Mehta chose profits over our children and we look forward to holding them accountable in court. More primary elections are held across the country today as well as a special election in the East Bay to fill the seat left vacant by disgraced former Democratic representative Eric Swalwell. It's incredibly impactful. I will just say that APEC has poured millions upon millions of dollars in this race. And new information about last month's fatal shooting in Maine by immigration agents is calling into question the account given by immigration enforcement officials. Johann Sebastian was not the intended target of the operation, and he did not have a final order of removal. He had a pending asylum case and a valid work permit. In just the past few days, we have learned that ICE's intended target Johann Sebastian's roommate and the owner of the car he was driving that morning also did not have a final removal order. These stories and more coming up. From the studios of KPAF& Berkeley, this is the Pacific Evening News. I'm Scott Baba.

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Oman because he is unhappy the country is close to a deal with Iran to manage ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. That's what two regional officials said today, a day after Trump leveled the threat. The officials said the Trump administration has told Oman it is opposed to parts of the yet-to-be-announced deal, including the joint Iranian and Omani management of the exit route out of the passage. The strait is critical to global supplies of oil and natural gas. The officials were briefed on the U.S. position and how the administration views Oman's position. Trump said the U.S. has no planned talks with Iran, but insists the Strait of Hormuz remains open. This comes after a reported strike on a ship exiting the waterway and as Iran and say they're close to a deal to reopen it. Iran said the waterway will not reopen until the U.S. meets its conditions. Shipping data platform Kepler says transits fell nearly 20% through the Strait of Hormuz last week. South Korean President Li J. Myung said today that a solid alliance with the United States underpins national security. The statement came after President Donald Trump's abrupt order to, quote, substantially reduce joint military exercises, left many South Koreans baffled and concerned. Trump made the surprise announcement in a social media post just before the U.S. and South Korean soldiers were set to begin the annual Ulci Freedom Shield exercises. which are largely designed to sharpen readiness against North Korean threats. President Lee noted that the relationship between the U.S. and South Korea is beneficial to both nations, saying,

Ultimately, this reflects a sense of disappointment that South Korea, despite being an ally, did not actively support the United States in the U.S. Iran War. So what does that suggest going forward? It's essentially sending the message that if South Korea doesn't engage in burden sharing, and doesn't actively participate in America's regional or global strategy, the U.S. could just as easily adjust the level of its security commitments to South Korea. The mention of joint military exercises can be seen as one expression of that message. The United States is criticizing Israeli airstrikes on a military airbase in northwestern Syria, calling them an unnecessary escalation. U.S. Ambassador Tom Barrack, the Special Envoy for Syria, said in a statement on social media that Washington was, quote, deeply concerned by the attacks, and said the United States is encouraging all parties to prioritize what he called, quote, logical discourse over further military incidents. Syrian state television reported eight strikes hit the runway of the Abu Duhar Air Base in Idlib province, causing damage but no casualties. The Israeli military has not commented. Barack said Syria's interim government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa has, quote, repeatedly indicated a preference for de-escalation with Israel. Tensions between Israel and Turkey over Syria have grown since the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad's government in December of 2024. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since then and remains wary of the new government's roots in Islamist insurgency. The United States has imposed sanctions against the International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane of Japan, the latest move in the Trump administration's campaign against the court. The United States also sanctioned International Criminal Court senior trier lawyer Abdulier Seye of Senegal. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, quote, these individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest. detain or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction. The sanctions bar the officials from entering the United States and using the U.S. financial system. The move follows the court's 24 arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza. The International Criminal Court fired back, saying in a statement, quote, when judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk. The United States never ratified the treaty that created the International Criminal Court. Last week, four human rights groups sued President Donald Trump over the sanctions campaign.

Opening statements started today in a pivotal trial for META's platforms in a California federal court where states are seeking billions of dollars in damages for social media harms to children. Attorneys General from California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey are seeking extensive financial damages plus changes to how the company operates Facebook and Instagram. 29 states sued the tech giant in 2023 over child safety and privacy. The other 25 will go to trial later. The company also faces lawsuits in state courts. Meta said in a statement that it believes it has a strong case. Lauren Schmidt reports. The pivotal trial for the parent company of Facebook and Instagram began today in federal court in Oakland. California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey are seeking billions of dollars in damages, along with fundamental changes of how META operates its platforms. A jury will decide whether the states have proven that the technology giant designed its apps to, quote, hook the users, hold them for as long as they can, harvest their data, and hide the truth from the public. Which is how Megan O'Neill, a deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice, characterized the case during her opening statement. The lawsuit accuses Mehta of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly designing features that make its platform addictive to children and then concealing the associated harms from the public. The states also allege that Mehta routinely collected data from children under the age of 13 without their parents' consent in violation of federal law. Meta, however, denies the allegations and defended its safety record. Meta did not comment publicly following the opening day of the trial, but California's Attorney General Rob Bonta and AGs with Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey held a joint press conference after today's proceeding. We are the four states that are part of this, what we call a bellwether case. But there are 29 states bipartisan across the country who are standing up for families, for parents, of course, for children. The case was filed three years ago, and the trial is expected to last between five and seven weeks. And today, the jury heard its first witness, a former meta-executive. He testified that contrary to META's public statements, the company's research into safety concerns was not used effectively to improve its products.

A whistleblower engineer from META who was in charge of child safety while there who talked about the fact that META knew the harms that it was visiting upon children but failed to act. The witness, Arturo Bajar, pointed to META's handling of content promoting eating disorders. He said the companies and engineers proposed effective ways to keep that material from reaching young users. But by the time those safety measures made it through Mehta's review process, he said they had been, quote, whittled down to a little pebble that didn't make a difference, close quote. Attorney General Rob Bonta did not place sole responsibility on the company and directed criticism to its founder, CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Mr. Mark Zuckerberg himself chose profits over the safety of children. He was presented with a choice where his own staff was telling him, this will hurt kids if you do it. We think you shouldn't do it. And he overruled them and said, do it. Knowingly harming kids. And then later. telling the world that their product was safe. Mark Zuckerberg is one of the top 10 richest people in the world. His fortune tied overwhelmingly to meta platforms. This trial is the latest in an avalanche of lawsuits against meta and other social media companies, including Google's YouTube, TikTok, and Snap. The lawsuits allege that the company's platforms harm young people, illegally collect their data, and are deliberately designed to encourage compulsive use. As the trial began Tuesday, child safety advocates and parents who attribute their children's deaths to social media harms gathered outside of the courthouse. Many held photographs of their children, and several parents held a banner listing the names and ages of children who died in incidents. They say we're connected to social media. Like Mary Rody, whose 15-year-old son, died by suicide after being sextorted on Facebook Messenger. The banner she held had 39 names on it. Among the parents demanding accountability is Lori Schott, a mother and social media safety advocate who spoke to KPFA earlier this year. Shot described her daughter, Anna Lee, as a cowgirl from eastern Colorado who loved animals. But noticed a change when she began spending more time on her phone. Her Instagram account and those things were tied with anxiety and depression and nobody loves me and don't believe your parents and you don't fit in. And even on TikTok, she saw a life suicide. They engineered it by design. They engineered what my daughter saw, not what she chose to see, but what they showed her.

They knew they were harming children. Kids are dying, and Anna's been gone six years, and I am so sick of adding other families into the sad club of children that were harmed by social media platforms that we could stop this. Colorado, Annali's home state, is one of the four leading the trial. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said the effects of META's business practices are widespread among the nation's youth. There are now a generation of kids who have lost sleep because of notifications and alerts all hours of the night, who performed less well in school because they were distracted and tired, and even kids like Anna who died by suicide. This social media-fueled youth mental health crisis demands action, and I am proud to be with a coalition of State AG's coast-to-coast from both political parties in court in the case that will provide meaningful relief and address these harms. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez, Roger, is overseeing the proceeding. The trial is expected to include testimony from Mark Zuckerberg and other META executives and former employees. If META loses, the court would have broad discretion in determining the size of any financial penalty. META has said an adverse ruling could leave it liable for as much as $1.4 trillion in damages. Although legal experts say a penalty anywhere near that amount is unlikely. They're the ones who put out the $1.4 trillion number. I think they want to suggest that they're the victims, that they are being financially imposed on. Meta is not the victim. Meta's the perpetrator. For KPFA News, I'm Lauren Schmidt. Alaska voters go to the polls today and a Senate primary that could have major implications on the control of Congress. Democrats see an opening in a state that has long-favored Republicans with former Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola challenging Republican Senator Dan Sullivan. If she wins, she would be Alaska's first Native American senator. That race has also taken an unusual turn. There are two candidates named Dan Sullivan on the ballot. Teresa, where's Bianca, has more. Alaska's Senate race is getting national attention, not just because Democrats see a chance to flip a traditionally Republican seat. But because of an unusually crowded ballot and a Republican challenger who shares the incumbent's name, 16 candidates are competing in Alaska's nonpartisan top four primary. At the center of the race is two-term Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, who has President Donald Trump's endorsement. His strongest Democratic challenger is former Congresswoman Mary Peltola, who represented Alaska in the House from 2022 through 2024.

Mary Peltola and I'd like to share why I've made the decision to run for U.S. Senate. I grew up on the Kaskokum River, salmon fishing with my father. Buzzy and I raised our seven kids in Alaska and spent long summer days. Kaltola is running as a moderate and emphasizing issues including Alaska's economy, energy. cost of living, and what she describes as the need to put Alaska's interests ahead of national partisan politics. And, of course, then there's fishing. But Democrats aren't the only ones watching this race closely. Republicans are concerned about another candidate on the ballot, Dan J. Dan Sullivan, a retired fifth grade teacher from Tiny Petersburg, Alaska, who describes himself as a pragmatic Republican. The incumbent has accused the other Dan Sullivan of being a, quote, sham candidate planted by Democrats to confuse voters. The Justice Department has investigated the campaign over allegations that the name similarity could confuse voters, though there has been no confirmed evidence that Democrats coordinated with Dan J. Dan Sullivan. The incumbent senator told this to the Wall Street Journal. There is no doubt, in my view, that this guy isn't in it to win it. He's in it to rig it for my Democrat opponent. The signs are everywhere. As you say, he's a far left progressive. He's got a... 20-year history of donating to Act Blue and every other progressive. This week, New York Times reporter Kellan Browning caught up with who the Republicans are calling decoy Dan. The candidate has only given a handful of interviews and has mostly stayed out of the spotlight. He told the reporter that he is a Republican but has never voted for President Trump and has supported Mary Peltola's previous campaigns and believes the Republican Party does not need to be affiliated. with MAGA candidates or policies. For Mary Peltola, the unusual Republican contest could create an opening. Alaska uses a ranked choice voting system and the top four candidates in Tuesday's primary will advance to the November general election. That means Mary Peltola doesn't necessarily need to win the primary outright. She needs to secure a place among the top four and then build a coalition of voters in November. Mary Peltola has been a strong advocate for the ranked choice system since her election to Congress, replacing longtime representative Don Young. There have been candidates who repeatedly win their seat just by tearing down the other person and beating that other person. And that's just not, I don't think ultimately for America and for democracy, I don't think that's a winning recipe. And I don't really think that Alaskans like that.

Democrats need to gain four Senate seats to take control of the chamber, making Republican-held seats like Alaska a critical part of their strategy. And while Alaska remains a deeply Republican state, Mary Peltola has shown that Democrats can compete there. She won a special election for Alaska's lone House seat in 2022 before losing the seat two years later to Republican Nick Beggage. The primary results will determine which for candidates move on to November and whether Alaska becomes one of the most consequential state battlegrounds in the country. For Pacific Radio, KPFA, I'm Teresa Where's Bianca. Meanwhile, East Bay voters in California's 14th congressional district are heading to the polls today to fill the seat left vacant when Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell resigned in April amid sexual assault allegations that he denies. The race pits progressive Democratic state senator Aisha Wahab against Melissa Hernandez, a moderate Democrat who sits on the Bay Area Rapid Transit Board. Wahab placed first in both the June 16th special primary ahead of today's election, as well as the June 2nd primary for the full-term seat to replace Eric Swalwell. In both contests, Wahab led Hernandez by more than 20 percentage points. However, outside spending has since poured into the race with the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee's Super PAC United Democracy Project, spending nearly $2.5 million in ads attacking Wahab's legislative record and supporting Hernandez. A separate pack, which has received funding from APAC, Bold America, spent another $2.4 million, boosting Hernandez. Meanwhile, a rival group American Priorities, has backed Wahab in response. Wahab is both the first Afghan American and the first Muslim elected to the California State Senate. Hernandez is a former mayor of Dublin, California, and currently serves as Director of Healthcare Services for Alameda County Supervisor David Halbert. KPFA News attempted to speak with both candidates ahead of today's special election. KPFAs Lauren Schmidt discussed the race with Wahab. My name's Aisha Wahab. I'm the state senator for the East Bay and South Bay. I am running for Congress to largely work for the people in my district and everyday Americans that want a voice that really protects their quality of life, enhances their quality of life, makes things affordable, and puts us back. with the American Dream very accessible to us. I personally think that the leadership in D.C. has not been able to really deliver for the American people in decades. And I'm hoping to be one of those voices that moves it in the right direction. Voting began early this morning. How are you feeling as voters are taking to the polls to decide in the special election?

I will tell you every single time, anxious, nervous, worried. You know, our goal is to make sure that people turn in their ballot. It's a sleeper election, as I call it. It's in the special election. It's in the middle of summer. People are going back to school. People are on vacations. People are not paying attention to what is being mailed to them because they have their lives to actually live. And so I just want to make sure that our supporters come out and vote. Today, it's a unique election, as you mentioned, because the winner will serve the remainder of former representative, the disgraced Eric Swalwell's term. And it's my understanding, you and Melissa Hernandez will actually face each other again in November for the full term. With that, I mean, how consequential do you think today's decision is in light that there's another election coming in November? Definitely. It's incredibly impactful. I will just say that APEC has scored millions upon millions of dollars in this race are outside spending from what we have seen is upwards towards $10 million. And the reference I always give is that San Francisco is barely touching $3 million and we don't have a big city in our district. We don't have a San Francisco in L.A. and Oakland to San Jose. And so the fact that they're spending this much money. Really, they're trying to break down the divide. If you take a look in the June 2nd and June 16th primary, I beat my opponent by double digit margins. In the special election, I beat her by 26 points. And the fact that they're spending millions of dollars literally just on negative campaigning, spreading lies and distorting facts and distorting my record, does do damage, right? We know that it's well over $5 million that they have. officially spent literally a million dollars a week your your challenger is also a democrat so why do you think apak has chosen to target you You know, we can say the Democrats have a large tent, and I believe in having a large tent, but she doesn't hold a lot of Democratic values. I want to be very clear. She is campaigning to Republicans saying she's endorsed by Republican leaders, by the Republican leaders in the county, and much more. She has opposed raising the pride flag. She has taken... Trump's donors and made it her donors, right? She has opposed sanctuary status. She is largely a Republican in many, many ways and not a true Democrat in the sense that the Democratic Party did not endorse her. The Democratic Party is not supporting her. Our leadership in the Democratic Party is very, very clear in the district. And I have a very broad coalition. I have law enforcement officials, like I said, the police chiefs and Porak and so many other organizations, as well as very progressive groups like our revolution and indivisible and much more. So my record clearly shows that we're able to.

really actually create a broad coalition, a bipartisan coalition. I have more bills that are bipartisan compared to many other legislators. I have been named one of the most effective legislators in the building. And it is because I bring people along, not necessarily. And everyone knows where I stand versus my opponent who dodges forums, dodges questions, dodges reporters. Finally, do you think... you are being targeted because you were the first Afghan American woman elected to public office. And on the other side of that, what would it mean to bring that same representation to Congress? You know, I am an American through and through. I grew up in foster care. I always joke that Uncle Sam raised me. But my heritage is Afghan. I'm very proud of that. I'm not going to let, you know, what's happening today kind of distort the culture and the beauty of that community. But at the same time, I'm also Muslim American. And it's not even the fact. It's one piece is the identity issues that APEC seems to have a problem with. But the other is how. you know, the potential of actually being effective matters, right? I am the only one in the nation that brought a resolution to discuss human rights in Gaza that is supported by many of my Jewish colleagues, right? That passed off the Senate floor, 35 to zero in a bipartisan fashion. It's now held in the assembly, but being able to move that type of legislation is incredibly important in today's time where people don't want to talk about an issue, both Republicans and Democrats. won't bring real policies and real discussions to the floor because they don't want to admit that they don't support something. And so I fully support Medicare for all. I fully support protecting our American dream, homeownership, and prioritizing the American people, as I said. We'll be staying tuned to tonight, tomorrow, and through November. But in the meantime, anything you want to leave our listeners with. Overall, I work for my district, whether it's a Republican leadership. or democratic leadership, if I believe it does not help my district and my community, I won't agree to it and I will push back. And I've been known for that. But I also will highlight the fact that a lot of my policies have been to support everyday people, people that don't have a voice, that don't have a lobbyist, that don't have millions of dollars to sway people. So my work will always be for vulnerable people and regular Americans. That was Democratic State Senator Isha Wahab speaking with KPFAs, Lauren Schmidt. Despite efforts to reach Hernandez across phone, email, and social media, Hernandez did not respond for comment.

According to the policy platforms on their websites, Wahab is campaigning on affordability, calling for Medicare for all, expanded affordable housing, and protecting Social Security, Medicare, and SNAP from cuts. She also wants to cancel student debt, provide free community college, and end what she calls, quote, pointless wars that drive up costs. Hernandez is emphasizing fiscal discipline in public safety. pointing to her record building affordable housing as mayor. She said she supports a pathway to citizenship for dreamers alongside what she calls, quote, smart border security and backs restoring the Inflation Reduction Act's climate programs. California's 14th congressional district was redrawn as part of the new congressional map approved by voters in a 2025-state-wide ballot measure known as Proposition 50. The map goes into effect for the full-term seat in January, while the winner of the special election will serve under the current boundaries for the remainder of the year. Both versions of the district are contained entirely within Alameda County in the East Bay. The current district includes Hayward, Livermore, Pleasanton, and Union City, as well as parts of San Leandro, Fremont, and Dublin. Because two Democrats are competing, the seat is guaranteed to stay in Democratic hands. The winner will serve out Eric Swalwell's term through January. Polls will be open until 8 p.m. The two will separately face off again in November to compete for the district's next full term, starting in January. I'm Scott Baba. You're listening to the Pacific Evening News. We're back with more after this. Everything feels sharp lately. The world moves fast. And people are scared, anxious, tired. So let's slow it down. Just for a moment. Just for this breath. Be kind. Beginning with you. Kindness may seem small. It isn't. It's how we carry each other through in times like these. Information matters, care matters too. KPFA is here for both. Independent, listener supported, and rooted in community. This is 94.1 KPFA and 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley. 88.1 KFCF in Fresno and online across the multiverse at KPFA.org. The Maine Congresswoman says the person ICE agents were actually targeted in a fatal shooting last month was not subject to a final removal order, contradicting the government's account. During a Democratic shadow hearing on the fatal ICE shooting in Biddeford, Maine, Democratic Representative Shelley Pingree of Maine, said ICE's intended target was the roommate of Johann Sebastian Duran Guerrero.

The 25-year-old Columbia National killed by an ICE agent near his home in July. Johann Sebastian was not the intended target of the operation, and he did not have a final order of removal. He had a pending asylum case and a valid war permit. In just the past few days, we have learned that ICE's intended target... Johann Sebastian's roommate and the owner of the car he was driving that morning also did not have a final removal order. Pingree said the incident underscored a startling and unsettling failure of process at the immigration enforcement agency. How is ICE deciding who to target and detain in Maine? What information are its agents relying on? And is anyone checking whether that information is complete or even correct before armed officers are sent into our communities? As so many of you know, all too personally, we are seeing this happen over and over again. If ICE cannot accurately determine a person's immigration status or circumstance before taking enforcement action, that is a profound failure of competence and accountability that is leading to innocent people, people who are following the law and doing everything as to them, being caught in ICE's crosshairs. The consequences, as Johann Sebastian's family knows, all too patently, can be deadly. The Department of Homeland Security says it stands by its earlier account, saying agents were surveilling the last known address of someone with a final removal order and declined to confirm who the target was. The shooting remains under state investigation. Officials have said the ICE agent involved had a history of violent behavior and mental health issues. The Taliban is now in its six year of controlling Afghanistan after seizing power five years ago on August 15, 2021, when the United States and other NATO troops withdrew following a costly two-decade-long war. Soon after taking power, the Taliban banned girls' education beyond the sixth grade and later banned higher education for women, despite having pledged before the takeover that women would be allowed access to education. employment, and public participation. Women have also been banned from public spaces, from taking part in sports, and traveling to distant locations without a male guardian. It's now the only country in the world that denies women and girls a secondary education. Five years on, the Taliban government has remained isolated internationally, hit with sanctions around the globe, and has lost international aid. The United Nations estimates 3.2 million Afghans have fled since the takeover. 80% of the newly displaced are women and children.

KPFAs, Christina Anestead, spoke with an Afghan refugee who managed to flee and escape the Taliban. She's now in Europe. We're keeping her identity anonymous due to her fear of attacks on her family still in Afghanistan. She spoke through an interpreter. The time when the Taliban arrived, conditions in Afghanistan changed completely, and all the hopes we had for the coming years and the structure we had built in our lives. Working towards capacity building for women, all came to nothing. We weren't even considered human at all. Our hard, difficult days and despair. began from there. How did the Taliban's take over? How did the Taliban's takeover affect your life directly? Did things change for you?

Yes, our daily lives changed. When the Taliban came, life was a struggle, especially for girls in Afghanistan. The struggle began from our own families. Some families have their own objections and argue their daughters are not free to learn so that they can help others or their own family. I took action to fight against this. I worked and moved the issue forward. When the Taliban came, they disrupted all my affairs, and I felt overwhelmed. I previously lived in Kabul and struggled with many problems. Five years passed with great difficulties, and finally, I reached a safe country. I had actually the premonition that the Taliban would come to Afghanistan, and when they did, the bitter, dark period of my life began. When the Taliban took Kabul, we had been hiding for a month. After the Taliban took Afghanistan, unfortunately, I was apprehended by them. I was imprisoned for a week. After that, my family and lawyer posted bail, and I was released. After that ordeal, my plan was to leave. I absolutely hated it there. Three days after I was released, I left Afghanistan and sought refugee in Pakistan. When the Taliban arrested me in prison, It was probably the hardest, most difficult time of my life. Can you describe the prison conditions and how you were treated by the Taliban while incarcerated? It was one of the hardest times of my life. It's hard to talk about it. I can't tell you everything. There were so many pressures, including physical, emotional, and psychological. Unspeakable things happened there. So you were targeted. This happened because you were advocating for women's rights. What rights were you organizing for? I fought in 2014, for women, for women's intellect, to defend all their rights against depression, and I tried harder to make women self-sufficient. I wanted women to stand on their own feet, so a woman would never need a man for money or always be like a slave to him. This is the reason I was advocating. more for women and their rights. I protested in the streets before the Taliban came. It was an ongoing struggle when the Taliban arrived. We entered a very intense state of agitation, feeling we had to fight. Our homeland was in great turmoil. Can you talk about how you were organizing in Afghanistan?

The most important sector I was active in was an education for girls. Before the Taliban, I would introduce girls to the university, and they would go study abroad. So after graduating, they would find jobs and become self-sufficient. Inside and outside the country, we mainly worked with Turkish and Israeli organizations because they knew us well, and we had quotas. We had a committee, a media committee, and a women's affair committee, and also a vocational training committee, different sections. Our biggest wish is that we speak up. Do you hear us? Women Office Committee have and other vocation training committee. Since the Taliban's takeover, women's rights have even further eroded. They can no longer get a secondary education. They can't work at most jobs. Could you respond to that?

Yes, our social and journalistic activities are extensive. I am also a writer. I write women's stories. The Taliban said I should go and hide from them. I have a group of young women who are actually located in Kabul in the provinces. And they have seen and are seeing the most emotional harm from family to society. And the bitter reality of life was prison. What happened to us in prison was like a video that tortured us one by one, so that until now our psychological state is not good. And from this closeness, I took courage and continued my fight. And today I am with women who tell us their stories, and then we cry. I work on those stories, and I write. I also have a book of women's stories underway, which is not yet completed, and I want to finish here. I fled by land with two Afghan families. Even though our time had run out, the cold was very severe and difficult, but I had managed to stay in Kabul for three more days and then flee from Afghanistan. What are your hopes moving forward now that you're no longer in Afghanistan?

Our greatest wish is that after I left Afghanistan, I faced a bitter reality outside, and the beginning of difficult, sad, and dark conditions began. Pakistan is not and has not been a suitable place for Afghan girls. We faced many problems during our five years in Turkey. We struggled, fought, endured, and hid. We couldn't find our way out, but despite this, we felt Pakistan was better than Afghanistan. And with many difficulties, I reached Europe. And today, having reached Europe, I want to defend the rights of those women who are currently staying in Pakistan, Iran and Uzbekistan. Their situation is very dire. They face very difficult and bitter conditions. But they accept these conditions compared to Afghanistan. But they are not as aware as they should be today. So the U.S. and several other countries have sanctioned the Taliban. The United Nations has withdrawn some of its aid for Afghanistan. What is your response to that strategy to pressure the Taliban to loosen up its patriarchal dictatorship? And what do you see as an effective strategy to elicit the change for women that you seek in Afghanistan?

If the United Nations really raises its voice and there is no silence, they take action. I hope that perhaps in a day or an hour, things will change. But unfortunately, in the five years we have been fighting, no one has raised their voice. I don't understand why they have, why they've forgotten Afghan women, Afghanistan itself, and what the reason is. Why are they silent? And today, even in these countries, we are not at peace. Today, I understand and feel the pain of an Afghan woman who is held hostage by foreign countries today. Countries that have become her captors. I am very sad. We have reached this point. We have seen everything with our own eyes there, the state of Afghan women who are outside of Afghanistan, in what condition they are and what they are going through. And today, if the UN countries raise their voice, If they truly want to serve us, serve Afghanistan, I believe it's a decision in their own hands. But I don't know why they don't take action. Yes, yes, tribal matters. The sexism is deep within the tribal codes. The patriarchy is rooted in families. It is very strong today. It is not just political. It is very strong. That was KPFA's Christina Onestead speaking with an Afghan refugee now living in Europe. We kept her identity hidden for fear of attacks on her family still in the country under Taliban rule. Today we bring you part two of a four-part investigative series on the nursing care drain, KPA's investigation into California's nursing crisis. Part one centered on the wave of strike sweeping the state from Kaiser to Marin Health to Sutter and on the federal funding cuts threatening to collapse public and other hospital systems that nurses work in. Today we look deeper at the impacts of funding cuts on the profession and the daily toll on nurses' mental health. A new national survey released in April found that 43% of nurses say they are likely to leave the bedside in the next year. 23% say they are likely to leave nursing entirely. That second figure jumped by nearly 50% in just one year. This episode asks why nurses are leaving and what do they carry when they go home? Nursing and mental health. KPFA's health and well-being reporter, Annetta Felix, has more. Jessica Sensoplano works the overnight shift at the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Watanez. 10 p.m. to 8.30 in the morning, labor and delivery. Before she was a nurse, she spent more than a decade in criminal justice and forensic science. I worked with Stanislaus County Coroner's Office for a little while. And while I was there, the forensic pathologist I worked under always told me, Jess, you're on the wrong side of the table. For these people, it's too late. You need to be helping people. You should really pursue, like, the medical field. So she went back to school in her 30s.

put herself through Samuel Friedrich Merz University, graduated in 2022, and now she delivers babies in the middle of the night. You get to welcome this amazing little new life into the world and you're singing happy birthday and everybody's happy and it's just this magical moment that wants to bring a tear to your eye. But some nights, the shifts end on a heavy note. There's other days where you walk in and you have to tell the mommy that you're going to deliver they're stillborn. Since Oplano recalls the night, an expectant mother came close to bleeding out all her blood and how understaffing put the patients at risk. I started noticing that she was stalling out in her labor and come to find out, she ended up bleeding almost four liters in blood and could have died that day. When you kind of look into it at a deeper level, staffing becomes a huge concern for this. Because if you are out of safe staffing, staffing ratios, your attention to those details and your ability to assess patients in a timely manner is inhibited. A meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Public Health in early 2026 found that nurses have the highest rates of PTSD among all healthcare worker categories globally. Researchers points to three causes. Prolonged patient contact. chronic staffing shortages, which creates unsafe environments, and the lack of managerial support when nurses report what they witnessed. Michelle Gutierrez-Voe has been a nurse for 29 years and is president of the California Nurses Association, one of the largest nurses union in the country, representing more than 150,000 registered nurses in hospitals and clinics across California and beyond. She describes the daily grind and pressures on nurses from the inside. A day in the life of an inpatient nurse, they come in. already under assault of receiving low staffing. Come to find out their patients are even sicker because maybe in the previous shifts, the nurses could not get to all of the patient's needs because they were also under staff. And then the harassment and intimidation of management when they start speaking up about their assignments, or you have to use a new machine that you have not been trained to use. You're hungry. You're starving, you're tired. You may have a cold or two of your kids have the flu at home. and you're at work and you're working, trying to still smile and give the best possible care and be compassionate because it's what we do. And hopefully you get your lunch before the six hour and your blood sugar is dropping. You haven't gotten to pee, beeping alarms all day long, phone calls. There's Code Blue, a patient being violent in room eight. All of that happening all in eight hours. And that 88-year-old...

who lives alone, you know, who has pneumonia, now just fell, broke their hip, you take that home with you. Because now they may never walk again. That is reality. And that is on a regular day. That is not when there's a pandemic. Santa Plano has been going through it for three years now, balancing that with her role as a single mom of an eight-year-old. She is the team parents for his football and baseball teams. After a 12- or 16-hour overnight shift, she drives home to face the motherhood shift. It can be extremely challenging to, like, switch those gears and have all those people still need you, you know? Sometimes, you know, I struggle with myself and I'm like, am I here or am I just here? Sometimes I do feel like I'm so exhausted that I'm showing up and I'm doing the things, but am I mentally present with him? A 2025 Joyce University survey of 1,000 nurses found nearly three in four felt emotionally exhausted multiple times a week, and a National World Sky study found 51% have sought mental health care. Yet, roughly half of those who need support are not accessing it, blocked by cost. stigma, and the fact that most nurses simply do not have the time or energy to make and keep a therapy appointment after hours on the job. Cameron Popino is a third-generation nurse who works in the emergency department at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center. He got his nursing license in 2020 at the height of COVID and has worked at the same ER since. I'll walk in. I'll look to one of the hallways and I'll see four patients lined up in the hallway. You hope that's not yours because it's going to be incredibly taxing, making sure all of those patients are safe because those are often the psych patients. And then you look to the other hallway and you can see the trauma room, someone with multiple IVs going, someone that's bleeding out, a doctor performing a procedure. Nurses are the first point of contact in the hospital and can spend more time with her patients than the doctor. Popino says a shortage of nurses exacerbates the daily pressures of the job, keeping people alive and cared for. He knows what an overcrowded lobby means for the patients still waiting to be seen. We often find herself short-staffed, meaning there are beds that are closed because there is just not a nurse to work them. So what that means for people coming into the hospital is if they have that blown-off finger, they need to be seen immediately, so they're taking beds. For everybody else, there's a long cue.

We'll have a lobby that's so full, we have to kick family members out so these patients feel unsupported because they are waiting to be seen. And they can't be seen immediately because we do not have nurses because we are not retaining our staff. The 2026 report by NSI Nursing Solutions found that 324,000 acute care registered nurses left their positions nationally in 2025 alone and that the US is projected to face a deficit of 250,000 nurses by 2028. In California, the shortage is expected to hit 18% by 2035. There are other stressors for nurses too. Workplace violence.

Papino says the very people nurses are trying to help often attack them, adding another layer of trauma. The patients are unstable either medically or mentally. They are often just an emotional crisis and can lash out. This can result in injuries to the nurses. At Sutter's Center for Psychiatry in Sacramento, workers filed 125 workplace violence reports over two years with 51 resulting in injuries according to state records. Historically, we File reports whenever there's an incident at work, be it an injury, an unsafe occasion. And a lot of these times these reports go unresponded to. That lack of support can make the violence and trauma harder to be it. KPFA contacted Bay Area hospitals for comments multiple times over the course of this investigation, including Kaiser, Soda Health and the California Hospital Associations. They either declined to comment or just didn't comment. Jessica Sensoplano's hospital makes some effort to provide support for its staff when the units loses a patient. They bring in professionals to help and listen. We have an employee assistance program on-site therapists. They offer wellness yoga or like mindfulness and they... offer therapy if you need time off because there was like an extenuating circumstance like with a case specifically they'll give you the time off that you need so i think in that aspect they've been very thoughtful but those are for like the big things the 26th state of nurse and survey found that 68% of nurses still say they're happy with their decision to become a nurse but 41% say the only thing keeping them at the bedside is financial need At Marine Health in Marine County, where some charge nurses are asked to oversee 70 beds across multiple floors. Most nurses cannot afford to live in the wealthy community they serve, commuting up to two hours each way before a 12-hour shift. At the end of the day, we have to make sure that every day is sustainable and the long-term is sustainable. Gutierrez-Vo, president of the CNA, says to sustain health care, stakeholders need to care for the caregivers. The employers and everybody that has the responsibility and the accountability need to prioritize taking care of nurses.

Because nurses are the heart of the community. When you have healthy nurses, when nurses have adequate resources, you have a healthier community. While nurses grapple with understaffing, workplace violence and trauma, they're also grappling with a slow push by the industry to replace their work with AI. artificial intelligence. Is AI going to benefit patients? Is AI going to benefit the people that work for Kaiser Permanente? Or is AI going to benefit the bottom line of the corporations? We want humans to be providing care for other humans. More on that, in part three. For KPF Radio, I'm Annetta, Felix. Thousands of San Jose city workers have voted to authorize a strike escalating a months-long contract dispute with City Hall. 97% of members from two unions, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21, and Municipal Employees' American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 101, backed the measure. Together, they represent more than half of the city's nearly 8,000 workers. The vote gives bargaining teams the power to call a three-day strike if talks break down. Workers are seeking a 14% wage increase over three years and protections against job losses to artificial intelligence. The city has offered 9% along with only a pledge to consider retraining workers instead of replacement. Bargaining team member Riley Knight said, quote, it is already ridiculously expensive to live in this area. San Jose Mayor Matt Mayhan said the city, quote, cannot allow public services to become unaffordable or unavailable. The city faces a $15 million budget deficit. A strike would be San Jose's largest labor action since 1981.

Bay Area weather this evening increasing clouds with lows in the high 50s, mostly cloudy tomorrow morning before becoming sunny with highs in the 70s to lower 80s. In the Central Valley, mostly clear this evening before becoming mostly cloudy later tonight, a low around 70. Tomorrow's sunny and hot with a high near 100. In Los Angeles tonight, partly cloudy with lows in the high 60s, mostly sunny tomorrow with a high near 90. That's it for the news tonight. I'm Scott Baba. Good evening. Missed today's news? No problem. The Pacifica Evening News airs every night at 6 p.m. But if you can't catch it live, you can always listen later. Anytime at KPFA.org. Our daily news archives are updated and ready when you are, so you never have to miss a beat. Stay informed, stay connected. With original reporting, you can trust. Head to KPFA.org. Find the latest Pacifica evening news and catch up on the stories that matter most.

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