captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. r the newshour tonight, striking back: fori.a. director john brennan claims by revoking his security clearance, president trump is trying to silence critics. then, more than 300 newspaper editorial boards across the country respond to the president's repeated attacks on e free press. and... >> ♪ i said it won't be long so>> woodruff: the queen o exits the stage. we consider the life and singular legacy of arethain fran >> singing is about communication.mm it's like icating with the people sitting there in that auditorium and she worked on it and she showedwhhe whole world it meant to be a great singer. woodruff: all that and 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 new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> and by the alfred p. sloan , undation. supporting scienchnology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innov education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org.

>> and with the ongoing support these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: thequeen of soul," a "national treasure." the death of aretha franklin day, of pancreatic cance has brought an outpouring of tributes from around the world. she shot to stardom in the 1960's with classics like "think" and "respect." later, she renewed her popularity in the 1980 movie

"the blues brothers." and, in 1987, she became the first woman inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. aretha franklin was 76 years old. we'll look at her life and legacy later in the program. in the day's other news, president trump's move to revoke john brennan's security clearance rippled across washington. the former c.i.a. director cast it as a disturbing power play. hemerote in "the new york tis" that it was "an attempt to scare others into silence who might dare to challenge him." the decision also divided senators, among them, republican lindsey graham of south carolina and democrat martin heinrich of new mexico. >> i think there was clearly an attempt here by the president to make his critics go away. and if that's his goal i do not think he will be successful. >> mr. brennan has gone way over the line in my view and i think restricting his clearance. pulling his clearanc mmakes sense

>> woodruff: brennan charged the president is trying to protect himself from potential damage in the russ investigation. and, in a "wall street journal"u interview, mr. himself linked his decision to the russia probe. we'll talk to a former top c.i.a. official after the news summary.s the presidenrmer adviser omarosa manigault newman is out with another secretly-made recording, and says it proves he tried to buy her silence. it was aired today on msnbc.um in it, lara the president's daughter-in-law, offers a campaign job, at $15,000 a month. but only providemanigault newman keeps any damaging information to herself. >> it sounds a little like, obviously, that there are some things you've got in the back pocket to pull out. clearly, if you come on board the campaign, like, we can't have, we got to... >> oh, god no. >> everything, everybody positive, right? >> woodruff: manigault newman says she made the recording days

heafter she was fired from white house, last december. in a written response, lara trump said she offered the job before learning of what she called manigault newman's "gross violations of ethicsnd integrity" the vatican says it feels shame and sorrow over sexual abuse documented in the pennsylvania church. a grand jury found some 1,000 chdren were molested by mo than 300 priests, over decades, and that the vatican helped cover it up. in a stateme vatican said the church "must learn hard lessons from its past". in genoa, italy, officials said today as many as 20 peop are still missing in tuesday's bridge collapse.to the deat is now 38. rescuers dug through the rubble again for a thy. and, dozens of residents had to evacuate homes near the bridge, fearing even more damage. >> ( translated ): i managed to

get some essentials. we don't live immediately under the bridge, we are about six ildings away but they evacuated us any way. we have to get some things but we don't know how long this will last. i hope i can return and get some other things. >> woodruff: italy is planning a onate funeral for the dead saturday. w a blook in afghanistan continued with yet another attack today. two gunmen afghan intelligence service compound in kabul. the shootout lasted for six hours before police killed the attackers. meanwhile, mourners buried victims of yesterday's suicide bombing that killed 34 shiite students. the islamic state group claimed responsibility for the attack. back in this country, new federal figures show 72,000 americans died from drug overdoses in 2017, up 10% from the year before. the centers for disease control and prevention said the increase is largely due to a sharp rise in deaths from synthetic opioids.

meanwhile, police in new haven, connecticut are trying to round up a bad batch of synthetic marijuana, after 76 people oversed in 24 hours. paramedics started responding to overdoses, starting weg,esday morninround a park near yale university. no one has died, but police have made three arrests. and, on wall street, stocks jumped on news that the u.s. and china said will hold new trade talk the dow jones industrial averagd gaearly 400 points, 1.5%, to close at 25,558. the nasdaq rose 32 points, and the s&p 500 added 22. still to come on the newshour: fallout from the president's decision to revoke the former c.i.a. director's security clearance. newspapers speak out about being labeled "fake news."e thst rebel strongholds in syria, and much more.

>> woodruff: former c.i.a. director john brennan might not be the only former national security official to have their serity clearance revoke by president trump. last night the president tweeted something he attributed to fox news host sean hannity. the president tweeted: "i'd strip the whole bunch of them. they're all corrupt. they've all abused their power. they've all betrayed the american people with a political agenda. they tried to steal and influence an election in the united states," at sean hannity. the president has threatened tor revoke the sy clearances of other former intelligence and national security officialscl ing bruce ohr, a career official at the department of justice. according to reports ohr's wife has done worfor fusion gps, the company that wrote the salacious report before the election about donald trump. so how does all this look to people who have served in the

intelligence community? for that we turn to john mclaughlin.he ad a career at the c.i.a. that spanned three decades. he served as acting director of the agency during the george w. bush administration. welcome back to te newshour. nk you, judy. >> woodruff: what do you make of president trump personally revoking the security clearance for jo hnennan? >> well, it's unprecedented. .hat's the first thing to say i think second i believe the president has crossed an important line here. he ha intimidated people before. he's called people names before, but this to me is fist tim he's used power that's uniquely hini to p and with the hope of intimidating an individual who opposes him and argues against him politically. i think that's a very bad sign.i i've seen movie before, and it is usually not in dem societies. it's something that people do, tyrants do, in count there is not free speech.

and john brennan is expressing his view. think it transcends john brennan. i don't think we should focus on john b so much. it doesn't matter what he says. assuming he's not cal flir insurrection and fire in a crowded theater, it's his right to express his point of view, whether he has a clearance or not has no bearing on that. >> woodruff: does it really not matter? is there no limit to what -- well, you said there are o limits. >> there are some limits obviously to free speech.>> oodruff: but what we know, john brennan accused the president of tre statements when he was with vladimir putin at that summit ie eving putin've the u.s. intelligence. just yesteay he made the mment or today in the "new york times" he wrote that he believes that in essence that the president did collude wih the russians to corrupt this last election. >> well, those aree his viws.

i think an it willically this is nnat he's concluded, ting the dots, if you will, to use that pase. the problem is there are procedures and process for revoking someone's clearance. 's written down in executive order. here it is. it's 26 pages. there are 13 resons given in here for reasons to revoke a security clearance. one of them is not having a vier that's cy to the president. one of them is not what the president accuses him of erratic behavior and so forth. john brean's behavior meets none of these criteria. he president can change this executive order looks at it. it was issued during his time in office. >> woodr doesn't have the authority to override that? >> he does. i'm not a lawyer, so you ma ty wacheck that opinion, but i've talked to attorneys about this. i bethe president has the power to override. this but that's another thing that makes this a bit uni it's one of the few times that he has chosen to override

established procedure to in this case inehink punish som who is politically at odds with him. >> woodruff: let me cite what the chairman or the chairman of the senate special select committee on intelligence, richard rr, republican of north carolina, said today. he issued a statement saying, you know, the comment by john brennan that the presidesu -- thestion that he did collude with the russians, he said if he knewhis before e left office, he should have, ith shoue been made public then. he said if he knew that he should have turned that over to the special counsel, to robert mueller. but he n goes say, and i'm going to quote, this if, however, director brennan's statement about collusion is purely political and based on conjecture, the president has the full authority to revoke his security clearance as head ofe thcutive branch. >> well, i have a lot of respect for senator burr's. un a very good committee, and i think in a non-partisan

way, but i would disagree with him on that point,nd that's my right in a democracy. i don't know the basis for john brennan's statements that he'sc made rtly, but i would gus, suspect, knowing him, that these are his judgments based on notfi clas intelligence or something he's withheld from someone, butil sim conclusions he's come to by what others have seen. he's not only the person saying that. and particularly the last point that you quoted, i would th.agree wi if he's making this statement ear i forget the words, for purely politicalns. >> woodruff: if it's purely political and based on conjecture. >> the implication is american citizens should not criticize the president based on pure political cnsiderations or conjecture, which by the way, is ten the definition of politics. so i think there's a big is involved here that someone has

to ferres -- feret out. in the end the worst thing the president can do is toeprive an american citizen of his or her rights. under the regulations, if someone were to pursue them, this is something that would a normally, whlearance is revoked, be considered in what are called administrative courts. >> woodruff: right. >> i don't know whether it will go to that point or not.uf >> woo let me ask you quickly about the significance of losing that clearance. you're a former government official. >> i am. >> woodruff: you have a security clearance >> i do. >> woodruff: what is the value of that? and what... does it matter if a former official is no longer in office and they lose... how mut doestter? >> i think it matters a great deal. i'll just take my personal . i participate voluntarily without pay in some c.i.a. ain programs. in 2009 and 2010 i was asked to come back into theovernment without pay for a period of

about six months whehre i caired a committee, a panel, if you will, that looked at the reasons th we had failed detect the terrorist attack on the united states, an attemptetack. you'll remember it, the christs bomber. we did that for sick months. we issued a report.as itighly classified. i couldn't have done it if i hadn't retained my clearance. that's one way in which the cleerntion --earance is important. you get called back to government, not just by the whesident or by the white house, but by someono is pursuing a terrorist or trying to figure amt what's going on with the iran nuclear pro you may have specialized knowledge. you may be in a better position thwh others to judgat they're concluding, to offer an opinion. it's useed inse ways. i want to disabuse your viewers of the ig ea that havcurity clearance means that i go home at night or one of us goes homet at nnd opens up a computer and reads classified information or, for that matter, goes into the c.i.a. or the n.s.a. or

somewhere and says, i'd like to read some classifie information. we don't do that typically. >> woodruff: it's only when you're invited in.h >> it'sen you're invited in and when there is a need for your view. >> woodruff: but your point is it's a valble thing to have, the information and the intelligence as a former official. >> that's my view. >> woodruff: john mclaughlin, former acting head of the c.i.a., long-time c.i.a. fiank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: another frequent target of the president's attacks is the media. today, more than 300 newspaper editorial boards took the extraordinary step of publishing a coordinated message: "a free press is central to our democracy and jo not the enemy of the state." it was sparked by a ca out

fromhe "boston globe." papers big and small across the country responded, including "the florida times union" in jacksonville.th were one of just two large- circulation daily papers to endorse then-candidate trump in 2016. and editorial page editor mike clark joins me now. mike clark, welcome to the news hour. why did you write this editorial today? >> well, we felt it's time for a truce between the psident and the news media. this war of words is not doing anybody any good. >> woodruff: you write that there's blame on both sides. explain that. >> well, president trump has diaen his attacks on the me to a new low, no doubt about it. but a lot ofhe media has fallen into his trap and taken thisn as war. and that doesn't help the general public when they're trying to determine what is right and what's wrong about the media.

if we just go to our ideological corners, people don't know what believe. >> woodruff: let's talk first for a moment, what is it about what the president has said that you think has inflamed this, if you will? >> well, the way he attacks the reporters on hs public appearances, it actually is kind of scary. i'm afraid it's going to lead to violence against the people who are actually covering him. snd this this phrase "the enemy of the people"omething that is losing all context. it's like we're illegal immigrants. i know there's a few good ones out there. i mean, so his attacks are hurting all of u. >> woodruff: i'm reminded of your comment, cbs correspondent lesley stahl had. she said when she interviewed then-president-elect donald trump why he was so critical of

the med. he was asked why she was so mean about the media. he said, i do it toiscredit the media. >> he's not the first one to do that. charlie sykes in his book talked about how the conservative media has managed to smear the entire news media universe so a lot of conservatives don't believe anything they hear out of the haws media. sos the general public supposed to think when they see something? at's rally dangerous t our democracy when the information universe has been poised. >> woodruff: what do you think needs to be done? you say in this editorial today that there'sork to be doe now on both sides. >> well, i used to be a newspaper ombudsman for 15 years. letsink the major media out that have some revenue need to reappoint ly budsmeno take -- to do a little soul-searching to look at how they're doing. i think though it was said the

first 100 days of the trump information set a new standard for unfav press coverage for the president. the news media needs to do some desoul-searching on their at the same time, the president needs to lower the rhetoric. maybe we can find somebody to do some mediation between the two. >> woodruff: why does this matter so much? why do you thi it's important that we address this right now, mike cla? >> the founding fathers said this a republic depends on anur information that allows the people to know who they'reo electing andthey can trust their information. and ife th information source itself is tainted, then the whole republic is at risk. >> woodruff: and the trust on the part of the public of the news media? how important is that? >> well, we're hearing now from people from both sides of the spectrumhat are goi to their respective corners. theye only trusting their particular favorite media.

and that's not going to work when we have some big issues that require all of us to worker toge we need to have some common ground on information, and righ now weot even agreeing on basic facts anymore.f: >> woodrell, it is a fraught time, no question. arday a remarkable thing to see so many newspapernd the country, including yours, editorializing about it. mike clark, with "the floridaun timeon," thank you very much. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: what happens to immigrant children once they have been released fromve ment custody? the u.s. senate has been asking that question. lisa djardins reports members of both parties were not intisfied with the answers.

>> desjardins: tg the oath, four top staffers for trcip cabinet ag responsible for immigration. >> i'm frustrated. and i think you can hear the frustratn here. a desjardins: and sharply questioning them. senators from both parties, ouncerned the agencies are failing a massive of immigrant children. >> desjardins: at issue is the group of children known as unaccompanied minors. just in u.s. has seen more than 200,000 unaccompanied minors-- kids arriving illegally by themselves-- without parents or guardians. this does include the smaller kids recently separated from parents. they are initially in the custody of the health and human services department, then the agency places the vast majority with temporary sponsors inside the u.s., often, but not always family members. last night, the senate homeland security committee released a three-year investigation finding that once the kids are with sponsors-- no agency, no one in the federal government is keeping track of them. jonathan white oversees child reunification for h.h.s. via what's called the office of refugee resettlement, or o.r.r.

he said it is not their responsibility. >> h.h.s. does not presently have the authority to exercise supervision or oversight of reildren who are not in the physical custody of o.r.r. he certainly does not have appropriations. >> desjardins: senators in both parties balked. ohio senator rob portman >> we believe you do have that authority. missouri's claire mccaskill. >> this would be a huge scandal in all our of states. this is about the fourth or fifth time that no one seems to be wored about fact that you all get to wash your hands of these children. >> desjardins: meantime, h.h.s. is not notifying state governments about these children. white sa finding contacts.le >> there are very real concerns. >> there is not! every state has child welfare agency. >> desjardins: the hearing and report painted a picture of agencies working for greater immigration enforcement failing to follow-up on thousands of

y.documented children moving through their cu some insist the law only requires the government monitor the kids in their custody, not with sponsors. in a joint statement, h.h.s., the department of homeland securi and the department of justice said the senate report was "misleading." and "the report demonstrat fundamental misunderstandings of senators insisted they will return to this issue.fo r the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> oodruff: iraqi jets today launched an air strike against isis fighters inside of syria, where the u.s. is on the ground partner forces trying t finish off the islamic state. the wider war inside syria has been raging for seves. but bashar al assad's army is preparing for what could be the war's final major battle. nick schifrin has that story. s ifrin: the horror of

syria's war has felt endless. half a million dead. millionsisplaced. but the battlefield has shifted dramatically.at take a loohis map. september 30, 2015, the day russia intervene the syrian government, in red, controlled pockets across the west. isis controlled a spiderweb in the nter and east. and this is today. the syrian government, in red, has made dmatic progress. isis, in black, reduced to a small area. anti-government bels, in green, only have a few pockets. the most important is idlib. that is the likely last, major battle of the syrian war the yellow is kurdish controlled. take a look at these photos from the kurdish area: a syrian ther named batool with her baby, and batool with gayle tzemach lemmon, who just returned from the kurdish- controlled areas, and joins us w. she is an adjunct senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. and also joining me is paul salem, president of the middle east institute, and the author, most recently, of "from chaos to cooperation: toward regional

order in the middle east."u thank you both. paul salem, let me turn to you. why is idlib so important? >> well, as you said, idlib is the last of thebastions partly with the opposition and partly with terrorists group. idlib is the only major remaining place where there are several tens of thousands of opposition fighters. some are terrorist groups as well as turkish-backed troops, syrianrmy rebel groups. right now the city and the province of idlib, which holdsre anywrom 2.5 to 3.5 million civilians is the last remaining sort of location the assad regime and the russians and the iranians want to resol that last hold-out i idlib one way or the oth soo because that would basically conclude much of the syrian war. the risk is that the fighting,to were icome down to a military fight, would be even move horrific than we'een so

far and might push hundreds of thousands of refugees back on the march either through turkey or through otr places. >> schifrin: gayle tzemachta lemmone us to the kurdish area in the northeast where you've seen a lot of plem. >> absolutely. che closer you get to raqqa, the more you see l arab forces. i think the story of batool, the mother you showed, embraces and embodies the horror and the hope of this conflict. the horror in that here is a mom who walked out of raqqa city when we met her one year agoa eight anlf months pregnant and gave birth to a baby that's two kilos. >> that's four and a half pounds. >> and had a very serong cha of dying. her mother thought she was going to die. when we met her, she was tal about how she did not want to give birth to a baby in isis-controlled territory, and it is why she gae her whole life savings to a smuggler who made her, put her familyn a

convoy with five other cars. fifth car exploded as it dove over an isis-placed landmine. basically what we see today iso this mothee year later who has, you know, a baby that is really healthy and chunky and happy. all her kids are in school. and she talked to us one year lateer from when we first met her about howha she reallys hope for the future. and what she believes is n possib is to have a basic level of security for syrians to be able to rebuild their future and what she ass for wa the international community to remain present there in th e region. >> you also saw the opening of a qa.an's council in raq i think we have video of that, as well. is there a real sense that what was thheadquarters of isist one point has really turned a corner for good. >> it is fascinating, nick, right? on streets were women were bought and sold, we went to this event this past week, where you iw dancing and men and women and a lot of wom interviewed

from raqqa, who tlked about how they had never been outside the home, working or volunteering, prior to isis. and what you really see, what i saw this trip, and in the three othetrips i've made in the past year, is arab women who are really saying, listen, they f pushed us r. and our families now support us to be part of local cncils, to be part of local security, one woman i met was a shopkeeper who just opened a pajama shop in raqq and she said, you know, business has been slow at the outsg . it's start pick up. so i almost packed up my bags and went home, but my father told me that he really believes that i should ke at this and be part of rebuilding the economy and helping our family. an you hear thert story ovnd over again. >> schifrin: paul salem, i wonder if, as we're about to see perhaps the last major bat the war, has the underlying reasons for why you've beeno seeinguch work the last seven years been changed? >> what's particularly tragic out the syria situation is

that the cause of the terrible government repression, you know, torture and all of that, an economy that was veraly unen how it distributed wealth, all of that has n gotch worse, and yet syria has not gotten closer, maybe it's gotten further from a political. settleme so whereas obviously getting rid of isis is the blessing of untold proportions, but the road ahead for syria for manrsy yea is going to be very difficult. first of all, the war itself, you know, has ended in some areas, but much of t discontent, many of the armed small groups are still there. it might come back in different forms here or there. the president,he government does not have legitimacy. there are no credible elections comingorward. there's no negotiation. >> schifrin: and gayle tzemach

lemmon, in the time we have left, whathid you hear ine northeast? did you hear a desire to maintain from the u.s perspective presence in that area? >> absolutely. i think what you hear fromer ody is two things. one is first a question: can you tell us what the americans are going to do? the second thing is people stating a desire, and this is moms and dads, shopkeepers along with u.s. forces actually, saying, look, we really do think e international presence is helping to really keep a level of stability and security that allows schools to open, people to go back out on to thet, str allows stores to begin to come back to life.th and nk we have spent so much time in washington talking about what the united states is not capable of, and here in northeast syria, you actually have an example of what u.s.h leadership w partner force that is able to both take the lamp and also to hold it with local rces, is able to do for moms and dads. i don't think we talk enoughat about is actually happening

there on the ground, which is a storof forward-moving progress amid destruction and amid the devastation of war and of isis.> chifrin: gayle tzemach lemmon, paul salem, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you, nick. >> woodruff: now, economics correspondent paul solman looks at a market trading in a commodity too precious to put a price on. the paired-organ exchange allows living kidney dono who are not a match with their intended recipient to network with others who are. it's this week's insmallment of oung sense economic series. look how pretty, rob. >> reporter: rob and melanie melillo's 21st wedding anniversary. a bit less dramatic than their 20th. >> he got a piece of steak stuck in his throat, and he looked at me with this face and i did the heimlich, and i said to him i

just saved your life. twice.or >> repr: once from choking. >> you lucky dog. >> c'mon. >> reporter: the second time,r, howeve is still to come-- to save rob from a hereditary disease that's destroying his kidneys, and forced him, last august, to join 100,000 other americans on a waiting list for a kidney from a deceonor. how long did they say you would probably have to wait? >> when they first listed me i was at three to five years. now i went for my one year checkup d they said it got bumped to four to seven years. hi reporter: evethough, in this last year, health has continued to decline, making it harder and harder for him to keep working as plumber. g. about four hours worth of work and i'm dragg >> reporter: mel gie was ready e one of her kidneys to rob. >> i said i'd give it if i could. the nurse said well you can. >> reporter: but, it turned out, not to rob directly ... >> give me that jog in place! >> reporter: at age 47, this fitness instruct has kidneys

that support a body able to run rings around the rest of us. problem is, melanie is a type a, blood type, that is, meaning she can only donate a kidney to meone with type a or type ab blood. but rob is type o, meaning he can receive a kidney only from someone with type o blood. the key to this story, however, is that even though rob's body would reject melanie's kidney, they learned that economics has come up with a way that she can donate for him. >> sometimes you're healthygh eno give a kidney but you can't give it to the person you love, and this is what opens up the possibility of exchange.or >> rr: it's a process called paired exchange, and economist al roth won a nobel prize for coming up he idea more than a decade ago: a market for kidneys, but non- cash, since buying and selling organs is illegal everywherecen the world iran. a simple kidney exchange is between two incompatible patiena donos, so at the top here

we have a donor who would like to give to a recipient but can't beuse they have incompatib b ood types and on the bottom we have a blood typnor who can't give to a blood type a recipient but they could exchange with each other. >> reporter: what roth and his am realized: the bigger the market, that is, the more pairs on the list, the greater the chance of an exchange. >> so turns out that in the united states we have people who want to give someone a kidneyn' and have a particular person in mind and that's actually important. we've learned how to use them to start chains of transplants where they give to a patient donor pair and the donor in that pair gives to someone else who gives to someone else gives to someone else long chains of transplants and that's enormously effective. >> reporter: the minute rob and melanie melillo heard about an exchange market, they signed up at their local hospital, westchester medical center, north of new york city. after months of physical exams, and for melanie, psychological testing, they were approved.

>> so we were told thae it's an aver four to six months you wait. >> reporter: hey, a startling improvement on four to seven years for a deceased donor organ. problem is, finding a kidney for rob hasn't been as easy as anticipated. x>> we've been on it for months and we haven't heard anything. >> reporter: so how frustrating is it th it's been six months and nothing's happened yet? >> very. they run the paired exchange list every monday, and tuesday we would find out. and every tuesday sort of wait for the phone to ring. te reporter: waiting for word from unos, the unetwork for organ sharing, that they've found an o don for rob. but why is that such a problem? half t >> because someone who has blood type o can donate to anybody. >> reporter: that's rob's would- be surgeon at westcheste thomas diflo. >> so it's unlikely to have a pair where the donor is o and the recipient is something else.

w>> so if she was an o, ild not be on the exchange list because i would just get her kidney. >> reporter: that's why someone with blood type o is called a universal donor. but maybe type o's shouldn't automatically give a kidney to their partner, says transplant expert marie morgievich, and why she tries to convince pairs with an o donor to enter an exchangen ead, enlarging the pool of available organs. >> for example, we could match your recipient with a younger aged kidney or improved proteino match kidney o other variable that could help them statistically get a longer life from that transplant. and you have the option of assisting another pair or pairs that are incompatible receive transplant. >> it'the value of playing together. >> reporter: economist nikhil agwal studies the kidney paired exchange market. >> imagine that you have a marketplace where all people who are willing to trade various types of goods collectnd they come to the same place to conduct transactions.

you might be able to find some rare transactions that you wouldn't otherwise be ableo do. >> reporter: and first thing i learned in economics was the whole poinis to make as many trades as you can possiblythake because 's what a market's for. >> every time you make a trade you end up transplanting o more patient. >> reporter: don't make a trade, and one more person goes, or remains, on dialysis. >> okay, here goes nothing. >> reporter: dialys takes over the job of filtering toxins from the blood. it saves lives, but at a cost-- and not just $100,000 annual tab, which is paid by medicare. as dialysis patient jairo acevedtold us in a recent story: >> they say that for every year at you spend in this machine you lose five years of your life expectancy.or >> rr: and, with no paired exchange partner, he's been on asalysis for seven years, waiting for a de donor kidney. rob and melanie, on the brink of rob's needing dialysis, are

desperate to avoid it. >> we showed up at the transplant center after having rob's monthly doctor's appointment with his nedrologist and basically s you have to help us. and that's when she said there were other lists, other paired exchange lists to get on. >> reporter: other lists? the melillos say they only knew about unos. >> you don't know the questions you're supposed to ask if you don't know. we didn't know to ask is this the only list, are there other lists. >> reporter: now westchester does mention "other paired exchange programs" near the ende of an eight-onsent form the hospital says it reviews verbally with all patients before they sign. but the melillos say it was only when they knew to ask, nearly a year into the process, that westchester told them about two other major exchanges: the registry, neither of which the hospital participates in. >> i understand, you know, it's a business.

that's what it is at the end of the day. t his life is in the balance. our lives are in the balance. >> reporter: the economic point: more exchanges, larger markets more potential matches. and it turns out there's a hospital in new jersey that paalrticipates ithree exchanges: saint barnabas medical center, with one of they largest kiransplant programs in the country. nephrologist shamkant mulgaonkar. >>leo we participate in mult registries and difficult patients. we put them in multiple if you have an incompatible doger in an exchange the ave time is somewhere between six months to a couple of years. so you will get transplanted aso long as have a living donor. >> reporter: but it sure isn't easy. >> doing one exchange transplanm is significante work than doing a donor directly to a recipient that they're compatible with. >> rorter: again, saint barnabas's marie morgievich. >> really 100 people within the hospital at any one time are helpg achieve that success.

>> can you raise your hand if you're a donor. raise your hand if you're a recipit. >> reporter: but it's paying off for the members of a saint barnabas chain featured on the today show in june. 27 transplants and counting. so the melillos took their business to saint barnabas, hoping they'd found a marketplace big enough for melanie to give, and for rob to receive in return. anthlast week, less than a m after this taping, they were told that saint barnabas has matched them with another couple where the husband, who needs a kidney, is type a, like melanie, and the wife, who's willing to give a kidney, is type o like rob. the surgeries may happen by the end of august. >> happy anniversary. >> happy anniversary. ve reporter: and with the e kidney exchange markets, hopefully many m come. this is economics correspondent paul solman reporting for the pbs newshour.

>> woodruff: a legd is gone. aretha franklin died today at the age of 76. her doctor said the caus cwas pancreatcer. one of the best-selling ofsical artistll times, she sold over 75 million records worlide. franklin was showered with honors over the years and i was fortunate to be at one of them, three years ago, with p late newshotner and co-anchor gwen ifill, when we emceed an event at the national portrait gallery. here now is part of the interview gwen recorded with her that night, and a look at her amazing legacy. there is only one aretha franklin. (cheering and applause) and so it was fitting that "the queen of soul" was honored with the first portrait of america award and this painting that

hangs in the national portrait gallery. >> we were ladies and gentlemenn and we w overnight stars. it was gradual. and, for me, i just try ou keep my heaof the clouds, keep my feet on the ground. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ f >> woodrufnklin was honored not only for her soul singing but for jazz, ck, pop, classical and gospel a. aretha franklin grew up in detroit, along with other music ndicons like the four tops smokey robinson. throughout her life, she remained very faithful to the city, which had given birth to motown.

in 1960, at e age of 18, she went to new york city to be courted by several labels including motown and rca, ultimately sning with columbia records which released the alb"" aretha" in 1961. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ six years later ,backed by recorded the single "i never loved a man the way i love you"" when the albumf the same name was released, the first song" respeco" reached number one r bo and pop charts, winning f aretha hst two grammys.

franklin's chart dominion soon earned her the title "queen of soul" and she ba symbol of black empowerment during the nevil rights movement. performing at the l of dr. martin luther king in 1968, spurred by mahalia jackson's death, franklin returned to her ♪ ♪ musical origins for the 1972 album "amazing grace." but that decade saw her career slip before returning to the top of the charts in the eighties to with an album featuring "freeway of love." ♪ we going ding on a freeway going to love in my pink cadillac ♪ s inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame in 1987 as the first female. she was invited to sing at the

inauguration of presiden 1bill clinton 3, and barack obama's in 2009. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ in 2005, she received the nation's highest civilian honor: the presidential medal of freedom. and here she was at the 2015 kennedy center honors, in typical aretha fashion in a full length fur, paying tribute to carole king, drawing a tear om president obama. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ne a capso her career was an invitation to perform for pope francis when he visited philadelphia in 2015. gwen sat down that fal franklin to talk about her life and work. >> ifill: tell me, how do you think of yourself? >> a lady next door. >> ifill: but nobody thinks of you that way, none of your fans, none of the people in that room tonight. >> sure.

yes, yes. >> ifill: they think of you as much more than that. >> well, no, they don't see me in that setting, right. ifill: yes. so, then, how do you handle the weight of the diva-ness of this all? t because, i meare's a little bit of that in you. t'u have a lot of flair. >> i love to sing.just a natural thing for me. >> ifill: so, is part of you,ys you know, aloing to be reverend c.l. franklin's daughter? >> absolutely.a >> ifill: i'm eacher's kid, too, so i... >> i knew you-- p.k., okay. >> ifill: but i am a p.k. but i don't sing quite like you. >> oh, well, we don't all sing. (laughter) have other gifts. >> yes, you have other gifts. >> ifill: i want to ask you abt that, because one of t things that comes up with people who are immensely successful about what they choose is what brought out the success, who urged you, or who didn't stop you. >> well, my mentor was clara ward of the famous ward gospel singers of philadelphia. and my dad was my coach. he coached me.

and just my natural love for music is what drove me. >> ifill: but when did you cross the line from gospel to pop? >> i didn't oss the line. gospel goes with me wherever i go. gospel is a constant with me. >> ifill: so when people hear you sing... >> so, i just broadened my musil horizons. >> ifill: yes. so when people hear you sing" pink cadillac," there's gosl in that? >> no. so... (laughter) no, that's secular. >> ifill: that's secular. >> that is secular, yes. >> ifill: will you ever consider opping? >> no, not ever, no. i'm not ever going to retire. that's-- that wouldn't be good, for one, just to go and sit down and do nothing. please. no, that's not moi. >> ifill: it's not moi. >> that is not moi. (laughter) ♪ ♪ ♪oo >>uff: aretha franklin last performed in her hometown of detroit in june of 2017. thousands showed up at an

outdoor festival where she ended her concert with a plea to "keep me in your prayers." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ for more on who aretha franklin was and what she meant, i am joined by chris richardsitmusic for the "washington post." and grace bury, an american opera singer, who now lives in europe.t she fit aretha franklin in 1978, when they both performed at the first kennedy center honors program here in washington. they remained close friends ever since. she joins us from vienna, austria. an we welcome both of you to the newshour. grace bumbry, toe ou see first. sorry for the loss of your friend. what did aretha franklin mean to you personally? >> well, you know, aretha was five years younger than i, but we had one thing in common, and

that was marian anderson. so that was ouinr juoff point. then came many other things, many other psonal things. you know, she did not like to ey. i don't think shver flew at all. i even invited her to my home in switzerland, and she said she would like to come, but unfortunately she said sh can quite make those airplane flyings. but the thing that it liked abou her and loved about her, what we had in common was our love of i music, anhink the love of perfection. aretha was more of a musician than people giveer credit for. and this is because... the reason i say that is because she can sing and took advantage e of ct that she could sing opera. i remember one time she even stepped in for luciano pavarotti when he stepped out of a performance of nessun dorma. no one wanted totake it except

aretha. she hopped in and said she would do it. who else would have the nerve to do that? no one except someone who was a grand opera buff. and she did it beautifully. >> woodruff: and cliff richards, that says somethingnk about aretha fn. she could cross from rock and pop to gospel and even opera. what was it about her voice, her music? >> when we're talking about the most influential singers of the 20th centulk, we're tag about aretha franklin. we're talking about the most pivot voice i another say. u can divide american popular music into before and after hert the thing abous it waso able tovey so much emotion in the voice, able to put so much feeling, to be able to loan sodifferent notes into a single syllable. she had this incredible ability rface her humanity. i think it's made her a legend, end it's part of the air w breathe now, it's so influential. sie way we sing at karaoke night, the way weg at our community talent shows. not jusnct bé, the way we

sing as people has so much to do oith aretha franklin. >> may i sayething to that point? the point is that she always spoke the words. it was about text. it was about soul. it was about feelings. this is whri i t to importy upon mudents. you have to listen to people like aretha franklin. they can give you so much. they tell you so much. it goes to the heart, the heart is what's important, not just a beautiful technical way of singing. and aretha showed the world how she could sing and what it meant to her to be able to sing that well, to give the aud know, for me singing is about communicatio it's like communicating with the people sitting in that auditoum. d she knew that, and she worked on it and she showed the whole world what it meant to be a great singer. >> woodruff: and chris richard, you could almost hear her heart when she sang. you were also telling me that she took control of her career. she wasn't passive entertainer.

>> right. she's an incredible arranger of these songs, even when she was covering a seasoning like respect. she was able tontrol those arrangements. she was an incredible pianory player, uch in control of the muse thank she made. then she was very in control of her career. in the studio she had a lot of great cole laborators. de incredible muse wick curtis mayfield and luther vandr s. as luther van dross said, she was running the show in a lot of way, a commanding personality who had incredible control, not only over her voice but her eartd. >> woodruff: grace bumbry, she did have a somewhat difficult childhood. h her mother ler family when she was very young. did that shape her in some way? >> well, i woue ld imaghat shaped her tremendously. the loss of your mother new york -- your mother no matter from which angle and the fact she had to stand up and take

over. i think that's why you have that deep longing in her sound. ere's a sound that nody else has except for aretha. that's because of that in. you know, you get special sounds through negative situations. but i remember when i lost my mother, and it was very difficult. the voice changes. the voice changes. it's an otional change in you life. gd for aretha to have lost her mother so early oes without saying that it changed her. it made a big difference to her sound. not on aly negativelier bso positively. it made the sound that she had. >> woodruff: just finally, chris richards, what would you y her influence is if it's possible to put it into words? >> sure. the yearng that ms. bumbry just mentioned, that became america's yearning. her music broke through at the height of the civil rights

movement. it became a soundtrack for that. it became the soundtrack for feminism. after this it became e sound of t virtue use america that we want. we don't have equality for women. weon't have equality for people of color that. yearning is in aretha franklin's mucken we hear it not ony in her singing but in the singing that's all around us today. i think that's a beautiful thing. >> woodruff: chris richards with the "washington post."bu gracry joining us from vienna. the operatic great. bry.k you, miss bum thank you mr. richards. >> it's my pleasure. thank you very much. >> woodruff: we're so grateful to both of them and wonderful to remember our own gwen ifill tonight with her ivit from three years ago. that's the newshour tonight. join us and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. newshour, thank you and see you soon.

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narrator: australia, one of the mosmulti-cultural countries on earth. a nation of immigrants but for 50,000 years, it was the very opposite-- a home to an ancient people cut off from the rest of humanity. they were sosolated, they could have gone extinct. so how did they beat the odds and survive? or eske willerslev: iginal australians are o direct descendanthe first modern human explorers. john hawks: once humans reached australia, there was little, if any, contact with the rest of the world. they were really in it by themselves. man: with modernay science, we can find out my ancestral background.