captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: >> i would say i'm disappointed in what took place. >> woodruff: the showdown over health care reaches a fever pitch. president trump slams senate republicans, who can't win enough support to replace or repeal the affordable care act. then, another obama-era legacy left standing. the trump administration reluctantly certifies iran's compliance with the nuclear deal, but adds new sanctions over its ballistic missile program. and, defying the odds. an all-girls team from afghanistan competes in a robotics contest after being denied entry into the u.s. twice. >> ( translated ): i want to show the world what afghan girls, or young girls, can do.

we can show them, when we have a creative idea, we can do it. >> woodruff: 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. >> woodruff: the latest senate republican push to replace the affordable care act has come to nothing.

now, party leaders say they will try for just "repeal." lisa desjardins begins our coverage of the past tumultuous 24 hours. >> i regret that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failures of obamacare will not be successful. >> reporter: a remarkable statement, and a bitter admission for senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, that republicans still can't muster the votes on a health care bill. it became clear last night, after utah's mike lee and jerry moran of kansas said they'd vote against the revised version. with that, mcconnell changed course, and decided to go for pure repeal. >> a majority of the senate voted to pass the same repeal legislation back in 2015. president obama vetoed it then. president trump will sign it now. >> reporter: mcconnell proposed delaying the effective date of repeal for two years, so both parties can work out a replacement.

but almost immediately, three republicans came out as no's to mcconnell's idea... that's enough to kill it. lisa murkowski of alaska, shelley moore capito of west virginia, and susan collins of maine, all said it is too risky to repeal without an immediate plan for what next. >> i do not think it is going to be constructive to repeal a law that, at this point, is so interwoven in our health care system, and then hope that over the next two years, we will come up with some kind of a replacement. >> reporter: at the same time, democrats are flexing their muscles against repeal. minority leader chuck schumer: >> passing repeal now is not a door to bipartisan solutions, as the majority leader suggested this morning. rather, it is a disaster. the door to biparitsanship is open right now. not with repeal, but with an effort to improve the existing system.

>> reporter: even though it seems certain to fail, republican leaders said they're going to press forward and hold a vote sometime soon. >> well, i think we'll have to see what happens. we will have demonstrated that republicans by themselves are not prepared at this point to do a replacement. >> we're not going own it. i'm not going to own it. >> reporter: at the white house, president trump was left lamenting the latest health-care failure, and insisting the fault lies elsewhere. >> for seven years, i've been hearing "repeal and replace" from congress. and i've been hearing it loud and strong. and then, when we finally get a chance to repeal and replace, they don't take advantage of it. we'll let obamacare fail, and then the democrats are going to come to us and they're going to say, "how do we fix it?" >> reporter: as recently as yesterday, mr. trump sounded more confident, in a quick aside to vice president pence. >> we're getting it together and

it's-- it's going to happen. right, mike? i think. >> reporter: mr. trump has repeatedly said he's willing to sign a repeal-only bill. the vice president, who spent much of the day on capitol hill, urged lawmakers to do something. >> inaction is not an option. congress needs to step up. congress needs to do their job and congress needs to do their job now. >> reporter: house speaker paul ryan sounded a similar note, and also said the house bill, which repeals and replaces obamacare simultaneously is "the best way to go." >> we'd like to see the senate move on something. >> reporter: and house budget committee chair diane black joined the chorus urging the senate to act. >> we're going to be eternally optimistic that the senate is going to get their work done. >> reporter: meanwhile, a bipartisan group of 11 governors called for the senate to reject efforts to repeal "obamacare" now and replace it later.

>> woodruff: from what you're reporting, doesn't sound like they have the votes to pass repeal so what are they going to do after that? >> right, it's fascinating. they're frantic to take a vote now that likely will fail and looks lining they're ready for a 180-degree turn to move from the closed-door process they have from now for the past seven months to a more open, regular process with committee hearings. late tonight, the chairman of the health committee in the senate, alexander, says he plans on holding open hearings on health care and stabilizing the market regardless of the vote. it's worth noting three senators who are essentially blocking the latest effort from mr. mcconnell are all senators not included in the closed door meeting. the senators saying they think it should have been open like this all along. >> woodruff: so this is a big

hit for the republicans in the senate and the congress overall. what are they saying to you and how do they feel about this? >> they're very raw, judy. one of them told me they're just exhausted. one said today's meeting of all republican senators was "robust." translation, there is real fear about the elections next year and what it means to hold a vote that is likely to fail. why does mitch mcconnell want to hold the vote? the feeling is he wants to show who is to blame for blocking the repeal efforts and to say they gave it their best try, but that idea could rick shea and harm some of their senators as well. >> woodruff: what about majority leader mcconnell? is his standing secure after all this? >> one senator ron johnson of wisconsin made an extraordinary statement today saying he does not have confidence in mitch mcconnell anymore and does not trust his leadership, but, judy, he was an exception. other senators including lisa murkowski told me they have

confidence in him. she gave a great quote and said mitch mcconnell is trying to keep the frog in the wheelbarrow and doing the best he can. she's one of the frogs that jumped out the wheel borrow. >> woodruff: i like the metaphor. what does this mean for healthcare? because the republicans have run several plans up the flag pole. they haven't passed. where do we stand? >> that's right. this is a fixed job. let's get to the bottom line for what we're doling with as americans. it looks like the effort to have massive medicaid reform, large-scale cuts in the numbers of medicaid recipients in the future, that effort. the expansion of medicaid under obamacare is not clear, we'll see what happens in negotiations. overall, medicaid will largely

stay as it is now. also the idea of repealing obamacare wholesale seems unlikely to happen. we'll see what happens in the next vote but seems most likely, judy, obamacare will stay largely within the framework it is now and that the discussion will shift. how to fix it and how to stabilize markets within that framework. >> woodruff: you and i were talking earlier. this will have an effect on the larger republican leadership agenda as well. >> woodruff: a huge effect. they're hoping it will not be catastrophic but now they are jammed up against very limited time on the calendar, judy and have things to do like passing spending bills which is never easy, also a debt ceiling limit that must be raised in the next few months, and in addition they are still trying to pursue tax reform, that is a once in a generation kind of achievement. they're trying to do it in this very caustic, sharp environment with healthcare still waiting,

and it's unclear about what will happen or when it will happen, but republicans say they're going to try. >> woodruff: in a few seconds, lisa, you were also telling us today the republicans in the house rolled out their budget. >> yeah, this is something not to be missed and will be a headline, but that's right, this republican budget document is a process in the spending process, but is important thaws they're doing something very new. they are proposing cutting not just discretionary subjects which is the usual government agency, education and so forth, but they want to cut mandatory programs as well in the budget. those are things close to security, medicare, food stamps. ithey want to use those cuts. a lot to watch. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins, thank you for being eyes and ears about the capitol. we thank you. and in the day's other news, it turns out an eighth person was present when donald trump jr.

met with a russian lawyer last summer. "the washington post" and others identify the person as ike kaveladze. he works for the russian real estate developer whose son suggested the meeting. the president's son acknowledges that he accepted because damaging information was promised on hillary clinton. reports this evening say president trump and russian president vladimir putin had a second meeting at the g20 summit in paris earlier this month. that is in addition to the more than two-hour session they held that was widely publicized. the second meeting had not been disclosed previously. the u.s. treasury department slapped new sanctions today on 18 individuals and groups tied to iran's ballistic missile program. it came hours after the state department again certified iran is complying with the letter of its nuclear deal, but not with the "spirit." we will have a full report, later in the program. in eastern ukraine, russian-backed separatists have proclaimed the formation of a new state. rebel leaders said today the new state will include areas they

already control and, ultimately, the rest of ukraine. but ukrainian president poroshenko, during a visit to georgia, dismissed the declaration and called the separatists "puppets" of russia. >> they are not political figures. we are confident that we reintegrate the donbass, we reintegrate the crimea and we renew sovereignty and territorial integrity. no matter what russia said. >> woodruff: the announcement casts more doubt on the future of the 2015 ceasefire. china warned today of an "all- out confrontation" with india, in a growing border dispute in the himalayas. each side accuses the other of building up troops along a contested region between china and bhutan, an ally of india. the confrontation flared recently after indian troops stopped chinese workers from building a road in the area. back in this country, officials today dropped two high-profile cases involving shootings by

police. a cincinnati prosecutor announced that he won't re-try former university policeman ray tensing for a third time. tensing was accused of murder and manslaughter in the killing of a black motorist, sam dubose, during a traffic stop. two previous trials ended in hung juries. >> after discussing this matter with multiple jurors, both black and white, and they have, to a person, said to us that we will never get a conviction in this case. >> woodruff: separately, in albuquerque, new mexico, federal prosecutors closed the civil rights investigation into the death of james boyd, a homeless man killed by police in 2014. they cited lack of evidence. california's signature climate initiative will stay in force through at least the year 2030. state lawmakers voted monday to

extend the cap-and-trade program. it limits carbon emissions and lets polluters trade or buy emissions permits. the program had been set to end in 2020. on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average lost 55 points to close at 21,574. the nasdaq rose nearly 30 points, and the s&p 500 added one point. and, there's word that china is censoring "winnie the pooh" on social media. it is aimed at comic comparisons of the pudgy bear with president xi jinping. the forbidden list now includes widely circulated images of xi strolling with then-president obama in 2013, juxtaposed with winnie the pooh and tigger. and, from 2014, xi shaking hands with japanese prime minister abe, alongside an image of pooh and eeyore. who knew?

still to come on the newshour: i talk with senator bernie sanders about what's next for the affordable care act. the white house slaps new sanctions on iran. we catch up with the afghan girls robotics team initially banned from coming to the u.s. and, much more. >> woodruff: the collapse of the republican's push on health care raises serious questions about the road ahead for reform. key among them: will the democrats come to the table? to explore that, and more, we are joined now by senator bernie sanders of vermont. he is the ranking member on the senate budget committee. welcome back to the "newshour", senator sanders. what happened to your republican colleagues in what went wrong? >> well, what went wrong, judy, is they brought forth a disastrous healthcare bill that had the support of all of 12% of the american people, that was opposed by the american medical

association, the american hospital association, the aarp and virtually every national healthcare organization understood that, when you throw 22 million people off of health insurance, when you cut medicaid by 800 billion, when you raise premiums for older workers, when you defund planned parenthood and you make it almost impossible for people with pre-existing conditions to get the health care they need and afford, off bill that's a stinker, should not go anyplace and it did not go anyplace. that's a good thing for the american people and i thank the billions of people who stood up and fought back and said that legislation is not what this country is about. >> woodruff: the president did criticize the republicans but also blamed democrats and said democrats are obstructionists. >> if he wants to blame me for helping kill that bill, i accept that responsibility completely.

this bill was an absolute disaster. its goal was primarily to give tax breaks to the rich and to large corporations rather than to address the needs of the american people. the president wants to blame me and anyone else for preventing 22 million americans losing their health insurance. i accept that. >> lisa desjardins was reporting the plan is the vote to repeal is the next step. the next step to go to committees, regular order, to work with democrats. are you and others democrats prepared to work with republicans? >> of course. nobody has said the affordable care act is anywhere near perfect. it did add 20 more people to the ranks of the -- 20 more million people to the ranks of the insured. that's good. deductibles and premiums are too high and we pay the highest in the world for prescription drugs, getting ripped off every

day by the pharmaceutical industry. but if the republicans want to sit town and say how do we improve the affordable care act, let's go forward and do that. i have very specific ideas on that. >> woodruff: last talk about that. realistically, we know where the republicans, the t democrats are. where's the middle gland. >> as i just mentioned, the cost of prescription drugs is far hiring than in any other country. you may recall that donald trump is a candidate -- as a candidate for president talked about how he was going to take on the pharmaceutical industry and lower prescription drug costs. we have some ideas to do that, republicans may have others ideas. let's talk about lowering prescription drug costs, saving the federal government substantial sums of money, let's talk about having medicare negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical industry. that's number one. number two, there are areas of this country now where there are no insurance companies offering

the affordable care act. let us provide a public option in every county in america so if people don't like what the private insurance companies are offering or there is no offer, let them have at least a public option. number three, i believe that the american people would very much like to see lowering the eligibility age of medicare from 65 to 55. lastly, in my view, and i speak only for myself, the united states must join the rest of the industrialized world, guarantee healthcare to all people as a right, and that is why i will be introducing a medicare for all single-payer programs. it will not be passed, believe me, in this session of congress, i know that, but we have got to begin the discussion as to why we spend so much more per capita on healthcare than any other nation, why we pay the highest prices in the world and not guarantee healthcare to all people as every other major

country. >> woodruff: you mentioned prescription drug prices and having a public option in different parts of the country but we know it's a case that in many states, there is no insurance company providing coverage. the republicans like to say the exchanges are collapsing. what can be done in the short term, senator sanders, to shore these up? is there a way to come up with subsidies both parties agree to? >> it's not me talking. this is what the insurance companies are saying. they're saying there's great stability in the market place because of the tweets, one that the president sent out today, let's see the obamacare act destroyed. that's not exactly a strong sign of confidence going to the insurance companies. number one, we have to enforce the individual ma mandate. we're losing a lot of money not coming into the system and number two have to deal with cost sharing which is something

we have been doing many, many years. if you do that, i think you will stabilize the market for the short term. but longer term, we have to improve the affordable care act and longer term than that we have to join the rest of the world and guarantee healthcare to all people as a right. >> woodruff: how much more money is the federal government going to put into healt healthcn order for this to work? >> that's a good question. i'm not sure anyone knows the answer. what i can say is we are spending far more per capita than people in any other country and our healthcare outcomes are worse in terms of life expecty, infant mortality and so forth. we may have to spend more money, but the issue is to try to figure out why we spend so much more than other countries. one of the reasons, clearly, high-cost prescription drugs. second reason, we do very badly in terms of primary healthcare.

there are millions of people, even those who have insurance who can not get to a doctor when they are sick. they end up in the emergency room, very expensive, end up in the hospital, very, very expensive. they can greatly expand primary healthcare, lower prescription drugs, we take a giant step toward lowering healthcare costs in america. >> woodruff: if you could name an area where you could see an early agreement between democrats and republicans, what would it be? >> prescription drugs. >> woodruff: we are listening to you, senator bernie sanders bernie sanders, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: and tomorrow night, we get a republican perspective from senator roger wicker of mississippi. >> woodruff: it has been two years since the iran nuclear deal was struck-- a central, and controversial, part of the obama administration's legacy.

but president trump has made no secret of his dislike for the agreement, and that is one part of heightened tensions with iran. william brangham has that. >> my number-one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with iran. >> brangham: on the campaign trail, candidate trump vowed to rip up the international community's agreement that curbed iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. but last night, president trump took the required step of certifying whether iran was in fact complying with its end of the deal. this was the second time the trump administration certified it was. state department spokeswoman heather nauert, while affirming iran's compliance, said they're not off the hook: >> there are still a lot of things iran is doing that are very troubling to this administration. and so we're going to try and push on the iranian regime to stop its destabilizing actions. >> brangham: in fact, the

president had to be convinced by his national security team monday to agree to this step, for now. simultaneously, the administration maintained a tough posture on iran's non- nuclear activities, imposing fresh sanctions on its ballistic missile program and its most elite military unit. u.s. officials say iran's ballistic missile tests, its support for the militant group hezbollah, and its increasing "harassment" of other nation's ships in the persian gulf violate the spirit of the nuclear agreement-- though they're not expressly prohibited. >> some of the actions the iranian government has been involved with, undermine that stated goal of regional and international peace and security. >> brangham: iranian foreign minister javad zarif insists iran is living up to the nuclear bargain-- and that the u.s. has run afoul of the deal by adding these new sanctions and discouraging companies from investing in iran.

>> iran, in our view, and in the view of the i.a.e.a., built trust by implementing its side of the bargain. the united states didn't. >> brangham: zarif warned that if this keeps up, iran could choose to pull out of the deal itself. meanwhile, the u.s. says it is reviewing its entire iran policy, even before the next certification deadline, which is just 90 days away. for more on the future of the iranian nuclear deal, i'm joined now by our own margaret warner, and nick schiffrin. welcome to you both. nick, i want to starts with you first. you and others have been reporting that president trump certifying iran was in fact in compliance with the deem was no easy matter. what are the divisions within the administration. >> this was a real struggle. we have the inter-agency process that took weeks to geto the point where we were about 12:00 yesterday. when that process said the president is ready to recertify that iran is in compliance, the president said not so fast. on one side you have

president trump and chief strategist steve bannon, there is a larger struggle, frank ri, verse the price tag fact versus the ideological sides of the administration. you have trump and bannon on one side and most of the national security establishment on the other side. you have secretary of state tillerson, secretary of defense mattis. national security advisor mcmaster. chamberren of joint chiefs joe dunnford and for hours the two sides were debating. the president and bannon said we don't like the deal. iran is about the things your piece mentioned, ballistic weapons, not allowing free access to n the gulf, terrorist support across the region, and that's the larger problem. the other side said, look, you may not like everything that iran does but the fact that those other issues are not part of the deal and iran is in compliance and until it's not, you have to recertify.

>> margaret, help us out. the argument is if they're not violating the letter of the law, perhaps they're lie vatting the spirit of the law. what's true and not. >> the truth is they are complying with threater of the law, the state department spokeswoman said it today. there is a hope everyone will be positive in the region or something, but the associates made a deliberate decision to corral, to only deal with nuclear because they knew if they got into ballistic missiles and iran's threat in israel and all the other things you mentioned, the whole thing would fall apart. there were some in the administration who hoped that a more benign environment would result because they built this working relationship, john kerry and sharif, though a very senior official who'd done with a lot with iran said they will be worst after the deal because they want to prove they're not wimps or weak.

>> the schism nick is describing within the trump administration is reflected in iran as well. president rouhani was going to open up negotiations with the west to deliver on this deal and recently reelected but that was not a unanimous decision or feeling in iran. >> no, it was not, certainly at the time. rouhani and the supreme leader had to fight hard liners. there is a point zarif made that the money has not rolled in as expected, meaning foreign investment. i mean, part of it was, as one person said to me, it was $100 a barrel when they started negotiations, $40 after. the energy sector isn't dieing to rush in. the banks are almost insolvent, i wouldn't say, but a lot of bad loans. the companies have to be big enough to come in and fund it

and finally there are all these signals and they have gotten more intense since the trump administration came in, far from encouraging banks or at least john kerry used to travel around with groups of aides saying this is how you do business, don't want to foul up a law, the trump administration ended it and you have tillerson and trump saying things that make the iranians and foreign investors nervous. >> brangham: we have this situation where the trump administration says we'll do a top to bottom review of iran policy, 90 days to the next certification deadline, what are we likely to see next. >> the president did not like the deal, that is clear. one official said he did not think the president would recertify in the future and that is the perception among a lot of people in this town. what's going to happen now as you mentioned in your story, the administration will look at what caused the totality of the problem, so not just review the

nuclear deal but all of iran's actions and that review will produce some kind of paper or guideline that will presumably include whether they will recertify in the next 90 days and if it comes out that the administration does not want to recertify, that really means the deal is in absolute limbo. if there's no recertification in 90 days, congress immediately gets 60 days to vote it down or change it, whatever congress decides, iran will feel the pressure to respond in kind, and you could get a situation where the deal collapses, we lose, the u.s. loses access to the i.a.e. information that the deal allows in iran, iran restarts its nuclear program, and we're back to where we were before the deal. that's a lot of ifs, but those are exactly the ifs that most to have the national security establishment is using to try and convince president trump to stay in the deal. >> brangham: nick schifrin, margaret warner, thank you.

>> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: famine and drought threaten somaliland's future. and, what this artist's paintings of sunrises and sunsets can teach us about life. but first, an all-girls team from afghanistan finally made it to the u.s. this week to participate in a robotics competition. their visas were denied twice by american officials, until criticism prompted president donald trump to intervene and reverse the decision. the girls joined high school students from more than 150 other countries, many of whom had never seen-- or made-- a robot before. jeffrey brown will look at some of the immigration policy issues this is raising once again. but first, special correspondent kavitha cardoza, with our partner "education week," spoke to some of the afghan girls and other international students in washington d.c., part of our

weekly series, "making the grade." >> reporter: hundreds of high school students arrived in washington from across the globe. robotics teams from jamaica to jordan, australia to sudan. there was even one representing refugees. but, none of the students had a more unlikely journey, perhaps, than the crowd favorite: >> team afghanistan! >> reporter: 16-year-old kausa irls, says that was her proudest moment. >> ( translated ): i was very happy, and i was proud when the people support us. i'm happy when people feel that afghans can do something! >> reporter: this robotics competition is part of an effort to get more young people, particularly from underrepresented countries, to enter stem fields. it's a term used to include science, technology, engineering and math. a few months ago, all teams received boxes containing hundreds of identical parts, and the students had to figure out

how to take the wheels and gears, sensors and sprockets, and create a robot. >> ( translated ): we have an old computer, but it often doesn't work. >> reporter: fatemah qaderyan is from the herat province. almost 40% of school-age children don't have access to education. even when they do, there's often a shortage of teachers and textbooks. for many afghan girls, fatemah says even getting to school can be a challenge, because they need a man's permission. >> ( translated ): we can't go alone. and we need someone to support us, like a man, to get us to the school, or other places we want to go. >> reporter: their coach alirzeza mehraban says technology is hard to come by. >> ( translated ): we don't have equipment of robotic, we don't have it. >> reporter: he says even though these girls were chosen from more than 150 students, because the team had no experience in robotics, some doubted their abilities. >> ( translated ): they say, "you can't, because that's

impossible! for girls in afghanistan, it's too hard." >> reporter: and what did you say? >> we say, "we can do it! just give us a chance!" >> reporter: then after they built their robot, their visas were denied... twice. they were not given any explanation. >> ( translated ): when we applied and were rejected, we are so disappointed, we are crying a lot. for six or seven hours. >> reporter: mehraban can hardly believe they're here... >> they are finally playing! i'm so happy! i can't describe it! >> reporter: 80% of these teams were made up of boys, a gender gap that is reflected in stem fields worldwide. but the inequality in education is far bigger than just stem subjects and afghanistan.

around the world, more than 60 million girls don't have access to any education. the reasons vary-- from wars, to cultural mores, to something as simple as distance. melissa lemus is with team honduras. >> ( translated ): some of them are about two hours from the high school, or they have to take a bus. >> reporter: while gregine kumba natt from team liberia says often they don't have electricity during the day. >> we need to charge the robots, but in our country we have poor electricity. we couldn't charge our phones either, and because of that, usually we don't practice at day. we practice in the night hour. >> reporter: and like many countries here, ruby balami from team nepal says her school doesn't have a science lab, so initially, she was nervous when she saw teams from developed countries, such as japan and the u.s. >> we think that they are much competitive, and it was a scary

thing, but coming here, making them friends, now we have feel much more better and now we are much more confidence! >> reporter: some last minute tinkering and intense discussions, and then, it was showtime! each country's team was paired with two others, often not speaking the same language. learning to collaborate and communicate is part of the goal, says dean kamen, the founder of the competition, "first global challenge." >> reporter: fatemah loved

meeting students from other countries. she says she knows people think of afghanistan as a place of violence and poverty, but she wants to change that perception. >> ( translated ): war like a habit for us. because bomb blasting, and counter blasting, and killing people, so normal for us, because we see it a lot. >> reporter: she believes the only way that can change is through education. even though women in her country are restricted from higher education-- her mother stopped at grade six-- fatemah wants to get a ph.d. in computer science. >> ( translated ): because i need this, our country needs this, to have women educated, to be new generation in the future. i want to show the world what afghan girls, or young girls, can do. we can show them, when we have a creative idea, we can do it. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour and "education week," i'm kavitha cardoza, in washington, d.c. >> brown: as kavitha said, the visa question for the afghan girls gained national attention

and the direct intervention by president trump. alan gomez from "usa today" joins me now on that part of the story. so, alan, was this a special case, an outlier? what if anything does it tell us about the current situation with visas? >> this was a complete outlier. understand the trump administration made clear throughout its time that it will handle any visa application on a case-by-case basis, exceptions can be made and this case represents a very sharp departure from what has been a pretty clear strategy from this administration to limit, to restrict, to in some cases completely suspend immigration from terror-prone countries. you understand that, you know, we're still dealing with the travel ban that the president has been trying to implement now for months, directed at six countries that have been labeled as having very close ties to terrorism. he completely suspended the refugee program all in the name

of national security. and afghanistan has never been on any of those lists of countries, but, you know, i think it would be pretty easy to make a case that afghanistan has a bit of history with terrorism, so that's why this case is so surprising that it's threes girls from afghanistan that have been allowed into the country. >> brown: do we know why they were denied visa's in the first place? >> no, the state department doesn't tell us why it makes individual determinations. but when you think of the ability of this administration to scrutinize any visas coming from these countries, it follows the rented the of denying visas for people coming from these countries. >> brown: this plays into larger confusions and that continuing controversy. i want to ask you about one other development in the visa world that came yesterday. the government announced they're adding 15,000 new h2b visas.

explain what's going on there. >> that's just another example of why it's difficult to figure out what direction this administration is going when it comes to the legal immigration system in the united states. just a couple of months ago, to give you background, the president ordered a total review of the h1b visa prarnlings visas dedicated to foreigners trained in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, used by technology companies to bring in programmers and the trump administration ordered a review of the program because they believe there is too much fraud and the technology companies are abusing the program to import cheaper labor. we talked about american workers first and that's the posture. >> brown: that's the h1. this is h2, for temporary workers. >> rights, and yesterday we get an announcement they are going to approve 15,000 additional new visas for h2b visas, dedicated

to lower skilled workers. think about people who work in fisheries and hotels and construction and resorts, and those are the kind of workers that they're going to allow in. the argument from the trump administration is that these companies, a lot of them were in very desperate need of the labor, that they couldn't find american workers to do the job, that they needed to bring in additional workers to do it, but it goes against what the administration has been arguing all these month that they'll limit immigration system to help american workers and reduce the competition they're facing in the country. >> brown: ever evolving, alan gomez, from "usa today." thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the united nations has called it the worst humanitarian crisis since 1945, and just today, the lead editorial in the "washington post" calls it "the worst crisis

you've never heard of." drought and famine threaten 20 million people in the war-torn countries of yemen, south sudan, and somalia, as well as drought-stricken neighbors, such as ethiopia. this week, for the first time, eight of the leading u.s.-based international relief organizations are launching "the global emergency response coalition," a joint fundraising appeal to the american public due to the hunger crisis, which will use social media to amplify its message. special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports from the breakaway region of somalia, known as somaliland. >> reporter: a glimpse from our airplane window showed the stark moonscape of drought stretching for miles on end, where many regions in east africa are at risk of famine for the third time in 25 years. more than 360,000 children are malnourished in somalia, 70,000

of them are in critical condition, according to the world health organization. we traveled to somaliland, a region that declared itself independent of somalia more than two decades ago. its capital, hargeisa, has seen an influx of mostly nomadic livestock herders, fleeing the drought, and in some cases, fighting in the vast surrounding region. they now live in temporary camps. 30-year-old hamda abdilahi dhamac is the mother of five children. she came here after all of her livestock, some 30 goats and 50 sheep, died from the drought. >> ( translated ): i used to be part of a family of livestock herders. but now i've been forced to come to this camp, where i don't have enough money to buy food and water. i am really suffering. >> reporter: she gets some money from relatives, but says it's just enough to buy rice and perhaps an onion or tomato. she can't afford beans or meat. like dhamac, a majority of

somalis make their living by grazing animals. but, the drought has wiped out 70% of all livestock. dhamac says she doesn't know how she will survive in the future. >> ( translated ): i don't have any hope now. i don't have a plan for my future. >> reporter: humanitarian organizations are distributing emergency food to ease the crisis in the short term. jeremiah kibanya coordinates relief efforts for world vision. >> we are providing food commodities to the people who don't have anything to eat. we will need money to help people get more animals into their family and begin their livelihood. >> reporter: how much do you need and what percentage have you been getting? >> world vision has requested $37 million to respond. so far, we have received $11 million. >> reporter: most of that money, $10 million, came from the u.s. government. the seattle-based agency is

helping deliver medical care for those most vulnerable to drought: pregnant women and children. at this clinic in the village of gabiley, babies are measured and weighed. a simple test with an armband determines their level of nutrition: yellow means moderate malnutrition. red means severe. if there's malnourishment, the mothers are given packets of peanut paste, along with guidance to administer it only to the sickest children, says clinic director asha abdi ali. it's very difficult for a mother if she has other children who are hungry, to not share? >> we tell them for the same reason, these other children are not in need. it is only for this child. >> reporter: but it's still difficult? >> it's still difficult. >> reporter: keeping people healthy is now made even more difficult, ironically, by rain. some rains have come this year and that's been enough to green up the landscape. but the effects of the drought

will last for a very long time. in fact, more immediately, there's a greater threat to public health. that's because there are millions of livestock carcasses strewn all over the landscape, and what the rains do is wash the contaminants right into drinking water sources. on a hillside just outside dilla, a village about an hour's drive from the capital, carcasses have become an unmanageable problem for mayor ibrahim abdi haji. >> ( translated ): it is a bigger problem than we can handle alone. we've asked the government for help to burn those dead animals. but we haven't received help yet. we're afraid the community will get water-borne diseases from the animals. we are very scared. >> reporter: water, which has collected at a nearby earthen dam, has been completely contaminated by both dead and diseased animals. >> and if people use this water to drink because they don't have any other, that poses another threat of waterborne diseases. that can lead to outbreaks of

acute water diarrhea or cholera. >> i want to show you the best way to make your water clean and safe. >> reporter: as a short-term solution, world vision has distributed some 75,000 filters and chlorine tablets so people can purify their water. but world vision's kibanya says the other issues: food shortages, limited medical services and tougher ones to tackle. there's a tradition in this region, where droughts are localized-- that communities welcome people temporarily displaced by dry conditions. but one of dilla's newcomers, roda yusaf, a mother of seven, isn't sure she can return to her former livelihood without animals. she plans to stay in dilla indefinitely. >> ( translated ): when you come from another area, it's difficult to get a job here. but the community has been very supportive. >> reporter: six years ago, dilla was in a similar position of hosting displaced persons from a severe famine, which

ended up killing 260,000 people in somalia. mayor haji hopes that doesn't happen again. it seems to be a tradition here for sharing, helping people in distress. after some time, does that become difficult? >> ( translated ): we are starting to reach that point. the last time we supported displaced people who had come here, everybody ended up suffering. >> reporter: the repeated cycles of drought over the past 25 years is constantly on the minds of aid workers and political leaders. saad ali shire is somaliland's foreign minister. >> we need to look into the future and build resilience. so, when drought comes next time-- and it will come, because these are now more severe and more frequent, because of climate change. >> reporter: he says much greater long-term investment must be made to improve the region's long-term viability. >> we need to change the way we

raise livestock in this country. we raise livestock the way we raised it 200 years ago. it's a nomadic way. i think we need to settle and grow food for livestock. but i also think we need to orient part of our population toward fishing and other activities: industry, services. >> reporter: however, that seems unlikely, at least in the short term, given that urgent appeals to deal with the immediate needs have fallen far short of what the u.n. and aid agencies have requested. for the pbs newshour, i'm fred de sam lazaro reporting from dilla, somaliland. >> woodruff: and fred's reporting is a partnership with the undertold stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota.

>> woodruff: a new exhibit," sunrise, sunset," by swiss artist nicolas party, recently opened at the hirshhorn museum in washington, d.c. party, known for his large works of public art, painted directly onto 400 feet of the museum's circular walls. we tracked his progress over two weeks. party told the newshour, he was inspired by the notion that no matter what happens, the sun will rise in the morning. >> i was aware of the circle shape of the building, and that influenced my decision. so i decided to do a show about sunsets and sunrises, which is this perpetual end and beginning that happens every day. but also, that implied this idea of this very, very long timeline, that shows the rotation of every element in the universe. and let's give a perspective of maybe seeing history and things in a much bigger way, and maybe not being always focused on the daily.

the circle aspect really defines the project. and then after, i'm trying to kind of build up a rhythm into this space. so every wall is a different color, but also, every shape of the paintings that i'm doing on the wall also have a different format to give like a rhythm and an energy to the wall. i like to improvise. so there's an element of surprise and freedom when i work on the walls. so i use the wall almost as a piece of paper. sometimes, of course, i have sketches, but i work very organically. again, there's an element of surprise in the process of it. it's really exciting. it's really exciting to have all this space. and to be able, in a matter of seven days, i will do 30 different paintings. they feel really alive and energetic. and so you need to be in that stage when you're doing them. it's the only moment during the day that you can really see, visually, how the entire

universe functions. you can really see the rotation of earth at that moment. right now we can't see it. but during those 30 minutes of a sunset or a sunrise, you can actually feel it, and you can see it very clearly. and all those kind of different reasons that the color change the sky, that's the physical reaction of the light going through different angles and stuff. that's fascinating because obviously there's, again, the daily life and our little preoccupations that are very important, but so, it's interesting to put them in perspective with this big thing. there's very different stages when i do those murals. there's the beginning, that is very slow and i allow myself a lot of time. then there's, there's a moment when it's everything beginning to build up, and i realize i made mistakes in the placement or the size, colors or whatever. it's getting very stressful. so then there's a moment it's very difficult, usually, because it's not going how i want to go.

doing something and this thing will disappear, more or less being covered up. so it will still be here, but it will be covered by a layer of paint. it's like ruins that are underneath things, or the cave paintings-- you don't see, but i'm sure there's a lot of them that we don't see or don't know about, but still they exist. there's very different steps between the moment you start to run, to the moment it's extremely difficult, to the end, when you feel totally fine, just running for the line. and it's all those moments that are very exciting to look forward to. you don't need to change the world. you can just change the few meters around you. and so, i did change the circle, that's what i did. >> woodruff: later tonight on pbs, an inside look at life out of prison. "frontline" teams up with the "new york times" for the film, "life on parole," for a look at connecticut's push to keep people from returning to life behind bars. i have been coming to prison

since 1999 now, and i have been in and out of jail 11 times. >> this time i got out was the first time i was on parole. >> brantley. i was definitely frightened. i didn't know what to expect. sentence less than four years. >> mark is the parole officer, been parole avers for 18 years. >> what was your crime? drugs. of choice? heroin. mr. brantley had a long, long history of opiate addiction and if you're in this business long enough you know the chances are at some point it will rear its ugly head. now he's on your watch so you have to make sure you're dotting is and crossing ts, that's

for sure. >> woodruff: "frontline's" "life on parole" airs tonight on most pbs stations. on the newshour online right now: seattle made headlines for its substantial minimum wage hike, now as high as $15 an hour for some. a new study, commissioned by the city itself, has found that the boost has cost jobs for the lowest-wage workers. we asked an economist and an entrepreneur to share their takes, which you can find on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again right here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll 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 and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

(sheep bleating) >> cead mile failte. a hundred thousand welcomes. here i am in the emerald isle exploring the celtic spirit of crafts where we'll create a fusion of felt and fairytales, craft fine jewelry from connemara marble, weave wild willows into beautiful baskets, and create lovely irish lace. all this and more as we grab our shillelaghs, enjoy the shenanigans and round up a flock of sheep here in beautiful ireland. (mwah) (instrumental music) >> everything we do with our hands when we put passion behind it creates a craft. and crafts have a tendency to ignite our souls.