captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: hopes for a move toward unity in iraq were dashed as the parliament failed to form a new government, while insurgents claim an "islamist state" stretching across the border into syria. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. gwen ifill is away. also ahead this tuesday, with a shortage of brides in china, vietnamese women are increasingly being trafficked into the nation next door and forced into marriage or prostitution. >> the girls that we see, they are given a choice. do you want to marry somebody or do you want to work in the brothels. >> woodruff: plus, we look back

at the supreme court's major decisions this term. those are just some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> at bae systems, our pride and dedication show in everything we do; from electronics systems to intelligence analysis and cyber- operations; from combat vehicles and weapons to the maintenance and modernization of ships, aircraft, and critical infrastructure. knowing our work makes a difference inspires us everyday. that's bae systems. that's inspired work. >> i've been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it. the ones getting involved, staying engaged.

they are not afraid to question the path they're on. because the one question they never want to ask is, "how did i end up here?" i started schwab with those people. people who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. >> united healthcare-- online at uhc.com. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: heavy fighting seized eastern ukraine today, one day after president petro

poroshenko ended a cease-fire with pro-russian rebels. within hours, a gun battle broke out in donetsk, as rebels captured the interior ministry headquarters. government forces also bombarded rebel bases and checkpoints. in moscow, russian president vladimir putin said the blame lies entirely on the kiev government. >> ( translated ): unfortunately president poroshenko made a decision to resume military operations. and we could not, when i say we, i mean myself and colleagues from europe, we couldn't convince him that the road to a sustainable, durable and long- term peace cannot lie through war. >> woodruff: separately, european union ambassadors put off deciding on new economic sanctions aimed at russia. they said they'll make a decision next week. a car bombing in nigeria has killed at least 56 people in a busy marketplace. the explosion erupted today in the northeastern state of borno, where more than 200 girls were

abducted earlier this year. there were no immediate claims of responsibility, but officials blamed the islamist group boko haram. in israel, bus loads of mourners turned out for the funeral of three israeli teenagers, apparently murdered by palestinian militants in the west bank. the young men's bodies were found yesterday. lindsey hilsum reports from jerusalem >> reporter: tens of thousands came to modiin cemetery between tel aviv and jerusalem today to mourn three israeli teenagers: 19-year-old eyal yifrach, and 16-year-olds naftali frankel and gilad sher. the funeral was a channel for public outrage as well as the private grief of the families, and a political event attended by israel's top leadership.

>> they glornied death and we glorify life. they floorfy cruelty, and we glorify mercy. in hebron last night israeli soldiers raided the house of amar abu aysha, one of two palestinians suspected of kidnap and murder, his relatives knew what would happen next: israeli forces demolished the family home. the two men, both associated with hamas, but not believed to be acting under orders from the leadership, are still on the run. in jenin the funeral of another young man, 19-year-old palestinian, yusuf al zagha, killed by israeli forces who said he had thrown a grenade at them yesterday. his death brings to six the number of palestinians killed in operation brother's keeper, the israeli attempt to capture the killers of the yeshiva students.

last night, israel attacked 34 sites in gaza, retribution not just against hamas but also the residents of the territory there may be more to come. >> woodruff: those air strikes came after militants in gaza fired more rockets into israel. the israeli cabinet is still considering a direct response to the killing of the teenagers. cabinet leaders in japan today loosened limits on the country's military that have been in place since world war two. the new policy means japanese forces will now be permitted to join in defending allies, and not only japan proper. prime minister shinzo abe argued the change is essential in the face of china's growing military power. the u.s. navy has its first female four-star admiral, who also happens to be the first african american to hold that rank. michelle howard was formally promoted today. she's been in the service for 32 years.

it became official during a ceremony at a memorial to women in the military, located at arlington national cemetery. >> if you don't believe today was a first, when i called to order four star shoulder boards for women they didn't exist. a special contract was sent and you folks are seeing the first set in the history of the united states navy. >> woodruff: howard now assumes the navy's second highest post as vice chief of national operations. parts of the midwest got even more rain overnight and today, after a week of downpours. six states faced substantial flooding along the mississippi river and other waterways. in iowa, crews searched for a teenager who was swept away. today's rain also swamped a major highway leading to chicago's o'hare international airport. the new health care law is facing yet another challenge. it turns out there are

discrepancies for many of the eight million people who signed up for coverage in the personal information that was shared with the health exchanges. the problems could prevent them from getting insurance. the inspector general's office at the department of health and human services reported the findings. officials say they hope to clear up most of the cases this summer. american auto makers saw their sales grow again in june, but at a slower pace. chrysler led the way with a 9 chrysler led the way with a 9 % increase. general motors, toyota and hyundai all reported smaller gains. ford sales fell ford sales fell 6%. >> woodruff: on wall street, july got off to a fast start after upbeat reports on manufacturing in the u.s. and china. the dow jones industrial average gained 129 points to close at a record 16,956. the nasdaq rose 50 points to close at 4,458. and the s-and-p 500 added 13, to

finish at 1973, also a record. still to come on the newshour: iraq's fractious politics; protests in hong kong call for the right to choose their own leaders; vietnam's struggle with sex trafficking; facebook's controversial study testing users' emotions; and the term that just ended at the supreme court. >> woodruff: the united nations reported today that 2,400 iraqis were killed in the month of june, making it the deadliest month in the country since 2007. meanwhile, in baghdad today - desperate hopes for political unity were dashed - as there more signs throughout iraq showing a nation pulling apart. our chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner reports. >> warner: finger-pointing and shouting matches dominated

today's brief first meeting of the new iraqi parliament. in less than two hours, minority sunni and kurdish lawmakers walked out. after majority shiites failed to agree on a new prime minister to replace nouri al-maliki. he's widely blamed for alienating both sunnis and kurds. the deadlock further delays the formation of a new inclusive government, leaving baghdad residents fearful as sunni insurgents advance toward the capital. >> ( translated ): a large number of the blocs will not attend the parliament session, so i don't believe they will be able to form a government under the current circumstances. people are now afraid. they do not know what will happen. the future of the iraqi people is unknown. >> warner: further fracturing hope of unity: massoud barzani, president of iraq's kurdish region, said again he plans a referendum on independence in the coming months. and insurgents of the newly renamed "islamic state," the former i.s.i.l. claimed new battlefield gains, capturing the syrian town of boukamal near the

iraqi border. in washington, iraq's ambassador to the united states, lukman faily, called for american air strikes. these sunni "islamic state" fighters have seized control of a swath of territory stretching from northern syria into western iraq. on sunday, the group declared the establishment of an "islamic caliphate," with roots reaching back 1,400 years. it was a declaration both grandiose and brash; a spokesman said the group's leader, abu bakr al baghdadi, has taken on a new title: "calif ibrahim." >> ( translated ): therefore, he is the imam and caliph for the muslims everywhere. >> warner: today, the secretive baghdadi made his first public statement about the caliphate, in this audio recording. >> ( translated ): rush, oh muslims to your state. yes, it is your state. rush, because syria is not for the syrians, and iraq is not for the iraqis. oh muslims everywhere, whoever

is capable of performing emigration to the islamic state, then let him do so. >> warner: some muslims in baghdad are dismissive: >> ( translated ): this declaration will turn out to be merely a flash in the pan, god willing because the world is a civilized one and the countries are developed an such behavior and the announcement of the caliphate is a step backward. >> warner: the caliphate, arabic for "succession," was created after the death of the prophet muhammad in 632 a.d. the "caliph" was meant to be both the political and spiritual leader of all muslims, but as the sunni-shiite split quickly emerged, most caliphates that followed were dominated by sunnis. the powerful umayyad dynasty, based in damascus, for centuries ruled an empire extend eastward, north into the caucasus, across north africa and up the iberian peninsula. a later caliphate, the abbasid, ruled from baghdad, but was overrun in the 13th century by the mongols. in the 15th century, the ottoman turks became the pre-eminent islamic power. but the last ottoman caliph, by that time, a power in name only, was deposed in 1924 by the founders of the modern turkish

state. osama bin laden often referenced that event, when speaking of decades of muslim humiliation. as here, in his first statement after 9/11. >> ( translated ): our nation, for more than 80 years. has been tasting this humiliation its sons are killed, its blood is shed, its sanctuaries are attacked, and no one hears. >> warner: bin laden and his followers denounced the middle east map created during world war one, when the french and british sykes-picot agreement carved out zones of influence into the modern-day syria, lebanon, jordan, iraq and palestine. the newly declared "islamic state" is intent on smashing all that. this english language propaganda video shows its militants dissolving the border between syria and iraq, with commentary from a chilean-born fighter. >> we don't recognize it and we will never recognize it.

there is no nationality, we are muslims. al qaida's leadership disavowed the islamic state earlier this year in a dispute between baghdadi and bin laden's successor, ayman al-zawahiri. i.s.i.l. had been the latest incarnation of al qaida's franchise that took root in iraq after the u.s. invasion of 2003. now, it is aiming to eclipse al qaida in reach, assets, manpower and lethality. >> woodruff: and margaret joins me now. this government in iraq already having enough problems. what is this announcement of a caliphate mean in addition to that? wrg we've always known this group which called itself isis and now isil is a military left. well-trained supposedly, u.s.-trained iraqi army just fell back and melted away.

what we saw today in that parliament was that it's also political threat, because while it has a cohesive mess niche unity, what you see in baghdad is that after really ten years of some kind of governing, they have yet to create an inclusive , cooperative, kind of national identity in which all iraqis feel a part. and so when you talk about a unified iraq, essentially, it's already happening de facto slow motion what this issel or -- isil is call for which is you got kurdish breaking away in the north, kurdistan, a radical version of a sunni stand in the central portions and in the south, heavily shia. and it crosses into syria. >> woodruff: what about the term caliphate? you pounded out this is what, over 1500 years old. why are these isil extreme ems using that term, that idea?

>> warner: that's great question because it is an old-fashioned term. what it implies, it has great resonance for muslims worldwide. muslims feel they were and they are a great civilization which we described in the piece for hundreds of years, all the way far north if you go to churches in budapest you'll see tiles ottoman tiles. so all of that could sort of be crushed and carved up in the secret agreement 98 years ago by the french and the british. there's -- and that explains why they're having to operate in artificial borders to them, 80 arab world and the muslim world has fallen so behind in development. that's a debatable point but that is sort of the mythology. and when you use the term "caliphate" if you think about the muslims, remember the term christendom used to mean something. the idea of the umba, the idea

there's a large muslim, greater sense of community. it taps into that. and that civilization could be brought so low, folks share accumulation. so when you say we establish in the caliphate, that's greatness. just has a lot of emotional historical and religious punch. >> woodruff: and as you've been reporting, margaret, it's not just iraq that is threatened by this. it's the entire region. how -- what -- who are the other players who are affected? >> warner: judy, most of the focus has been this is al-qaeda and it certainly is, because al-qaeda, always talked about this, and it actually attacking westerners and muslims, they've never actually taken any territory. and already, the group isil has done that so that's the first thing. but isis a greater threat to actually the rulers of muslim majority countries all over the region. most of whom are ruling over states with these artificial borders. egypt's different. egypt, yes, may be secular, may

be egyptian. but jordan, lebanon, syria, saudi arabia. some of the u.s. alliessh you is this message mix of sectarian groups. there's still -- who's going to rule, but it's still following the old european playbook. and what al-baghdadi was saying today is he was dismissing all that. all earth is ours. and so what he's saying essentially is the concepts of those states are legitimate and it's a subversive thought. it's not that they're going to take over lebanon or jordan tomorrow, but it's to suggest if those states are illegitimate maybe their rulers are too. >> woodruff: margaret warner, there's no shortage of something for to you report on now. thank you.

>> woodruff: in hong kong today, a major anniversary was marked with pomp, while a sea of demonstrators took to the streets calling for more rights. we have a report from john sparks of independent television news. >> reporter: it's something of a tradition, an annual ceremony to mark the hand-over of hong kong to the people's republic of china. soldiers salute, children sing, flags are waved. a celebration said chinese state media, of the territory's return to the motherland. here's another tradition, large- scale pro-democracy democracies. and this afternoon, hong kong hosted it's biggest single protest in more than a decade. more than a hundred thousand spilling into the streets demanding greater autonomy from beijing and a chance to choose who governs them.

>> it's obvious china cannot stand the people of hong kong, but we are not going to be obedient anymore, we are going to resist. >> reporter: discontent was fuelled by a chinese government white paper which seemed to limit the city's autonomy. enraged, activists are now threatening a campaign of civil disobedience. of course, that's made beijing's unhappy, it says the protests are illegal, the work of "just a few people." the city government upset too. the leader cy leung, who was selected by a beijing-backed committee, says the protests threaten hong kong's stability and prosperity. he has reason to be worried last weekend nearly 800,000 residents participated in an informal vote, a referendum on how to make the selection of the

next city leader more democratic. the chinese government called the whole thing, well, illegal still, the organizers weren't listening. >> we have very strong determination to have true democracy. >> today, they opened up the gates at the hong kong barracks of the people's liberation army, it was a friendly affair, but if the protests continue few would rule out a show of force from the chinese government. >> woodruff: jeffrey brown has more on this story. >> brown: and with me to look further at what's going on is evan osnos, a staff writer at the new yorker. he served as its china correspondent from 2008 to 2013 and is author of "age of ambition: chasing fortune, truth, and faith in the new china" >> thanks. brown: first, i think it would be useful to remind people for context here. what is the legal status of hong

kong vis-aaà-vis china now. >> hong kong is a very unusual place it. is part of china but also a place unto itself. it's called a special administrative region which means that it relies on the beijing government for national security, national defense, but it ultimately governs its own political affairs, and it has a political system that's very unlike the political system in china. >> brown: as we heard one of the triggers to the demonstration was this white paper by the chinese government. asserting more central government control from beijing. where's that coming from? i mean the sentiment and why now? >> you have to remember 17 years ago this summer, china regained control over hong kong after a sen entry a half of a british colony. and in that transition that handover back to chinese control, what they said was that hong kong would maintain a high degree of autonomy for the next 50 years. but they never actually worked out what the details would be on the ground. >> brown: never spelled it out. they never spelled it out. so now as we're approaching 20 years on, they have to figure out, for instance, how are we

going to select the highest ranking office in the land, the chief executive? and one of the things that's become an issue is, can anybody run for that office or do they have to be vetted by the beijing government? these demonstrations that we've seen are really a request by the public to say, we want to have public nomination. >> brown: and how much does this push from china reflect internal chinese politics as in how much -- how powerful will the central government me? >> that's a big part of this. the new chinese leader when he took power at the end of 2012 made it clear and has since made it clear since then that he was less comfortable with political openness and the kind of western democratic freedoms that hong kong has than his preders is were. and so he has over the course of the last 18 months sent a series of signals that says that ultimately, hong kong's autonomy is subject to control from beijing and when they said that formally in this white paper three weeks ago, that enraged people in hong kong and they went not streets. >> brown: so in hong kong itself, how strong is this push

for democratizationor some kind of separation from china and who's behind it? >> well, so far, it's been remarkable how strong the public reaction has been. i mean, today the estimates by the police were that there were about 90,000 people in the streets. the estimates by the organizers were that it was half a million. the point being that either number is the largest demonstration we've seen in a decade so there is clearly a dissatisfaction among the chinese -- among the hong kong public. there was an unofficial referendum last month in which 800,000 people voted, in effect, to take crot grater control over the process of electing their next leader. so what they're doing within beijing is the people of hong kong are afraid that the quality of life, the way of life which they have which is so distinctive and is this both chinese but also western composite, this hybrid, that that's in doubt. and so i think it's going to be difficult as the chinese government has to figure out how do we reassure people in hong kong that there is a future for them in china while at the same time not encouraging them to

stake out greater -- >> brown: you have seen a reaction yet from beijing to this demonstration i mean? >> well, beijing has said in advance of the democrat strags -- demonstration that they consider any demonstration illegitimate. they called this refer lendum a farce. and the real pressure right now is on the leadership in hong kong, the chief executive there cy leung. he has to respond to his public and recognize that he takes this seriously. when you have half a million people in the streets and at the same time not alienate the government in beijing. he's considered to be generally favorable to the government in beijing as has his predecessors over the course of the last century. >> brown: is there the possibility of intervention by the chinese army? it's never really been discussed as far as i know. it's sort of been off the table, but i see now with these demonstrations growing and that vote suddenly people are talking about it. >> i think nobody wants to see that, and even the government in beijing recognizes that for them to put security forces into the streets of hong kong would represent a radical escalation

of the confrontation, and i think it's one that would have knock-on effects that they would seek to avoid. what they're trying to do at the moment is persuade the public of hong kong that it is more disruptive to their economic and political life to have these demonstrations than it would be to just allow things to go on. >> brown: let me ask you finally, i'm curious, in your reporting over there and for your book, do citizens in mainland china look at hong kong as a potential model or as something so different? it's over there, it's nothing like what we experience op the mainland? >> a little bit both. if you go back to the 1980s, the truth was china did actually learn from hong kong, things like local village elections. they really did borrow that from what hong kong had done. on the other hand hong kong is a city of 7 million people. people in china will tell you we're a country of 1.3 billion and we have to do things more slowly than they have in hong kong. >> brown: evan osnos is the author of "age of ambition." thank you. >> thanks for having me.

>> woodruff: a changing asia has also complicated the relationship between china and vietnam. they've recently battled over drilling for oil in waters claimed by both countries, and share a long land border that has been the scene of human trafficking. special correspondent fred de sam lazaro has our report. a version of this story aired on the pbs program religion and ethics news weekly and is part of his agents for change series.

mobility within the country, urban migration happening at a large scale. >> reporter: however florian floister felt the strong economic growth of recent years has not been enough to absorb millions of young entrants to the job market in this nation of 90 million. >> we have about 400,000ing mirant workers being deployed abroad at any time with 80,000 leaving every year. whenever you have migration, which is a positive driver and a positive force, then you have also the exploitation and abuse come with it. and that leads to trafficking. >> reporter: the heart of both the sex and labor trafficking problem and much vietnam's poverty lies in the rural hinterland, still home to two-thirds of the population. this is vietnam's back door, the rugged mountainous region along the border with china. it's a porous border from which thousands of vietnamese men, women and children are trafficked each year. numbers are hard to pin down. that's just one of the challenges of getting a handle on this complex problem.

china is a giant magnet next door. its wages are higher and it's a transit point to other countries. but many women are taken to china involuntarily. some are forced into marriage. china has a shortage of brides because of its one-child policy and its cultural preference for male children. other vietnamese women are forced into prostitution. california-based yeep wong originally from vietnam found the pacific links foundation which helps victims who have managed to escape. >> the girls that we see, they are give an choice. do you want to marry somebody? or do you want to work in the brothels? and one of the girls told us that they said, you know, they told us that if we work in brothels, we'll be staying near the border. and so some girls say, you know, i rather stay here because it's closer to vietnam, and i may be able to run back.

>> reporter: vuong brought me to visit 23-year-old woman who was able to run back. >> i don't know where i was taken. we were in the car for a day. and when they wouldn't let me out of the car, then i realized i'd been tricked. >> reporter: hers is a classic story of how traffickers prey on desperately poor people. vuong was working on a road building crew, back-breaking work in hot, stifling weather and still the work site with the recruiter came with a better offer, the harvest cinnamon for better wages. she and two others took the bait but she was the only one who managed to return to her village. the other two have not been heard from since. she said she was held in a home across the border in china before being taken to a place she thought was beijing where she encountered the police. >> when we got to beijing, there were a lot of policemen around. so i ran to them and asked them to help me. they showed me a computer screen

with a lot of flags on it. and i was able to show them that i was from vietnam. >> reporter: but after clarifying a few questions, she determined lon wasn't describing beijing but rather than airport. she'd never seen one before. >> you know, to see airport pictures all the time in malaysian airlines, all that, and then you come across people who actually at the airport and don't even know that they've been at the airport. >> reporter: long was fortunate in one critical way. her family welcomed her back. she since married and has a 1-year-old son. often victims must deal with stigma, shame and rejection from their families. >> my mother doesn't care to see me anymore. in my village, there were some young women who had returned from china and i remember looking down on them, and i thought that's how people were looking at me. >> reporter: we were asked to

conceal the identities of trafficking victims. they were vulnerable to peer pressure and seemingly compelling requests for help. >> there was this boy. he lived below us, and he told me that his brother had a bad accident in china, and he asked me if i wanted to go with him to take care of his brother. >> my cousin told me he was dumped by his girlfriend and really depressed and asked if i would go and hang out with him. >> reporter: but their friends lied to them. each teenager was handed over to members of shadowy trafficking networks. >> we were told that if we didn't agree to be wives, we would be sold into brothels. >> reporter: she agreed. the other woman did not. and she was sold to a brothel where she said she was held for several days but not yet put to work. >> we were waiting to find a client for me. luckily, there was a police raid, and because we didn't have papers, the police took us away.

>> reporter: each tells harrowing escape stories, how chance encounters with police officials and kind strangers helped them get home. in many cases, wong says victims become traffickers. >> the ministry of public security has said that they -- of all t people they arrested as trafficker, 60% of them had been trafficking victims themselves. >> reporter: she described one own counter shed had with a 17-year-old who had beaten in captivity and he leased if she agreed to recruit more women which she agreed to do. >> she didn't say that they would have to serve as prostitutes. >> reporter: so why would she feel compelled to feed this trade then if she was -- >> i think -- oh, well, i think that -- i don't know. i mean, do you ask an abused woman who's abused by her husband why she goes back to her

husband or why does she let her husband beat up on the children knowing that -- what the harm she suffer is terrible enough? >> reporter: for young women unable to return to their families, several dozen each year, she provides safe haven. they learn skills like cooking and can complete their schooling. about 4,000 have received scholarships with money from private donations. that enables them to go to school and where possible train for job skills. here one partner is another nonprofit called no one teach one or koto. its restaurants and culinary schools in ho chi minh city and hanoi claimed disadvantaged youth. vietnam is finally taking the first steps to deal with problems like trafficking, this man says. >> 5, 10 years ago, this problem wasn't at all. now you see this through the work of koto where you see a lot

of visibility, i guess, and it's a fart. it's not where -- it's a start. it's not somewhere where we would like it to be. >> reporter: the government passed trafficking laws in recent years. in 2013, vietnam arrested nearly 700 alleged traffickers and identified some 900 rescued victims. however, most experts agree there are deficiencies in both the laws and their enforcement and that those numbers represent a small fraction. she says a tenth perhaps of the true figures. >> woodruff: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under- told stories project at st. mary's university of minnesota. >> woodruff: let's turn now to a social media story that's been generating lots of reaction, including anger, over the past few days: it's in response to a study facebook conducted with hundreds of thousands of its users.

the study in question goes back to when facebook manipulated the incoming content of pages belonging to almost 700,000 of its users, for a week, without telling them. it was designed to see how people's attitudes were affected when they read either a stream of more positive posts, or more negative ones, in their so- called "news feeds." the results were published in a respected scientific journal in june. as that information has come to light, many are upset at what facebook did, and how it did it. it's also prompted concerns about the ethics of the research, the journal where it was published and much more. to fill in the details, we're joined by reed albergotti of the wall street journal. welcome to the program. reed, first of all, where did the idea for this study come from? what did facebook hope it was going to accomplish by doing this? >> well, around the time of this study, there was sort of a mean going around the internet that when you go on facebook and you

see all these wonderful things that your friends and family are posting about their live once start to feel a little bad about your own lives. and there was some research, some academic research at the time that really kind of backed up that theory. and facebook wanted to find out whether or not that was true. and that's why they embarked on this research project. and they say they've debunked that theory, and they weren't shy about it. they worked with cornell to publish the study and tell the public what they'd found. >> woodruff: did they raise any questions specially? is -- internally? is it known about the propriety or the ethics of doing this? >> no. and in fact, cornell issued a statement saying they looked at it and they decided they were not subject to federal guidelines, laws actually, that require informed consent of human research subjects because the study was done by facebook without the involvement of the cornell researchers at the time. so cornell is sort of washing

their hands of the ethical implications here. >> woodruff: but what about facebook? do we know if there was discussion about whether they should have let people know ahead of time? >> well, facebook says that it has an internal review process, but it said at the time, it wasn't as rigorous as it is now, and it's one thing that we've been pressing facebook to tell us more about is, you know, how did this internal review process evolve? and what are really the procedures in place now? >> woodruff: so, reed albergotti, what are the -- i mean, first of all, are there any legal considerations to this that maybe they violated a law by doing this? >> well, i think right now, it's really more of a question of ethics. the laws really apply to government -- ins stucks that receive federal -- institutions that receive federal funding like cornell university, and not really to private companies. in fact, facebook isn't the only social media company or tech company that's gathering reams of personal data and using it in

these scientific experiments. but facebook is one that publishes is publicly more than other companies. >> woodruff: so if -- set aside any legal question, what about the ethics of it? what are you -- what are others saying about what ethical lines might have been crossed here? >> i've talked to a lot of academic researchers here about this study, and i think really there's a consensus sort of being formed that there needs to be a strong, hard look at the ethics of this. it's a growing trend really in the scientific community, private companies, corporations using their data in conjunction with research institutions for scientific studies, and right now it's really an ethical gray area. and i think researchers would like to see something like another level of informed consent that facebook would put in front of its users when they enter them into these types of studies. but right now it's so early, i

think we'll have to look at how this backlash shakes out to see if that actually happens. >> woodruff: and just to clarify, give us an example of how the new -- so-called news feed was manipulated. as you said earlier, there were in some cases making sure they were seeing more positive information. in other cases more negative. what's an example of how that worked? >> well, there's actually a computer algorithm that had certain words that were associated with positive or negative news feed posts. so the algorithm was run totally automatically without any hands-on involvement of facebook. that's because they wanted to keep these research subjects totally anonymous. so the algorithm decided which posts were positive and negative and then automatically removed those from the news feeds of those users for about a week. and then after that week was up, some of those posts might have been reintroduced to those news feeds and the users might have

eventually seen them. >> woodruff: i just wanted to read, on our website we asked some of our visitors what they thought about this. we got comments both positive or at least not so critical and others. i'm just going to read two quickly. one from someone named carey. she said, so, reed, terms of service don't sign if you don't agree. that's the point. people don't read the terms of service and they get upset if facebook does something that the terms allows. then from another visitor, scotty. he wrote the problem is the terms of service is deliberately so vague that they can basically claim that they do whatever they want at any time. would you buy a tv from sony if the manual said that they could for any reason decide what programs you could watch on their tv? how typical would you say those reactions are? >> oh, i think they're very typical. we saw similar reactions on our own website in the comment section. and i think what academic researchers are saying is, yes, facebook has these terms of service that really endemnify

them against any legal repercussions, although that may be debated in the future, but there really needs to be -- in order for this academic research to be ethical according to very acceptable -- accepted guidelines, there needs to be other terms of service. users need to be asked again when they're being entered into a study if they want to and they need to be told about the risks. in this case, the risk could have been if someone was predisposed to depression. that might have triggered some sort of emotional instability. so there are big questions that we need to answer here. >> woodruff: certainly are. i think a lot of people didn't even realize how much -- there's just a regular adjustment of what people see on their facebook pages. but that's a subject for a future conversation. reed albergotti, we thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: the supreme court's term wrapped up yesterday with

major split decisions dealing with the health care law and labor unions. jeff is back with a look at the big decisions from this year. >> brown: there were many incremental steps, a few dramatic ones, and a number of unanimous decisions along the way, but stark divisions remain on major issues, including campaign finance, the exercise of religion, women's access to medical care, and race. we look back at the term, with neal katyal, former acting solicitor general under president obama. now a lawyer in private practice in washington. he argued several cases before the court this term. erin murphy, former law clerk to chief justice john roberts, also now an attorney in washington. she argued her first case before the high court this past october. and our own regular guide to the court, marcia coyle of the national law journal. marcia, let me start with you. start us off here. was there a major theme or thread that you saw this past term for the court?

>> i wouldn't say there's one major theme. i think there's several. i recall when the term started, there was the potential for it to end with several blockbuster decisions, mainly because a number of conservative and libertarian organizations were asking the court to revisit or overrule some key precedence in a variety of legal areas, from campaign finance to affirmative action to securities to unions, even to a major precedent involving indiana tribes -- indian tribes sovereign and unity. ultimately, the court did not overrule those decisions and ruled narrowly. ruled narrowly but not ig significantly. and i think if -- incigly. i -- insignificantly. and i think if you look at what the court did overall, some would say this term was an example of what john roberts said during his confirmation hearings, that he wanted to be a minimalist judge. his critics might say, however,

that he's playing a long game because a number of these old decisions that weren't overruled were cut back and some are hanging by a thread offer one vote -- or one vote. >> brown: erin murphy, take us into one area, the question of executive power. >> sure. brown: we saw that in some of the cases. did you see a statement being made by the court in that area? >> i'm not sure there's a particular statement being made by the court, but there certainly were some big executive power cases this term. the nor cannon case is the most high profile one. this is the scope of the president's appointment power when the senate is not in session. and it's an interesting case in reflecting what marcia is taking about because you have a unanimous court holding that the particular appointments at issue are appointments made by president obama a few years ago were unconstitutional. you then have a minority of the court that would have held more broadly that a number of

other -- under a theory that would have called into question the constitutionality a number of other appointment that would have been made and the majority of the court declined to take that broader step that would have had much broader implications. >> brown: neal katyal did you see clear from executive power on this court? >> i think the executive power was somewhat divided. i think the big theme of this court returning to the question you asked marcia, it's not just john roberts' promise at his confirmation hearings to rule minimally but also his idea he wanted to build consensus on the court. if one looks at this court, it's striking what john roberts and his eight colleagues accomplished this year. two-thirds of the cases were decided unanimously. you'd have to go back all the way to 1940 to find a similar time period in which the justices so often agreed on things. that's the bottom line. and sure, there were disagreements among reasoning and so on, but this is a striking example of the chief justice and his eight colleagues

saying to the country, look, i'm looking at other branches of government. they're not working quite that well. they're very divisive. this is an area that's worked pretty -- they've worked really well. the colleagues on both sides of the aisle, the court coming to common agreement on the bottom line. >> brown: erin murphy, let me ask you because you were there at the court, does it work that way? there's a sort of attempt to -- almost a calculated attempt to say, we can work together? >> i don't know if i'd use the term calculated. but the justices certainly try to work together and sometimes what you see is let's find the narrow area where we can all agree and if it's the kind of case that can be resolved without getting into the questions that are going to be more divisive for the justices, they'll try their hardest to find ways to resolve cases in those respects. and i think we did see that in a number cases this term. >> brown: and yet, marcia, we also, dawes you were on the program many times telling us there were still these great divisions. we saw plenty of those cases.

>> well, there weren't a lot of -- >> brown: that's right. there were key ones. and the areas that had divided the court since the beginning of the roberts court in 2005. the adjusts are split ideologically and in their approach to interpreting the constitution, in areas such as campaign finance. the roberts court has continued a deregulation it has yet to find a campaign finance regulation that its like under the first amendment. therthey're also divided when it comes to religion. and we saw that in a case out of greece, new york, involving prayers to open a local government meeting. and we saw a bit of it in the hobby lobby case yesterday that he talked about involving -- we talked about involving the affordable care act. they're also divided on racial questions. the court didn't have a typical affirmative action case this term, which generally asks the

court whether you can use race in, say, university's admission policy. instead, it had a case about whether voters could approve a state constitutional amendment barring the use of race. and even though that case came out 6-2, we saw a real difference of opinion voiced by justice societieso myer on race about how the general majority has viewed race. >> where do you see the big divisions on this court that come through, neal katyal? >> i think marcia listed them really well. there are areas where the court is of course divided. elections have consequences. and i think if we look back at the last four confirmation hearings, we saw that come out in the hearings themselves. that said, i think if we asked ourselves at each of those hearings could we have predicted, for example, john would be the vote to uphold

president obama's healthcare plan a couple of years ago or that justice breyer would write the unanimous opinion president obama's recess appointments? those two things and many others which think weren't quite as predictable from the confirmation hearings. so i think we do see the court trying to find common ground where they can. it's a remarkable achievement that the court did this year. >> brown: same question to you, erin murphy. where do you -- there still are plenty of divisions, right? the makeup of the court for one comes out in some of these cases. >> sure. i think part of it is there are just different approaches to understanding the constitution in general and those just aren't going to go away, and i think we'll always see them no matter who the justices are on the court. at the same time, even in some of the cases that involved divisive issues, you do see things that are not a 5-4 split. a couple of them have been mentioned here that are great examples. this year's case of race

discrimination wasn't 5-4 and there was a first amendment case involving abortion protesters that had a not straight-up 5-4 lineup. so even within those divisive areas you see them trying to reach some consensus. >> brown: marcia, you wrote a book on the court. i can plug it. here we are i don't know how many years in. >> in th is the ninth year. brown: where does this term kind of take it? >> well, i think -- i believe every term's different. and what we saw this term may not necessarily play out again next term. but as we've talked, there are certain things that -- certain areas where the court has been consistent in terms of its division. and also where it does seek out unan im. -- unan i. i remember justice breyer telling me that the key to sitting around that conference table when they're trying to hammer out these issues is to really listen, listen hard, and try to find the areas that you

might be able to forge agreement. i think it's a very interesting court. it is striving to find areas where it can agree, but it's going to continue, as erin said to have these divisions in the other areas. >> brown: i think justice breyer and justice alito had their best terms ever on the court. justice alito yet righting two very significant opinions in hobby lobby and in the union case. justice breyer, as i mentioned, with the recess appointments opinion. these are two -- these are three pretty striking opinions showing justices that i think a lot of court watchers had long predicted would unfold their way in the sand, become leaders in the court. this term that proved right. >> brown: all right, neal katyal, erin murphy, and michigan. measure marcia coyle. thank you all. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. iraq's parliament convened, but failed to make any headway toward choosing a new government. heavy fighting seized eastern ukraine, one day after the government ended a cease-fire with pro-russian rebels. wall street started the month strong. the dow industrials gained 129 points. and in the world cup, belgium beat the u.s., two-one, in overtime, despite 16 saves by u.s. goailie tim howard, the most saves since records have been kept in the cup. but the loss ends american hopes of advancing to the quarterfinals. on the newshour online right now, merrit johnson wants to challenge the perception of native american art as only "beads and feathers." the sculptor, who is of mohawk and blackfoot descent, is part of a new exhibit that showcases a broad spectrum of contemporary works from native american artists. see some of those pieces on art beat. all that and more is on our web

site, newshour.pbs.org. and again, to our honor roll of american service personnel killed in the afghanistan conflict. we add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. here, in silence, is one more. and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we look back at the civil rights act. 50 years to the day after president lyndon johnson signed the landmark legislation into law. i'm judy woodruff, we'll see you on-line, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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