captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, nagh stakes trade-- president trump admonishes cs the u.s. hosts negotiations with top ijing officials. then, side yemen: its people face a healthcare crisis, disease epidemics and chronic shortages of fuel and food amid ongoing war. plus, the economic argument for deleting your social med accounts-- why one computer scientist says users should log off and demand change. >> if you and i talk over social media, the only way that can happen is if it's for the benefit of a third party who's paying for it. and their only possible benefits etting us to change our behavior. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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from beijing got underway. the president said china had been "spoiled" by lenient u.s. trade policies for too long, and vowed that the u.s. would no longer be "ripped off." o'll take a deeper dive i the trade battle later in the program. in the day's other news, president trump pivoted from words of praisto threats of military force against north korea. meeting with the heaof nato at the white house, the president said he hoped next month's summit with kim jong un would go forward. pyongyang has threatened to cancel the meeting if the u.s. insists it give up its entire nuclr arsenal. mr. trump suggested if kim does not make a deal, he d meet a fate similar to libyan leader muammar gadhafi. after giving up his nuclear program in 2003, gaddhafwas deposed and killed in a rebellion backed by the u.s. in 2011. >> if you look at that model with gadhafi that was a total

decimation we went in to beat them. dw that model would take place if we don't makel most likely. but if we make a deal i think kim jong-un is going to be very, very happy. >> woodruff: the north has suspended lks with south rea, for continuing military drills with the u.s.ko norta's head negotiator blasted the south today asd "ignorant competent." the c.i.a. has a new director: gina haspel s confirmed by the senate today in a 54-4. she faced opposition from democrats for her role in harsh inrrogations of detainees so-called c.i.a. "blacksites." but today, six docrats voted to confirm haspel. and two republicans, rand paul and jeff flake, opposed her. haspel will the first woman to lead the agency. today marks one year sinceec l counsel robert mueller began investigating ties between president trump's associates and russia.

in that time, his teamas indicted 19 people and secured five guilty pleas, some from former high-ranking trump officials. the president railed against mueller's probe on twitter, repeating his charge that it's "the greatest witch hunt in american history." in the democratic republic ofol congo, an outbreak has spread from rural areas to a city of over a million people. confirmed the first case of the a.rus in the city of mband the world health organization has ofshed thousands of doses an experimental vaccine to congo. 23 people have died there since the outbreak began last week. >> urban ebola is a very different phenomenon to rural ebola because we know that people in urban areas can have far more contacts so that meansu than ebola can result in an exponential increase in cases in a way that rural ebola struggles to do. >> woodruff: congo's health

ministry says it will start administering the vaccine early next week. back in this country, a violent eruption of hawaii's kilauth volcano shoobig island today. it's been spewing asand blocks of ballistic rocks the size of microwaves. today, the plume reached 30,000 feet high. officials warned of dangerous driving conditions, and urgedto residenthelter in place. on wall street today, the dow jos industrial average los 55 points to close at 24,714. the nasdaq fell 16 points, and the s&p 500 slipped two points. still to come on the newshour: what's at stake in the trade talks between the u.s. and china.ic the am birth rate falls to a 30-year low. inside yemen, where war is tearing apart the country's health care system, and much more.

>> woodruff: prospects for averting an all out trade war dimmed today as e second round of negotiations between the u.s. and china kicked off washington, d.c. as yamiche alcindor reports, both president trump and the chinese their heels.igging in >> we have been rippedy china, an evacuation of wealth like no country has ever seen before. >> alcindor: president trump railed against existing trade deals today. he appeared pessimistic about talks aimed to head off a looming trade wa >> china has become very spoiled. the european union has become verypoiled. other countries have become very spoiled because they always got 100% of whatever they wanted from the united states, but we can't allow that to happen anymore. >> alcindor: president trump said conversations with chinese president xi jinping have changed since initial talks earlier this month.

today, the president met with xi's top economic adsor, vice premier liu he, hours before the president spoke-- his economic advisor larry kudlow laid out the u.s.'s intentions. >> we have requested that china change their trading practices, which are unfair and in man ways illegal. >> alcindor: there is he trump administration is demanding a $200 billion cut in china's trade surplus, and more protections for u.s. intellectual property. last month, president trumpth reatened to slap up to $150 billion of punitive tariffs onto more than 1300 chinese exports . in turn, china took direct aim at the u.s.' farm industry and threatened 25% tariffs on soybeans along with cars and aircrafts totaling $50 billion. china's commerce spokesperson said today in beijing, his country did not want to see an incrse in tensions. >> ( translated ): regarding the

visit, we not want to see the escalation of the etr u.s., of course we are also we will resolutely safeguard our own inte sts and will not trade our core interests. >> alcindor: china has countered by asking the u.s. to lift the ban on giant chinese equipment maker zte corporation. the company halted operations after the u.s. government restricted u.s. companies from selling manufacturing components to zte last month. it was caught illegally shipping siods to iran and north korea. on sunday, the pnt tweeted he would help zte "get back into business, fast." and added "too many jobs in china lost." his twt drew bipartisan outrage as critics slammed president trump for helping chinese jobs before american jobs. today, the president defended himself and saidt hina's presidked him to look into it. >> the one thing i will say, they also buy a large portion of their parts r the phones that their making. they're the fourth largest company in terms of that industry.

they buy those parts from the united states, that's a lot of business >> alcindor: but this round of talks began amid deep divisions between u.s. treasury secretary steve mnuchin and mr. trump'spe trade advisor navarro. navarro, a china hard-liner, reportedly clashed with the more "free trader" mnuchin during the first round of talks in beijing earlier this month.le litt progress came from those discusons. but mnuchin, who's leading this r und of u.s. negotiations, has signaled he's ea cut a deal. for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. >> woodruff: the tensions over the u.s.-china relationship are certainly a big part of the trade picture but that's not all. the president had wanted to renegotiate nafta, and get it approved by congress, before thm mid-lection. the prospects of meeting that timeline seem increasingly unlikely. let's zero in on what's at issue with china. david lampton is director of the china studies program at johns hopkins university's school of advanced internation studies. and he joins me now.

david lampton, welcome bak to the newshour. so we-- >> good to be with you. >> woodruff: we hear fhese commenom the president. we read there's this tension, and yet, ey're still meeting. how do you size up right now the state of u.s.-china discussions on trade? >> well, i think for-- unless you're involved directly in the talks, there are a lot of moving parts. we have to admit there's a lot we dn'tow. but i think the two sides are very far apart. and the aims that the united states has as a matter of broad policy are really raher diametrically opposed to china's and they may end up compromising and just agree to by more in the short run. but i think we're very far apart on the fundamental issues. >> woodruff: so we start out very far apart, and you're questioning where we go. you were telling us before, we were talking about this, thati you nk president trump has identified correctly some problems with the chinese and their approach. but you were saying you thi

he's used some of the wrong tools. what did you mean? >> well, i think the trade deficit is a problem because it reflects barriers to u.s.' mot competitive industries. china, in effect, has an industrial policy that identify key sectors for the future-- artificial intelligence, electric autos, high-speed railroad-- and it's subsidizirm in those yairlz. it is creating protections tou keep competitive firms. it'sinancing research and development to a very hefty amount. and the u.s. feels in the aggregate that's a disadvantage to us that gehets reflected in t tray deficit, and membership of our most competitive firms don't feel they have level playing field at all operating in china. >> woodruff: i think what's confusion to many people is the president started outas we mentioned, saying we're going to impose these tough tariffs against china.

china turns around and, in effect, punishes some of the u.s. agriculturand other sectors of our economy. >> right. woodruff: so,ou know, it's hard to see how we're moving toward coming together. >>right. r think you remember the president said ade wars are easy to win, and i think he believed chine's more dependent on us, the united states, than we are on them. but the fact is the chinese think our capacity to tolerate pain because we're a democratic h less. is muc and they've targeted their retaliation precisely on those parts of the political spectrum that are most vulnerable andm mostortant to president trump. >> woodruff: they've gone after states, even congressional districts, where it's clear the president needs political support. let me ask you, david lapton, about the president, out of the blue, tweet, state over the weekend that he wanted to do whatever he could to help this giant chinese telecom company,

z.t.e., which had earlier been identified as a company the u.s. should wor about beause of potential espionage. how are we to read that? >> well, i think this is confusing almosterybody who's looked at it for trying to find an underlying e tionale. ct of the matter was we nctioned z.t.e., beause it had violated export controls to an and north kea, among other places. we had reached an agreement, and the chinese firm violated that. this was an enforcemet against specific things, really wasn't part of the trade action. apparently, president xi and president trump talked. he made a request. and then the president sort of seemed to rhetorically fold hish handich then raises will the whole issue of how serious is he? you wouldn't think you'dment to make a major concession or what could be construed as a signaling a concession in the

midst of the talks. ev i think almoserybody was confused. it sent a bad message on law enforcement. >> woodruff: and it's still unclear, i guess, where that's going to ed up. right. >> woodruff: just remind us, david lampton, what's at stake here for u.s. agriculture and for some of these big setors, like aircraft, cars, and so on? >> well, firms like boeing, for example, they assemble planes in one location, but parts come from every state in the uniony. practica and so, when china targets those industries, it's targeting a very broad swath of american society. what else is a stake is prices in walmart, in target, for consumer goods, which will most affect many of the people at the lower part income spectrum. and so, i think the-- you've got an inflationary impact. also, it will cost jobs because if we raise the tariff on

supplies such as steel and aluminum, then other countries that don't have those tariffs against those imports, will have cheaer prices for thir goods. and so i think we are going to e'se some employment here. >> woodruff: and seen the issues with american allies through all this too,. >> right. >> woodruff: just quickly, what do you think the proscts are at this point? could it be through fits and starts or smbles of one sort or another that they come to some kind ofl usereement on trade or not? >> well, i think they will reach some agreement, but it probably won't be dealingith th fundamental issue. and that-- the fundamental issue is are we going to level theld playing fiso american competitive firms have access to china? and that's what the business community really wants. the easiest thing thachina can do is just use some of its dsreign exchange and buy goo without fundamentally changing the terms on which it's doing trade.

so my guess is that we'll see some big number for what china is going to purchase, but we won't make as much progress on the fundamental structural issues, the level playing field that we need to make. >> woodruff: david lampton, thank you very much. >> good to be with you. >> woouff: birth rates in the u.s.a. dropped to their lowest levels in the decades, falling for nearly every group of women, and part of a longer that dates back to the great recession. amna nawaz looks at some of the reasons why this may be happening. >> nawaz: more than 3.8 million babies were born in the united states last year. but last year's drop in the nation's birth rate, about 2% overall, was the largest drop in a single year since 2010. the rate even fell slightly fort women ir 30s. and the teen birth rate

continued itdramatic nosedive since the early nineties, down 55% since 2007. last year, the only group to ser a higher rate was women in their 40s. all this, amid some concernst aberica's aging population. hans peter-kohler who studies fertility and birth rates in this country and many others at iae university of pennsylv dr. kohler, thank you so much for taking the time. let me ask you about the n mbers: the lowest number of recorded births years. the largest single drop since 2010. it paints a pretty grim picture. is it? >> this report is big news, and the other not all that surprising. the u.s. stood out amongnt high-income coes as one that had relatively high fertility. and the eat recession changed that, and across many high-income countries, there ssion resulted in declining fertility rates. the really surprising part is that we've now been quitee som

years through the recession and unemployment rates is very and that trend hasn't changed. so these low-fertity rates, despite relatively good economic conditions, are really surprising. i wouldn't argue that they're disaster or particularly worrisome. i would argue that the u.s. detigraphics in general coe to be relatively healthy, at least compared to many other high-income countries. >> let's talk about the economic anxiety. obviously a lot of people point toward that as a theory why the birth ra declines. as you mentioned, we're out of a recession now. how do you look at these numbers? how do you explain this decline? >> so, presumably, a big part is driven by a delay of chi bearing. there have been big declines in enage fertility rates, and that is good news, because that presumably is a decline in unintend pregnancies, and across adult ages, a delay of child embargo resultg from, on on hand, a desire to have charnt

later ages, oten perhaps pressured by economic stress in early adulthood or high housing prices, or desires to inves in child quality. so these trends combine into a pattern where fertility and parenthood is going to be creasingly later. that's going to be across the board. and the u.s. shares this across many high-income countries. >> a lot of people sometimes float a theor bemmigration playing a role in birth rates increasing or deteclining. me about that. >> imitant ferli adjusts relatively quickly to the u.s. native fertili, and i don't think changes in immigraon policy, immigration flows had a big contribution to these rect declines in total fertility rates. >> so, dr. coale tell me why we care so much about birth rate? obviously, people will pay attention to the numbers. they'll note these declines. what do the numbers say about

the health or trajectory of america right now? >> many would see the number of children as an indicator of the well-being of the adult population from the notion that individualtwho are safied with their life and have vely good economic prospects are more likely to have children. the other reason we care about thi is that chldren born today are, obviously, the workers 25 years down the road. andretirees, some 60, 70 years down the road. the number of birth is going to shape the overall size and structure of the u.s. population, and that has a magitute of implications on the economicnd soc situation of the united states. so in the long term, if this trend persists, they're going to have profound implication. and the annual number of birth probably has relatively small implications. >> dr. kohler, you mentioned these numbers not terriblyri sung to you. they're not terribly worrisome right now. at what point do you start get worried? >> well, if we compare the u.s.

to other high-income we could see that fertility could drop a lot lower.li so total fer rates drop to rate like 1.2 in many southern european countries. they're at these levels in south korea, and we're at somewhat higher levels in japan. so on one hand, there's quite a bit of possibility for further declines in fertility, and tce we to very low fertility-- or what i have called lowest low fertility at some point-- then the kind of implications of rapidly aging poulations and possibly declining labor force become very difficult to manage through social policies. >> dr. pter-kohler from the university of pennsylvania, thank you for your time. >>u're most welcome. wi >> woodruff: sta us, coming up on the newshour:

now, we return to our series: inside yemen. tonight a look at stfailed e, collapsing because of actions by humans. war has raged since 2015, between shiite houthi rebels, backed by iran, and yemen's government, backed by a saudi- led coalitn. the houthis control large areas of yemen, including the capital, chna'a. their conquest reaed as far south as the port city of en. they were forced from aden by the coalition, which includes the u.s. and the united arab emirates. the emiratis still ctrol the city, which creates friction with yemen's government. meantime, the vast majority of yemen's 29 million people suffer from critical food shortages, a lack of fuel, and a health care sector in crisis.to ght, again in partnership with the pulitzer center on crisis reporting, special correspondent marcia biggs reports. >> reporter: here in the neo- natal ward of aden's al sadaqqa

hospital, mothers take turns looking after their babies, filling in the gaps of a broken health system and a skeleton staff. so you have 43 babies and how much staff dyou have? ha three. >> reporter: ines ed aklan runs the ward where vital electricity to power incubators and oxygenators comes and goes. dr. ines says she loses almost p quarter of theremature babies that arrive to her ward wiin ghurs. this baby was brouin just a week ago, premature, his lungs aren't fully formed yet.re he's in seespiratory distress, he's just over three pounds. today he has oxygen. reporter: today, today you have electricity. >> yeah, yeah. >> reporter: but tomorrow? >> don't know. >> reporter: less than half of yemen's health facilities are functional amid a alth crisis that has seen epidemics of preventable and largely eradicated diseases, like cholera and diphtheria. public hospitals exist on few resources, relying on international aid groups for supplies. all of these medications came from outside. what would you have if you

relied only on the ministry of health? >> empty, empty place. >> r.orter: it would be empty >> empty, yes.sl >> ( traned ): it feels like we're begging. everything comes from n.g.o.'s: sngplies, teachi the government is doing nothing. >> reporter: yemen's entire infrastructure was badly broken when the war against hou ii rebels beg2015. now it's on the brink of collapse. a bankrupt central bank means thousands of public sector worker doctors, teachers, go with little or no salary for months on end. civil services have ground to a halt. gas stations sit abandoned, leaving people to rely on fuel bought on the black market to run their cars and generators. "this city is supposed to be liberated," this man shouts, three years and nothing hasge ch there is no government, we don't get anything from them. inhis aden market, we meet fisherman nabil ahmed, who has had this shop for eleven years.

>> ( translated ): without gas, none of us can go to the sea to fish. if i buy gas at these o ices, i havell the fish at a high price. sometimes we have to close. we don't work. >> reporter: more deadly than lack of fuel-- lack of food. a saudi blockade on yemen' houthi controlled north late last year dealt a heavy blow to a country which relies on imports for 90% of its food. 17 million yemenis, over half the population don't have enough food to survive. so here in aden it's a big city, there is food available. the problem-- the prices. we're going to go talk to someep shops. the previous price was 20, now it's 40. bashir salam says he had to double some of the prices in his shop. >> ( translated used to give normal people goods on credit, they would pay at the end of the month. now we can't. we tell them, you have ti pay in cash sn have cash and keepth

gs running. >> reporter: kifah abdul kafee says high prices make feeding her family a dly struggle. who do you blame? >> ( translated ): the government. who else would we blame? a very corrupt goverent. there are people who are dying rf hunger inside of th houses, they don't dare to go out, they don't go out to ask for help, even for medicine. this is too much to handle. >> reporter: life here is a grind. everywhere you go in aden you see destruction lis this. theren virtually no rebuilding. trash piles up in the street. there are open sewage lines. they may have dren the houthis out of this part of the country, but the official yemeni government is massively fractured. the result? a failed state. ahmed bin ahmed al maysary is yemen's interior minister, a cabinet member of embattled and exiled president abdo rabbo mansour hadi. what do you say to the people who are paying double what they used to pay for food, who don't have fuel, who say yemen is a failed state?

>> ( translated ): yes we are suffering, but it's nothing toar cowith what the situation was when houthis were here, weil are in the negative, soon we will reach zero point and we will go to positive. they have to be tient if they want the truth. >> reporter: but patience is in short supply. in january of this year, a separatist group backed by the united arab emirates stormed the stres of aden, claiming corruption in the cabinet and demanding that it disband. three days of clashes left scores dead, including seven men assigned to protect maysari. he says the attackers were puppets of the u.a.e which controls the south, as part of a saudi led coalition formed to fight the houthis. >> ( tran regret that emiratis are here, they helped us, but... you can't go to the port without permission from u.a.e., you can't go to the airport withoum permission fa.e. , you can't enter aden from the land ports without the permission of u.a.e. i, as the nister of interior, i don't even have authority over the prisons. what is my value as the mir?ster of inter the coalition originly came to

fight houthis with us so wherever there are houthis, the saudis and the u.a.emust be there. but once an area is liberated, the legitimate government should be allowed to rule it. >> reporter: do you feel occupied? am i not correct, it sounds like occupation to me. >> ( translat): it's undeclared. we have a lot of indicators on the ground that support what you just said, but we still think good of u.a.e. and the answer to your question will come in the next few months. it's either that the coalition countries prove that they came to support the legitimate, governmed they enable us to do our work. or they will prove the thing you just said and i myself will go and say it in a press conference, but not now. >> reporter: but these women will say they feel occupied. how old is your brother? ye ( translated ): 6ars old. >> reporter: mohamed saleh is one of h held in secret prisons run by the u.a.e. and its proxy forces. he was taken six months ago from his home by policellegedly on charges of terrorism.re cod disappeawithout a trace.

his sister mirias every week to protest with o family members desperate for information. >> ( eanslated ): we go to coalition offices and we're not even allowed to ask about our family members. did they come to help us get rid of houthis or destroy us? this is a crime. we're humans, not animale >> reporter:ked the representative of the newly re- opened ministry of humth rights, aboustatus of the detained. slatedr): the courts have been closed for 2.5 years because of the war and they just re-opened six months ago. and because they are open things will get better. the coalition security used to y they can't release any suspect because there could not be a trial. >> reporter: did you hear anything back? the u.a.e. officially denies their use of secret prisons. but the minister of interior tells us otherwise. he says he was italks with the u.a.e. on behalf of these families.ta but the at on his government in january shut down communication.ra

hanan's husban has been detained for over a year and a half. >> ( translated ): the yemeni government has no control over yemen. this is our country, the coalition treat us like slaves in our cntry. oney are occupying us. they have helped u, we thank them but they need to leave. >> reporte the silence of stalemate is a far cry from the scream of airstrikes in the north. and life goes on amid the rubble of yesterday's war with little hope for tomorrow. for the pbs newshour, i'm marcia biggs in aden, yemen. >> woodruff: for the past few weeks we have been reporting on the spread of junk news on social media. and last night, miles o'brien

took a look at what facebook is doing to crack down onhe calls junk news. tonight our economs correspondent paul solman talks to a silicon valley visionary who thinks we should do away with social media entire. it's part of our weekly series "making sense" which airs thursdays on the newshour. >> reporter: computer scientist and virtual reality pioneer jaron lanier doesn't mince words t comes to social media. >> anything you do on facebook is fundamentally hopeless. so i won't go on it myself. >> reporter: lanier, who's also an off-beat musician, has been sounding a discordant note about social networks for years. his latest book is "ten arguments for deleting your social media accounts right now." his core concern is an economic one. >> the economic problem is very oumply that we've designed a society where ifnd i talk over social media, the only way that can happen is if it's for the benefit of a third party

who's paying for it. r only possible benefit is getting us to change our behavior. >> reporter: to get us to buy, that is: goo, services, but most perniciously, ideologies. >> so it becomes a society based fundamentally on sneaky manipulation. everybody has hired a hypnotist who they don't know, who'seing paid by people they don't know, for purposes they don't know. there's sort of the cognitive extortion racket now where the idea is that, "you know what, nobody's going to know about your book, nobody's going to know about your store, nobody's going to know about your candidacy unless you're putting money into these social network things." >> reporter: all that information we share about ourselves online, lanier argues, is not only used to sell us stuff but to manipulate our civic behavior in uncivillyil destizing ways. just look at the spread of fake news and the cambridge analytica scandal. >> in the last presidential i electithe u.s., what we saw was targeted nihilism or cynicism, conspiracy theories,

paranoia, negativity at voter groups that parties were trying to suppress. the thing about negativity is it comes up faster, it's cheaper te genend it lingers longer. so for instance, it takes a long cme to build trust, but y lose trust very quickly. >> reporter: always easier to destroy than to thild. >> so thg is since these systems are built on really quick feedback, negatis more efficient, cheaper, more effective. so if you want to turn an election, for instance, you don't do it with positivity about your candidath, you do it egativity about the other candidate. >> reporter: lanier says smart phes and smart speakers ar now being used to modify our behavior on a tanic scale, without our informed conse. >> what you see is being calculated carefully based on measurements about you. about your intereststhe timing. the companies claim they can botell all kinds of things your psychological state, your state of health, all kinds of things. all of this is used to place ads

d content in front of you that will have some predetermined effect on you. >> reporter: but i get these ads all the time for chairs that my wife had looked at a while ago, or singles, i get all these ads for singles. and i go, please, it has absolutely no effect ot all. >> we're dealing with statistical effect so let's say i take a million people, and for each of them i have this online dossier that's been created by observing themet inl for years through their phones. then i sd out messages that are calculated to, for instance, make them a little cynical on election day if they were tending to vote for a candidate i don't like.wi i can saout knowing exactly which people i influenced. let's say 10% became 3% less likely them confused and bummed out and cynical. erit's a slight thing, buts something about slight changes. when you have slight changes that you can predict well and you can usthem methodically,

you can actually make big changes. >> reporter: so the people who are sending me pictures of chairs because they saw that my eyfe had bought a couple, wouldn't be doing it if some people weren't responding. >> it's even a little sneakier than that. because for instance, they might be sending you notifications about singles services because statistically people who are in the same grouping with you get a little annoyed about and that engages them a little bit more. >> reporter: oh really. >> sure, absolutely. >> reporter: and i am annoyed. so you mean they're having the desired effect? >> it might have caused you to click a little bit further ande then see sher ad that had an influence on you. it might actually be having its desired effect. ngnow i want to make somet clear. there's nobody sitting at a cubicle in facebook or twitter anywhere who's saying, "oh we're gonna get that paul with a singles ad." this is all statistical. it pulls you in a little bit more.

have you ever known someone who is always just on the edge of annoying you but you cuite understand them, and in a way rsu're drawn in more and more to try to get that ? >> reporter: yes, i had a very good friend like that. >> that's facebook. >> reporter: annoying compelling. >> because your brain is trying of solve the puzzle. this is the magi inconsistent feedback. it's not a simple matter of the dog hits the button and gets the candy, hits the button, gets the candy. once in a while, a clever trainer actually withholds the candy so the dog becomes, "wait, what do i have to do to get e candy?" >> reporter: social media, says lanier, have turned us into trained dogs. but he thinks we'd be better off as cats, who prize their independence. >> you can put a cat outso mewhere and they'll fend for themselves. and that sense of integrated modernity with independence is i rdink what every person seeks, and is harder and er to get at, but cats have it. >> reporter: so, how to become a cat? lanier has long argued that we

have to force the social mediass busiodel to change, insisting companies should be paid by users instead of third party advertisers-- subscription instead of supposedly "free" tv. >> we have services like netflix, amazon prim. tv got better by almost universal acclaim when people were willing to pay for it.t' and so wgoing on here is that when the user is also the customer, all of the sudden, what that user gets is better because they're the customer. >> reporter: but is this foryo ev? as facebook chief operating officer sheryl sandberg arguedwo to judruff recently, internet advertising is essential for a mass medium. >> it's what enables us to make this product available to people all around the world for free. two billion people use the produc if it weren't advertising-based, most of those people would not be able to. >> reporter: lanier's retort? >> this idea that you allowing the whole society be run by a manipulative scheme is the only way to not be elitist has got to

abe one of the most cynic sort of cruel-minded arguments going right now. i mean, it's ridiculous. >> reporter: which is why lanier vows not to have a social media account until he can pay for ind and says you shouldn't either. please forgive me, then, for not having checked my making sen$e facebook page in weeks. for the pbs newshour this is economics correspondent paul solman in berkeley, california. >> woodruff: it was a moment that changed america. 55 years ago this month, thousands of african-american children walked out of their ols and began a peaceful march in birmingham, alabama to protest segregation. they we met with attack dogs and water hoses. the dist the nation and became the catalyst for the civil rights act.is this moment inry has now

come alive for a group of students who traveled to birmingham. special correspondent lisa stnk, of our partner educat week, went along with them. >> everywhere i went this is what i always saw-- colored and white. >> reporter: these 5th and 6th graders are mesmerized. >> our restaurants, oudentist office, our doctor's office, everywhere we went, this is what we saw when i was your age. >> reporter: john alexander and charles avery grew up in the segregated south. >> my dad asked me what is your greatest ambition in life son?dr i said tk out of that water fountain, talking about the white water foundation. i just wanted to know what it taste like. >> reporter: for those listening, the stories are now much more than just a chapter in a history book. here's amari and avion. >> they used the word i as in, their, themselves, so you're

thtually looking at the person. >> we get to hear perspective on it, because nobody can tell their story better than the person who actually experienced it. >> we believe in the power of immersion and the power of bringing history to life for our students. >> reporter: francesca peck is the director of culture and character for the polaris charter academy in chicago, a school with an in-depthcu iculum that stresses first- hand learning.>> et's come, immerse ourselves, let's come experience it, let's come to the primary source and get a feel of what ie was like to lit that time. >> reporter: these chicago 5th and 6th graders traveled 10 hours and more than 600 miles, from illinois to alabama. >> welcome to birmingham ladies and gentlemen, give yourself a round of applause, we made it! >>eporter: birmingham, the site of the 1963 children's crusade: thousands of young black students left their

classrooms to march against segregation. these students are here to examine and record their own d backts on what transpi then, and why. this class trip to birmingham isn't a field trip. it's field work. it puts the students right at the heart of their own history research project and it comes after a year of preparation in the classroom, of studying the civil rights movement. >> they were singing one word over and over: freedom, freedom. >> reporter: they have watched do >> don't worry about your children, they are going to be alright. >> reporter: analyzed otographs. >> what are they trying to accomplish? >> they're trying to accomplish their freedom, the freedom they fought for. >> reporter: dissected first- hand accounts, and studied the arc of civil rights histtey. polaris chacademy is largely african-american and low-income. the school's mission includes instilling a sense of activism

and social justice. >> it's not just that children are critical thinkers and that children areroducing high quality work and that they are of great character, but really that they see them olves as agenchange in their community. >> reporter: so they're re re- tracing steps child activists took 55 years ago, visiting the 16th street baptist church, where marchers gathered. >> being inside of it made me usfeel kind of excited, be martin luther king was in the same exact spot, that same exact place and he could have been in >> reporter: studying the memorials inhe park, where thorities decades ago unleashed dogs and water hoses against the protestors.ee >> ikind of angry. >> tell me more, why? >> obviously the white people want the dog to bite humans andr thnot treating humans as humans. >> they teach people in kindergarten that evers equal and to just be kind.

the fact that they were so brutal to african-americans isay not ok >> reporter: they're confronting some of the most frightening d mbols of the time. and meeting men men who were young students themselves when they marched for equal rights. jaatce kelsey was 16 during became known as the children's crusade. >> wsang we shall overcome a we walked ouin pairs and we were stopped by police officers who told us you st in this line you're going to jail. i had already made up my mind i was going to jail, and that's where i went for four days.th >> so al is holy ground, all of this young people. all of this is where it all happened. >> reporter: raymond goolsby was 17 at the time and recalls his fear waiting in the 16th street baptist church, to begin the march. >> my group was the first group out, i'm sitting there shaking

like a leaf on a te in the building before we walked out. and i say, man i don't know whether i want to do this. all those billy club p tice, standingre with those billy clubs.ep >>ter: the stark images from that time, now memorialized, shocked theon naleading to a fierce backlash. birmingham leaders buckled, releasing the students from jail, and agreeing to begin desegregation.ul >> i feel thanor the people that went through all this. if they ha would have had to went through it.ul i 't be brave enough to do what they did.te >> rep four months later, angry white supremacists would place a bomb at the 16 street ngptist church, killing four young girls, incluynthia wesley, janice kelsey's close friend. >> because she gave up her life for things i believe tn, then agretalk about it to young people so you'll know what it took to get to wre we are.

>> reporter: today of course, birmingham is a very different city. the nation, a different place. but the studts are encoaged tconnecthe past - with the present. we are here to ask the question, how do members of a community affect change? ma you guys coul what would you march for? ar for guolen, i wod onouic i w l el>> wld me, >> rept about you? >> i would march for the same things as lanchae-- wpeace ande violce, so people could stop killing each other. >> reporter: many of these students live in neighborhoods v touched lence. >> you know like, we need to make a difference, but it's, just like, can one perke a difference in the world. opleike, i think some don't believe that kids could actually made a change, but i believe kids can make a change. >> reporter: with encouragement from those who have come before. >> what you got to do is study hard and you've got to be able

yoto compete for whatever u want to do. the sky's the limit with you ung people. the sky's the limit. >> reporter: a future shaped by ose young civil rights activists. >> i'll definitely remember it, because it's a part of my history. because it's a part of people who are like me. it's ourtory. this generation, they have to decide on whether they're going to make a story like that generation did. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour and education week, i'm lisa stark in birmingham, alabama. >> woodruff: next, another installment of our weekly brief but spectacular series, where we ask people about their passion. monica mcguiness and aaron rodriguez spent two years traveling 80 miles to a hospit in oakland, california so their eight-year-old son devin could receive treatment for cancer.re

they sheir experience with ht in hopes that other >> devin is my son. he's eight years old and he is thbrest ttoy er. >> it was beginning of april, it was about a week. >> before the hospital. >> before the hospital trip. he was having-- i got out of the shower and i see him trying to use the restroom and it was hard for him. and then i told her, "make a dois appointment," becaus think he has a u.t.i. they did the ultrasound and >> they found. >> but they didn't know like what the mass was until we wento hildren's hospital oakland by ambulance and then we stayed thnight there and then the very next day they told us devin was going to go in for a biopsy d anhe t bi, opsy and after that they t us know that devin was diagnosed with stage four embryonal

rhabdomyosarcoma. gny ook, trsootak of h te heju a knew he was gonna be, you know, >> he ew he was sick. that he was sick and he was going to b gald.ll mn. >> he's got quiet. he-- >> andt, just took it all >> yeah. >> and he's a really strong little boy. .> h.e is >> nd he took it to heart and that's the day he started fighting. it wy er.rd tste ise >> his first question was, "is my son gonna die?" that was because everybody hears cancer and everyone thinks death. we spent his birthday, new years, christmas, halloween, easter, every holiday, birthdays we spent at the hospital. >> they really made him feel

comfortable which made us feel at ease as well becaus devin is fee we are feeling good >> what do you have to say tod,g other parento s guggoh arat yin? >> i c way and as you can see i'm a cryer and n itshe hodllds bae ck. >> and plus you cat really find somebody silver lining for them, you know, you can't say, "everything's going to be okay" or they're going to, they're resilient, you know,e as parents don't wanna hear that. this our, this is our child. he shouldn't have to be going through this. he should be playing little league, and he should be going to school instead of having to take the year off to get chemo, you know, so i would say to try to explain to all of your loved ones and family members and friends what exactly childhood cancer is and what you go through as parents. >> as of, as of three weeks ago, devin is with no signs of cancer. he's back at school, he's doing really good, fighting with his brothers and sisters, you know. getting on our netves. >>ng on our nerves.ng mkidsr den even in the bad times when he'ss on my neecause i missed

that the whole time when he was going through treatm >> my name is monica mcginness. >> my name is aaron rodriguez. >> and this is our brief but ectacular take... >> on childhood cancer. >> woodruff: you can watch additional brief but spectacular episodes on our website, pbs.org/newshour/bri. the nation's largest youth development organization, 4-h has been preparing young people for careers in agriculture and farming for over 100 years. as parof the newshour's ud and a team of students at cedar crest high schooin lebanon, pennsylvania report how one hard working 15-year-old turned swine project into a profitable business. >> reporter: if you happen to stop by grumbine's berkshires od farm, you' brillrpbiatnesuse

is only 15 years. he started the business as a 4-h project wh but it didn't get off to a smooth start. >> when i first starte i didn't really have any luck as far as the breeding standpoint. godn'tet pigs settled, they just didn't work out. so it took me a while to get a sow base built up. >> reporter: dakota now has 20 sow, four boars, and almost 200u omers. he breeds pasture raised, berkshire pigs which command a higher price, over a dollar morh per poun regularer p >>re lornagent inlved. i knew all the sows off the top of my head, their ear notches and everything. now i've got to write that down or keep track of it somewhere because i can't remember all that information anymore.

>> reporter: dakota createa e itt bsouprab he has traveled as far as illinois, iowa and ohio to learn more about theesus s.his ther has also helped him b with his business and says that it's very beneficial that dakota started so young. >> the younger you are when your start something, the easier it is to pick it up. otdse ki'tr certain opportunities such as public speaking and talking to strangers. t sme tt athaf inh k ufucou oaf those things that hold a lot of kids back. >> reporter: he goes to school seven hours a day for five days a week like any other student, but when he gets home he has to do his homework while still keeping enough thie to manage t pigs. he has a head st his future.

>> dacoat's business is paying off financially, too. >> even if i don't continue raising hogs for the rest of my life, i still have this experience aa young age of coming home every day and having responsibility. i can walk away with a lot of different assets as far as management and time management, ney management, you name it. the farming industry and escially the hog industryon life.mpenco >> reporter: for the pbs newshour studenteporting labs, this is alexis lesher in lebanon, pennsylvania >> and what an impressive yoisg man dakot matmonyf prince presidentee lead lawyer, rudy giulianisays mueller's team is narrowing possible questions for mr. trump, and says the prospect of talks loohmore eful than

it did a day or so ago. that and more i on our website, that and more is on ous.web site, g/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening witmark shields and david brooks. 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 innovatiha begins. it'sleads us to discovery and motivates us to succeed. it's why we ask the tough questions and what leads us to the answers. at leidos, we're stae ing behind thrking to improve the world's health, safety, and efficiency. leidos. >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin.

>> ae dvr foic learn more at raymondjames.com. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are av re information on babbel.com. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions wa >> this programade possible by the corporation for captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access gro at wgbh captioned by

(people talkin ♪ >> this is very delicious. (laughter) >> nigella: a ta pe is more than aiece of furniture, just as food is more than mere fuel. when i moved into my first home many years ago, befo i did anything else, i bought a table-- and not just to eat at, but to live around. chin-chin, amici. (toasting) >> nigella: at my table, when i'm winding down at the end of a long day... >> nigella: they're ready for me, and i'm ready for them. ...cebrating friendship at weekend feasts, or making memories with family... (laughter) ...the fooeat is vibrant and varied, t buways relaxed. old favorites...