captioning sponsored by wnet thompson: on this edition for sunday, april 24th. president obama and german chancellor merkel seek common ground on trade, migrants, and fighting terrorism. in our signature segment, two years after the revolution-- the struggle for political change and stability in ukraine. >> we have a situation in the country, when more people began to think that they'd rather leave than try to fix the problems here. >> thompson: and, a preview of tuesday's presidential primaries. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: lewis b. and louise hirschfeld cullman. bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the citi foundation. supporting innovation and

enabling urban progress. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, megan thompson. this is pbs newshour weekend. >> thompson: good evening and thanks for joining us. president obama is pushing the proposed transatlantic trade and investment partnership he hopes to finalize by the end of the year. the president was in germany today for talks with chancellor angela merkel about the deal,

which is intended to lower the costs and regulations of imports and exports between the u.s. and europe. at a news conference with merkel, obama said both nations benefit from free trade. >> it is indisputable that it has made our economy stronger. it has made sure that our businesses are the most competitive in the world, and as you see other markets like china beginning to develop, and asia beginning to develop, and africa growing fast, we've got to make sure our businesses can compete there. >> thompson: the president also praised merkel for being, as he put it, "on the right side of history," for accepting a million refugees from syria and elsewhere in the past year. tomorrow, obama and merkel will hold talks with other european leaders on security cooperation...following the attacks by islamic state militants in brussels and paris. in germany, president obama said north korea engaged in "provocative behavior" by testing a submarine-launched ballistic missile yesterday.

the president also said he doesn't take seriously the north's offer to halt nuclear testing if the u.s. were to halt ongoing military exercises with south korea. north korea today released pictures it said showed leader kim jong un watching the launch of the missile flying into the air from underwater. north korea called the test a, quote, "great success." five northeast states hold presidential primaries tuesday: pennsylvania, maryland, connecticut, rhode island, and delaware. hillary clinton told a predominantly black church in philadelphia today she'll fight for every child to live up to his or her "god-given" potential. bernie sanders told supporters in rhode island he wants a tax on carbon emissions to reduce global warming. donald trump rallied supporters in maryland today; while ted cruz visited indiana, which votes may 3rd. of the five states holding primaries tuesday, pennsylvania is the biggest prize -- with 71 national convention delegates at stake for republicans and 210 delegates for the democrats.

in an nbc news-wall street journal-poll released today, donald trump is favored by 45% of likely republican voters, and hillary clinton is favored by 55% of likely democratic voters. for more on the battle for pennsylvania, i am joined from philadelphia by jonathan tamari, a political reporter with "the philadelphia enquirer." so i first just wanted to start out by talking about the republican race. we've got dan ald trump. we've got a conservative senator in cruz and then we've got john kasich who is the governor of the state right next door to pennsylvania, ohio. so can you just talk to us a little bit more about the state of play. >> for the state of play is that donald trump as you just recited on that poll is far ahead so fample and him and ted cruz are really competing in a lot of the same areas, the so called tea of the t of pennsylvania from the top of the state and down through the center in between philadelphia and pittsburgh. this is really where the conservative heart of pennsylvania is.

for kasich, after he won ohio, there was a lot of talk that maybe pennsylvania would be the next big place that he would really make a strong stand and try to win a primary. and a lot of the establish am here have lined up with imhad. but it has not been reflected in the polling. >> can you talk to me a little bit about how the republicans allocate their delegates for the ion. i understand that tuesday's primary might not actually decide who they vote for. >> that's right. there are 71 delegates in the state but only 17 of them are actually going to go to the person who wins statewide. the other 54 will be unbound when they head to the convention in cleveland which means they could vote for anybody they want. and so the subplot to all this aside from who wins the big headline of winning the state is who gets their delegates elected. the delegates will be chosen by the voters by congressional district. cruz and trump each have their own loyalists. the party establishment has a number of candidates on the ballot, they want someone without is electable which really points to john kasich.

so this say low information election that all the candidates are trying to educate their voters about, to make sure that their delegates get chosen and then stay loyal to them in the months between now and the convention in cleveland. >> on the democratic side, hillary clinton beat barack obama back in 2008 and she's got a strong lead in the polls but even still how is she separating herself from bernie sanders on the issue. >> the main issue she has been focusing on, an she has been touring this morning, even, african-american churches. and she is talking a lot about gun violence which we know she is something that she a has been critical of senator sanders on not being strong enough on gun laws. an even in a local as pect she is in favor, there is a big debate in philadelphia right now over a tax on sugary drink, the so called soda tax. she has come out as in favor as a way to fund preschool. senator sanders is opposed saying it would exacerbate inequalities. but clinton has really deep ties

to pennsylvania and is leading pretty much across-the-board except among younger voters. >> jonathan tamari of the philadelphia enquirer, thank you so much for joining us. >> thompson: today, nepal is marking one year since a devastating earthquake killed 9- thousand people and destroyed 600-thousand homes. the country's prime minister led a memorial today at what remains of a 185-year-old tower in the capital, kathmandu: the tower collapsed during the quake last april 25th. outside the prime minister's office, about 100 people protesting the slow pace of reconstruction, scuffled with police. millions of nepalese are living in temporary shelters, and the red cross says more than a billion dollars in aid remains unspent. >> learn how the public defender's office in san francisco is fighting racial disparities in the criminal justice system by contesting bail for hundreds of clients. read our report online at pbs.org/newshour

>> thompson: in the eastern european country of ukraine, it's been more than two years since violent protests drove a president from office. since then, the former soviet republic has faced many challenges, not the least of which was when its powerful neighbor, russia, occupied ukraine's crimean peninsula-- sparking a military conflict between pro-russian secessionists and ukraine's government. in tonight's signature segment, correspondent kira kay and producer jason maloney, from the bureau for international reporting, take us inside ukraine to assess the country's struggle for political change and stability. >> reporter: in the past two years, a new political movement has emerged in ukraine. a coalition of former activists, analysts and journalists that now holds 27 seats in the nation's 450 seat parliament, an institution notorious for the influence of the country's mega- rich businessmen, known as "the oligarchs." one of these new arrivals is svitlana zalishchuk.

>> ( translated ): we would like to join european community, not just with the declarations but with the real reforms inside of the country. >> reporter: zalishchuk works closely with her longtime friends, sergii leshchenko and mustafa nayyem. they were all elected in 2014, eight months after leading protests now known as the euro- maidan revolution for kiev's main square, the maidan. demonstrators favored closer ties with western europe and less alignment with russia. today, these reformers call themselves the "euro-optimists." >>9 to be an optimist in ukraine, it's a big challenge. because too many years we've spent in this process of transformation. and i still believe the work is not finished. >> this is a very hostile environment. when you feel that the corruption and the old style politicians and the old style of making policy, is very close to you. this is big compromises for us. it was very easy to be heroes on the maidan and it is much more

difficult to be heroes here in the parliament. >> reporter: nayyem sparked the euro-maidan protests in november 2013 with a facebook post, asking people to come out against then-president viktor yanukovych. yanukovych had just scuttled a free trade and cooperation agreement with the european union-- under pressure from his ally, russian president vladimir putin. protesters also demanded an end to the country's endemic corruption. they occupied the maidan for three months. police beat protesters on the streets and fired into the crowds. more than 100 people died. but the demonstrations forced president yanukovych into exile in russia. three months later, ukraine elected a new president, petro poroshenko. he was regarded as an oligarch but ran as a reformer. in the parliamentary elections that followed, the euro- optimists came into office. >> it was about the identity-- identity of what country you

would like to build for the next generation. and we decided that we want a democratic country. to have justice in the court, to have to have police, not as a repressive machine but rather as an institution who protects your rights and freedoms." >> reporter: but even before the new ukrainian government took office, russia, angered by the ouster of the pro-russian president, sent troops into ukraine's southern province of crimea, and annexed it. the arrival of russian troops emboldened pro-russian separatists in the east of the country, who wanted to secede from ukraine. more than 9,000 people have died and fighting continues to flare, despite a ceasefire. thousands of ukrainian citizens volunteered to fight the separatists in the east. now ukraine grapples with re- integrating those veterans, many bearing the scars and wounds of war, into daily life in the midst of a depressed economy where jobs are tight. but the biggest strain on

society are the almost two million people who have been driven out of occupied crimea and the eastern war zone. in a soviet-era dormitory that once housed transit workers outside kiev, people like lyudmila pishtoy live in tiny quarters. >> ( translated ): here's our kitchen and our bedroom. this is how we live. we are thankful for this, of course. we want to go home, but the roads are closed to us. >> reporter: oksana budnik fled crimea with her husband and two children. a florist back home, she hasn't been allowed to transfer funds from her old bank account. >> ( translated ): they said i could re-register my business here, but to do so i need access to my money. so neither my husband nor i can officially work. the residents say their 35 dollar a month government stipend doesn't cover even their rent, so they get by with the help of a canadian aid group. 18-year-old aaron rokrobskiy says pro-russian separatists

detained him, but he escaped and fled with his father. his mother refused to leave. >> ( translated ): she called us, in tears and screaming. our house was bombed-- all the windows and doors were blown out. the next day i went back to get her out of there. >> reporter: geoffrey pyatt is the united states ambassador to ukraine. >> even today there are russian troops on the ground leading separatist forces that are doing everything they can to defeat the new ukraine. >> reproter: pyatt has led the american support effort here, which includes training ukrainian soldiers and helping reform long-corrupt institutions. >> the way ukraine defeats vladimir putin is by building a modern democratic european state. the more ukraine consolidates reform, the more ukraine demonstrates that it's not going to be dissuaded from its european choice, and the standards and values and institutions that come with that, the harder it is for the

kremlin to try to defeat that militarily. reporter: pyatt points to fledgling economic reforms, such as the closures of insolvent banks and the ending of long time energy price cuts that weakened the state budget. by increasing energy supplies from europe, ukraine has dramatically reduced its dependence on russian natural gas. >> this is not a poor country this a country with an enormous endowment of natural resources, the best agricultural land in the world, tremendous human resources. what it has always suffered from is just atrocious governance. >> reporter: the new parliament has passed laws to enable institutional reforms to begin. a showpiece is the rebuilding of the country's police force, once a tool of state repression and violence. ten thousand recruits have been trained in cities all over ukraine. they come from all walks of life: >>( translated ): "pediatrician." >> ( translated ): "lawyer." >> ( translat "economist." >> ( translated ): "psychologist." >> ( translated ): "for 15 years i ran a bank."

>> reporter: for eight weeks, the recruits drill on the shooting range, learn how to make arrests, and study criminology. while critics charge the police upper ranks contain holdovers from the old regime, there is a true sense of "starting over" among this corps. >> ( translated ): we have a situation ukraine, where more people began to think that they'd rather leave than try to fix the problems here. and i don't want to leave my country. >> reporter: there's also a newç national anti-corruption bureau to investigate government officials, juds, and the country's mega-rich oligarchs. it's being trained by the fbi in data collection. the anti-corruption bureau's special forces unit is vital, says director artem sytnyk. >> ( translated ): the resistance of the old corrupt system is so great that sometimes we have to use force. even during a simple investigation, searches, arrests, our detectives are confronted with armed

resistance, with dozens of bodyguards that protect high- ranking officials. >> reporter: sytnyk says fighting corruption is as important as the war in the east, but entrenched interests don't want him to succeed. >> ( translated ): corruption is actually a lifestyle for many officials and citizens in ukraine. we are only at the beginning of this struggle. we have no fair and independent courts, the basis of democracy. we have huge corruption risks in our economy, which prevents development of the market economy, of fair competition. >> reporter: former president yanukovych and his cronies are widely believed to have looted tens of billions of dollars from the state treasury, but ukrainian prosecutors have not filed criminal charges. the new government has also failed to hold anyone accountable for the deaths in the euro-maidan protests. inna plekhanova's son, sasha, a 22-year-old budding architect, was killed in a standoff between protesters and police.

>> ( translated ): it was a gunshot wound to the head. it was meant to be deadly. they were shooting to kill. >> reporter: plekhanova has been waiting more than two years for justice. >> ( translated ): i thought it would be possible to at least determine the suspects after two years. it's one thing if they can't be found, as many fled to russia. but to determine who the actors were is possible, as it was all filmed on camera. >> reporter: plekhanova's lawyer, pavlo dykan, says a new prosecution unit has been created to investigate protest deaths but faces obstruction from above. >> ( translated ): unfortunately, this case is a vivid illustration of the fact that reform hasn't happened. we still see all the same people who were "on the dark side" during the maidan those in charge of illegal detentions and information gathering on activists. and of course it is foolish to expect that these people will testify or help investigate their own crimes.

>> reporter: svitlana zalishchuk and her euro-optimist colleagues in ukraine's parliament know that making lasting change won't be easy. >> there is big struggle. there is big fight between the old and the new system, old and new approaches. >> reporter: the recently leaked "panama papers" revealed that president poroshenko seems to have hidden assets in offshore bank accounts, undermining his image as a reformer. and the prime minister just resigned, amid news that he's under investigation for allegedly accepting a three million dollar bribe. the patience of the united states a the european union, which have contributed billions in aid, is wearing thin. >> the support that ukraine has enjoyed has been unprecedented. they need to capitalize on this opportunity. the consequences of failure are important because of how the international community would react but much more importantly how ukrainians themselves react.

>> thompson: saudi arabia is the world's number two oil producer, behind the u.s., and has the second largest oil reserves, after venezuela. but a slump in global oil prices has saudi arabia re-thinking its near total dependence on oil revenue. tomorrow, the monarchy is expected to unveil a new vision for economic, and possibly political reform. joining me here to discuss that is david rothkopf, the editor of "foreign policy" magazine. the thank you so much for being here. >> my pleasure. >> so how is it that saudi arabia might be planning to wean itself off its near total dependence on oil revenues? what do we expect might be unveiled tomorrow. >> i think they're following the lead of some of their neighbors. a year ago the united arab emirates announced a plan to move off of oil. they had been actually on this track for some time. i think they've gotten their economy down to less than 30%

depend ent on oil and are heading for even lower. why? because when you're depinned ent to on oil you're vulnerable to oil markets. and the saudis felt this very much last year. it produced-- falling oil prices produced a huge deficit, really squeeze the economy and reduced their leverage imlobbally in a number of other ways. >> do we know anything about the specific steps they're going to take economicically? >> we've seen some indications that they're going to move away from subsidies as they've dob for gasoline. that they're going to move towards diversification of the economy, supporting other industries. may also see certain kinds of political and social reforms. the son of the king just admitted in bloomberg business week interview in i with he talked about how in the day ofñi mohammed, women had the right to ride a camel so why wouldn't it be that they had the right to drive a car. that may seem common sensical

but it certainly is a departure from the policies of the past. >> can you talk more about prince mohamd what is his reputation and how did you think reforms are going to be taken publicly? >> his reputation is growing. you know, when his tear came in it was like well, who is this kid and what's going on. but behind the scenes he had been a big player and had a relationship with the prior king and it really tried to voice his influence which produced some resentment. but now that he's in power, he has won a great deal of respect. and in fact one of the most reliable diplomats i know in the region said to me yesterday after having spent some time with him, that he is the real deal. that this is a serious person with a serious agenda. real influence and the able to get things done. >> has saudi arabia's relationship with the united states affected this push for reform? >> you can tell when you talk to saudi leaders that they're looking at their watches. they're waiting for november. they want to be done with this

because they really see the prime aero bama policy in the middle east over the course of the past several years being a shift from the traditional partnership with saudi arabia and the gulf towards an opening to iran. iran is the saudi, rival of rivals. this has been painful for them. they don't like the obama policies. they hope that a new administration, perhaps the hillry clinton administration may be a little bit more balanced in their views than the obama administration has been. but i think they're also feeling the squeeze. because both from the u.s. and from europe the policies that they've had, some of their past support for unsavory characters, their justice system as you mentioned earlier, their views towards women had really made them an outliar. and i think that if they wish to become the leader in the region, they're going to need to make some of these changes happen on a social level and not just on an energy policy level. >> all right, david rothkopf.

thank you so much for being here. >> my pleasure. 7 >>/this is pbs newshour /weekend, sunday >> thompson: tuesday marks 30 years since the world's worst nuclear power plant disaster, the explosion at chernobyl, in ukraine; on april 26, 1986. the accident released an estimated ten tons of radioactive particles into the atmosphere that spread across the former soviet union and europe. since then, it turns out, people who remained in the region may have been eating food with radiation levels two to five times higher than what is considered safe. the newshour's ivette feliciano has more. >> reporter: the disaster forced tens of thousands of residents around chernobyl to flee and never come back. but many other people remained in a zone that was considered safe enough distance to stay. in the village of zalyshany, about 32 miles southwest of chernobyl, eight-year-old bogdan vetrov suffers from an enlarged thyroid gland.

his mother, viktoria, believes it is due to radiation found in their food, but she says her family's options are: eat food that may be contaminated or starve. >> ( translated ): "we are aware of the dangers, but what can we do? there is no other way to survive here. especially in this region we just cannot survive." >> reporter: vetrov and his siblings are among 350-thousand children living in areas where monitoring radiation in the soil ended four years ago. greenpeace, the european union, and the world health organization have found links between contaminated produce and milk and increased levels of thyroid cancer. one e.u. study tracked 4,000 children for three years and found more than 80 percent of them had cardiovascular issues. doctors who perform annual checks on children here have seen that first-hand. >> ( translated ): "there are very serious pathological processes, which definitely will unfortunately have negative consequences on the development of these children."

is a plane that runs on solar power completed a risk part of its journey. the pilot landed the solar impulse 2 in northern california last fight after a three-day, 62 hour nonstop flight across the pacific ocean from hawaii. the plane is powered by 17,000 solar cells embedded in its wings which are as wide as a 747st. tomorrow on the newshour a report on rebuilding nepal one year after a defer stating earthquake shook the country. an that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm megan thompson. good night.

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: lewis b. and louise hirschfeld cullman. bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the citi foundation. supporting innovation and enabling urban progress. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. station from viewers like you. thank you.

announcer: explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this, made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. hi. i'm carol burnett. for 11 years, i had the privilege of having my name on a show that was full of music and dancing and comedy-- everything i loved. nora: i will do joan of arc! burnett: and i did it with people i loved, people in front of the camera... eunice: surprise, surprise! burnett: ...and behind the camera who were so talented and so funny and made every show an adventure. [whap] [laughter] actually we mounted, in essence, a musical comedy revue every single week,