captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: a deadly paris attack overshadows the last day of campaigning, ahead of sunday voting in france's tight presidential race. then, one-on-one with u.n. secretary general antonio guterres for his first u.s. television interview. >> ( translated ): we cannot forget we live in a world that conflict is multiplied and we need to address the root causes of this terrorism. >> woodruff: also ahead, missing children-- recent cases in washington, d.c., highlight unique challenges in cases involving missing children of color. >> there's a term that's often used, which is, "the missing

white women syndrome." where, if you're not with blonde hair and blue eyes, your story is just not sensational enough. >> woodruff: and, it's friday. mark shields and michael gerson are here to analyze the week's news. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects

us. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >> 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: investigators in france are trying to piece together what sparked thursday's

deadly assault in paris. a gunman shot a police officer to death and wounded two more, before being killed himself. hari sreenivasan reports on the day's developments. >> reporter: masked police descended this morning on a paris suburb, home of the suspect in the deadly attack on the champs-elysees. prosecutors identified him as karim cheurfi, a french citizen, and said he carried a note in support of the islamic state. cheurfi had served time for trying to kill two other officers in 2001. >> ( translated ): i would like >> ( translated ): all the way through his period of imprisonment, which lasted about 14 years, he did not show any signs of radicalization, or signs of conversion. >> reporter: he was detained again in february for threatening police, but later released. >> you have to stay back. >> reporter: then came the attack on the champ-elysees. the famed boulevard was shut down for hours. near the scene today, witnesses described the chaos. >> ( translated ): i can tell

you that i was very scared. people started talking and going crazy. there was a wave of panic that came over everything. >> reporter: all of this, just two days before polls open in the presidential election. the prime minister sought to calm fears. >> ( translated ): ladies and gentlemen, the government is completely mobilized. more than 50,000 policemen will be mobilized in order to guarantee the peace. >> reporter: president trump weighed in on twitter, predicting the attack "will have a big effect on the presidential election." later, he told the associated press it will "probably help" far-right candidate marine le pen. for the pbs newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: we will have a full report on the impending french election, later in the program. in the day's other news, the justice department formally notified nine state and local jurisdictions that they will lose some federal grant money over so-called "sanctuary cities." letters sent out today demand proof that the jurisdictions are not sheltering undocumented immigrants. the letters went to new york, chicago, philadelphia, miami and the state of california, among others. president trump today ordered a review of major tax and

financial regulations put in place under president obama. he signed directives to look at reforms imposing greater oversight of large financial institutions. he also wants to review corporate tax rules on sheltering income overseas. the president also promised today that he will have a "big announcement" on a tax reform package next wednesday. that would be just before his 100th day in office. at the same time, the white house signaled a new effort to repeal and replace obamacare. but, as he left the treasury department, mr. trump was less definite about the timing of that: >> no particular rush, but we'll see what happens. but health care is coming along well. government is coming along really well. lot of good things are happening. thank you, folks. it doesn't matter if it's next week. next week doesn't matter. >> woodruff: earlier, on twitter, mr. trump dismissed any criticism of how much he has

actually done so far. he said; "no matter how much i accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days-- and it has been a lot-- media will kill!" the u.s. treasury department has denied exxon mobil's request that one of its projects be exempted from sanctions imposed on russia, so the company can drill for oil in the black sea. the joint venture has been halted since the u.s. imposed the sanctions for russia's annexation of crimea. secretary of state rex tillerson was exxon's c.e.o. back when the deal was signed. he recused himself from considering the waiver issue. south korea said today it's on high alert again, ahead of a military holiday in north korea, and a possible nuclear test. at the same time, president trump pressed china in a new tweet. he wrote, "china is very much the economic lifeline to north korea, so, if they want to solve the problem, they will." the chinese foreign ministry

insisted beijing is enforcing a ban on coal imports from pyongyang. >> ( translated ): the chinese customs and ministry of commerce have issued the notice. as for some reports saying north korean coal ships are docking in chinese ports: due to humanitarian considerations for those crew members, we cannot simply leave them drifting on the sea. >> woodruff: north korea said overnight that the situation is "extremely perilous" because of what it called "madcap american nuclear war maenuvers." u.s. defense secretary jim mattis says there is "no doubt" that syria still has chemical weapons. in israel today, he warned the syrians would be "ill advised" to use such weapons again. the u.s. attacked a syrian air base after a poison gas incident this month. back in this country, the state of arkansas is planning three more executions next week, after it carried out its first one since 2005. ledell lee was put to death just

before midnight, for a 1993 murder. the execution came despite a flurry of legal challenges. protests continued last night outside the governor's mansion. the power went out across a wide swath of san francisco today. about 90,000 customers were affected, with people trapped in elevators, and traffic backed up at stop lights that didn't work. utility officials blamed a "catastrophic" failure at a substation that led to a fire at the site. late today, they were still working to get electricity restored. a federal judge in detroit has ordered volkswagen to pay a criminal penalty of $2.8 billion for cheating on diesel emissions tests. the order today came as part of a plea deal. the case involved nearly 600,000 diesel cars sold in the u.s. and on wall street, the dow jones industrial average lost 31 points to close at 20,547.

the nasdaq fell six points, and the s&p 500 slipped seven. for the week, the dow gained half a percent. the nasdaq rose nearly 2%, and the s&p 500 was up almost 1%. still to come on the newshour: france votes in the first round of a hotly-contested presidential election; one-on-one with the new boss of the united nations; missing children-- the dangers they face and why children of color often get less attention from the news media, and much more. >> woodruff: as we reported earlier, the white house announced today that efforts to repeal and replace the affordable care act will continue this weekend, ahead of congress's return to washington. joining me to discuss the latest developments is white house

correspondent john yang. so, john, congress coming back next week. before they left, there was talk of trying to resurrect some sort of deal on healthcare reform. where does it stand? >> yang: judy, talking to senior white house officials today, there is a girler -- a girler -- of optimism that their efforts to bring together the conservative and moderate factions to have the house republicans -- factions of the house republicans has led to language that may just satisfy both sides. they hope to present that language to lawmakers on a conference call, a house republican conference call tomorrow to get a better sense of where things stand. >> woodruff: and, john, there seems to be a little bit of a -- if not a misunderstanding at least a back and forth on the timetable here. on the one hand, they seem to be in a hurry to get it done. on the other hand, we just heard the president saying, well, it doesn't really matter whether it's next week. >> well, that's right, the president said that, and sean spicer, the white house press

secretary said, if we get it done next week, great. if we don't, no problem, we'll get it done when we have the votes. but there are other officials in the white house who would love it if they could get a vote before the symbolic 100 days of the administration are up. >> woodruff: john, one other thing on the agenda next week is funding for the government, the temporary arrangement they had runs out at the ent of the week. where do they stand on that? >> this afternoon, o&b director mitt mulvaney had a conference call directing department heads to prepare for a possible government showdown, but he and other white house officials say they are confident it will not happen, that the government funding will continue one way or another. but they also, a senior administration official also says that these talks could tell us a lot about the next four years and the willingness of both sides to compromise. judy. >> woodruff: all right. well, we will be watching.

john yang at the white house. thank you. >> woodruff: france is on edge ahead of sunday's presidential election, after last night's attack in paris. the vote, which features an array of candidates, is the first of two rounds: independent centrist candidate emmanuel macron appears in the polls to hold a slight edge over marine le pen. she is the leader of the far right-wing, anti-immigrant national front, and is hoping for a trump-style win to upend the traditional establishment. the top two vote-getters will compete in the second and final round on may 7. from paris, special correspondent malcolm brabant reports. >> reporter: heavily armed police were patrolling the champs-elysee this morning in a high profile show of force. others carried flowers to honor a fallen colleague, providing a stark contrast on the opposite

side of the grandest of parisian boulevards. at the place where the officer was killed, union official denis jacob had this message. >> ( translated ): society mustn't fall into a mass psychosis. people shouldn't be paranoid that someone can come behind their back and kill them. >> reporter: this shooting is the latest in a series of terrorist attacks in france over the past couple of years. it began with the massacre at the "charlie hebdo" satirical magazine. and then on november the 13th, the shootings at the bataclan music club and across paris. and then in july last year in nice, there was the truck massacre. the death toll over the past couple of years is around the 230 mark. there may only have been a handful of casualties last night, but the timing of this shooting could not have been more significant. political analyst jean yves camus doesn't believe the attack will drastically impact the outcome of sunday's vote-- but has this proviso: >> if there's going to be a benefit, certainly marine le pen will benefit from the fact that

this was a jihadi attack. that apparently, what we know this morning, the guy came from belgium or was a belgian citizen, so she will say, "i want to bring back borders." >> reporter: immigration control is marine le pen's signature message. she has sanitized the party in recent years to broaden its mainstream appeal. she replaced her nationalist father as leader, expelled him from the party for his racist and anti-semitic statements; and she watered down the front's extreme right-wing tendencies. >> ( translated ): i'm telling you that what's at stake on sunday-- and i've repeated it tirelessly over the campaign because i believe it-- is civilization. on sunday, the choice is simple: either a france reborn, or a france that founders. i'm telling you that i intend to protect you.

>> reporter: but as this brief protest demonstrates, marine le pen's detractors regard her as the most divisive of political leaders. they abhor her attempt to wrap herself in the flag. >> ( translated ): i love france, i love it from the bottom of my heart, from the bottom of my soul. i am a woman, and as such, i feel with extreme violence all the restrictions of our freedom that we're seeing within our country because of the developing islamic fundamentalism. >> reporter: mikael sala is on le pen's campaign team. >> ( translated ): donald trump was saying, "we're going to make america great again;" and "we're going to make america grow again." well, this is exactly what marine le pen will do for france. she will make it great again. and the french, they really aspire to that. they want france to be great again, and they feel in their gut that marine le pen is that person. >> reporter: the potential impact of le pen's policies would be felt most keenly in barbes, a parisian district

dominated by immigrants. france has nine million people living beneath the poverty line, and this market represents a snapshot. habiba belhout, a muslim, supports the socialist candidate who's trailing in fifth place. she is concerned by le pen's rhetoric. >> ( translated ): well, she's a racist, first of all. it really gives the impression that we're going decades back, back to 1939-1945. she talks about the muslims, about immigration, when there's so much more! more problems than that to deal with! and yesterday, i heard her say she was the only woman candidate who defends women. well, i'm sorry, but she doesn't represent me at all. >> reporter: according to opinion polls, the current front runner is emmanuel macron, who abandoned the socialists and set up his own independent party called "on the move," to attract those who yearn for a moderate middle-ground candidate. >> the main contestants in this election are either the far right or far left. and i think that's not what we

want in france. we don't want a racist or a communist president for france. and i think there are solutions other than extreme solutions for the country. i'm pro-european and i'm for progressive solutions for my country. >> reporter: macron is a 39-year-old former investment banker, and reputedly a millionaire. as a former economy minister in the socialist government, he's promising to simultaneously reduce unemployment, while removing 120,000 civil servants. >> ( translated ): in france, in this wounded country, in this weary country, we don't want tomorrow to be like yesterday. and i'm making a commitment before you, here, this afternoon. you who are the living part of france, the beating heart of france, we will give france back its optimism, its faith in the future.

hello, mr. president. >> reporter: and macron got an unusual boost yesterday, before the attack: a call from former president barack obama, which macron quickly tweeted out. >> the main message i have is to wish you all the best in the coming days. >> reporter: former conservative prime minister francois fillon could be forgiven for looking enviously at macron's poll numbers. fillon was once regarded as the favorite to become president, but his popularity slumped after he was placed under investigation for misuse of public funds. but analysts believe the shooting might help him make a comeback. in france, there are normally two presidential election rounds. the two leading candidates from the first round, contest the second. for teacher veronique dadou, her main concern is the future of her students, which is why she has turned to the hard-left candidate, jean-luc melenchon, who has had an unexpected surge in popularity. >> ( translated ): the one thing that blocks everything else is unemployment, and that has a direct impact on the young

people, because they're the ones who are prevented from accessing a decent/proper social life, their personal development, everything's on hold for them because of that. >> reporter: but this melenchon rally earlier in the week was overshadowed by news that the security services had arrested two islamists in marseilles who were allegedly planning an attack on one of the campaigns. >> ( translated ): we are not afraid, and even tonight, we are demonstrating this. let's have even more debate, respectful debate, but debate nonetheless, to show that nothing will conquer our democracy, and that criminals can do nothing against it, the french people are free. >> reporter: the le pen camp plays up similarities with the trump campaign, but according to analyst jean yves camus, americans should be wary. >> ( translated ): the impact for the united states will be bad because marine le pen belongs to that kind of radical right parties which are highly prejudiced against the united states. this is because she doesn't want

the united states to have a prominent say in international affairs. she wants to opt out of nato. she wants to end free trade. >> reporter: this election is considered to be the most unpredictable in decades. a third of all voters are said to be undecided. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in paris. >> woodruff: now, to my interview with united nations secretary general antonio guterres. he took office on january 1, after a decade as head of the u.n.'s refugee agency. i sat down with him this afternoon for his first american television interview since becoming secretary general. we spoke at the world bank in washington, where he is attending the annual meeting of the world bank and international monetary fund.

mr. secretary general, thank you for talking with us. >> pleasure. >> woodruff: you were at the white house earlier today. you met briefly with president trump. you also spent some time with the national security advisor, h.r. mcmaster. what did you discuss? >> we discussed, of course, the poblems of the world and especially how the u.n. and the u.s. can cooperate better. it is for me clear that the world needs a united states that is engaged in security issues, in development issues, in human rights issues. the contribution of the united states for global affairs is absolutely crucial, and the cooperation with the u.n. is very important from our perspective. and i presume the u.n. can also be very useful to the united states, especially if we will be able, as i strongly intend, to have a more dynamic, more reformed, more nimble u.n. >> woodruff: i ask because we have been hearing, we know because this president said so, he has concerns that the u.n. and other international

organizations have already gotten a lot of support from the u.s. and now it may be a good time for the u.s. to pull back and to pull back in foreign aid and humanitarian aid. how concerned are you that they may do that? >> well, i think it's my role to try to prove that potential can translate into reality. >> woodruff: how do you do that? >> well, we need to be able to demonstrate that what we do in tad's world, in humanitarian aid, the enormous effort to minimize the tragic situations that we see all over the world, without the u.n., people would suffer much more and the situation would be much more terrible. >> woodruff: but this is a president who has spoken about pulling back, pulling the u.s. back from the rest of the world, except maybe now we see in a military sense. are you worried about that? >> i think the u.s. is too important for the u.s. to be

possible to pull back. i think that eit's very important to have the united states engagement around the world, be it syria, be it in every context. the united states represents values, human rights. to the foreign policy engagement to have the united states is a very important guarantee that those values can be properly pursued and in that regard the cooperation between the u.s. and u.n. is absolutely session fortunately those values to be preserved in our world. >> woodruff: but are you not at all concerned about cuts in u.s. contributions to the united nations and other u.n. agencies? >> oh, i hope those cuts will not materialize, and i hope that we -- we need to do bert and to do more and we need to also be able to be more cost effective, and we are ready to discuss with the united states how to make

our work more able to correspond also to what it is, the aspiration of the american people. but it is my deep belief that, when a country is so concerned and there are so strong reasons to be concerned with global terrorism, with the security of the american people, it is very important to recognize that that is not possible to guarantee, if at the same time the wasn't country is not addressing the root causes of terror. >> woodruff: you mentioned terrorism and security. there is focus today on paris. they're calling it a terrorist attack. there's every reason to believe this is going to raise concerns in leading up to the french elections this weekend, pushing what is already an anti-foreigner sentiment to be even stronger. as someone who heads the preeminent national

organization, the u.n., how concerned are you for that? >> for ten years, i was on the commission for refugees and i fought for those in conflict who have fled, in desperate situations to have absolute internationalception. it's an essential democratic value. what i think is important to recognize in today's world is all societies are multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural, and that is a richness, a strength. we have to recognize that for those societies, there is a lot of investment to be made in social co-henges and inclusivity. but the important thing to recognize and particularly in europe, most to have the terrorist attacks are homegrown. i think in america and, canada and the united states, it has been much easier for communities to live together in several european countries. >> woodruff: so much to ask you about, secretary general.

one thing i don't want to leave out, of course, is syria. people look at the u.n. the u.n. has been involved in trying to find peace in syria. it hasn't happened. there are critics saying the security council is paralyzed, hasn't been able to move on syria, there's a very critical story coming out of the "new york times" over the weekend looking at the failure of the u.n., the u.n. system to be able to deal with something like sir i can't how do you look at syria and see the responsibility of the u.n. there? >> peace about security, that is a central body and it is critical. it has the responsibility to preserve peace and to address the situations of conflict. the truth is that the security council has been divided not only on syria but several other situations and that division has led to the paralysis of the capacity of the international community to come together and

push for an effective solution in syria. >> woodruff: so what can be done about it? >> it's high time for those who have an inflints with the parties to the conflict that it is in the interest of everybody to put an end to the conflict. but this kind of persuasion, this kind of intense pressure, i believe, it's my duty to do even if i recognize that the contradictions, different perceptions of interests that exist are making it very difficult. >> woodruff: so this is clearly a priority for you? >> it is a priority for me. to see these people that have been so hospitable to others now suffering so much and being rejected also in so many parts of the world, it really breaks my heart. >> woodruff: two other things i want to ask you about, one is the reports recently building on previous reports about u.n. peacekeepers in different parts of the world being guilty of the worst kind of sexual abuse, sexual assault on vulnerable

people -- women, children, boys, girls. now that this is coming into the open, what is the responsibility of the u.n. to make sure this doesn't happen again, and are people being held accountable for it? >> well, also a huge responsibility, and i have taken it very seriously. one of the first reforms i presented to the general assembly was exactly on redesigning all our capacity to respond to sexual exploitation and abuse and trying to create conditions to mobilize member states to assume their responsibilities. the u.n., we cannot condemn a soldier to jail because of that, it must be the country to which the soldier belongs. to be able to create the conditions for that to be possible, and we need to do the job ourselves of much better protection of the victims, we must be absolutely determined with a zero tolerance policy in this regard, but we also need to

pay tribute to those that are sacrificing their lives to protect other lives and that sometimes also do not see that properly recognized. >> woodruff: last question. you were not very long ago on the african continent. we know there are four different countries experiencing famine to one degree or another, not because of a lack of food but because of conflict, and you've spoken about this. it's received some attention. how do you get others to understand the problem? because every country has a different reason for the political conflict in each one. how do you get the rest of the world to pay attention, to make a difference when people are -- who don't deserve to die are dying by the thousands and more? >> we are doing our best to raise aware fess and to mobilize the international community in support to the victims of the this situation. we have recently a conference.

i'm doing tuesday for a pledging conference in geneva to support the victims in yemen. we rf another conference in london on somalia. so we are trying to mobilize the international community to evoke a response, knowing that response cannot be unhumanitarian, that response, as you said, when you said that the real reason for this famine is the conflict, that response needs to be political. >> woodruff: mr. secretary general, you have a full plate and we thank you very much more talking. >> it was a pleasure. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: mark shields and michael gerson analyze the week's news; and, "in my humble opinion," reflections on our addiction to technology. but first, missing children and a racial divide. when the washington, d.c.,

police department tried to raise awareness about missing children and teenagers by posting their images on social media, the campaign backfired-- sparking some national outrage and fears of an epidemic of missing children of color. but the story also exposed many risks that young people face when they leave home, including exploitation and sex trafficking. william brangham has our report. >> reporter: on a recent night in downtown washington, d.c., a drop-in center for homeless and at-risk youth begins to fill up. there's pizza, games, a movie in the back. gabrielle martin is a regular in this refuge run by the nonprofit sasha bruce youthwork. >> i've been on my own, basically, since i was 15, and now i'm 27, so i've been homeless for 12 years. >> reporter: young people here have access to food, showers and a place to relax for a few hours, and martin says this

center is essential because homeless life can be exhausting. >> it could get frustrating sometimes. like, not knowing how you're going to eat or where you're going to sleep the next day. sometimes, we'll just find excuses to go to the hospital, just so that we have somewhere to sleep that night, you know? >> reporter: martin first ran away from home in high school, after coming out as gay to her disapproving parents. she says she's struggled with drug addiction and has bounced in and out of various living situations ever since. >> if i wasn't in the streets, i was at different friends' houses, or, i would actually date people that i knew had their own place, just so i could stay there. >> reporter: that led to a pregnancy with someone she was living with. martin's parents reported her missing around the time she turned 17, and up until last december, she says she was still considered a missing person by washington, d.c. police. >> even though i'm 27 now, i was still considered a runaway, because i ran away when i was a juvenile. so it was still in their-- it's still in their system.

>> outrage over missing teens in the district. >> reporter: a spate of more recent cases in the nation's capital were thrust into the spotlight last month after washington, d.c. police, for the first time, started posting alerts about all missing children on social media. prior to this year, they would usually only notify the public of missing children when they suspected foul play. but after celebrities like viola davis and l.l. cool j re-tweeted the alerts, the story went viral, fueling concerns that d.c. had a sudden epidemic of missing kids. >> we can't go nowhere by ourselves, because we're out here worried about someone trying to take us. >> reporter: the story turned out to be largely overblown. not only was there not a spike in missing children, but 2016 saw fewer kids go missing than the year before. however, washington, d.c. acting police chief peter newsham doesn't regret using social media to highlight these cases.

>> it took on some legs that we hadn't anticipated, but i do think that it was an eye-opener for a lot of people, to see how many young people we do have that run away. >> reporter: newsham also says that nearly all the missing kids are located. >> we find 99% of those kids. i think the awareness that has come about as a result of this, though, is a lot of people are asking the question, "why are they leaving in the first place?" and the other question, which is really important to get to the bottom of, is "what happened to them, while they were away? >> regardless of why a child is going missing, we need to find out what are they running away from, and who they're running away to. >> reporter: derrica wilson is the president of the black and missing foundation. while she applauds d.c.'s attempt to raise awareness, she says that for too long, the media and public officials have ignored cases of minority kids going missing. in fact, according to the f.b.i., while blacks make up just 13% of the u.s. population,

they make up more than 38% of all missing youth. >> it's heartbreaking we don't know where she is right now. >> reporter: for example: eight- year-old relisha rudd went missing in washington in 2014. at the time, her mother begged for her daughter's return. >> come back home, unharmed and know that i love you. >> reporter: over three years later, she's still missing, and wilson says relisha rudd never became a household name. not like chandra levy, or natalee holloway, or even the more recent case of elizabeth thomas, the tennessee 15-year- old who was kidnapped by her teacher, and found. >> this is not an epidemic that just popped up. this is something that's been going on for quite some time. there's a term that's often used, which is, "the missing white women syndrome."

where, if you're not with blonde hair and blue eyes, your story is just not sensational enough. >> reporter: peter lowery, vice president at the national center for missing and exploited children, says even the terminology we use about missing kids needs to change. his organization no longer uses the term "runaway." >> because the moment we put on our poster that this is a runaway child, we deal with a desensitized public, a desensitized media. >> reporter: because people just think "oh, they ran away, it's their fault." >> "they're a behavior problem," and that's not the case. >> reporter: when she was a kid in chicago, tina frundt left home after a typical teenage fight. >> on my 14th birthday, i got mad at my parents because i couldn't stay out past 7:00. >> reporter: she called a man who had befriended her, but he kidnapped her, took her to cleveland, and forced her to work for his grandmother, who ran a local prostitution ring. >> he came from a family of pimps, so his grandmother is actually the one who controlled us.

she used to tell me that god wanted me to be a ho, and that's what we were put on earth for. >> reporter: a year into her ordeal, the police raided the home and she was freed. while her trafficker never faced charges, she spent a year in juvenile detention. she was 15 years old. >> i was charged with prostitution. >> reporter: at 15? >> yeah. >> reporter: and frundt isn't alone. one in six children reported to a federal database that tracks those who leave home, are involved in sex trafficking. today, she runs "courtney's house" in washington, d.c., a nonprofit that counsels young sex-traffic survivors. >> why the survivors bond with me is because my story really is their story. it happened the same way. >> reporter: gabrielle martin says more needs to be done to prevent kids from leaving home in the first place. and, she says, the answer isn't simply to publish more names on the list of kids missing in washington, d.c. >> i know a few of those people on that list, and it's like they're not really missing persons-- they're people who

just chose to move on, because of what they left behind sucked. people don't really care about kids that are in the system, and that's what makes us choose to run away. >> reporter: since the beginning of the year, more than 700 young people have been reported missing in washington, d.c. 16 of those cases remain open. the city announced more police officers are being assigned to missing children cases, and is creating a task force to address the factors driving kids to leave home in the first place. in washington, d.c., i'm william brangham for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: and now to the analysis of shields and gerson. that's syndicated columnist mark shields, and "washington post" columnist michael gerson. david brooks is away. welcome to you, gentlemen. there was a special congressional election this week, mark shields, in georgia,

the sixth district. >> really? >> woodruff: really. my question is the democrats fell just short. lessons learned, wider implications, what did you see? >> yes, i saw all of them. the democrat, a 30-year-old rookie with experience in public life of being a congressional aide on capitol hill managed to raise over $8 million from activists around the country who were committed and his own support and managed to get, judy, more votes than the first five republicans in a district mitt romney won by 20 points that has been electing nothing but republicans to congress including dr. tom price, secretary of h.h.s., and newt gingrich by substantial margins, but he didn't get the magic 50%, which in the jungle primary of georgia where everybody's in it,

is the magic number. but i would say it was impressive. after kansas, what it means -- >> woodruff: where they had another special election. >> another special election where the democrat did not win but in a district where donald trump won by 23 points he lost only by 7. >> even more impressive. that's right. the democrats cut the margin and i would say the wind is at the democrats' back. what does mat mean? what is the significance? the significance is this, if the democrats do win, it would be surprising if they could win, that's 11-point advantage, if it does, it means they're going to get better candidates. that's what means when you win special elections. you recruit better candidates for the next general election, more attractive, appealing, competent candidates and the other side starts to see retirements. candidates in tough races decide

to spend more time with their family rather than doing a contested race. >> woodruff: what do you see in these tea leaves? >> it's not unusual for this to happen. most presidents in their midterms don't do that well. this is happening early. this is supposed to be a high point of presidential influence. what we're seeing in both these data points is a very serious problem for republicans. they're hurting in places they shouldn't be hurting, and i think that has great significance. you know, who knows how it trends in the future, but right now i think republicans are seeing alarm bells ringing. >> woodruff: and knowing that if the democrats can mount strong candidates in these districts, they're in trouble. can they do that in 2018 or not? >> well, i think the prospect of winning has encouraged people to run. i just point out, in defense of

the sixth district, that while mitt romney carried college-educated whites by 14% over barack obama in 2012, donald trump only carried them by 4 points over hillary clinton, and this is a district where college-educated voters are -- the percentage of them is remarkably high, one of the ten highest in the country. >> woodruff: michael, you mentioned republicans may be feeling a little nervous, the white house feeling a little nervous. republicans feeling comfortable enough to start criticizing this president. had two republican senators in this past week, joni ernst. these are sort of gentle criticisms. the senator from iowa came out and said the president needs to spend less time at his mar-a-lago resort and more time at the white house and you had a few other republicans saying the president needs to release his tax returns. is this the kind of typical

intra-party split or what? >> no, i think it means something. every republican candidate has the make a trump calibration to determine what percentage they support the president, what they don't, depending on their districts. right now there is a huge difference between a president at 60%, a president in the low 40s. people feel like they don't need to explain things for him that are difficult to explain. you watch some members, like tom cotton, a senator i really like, a sharp guy, trying to defend why the president won't release his tax returns and looks foolish in the process. >> right. so some of the cost, the intimidation factor has been reduced because of the president's standing and some people are just not going to put up with explaining the unexplainable. >> i agree with michael. oklahoma is the reddest of red states and true blue conservator

senator langford was asked about the tax returns, and his answer was he promised he would and, therefore, he should. it was that straightforward. it's unassailable logic that's absolutely true. he promised a number of times that he would do so, then he, the president, said the promise was negated because he won the election. the president today in an associated press interview said he was going to have a big, huge, wonderful tax cut bill next week, and anybody on either side of the aisle will have a tough time answering the question, if this is the proposal, what will it mean bush what will president trump's tax cut mean for billionaire citizen trump's personal taxes? >> woodruff: that's a question -- >> he's materially undermining his ability to get that legislation through the congress because of his refusal to receive this material. they are not going to pass including many republicans a law without knowing how it benefits

the president. >> woodruff: but as far as we know, there is no intention, is that right, on the part of the white house or the president to release it. >> judy, i used to be a political hack, maybe i still am, but you have all the cabinet offices had to provide their income information for confirmation, wilbur ross is a billionaire. all you have to do is run the numbers. what would the proposed tax cut mean for wilbur ross? what would it mean for steve mnuchin, the secretary of the treasury? >> woodruff: but you don't have that information on -- >> for him. but it will increase pressure on him. it will put republicans very much on the defensive. >> woodruff: two other things. one is, michael, wrinkles this week when it comes to foreign policy, defense policy, the carrier group the president said was on its way to north korea and was headed in the other

direction, the other thing is different signals coming from the cabinet, officers, even from the secretary of state on turkey and the white house. are these just incidental things that happen or what? >> some of it is real incompetence in the aircraft carrier circumstance, but that might not have been the white house, but it was genuine incompetence. i look at something like the president saying that korea was once part of china. that is not just mispronouncing a name. that is offending a country that is our ally in the midst of a crisis. this is serious. but there are also tensions. there is tension here between the president's word, ethnonationallist retreat from the world, and his personnel, people he's chosen like mcmaster and like mattis, these are internationalists. they're not consistent with his public voice. so you have those divisions within the administration. he has picked a variety of people that don't seem to share his foreign policy vision, so

that creates natural questions on the part of both friends and enemies, who speaks for the administration under what circumstance? >> thanks to the public partnership, they keep track of a very interesting number, and that is the number of senate-confirmable important positions there are in every administration. there is 554 that the senate has to confirm that every president appoints. as of this moment, 473 have not been appointed. >> woodruff: wow. so i think, judy, what you have in part is just they're thin, the level of competence, the level of trust, the lack of cohesion. and donald trump has kind of boasted he's keeping people off balance. every president when he gets in trouble domestically or stalled or fails in his domestic agenda loves to go on foreign policy where he has a far freer rein. he's not the first one to do

this, but to sustain and forge and maintain a coalition, it's based on trust. it's based not on unpredictability or material behavior, it's based on a sense of dependability. and we talk about the u.s.s. carl vinson steaming toward the indian ocean when the koreans were told, our allies and the japanese were told it was headed twar the korean peninsula -- toward the korean peninsula and, judy, that sends tremors, quite frankly, through our allies. so they have more serious problems than just egg on the face. >> woodruff: and they have been mocking the u.s. in china and certainly north korea. >> yes. >> woodruff: the last thing i want to ask you both about comes out of news from fox news channel, michael, that bil bill o'reilly who was, i guess, their highest-rated news star has left, been forced out because of a number of allegations by a number of women about sexual

harassment and secret until now payments to these women, $25 million severance, we're told. what does this mean in the world of media? certainly in the world of conservative media, it's a big teal. >> well, it's an epic change in conservative media. this has been the most important republican influence i think bar none over the last 15 years. fox news played that role for many activist republicans and now the brains of the operation ails anailes and the face of the operation o'reilly are gone. that's a massive change. maybe one way to put it is sometimes conservatives need liberals and liberals have been talking about workplace equality for a long time and they were absolutely right. this is a case where fox tolerated the intolerable and did so time after time. that's a systemic problem, and i think they need to face that very directly.

>> woodruff: just over 30, 40 seconds. >> judy, i think it's always been about power more than about sexual harassment. it's men in position of power over women who are vulnerable, who needed promotions, jobs and sustenance, and i think what we see in this is a revolt and a revolution and what we saw -- cable tv is about two things, it's about eyeballs, the number of people who watch it, and it's about dollar signs. his eyeballs, the number of people who watched bill o'reilly were up there, but the dollar signs hurting. corporate sponsors were withdrawing and it was because women and men, too, but women led it and they led a boycott and a threat and that i think can change our society for the better. >> woodruff: mark shields, michael gerson, thank you both. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: finally tonight, adam alter, a professor at new york university's stern school of business and author of "irresistible: the rise of addictive technology," shares his humble opinion on our addiction to technology. >> in 2004, i left my family and friends in sydney, australia, to begin a ph.d. in psychology at princeton. i was lucky to find a group of close friends, but we were all busy, and at the end of most days, i'd return to my room alone. one night i stumbled on a primitive online slot machine game, called "slots." u.s. law prohibited online gambling, so i wasn't playing for real money, but i found the game impossible to resist. instead of winning money, i'd win small rewards in the form of bells and flashing lights. bells and lights may sound like trivial rewards, but in those moments of loneliness, they scratched a psychological itch. i played so often that i started to imagine the reels on the slot machine spinning during the day.

meanwhile, i happened to be taking a class in physiological psychology. we learned about a series of experiments on isolated, caged pigeons, monkeys, and rats. when the animals were trained to peck a button that sometimes delivered food but sometimes delivered nothing, they pecked the button hundreds of times-- even when they were no longer hungry-- because their isolation was soothed by each gamble. this was a eureka moment for me. i was behaving a lot like these animals. slots wasn't nourishing, but i played for hours. my obsession lasted six months, only ending when i started dating a girl in my class. i learned that addiction isn't only about injecting a drug or playing a game compulsively. it also has to scratch a psychological itch. for me, that itch was loneliness. for someone else, it might have been depression numbed with narcotics, or boredom numbed with a video game. the world has changed a lot since i stopped playing slots more than a decade ago. many of us have psychological itches that need scratching, from boredom to loneliness to low self-esteem; and we have access to all-purpose itch-

scratchers in the form of smartphones and tablets. wherever we go, those devices bring us social networks, games, email, and text messages, each delivering or withholding rewards in the form of replies, shares, and likes just as that small button did for the caged lab animals and slots did for me. it's impossible to avoid the screens that deliver addictive experiences altogether, so the key is to live part of each day screen-free. turn off your tv, and lock your smartphone and tablet in a drawer from, say, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. you'll know you're succeeding if, for at least part of the day, you can't tell that it's 2017 based only on what you can see. when you're looking out at the ocean or standing in a forest or staring into someone else's eyes, it could be 2017 or 1950 or 1700. the key is to make at least a thin slice of every day timeless.

>> woodruff: "washington week" airs later tonight on pbs, with its newly named moderator, robert costa of the "washington post." he's here to give us a preview. bob, congratulations! >> thanks so much, judy. it's great to be here and we have a great round table tonight to discuss the apparent disconnect between the white house and congressional republicans over the repeal of obamacare. there is so much on tax reform to discuss and the border wall. then why bernie sanders is back on the campaign trail, later tonight on "washington week." judy. >> woodruff: we will be watching. and again, congratulations. >> thank you. and on pbs newshour saturday, scientists plan to march on washington and some are even considering a run for office. >> woodruff: why did you run for office? >> one to have the reasons is i was concerned about the anti-science rhetoric we hear out of so many politicians and the cuts to basic research funding that i think are putting us behind as well as hurting us

economically. >> i think it is problematic when scientists are lumping together scientific issues with other points of advocacy that may be viewed as having a party affiliation or a particular political bend. >> woodruff: that's tomorrow night on pbs "newshour weekend." and we'll be back, right here, on monday. i speak to facebook's sheryl stanberg about her struggle to move forward after her husband's death. that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org.

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