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tv   PBS News Hour Weekend  PBS  September 2, 2017 5:30pm-6:01pm PDT

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>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.b.p. foundation. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter, in memory of abby m. o'neill. barbara hope zuckerberg.
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corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> schifrin: good evening and thanks for joining us. i'm nick schifrin, sitting in for hari sreenivasan. one week after hurricane harvey hit texas, houston is shifting from rescues to recoveries. the storm has killed more than 50 people, according to "the houston chronicle." avily damaged.ore than 37,000 some 457,000 people have sought federal emergency aid. and the federal emergency management agency, fema, has already granted $83.4 million.
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much of that in $2,000 payments to help rent a new place to live, or $500 for critical needs. the red cross says more than 42,000 people spent last night in shelters." newshour weekend" special correspondent marcia biggs has more on the recovery, from houston. >> reporter: it's an army of volunteers, ordinary houstonians wanting to help. it's all part of a citywide effort led by the mega church, second baptist, which has mobilized more than 3,000 people and supplies arrive by the truckload as houston settles into the painstaking task of cleaning up after harvey's record floods. john card is the church's media relations director. >> we've got trucks coming in from all over the country. >> reporter: beyond the donations, the volunteers arrived here ready to work. >> when dwriewf got a second there are three things you click on "need assistance, volunteer,
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and give." >> reporter: they're divided into small groups, assigned a leader and deployed to different neighborhoods and families in need. >> regardless if it's a week or two weeks or a year, we will be here with this effort and supporting our church. >> reporter: houston strong. >> houston strong. >> josh patterson and several others are spending the day in this house, representing out drywall and clearing out anything with water damage. the local banker and houstonian heeded the call for help from this woman. mareesea theresa has lived in this house for the last 16 years, ever sense she immigrated from mexico. she's a substitute teacher at a local elementary school and opens her home as a daycarrot side. she fled with her mother and son to dallas just before harvey hit and came home wednesday to two feet of water. how did it feel to have this army of volunteers come in from the church today? >> oh, it's amazing. amazing. that's-- i prayed. i said, "oh, god, send me the
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love angels around me." oh, my god, thank you so much. >> reporter: but many parts of houston are still flooded. the arkema company blamed floodwaters for a second chemical plant fire last night in nearby crosby. the company said the water knocked out refrigeration needed to keep chemicals from degrading and catching fire. 100 miles east of houston, residents in beaumont, texas, waited for their water treatment plant to be fixed. they continued to line up at grocery stores and distribution centers to get bottled water. back here in north houston, maria says she has no flood insurance. yet she remains grateful. >> the important thing for me is my son has life. my mother, she is 80 years old, okay. but most important, we are kept together. we are safe. >> reporter: and for now, she's just taking life one day at a time.
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give us some perspective as you were going out last night, today, are all parts of the city under water or different parts being affected differently? >> reporter: indeed, it is my home town. i usually cover the refugee crises in places like syria and iraq, so to see some of the similar themes of displacement and loss here in my own home town is truly incredible. there are parts of the city that were not dramatically affected. i arrived last night and went to dinner at a restaurant near where i grew up, and it was as if nothing had ever happened. people were sitting outside in the cafe, enjoying a nice meal. then today, i went to an area called meyerland where a lot of my childhood friends grew up, a spent a lot of my life on the lawns, and the prevailing emage is like what you see behind me-- lawn after lawn after lawn just covered in drywall, damaged appliances, damaged furniture, clothes-- all just rubbish
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waiting to be carted off. it is quite surreal. it is definitely two different versions of a city. and there are also areas of the city which are still under water, pockets of northwest houston. >> schriffrin: marcia, what you were saying at the beginning is fascinating. you covered war. you have seen this transition. people survived. that is what they had to do at first. are they now moving into a level of trauma and are they overwhelmed? >> reporter: people are definitely traumatized. you know, i mentioned being in the restaurant and it seemed as if nothing had happened, when you ask someone, "where is your home" or "how is your family," they immediately-- it's all that anyone can think about. you know, and there are so many questions and concerns for those areas that were affected. i mean, mold is a huge issue. you walk into some of those houses, the smell of mold is everywhere. of course the water. people are concerned about the health effects of the water, and there aren't a lot of answers to those questions. and, of course, sthrns.
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people are starting the tedious task of trying to file insurance claims and go through the forms and list every single thing that is damaged. there is a lot going on right now for these people. and, of course, they were in survival mold for so many days. now they are sort of setting about the task of rebuilding and taking a breath. and i think, you know, so many people didn't know what to do for so many days, that now this is why you're seeing a lot of people coming together and trying to help. the community spirit here is so impressive and incredible. of course, that's the prevailing theme. but at the same time, i think people just need something to do, nick. >> schriffrin: that's interesting. marcia biggs, thank you very much. reporting from her home town of houston. >> reporter: thank you. >> schifrin: president trump is asking congress immediately to allocate $8 billion for harvey aid. most of that money would go to fema, for individuals in need. the president and first lady melania trump went to houston today to meet people who
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abandoned their homes and are still living in shelters. they also handed out lunches. it was their second visit to texas this week. >> really, i think people appreciate what's been done. it's been done very efficiently, very well. and that's what we want. we're very happy with the way things are going, a lot of love. >> schifrin: later, mr. trump followed harvey's path east, visiting storm damage in lake charles, louisiana. back in houston, the country's fourth largest city is a hub of the nation's oil refineries, and, in the wake of hurricane harvey, gas prices are up. a.a.a. says the national average for regular gas is now $2.59 a gallon. that's 23 cents higher than a week ago. the reason: harvey has pushed more than 20% of refining capacity along the texas gulf coast offline, and it may take a while to get back to full speed. for more on that, i am joined from houston by travis bubenik, an energy and environment reporter with houston public media. travis, thank you very much for taking the time. as i just said, we've got about 20% of capacity off. what is the prognosis for getting some of that back
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online? >> so, the energy department said as of this morning, that there are still 10 refineries along the gulf coast that are completely shut down after harvey. a number of others are still slowed as of some morning. but, you know, the big-picture story is they're starting to get back online. and that's going to be a slow, arduous, and potentially hazardous, if these refineries aren't, you know, extremely careful in following protocols, process over the next few days, maybe even weeks. >> schriffrin: you said "hazardous." there are some environmental concerns in that area. for example, oil spills and leaks, and what you just mentioned. how are authorities going to deal with those environmental concerns, given that there are still rescues going on? >> i think they're going to make a long list of them, and then have to go investigate. i mean, the t.c.e.q., our state environmental regulators, the e.p.a., they're, of course, you know, encouraging the public to report anything like oil spills,
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oil sheens on the water you see in floodwaters. the texas railroad commission, oil and gas regulators are fielding reports about spills or leakages or anything like that from oil and gas operators in south texas. again, closer to corpus christi where the storm made landfall. meanwhile, there are just sort of the everyday environmental hazards of floodwaters being spread out across this huge metropolitan area. texas a & m, i think recently did sampling and found e. coli bacteria levels in the floodwaters, that are way high safe for swimming in, let alone eating or drinking anything contaminated by the floodwaters. it's a nasty situation across houston, and that's not to mention the spikes in air pollution that are going to naturally come from these refineries starting back up because it's just kind of a dirty process to do that. and that's something
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environmental groups here in houston and texas are already tracking. they're seeing, you know, pollution spikes that we haven't seen in the city, you know, for more than a decade in some instances gloof we've also seen some chemical fires at these chemical plant. why aren't authorities there better prepared for something like harvey at those plants? >> you know, i don't know if it's necessarily about the authorities being better prepared because they evacuated this area per the recommendation of this company, arkema, northeast of houston. but i think open question is why wasn't the company better prepared? i mean, the company said from the get-go, you know, we never expected six feet of water in our facility." i guess because it had never happened. but there are, you know, a number of questions-- i mean, the reasons he's fires broke out is because the chemicals lost refrigeration. they lost power and they lost backup power. the question, to me, anyway, most immediately is, okay, if
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you never expected six feet of water, do you expect it now? or do company goes from this point and sort of treat this storm as a fluke? i think that's the open question. >> schriffrin: houston public media's travis bubenik, thank you very much. there are new satellite photos that show just how much flooding harvey caused in houston. you can see them on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. in california, some residents of northwest los angeles and nearby burbank have been ordered to evacuate their homes in the path of a growing wildfire. officials say about 200 families are affected, after the fire expanded overnight to more than 5,000 acres. the wildfire also forced the closure of a 12-mile stretch of interstate 210, and right now, it's only 10% contained. 400 miles to the north, at a separate fire, california governor jerry brown has declared a state of emergency in butte county. since tuesday, that fire has destroyed about 30 homes, and threatened hundreds more.
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authorities suspect the cause of that second fire was an illegal campfire. american and allied jets are trying to block a convoy of 300 isis fighters inside syria, by bombing the road ahead of them. the fighters and their families left an area near the syrian- lebanese border six days ago. lebanon-based hezbollah brokered the deal for the fighters to surrender their enclave, in exchange for safe passage to isis-held territory to the east, closer to the iraqi border. the convoy is now stuck, and the u.s. said it will continue to target the road, but won't attack the convoy itself, because women and children are on board. in germany this weekend, thousands of residents of two cities are being evacuated, so unexploded bombs from world war ii can be defused. about 60,000 people have been ordered to clear a neighborhood in frankfurt, that's within a mile of a 1.5-ton bomb dropped by britain's royal air force. that bomb will be defused tomorrow. and today in the city of koblenz, ore than 20,000 people left their homes and workplaces so an 1,100-pound american bomb could be rendered harmless.
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both bombs were found buried beneath construction sites. russia's foreign ministry is protesting what it calls a u.s. plan to search a recently closed russian trade mission in washington, d.c. a senior u.s. administration official says no such plan exists, but russia said the u.s. was engaging in" an unprecedented aggressive action." the office is one of three russian facilities the u.s. ordered closed this week, in response to russia's limiting the number of u.s. staff allowed to work in russia. those other russian facilities are in san francisco and new york. and, a russian spokeswoman says the black smoke that could be seen yesterday billowing from the russian consulate in san francisco, was part of a "mothballing" process. salt lake city's mayor and police chief are apologizing to a hospital nurse, who was arrested for refusing to draw blood from an unconscious patient. the encounter took place on july 26 at the university of utah hospital, between nurse alex wubbels and detective jeff payne. it was captured on police body cams. video released thursday shows
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wubbels being dragged away in handcuffs, after she refused the detective's order to draw blood from the only person who had survived a deadly truck crash. >> stop, i've done nothing wrong! >> schifrin: at the time, the patient was sedated. wubbles is heard in the video explaining that drawing blood would violate the hospital's consent policy, and she asked to see an arrest warrant. the detective accused her of interfering with a criminal investigation. he's been placed on administrative leave, and the salt lake district attorney has opened a criminal investigation into his conduct. president trump's older son, donald trump jr., is set to receive $100,000 for giving a speech to a college next month. the one-hour speech and q&a session at the university of north texas is sponsored by a company owned by a major republican party donor, g. brint ryan. the student newspaper, "the north texas daily," obtained the speech contract and shared it with other media. ryan advised mr. trump on tax policy during the campaign, and says trump jr.'s appearance will also raise money for scholarships.
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he told the "washington post," if hillary clinton's daughter chelsea wanted to speak at the school next time, that would be great. >> schifrin: there is a new online technology that might have the capacity to change every aspect of society. it's called blockchain, and it's a global network of computers that's extremely secure because it allows digital information to be distributed-- but not copied. blockchain is still in its infancy, like email in the 1990s, but it's the foundation of the growing digital currency, bitcoin. and blockchain proponents say one day, the technology could be used to pay people, track food shipments, even sell music. here's newshour weekend's hari sreenivasan. 's written a dozen books on on technology, and sees one that could change everything around us. he's not the only believer. while the dow jones industrial average is up about 20% in the
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past year, bitcoin, a digital currency traded in online exchanges, is up more than 700%, to a total value of more than $76 billion. that's more than american express. the surge has people wondering whether bitcoin is in a bubble. for tapscott, that question is missing the real story. >> the real pony here is the underlying technology called the "blockchain." >> sreenivasan: tapscott and his son co-wrote a book called "blockchain revolution," named after the technology that supports bitcoin and other so-called cryptocurrencies. they're called that because of the cryptography, or computer code, that makes them secure. tapscott says the technology is the key to creating trust in peer-to-peer transactions, like sending or receiving money without a bank or a credit card company in between. >> trust is achieved not by a big intermediary; it's achieved by cryptography, by collaboration and by some clever code. >> sreenivasan: here's how the blockchain works: when you send
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or receive an asset, the transaction is recorded in a global, public ledger. a network of millions of computers store copies of that ledger and work to validate new transactions in blocks. when each block is verified, it's sealed and connected to the preceding block, which, in turn, is connected to every block that has ever been validated, creating a secure blockchain. >> there's now an immutable record of that transaction. and if i wanted to go and hack that transaction-- say, to use that money to pay somebody else-- i'd have to hack that block plus the previous block in the entire history of commerce on that block chain, not just on one computer but across millions of computers simultaneously, all using the highest level of cryptography while the most powerful computing resource in the world is watching me. the way i like to think of it is that a blockchain is a highly processed thing-- sort of like a chicken mcnugget-- and if you wanted to hack it, it'd be like
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turning a chicken mcnugget back into a chicken. now, someday, someone will be able to do that. but for now, it's going to be tough. >> sreenivasan: tapscott predicts these global ledgers, or blockchains, could affect several parts of the economy during the next decade-- in particular, the financial industry. in a blockchain future, what happens to the new york stock exchange? >> well, a likely scenario is it becomes a fabulous museum, and it is a beautiful building when you think about it. but buying and selling a stock can be done peer-to-peer now using new blockchain platforms. >> sreenivasan: he says routine transactions, like using a credit card or making online payments with paypal or venmo, could be replaced with instant, peer-to-peer blockchain transactions, speeding up how long it takes and shrinking the costs. >> think about something like you tap your card in a starbucks and a bunch of messages go through different companies-- some of them using, you know, 30-year-old technology-- and
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three days later, a settlement occurs. well, if all of that were on a blockchain, there would be no three-day delay. the payment and the settlement is the same activity. so, it would happen instantly and in a secure way. so, that's either going to disintermediate those players, or, if those players are smart, they'll embrace this technology to speed up the whole metabolism of the financial industry. >> sreenivasan: beyond upending financial transactions, tapscott imagines a future where a blockchain could be used to transfer any kind of asset, from a user's personal data to intellectual property. some of that has already begun. this is consensys, a technology start-up in brooklyn, new york. joseph lubin founded consensys and helped develop the ethereum blockchain, the second biggest blockchain in the world after bitcoin. ethereum launched in 2015. >> ethereum is by far the most powerful blockchain platform out there. it has the most expressive
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programming language. >> sreenivasan: meaning ethereum can do something pretty radical: it allows for what are known as "smart contracts" to be built into the code, so it can also transfer a set of instructions or conditions. >> it's kind of like what it sounds like; it's a contract that self-executes and it has a payment system built into it, sort of like a contract that has built-in lawyers and governments and a bank account. >> sreenivasan: at consensys, one project applies this idea to music. >> click "buy album." >> sreenivasan: jesse grushack is the founder of ujo, a music platform for artists to distribute their music through the blockchain. artists decide what price to sell their music and pocket more from their intellectual property. >> we're looking at how to make the music industry more efficient, but, at the end of the day, our top level goal is to get artists paid more for their work and for all their creative content. >> sreenivasan: but ujo is not yet easy to use. there's only one album on the platform, and it requires users to buy music with ether, the cryptocurrency used on the ethereum blockchain. >> so, the blockchain is still
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kind of in its infancy right now. it's still in kind of the netscape phase, really, of the internet where, you know, you don't have that a.o.l., you don't have that landing page that just opens the world up to you. it's still a little nerdy, it's still a little technical, but we're working really hard to kind of make that usable, make the user experience seamless because really this technology we want to be in the hands of everyone. >> sreenivasan: when he said, "a little nerdy," he wasn't kidding. in order to get an idea, i went out and bought some crypto-currencies online, and the process was not easy. certainly not as easy as going to the bank to get cash or calling a stockbroker to buy a stock. but then, using my first email account in the early '90s, that wasn't easy, either. >> i think we're in 1994. and in '94, we had the internet, and most people were using it for a single application: email. and that's kind of like bitcoin is today. the application is called a currency, but we're starting to see the rise of the web as we did in '94-- a general purpose platform for building
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applications that changed many, many industries. >> sreenivasan: you've literally written the book on the blockchain. how do you know that this is actually working, that people are believing in this, investing in this, understanding the potential in this? >> in every single industry now, companies are starting to implement pilots to explore how this technology can change their operations. >> sreenivasan: tapscott points to retailer walmart, which has done a pilot using a blockchain to track food safety; and manufacturer foxconn, which is experimenting with using a blockchain to track its supply chain. still, this blockchain believer acknowledges the technology has a lot left to prove. there's several critics out there that kind of look at this and say, "this is like tulip mania. this cryptocurrency stuff, this is a bubble bigger than i've ever seen before." there's a bunch of people that don't know a thing about what's going on that just want to see something go up. >> well, for sure, there's a hype cycle that we're into now. but the biggest impact will be
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that blockchain itself is going to change the fundamental operations of banks, of retail companies, of supply chains of manufacturing companies, of governments, and of every institution in society. >> schifrin: finally from us, the houston astros played at home today. it was their first home game since hurricane harvey. before the doubleheader against the new york mets, there was a moment of silence, and houston mayor sylvester turner threw out the first pitch. as it happens, the starting pitcher for the mets was matt harvey. but this is the symbol the team wanted as today's lasting image. a new logo. houston strong. as manager a.j. hinch told the crowd, and the city, "stay strong. be strong. we appreciate every one of you." tomorrow on this broadcast, turning hawaii's waves into electricity.
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and, restoring rome's colosseum. for all of us at pbs newshour weekend, i'm nick schifrin. good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:
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bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter, in memory of abby m. o'neill. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. station from viewers like you. thank you.
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riley: have you ever wondered what goes into an award-worthy performance? "how am i supposed to do this? what..." variety studio invites you to listen in on intimate conversations between today's a-list acting talents. but if you go and approach it with any degree of hesitation, you're doomed! with viola davis and tom hanks, molly shannon and emma stone, casey affleck and nicole kidman, and jeff bridges and matthew mcconaughey. welcome to "variety studio actors on actors." i'm jenelle riley. over the next hour, we'll feature some of the most buzzed-about performances seen on film this year. first up, highly decorated actors viola davis and tom hanks are at the center of two all-american stories. then a pair with comedic roots, molly shannon and emma stone, captivate in genre-bending turns.