captioning sponsoredy wnet >> sreenivasan: on this editn for sarday, july 7: two very different perspectives emerge from the ongoing talks between the united states and north koena; in our signature segm a special report calls out the united states for having " third world" poverty problem; and, students in memphis carrying on the musigacy of their city. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> "pbs newshour weekend" is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the sue and edgar wachenheim foundation. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg.

meorporate funding is provided by mutual ofca-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. >> additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs sion from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, haenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. secretary of state mmpeo wrapped up two days of talks in pyongyang today, the fst meeting between the u.s. and north korea since president trump and kim jong un held their summit in singapore. the united states characterized this round of talks on denuclearization as" productive," the north koreans called it "regrettable." in a statement, north korea's foreign ministry used hars nguage, charging that the united states made "unilateral and gangster-like" demands. the ministry also said that kim jong un wants to build on the" friendly relationship and trust" he has with mr. trump. before leaving north korea, the

secretary of state said there would be another round of talks on july 12. these are complicated issues, but we made progress on almost all of the central issues. some places, a great deal of progreress; olaces, there's still more work to be done. >> sreenivasan: protestors marchg to call attention to chicago's gun violence and demanding action from tpa governmenially shut down an interstate highway this morning. chantindng slogansarrying signs, the peaceful protest slowed but did not block traffic on the dan ryan expressway. chicago's murder rate fell 16% last year, but it still ranks number one for homicides nationwide. rescuers are racing to find a way to evacuate the yoccer team trapped in a northern thailand cave before monsoon rains start. toy, the provincial governor told reporters that the conditions were perfect for a rescue days. in the next few working around the clock, rescuers are still looking for a way to get the 12 boys and their soccer coac through a mile and

a half of narrow and jagged passages, many of which are currently flooded in japan, more than 50 people have died in flooding and landslides caused by record rainfall. millions of people are being urged to evacuate in western and central parts of the country. the rain that has fallen there in the past five days is reportedly two or three times higher than the average rainfall for the entire month of july. >> sreenivasan: read more about today's anti-violence protest in chicago.vi t www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: the chinese government quickly retaliated in what they called "the biggest trade war in economic history." yesterday, the u.s. imposed 25% tariffs on tens of billions of dollars of goods imported into the united states from china. what happens next in this battle between the world's two largest economies? to help make sense of it all,ep ana swanson, ater for the "new york times," joins us now from washington, d.c. first, what are they retaliating

with? what are they penizing u.s. producers for? >> well, the chinese penalties ll very heavily on som of the major u.s. exports, includingns soyb pork, airplanes and automobiles, a they are really designed to enact kind of maximum pain on some areas of strongupport for the president, including farm untry. so farmers actually have already been feeling some of the effects of these tariffs, just the threat of tariffs has already caused soybean prices to drop, for example. >> sreenivasan: now, theth consumer iunited states, how are they likely to feel this trade war? we've kind of had a couple of rounds earlier, famously heard of washing machines and the price of those increasing, but is there direct effect with what happened in the last couple of days? >> with the last round of tariffs, the trump administration has actually designed them not to hit consumers so directly. so there's the type of thiyongs would buy in wal-mart are

e t going to be taxed directly. however, they hacided to hit a lot of what are called inharmediate goods, things factories in the united states cts.to make other produ so, in the short run, i think the pain is really going to fall more heavily o small and medium-sized manufacturers than ee consumers, but i haven talking to manufacturers recently, and they are inte sing on passie of those prices on. >> all right, so what's thepr nosis for this ending or what's the time line in the next couple of weeks? is there anything that's going to happen th can either ease this tension or make it worse? >> the trump ainistration has lked about these tariffs as a negotiating tactic, so a bid to bring china to the table and level what they describe as an unfair playing field. however, there are no apparent negotiations going on with the chinese at this time. you know, several weeks to a month ago, there were talks that

the trump administration felt that what the chinese were offering fell short. so, at this point, you know, an escalation may be more likely than some kind of negotiated settlement. the trump administration has threatened further tariffs if the chinese retaliated, and china had threatened to respond. so, really, no signs right now of a negotiated settlement in the near term. >> sreenivasan: ana swanson of the "new york times" joining us from washington. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: poverty in america is not a new problem, but the extent of the issue has seldom been brought to the attention of the entire world. that's exactly whahappened recently when the united nations' special rapporteur took a tour of some of america's foorest places and reported back about what id. newshour weekend special correspondent simon ostrovsky has our story, wch was supported in part by a grant from the pulitzer center on crisis reporting.

this report is part of our onnding series about poverty opportunity in america, "chasing the dream. >> reporter: this is philip alston, the united nonions point maoverty. his job usually involves visiting the world's least developed countries. but earlier this month, alston flipped the script. >> my report demonstrates that growing inequality and widespread poverty, which afflicts almost one child out of every five, has deeply native implications for the enjoyment of civil and political rights. >> reporter: the country he's talking about might not be what you'd expect. it's the united states of america. and his criticism made to the united nations council on human rights goes much, much further. >> the united states has the highest income inequality in the western world, and this can only be made worse by the massive new tax cuts overwhelmingly benefiting the wealthy. >> reporter: just days before

alston delivered his report, the united states had pulled out of cithe u.n. human rights co claiming it was stacked against u.s. ally israel and refused to be reformed. >> for too long, the human rightsouncil has been a protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool o. political bi >> reporter: american ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley reacted to alston's reportith a strongly worded letter, calling the report, "misleading," iv"politically med" and "biased." she said it was "patently e ridiculous" for n. even to examine poverty in "the wealthiest and freest country in the world." but alston's report tohe u.n. not only implied that u.s. policies toward poverty ignored rights, but, as a result democracy itself is being lysteandermined. how did you conceive of the idea to come tohe united states? >> the united states has long opposed the notion that there is any such thing as social human rights. the united states has for decades now stood up and said,

no, no, no, no, there's no right to food. we think it's a good idea if people get access to food, but it's not a human right." >> reporter: what alston does want people to embrace is his belief that extreme poverty is a human rights issue and governments have an obligation to alleviate it. but that's a controversial idea. >> well, i think it's a complicated question. > reporter: keith harper was president barack obama's last atombassadohe u.n. human rights council. >> i don't think i would go fully on board with the special rpoapporteur'tion. having said that, i think the way these problems often mteanifest in the ustates could be human rights violations iotf for example they're in disparate treatment between icy african-ams and... and... and white americans. then, you have a violation of the convention on racial discrimination. >> reporter: disparate treatment is wt alston says he found. >> i note with regret that united states amssador nikki

haley has characterized this council as a cesspool d has chosen to withdraw from it just days before my presentation. speaking of cesspools, my report draws attention to those i witnessed in alabama. >> reporter: as rtrt of his potour, alston visited lowndes county, where the halcombes live just yards away from their town's wastewater lagoon. the irony is, their entire african-american neighborhood isn't connected to the sewer system the lagoon serves, and they rely on their own faulty septic tank. >>here are no white people here in this part all the way back to 21. it's all black. >> ( bleep ) it looked worse than that yesterday. >> reporter: when it rains, the f the town's waste backs up into the halcombes' yard. >> they need to get that sewage out the lawn here. it shouldn't be in this neighb.

>> repter: i hear that. >> this is sewage, okay. agat must be where it's seeping through this shere. >> reporter: so, if you're trying to figure out why the united nations felt hey had to send somebody down to sabama, this is the reaso openage bubbling up from the ground fm a pipe and just coming and flooding into people's yards. the authorities in alabama brought sewage systems to affluent, primarily ite neighborhoods decades ago but roughly half of the hos in this mostly african-american county either don't have any septic system at all or their systems are failing, according to cat activist who conducted a survey of nearly 3,000 homes. >> these are classic third world conditions in the chest country in the world. it makes absolutely no sense. >> reporter: and of the 2,800 houses that were surveyed, what percentage had adequate sewage facilities? >> most of them... at least 50% of the people that wsurveyed had failing systems or no

systems at all. >> reporter: what's it like living without a septic tank system? >> it's bad, and i don't like to see this, you know, stuff running out on the ground like this. a reporter: pamela rush is also sident here. so, how does it work? >> it's just a straight pipe running out from the house. >> reporter: how come you don't have a septic tank? >> i could never afford a septic tank.ik it wasthis ever since i been here. >> reporter: okay. how lo has that been? >> over 20 years. >> reporter: so, the government actually doesn't consider it its rviesponsibility to p the infrastructure for getting rid waste? >> no. i mean, they will say, "look, we've golaws on the books, and if you have a house, it's your responsibility. but, of course, the bottom line is there's an awful lot of people-- not just poor people, ordinary people-- who could never afford a sanitation em.t >> reporter: alabama's chiefal heth officer, dr. scott harris, told us the state has never conducted a surto assess the scope of the problem.

how many households would you say don't have propesewage facilities? >> far too many, although we don't have great data on that. we have made efforts in the past to try to count those numbers, but we... we don't have a way that we're confident that we're collecting all that information. in lowndes county, for example, we think those numbers could be, you know, maybe 20%, you know, or... or it could be significantly higher or it might be lower. but... but we know that it's a anbstal number of the population. >> reporter: when we interviewed philip alston, he told us that he got the sense that the local authoreeities didn'tit was their responsibility. and not only that, they didn't know h b an issue it was because they'd never conducted a survey. >> i don't know about every person that that he spoke with, but cleay it's an issue. 've identified it as an issue, and we've tried to educate local peopleit on how important s. >> reporte do you think ere's a problem where you see the bett off white part of town being connected to the

sewer syste and the poor, worse oarff black pof town not being connected to the system here in lowndes county? >> there's a clear racial disparity here, there's no questin about it. i think people who are impoverished of any color, but particularly african-american people who are impoverished, lack the social capital to be able to get their problems addressed. they... they are unable to getrn gont to answer toy hem in the wathat people who are more well off or have better connections can do. >> reporter: we asked nikki haley's spokesperson at themi ion to the u.n. to speak to newshour weekend about alston's report. he didn't respond to calls and emails. nikki haley said it's patently ridiculous for the united nations to be reviewing poverty in country as rich as the united states. do you agree with that? >> don't agree with that. i think that countries like the united states, where we have incredible wealth, are precisely the hekinds of countries if you do have poverty you want to find out about it because we

haves the resources to addr it. >> reporter: in the case of alabama, the challenge of proding proper waste treatment to all citizens may finally be greetting aed with proposed bipartisan legislation. in part, alston's visit brought. >> and in this day and age, everyone should have access to quality affordable, waste water systems. >>ng reporter: ade republican legislators mike ogers and shelley capito democratic congresswoman terri sewell and democratic senators doug jones and cory booker have introduced bipartisan bills in the house and senate that if passed will offer federal assistance to households for sanitation systems. how does that make alabamians feel that the united nations felt they needed to send somebody who they usually send to third world countries to this state? >> well, you know, look, it doesn't real matter how they el. what we've got to do is take that report and say, "look, this is problem. don't shoot the messenger." that's what we say down here in the south. juster don't shoot the messe

let's take the message and try or build on it and work on it. >> rr: what would you say to people who would argue that our tax dollars should be spent on improving our own and our children's lives instead of people who haven't been able to sort their own situation out? >> well, i think what any community does is to acknowledge that there are losers in life or people who have gone through disasters. it can happen to any of us.bu those of us who are well off have safety nets, either peonal orfamilial or whatever. these people don't have those safes.ty n it's a basic tenet of decency for a society to make basic provision for thstpoorest and ulnerable members of its society. >> sreenivasan: the legendary, memphis-based record lel stax

records played a critical role in nurturing a who's who of musical superstars in the 1960s and beyond. there was otis redding and isaac hayes, and the famous house band bs,ooker t and the m. racially integrated group at a time when segregated bands were the nor today, the label's legacy continues with the staxusic academy, a non-profit with after-school programs and summer cas for young people in memphis. and as you'll see in this story, the academy is aeflection of the city's rich history and musical traditions.>> ♪ oh, we worked our fingers to the bone. >> ♪ and that ain't right. >> my name is johnathon lee, and i'm 18 years old. i can relate to a lot of soul music and a lot of gospel. i'm able to communicate my emotns, and i... i'm able to exude that to the audience when i sing

>> ♪ march on, march on, march on, we've got to march on. ♪ >> my name is adrianna christmas, and i'm the director of .stax music acade they learn music theory, music technique, as well as perform hce. so, if ye never touched an instrument before, you can come learn pia, guitar and bass. we also have some students that come in that have been singing all their lives in church. >> ♪ yes, but i'm on my way yes, i am. ♪ >> the church was a place where people went to tell their trhtbles during the civil r movement. and people used gospel and soul music to communicate the stories that they had to tell when they were struggling. >> ♪ don't know yesterday but today i'm leaving here keep moving ♪ got a dime for some coffee, got a dime to buy me a cake. ♪ >> being able to share the stax legacy with the students, and they have this pride, you know, like, "yes, i come fromemphis. i come from this spirit of

innovation and creativity." and so, i want them to walk away being proud of that legacy, and i also wnt them to carry it on. using their art to bring healing, but also using their art to... stir the pot sometimes when it needs to be stirred. ( laughs ) >> so, wee h analyze politically what was going on and why the about a specific subject. they all have a story. there wasnd a struggle,o be able to have black artists perform tr heir songsite their own songs. during the civil rights movement, we did marches. and so, being able to have a march and then use music as a form to communicate what your march is meaning, that made a big impac >> stax songs have so much history to them. everybody was treated as equals, you know, because music was that connector. it's what we try to create at stax, where it's... heesn't matter you come from; you're accepted, you belong here, this is a place for you. were delving deeper into

m.l.k.'s legacy, and we decided to try to into songs that may have influenced him on his journey-- what was released when the sanitation workers went on strike, whawas released when they marched on selma, and then also talk about what was stax records doing at that time. >> ♪ but i don't need no money, honey ♪ 'cause you're always there. >> the discussions really start wmuith thc. so, when the staple singers released "got to be some changes made," we're going to learn that song, but we're also going to talk about why they were saying "got to be some changes made" and then go a step further to say, do you feel that way now? you know, in america 2018, do you feel like we neehato make somees, and what scale and how will we do that. >> ♪ everything's gonna be alright ♪ i remember hoitsed to be. ♪ >> music is really that key that weth have he students for them to explore who they really are. theiey're writing own original music this year. actually, the middle school

en asemble started writiong about change, red, like, you member all the pain and suering from 1968, but we still have some of these things today. and, like, that's what their song is about. >> ♪ wstill have all the hurt and the sorrow ♪ but we still have another tomorrow. c ♪ changnge change, change. ♪ >> 70% of our students come on financial need, d they have a lot of different things going on in the home. but they're so resilient, and i think it's because of music because they can come, they can express themselves. >> ♪ she stopping calling you back, your number changed ♪ but my love for you, girl, it still remains the same. ♪ >> i have grown, grown and grown. you learn how to control your voice, you learn how to buildid coce, you learn... and it's like an elevation. you elevate every time, every

me. and you get better and better. >> ♪ so i'm saying baby, baby, baby ♪ you can have my ivate number ♪ baby, baby, baby, you can have my e number. ♪ >> being able to learn from different people, different vocalists, they offer a style that i didn't... i didn't have, and i offered something that they mig not have had. it's not a one-man show. but i do see myself doing broadway. i see myself putting out an , album or tybe 50. who knows? amusic anguage that everybody can understand. n,music is my passt's my love, it's my soul. >> ♪ baby, baby, baby, you can have my private number hey,aby... ♪

>> this is "pbs newshour weekend," saturd. >> sreenivasan: wildfires in california areurning homes and prompting evacuations. a fire that started last night in goleta, west of santa barbara, forced nearly 2,500 people to leave their homes. ieand in san d county, a fire that broke out yesterday morning has burned hundreds of aes. fighting these fires has been dimuch more fficult due to extremely high temperatures. in southern california, a heat wave yesterday broke records. in downtown los angeles, it was 08, a record for the day. artnd two airthere reached all-time highs: burbank airport at 114 degrees; van nuys airport hit 117 degrees. but california was not alone. global temperatures reached extreme highs this past week, something scientists have been warning of as part effects of climate change. this map, from the university of mne, shows maximum temperatures around the globe

yesterday. in thnorthern hemisphere, jul is off to a record-breaking start. in canada, authorities said that at least 50 people died from heat-related illnesses in the province of quebec. the largest city there, montre temperature of 97.9 degrees on monday. in the u.s., a heat dome brought ast and midwest record temperatures. combined with the humidity, it pushed the "feels like" temperates above 100 degrees. in denver, colorado, the city tied its record all-time high of 105 degrees on june 28. meanwhile, a new world record was set in the middle east last week. along the coast of oman, the netemperaturr dropped below 108.7 degrees over a 24-hour period. and in glasgow, scotland, the temperature reached a record- breaking 89.4 degrees on june 28. that's more than 20 degrees hotter than its usual mild summer temperature.

>> sreenivasan: finally tonight, a u.s. service member ers killed and two oth wounded today in southern afghanistan in an apparent insider attack. a spokesm forhe taliban said the attack was carried out by a han securithe a force who allegedly acted alone. the pentagon withholds the identity of service members killed or wounded until next of n are notified. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. have a good night. ns captioning sed by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual atnd group retirement products. why we're your retirement company. additional support has bn provided by: and by the corporatibl for broadcasting, and by frontributions to your pbs statio viewers like you. thank you. be more. pbs. be more.

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