captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight: paul ryan bows out-- the house speaker announces the end of his 20-year congressional tenure, what it means for the future of the g.o.p. and republican control. then, president trump puts his relationship with russia on the line, threatening to send missiles to syria in retaliation for a chemical attack. and facebook's second day under fire-- c.e.o. mark zuckerberg faces another round of lawmakers, addressing a host of issues with the popular social platform. >> fake accounts over all are a big issue because that's how a lot of other issues we see around fake news and foreign election interference are happening as well.

>> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives

through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: a day of upheaval in the ranks of republicans. the man who is third in line of succession to the presidency, the most powerful republican in congress, is calling it a career and will not seek re-election. speaker of the house paul ryan's decision today rippled up and down pennsylvania avenue, and beyond. lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> reporter: an exceedingly rare

announcement. >> this will be my last year as a member of the house. >> reporter: speaker of the house paul ryan announced he is voluntarily retiring, leaving on his own terms, after two and a half years in the job. >> you all know i didn't seek this job; i took it reluctantly. but i have given this job everything that i have. and i have no regrets whatsoever for having accepted this responsibility. what i realize is that if i am here for one more term, my kids will only have ever known me as a weekend dad. i just can't let that happen. so i will be setting new priorities in my life, but i will also be leaving incredibly proud of what we have accomplished. >> reporter: ryan and his wife janna have three children, now teenagers. they were in elementary and middle school when he campaigned for the vice presidency in 2012. for republicans, months of rumors about a ryan retirement didn't water down the drama. >> i was surprised, paul's going to be missed. he's obviously doing it for his

family. i wish him well. >> reporter: as did others. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. >> two and a half years ago paul ryan was drafted by colleagues like a true leader, paul stepped up to the plate. he answered his colleagues' call with exactly the earnest, selfless and focused approach that has defined his entire career in congress. >> reporter: president trump called ryan a "truly good man." well wishes aside, ryan's decision adds a new fight for house republicans, a highly unusual leadership fight in a tough election year. at the moment it's a two-person race between ryan's top deputies: republican leader mccarthy and whip steve scalise. mccarthy is a california republican, known for a friendship with president trump and for a failed run at speaker in 2015. scalise is from a more traditional republican state-- louisiana-- he endorsed candidate trump in the spring of 2016 and is known for surviving last year's congressional baseball shooting. freedom caucus chairman mark meadows.

>> i think everyone will start jockeying for position immediately. they won't wait for nine months. >> reporter: it is a g.o.p. leadership race as the party fights to keep their majority, raising questions of whether ryan's retirement projects defeat. fellow retiring member ryan costello, at least, disputes that. >> no, not at all. people running for re-election are going to be able to run on the record that paul, through his very stellar leadership, was able to provide. >> reporter: pennsylvania's charlie dent says the election will be about president trump, not paul ryan. this many times: the litmus test for being a republican these days is not about any given set of ideals or principles. it's about loyalty to the man." it's not about paul ryan. >> reporter: but ryan's legacy, and with it, his party's standing, is unclear. he achieved a goal he outlined as a very young member, 20 years ago: tax reform. >> i think all americans deserve tax relief. you're right: the middle class are paying the highest proportion of taxes in this country. >> reporter: but he failed on

another conservative goal, and will leave office with the u.s. facing an avalanche of debt ahead. >> more work needs to be done. i'm going to keep fighting for that. >> reporter: how he'll keep fighting out of office is not clear. consider e sources close to ryan say he does not have plans for his next job. >> woodruff: lisa joins me along with yamiche alcindor. >> a source they spoke to today at the white house, who spoke to the president about paul ryan's decision, said that the president is very worry that paul ryan's decision could mean that a wave of other republicans, more than there are now, might also seek to retire. that is because the president really feels as though republicans might be worried about the midterms, worried about the tough challenges that they're facing. i asked majority whip steve scalise about this specifically. i said, "does the president have worry about the fact that

republicans might be retiring?" he said, "we're facing a very tough political climate, "and that they're hoping to recruit more people. so he did not-- he didn't push back at all on the idea that republicans are very worried about what paul ryan's decision might mean for their party. >> woodruff: so, lisa, what about on the hill? what are they saying there about-- we know there are what already, 24 or so, retiermses? what are they say about possibly more? >> reporter: in all, there are more than 40 republicans in the white house are leaving that chamber for various reasons -- some running for other offices like the senate or governor. so that, judy, is a sixth to a fifth of the entire conference. you ask them, "does this mean that the election is doomed for you? is this a bad sign?" they almost said today, judy, "election? what election? no, this isn't about paul ryan." but clearly this is a conference that is very nervous about perception. they do think as i charlie dent said in the piece, that president trump might be more of

an issue. but they want to make sure to keep paul ryan's wisconsin seat as well. >> woodruff: lisa, while we're talking about that, you mentioned the race to replace paul ryan you mentioned the two other-- his deputies, in effect, mccarthy and scalise. we heard-- i think it was-- one of the people you interviewed said the jockeying is going to start immediately. i guess of it mark meadows. what kind of jockeying? what are we look at? >> get ready. we are not going to have an answer who will be the next speaker any time soon. judy, this isn't just a race for the speakership. because the tbhox in line are running against each other, essentially right now, that means all five of the top republican leadership spots in the house are up for grabs. so then you could have a five-way, 10-way, 12-way kind of race, many different members trying to get involved, many different interest groups -- including the freedom caucus-- trying to get their foot into leadership. you could see some combinations of people trying to form alliances together.

all of this very up in the air right now. the expected timeline for this leadership race is still january. maybe it will happen earlier, but right now that lookes more likely. and that will be decided not by the current members of the house republican conference, but by new members in all. all in all, judy, representative thomasimacy of kentucky said the best thing of anyone today, he said, "this is kind of like a nascarerate raceright now-- many laps to go and there could actually be some spectacular crashes ahead." >> woodruff: wow. yamiche, i don't think know if they're talking about the race to replace paul ryan in the white house. but what considerv they said about the president's role in all this? clearly the president's rhetoric is complicating life for republicans wishing to seek re-election, making it easier maybe for others. how do they see this? >> the president sees himself as an asset. i asked sarah huckabee sanders, the press secretary for the white house, what the president

thinks about himself, what he thinks of the idea that he might be the person hurting his own party's chances in the elections, she said that he will be out campaigning, that he sees himself as someone who can talk about the tax bill, who can talk about isis, who can really make the case caseabout republicans. that is not what republicans are saying. republicans are saying they're very worried about his role. tonight there are going to be congressional leaders actually going to have dinner with the president at the white house at 6:30. so there's going to be a lot to talk about there, because they're going to have to talk about whether or not their legislative agenda is hurt by paul ryan stepping down or stepping aside. the source they talked to at the white house said they're unsure of how president trump's legislative agenda is going to go forward with paul ryan not seeking re-election. they aren't sure that it's going to hurt them, but they don't know if it's going to help. >> woodruff: well, it's never dull at those gatherings, but tonight they're going to have a lot to talk about. yamiche alcindor reporting, and our own lisa desjardins, thank you both. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, president trump fired off new blasts at the special counsel's investigation of russian meddling in u.s.

elections. the president accused robert mueller and top staffers of being "democrat loyalists". he also attacked deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, who approved f.b.i. raids on mr. trump's personal lawyer. "the new york times" reported the raids' targets included records on an "access hollywood" tape. in it, mr. trump talked of groping women. the president also aimed new threats against syria today, over a suspected chemical attack. syria's main ally, russia, says any u.s. missiles fired at syria will be intercepted, and the launch sites targeted. but on twitter, mr. trump said: "russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at syria. get ready russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!'" despite that, press secretary sarah sanders said there's been no decision to attack-- yet. but she said: >> the president has not laid out a timetable and is still

leaving a number of other options on the table and we're still considering those, and a final decision hasn't been made. >> woodruff: sanders said intelligence shows syria and russia responsible for the attack that killed 60 people near damascus. vladimir putin said we hope that common sense will prevail. we'll take a closer look at the u.s. military options in syria later in the program. in algeria, a military plane crash killed 257 people, including soldiers, relatives and some refugees. ambulances rushed to the smoldering field where the plane plunged to earth after taking off. authorities said they're investigating to determine the cause. pope francis admitted today to what he called "grave errors" in handling a church sex abuse scandal in chile. he had strongly defended a bishop who allegedly witnessed and ignored abuse by a priest. today's admission came in a

papal letter to the roman catholic church in chile. officials there read sections to reporters. >> as far as i am concerned, i recognize that i have made serious mistakes in the assessment and perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of accurate and balanced information. from now on, i apologize to all those i have offended and i hope to be able to do it personally in the coming weeks. >> woodruff: the pope has invited both chilean bishops and victims of abuse to the vatican. back in this country, a new federal law will give state prosecutors and victims more leverage against online sex traffickers. president trump signed the measure today, alongside members of congress, survivors and advocates. he called the issue "a tough one." the law targets websites that host abusive material. california is sending 400 national guard members to the border with mexico and other areas, after president trump's request. but governor jerry brown

announced today they will not enforce federal immigration laws. >> this will not be a mission to build a new wall. it will not be a mission to round up women and children. three other states are deploying a combined total of 1,600 guard members. in arizona, teachers wore red and staged "walk-in" protests at schools statewide today. they're seeking a 20% pay raise and increased funding for education. their protest took place as a teacher strike in oklahoma continued for a tenth day. and, on wall street, stocks gave up some of tuesday's big gains. the dow jones industrial average lost 218 points to close at 24,189. the nasdaq fell 25 points, the s&p 500 slipped 14. still to come on the "newshour": the future of the g.o.p. following speaker ryan's decision not to run for re- election.

president trump warns of impending missile strikes in syria. facebook under fire: mark zuckerberg's second day of congressional grilling. and much more. we return to speaker paul ryan's decision to retire from congress later this year and how it could shake up the republican party. i'm joined by chris buskirk, a radio host in phoenix and editor of the conservative blog, american greatness. and charlie sykes, a contributing editor of "the weekly standard." gentlemen, welcome to both of you. welcome back to the newshour. let me start with you, charlie sykes, charlie psyches. what's your reaction to paul

ryan's announcement? >> well, i've known paul ryan for 20 years, which means i'm old enough to remember when he was the future of the republican party. so it's kind of a bittersweet moment. he had the worst job in american politics. he has an uncroabl caucus and a completely undisciplined president. and i think he tried to make the very, very best of it. but, ultimately, the-- you be, the reality is that the american republican party right now is donald trump's party, not paul ryan's party. and the base was just not into many of the things that he wanted to do. >> woodruff: chris buskirk, he tried to make the best of it. how do you see this announcement? >> well, i don't know. i don't drink, but if i did, i would have had champagne for breakfast this morning. i think it's a good day for the party. i think if anything-- you know, it's a bit of both i think heading into the midterms. but if anything, i think it's slightly positive. i mean this-- what we have seen with paul ryan is somebody who just really wasn't up to the job. he was sort of the boy wonder who always was full of promise but never really delivered. he was out of step with the

party. he was out of step with the president, and just wasn't very good at being speaker. he was never able to pass any meaningful legislation, or even act on the promises whether it be obamacare, balancing the budget, regular order, all of those things went by the wayside. i think it's good. we get new blood in there and that's cause for hope. >> woodruff: charlie sykes, how do you see paul ryan's legacy? >> well, i think that our fellow guest was drinking coo kool-aid rather than champagne. the reality is paul ryan did get some major pieces of legislation through. the reality is that there were fundamental differences between-- in terms of character and personality-- between paul ryan and donald trump in terms of, you know, their approach to decency, inclusiveness, language on free trade oentitlements, on immigration, all of those things. and, unfortunately-- and i think it is unfortunate-- that paul

ryan, rather than standing up against the blood-and-soil nativism and nationalism of donald trump, that he rolled over. and in the end, it was an impossible job. it's impossible working with somebody who has no fixed principles, whose knowledge and interest in policy is almost nonexistent. s these guys were really opposites. and i guess what's really unfortunate is that people do not understand this alternative path the republican party could have taken at one point, but it is very much donald trump's party. and, of course, we'll see what the implications of that are now in the midderm elections. >> woodruff: well, what about that, chris buskirk? which whichever way you see what happened with paul ryan, where does this leave the republican party? >> well, i want to just-- i want to address one thing charlie said. i mean, there is not an ounce of blood-and-soil nativism in donald trump or in the rest of the party. and that's just a stand scandulous and scurrilous accusation which we can't let

stand. nerms of where this leaves the party, though, i think what we're doing here is we're cutting off a-- we're cutting off a group of leaders now-- whether it be paul ryan, or we look back at danny half thest, john boehner-- these are leaders who just never delivered on the promises they made to their voters and it's time to turn the page. donald trump has been both a symptom of the political times that we live in, but also a catalyst for the american right to undergo an intellectual reformation that i think can lead to a political restoration. i think this is part of that restoration. >> woodruff: and charlie sykes, i gather you see it differently. >> well, i see it very, very differently. and i don't think that donald trump is leaving-- leading an intellectualestoraon. look, you know, here is a man who is a serial liar, who has ruled and governed with bullying and a vindictive approach to his critics. his effect on the political process and the culture, i think it's going to be long lasting in

the terms of the coarsening of all of this. and i would caution the republicans in celebrating cutting off people like paul ryan because politics ought to be about addition rather than subtraction. >> woodruff: well, again, whichever way you see this, chris buskirk, what does this mean for the party in this fall's elections? republicans are facing an uphill climb. democrats seem to be energized. what do you see? >> yeah, so, two things-- and it's a little hard to see seven months in the future as you know, but i guess here's the good and the bad. the good, on the one hand, is that candidates will not see themselves torn between a president who wants to go one way and a speaker o speaker of e who wants to go another way. so there's one clear message coming out of party. i think that's positive. and the candidates can make of that what they may. all these things wind up being local in the house races. so that's on the positive side. on the negative side, though, paul ryan leaves the house

conference leaderless, and going into a tough midterm we need all the oars in the water pulling in the same direction. that's the tough part. that's the challenge is that republicans are going to have to come together, i think under the leadership of the president, in order to win these house races. >> woodruff: charlie sykes? >> well, this will be a referendum on donald trump, and i think that the prospects with the republican party just got a little bit darker. i was a little bit surprised at paul ryan pulled the pin this early because it is clearly going to embolden democrats. it's going to add to that narrative of a blue wave. and i think it's going to be demoralizing for a lot of republicans when they realize their electoral fate is tied up with one of the most erratic and unpredictable political figures in american history, donald trump. but i'm figuring that paul ryan is feeling somewhat liberated that he's not going to have to go through this long slog of having to deal with and rationalize or, you know, answer for donald trump's tweets and perhaps his attack on the rule

of law. imagine what it would be like to be the speaker of the house of representatives in an election year if, in fact, the president were to fighter special prosecutor or members of the department of justice. so maybe now we will see a paul ryan who is willing to be more independent and perhaps more critical of the president when he felt that he needed to bite his tongue, look the other way, and try to conciliate of president. >> woodruff: but, chris buskirk, getting back to your point about the president. you're saying that the-- if the president becomes the coalescing force for republicans that's a good thing? that helps them this november? >> i think the party needs to speak with one voice. the party has a certain set of policy prescriptions that the president has enuncated and the party needs to go forward under one banner, and then let the people, let the voters decide what they will. but let's at least have a very clear statement of what the republican party wants to accomplish and then let's have

an election. >> woodruff: well, we've got months for it to unfold and we're all on the edge of our seats. chris buskirk, charlie sykes, thank you both. >> thanks. >> woodruff: now, to syria, and the increasing likelihood of new american strikes against the regime of bashar al-assad. as we reported earlier, the president telegraphed his intention today to strike syria again. william brangham charts the potentially dangerous road ahead. >> reporter: so, what options are available to the united states and its allies if there is a military response to last weekend's chemical attack? t walk us through the complex battlefield, i'm joined by ambassador douglas lute. he was u.s. ambassador to nato from 2013 to 2017, served on the national security staffs of presidents bush and obama, and is a retired u.s. army lieutenant general. he's now at harvard's kennedy school. doug lute, welcome back to the newshour.

welcome back to the newshour. >> it's good to be back. >> first off, let's just address this issue of you can confidently said this chemical attack that happened last weekend was carried out by assad? >> well, i think we have some degree of confidence, largely because of the scale of the attack. this was not an assassination attempt of one or two people, but, rather, dozens of people were involved here. and that suggests a military attack. and, of course, it's the assad military, the syrian military that has this exaiblght. so at least circumstantial, all fingers point towards the syrian military. >> president trump treated this morning, "the missiles are coming." what are the options for the u.s.? >> i think the first thing to consider here is that the options will flow from the purpose of the attack. >> meaning what we want to get out of it. >> objectives. and these have to come from a very deliberate process inside the situation room led by national security adviser bolten, and ultimately approved by the president. so once the objectives are set--

and here i imagine the objectiveives are reasonably simple, and that is to punish those responsible for this particular attack, to impose costs. and by way of those costs, attempt to deter future attacks. and if that's the objective, from that flows tasks to the intelligence community, tasks to the diplomatic community and tasks to the military. >> we have heard that the russians have said if the u.s. strikes, they might strike back. not only will they try to knock our missiles down but the platforms from which we launch those attacks. is this russian saber rattling? the thing that concerns me about this sort of exchange of rhetoric-- on our side, but then the response on the russian side-- is that you can already see a pattern of escalation, even in the rhetoric. and the challenge here is that such eskulatory steps can be imagined to be controllable from inside the situation room-- we

might imagine that these are discreet, controllable steps. but in practice, they're often out of control, and we can lose control, and they can spiral in an eskulatory manner because of miscalculation and misperceptions. so the danger here, i think, is that we launch into something that becomes efngulatory. >> and obviously we have so many dirve actors of players. you've got the turks. you've got the russians, the-- >> the iranians. >> the iranians. do you worry those people might also be drawn into this? >> i think inevitably there's that risk. we know that russian forces and iranian forces are intermingled with syrian forces, advising them and assisting them. so a u.s. strike, which is intended to precisely strike syrian forces responsible for this attack, could inadvertently strike russian and iranian forces as well. >> what do you think about the option of not responding? is that a viable option? >> well, that's always an option

as well. the challenge here is that the rhetoric has already put us on the path towards-- in setting expectations towards a response. so there's a certain cost by now-- if now we were not to do anything. >> do you think that these attacks, however we do it-- we saw that the president launched 59 tomahawk missiles a year ago to try to curtail this kind of behavior. is there a sense that we can stop assad from using chemical weapons? i mean, he has done this dozens of times in syria? >> i'd be very careful in suggesting that we are in the driver's seat here, and that we can actually effectively deter assad. why is that? deterrence rests on the notion that we can impose costs sufficient on assad to change his calculus, to change his behavior. the challenge here is for assad, this is existential. this is survival. so how do you raise the cost above survival? and because of this disparity in

interests-- he's all in and we have only limited interest-- it's very difficult to deter him. and i think that's why we've seen over the last year-plus, that these sorts of attacks continue. >> ambassador douglas lute, thank you as always. >> good to be with you. >> woodruff: and now >> woodruff: and now, to a story from the war in syria against "isis": our pbs colleagues at frontline, in partnership with the bbc, have been following the story of an american woman, sam el hassani, who lived with her children in the "isis" capital, raqqa. film-maker josh baker has this first interview with sam el hassani, who is being held with her children by kurdish forces in northern syria. the family's situation raises anew the question: what should the u.s. government do for isis families and children who are american citizens? >> reporter: this is sam el hassani's hussam elhassani's hue abefore he took his wife and

children from indiana to join isis. >> for five years we had a great life. we worked together. we did everything together. he was very relaxed. okay, get off. give moussa a big hug and tell him thank you so much. >> thank you so much! >> you're welcome, buddy. >> about a year after we met each other, we got married. he bought me nice things. i drove a bmw. he drove a porsche. he wore nice clothes, took very good care of himself. he was really good at giving me attention and givinthe kis attention. >> hi! hi! >> he was really good at it. there is not one dollar he wouldn't spend on us. after a while, he became bored of his life, i think. >> reporter: sam says what drove her husband to take the family to turkey in 2015. he said it was a vacation, but she says he then forced her and the children over the border to join isis. >> from there, we ended up in

raqqa. >> reporter: do you think that there's anything you could have done more to protect the kids? do you think there's a point where you could have escaped? >> but you have to understand, i was afraid for our lives. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: while in raqqa, sam's son matthew appeared in an isis propaganda video. ♪ ♪ >> my measure to trump, the puppet of the juice, this battle is not going to end in raqqa and mosul. it will end in your land. we will have victory, so get ready, for the fighting has just begun. >> reporter: a lot of people will look at that video, and they will see matthew as a threat to americans. >> yes. >> reporter: they will see a kid who knows how to use weapons, apparently, that maybe knows how to use a bomb. >> that's the way it's meant to look. it's propaganda. but how can you convince somebody that sees something

like that? i don't know. >> reporter: who is matthew? >> he is my son, and he is my best friend. >> reporter: and what's he like? >> he plays marbles, and i bought him a soccer ball the other day. he kicked it outside the fence. he goes up to the security guys. he talks so politely. he says, "can you go get my ball for my, please?" >please?." >> reporter: her husband, mousse abecame an isis fighter. he was killed last fall. now, sam says she wants to stay in syria. >> what's going to happen whenever they go back to the u.s.? will the government try to take my kids away from me when i've done nothing but try to protect them? wh here they ve them school. they give them food. they give them everything. i go there i'm broke. i'll have nothing. >> reporter: sam's sister, laurie, in indiana, says she is trying to get the u.s. government to intervene and bring sam and her children back home. she says her sister deserves

some blame but doesn't think her children should suffer any further. >> there should be some sort of structure. there should be a plan to help families get out of syria. i mean, should people be punished for going to syria and doing what they're doing? absolutely. but should we abandon them over there? no. i am hopeful that they will be able to come home. i am aware that sam will most likely go to prison, but eventually, after rehabilitation, i'm hoping the kids will come here and live with me. there's a sense of urgency from the united states government to infiltrate and get the information they want. there is not a sense of urgency to save any americans in syria. >> reporter: both the f.b.i. and the state department declined to comment on the family's story. for the pbs newshour, reporting if "frontline" and the bbc, i'm josh baker. >> woodruff: "frontline" and

the bbc will continue to >> woodruff: frontline and the bbc will continue to follow the family's story for an upcoming documentary. stay with us. coming up on the newshour: an in-depth look at the science behind the placebo effect. facebook founder and c.e.o. mark zuckerberg finished his visit to capitol hill with another long hearing today. it lasted nearly five hours, once again-- and it included some tough questions. all in all, zuckerberg spent ten hours testifying over two days. and while some of the lawmakers clearly are not fluent with facebook and other platforms, or the way they work, zuckerberg still faced new levels of skepticism. amna nawaz rounds up of some of the key takeaways when all is said and done... ...which is naturally the focus of this week's segment on "the leading edge" of technology.

even aftemiles o'brien has beeng all of this closely. he's also been working on a series for us about the problem of false news and recently got rare access inside facebook to see how it's grappling with those issues and others. he joins me now from san diego. miles, thanks for being here. let's talk about data, data collection. it's at the heart of their business model at facebook. and mark zuckerberg was asked about that a number of times over the hearings over the last couple days. i want to play for you one exchange from early today with congresswoman kathy castor of florida and get your take on the back end. here it is. >> you are collecting personal information on people who do not even have facebook accounts. isn't that right? >> congresswoman, i believe-- >> yes or no. >> congresswoman, i'm not sure-- i don't think that that's what we're tracking. >> i don't think that the average american really understands that today,

something that fundamental. and that you're trackingy everyone's online activits-- their searches. you can track what peoe buy, correct? >> congressman-- congresswoman-- >> you're collecting that data, what people purchase online. yes or no? >> i actually-- if they share it with us. >> because it has a "share" button so it's gathering-- facebook has the application. in fact, you've patented applications to do just that, isn't that correct, to collect that data? >> congresswoman i don't think any of those buttons share transaction data? >> you watch where we go. senator durbin had a funny question yesterday about where you are staying and you didn't want to share that. but facebook collects data on where we travel. >> congresswoman, everyone has control over how that works. >> so, miles, after two days of testimony, do we have a better understanding of how facebook collects data? >> well, you know, that was an

exchange that had a lot of us scratching our heads. this idea that facebook gets a lot of data from us as facebook users, i think we all have come to learn that, and if we haven't learned that by now, after a couple of days of listening to mark zuckerberg, facebook is an amazing data-gathering machine. they know an awful lot about us and can use that with great precision to make an awful lot of money. but the idea that harry out there in the greater web, gathering information on people who are not on facebook, ostensibly according to mark zuckerberg for security issues to avoid people trying to break in. but what we really think the main driver for all of this is to groat company. it's a marketing tool. if you've ever signed on to any service and they say, "hey, there are some people you know who might want to be a part of this." how do they know who those people are? and this is a data-collection technique which goes beyond facebook, which is-- makes, i think, all of us a little bit

uneasy. >> and you mention, of course, that people are signing up for this service. this is something people actively seek out. they agree to take part in. i want to play another little piece of sound for you. this one is from yesterday, actually. and it goes to the point what people are actually agreeing to when they sign up to use a service like facebook. let's take a listen to this from yesterday. >> here's what everybody's been trying to tell you today-- and i say this gently. your user agreement sucks. ( laughter ) i'm going to suggest to you that you go back home and rewrite it and tell your $1200-an-hour lawyer-- no disrespect, they're good-- but tell them you want it written in english so the average american can understand. that would be a start. are you willing-- as a facebook user, are you willing to give me more control over my data? >> senator, as someone who uses

facebook, i believe that you should have complete control over your data. >> okay. are you willing to go back and work on giving me a greater right to erase my data? >> senate, you can already delete any of the data that's there or delete all the data. >> are you willing to work on expandinexpanding that? >> senator, i think we already do what you're referring to, but certainly we're always working on trying to make these controls easier. >> so, miles, a very real issue of consent here, right, what people are agreeing to? is the responsibility with the user or with facebook? >> well, i think we all like to think the responsibility should be facebook's to inform us as to what we're getting into. and, technically, that's what they do. it's just several thousand words of fine print with hypertext. it's an onerous document to get through and in the real world most of us just click "accept"

and move on. i think the senator is on to a key point here. if it could be brought forth to people in simple terms with the opportunity to opt in to sharing as opposed to having to root through and opt out in the direction of privacy, it would be much more consumer friendly. this is, after all, a corporation that pride itself on a utopian view of bringing the world together. a document like that doesn't seem like a warm, fuzzy thing. >> and its size and scope is exactly why we also had the conversation around regulation in hearings over the last couple of days. a lot of people were surprised that mark zuckerberg seemed to cob seed that he would be open to being regulated. i want to play a little bit of sound about what he had to say about regulation today. >> on your point about regulation, the internet is growing in importance around the world, in people's lives, and i think that it is inevitable that there will need to be some regulation. so my position is not that there should be no regulation, but i

think you have to be careful about regulation you put in place for a lot of arabs you're saying. a lot of times regulations, by definition, puts in place rules that a company that is larger, that has resources like ours, can easily comply with, but that might be more difficult for a smaller start-up to comply with. so i think these are all things that need to be thought through very carefully when thinking through what rules we want to pus putt in place. >> so, miles, there's a lot of questions about regulations. in europe they go into place this spring. but when it comes to facebook here in the u.s., what could regulation look like? >> well, it could be nothing because of what you just referenced. you know, facebook, after all, is a global enterprise-- two billion customers, bigger than any country itself. wherever the regulation sets the high bar becomes tat mount to regulation for the world. and zuckerberg admitted it will become universal, the rule of

facebook world, based on what happens in europe on may 25, wherein they will make a series of change thalz improve user control over their own personal data, and further notifications if data is breached, that sort of thing. so it does change the rules, and congress doesn't have to do anything. we should point out another thing here. there is a loophole which allows companies like facebook to turn a blind eye to content. it was set up to allow youtube to avoid lawsuits for copywrite infringement. and that allows facebook to say, "hey, we are not a publisher. we are not a media enterprise. we a technology company." this serves them well as they make this statement that they can't control what the content is. and, really, facebook has evolved into the public square for the planet, and perhaps it has evolved into a point where it has to take greater responsibility for the content, which is not embodied in this regulation, and in this

loophole. so that might be something that congress and others will be look at. >> and we'll be looking at it as well. miles o'brien, good to talk to you. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: many times when immigrants come to the united states, they leave behind careers they had at home. jeffrey brown profiles a man who is returning to his roots. >> reporter: a taxi picking up customers at washington's dulles airport. but this one is driven by a man with an unusual musical past. once a star in his native ethiopia, hailu mergia has lived in and around washington, d.c. for more than 35 years, driving a cab for many of them. i was wondering when you were driving the taxi, did anybody ever recognize you? maybe ethiopians you were driving? >> yes, some of them, yei do. when they see my name on the license of the taxi license.

they always ask me "are you the one who play organ." i say yes. >> reporter: but he also once again does this: perform his music on tour, as in this recent concert in philadelphia for npr's "world cafe." with a new album, the now 71 year old is having an unexpected resurgence, decades after his career had seemingly ended. was it hard to go from being you know, very well known in your city, in your country to being mostly unknown here? >> yeah, it is... when people think about you and some of them, they think like, i'm not alive. >> reporter: they think you're not even alive anymore. >> maybe they think i have passed away, i have no idea. and some of them, "why, where he is?" all of a sudden i just disappeared and then people there forgot me and i-- the only thing is they didn't forget is

my music. what i played. >> reporter: in the 1970s, mergia was part of an exciting musical scene in addis ababa that fused western funk and soul with the traditional ethiopian music he grew up with in the countryside. his mother had brought him to the capital when he was ten... and at 14 he joined the army's youth troop, where he learned to play the piano in its band. he eventually pursued a life in music -- as keyboardist, singer, composer -- which took off when he joined the walias band, an influential group that put their own spin on sounds from different continents and had crowds dancing into the night. >> there were some radio stations that were playing some latest media or western media. which is like, james brown or from wilson pickett, of from tyrone davis, or from aretha franklin, i mean, you name it. so you'rnkying ethiopian music. >> i just pick up the old songs and rearrange them, change

everything, change the harmony, change sometimes the intro, and i just played it like kind of modern ethiopian music. >> reporter: his 1977 album "tche belew" combines funk beats and mergia's organ improvisations with the pentatonic scales of ethiopian folk music. what was the biggest you could hope for at that time? >> at that time my hope was, one, for the group to play in the hilton hotel. because one you get to hilton, that's the end of it. >> reporter: that was the biggest place to play in addis. the band became a long-running hit at the hilton-- the hottest venue in addis. but they also wanted more. in 1981 mergia and members of the band came to the u.s. the gigs were small, mostly to a newly arrived ethiopian

immigrant community. the band eventually split up, some returning home. mergia stayed and released a solo album in 1985, but six years later stopped performing and recording-- it was impossible to make a living. did you feel like you were giving up a dream of making it as a musician? >> i never give up because i was always practicing. i was practicing every day, every night in my house, in my car. i start, i bought one keyboard that i can movarnd. a lot of the time i want to drive taxi because, you kn why? >> reporter: why? >> because, one, it's my schedule. i have my own time. i can go any time i want to without asking anybody permission. that's a freedom of the life. as a musician sometimes i go to a studio and sit more than i expect, longer hours.

>> reporter: but also, if you drive a taxi, you can just keep your instrument in the back, in the trunk and pull it out. >> yep. pull it out and practice. >> reporter: and practice he does, even in the airport parking lot, working out compositions while waiting for his next customer. >> i'm trying to keep myself busy, i don't want to lose my feelings from music. >> reporter: so mergia was ready when musical fortune struck: a producer named brian shimkovitz, who specializes in african music, found a cassette tape of one of his old albums in a box in ethiopia, and re-released it in 2014. that led to a new album, title"" lala belu", or: "say la-la". released in february, and a new, late-life beginning for his second musical career-- in and now out of the taxi. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in alexandria, virginia.

>> woodruff: finally tonight, traditional healing is used around the world, from acupuncture to reiki to yoga. but how do these non-western treatments cause benefits for the brain? as part of our series sciencescope and in cooperation with the pulitzer center on crisis reporting, newshour producer nsikan akpan ventures to oaxaca, mexico to dive into the neuroscience of expectation, >> reporter: science writer erik vance has traveled the globe to learn how healing works, whether its western medicine or traditional healing. 6,500-feet up in the mountains of mexico's sierra mazatecas, we explored two things that sometimes unite those types of treatment: the theater of medicine and the science of placebos. >> my favorite one is if you've

ever taken a pill and had like immediately felt better. as soon as you take a pill your headache just goes away. >> reporter: well, that pill actually takes 20 minutes to kick in. so what you're feeling is actually the placebo effect. >> reporter: placebos do this by unlocking the body's medicine cabinet, releasing compounds like appetite hormones or pain- relieving opioids. but in his book "suggestible you," vance explains how a placebo effect can be triggered by more than a sugar pill. here in huautla de jimenez, many experience the placebo effect before they even arrive, through collective expectations made by the city's reputation. curanderos-- or traditional healers-- are have existed in this town of 36,000, since before the spanish arrived. they're best known for introducing the west to psychedelic mushrooms in the 1950s. but they mainly rely on a blend of christian symbols and indigenous healing practices to treat illness. parents have passed on these cleansing rituals and cultural garments for centuries.

>> the most important things is that the person accepts it and that they see exactly which leaves i'm giving them via massages or drinks. i'm proud because i'm conducting it and i'm teaching my daughter. >> reporter: curandero placido arturo, who has practiced for 40 years, uses herbs and spiritual blessings to treat everything, from toothaches to infertility. these settings form a theater of medicine. >> a lot of placebo involve storytelling to pull someone out of their everyday. shock them a little bit and try to create a story that forces your brain to start treating itself. >> reporter: the shock from these fire ants relieved erik's forearm tendonitis. the ant bites are an active placebo, a sensation that convinces the body to open up its medicine cabinet. the next day, we visit curandero elodia pineda garcía to see if this theater can treat my lower

back pain. she blesses me. at the end of the ceremony, she spits water in my face to cleanse my spirit. okay, at this point, i was skeptical. but i walked away feeling a surprising amount of relief-- relief that lasted for months. to learn why, let's leave huautla for a moment and visit the university of maryland, baltimore. >> we call this social learning in placebo effects. so for example if a patient observes another patient getting a benefit from a therapeutic treatment, this can create strong expectations. >> reporter: neuroscientist luana colloca, whose lab is funded by the national institutes of health and others, studies how placebo effects can influence pain disorders. while physical injury causes pain, the brain can amplify or even create these pain signals merely through expectations of feeling bad or through stress. her lab uses fake ointments, hot heating pads and functional

magnetic resonance imaging (or f.m.r.i.) to spot brain areas responsible pain-fighting placebo responses. in a simplified version, we test my susceptibility to placebos. when the pad becomes painful, i click a mouse and the heat subsides. after gauging my pain tolerance, i rank how much pain i'm feeling, from zero to 100. at the same time, lights blink on. >> every time the light is red, you will receive a high level of pain. >> reporter: when its green, she says, that same pain gets delivered, but an "electroshock probe" inside this wristband, attached just below the heating pad, will soothe my pain nerves. >> how much do you expect to that this procedure is going to reduce your level of pain. maybe by half? >> reporter: of course, the probe is a prop.

i receive the same hurtful heat every time. yet, the pad felt cool when the light was green. weirdly, my pain perception dropped by exactly 50%-- suggesting an expectation for healing can be controlled. a doctor can also create a placebo effect and add that placebo effect to the power of the medicine. so it's in the way that they talk to you it's in the clothing that they wear. it's in the environment that they choose to be in. >> reporter: luana's lab is using these placebo responses to build drugs and psychotherapies. they found a nasal spray of the hormone vasopressin can mimic the social placebo effect and provide pain relief. while placebos can't remedy something like cancer, to some degree, they have been shown to ease the symptoms of conditions like depression, addiction and autism. with parkinson's disease, placebos can improve motor ability, and those effects can last for years. so, whether you're with a doctor in baltimore or a curandero in the mexican mountains, these healing placebos are never too far away.

from huautla de jimenez, i'm nsikan akpan and this is sciencescope from the pbs newshour. glig don't know about the fire ants. online're online you can read more about the placebo's role in heal. vance, author of "suggestible you." that's on our website, pbs.org/newshour. >> an update before we ga woman has testified that missouri governor eric greitens physically assaulted her during an unwanted sexual encounter. the details were part of a report released tonight by the missouri state house committee that is investigating greitens. the group of five republicans and two democrats determined her story credible. greitens, who is a republican, was indicted in february on an invasion of privacy charge for threatening to release an explicit photo of the woman. he denies any criminal wrongdoing and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening.

for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions:

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

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