ptioning sponsored by wnet iv >> srean: on this edition for saturday, july 21: thesu political prs motivating russia, and what it means for u.s./russia relations; health insurers are buying larg amounts of data that raise privacy and discrimination concerns; and greece, climbing back from economic disaster as its citizens pay the price. next on pb newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation.

rosali p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual rend group retirement products. that's why wour retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. president trump is at his new jersey gol second weekend in a row. he started his day with a tweet, this time about the recording of a phone conversation with his former personal lawyer, michael cohen mr. trump said the new his lawyer made recordings is" legal." unheard of and perhaps he also eaimed "your favorit president did nothing wrong." cohen, whose office was raided ri federal authorities in

reportedly made a secret recording of a conversation with then-candidate donald trump two months before the 2016 election. according to the "new york times" and others, cohen and trump reportedly discuss a potential payment to former "playboy" model karen mcdougal, who said she had an affair with mr. trump in 2006. most states, incstding new york e, where mr. cohen's office is located, allow the recordveg of phone cations with the consent of only one party. russia is urging the united states to release maria butina, an alleged russian agent, calling the charges against he"" fabricated." i wn a phone cah u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo today, foreign minister sergey lavrov called butina's arrest earlier this week" unacceptable." in court this week, federal prosecutors accused 29-year-old butina, a gun rights activist, of using close ties to u.s. political organizations to work covertly for the kremlin. butina has pleaded not guilty. it's been a dizzying series of statements in the week following

the president trump/president cotin meeting in helsinki, and speculatioinues about what the two men actually talked about one-on-one last monday for more than two hours. the white house press secretarye called it thnning of a dialogue with russia, the state department said no ants were reached, and mr. trump declared vaguely thait"many poe things will come out of that meeting." so, what do the russians think, and what do they want going forward? joining me now is kimberly marten, director of the program on u.s./russialuelations at ia university and a professor of political science at barnard college. so, first what is the mos on the stren russia, and how does that play in to what vladimir putin w>>ts? well, it was initially seen as a huge triumph that he was able to be treated equally by the united states president. at's what russia has lo wanted. was to be treated seriously, as somebody who was a necessary player in any kind of discussion about international security. and now the reality is sort of starting toin sink . and people are realizing that, r

in factp's performance did not go over well in the united states. and they're saying uh-oh, what might that an? and, there is now concern there are a couple of different bills that are pending in congress on increasing the sanctions. and people are wonring what kind of sanctions are going to happen next. and so it's maybe a letdown a little bit. >> well what was the impact of those sanctionssn the sian economy? i mean it is nowhere close to parallel to the u.s. it's much, much smaller. but that seems to be one of the things that putin is very interested in, relieving that tension, that stress. >> yes, i think that's why he called for this meeting of l busineders on both sides. and we know that the sanctions are having an impact on ssia, without question. especially having an impact on the oil and natural gas industry. but what really is making the russian economy week is a combination of continuing corruption, which addt of a tax to every kind of deal that'e because people have to always pay off somebody on the side. and th just the failure to restructure away from state ownership of the huge oil and natural gas and mineral

companies, as being the center of the economy. so russian laws right now don't really encourage small and medium business owners to be at all, you know pro-active or innovative. so what about the idea of future summits? what has to happen to make those summits perhaps more effective? >> well one thing that we're really missing i think in this summit was a sense of lower level expetts getting togher to talk things through before the two peop in chief got together to talk. before putin and trump got together to talk. and soo it'sod news that we think that pompeo aond la the secretary of state on the u.s. side, and the minister of foreign affairs on the russian side, have started talking about, by telephone, about what might happen next. we need a lot more of that. we need the basis of the conversation to be worked out before trump and putin actually get to things, so that they're just putting the icing on the cake, rather than trying to work out the technical details between themselves.

>> what are the tensions and forces at work in russia right now that putin has to be ve respono in terms of his public policies that are out there? >> well, it's very different situation from the united states. because, he doesn't actually have to wor ry about bei re-elected, for example. but he does have to worry about what his base thinks of him. and his base is ordinary people, ordinary workers, and ordiry pensioners. and that's really significant in what's happening recently. because there is a law that might be going forward that would raise te pension age in russia. for men it would be going up fr 60 to 65. and the reason that that matters is that russian men still have a tendency to die much younger than their counterparts in the west of the developed world. and so there's a lot of pushback against this idea coming from ordinary people who are going out and protesting. but you know, for this whole thing, having a win on the foreign policy stage takes people's attention, maybe off of what's happdoening stically, and he can go back and say that he's the man who made russia

and maybe try to get some of this popularity back that has slipped in recent weeks because of the pension reform question. all right, kimberly marten at columbia university thanks so much for joining us. >> sreenivasan: at a meeting of global economic and finance officials today in buenos aires, u.s. treasury secretary steve mnuchin told reporters the trump administration's trade policies are not affecting overall growth, buhe did say some ctors of the american economy are being hurt. mnuchin said the government is ngrking on ways to help farmers and industries bargeted by other countries as retaliation for increased tariffs. officials also said they expect discussions over the tariffs the ons. and china are imposin goods and what the u.s. calls china's "unfair" trade practices. a woman from cameroon found in psizedeckage of a migrant boat in the mediterranean sea arrived in spain today to receiveal care. the humanitarian group" proactiva open arms" rescued thwoman, who was found wit the bodies of another woman and a toddler.

the survivor said she and the two others we left behind after a libyan coast guard ship rescued 158 people from a deflating dinghy. libya's coast guard denied abandoning anyone at sea. the rescue group requested a safe port in spain after italy said it would take in the woman but not the two dead bodies. read the story behind nasa upcoming parker solar probe on our web site, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: eight years ago, the greek financial crisis threatened tf stabilityt only the 19-member eurozone, but e global economy, as well. now, greece appears to be on the verge of something some nethr ght possible. with budget surpluses each of the last three years, it is e about t the historic, multibillion-dollar bailoutee program that'skeeping it afloat. the greek government calls it a success, but it's come at a high price for the greek people, as special correspondent christopher livesay reports from

athens. >> reporter: on a recent evening in an upscale ighboroohd of athens, we followed tina papoti to see what is co increasingly mmon phenomenon here in greece. a surise tax inspection. >> the thing that we want to see right now is if the businessmen issue tir receipts. >> reporter: papoti works for greece's independent authority for public revenue, which was set up just last year to tackle x evasion. an enormous problem costing tens of billions of dollars a year, tax evasion has been so widespread here politicians jokingly refer to it as a "national ort." but that's changing. tax inspectors are increasing pressure on businesses to record sale and pay tax to the government. >> this is our job. and we have to do it correct. this is the law. we have to learn to respect the law. >> reporter: in fact, tax reform is one of several measures greece has been forced to adopt in exchange for bailouts that have kept the country afloat for the past eight years, bailouts which will come to an end next

month. now economts are anxious to see if greece is strong enough to stand on its lwn. there's at stake says panos tsakloglou, a professor at athens university of economics and business. how big have the bailouts been in greece? how much money has it taken on loan? >> altogether the loans exceed 260 billion euros. >> reporter: more than 260 billion euros. that'ous an enonumber. put that in perspective for me. >> this is something that is by fathe largest loan ever given in history. in ordeyor to givsome kind of order of magnitude, there is an international organization that has this role of bailing out. this is the international monetary fund. if you take the four or five largest loans ever given out to countries like brazil, argentina, russia and so on by the i.m.f., still they do not sum up to the amount of money given to greece. >> reporter: to understand why such large bailouts were needed, tsakloglou says you have to

consider how grim things looked at the start of the greek financial crisis in 2010. with its huge deficits, a bloated public sector, and billions in uncollected taxes, greee was already the financial sick-man of the european union. then it came to light that ggece had been underreport its debt for years. just as the world economy was beginning to recover fm the obal financial crisis, greece was on thverge of bankruptcy. >> if there was a collapse of greehacewould have meant they see the collapse of several other large banks that had grlended tce. this means they say the global economy spiral.e gone into a >> reporter: to save greece, the so-called troika, the european central bank, the ropean commission, and the i.m.f. agreed to authorize billions in loaitns on the con that greece enact strict fiscal reforms and austerity measures. public sector jobs and pensions would have to be cut. taxases inc. greece was put on a strict budget.

but as bad as it was in 2010, by 2015 it was even worse when a new government came into office promising to end unpopular austerity measures and threatening to default on the loan program if it didn't get better terms. >> at that time greece was on the brink of leavingot only the eurozone but possibly the european union, too. >> reporter: greece was actually considering leaving the eurozone? >> quite openly some of the ministers were advocating a return to the drachma, which means perhaps after greece there would be other countrieshat would follow and the euro would collapse. >> reporter: a domino effect. >> precisely. this would have bn very likely to have effects for the entire financial system of the world. >> reporter: it was a stalemate, with the average greek citizen in the middle, worried their life savings might be wiped out. at the height of the crisis, greeks were panicked they'd be kicked out of the eurozone, and started withdrawing their sangat an alarming rate. in ordeper to keanks from imploding, the government put limits on the amount of money people could withdraw: only 60

euros per da that's roughly $70. government gave in, agreeing to continue reforms and austerity measures in exchange for a final bailout. buit's been hard on the greek people who regularly take to the streets to protest. ons and other welfare payments have been cut up to 70%. the size of the public sector reduced by one-frth. thousands are threatened with loss of their homes to foreclosure. and unemployment, which at one time hit 28% is stiigh at around 20%. among the hardest hit are greece's next generation. youth unemployment is above 40%. as a result, ns of thousands of young greeks have gone abroad looking for work. others like kostas and elma rousis headed for the hills. you studied history and now you're herding goats in the country. that doesn't sound like a

typical career path. >> no. it's difficult to do career here. >> reporter: it's difficult to follow your career. >> yes, because we don't have work, jobs to work here. its difficult. very difficult. >> reporter: rousis says he would omakenly about $470 a month as a professional archeologist, so he and his wife lcided thing off the land was a better option. >> it's abetter mon better life. >> reporter: still, he doesn't ea much, and says he's paying more in taxes now then before the crisis. how much money did you make last year? >> 20,000. >> reporter: 20,000 euros. and how much did you pay in taxes? >> 10,000. >> reporter: 10,000 euros. >> yes, yes. >> reporter: so, of the 20,000 euros you made last year half of it went to the government in taxes. >> yes, yes. >> reporter: that's a lot of money. >> it's a lot of money. it's too many taxes.es i have t for my car. i have taxes for my buildings. i have taxes from the salary of

the year. too many taxes. so, if you gather all the taxes of the year you give to them 50%. >> of course i understand that some categories of the population are heavily taxed. >> reporter: so this is the presidential palace? dimitrios tzanakopoulous is greece's government spokesperson. he says the bailout money is being used to pay off the government's loans, and he acknowledges that while the country has succeeded in maintaining a budget surplus the last three years by raising revenues and cutting spending, eethe average k is paying a high price for the crisis. i spent the morning with a goat herder, who, j give you some context, he told us that last year he made 20,000 euros. 10,000 of those had to go to taxes. ofso he is left to live of 10,000 euros. i mean, there are a lot of people like him in greece suffering right now. >> i understand that the burden of the crisis is heavy. people had to go through

sacrifices all those years and we try to do our best in order heal some of the wounds the crisis. as for the taxes, the taxation average in greece is around el%, whereas inum, which is the highest in europe, is 5, in germany 48%, in france it's around 50%. oc reporter: of course, in those european countriesl services, like health care, are considered very good. not so in greece. dr. christos georgalas is a surgeon in a well-funded private hospital, but he says public hospitals in greece are in bad shape. >> funding for public health care has been slashed, haseen reduced. it was already low and it has been reduced further and that coupled with the lack of organization has resulted in a significant reduction in the health care available to most people. >> reporter: his wife amanda

agrees. she's also a surgeon, a resident in a public hospital in athens where she makes less than $4 an hour. >> the conditions are not good. we are on a constant basis of lacking materials, of gauzes, of the most basic things we don't have. so, that makes my job hard.or >> rr: georgalas knows he and his family are much better off than most, but he worries about the future of his country. >> there has been a lot of damage done into the social faic. a lot of people have paid a very high price for the crisis, especially the ones who were already living atephe edges. >>ter: do you think that those who have suffered the most have a bett future now that they've gone through this crisis, now that the bailouts are coming to an end will things get better? >> to build a successful society i think u need some basic premises. you need a fair society. you need an egalitarian society. you need tociave a strong support system, a good public health system, a good pu

none of this exists. i don't think of any country which has managed to advance without having this. so, i don't knohow greece will... will progress. > reporter: but he will soon find out. august 20 is the expected end of the bailout period and the start of greece ving more control of its own economic policy. greece has been assured no or low interest rates on its loans through 2032. it may never any it all back, will be monitored closely by its creditors. there are doubts greece can tama economic growth in the long term and that things will get better for the average greek citizen. but for now the government is brhathing a sigh of relief tt the worst may be behind them. >> after eight years of tragedy that we had to go through, now are ready to return to european normality, so to speak. but i think that the struggle does n end on the 20 august.

we have many things to do, and many things to change in greece in order for the recovery to be sustainable and viable in the future. >> sreenivasan: what you pay for health insurance is increasib ly a complex formulas. and now, your personal data-- everything from where u live, in what clothing you buy, to your magsubscriptions-- may factor into what you pay or whether you get corage at all. in a series of reports co- published with npr, the investigative non-profit news organization pro publica is looking into the strategies insurance companies are using. and joining us now from denver is pro p allen.eporter marshall marshall, first, wrts of data are they looking at? and what sort of inferences can they make from that? a> well, that's a good question. they're lookinall different types of personal and proprietary and public ininrmation. the of things that people

would normally assume to be private. td i bet probably most viewers in your audience right now are having their data gathered by the data brokers that are teaming up with the health insurance companies to analyze this. and so the data that they're gathering would include your educatrn record, y property records, any debts you might have, your inco level, your race and ethnicity. even social media interactions.n they're gathethose. >> so they're gathering all this information, and they're puttini o these complex computer algorithms, and then they're spitting out predictions about how much we miht cost based on all these economic and liftreste utes. >> so, give me some examples. >> well, so for example, so some ofenhe infs they make are creepy, i guess. you know you could say this kind of turnsthcreepiness level up a bit. for example, you know, they can tell if a woman has changed her name. so they saif a woman h changed her name in the last 24 aynths she may have recently gotten married or she

recently got divorced. and so she could be considering, you know, getting pregnant soon or maybe she's stressed from that divorce and so she's going to have a lot oeaf mentalh care costs. or, you know, if you're a no low-income ty, they would as that you are living in a dangerous and dill ap lated an neighborhoodso you could be at higher risk of health cost. or another one is if a woman has bought plus-size clothing, they woulbepredict that she migh more likely to be depressed, which could also lead to higher health care costs. so these are things that they're looking at, trends in the data u for of people, and then they're attributing the inferences idto indls within that group, and kind of one of the fundamental problems is that for any individual, this could just be wrong.o >> andhat if they're wrong about this? you're still going to be fall nothing a bracket based on this group, and the suspicion that at they have ou are part of it? >> yeah, i mean they're scoring r health edicting care costs based on the groups that we fall into. and so you know, i went to lexus nexus and obtained -- they'll

give you a certain portion of your data, and you know, it was like a creepy walk down memory lane for me. you know, going back 25 years to the address of the home i grew up in in golden, colorado. you know, all my odd phone s. numb and with each of the addresses, you know, they had a little hdicator there. was this aigh risk neighborhood or not? and you know, i'm not -- i grew nup a middle class kind of environment so i didn't grow up in any high risk neighborhoods. but it made me wonder what if i had. y en i talked to the industry, i mean tomise that they're only using this information for the purpose of helping people. so that what they would say, the argument for doing this is that they can do better case management. but, just asset could bed for good, it could also be used to discheminate. and,ealth insurance industry has a long history of diriminating against sick people. that still goes on to this day. >> marg hall allen joins from denver today. it is part of a year-long

reporting project called the health insurance hustle. you can find it on their website. thanks foroining us today. >> thank you, hari. >> this is "pbs newour weekend," saturday. : >> sreenivas britain, the big butterfly count is under way. conservation groe s are asking blic to spend a few minutes each day watching for butterflies to help understand how the dry summer weather may be affecting them. the number of butterflies in the u.k. collapsedfter a drought in 1976, so the nationwide count is a way to see if the changing climate is we hear now from itv's miranda schunke. >> happily fleeting amongst the flowers, butterflies are basking in the best summer conditions for more than adecade. but the long run of dry weather is also posing a major threa r many species once common in our towns and ties. the naturalist sir david attenborough why it's good reason to take a pause and enjoy a simple pleasure. >> the natural world is a sourc

of great joy adelight and comfort. just take 15 minutes every now and again, find a nice patch of sunshine, sit down and think of nothg but, y know, what butterflies. it's very good for the soul.od it's very goor the spirit. fl but there is concern as buttnumbers in the uk collapsed after the drought back in 1976. the wildlife watchers are now o hopingssess what the current climate may mean for think long-term survival. the butterfly count taking place over the next three weeks, nservation experts calli people to get out into their s, record 15 minu what they see, and help themselves in the process. >> it can really help depression, but for most people, it can be very helpful and it doesn't always have to be dramatic, like a walk in the countryside. people can do small things like sit dn. >> for a chance to time out and

to enjoy the benefits of what nature can provide. marin today schunke, itv news. >> finally tonight, julian assange the founder wiki leaks may be ejected from ecuador where he's been since 2012. the russian newsgency rt reports that ecuador's president is in great britain finalizing the agreement to turn asernge o british authorities. assange faces a minor charge in the uk. sweden withdrew a sex crimes investigation into assange last year. ther word on whether he would be extra dated to the united states where he currently faces nog ches. however, members of the trump administration have said they want to crack down on leakers. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. ve a good night.

ns captioning spoored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newseekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cher family.lip milstein dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding by provided utual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement pducts. that's why we're your provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. be more. pbs.

-it's just not for the dignitaries. it's just not for those that havmeans. it's open to everybody. -all kinds of people feel they belong here enough to have some of their most intimate rituals performed in this place. -this city halhato me symbolizes more tanything else hopefulness, optimism, its rebirth -- the phoenix that arises from fire and destruction. -city hall is a beautiful building, but it's really also a lens through which to view san francisco's social and political history. -for some, it's been that symbol of the palace for the people, mb the of democracy. but for othe o, it's been a symboloppression,