captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff.on he newshour tonight, we are on the ground in brussels as president trump sets a combative tone at a summit of european allies, demanding they increase their military spending. then, mapping out california'so' methane-- mileien takes us inside the state's battle against one of the most potent eenhouse gases. and, eight months after hurricane maria, puerto rico'spu elderly tion remains unprotected as hurricane season gets underway. >> one of the main things that developed from the hurricane is that everyone confroeality of our elderly population. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonig's pbs newshour.

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>> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at nd.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. ld by contributions to your pbs station from viewee you. thank you. >> woodruff: it's supposed to be a gathering of friends, but at times, today's nato summit sounded anything but friendly. right from the start, president trump served nice that he wasn't there to play nice. white house correspondent yamiche alcindor begins our coverage, from brussels. >> gerny is totally controlled by russia.

>> alcindo words, president trump blasted his way into the brussels summit with an attack on nato ally germany. >> they will be getting from 60h to 70% or energy from hassia and a new pipeline. and you tell me ifs appropriate, because i think it's not, and i think it's a >> alcindor: mr. trump spoke at a breakfast with nato secretary gene it was supposed to be a light meet and greet. instead, the president criticized a pipeline project called nord stream 2 that would bring russian natural gas acss the baltic sea to germany. >> so we're supposed to protect germany, but they're getting their energy from russia. explain that. >> alcindor: sltenberg, who is so a former norwegian prime minister, pushed back but was careful to moderate his tone. >> well, i think that during the cold war, nato allies were trading wlch russia. >>dor: german chancellor angelaerkel, who grew up in what was then communist east germany, quickly issued her own response. >> ( translated ): i have experienced myself how a part of germany was controlled by the soviet union. i am very happy that today we

are united in freedo the federal republic of germany. because of that we can say that we can make our independent policies and make independent decisions. >> alcindor: she also noted germany is the second largestov er of troops to nato operations. but president trump insisted germany and other nato member countries could immedi increase their military spending. in 2014, they agreed to reach a threshold of spending 2% of g.d.p. on defense by 2024. so far, five countries have met that goal. three more are expected to do so by the end of the year. mr. trump said that's not good enough. >> i think it's very unfair to our country. it's very unfair to our k xpayer. and i that these countries have to step it up not over a 10-year period; they have to step it up immediately. >> alcindor: that prompted this exchange, as secretary-general stoltenberg tried to appease t president. >> the good news is that allies inve started to invest mor defense.s after ye cutting defense budgets, they have started to

adbillions to their defens budgets. and last year was the biggest ngincrease in defense spen across europe and canada in that generation. >> why was that last year? >> it's also because of your leadership, because of your carried message. >> alcindor: later, stoltenberg had a tenser exchae with moderator barbara starr of cnn on how mr. trump's comments impact nato cohesion. >> you know, i'm not a professor. i'm not a ndit. >> but you're the secretary general. >> yeah, meaning my task is to o ke sure we stay together i started to freely reflect onss all the ilities then i would undermine the unity of this alliance. so i have one responsibility and that is to make sure despite the obvious differences which you can read about in newspapers everyday we have to keep this family together. >> alcindor: for his part, president trump freely acknowledged his rhetoric on defense spending might not endear him to other nato allies. >> because of me, they've raised

about $40 billion over the last year. so i think the secretary general likes trump. he may be the only one, but at's okay with me. >> alcindor: back in washington, u.s. lawmakersounded off about the presidential visit to nato. paul ryan said he too has concerns about the russian sergy pipeline and german defense spending. >> i've raised those same concerns about nord stream 2 and the president is rigpoint out that our nato allies need to adhere to their commitments which is 2% of g.d.p. for defense. >> alcindor: but repub senator orrin hatch of utah had >> i don't agree with that. the germans wouldn't agree with that. alcindor: on the democratic side, senate minority leader chuck schumer and house minority leader nancy peli issues a joint statement saying, president trump's criticism of germany was "an embarrassment." they also said, "his behavr this morning is another profoundly disturbing signal that the president is more loyal to president putin than to our nato allies."

later on though, mr. trump and merkel during an afternoon meeting one on one, struck a friendly tone. >> we're having a great meeting. we have a very, very good relationship with the chancellor. we have a tremendous relationship with germany. >> ( translated ): i am pleased to have this opportunity to be here for this exchange of views. we are partners, we are good partners and wish to continue to cooperate in the future. >> alcindor: mr. trump also met one on one with french presidenc emmanueln after also saying france should spend more on defense. mo we've worked together for 12 hs now. made some great decisions and'l continue to work together. >> alcindor: this afternoon, the nato allies released a declaration on transatlantic security and solidarity. it said members would agree to share fairly the responsibilities of defending each other. >> woodruff: joining me now with more of their reportin brussels is our yamiche alcindor

and newshour special correspondent ryan chilcote. ryan, yamiche, thank you both. yamiche, i'm going to start with you. the president threw some verbal grenades today, frst at the entire n.a.t.o. alliance, then he singled out germany, then he seemed tol down. what are we witnessing?mp >> president t rhetoric really set the tone here at n.a.t.o. it made member countries reall nerves about the president's commitment to n.a.t.o. and, really, the u.s.'s commitment the n.a.t.o. lieutenant jrn ben hodges, who used to be the exphanding general of the u.s. army in europe, said president trump's words were like a wrecking ball to n.a.t.o. he said, really, the people here were worried and concerned about his comments. he was at agathering called n.a.t.o. engages which is d parate but related to n.a.t.o., he sofficials there are a are retired think tk officials and others who used to serve in the gvernment and were talking about president trump really set the mood and worried peopletm a state dept official told

me, though, that president trump's rhetoric is not having an impact on the day-to-day operations of nate so. he said those continue to go as normal. the other thing that's really important is that president trump, he d to a joint statement that n.a.t.o. passed today. he did not change any u.s.to commitment.a.t.o. so even though there are a lot of words, there hasn't been ac to really block the u.s.-backed commitments here. >> woodruff: ryan, what about his specific comments about germany, sid depended on russia for gags, off0 to 70%. what are the facts ofhat. >> president trump asserted germany will be getting 60 to 70% of its energy from russia when this new pipeline the russians are building to germany under the baltic sea goes online. that's actually not accurate. right now nse gerre getting something like 10% of their power from russia, and it probably won't be too muchgg

. what president trump really didn't say and what he was implying is that the ger should buy instead of russian gas american natural gas. this has been a big trend forp. president tr he's really become the sort of salesman in chief, if you will, for american natural gas companies. the problem with that is, in europe, they know and, in germany, right now that american tural gas is more expensive after its sent over the atlantic in germanyhan russian gas and there is just not nearly enough of it. so thenc german cellor doesn't want to be overly dependent on russian gas, she doesn't want to be overly dependent on russia at all, she's in fact championed all the sanctions against russiabut she's pragmatic and feels from a business ferspective it's important to ensure the supply energy that germany gets from russia with this new pipeline. judy? >> woodruff: meanwhile, yamiche, the president surprised everybody on another point and that is after sayinthe lies need to step up defend spending

to 2% of the gross national product, it should now be 4%. where is that coming from? >> he's playing to a domeic audience as much as international. he's talking to defense spending because that plays to the idea paign promise. cam he was campaigning saying europe was stickin taking advantage of. there's the mother investigation olooking into whethnot russia colluded with his campaign and is now saymaing g is controlled by russia. unlike the g-7 which is reay an chick club and formal and informal gatheriri of cou, n.a.t.o. has a treaty dating back to 1949, meaning if trump ntnts to pull out of u.s. commit he's going to have to take several steps. he hasn't done any ofhat. there are worries about that, but the idea is president trump

is talking but not doing a lot. it's important because the u.s. senate and house, ey bh passed non-binding resolutions, a patement saying they srt the u.s. engagement in n.a.t.o. of course, the u.s. senate and house are both controlled by republicans, while republicans are not been pushing back on the president. back home, they are p on his rhetoric when it comes to n.a.t.o. >> woodruff: that was noted here in washington around the country. quickly, ryan, you alluded to this a moment ago, for all the dust president trump has kickedc up, in the allies did come together including president trump, they aga ed on mmunique, a joint statement? >> that's right. i think that the united states allies here in n.a.t.o. have gotten used to the unpredictability perhaps of president trump's rhetoric and are very y the communique was signed and agreed upon particularly afterhat happene to the g7 where president trump reneged on the u.sths agreement he communique. so the most important part forr all the ean allies in the communique is the n.a.t.o.

allies say they will notiz recowhat they call the an ex case of crimea by russia. in a few days' time, president trump will meetti president what they will be concerned about and hoping is president trump doesn't change enze tune between now and th and when he meets president putin doesn't all of a sudden say, like he suggested he could a couple of weeks ago, hesa doesn'we will recognize hussia's annexation of crime. i can't that wouldange everything, the sanctions against russia, the whole security posture, it would be an explosive comment or decision that would undermine the real nature of the alliancen bet the united states and its european allies. judy. >> woodruff: ryan chilcote, yamiche alcindor, not a sleepy day at this n.a.t.o. gathering. thank you both. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: we'll take a closer look at the president's criticisms of nato, after the news summary. in the day's other new a budding trade war between the u.s. and china escalated, after

president trump ordered a possle second round of tariffs. these could include 10% levies on $200 billion in chinese imports to the u.s., from fish to furniture to vacuum cleaners. beijing vowed to retaliate, and in washington, house speaker paul ryan warned the president against going too far. >> i don't want to hamstring the president's negotiating tactics but i've lonid i don't think tariffs are the right way to go. china does steal intellectual property, they do engage in unfair trade practices, whiche violt just the spirit but the letter of w.t.o. standards that they agreed to play by years ago, so i ink we're right to point that out, i just don't think tariffs are right mechanisto do that. >> woodruff: last friday, the u.s. formally imposed $34 billion in tariffs on imported chinese goods, and china responded in kind. o all the tensior trade put an end to wall street's four-day rally.in the dow jonestrial average lost 219 points to close at 24,700.

the nasdaq fell 42 points, and the s&p 500 was down 19. in paktan, taliban militants have claimed a suicide bombing that left a political candidate and 20 other people dead. the victims were aending a rally last night in peawar, for an anti-taliban political party. elections there are two weeks away. meanwhile in eastern afghanistan, two suicide bombers killed at least ten people at an education department building. the death toll keeps climbing in the flood disaster i southwestern japan. officials today confirmed 176 killed and dozens still missing. prime minister shinzo abe laid flowers in the hiroshima area, and visited an evacuat center. he's pledged an initialar $4 billion trecovery efforts. and, the 12 boys rescued from a flooded cave in thailand embarked on a new journey today: recovery.

government-supplied video showed some of them flashing victory signs as they rested in hospital beds. parents looked on from behind a glass barrier because the teamol is still in ion to stave off infections. >> ( translated ): in the beginning, after being rescued, staying in the hospital should take seven to 10 days, which laeds to be evaluated regularly. also, there is afor a slow recovery at home for at least 30 days, with the need for a team of m physical checks. with >> woodruff: doctors say the boys lost an averageur pounds each during their ordeal underground. still to come on the newshour: what president trump's latest attacks on alliemean for u.s. relations with europe. inside the effort to curtail methane emissions d their contributions to climate change the trump administraon's latest moves to undercut the affordable care act, and mh more. tu

>> woodruff: we now to our coverage of the nato summit and the state of the u.s.' relationship with its most important allies. joining me are by victoria nuland, former assistant secretary of state for european and eurasian affairs at the state department under the obama administration. and john mearsheimer, a west point graduate and former air force officer, now a political science professor at the university of chicago. and we welcome both of you back to therogram. victoria nuland, how do you read what the president was doing and ying today at this n..t.o. meeting? >> you know, i think the president somehow thinks that bullying our friends gets him what he wants. was saddened by it, i have to say, because, frankly, n.a.t.o. allies ae answering the call to

increase their defense budgets and are doing itui smartly, and it began with the russian invasion of crimea when the threat environment changed. so the president had an option today to take credit for this and to instead focus on the uny we need the talk about issues like russia and china that are true threats. >> woodruff: john mearsheimer, the president went after germany, the whole all piance. at ont he was saying what good is n.a.t.o. what does it all add up to? >> well, i think it's very important to understand that president trump ran as a candidate against all of the interpretational institutions that comprise the liberal international order, that includes the world trade organization, the i.m.f., world bank and n.a.t.o., and as a s candidate d n.a.t.o. is obsolete. what he would like to do, my opinion, is take the americans

out of n.a.t.o., out of europe, and he's using this issue of defense spending as a harmer to beat the europeans over the head, but his ultimate goal is much broader. >> woodruff: when you say liberal world order, what doou mean by that? >> well, in the wake of world war ii, with we created this international order, and then, after the cold war ended, we created this liberal international order that was committed to spreading democracy around the world, building powerful institutions like wto and creating an open world economy. and president trump, when he was a candidate, ran against every one of these element the liberal international order. >> woodruff: that is the case, victoria nuland. he han against --e ran against it and has been saying for. months n.a.tmbers need to pay more money for their own deinse. isn't heht to make that argument? >> riff american president since reagan and probably fore has wanted n.a.t.o. allies to spend more and 2% is what they'

supposed to spend, and they all agreed to do it again starting in014 and they'rerting to do it. so he's not wrong to ask them to do it and the say that's the fair share. the problem iswhen he uses these bully tactics, it actually makes it harder for poiticians in europe to say yes to him because, then, they bec pushed around poodles of the united states. it would be much better if he talked, instead, about the threats we share, the threatsro from russia, china increasingly has an interest in europe, and use that as a motivator. affirmative motivation works better with europeans. >> woodruff: what do y think about that? >> well, i think it's important to understand, in president trump's mind, the europeans are free-riding on the united states, and th are a liability. he, obviously, does not see russia as a great threat. >> woodruff: is that a fact? unitedy riding on the states? >> of course they're free rising. as ambassador nuland said, previous presidents, including president ama who you worked

for complained bitterly about the fact the europeans did spend enough money on at the de fence, so this is not a new sue. what's a new issue is prt presidentrump basically has his gun sites on nat..t.o. >> woodruff: is there a point to what the president is doing? you say presidents have been t askim to pay more. they are paying a little bit more, and we heard gens stoltenberg, the n.a.t.o. secretary neral, say se of that goes to that but today te president upped it to 4% and is raising the ante again.t is thaing to bring the result that he wants? >> well, even the united states doesn't spend of g.d on defense right now, so it's outrageous, and he couldn't geto th of the u.s. congress with all the other things that we have to spend money on, and with the bloating of u.s. debt. so that is a ridiculous one. i think, you know, he is right to say 2%, but, again, he alsong

should be worntensively with the europeans to ensure ehey spend that money on th right things so that the u.s. isn't the only one with enough helicopters, enough aerial surveillance, enough long-range weapons, those kinds of things. i would have like to have seen him roll up his sleeves and solve these problems instead of creating a toxic environment where it's harder to solve the problems. >> woodruff: is it possible, john mearsheimer, for him to do that in this environment? >> two things -- one, a poll was re today that shows that only 15% ofs germanare interested in increasing defense spending, only 15%. as the amassador said, when president trump brow beats thesp like this, if anything, it undermines theuropean liters ability to convince the public ioncrease defense spending. so it seems to me we're not going to reach 2% like he would like to achieve.

>> woodruff: with germany there's world war ii, the nazis, the understandable reluctance on their part to build up a muscular miitary. >> but also, the european leaders, including the germans,e just don'tussia as a serious military threat. yes, they have cyber attacks and so forth and so on that bother people greatly, but as a military threat, as a threat that looks like the soviet union during the cold war, u jus don't see that. in the absence of that threat, it's very difficult to get people to spend huge amounts of money on defense. >> i actually disagree with that. i think that, you know, when putin invaded crimea, germans andth all oer n.a.t.o. allies understood that n.a.t.o. territory could be next, and that's why germans are now deployed in thealtic states, which you never would have seen before, particularly after the enlargement of n.a.they didn't actually want to scare the bear. but now the bear is scaring them. but the problem, is wi president trump now going to see putin, if we're not united at

n.a.t.o., then why should putin take anything trump says about deescalating his attacks on is seriously? >> woodruff: what about that, joan mearsheimer? then you heard the president almost turning that arg around tad and saying the germans are relying too much on russia for their energy resources. >> well, it's clear that president trump wants to improve relations with the russians and in tgard, i think he's doing the right things. i think that terrible relations between the united states and russia is not good for the united states, it's not good for the europeans, and anything he can do to improve the relations is formhe good, so i' all in favor of him talking to them. >> i'm aso in favor of him talking to them. the only thing with the russians is leader to leader negotiations because tin is the only one allowed to make decisions. but you don't go in weak or with a divided alliance, you don't agree with puppet's perspectives

on things andinndercuour traditional allies. >> woodruff: bottom line tosh you, john memer, is the n.a.t.o. alliance weakened materially because of episodesod likeay? >> yes. the key question is what happens over the next two and a hal years and if president trump gets reelected in 2020, what happens after that. it's hard to imagine that this alliance is going to be in good shape in 2021, should he leave the white house then, and it' hard to see it surviving if he gets another four years. i mean, he isl sowly but steadily chipping awa >> woodruff: vitor nuland. i agree if he gets reelected. but the important thing is one your correspondent made, thatgh even thorump is making a lot of noise, he's still making strong u.s. cotributions to n.a.t.o. including our big presence in pold and in the east and that's very important and signing the chiewn kay today, so maybe it's just a lot of noise. >> woodruff: and a lot of that

got lost in all the fuss. >> it did. woodruff: victoria nuland, john meanrsheimer, you. >> you're welcome. thank you, judy. >> woodruff: we heard inhe last segment a little about natural gas produced in the u.s. it turns out, is a big factor the overall growth of energy production in this country over e past decade. but producing and transporting that gas releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas that's gott a lot less attention wh it comes to climate change. miles o'brien reports on how california is zeing in on that very issue, part of our weekly segment on the "leading edge" of science, medicine and technology. >> this is honor rancho. this is about ten clicks north or so. >> reporter: it's time for a preflight briefing at burbank airport. >> we're going to get plenty of data over the, over the sites.

>> reporter: i'm flyinwith a team from nasa's jet propulsion laboratory, a place that specializes in exploring distant planets, today is focused on our own. f they're takight over southern california, hunting one of the most potent greenhouse gases of all; methane. it accounts for one fifth of the global warming we are experiencing now. >> you can't manage what you don't measure. >> reporter: riley duren is the chief systems engineer for j.p.l.'s earth scienc directorate. he and technologist andrew thorpe are using a state of the art infrared imaging spectrometer to find plumes of methane invisible to the human eye. nationally the e.p.a. estimatesu one third of methane emissions come from oil and gas production, another third from the methane created by the belcs and manure of livestoc and about 16% from organic waste dumped in ndfills.

so today we are flyi over fertile methane territory, there are 200,000 oil and gas wells, almost 2000 dairy rms and hundreds of landfills in california. >> think of it as a baseline medical exam. no one has done the first methane assessment of the state of california and maybe this is going to happen every year. >> reporter: california is funding the flights to find and stop methane leaks there is good reason to focus on methane in the fight against climate change. lasting only a decade or so, it is shorter lived than carbon dioxide which persists for a century or more. but during its lifespan, methane is about 85 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. >> what the state is trying to do is to get an initial assessment of how many strong methane sources are there in a

state,here they're located, how much are they emitting. >> reporter: in 2016, researchers from harvard used satellite and ground observations to determine asthane emissions steadily increased in thedecade, and they concluded the e.p.a. is underestimaking methane from all sources by0 to 50%. more recently, the environmental defense nd published a study in the journal science, concluding the e.p.a. is undereimating methane emissions in oil and gas production by about 60%. the first step to plugging these thane leaks is pinpointi them. on flights like these, j.p.l. is using the airborne visible/infrared imaging spectrometer, or aviris to do just that. gh can detect gases by analyzing the spectrum of lit transmitted by the atmosphere. the spectrumf methane is like a fingerprint. like every other gas, methane absorbs a unique slice of the

full spectrum coming from the sun. >> this is the most active producing part of the state right now, is this county that we're heading towards. so, when you add it all up, there are literally millions of potentission sources in the area that we're mapping. >> reporter: the aviris team routinely shares what it learns with those emitters. including the operators of the huge sunshine canyon landfill in , s angeles. on an earlier flige team saw a huge plume of methane, tbillowing from areas whe topsoil had been stripped away in advance to make space for more dumping. t the landfill changed its routine, keeping tsoil in place until just before the trash is dumped, greatly reducing methane emissions. aviris was also deployed to capture images of a massive natural gas blowout. it happened at a southern california gas company storage facility near porter ranch, it was captured on video usinan

infrared camera as well. it began in octobe2015 and lasted four months. nearly 100,000 tons of methane were released, about 5% of the gas that socal delivers annually. the worst natural gas leak in u.s. history. >> it was something that was disheartening for all of us. >> reporter: deanna haines director of gas engineering for socal. it is the largest gas distribution comny in the united states, maintaining over 100,000 miles of gas mains. >> it didn't negate all the good that we've been doing over the last decades to mitigate methane but it certainly didn't feel great. >> reporter: i met her at the training center they call" situation city." here they practice maintenance and repair techniques and testte nenology. their tried-and-true mg hod for findaks is the human nose omich can detect the sulfur smell that the cny adds to

the odorless methane, also called natural gas. but they augment that with some technology, fixed sensors at strategic locations. a vathat can detect even ver tiny amounts of methane. infrared cameras to inspect pipes. and a drone outfitted with a small laser. they say the priority is avoiding natural gas elosions and it is not cost-effective to fix every leak. >> there are some leaks that it's been either very difficult to go after, it cost a lot of money to go after, but more importantly, we ed to prioritize safety first. when we find leaks we need to fix them in a reasonable amount of time. >> reporter: in the aircraft, aviris has spotted methane leaks in socal pipelines that the company has repaired, proof there is the value of this type of survey, but it is, after all, just a narrow snapshot of a global problem. so the team is proposing a similar instrument be launched into space.

they think methane mitigation is a good place to start emming greenhouse gasses. dr co2 emissions have to be sed. but co2 emissions involve economy-wide processes. th involve our power generation, our transportation like the airplane were flying on right now. ang those are go require economy-wide shifts in technology. it's happening but it may take a long time. methane in the meantime has potentially near-term climate benefits over the next few decades. >> 2014 was the planetmest year on record. >>eporter: during the obam administration, regulators were enticed that argument. the department of interior and the environmental protecmpon agency haded rules forcing gas and oil producers to detect and repair methane lks. >> with today's executive action, i am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on american energy. >> reporter: but the trump administration has tried to reverse all of that.

facing pressure from industry, which insists the regulations impose too gre a financial burden. but this might seem surprising. it's just a little odd to me that a company would just say, "i don't need even ww t to know homuch of my product im losing." >> yeah, it seems odd to me too. it's like it's non-intuitive. if you're in any business, you want to keep your product intact. you don't want to lose it. >> reporter: congress and the federal courts have offered contradictory votes and rulings on the obama era rules. the net effect; much of the regulations remain in place, for now. but there is no scientific debate that reducing the amount of methane in the atmosphere caa make a signi dent in greenhouse gases. in the seemingly insurmountables fight agclimate change, methane may be the low hanging fruit.ho for the pbs ne, i'm miles o'brien in burbank, california.

>> woodruff: now, health insurance and the trump administration's efforts to undercut the law often referred to as obamacare. yesterday, administration officials said they will cut funding to an outreach program that helps individuals sign up r coverage through the marketplace.am as wilrangham explains, the decision is the latest in a series of moves to strike back against a program the president reins vehemently opposed t >> brangham: mr. trump was frustrated when the republican- led congress was unable to squash the aordable care act outright. but the president, who says he's against the law philosophicay, hasn't stopped trying to knock it down. funding for these so-called enrollment navigators is now being cut to just $10 million. the administration has also suspended payments to insurance companies to compensate them for caring for sicker patients. that move came after a pair of court rulings about these payments.

sid the justice department has d with the state of texas in a separate lawsuit arguing that ons for people with pre- existing conditions should be eliminated. anger-katz writes about this for the "new york times" website. thanks for being here. >> my pleasure. let's talk about the first of these changes. these are the cuts to the so-called enrollment navigators. who are these people and what do these cuts mean? >> this was a program set upca under oba because there are all these people who hadn't had health insurance before, many wx didn't have eperience buying it, so the law wanted to set up people who could walk them through the process, help , em understand what's a deductible, premin i get a subsidy to help me buy insurance, so it seup a gant program to pay community groups, disease advocacy groups, healthcare providers, and have people walk them through the process to enroll.

the trump administration cut back funding, saying it's not efficient, the navigators haven't done well signing up people for insurance and it would be best to let brokers do it. one concern is the navigators themselves andonsumish advocates feel this is part of the pattern of chipping awy of tools that will drive enrollment in the programs. >> another change annpaounced ts weekend is the trump administration is going to limit payments that are made to insurance companies. can you explain what these payments are and what they were meant do? >> yeah, so under obamacare, i've with one can get insurance regardless of whether they have preexisting conditions and this is a program that basically transfers money from insurance companies that end up with a lot of healthy patients to insurance companies that end up with a lot of sick patients so everyone can make money regardless of who signs up for their plans. the results are interesting because not every health insurer

is disadvantageh the ones whe to pay get to keep more money, but it tends to throw uncertainty into bee marketcause these insurers were counting on the payments to make money and stay viable. i think fus damentally itso bad because the whole system depends on the insurance mpanies wanting to participate in the markets, there is no federal fallback or public option, the only way there will be obamacare insurance is if private insurance companies want to set insurance so this is af way ulling out the rug from o em. >> they've triedip away at the law but enrollment numbers were robust last year, nine or ten million people. the law seems to be resilient despite the attacks against it. >> it is a surprre the mats in which people buy their own insurance. there have been so many blows against them and they are still k anding. i thme ways they're in the as good as people hoped. we've seen two years of large premium increases. if you buy your ownsurance

and gotten get a government subsidy you're facrious sticker shock, price increases next weir. there is more choice than people who wrote the law hoped for. there's many places in thetr cowhere there's only one insurer available. i think the fact there is one insurer everywhere that wants to continue to participate and so many people who are signing up shows the governmentdi sub are at adequate to help certain people buy insurance andhe are a lot of americans who want to be able to buy insurance and they're grateful to have the program available to them. >> amongst the supporters ofthe affordable care act, are there other ways they're looking that ey're worried might be coming down the road other attempts by the administration to diminish the law? >> absolutely. one big one we'll see coming any n thatw and this is a pla would allow insurance plans that don't have to cover all the obamacare benefits at don have to offer insurance to

peopleinith pre-exi conditions, these will be more liberalized and much more areon, and i think the two concerns about the plans, one is consumer advocatesre worried people won't understand what they're buying and might buy a plan and find out it only covers $250,000 worth of care but no materni or prescription drug benefit >> mandated under the aca. these would be requirement aca plans have to r a standard set of benefits to include drugs, hospitalization, maternity care, and a certain amount ofio prote so the obamacare can't limit how much they pay in a year for medical care. mostele don't pay $250,000 worth of medical bills but if you do, you want high-end coverage. that's one worry. but the other worry is theseor term plans will be much less expensive. if you're ars health with

no pre-existing conditions. >> that's a draw. yeah. obamacare plans cost a lot of money so if they can qualify for a cheaper pln, they are totally rational to go there, and that means the pool o people left in the affordable care act plans are going to tend to be sickerl and that wurther drive up premiums and make the plans unaffordable for people who want the comprehensive coverage and don't get a subsidy to help them buy it. >> margot sanger-katz, thank you. >> sure. >> woodruff: now, a different healthcare story: on the fproblems of providing ca the elderly in puerto rico. just a few weeks back, a protest broke out in puerto rico's capital, triggered by a study that found some 4,600 puerto ricans died in the months following hurricane maria. many were seniors and died because of delayed medical ontention. as special corrent sarah varney reports, the hurricane

revealed just how precarious daily life has become. this story was produced with our partner, kaiser health >> rrorter: eight months afte huicane maria devastated puerto rico, mariela miranda oadrives along the windingds in the central mountains, still on an urgent msion. >> i started noticing, "ok, this lady needs. this other leader needs. this other one nee." and then i said, "you know what? i'm going to start helping people." >> reporter: it's her second trip here to maricao this week. she's dropping off supplies for maria soler, a 72-year-old former coffee picker who hasn't left her bed in months. maria has diabetes. her husband basilicio soler says after the hurricane, his wife's blood sugar levels spiked an she had a massive stroke. he points to the roof, and describes how entire sections blew off during the storm and landed in the forest. miranda is just a concerned

neighbor who has been delivering amily andto this other isolated and frail seniors since the hurricane. she says the government isn't stepping in to help them, so she is. m and nineonths later, she's still finding elderly people in need, tucked away in houses along the mountain roads. here in castaner, a small village in puerto rico's coffee growing region, miranda and her frednd shelly guerra have tu this town bathroom into a storage room for donated supplies. atyhis home, the electricit came back on t days before we visited. >> i filled this with water, half way water, and i put the insulin in a ziplock. >> reporter: until then, with no working refrigerat, marilia lugo kept her mother's insulin in a bowl of water on the counter. she worried that eight months of so-called hurricane food would worsen her mother's high blood. pressu and what were you not able to have? >> we couldn't eat meat, we couldn't eat salads, we had to

eat everything in the, in the. >> reporter: in the cans? >> in the cans, and that's not healthy food. >> reporter: her mother claudia sanabria is 93 years old.nt she has de and often becomes aggressive. the family has no choice but to keep her at home. unlike the rest of the united states, medicaid does not pay for long-term nursing home care in puerto rico. miranda found the family a new wheelchair. now she's trying to replace the broken electric bed. >> i'm just trying to see if there's any way we can go and talk to the mayor of the city. there's not much we can do, jusc can on the doors, and try to get somebody to help us. >> reporter: miranda is tenacious but the unending misfortune of her fellow ptarto ricans ing a toll on her.

>> it gets to us, it's get to a yoint where you drain yourself. you see this, anwant to do so much but you can't. you don't have sometimes the time, or theoney, or your health to keep on doing it. >> reporter: at times, she's angry at the government in san juan and in washington. she's watched people deteriorate from the living conditions and she's wahed some die. at a protest in san juan in june, puerto ricans placed shoes to represent the estimated 4,60 people who dter the hurricane. local senator rossana lópez leon has been sharply critical of the government's official death toll of 64. and she says those in charge of state agencies failed to protect the vulnerable, especially the elderly, after the storm and continue to do so today. >> people with chronic, conditioey didn't get the medical services needed or dialysis or especially insulin for people with diabetes. people with cancer didn't gete

dical services that they needed as soon as they needed. so we get beginning.ths at the and it's still having, we're still having now a lot of deathe use it's a lot of municipalities that didn't have electricity right now. >> reporter: hurricane maria trst came ashore here in yabucoa, and much town still has no municipal power. despite that, albertrodriguez has been keeping his wife alive for eight months. distraught over her farm's astruction, mirella sepulveda, had a massive stro heart attack a month after the storm.t s released her from the hospital under hospice saying she would die without electricity. >> i add some more batteries, add the solar panels. >> reporter: so rodriguez, who is an electrical technician, jerry-rigged a fan and solar panels that charge a stash of car batteries. and you and your brothers didth al work on your own? all by yourselves? >> yeah. >> reporter: it's enough to

power everything his wife needs. >> if i don't have power, she's going to die because she needs everything, the power for the different machines, the respirator, the feeder. we cannot run without power. ac reporter: municipal power isn't expected to this part of yabucoa for another few months.up the dion of daily life has led to a rise in depression and anxiety, health experty,here nd it's taking its toll on the elderly.re a grim meaf that misery is ome recent spike in calls to the suicide hotline abucoa zenaida navarro fves just raocrom playa guayanes. she says the violeuma of the storm is hard to shake. >> the refrigerators, furnitures. >> reporter: were all just here. refriger >> everything was flying, everything was flying. >> reporter: but s says the hardships after the storm have pushedome friends and neighbors into dark depression.

>> they're like, they don't want to be living anymore if things keep going on the way they have, so it's like something to be really concerned about. >> reporter: across the island, 2e suicide rate increased9% in the months following hurricanmaria.bu for people age 65 to 69, the rate more than doubled. and tripled for those age 75 to 79. at victor and blanca colon's home in cacao, chickens and horses were blown off the ridge during the hurricane and drowned. the road collapsed in bothre ctions. they were isolated for weeks and had to build back fromhe storm on their own. eight of their nine children live in pennsylvania and texas while they care for their severely disabled son, victor. nearly 500,000 puerto ricans have fled the island's faltering economy over the last decade for better jobs in the states, leaving more older people to age alone. the government here estimates0, another 200 will be gone by

the end of this year. the question of who will care r puerto rico's aging population is a growing crisis. lacking medicaid-fundeing homes, families often pay small, private homes licensed by theen island's deparof family to care for their relatives.ay in theafter hurricane maria, emergency calls from these homes poured in but no one in the government had a complete list of the hos or knew where they were. some operators of the homes failed so badly to carfor their patients, they are being prosecuted by the u.s. department of justice. glorimar andújar is secretary of the department of family in puerto rico. she says the island's government, and its elderly population, have been starved of resources. >> one of the main things that developed from the hurricane is that everyone confronted reality of our elderly population. that is something that we always deal with. but it was evident to everyone's eyes.

so, this, this is a call for help. we need more funds. we need more ways to help them. >> reporter: with hurricane season underway here, many puerto ricans are anxious and afraid. they are still repairing power lines and roofs, and still t tryirecover from the wreckage of hurricane maria.ck ban castaner, mariela miranda called us after we shed reporting this stor she was shaken up. maria soller, the stroked ictim hao liietly by the river with her husband, died." i'm not can do this," she said. for the pbs newshour and kaiser health news, 'm sarah varney in castaner, puerto rico. >> woodruff: and speaking of puerto rico,e wanted to update a story that has gone viral orout a woman was harassed what she wore the video, shot by a 24-ye-old latina woman wearing a puerto

rico shirt, was made as she was setting up a picnic in a forest preserve in cook cou illinois last month. she was repeatedly berated by a man and asked a nearby officer w for help w accused of standing by. let's show some of that video. but first, it's worth noting puerto rico is a u.s. territoryo and puicans are u.s. citizens. >> you should not be wearing that in the united states of america. are you a citizen? are you a united states citizen? >> yes i am.se can you plet away from me? >> then you should not be wearing that. >> officer, i feel highly uncomfortable, can you please grab him?ea , officer? >> i'm an american citizen.s >>u can see the police are not even, he is not even grabbing him. this guy is just walking up to me. he basically just got in my face. damn near almost toue.

this is what i am wearinufguys. >> woo cook county officis say they are now investigating the officer's conduct. meanwhile, the man who yelled at her was intocated, he was arrested and is charged with assault and disorder conduct. >> woodruff: researchers have found that satisfaction with alife drops in our late 3 bottoms out in our forties, rising steadily before reaching a peak in our 70s, call it thean id effect? despite these disparities, tonight, in jonathan rauch's humble opinion, there is no such thing as a mid-life crisis >> writing a book on age and haltiness, i kept feeling a like deja vu. i'd be interviewing middle-aged men and women, usually successful, confident people, but they had a secret. they expressed embarrassment

about how they felt. often shame. i know this territory. most gay americans my age know this territory. we call it the closet. i lived in one wor 25 years. a lonely, sad, painful place. now re i am, hearing the sam music, but with different words. this time, the people i hear it from are notxuiding their ity. they are hiding their midlife slump. recent science shows that age times not a neutral emotiona backdrop. feeling sasfied and grateful is easiest in the early and late decades of life, and harder in the middle. midlife dissatisfaction seems to be a nural and normal transition as our values change and our brains develop. it appears we've evolved to chase success and status in youth. in late adulthood, we shift our priorities toward community and conntion. in between comes a sometimes

rocky emotional reboot. something pretty fundamentalg must be go, because a similar pattern has been found in chimps and orangutans. yet we call it a crisis, which usually it isn't. for men, we mock it with stereotypes of sports cars and bimbos. for women, we trivialize it as horror about wrinkles. we medicalize it as depression, when it's really dissatisfaction. we dismiss it as a "first-world problem." no one wants to be a punchline,k a cliche, a case, an ingrate. so people hide their feelings and push through without support. and isolation only makes matters worse. if you're in a midlife slump, don't let yourself be isolated or shamed. you're normal!

accept and suppo midlife malaise is not harmfulby staralking about midlife transition >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular believes that wireless ecans should rethe amount of talk, text and data that you use. we offer a variety of no- contract wireless plans for learn morto or anything ina consumercellular.tv

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eduardo: tonight on history detectives: tukufu: what drew me te this poster was shocking imagery. it's always good to undo errors of the past. woman: did washington hold it and look at it? valley forge river, wow! is it the oldest transistor radio in existence? elvis costello: ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ i get sthangry when e teardrops start ♪ ♪ but he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart ♪ ♪ watchin' thdetectives funding for tonight's presentation of history detectives was provided by the corporation adr public brocasting and by contributions to your pbs station