captioning sponsored by newsho productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, confliing accounts from the white house on russia, as meesident trump plans to invite vladimir putin t in washington. then, what's happening inside the nation's detention centers. the latest on government efforts to reunite immigrant families separated at the border. and, marking 50 years of the special olympics: we look at its beginnings and how it aims to spark an inclusion revolution. >> it's taught me about how to respect myself how to have acceptance of myself how to s spect someone else and i to be me. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. pbsby contributions to yo station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: more shifting winds at the white house today, on whether russia's president putin is a fast friend, or a fierce sie. word came that pnt trump wants putin to visit this fall, even as monday's summit sparked more questions. white house correspondent yamiche alcindor begins our covera. >> alcindor:or president vladimir putin, a warm reception

from russian lawmakers today, as he celebrated the helsinki suit results. >> ( translated ):inally, the full formal meeting happened which allowed me to talk it was successful generally, led to useful arrangements. >> alcindor: there's been no dformal announcement of als the leaders may have made. putin said they worked out a range of agreements involving international security. but the u.s. director of national intelligence, dan ats, said today at an aspen institute forum, he's not sure iat was agreed to. >> well you're rigon't know what happened in that meeting. but that is the president's prerogative. if he had asked he how that ought to be conducted, i would've suggested a different way but that's not my role, s what not my job, so it it i >> alcindor: this morning, president trump tweeted saying: "the summit with russia was a e great succesept with the real enemy of the people, the ke news media." went on to say he looks forward to a second meeting with putin, "so that we can start implementing some of the many

things discussed," including cyberattacks, middle east peace and ukraine among others. ast the overall u.s. commander for the middle e army general joseph votel, said he has heard nothing about anych ges regarding syria, where both american and russian forceo are ed. he spoke to pentagon reporters on a videolink from his headquters in tampa. >> we have received, no, no further direction than we've currently been orating under. >> alcindor: direct collaboratn with the russian military would need congressional approval. there was more today, too, on the matter that's dogged president trump since helsinki, russian cyber-hacking in the 2016 u.s. election.ew "theork times" reported that two weeks before his inauguration, in january of 2017, he was shown highly classified evidence thatad ir putin personally ordered the campaign of cyberattacks and disinformation. just five days later, the then president-elect held a news conference.

today, he posted a clip from it. but later on in that same news, conferen dismissed the intelligence community's conclusion that putin had been trying to help him win the election. >> do you accept that part of the finding? >>ell, if-- if putin likes donald trump, i consider that an asset, not a liability, because we have a horrible relationship with russia. alcindor: in aspen, colorado, the president's homeland security secretary, kirstjen n said today she's never seen evidence that russia's election interference was aimedr at securing p victory. >> so i haven't seen any oidence that the attempts but what we've seen on the influence side is that they were attempting to intervene and causchaos on both sides. >> alcindor: on monday, the president seemed to take putin's denials at face value. coats quickly challenged that, ying russian interference did happen, and is continuing. today, coats said he'd had no thoice. >> well my thoughte was that i needed to correct the record for that. obviously, i wished he had made a different statement but i

think now it's clarified.lc >>dor: just yesterday, mr. trump appeared to dismiss the notion that russian interference is ongoing. >> is russia still targeting the u.s., mr. president? >> thank you very much. no. >> you don't believe that to be the case? let's go. >> alcindor: the white house said later, mr. trump's answer had been misunderstood. all of this has lawmakers on both sides asking questions, and seeking action. republican senator bob corker chairs the foreign relations committee. >> i just can feel sometimes the president conflates getting along with someone, and you know tery and those kinds of things, conflates that with the actual politics, if you will, >> alcindor: in a statement today, senate majorider mitch mcconnell announced he's directed two senate committees to hold hearings on potentially strengthening s. sanctions against russia. on the house side, democraticoy whip steny called for bipartisan legislation to

increase funding for election system security and to counter russian-led cyberattacks. >> the flashing red light calls us to action. surely we can rise above fndering to party and putin to act on behalf of oedom and our security. >> alcindor: theeasure ultimately failed. republicans voted against it, saying there's already ample money available for those purposes. >> woodruff: and yamiche is here with me now, a foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin. hello to both of you. so, yamiche, as you've just been reporting, we've seen over theay last fewa number of statements the white house has made about the russian threat, about what thdie russiand in 2016, and they've turned and and made a clarifying statement or rersed themselves. how does the way the white house is handling this, because you have been looking into it compare with the way the rest of the administration has been looking at all this? >> well, president trump's inability to definitively say vladimir putin ordedussian nationals to interfere in the

2016 election has put him at odds often with the intecellig community. dan coats today looked visibly surprised when nbc's andrea mitchell told him about putin's upcoming visit. >> the white house announced on twitter that vladimir putin is coming to the white ho the fall. >> say that again? (laughter) >> vladimir putin coming to -- yeah, i hearu. yeah. okay. ah. (laughter) >> that's gonna be special. (laughter) >> woodruff: wow. i mean, that really sums up where the national intelligence director and the president stand right now. he was completely surprised, and he's not alone. the intelligence community is looking at what president trua is doing anding, and they're really questioning kind of why the president is saying all these things, and they don't know what he said to vladimir putin in that one-on-one meeting

that went on for two hours, d dan coats isn't the only person in the trump administration pushing back on how trump talks at russia. director of the .ib christopher ray says russia is the most aggressive country that's trying toattack the . right now. that's really, really important. i was talking to sources today, there was a former department of homeland security official, very señor in past administrations, he said that the homeland security -- the secretary of homeland security stood saying that she didn't know if rus was trying to help donald trump shows that these administration officialsun arr a lot of pressure to pick between donald trump or the truth.ha sos really, really important, and the senate today voted unanimously to oppose russia talking to u.s. officials or u.s. citizens and basically saying that rush should not be able to question american citizens, so they're also coming out and saying we are not with the president on this. >> woodruff: so, nick, you talked to folks in the intelligence community, there is dsome sort of ivision, it

appears,etween what the president is doing and what they know. >> i think it's important to note that th will continue doing their job despite that division, but that there i worry, concern, even discomfort with some of what the president is saying and some of the policies that he's exh toward russia and toward vladimir putin. we have to remember that, since january 2017, the intelligence community has fingered putin personally and said that president putin ordered the hacking and disinformation gimpaign in the united states. the president waven that information, as we learned today, from the "new york times," with specific intelligence that there was human intelligence about president vladimir putin's order, and there's bafflement, frankly, among some intelligencs officialo why the president will not back them up ow that and at least publicly they just don't hy the president is not backing them up. >> woodruff: two other things. yamiche, the white house saying

yesterday that the president was considering seriously this idea of swapping interrogation between the former u.s. ambassador to moscow, among others, with the u.s. being able tonterview these intelligence folks in russia who have been indicted by the united states. so -- and then today they said, no, it's not being considered at all, the president doesn't like the idea. what's going on there? >> the white house and the state department had vastly different answers when it came to the question of whether or not p vladimin could get his way and russian national officials could sit down and interview american citizens they see as criminals. the u.s. intelligence community has found thesemericans are not criminals, they include the former ambassador to russia, thm former u.sassador to russia, and there's this idea that pin wanted to kind of float that out there and it was pretty much seen as absthurd. state department came out very forcefully yesterday and eay it's absurd to even ask th

question where sarah sanders hedged and said, well, we'll think about it. it took hi a full 24 hours later for the white house to come out and be on the same page as the st.tate departm it comes back to the idea i have been talking to sources about when thesay they don't know why the president is doing the heings he's doing and people are worried maybade deals with president putin in that two-hour meeting, they'reot sure if h gave them some kind of signal there may be an assurance there, so they're very orried and don't know what to think. >> woodruff: and, nick, on that point, it isnar't clehat was said in the meeting. how big a problem is tht? >> it is a big problem because the russians have a well oiled machine and they will put forth their ambassador yesterday an president putin today and they will fill the void where there is no statement act secretary pompeo about what wased dec no statement from the national security advisor john bolton, the defense secretary wasn't even at the cabinet meetinger yey, whereas the russians are absolutely organized, so

they will fill that void and try and shape the legacy of the summit and, certainly, the day-to-day actio of both countries in the near future. n, woodruff: nick schif yamiche alcindor, thank you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, president trump criticizev the federal refor raising interest rates. he spoke to cnbc, and suggested higher rates aren't helping efforts to boost the economy. e i'm not thrilled, because we go up, and every tu go up, d ey want to raise rates again. don't really, uh... i am not happy about it, but at the same time, i'm letting them do what they feel is best. >> woodruff: later, a white house spokeswoman said the president respects the independence of the fed. fed chairman jerome powell has said he does not expect to face whuse pressure. he was mr. trump's choice for the jo

more than 7,000 civilians in syria were evacuated from pro- government villages in the north. they'd been under rebel siege for three years. eeir release was in excha for militants held in government jail buses took the villagers to government-held territory in aleppo. it's one of the largest populationransfers in the seven-year-long conflict. meanwhile, in southwest syria, there's word that rels have agreed to leave the frontier along the israeli-occupied golan heights. back in this country, kathy kraninger faced questions today about whether she is qualified to lead the consumer financial protection bureau. she now works at the office of management and budget. democrats at her senate confirmation hearing, criticized her lack of experience in esnking and financial serv but kraninger said she has other qualifications.of >> 20 yearovernment service, working for common sense solutions across the aisle, working with members on

both sides to support the best a outcomes for trican people and that is certainly what i pled. >> woodruff: at a separate confirmation hearing, democrats opposed charles rettig to be commissioner of the internal revenue service. they said it's a protest against a new i.r.s. policy that lets ptsiness, labor and other groups aconations without disclosing the donors' identities. the senate today abandoned plans to vote on the nomination of ryan bounds to be a feral appeals judge. eg ran into opposition over his writings as a costudent, more than 20 years ago, criticizing multiculturalism. it's the first time one of the president's appeals court nomine has failed to advance. facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg is doing dame control after saying the social media platform will not automaticly remove posts denying the holocaust. in an interview, he'd sa he does not think holocaust deniers "intentionally" get the facts wrong. later, he said his intent was

not to defend such speech. on wall street, losses in the banking sector, coupled with president trump's criticism of the fed, pushed stocks lower today. the dow jones industrial average shed more than 134 points to close at 25,064. the nasdaq fell 29 points, and the s&p 500 slipped 11. the annual espys sports awards took a solemn turn last night, honoring more than 140 victims of sexual abuse by a sports doctor. many were young girls when they were assaulted by larry nassar at usa gymnastics and michigan state university. last night, they received the thur ashe award for courage. but olympic gold medal-winningas gyaly raisman said theyld never shave been there. ll we needed was one adu to have the integrity to stand between us and larry nassar.

if just one adult had listened, believed, and acted, the people standing before you on this stage would have neverim. >> woodruff: nassais now serving prison terms totaling more than 175 years. and, the military veteran whose experience as a radio d.j. in saigon inspired the film "good mornin vietnam," has passed away. adrian cronauer served in the air force during the vietnam war in the '60s, where he coined the greeting made famous by robin williams in the classic movie 20 years later. he died after a long illness, at 79 years old. still to come on the newshour: views on the russia controversy from former ambassador michael mcfaul and former acting c.i.a. director john mclaughlin. israel's controversial law declaring it the homeland ofhe jewish people.

the plan to reunite there ining separated migrant families, and much more. >> woodruff: we return now to what p "incredible offer" on monday n en president putin offered to let the u.s. quest russians indicted for interfering in the 2016 election, in exchange for a few u.s. officials, being inrrogated by moscow. after first saying they were considering this, the white house today said they reject t idea. just one of a swirl of events around president tru and russia in the past few days. for reaction and anasis, i'm joined by former ambassador michael mcfaul, who served as envoy to moscow from 2012 to 2014. he was named as one of the american officials wanted by russia in that potential exchange. he is currently at stanford university. and john mclaughlin served as

acting director of the c.i.a. during the george w. bush administration, and as the agency's deputy director. he's now at johns hopkins school of advanced international studies. and, gentlemen, welcome to both of you. let me start with ambassador mcfaul. do you feel you've gotten a reprieve? yesterday the white house washe sayingwere seriously considering this proposal by vladimir pu sin. today thd they're not. >> well, judy, yes and n i mean, as one of the people named, i guess it's nice at they finally have said the obvious, but i want to point out that statement was t a definitive statement by the white house, and this is their thd try. they said that president putin was sincere in this proposal and, by saying that, they're suggesting that the americans on that list, including me, werho socriminals that needed to be investigated, and the fact that the prident, after three different times -- twice from

he podium in the whise and, most amazingly, in helsinki -- could not just say, thisis outrageous, this is crazy, absolutely n nero unain terms we're not going to do this, and we're not going to accept the false equivalency between 12 military intelligence officers violated our sovereignty with this cockamamie crazstory that vladimir putin spun in that one-on-one meeting. so it's bett than the first time, but it still is not as good as i would like >> woodruff: john mclaughlin, was that ever a feasible idea? have you ever seen anything like that happen? >> no, that was never a feasible idea, judy, and it's alarming it would even have been considered for a second or that i took 24 hours to get this partial -- and the ambassador is right, it's

really a partial clad rificatio. think in the statement, the last one i saw, they also said something to the effect that not only was ptin sincere but perhaps he will actually send these 12 people to the united states to be questioned. that itself is absurd. puton is never goin do that. and just based on my own dealings with russians over the years, i think it shows dea gree of naivety on the part of the president andn ayone else who permitted this idea to get into the public realm. so, no, it wasever a feasible idea. it should have been rejected instantly out of hand. >> woodruff: ambassador mcfaul, we now have the news today that president trump is isking john bolton, his national security a, to invite president putin to washington this fall. what do you make of that, given the events of helsinki? >> i was quite surprised by that announcement. this summit, i think, was aco

lete disaster. it advanced no u.s. national security interests, and that's what you're supposed to do in diploma sivment you're not supposed to lavish praise on sour interlocutor, especially one like vladimir putin. maybe there were secret deals as you were alluding to earlier in the shonow. th thing concretely was this crazy swap idea, but if you e, why do bad that t you want to tee up another meeting that i think just willno advance america's interests but actually go in reverse? >> woodruff: a, john mclaughlin, what about that? and the white house argument that, well, these are the world's two most powerful nations with nuclear weapons pointed toward each other, their leaders need to at least be on a talking basis. hat? about >> well, i think we can all agree that there's merit in seeking a more constructive relationship with russia but they're going about itntirely

in the wrong way. when you go into a meeting with the russians either of the intelligence or diplomatic variety, the one thing you can be absolutely shiewf of is that they will know very precisely what they want and they will have a strategy for getting it from you, and if you don't go in with a very clear idea of your interests and what you're looking for, they'll get what m you.ant fro what surprised me most today, i, th'm at the aspen security forum, was director coats' surpse at the announcement of this summit, the next one, andad it me think this is not a normal government bause, in any normal government, this would have been discussed among principleciince -- prls in the white house, the director of national intelligence would have been there, hisdvice would have been sought, the prose and cons would have been weighed. one thing that occurred to me, if putn came in the fall and we

think the russian tare attemptiinterfere in the elections did anyone ask or think about whether that could be going on at t same time? one way to invite him would be to say you dare touch our ections and this summit is canceled publicly. have they done that? no one knows. so it doesn't have a good feel to me. >> woodruff: there are so many strands to this story, ambassador mcfaul. one other thing i definitely want to ask you both about a report in the "new york times" today that, when the -- when u.s. officials, intelligence officials briefed then president-elect donald trump in january 2017, they shared with him that they not only knew vladimir pin was directing the attempts to interfere in the election but that they had a human intelligence source close in mr. putin's circle. what does that tell you, first of all, that that information is out there and, second of all, that it was then followed by the

president's en enelessials that russia was behind the interference? >> well, to me it shows a couple things. one, i think it's important to note what you just said, judy. this has nw been leaked out tell us that there are many people in the current government in the t are deeply concerned about the way the president talks about his relationship with rusa. he's been briefed 100 times about this -- what happened in 2016. his add viders -- advisors, many whom i've talked, to tried to get the message thro he obviously doesn't want to hear the facts when it comes to that. the second thing is also really curbing, something john said, and i want to underscore is, i t that you ha policies toward russia now. re trump administration, to the best of my knowledge, agree you need to push back we heard reporters talking to people who are at the summit and who are aware of the summit that

there was a plan to push back and, by the way, summits sometimes are times to push back and not just to praise russian leaders, and, yet, the president himself seems to disagree with his entire administration's licy towards rusia, and that just does not make for good outcomes for arican national interests. >> woodruff: john mclaughlin as someone who comes out of e intelligence community, what do you make of the fact that that information was shared wipo a er, that there's a human source inside -- close inside the vladimir putin citrcle, tha that's now out there? >> that's a veary bd thing. it's a very bad thing. if it's true -- and, of course, we don't know whether it is literally true -- but if it is tiue, it is precisely the kind of infor that, in the intelligence world, you guard. it's the crn jewels. you guard that with your life. the fact that someone would put that out there, while i admire the work the press h done in

bringing many things to light that we would otherwis not know, i do regret seeing that particular information in prints ming it is true, and i don't know what would -- whoever leaked it had to be powerfully motivated by disagreement with the president's policy, although sometimes these leaks come about through secondary sources who've just heard about it and have no discipline in talking to anyone. so i find it very distressing. >> woodruff: yeah, you're saying if it came from someone in the intelligence community, they were expressing their disagreement with the president. >> no, no, i would not let me make clear, i cannot believee some the intelligence community would leak that. if the lea-- the leak would, i'm confident, would come from soone who read or saw the material provided by the intelligence community. no one community would leak a source like that. remember, all those people take

polygraphs. >> woodruff: so much to inpack here, gentlemen. we thank you both, john mclaughlin, ambassador michael mcfaul, thank you. >> woodruff: a controv new law enacted overnight by the knesset, israel's parliament, has agn stirred deep emotions about the identity of the jewish state, and how israeli tseek to defimselves and the others who shared the land of israel. nick schifrin is back with that. >> schifrin: for years israel's rotiwdy po have balanced constitutional promises to be jewish and democratic. today, lawmakers gave jews the exclusive right to self- determination and passed a law supporters called the culmination of zionism. it wasraised by israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. >> ( translated ): this is a historic moment in the history t

of zionism a history of the state of israel. we have made into law the basic principle of our existence: israel is the national state of the jewish people. >> schifrin: but what netanyahu sed as historic, critics called cruel. on the knesset floor, arab lawmakers ripped up the bill. at one point, parliament member jamal zahalka was forcibly removed from the debate. coalition leader ayman odeh pulled out a black flag, and, as the parliament speaker objected, odeh called the law evil. >> ( tran law, a black flag hovers over it. this is a law that hovers over it a black flag >> schifrin: israel has promised the law won't impede minorities' rights. but in mixed towns like haifa, with bahai world center up the hill, near a 100-year- mosque, and a nearby church, awopponents criticized theor reducing arabic to a "special status". kayebalan is a shopkeeper. >> ( translated ): this new law, that this is a jewish state and not a state for all its

citizens, this is something that we are ashamed of, and we dot accept it. >> schifrin: but the bill's supporters argue they e just acknowledging reality: that s 80% jewish, guarantees jewish immigration, and needs to defend its status as the jewish homeland. amir ohana is a member of the ruling likud party. >> ( translated ): this is not a bi-national state, this is not a bilingual state, this is not a double-capital state, this is state of a single nationality of the jewish people, its language is hebrew, and its capital is jerusalem. >> the reason this is happening >> schifrin: david makovsky is a distinguished fellow at the waington institute for nea east policy. he's not in favor of the bill, but says lawmakers recently removed some of its most controversial clauses.

discriminatory policies can be l the law is a basic law, akin to a constitutioendment. and that means criticis will have a hard time challengif it, says younayyer, the executive director of the u.s. campaign for palestinian rights. >> ts now becomes a tool through which various discriminatory policies can be supported in the legal system and thus it enshrines, in a constitutional way, a constitutional defenseor discrimination against non-jews in israel. >> schifrin: arab israelis are more than 20% of israeli citizens. they often complain of housing, education, and language discrimination. the law's critics say that discrimination couldorse. >> a lot of those policies have preexist this law. what will happen now is that they will be enshrined constitutionally, making legal

challenges against them far more tfficult, and thus embolden proponenadvance those policies in ways and in places they have not done so before. >> schifrin: tmi trump stration has largely given the israeli government a green light to do what it wants. the ruling party wasn't united, and the debate was close. but netanyahu said it was a turning point. >> ( translated ): there are people who are trying to destabilize this state. so today we have made a law in stone. this is our country. this is our language. this is our anthem and this is our flag long live the state of israel. (applause) >> schifrin: israel'debate between being jewish and democratic is not over. but is government believes i has tipped the balance, and promises to move forward embracing israel as the jewish state. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin.

>> woodruff: stay with us, r:coming up on the newshou the special olympics celebrating 50 years.d anmaking sense of the supply and demand for kidneys. now, the latest on the government's plans to reunite migrant families, after a court- imposed order to do so. a federal judge gave the trump administration a deadline of july 26 to reunite approximately 2,500 children between the ages five and 17. but homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen said today: "we will do our best, but we willco not cuers." amna nawaz has been covering this closely and met with officials from the health and human services department today. she joins me now. amna, hello. >> thank you. i>> woodruff: so you wereen rare access to this place, this administration command center where they're coordinating this reunification process. what did you see and d how you

get this access? >> well, they invited hand of us peatedly reporting on this topic to get an inside look as to how much priority it is for the government and how they are addressing the reucanion. the commander center is called the secretary's command center. it's seating all facing large i jumbotrowhich they're tracking how many kids are coming in, going out, free bes and so on. they tell us the sock has been up and running for 24 days straight, 24-7 operation. they're treating this as a national emergency. this is the same they have up for nationadisasters an disease outbreaks. they wanted to make clear clear there are have many and in som cases valid concerns of the placement of these kids. they stress to us the ty don't wa place kids into unsafe situations, with traffickers, eth people who aren't tir parents, into abusive situations. so they walked us through

carefully, step by step what their vetting process is. it's also cleaathis is process because of the judge's tameline that was sped up. this was not in place three weeks ago. >> woodruff: we know at out of 103 children in custody under age five, they have reunified 57 of those with their families, now working on the larger group of children who were five and up. >> yeah. what do we know abouhow that's going? >> we were told today a significant portion of the pares of those older kids 5-17 are already in i.c.e. detentione it simplthe process somewhat because it means a lot of those kids will be reunited with parents in i.c.e. detention, and they're setting a handful of reunification, primary reunification also for them.ey generally ay when the families are reunified, they are reeased into the publc and can have their cases adjudicated in due time. they're given a choice to leve with your kid or without them

when they have a deportation. the judge put a stay on the portations earlier this week. we don't know what will happen on the back end of that. top of that, we're getting an indication of what kids goen through hey're in custody. there's a federal filing in court in los angeles and i'll read you a couple of excerpts because these are testimonies from ks in government custody. a 10-year-old girl from phot mall la said i was placed with fele girls from five to six years old to 15 to 16 years old, large numbers of girls, some of whom had to sleep on concrete and siing up because there wasn't sufficient room in the cell. she talked about frozen food and a lack of water. another boy, 14-year-old fromal guatlarks talked about the facilities there. he said since i arrived, i have not been able to shor or brush my teeth. there's no soap in my room, no towels, i had a toothbrush when i came, theok it away. no one allowed me to brush me teeth or td me when i will be able to take a shower.

there's a lot of concern about what happens to kids once in custody. >> woodruff: about 40 seconds left, you have been tracking the case ofs thi3-year-old girl sophie separated from her grandmother at the borde. what's the latest? >> she's still in government custody. her family the still going through the process. this case could be au otlier, but we heard from officials about things they do to speed up the process, dna swabs, for example, are n being done in sophie's case, so we don't have a time line for when she wouldif be reud. officials told us average time in custody is about 50 days, as of tomorrow sophie will have en in custody for one month. >> woodruff: so important to follow this, and i know you hava been on itd will stay on it. amna nawaz, thank you. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: and now, a look at the impact of the special alympics, 50 years after i began.

what started as a small, little- noticed competition in chicago is now a global movement. it's helped change society's attitudes towardteeople with ectual disabilities. and, as john yang reports, their goal is inclusion far beyond the playing field. >> yang: the summer of8: a nation in turmoil. protestors marched against the war in vietnam. thban riots erupted after assassination of martin luther king, jr. but amid theumult, an event the likes of whi the world had never seen: an olympics r children with intellectual disabilities. it was july 20. eunice kennedy shriver spoke during the opening ceremony at chicago's soldier field, just six weeks after her brother robert had been killed. >> in ancient rome, the gladiators went into the arena with these words on their lips:

let me win, but if i cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt. today, all of you young athletes many of you will win. but even more important, i know you will be brave and bring credit to your parents and to let us begin the olympics, thank you. >> yang: about 1,000 competitors from 26 states and canada ran, swam, threw balls, jumped and showed the world that they could lly participate in the rituals of childhood. the event drew little notice at the time.bu it sparked a change in society's attitudes toward the f tellectually disabled. today millions oathletes train and compete in more 100,000 events each year in some 170 nations. shriver died in 2009. her son, tim is now special olymcs chairman. he recalls summers at "camp shriver," a forerunner to special olympics. in the early 10s, the family opened their maryland home to

special needs kids. >> i remember the bus arriving, school buses, yellow school buses that come from institutns. i didn't know where they were coming from. we all would salute the flag and sing the national anthem together in a circle. i remember my backyard becoming an amusement park. you know, ponies arriving for pony rides and coaches arriving to coach kickball games. i remember playing with campers. >>mostly remember that it was fun. ang: the first generation of special olympics athletes were i bornn a time when the intellectually disabled were shunned, often hidden in institutions. that would have been the case for loretta claiborne, if not for her mother's resistance. unable to walk or talk until the age of four, she went on toco beme one of special olympics' most decorated athletes. >> if it wasn't for special olympics, and i have some of the kids, i think i'd ev in prison or, six feet under. >> yang: claiborne got involved in special olympics as a teenager. >> it's taught me about how to respect myselfow to have

acceptance of myself how to respect someone else and it's ok er be me. it's ok to be dit and to put the disability behind me put the ability in front ond that's what special olympics taught me on the track like th. >> yang: claiborne has quite literally been etched intopa history, in ting of eunice shriver at the national portrait gallery in washington. also in e artwork? marty sheets, another renowned special olympics athlete, whodi in 2015. his favorite sport was golf. we spoke to marty's father, dave, at the sligo creek golf course outside washington, which often hosts special olpics events. born with down's syndrome, marty went to the 1968 chicago games from north carolina, the first time he'd ever been on a plane. but he got sick after arriving and couldn't compete. he still got a surprise from eunice shriver. >> she walked over to his table and presented marty with a gold medal for having worked so hard,

done all of the things he needed to do to get there, but wasn't able to participate at the time. that gold medal has been absolutely famous as far as i'm concerned. >> yang: that first special olympics beganith a proposal from a young chicago parks gymte her named anne mcglone, now illinois state supreme court justice anne burke. in 1968 she was a college dropout with undiagnosed dyexia working with intellectually disabled children. >> yang: her experience gave her a thought. >> i just said, "well, the regular day camp has a city-wide jamboree. all of chicago gets ed in it. we should have jamboree down at soldier field just like that and we can show that these children have abilities. that was thepark of it. she said, "this is not big enough. you can't have just a city-wide track meet, it has to be a large track meet for everybody. invite everybody aroun country."

to have this little jewel start to have it's heart beat in soldier field, to come to full fruition about a vulnerable society was der the radar. >> yang: this week, the competition is back where it began. a highlight: the first global special olympics soccer tournament of unified teams-- players th with and without intellectual disabilities. immer is a 25 year old from dekalb, illinois.he 's been diagnosed with mild autism.is is his first time on a unified team. >> normal like athletes from like schools, i normally usually have veto play against them, with them, so good learning experience. >> yang: do you think they're learning something too? >> yeah, learning that just because some of us in special olympics have disabilities esn't make us any differentma from being norpeople >> yang: 17-year-old cori hoekstra plays on the women's team. fre says she's gained a lo

playing with athletes with disabilities. >> each person knows certain things, doesn't know certain things, so you have to adapt and work with them. definitely learned patience, and being able to help them through it and not so quickly.rustrated >> yang: 50 years after the first special olympics were held here at chicago's soldier field, the organization has an ambitious goal for t next half century. tim shriver says he wants people with intellectual disabilities fully integrated into society, not just competing alongside those without disabilities, but going to school with them, working with them, living with them. he calls it the "inclusion revolution." >> revolution is strong language. it implies a challenge to the status quo. it implies an opponent. we cannot and we should not tolerate business or schools or healthcare institutions or sporting organizations that say we're not open for most but not for you.

those days must end. >> yang: shriver hopes no one mistakes o the jf the games for the seriousness of the mission. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang in chicago. >> woodruff: now, the demand for a kidney transplant, a controversial idea used elsewhere to increase the odds ofetting one. the facts can be grim: more than 100,000 ople in the u.s. are awaiting a kidney transplant and the medianait time is more than three-and-a-half years. economics correspondent paul solman looks at the considerable odds americans are facing and one very unusual market for taining a kidney. it's part of his weekly series, "making sense." >> i was born with something ca disease.ystic kidney and around the age of 23 i began

to swell up more, retain water. >> reporter: at age 32, jairo acevedo ended up in the emergency room. >> they said your kidneys have totally shut down. >> reporter: so for over seven years now, acevedo's been undergoing kidney dialysis at new york's westchester medical center, learning to set the procedure up himself, in part to relieve the boredom of the fou t hour sessionee times a week. and the price? >> each treatment is about 7 $800. >> reporter: so that's 100,000 a year or more. >> it's pretty costly. >> reporter: in total, nearly a million dollars to date. d then there's the pain. >> there are days when i wake up andid my lower back, myy area just hurts too much, it's on fire. >> reporter: not to mention the mental toll. >> some doctors just call it pee in the brain. >> reporter: pee in the brain? >> yes, pee in the brain your mind starts to slow down, and en paying attention or concentrating becomes an iue.

>> reporter: what's happening now is your blood is being recycled through the machineo get rid of >> a lot of the waste and th toxins and the liquid. >> reporter: unable to work, he used to be an auditor at an h.m.o., acevedo survives on disability benefits from socia security, and medical benefits from medice, which picks up the total dialysis tab for acevedo and every other such patient in america. with some half a million of us on kidney machines, spending on dialysis alone accounts for nearly, get this, one percent of the entire federal budget, more than the outlay for all foreign aid. and the cost of dialysiss growing. >> the population is getting older, lot more diabetes, hypertension and these all have significant impactn kidney disease. >> reporter: dr. thomas diflo is the chief of kidney transplant surgery here. the cost of that?

>> the transplants all in cost probably $120,000. >> reporter: at first glance, a bloody fortune, also paid by medicare. but when you compare it to $100,000-a-year dialysis. >> so if you do a transplant on somebody and the kidnts for more than a year,, ear and a haen the system actually saves a great deal of money. and you look at how people after a transplant just from a health point of view, they do much, much better. >> reporter: which means lower medical costs and the possibility of gting back to work, and off disability and medicare entirely., stay on dialysough, and the medical problems and their costs compound.e >> this maches take a toll on your heart. >> reporter: last year, acevedo had bypass surgery. before that, he'd had 18 stents inserted to keep his arters open. in short, a kidney tant would be a colossal cost/benefit win/win.

but with no living donor, someone with a matching blood and tissue type willing to give him one of their two kidneys, acevedo's sole option is a waiting list for a deceased donor kidney. you hava number. > the last time i checked it, it was about in the 30,000s i believe. >> reporter: 30,000. >> yeah that was like two years ago. and after that i decided just to wait out and not look at the number again.ep >>ter: so, is there arthing to be done? >> wlosing nearly 10,000 people per year because theyve don't family member, they don't have a friend who can donate to them. >>r reporter: well, conside iran, which for 30 years has had the world's only legal market for kidneys. it grew out of necessity, says economist mohammad akb, after the iran-iraq war. >> because of sanctions, the trsets were frozen, the co didn't have even dialysis. >> reporter: so the government made a radical announcement. >> if you donate your kidneys to your fellow citizens, the government is going to compensateou. >> reporter: the equivalent of some 4,500 u.s. dollars, more

than half a year's average household income in iran. today, recipients of live kidneys pay most of that amount, at a literal market in downtown teheran. the government pays for the actual operation. and for those who can't afford to buy from a living seller, whose kidneys have the best chance of success, cadaver kidneys are free, and relatively plentiful. akbarpour and others say the market has slashed the waiting time for a kidney down to around a year, and completely eliminated the need to ask relatives or friends to donate one of theirs. dialysis patient zahra hajikarimi was confident she'd be transplanted soon. >> ( translated ): i can't imagine living without the possibility of a kidney donation of having to suffer with this diseasl the very last moment of your life. >> reporter: so this is the solution, right? a free market for kidneys. but, and you knew this was coming, even in ir , cash for kidneys is suspect. for one thing, most sellers are

poor. who else would run the risk of a major operation to remove a ktal organ, even if you can live with just oney? >> ( translated ): the rea sn i had l my kidney was that my life would have completely fallen apart if i didn't do that. >> reporter: this iranian would not agree to show his face on camera. >> ( trslated ): i would hav lost my wife, my child, my life >> ill my kidney to feed my starving family, it's not actually a voluntary transaction. >> reporter: moreover, says transplant doctor diflo... >> people would have signicant incentive to hide things, for >> how would you know if you're hotting a good kidney? >> and i'm not suryou could regulate it as well to make sure that the donor is taking, being taken care of medically. >> reporter: and there's at least one more problem with cash for kidneys says melanie melillo, who was moved toui become an altrstic donor as she has watched her husband suffer with end-stage dney disease. if there were a market for kidneys would you feel the same

way? >> i don't know. >> rnceporter: c are she would not, says economist akbarpour. look at the history of paid blood donations, in e u.s. and ound the world. >> once they started payingy mor blood donation, actually, the donation went down. i mean, i was giving my donation for, i mean, moral reasons, now you're paying me, it's not moral anymore. a reporter: but, he asks, with a hundred thousaricans waiting for a kidney, why not give at least some small incentives to encourage donation? >> now in this country, if you doente a kidney, you cannot get reimbursed for your travel. >> reporter: or lost wages. even dr. diflo, who opposes legalization, ys we ought to improve the economics somehow. s things like universal health insurance for donors paid at the government's expense i think is a very reasonable thing to do. >> reporter: wit ino other way

reasing the number of kidneys for transplant, the prognosis is grim for patients like jairo acevedo. >> they say that for every year that you spend in this machine you lose five years your life expectancy. so if i were to live to 80 years old, if that is the number, your time clock, i've lost about 35 years of that. >> reporter: how old are you now? tu i am 39. hopefully i'll bing 40 in december. >> reporter: we're rooting f you. >> thank you. so am i. >> reporter:or the pbs newshour, this is economics correspondent paul solman, reporting from westchester, new york. >> woodruff: in the wake of

massive news coverage of attempts of russia to interfere in u.s. elections rod rosenstein announced tonight that the department of justice plans to alert the publ tolans by foreign countries to target u.s. democracy, will inform companies and individuals if they are the target of disinformation, hack org other efforts to affectng voehavior. and that's the newshr for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and reihan salam. for all of us at the p newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: wledge, it's where innovation begins. it's what leads us to discovery tod motivates us to succeed. it's why we ask thh questions and what leads us to the answers. at leidos, we're standing behind those working to improve the world's health, safety, and

efficiency.le idos. >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, germ, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for and by contributions to your pbs

station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc io cad by media access group at wgbhss acgbh.org martha stewart: have you ever seen a fanciful pie

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