captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> sreenivasan: and i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: on the newshour tonight, a search for answers after an egyptair flight crashes in the mediterranean with 66 people on board. >> sreenivasan: also ahead this thursday, bernie sanders intensifies the fight within the democratic party, but will his decision to stay hurt the party's chance for unification? >> woodruff: and, former executives get a chance to reboot their careers by solving some of the world's biggest problems, thanks to a harvard fellowship. >> we said, hey, here is a leadership force and if we can only deploy them to work on these pressing problems of water, climate, health maybe that's a perfect match. >> sreenivasan: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the well-being of humanity around the world by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at rockefellerfoundation.org

>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> 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: an airliner is lost with 66 people on board, setting off a frantic hunt for clues. as the day ended in the eastern mediterranean sea, the fate of a missing egyptian air passenger

plane was anything but clear. but, there was the suggestion of a terrorist connection. john yang begins our coverage. >> reporter: there was heavy security at charles de gaulle airport outside paris, where egyptair flight 804 took off last night headed for cairo, where today families of those on board left the airport in a daze. >> ( translated ): they don't have any information. they don't have specific information. >> reporter: the greek defense minister said all seemed normal as the plane flew through his nation's airspace before vanishing from radar. >> ( translated ): at 3:37, the plane, which was 10 to 15 miles inside egyptian airspace, at 37,000 feet, made a 90 degree turn to the left, and then a 360 degree turn towards the right, descending from 37,000 feet to 15,000 feet where the picture we had was lost at 10,000 feet.

>> reporter: debris was spotted in the mediterranean near the greek island of karpathos, although it wasn't clear if they were connected to flight 804. egypt's aviation minister raised the possibility of a terrorism. >> if you analyze the situation properly, the possibility of having a different action or having a terror attack, is higher than the possibility of having a technical fault. >> reporter: this is only the latest in a series of incidents involving egyptian aviation. in march, a man wearing a fake suicide belt hijacked egyptair flight 181 to cyprus. and last october, a russian airliner exploded over the sinai desert after taking off from the egyptian resort of sharm el- sheikh. all 224 people aboard died in what egyptian officials said was a terrorist attack. the past two days, the plane lost today flew roundtrips between cairo and eritrea and cairo and tunis. egyptian president abdel fatteh al-sisi convened an emergency

meeting of advisors; so did french president francois hollande. in brussels, secretary of state john kerry expressed u.s. condolences. >> the united states is providing assistance in the search effort and relevant authorities are doing everything they can to try to find out what the facts are, what happened today. >> reporter: the u.s. navy deployed a p-3 orion reconnaissance aircraft to help in the search for the wreckage, which could hold vital clues to what brought down flight 804. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: tonight an egyptian air official said that no debris from the missing airplane has been found, correcting an earlier statement. >> sreenivasan: in the day's other news, the senate approved a bipartisan plan to fight the zika virus-- totaling $1.1 billion. it came after republicans in the house passed a separate bill last night that costs $622 million. the white house says president obama can accept the senate

compromise, but would veto the house measure because it doesn't provide enough money. >> woodruff: the house of representatives did battle today over gay rights. democrats offered an amendment to protect lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender employees from discrimination by federal contractors. it failed by one vote. the floor erupted with boos and shouts of "shame," as democrats accused republicans of prolonging the process until enough members switched their "yes" votes to "no." >> the changing of those seven votes resulted in this house saying to the president of the united states you cannot tell contractors that they cannot discriminate. >> it is not unusual to have people who vote and do change their vote. i have done that also. but the rules were followed. >> woodruff: democrats say a provision in a defense policy

bill that passed last night, would overturn a presidential order that barred l.g.b.t. bias. republicans say the provision simply restates existing religious liberties. >> sreenivasan: the oklahoma state senate voted today to make it a felony for any doctor to perform an abortion, at any stage of pregnancy. it would be the first such law anywhere in the country. the bill goes now to governor mary fallin, an anti-abortion republican. she's so far withheld comment. if she signs it, abortion rights groups are expected to challenge the law in court. >> woodruff: nato has formally invited the small balkan state of montenegro to become its 29th member. the move today came over russia's strong objections. moscow opposes the alliance expanding into eastern europe. a signing ceremony marked the occasion at nato headquarters in brussels. the u.s. and other member states still have to approve individually. >> sreenivasan: at least 220 families are still missing in sri lanka after deadly

landslides that buried three villages. rescuers spent another day digging into deep mud. the head of the operation said conditions and continued rain are making it a slow and painstaking search. >> it is completely covered in thick mud. the area is completely boggy. the soldiers are working there with mud up above their knees. in some places it's going even up to their waist-levels. >> sreenivasan: only 18 bodies have been recovered so far. more than 1,500 residents in the hardest-hit areas are now in shelters. >> woodruff: back in this country, california is relaxing its grip on water use, as a five-year drought eases just a bit. the state water control board voted wednesday to lift a mandatory conservation order. instead, local water districts will set their own standards. parts of california received near-average rain and snow over the winter. >> sreenivasan: california

lawmakers are making another run at tougher gun control. the state senate pushed through nearly a dozen new restrictions today. one bans the sale of assault- style weapons with easily detachable magazines. another says owners must turn in magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. the legislation now goes to the state assembly. >> woodruff: a colorado movie theater will not be held liable for a mass shooting in 2012 that killed 12 people. families of the dead and survivors sued cinemark, saying its security was lax. but a state court jury sided with the company today. the shooter, james holmes, opened fire during a midnight premiere of a "batman" movie in aurora. he's now doing life in prison. >> sreenivasan: on wall street, rising expectations of an interest rate hike pushed stocks lower. the dow jones industrial average lost 91 points to close at 17,435. the nasdaq fell 26 points, and the s&p 500 slipped seven. >> woodruff: and, a fixture of

american journalism, "60 minutes" veteran morley safer, died today, at his home in new york. he'd retired just last week. safer spent more than half a century at cbs news, including 46 years on "60 minutes," longer than anyone else. his career took off in the tumult of the 1960's. >> the marines are burning this old couple's cottage. >> woodruff: it was this ground- breaking reporting in vietnam in 1965 by a young morley safer that launched a storied career at cbs news. his coverage of the military's conduct stunned viewers. president lyndon johnson suggested that safer had "communist ties." in 2000, the newshour asked safer if he expected that kind of impact. >> when i started getting queries about it, when i started getting reaction from the marines in vietnam, itself, in da nang and other places.

i realized that this was more than just another quite brutal search and destrooperation. >> woodruff: safer joined "60 minutes" in 1970 and became known as an intrepid storyteller he filed more than 900 stories; his last, this past march. his droll touch and breadth of interests distinguished his work, from playing pool with jackie gleason, and interviewing dolly parton, to traveling the orient express, while still staying true to his investigative roots. his 1983 story about an african- american man named lenell geter serving life for armed robbery in texas would become one of the program's most honored. geter's conviction was overturned 10 days after safer's report exposed a faulty prosecution.

>> his life at "60 minutes" and cbs new had such an impact and the kinds of stories he covered and the most incredible body of work. >> woodruff: morley safer is survived by his wife and daughter. morley safer was 84 years old. >> sreenivasan: still to come on the newshour: more on the security concerns surrounding the egyptair flight. what bernie sanders and hillary clinton could do to bridge the growing democratic divide. a harvard program that teaches baby boomers to solve social problems, and much more. >> sreenivasan: we return to egypt air flight 804 and what could have happened to it. deborah hersman served as chairman of the national transportation safety board from 2009 to 2014 and is now

president of the national safety council, a non-profit organization devoted to reducing preventable deaths and injuries. and juan zarate was deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism during the president george w. bush administration. he's currently the chairman of the financial integrity network, a consulting firm. deborah hersman, i want to start with you. at this stage, what are investigators thinking about? what are they looking for? >> really, the first 24 hours, they're focused on response, recovery and search for the aircraft, and so you can see clearly that's something that was a focus in this investigation, but you want to gather any perishable evidence that might exist. you want to make sure you know who needs to be interviewed, that you're able to connect all of the dots very early in the investigation and grab any of that information. an sizing the radar data is going to be important because what they need to do now is pinpoint where the aircraft is so they can identify not just the aircraft, the parts and take

care to have humans, but also get those black boxes, which are really important to the investigation. >> woodruff: juan zarate, given what evidence that's come out, what signs point to powell play? >> there isn't many signs. the reason to gather data and forensics early is to get clues. authorities are indicating there weren't signs in terms of intelligence that a threat was pending or threatening this particular airline or route. this has been no claim of responsibility yet, and certainly we don't have any evidence that we've seen physically that would demonstrate this is terrorism, but we know terrorists have historically targeted aircraft. it has psychological, human and economic impact. al quaida have been perfecting technologies and trying to hit us on aircraft over the years, whether the underwear bomb in yemen, shoe and liquid bomb plots out of the u.k. or even the downing of the metro jet,

the russian airliner in the sinai by i.s.i.s. they're trying to invade the technology we have. the master bombmaker in yemen who has been training individuals for years and the senior group of al quaida figures in syria that up to 2014 were trying to perfect the non-metallic devices that could get on aircraft. >> sreenivasan: deborah hersman, given the laundry list juan zarate just went through, does that lead you to think that maybe this wouldn't be a mechanical issue? >> you know, it's so early in the investigation, we really don't have that much factual information specific to this event, and so it is, you know, really speculation at this point if anyone tries to identify what the cause is. there may be people who have deeper information within the

intelligence community, but the information that's been released publicly -- in the u.s., we investigate as if it's an accident until we find evidence of criminal intent and then it's turned over to the authorities and the f.b.i. but in this investigation, there's not much to go on, at least that's been publicly shared at this point. >> sreenivasan: juan zarate, looking at the different links in the chain, where are the vulnerabilities? at the airport, transit, cargo holds? recently france got even tighter about airport security which you would think it would be less likely an attack was somehow planned or planted inside france. >> you are right, there are weak links in global airline system. no system is perfect. if you have terrorist actors constantly trying to probe defenses and innovate, they're likely to get through once in a while, so that's a reality. but you also have to rely on airport security in third

countries. it's part of the the reason why department of homeland security is trying to forward deploy some of their assessments and security protocols, vetting individuals and cargo before it heads to the united states. but you have to rely on foreign partners and capacity building is important. you also have the insider threat problem. you referred to the french. the french revoact the security clearance of 50 individuals at charles de gaulle last year precisely because of concerns that were manifest in the sinai downing as well as the mogadishu airline attack which did not result in the downing of the aircraft was certainly was an insider job. finally, the new technologies themselves. these are very smart individuals who have time and space to operate. even though we shouldn't speculate and can't definitively say what happens, you have had quickening in threats of groups like i.s.i.s. and certainly an intent to hilt aircraft, and i think that's what worries

individuals especially when france and egypt are involved, they are prime targets for jihadi groups. >> deborah hersman, seems like the terrorists are deploying technology faster than the aviation industry. what about satellites and sensors that can tell us where every given aircraft is at anytime, especially after the malaysia incident. >> this started after air france in 2009. that recovery operation took two years and cost $40 million. with malaysia in 2014, 370, cost about that much in the first month, so the real question we should be asking is why do we not have better technology to locate any aircrafty we are. i can locate my kids with their iphones anywhere they are. beneath need better technology on aircraft and n.t.s.b. recommended we not only have more frequent sending of location, they want it to be sent once every minute so we can

pinpoint location better, they want those recorders to last not 30 days but 90 days and have also recommended that an important package of information, small package of data be sent that's triggered if there is some event where you see a deviation from expected parameters, that you would send information from the flight data recorder so that you don't have to pull that recorder up from the bottom of the ocean to know what's going on. so there's a lot of technology, including cockpit video recorders, that hasn't been taken advantage of that we could do more with. >> sreenivasan: deborah hersman, juanit juan zarate, thu both. >> woodruff: now, onto the race for the white house. democratic front-runner hillary clinton didn't mince words, criticizing the presumptive republican nominee.

today, in an interview with cnn, clinton said that donald trump is not qualified to be president. donald trump drew other criticism today, responding to the egyptair crash with this tweet: "looks like yet another terrorist attack. airplane departed from paris. when will we get tough, smart, and vigilant? great hate and sickness!" clinton responded in the interview, calling trump's recent comments reckless and dangerous. when asked about her democratic rival, senator bernie sanders, clinton declared the race for the party's nomination over. >> i will be the nominee for my party, chris. that is already done, in effect. there's no way that i won't be. >> woodruff: but sanders has declared he'll keep up the fight onto california's primary and bring his message to the convention in philadelphia. what does that mean for the democrats chance in the fall? i'm joined by longtime democratic strategist and professor of politics at u.s.c., bob shrum.

bob shrum, thank you very much for being with us. after hillary clinton said that today, i want to read to you just a portion of what the sanders camp put out within the last hour. they said, we expect voters in the remaining contests will disagree, as we do, with what she said. he said they say senator sanders is doing much better than hillary clinton against donald trump in national and state polls. it is clear that millions of americans have growing doubts about the clinton campaign. what do you make of what is going on in the sanders camp? >> well, it's not just the sanders camp. this is a kind of natural back and forth that goes on at the end of these primary periods where someone who is behind wants to keep making the case. we went through it in 2008, and some of what hillary clinton said was pretty tough, some of what barack obama said was pretty tough, but they managed to put things together afterwards. i think there was a basis for doing that here. i think we'll get to that point.

but to expect someone who is still running in these primaries, who is trying to win a number of them, and who has a chance to win some of them, to say, oh, yes, i sort of agree with all of this, is a false expectation. hillary clinton didn't do it, bernie sanders won't do it, but in the end they will get together. >> is it the right thing for her to do to say now i am the nominee? >> she is mathematically the nominee. the way she was asked that question, i don't think she could have given any other answer. one of the interesting things is i saw her interview characterized as a warning to sanders. i thought it was an invitation. she was saying i'll do my part to unify the party, he has to do his part. by the way, he's doing her a couple of favors right now. one of the biggest ones is he's not on television in california. she's ahead here. if he went on television, i think he has the money to do it, he would threaten that in a serious way, and she would have to spend a lot of money to try

to counterit. >> woodruff: you mean not on television in terms of paid advertising. >> right. the weakness of my old consulting background. you say "go on tv," you mean buy tv ads. >> woodruff: bob shrum, you've watched politics a long time. what do you think bernie sanders wants as this point? >> i think he probably still wants the nomination. i don't think that's going to happen. he wants to influence the party's flat form, and i think there's a basis for the two of them to agree on things like the minimum wage on debt-free ecollege if not free college for everybody, and i think he probably wants reforms in the nominating process, like when he says open the party up and let the people in, i think what he means is independents should be able to vote in all primaries. i suspect he would also like to get rid of or morphed the superdelegate system and, frankly, that shouldn't be a problem for secretary clinton. she won't need the super delegates in 2020 to get renominated. >> well, i saw a poll today,

somebody quote ago poll saying that right now something like 60% of bernie sanders supporters have an unfavorable view of hillary clinton. to what extent is what he's doing potentially going to hurt her campaign in the fall, if she's the nominee? >> well, at this point, i don't see the kind of sulphurous criticism of her that would hurt in the fall. you know, as i said, there was a lot of back and forth at the end of 2008. there was a group called the pumas, women who said they'd never vote for barack obama, almost all did. so i think the heat of passion at the moment cools off. i think hillary clinton will want bernie sanders to have a role at the convention, to bring the sanders people along, and i think that will happen, and i think sanders is conscious he's brought so many new people into the process, that they're going to be around for a long time, and that they're going to have real influence.

that's part of his legacy. he doesn't want his legacy to be, i'm pretty sure, that he helped elect donald trump. >> woodruff: i heard you say you don't mary the kind of sulphurous language, but looking at the sanders campaign, it said it's clear many americans have growing doubts about the clinton campaign. >> that's the thing you say when you're at the end of the process and behind. hillary clinton made the statement in the end of 2008 she would be a much more general election candidate than barack obama and he might very well thriewz john mccain. i think it's quite natural. i think we're intrigued by it, in part, because she has won the nomination, in part because he has mounted such a vigorous challenge, and in part because the republican process over and all the attention is shifted to the democrats. but i will bet that, at the end of the day, we'll have a convention where we may have a roll call and at some point in

the roll call, bernie sanders will stand up and move to nominate hillary clinton by acclamation. >> bob shrum, thank you very much. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: modern-day echoes of stalin-era deportations. the future of genetics for better and for worse. and a hip hop artist on why he doesn't cater to the whims of the music industry. but first, business leaders launching second careers to address social problems like poor nutrition and food waste. economics correspondent paul solman looks at a program at harvard university teaching former executives how to do good. it's part of our weekly "making sense" report, which airs every thursday on the newshour.

>> reporter: at daily table in food desert dorchester, massachusetts, apples for just 69 cents a pound, fresh salmon for less than three dollars. top flight food at rock bottom prices. >> we've got massive amounts of wasted food and at the same time, we got 49 million americans that can't afford to eat properly. >> reporter: doug rauch opened this non-profit store after 30 years at trader joe's, the last 14 as president. so is this food all rejects, seconds? >> every single product in the store, is a quality product that was either excess inventory, a shorter code. so we don't sell anything past its code date, or it's something we made at a special buy. something that is maybe the product has been discontinued or the label has changed; these sorts of deals. >> reporter: americans waste some 133 billion pounds of food a year. supermarket chains play a role by tossing products within

thirty days of the sell-by date if they can't ship them to stores quickly enough. >> here's an item from stonyfield that is april 19. that still has 12 days on it from now and yet we're selling this for 99 cents for a six pack. this gives people in the community to provide their family with yogurt that they never would have been able to afford. >> reporter: daily table wants to appeal to members of this community who may be too embarrassed to take handouts from food banks or soup kitchens. >> there's something inherent in a donor-recipient relationship which is a power differential. here, we've flipped it. because they get to be customers, we got to earn their patronage and they come to experience that in a neighborhood where they get to feel better when they walk out instead of in any way slightly lessened. >> reporter: "retired" at age 57, this is rauch's second act, thanks to a quirky fellowship at the harvard business school. >> it actually took him a while to hone in on the concept.

>> reporter: rosabeth moss kanter runs the advanced leadership initiative for ex- execs intent on solving social problems. >> he was interested in food waste, he was interested in hunger, he was interested all over the place. we gave him contacts, we gave him ideas, we gave him feedback. you don't do it instantly. >> reporter: kanter envisioned the potential eight years ago: millions of high-powered baby boomers like rauch nearing retirement age. >> we said, "hey, here is a leadership force and if we can only deploy them to work on these pressing problems of water, climate, health, education, conflict, and rights." maybe that's a perfect match. because these baby boomers were going to live 20 to 30 more years, be productive, be healthy but most institutions had never taken that into account. >> reporter: this year, 47 retirees have returned to school

with lofty resumes, and ambitions to match. >> i'm interested in establishing what i'm going to call the acela corridor infrastructure bank. >> reporter: suneel kamlani, former chief operating officer at investment bank u.b.s., plans to hook up building projects with cash-heavy funders. >> the country's infrastructure is crumbling. conversely the private sector has a significant amount of capital. >> reporter: biotech entrepreneur ken kelley wondered why there was no vaccine for the deadly ebola virus. >> it became almost an intellectual itch inside my brain that i had to address. >> reporter: it turned out many diseases just aren't big enough to attract industry or government funding. so kelley is developing a public private partnership and a global investment fund. >> to have vaccines and drugs available for neglected tropical diseases before they become pandemic threats. >> we encourage the fellows to think really big. bigger than they thought they could when they came in.

>> don't just think outside of the box, you know be creative, think outside the building. >> reporter: it's the job of the program to help fellows figure out how to put their ideas into action. there are seminars: >> the whole point of this year is that you have been asked to stand back and reflect and not just repeat what you've been doing. >> reporter: instead, fellows network, collaborate. >> why don't your other cohorts agree with your position? >> reporter: go to class. carol hallquist's idea: an online hub connecting schools with retiree helpers. >> larry, pat and i have been meeting about our projects on urban education. we were thinking about how we finance our projects differently, especially because of the two case studies. >> pat, you're nodding. >> i am, having worked with carol and larry and the team, it's fascinating how ideas generate through our dialogue. >> reporter: and then there's the homework. >> it's been quite a few years

since i've had to write a term paper and on a spring break had to write a term paper. >> reporter: former banker lynn wines wants to help adults with cognitive disabilities find jobs. >> somebody with dyslexia may not be able to take a written test or submit a written application but they may be the best employee that they ever had. >> reporter: the upshot of this program: turn ideas into viable ventures, like doug rauch's daily table. >> we put in a kitchen because people need to be able to grab ready-to-eat meals that they can take home and serve to their family. what they told us was they don't have any time. so we provide them meals that in 3-5 minutes they can heat up that are delicious, nutritious, and affordable. they get to watch product being made right there by people in their community and it removes any question like where did this come from and how can you have it so cheap? >> reporter: to start, daily table has relied on donations, but rauch thinks ventures like

this need to pay for themselves. >> we hope and we're starting to prove, that you can get to a break even spot where then a store can keep going without additional philanthropic support. if this is true and we can actually show this to work then it becomes scalable. >> reporter: rauch is already scouting a second boston location and plans to take daily table to a new city next year. just one of more than 200 graduates of the harvard advanced leadership program, embarking on an encore career, and please forgive the cliche, trying to make the world a better place. for the pbs newshour this is economics correspondent paul solman in boston, massachusetts. >> woodruff: a pea is to be had to participate, though some financial fee is available. harvard would not disclose the exact amount but reports put the fee at more than $50,000.

>> sreenivasan: it's been more than two years since russia invaded the ukrainian territory of crimea, home to a muslim population that has suffered greatly through the centuries. since the invasion, they are under pressure once more. from kiev, special correspondent kira kay reports our story, produced in partnership with the bureau for international reporting. >> reporter: here in the main mosque of ukraine's capital, kyiv, imam seram arifov leads friday prayers for the city's muslims, but he is more than 500 miles from his home in simferopol, crimea. >> ( translated ): i was a teacher, we had a private school. we were teaching the islamic religious sciences, we also taught the koran. i had to leave my homeland to continue my job in more acceptable conditions. we could not work in crimea

anymore, they didn't let the school operate, they didn't renew our license. >> reporter: "they" are the russians, who invaded and annexed crimea in march 2014. the imam and about 100 members of the congregation are crimean tatars-- a small muslim community with centuries of history in the region. but many found themselves on the wrong side of the new authorities and now they have, in effect, become refugees in their own country. this young mother is one of them. >> ( translated ): i had to quit my studies, i was studying there in high school, but i had to grab my documents and come here. all our loved ones are still in crimea. we are far away from our parents, it's difficult to be away from our homeland. >> reporter: protests in ukraine led to the ouster of pro-russian president viktor yanukovych in

early 2014, but russia, unhappy with the loss of yanukovych, took advantage of the turmoil and took over crimea, reclaiming territory it considered its own. a referendum was held in march, 2014; russian authorities say 96% of crimean voters supported the annexation. but refat chubarov, the political leader of the crimean tatars, believes many crimean residents were too intimidated by the heavy presence of russian troops to express their true feelings. >> ( translated ): the only ones who spoke out openly against such a fake referendum were crimean tatars. we understood that crimea faced a new problem, a terrible one. moscow never came to crimea with good intentions. >> reporter: the crimean tatars already had a long history of conflict with russia, going back even before the soviet union. then during world war ii, nearly the entire population was forcefully deported thousands of miles away by communist dictator joseph stalin, for their ukraine says more than 100,000 people died in what it considers a genocide.

that history resurfaced dramatically last week when a ukrainian woman of crimean tatar descent won eurovision, a pan- european singing contest watched by tens of millions. her winning song memorialized the 1944 deportation of the tatars. only after the soviet union dissolved in the 1990s and ukraine became its own country did the bulk of crimea's tatars return, with the hopes of starting over. gulnara izetovna's family resetteled and had just finished building their new house. but after the referendum, she was stopped by authorities when returning from a trip. >> ( translated ): they asked about my nationality. i was accused of separatism and they interrogated me. >> reporter: izetovna fled, as have an estimated 30,000 other crimean tatars. >> ( translated ): living now in the 21st century, i never thought that this could happen

again. what my parents felt during world war ii, is the same thing i feel now. >> reporter: ukraine is an overwhelmingly christian country. the orthodox church plays a strong role in life here. but the annexation of crimea, and the russian support of separatists in the east of the country, has created a shared enemy and made ukraine more welcoming of thousands of muslim refugees than some other parts of europe. still, it has been a difficult process, says aid worker enver bekirov. >> ( translated ): there were many large families of crimean tatars, families with sick people, families with disabled people. we just decided to take the responsibility. >> reporter: bekirov ensures the displaced have proper clothing and food, and helps them find housing that various refugee agencies also pay for. when lenie bilial fled crimea, she was pregnant with her sixth child. she and her husband mustafa had wanted to stay in crimea but

felt repressed because of their faith. >> ( translated ): we are muslims, and this is very important to us. what is happening in russia, we see that muslims are being persecuted; they come and break into these educational establishments. they include certain literature on the blacklist. i worry for example the koran and other books might end up in the list. >> reporter: today they feel welcomed by their new neighbors, but also not fully at home. >> reporter: back in crimea, russian authorities are now intensifying their crack down on the tatars, arresting activists and community leaders by using anti-extremist laws. others have been abducted, including this man, who was filmed being taken by a pro- russian militia and was later found dead with signs of torture. the crimean tatars' governing body, the mejlis, has been banned-- they are now functioning in exile. leader refat chubarov has himself been indicted by crimean prosecutors for violating russia's territorial integrity

by continuing to insist crimea is part of ukraine. >> this is a moderate muslim community, that was victimized once before under stalin and is now being victimized under the russian occupation of crimea. >> reporter: geoffrey pyatt is the american ambassador to ukraine. the u.s. has sanctions against russia because of the crimean annexation. pyatt says that amidst the diplomatic pressure and war of words, crimea's tatars shouldn't be overshadowed. >> crimea is not going to be returned to ukrainian sovereignty over the short term. and the tatar community understands that. to have a community like the tatars which is notably tolerant, notably inclusive, makes it even more important that we not allow their story to be forgotten. >> reporter: recently, crimean tatars have taken dramatic steps to make sure they aren't forgotten. last year they created a blockade of the roads leading from ukraine into crimea, jamming an economic life line.

and activists believed to include crimean tatars blew up the power lines still serving crimea, plunging the peninsula into darkness for weeks. but most crimean tatars acknowledge they won't be going home any time soon, including journalist osman pashayev, who had been detained while covering commemorations of the historic deportation. so he and his entire news staff also went into exile. their small operation keeps the flow of free information, both for the community in exile and those back home. >> ( translated ): we're looking something to keep that connection. we have to be relevant to our audience, and we must avoid that the annexation becomes permanent. >> reporter: but with every passing day, that connection may become harder to keep. this is kira kay for pbs newshour in kyiv, ukraine.

>> woodruff: it seems like there are important breakthroughs each year in the field of genetics and medicine. in many ways, we indeed could be on the verge of historical changes in how we use d.n.a. and edit our biological code. but the moment can be deceptive. the history of genetics is long and complicated, dating back to the mid 19th- century. it's full of exciting discoveries, endless mysteries and even nefarious intent. that's the ambitious scope of a new book, "the gene: an intimate history." its author is dr. siddhartha mukherjee, a cancer physician and an assistant professor of medicine at columbia university. he's the author of the pulitzer prize-winning, "the emperor of all maladies: a biography of cancer." dr. siddhartha mukherjee, welcome to the "newshour" again. >> pleasure to be here. thank you. >> woodruff: so an intimate

history within what? just a short time after you've come out with this award-winning book on cancer, you tackle an arguably more complicated subject, the gene, and there is a personal connection. explain that. >> well, this book took six years to write, and the book gets intimate right from the first page. the story opens rea with an exploration that was the back of my mind growing up, about my family's mental illness, two uncles consumed by schizophrenia and bipolar disease, and one generation later, some on the same side of the family also diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized, and the growing realization in my mind as a child there was some heredity lurking behind mental illness and that coming to fullness, as i started to study medicine and realized there was a genetic core to all of this. >> woodruff: you sense in reading this book that there is an urgency to this, that you

felt it was important to get this done now. why? >> because we are on the verge of inventing astonishing new technologies that allows us to read and write human genomes. by read, we can now begin to scan the human genome, yours and mine, all the genes that you and i have, and ask questions about what it predicts for us in the future. the technology is far from accurate, but for instance, the risk of breast cancer may be present in a variation in your gene nogenome. lately, scientists have been able to go into the human genome and make intentional alterations, erase genes, change genes, change their content, et cetera. that's a surprising thing to do and portends very complex landscape for the future. >> woodruff: and you get to the tough questions.

but you go back through the history of genetics, to aristotle and before that pa pythagoras. is one more important than others? >> this is a story knitted together with other stories, and i wanted to keep things simple enough so that all readers could get -- you know, the average reader, i could understand what the lineage of inventions and discoveries was. one of the most important figures is gregory mendel, a monk who persisted with his experiments on pea flowers and pea plants, and using those very simple experiments really brought out what was at that time a revolutionary understanding that units of carrying hereditary traits or features were moving between parents and their children. that was a striking and original observation, so striking, so

original, judy, that it was lost, the paper was lost. no one even remembered it for 40 years. >> woodruff: and his story is so personal. you write about all the dills appointments. he was trying to pass an exam and never passed it. >> twice. >> woodruff: which may be a lesson fo for a lot of people, young people worrying about passing their exams. you suggest a moment ago we get into the darker side of genetics, the movement or efforts along the way to tailor and fix the human progress in a way that's negative and dangerous. why do you think that effort -- it was bad enough, but why do you think it got as far as it did? >> well, the road to that particular hell is paved with progressive intentions. that's what's interesting about the story. we've forgotten that, that when the idea of yo eugenics was inv,

to improve the human race by better breeding, was invented in england by darwin's cousin. a lot of progressives signed on to it and thought it was really great to improve the human race by selective reading. that idea metastasizes to america, to our shores, and becomes, you know, that selective human breeding becomes selective human sterilization. carrie buck. >> reporter: to whom you dedicate the book along with your grandmother. >> carrie buck was sterilized, it was said three generations of imbimbicils was stuff. then to nazi germany moving from breeding, sterilization to ultimately external nation. we remember the nazi germany,

but we forget this was our problem, too. this arose out of a very particularly moment in american history. >> you take genetics all the way to today, practically, and the inventions that are coming and the discoveries coming almost at a daily pace, and yet you do signal the limits of this. it feels as if just a few years ago people were thinking, oh, we're going to solve all our medical mysteries with the genome, but it isn't that simple, is it? >> it is not that simple. it's very important to remember what parts are simple and not. otherwise, we need this vocabulary. this is a vast, public debate and cannot be had in the laboratory or tissue culture rooms or medical boardroom, it has to be in a wide place of public responsibility. things are more complicated because your genes predict the future but not on a one-to-one sense. in other words, there is still a

striking role of chance, a striking role of the environment. it's chance, plus genes plus environments and these interactions between them make you and me. and the genes predict in some cases. we need to appropriately match where genes are useful and where genes can be misleading. >> woodruff: how should we think about genetics right now should we think that there is still so much more to be discovered that can make a huge difference, or that we're coming closer to the end of what there is to be known? >> i think both of these things can be true at the same time. there is a vast cosmos yet to be discovered -- how do genes manage to make, you know, a human being -- and yet there are things we already know that are very important. we know we can predict with certain levels of fidelity whether you will have a heightened risk for certain illnesses, cancer, potentially alzheimer's disease, potentially other diseases, we can begin to

predict the risk. the question is an easy time because simultaneously we're being able to read and write the genome with a limited capacity but also projecting forward into the future, understanding there's a whole new landscape that needs to be figured out. >> woodruff: well, it was only a short time from the book on cancer to the book on the gene, so i'm assuming you've already started on the next one. >> woodruff: oh, i have not. >> woodruff: the book is "the gene: an intimate history"." thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. >> sreenivasan: finally, another installment in our "brief but spectacular" series, where we ask interesting people to describe their passions. tonight we hear from hip hop artist jared pellerin, who's better known by his stage name pell, on how beauty can be born of hardship and what he

discovers making music he calls "experimental soul." sometimes i feel like a true masterpiece is made from making a mistake beautiful. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i first started making music when i was around 16 in jackson, mississippi, because i was forced to move there after hurricane katrina with my brother and mother. i remember making friends by making music because being in a new social situation, it's always a good thing to be able to identify yourself with something, and i identified myself as an artist. i have a lot of musical influences -- kanye west, farrell williams, stevie wonder. i listen to stevie when i feel like i'm in love or i feel like i want to do better in the world because there's a lot of positivity in his music. i would describe my music as experimental soul, and some of the best music to me is that that comes out of accident. maybe that one drum hit that

didn't sound right, if left in there and mixed the perfect way can provide the ear candy for a classic. runaway is one of my favorite tracks because it deals with having to leave something you know and chasing your own path and dream. ♪ that's how you get the message. all the teachings in the world can't force another lesson. but i still remember youth has a blessing. ♪ ♪ >> being in the music industry, you are confronted with a bunch of challenges creatively because you will have people telling you what you should be talking about when the goal of an artist is to tell their story. i should try to challenge myself to bring something new to the culture because that's how it keeps pushing forward. the way music streaming is now and the trends that it's starting to show in our listener's attention, i feel that people are more receptive

to singles and not listening to albums as much. when you drop an album, you're not dropping a bunch of loose singles. you're dropping a cohesive body of work sonically that you want somebody to digest, sit with, play a few times. it takes a lot to make an album. you're putting your whole soul into a body of work that is something that needs to be enjoyed in its completeness, and when you take away that aspect and you want to, you know, pitch this single or this single and not really have anybody focus on the album, you take away from what the point of the music is, you know. what's up? my name is jared pellerin, aka pell, and this is my brief but spectacular take on experimental soul. >> sreenivasan: jarred is one >> sreenivasan: you can watch more from our brief but spectacular series on our website at pbs.org/newshour/brief.

>> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, meet some of the leading scientists who are tackling the zika outbreak. find their answers to frequently asked questions about microcephaly in infected infants and whether the outbreak is getting worse. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years.

bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention. in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc

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>> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, e*trade, and cancer treatment centers of america. >> shouldn't what makes each of us unique make our treatment unique? advanced genomic testing is changing the way we fight cancer. we are focused on the evolution of cancer care. learn more at cancercenter.com.