captioning spo onewshour productions, llc >> woodruff:ood evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, we are on the ground in brussels as prveident trump sets a comba tone at a summit of european allies, demanding they increases lieir militanding. then, mapping out rnia's methane-- miles o'brien takes us inside the state'sonattle againsof the most potent greenhouse gases. and, eight micths after hue maria, puerto rico's elderly population remains unprotected as hurricane season gets underway. >> one of the main things that developed from the hurricane is that everyone confronted reality of our elderly population. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. m

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

>> alcindor: with those striking words, president trump blasted his way into the brussels summit with an attack on nato ally germany. >> they will be getting from 60 to 70% of their energy from russia and a new pipeline. and you tell me if that's appropriate, because i think it's not, and i think it's a >> alcindor: mr. trump spoke at a breakfast with nato secretary general jens stoltenberg. it was supposed to bght meet and greet. instead, the president criticized a pipelinect called nord stream 2 that would bring russian natural gas across the baic sea to germany. >> so we're supposed to protect germany, but they'reng their energy from russia. explain that. >> alcindor: stoltenberg, who is imalso a former norwegian minister, pushed back but was careful to moderate his tone. >> well, i think that ev during the cold war, nato allies were trading with russia. >> aindor: german chancellor angela merkel, 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 freedom, the federal republic of germany. t because t we can say that we can make our independent policies and make independent o cisions. >> alcindor: she ated germany is the second largest provider of troops to nato operations. but president trump insistedge rmany and other nato member countries could immediately increase their military spending. in 2014, they agreed to reach a threshold of spending 2% ofn g.d.p.fense by 2024. so far, five countries have met that goal.re three morexpected 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.'s it very unfair to our taxpayer. and i think that these countries have to step it up not over a 10-yea step it up immediately. >> alcindor: that prompted this exchange, as secretary-general stoltenberg tried to appease the esident. >> the good news is that allies have started to invest morin defense. after yes of cutting defense budgets, they have started to

add billions to their defens budgets. and last year was the biggest increase in defense spending across europe and canada in that generation. >> why was that laal year? >> it' because of your leadership, because of your carried message. er alcindor: later, stolte had a tenser exchange with moderator barbara starr of cnn on how mr. trump's comments impact nato cohesion. >> you know, i'm n a professor. i'm not a pundit. >> but you're the secretary general. >> yeah, meaning my task is to make sure we stay together so if i started to freely reflect on all the possibilities 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 tkeep this family together. >> alcdor: 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. i hink the secretary general likes trump.ly he may be the ne, but wat's okay with me. >> alcindor: back hington, u.s. lawmakers sounded off about the presidential visit to nato. paul ryasaid he too has concerns about the russian energy pipeline and germany's defense spending. >> i've raised those same concerns about nord stream 2 and the president is right to point out that our nato allies need to adhere to their commitments whicis 2% of g.d.p. for defense. >> alcindor: but republican senator orrin hatch of utah had different take. at>> i don't agree with th. the germans wouldn't agree with that. >> alcindor: on the democratic side, senate minority leader chuck schumer and house nority leader nancy pelosi issues a joint statement saying, president trump's criticism of germany was "an embarrassment." they also said, "his behavior 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 ing one on one, struck a friendly tone. >> we're having a great meeting. we hav a very, very good relationship with the chancellor. we have a tremendous relationship with germany. >> ( translated ): i am plea od to have thortunity to be here for this exchange of views. we are parers, we are good rtners and wish to continue to cooperate in the future. en alcindor: mr. trump also met one on one with president emmanuel macron after also saying france should spend more on defense.to >> we've workether for 12 months now.ma some great decisions and we'll continue to work together. >> alcindor: this afternoon, the nato allies released a declaration on transatlantic serity and solidarity. it said members would agree to spare fairly the sibilities of defending each other. >> woodruf joining me now with more of their reporting from brussels is our yamiche alcind 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, first at the entire n.a.t.o. alliance, then he singled outgermany, then he seemed to cool down. what are we wnessing? >> president trump's rhetoric really set the tone here at n.a.t.o. it made member countries really nerves about the president's commitment to n.a.t.o. and, really, the u.s.'s commitment the n.a.t.o. lieuten nt jrn behodges, 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 a gathering called n.a.t.o. engages which isra se but related to n.a.t.o., he said officials there are aetare rired think tak officials and others who used to serve in the government and were talking about president trump really set the mood and worried people. a state deparent 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 a normal. the other thing that's really important is that president trump, he agreed to a joint statement that n.a.t.o. passedooday. he did change any u.s. commitments to n.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, said depended on russia for gags, off0 0%. what are the facts of that. >> president trump asserted germany wit be geting 60 to 70% of its energy from russia whpe this new line the russians are building to germany under the baltic sea goes online. that's actually not accurate. right now the germa are getting something like 10% of their powerrom russia, and it probably won't be too much bigger. what president trump really

didn't say and what he was implying is that the germans should buy instead of russian gas american natural gas. this has been a big trend for president trumc he's really e 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 xpnatural gas is more ensive after its sent over the atlantic in germany than russian gas and there is just not nugrly eno of it. so the german chancellor doesn't want to be overly dependent on russian gas, she doesn't want to be overly dependent on rusa all, she's in fact championed all the sanctions against russia, but she's pragmatic and feels from a business perspective it's important to ensure the supply oy enehat germany gets from russia with this new pipeline. judy? >> woodruff: meanil yamiche, the president surprised everybody on another point and that is after saying the allies need to ep up defend spending

to 2% of the gross nationalo product, it uld now be 4%. where is that coming from? >> he's playing to a domesticen au as much as international. he's talking to defense spending because that plays to the idea he's keeping a campaign promise. he wasampaigning saying europe was stickin takingvantage of us. there's the mother investigation r notng into whether russia colluded with his campaign and is now saying gerny is controlled byussia. unlike the g-7 which is really an chick club and formal ad informal gathering of countries, n.a.t.o. has a treaty dating back to 1949, meaning if trump wants to pull out of u.s. commitmees, he's going to hav to take several steps. he hasn't done any of that. there are worries about that, but the idea is president trumpb

is talki not doing a lot. it's important because the u.s. senate and house, they both passed no-binding resolutions, a statement saying they support the u.s. engagement in n.a.t.o of course, the u.s. senate and house are both controlled by republicans, while republiens are not n pushing back on the president. back home, they are pushing back on his rhetoric when it comes to n.a.t.o. >> woodruff: that was noted re in washington around the country. quickly, ryan, you alluded this a moment ago, for all the dust president trump has kicked up, in fact, the allies did come together including president trump, they agreed on a communique, a joint statement? th that's right. i think that e united states allies here in n.a.t.o. havett used to the unpredictability perhaps of president trump's rhetoric and are very happy the communique was signed and agreed upon particularly after what happened to the g7 where president trump reneged on the u.s.'s agreement wi c thommunique. so the most important part for all the european allies in the communique is the n.a allies say they will not

recognize what they call the an ex case of crimea by russia. in a few days' time,t presidump will meet president puiln. what theybe concerned about and hoping is president trump doesn't change eaze tune between now and then and when meets president putin doesn't all of a sudden say, like he suggested he could a couple of weeks ago, he doesn't say we will recognize russia's annexation of crime. i can't that would change everything, the sanctions against russia, te whole security posture, it would be ax osive comment or decision that would undermine the real nature of the alliance betweta the uniteds and its european allies. judy. >> woodruff: ryan chilcote, yamiche alcindor, not a sleepy day at this n.a.t.o. gathering. thu both. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: we'll take a closer look at the president's criticisms of nato, after the ws summary. in the day's other news, a budding trade war between the u.s. and china escalated, after president trump ordered a

possible 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 cleanerso beijind 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 long said i don't think tariffs are the right way to gon does steal intellectual property, they do engage in unfair trade practices, which e not just the spirit bu the letter of w.t.o. standards that they agreed to play by years ago, so i think we're right to point that out, i just don't think tariffs are right f:chanism to do that. >> woodrast friday, the u.s. formally imposed $34 billion in tariffs on imported chinese good china responded in kind. all the tensions ove etrade put annd to wall street's four-day rally. the dow jones dustrial average lost 219 points to close at 24,700.

the nasdaq fell 42 points, and the s&p 500 was down 19. in pakistan, taliban militants have claimed a suicide bombing thateft a political candidat and 20 other people dead. the victims were attending a rally last night in peshawar, for an anti-taliban political party. elections there are two weeks away. meanwhile in easternis afghantan, two suicide bombers killed at least ten people at an education department building. the death toll keeps climbing in the flood disaster in southwestern japan.da officials confirmed 176 killed and dozens still missing. prime minister shinzo abe laid flowers in the hiroshima area, and visited an evacuation center. he's pledged an initial $4 billion toward recovery 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 victorys si they rested in hospital beds. pareas looked on from behind glass barrier because the team is still in isolation to stave off infeions. >> ( translated ): in the beginning, after being rescued, staying in the hospital should take seven to 10 dtos, which neede evaluated regularly. also, there is a plan for a slow recovery at home for at ast 30 days, with the need for a team of medics to follow up with physical checks. >> woodruff: doctors say the boys lost an average of four pounds each during their ordeal underground. still to come on the newshour: t what presidentmp's latest thtacks on allies mean for u.s. relations urope. inside the effort to curtail methane emissions and their contributions to climate change the trump administration's latest moves to undercut the affordable care act, and much more.

>> woodruff: we return 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 victoriass nuland, formertant secretary of state for european and eurasian affairs at thpa state ment under the obama administration. and john mearsheimer, a west point graate 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 saying today at this n..o. meeting? >> you know, i think the president somehow thinks that bullying our friends gets him what he wants. i was saddened by it, i have to say, becfausenkly, n.a.t.o. allies are answering the call to

increase their defense budgets and are doing it quite 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 unity we need the talk about issues like russia and china that are true threats. >> woodruff: john mearsheimer, the president went after germany, the whole alliance. at one point he was saying what good is n.a.t.o. what does it all add up to? >> well, i think it's very impoant to understand that president trump ran as a rendidate against all of the intetional institutions that comprise the liberal international order, that includes the world tradeth organizatione i.m.f., world bank and n.a.t.o., and as a candidate said n.a.t.o. i obsolete. what he would like to do, myta opinion,ke the americans

out of n.a.tut of europe, and he's using this issue of defense spending as a harmer to beat the europeans over the head, but his ulimte goal is much broader. >> woodruff: when you say liberal world order, what do you mean by that? >> well, in the wake of world war ii, with we created this international order, and then, after the cold war ded, 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 elements of the liberal international ufder. >> woo that is the case, victoria nuland. he han against -- he ran against it andee hassaying for months n.a.t.o. members need to pay more money forheir own defense. isn't he right to make that argument? >> riff americ president since reagan and probably before has wanted n.a.t.o. allies to spend more and 2% what they're supposed to spend, and they all

agreed to do it againtarting in 2014 and they're starting to do it. so he's not wrong to ask them to do it and the say that's the fair share. the problem is, when he uses these bully tactics, it actually makes it harder for politicians in europe to say yes to him because, then, they become pushed around poodles of the united sates. it would be much better if he talked, instead, about the threats we share, the threats from russia, from china increasingly has an interest in europe, and use that as a motivator. affirmative motivation workeu better withpeans. >> woodruff: what do you think about that? >> well, i think it's important to understand, in president trump's mind, the europeans are fren e-ridinghe united states, and they are a ability. he, obviously, does not see russia as a great threat. >> woodruff: is that aact? are they riding on the united states? >> of course they're freeri ng. as ambassador nuland said, previous presidents, including president obama who you worked

for complained bitthterly about fact the europeans didn't ipend enough money on at the de fence, so thinot a new issue. what's a new issue isr pt president trump basically has his gun sites on nat n.a.t.o. >> woodruff: is there a point to what the president isoing? you say presidents have been asking them to pay more. they are paying a little bit more, and weeard gens stoltenberg, the n.a.t.o. secretary general, say some ofo that goes that but today the president upped it to 4% and isa ing the ante again. is that going to bring the nisult that he wants? >> well, even thed states doesn't spend 4% of g.d.p. on defense right now, so it's outrageous, and he couldn't get that out 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 aicidous one. i think, you know, he is right to say 2%, but, again, he also

should be working intensively with the europeans to eurns they spend that money on the right things so that the u.s. isn't the only one with ough helicopters, enough aerial sueillance, 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 droblems. >> wf: is it possible, john mearsheimer, for him to do that in this environment? >> two things -- one, a poll was released today that shows that only 15% of germans are interested in increasing , fense spendily 15%. as the ambassador said, whenid prt trump brow beats these people like this, if anything, it undermines the european liters ability to ce onvie public to increase defense spending.em so it to me we're not going to reach 2% like he would like to achieve. >> woodruff: with grmany

there's world war ii, the nazis, the understandable reluctance ou their part tild up a muscular military. th but also, the european leaders, includin germans, just don't see russia as a serious miliry threat. yes, they have cyber attacks and so forth and so on that bothe people greatly, but as a military threat, as a threat that looks like the soviet union during the cold war, you just 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. h> i actually disagree wit that. i think that, you know, when putin invaded crinsmea, ger and all other n.a.t.o. allies od that n.a.t.o. territory could be next, and that's why germans are now deployed in the baltic states, which you never would have seen beforticularly after the enlargement of n.a.t.o., they didn't actually want to scare the bear. but now the bear is scarthing . but the problem, is with president trump now going to see pun, if we're not united at

n.a.t.o., then why should putin ske anything trus about deescalating his attacks on is seriously? >> woodruff: what about that, john mearsheimer? d then you heard the president almost turning that argument around tad and saying the germans are relying too much onu ia for their energy resources. >> well, it's clear that president trump wants to improve relations with the russians and, in tharegard, 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 for the good, so i'm al in favor of him talking to them. >> i'm also in favor of him talking to them. the only thing with the russians is leader to leader negotiations because putin 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 and undercutting our

traditional allies. >> woodruff: bottom line to you, john mehesheimer, is t n.a.t.o. alliance weakened materially because of episodes likeoday >> yes. the key question is what happens over the next two and a half years and if president trump tets reelected in 2020, wha happens after that. it's hard to imagine that this allianceing to be in good shape in 2021, should he lea the white house then, and it's hard to see it surviving if he gets another four years. i mean, he is slowly but steadily chipping away. >> woodruff: victor nuland. i agree if he gets reelected. but the important thing is one your correspondent made, that even though trump is making a lot of noise, he's sti making strong u.s. contributions to n.a.t.o. including our big presence in poland and in the east and that's very important and signing the chiewn kay today, so maybe it's just a lo of noise. >> woodruff: and a lot of that

got lost in all the fuss. >> it did. l woodruff: victoria nuand, john mearsheimer, ank you. >> you're welcome. thank you, judy. >> woodruff: we heard in the last segment a little about natural gas produced in the u.s. it turns out, it is a big factor in the overall growth rgy production in this country over the past decade. but producing and transportingat as releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas that's gotten a lot less attention wh it comes to climate change. miles o'brien reports on how california is zeroing 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.or >> rr: it's time for a preflight briefing at burbank airport.o >> we're goingt plenty of data over the, over the sites.

>> reporter: i'm flying with a team from nasa's jet propulsion laboratory, a place that specializes in exploring distant planets, today is focused on our own. they're takinghelight over so california, hunting one of the most potent greenhouse gases of all; methane. a ounts 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 science directorate. he and technologist andrew thorpe are using a state of the art infrared imagingo spectrometernd plumes of methane invisible to the human eye. nationally the e.p.aestimates about one third of methane emissions come from oil and gas production, another third from the methane created by the belches and manure of livestock, and about 16% from organic waste dumped in landfills.

so today we are flying over fertile methane territory, there are 200,000 oil and gas wells, almost 2000 dairy farms 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. >>eporter: california is funding the flights to find and ksop methane l 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 aa trappingthan carbon dioxide.e >> what the st trying to do is to get an initia assessment of how many strong meane sources are there in state, where they're located,

how much are they emitting. >> reporr: in 2016, researchers from harvard used satellite and ground observations tandetermine meemissions steadily increased in the past decade,ey and oncluded the e.p.a. is underestimating methane leaks from all sources by 30 to 50%. more recently, the environntal defense fund published a study in the journal science, concluding the e.p.a. is underestimating methane issions in oil and gas production by about 60%. the first step to plugging these methane leaks is pinpointing them. on flights like these, j.p.l. is using the airborne visible/infrared imaginger spectromet, or aviris to do just that. it can detect gases by analyzing the spectrum of light transmitted by the atmosphere. the spectrum of 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 partt f the state now, is this county that we're heading toward so, when you add it all up, there are literally millions of potentiaemission sources in the area that we're mapping. >> reporter: the aviris team routinely shares what it learns with tclse emitters. ing the operators of the huge sunshine canyon landfill in los angeles. on an earlier flight, the team saw a huge plume of methane, billowing from areas where the topsoil had been stripped away in advance to make space for more dumping. so the landfill changed its routine, keeping t topsoil in place until just before the trash is dumpe 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 stoge facility near porter ranch, it was captured on video using an

infrared camera as well. it began in october 2015 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 company in the united states, maintaining over 0,000 miles of gas mains. >> it didn't negate all the good that we've been do dg over the laades 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 test new chnology. their tried-and-true method for finding leaks is the human nose whh can detect the sulfur smell that the company adds to

thodorless methane, also halled natural gas. but they augmentwith some technology, fixed sensors at strategic locations. a van that can detect even very tiny amounts of methane. tfrared cameras to inspec pipes. and a drone outfitted with a small laser. they say the priority is avoiding natural gas explosions 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 need 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 f mpany has repaired, proof there is the valueis type of survey, but it is, after all, just a narrow snapshot of agl al problem. so the team is proposing a similar instrument be launched s ince.et

they think mne mitigation is a good place to start stemming greenhouse gasses. >> co2 emissions have addressed. but co2 emissions involve economy-wide processes. they involve our power generation, our transportation like the airplane were flying right now. and those are going to require economy-wide shts 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 planet's warmest year on record. >> reporter: during the obama administration, regulators were enticed by that argument. the department of interior and the environmental protection agency hadmposed rules forcing gas and oil producers to detect and repair methane leaks. >> 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 great 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 want to know how much of my product i losing." >> yeah, it seems odd to me took it'sit'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 thera fecourts 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 reof methane in the atmospan make a significant dent in greeouse gases. in the seemingly insurmountable fight agait climate change, methane may be the low hanging fruit. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in burbank, california.

>> woodruff: now, health insurance and the trump's administratifforts 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 for coverage through the marketplace. as willi brangham explains, the decision is the latest in a series of moves to strike back against a program the president remains vehemently opposed to. >> brangham: mr. trump was frustrated when the republican- led congress was unable to squash the affordable care act outright.t e president, who says he's against the law philosophically, hasn't stopped trying to knock it down.g fundr these so-called enrollment navigators is nowt being just $10 million. the administration has also suspended payments to insurance companies to compensate them foc caring forr patients. that move came after a pair of court rulings about these payments.

and the justice department has s ded with the state of te a separate lawsuit arguing that s otections for people with pre- existing conditiould be eliminated. margot sanger-katz writes about this for the "new york times" website. thanks for being here.as >> my plee. 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 up under obama are all these people who hadn't had health insurance before, many who didn't have eperience buying it, so the law wanted to set up people who could walk them through the process, help them understand what's a deductible, premium, can i get a subsy to help meuy insurance, so it set up a grant program to pay community groups, disease advocacy groups, healthcare providers, and hav 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 toet brokers do it. one concern is the navigators themselves and consumish advocates feel this is part of the pattern of chipping away of tools that will drive enrollment in the programs. >> another change announced this st 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 to do? >> oeah, so undamacare, i've with one can get insurance regardless of whether they have preexisting conditions and this is a program that basicallysf trs money from insurance companies that end up with a lot of healthy patients to insuranc companat end up with a lot of sick patients so everyone car make money ress of who signs up for their plans. the results are interesting because not every health insurer is disadvantaged.

the ones who have to pay get to keep more money, but it tends to throw uncertainty into the marketbecause thse insurers were counting on the payments to make money and sty viabl i think fundamentally it's also bad because the whole system depends on the insurance companies wanting to participate in the markets, there is no federal fallback or pubc option, the only way there will be obamacare insurance is if private insurance companies want to set insurance so this is a way uf pulling the rug from them. >> they've tried to chip away at the law but enrollment numbersus were robt last year, nine or ten million people. the law seems to be resilient despite the attacks against it. >> it is a surprise the makets in which people buy their own insurance. there have been so many blows against them and they are still standing. i think some ways they're in the as good as people hoped.'v seen two years of large premium increases. if you buy your own inrance

and gotten get a government subsidy you're facinserious sticker shock, price increases next weir. there is more choice than people who wrote the law hoped for. there's many places in the country where there's only one insur available. i think the fact there is one insurer everywhere that wants to continue to prticipate and so many people who are signing up shows the government subsies are adequate to help certain people buy insurance and t are a lot of americans who want to be able to buy insurance and they're gratefuave the program available to them. >> amongst the supporters of the affordable care act, are there other ways they're looking that they'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 ury now and this is a plan that would allow ince plans that don't have to cover all the obamacare benefits that donve't o offer insurance to

people with pre-existnsg conditthese will be more liberalized and much more common, and i think there are two concerns about the plans, one is consumer advocates are worried people won't understandb what they'ying and might buy a plan and find out it only covers $250,000 worth of care but no maternity or prescription drug benefits. >> mandated under the aca. these would be requirement aca plans have to ver a standard set of benefits to include drugs, hospitalization, maternity care, ana certain amount of protection, so the obamacare can't limit how much they pay in a year for medical care. most people don't pay $250,000 worth ofmedical bills but if you do, you want high-end coverage.ne that'sorry. but the other worry is these short-term plans will be much less expensive. if you're a health person with

no p-eresting conditions. >> that's a draw. yeah. obamacare plans cost a lot of money so if they can qualify for a cheaper pl they are totally rational to go there, and that means the pool of people left in the affordable care act plans are going to tend to be sicker and that wilerfur drive up premiums and make the plans unaffordable for people who want the comehensive coverage and don't get a subsidy to helphem buy it. s margot sanger-katz, thank you. e. >> woodruff: now, a different: healthcare sto the problems of providing care for the elderly in puerto rico. just a few weeks bacrotest broke out in puerto rico's ypital, triggered by a st that found some 4,600 puerto ricans died ll the months ing hurricane maria. many were seniors and died because of delayed medical attention. as special correspondent sarah varney reports, the hurricane e.vealed just how precarious

daily life has bec this story was produced with our partner, kaiser health news. >> reporter: eight months afte hurricane maria devastated puerto rico, mariela miranda drives along the winding ralds in the cen mountains, still on an urgent mission. >> i srted noticing, "ok, this lady needs. this other leader needs. this other one needs." and then i said, "you know what? i'm gointo 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 wn't i left her bedn months. maria has diabetes. her husband basilicio soler say afe hurricane, his wife's blood sugar levels spiked and 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 neighborho has been delivering

supplies to this family and other isolated and frail seniors since the hurricane. she says t government isn't stepping in to help them, so she is. and nine onths later, she's still finding elderly people in need, tucked away in houses along e mountain roads. here in castaner, a small village inuerto rico's coffee growing region, randa and her friend shelly guerra have turned this town bathroom into a storage room for donated supplies. at this home, the electricity came back on two 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 refrigerator, 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 w. and whe you not able to have? >> we couldn't eat meat, we couldn't eat salads, we had to

eat everhing 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. she has demeia and often becomes aggressive.e mily has no choice but to heep her at home. unlike the rest ofnited states, medicaid does not pay for long-term nursing home care fa puerto rico. miranda found thly a new wheelchair. now she's trying to replace the broken electd. >> i'm just trying to see if there's any way we can go and talk to the mayor of the city. there's t much we can do, just can knock on the doors, and try to get somebodto help us. >> reporter: miranda is tenacious but the unending misfortune of her fellow puerto itcans is taking a toll on her.

>> it gets to us get to a point where you drain yourself. you see this, anyou want to do so much but you can't. you don't have sometimes the time, or the money, 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 watched some die. at a protest in san juan in june, puerto ricans placed shoes to represent the estimated 4,600 people who dieafter the hurricane. local senator rossana lópez leon en sharply critical of t government's official death toll of 64. and she says thost in charge of e agencies failed to protect the vulnerable, especially the elderly, after the storm andue conto do so today. >> people with chronic conditions aldical services needed or dialysis or espe insulin for people with diabetes. people with cancer didn't get

the medical services that they needed as soon as they needed. so we get a lot of deaths at the beginning. anit's still having, we're still having now a lot of deaths cause it's a lot of municipalities that didn't have electricity right now. >> reporter: hurricane maria first came ashore here in yabucoa, and much ofhe town still has no municipal power. despite that, alberto rodriguez has been keeping his wife alive for eight months. distraught over her farm's destruction, mirella sepulveda, had a massive strokend heart attack a month after the storm. doors released her from th hospital under hospice saying she would die without electricity. >> i add some more batteries, i add the solar panels. >> reporter: so rodriguez, who is an electrical technician, jerry-rigged a fan and solarha panelscharge a stash of car batteries. and you and your brothers did all is 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, respirate feeder.th we cannot run t power. >> reporter: municipal power isn't expected to reyah this part ocoa for another few months. the disr led to a rise in depression and anxiety, health experts here say, and it's taking its toll on e elderly. a grim measure of that misery ie the spike in calls to the suicide hotline from yabucoa zenaida navarro lives just blocks from playa guayanes. she says the violentrauma of the storm is hard to shake. >> the refrigerators, furnitures. >> reporter: were all just here. refrigerators on the streets. >> everything was flyi, erything was flying. >> reporter: but she says the hardships after the storm have pushed some friends and neighbors into dark depression.

>> they're like, thet want th be living anymore if things keep going oway they have, so it's like something to be really concerned about. >> reporter: across the island, the suicide rate increased 29% in the months following hurricane maria. but 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 anddr ned. the road collapsed in both directions. they were isolated for weeks and had to build back fromhe storm on their own. eight of their nine children live in pennsylvania and texe while they cr their o verely disabled son, victor. nearly 500,000 puecans have fled the island's faltering economy over the last decade for better jobs in the states, leaving more older people to age alone. tee government here estima another 200,0 will be gone by

the end of this year. the question owho will care for puerto rico's aging population is a gring crisis. lacking medicaid-funded nursing homes, families often pay small, private homes licensed by e island's department of family to care for their relatives. in the days after hurricane maria, emergency calls from these homes poured in but no one in the government had a complete list of the homes or knew where they were. o sorators of the homes failed so badly to care for their patients, they are being prosecut 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 or resos. >> one of the main things that developed from the hurricane is ealityveryone confronted 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. f we need mods. we need more ways to help them. >> reporter: with hurricane seas puerto ricans are anxious and afraid. they are still repairi power lines and roofs, and still trying to recover from the wreckage of hurricane maria. ba in castaner, mariela minda called us after we finished reporting this story. she was shaken up. maria soller, the stroke victim who lived quietly by the river with her husband, hadied." i'm not sure how much longer i can do this," she said.ws for the pbs nehour and kaiser health news, i'm sarah varney in castaner, puerto ric >> woodruff: and speaking of puerto rico, we wanted to update a story that has gone viral about a woman was harassed for whathe wore the video, shot by a 24-year-old latina woman wearing a puerto

rico shirt, was made as she was setting up a picnic in a forest preserve in cook county, illinois last month. she was repeatedly berated by a man and asked a nearby officer for help who was accused of standing by. let's show some of that video. but first, it's worth noting puerto rico is a u.s. territory and puerto ricans are u.s. citizens. >> you should not be wearing that in the united states of america. are you a ciunzen? are you ed states citizen? >> yes i am. can you please get away from me? >> then you should not be wearing that >> officer, i feel h uncomfortable, can you please ab him? please, officer? >> i'mn american citizen. >> as you can see the police are not even, he is not even grbing him. this guy is just walking up to me. he basically just got in my face. damn near almost touched me.

this is what i am wearing guys. >> woodruff: cook county officials say they are now investigating the officer's conduct. meanwhile, the man who yelled at her was intoxicated, he was arrested and is charged with assault and disorderly conduct. >> woodruff: researchers have found that satisfaction with life drops in our late 3 and bottoms out in our forties, rising steadily before reaching a peak in our 70s, call it the andkid effect? despite these disparities, tonight, in jonathan rauch'smb opinion, there is no such thing as a mid-life crisis. >> writing a book on age and happiness, i kept feeling a jolt like deja vu. i'd be interviewing middle-aged men and women, usually successful, nfident people, t 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 for 25 years. it was a lonely, sad, painful place. now here i am, hearing the same music, but with different words. this time, t people i hear it from are not hiding their sexuality. they are hiding their midlife slump. recent science shows that age time is not a neutral emotional backdrop. feeling satisfied and grateful h easiest in the early and late decades of life, ader in the middle. midlife dissatisfaction seems to be a natural and normal transition as our values change and our brains develop. appears we've evolved to chase success and status in youth. in late adulthood, we shift our priorities toward community and connection. in between comes a sometimes

rocky emotional reboot.g somethetty fundamental must be going on, 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.e for women,ivialize it as horror about wrinkles. on medicalize it as depres when it's really dissatisfaction. we dismi problem.""first-world no one wants to be a pne, a cliche, a basket case, an ingrate. eople hide their feeling 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 support midlife malaise is not harmful start by talking 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 plans should reflxtt the amount of talk, te and data that you use. we offer a variety of no- contract wireless plans for learn more, go toything ina consumercellular.tv

>> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and mor >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible b public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ >> around engdu and throughout sichuan province, there are mann spectacular ins. for thousands of years, they have been home to many ethnic groups. uiuntain culture is unique, with its own history,ne, andcu stoms. and it's also a very vocal culture. natives around here like to telh r story through songs. >> [ singing in chinese ] >> listen -- the voice of the mountain, next, "yan can cook." ♪ ♪ ♪