captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, president trump plays defense against suggestions that he is implicated in the crimes of a formociates michael cohen and paul manafort. as supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh makes the rounds in the u.s. senate, we begin a look at his record on key issues. then, a college student murdered, and authorities say the main suspect is in the country illegally. republicans seize the moment to advocate for tougher immigration policies. plus, why companies tting their profits back into stocks instead of raising employee wage >> if they took all the money that they spent on stock buybacks and instead invested it in raises fotheir workers, mcdonald's, they could have given each of their workers $4000 more.

>> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newour. >> major funding for the pbs wshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular believes that wireless plans should reflect the amount of talk, text and data that you use. we offer a variety oirno- contractess plans for people who use their phone a little, a lot, or anything in between. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> babbel. sa language app that teac real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century.

>> carnegie rporation of new rk. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. carnegie.org. h >> and we ongoing support of these institutions: and individual >> this program was made possible by the corporatron for publiccasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: president trump spent much of today defending himself from the falut following convictions this week of both his former personal lawyer and his former campaign chairman.

striking back, mr. trump took aim at some nofamiliar targets. j as ttice department and special counsel robert mueller continue their probe into russian interference in the 2016 election, the president took aim at his attorney general. >> i put in an attorney general that never took control of the justice department, jeff sessions. never took control of the justice department. and it's a-- sort of anle incredhing. >> woodruff: sessions fired back tement, writing: "i took control of the department of justice the day i was sworn in. wham attorney general, the actions of the department of justice will not bueimproperly ined by political considerations." the waof words is set against the backdrop of a week's worth of court appearances, guilty pleas and convictions ofe confidantes clto mr. trump. in the latesnetwist, multiple outlets report that federal prosecutors have granted legal immunity to david pecker, the

chairman of american media inc., the "national enquirer's" parent company. in exchange, pecker, a longtime friend of the president, will reportedly provide information about hush money paid by president trump's foer torney michael cohen to silence two women from disclosing alleged affairs with mr. trump. on tuesday, cohen pleaded guilty to several crimes including making illegal campaign butions at the direction of mr. trump. the presidt insisted again today that he is not implicated. >> they got cohen on totally unrelated to the campaig i'm not involved. i wasn't charged with anything. you know, pele don't like to y that, but i wasn't charged. >> woodruff: he criticized cohen's guilty plea, referred to it as flipping, operating with osecutors, something, he said, that "almost ought to be" illegal. but he said he had "great respect" for his former campaign chairman paul manafort, who was

convicted of eight counts of tax and bank fraud. one of the jurors in manafort's weeks-long trial told fox news there was a single holdout juron who prevented imous verdict of conviction on ten other deadlocked charges. para duncan, a trump suppor who says she kept her "make america eat again" hat in her car every day, voted to convict. >> the pubc, america, need to know how close this was. and the evidence was overwhelming. i did not want paul manafort to ndbe guilty, but he was, ao one is above the law. >> woodruff: at the white house today... >> president trump, are you going to pardon paul manafort? >> woodruff: ...the president didn't respond to reporters' questions whether he would grant manafort a pardon. and several leading republicans, ahcluding south carolina senator

lindsey , have warned mr. trump against that action. and the "new york times" reported other republicans are telling vulnerable g.o.p. incumbents to speak out, with oklahoma representative tom cole saying, "where there's smoke, and th there may well be fire." in the day's other news, white shouse and kremlin offici appeared to be at loggerheads over russia's interference in american elections. the president's ational securiiser, john bolton, said he raised the issue repeatedle meeting in geneva with his russian counterpart, nikolai patrushev, to no avail. nt>> we might have had a j statent but i felt it was important to mention election meddling which we raiseds number of tiring these consultations today whh lasted a little bit over five hours. but we were not able to reach agreement on that.

i made it clear that we wouldn't tolerate meddling in 2018 an that we were prepared to take necessary steps prevent it from happening. woodruff: moments later, patrushev told reporters that bolton did not accuse russia of election interference during their talks. patrushev did say the two agreed to re-open foreign and defense ministry communications.go le announced today it has uncovered a misinformation campaign connect to iran and its state media. the tech giant terminated 39 youtube channels, six blogs on blogger and 13 google plus accounts. tashat comehe democratic national committee says ante ted hack they reported yesterday was a false alarm. what the d.n.c. thought could bw foreign meddli actually the democratic party of michigan running a test of voter file security protections. they did not alert the d.n.c. ahead of time. a former employee of the national security agency,

accused of leaking classified information, was sentenced to more than five years in prison today. 26-year-old reality winner expressed remorse for copying material from the n.s.a. and sending it to the left- leaning news wsite "the intercept" in 2016. the leaked rept contained information about russian attempts to break in voting software in the u.s., all of which was later confirmed to be true. the 63-month sentence is the longest ever given for a federal crime in leaking to the media. the british government advised businesses today to make plans now in case it is not able to reach a trade agreement with the european union. without a deal, residents in the u.k. could face higher credit card fees, new customs checks and medicine shortages when it's expected to leave the e.u. in seven months. in london, the newly appointed brexit minister, dominic raab,id his is a precautionary approach.

>> it's not what we expect. but, we must be ready. so let me reassure you all thata co to one of the wilder claims, you will still be able to enjoy a b.l.t. after brexit. and there are no plans to deploy the army to maintain food supplies. >> woodruff: specifically, the british government asked drugmakers to stockp medicines for six weeks aboverm operations and called for medicines with short shelf-lives to be flown into the country. u.s. secretary of stke pompeo named a special representative to north korea today. stephen biegun will leave his job at the ford motocompany. he worked in the george w. bush white house as the executive secretary for the nati security council, and later as a national security adsor to former senate majority leader bill frist. biegun will join pompeo on a kip to north korea next w for ongoing nuclear negotiations. president trump sparked a diplomatic row with south africg

after accuhe government of seizing land from white farmers. the present said on twitter that he'd asked secretary of state pompeo to "study the south africa land and farm seizures." 's government said the tweet is "based on false information." the country's land reform program is meant to reverse apartheid-era policies that stripped blacks of their land. the anti-defamation league today said the president had repeatedg a tanding and false white supremacist claim.aw ini, heavy rains inundated the islands as residents braced for the arrival of their first hurricane since 1992. forecasters said hurricane lane dis slowed down and is not projected to make ct hit. but flash flooding and landslides are a major threat. the full force of the storm is expected to t tonight, but aftereffects will last for days. >> this system is going to be

with us for the next four or five days, continuing to bring winds tohe islands, to bring large surf, as well as the torrential rains that we've talked about >> woodruff: weather forecasters expect over 30 inches of rain to falln some areas and surf of 20 feet. california republican congressman duncan hunter and his wife pleaded not guilty today to charges they illegally used campaign money for personal expenses. on tuesday, an indictment alleged the g.o.p. lawmker and his wife $ spe0,000 on golf, meals, and dentist appointmentsc hunter hled the charges politically motivated. ohio state university's football coach will sit out the first three games of the season after an investigation found heh dled domestic violence accusations against a staff member. the report said urban meyer did not take proper steps to alert the school of abuse allegations against his assistant coach.me r apologized at a news conference last night, saying he

"should have done more." he was suspended without pay for six weeks. on wall street today, ks closed slightly lower. the dow jones industrial average lost 76 points to close at 25,657. the nasdaq fell 10 points to close at 7878. the s&p 500 dropped nearly five points. ouill to come on the newsh the supreme court nomineugbrett kavanah courts votes in the senate. why president trump has been focusing on a college student's murder. china's ambitious program to make it a global leader in tech, and ch more. >> woodruff: it is one of the biggest decisions a president can make-- andss than two weeks, mr. trump's pick for the supreme court will face a contentious confirmation hearing. in the run-up, brent kavanaugh

has been making the rounds, meeting with senators to court their support. we want to take a look at where he stands on key issues in question. tonight, we begin with the most politically charged: abortion. here to help walk us through his record and what he has said to senators, our capitol hill correspondentli desjardins. and joan biskupic, a supreme court birapher and an analyst for cnn. hello to both of you. so it looks as if judge ca kavanaugh has been busy in the last few weeks. what do we know about what he's been say himself to them about his record on abortion? >> today he had six meetings alone. i think the peon who best described what he's been telling senators on abortion is susan collins. she met wh him tuesday. let's listen to what she said he told her.

>> we talked about whether he considered roe v wade to be settled law. he said he agreed with what justice reports said at his nomination hearing in which he said that it was settled law. >> this seems to be a mantra of supreme court nominees and it's something kavanaugh is sticking to. we hear democrats and republicans alike say this is whll he's teing them. >> woodruff: hearing this i what are most democrats saying? la they say it doesn't matter if it's settled the question is whether he's willing to overturn it. uck schumer said it's settled unl it's su sun settled. we ao hear democrats pointing to justice gorsuch who used the same standard saying he saw roe assetled law, but democrats like chris kountze today pointed out gorsuch voted to overturn a 197m

su court case about labor law. t gorsuch did vo overturn that, so democrats are concerned that, whether it's settled law, these justices could be willing to overturn them. >> woodruff: joan biskupic, you as somebody who's been altching the no nomination processes, first o when a nominee speaks about something being settled law, is that something we take to the bank? >> no. (laughter) nds nice, it is nice and justices -- judicial nominees repeatedly say it, but it's just sort of stating the obvious, frankly, that if you have a precedent from 1973, which is whenoe v wade made abortion legal nationwide, of course it's settled, and then in 1992 the court reaffirmed that. but as lismentioned, the supreme court has overturned precedent, four-decade-old precedent. >> woodruff: right. and i think what he's doing

we've seen through the years is a nominee sort of trying out some lines. when he meets with a senmiator, t experiment with what would be said, and we can see howin susan coreceived that quite positively. it was interesting h he referred to chief justice john reports because chief justice john roberts talked about the importance of precedence and ofb roe v wang settled, and one of the senators who questioned him in 2005 said i don't want to talk about individual cases that might come up and, just for the record, we have two rulings on abortion from chief justice john roberts, one 2007 and then more recentlyh e he did undercut the right. >> woodruff: let's talk a little bit because you have ben looking closely at this, you and other journalts poring over judge cav nog's, first of all, rulings. what has he written in opinions that tell us anything abo view on reproductive rights?

>> sure. well, judy, he sits on the u.s. court of appeals for the d.c. circuit which usually doesn't handle these kindsf individual right, but he did rule last october, a young pregnant migrant who crossed the border was being held in detention and the trump administration did not want the allow her to gethe abortion she wanted immediately. he desent from the -- disented from the majority on the court that said, no, trump administration, you'retiut an undue burden on this young woman and ruled in a way that allowed r to have the adooring's, he dissented saying the government has an intereste. in fetal l he did not say he would overturn roe, he said roe was settled law, but stressed it wouldn't have been a burden on this woman to have paid and got an sponsor, the government was right to make her wait and consider it.

>>oodruff: this is something democratic senators in particular have been talking isout? >> right, i think s a big issue for everyone and i think, when you look at the lay of the land, three democratic senators are key votes here. the margin in the senate isy close and these three senators voted for justice neil gorsuch so we're watching them carefully. on abortion all three senators have states that either have an abortion trigger law so if roe v wade was oved,rtur automatically abortion would be illegal in their state, north dakota with heitkamp, or wo west virginia there's a ballot measure thad say abortion sill legal in the state. so there are conservative leading states on abortion, but talking to their office, it's interesting, they are saying they're getting more pressure from their voters on other things. heitkamp says hers areo wrried about tariffs and others say the pressure is not on ca kavanaught

trump himself. >> woodruff: what has kavanaugh written in articles and said in speeches about roe v wade that we can glean something? >> he has talked about his judicial heros, the first wen he was a young law student was former chief justice william rehnquist, and he cited rehnquist's dissent in roe v wade. back in 1973 -- >> woouff: opposing the majority. >> right. again, he did not say i agree with it, but he was holding him up as a hero and has done the nime with the late justice anschiia also an opponent of abortion rights. i think what we'll see on september 4 when the hearings begin is a man who expresses regard for precedent, talks about what's settled, talks erout how it's a jolt, as chief justice john ro had said, to society when precedent is overrud, but i think once he gets up there in a lifetime

position, all bets are off. >> woodruff: but there's little doubt that they will be asking him abo those two things, the case about the immigrant, the young immigrant woman whwas pregnant and about certainly praising justice rehnquist in dissenting in roe. >> right, they'll ask him, then again and again. right now, judbey, i what he's doing is rehearsing his answers to try stisfy senators enough to get the majority vote. >> i know in one officwhere the senator is listening to the thato of that garza case o young migrant abortion case because we have audio of that, that's something they're studying, what did he say verbally and how did he say it? >> woodruff: as you said, abortion won't be the only issue to come up but will receive a fair amount of attention fromnd the senators, we'll talk about other issues of import as we look at the kavanaugh nomination in the coming days. joan biskupic, lisa desjardins,

thank you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: t tragic murder of a young woman in iowa might not have received mu national attention, but that all changed when an immigrant from mexico, in the country illegally, was charged with her mur as william brangham reports, mollie tibbetts' case has now been seized upon by the president and his party. >> brangham: mollie tibbets was a co20-year-olege student from the university of iowa who, back in july, went out for her usual evening run. she never came home. for five weeks, her family and local authorities searched everywhere. they setup a website for tips; police conducted hundreds of interviews. but then, on tuesday morning, authorities discovered tibbett's a corn field covered with leaves. the man who'd taken police to the spot, 24 year old christian

rivera, is now charged wh her murdbe. rivera is lieved to have entered the u.s. illegally from mexico. he lived in a neighboring town and worked at a local dairy for several years.'s while riverarrest brought some sense of closure to the tibbett's family, the tragedy o death is also being used as a rallying cry against illegal immigration. hours after the news broke, pres tibbett's murder at a rally in west virginia: >> you heard about today, with the illegal alien coming in from, very sadly, from mexico.u and w what happened to that incredible, beautiful young woman. >> brangham: conservative outlets, especially fox news, gave tibbett's story heavy coverage, emphasizing that c rivera he to the u.s. illegally and how tibbett's murder was directly caused by u.s. immigration policy. a steady stream of republicans echoed this theme:

iowa's republin governor kim reynolds described the news a"" heart-wrenching" and added: "as iowans, we are heart-broken, and we are angry. angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community." arkansas republican senator tom cotton wrote, "mollie would be alive if our government had taken immigration enforcementou sesly a decade ago." some in tibbett's family have pushed back on this licoage. tibbett'in, sam lucas, responding to one conservativevi ac, wrote, "we are not so small-minded that we generalize a whole population based on soml bad indivi now stop using my cousin's death as pitical propaganda." but yesterday afternoon, the e white house amplified thstory, releasing this tweet about tibbetts and including a video monte of grieving parents who's children had also been killed by what the white house called "illegal aliens." >> he was hit, head on, by a repeat illegal alien crimil.

>> known gang member came in the back, he fired the gun. >> he strangled him, went to see if he was breathing, then strangled him again over and over until his death. he dragged matthew to his death. >> brangham: four hours later, the president posted his own video about tibbetts, and seemei >> a person n, illegally, from mexico, and killed her. we need the wall. we have tremendous crime trying to come througthe border. >> brangham: this has been one of the president's most consistent themes, the linking of immigrants with crime and violence. the day he aounced his presidential run, he accused mexico of sending rapists and murderers across the border. >> the they're bringing drugs. >> brangham: at llies and on twitter over the past year, the president repeatedly mentionsth violent el-salvadoran gang ms-13, and routinely says democrats want open s which will mean more crime.

while this is the president's mantra, that immigrants equal crime, the evidence points in the seher direction. ral studies have shown that areas communities with higher rates of immigrants have lower grcrime rates, and that imts themselves commit crime at lower-levels than native-born americans. but many republicans counter that this isn't about immigrants, it's about immigrants here legally. they say any crime committed by an undocumented immigrant is one crime too many. perhaps the most nakedly political rationale for talking about mollie tibbett's murder came yesterday from former republican speaker of the house, newt gingrich, who was tntacting various news outlets, asking them to cov tragedy. in an email to axios, gingrich wrote: "if mollie tibbetts is a household name by october, democrats will be in dp trouble.ca if wbe blocked by manafort, cohen, etc., then g.o.p could lose badly." for the pbs newshour, i'm

william brangham. dr >> wf: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: making are reinvesting in their own stocks. and renewed attentio minority casting in hollywood sparked byhe blockbuster hit "crazy rich asians." but first, today saw another esslation in president trum trade war with china, with the united states imposing 25% tariffs on nearly 300 more chinese goods; beijing responded immediately. many of the u.s. tarif target china's hi-tech industries, part of the "made in china 2025" initiative, which aims to transform china from theorld's factory into a global innovation leader. as special correspondent katrina

yu reports, the plan's critics say it harms american companies and the international market. >> reporter: an army of robots, dancing to coded choography. these automated entertainers are on display in beijing at an expo showcasing the latest in chinese consumer technology. a.i.: artificial intelligence, medical devices, transport; these are just some of the ten sectors that make up the country's technology master plan, "made in chiit 2025," an intive that aims to transform the country from ama facturer of cheap goods into an innovation powerhouse. and as jake parker from the s.-china business council explains, the list doesn't end there. >> it's primarily focused on raising its capabilities in adnced it and tech focused industries that are important strategic industries for the

future. areas like, airplane manufacturing, automotive and new energy vehicles. >> reporter: by setting strategic taets and spending billions of dollars on state subsidies, china hopes to bugyd a technolompire that competes not only with the united states, but germany and japan. and this southern chinese city is at the center of it. in less than two decades, shenzhen, across the border from hong kong, has transformed fro a sleepy fishing village into china's silicon valley. 's the home of chinese tech giants such as mobile phone nynufacturer huawei, a com whose products are deemed a cyber-security threat by the u.s. congress and banned for government use, and drone company dji. today shenzhen's gdp alone is

around $400 billion, that's more than hong kong and singapore. shenzhen's development is in large part thankto this man: deng xiaoping. he's considered the father ofhi modern, and the chief architect of the economic reforms which began opening up th china's leader from 1978 to 1989, deng xiaoping dismantled the disastro economic policies of maoist china. he made it possible for companies to privatize, and eventually relaxed market controlse thanks to thforms china is now one of the leading global hubs for artificial intelligence. >> this is our smart vending machine solution. >> reporter: companies like malong are leading the charge in developing tecogies aiming to disrupt the way we work and shop. this artificially intelligent cabinet is programmed to monor stock and process payments. he, facial recognition technology is being applied to fashion, making trend spotting

effortle. malong is expanding internationally and opened its first usffice this month. malong business development vice president xia bing says china is closing the technology gap with the united states. >> theevelopment in the last 40 years has been incredible and we're happy to see that chinese companies today are capable of now of leading some of the most cutting edge technologies, not just in china but also in the world. >> reporter: amid the made in china push money is pouring into sectors like a.i. last year china's a.i. market was worth $3.5 billion, a figure expected to double this year. but investment is just the beginning. beijing ultimately wants to become l suppliers, a mission stressed by chinese president xi jinping earlier this year. >> ( translated ): i hope to see continuous healthy development of the enterprises of our nation and country. now we must depend on ourselves in developing core and key

technologies, the vital treasures of our country. >> reporter: china has setof targets for 70asic core components and materials and 40% of smartphone chips to be produced domescally by 2025. frday it buys most of thes the u.s. the squeezing out of foreign suppliers has raised redlags for those trading with china. >> that means there's anex ctation that chinese domestic brands, not foreign brands, will make up a certain percentage of all of that market in the china market. there's also targets internationally as well. >> reporter: the trump administration says the policy islyrotectionist and potenti damaging to the u.s. and international economy. it's been branded such a threat that washington's first salvo of trade war tariffs was aimed squarely at china's hi-tech sector. misfire, according to some chinese analysts, includingzh g wei who believes "made in

china 2025" has been blown out of proportion. >> ( translated ): the made inas china 2025 plaany problems. it's too vague, too comprehensive and too urgent. so it isn't a national strategy, it's merely an agency document. >> reporter:e says targets are aspirational, rather than enforceable, and pose little threat to the u.s. >> ( translated ): it's impossible that china can ever dominate these industries, because these ten industries include all technical-related industriesn the country. >> reporter: beyond shenzhen'scr skysers, the city's grittier outskirts reveal the other side of the country's hi-tech drive. at sanhe labor market, migrant workers bid for ad-hoc work at chip and smartphone facties. the backbone of china's tech sector, most are paid just over $20 a day, working under rough,

and often unregulated, conditions. they refused to appear on camera, but told the newshour they were happy at least to be getting work. despite lagging behind the developed world, china's hi-tech industries are pushing forward from made in china to made by china, for china, trorade war not, 2025 will be here before we know it. for katrina yu, in shenzhen, china. >> woodruff: this week has marked the longest period of uninterrupted gains on the stock market in u. history. there are a variety of reasons, including a steady economic recovery that is nine years old. but one of the drivers for the

stock market rise has been the increase of what's known as stock buybacks, or companies purchasing their own shares. the benefits of that for the larger economy is very much in question. our economics correspondent, paul solman, explains, part ofwe hily series, making sense." >> corporations are literally going wild over this. "> reporter: when president trump signed the "x cuts and jobs act" last december, a key provision s cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. republicans argued the savings would be used to create more,g, and better payobs. >> this gets us better wages, bigger paychecks, a simpler taxy em. >> reporter: that was house speaker paul ryan late last year.re and administration economist kevin hassett. >> i can tell you if we get thih bill throut will be great for american workers. >> reporter: and indeed the unemployment rate is at an 18- aar low. but jared bernstei economist in the obama administration, was convinced

the tax cut money would be used not to create jobs but to benefit shareholders, through stock buybacks. >> in fact it's happened big time. we've seen a real escalation in share buybpoks. >> er: stock buybacks are expected to hit a record one trillion dollars this year, an almost 50% increase over 2017. so what is a stock buyback? harvard business school's charlie wang puts it simply. >> the company is repurchasing a certain number of shares outstanding from the shareholders, and by doing so they're distributing cash back to the universe of shareholders. >> reporter: in recent years, firms have been repurchasing their own stock, with a vengeance. apple approved a new $100 billion repurchase program in the spring. and from ebay to pepsi, in the years 2015 to 2017, companies spent almost 60% of their profits on buybacks. but now why do companies buy back their stock?

because it typically boosts the stock price in the short run. irene tung of the national employment law project explains. >> by buying back a company's stock, the company is removinghe frompen market a number of shares, creating an artificial scarcity of shares, which then temporarily drives up the price. >> reporter: it's the appearance of better financials, whichan insiders can, do, take advantage of, says republican economist douglas holtz-eekin. re are some compensation clauses for executives that are tied to share prices. they might think it's going to help them and help the company and they will do it. >> reporr: but if stock buybacks are sometimes connected to short-term stock manipulation for the benefit of corrate insiders, that's concerning. and in fact it's why buybacks were illegal from after the crash of ¡29 up to the reagan administration. >> much c.e.o. compeation is a function of the share price. well, all of a sudden you have a

massive incentive to inflate your share value >> reporter: and it has been happening, according to a studyc by theities and exchange commission, says irene tung. >> once these executives announced to the world that they would buy back stock frotheir company, they themselves quietly would sell off their own personal shares and take advantage of the bump in stock prices that they themselves engineered. >> reporter: but hey, most of the buybk money doesn't go to insiders, and all of it gets recirculated back into the economy, says finance professor wang. >> to fuel the growth in investment and employment in smaller and younger public firm as w private companies, >> reporter: but what if the shareholders who are getting the money from thempuybacks are using it to buy, i don't know, yachts or bigger yachts? >> if they're buying yachts, there are companies and d ployees that work in these yacht companies ey stand to benefit from this capital >> reporter: okay, maybe some yacht workers benefit. maybe me smaller firms. but what about the average american?

right now, overall wage growth in the u.s. isn't even keeping up with inflation. irene tung looked at buybacks in the restaurant, retail and food industries in the three years nabefore the tax cut was ected. >> if they took all of the money that they spent on stock buybks and instead invested in raises for their workers, mcdonald's, they could have given each of their workers $4000 more. >> reporter: each year? >> each year. starbucks, $7000. in retail, home depot, lowes and cvs could all give their workers at least $18,000 a year more in raises. >> reporter: but instead, the money went to shareholders, who make up barely half the american public. moreer, 84% of the value of stock market wealth is held by the richest 10% of us. rt of thewhat economy do share buybacks boost? that precise part, so they're lifting the more unequal side of the economy at the expense of the more equal or the wage share of the economy. >> reporter: remember, though, says holtz-eekin: the x cut is

a long-term strategy. >> we will judge the tax cuts and jobs act and other things based on whether the final use of those funds has been effective in raising wages and productivity that's going to be the ultimate test. >> reporter: as of july, r, more than half of the corporate savings from the tax ckt have gone to shareholders as either stock buyor dividends, compared to 18% going to job creation commitments, and just 7% gog to employees in the form of wage increases, bonuses,r benefits. so the bottom line? as with so many policies, you have to wait for a verdict.is s economics correspondent paul solman. >> woodruff: it's one of the hits of the summer, a romantic comedy set in singapore. but it's getting even more attention for its all-asian

cast. jeffrey brown has our look at the reaction, and how othe writers and filmmakers are fighting for greater representation. ese people aren't just rich, okay, they're cr >> brown: "crazy rich asians" opened number one at the box office last weekend, based on the best-selling novel by kevin kwan. it's the story of a not so well off young woman in love with what turns out to be a very wealthy young man and a visit to his h family. so far, so familiar. but the film is getting much witention for its casting, an all-asian ensemblh actors from the u.s. and around the globe. it's the first major studio film with an all-ation cast since the joy luck club in 1993. recent years have seen television and streaming video opened more to asian actors and themes. a new netflix film to all th boys i've loved before stars an asian-american actress. it's based on a novel by jenny

hahn who joins me now. does it prize you "crazy rich ssians" is getting thi attention, that it's casting is still a thing worth noting? >> it doesn't surprise me at all. i think, at its heart, it's a story thnd we all know aove which is a cinderella story, and, so, i think that, to me, it makes sense that people ar just hungry to see that kind of romantic comedy on the big screen again because it's been a while. >> brown: in terms of the castino though, what didu see or feel when you watched it? did it feel different and important somehow? >> it felt like a banquet to me. it felt like sucabundance to see so many asian-american actors on the screen at once. i think, you know, it's been a really long time since i've had that experience. after a certain point, i think you forget as you're watching it, and you go intohe story and it feels like a natural love story. >> brown: for those who haven't seen it, it's not about average asians, not about average asian-american or

anybody, really, it's about very wealthy, beautiful people. so why do you think it strikes such a ci hord? >>think people have been wanting for so long to see faces look like theirs centers centered on the hollywood screen. pethink we're all kind of hungry for that rience and happy to have that. >> brown: your own book, your main character is asian-american, but i understand you had to fightpretty hard to make sure that you found -- that an asian actress played her? >> i did have to fight really hard. there was interest early on, and the interest would die away as soon as i explained to them tt the lead was going to have to be asian-american. the argument was they didn't understand why they had to cast an asian-american actress when there's nothing in the story that required her to be asian-american. for me, it was, like, i wasn't going to justify than,t decis it was just she was

asian-american. so that's how she was wtten and that's how she should be, that's her identity. i think that, for so long, it's sov rare to see testory cend around a person of color and, usually, that story is all about the person of color's strgle with being a person of color, and it's all about their pain and the challenges that comean with that, d i think that's what we're used to seeing, and we're not used to seeing ordinary situations like falling in love. >> brown: there have been some comparisons to "black panther" and the impact it's having. he you think "crazy rich asians," "black pa" films like yours, do you think it's going to make a bfig diference in diversity in films? >> i hope it's something thates continues and n. i think that, when there is so little a there's such scarcity, people will ruh toward whatever is being offered to them, but i think there's no story that can represent everybody. so my hope is there would be more opportunities that come out of this.

>> brown: jenny hn is the author of "to all the boys i've loved before" now to a netflix film. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and we'll be back shortly with brief but spectacular take on connecting with people. but first, take a moment thear

>> woodruff: next, we turn to another installment of our weekly brief but spectacular series where we ask people about their passions. jonny sun is an author who amassed a loyal twitter stfollowing through his ho humor and candor. his latest book is "everyone's an aen when you're an alien too." >> look, life is bad, everyone d, we're all gonna die.

but i already bought this inflatable you gonna take your shoes off or what? i think i've always grown up as like a shy introverted kind of socially anxious perso i've always seen my twitter account as like a personal account and i've always been drawn to it as a writer for the fact that i'm able to be honest and open and vulnerable in a way that i can't be in person. i mean i've always seen twitter as kind of this writer sketch book? i've approached it as a writer at this whole time and it's always been this place where i can, where i can liktake ideas and test them out. and i think, anonymity online has gotten this kind of bad rap secause of a lot of the harassment and ahich of course is such a serious issue. the flip side of that is that, being anonymous online allows certain people to have a voice and have a presence. especially when they're real life identities can't be compromised. i wrote a book, it's called" everyone's an alien when you're an alien too."

it's an illustrated kind ofy st an alien who comes to earth and meets a bunch of different characters and kind of gets to learn about their lives. another, i think characteristic of the voice that i've kind of worked on and developed through ofitter and then the book is, is this idea of kinessing with-- with syntax and grammar and kind of doing intentional mistakes and doing typos and stuf i think that relates a lot to kiof of post-modern movement poetry and the fluxus movement in the '60s and how, how these artists uh we-were taking the look of type on a page and using that to influence voice and e - to change ys we read ideas. hopefully that kind of almost intentional clsiness creates of kind of pure honest genuine voice for-- for readers and for people to pick up on.ke i think about eath all the time. i think a lot of writers think about death all the time. i'm always thinking about how much i can do and how much time i have left i have so many things i want to do, accepting that one day in the , i won't be here anymore makes me

really, really hard about how much time i have on this earth and-- and what i'm going to do with it. my name is jonny sun and this is my brief but spectacular take on connecting with others. >> woodruff: you can find additional brief but spectacular episodes on our website, pbs.org/newshour/brief. and that's the newshour for tonight.ju i' woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrowvening with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us at the pbs wshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com.

>> babbel. a language app that aches al-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 with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. d by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: does it givd you some kin comfort that your critics are coming from both sides? >> no, because i could still be wrong. >> this is not how border crossings, how people come into the u.s. seeking asylum what it usually looks like, but, look, i

think this may be her bt chance to get past these guards right now. >> mr. trump won the congressional district overwhelmingly by about 20 points. question now is whether the enthusiasm for president trump will convert into enthusiasm for a different republican. >> does the presidency that interveed in the 2016 election and spossibly midterm an attack on democracy - captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org martha stewart: have you ever seen a fanciful pie

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