captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: exanother cabinet secretar. david shulkin is out, as president trump names white house physician ronny jackson to head veterans affairs. then, in his first trip outside of north korea since becoming des leader, kim jong-un meets with china's presi in beijing. plus, the global risk of over-bi prescribing anics. why the rise in drug treatment all over the world threatens the spread of superbugs. and, syrians find peace in scotland. how a small group of refugees running from war are building a new life on the isle of bute. >> that feeling of no fear, that aves them within a few weeks,

you can see it in their faces, in their eyes. n woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbsshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf raway. >> consumer cellular. >> entertainment studios. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skoloundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org.>>

upported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support these institutionsnd >>ith the ongoing support >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs yostation from viewers lik thank you. >> woodruff: president trump has fired his secretary of veterans affairs, david shulkin. he had faced criticism over travel expenses and poor care at v.a. health centers. the president tweeted thisin evthat he is nominating the white house physician,

admiral ronny johnson, to be the new secretary. for more on this breaking story, i'm joined now by lin of the "washington post." lisa, thank you for joining us. we just learned about this just about halfatn hour ago. o we know about what problems had arisen with secretary shulkin? >> so, judy, this ousting of dr. shulkin was widely expected. it had been expected for weeks because while dr shulkin had been a favorite cabinet member of the president's for many, many months, he fell out of favor after an insctor general report criticized a trip that he took tourope that-- that was lavish, that involved his roperting of a gift of imp wimbledon tickets. and then dr. shulkin did himself no favors by b pushingack hard against the report, and also by going to the press repeatedly and talking about an insurrection that was afoot inside v.a.sphoz oust him over his policy differences on

private care for veterans. so that's really what tipped the scales for dr. shulkin. >> woodruff: now, he had been, if i remember correctly, the only holdover from the obama administration and i think we have been reading that he and the president had developed a good relationship. >> they had. in fact, a number oagf montho, the president, who famously says, "yoiu'reed" at the oval office at an appearance said, "oh, we'll never say that about our david," meaning secretary shulkin. but thissi prent is volatile often in his opinions of who serves him, and dr. shulkin, by w, was aunts, you kno very, very competent former hospital administrator who had run big hospital system. but when you fall out of favor with the presidentit is hrd to get your footing back. and that's what happened here. >> woodruff: and just quickly what, do we been dr. ronny

jackson. >> right. the choice of dr jackson was, really, i think, a surprise to most of us. there were-- the people who the president was consider, the names were tightly held. we know that jackson is a rar admiral and the president really likes people in the military.nc it's actuallylear, though, whether he-- hs still on active duty, so the question is will he retire? beuse v.a. ailian job. will he retire? or will he seek a waiver as former national security adviser h.r. mcmaster did, from the congress to continue serving in un active-duty capacity. he has not rn a large organization likv.a. few peple have. it's 370,000 employees. and the other thing we don't know about admiral jackson are his views on privatization of v.a., which i think is kind of the biggest ho-button policy issue now that is really under

debate, which is how much private care should veterans in the system be allowed to seekid outhe system? >> woodruff: well, a number of questions which we'll all be seeking answers again, this news just broke within the hour. lisa rein with "the washington post." thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in another majorha development, ibeen rumored for days. now, it is confirmed. kim and xi have met. the leaders of china and north korea held an unofficial summit this week, but they waited until today to announce it to the world. it was a high-stakes visit shrouded in secrecy. inside beijing's great hall of the people, china's president xi jinping and north korea'sim leaderong-un came face to face for the first time. speculation began monday, when video surfaced of an armored ngreen train traveling frth korea to china, but only after

the train left on tuesday, did china's state tv broadcastim es of kim meeting with xi and other senior officials. north korea made its own announcement. >> ( translated ): an historical event that elevates north korea- chinese relations to higher leve >> woodruff: this was kim'snt first e abroad since he became north korea's supreme leader in 2011. and, his state-controlled media hail it as a milestone. >> ( translated ): dear supreme leader said that he wants to meet president xi jinping and other chinese comrades more often. >> woodruff: china has long been north korea's ally and patn, but tensions mounted as kim built a nuclear arsenal and tested missiles, against beijing's warnings. during the visit, though, xi and kim toasted the friendship between their countries. moreover, chinese state news quoted kim as saying, "if south

korea and the united s respond with good will, the issue of the denuclearization of the korean peninsula can reach resolution."al gein said xi applauded kim for, "promising chin the situation," and offered to help. >> ( translat): president xigh hilighted that china will ue with its constructive role, and stands ready to work with all parties, including north korea. woodruff: the next stop on kim's diplomatic tour is a meeting with south korea's ssesident moon jae-in next month, and then-- ly-- with president trump in may. mr. trump welcomed t prospect on twitter today. he said, "now there is a good s ance that kim jong-un will do what is right for ople and for humanity. look forward to our meeting!" in japan, prime nister shinzo abe said today the u.s. must address not just north korea's long-range missiles, but shorter-range missiles that can

reach japan. he also warned north korea to keep any promises it makes. >> ( translated ): what's important is not dialogue for dialogue's sake, but to achieve nuclear and missile diantling in a completely verifiable and irreversible way. >> woodruff: but the north's watest "concrete action" is cause for concern. satellite pictures show increased activity at anme expeal nuclear reactor site. and, according to reports,he anreactor may have resumed producing plutonium that can be used in nuclear weapons. we will look more in-depth at kim's meeting with xi, right after the news summary. in the day's other news, the s u.s. ath korea have reached a new trade agreement, after president trump said the existing deal was a job killer. tit is widely reported th new version will double u.s. autoxports to south korea. in turn, the south is exempted from the psident's 25% tariffs

u steel, but it must limit steel exports to t. poland signed a major de today to buy u.s. "patriot" missile defense systems, to counter russia. the agreement is worth nearly $5 billion, and it comes as wars is modernizing its military. overall, it is poland's largest weapons deal in nearly 30 years. in russia, fgs flew at half- staff on a national day of mourning for the victims of ag siberian shoppll fire. officials say 64 people died, many of them children. the first funerals were held today in the city of kemerovo. at one service, mourners gathered around the coffins of a grandmother and her two grandchildren. in moscow, people attended a separate memorial, and demanded justice. >> ( translated ): the guilty st be found, no matter what, for the simple purpose that this must never happen again.

so that money would not be able to buy everything. life is not for sale. oh lord, may the lord save us. >> woodruff: as the investigation continues,of cials now say a short circuit may have started the fire. they also say emergency exits were locd. several mall employees have been arrested and charged. back in this cntry, a federal judge says a lawsuit accusing president trump of violating the constitution's emolunts clause may go to trial. maryland and the district columbia allege that the president has received improper payments from foreign governments, through his d.c. hotel. there have been several similar suits, but this is the first one allowed to proceed. president trump toy went after a former supreme court justice, john paul stevens, who called for repealing the second amendment, arguing it would

clear the way for gun control. in response, mr. trump tweeted that "the second amendment will never be repealed!" he went on to say that republicans "must always hold the supreme court!" facebook is changing its privacy options. that is after a consulting firm affiliated with the trump campaign accessed and used datar 50 million facebook users.ci the media giant says that users will be better ablepr to navigatacy and security settings, and see the data that is beingl athered. on wreet, stocks had a choppy day. w jones industrial avera lost nine points to close at 23,848. thnasdaq fell 59 points, a the s&p 500 slipped seven. and, the labrador retriever is still america's top dog.d labs le american kennel club's popularity rankings for the 27th straight year, followed

by german shepherds and golden retrievers. the french bulldog has surged to urth. it is up more than 70 slots from 20 years ago. still to come on the newshour: what we should read into the meeting between kim jong-un and xi jinping. the supreme court takes on political gerrymandering. egyptians, facing a decling economy, head to the polls. and, much more. >> woodruff: returning to our visit to china by north korea's leader kim jong-un. what should we make of the trip, and what does it mean for the u.s.? michael pillsbury has been advising the trump administration on korea. he is a senior fellow at the huds institute, where he directs the center for chinese strategy. and, michael green was senior director for asia on the national security council staff

during the george w. bush administration.se he is noor vice president for asia at the center for strategic and international studies, and a professor at georgetown university. and gentlemen, we thank you both for being her michael pillsbury, to you first. >> we know how this trip came about? would say the short answer is no. senior intelligence official in south korea told the press a couple of days ago, "this iot kim. this is his sister." very emrassing intelligence failure from south korea. a number of american china experts have tweeted out,igh officials on the train but no one else. so unless it'sxtremely sensitive american intelligence i would say the answer is no. however, we know a lot more about this now. we have the xi phone call with trump, the long excise statement, and communications with the chinese. i, myself, havtalked to the chinese about what happened. they claim they're trying to help us, and i think that's i think they are trying to help

president trump. >> woodruff: but they, clearly, extended the vitation, and kim accepted. michaelreen, what does the north korean leader get out of t thip, based on what we've been told? >> well, for now, it's quite a propaganda coup. kim jong-un is going to be able to tell his people after defying the u.n. with multiple missile tests, the leade of the world want to meet with him as the leader of a nuclear weapon stfae. just on the of it, he's gained quite a coup. what he will hope n getext is chinese help weakening the sanctions and pressure on him. whether or not the chinese help him will depend in part on how efs,ctively the united sta together with japan and south korea, keep the pressure on, and focus on getting something more concrete than what we've seen so far. >> woodruff: michael pillsbury, you agree, there are a number of things he gs from this? >> i do. in many ways, you have a clue at the end of the chinese statement, who chairman kim-- or

the young general kim he likes to be called, brought wih him. it is called the workers party united front party director. he is focused on wat mike green says, getting international credibility, making sure there ars no errors on thiip. from his point view, it came off very well. however, he does, in the chinese account of what happened, he does sournd vey junior. he's filled with praise for president xi. he responded that president xi said, "we need to have mor meetings. we need to have special envoys. we need to be exchanging letters. don't leave me out of the loop ever again," seemed to be president xi's meaning. and there's a kind of commitment-- >> woodruff: because he had been left out of the loop. >> yes, yes. oodruff: with this negotiation decision to meet-- >> as you know, the "economist"" magazine calls president xi the omost powerful man in thed but he doesn't know what's going on in his own backyard, they used the term "moral

commitment." the reason youhang general kis come to report is out of commitment to. this is a big triumph for president trump.r don't get, last thursday, he slapped the chinese in the face, almost, with the riffs, the announcement of the lawsuit, you know, the crackdown on technology. and four days later, we have the chinese helping us quite a bit with the ung general. >> woodruff: michael green, ah big triur president trump? and what does it mean for the prospect of the summit-- a summit? >> well, if there's a summit. while it's clear kim jong-un has gotten some prpaganda mileage out of this, it doe what we get. the only indication out of the meeting between xi and kim jong-un that there might be some intention to talk about nuclear weapons is the statement that the north korean leader apparena that he continues to favor denuclearization of the korean peninsula, which presighnt trump highd in his tweet. but anyone who has negotiated

with north korea-- and i have-- knows that when the north koreans say "denuclearization of the peninsula" they mean after the united states stop protecting south korea and japan. it's a nothing burger. >> that's a very good point n >> thereo indication i can see at all that there's any concrete move intended by north korea to do anything of significance. so the net round will be critical. >> woodruff: so, michael uillsbury, how do you see the prospectes for themit after this? you said you think it's good for president trump, but denuclearization, what does it mean? >> well, that's the pecise problem. there's a problem of who goes first, perhaps secretary of stateo pomuld go first, or ambassador nikki haley. that's what president clinton did. e>> woodruff: you mean tot with kim jong-un. >> to meet with the young general. but the issue of denuclearization is what i've been talk about a lot with the new trump advisers sjust what mike grn says. there are two different definitions of it.h it sound like, we hear it, it means he's going to get rid

of all his neps.th 's not his definition. his definition is he will make a judgment, and it could be as long as 10-20 years frowm no whether he feels secure because the americans have withdrawn comptely from south korea, canceled our treaty. you know, he's going to decide denuclearization. it's not clear if he can keep some nuclear weapons in 20 years. this is going to be the key sticking p and, frankly, i'm not one of those who believes we have to make aa dedline, you know, in mid-may. i'm for a postponement, if necessary, to get clarification on just this one word "denuclearization." what are we going to talk about? >> wdruff: michael green, that's not in the cards at this point. maybe years fr thinks about removing troops in some form or passion, but that's not in the near term at all, is it? >> no. and i've heard north korean diplomats, when i was in the white house, using this term in the u.n. and beijing, eventually we'll denuclearize, after you.

>> after we fereel se >> so mike makes an important point. if president trump goes into thisith no preparation and based on his tweet he said that kijong-un might do tright thing. but he's basing that on theen statabout-- quote, unote-- denuclearization the peninsula. it doesn't mean anything. an approach for president trump would be to have a series of preparatory meetings to find out what there, there is.ar otherstelling him get lower level talks and clarify, that's very good >> woodruff: meantime, you have reports of new activity at the reactor sites. a t of questions still. >> the summit would clearly be canceled, i think, if there's a provocation by north korea, a nuclear test or long-range missile test toward guam, something like that. that would clearly be a deal breaker. >> woodruff: we will be watching it all. >> and know you will. michael pillsbury, tchael greenk you both. >> thank you. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: the supreme court delved once again into a high- stakes, long-running pal debate today: what is and isn't allowed, when lawmakers draw electoral districts. jeffrey brown explores the legas dividing l >> brown: in october, the court heard a case from wisconsin,e' arguing the stpolitical map had been unconstitutionallyv redrawn to republicans. today, another case, another state, with a claim th maryland district was redrawn to help democrats. as always, marcia coyle, chief washington correspondent for the "national law journal," was in the courtroom for the arguments. welcome back, first. >> thanks, jeff. >> brown: and first this experiment, "extreme party gerrymandering." we know poitics is always involved. >> absolutely. >> woodruff: the question is how far can you go? >> that's the exact question, and, also, how do you measure

it? what kind of toast orndard do you use to root it out. >> brown: tell bus the marylandase. >> back 2013 air, group of republican voters filed a lawsuit claiming tht the democratic maryland general e assembly haged in a partisan gerrymander when it drew the district lines for the sixth congressional district. the general assembly had basically flippeit from a safe republican district to a democratic dittrict. these ers claimed that that was a violation of their fir amendment rights because they were singled out and retaliated against because of their voting views. a lowero federalrt would not issue an injeunches,mporary injunction, blocking that map of th, sixth distrid the voters brought that case to the supreme court. >> brown: and as i said, theco t heard this earlier case in wisconsin. the legal argument in maryland wathe first amndment, different from wisconsin. >> right.

in the wisconsin case,e th exwhornlings did win after a trial had based their claim on the equal protection clause. they said that the state legislature had cracked and packed devoocratis in order to dilute their effectiveness. that was a violation of the equal protection of law. >> brown: okay, so what did you hear today in the court? >> well, basical, i think there were three things. almost immediately off the bat, justice ginsberg and justice kennedy wondered is it too la to be dealing with this because of the november midterm elections? anything the court decided in favor of these voters, was the time enough for the lower court to see that a new map could be adopt glbd becae they don't want to decide things that are moot? >> that's right. and justice kennedy pointed out that if they did that, wouldn't -- wouldn't the court be upsetting settled exp disrupting the election process? so that was, obviously, very much on theirn mids and might

portend a narrow ruling if enough justices feel strongly that they don't want to down that road. the bulk of the arguments really focused on the legal theory here, the airstndment. jeff, as you know, in 2004, court kind ofhrew up its hands about partisan gerrymandering saying we can't come up with a test, a standard that courts can use. >> brown: it's interesting, it's one of these things that's been around forever but the court has never been able to-- never decided it. >> right, exactly. ryd when the court took the wisconsin and the nd case, it sort of indicated they were willing to try again to find is it the first amendment? justice alito was skeptical. he said that he felt unr that legal theory, a legislature would never be able to redistrict, if there was just a trifle bit of partisanship, there could be a constitutional violation. justice kennedy seemed a little more open to it. in fact, he said he felt that, you knobew, this mighhe kind

of case where the first amendment does fit. so you came ay thinking, well, you know, here we go again. they seem decided unsure as to whether the first amendment is the right teswnt. >> band the political implications are pentially major. >> absolutely. whatever the court decides, especially if it finds a test, could revamp how districts are drawn across the country. anit's als very important for your right to vote. i mean, if you liven a district that has been regeorgiad, its lines rejiggered so that the outcome i fore ortained are, you going to vote? do you feel your vote has any value? and i think that'st the oher big consideration here as to why the justices are loking at this. >> brown: they're very aware of the potential implications. >> they are, as well as the possibility that they could be opening the door to many partisan gerrymandering lawsuits. >> brown: all right, marcia coyle, as always, "national law

journal," thank you very much. >> my pleasure, jeff. >> woodruff: three days of voting ended today in egypt's presidential election. the outcome is not in doubt. president abdel fattah el-sissi ran with no real opposition. as hari sreenivassan reports, seven years after the uprising there, democracy is further from reach, amid economic and security problems. >> reporter: president al-sisica his ballot at one of the country's 13,000 polling stations, but his re-election was never really a question, and his lone opponent, mousads mostafa, h party that had endorsed sisi. ather opponents were intim to withdraw, or were arrested. khaled ali is an attorney who'd dropped out of the running. >> ( translated ): all these indicators were pointing towards planned intentions to poison and corrupt the entire operation,va

and to ecuate it from its presumed demratic meaning. >> reporter: dozens of opposition figures and seven political parties called for an ection boycott. turnout, a key metric for sisi, was low. itstill, sisi has strong pal support, at least in parliamento than 80% of its members support him. and, relations with israel a the united states are firm; president trump welcomed him to the white house st spring. political science professor dalia fahmy specializes in the middle eas >> the future of u.s.-egyptian relations is going to have to take into account a couple of things. will we really take seriously the democratic aspirations of the egyptian people, which ould lead to further stability? or will we rethink u.s. strategy toward egypt or u.s. strategy toward the region as a whole? >> reporter: in 2013, sisi ousted then-president mohammed morsi, egyprst democratically-elected president, after the 2011 uprising that deposed long-time

leader hosni mubarak. a year later, sisi won more thaf 96% he vote. sisi has led a harsh security crackdown, imprisoning thousands. sisi has gone after free expression, civil society and rivals both in the political and military realm, says fahmy. >> instead of building schools and other infrastructure projects, he's had to build 16on new pr he's had a clampdown on media both domestic and international. >> reporter: but sisi's popularity has been rt by a bad economy. strict economic reforms were enacted in 2016 to avoid insolvency. inflation skyrocketed, with food prices rising by 30%. and while unemployme is around 11%, almost 80% of those without jobs are young people. all this as sisi prosecutes a war with an isis-affiliated insurgency in the sinai peninsula. armed groups there have killed mo than 700 civilians and least 1,000 security forces

since 2014. in 2015, militants blew up a russian civilian airliner, killing more than to signal that the u.s. inministration believes it needs to play an increrole in the region because egy cannot secure the region for itself. >> reporter: the official results of the election will be announced monday. for the pbs newshour, i am harii srsan. >> woodruff: and now for the second part of my wide-ranging interview with former president

jimmy carter. we spoke in new york, of the release of his latest book, "faith: a journey for all." i asked him about how his own fah has been tested over t years-- most recently when doctors discovered four spots of cancer in his brain. >> i was really surprised when e i only had two or three weeks to live. and i was perfectly at ease with it. i was prared to have the en of my life come, an i was infected in a very beneficial way with just an aofppreciation what my life had been. and, luckily, they treated my brain with rdiation, an then i got a new treatment that enhanced mmmune system. and only about a third of the people respond favorably to that kind of treatment, but i was one of those one-third, so i was very lucky. >> woodruff: did youh get you through that time? >> i think so. i'veeen religious all my life, i guess. and i thi that enhanced my

ability to accommodate the prospect of death. >> woodruff: president carter, there's such a high level of rylarization in this cou right now, and you write about it in the book. it's rural versus urban. it's left versus right. red versus blue. do you think there's a way to get beyond this? >> i think a lot of is due to the massive influx of money into the campaigns. when i ran against gerald ford, president of the united states then, you know hoa much money wesed for the general elections? zero. i would like to see the mon aspect to elections reduced in this country dramatically. >> woodruff: the supreme cour though, has said money is speech. >> i don't have much confidence in the supreme courtng this. but one thing that the supreme court is cosidering that would help is to do away with the gerrymandering. that is the acquisition of power by either the republican or democratic party within a state. >> woodruff: i talk to peoplou

all the country who say-- and i'm sure you hear it-- that they feel that members of families can't even talk among themselveses about american politics. hat's true. i think that massive use of money and t power that goes to the people who give a lot of money to a candidate has resulted in this vast disparity in income in america, and has resulted in the polarization, more than any other single factor. druff: and corrupted politics? >> i think it's corrupted in a wai althoughn't say against the law, because the law as established by the supremet, cos the supreme court seems to be eager to see rich people become more powerful and to see corporations become more powerfulhan individualsth their-- with their previous rulings. so i think withhe presidentially constituted supreme court, there's very little chance we'll see money removed from politics.

>> woodruff: president carter, the recent school-- terrible school shooting in parkland, florida, this follows a string of other horrible incidents in schools around ourountry. now we see these young people, high school students, leading the way saying ty're not going to rest until something changes and yet, the laws don't seem to change. congss has not responded. do you think something could be different this time?>> do. i think they've already shownab theiity to change legislation in florida. i think th oe rousif young people all over the country, which they did this past weekend, is a good indication that they'll have a permanent-- more permanent effect on the n.r.a.'s false premises. >> woodruff: but the n.r.a.en harmous influence. you write about it in the book. you've dealt with it for years you really believe that can be

>> i don't have much confidence in it, but i think if anybody can do it, these you if they stick with it, i think the n.r.a. is facing the greatest challenge it has in th5 lastr 20 years. >> woodruff: president carter you have been marry to the same woman for, i think, 72 years? is that right? >> almost i 73,n july. >> rosalyn carter. how do you process the stories in recent weeks and months about women who allege either affairs with president tump or sexual harassment by president trump? >> well, i think that president trump's solid basof support is going to be unshaken by it. for many people, perhaps marginal groups, enough to sway the elction in 218 and 2020 will be affected adversely against trump because of these reports of multiple women--r

think 17 18 women-- i've forgotten how many-- who have alleged previous sexual escapades with presidump, even after he was married. so this is something that i regrettable, but the revelation of it i think has beeshaken off by most of his core supporters. >> woodruff: should it factor into how wessess the character, the performance of a president in office,n toow these kinds of things? >> i think itshould be factord in, yes. but i think for some of the marginal voters that mght sway the election toward democrats in 2018, i think-- i thi that might certainly be a major factor. i hope so. >> woodruff: you, of cou were the antidote to the nixon years. do you see a democrat outo whether uld be the jimmy carter of 2020?

>> of course, the jimmy carter was 2020 would be almost unidentifiable at this poie nt becacame out of nowhere. but i think there are some very good people on the horizon. joe biden is one of them,me fo vice president. and others i don't wat to start naming them, elizabeth warren ando others, could od presidents. >> woodruff: so you'll definitely vote democratic in 2020? >> of course. if i'm alive then. >> woodruff: president jimmy carter, thank you very much fowi talkin us. >> it was a pleasure. thank you. >> woodruff: since syria civil war began, the united nations says that 12 mvelion syrians een forced to leave their homes, with another 1.5 million expected to leave this year.

the recent bombardment of eastern ghouta hhlights the need for new sanctuaries. as malcolm brabant reports, this is being watched with concern on a scottish island where a sml syrian community has been warmly welcomed. and a warning: you may find some images in this story disturbing. >> reporter: a short ferry ride from scotland's west coast lies the isle of bute. once a flourishing vacation destination for workers from glasgow, the island's population has shrunk and its economy has withered, but the arrival of 24 syrian families is contributing to an atmosphere of regeneration. mounzer al darsani used to have a barber shop in damascus, and has become the first syrian to set up his own business on the island. others, including a bakery, are in the pipeline. >> the people vere are very, nice, very helpful.av

theyus a big help when weil came, and help us for everything. >> reporter: al darsani's client base is growing, thanks recommendations from customers like police officewhandrew wilsonapproves the decision to give the syrians sanctuary. nd i think it's a very positive thing for the is the island itself is predominantly an elderly community, so it's always good to get fresh, kind of, blood to the island. and mounzer, here, i've been coming here since he cam he's really good at his job as well. >> reporter: al darsani is proud that his work ethic is recognized in bute, but, speaking in his native arabic, expresses sadness that the island's hospitality has not been replicated elsewhere in europe. >> ( translated ): unfortunately, the europeanme

goves think the syrians are going to come and there will be an islamic takeover. we never thought about this. we never thought about this. actually, we are running from isis. we are running frothese groups to find safety, and so that wedr and our chilen can live in safety. >> reporter: just around the corner, a former builder from damascus is repaying what he sees as his debt to bute by volunteering in angela callahan's charity shop. ahmad asked us not to reveal his full identity, because he fears retribution against familyil members in syria. >> i am happy, i am very happy.l me and every f >> reporter: ahmad is taking english lessons, but language is proving difficult. >> ( translat no war and no airstrikes. but in syria, we ran from the war anairstrikes. en are very happy, our family is very happy here. there are no problems at all.e we ran from oblems and from bashar al asaad. t >> reporte latest images from eastern ghoutar underpin

ahma >> (ntranslatedi): we watch the news a lot. our heart is broken for r people in syria, from the airstrikes and the war. a lot of sad images. me and my children and my wife, have decided tstay in scotland. we will not return to syria. >> repter: angela callahan was instrumental in making the syrians welcome. after surviving breast cancer, she devoted her life to charity. any profits from her second-hand shop fund a food bank that serves the poorest islanders. >> i see tevision, the same as anybody else. i see the news at night. i go to my friends' houses, i listen to their stories, which mostly are horrifying, and i couldn't even imagine being there myself. and i just think, in coming to a place like this, where it's tranquil, stunning, people are nice, and that feeling of noar that leaves them within a

space of maybe a few weeks, you can see it in their faces, in their eym . a lot of te putting down roots, and i would say just about all of them. icey've settled down fanta they've all got friends, got people who come to their housese for cup of tea, like i do, quite often. >> reporter: most syrians were unwilling to talk because of fear that their families might be targeted. craft brewer aidan canavan is highly protective of the newcers. >> the problems came from e people of bute who had perceptions that they wouldn't be able to celebrate christmas, they wouldn't be able to eat bacon at school. all these rumors went around. none of them were true. it was just fabricated stories who went around. >> we live in a time of different cultures. >> reporter: peter atkins is a baptist minister. he believes bute offers opportunities for the syrians, but worries that like other islaers, they may struggle t find employment. with his jamaican heritage, atkins understands t complexities of integration. >> whatever you do, it takes time. the syrians are learning

english, they're chatty, you speak to them in the street, and all the signs are good. but at the same time, its a different situation from my grandparents, for example, cause they're refugees, they didn't intend to come here. this wasn't a life plan, thisti wasn't intal. and should the syrian situation become more positive in five or ten years, we wod expect that they would leave. so it's difficult to settle and makentegration plans with th context, although syria's not really giving us much cause for hope on that front. >> reporter: the goodwill towards fugees is unmistakable, but three years into the migration crisini the european remains deeply divided. former communist countries are resolutely refusing to take in any refugees. e.u. leaders are being asked to thrash out a common policy to handle fure influxes so that the burden is shared fairly. but the split is so profound

that some experts believe an s reement may be impossible. while he consolidas business, al darsani's heart and mind is never far from syria. >> ( translated ): for now, i am here. i am living my life normal and in safety. but i can't avoid the distressing scenes on television; the helpless situation of the syrian people. and the international community's complicity. ly, all humanity is lost. i simply ask the international community and anyone o think: if someone like this happened to you, would you accept it? >> reporter: there's nothing the le of bute can do to bring peace to syria, but individually, they are furthering the cause of human understanding.se >> they're part of my family, and i'm part of theiry family and tknow that. because calls me his sister, and he's my brother. there's my brother. >> reporter: life is complex for the syrians, but it must go on. syrian children are being born here, in peace, and as always,ed

imith their parents' hope that their future will be better. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabt, on the isle of bute. >> woodruff: now, the enormo benefits and significant perils of the recent upsurge in the availability of antibiotics around the world. lisa desjardins talks to science correspondent miles o'brien about the latest research. it's part of our weekly science series, "the leading edge." >> antibiotic resistance contributes to the df 700,000 people around the world each year. experts have predicted it will eclipse the number of people affected by cancer by 2050. one of the bigge causes is the overuse of antibiotics. on monday, a group led by researchers from the center for disease dynamics economics andci po released a new study looking at the global

consumption of antibndtics. they fhe use of antibiotics worldwide has increased 65% from 2000 to 2015. miles o'brien is here to helps understand this latest study. miles, first of all, just remin- ow does the overuse of antibiotics lead to these resistant diseases, sometimes called "superbugs. ?" >> hello, lisa. yes, what happens is antibiotics kill bacteria that make us sick. that's the simple explanation. but te bacteria over time evolve and develop an ability tn survive the susurvive the onslae antibiotics. ssence, they get smart alexander flming, who invented penicillin, discovered penicillin, just before wowad war iirned against its over use precisely because of this. a hereew more words about how antibiotic resistance works from dr. ha buche, of the

tufts university medical center. >> resistance happens naturally, so bacteria have vaious mechanisms to survive. and so if they're presented with an environmenthat is n so good-- that is, there's an antibiotictrying to break through their cell wall-- they might build a stronger cell ll, or they might-- if there's an antibiotic coming in, they might pump it out. so they figure out ways to evade the effect of the antibiotic. >> so this study should give us quite a bit of pau because it means with more antibioe,cs in here are more bugs out there that develop the resistance-- so-called superbugs-- and now we have aer much belobal picture of the scope of the problem. >> that seems to be what's newju here i the scope of this study-- 76 countries' worth of data over 15 years. and where did ty see the biggest increases in antibiotic use? obviously, gbally, butre specifically? >> so, lisa, they found the

biggest contributor to this problem is in low- to mid-income countries. back in t 2000,he use of antiotics in the low to mid-income countries versus high-iome countries was abut equal. in 2015, the uses in the low- to mid-income countries doubled. that's a significant things. that's good news for these countries. it means income is greater, they have access to these drugs. all these things are good. but the consequences of their overuse are jusgt manified. here is ailey klein, the lead author of the study. >> unlike in high-income countries where you go to the primary barior getting antibiotics is you have to go to the doctor to get a prescription. in many low- and middle-income countries, the barrier is the ability to afford the drugs. and so increased economic actity allows for increased fbility to purchase all sorts of things, all types goods,

including antibiotics. >> okay, so the good news isn the higher income countries, the increase in antibiotics use is only abt 6%. so the knowledge of this problem and the effts to gurd against it may be having some effect. but this a real conundrum for people in medicine, lisa, because doctors on an alindividu basis, they want to make us well, and they probably have about five minutes to diaose us anyway. and so in the individual case, it might make more sense to give that z-pack to that patient. but they also need t to be thinking about society at large, and that'stot an easy thino weigh when you are looking at a patient who is sick an could use the antibiotics to feel better. andhe study really gives m i think many of our viewers a lot of pause, but the incentives go the otherway-- toward prescribing antibiotics right now. does this study have any recommendations on how to lower our use of antibiotics

appropriately? >> you know, it'st ineresting, the recommendation were a little bit surprising to me. one of them was we should be more focused on getting people vaccinated. well, on the face of it, waia minute, vaccines are for virus north bacteria, which is what we're talking abo here. t what happens is people get sick from viruses. doctors mistakenly give those people antibiotics, which do nothing for viruses, and that just furthers he problem. another thing that was discussed in the paper is the idea that as he's emerging nations groark as cities become more popthulated, issue of clean water and sanitation, the sources of manyh dil diseases need to be focused on a lot more because that is, ultimately, why people seek out antibiotics many cases. here's more from leley kin: >> if you look at the history of the high-income countries in the 20th century, the primary driver that reduced infectious w

diseass improvement in infrastructure, reducing-- eliminating bacteria and other diseases fromheater. and so investments in infrastructure, investments in vax theens can prevent diseases can be a really benl-eficcan be really beneficial to low- and middle-income countries in terms of preventing disse and then reducing the need for antibiotics. >> their he thlaid out hope, the prescription, but if society does not actually deal with this problem, what happens in the future if we do not lower our antibiotic consumption? >> well, this is something we all really need to pay attention to, lisa. the prjections are by 2030, our use of antibiotics, if nothing changes, will be triple what ito is day. and what that means is there are going to be many more antibiotics which become really just basically useless, more so-called superbugs ou there. and are facing the prospect

of at- potibiotic world. we take for granted these miracle dru, which really since world war ii have just dramatically changed medicine in ways that it would take too long to unumerate right new. but we could get back to a world, lisa, if nothing is done, where something s simple as a cut or a blister could kill you, which is what the world was likw befo had antibiotics. re it's time-- this is like a slow-motion trainck. researchers have been warning us all about it. and it kind of reminds me a little bit of climate change. but it's time to get a handle this because right now, more than a half million a year people globally are dying for lack of antibiotics. >> something for each of us to think very carefully about. miles o'brien, thank you for bringing us this story. >> yu're welcome, lisa.

>> woodruff: now to our "newshour shares:" something that caught our eye. while most of the country issp ready fong-- i know i am-- some extreme athletes out west are more than happy to savor the last bit of wi julia griffin teamed up with g ntana pbs for this report. >> reporter: in bisky, montana earlier this month, snow fell gracefully, and seasoned skiers readied for competition. but hold your horses-- this e.s not your average ski r welcome to the rough-and-tumble world of "skijoring." >> skijong is a horse and rider pulling a skier through a series of gates and jumps in the least amount of me possible. >> reporter: scott ping has been a skijoring rider for more than 20 years. >> my horse kona is the best ride eve i just sit there and go "yah." that's all i do. he does all the work. >> reporter: riders like ping tow their teammates through a 700-foot obstacle course at nearly 35 miles an hour. the skiers weave among slalom

gates and launch from snow- packed jumps. should they drop their rope or fail to stay upright, the team's run is disqualified. >> you want to go fastyou don't want to go too fast as to where you lose your skier. >> reporter: horse lover melissa ostrander ran the entire montana ijoring circuit this year. >> you got to pay attention to your skier. you got to know your horse, ando you goontrol your horse. that's the hardest part about being a rider, is making sure that you don't hurt anyone else. your horse, your skier, youry anaround here. and making it fu >> reporter: while the name may be unfamiliar, skijoring isn't new.a rsion of the adrenaline- filled sport was an exhibition event at the 1928 olympics in st. moritz, switzerland. today, participants of all agesv and experiences compete across the u.s. and canada. pete jessen and his wife anna are full-time ski pars for big sky resort. ace together at skijorin events. >> sheays couples that player

togethtay together, and i say, any time u put two sports together is twice as fun. she likes going fastn the horse. and i like going fast on skis, and it all came together really well. >> reporter: for the ps, bragging rights, buckles and big bucks are up for grabs. at some competitions, prize purses can top $20,000 but for most, the camaraderie of the tightknit sport is the most important draw. >> it's basically a big family, and we come together at this event and say your howdies, get along, drink some beer and go racing. >> reporter: official skijoring competitions will return to the rocky mountains next dr. for the pbs newshour, i'm julia griffin. >> woodruff: and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs nehour has been provided b >> my dad once said to me, tragedy has a way of defining people. >> what the hell happened,te

y? >> they're treating this like a crime scene. >> we ll the truth-- or at least, our version of it. >> senator, when can we expect some answers? >> we're in this deeper than i thought. >> these theatrics are not going to hold up in a court of law. >> what have i done? >> chappaquiddick, rated pg-13. april 6.on >> cmer cellular understands that not everye needs an unlimited wireless plan. our u.s.-based customer service reps can help you choose a plan based on how much you use your phone, nothing more, nothing less. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> bnsf railway. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the well-being of humanity around the world by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at rockefellerfoundation.org

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was madess le 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

♪ >> around chengdu and throughout sichuan province, there are many spectacular mountains. for thousands of years, theyho have bee to many ethnic groups. mountain culture is unique, with its own history, cuisine, and customs. and it's also a very vocal culture. natives around here like to tell their story through songs. >> [ singing in chinese ] >> listen -- the voice of the mountain, next, on "yan can cook." ♪ ♪ ♪