captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> sreenivasan: good evening. i'm hari sreenivasan. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: a deadly blast rocks england. the british prime minister believes another attack is imminent, after the bombing in manchester kills more than 20, including children. then, the russian investigation deepens. former c.i.a. director john brennan shares his concern over russian meddling, and calls the probe well-founded. >> i encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between russian officials and u.s. persons involved in the trump campaign. >> sreenivasan: and, the trump administration unveils a budget proposal, slashing funds for programs that serve the poor. plus, we look ahead to president trump's visit with the pope at

the vatican. >> i think that pope francis is going to meet president trump, knowing he has the possibility to influence someone who can change history. >> sreenivasan: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> sreenivasan: britain is raising its terror threat level to critical, as prime minister theresa may warns that another attack may be imminent. she ordered the military to deploy troops tonight, after the bombing in manchester that killed 22 people. special correspondent natalie powell begins our coverage. ( explosion ) >> oh, my god, what's going on? what just happened, what's going on? >> reporter: the scene in manchester last night, moments after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded concert. it happened at the manchester arena, an indoor venue that seats 21,000 people. the bomb went off in the space connecting the arena and adjacent victoria train station. the attack set off a stampede, just as american pop star ariana grande had finished performing. >> we were walking out of the so i was like, we need to run, so we started running. we ran straight out the doors, all the way down to the hotel, and all i could hear was screaming, people crying. everyone was just running everywhere, it was completely

madness. >> people were screaming around us and pushing down the stairs to go outside, and people were falling down, girls were crying. and we saw these women being treated by paramedics. they had like, open wounds on their legs, no shoes. it was just chaos. >> reporter: this afternoon, greater manchester chief constable ian hopkins publicly identified the attacker as a briton of libyan descent. >> i can confirm that the man suspected of carrying out last night's atrocity is 22-year-old salman abedi. >> reporter: hopkins also confirmed police raided two sites in manchester and arrested a man in connection with the attack. >> our priority, along with the police counter terrorist network and our security partners, is to continue to establish whether he was acting alone or working as part of a wider network. >> reporter: the islamic state group claimed responsibility today, in a statement that said: "one of the soldiers of the caliphate was able to place an explosive device within a

gathering of the crusaders." u.s. intelligence officials voiced doubts about the claim. in london, prime minister theresa may condemned the attack, the deadliest in britain since 2005. >> all acts of terrorism are cowardly attacks on innocent people, but this attack stands out for its appalling, sickening cowardice. deliberately targeting innocent, defenseless children and young people, who should have been enjoying one of the most memorable nights of their lives. >> reporter: may also announced that campaigning for the upcoming june 8 election has been suspended. her opponent and leader of the labour party, jeremy corbyn, also denounced the attacks. >> it's the most appalling act this is an appalling act of violence against people and must be totally and unreservedly and completely condemned. >> reporter: thousands of people turned out today for a vigil in manchester.

and, at buckingham palace in london, queen elizabeth ii held a minute of silence. condolences also came pouring in from abroad. president trump interrupted his visit to bethlehem today to address the attack. >> we stand in absolute solidarity with the people of the united kingdom. so many young, beautiful, innocent people living and enjoying their lives, murdered by evil losers in life. >> reporter: newly-elected french president emmanuel macron went to the british embassy in paris to express his gvernment's sympathy and solidarity. >> ( translated ): what happened yesterday in manchester showed once again that terrorists have a target: the free world, youth; and that we all have a deep common destiny in this regard. >> reporter: russian president vladimir putin sent his own message of condolences and said: "we strongly condemn this

cynical, inhuman crime. we are certain its perpetrators will not escape the punishment they deserve." the u.s. department of homeland security says there is no credible threat to u.s. music venues. but, it warns, there may be increased security around public places and events in the days ahead. an increased police presence is certainly something we've seen here on the streets of manchester, but it's also likely to continue, ha ri, not just here in manchester but across the u.k., of course, with the u.k. government now increasing the terror threat level to critical at its highest level. >> sreenivasan: natalie, we've just heard a few of the details of a couple of the victims that have come out. there have been so many victims that have been killed and injured. as more news of this is made public, what's happening to the people on the streets there? >> reporter: that's right, we now know, of course, that 22 people died in this attack.

59 people were injured. among those fatalities, of course, we've, as you've said, had the names of a number of them being released, and we are expecting more in the coming hours and days. a 20-year-old man was among them. the first person to be released, though, the name was an 18-year-old girl georgina callander. she was a student locally. the 8-year-old girl, the youngest so far to be pronounced dead, saffie rose roussos, she was attending the concert with her mother and sister. they were both taken to separate hospitals because of their injuries and it was only later they discovered of her death, of course. an 8-year-old girl which really goes to show the tragedy here, but, as we were expecting frther, names and certainly ages of these, we know that a number of them were children that p perished in this attack, are likely to come out in the

coming days. >> sreenivasan: also the role of social media, arianna grande has an enormous social media, probably ways people found out about this attack abu there are also opportunities for people to help through it. >> reporter: it was an immediate response from manchester police putting out on twitter an incident occurred. after that, interestingly, immediately people were tweeting #open manchester, telling people stuck in the area, a lot of people couldn't get home and there was sheer panic telling them to come into their own homes and they would take care of them. it was similar to what we saw in paris during the bataclan and the other things that took place, trending, getting people off the streets and into homes where they would be safe. we've also seen a huge movement to try to find many of the missing people using social media, using twitter and, of course, we've seen a solidarity

movement here as well with the #peace for manchester. >> sreenivasan: natalie powell joining us from manchester, thank you so much. we'll return to the manchester attacks, after the news summary. in the day's other news, the man who was running the c.i.a. last several news organizations report that here, mr. trump has also been represented by him over the many years. many the man who was running the c.i.a. last summer said he warned russia not to interfere in the u.s. presidential election. john brennan testified before the house intelligence committee. he said he became very worried about contacts between the russians and people involved with the trump campaign. we'll have a full report, later in the program. the head of the defense intelligence agency warned, it is inevitable north korea will

develop a nuclear missile that can reach the u.s. mainland unless something is done to prevent it. lieutenant general vincent stewart spoke at a senate hearing. but meanwhile, at a u.n. conference in geneva, the u.s. traded barbs with the north, also known as the democratic people's republic of korea. >> the d.p.r.k.'s self-defensive measures to protect its dignity and vital rights, and genuine peace from the united states' escalating nuclear threat are the legitimate rights of a sovereign state, and they are not against any new international law. >> the united states, as i have said many times before, is not the threat to the d.p.r.k. the biggest threat to the d.p.r.k., to the regime, is the regime itself, and it needs to come into compliance with its international obligations, and it needs to do it now. >> sreenivasan: also today, south korea's military said it fired warning shots at a possible drone aircraft that flew from the north and may have crossed the border. the president of the philippines, rodrigo duterte, declared martial law today in the country's south. it affects the island of

mindanao, where muslim extremists linked to the islamic state group have attacked marawi, a city of some 200,000. the fighting today killed at least two soldiers, a police officer and several militants and continued into the night. two u.s. astronauts aboard the international space station were forced to make an unplanned spacewalk today for urgent repairs. commander peggy whitson and flight engineer jack fischer replaced a broken data-relay box that operates the station's radiators, robotic equipment and solar panels. whitson now ties the record for the most spacewalks of any american: ten. she also holds the u.s. record for the most accumulated time in space. the u.s. government is accusing fiat chrysler of cheating on diesel emissions tests, just as volkswagen did. the justice department filed suit today, saying the auto maker used special software on more than 100,000 vehicles to get around the tests. the company denies wrongdoing. on wall street, stocks managed to climb for the fourth straight

session. the dow jones industrial average gained 43 points to close near 20,938. the nasdaq rose five points, and the s&p 500 added four. british actor sir roger moore, who played james bond in seven films, has died after a fight with cancer. he began as bond in 1973, but long after he moved on, his celebrity status aided him in his stint as unicef goodwill ambassador. >> bond certainly gives you a financial security, a notoriety. i get media and press attention because they are curious to know why an ex-james bond is working for children. which gets them in-- they want to talk about bond, but i can always get the subject back onto the children. >> sreenivasan: the actor also had a hit tv series, "the saint," in the 1960s. he was knighted in 2003. roger moore was 89 years old. still to come on the newshour: what the manchester attack means for the global fight against

terrorism. more from the former c.i.a. director's testimony in the russia investigation. deep cuts to social programs in president trump's proposed budget, and much more. >> sreenivasan: as manchester mourns and british military steps in to help with security, we turn now to what the attack says about the capabilities of terrorist groups. for that i'm joined by michael leiter. he was the director of the national counter-terrorism center from 2007 to 2011, during both the george w. bush and obama administrations. and, alexander meleagrou- hitchens, research director of the program on extremism at the george washington university. michael leiter, i want to start with you. the british intelligence agencies seemed a little concern the name of the bomber was leaked by u.s. officials hours before british authorities made that public. is that significant? >> i think it is, hari. as an investigator, you really

don't want to release information until you have a purpose in doing so, and as the british were clearly investigating other elements of this attack, or at least trying to determine whether there were additional people involved or potential follow-on attacks, it makes good sense those investigators might want to keep that name behind the green curtain until they found use in disclosing it. it's unfortunate that information was disclosed, but, unfortunately, in this era of 24-hour news, keeping these investigates classified is obviously a challenge on both sides of the atlantic. >> sreenivasan: alexander meleagrou-hitchens, you've studied jihadist groups in the military and elsewhere. are you surprised by this? >> unfortunately not. this has been coming for a some time. the surprised is the scale of it. the westminster attack, only four or five people killed

there, recently. we considered this to be expected in the u.k., not on mainly europe, the access to criminal networks was not quite as easy as if mainly europe, but unfortunately the scale -- i think the surprise it happened, not at all because unfortunately we have been making arrests in the u.k. for a long time, stopping plots like this repeatedly, can't stop them all. >> sreenivasan: just two months ago, there was a stabbing attack or the aftermath we witnessed on tv. is there a pattern here? it seemed to have escalated from that to this. >> i think there is clearly a pattern for i.s.i.s. throughout western europe, and that pattern is quite different from what we saw in the late 2000s from al quaida. and i would really identify three significant changes for i.s.i.s. that are manifesting themselves in all of western europe and the u.k. first there's a pace and scale of radicalization that we really have not seen before, largely through the effective use of the internet. secondly, the operational approach of i.s.i.s. is so very

different. rather than large-scale attacks, they are actively pursuing and pushing people to stay where they are and attack in their homes. and third the volume is overwhelming for security services, whether it's the mi5 in the u.k. or the f.b.i. here in the united states, the volume of threats they have to face is making their jobs very difficult, and they simply can't stay on an individual target indefinitely, and that makes them make very difficult choices and, unfortunately, sometimes those choices end up not being the right ones. >> sreenivasan: alexander meleagrou-hitchens, if you had to do a word association game with manchester and the u.s., most would say football club. how did it get to be a hot bed for terrorist recruitment? >> the area it appears the attacker abedi came from is southern manchester, near a real hub of radicalization in the u.k., sort of a deprived area, a lot of gang activity.

we've seen a morphing of a gang culture into a jihadist culture, at least a fusing of those two cultures. essentially we've seen about 16 british individuals involved in some form of terrorist activity from pretty much a three-mile radius. so whether or not this is relevant into the current investigation into investigation into ais not clear but i wouldn't be surprised if he was influenced by the wider network. >> sreenivasan: michael leiter, today the prime minister elevated the threat level to critical. that means it had been severe for some time. one of the attacks in paris were outside a football stadium. are these sort of attacks almost indefensible? >> to some extent very regrettably, they are. counterterrorism officials can detect and disrupt some plots and often defenses can be used to at least minimum mize what sort of casualties we have but as we saw in this attack and

turkey at the airport, in brussels, the terrorists know where we have security measures, whether that's airport screening or metal detectors entering the stadium, and it's not all that difficult to adjust your tactics so you can still find large collections of individuals just outside the security perimeters. you can push the security perimeters out some, but ultimately, we live in open democratic societies that are not constantly policed. so in that sense, there will always be these soft targets, and security can only move us so far. a lot of this is going to come down to not just intelligence and defense but engagement in these communities where we do have potential hot spots for radicalization. >> sreenivasan: alexander, i want to ask you about the engagement in communities. how does it happen a british citizen grows up there and what lures him into this ideology? >> one of the cliches but is

largely true toward the answer of that question is every path to radicalization is unique. everyone has unique experiences that leads them to this action but there are overarching issues. he's the second generation british, and that is the most important target for rail caddizers and recruiters because these guys, generally, they're growing up in print, have a different culture than their parents, don't relate to their parents and don't relate to the version of islam their parents ascribed to. so they look for a version that speaks to them, not one in libya or bangladesh, but that speaks to them and involves their day-to-day experiences. the jihadist version of islam can sometimes look like the version they are looking for that speaks to them. >> sreenivasan: thank you both. >> thank you.

>> sreenivasan: the issue of russian interference in last year's election, and what the trump campaign knew or did not know about it, was front and center on capitol hill again today. two of the nation's top intelligence officials, and a former c.i.a. director, all testified. chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner has our report. >> reporter: top intelligence chiefs, past and present, were the featured attractions at two congressional hearings. former c.i.a. director john brennan went before the house intelligence committee: >> it should be clear to everyone that russia brazenly interfered in our 2016 presidential election process and that they undertook these activities despite our strong protests and our explicit warning that they not do so. >> reporter: separately, the director of national intelligence, dan coats, went

before the senate armed services committee on worldwide threats. his appearance came as the "washington post" reported that president trump asked coats, and admiral mike rogers, the head of the national security agency, to "help him push back against an f.b.i. investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the russian government." the "post" says both men deemed the request inappropriate and refused to comply. coats declined at the senate hearing to discuss the report. >> on this topic as well as other topics, i don't feel it's appropriate to characterize discussions and conversations with the president. >> reporter: on the broader issue of russia's interference in foreign elections, d.n.i. coats said he's seen evidence of moscow still meddling in campaigns across france, germany and the u.k. and, ex-c.i.a. chief brennan said he had "worried" about the

number of contacts russian officials were having with trump associates last year. that i was concerned about because of known russian efforts to sub born such individuals. >> it's a really simple question. >> reporter: brennan was pressed by trey gowdy of south carolina on whether actual collusion took place. >> i don't know whether or not such collusion -- and that's your that's your term-- existed. i don't know. but i know that there was a sufficient basis of information and intelligence that required further investigation by the bureau to determine whether or not u.s. persons were actively

conspiring, colluding with russian officials. >> reporter: brennan also added an ominous warning: >> the russians are watching very carefully what's going on in washington right now, and they will try to exploit it for their own purposes. >> reporter: late last year, the obama administration ordered sanctions on russian spy agencies over the election meddling. two russian compounds were closed, and 35 diplomats were expelled. a move mr. trump hailed. but in a tweet today, russia's u.s. embassy said if its' diplomatic property isn't returned, it will "have to take counter measures." meanwhile, questions continue about the president's reported sharing of classified information with russian diplomats in the oval office

meeting two weeks ago. dan coats said today he has not discussed the issue with the president. brennan said such information is typically shared through intelligence channels, not spontaneously to visiting officials. for its part, the white house said today's events prove "there is still no evidence of any russia-trump campaign collusion." for the pbs newshour, i'm margaret warner. >> sreenivasan: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: a look ahead to president's trump visit with the pope. and, shifting education dollars to school choice. but first, while president trump continues his trip abroad, here in washington, the white house was busy unveiling the administration's first budget. our lisa desjardins has more. >> reporter: delivered this morning, this is the first full proposal from president trump to

congress: a $4.1 trillion budget plan the white house says puts taxpayers first. it also puts the budget in balance in ten years, without touching social security retirement funds or medicare. >> they are all, all campaign promises that the president made when he was running for office. that's why i say these numbers are simply the president's policies put onto paper. >> reporter: the president also promised to not cut medicaid, the health program largely for the poor. but this budget would dramatically cut the growth in medicaid spending by some $610 billion, that's on top of the $800 billion reduction in the g.o.p.'s american health care act. it would also cut $192 billion from snap, also known as food stamps, and ask states to pay more for that program. and, it would mean $72 billion less for social security

disability insurance. the white house believes there is wide abuse of such programs by people who should be supporting themselves. >> we are not kicking anybody off of any program who really needs it. that's not-- we have plenty of money in this country to take care of people who need help, okay? and we will do that. we don't have enough money to take care of people, everybody, who doesn't need help. >> reporter: democrats see it very differently. >> this is a budget that is immoral, and that will cause an enormous amount of pain for the most vulnerable people in our nation. this is a budget that will be rejected by the american people and must not see the light of day here in congress. >> reporter: the trump budget also would dramatically shift other spending, too. currently, defense programs and non-defense programs are nearly even in spending. next year, the trump budget would boost the military budget 10%, by $54 billion, and next

it would cut $54 billion from non-defense. but the white house points to how it uses savings, for things like $19 billion for a new paid parental leave program. today, republicans in congress, who ultimately control the spending, thanked the president but did not endorse his plan. >> well, look, the president's budget, as we all know, it was a recommendation. every president since i've been here-- and that covers a good period of time-- has made a recommendation, and then we decide what we're going to do with those recommendations. >> reporter: a recommendation that is this president's fullest expression yet of how he wants the government to change. i'm lisa desjardins for the pbs newshour. >> sreenivasan: there's no doubt that this budget proposal is the sharpest departure with past plans in at least a generation. we look at the potential impacts, and the reasoning behind it, with jared bernstein. he is an economist who served in the obama administration. he's now a fellow at the center on budget and policy priorities. and, chris edwards is a budget

expert at the cato institute, a libertarian research organization here in washington. jared, let me tart with you. in your opinion, what's wrong with this budget? >> this is a budget that solves the problem that seems to be vexing republicans is poor people have too much in this country and rich people don't have enough. if you look at the landscape of american inequality, of the kinds of wage and income stagnation that the poorer face and the very effective anti-poverty programs that have helped to kind of push back against those market inequalities, this is a budget that goes just in the wrong direction at 100 miles an hour. >> sreenivasan: chris edwards? yeah, there is a lot i like about the budget. for one thing it takes the deficit problem seriously. we have a $600 billion deficit. rising to a trillion in a number of years if we don't do anything about it. the federal debt doubled under the last president. trump is doing something serious about that. he's putting his spending cuts

he wants to see on the table. he would reduce the deficit to zero over ten years and if republicans and democrats on capitol hill, they should take the deficit seriously and proposed their own plans to deal with it with too you believe the budget as chris recounted, i have a bridge to sell you in new york. here's probably the most egregious part of the phony accounting if here. the budget will cut taxes, again, for the wealthy, remember transferring low-income programs to wealthy people, to the tune of trillions of dollars but does not count the revenue losses in its budget accounting. somehow, magically, those bucks just appear. also, there's a phony phone assumption of a growth rate of 3%. the trend growth rate in the economy is 2%. if you pretend you're going to get 3%, you can get $2 trillion more revenue but no credible economist believes that fairy dust. >> i agree there is some smoke and mirrors in budgets as usual

in presidential budgets through there is a lot of serious policy issues pushed. one is the idea of federalism, to move more to have the costs of medicaid and food stamps and some other programs back to the states. so, you know, for example, if new york wants a bigger medicaid or food stamp program, they can do that. if texas wants a small burn, they can fund that. that's a serious policy issue we should be discussing. >> sreenivasan: every president comes out with their optimistic vision for it, but a lot of the concern, even for conservatives, is this 3% number seems not just optimistics but fantastic. president reagan's budget director said it would require 20 off6 months of no recession never seen in u.s. history. the committee for federal budgets, fairly hawkish of the budget have called it extremely unrealistic and needs a combination of good policy and good luck. >> i agree the 3% growth number

is prettia aggressive. but the president has since the days he's been in office been cutting regulations and pushing a major tax reform plan that would boost growth in the economy. no one knows exactly how much additionally the economy will grow if we make the economy more efficient, but i'm glad he's pushing in that direction and, you know, it's a good start. there are serious reforms here. >> so that's the trickle down fairy dust story that conservatives have been trying to tell for decades now and it's never worked. it shouldn't be put forth as here's an experiment, we're going to try to see what happens. in fact, in real time, this is tried in kansas where they kind of bought this trickle-down stuff, cut a bunch of taxes and not only are they having lousy economic outcomes but their budget is doing terribly and they're having to cut all kinds of vital services. that's where i take so much issue with this budget. our low-income programs are effective, efficient and pushing back on poverty of our most

vulnerable people. this is kind of an ain't broke don't fix it moment for those things. but instead of accepting that, the budget takes over $3 trillion away from these programs and gives it to the wealthy in regressive tax cuts which they don't need. >> that's not right. they're proposing a budgets new central, deficit new central tax reform plan. they haven't specified it yet but that's what they're aiming for. it's not like they're doing the cuts andeth going to wealthy people at all. a lot of cuts they're saying states should make up the difference. to say the tax cut idea is a why would one is not true. the centerpiece is a corporate tax cut. president obama favored a corporate tax cut. he didn't get around to doing it. trump is putting that front and stsh. >> let me make a quick proposal. chris just said this is going to with a revenue-neutral plan. that's the way the trump team scores it, and we know that's phony accounting. i say we come back here after there's an official score by the

cbo, the groups that score this without a numb on the scale, and it's going to show seas of red, redink. i would like to put your foot to the fire on that. >> sreenivasan: you look at budget programs, snap program, close loopholes in the neediest household plans and require able adults to work. what's wrong with that? >> there are there are already requirements in the food stamp and snap program. almost 90% of the program are able-bodied are trying to work, so i think it's a non-solution to a non- problem. $1.40 per person per meal is what snap affords you. if you want to look out at america and say that's the problem holding us back so we have to cut that to give reach people more tax wuts, you and i have a lot to argue about.

>> sreenivasan: millennials are not replacing the number of baby boomers that are retiring. how are you going to have labor force in the levels in the '90s that requires to increase the productivity and get us back to the optimistic vision this budget uh lays out? >> i agree that's a big problem and the budgets helps tackle that. mulvaney wants to get people back in the workforce and good example is the social security disability insurance program. the program, they will be doing a lot of reforms to try to urge people back into the workforce. there are probably millions of people who have moderate disabilities who can and want to be back in the workforce but the current disability program disincentivizing them. it encourages them to stay out of the workforce. so i think if we can make some of these reforms, get people back into the workforce, that would boost growth. >> sreenivasan: unfortunately, we're out of time. chris edwards, jared bernstein, thank you both. >> thank you.

>> sreenivasan: the president continued his lengthy overseas trip today, ending his stay in israel and a visit to the west bank. it was the end of four days in the middle east, after a packed schedule that included summits, elaborate dinners, and high- stakes meetings. john yang reports. >> reporter: president trump crossed the imposing security wall separating israel and the west bank to meet with palestinian leader mahmoud abbas in bethlehem, part of mr. trump's quest to jumpstart long-dormant israeli-palestinian peace talks. >> i intend to do everything i can to help them achieve that goal. president abbas assures me he is ready to work toward that goal in good faith, and prime minister nethanyahu has promised the same. >> reporter: abbas outlined

what's called the "two-state solution": the palestinian homeland on the territory that israel seized 50 years ago in the six-day war. >> ( translated ): our fundamental problem is with the occupation and settlements, and failure of israel to recognize the state of palestine in the same way we recognize it, which undermines the realization of the two-state solution. the problem is not between us and judaism. it's between us and occupation. >> reporter: later, speaking in jerusalem, mr. trump acknowledged there would be hurdles. >> both sides will face tough decisions. but with determination, compromise and the belief that peace is possible, israelis and palestinians can make a deal. >> reporter: missing from mr. trump's comments: an endorsement of the two-state solution, which has been u.s. policy for more than a quarter century. daniel estrin is jerusalem correspondent for npr news.

>> reporter: he spoke a lot about peace but he was very short on specifics, and that was very emblematic of his whole trip here. he did not want to wade into any thorny issues. he didn't talk about a two-state solution. he didn't talk about israeli assessments in the west bank where palestinians want to build a palestinian state. he didn't talk about the u.s. embassy. this trip was much more about smiles, it was much more about relationship building. >> do you see much reason for optimism that president trump will get this peace process going again? >> clinton, bush, obama tried, they all failed at bringing peace. many people i spoke to here, israelis and palestinians said why should trump be different? i met a palestinian woman yesterday who said she read trump's book how to get rich. she had mired trump's business success but she said that doesn't translate into making someone a peacemaker. so while there is that cynicism,

there are also people on both sides who think actually trump perhaps might be the one to seal the deal. >> on the last day of his israel his israel stop, mr. trump visited yad vashem, the nation's holocaust memorial. >> words can never describe the bottomless depths of that evil, or the scope of the anguish and destruction. it was history's darkest hour. >> reporter: he signed the guest book: "it is a great honor to be here with all of my friends. so amazing, and will never forget." mr. trump's whirlwind tour of the middle east's thorniest issue ended with a departure ceremony. tonight, the president is in rome, where tomorrow he is to meet pope francis. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> sreenivasan: as john just reported, the president landed this evening in rome, ahead of an audience tomorrow morning with pope francis. though it is the first meeting between the leaders, they are

quite familiar with each other's opposing views on some major, global issues. special correspondent malcolm brabant is in rome for us, and sent us this preview. >> reporter: after the manchester bomb attack, italy's security status remains the same-- on high alert. the vatican is always well protected, but it's locked down tighter than usual for the duration of president trump's meeting with the leader of the world's 1.2 billion catholics. despite the gulf separating them in terms of personality and policies, pope francis insists he has an open mind. >> ( translated ): i never make a judgement about a person without listening to them. i don't think i should do that. >> reporter: massimo franco, a vatican expert with italy's most respected newspaper, says that president trump instigated the meeting and has the most to gain. >> this meeting is more important for trump than for the pope, because trump presently is very weak internally, so he needs a more international reach.

>> reporter: international relations specialist professor irene caratelli goes further. >> it's about legitimacy, so he's looking for a sort of blessing from the pope. he wants to be recognized by all the different figures of the world. >> reporter: but father john wauck, an american speechwriter before he was ordained, says there's a mutual benefit. >> the catholic church is always interested in its relations with the united states, given the importance of the u.s. on the international political scene, largely because there's an enormous number of issues in which the catholic church can cooperate. >> reporter: but one potential stumbling block is the history of sharp criticism over a major trump election pledge. >> we must restore integrity and the rule of law at our borders. for that reason, we will soon begin the construction of a great, great wall along our southern border.

>> ( translated ): a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not christian. >> for a religious leader to question a person's faith is disgraceful. >> reporter: this biography of pope francis, by veteran vatican correspondent david willey, portrays the pontiff as a frugal man who abstains from the luxurious trappings of office and tries to maintain contact with the poor, especially refugees. last year, after visiting the greek island of lesbos, he brought three syrian families back to rome. >> the pope is very concerned with the situation of refugees all over the world. i don't think the pope will hesitate to say exactly what he thinks about controversial subjects, particularly about, for example, president trump's plan to deport many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of illegal migrants in the united states.

>> reporter: today at the vatican, the pope condemned the barbarity of the terrorist bomb in manchester. the attack may affect the issues under discussion. >> trump and the pope are against terrorism, of course, but i think that the approach of the pope is more on the causes, on the source of islamic terrorism. the pope tends to say that it is not islamic terrorism, but it is terrorists motivated falsely with religious reasons. >> donald trump's statements recently in saudi arabia, i think, made him sound quite a bit more like the pope-- in other words, emphasizing that this is not a battle between one religion and another, and stressing the need for peace and all. so i think there's going to be some common ground there. there will be common ground on things like human trafficking. maybe less so on the questions of climate change, if that comes up. >> reporter: according to veteran vatican watchers, one of the key factors in determining

whether this meeting has been a success will be its duration. if the meeting ends after about 15 minutes, that will be a bad sign, because they say, that will suggest that pope francis has cut the meeting short. but the experts believe there are strong reasons to lay foundations for the future. >> i think that pope francis is going to meet president trump, knowing he has the possibility to influence someone who can change history. >> i think that both of them are canny people who realize the advantages of a face-to-face meeting and will-- both of them will be absolutely fascinated to see each other in the flesh for the first time. >> reporter: most experts doubt that president trump will change his views substantially in rome, but they think at least the two men will have a new understanding of each other. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in rome.

>> sreenivasan: as we discussed before, the trump administration's budget proposes major cuts to a number of federal agencies and initiatives. we wanted to take a deeper look at the proposed cuts with regards to education, and a push for expanding school choice with some of those dollars. william brangham has that story, which is part of our weekly series, "making the grade." >> brangham: the administration's budget proposes roughly $9 billion in cuts to various federal education programs. that's about a 13% reduction. a billion from those cuts would be re-routed to advance school choice, where parents can take public school funds and spend it on any school they choose. secretary of education of betsy devos praised that idea in a speech yesterday: >> we must offer the widest number of quality options to every family and every child. empowering parents with choices is how to give students second, third or fourth chances before it's too late. even the most expensive state of the art, high-performing school

will not be the be effect fit for every single child. parents know or they can figure out what learning environment is best for their child. >> brangham: for more on what this means this all means for students nationwide, i'm joined now by anya kamenetz. she's an education reporter for npr, and the author of several books on the future of education. anya, welcome to the "newshour". before we get to the broader issue of the budget, let's talk about school choice. this has obviously been a huge issue for secretary devos, one she championed for many, many years. remind us what school choice means and what the budget does with regard to school choice. >> so school choice is a catch-all term. it can mean sending students to charter schools, which are alternative public schools, or using vouchers to send them to private schools or even using vouchers for home-schooling or online and virtual schools, and all of those are embraced by secretary devoss. the budget proposal we're seeing

promotes choice in a lot of different ways, so there's more money in it for states to expand charter programs. there is money for states that want to give poor students open enrollment and the chances to leave their low-performing schools for other schools within the district, as well as money for voucher programs which, again, promote private schools. >> brangham: school choice is a very controversial topic. critics think of it as a way of draining money away from public schools and putting it into private or religious schools. that does the data tell us on how good these schools are? what does school choice do for kids? >> well, as you mentioned, this is a really contentious issue and there is a moving target. there's a lot of different arguments for, against and around school choice. recently in looking at the research, i think one thing we can say is there do seem to be positive competition effects. in other words, public schools

perk up when there's a new sheriff in town. on the other hand, when you talk about students, especially poor students leaving their schools and going out to schools of choice, charter schools, private schools, there is controversy there. in some cases, they may do a little bit better. in other cases they do worse. some of the most recent studies on voucher programs in particular in louisiana, ohio and washington, d.c. have shown declines in performance when students leave for private schools, and that's really notable because, when you look at education research, a lot of times there's no effect, sometimes there's positive effects, but to find a negative effect is a little bi is a littt unusual. >> brangham: usual billion in cuts, a lot will fall on higher education in particular. can you tell us about those cuts? >> absolutely. the bysest item is an end to subsidized student loans. right now there are two programs

for sounds died loans. if you qualify, the government picks up your interest while you're in school and that would be going away under this plan. the second significant cut is in the loan repayment program called public service loan forgiveness and that is for teachers, doctors, firefighters, police officers, people engaged in non-profits and government work. they were supposed to have their loans forgiven after ten years of service, and this program's only ten years old, so if you're following along, the repayment was supposed to start this october. upwards of half a million people are enrolled in this program. fit goes away, it would be a big panic for a lot of people. on top of that, there are cuts to a number of different programs. flat-funding for pell. i think a small program that might be going away is childcare for college students and that's significant for working students who we see at many of our community colleges, for example. >> brangham: obviously this is just the president's proposal and congress still has to weigh in on this. how likely do you think it is

that this budget will remain in tact going through congress? >> i mean, i'm sure you've got a lot of people giving this a negative handicap. on the k-12 side, there's broad bipartisan support for a lot of these proposals who are under the gun here in. higher ed, some of the cuts could be made in budget reconciliation without democratic votes so that might be a brighter future for those proposals if indeed we see any legislation passing in the next few months. >> brangham: anya kamenetz of national public radio, thank you. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: now to our "newshour shares:" something that caught our eye, that may be of interest to you, too. disabled animals sometimes need a helping hand in order to walk again. one virginia man dedicated his life to making sure they get that much-needed leg up. the newshour's julia griffin explains.

>> reporter: that hum of machinery filling this northern virginia workshop means derrick campana is hard at work. >> this is one of the more final steps in the fabrication process. >> reporter: what he and his team are fabricating are artificial limbs. not for humans, like many orthotists, but for equally rewarding patients. campana is the one of the world's go-to experts for animal braces and prosthetics, a passion that started more than 12 years ago. >> a veterinarian came to my office, and she brought a dog that needed a prosthesis. and at the time, it was so strange to me that someone would even do that. and i gave it a shot, and it was successful, and a light bulb went off and i said, let's start a business. i'm sure there are tons of animals in need out there. >> reporter: animals like angel marie, a pony whose front legs were crushed at birth. owner lenny: >> the kids just love her to death and she loves kids, so

it's really a great thing. the prosthetics, if it wasn't for that, she never would have made it. >> reporter: but there's also been goats. rams. and even two elephants in thailand. >> so, there's mosha and motala. they both lost their legs in land mines, and they had prosthetic devices, but they wanted an updated one because they are using different materials than we would use over here. so we're able to create those new prosthetics for them. >> reporter: exotic animals aside, campana estimates 90% of the more than 10,000 patients he's treated are man's best friend. >> we love the stories of, every morning, the dog will bring the device to the owner's feet and say, hey, it's time to get up and walk and be a dog again. >> reporter: derby is one of his most famous. >> derby is one of those congenital cases, a birth defect. we were able to 3d-scan the legs and design these legs in 3d upon this positive molds and build these three-dimensional plastic

prosthesis with a 3d printer. >> reporter: campana can't help every patient, but he's glad prosthetics can be an alternative to costly surgeries or putting an animal down. >> seeing those dogs walk again, and their tails wag and their eyes glitter again, and it's just the best feeling in the world. and it's a job i'll do until i die. >> reporter: well, there you go, fido. actually, for the record, that dog's name is kenna. for the pbs newshour, i'm julia griffin in sterling, virginia. >> sreenivasan: later this evening on pbs, "frontline" looks at one of the most divisive figures in the white house: chief strategist steve bannon. "bannon's war" explores bannon's worldview, his belief that disruption is power, and his fight to deliver on trump's campaign promises, including the travel ban.

bannon had eng feared a sweeping executive order aimed at fulfilling a campaign promise to restrict muslims from entering the united states. >> that's steve bannon's idea is to throw everybody off balance and knock them back before they had a chance to resist. >> until this moment, the order's details had been a well-kept secret in washington, even among trump's own team. >> they wanted to rush this thing through and get it out there and take a shock and awe approach in changing immigration policy. >> defense secretary mattis knew late in the process this was what was going to be done during the this visit. >> bannon didn't want other agencies to see what was in this executive order and say, slow down, this might not be something we want to do. >> john kelly is the new secretary of homeland security, a retired four-star general. he's on the phone being briefed on a helicopter while they're doing the announcement. >> protection of the nation from

foreign terrorists' entry into the united states. big stuff. >> the president's first and most important responsibility to the american people is the to keep the homeland safe, and, so, i think that that's what the president was shooting for there is to protect the homeland. >> bannon and the new president had sent a message, change had come. >> that was in the eyes of bannon, the way to rupture the establishment. they knew it was going to be disruptive. they wanted the disruption. bannon sees disruption as power. >> sreenivasan: "frontline" airs tonight on most pbs stations. on the newshour online right now: maybe you've heard the buzz? scientists are puzzled by an unexpected appearance of cicadas in the washington, d.c. area this spring. why have the insects emerged four years ahead of schedule? we investigate that and more on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour.

and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm hari sreenivasan. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

- [jim] coming up on articulate. for more than 30 years, judith schaechter has been applying avant garde sensibilities to a once traditional art form, stained glass. - i can make my ideas. that's the easy part. it's making them better than my ideas that i wanna do. - [jim] in the past century or so, tattoos have gone from being a mark of the outsider to a more socially accepted expression of self. - it's probably now more unusual for a 20 year-old not to have a tattoo than to have one. - [jim] and with a voice and stage presence as big as his personality, eric owens is among that most celebrated bass-baritones in the opera world. - there have been times when i thought, oh my god, that was terrible. and people think, "ah! "that was amazing." - [jim] that's all ahead on articulate. (soft rhythmic music)