captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, aesident trump signs off defense spending plan with a new cus on china and russia. then, "unhinged"-- we sit down with former "apprentice" star and white house adviser omarosa manigault newman aboer new book that takes aim at her former boss. plus, the value of a good idea: inside the effort to provide expertise on food storage re african entrurs. d unlike the developed wo where a lot of food is wasted after reaches the table or thrown out of the refrigerator, in developing countries a lot of the waste happens before it reaches the table. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by con station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: president trump has signed a sweeping defense policy bill, authorizing more than $700 billion for the military in the coming fiscal year. spoke to soldiers at fo drum, new york today just before signing the measure. called it the most significant investment in the military in modernistory. >> i'm very proud to be a big, big part of it. it was not very hard.

i went to congress and said let's do it, we got to do it, we've got to strengthen the military like never ever before and that's what we did. d after years astating cuts we're now rebuilding our military like we never have before, ever.dr >> wf: we'll take a look at what's in the bill right after the news summary. gns paul man a footer, it followed ten days of testimony from 27 witnesses, o charges of bank and tax fraud. the crimes allegedly occurred in the years befe manafort lead the trump campaign. >> the fbi agent f.b.i. agent peter strzok has been fired. his lawyer says he got the word on friday. strzok had been criticized for sending anti-trump texle investigating hillary clinton's private e-mail server. he also worked for a time on the special counsel's russia pbe. president trump hailed the firing, with a tweet thasaid

"finally." he also charged that, "the list of bad players in the f.b.i. and ged.o.j. gets longer and l" in syria, activists say at least 69 people were killed sunday when a weapons cache exploded in the basement of an apartment building. it happened in t northwest in the rebel-held town of sarmada in idlib province. the blast leveled two five-story buildings. an international observer group said the munitions belonged to al-qaeda-linked militants. the two koreas today announced a third summit between south korean president moon jae in and north korean leader kim jong un. they said it will take place in the north's capital, pyongyang, some time in september. officials met at the border, but north korea's lead negotiator also hinted at potential snags in future talks. sues translated ): if the that were raised at the talks aren't resolved, unexpected problems could emerge and the

issues that are already on the schedule may face difficulties. >> woodruff: the summit announcement comes amid growing questions about whether north korea is still expanding its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. the government ochina has rejected allegations that it sent millions of muslims to detention and indoctrination camps. a u.n. representative had said more than one million ethnic uighurs and others are being held in so-called "counter- extremism centers." another two million are reportedly in "re-education" camps. beijing denied any such centers exist. back in this country, the so- called holy firefon southern caia is now more than half contained. th's up from just 10% on friday. firefighters made considerable progress over the weekend with the help of cooler temperatures. the fire has been burning for a week meanwhile, two huge fires in rn california are also more than half-contained.

the west virginia house of delegates voted today to impeach the several justices on the state supreme court over aca spendingal. it's alleged that they misspent $3.2 million for office furniture and renovations. the state senate will now try the cases and decide whether the justices are removed from the court. a fifth justice has retired, and agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud. the congressional budget office has cut its economic growth forecast for the rest of 2018, from 3.3% 3.1%. the report cites, in part, president trump's tariff wars. tand, on wall street toda dow jones industrial average lost 125 points to closet 25,187. the nasdaq fell 19 po, intsd the s&p 500 slipped 11. still to come on the newshour: the president signs thnational defense authorization act.

our politicsonday team breaks down the news of the day. plus, how american companies share food storage techniques with african entrepreneurs, and much more. r >> woodruff: as orted earlier, the president signed a major defense authorization bill today, a statement of policy and spending priorities. so, what's in this massive measure? and what will those $700lus billion buy, once congress dispenses the money? amna nawaz explores those questis and more now. >> nawaz: the john s. mccain national defense authorization act is named for the ailing chairman of the senate armed services committee. it's one of the largest bills passed by congress, and sets policy priorities for the nation's defense on everything from china, to russia, to

civilian casualties, and soldiers' pay. with me now is foreignd ffairs fense correspondent nick schifrin to walk us through some of its many, many provisions.k, nhere are a lot, let's stoort big picture, for the last 17 or 18 years a lot of our national security defense spending has been kind of driven by terrorism or anti-terror efforts, is that still true in th bill. >> it is still driven by iraq and afghanistan and defind byhe the wars re. what this administration has tried to do in its official strategy documents is geay from that and say we are no longer focused just on iraq an c afghanistan annterterrorism missions throughout the world, nd are focused on long-term strategic threatsthose are china and russia. so you see that really seep throughout all parts of this bill. one moreu also see thing especially when it comes to russia. that san expression of congressional concern. almost a means of restraint on thpresident of the unit states, there are many concerns that you know from democratic side but also the republicapr side on theesident's policies and rhetoric toward russia as

well as south korea and aittle on china. so you see that combination of trying to change the strategy but also trying to restrain the president a little bit. >> let's talk that shift to those two bigow supes now. russia in particular. there are some elements that stood out to me. they seem to challenge some previous assertions from the president that being friends with rsia is a good thing. what do you see in here that relates to russia. >> there is about half a dozen, almost, highlights in here. and again trying to a little bit restrain the president but also trying tshift towards the strategic shft. extending military assistance to ukraine by a couple of years, requires reporting on sanctions, hee president has to confirm imposed sanctions and submit to congress additional sanction, extends probigs against military cooperation with russiathforgses treasury department to brief congress on vladimir putin's assets and its $6.3 billion for the european deterrent

initiative, this is the largest money spent by t u.s. on u.s. troops since the cold war. and really re-creates some of the cold war-era positioning of stocks of materials and als increases the presence of army and air force troops throughout europe, and those air andmi ile defense forces for ground forces. and the idea here is try and get a path toward perm nance. these troops are there becausehe ofcrimea invasion by russia and annexation by russia in 20s . what congr trying to do is make sure those troops stay in the long-term and there is langenge in this docthat really gets to those troops perm nentdly stationed ineurope. >> what about the other country you mentioned as a priority, china. there has long been concern about the predatoryction that congress says they want the u.s. to better protect itself from.th what do we see relates to that bns we see actions or tempts to alter china's actions both in the united states and regially. so regionally you see strengthening support for tie want's military capacity.

combating predatory behavior in the u.s. by strengthening committees that protect u.s. dnvestment, and giving do defengs department of defense export control when it comes to ichina trying to inve u.s. companies and requires the whole of government strategy on china an bans ve and-- from ernment,ng by u.s. g these are technology companies, chinese technology companies that u.s. officis are concerned about and while the original draft said they would band entirely from the u.s., this one does ban u.s.o government m purchasing them and congressional officials are said to hope this changes chinese behavior. >> let's go quickly through some of the other countries you mentioned, korea, their act sets a floor on the u.s. troop presence in south korea, where is that siificant. >> the floor is 22,000. and if the u.s. were to go below, that the department of defengs would have to prove that al intereste nation of the united states to do it. this is a direct response to the president saying that he

believes joint opetions joint exercises with the south koreans were quote wargames and questioning the u.s. presence in south korea. congress ds not want him to withdraw more troops wants about turkey, congress threatened to block an f-35 deal for a number of reasons, did they make good on that threat. >> almost. they certainly tried to the f-35 right now is blocked until secretary mattis submits a o repo turkey. basically congress is worried that turkey is getting the f-3 and also getting a russian surface to air missile that could could actually destroy the f-35. >> finally in yemen the u.s. supported the saudi led coalitions in conducting missions over yemen, is there continued funding for that in here. >> there is. but it restricts some of wtha the u.s. can do with that coalition. and the fear is that the coalition is frankly carrying civilians. that we have seen a lot of supports were with sowdee gtargeting or hitting ths leaki3 hospitals and what congress is trying to go is tell the military hey, we're not that comfortable with it, you need toin crease ouor repng and

you need to restrict what you do and that operational detail a real sign that congress sun happy with some of the things cthat thalition is doing. >> very quickly, just step back for me, is is a big major military buildup the president promised. >> st the largest pay he in nine years, the soldiers, marines, would be very happy with that. efforts to improve readiness as well and reforms to pernl, but no, this is not e major buildup that the president is promising. here is what one analyst .ld this is the same force that we had last year. the airplanes won't break as much but that does not equal the greatest military buildup ever and it is not a mobilization by any stretch of the imanaon. >> nick schifrin, thanks very much. >> thank you. >> and >> wdruff: nick will be back later with a look at the men and women who have served in iran and afghanistan. >> woodruff: "a racist, a bigot and a misogynist." those are just some of the

explosive claims made against president trump by his long-time associate and formersohite house adomarosa manigult newman in her new book, "unhinged." her relationship with the president began in 2003 as a contestant on the first season of the reality tv show "the apprentice." she joined the trump campaign in 2016 as director of african- american outreach and went on to become the highest rankingaf can-american woman in the west wing until she was fired last december. and omarosa manigult newman joins us now.u nick thank r joining us. >> so glad to be here with you, judy. >> woodruff: you have gotten the president's attention today and yesterday. he has come out with a string of comments calling you low-life, 'm quoting, wacky, that he rarely sau. he heard were you nasty to people, that you constantly missed work. white house press secreta sarah sanders says you lack character and integrity and the book is riddled with lice.

and you are trying to profit off of him.>> t's fascinating that the book isn't even out, so she hasn't read it. so she wouldn't know what is in the book. but moreover i think that it is interesting that he also insults a lot of african-americans with those same types of slurs and words that that is the way is he er is, unfortunately. >> woodruff: but all of those years of knowing him, surprised that he would come down so hard on you. >> yes, some what. because we had a very close relationship, as you statedt the open. i met him in 20036789 i was still in my 20s.to and i wante be like him. i grew up in poverty so i thought i want to be ana bille one day. i will go and work for donald trump. i will go try to be on the apprentice and be successful. but 15 years later, i never would imagine that he as the pratident of the united st would call me a low-life. >> woodruff: wha about what sarah sanders is saying, these are very strong words cing from her, is she mislead or purposefully deceiving because

e president is asking h to. >> i think that she is taking guidance from him. i mean she says whatever he tells her to say. and i would hope that she would kind of ronsider that position because she is compromising herself every single day that she lies from the pod crumb to the americ >> woodruff: let's take some of the charges you made one by one, calling the president a racist. >> uh-huh. >> woodruff: we know there have been a number of steaments fron dd trump over the years calling judges mexicans who are of mexicaheritage, the years that he spent challenging president obama about where he was born, those things that you-- you were involved with th. presid you were working with him, near him, close to him during all that time. those things dn't bother you enough to cause you to separated yourself. >> that is one of the most dramatic scenes in unhingedlk where i bout taking him to ask for the birther movement. and he just kind wrote it off as kind of political hyperbole

and he said it's par for the course when are you in politics. i want it to be clear that in some ways i was very complicit oy going into the white house and continuing somthose 34s conceptions and the lie that he continued tel >> but you believed his explanation? >> i did. because i had a blind spot where it came to donald trump. we were very close. d if he said it, in some ways i believed it. >> you know, just following up on that, even when, after he war ident, the charlottesville incident, the comment that they're talkg about both sides bear blame, you write in the book about being trubled by that but not nufer to do anything about it.l you went on ision and defended him. >> yeah, i was asked by the president to go on television and defend him because there weren't many people from the administration that would. and it was before he quif kateeo sides, good people on both sides, it would be a day or two later that interview that i gave that he said those

things. and sov course behind sight is 20230-- 20 but when we elook at the year anniversary of charlottesville i was just completely-- over the weekend think being heather heier the young won woman who lost their life because this administration reresed to act because thas a democratic gov ther and he said let them deal with itthey will get it under control. >> woodruff: a lot of people are saying why didn't you d something at the time he made that statement. >> i describe very clerly what i did, and how i rected and responded. s d as the only african-american voice,oud as a screamed there were 29 others who had a eifferent opinion as to how w should approach car lotsville. >> speaking of being the only african-american voice the iormer chairman of the republican nl committee, michael steel said yesterday that he was among the group of pe ale without put togeth list of highly qualifiedca afamerican republicans who worked in previous white houses who were prepared to go to work for donald trump hat tyou blocked any of them from having

a job opportunity. >> i find that fascinating because on one hand they say i didn't have any power. i wasn't effective. i couldn't influence what happened in the white hous and then on the other hand they said i have the ability to keep people oute white house. you really can't have it both ways. in fact he committed that list during the transition. i wasn't in the white house yet. i wasn't making decisions, so that really actually undermines reince preebus ability tto actually pugether an effective administration, not me. i wasn't the head of prsoident 58 pel in the white house. and that assertion is kind of an sushed when you think about it.e >> women, the dent's vies on women, you write a number of disturbing things throughout the book, misogynistic things but again you write you had a blind. sp >> i did. >> time after time after time. >> i did. b>> you seem very calmout it now but. >> well, because you know, i also write about being a part of what i call the trump world cult, the curlt of pesonality and i was caught up in it. and i sns it being brain warve

washed, what is it. >> i think when are you part of a cult you don't realize that what you are didding is completely against the grain and undermining the very fabric of a democracy. hi no ideppthat orting donald trump and the way that i was was causing so much damage until i was on the outside and i g.d a good way to take a view of what was happen i accept full responsibility for what i did and i have great regret for that. >> but is it-- again looking at it from the outside, it looks a if you arwoman of intelligence, a woman who could make her own decisions but it's almost as if you are saying you were blindly folloinng ructions. >> i was. i loft my-- lost my father, i talk about this in the firs few chapters, my father was murdered when i was seven. in some ways i wasr looking a father filling and found that in donald trump. here was a very successful billionaire, a real estate mowlg, i wanted to model myself after him. i was as operational in a sens of looking after his success. so yes, i fmelowedafter of

the tenants he outlined in so many of his successful books ane f the thins that he enforced to be successful. but i was going down th wong path following donald trump. >> you write, this has got an er lot of comment aboat you describe as the president's mental decline, setting aside questions about whether are you qualified to make that assessment. what are some specsific examp of the difference in donald trump that you knew when you first heat mim-- met him in the early 2,000 and recently. >> we would sit in the board room and the board rooms othe apprentice would be four or five hours long. and donald trump washarp, he was very per septemberive, he was engaging. he had this expansive voak an lear, he very seldom took wreaks, he could about four and five hours ithout blinking, fast forward to 2017 and we're in the white house andald trump couldn't remember basic words or phrases. he coldn't read the legislation that was put in front of him. >> woodruff: how do you know there? >> because i was in the room, in the oval office trying to brief

him, for instanc when we were getting ready to pass the executive order for hbc youth, for instance, we're briefing him for that famous listening session where he thought frederick douglas was still alive, historically black colleges and universities. >> woodruff: but how do you h foe-- were you there whim. >> i'm not a doctor. i can only assess that donald trump that i knew in 2003 and the donald trump that i knw n 2017. and is he not the same man. in the morning he would say one thing, by the afternoon he was contradicting himself and he wouldn't rather that he said the first thing. just recently he encouraged republicans to pass an immiation bill, a fair immigration bill and the next day he said he never said to pass an immigrion bill. i don't believe that that is just him lying. i reallthdo believat he has some sort of mental impairment. and decline. >> woodruff: you also say that you saw a lot of cor rawption in the white house. you can give us one specific example. >> one of the biggest examples

is this nda that they came us to with and said that we couldn talk abortain things that we saw. they wanted us to sign it and they wanteto use that to kind of put fear in us that if we saw things to not blow the whise, for instance, on things that we saw. end they demanded that every on sign that. they didn't allow us to take it to lawyers to review. they wouldn't even allow us to email it particularly to my lawyer. they said i had to sign it in the room right there, then ane. th and i thought that that certainly was unethical ifnot illegal. >> woodruff: but the president tweeted that you gned a nondisclosure agreement. >> i signed a nondisclosure agreement ba in 200for the apprentice. i also signed one for the campaign. i never signed that draconian nda that they presented to me when walked floo the white house because i knew from my prior time in the white hasse, thisy secretary tour of duty working in the white house, i worked forhe clintons prir, that this was not something that was acceptable.

>> but aga, u say a lot of corruption in the white house, what are you referring to, and do you have evidence that you are going to bring to the authorities. >> absolutely. but i will reserve that for theh ities, i will not have an opportunity to till the expanse of corruption that i observed while i was there. >> not in the court of public opinion but in the court of law because it is very, very serious. >> woodruff: so you are going ro hire. >> i have a very, y incredible, capable legal team which is why i speak so strongly and assertively about the things that i have seen. and the things that i intend to share with the american people in coming day>> woodruff: you in that you close out the become by writing rest assured there san army of people who oppose president trump and his policies. they are working sigh lenly and tireilessly to make sure he does not cause harm to the republic. many are in his party, his administration and even in his own family. >> uh-huh. >> woodruff: you can say who efer not.ons i pr i think is important that as

they continue to do their work to make sure further damage to this countha is folt done, they do thoo without become thesed and i'm very prowfd people working behind the scenes to make sureis donald trump not allowed to continue to lead this country in an unfit manner. >> you can't identify. >> i would not ever. >> woodruff: the first lady, anyone. >> compromise them in this way because they are working tireilessly to just really make sure that this country isn't damaged further. >> woodruff: have you heardth from people ie white house since you went public about the book? >> oh yeah. i have heard the threats, the vailed threats, the very explicit theaeats. i have about the damaging that they have done and destroying of my personal operty that they never returned to me in december. have i been waiting forb them to turn it but they decidt to after i did not sign that 15,000 dollh ars a montgreement to go work in a fake jb in the campaign. >> woodruff: they seem n.termined to shut you dow >> oh yeah. >> woodruff: in some way. do you believe they will. >> they won't be successful

because one, i have the truth on my side but i have a significant amount, in fact, a treasure trove of multimedia backup for everything that is not only inve unhinged butthing that i assert about donald trump. >> woodrf: omarosa manilt ewman, the booblg is unhinged. >> and are you in the book, from when wworked at cnn. >> woodruff: thank you very much. >> thank you. thanks for hing me. does it give you comfort that your critics are come interesting .both sides >> no, i could still be belong. >> this is now how border crossers have people cop together u.s. using a sigh lum,a what it uslly looks like, but th may be herest clans to get passed these guar right now. >> mr. trump won overwhelmingly by about 20 points but now the enthusiasm for president trump will it convert into enthusiasm

for. >> the interference in the 2016 election and possibly the mid 2er78s as an attack on democracy ? >> woodruff: from explosive allegations made by omarosa to another coming day of primary ections, it's another busy t ek in politics. a perfme for politics monday, with tamara keith of npr and amy walter of the cook political report, we are happy to have you both back together again. you >> yeah.n a long time. >> tamara back from having a baby. >> yes. he's cute, three months ago. >> we're so glad to you have yback. >> tha. >> wdz and have the two of you together, omarosa, you, heard amy, you heard her commentses aboueverything from the president being racist to the white house trying to shut r down what did you make of it? >> i'm not reay particularly surprised by this, this is

somebody who has made a career out ofbeing a reality star, i think she is doing an excellent job of keeping at persona going of i'm going to reveal only a little bit and reveaora little bitand reveal a little bit por about the drama. i thought it was fasyonating the watalked to her, over and over again about this blind spot or this pernl at that she said she only became aware of once she was out of white house. but remember she did not make a decision to leave willingly. she was fired from the white house. so now all these months later she can se the blipot but she couldn't see them time and time and time again while she was there. that to me seems like a veryig hurdle to come over. >> woodruff: what did you hear? >> certainly she is-- she is doing the reality conante thing. just as president trump did. in fact, the tweets from president trump today give the

story of her book more fuel. and gi people things ask her about in the next interview and the next intervw, in some ways the president gave her a gift today in terms of publicity r the book. it is fascinating the way she has been dribbling out little diotape and here on your show teasing that there musting more, that there is more, a multimedia treasure trove she says. e e challeth the book and i have read it from cover to cover is that there are a of items in the book that are simply unverifiable. and some of them are pretty outlandish. and you just sort of stuck with it. it is part of a genre of books coming out of this administration or about this administration that sort of strad el that line between fantasy and reality and thre are not a lot of reliable berrators in the trump administration tble to say

what is fact and what is fiction. >> woodruff: so given that, amy, does a book like, this and add it to the otherbos, does it move the need e8. >> does it move the needle politically in anyway? > i think you get a bunch of people saying th exactly, is he exactly what we knew we were getting when we put him in the office. thd you know, structures, they reflecr leaders. and so when you see people coming out of the white houseth saying whay are saying or the ways in which they are interacting with the media, it feels very similar to the person who happens to be sitting behind thk big desat 1600 pennsylvania. >> there as been incredible turn over in this white house. omarosa is just one of many people looking back, 40% othe people on the payroll last year ruen't on the payroll this year. >> wood: 40%. >> 40%, that is according to a reuters analysis. there has been incredd le tum ult en she talks in her book and interviews about sort

of thebackstabbing and the st of toxic nation of that workplace, certainly we've seen that reflected and seen it reflected r the turno personnel. >> and this comes on the weekend amy whewe observe one year since the death of a woman in charlottesville after the white supremacist rally there. there was a demonstration in washington that pretty much fizzelled out, the anti-fa white supremacist protest was much, much larger. are we at apoint now though where this has just become part of the fabric of our poics? we're going to keep on having this dispute about race and extremist views on race. >> yeah, so the cbs did a poll on the wake of the anniversary and found tht 61% of americans said they thought racial tensions ncve actually eased in the last year. and who is to blame for, that of course, depends where you sit, both what your ra and what your party is.

afscan-americans, hispan believe what it is, inmore than 60% of them believe this and they blame the president. whietd voters a evenly-- evenly divided and if you are a republican white votee us a democrat white voter, whether you think that the president is doing a poor job of handling racial issues but judy it gets to the bigger question which is handling race and politics is not to americans, our american society itidn't start witdonald trump and the reality is unless and until whi teliticians decide it is an important issue, we will keep coming back to this place, this wound that has never healed, maybe put a ndaid on it but underneath it is still festering. >> tk president over the wee end tweeted about being opposed to racism of all kienlds. and that is an intereing signal. because for different people racism means difrent things. while i was out on maternity leave i spent a fair bit of time listening to conservative talk

radio and at one point heard a host talking about how nancy pelosi had said that she didn't want there to be five white guys at the table and the host was shgry as can be at the republican lead for not going after her hard enough tor her racism and sexism. >> are you right, both of you or ahed american politics long time and it feels like we are in a cycle that just isn't stopping. very quickly tomorrow, another round of primary elections, to both of you, in a men or so. what are we watching for. >> minnesota is going to be, that is the state where this is happening, it will be a fascinating microkosm. 'm especially looking at the house races, fars the rural parts of the democratica stronghold the suburbs were republicans had a stronghold, now fast forrd into the erae are in, it is democrats who are traying to hold on to the rural districts to see if they can go against the trump tide and now red placeand

republicans trying to hold on to the minneapolis suburbs, all of the divides in this idea of ouburb versus rural going t happen in one state, all within a nice primary so if you want t check itt. >> eyes on minnesota. >> watch minnesotare are two senate seats up because of the al franken situation. >> and a few more of these to go and we're off to the races for november. >> yep. >> we' so glad to have the two of you back, welcome back tamara keith, amy walter, great to sigh, politics monday. >> you're omlc t>> woodruff: now a look value of knowledge. volunteers from some of the world's biggest food pinducers are woto help african nations become less dependent on imrted goods. special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports from kenya as part of his series, "agents for

change." >> reporter: pauline kamau has survived against tall odds-- owner of a successful 20 year old milling business cald sopa, with 30 employees producing half a dozen blends m the stapze flour. but 15 years ago, when herun husband and cor, peter, died suddenly, she was devastated and struggled for years to keep afloat. >> it was the rkest moment of my life and i didn't know what to do. i had remain focused and had to continue with the work. >> reporter: she found help from an unlikely source. a nonprofit organization drawn from six of the world's largest food companies advised her on how to expand, offering things like a business plan, waste reduction strategies and better hygiene practices. >> the need for running water in the factory itself, the need tot

the nemark different areas for safety purposes. just basically good manufacturing practices. >> reporter: the mentoring group is called partners in food solutions. it's members include well-known giants such as cargill, hershey and general mills, companies that decades ago took food- making from the kitchen to the factory. >> physics is physics whether in kenya or minnesota. >> reporter: jeff dykstra co- founded the group ten years ago we find that a lot of the stuff we work on is very similar to the same issues that general mills or cargill or hershey's is wrestling with, it's just usually at a different scale. a lot of the technicalroblems we're solving are universal. but that local staff like johnson are very key to making sure it's appropriate technology. >> reporter: johnsonu is kenya director for the group. >> let's talk about the expansion plan you're looking at. >> reporter: kiragu, who has a

food science degree from britain, says his team advised kamau on fortifying her products with vitamins and minerals. >> 35% of children don't get enough iron and zinc and other micronutrients which are very important for their development, their brain development. >> reporter: another of the partners group's early clients was soy afric, when it was a small family owned millingmp coy >> we saw a very successful business person but we saw ay compat needed technical capacity on everything from quality to like image and branding. t >> reportes cooler is a ocitical piece of equipment in the manufacturing s and is perhaps the most tangible hiample of what the partne has delivered to this factory. it was designed by engineers in minneapos but put together by welders in nairobi. the net relt? a cost savings of 50%. cornelius muthuri is the company's founder. >> this was a godsd, i would

say. without it, we would havbeen producing, passing bad product out there. >> reporter: soy afric has grown rapidly in recent years into a five million dollar a year company, employing 70 people full time. critical to the success of companies like soy afric are gooduality raw materials. but getting those raw materials to factories can be a challenge. unlike the developed world where a lot of food is wasted after it reaches the table or thrown out of the refrigerator, in developing countries a lot of the waste happens before it reaches the table. there aren't enough silos to store a grain harvest, so it can keep mold or rodents away. the roads aren't adequate so that a small-holder farmer can get his milk to a dairy to be pasteurized in time. farmer peter kimotho has just two cows. the partners group helped develop improved feed for his animals, which in turn allowedom him to ba reliable

anpplier to another client: the classic foods comp now he has a steady income from a customer just two miles away. >> ( translated ): if classic wasn't there, i'd have to sell to individual homes and that would be a big challenge. when i supply classic, i'm paid on a regular basis and that helps me with planning. >> reporter: almost all of the planning and consulting work done by partne in food solutions is done electronically, by telephone and email. julie wavenik is a food scientist at minneapolis-based general mills. >> if there's one piece of equipment i could give my p.f.s. clients, it would be this. >> reporte for one client, she tried to find a low tech solution for equipment she has that can distinguish among various types of flour. it's critical to the quality of baked goods. >> the cent i worked for was a co-op. they were essentially milling what could be a cookie flour and whatdould be a bread flour an using them interchangeably andit

going to perform pretty terribly. >> reporter: working with her distant clients is a two way street, she says. not just sharing her expertise but gaining insights in return for her and her company.st l need solve the problems and your own preconceived notions don't apply. knowing how to work with those that are from cultures other than your own or changing a formulation and understanding of what does the ethiopian palette look for in a sweet roll, it is different than what our consumers want, and you still >> reporter: for member companies, dykstra says allowing employees to volunteer, which is done on company time, makes a statement about the employer's ethos. and he says it's a tool to attract and keep workers >> particularly with millennials more and m how is this company living its values out. and they want to participate in that with their core skills, their education and know-how. >> reporter: so far han 1400 employees have volunteered

sors 90,000 hours for partne in food solutions, helping nurture some 250 businesses. >> i heard someone say it once that a farmer without a market is a gardener. we need companies like soy afric to become that market and take those materials and turn them into goods that nsumers can eat. whether that is a middle-class business persoin nairobi or a kid in a refugee camp. >> reporter: it's a small first step toward self sufficiency, dykstra says. africa imports about $40 billion a year in food and almost all of it, he adds could some day be produced and processed in africa. for the pbs newshour, this is fred de sam lazaro in nairobi, kenya. >> woodruff: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under-told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota.

>> woodrf: a pitched battle in afghanistan between taliban fighters and afghan forces continued today in ghazni, southwest of t capital, kabul. at least 100 afghan security personnel have been lled in this latest show of force by the insurgents. he baimg the fifth american to die there this year, almost 17 years after the united states entafghan stand, nick schifrin is back now with the authois nick schifriack now with the author of a new book that looks at this war, the war in iraq, and some of those who have fought them on the front lines. >> schifrin: more than three million men and women have foug in afghanistan and iraq n e country asked them to overthrow the talid saddam hussein, rebuild shattered countries wracked by terrorism and sectarian war, and prop up vernments that sometimes actively undermined their efforts.

no matter what you may think about the war's policies, these men and women are america's sons and daughters, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters. and their stories are told intimately, with understanding, and with empathy in a new book called "the fighters: americans in combat in afghanistanewnd iraq," by ork times" reporter and marine veteran, chris chivers. is my here.e to welcome you >> thank you for having me. >> why is it porn to write a book ft about the purpose of operations but about the utperience of execg those operations. >> because in the time of the lunteer military, as a country we don't go to war any more, the military goes to war. and we as ciizens live a large degree separate from those experiences and without much access to them. and over the years that i coved american combat ants in both wars, i saw theroughout as human beings, whatever the

policies were, however the policies were fairing, i thought as i spent more and more time at it that we needed to understand their experiences and perhaps we might then be able to understand the wars. >> you have written 3wu68fully about thosep exeriences and from journal entries from some of these men and woen and you tell their stories so intimately, let's go through just two of the stories to give everybody a sense of who these people are, sergeant leo gurchevski. >> he was a special forces ncl, sarnlg ent first class, a career soldier when the attacked happened in 2001 in new york city and the pentagon. and leo was almost immediately dispatched to central asia and was involved in the operation at tora borea in which osama bin edden escver the money tain passes. and very shortly after that, he was back in the states preparing forth invasion of iraq which he

prepared in ifon a specialces yoont in a different capacity as the forward screening for the largest thrust up from you can wait. and then leo nt home and he returned as the war evolved to build, to helbuild and set up the special forces headquarters at the air base, at the old iraqd air base ane day while essentially doing office duties he went to lunch and then went to the postexchange with two other soldiers, special forces soldiers and while walking up the steps df the post exchange iraq ha struck just to his left it killed the major beside him, it gravely wounded the other senior sergeant, darwritten crder and also wounded leo. now that was a long time ago, 2004. so for almost 15 years. leo rebuilt himself, returned to war multiple times in multiple different capacities.as firsa special forces nco

again and then lat as a contractor and kept going all the way into 2015. and when he cae home leo as you might imagine was struggling. and was afflicted by ptsd, anxiety and had really a psychological toll along with the physical toll. and he essentially was saved by his wife who has brought him into counsling and has helped him let's say unpack some of these experiences and moved forward in his life in a way that i would say is very satisfying to see. >> how is he doing toay? >> he's been a lot better thanks to his wife. i have to say you said the book en intimately. this is a very violent book. ynd in places it's very, ver graphic. it was hard to write and some people will find it hard tore . but the lesson i learned from leo and his wife is how thse who recover, those who make it, are brought along blove.

>> petty officer dustin kirby enlisted aener 9/11 anded up in some of the worst. >> to dustin doc kirby, let's call him doc, is different than leo. hehe is and after 9/11, he enlisted to serve in the and arrived after the wars were really rolling and spent muc20hf in the fallujah in the agriculture outlands you are famiar with there and the outlying areas, those areas were loaded up with militants who had survived the two americanfe es in fallujah and escaped into the countryside. and they were at the time flagged under aqi, al-qaeda and iraq. and they are t early group that formed the islamic state.c and s in a unit that had an economy of force mission and that is not really a very good it means-- we don't have enough people and doc's unit didn't have enough people and they were put on a ribbon of phalt to

patrol it and suffered many casualties and had a very difficult time influencing the surrounding areas. doc saved lives, including his former roommate who was shot through the head.n and th doc on christmas day in 2006 was shot through the mouth while on a rooftop post. an he has spent 12 years now trying to recover from that. and it didn't go well for a bunch of years, as you can imagine. dozens of reconstructive surgeries d procedures, also a very, very difficult psychological journey. and then just a few years ago in 2016 he received probono medical care and his face was rebuilt. and he has new dental implants and he'ins smilagain and he's different, much different in his aspect than he was only three years ago. >> amazing resilience. i want to zoom out a little bit because you have a straj iue believe critf these wars.

let me just read you one sen 9 thesehat you write 6 veterans have the knowledge that their live prses harnessed to wars that ran ar passed the pursuit of justice and ultimaucly did not eed. why didn't they succeed? >> for a number of reasons 5d we could make a number of critiques and arguments about that, but hey wereo ambitious. in some cases. they were subject to ever-shifting ambitions and time s that were unrealistic. we're not going to be able to make iraqi or afghan security forces in a few shorlt years and have em be competent. you don't make an army in a few years and we tried to if both countries and these units have not faired w-8 and have not given us urity partners that we can pass off the responsibility of extremly traumatized, dangerous, violent countries to. you know, we changed presidential administrations. we changed doctrines, we changed time lines and we ended up wih incoherent and you can't have a

war without an end state. we never really had an end state and if we did we ertai didn't realize it. and so we are at the moment we are now which is, you know, a sense of drift andthat these veterans had committed to something, they gave their all to in good faith. but that as a weuntry hadn't sorted out for them. and so the results are certaiy disappointing. >> and yet does that take anything away from their experiences or what they sacrificed in many ways. >> so that is where i disconnect the two.ro national ect-- projects are national projects, individual aks are individual aks and whatever we think of these wars, i spent a lot of time in them with people trying to do the right thing, with everything they had. and you can see that, i think in this book. >> and i think that's exactly the book you've written. the book called the fighters, thank you for being here.

>> thanks for having me. >> >> woodruff: rarely a day goes by without a highly publicized twitter fight between celebrities or politicians, or some kind of a confrontation that spills into the public conversaon. what if all learned how to take the temperature down? tonight author lauren groffes sher humble opinion on how to act with imagination in this age of division. >> not long ago, i was out inth prairie where i jog every day when a man rode up on a fcycle and started critiquing my runnim. nshad not solicited his advice. i don't enjoy aining even when i haven't already run five awles. i asked him to g repeatedly, but when he persisted, i gave him a verbal hiding that i'm sure he has yet to recover from. something in me at that moment s

jupped: i felt two feet taller and as vast as the prairie itself. if you've ever had a moment of road rage, or acted impulsively to fend off a pickpocket or bully, you know the feeling. the constraints of selfhood fall away and you feel as though you could breathe fire. the truth is, all humans hav the capacity to snap. neurologists tell us that deep n the brain, beneath the center of consciousnesse cerebral cortex, there's a cluster of neurons that causes sudden aggression in lab animals when stimulated with an electrode. it's a healthy automatic function for self-preservation, the cause of the fight in fight or flight. but just because it's natural to snap in moments of tension doesn't mean that we have to do so when wee not being physically threatened. our age is an extraordinily polarized one. it can seem as though we are all yelling all the time. when we enter into rage, we enter space that turns people

e to others who do not deserve me respect or courtesyex that wct extended to us. in rage, we can refer to human beings as animals, a way to psychically distance us from them enough to deny them basic human rights. after i raged at the man on the bike that morning, i ran home feeling nauseated. ly had been elderly and had seemed a little lo by the time i came in the door, i had imagined an entire life for the man, down to the kinds of mugs he drank his coffee out of and the cat he owned. i wished i could rerse time to react differently; instead of yelling, explaining calmly w at he was doing was unwelcome. empathy is an act of radical imagination. through empathy, we can understand the full scope of the humanity of those whose actions or ideas offend us.mp we acquirehy through imagining ourselves into the lives of strangers, through narrative, the books and films

and television shows that don'tu reinforcknowledge of the world, but rather challenge what we already know. empathy is a muscle that is stronger than our neurological reflexes. if we exercise it every single day, it will be so strong that it can override reflexive anger. in this world, kindness must prevail. so let's give our empathy rigorous daily workouts-ti spent imagining the lives and hearts of others-until we have become better than our basest impulses. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, the h.p.v. vaccine can prevent illness and death from cervical cancer, and a new study finds that promoting its use doesn't lead to moreav risky sexual br by teens. you can read more on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. later this eveg on pbs, frontline presents the first of

a two-part look inside iran. "our man in tehran" is the story of "new york times" tehref bureau chomas erdbrink, one of the few western journalists currently living in iran. over the past 17 years he s covered front-page news from the isolated nation, revealing stories about the country, and its people. part 1 of frontline's "our man in tehran" airs tonight on most pbs stations. and that's the newshour for tonight.f. i'm judy woodr join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshouras been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons ailable as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com.

n> and by the alfred p. sl foundation supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur inundation. committed to buia more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made n possible by the corporatr public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour pductions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

narrator: 200,000 years ago, a new species emer the african landscape... homo sapiens. modernumans. us. today, there are 7 billion of us livingoss planet earth. this is the story of our journey from continent to continent: how we left africa, crossed asia, reached australia, and colonized europe. cae final frontier was ame the last continent to be conquered. it's one of the great mysteries of archaeology. who first set foot on american soil?

when and how did they get here?