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tv   PBS News Hour  PBS  August 3, 2018 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT

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captioning sponsored by newshour productios, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonigh a divided zimbabwe. president emmerson mnangagwa declares victory as the opposition challenges the results of the highly-contestedn electi then, hundreds of immigrant families remain separated after crossing the bder-- the latest in efforts to reunite children with their pares. it's friday-- david brooks and ezra klein are here to analyzes. the week's newus plexploring lives of today's eighth graders-- a new movie by comedian bo burnham digs into the awkward and onlinee bsessed teenperience. >> attention is kind of currency nowadays.pe ople want to feel seen and want to know that they have people who are actively caring
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about them. >> wooandruff: all that more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a nea uage. >> consumer cellular.
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>> woo u.s. employers have slowed their pace of hiring new workers, but the overall economy remains strong. that's the takeaway from today's jobs report for july. the labor department says employers added 157,000 jobs last month-- not as many ased expe the overall unemployment rate still dipped, from 4% to 3.9%. but average hourly pay gained only 2.7% from a year earlier-- not enough to keep pace with inflation. china has fired off a new warning to washingtonin a budding trade war. beijing announced today says it's ready to impose levies on another $60 billion of imported u.s. goods. that's if the trumpoe administrationahead with 25% tariffs on cnese goods worth $200 billion. at white house, economic adviser larry kudlow said what happens next is up to china.o
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>>t blame president trump, blame the chinese for their intransigence. we didn't start this. they're the ones w are not aying by the rules. they're the ones who were stealing technology and intellectual property. they're the ones who have unfair trading barriers. this is something prinident trumrited. >> woodruff: the two nations already exchanged one round of tariffs. china says its next targets will include u.s. coffee, honey andca industrial che. senate democrats have decided to nority leader chuck schumer and dianne feinstein ofil californiasit down with kavanaugh later this month. it comes amid a dispute with republicans, over the release of wcuments relating to kavanugh's time in the georbush white house so far only one democrat, joe mancin of west virginia, has met with kavanaugh. in afghanistan, at least 39
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lled today suicide attacks on a shiite mosque, filled with worshippers. it happened in the eastern ovincial capital of gardez. more than 80 people were wounded. police say two male attackers dressed as women slipped inside sque during friday prayers. they fired gund s en, blew themselves up. the capital of bangladesh was rgely shut down for a fifth day, with buses staying off the roads because of student otests. it started sunday, when two college students were hit and killed by speeding buses in dhaka, a city of ten millio that brought out thousands of students, demanding safer streets. >> the elected representatives of the country manage our tax money. theris no benefit from elections if the representatives are ignorant about our life security and areeluctant to provide us due services. we will continue the movement if our dee nds art met immediately. >> woodruff: at least 12,000 people die in road accidents in
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bangladesh every year, due to reckless driving and lax enforcement. t one highest-ranking buddhist monks in china is now facing accusations of sexual misconduct. it's the latest sign of a growing "me-too" movement in chinese society. two fellow monks say the accused abbot harassed buddhist nuns and presred them for sex. the claims have caused a public outcry since they appearedli this week. back in this country, las vegaso ce closed their investigation into last october's ss shooting without determining a motive. the gunman, stephen paddock, killed 58 and wounded hundreds before taking his own life. paddock fired a hail of bullets into an outdoor conct crowd from the 32nd floor of the mandalay bay casino. the sheriff said today thers no solid evidence to explain why he did it. >> stephen paddock was an unremarkable man whose mvement
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leading up to october 1 didn't raise ansuspicion. an interview with his doctor ddicated signs of a troub mind but no troubling behavior that would trigger a call to law enforcement. stthout a manifesto or even a note to answer qns, the totality of the information that has been gathered leaves us to only make an ecad guess as to the motives of stephen paddock. woodruff: the final report did show that paddock had grown unstable and distant, and suffered major gambling losses in the last two years before the shootings. a tax preparer for paul manafort testified today that she fil tax returns she thought contained false in cindy laporta, who had been granted immunity, acknowledged she might have committed a crime. manafort is accused of bank fraud and tax evasion in the years before he managed the trump campaign. federal prosecutors say they may wrap up their case next week. tennessee voters have chosen the
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two major pay nominees for a key u.s. senate race in november. reblican congresswoman marsha blackburn and former democratic governor phil bredesen won thursday's primaries. blackburn campaigned as an ally of president trump.es br said he'll chart an independent course, in a state that went heavily for mr. trum in 2016. and on wall street, stocks ended the week on a high note. the dow jones industrial averagt gained 136 pto close at 25,462. the nasdaq rose nine points, and the s&p 500 added 13. still to come on the newshou the way after the historic presidential election in mbabwe. reuniting separated migrant families who is responsible the government or a.c.l.u.
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>> woodruff: in zimbabwe today, the man who wadeclared the winner of the presidential election last night, emm, son mnangagged zimbabweans to unite. he said that the decleled the loser,n chamisa, had a crucial role to play in the country's present and future. six people were kill. opposition people nelson chamisa said he did not accept the outcome and said he however, nelson chamisa said he did not accept the outcome of the election and would explore all legal means to challenge i we have this report from john ray of independent televison news. >> reporter: meet the new boss same as the old bossth. winner of a disputed election will need me than words to convince the nation's he's changed. >> now that the people have spoken, i hear your call. i pledge to be a listeningpr
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ident, a fair president a responsible and an inclusive president. >> reporter: he said his defeated opponent would have t crucial roleplay in the natioren's futu >> get out! >> reporter: though, earlier, this new zim looked veuch like the old-- ugly. without warning or explanation are you here to arrest us? police raided a city center hotel in harare while we waited meet mr. chamisa. so they're banging on their riot shields. they're telling us we must get out. "out, out, out," they keep shouting. it's not clear if they've comet to arresnelson chamisa or just to flush the journalists away. but as you can see it's a very menacing and intimidating situation. we were shifted into the street. harare's police chief apparentlh ght he was breaking up an opposition.
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are you re to arrest mr. chamisa? >> did i talk to any of you?? >> reporter: this is atheek the auorities here claimed they embraced democracy. is this the new zimbabwe? then a government minister ordered them to let us back in. at last, mr. chamisa-- still claiming the election was rigged-- was allowed teak. >> you will find that there's no jubilation, there's no celebration. if anything, today is a day of mourning. mourning over democracy. it is a black day because we are seeing a repeaof what we saw in the yesteryear regime.>> reporter: it is hard to see ill this divided nation w easily reconciled. >> woodruff: alex magaisa worked as a consultant for nelson chamndisa's campaign was chief of staff to former zimbabwean prime minister, morgan tsvangirai. alex magaisa, thank you very much for being here. what's your rction to what's happened in your country? >> well, it's incredib sad
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that events have come to this situation. we have seen people being killed. we are also seeing an escalation of violence d the use of excessive force by the state. we would hope that the election would go peacefully as it hadul and that it be concluded in peace. >> woodruff: did your ndidate, mr. chamisa, go into this process thinking this election was going to be carried out in a fair and democratic manner? >>he understood that the system was rigged. he understood that this was pinstitutional bias on tht of the election referee, but it was important t,contest because boycotting elections doesn't really work, and it was important to show up the and it has been shown up. >> woodruff: in what way? you say that it ended upt t this was not a fair election. in what way was it not?er because e were international observers there who said, yes, there were some problems, but overall i think the consensus
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was they found it >> well, i think that they found the election was peaceful, at least up until election day, bu they have not really expounded on the freeness and fairness. what they said on tuesday is they were alating for the conclusion of the counting process, and the counting proceshas not gone very well. there have been delays. there has been a lot of problems n terms of transparency and fairness. but there are many issues. the printing of the ballot papers, design of ballot papers and so many isss that demonstrated that the referee was not fair. bu. chamisa would have withdrawn from the election he decided it's important to give the people of zimbabwe to choose their nexht leader, ane has done incredibly well. there is no opposition leader wh has ever garnered two million votes in an election. he has done that. believe that he did enough to win the presidency. that's what the people believe. >> woodruff: what gives you
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that confid do you... how do you know that... how does he know that he had enough votes win? >> they have information that they have been collecting during the electoral process. they have been comparing the figures at they have on the ground and the figures that have been given by e zimbabwe electoral commission. some of the figures are not tallying up. some of the figures are not add.ing what he's trying to do is to pursue all the legal and constitutional mechanis tha are available using peaceful means, and there is no room lefr vie in this process. >> woodruff: do you believe that mr. mnangagwa, that his new administrati, they've declared victory. are they going to allow this challenge to go forward? >> well, they don't have a choice. it has to be done. of course, there are challenges with the judicial process it may be that the judiciary will not give it the fair hearing that we hope it would. there have been other cases in the past where there have been challenge, but we hope that
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there will be enough evidence that at least they will be able to look at the evidence fairly d be able to conclude the matter. what zimbabwe needsis a conclusion of this process that gives legitimacy to whoever governs it up until now. >> woodruff: what do you say, mr. magaisa, to those who look at the opposition candidates who ran a say what i they did is divided the anti-mnangagwa vote. in order, the opposition split and that weakened theirhe performance inlection? >> it's an argument that has been put forward, but i think it's an argument that is nuanced. there are three elections, the council, the parliae ntary, and esidential, yet for the presidential election, you can see that there were oly two candidates who were running mr. mnangagwa and mr. chamisa. indeed, there are areas where mr. mnangagwa's party won in the
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paentary election, but mr. chamisa was le to get the popular vote, so it was a split ticket. yi woodruff: so you're it wasn't really divided? >> not for the presidential election b it would han divided for the parliamentary candidates. that's understandable d that's regrettable. but for the presidential tlection, that issue does no arise. >> woodruff: how at this point does mr. chamisgo about his challenge? what is he going to do? >> he has to approach the constitution. the constitution of zimbabwe provides for a mechanism within the next seven days. he has the launch his petition through the constitutional court, which will then hear the matter and make a decision on the issue. that is one mechanism that he has available to him but as i say, the constitution guaranes a number of fundamental freedoms and rights that can be exercised in order to ensure that the rule of the people is accepted. >> woodruff: what are the consequences for zimbabwe if
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mr. mnangagwa is declared the victor and this challenge from mr. chamisa doesn't bare out t, doesre fruit? >> well, we would hope that he would show zimbabwe abr ighter future, but we have serious challenge, because mr. mnangagwa and a lot of people a challenging the administration. >> woodruff: the mugabrae adminion? >> that is right. so many people, if they are on the opposition side, wonder whether there will be any difference at al the signs that we're seeing in the last two days with the military being deployed in urban and rural areausing excessive force, this is what we used see during te era of mr. mugabe. that's scary. >> woodruff:xcuse me, but mr. mnangagwa's saying that they are going to investigate this violence that took place. >> he has spoken very weand he has spoken very well in the
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pasmet. mes the words do not match the actions. and what is important is that what we are saying, he has to complement his wrds by actual actions. we hope that it will be done. >> woodruff: will this bed decirely by internal division making inside zimbabwe? are there any outside forces, whether on the continent of africa or anyone eldose? ou believe they can have a good effect on the government of mr. mnangagwa to persuade them to make re that this procession goes fairly from now on? >> absolutely. i think that zimbabwe has been a troublesome child for southern africa, the southern aan region from the past 20 years, and for a timwe e actually were part of the african developmy,et commun regional organization. i think the international community has an important role tolay to influence zimbabwe to go on a proper and smoother path, and we hope that will ppen. >> woodruff: alex magaisa, who
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advised the campaign of nelson chamisa. we thank you very much. >> thank you f having me. >> woodruff: now, an update on the status of immigrant parents and children separated at the u.s. border in recent months. yesterday, the trump administra civil liberties union, submitted widely divergent plans to the court on how to re-unite hundreds of children and parents, manof them already deported from the united states, with their children who remain d custody of u.s. immigration officials here. here today amna nawaz has been monitoring a hearing out in californ she continues her reporting about the separated families. hello, amna. i want to ak you abthat, but first, within the last hour
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or, so there has been a ruling on another immigration matter by a different federal j bring us up to speed on that. >> that's right. this is about daca moments ago a district judge in d.c. ruled that the trump administration's descento daca was unlawful and he ordered that it be restored daca is deferred action for childhood arrivals program put into place bypresident obama to shield hundreds of thousands of young people from deportation, and basically president trump has always saidt's illegal. he ended it back in september. nhe judge today called that decision arbitraryd capricious. he has given them 20 days to put it back into place d also gives them time to reply and to appeal if they choose. >> woodruff: we'll s >> we will see. >> woodruff: so let's go back eo the reason we called you her tonight. you have been following this story for days and weeks even. amna, this is two different files, as we said, one from the government, one from the aclu. theri judge has been h it. where do we stand right now? >> so overall when it comes t separated families, you have to remember there are still several
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who are waitinen to be reunited with their families and are still in u.s. government care anstody. the government has been making steady progress. they started with about 2,700 children. they have moved over 2,000 out of their care and custod but this next group that the judge has focused on, this will be tougher. these are parents who are either released into the u.s., or parents who are deported or voluntarily left. we're talking about 500 parents for whom the government do necessarily know where they are and doesn't necessarily have a way to contact them. that's gog to complicate getting them back with their children significantly. >> nawaz: so they've submitted these plans. how are they going to pull this off. what is going on at this point? >> after thi point in the hearing today, the judge is addressing the plans they hadit sud. the government surprisingly to a lot of people tried to push a lot of the respoibility to the a.c.l.u., go find the parents, ask them if they want their ks back and let us know. we'll reunify them. the jung today said, i don't think so.
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he said, this is 100% the government's responsibility. we're here because of your separation policy. you have to own this. he called their pan unacceptable. he said, for every parent you fail the find, you'll have a permanently orphaned child. i asked an expert earlier today how they move forward. a short time ago, i spthoke wi michelle brauning. she's the director of the migrant rights and justice w program at ten's refugee commission. she's an attorney who has longan worked on immi and human rights issues, and she's been working with the aclu on these t unification efforts. i asked her abe government taking the lead moving forward. >> you know, throughoutochis s, we've seen the government failing the take veresponsibility over and and over again. it's not surprising. i'm glad the judge made thryat lear. i hope that they step up. but throughouthis procs, it's been required step by step that the judge tell them what needs to be doning and be what date. >> so these two groups we're talking about now is the focus
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for unification. parents who have left either voluntarily, and because they were deported, released into the u.s. howmuch contact information, location information, how much does that actually have about these parent >> well, that is really the question, and that is what we're asking the government to tell us. we think that at least in some of these cases we have some information. we are aware that in some cases children have been speaking to their parents, even after their parentndwere removed, so that would indicate that there is a way to communicate with the parents. but we have to wait and see. i don't know if that's 20 out o the almost 500 or if that's closer to 400 out of the 500. >> nawaz: tell me about that lack of information. how much more complicated is tho process movingward because of the status of these parents? >> well, you know, te rents fled their country in the first place because they were being persecuted, they were fleeing violence, ey were looking to save their children's lives. so it's not going to be easy tfo d them back in their home countries. and that's for several reaso d. 't know where they are.
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we don't know if they went back to the same place they fled or thlast place we know of. we don't know if they are in hiding. we don't kno tify're en route to come back the try to find their children again. when we go in there, there are attorneys and non-profits and just citizens who want to help who are ready to go help to find these parents, but these are dangerous places, and so weve can't eople just running in in large groups looking for people who may be idin . this really has to be done with care. and that's why i think it's really important that government take some responsibility and step up and help. >> you milk an interesting point: a lot of parents fled dangerous conditions in the first place before they were separated. one of the questions the government wants answered is do you even want your child reunited with you. can you give me a sense of how many parents have already decided or may decide, you know but, i may have to leave, don't want my child brought back to me because i know they're safer in the u.s. >> that may be the case for some of these parents.y
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it's reaportant that we give the parents the opportunity to express that view, that desire ina context in which they can do that safely and asonably. many of these parents were forced to make decisions about whether to leave or not leave while being detained, while not knowing what was happening treo their chi, and very often not even knowing what they were agreeing to. what was often presented t them was, if you want your child n th, you need to sig paper in order to do that, the quickest way possible. and any parents in that circumstance is going to feel pressure or the desire to see their child above all else, so a lot of people signed those documents. well, what was not presented to many of theses famil the option of staying and fighting the case themselves. these parents in many, many ses also have asylum claims. and i believe that many of theme withdrew claims thinking it was the only way to be reunified with their child inch those cases i think they should be ablek to come b the united states and pursue that application. >> nawaz: how confident are
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edu that these huns of parents whom the government l is stying the find in the first place, could be reunited with their children again? >> you know, i think there's no question that we risk having some parents we never find atnd ome will say, as you indicated, i prefer my child to have a chance at safety in the united states, even if i can't be with them. but i don't think we're ready at this point to sort of throw up our hands and say, well, many of these just won't be found. and thats the way it is. as the judge indicated, the government has a responsibility to try toind these parents, and hopefully we will find mostf ot all of them. >> nawaz: michelle brane, thank you for your time. >> you're welcome. t> woodruff: such an importan perspective for us to hear, and amna, i can't let you go without asking you about little sophie, the young girl you met at thewe bordes ago with her grandmother. >> that's right. >> woodruff: separated frohem family. where does that stand? >> today, judy, marks six weeks since three-year-old sophie was
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separated from her family. she remains in u.s. government custody. here is some informa we can share. soph's family, including her mother, who is working to get her back, they're all in california. sophie remains in a.s. federally contracted shelter in pennsylvania. now, in the coming day sophie's mother, with the support of nt volueer group called immigrant families working together, she's planning to go pennsylvania to try to apply some pressure and to get her daughter back. we talked to her mother quite regularly, and she tellss ery time she talks to sophie, sophie would cry and come to get picked up and she would ask when her mother was going to come. when we spoke to her yesterday, she said sophh doesn't do tat anymore. she worries that she's grown accustomed to life in the shelter or life without her family. so she's continuing to work through the government reunification process. she's following the rles and submitting her documents, but she says she wants to see sophie, so she's going to pennsylvania, and she says when she leaves, she hopes that it
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will be with her daughte >> woodruff: this from-year-old girl away her mother, her family for six weeks, that's just hard to comprehend. amna, thank you. stay with us. coming up on the newshour, myanmar struggles to control a and "eighth grade"-- a movie about navigating the tric world of adolescence. >> woodruff: in africa, many technologies are being used to help raise the standard of living special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports from kenya's capital, nairo obi whe technology is helping bring services to somet of the poor people on the continent. it's the latest in his series "agents for change."
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>> reporter: in the maze that forms africa's largest urban slum, zack wambua's job is keep and eye on the nooks and corners. he's with a group of residents in nairobi's kibera neighborhood who've been trained in basic computing technology to record where things like electrical p lines,lic toilets and community water tanks are, and more critically, where they are needed. >> i pick a point here. >> reporter: on this day, he was checking on street light locations, using a small g.p.s. device. >> yeah. if you didn't have a >> reporter: so having a light here is important to the security of the families that live in this area? >> yes. >> reporter: at the end of his day, the information is added to a database. it's all designed by an organization called map kibera, whovides the information free-of-charge so that public and private groups can better provide services.at east 50% of nairobi's population livesd in slums. t, until a few years ago, most of these busy
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neighborkehoods-- ibera behind me-- were blank spaces on official maps. mapping is one of several tech initiatives to bring attention to people in nairobi's vast impoverished neighborhoods- people like farida atei, a second generation kibera reside. orphaned at 13, she shares this tiny space with an aunt and sister. she's 26 now, a single mother who is dermined that life will be far better for four-year-old dahter amina. so, after breakfast, she hoads uper backpack and heads to class, a few miles-- and hf a world--rom kibera in one of nairobi's thriving tech hubs. atei attends akirachix, a rigorous, post-high school program that trains yofrg women poor neighborhoods to be reneurs.h entrep >> before i joined akirachix, i was just in the dark in that i
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didn't see my life and i didn't know where i was heading. >> reporter: what do you want to do wheyou get your diploma? >> i want to build website which will be used not only here >> we're trying to see if we can start converting them not just to be women in tech, but to be drfers and creators o technology. >> reporter: linda kamau is a software developer and co- founder of akirachix.ec >>is a tool. and so if you empower them with this tool, we help them get themselves out of the cycle of poverty, we're showing them there's a path, something they can use to actually secure themselves from the cycle that akirachix is one of several attempts to find answers in technology to bridge the two worlds that farida atei inhabits. this initiative spun off from
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one of africa's most successful ahch start-ups, called ushdi, aritness" in swahili. it was born ten yeago out of the deadly violence that followed elections in kenya, and the limited media coverage of it, says angela odour. >> s kenya bloggers did was basically come together and create a platform that allowed for ordinary citizens to send either text messages, emails and tweets about things happening around them. >> reporter: since then, the software company has grown e used in more than 160 countries; helping humanitarian organizations find survivors from the haiti and nepal earthquakes and the tsunami in janap
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ushahidi software was also used to monitnor e irregularinitie0 countries, including some parts of the u.s. in i016 and the past two he kibera and across kenya. >> in 2013 we received a text message about a group of peoplen congregating aa polling station in a place called molo that is known for political strife. and in a matter of 15 minutes, police officers were deployed and that is because text >> reporter: beyond monitoring elections,technology is becoming a tool to bring accountability to those elected, says map kibers joshua ogure. >> we make the invisible, visible. we show the world, thiis what we have, this is what we don't have. so the goverent, we can hold them accountable by saying "this is your responsibility and >> reporter: ogure also runs an online kibera news network-- a modest effort to amplify the
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concerns of ordinary citizens. there's some evidence of a response. >> in kibera we had a deficit of secondary schools. >> reporter: vincent ayako is an aide to the member of parliament from this area. he says they used map kibera's data to get funding for a new highchool. >> we found that we had a primary school serving close to 1,500 students but there was no secondary school. >> reporter: back at the akirachix clasoom, farida atei realso has some specific dams for her future. she says she'd like to develop a fingerprint technology to stop people from stealing water, a big problem in her kibera neighborhood. >> so the owner or anyone living in that home will just use their fingerprint and the wathr will flow tpipe and the owner will get the water. >> reporr: you want to use tech to stop water piracy. >> yes. and immediately when someone tries to tamper wprith the fingt, the owner will receive a notification message.
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>> i know the internet of things great, but ifou want your fridge to be telling you it's empty, that's not for this continent. that's not for this market. their problems are very simple. but we don't have to wait for someone to come and fix them. r orter: farida atei will soon begin an internship with a tech company, the start she says of a journey out of the poverty, and possibly this neighborhoo that sheno's k all her life. for the pbs newshour, i'm fred de sam lazaro in nairobi, kenya. >> woodruff: fred's reporting is e partnership with under-told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesot >> woodruff:ow, back to
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presidential politics and the rally president trump attended last night in northeastern pesylvania, to boost republican congressman lou barletta's run for the u.s. senate. the president's free-wheeling remarks included this characterization about his summit last month with russian president vladimir putin. >> i had a great meeting with putin. we discussed everything. i had a great meeting. now, we're being hindered by the russian hoax. it's a hoax, okay? i'll tell you what: russia's very unhappy that trump won, that i can tell you.uf >> woo putin said in helsinki last month that he favored mr. trump's election. and u.s. intelligence officials have said repeatedly that russia's efforts in 2016 were intended to help mr. trump, and hurt the campaign of hillary clinton. remarks last's night also stood in contrast to this warning from his own director of national intelligence, dan coats, yesterday in the white house briefing room.
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>> in regards toinussian lvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive meaging-- messaging campaign by russtria tto weaken and divide the united states these efforts are not exclusive to this election or future elections, bve certainly, issues relevant t.o the electi >> woodruff: and to the analysis of brooks and klein. that's "new york times" columnist david brooks and ezra klein, editor-at-large for the news site vox.com. mark shields is away this week. hello to both of you. david to, you first, on the same day his leading national security and intelligence officials e saying we must take this russia threat seriously, the president is out a few hourser lataying it's all a hoax. do you take this government's effort seriously or not? >> well, the head of owe oppositionuses the white house briefing room to oppose the administration policy.
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i have never seen ything like it. i have never seen an administration where a president emphasizes one thing and h entire staff basically emphasizes the complete opposite. and so what's the effect? i think the deep st sate isll doing its work to try to head off rusfesian intnce. the trump apparatus understands there is that interference, and ey can do some prof lactic measures to head it off, whihch is whatey seem to be doing, but unless you have the president involved, it's micro activity, not macro actity, so it's hard to imagine the russians being intimidated by russian policy some it's reasonable thater intece will continue. it seems to be continuing to this day. >> woodruf do you tak seriously that the trump administration is working dilently to fend off any russian interference issues? >> no, of course not. i'm fascinated by e nd of lying donald trump did in that clip. it's one thing to say, hey, i hada great meeting with vladimir putin, and the problem is the opposition, they don't want us to talk.
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it's one thing to shade the truth or another thing to say, hey, people are impeding me an they'rwrong. but to then say, i'll tell you, what russia never wanted donald trump to win, russia hates the idea that donald trump won, there's something about hth belie reality can be that completely manipulated that i find different. it's different than the way politicians normalize. hi had a level. confidence in one's ability to shape reality. but on your other point, ofse coladimir putin doesn't think this is a problem. donald trump welcomed it. putin helped him when he needed help. he has tried since to have a great relationship with putin. it's not reasonable to say -- it's not unreasonable to say that as long as donald trump is infficeit will be a disadvantage to putin. >> russian foreign policy has changed. donald trump said, have a great meeting with vladimir putin, one of the most
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anti-democratic, anti-american dictators in the world, and t republican rally cheers. and that's just a weird jarring moment. t then in congress, within the trump administration themselves, and among even john bolton, the foreign policy apparatus of the republican party is still pretti much whe was. and so which is the future of the party. is it a party that looks a lot more like donald trump in foreign policy realms or is it one that looks li the rest of his administration? i don't know, but i suspect it's a little more like trump. >> there's another thing i think is interesting, and it's a flipf what you just said. the democratic party is so angry at ruia that the stakes for putin in the election get that much higher. if trump wins in 2020, he retains an ally. if he loses, then he's got a democratic party that's spent four years blaming him personally for everything that believe has gone wrong in the country. souo he's thinking russia and that engagement in the 2020 election, i think that's a dimension of this, to. but the parties have polarized on how they traat rus that
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has made it an incentive for russia to keep their alli in. >> rabid anti-communist democrats now. >> woodruff: well, before we get to 2020, ezra, you were talking about manipulating reality. david you mentioned the deep at the wilkes-barre pennsylvania rally last night and then at ain rally earlie the week in tampa, florida, there werthe in crowd fans cheering wildly the president. people weari testimony shirts "q" and we looked into this. i erviewed our reporter who explains this is a conspiracy theory has grown. it's been out there for some months. but it's now at the point where it's come out into the open. essentialy what they believe i there is a group of people supported by the clintons, by president a, even by president george w. bush who are trying to overthrow thishe president, and're going to stop that from happening. how did we get to this pla? >> you know, i used to say we tried tomring ocracy in the middle east and we ended up
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middle east everybodyizing ourcy democrbecause we have become a realm of suspicion and conspiracy theories. remember the alleged ching pornography that was happening in a pizza rhea on connecticut avenue here in d.c.? these things come and go. the john birch society back in the '50s. theyd ere filwith conspiracy theories. these things come and go. the question is, is there william f. buckley? is there a ronald reagan? is there a democratic establishment that can quash them? now it's quite the opposite some what's haen is the mainstream, a lot of us mainstream journalists have become delegimized in the eyes of a lot of trump supporters, sometimes for our own fault. if you e don't hrom large segments of american society, mou become detached from the and they write you off. a lot of that has happened. but then the fans b haven -- the fires have been fanned by trump themselves, and basically what seems to be happening is a complete inversion of where information comeoms and those of us in the
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mainstream media who used to provide information are discountedded and this new thing has arisen. >> woodruff: how wore worried should we be? do we take it seriously? >> the q conspiracy itself, inich is a fascin conspiracy, the argument is that donald trump on some level has -- se'eing alla will the of chaos, but it's carefully at some point there will be a big reveal and donald trump will thme out and root out all corruption that has been endemic in washington so long. there is a comflit in ing something like that. it's hard for me to tell if thir is a profound or wide-reaching conspiracy theory than ones we've had in the past. dethink back in the clinton years to the read belief that the clintons killed vince foster, that they were running cocaine out of america. this kind of thing in american politics is not new. it does get a lot of play on
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social media. the thing i do find strange is i tend to associate this kind of conspiracy theorizing with the folks who are out of power. that's when you tend to see this stuff take hold. but donald trump and a lot of his supporters act like an out-of-power group despite being in per. ere is the top of the deep state. there is an ailuation of the government. to som e degreeey have authority. that's a weird piece that couldi leto go in an unusual direion. >> the underlying feature is social distrust, tremendous distrust ,of instituti dismissal of any institution, an assumption that any institution, whether it's hospital, a newspaper, they're all corrupt. they're all in it for themselves. it's all a con on the american people. once you embrace that as your fundamental truth, twhs is sort of happens. >> woodruff: well, another thing we saw this week, i guess this has been brewing omre time, was the conservative libertarn koch brothers, billionaire business people who have invested a lot of their money in supporting candidates they believe in, david, and they were quoted in a washington post
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story as being critical of the president, saying the government's spending too much, critical of his trade policy. and so when the president responded t generally, said mhe koch brothers, he said their allies have becoe a total joke in real republican circles, i don't need their money or bad ideas. i have beaten them at every turn. is this a fight to the finish? the president ays theyn't matter. do they matter? >> well, money matte a little. so i guess they still matter. they were never linke parti republican hacks. they were... they had a belief system which was more libertarian leaning belief system. and if you were with them fine, but if you were a standard republican, that was not fine with them. and so they were part -- there were two ways the republiofcan rejectiohe republican establishment could go. if you go in the koch direction, which was a more libertarian direction, but it didn't, i went in the trump direction. he was more in touch with people's views about entitlement programs, about the role of the state, and so i think it's very
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clearly a libertarian moment that seem-- there was john kasich, dick army. that is a moment that has not grown. this is not a fight between a couple rich people. this is a fill -- philosophical movement between a populist leaning party and a libertarian leaning party. >> woodruff: the government is now having to borrow money pay for what it wants to do. >> it's interesting the way these groups are fighting. on the one hand donald trump has given the kochs a lot of what they nt. not everything. mike pence is a very close koch ally. a lot of folks in the trump administration, because pence has a lot of authority over staffing, have come from that world. there are a lot of things the trump administrationas done on deregulation and taxes they've been happy with, but then there are parts where trump has more beiosyncratic personal views. it's fascinatinguse it's not just donald trump. donald trump doesn't have authority over spendingau. ryan has been pushing those bills forward.
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mitch mcconnell has been putting those bills forward. they're also upset with republicans in congress. there a way it gets identified and personified in donald trump. they don't want to be at oss-purposes with people they otherwise like, but it's not donald trump making all these spding decisions. >> one area i agree with trump, and that's how you win elections. the koch method is you power billio into billions of races. they do well when republicans do well. they do terriblyin years when republicans do terribly. there is not a lot of method their method is a great me donald trump, strong message and a guy with facebook and twitter account. and sotht's nobig structure. it's not the big money. i would say in a media age we're in now, actually the trump way of winning elections isa better way than the koch way. >> woodruff: in the minute and a half we have left, i want to talk about former president obama. ezra, he came out a couple days ago with 81 democrats running for office across the country,
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mostly congressional offers, some state seats, saying these are some people i'd like to supportt. what does say to you? is it going to have an impact this year? >> it is not a vast enough set of bedorsements to pushing a particular message into to election. it's in the like the way rnie sanders is going around people who support medicare for all or seth moulton is endorsing veterans. it's a lot of mainstreamom democrats,people with former ties to the obama administration. it's engage. for obama, but it isn't the level of party leadership or party redestruction some people have wanted from him. so iends up where i think a lot of obama's political engage. is betwepl the pwho don't want him involved and the people who want him to take a leadship role in the democratic party. it's pretty standard. >> woodruff: you think he jua st issuedper statement? >> what struck me is how many locals. i think he mofeels the ats tend to focus national and not enough loceyly. e done poorly locally.
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redistricting will be coming up before too long. i think he wantshearty to focus on that. he's trying to do something he of whendo a great deal he was a president, which is rebuild the local democratic party. >> woodruff: well, a l people have been waiting to see what he was going to do. he says there's more he's goingd tose. we will see. havid brooks, ezra klein, thank you. >>k you. >> woodruff: and finally, living through that awkward age in the modern era. jeffery brown looks at a new film about a week in the life of middle-schooler that is drawing strong critical praise for its performances, and for its raw portrayal of the challenges of ing a teenager in the digital age it's called "eighth grade." >> hi guys, kayla back here with another video. >> reporter: ready with awkward advice to her online video audience of zero.
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>> reporter: but now ready to fohat advice in real life. actress elsie fisher-- now 15-- knows what that's like. >> kayla's story was very close to home for me, yeah, because i mean i just remember being theid quiet weird kt school.in i it's not only capturing the 8th grade experience it kind of is capturing the human experience of that makes sense. because i think everyone you know is feeling anxious and weird all the ti w, regardless ther they're still in eighth grade. >> reporter: the film "eighth grade" sets the familiar fumbngs of adolescence, in a contemporary world magnified by the constant glare of a glowing screen-- or theatest snapchat filter. >> when did you get snapchat? what grade? >> fifth grade. >> fifth grade? >> reporter: it's the debut film of 27-year-old bo burnham. >> i felt like tehe world of
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internet and social media hadn't really been talked about, sort of the depictions of the internet that i see in media tend to be aittle bit finger gging and a sense of authority and i kind of wanted to just talk about what it meant to live with it, just subjectively how it sort of registers to us emotionally. and wh you're an eighth grader everything is emotional, everything is subjective. >> reporter: burnham was best known previously as a stand-up comedian. >>hihat's a pirate minus a s? n> reporter: but he first g internet fame for his own teen- aged home videos. i asked burnham what he sees now of those videos of self.younger >> you know, i see a person d desperate for attention ve and it's a little bit embarrassing but it's out there forever which i think is an experience that a lot of young people have and will have to sort of li permanent record of your most embarrassing times. what i want to do in the movie is sort of process that and say, where does this need to connect come from?
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>> reporter: details are crucial here: burnham shot the film in a real middle school with actualrs teacnd students as extras. the frustrations of parents trying to reach their screen- absorbed children will also feel all too real to many-- in this case kayla and her loving but flummoxed father. >> look, when i was your age i was not cool like you. you have all these interests and your videos and just how you express yourself in them. it is just so cool it is so great but i think maybe you need to put yourself out there a little bit. >> i think it was because i'm right between them in age and i feel like both of them. i feel like a scared nervous kid the internet. and i also feel like an out-of- touch dude who has no one to turn to and is just trng his best to make this girl feel good. >> hey how was the shadow thing? >> no, you were being quiet, which is fine but don't be weird hid quiet, 'cause like i look over at you and i you are about to drive us into a tree or something and i get really freaked out and then i can't text my friends. >> reporter: no spoilers here--
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suffice it to say thats ayla graduateddly e school oto realize she still must negotiate life offline and what actress elsie fisher calls a kind of digital addiction. >> attention is kind of currency nowadays. people want to feel seen and they want to know that they havp who actively are caring about them and they think socia melfils that a little bit, because you can see the comment" and "lik and read tweets and you're tagged in pictures. t it's just a very overstimulating thing. >> reporter: it's something the film, says director burnham, seeks to capture, without passing judgement. >> if the inteet was just bad to be so much easier to address, you know, throw your phone into the ocean. i think it's both. you know the internet. it makes it connects ius a isolates us. it stimulates us and it numbs us. c we objectify ourselves or we can express ourselves. >> reporter: "eighth grade" naopens in theateronwide beginning today.
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for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour online righgrnow oak ridgwing number of women running to office in 2018 are making opposition to same-sex marriage and assault part of their campaign, but wisl that e motivate voters? we take a closer look on o website, cbs.org/newshour. and robert costa is preparr ing shington week robert costa is preparing for "washington week," which airs ight. robert, what's o tap? >> reporter: we discuss the challenges and tensions inside the trump administrati national intelligence officials take a hard line on russian election interference, and the president goes his y, judy. tonight on "washington week." >> woodruff: tomorrow on pbs newshour weekend, states that ve legalized marijuana struggle with a dilemma. can they accurately measure when motorists are too high to drive? and on monday, we'll be back
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right here with a lo inde iran. how the nation is coping with thnew economic sanctions ater the u.s. pulled out of the nuclear deal. that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weanend. thank yogood night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language. >> consumer cellular. leidos. 6>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their
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solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.or >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably bter lives. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corpotion for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ctaptioning sponsored by newshour prons, llc captio
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trump administration's plan tor uh do pollution rules and how ca is responding. the week in politics including electi security and facebook's ongoin struggle to police its own platform. what mig a border wall look like. we head to san diego to look at the pr llond welcome to kqed newsro we begi withpolitics. this week the trump admini announced a plan to slash regulations presid to fight air pollut cars. it was rolled back and rulesqu auto makers to double the fuel economy of cars to about 50 mile per gallon in 2025. are targeting the states c