captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday march 19: the republican plan to reform health care heads to the floor of the house of representatives. senate confirmation hearings are set to begin for supreme court nominee neil gorsuch. and remembering rock n' roll pioneer chuck berry. >> he moved the guitar front and center in rock and roll to defined that the was the instrument and that the sound. >> sreenivasan: 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 thanks for joining us. the republican party's health care plan has made its way through three house committees and faces a floor vote this week. as we've reported before, the bill would, among many other things: repeal the mandate for individuals to have insurance and the tax penalties for failing to do so. replace income-based subsidies to buy insurance with age-based tax credits and phase out the federally-funded expansion of

medicaid coverage for low income americans. today, health and human services secretary tom price said the trump administration is now proposing a work requirement for able-bodied individuals on medicaid. >> the work requirements are important, they're something that are restorative to people's self-worth, self-sense of themselves about working when they're able to. we believe it's important for folks to have a job, that they contribute not just to society, but they contribute to their own well-being. >> sreenivasan: though the bill would maintain the prohibition on insurers dropping individuals with pre-existing conditions, house democratic leader nancy pelosi said today the plan would cause too many americans to lose coverage. >> imagine a bill that takes 24 million people out of health insurance, gives the biggest transfer of wealth in our country's history-- $600 billion taken from working class families in our country, middle class and those who aspire to it

--to the top one percent. $600 billion, robin hood in reverse. secretary of state rex tillerson wound up his first official asia trip today by meeting chinese president xi jinping. tillerson said president trump places a high value on communications between the two leaders. the chinese president .who is expected to visit the u-s next month said he and president trump have spoken several times and agree that, quote, "the joint interests of china and the us far outweigh the differences." issues like north korea's nuclear program, taiwan, and the south china sea dispute were not mentioned in their joint press appearance. at the same time, north korea announced it conducted a ground test of a new high-thrust rocket engine. government-run media released photos of north korean leader kim jong un witnessing yesterday's test in person .he he called it a "new birth" for the country's rocket industry. the media report indicated the engine is meant for north korea's satellite launching program and long range missiles.

germany is rejecting president trump's claim it owes nato and the us, quote, "vast sums" of money for defense. today, german defense minister ursula von der leyen responded to yesterday's tweet by mister trump that also said:" ...the united states must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to germany." von der leyen said, "there is no debtor account at nato," and pointed out germany also contributes to un peacekeeping missions and the fight against islamic state militants. during her visit to the white house friday, chancellor angela merkel said germany is committed to reaching the nato member target of spending the equivalent of two percent its total economic output on defense, over the next decade in afghanistan, u.s. military officials say three american soldiers were shot and wounded today by an afghan soldier in an apparent insider attack at a joint base in helmand province.. a u.s. spokesman said the afghan soldier was shot and killed, and the three americans were being treated for their wounds. afghan officials claimed the shooting was a, quote, "mistak"" and not intentional.

an insider attack at the same base in 2015 resulted in the deaths of two american airmen. more than 8,000 american troops remain deployed in afghanistan. in the debate over president trump's proposed wall along the mexican border, the head of mexico's national governor's association is declaring a" first victory". governor graco ramirez said during a weekend visit in washington-- the trump administration's budget request for $2.6 billion to start construction is proof the president is asking americans to pay for the wall after all, not mexico. u.s. customs and border protection is now soliciting design proposals based on specifications posted to its website friday. those are due march 29. the senate confirmation hearings for president trump's first supreme court nominee, judge neil gorsuch, begin tomorrow.

joining me now to look ahead at what to expect is "newshour weekend" special correspondent jeff greenfield from santa barbara, california. >> jeff, this finally takes the spotlight off of whether or not president obama, illegally wiretapped president trump. so many other story lines that had been building up in the trump administration. >> right. this has got to be a very welcome event. because he's phrasing resistance there his left and right on health care. some republicans have been tough on him for those unfounded accusations. but with the nomination of neal gorsuch. the president hit a ten strike among republicans. we got to vote for him because the supreme court's at stake and what he's delivered is a nominee who has not only drawn unanimous praise from the right but grudging praise from the liberals, he is not an antonin

scalia, a are candidate who snowmentsnow -- foements, aboutt couple of weeks. >> sreenivasan: there's a lot of pressure on republican senators to stop add all costs considering merrick garland at any time get a slake. >> this has the chuck schumer, he has enough to filibuster. the problem is if he tries a filibuster, senate majority leeward mcconnell could say, we are going to abolish the filibuster, which is probably what chuck schumer would have done if he had a majority and president clinton. then, as you say you have tremendous pressure from the left of the democratic party who

want resistance at all costs who may even threaten primary challenges against incumbent democrats running in wedge states in 2018. this is a tight rope chuck schumer is going to have to walk, it is not easy to figure our what he does. >> sreenivasan: political strategy that is happening and building, let's talk about the hearings thesms. themselves. what can we expect? >> anything like the last 30 years you can expect a kabuki theatre, when justice bork went down to defeat, nominees have been extremely reluctant to give any indication what they actually think. they abide after the ginsburg rules, named after ruth bader ginsberg, and there is a dance, do you believe there's a right

to privacy, yes, does that include abortion, i can't talk about that. what they have gone through judge's whole past with a fine tooth comb. what he did in the bush administration, presidential power, rendition and torture, they're going to look at cases he's written about, saying aren't you on the side of big business instead of regular people? and that's the kind of back and fort you can expect because that's what we've seen over and over again and that's why judge gorsuch has spent a lot of time in front of murder boards, mock hearings, of questions from democrats that he can. >> sreenivasan: so given that backdrop are we likely to see any exchanges that are revealing? >> it's going to be tough. i've always thought that what the senators ought to do, if they really want to think what the judge thinks, is trying to make questions one they can answer. if you ask the judge, are you an

originalist, is the constitution frozen 200 years ago? you're not going to get a response, but what about 1789, you might get a glimpse into what the nominee is thinking. but he will only appoint nominees whom will overturn roe v wade, but if i can quote the late chuck berry, you never can tell. >> sreenivasan: newshour special correspondent jeff greenfield, thank you. >> sreenivasan: according to the united nations food and agriculture organization, around one-third of all the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. globally, that's 1.4 billion tons of food a year.

in south korea, there is a tested approach that's made the nation one of the world leaders in food waste recycling. newshour weekend's mori rothman has the story. >> reporter: sujin woo and her mother, lee bo-ok live in an apartment in south korea's capital of seoul. on this saturday morning, lee is making korean fried sweet potatoes for lunch. some parts of the food, like the sweet potato peels, won't make the final dish, but instead of tossing them in the trash, lee places the food waste in this special container. in south korea, separating food waste from the rest of your garbage is required by law, and anyone who doesn't recycle food waste faces potential fines. seoul's 10 million residents started paying for their food waste by weight in 2013, a policy now in 16 other cities and provinces. woo disposes of the food waste in bags bought from the city and tracks her food waste with a radio frequency id card. woo taps the card to register the household and dumps her food

waste into the bin, which logs how much waste she'll be charged for. >> at the end of the month, depending on how much food we wasted we get charged and then we get a bill. >> reporter: so how much do you normally spend on that bill? >> it's only $2-3, not that much. >> reporter: as their economy grew over the past few decades, south koreans started dining out more and wasting more food. the country banned all food waste from landfills in 2005. today, sujin and her mom say there's a difference in the way their generations think about the problem. >> i tend to have a big appetite but i also want to make sure i'm not eating too much or gaining too much weight so although it's bad to leave food i also think about my diet so i don't feel as guilty.

>> before korea was struggling economically, but now that we live in a more prosperous society i think there's more food being wasted, because there's more variety of food as division.al managementstety if >> at first, we processed all the food waste in landfills. then we realized the pollution it created, and wanted to find a way to recycle the waste. >> reporter: hyun says the city used to spend $600,000 a day on food waste disposal- money now saved through recycling. >> it actually costs a lot to process the food waste. so we were like, let us find the way to save money, also to reduce pollution, and eventually to find a way to recycle the waste. >> reporter: seoul deploys special trucks to pick up food waste from apartment complexes, restaurants, and other businesses and bring them to special recycling facilities. this one handles 80 to 90 truck- loads every day. this is one of five factories in seoul that processes food waste. this machine dries the food waste and turns it into animal feed in just three hours. another byproduct of the food recycling is biogas: a mix of methane and other gases that can

be burned for energy. this plant creates enough biogas to meet 90% of its electricity needs. hyun says besides assessing fines, publicizing the benefits of food recycling is key to citywide cooperation. >> as the awareness increases, i can say that out of 1,000 households, there are about 10- 15% of households that do not produce any food waste at all. as we receive more support, i see we are on the right path to save the environment and more recycling. >> reporter: in the four years residents and businesses have been charged by the weight of their food waste, seoul's overall food waste has decreased 10%, by more than 300 tons a day. the environmental management division hopes to triple that reduction to 30% over the next four years. to learn about the factors contributing to the divide between life in rural and urban america, visit www.pbs.org/newshour.

>> sreenivasan: in a tweet today, mick jagger said of chuck berry: "he lit up our teenage years, and blew life into our dreams of being musicians and performers." berry died yesterday at his home in saint louis. he was 90 years old. when the rock n' roll hall of fame opened in 1986, berry was the first artist inducted. newshour weekend's ivette feliciano has more on this music legend. >> reporter: with songs like" johnny b. goode," chuck berry helped define rock ¡n roll, building blocks for the beatles, the rolling stones, the beach boys, bob dylan, and many more. born in st. louis in 1926, berry taught himself to play guitar and fused the sounds of blues and country, creating a new sound and lyrics that appealed to black and white audiences alike, a rare feat for a black artist in the 1950s.

and he spoke to changing attitudes about race and sex among teens with songs like" brown eyed handsome man." signed by chess records in 1955, his first hit was "maybellene." over the next decade, berry wrote the hits roll over beethoven, school day, no particular place to go, nadine, and back in the usa. he was famous for improvising on stage, and the owner of the st louis club blueberry hill, where berry performed will into his 80s, says his guitar playing was revolutionary. >> chuck berry made the guitar a star. he took it from a rhythm background instrument into playing behind his head, and he intuitively choreographed the first great rock and roll stage moves and on his own, whether he was playing it behind his head, between his legs. >> reporter: john lennon once said if you tried to give rock n roll another name, you might call it chuck berry, and rolling

stones guitarist keith richards once confessed he'd stolen every guitar lick from him. richards gave the induction speech when berry was among the first class inducted into the rock n roll hall of fame. berry performed at the white house and received a grammy lifetime achievement award and a star on the hollywood walk of fame, and then there was this tribute: when nasa launched the unmanned voyager i spacecraft in 1977, "johnny b. goode" was the one rock song included among recordings that would explain music on earth. berry was set to release an album of new songs, entitled" chuck," later this year. as news of his death spread, hometown fans gathered around his statue on the university of saint louis campus to mourn. >> sreenivasan: for more on the life and influence of chuck berry i'm.

>> thanks for joining us. >> thank you hari. >> the significance for chuck berry, for someone who doesn't follow rock 'n' roll and the history of it. why is he such an important figure? >> if you are looking at the history of rock 'n' roll, it is impossible to overstate what chuck berry accomplished. more than anybody, this is the guy who really defined and staked out what rock 'n' roll would become. he defined it as a style that you know in which the guitar would be the prominent instrument. in which the lyric concerns of cars and girls and adolescents, would be the focus of where these songs were going to go. listen, mick jag erger and keith richard met on the basis of one of them seeing the other on the

train, carrying a chuck berry record. it is not even the straight line from chuck berry to the rolling stones, bruce springsteen, bob dylan, all of them saited over and over again they would not have done what they did without him doing it first. >> sreenivasan: the greatest pure rock 'n' roll writer who ever lived. that comes from a person who knows a thing or two about writing. >> yes, in the end there were so many things that chuck berry did that were revolutionary. but ultimately it is the song writing i think that perseveres, and it will stand above all. his eye for detail, his ear for language. the way that he put words and phrases together. you know bob dylan called him the shakespeare of rock 'n' roll. >> sreenivasan: again, high praise from someone who knows a few -- >> a thing or two.

many lessons he learned from chuck berry. this was in the stupid throw away teenage music. it had that spirit and that freedom but it also had a depth and a resonance, that's the reason these songs sustained 50, 60 years later. >> sreenivasan: and he brought a certain attitude to the table as well. >> absolutely. he was unapologetic. he was a showman, a performer, somebody who was a proud black man at a time when that was a challenging thing to be. in mainstream entertainment. who could write a song like brown eyed handsome man that was a little bit coded but not that coded in speaking about, you know, racial divisions and affinities in this country. >> sreenivasan: he was also pretty savvy in marketing his music really early on giving co-writing credits. >> he picked up early on he was

getting burned by the way things were being handled. maybelline was his first writing credit. the song writing was given to him and alan freed, and the guy who the record label owner owed a favor to. for his first hit he was receiving a third of the proceeds. well you know, chuck berry didn't suffer fools much. and went into a very defensive business posture from there, this was somebody who insisted on full cash payment in his hand before he would go on a stage. famously would show up, for a big, go into the -- gig, go into the office, count the money, when he had it in hand pick up the guitar go on stage but not before then. he really organized a career that was sort of based on trusting no one and having seen

the effects of illicit or at least questionable business practices early on. i.t. reald really, really shaped the way -- it really shaped the way he approached his career all the way after that. > to see our full conversation on chuck berry with music historian alan light, head to www.facebook.com/newshour. >> sreenivasan: finally, journalist jimmy breslin died today at his home in new york city of complications from pneumonia. the tough-talking breslin won the pulitzer prize for his colorful, street-smart columns in the "new york daily news" that championed the common man. but his vicious newsroom rants also led to a suspension and decreased circulation of his syndicated columns. he once said "rage" kept him motivated to keep on writing. breslin was 88 years old. on "the newshour" tomorrow night, in-depth coverage of the senate confirmation hearings of supreme court nominee neil gorsuch. and during the day, you can watch our special coverage" live" online, starting at 11 a.m. that's all of this edition of" pbs newshour weekend." i'm hari sreenivasan.

goodnight. 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. 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.

(cheers and applause) (music begins) into the distance, a ribbon of black stretched to the point of no turning back a flight of fancy on a windswept field standing alone my senses reeled a fatal attraction is holding me fast,