captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> yng: good evening, i'm joh yang. judy woodruf nis away. on tewshour tonight, bill ofsby is found guilty on all three chargeexual assault nnd lashes out in court with obscenity. then, president trump, on cable tv, downplays his relationship with lawyer michael cohe hours later, prosecutors use what hsaid in court to get a look at the cohen documents seized by federal agents. plus, making sense of the rise in crypto currenci e: paul solmanlores if there is a bitcoin bubble. >> we have no idea what to do with it. i wouldn't have any idea on how to exchange it or what it's worth. >> yang: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs u.ation from viewers like thank you. >> yang: guilty. that was the vdict today on charges that bill cosby drugged and sexually assaulted a woman in 2004 at his suburban philadelphia mansion. the jury's decision caps the spectacular downfall of cosby, a barrier-breaking entertainer who, at age 80, now faces the possibility of being sent to o-ison. it came after a ek retrial. t ss than a year ago, cosby's firstrial ended with a

deadlocked jury. cosby walked slowly as he left the courthouse outside philadelphia, still free on $1 million bail until sentencing. ster the verdict, district attorney kevteele said cosby had preyed >> he used his celebrity, he used his wealth, he used his ork of supporters to hel conceal his crimes. asd now we really know who behind that act, who the real bill cby was. >> yang: delores troiani is andrea constd's attroney. >> i want to express on behalf, if i can, the gratitude of so many women who admire andrea for her courage. she came here 14 years ago for justice. i am so happy today that i can say that although justice was delayed, it was not denied. >> yang: cosby did not speak to reporters outside the courthouse but his lawyer, tom mesereau, did briefly. >> we are very disappo the verdict. we don't think mr. cosby is

guilty of anything. the fight is not over. thank you. >> are you going to appeal? >> yes. e s, very strongly. >> yang: for m the drama in the courtroom today and for the last two weeks, joined by manuel roig-franzia of th "washington post," who is outside the courthouse. we should note that mr. cosby used a vulgarity in the court ich we'll quote. manuel, tell us a little bit about the drama of the verdict. >> it was an intensely emotional moment whethe verdict was read. you heard an eruption of sobbing the back of the courtroom. those were two women who have accused bill cosby of sexual mssault but were not testifying. they were taken f the courtroom, but even when they were outside in the hallway,ou could hear crying filtering through these big, heavy doors that lead into the room. >> yang: how does cosby react? >> cosby initially wastone

faced, but you could see this weariness, this defeat onis face. this is man who is 80 years old. hehowed incredible stamina throughout the whole trial. but his eyes looked heavy the suds heavy on them, and his face looked a littlennen he stayed ridged at that moment. but when the jury left, he upted. he erupted at the district hatorney, kevin steele, suggesting he might be a flight risk, and he just yelled out, as you said, tellinhim, i don't have a private plane, and he doesn'know. >> yang: he used a little stronger language than that, didn't hta >> he cnly did. it jarred the courtroom. they hadn't seen that kind of an outburst from bill cosby throughout this entire trial, and i think it's significant that the jury was not there to see this. the jury had left. they had made their decision. and w he was faceo face with

foe men who want to put him in prison, possiblythe rest of his life. >> yang: those are the osecutors. you covered both trials, manuel. how did this retrial diffe from the first trial? >> there was one huge difference. in the first trial the judge only allowed one previous accusedder -- accuser to testify. th time around the judge allowed the prosecution to call five different women w have accused cosby of drugging them and in four cases of sexualasly ulting them over the years, from the 1980s until the 2004, when andrea constand made her allegation of sexual assault. and these women testifying on the stand have something of a snowball effect. it gave a lot of momentum to the prosecution and they were able to leverage, that showing the jury that bill cosby was not just being accused by andrea

constand in this complited scenario in 2004, but that he had a pattern of behaviothat was similar and consistent for decades. >> yang: was there any difference in the defense in the trials?s, in the two >> big difference in the defense strategy. in the first trial when bill cosby was represented by brian mcmonogal, a philadelphia attorney, the defense was built around this idea that bill cosby and andrea constand were having a love affair is time around it was a much darker, much rougher defense. the defense was built arnd the idea that andrea constand was a con arst, that she had targeted cosby as somebodyhat was wealthy, that she was madly in love with his money and h fame, and that she executed this plan to extort money from bill susby, and the evidence of that was a lit that she filed and

settled for $3.4 million. i think one of the problems with that approach is that andrea constand came off on the stand as a somewhat naive, confused person, and she did not seem li thealculating sort of schemer who could have pulled one overn a wealthy man who was surrounded by powerful and aggressive attorneys, public relations agents, and members of his entourage who were shielding him. >> yang: very q mckluel, what do we know about sentencing? >> sentencing is expected within 60 to 90 days.bi cosby is being required to eray at his house at elkins park not far from and he could face a maximum 306 years in prist , which for mane age of 80 is essentially a life sentce. >> yang: manuel roig-franzia of the "washington post," thanks so much. >> you're welcoe. >> yang: today's verdict represents a collision of two

cultural forces: the breakthrough african-american entertainer who starred in td family-oriensby show of the late '80s and early '90s, and the first high-profile trial of the me too movement to examine that, we're joined by soraya mcdonald,ulture critic thr the undefeated. sorayaks so much for joining us. this is... between the deadlocked trial of the first trial and today's conviction of course was the "me too" movement. do you think that had an effect on the jury? >> i do. and i think what the effect of the "me too" movement was was that for years we have been hearing so many stories from bill cosby's accusers. we saw 35 women o picturthe cover of new york magazine with very similar stories. and the response that people kept giving was, why didn't these women come forwar earlier? why did they wait so long?

there wasn't nearly t understanding of power dynamics and just how much control bill onsby could exude, like within the "entertainmentht" industry, and then when you saw this story happening over and over and a overin with different powerful men starting with harvey weinstein and then charlie rose and matt lauer and all of these other high-profile ntn being accused of sexual harassr sexual assault that had gone on for decas without the general public knowing about it, that definitely provided a really e'snificant shock to peopl arderstanding of sexual assault and sexualsment and how victims process certain experiences an take sometimes for people to come forward. >> yang: do you think this

will embolden and encourage more women to speak up? >> i think it will, because it says that there are consequences for this sort of behavior and there are legal and criminal consequences for this sort of behavior. one of the things that we know about rape and sexual assault is that it is serely underreported, and part of the reason for that b isause the esnviction rate is so low and because trials can be such a horrible ordeal for so many survivors, because they are asked to relive not only some of thworst moments of their lives, but they're subje to cross-examination, and that can be a really rough experiouence whene being told that you're a liar, thatou're doing this to be self-serving, that u're in search of money or fame when all you're trying to pursue is some measure of sstice. >> yanaya, also the

image of bill cosby himself, someone who had this very icolesome image, was something of a pu moralizer for a while. what's the impact on this cultural moment of now having him convicted? he culturalthink t impact is that going forward we're going to be looking at our icons with maybe a little more scepticism than we normally would. you know, parof the tragedy of wis, aside from the way so many of theen's lives have been upended by this man's actions, is that there's a great deal of disappointment for a lot of pele who thought of bill cosby as america's dad, and that's really understandable. and so in processing that, iav think weto look at how much pow and influnce, you know, we ascribe to any one

person, because part of that can contrite to this ultimate sor of betrayal and downfall that we're seeing now. >> yang: soraya mcdonald, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> yang: in the day's other news, the white house physician, navy vice admiral ronny jackson, withew as nominee for secretary of veterans affairs. d denied that he over- prescribgs or crashed a vehicle when he was drunk, but d said the accusations had becometraction. as he marked "take our daughters and sons to work day" in the rose afended jackson.trump >> he's a great ma he got treated very, very unfairly. he got treated really unfairly. he's a hell of aman. >> yang: the president blamed montana senator jon tester, the ranking democrat on the veterans affairs committee. he'd publicly detailed the allegations against jackson. e ster is up for re-election, and esident warned that he "has to have a big price to pay." the embattled head of the environmental protection agency

today rejected questions about his ethics, calling them "half- truths" and "twisted" claims. at a pair of house hearings, scott pruitt said critics of his security spending, condo lease and luxury travel are just umtrying to undermine the agenda. p'll have a full report, later in tgram. outgoing c.i.a. director mike pompeo won senate confirmation thday to be secretary of state. 57 to 42 vote was largely atong party lines, with six demoand independent angus king of maine joining all the swpublicans voting. after a quicring-in, he headed to brussels, for a meeting of nato foreign ministers, and then on to the middle east. pompeo succeeds rex tillerson, sto was fired by president trump onth. inesident trump will travel to britaiuly, and meet with prime minister theresa may. the white house said it will be a working visit. there've been concerns that a full-blown state visit would draw huge protests. mr. trump cancellea trip to london earlier this year.

a so-called caravan of alum- seeking central americans has arrived at the u.s.- mexican boer. nearly 200 people, mostly women and children, are now waiting in shelters in tijuana, with more expected in the annual mass migration. at a house hearing today, homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen warned against n y illegal entry. >> being in a caraes not give you any additional legal rights. if you illegally enter our country, you will be referred for prosecution. if you file a false asylumcl m, you will be referred for prosecution. if you aid or abet or coach someone on how to break our law, you also will be referred for prosecution. >> yang: some of thents say they plan to try to enter the united states on sunday, at the border crossing at san diego. edother group of immigrants in the untates has lost temporary protected status. today the trump administration ed protections for some 9,000 nepalese.

they've been allowed to stay in the u.s. since a 2015 earthquake devastated their country. now, they have one year to alave. similar protectionady ended for thousands of nicaraguans, sudanese, haitians and salvadorans. f thousands of teachers arizona staged a statewide strike today, for better pay and education fuing. in phoenix, teachers and supporters lined street corners, then marched to thetate thpitol. e scene was similar in denver, where teachers rallied on the f eps of the colorado capitol, in the firsttwo-day protest. vee u.s.enate ethics committee today ly admonished new thrsey democrat bob menendez. panel said he violated federal law and senate rules by taking gifts from a florida doctor, failing to report them, and using his senate office to assist the doctor's interests. menendez's feder corruption trial last year ended in a mistrial, and the charges were later dropped. in boston, they're changing the name of yawkey way, outside fenway park, because it

honors a man accused of being cist. tom yawkey owned the boston red sox for more than 40 years. but his club was the last in the major leagues to field a black player. today, the cy's public improvement commission voted to igturn yawkey way to it's al name, jersey street. dvd on wall street, the market mostlyced as tech stocks rallied and interest rates dused. the dow jones rial average gained 238 points to close at 24,322. the nasdaq rose 115 points, and the s&p 500 added 27. still to come on the newshour: lawmakers grill embattled e.p.a. chief scott pruitt what to expect ahead of the historic summit between north and south korea, and much more. >> yang: president trump started

his day on the phone, calling into what seems to be hi favorite show, "fox and friends." the president sounded off on a sorts of things, from the investigation into his personal attorney and the activities of thjustice department. here to walk us through what the president said is our white house correspondent yamiche alcindor. quite a way to start the morning, yamiche. >> this was a pretty long phone call from the presdent. he talked about hillary clinton in the election. er sounded like he could have talked for s hours. at one point the fox news host asked the president about personal lawyer, michael cohen. cohen recently said he would plead the fifth in a lawsuit filed against the president filed by porn ar stormy daniels. this morning trump seemed to distance himself for cohen. >> well, as a percentage of my overall legal work, a tiny little fraction, but my goal would represent me and represent me on some things. he rresents me like wit this crazy stormy daniels deal. he represented me, and i hope he's in great shape.ot

but he's businesses, and his lawyers probably told him to do that but i'm not involved, and i'm not involved. and i've been told i'm not involved. >> this was rally important, because the president'words were used against michael cohen today. the lawyers for the federal ution, which of course affect criminal case involving michael cohen where he's being raud, they bank wrote a letter to the judge saying, look, the president is saying that he only did a little bit ofth work - michael cohen only did a little bit of work for him and we should be t able to sese documents and there isn't that much privege, and the judge said there would be a special master. this is seen by legal experts as good win, because the president's lawyers and michael enhen's lawyers wanted an indepeperson to go through all those documents that were seized during that raid, so ie s in sys a win-win, but the other problem is the president is out here talking. he's out here giving these interviews, and that's problematic for michael cohen because he's contradicted himn all sorts of things.

clgal experts tell me if they had nt like president trump, they would be in real problems because you want someone who will control client and not contradict somebody that's involved in a federal investigation. >> yang: and it didn't end there. there was more. >> ys, the president took aim, as he often does, at the justice departmeha. he hintedt he might take a more active role in the agency's investigat dn. >> i'm verappointed in my justice department, but because of the fact that it's going on, and i think you'll understand this, i have decided that i won't be involved. i may change my mind at some point, because what's going o is a disgrace. it's an absolute disgrace. >> now, again, this is kind of typical of the president. we've seen him talk about the f.b.i., especially the top tr of the f.b.i., saying they are crooked, that they're corrupt, that they're out toet him, there's a witch-hunt but it's important that the presidhit is saying, take a more active role. erat means he could maybe fire robert mue that means he could maybe fire

other people some people are very worrie and the legal experts say we should watch for things like this because it could be crumbs that he's leaving for what he could do. but to turn back to stormy daniels and her lawyer, he was really happy. he said this is stunning that president trump is out here giving these intervw,alking about these things. he said it's making their case stronger and stronger by the day, so it's really problematic, at least that's what legal m experts te >> yang: the opposing lawyers are happy. what about the white house lawyers? what about trump's lawyers? >> fom the white house perspective, they said, you have to go to the personal lawyers. they want nothing to do with this. trump's personal lawyer has bee very tight-lipped. stephen ryan said he was okay with the scial master, that he was a fine pick. she's a retired federal judge. ey're not upset abo that. but a lot of people are not talking. i talked to so many or tried to talk to so many lyers or secretaries and pr people, and no one wanted to talk about this. th probably goes back tothe idea that the president is

someone that's hard to control and his lawyers are tryi to figure out what to say when he's giving 15-minute-long interviews to "fox and friends." >> yang: white housepo corrent yamiche alcindor, thanks very much. >> yang: now, we turn to one of the president's top cabinet members who's been under fire himself: e.p.a. administrator scott pruitt. his appearances before two house committees today were ostensibly about budget matters. ht lawmakers put him on t seat for all sorts of different reasons. di a moment, jeffrey brown talks with lisa desj about the politics and the policy at issue. but we begin with lisa's look at pruitt's day on capitol hill. in desjardins: long a ligh rod on environmental policy, this was e.p.a. chief scott pruitt first chance to address a recent slew of scandals with congress.

he insisted those were distractions and has nothing to hide. >> i'm here and i welcome the chance to be here to set the record straight in these areas. ve no illusions to what is really going on here. those who have attacked the e.p.a. and aacked me are doing so because they want to attack and derail the president's agenda and undermine this administration's priorities. desjardins: pruitt is under at least ten investigations, one questioning large raor two staffers, several on spending for personal security, luxury avel and thousands on office upgrades. another out his $50 a night lease of a condo from the wife of an energy lobbyist. and retribution questions-- some e.p.a. employees who criticized the spending have reportedly been demoted or forced to change hebs. republicans onommittee, like greg harper, largely defended pruitt by letting him defend himself. >> will you explain these allegations and tell us what steps e.p.a. takes to investigate allegations brought forward by epa employees? >> first, there's no truth to

the assertion that decisions have been made about reassignment or otherwise in terms of employment status based upon the things that you reference. >> desjardins: from retribution to favoritism. democrat paul tonko pushed pruitt on large raises for two longtime aides. >> this is your portunity to set the record straight. >> desjardins: pruitt denied approving the raises in a fox news interview this month, but staffers and emails have y dicated otherwise. touitt implied he did know. >> congressman i was not aware of the amount nor was >> not the amount, were you aware of the raises? >> desjardins: democrat ped r welch presuitt on his $43,000 classified phone booth. h uitt said he asked for the bot never approved that much spendin >> not right close to my office >> pardon me? >> they're not right close to my >>fice. ow often do you need to use your secret phone booth? >> it's for confidential occaons and its rare.

>> on those rare occasions, is it too much to ask you to walk whatever distance it takes? >> it depends on the nature of the call and h urgent the call . >> the point is you have two locations you can go to when you have to make those phone calls. this is taxpayer money. it's taxpayer money. >> desjardins: many republicans thanked pruitt for rolling back erregulations they see as s, and several criticized democrats' questions. >> if you can't debate the policies you attack the personalities and that is happening to you. >> desjardins: there were policy questions, including about a rule pruitt proposed this week tat would require scientists to turn over their raw data in pertinent studies. democrats say much of that dat is confidential medical and personal information. republican kevinramer defended the idea. >> we're not asking for personal data, we're asking simply for

the science to be revealed, right. i mean you can protect personal data, right? ti both the personal data as well as confid business information. >> desjardins: president trump has trumpeted his support for pruitt in thhipast, especially s deregulation efforts. but the white house has been more cautious lately. press secretary sarah huckabee sanders indicated the administration takes the pruitt questions seriously. >> again we are evaluating these toncerns and we expect the administratonswer for them. >> desjardins: in today's hearing retiring republican house member ryan co said the answers so far are not e ough. >> iviewed your answers and i find some of them lacking or insufficient and i believe you've demonstrated, or you've not demonstrated the requisite degree of good judgement required of an appoint executive branch official on these spending items. >> desjardins: pruitt today insisted most spending decisions were made fosecurity reasons

or without his specific knowledge. >> brown: during the afternoon, pruitt appeared before a second committee and once again, he made few concessions aut the decisions in question. the day was seen by some as a pivotal momefu for pruitt's re. lisa desjardins joins me now. i want the talk first about environmental policy, right, which was clearly part of that. islurking in the backgrounhe question of how much change scott pruitt has brought. >> he's brought significant change. he has 22 megor dulatory actions that he's overseen. the waters of the u.s., that's something congress helped roll back. oit was a huge piecef kind of water environmental law from the obama presidency, which is now pushed back five years, in adwetion to clean plant is something that was repealed, i think there are real questions bout how long all of these actions will lasause they have happened so quickly. many are facing serious court challenges there are other things like fuel efficiency that he is deciding

no >> brown: he's getting pushed back all over the place. >> that's right. from conservatives he's getting support, but there are real questions in the court. >> brown: you referred in your piece to a prosed rule that he put in requiring science to turn over raw data too studies. he refers to it as transparency in science. l >> he alsoes to talk about secret science. this is a rule he put on the ble two days ago. it is incredibly significant. what this ruled would mean is that any -- the phrasing is "pivotal regulatory science," that is science that the administration uses to base n rules on, must have all the data made public. >> brown: the raw data. >> the raw data. he says sentists have an agenda. he wants to get down to the facts, he says, hwever, critics point out there are many problems with this. one, not only would this meanwe studies, because they rely on confidential data, but it would mean fewer regulations, and that's what critics say is

e real agenda here. look who supports this rule, you're looking at the fossil fuel industry and also at conservatives in general who have business interests. critics say that's a real factor. now, can they mask this data as pruitt suggeceted in their p? scientists say no. this is a time when data itself omis a hugedity and there will be fewer programmers figuring out how to get it. >> bwn: but this goes to a much larger question about this ieministration's relationship to science and tists. >> that's right. this is man who says he does not trust science and he's someone who thinks that he is a lawyer who is not a scientist. this needs to be more of a business-like agency. >> brown: e now, whilerybody was watching that hearing, what about the president and the white house at this point? what signals are they sending about scott pruitt? >> i'm watching my twitter feed right now. u know, it is sigicant that this is when the president's first nominee, it's prably the cabinet member that he says the

most positive things about. >> brown: because of those regulations. >> because of those regulations and because he hears e goes out to the rest of the country, some trump supporthter, they love this man. it's significant that with all those fact joerg the white house is this week being very cautio and waiting to see how the cards play. i think they just aret sure with all of these investigations if this is someone that they can support long term, and day to day we just don't know,. >> brown: so on this day, you look at the hearing, you think t,out what you just said with the presideighing the various many possible questions and scandals, weighing the policy questions, what picture emerged? >> watching the many hours of hearings, this is man who was poised. he answered questions politely. it when repeatedly asked about these maestigations never took personal responsibility for any of the elements in them. he repeatedly said these were staff errors. occasionally he did she's

made changes, like his travel. he no longer takes first-class flights. but he has tid he did t originally because of a security recommendation. again, he does not feel personally responsible for these problems. instead this is man who feels he's under attack, and says it's political. his critics say he's the politil one launching the attack. >> brown: you're watching this minute by minute, and day by day for next action. >> that's right. s think for next few weeks. now, congr gone next week, so that helps him out. they won't be ricocheting opinions for the time being, but there will be more investigative reports coming out. es brown: more to come. lisardins, thank you. >> my pleasure. >>upang: stay with us, comin on the newshour: the harrowing plight of young rohingya girls being reuited into the bangladeshi sex trade. and as the value of digital currencies continue to climb, paul solman explores if there is

a bitcoin bubble. in just a few hours' time, a historic meeting wil place between north korea's dictator kim jong-un and south korean president moon jae-in. the two will discuss the north's clear program, begin talks on officially ending the korean war after 65 years, and lay the m oundwork for a meeting between d president trump later this spring. il special correspondent katrina yu reports, the world looks on, no one is more anxious about the results of tomorhaw's summit tkoreans themselves. >> reporter: from her room in the suburbs of seoul, north korean native kim ryen-hui has been counting down the days to the summit. she has been living in the south for seven years. she sees t bringing her one step closer to ining reunited with her family yongyang. >> ( translated ): now we can y overcome the pain of t division. y a child of the north korean

nation i'm so hacan now tell my child the time for s unification is coming. >> reporter: kime of many north koreans separated from loved ones across the border, but unlike most defectors, she's not happy to be here. the 49-year-old says she was tricked into thinking she could work temporarily in south korea, and hasn't been lowed to return to her daughter. >> ( translated ): i'm a mother of a child. people tell me the south is a decent place to live, you won't starve here, you can live well. and ask why would i go through the hardship of returning to the north? but even if i can't eat or live well, if i could be with my mily, just hold my daughter again, there's nothing else i would want. >> reporter: it's not known whether the issue of family separation will be on the table when the two leaders meet, but for the first summit in more than 10 years, an agenda is clear. >> ( translated ): we must create a clear path that leads en the denuclearization of the koreansula, the establishment of permanent peace, and the development of sustainable south and north korean relations.

>> reporter: the meeting will be he at peace house in panmunjeom, a border village wside the demilitarized zone where the kore armistice was signed in 1953. a few miles away, south koreans have been flocking to their side of the d.m.z., excitement replacing the tension of late last year. the heavily fortified stretch of land was, until recently blasting loudspeakers into the k rth. earlier this wuth korea suspended their propaganda broadcasts from the d.m.z. as a gesture of goodwill in the lead- up to the summit. rmally comprised of sout korean pop, radio dramas and news, they were designed to shho north koreanmuch the world had moved on, and how better life in south korea is. the changes followed the most significant gesture from the north to date, an announcement nust week that the regime would suspenear tests and focus on the economy. >> ( translated ): as long as

there is no nuclear threat and provocation against our nation, we will never use nuclear s apons and under any circumstan will not transfer our nuclear weapons and nuclear technology. l reporter: but many, including activi min-bok, believe north korea cannot be trusted. >> ( translated ): it's not because of south korea's efforts, or because of kim jong- un's good will. this summit has arisen because of the great external pressure t on north korea. as soon as this pressure is gone, they'll will cheat us again. >> reporter: the defector made two attempts to escape the north before arriving in south korea in 1995. he's now devoted his life to floating balloons carrying leaflets across the border, weapons in a war for thed earts nds of the north korean saople, he says. critichis work is useless, but he points to attempts on his life by the regime as proof of impact. leaflets are, after all, the reason he's here. >> ( translated ): this is the best method, this what i've

realized. before i was perfectly devoted north korea citizen. didn't drink, didn't smoke, or chase girls. i only did what the leader and the party said i needed to do for my country. but after finding one leaflet i learned of the fraudulent government and i went from one extreme to the other. reporter: in seoul many others are also wary of the regime's promises. >> ( translated ): the point of the summit this week is denuclearization. but north korea won't give up its weapons so easily. ed ):transl nuclearization is isn't simple or straightforward, and it won't fast. >> reporter: kim ahra fled to >> reporter: although professor park inhwi says north korea has lied over and over again, he has reason for hope, thanks in part to what he calls the trump effect. >> ( translated ): trump's administration is very military oriented and strong regarding the korean issue. >> reporter: for many the inter- korean meeting is simply a preview of what's to come.

for most south koreans the real test as to whether the situation with the north will change will be seen after the planned meeting between president trumn and kim-jong seoul says washington will be pt closely informed of friday's developments, with a phone call from south korea to the white house planned right after the meeting. the topic, no doubt: how to turn any short-term wins into long- term results. for the pbs newshour, i'm katrina yu in seoul. >> yang: we want ttell you up front: this next story is not suitable for children. if your kids are in the room, please turn us off and come back in about 8.5 minutes when paul solman helps make sense of what some call the "bitcoin bubble." even for adults this is a disturbing story, but an imrtant one.

special correspondent tanya rashid and videographer philip caller take us inside the dark world of human trafficking in bangladesh. horrific things are done to young girls. this the final installment of their three part series in partnership with the pulitzer center on crisis reporting. in reporter: at a checkpoint on the main road lefrom the camps, bangladeshi soldiers aren't checking for guns or drugs. they are searching for rohingya women being trafficked into sex work. the majority of rohingya refugees are womennd girls, many are poor and without a male aeadwinner. they vulnerable to traffickers looking to make fast by recruiting girls into the bangladeshi sex trade. soldiers stop vehicles they suspect could be used by traffickers, and passengers are asked to show their national i.d. cards. according to the army officer in charge of this checkpoint, around 10 rohingya girls attempt to pass every night. as the night goeon, the searches continue.

they look inside buses and motorized rickshaws known locally as c.n.g.'s, questioning passengers. >> ( translated ): what school did you go to? you, count to 10. >> reporter: rohingyas and local bangladeshis can have similar appearances which makes it hard for the soldiers to identify who is who. slatedr): show me you i.d. cards. >> ( translated ): where are you going to, where did you come from, where are your i.d. cards? >> reporter: the army has been stopping several c.n.g.'s and they suspect one of the girls in the vehicle is a rohingya. >> ( translated ): get out. tell me the truth, i know you are rohingya, who is leader of your block at the refugee camp? >> reporter: as it turns out the woman right there is bangladeshi and she's helping take this x'man who is a rohingya into

cobazaar. the soldiers question them a tharch their bags. they say that e rohingya woman an being trafficked for sex work r d that theadeshi woman travelling with her trecficker. theyit rohingya girls and women from the camps and traffick them into bangladeshi towns and cities. ter detaining the group for a few hours, soldiers decide to send the two women back to the camps and keep the man for further questioning. back in kutupalong, the biggest inmp, the sex trade is thriving and thflux of tens of thousands of vulnerable won is fuelling the business. most rohingya refugees come from insular, conservative muslim families, and sex work is taboo. thmp brothels are hard to spot, look like ordinary shelters made of bamboo and plastic sheets.

is woman started sex work out of desperation to feed her two children after her abusive husband left her for ar woman. >> ( translated ): the food handout is not enough. when my kids cry for ce, where pwill i get it from? i'm only doing this to support my family, i feel bad doing it but i have to survive somehow. >> reporter: yasmin is ogy of four rohwomen working in this brothel. >> ( translated ): i seesone, times two men per day, for about 20 minutes, 15 minuteso one hour. they give me two to six dollars. s,e men come from different backgrouome are poor, others are rich, they are mostly eehingya. occasionally iangladeshi men as a clients. they make me do bad thingse o them and m work really hard. when i do it, i'm so ashamed, so i only take my pants off. ter: cox's bazaar is the nearest city to the camps, tofamous for its thriving sex trade, fuelled bism. i'm on my way to meet with a rohingya sex worker. they typically travel in auto rickshaws like this one from the

ercamps into the city cent anzuma is 15 years old, she fled from myanmar to bangladesh six months ago. >> ( translated ): the myanmar soldie they beat me, tied my hands and feet and hung me from a tree. next to me there was another woman. the soldiers cut her belly and vagina. they cut off her breasts and put them in plastic bag. i started screaming and a solder bit a piece of my cheek off. then they pulled me down and teng raped me. ards they stabbed me and dumped my body the into the h ver thinking i was dead. i can't remember mter that, i lost so much blood that i was unconscious more than three daho. soi managed to swim across the river and get to bangladesh. lswam alone.

>> reporter: be in the camps was tough, she turned to selling drugs to survive. after getting caught spending two months in jail, an older rohingya woman made her offer. >> ( translated ): my friend said why don't you run away from the camps. i know people who can help you, do you want work in a garment factory? rsaid yes. orter: but her friend was actually a trafficker who recruits young rohingya girls into sex work. >> ( translated ): a car picked me up from the camp and took med down the main o cox bazaar. nobody stopped me at the checkpoints, as the pimps are friends with the army. they took me to a brothel. >> reporter: she now works seven days a week and gets $1 per client aer the pimp takes his cut. >> ( translated ): i saw five men at the same time today.g they are rap the same way the myanmar soldier raped me. they pin my hands to the bed, force my legs open and thrust so hard it hurts.

>> reporter: her pims her drugs for the pain and steroids to make her look healthy. undercover filming in a cox bazar brothel reveals th the recent influx of tens of thousands of vulnerable girls has meant that they are now erll of ue rohingyas. wm at a secret location at the edge of cox's bazare i am about to meet with a pimp who trafficks young rohingya girls into prostitution. this pimp has seven rohingya girls that he sells. s says the refugee crisis good for business. >> ( translated ): rohingya girls have a very burme look, it's different, they have lighter skin, they are prettier and taller. young rohingya girls from 12 to 14 sell the most. clients love fresh flesh, the little girls have more to give. >> reporter: he says the easiest

way to get the girls is to prey on their vulnerability. >> ( translated ): when the rohingya girls arrive in bangladesh, they don't know anything. they are so innocent, scared, and unaware. i tell these little girls, look gu have nobody, i'll marry you, but we need money married. rohingya girls are easy to convince. i have sex with all my girls, i take their virginity. en i share them with the clients. >> reporter: what sort of clientele visit these girls, are they bgladeshi men, who are they? >> ( translated ): most of the clients are tourists, but about once or whice month i have foreigners, e men, americans, europeans. they stay in the big hotels and keep the girls for two to three days. t speak directly to the white men, usually a hotels manager ca and asks me to send over photos, they are the liaison. >> reporter: many rohiomen who fled violence end up in

desperate situations, both inside and outside the camps. their precarious circumstances ke them easy prey to tho that seek to exploit them. for the pb rashid in cox's bazar, bangladesh. >> yang: economics correspondent paul soln has been looking into cryptocurrencies for us, most recently, trying to explain what they are and how to buy them. tonight he looks at whether the price of bitcoin is a bubble? this story is part oekly making sen$e series. >> reporter: back when mexicali burrito's david zimel first accepted bitcoin a few years e o, it was worth, well, about ice of a burrito. >> i think we had two sales. >> reporter: two sales? >> ihink we ended up with about nine bitcoins. and we just ke we wanted to turn it into real

cash, we wanted to turn it into real cash and we finally did. wish we would've held on to it a little lonr cause it would have been worth a few thousand dollars. >> reporter: make that $80,000 as i record, though by the time you see or hear this, who knows? >> you're going to get .0016 btcoin. >> reporter: i'dought my first 16 ten-thousandths of a bitcoin that very morning for $20 when the price of a whole "coin" was $8600. i wound up with a princely $13 dollarand 82 cents worth after knavish transaction fees. .f i wanted to use it here now to buy a burrito yes? no? >> no, we have no idea what to do with it. i wouldn't have any idean how to exchange it or what it's worth. >> reporter: no wonder. when zimel cashed in his bitcoins, they were worth just a febucks. last december, the price hit nearly $20,000, plunged by two thirds, is now up again by half. so, how can it be a currency if you never know its current

dlue? >> it eloping many of the thalities of currencies but it isn't yet fillinbasic role of a currency which is to enable transactions. >> reporter: professhe, author ane fund manager vikram mansharamani. >> you do need some more stability in the value of it before it gets truly adopted as a currency, not as an instrument speculation. meday it's de facto an inst of speculation or a esans through which to fund illicit activiff the grid. bitcoins and sort of other cryptocurrencies live outside of the traditional banking network. and in fact are intended to do so by design. >> reporter: that's why the newshour wouldn't accept a edtcoin donation in 2013, when stories aboubout its use on the so-called dark web, to buy drugs, guns, and sex. but local restaurants like veggie galaxy in cambridge that used to take bitcoin don't any more becausehe value fluctuates too much, plus it's too cumbersome for petty transactions. can i buy my lunch with bitcoin?

>> i'morry, you used not anymore. we actually had an a.t.m. before but we don't have it anymore. i'm sorry. >> reporter: a bitcoin a.t.m., that is. nearby thelonious monkfish does still take bitcoin, but because of transaction fees and the hassle, only if you spend $100 or more. so i'd have to order a lunch that was more than $100 to use bitcoin? ac right. to get the traon go through. >> reporter: look, we even went to a bitcoin dealer, the l.a. .hic boutique pawnshop in somerville for cash, you can pick up designer bags by the dozen, a pair of shaquille o'neal's hard- to-fill shoes, even this poppin' fresh pendant whose provenance can be traced to boston mobster whitey bulger. but to do a bitcoin deal... >> you sign up an account and then we can meet over there at starbucks and we can transfer teney at that time. >> rep proprietor dylan mcdermitt. well why can't we do it here in the store? >> ooh, regulation at this

point, we can only sell and charge a small fee but bing? not at this point. t reporter: but we can do it outside local bar or the local cafe here? >> yeah. we pay 90% as well. >> reporter: yes, only 90% of market value, plus a small transaction fee. and yet, despite all the hurdles to using it, bitcoin, and its derlying blockchain technology, are seen as fat city. consider the recent rash of conversion experiences. in december, long island iced tea re-named itself long blockchain and its stock price tripled. >> welcome to hooters! >> reporter: in january, a pmpany with nine hooters franchis its loyalty program, the hooters hoot club, on a blockchain, and its stock price jumped 50%. i'm no expert on bitcoin. >> reporter: richard thaler won this year's nobel prize in economics. >> but it's very hard to know

o at its intrinsic value is and it's very hardow what it's legitimate use is. itleertainly looks like a bu to me. >> reporter: vikram mansharamani, who taught a course at yale on bubbles, ages. >> it reminds me of the internet ddenomenon, the internet bubble, where people wouldhe dotcom and their stock price would go flying up. exactly comparle in my eyes. but you know, bubbles ormetimes keep going up. >> rr: so is bitcoin a bubble that's already bursting, ?lunging by two-thirds in just a few mont or a great investment that's up more than 100-fold in the last ve years? mansharamani's book, "boombustology," looks for bubbles through several lenses. >> the first lens is microeconomics. normally when you have higher prices for a good you should see less demand. when higher prices generate more demand we have a bubbly dynamic that results in higher prices generating more demand, generating higheprices etc. >> reporter: in other words, instead of turning off buyers, the rising prices are attracting

them, triggering another len buying an investment on credit. >> are people borrowing money to invest in something because they are so sure it's going to continue ring? and in fact we've seen that recently. lens three, people want to belie. >> reporter: the psychology of irrational exuberance. >> they want to believe in a new story, a new era, a new dynamic. this is a common phenomenon. d saw this back in the 1920s with radios rs. you saw it during the internet bubble where the internet was going to change everything and in fact you can see it today in this crypto domain where this is the new form of money. digil gold. >> reporter: mansharamani's last lens is a question: is the enthusiasm epidemic? >> think of a speculative mania as a fever spreading through a population. how many people are lefe to ? well, if everyone is infected, sease has run its course we're done! >> reporter: but you don't know that, right? >> no idea at all how much of the price is attributable to

ac aal fundamental interest non-printable currency versus a party, it's rockin', over? or about to get its second i want to join it." >> reporter: so, is the party over? or about to get its secondy ind? as with vestment, mansharamani doesn't know, and neither do you o even as the welleasoned economics correspondent for the pbs newshour, do i. this is paul solman reporting. >> yang: on the newshour online right now, the national memorial to peace and justice opens today in montgomery, alabama. it confronts this country's brutal history of racial terror. jeffrey brown recently visited d spoke with founder bry stevenson. find his report on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonigh i'm john yang.

join us online and again here tomorrow evening, when judy will be back. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> knowledge, it's where innovation begins. o 'shat leads us to discover and motivates uscceed. it's why we ask the tough questions and what leads us to the answers. leidos, we're standing behind those working to improve the world's health, safety, and efficien. leidos. >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com.

>> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for blic broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> isn't north korea already posing an unacceptable threat? >> this regime continues to perfect its long-range nuclear capabilities. it's just a risk the world nnot tolerate. >> one out of every four times a firetruck leaves the station, it's for an overdose. >> so this house bill is dead on arrival inhe senate. if that is the only bill in

town, that means we will have a shutdown. captioning sponsored bydu newshour pions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org