captioning sponsored baswnet >> sreen: on this edition for sunday, march 11: president trump in pennsylvania, touting his plnos on trade and h korea. also, the story of a couple who saved so much money, they stopped working in their early thirties. and, a tour of one of the world's largest modern art shows. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> "pbs newshour weekend" is made possible by: 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. salind p. walter barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided omy mutual of america-- designing cued 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 bio contrib to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.is from the wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. top trump administration ofecials said today that th will be no concessions to north eerea in the lead-up to a potential historicng between president trump and kim jong-un. c.i.a. director mike pompeo outlined four conditions that north korea would need to accept prior to any meeting with president trump. >> he can't conduct nuclear testing. he's got to stop tg missile testat he has been hard at in the past years. he's got to continue to allow us to perform our militarily necessary exercises on the

peninsula and then he's to make sure he leaves on the table the arscussion for denucation. >> sreenivasan: but president obama's foreign policy advisor ben rhodes is concerned the trump administration is not prepared for such negotiations, saying the state department is anderstaffed and the u.s. has not yet appointembassador to south korea. >> there's no place in the world more volatile thanhe korean peninsula. you cannot just approach this like a reality show.o this has something where you bring in the experts, you invest in the same type of capabilities in our government that we've seen this adstration turn their back on: science and diplomacy. >> sreenivasanpresident trump, who would be the first sitting u.s. president to meet with a north korean leader since the ndountry was f in the 1940's, was optimistic at a political rally in pennsylvaniat last n >> i think they want to make peace, i think it is time. and i thinwe've shown great strength, i think that's also important, right? ( cheering ) >> sreenasan: trump spoke at the rally outside of pittsburgh to help republican rick saccone ahead of tuesday's special congressional election there. china issued a new warning that there would be no winners in a

trade r with the u.s. and it would only bring disaster to the world economy. these latest remarks are from china's commce minister. in less than two weeks, tariffs of 25% on steel and % on aluminum go into effect. china and several other asian countries are threatening tariffs of their own. the white house already made exemptions for canada and mexico. while the european union is negotiating for simar treatment, president trump had a warning for e.u. leaders, singling out e.u. carmakers during a rally outside of pittsburgh last evening. >> open up the barriers and get rid of your tariffs and if you don't do that, we're gonna tax mercedes benz. we're going to tax b.m.w. >> sreenivasan: but pushback fry the president's own pa continues. speaking on nbc's "meet the enpress" today, republicanor jeff flake of arizona objected to how the president is rolling out thtariffs. >> that's an awful situation to be where one person is basically deciding, you know, tariffs go up or down depending on what kind of behavior.me

is it ing else he doesn't like. it's just uh, it's not the wayo tosiness. for more analysis on all of the political news of the week, i'm joined now by newshour weekend special correspondent jeff grnfield. >> sreenivasan: jeff, a let's start with north koe a, probably st consequential bit of news this week. you say it is classically trumpian, explain. p trumlieves he is a master negotiator, back in the eighties he wanted to be able to negotiate nuclear arms withe th soviet union, he thinks hisca personalitwipe away all of the past by dispensing pesky details about, you know, nuance and diplomacy, and just by force of personality create this reality. so when you look -- you look at hea did, sort of taking of an inch and immediately making it a mile,i yeahll meet with him, contrast that with the last -- when nixon in 1971 said i am going to go to china. nixon had been thinking abut this for years. he had written about it and so

in this case, what you. >> is sumpaying, again, a classic trump notion, i alone can fix this. that's a line from his acceptance speech and on that score, he might have a point, maybe you need to do this thing that any other diplomatic notiol say this is ridiculous, if it results in lessening then tens that peninsula he will get credit for it. >> sreenivasan: speaking of things that haven't happened too many times before the president going against his o par, especially on an issue like tariffs, which is the other kind of big story this week. >> once again, donald trump has been pouding away at the ntion that this is all a zero sumit games not win-win. either we win or lose, and we have been played by ckers by these other countries. we have not had a president since hubert hoover who hasn't been a freed trader butonce again he has this image of aner an where steel and coal can be big again, even though they have been declining literally for decades. i would also suggest it is not

entirely coindental, this wa announced a few days before a special election in western western pennsylvania, where steel is a majorssue. >> sreenivasan: let's talk about that special election. how important is it? >> substantively, it may not be that important. the dirict is going to be withdrawn, this is a special election, they are going to do it again innovember. the psychological impact of a atic win in a district that trump carried by 20 points, there i think it matters. there is an olsaying that when we moved the 16th guillotine every monarch in europe reached for their throat and the analogy being a lot of endangered tepublicans if they see tha seat go down may think about maybe it is time to retire. it is oing to send tremors arrough an already nervous republican. >> sreenivasan: the comments the president made last night when his dirtoectour, maxine walters, listen. >> max seen walters, a very low

iq individual, ever see her? >> sreenivasan: the president has criticized lots of people, called lots of people lots of different types of names but wh you look back at the history of his relationship with ismen and people of color, th seems to fit a larger pattern. >> he got very prominent about four or five years ago by claiming that he had poof that barack obama was born in kenya, not in the united states, no if you don't hear a racial list dog whistle in that you are just not listening or the mexican judge who s going to judge him unfairly, who ironically ruled in his favor or the whole american experience of blacks is nothing but failure andrime, and i think you have to take that in the context of how he talks and realize that there is a lens through which he sees people of color that is very noticeable and i tnk those who like to brush it aside i think are in denial. >> jeff greenfield, thanks so much.

>> >> th sreenivasan: in china today, lawmakers cleareway for president xi jinping to rule that country indefinitely. the national people's ngress endment that endedtutional presidentialoferm limits. he nearly 3,000 delegates, only two voted against there amendment and abstained. the vote overturns term limits put in place back in 1982 tor prevent anotctatorship following mao zedong's cultural revolution. british health authorities found traces of nerve agent at and restaurant pub. these were locations visited by russian double agent sergei skripal and his daughter last week when they were poisoned. they are telling anyone who may have visited either location to take precautions like washing their clothes and other possessions. russia convicted skripal of sp6.ng for britain back in 2 he moved to england after being freed in a 2010 spy swap. cubans are at the polls today for a vote that will set the stage for the post-castro era. in cuba's one-party system, voters are merely asked to endorse a list of candidat for

national and local assemblies. next month, the national assembly will vote on ao replacement 86-year-old raul castro, who will likely remain a top communist party leader. cuba's current first vice president miguel diaz-canel is expected to take over as president. it will be the cuban revolution in 1959 that neither castro brother will hold the presidency. in france today, the leader of the far-right national front party marine le pen proposed changing the party's name to" national rally" in a bid to remake the party. at its two-day congress, the r rty also officially severed ties with its fojean-marie le pen, marine's father. appeared yesterday with president trump's former chief strategist steve bannon. he rallied members by taking shots at the media, warning of the dangers of globalism and urging members to embr criticism of their anti- immigrant views. >> let them call you a racist,yo let them calxenophobes, let them call you nativist.

r.wear it as a badge of ho >> sreenivasan: marine le pen has been working to rebrand her party nce her failed presidential campaign last year. >> sreenivasli: for many fa, saving money is a struggle. the problem is so severe, the federal reserve found the average american saves only about 3% of their income, and nearly half of u.s. households can't come up with $400 to cover an emergency without borrowing or selling someting. tonight, we are introducing youm to ay who took the power of saving to a whole new level. this working couple in boston had a comfortable, upper-middle class lifestyle, and then made a drastic change. they scrimped and saved so much money, that in their early thirties, ey were able to stop working altogether. "newshour weekend's" christopher boer reports. >> reporter: so is this a typical monday, tuesday,

weekday? >> yes, yes, yes, we try to get outside everyday. and we really do, with the rare exceptions of really hvy rain. >> reporter: 34-year-oldd elizabeth willames, her husband nate, and their two daughters, live in a home on 66 acres in central vermont. and spending a weekday hiking around is vast departure from the 9 to 5 cubicle jobs thatnd thameser husband had just three years ago. >> this is where we areth happiest is where we are most at peace. and so we thought,nstead of running away to the woods every weekend, we should really just move to the woods. >> reporter: just live in the woods? >> just be there all the time. >> reporter: thames is the author of a new book called" meet the frugalwoods." it takes its name from the blog she's been writing since the spring of 2014. it was around that time that thames and her husband nate began to reconsider life choiced they had they were very comfortably living in cambridge, masizsachusetts, eth working as a fundraiser for a public media station, nate as a software engineer.

>> we were sitting in a coffee shop and i was looking at ourec reon in the mirror of this coffee shop, and i was wearing i think like $200 leather boots. and my husband is wearing like a hipster outfit and he's got a hipster beard. and i was thinking who are these people? how have we gotten to this place where we used to live in a basement apartment and really sort of scrimp by but we've been able to buy a home and we'd reached that sort of very pivotal financial goal. and then we just coasted. >> reporter: the couple, then childless, knew they were extremely fortunate. they had graduated debt-free from a state university, and both found wl-paying jobs that allowed a more-than-comfortable lifestyle. they knew they were better off financially than the vastic majority of ams. but that day, they decided to radically changeliheir lives and as cheaply as possible. the idea was to save as much tney as they could in ord quit their jobs, leave the boston area, and move to the woods. >> my husband asked me, "when

are you happiest?" and i said, "i'm happiest i'm out hiking in the woods, you know, obviouslthat's when i'm happiest." and he said, "why are we living in the city? why are we spendingll this moy on this lifestyle that is not really bringing us that high level of contentment." >> reporter: before they started, they were already saving a lot, about 40% of their take home pay. >> i've always been a frugal person and i've always wanted to be financially comfortable and safe and stable and to have a good emergency fund builup. but going from 42% to, you know, 70%, 80%, that is a question of holistic transformation. so it's not just well, "i'm going to sort of cut out one restaurant meal a week." we're not eating out at all ever again. >> reporter: saying no to restaurants was just the ginning. they pledged to buy no new clothes. they learned to cut each other's hair. they even occasionally searched through dumpsters, taking home everything stemware. coats to in 2014, they managed to save 71% of their ince. o

how does the jsaving money translate for people who don't necessarily have the same financial situation that you and your husband were in? >> i am very aware that my frugality is elective and there's so much privilege that goes into choosing your lifestyle whatever it is. i think it's very important for me to recognize that the way in which i experience frugality is not going to be the way in which everyone experiences it. >> reporter: do you see a reality where you could achieve the same things without the privilege that was kind of ingrained to your starting point? >> i come from a verstable loving middle class family not wealthy. i didn't inherit any money, but certainly came from a very privileged upbringing and that i went to excellent public schools you know lived in a safe neighborhood had a loving parents. and i think it would be very myopic to say oh you know my success is due to my own good decisions. i don't believe that at all. >> reporter: although the thames's don't disclose hard numbers about their income or net worth, they do blog abou

how much they spend. tgch month they catalogue their expenses: from me and property taxes, to groceries, to the occasional splurge on beer. and for items they haven't been willing to give up, like seltzer water, they've found workarounds. an i went on the internet and was, like, "has yone attached a big tank to a seltzerd machine," anit turned out that people had! >> reporter: the thames's found that a 20-pound co2 tank could produce a liter of seltzer for less than a penny. why the decision to share this with the world? >> "frugalwoods" began really for myself just as a way to sort of articulate our thinking and explain to our family and friends here's what we're t ing. and thenew into this much broader mission of reaching people. and i can share with people what i've learned. i'm not a financial expert. you know, i don't have a degree in finance. i'm not a rtified financial planner but i think i have a unique and very personal approach to how to manage money. >> reporter: unique and personal approaches to manage money are not hard to find on the

internet "frugalwoods" is part of a robust and varied online community advocating spending less to retire early. but what they all have in commo is tknowledge you need some money to live on. >> the snow cave has gotten i snow i think... >> reporter: less than three years aftethat reflective moment in a coffee shop, the thames's moved to this home in central vermont. the full-time transition to life in the woods is made possible, in part, by being able to rent out their house in cambridge for a premium, a calculation spell out in detail on "frugalwoods." thames gave birth to their second daughter r,rlier this ynd believes that parenthood, particularly for stay-at-home parents like them, can be done for less than you might think. >> the marketing is targeted right at new parents. you know you and i had those moments where i thought i will spend anything right to help my child to help my child sleep eat learn grow develop and since i alady have this frugal mindset and enshrined i was able to step back and say no i know that nothing i buy is actually going

to yieldhe desired result. all of our daughter's things are used. so the furniture, the othing, the shoes, the coats, the boots, it's all used. >> reporter: though he says he doesn't have to, nate chooses to continue to work for a political non-profit from their home in vermont. the job also pvides health insurance for the family. although elizabeth has left her fundraising job, she prefers to say she is "financially independent," as opposed to retired. inact, she earns money fro her blog, and now her book, too. >> retirement evokes this idea of sort of doing nothing and laying around on a beach which you know which would be nice. but my husband i are both people who ve doing and love workinav and love hg projects. being financially independent means that we do not have to i woorder to live and eat and feed our children. but we do work that we're passionate about.

>> sreenivasan: this week in new york city, the art world convened for the armory show, ie of the biggest art fai the world. we took a quick tour to learn more about some of the fais highest profile pieces, which reflect the issues of the day. the edge of manhattan's west side highway is a 24 foot tall mural by the french artist j.r. he'snown for enormous portraits displayed in public. this one is a mix of the faces of syrian refugees he photographed in jordan, superimposed over archival images of immigrants whoame to ellis island. j.r.'s piece is called "socl e," and it's the first thing 65,000 visitors see likely to e at this year's armory show. nearly 200 galleries from dozens of countries on the hudson river to show off their best and brightest artists. the fair draws curators and art enthusiasts from around the world. i spoke with the art fair's executive director nicole barry. so tell me a little bit about

this. what's the reaction to this piece by j.r. been? >> he's really focusing on obviously topics that are relevant to the cultural aimate. an art fair don't make any political statements but we-- part of the mission of this art fair is and has been since its founding 24 years ago is to showcase work that's being created now. >> sreenivasan: so the fair is s nd of a snapshot of what is on the mind of artight now? >> absolutely, absolutely. we ie have curated sections, large scale-- the j.r.ce is part of that large scale work as is a piece right here by tara donovan. >> sreenivasan: brooklyn-based artist tara donovan arranged tens of thousands of plastic tubeigs from feet tall down to a few inches. s tara donovan is taking a utilitarian product. they are just plastic tube you might put a poster in or something. >> sreenivasan: okay. >> and she creates this wonderful ndscape, luminous landscape. so by creating different sizes and woing with the lights it's almost like-- >> sreenivasan: it feels like it's coming from e bottom. >> it feels like there's lights

coming from the bottom but that's the illusion that she's trying to create. someone-- i was walking someone aroundy esterday and tid it was almost like an iceberg. asch person comes with their own, their own ibout what it reminds them of. >> sreenivasan: the fair also features these chandeliers made with uranium glass, representing nations with nuclear energy, from japanese-australian artists ken and julia yonetani. this series of post-apocalyptic- esque paintings of women wearing gas masks from french artist claire tabout. in this performance piece, titled "my turn," new york-based artists alex schweder and ward shelley designed and built a 16-foot wheel, which they rotate and take turns sitting in. they call their work" performance architecture." for folks who don't think-- they might be intimidated by say,nc perforart. there's a giant wheel were guys literally sit in a chair and then they spin the wheel and they sit on the chher and spin thel.o you know howople make sense of that or how do people appreciate it? e shouldn't be afraid if they're going into a gallery or going to a museum. there are great docents inum

muor stepping in a booth at an art fair to ask. and the dealers will more oftenh not just start telling you about it because they love to share. thou i would ask questions. if it doesn't make sense then ask questions and m sbe it will mase or maybe it won't. and again, art is personal. >> sreenivasan: nicole barry is the first female executive director of the armory show. she took on the role last november. the previous directoafstepped downr allegations of sexual misconduct. how is the #metoo movement seen now through the art world?st >> female ar artists in general, but female artists have been creating work about theirnc personal experforever, if they've been oppressed or throughout their entire career or life as a woman. >> sreenivasan: what has social media done for this because i see pe le walking around, trying to instagram and trying to get a shot of everything, right? >> it's great because you can say, "oh i saw this great

piece," and there's still ecnothing like looking at e of art in person. you know we see things online. people are even selling tsengs online t days. bupet for me and i can't sak for everyonebut i do think that there's a really special ofexperience being in fron piece of art. the more art you're exposed to and that you see, the more you develop your eye. i would say that art-- art that moves you in some way, whether you like it or you really don't like is-- is successful. the whole reason i'm in this business-- i've always said i work for a fair and it's a commercial entity, but if i if t ever doesn't become abo art, then i'm out. >> sreenivasan: all right, orcole barry, thanks so much your time >> thank you so much, was a pleasure chatting with you. >>iv srean: read director ava duvernay's picks for must- see movies by black directors on our website, pbs.org/newshour. tomorrow on the "newshour," more analysis on that special election in pennsylvania that could be a test of democratic enthusiasm ahead of the dterms.

that's all for this edition of" pbs newshour weekend." i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.g >> pbs newshour weend is made possible by: 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 barba hope zuckerberg. ro corporate funding isded by mutual of america-- iddesigning customized indl and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pb

station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪

[ wind rushing ] macdonald: do you remember when you were a kid, the day before your birthday, you couldn't sleep because you knew something special was coming? it's a little bit like that, crossed with the thought rrthat maybe, you know, to there'll be a hurricane, you know, the weather's going to change, and things are going to get really serious. because you jug know that life's go change when t goshawk arrives. ♪♪ 10 yeaud ago, my father diednly. ♪♪ stricken with grief, i fled from humanity. i ran towards things of death and difficulty -- spooky, pale-eyed feathered ghosts that lived and killed in woodland thickets. ♪♪