captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, february 25: moving forward-- the democratic party elects a new national chairman; and in our signature segment, will britain's exit from the european union affect the tenuous peace in northern ireland? next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided

by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're 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, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thank you for joining us. the democratic party has a new leader. at its winter meeting in atlanta today, the democratic national committee elected tom perez as its chairman. 55-year-old perez has served in the obama administration as labor secretary and as head of the justice department's civil rights division. he's a buffalo, new york-born son of immigrants from the dominican republic, a graduate of brown university and harvard law school, a former federal prosecutor, and one-time aide to the late senator, edward kennedy. the runner-up was minnesota congressman keith ellison, who

is serving his sixth term in the house of representatives, and perez immediately appointed him deputy chairman. the party currently holds only 17 of the 50 governorships, and 193 seats in the house of representatives, one of its lowest numbers in 70 years. perez said the party needs to reverse its "crisis of confidence" after losing nearly 1,000 seats in state legislatures in the past decade, and the white house last year. >> we need a chair who cannot only take the fight to donald trump, but make sure that we talk about our positive message of inclusion and opportunity and talk to that big tent of the democratic party. >> sreenivasan: npr political editor domenico montanaro is covering the d.n.c. gathering in an atlanta ballroom and joins me from there by skype to discuss the results. domenico, this was a close vote, went to a second ballot. this is kind of an example of the tension inside the party. >> no question about it. i mean, that split between the progressive wing and that more establishment governing wing was on full display because you wond

up with obama's former labor secretary tom perez, squeezing out a win over minnesota congressman keith ellison with 235 votes out of the 400-plus that-- of all the voting members. he needed 218 to cross the threshold to win. but on that first round of balloting, peres was one short and ellison was at 200. and it took him to that second round. the fouring candidates ended up dropping up on the and he wound up being able to get past that threshold. but no question about it. when perez was named the winner i was standing in frofnlt a huge crowd of ellison supporters who continued to keep channeling, "money out of politics," and didn't want to hear anything about perez. he made a very deft move by naming ellison his deputy and that seemed to quiet the crowd. >> sreenivasan: these tensions

don't dissipate immediately. >> no, they don't go away immediately. i think one of the things people wind up doing-- it's kind of fun tow me to see people put this much stock into a party chairman. like, they're not the person running for president. they're not person who, you know, is going to we've a magic wand and change the fact that democrats are out of power in state legislatures, in governorships, in congress. you know, at their lowest point of power in more than 100 years, really. so this is somebody who is an organizational figure, someone hois supposed to be able to raise money, and that's something democrats-- this group of democrats wants to necessarily be talking about. they want to talk about how they stop donald trump and that's a lot harder to do for a party chairman. it was interesting me to watch, that especially in comparison with republicans were in 2009. they did something very similar when they had michael steele winning, when the party didn't want to be aligned with dawson and appeared to be siding with a

white southern republican when you had the first black president. so some of those same splits start to emerge here on the democratic side with them out of power. >> sreenivasan: you know, both keith ellison and tom perez said at some points during this contest, it's not just that bee lost the recollection in november. it's just that we lost 1,000 elections to get to us this point. >> look, that has been the biggest problem for democrats over the past decade, really kind of ignoring some of those low-level, down-ballot races and thinkinthinking that demographys such destiny that they would always win the presidency. and i had noted before the elections, that if democrats were to lose, it would be a potential real problem for them, as far as hillary clinton losing the presidency, because they are so far out of power when it comes to those slate starts and it comes to governors races. the party is going to have to start to figure out how to get money into the party to build up

some of the local parties that need those wins, those granular-level wins and organizing, for as low as school board, frankly, if they want to be able to rise up. >> sreenivasan: npr's domenico montanaro joining us from atlanta. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: american-backed iraqi army troops are pushing farther into western mosul, two days after capturing the airport from entrenched islamic state militants. iraqi officers say isis is putting up tough resistance with car bombs, snipers, and armed drones. the army captured eastern mosul last month, and began its offensive to retake the country's second largest city last october. today's fighting prompted a thousand people to evacuate their homes. the united nations says 400,000 civilians may flee mosul as food and fuel supplies run out. in syria, government air force strikes and jihadist suicide bombings are disrupting the latest u.n. brokered peace talks. today, in the mostly-government controlled city of homs, syria's third largest city, suicide bombers struck two security

offices, killing at least 32 people, including the general who headed military intelligence. a group linked to al qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks. the syrian air force responded with airstrikes against a rebel- held enclave in homs. on thursday in geneva, the u.n. opened its first round of peace talks in ten months, with representatives of the sides in syria's six-year-old civil war. german chancellor angela merkel says a two-state solution is the only realistic way to end the israeli-palestinian conflict. merkel made the comment in her weekly video message, and said she'll discuss the subject in her visit with egypt's president next week. today, at a campaign event for the fourth term she's seeking, merkel told supporters germany must increase military spending to 2% of gross domestic product, to fulfill nato's requirement of all member nations. the "wall street journal" and" washington post" are reporting: back channel talks between the u.s. and north korea, planned in new york next week, have been cancelled. the newspapers say the state

department withdrew a visa for a top north korean envoy yesterday. this after north korea recently test-fired a missile, and the assassination of the north korean leader's half brother. he was killed with v.x. nerve agent at a malaysian airport. the meeting with former american diplomats would have been the first of its kind on u.s. soil in six years. >> sreenivasan: today marked the end of the annual conservative political action conference, known as cpac, outside washington. cpac saw a who's who of republicans, from president trump touting his conservative credentials, to his adviser steve bannon, who talked about "deconstructing the administrative state." for more on cpac, i am joined by reuters political reporter andy sullivan. so, an dierk last year, they were booing then-candidate trump. the reception this year was much better. >> yeah, i think it's safe to say it was rapturous this year.

he got several standing ovations, plenty of those red "make america great" hats on. and to be fair, i think conservatives have a lot to cheer about in the first month or so of trump's presidency. while want conversation we have been writing about and other news outlets have been writing about, his ties to russia, conflicts of interest, that sort of thing, conservatives point to the things he's done. he's nominated a conservative supreme court justice in neal gore shuch, a lot of people on his cabinets are conservative as well, restricting immigration, rolling back regulations. that's all stuff he's campaigned on. that's all stuff they say he delivered. >> sreenivasan: is the audience that assembledly for this conference, is that representative of the larger conservative base in america? >> no, i think it's safe to say that cpac toandz draw a younger crowd, tends to draw a crowd that's a little more edgy, a

little more towards the fringe. as you recall, rand paul has always been popular there, as well as his father, ron paul. ted cruze was also very popular there. he won the straw poll last year. trump isn't really a traditional conservative. you would think there would be a lot of conflicts there, that some of these people wouldn't like what he's doing-- for example, conservatives traditionally favor free trade. trump is definitely much more of a protectionist. people don't seem that hung up on that. people i talk to say that's okay. we'll sort that stuff out. we're looking towards the big victories and the fact we have a republican in the white house for the first time in eight years. >> sreenivasan: it was also a rare public appearance by his adviser, steve bannon. >> right. bannon and chief of staff reince priebus, gave this sort of "buddy speech" this sort of odd couple approach where they talked about despite their portrayed rifles, they're working very hard to deliver on

trump's campaign promises. they're also saying, "look, you guys need to have our backs and need to hold us accountable to deliver on trump's campaign promises in the months and years to come." and i think that's a real key point. it will be interesting to see cpac next year. trump says he'll return. a year from now, we will see whether they have accomplished things like tax reform and repealing and replacing the affordable care act, those big-ticket items that they promised to do. >> sreenivasan: and you also saw a relatively consistent message of the media being the opposition, something that the president has been tweeting and several of his advisers have been saying. >> right. and that's a big unifying message for the folks in the room. you know, gene, it's not reflective of the broader conservative movement as a whole necessarily. there's a lot of discussion about things like free speech on campus, which the younger members are encountering. and, sure, when you attack the media, that's something everybody on the right can get behind. they feel like their views aren't accurately reflected.

there's this disjunction they noted earlier, where reporters and a lot of main-stream outlets are focusing on things like trump's ties to russia. that's not so much of a concern for people on the right. >> sreenivasan: reuters political reporter andrew sullivan, thanks so much. >> my pleasure. >> sreenivasan: next month, british prime minister theresa may is expected to begin the process of having the united kingdom formally exit the 28-nation european union. the u.k. is made up of england, scotland, wales, and northern ireland, and while a majority of u.k. voters in last year's referendum cast ballots to leave the e.u., a majority in northern ireland voted to remain. that's largely because of fears brexit could destabilize the two decades of peace between the catholic and protestant communities. for tonight's signature segment, newshour weekend special correspondent patricia sabga went to northern ireland to find

out what's at stake. >> reporter: the sectarian violence that roiled northern ireland for decades is stamped on the belfast landscape. across this capital city, murals commemorate the more than three- and-a-half thousand people killed during the conflict, known here as the troubles. >> we're going to start on the shankill road. >> reporter: cab driver peter hughes is our guide. >> there's a process of some of the more offensive murals, stripping them away, replace them with something a little more positive, but leaving evidence there of the old. >> reporter: it's a visual tempering of passions surrounding the conflict that pitted minority catholic political and paramilitary factions fighting to reunite northern ireland with the republic of ireland, against protestant state and paramilitary forces who want northern ireland to remain british. >> inside, eight political groups... >> reporter: in the mid-1990s, president bill clinton appointed former u.s. senator george mitchell to broker peace talks, which culminated in the 1998 good friday agreement that

formally ended the troubles, and set up a power-sharing government between protestant unionists and catholic nationalists. today, 21 miles of "peace wall"" still separate catholic and protestant communities in belfast-- a lingering division reflected in northern ireland's brexit vote. while the united kingdom as a whole voted to leave the european union, 56% of northern irish voters wanted to remain. the vote also split along sectarian lines, with 85% of northern irish catholics preferring to stay in the e.u., compared to 40% of protestants. perhaps the most contentious issue raised by brexit is the future of the 300-mile border dividing northern ireland from the republic of ireland. during the troubles, parts of it were heavily fortified with military features, that stood as physical reminders of ireland's

partition by the british. the 1998 good friday agreement transformed the border between northern ireland and the republic of ireland. eyesores of division like military checkpoints and concrete bollards have vanished. i'm standing on the border right now, and it's difficult to tell where one country ends and the other begins. but that seamlessness could very well change when britain leaves the european union, taking northern ireland with it. >> nobody wants to return to the borders of the past. >> reporter: british prime minister theresa may has tried to assuage concerns by stating her preference for a" frictionless border." but gerry adams, a towering figure among catholic republicans and a key player in the peace process, isn't buying it. >> the european union, quite rightly, like any other federation or any other state, will want to protect itself. and there will be tariffs, there will be economic penalties, and there will be physical

manifestations of a hard border. >> reporter: for 34 years, adams has led sinn fein, the political party historically tied to the irish republican army, which fought to separate northern ireland from the united kingdom and a british government that adams contends, still doesn't have northern ireland's best interests at heart. how would you characterize their concern for northern ireland in a post-brexit world? >> i don't think they give a fig about people here. i don't think they ever have. >> reporter: sinn fein is calling for a referendum on re-uniting ireland, but the immediate demand is for the british government to support granting northern ireland a special status to stay in the e.u. that would, in effect, move the post-brexit e.u. border from ireland to the rest of the u.k. >> this is the most successful peace process there is in the last half-century. but it needs to be nurtured. it needs to be nourished. so the sensible, decent thing

for the british prime minister to do is to go for the principle of a special deal for the north within the european union, a special designated status. >> reporter: but prime minister may's government calls special status for northern ireland th"" wrong approach." northern ireland's democratic unionist party agrees. sammy wilson is a member of the british parliament and the d.u.p.s chief spokesman on brexit. >> our position on that is quite clear: we do not wish to have any special status at all, and indeed, brexit should not be used as an excuse to weaken the union. >> reporter: wilson says, fears of a return to hardened borders after brexit are overblown. >> given the methods that we now have of checking movements, of not just people but also of goods, it is entirely possible using modern technology to have these virtually frictionless borders. they'll not be totally frictionless. there has to be some checking,

there has to be some paperwork. but that's all manageable. >> reporter: wilson also dismisses the notion that brexit could undermine peace. >> i'm fairly sure that at the end of this process we will be wondering, "what was all the fuss about?" >> reporter: the brexit rift between northern ireland's two largest political parties is unfolding at a time of changing demographics and growing political turbulence. a 2011 census showed that protestants now comprise less than half the population in northern ireland, 48%, while the share of catholics has risen to 45%. last month, northern ireland's power-sharing government collapsed over the handling of a renewable energy project, triggering new assembly elections in march. we saw signs of resurgent political polarization. this display of past i.r.a. bombings on a wall in a unionist neighborhood drew a parallel to the 2015 paris attacks by the islamic state.

the caption reads "i.r.a., sinn fein, isis, no difference." when you see something like that, what does that tell you about the current state of peace? >> the first thing it tells me is this, that of course there has always been an affiliation between the irish republicans and terrorist groups, especially in the middle east. >> reporter: well, do you agree with it? do you agree with that-- >> i do. yes, of course, i do-- >> reporter: --placard saying, equating sinn féin with isis? >> yes, i do. >> reporter: for many in northern ireland, the pain of past political violence by both sides endures, despite nearly 20 years of peace. belfast native raymond mccord lost his son, raymond jr., to the troubles in 1997. >> that's the man actually murdered raymond. that's the man who gave the order. >> reporter: but no one has ever been charged with the crime. unable to secure justice, mccord now campaigns for victims' rights on both sides of the sectarian divide-- advocacy that prompted him to launch an

unsuccessful legal challenge to brexit over concerns that he and others could lose access to the european court of human rights. >> people like myself can't get justice here. >> reporter: and that's not his only worry. mccord fears brexit could stir up tensions among illegal paramilitary groups that have leveled threats against him. according to a 2015 british government report, "all the main paramilitary groups operating during the period of the troubles remain in existence." while sectarian killings have stopped, the report said," violence and intimidation are used to exercise control" at the community level, including "paramilitary-style assaults and, on occasion, murders." what will brexit do to the peace as it stands right now in northern ireland? >> it could destroy it. simple as that. >> reporter: paul o'neill, who lives in a working class catholic neighborhood in belfast, also worries about the

consequences of brexit. >> something like 600 people from the area were imprisoned as a result of the conflict. >> reporter: during the troubles, o'neill was accused of being an i.r.a. member and jailed for five years, only to have his conviction overturned. since the good friday agreement, he's worked with former prisoners as part of the ashton community center, which receives funding from the e.u. that will dry up after brexit. >> the british government promised that they would provide assistance for republican ex-prisoners, loyalist ex-prisoners, and their families to readjust. very little happened, didn't happen. it was european money that allowed that to happen. i mean, there's a whole range of projects, youth projects, ex-prisoner support projects, various projects that wouldn't and couldn't have happened, were it not for the fact that we were able to access funding from europe. >> reporter: the e.u. also funds erasmus, a student exchange program that brings together

catholic and protestant youth, some for the first time. who here is catholic, and who here is protestant? >> we're catholic. >> yeah, catholic. >> reporter: okay? and who's protestant? and how do you get along? >> brilliant! >> reporter: on a wall in belfast, a mural stands as testament to catholic and protestant children who lived together in harmony until the troubles began. >> for them, it exploded over a two-day period. 1,800 families lost their homes in two days. so at that point, these kids are separate, they're segregated. >> reporter: is there any concern that brexit could possibly lead back to that? >> there's very much a fear, an undercurrent within certain people, that we could be dragged back to those dark days. personally, i don't think so, but there are people of that belief. >> sreenivasan: read more about the history of the murals in northern ireland's capital. visit www.pbs.org/newshour.

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> sreenivasan: the kansas city area bar and restaurant, where two indian immigrants and a third man were shot in a possible hate crime on wednesday, reopened today. about 100 people held a vigil for the victims outside austin's bar and grill, in olathe, last night. the man arrested for the shootings, 51-year-old adam purinton, has his first court appearance monday on state murder and attempted murder charges. he allegedly killed 32-year-old srinivas kuchibhotla, a u.s.- educated engineer who worked for the g.p.s. company garmin, in kansas city. the indian man who survived his wounds said today, the shooter had asked them what kinds of visas they had and if they were in the u.s. legally. a witness has said the shooter yelled "get out of my country" before opening fire. u.s. customs and border protection is getting ready to

solicit designs for president trump's proposed border wall with mexico. c.b.p. says it will post design specifications in early march, and then accept proposals for two weeks, before asking contractors to bid on chosen proposals in april. the department of homeland security estimates a border wall would take three years to build and cost close to $22 billion, significantly more than the trump administration and congress have projected. the environmental protection agency is delaying implementation of a rule to make mining companies show they're able to pay for cleanup costs. e.p.a. administrator scott pruitt says he's extending the public comment period four months to get more input from mine owners, who oppose the rule. environmentalists say the rule holds companies accountable for pollution of rivers and other waterways. in the past, some companies avoided cleanup costs by declaring bankruptcy. the e.p.a. spent $1.1 billion on mine cleanup between 2010 and 2014.

>> sreenivasan: finally, the tension between the president and the press continues. mr. trump announced today he's skipping this year's white house correspondents' dinner in april. in a tweet today, the president gave no reason but wished everyone well. a number of media companies, including bloomberg, "vanity fair" and "the new yorker," already canceled their tables at the dinner and after parties citing the president's treatment of the press. that's all for this edition of "pbs newshour weekend." thanks for watching. i'm hari sreenivasan. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're 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.

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