captioning sponsored by newshour productio, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff.he onewshour tonight: remembering john mccain-- orghlights from the arizona memorial servicehe late senator. then, china's crackdown on uighurs-- new relarts reveal the est mass incarceration of a minority population in the world. plmaking sense of middle east peace-- a college pgram brings israelis and palestinians together to llaborate on tech start-ups. >> we want to make sure that they build trust because if in ten or 15 years from today one of oualumni will lead the israeli government and another alumni will lead the palestinian governnt, we want them to be able to talk to each other. >> woodruff: all that and more

on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular understands that not everyone needs an unlimited wireless plan. our u.s.-bas reps can help you choose a plan based on how much you use your phone, nothing more, nothing less. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like sprmish, french, , italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or baline. more information oel.com. >> financial services firm raymond james.

>> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. mipporting science, technology, and improved eco performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement ofeanternational and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for publan broadcasting. by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the people of arizona have said their final farewells to senator mccain. a memorial service today

celebrated the state's senator,i wh last saturday, at the age of 81. ♪ "aezing grace" flowed from north baptist church in phoenix this morning as friends, family, ordinary citizens and v.i.p.s honored the life ato legacy of sejohn mccain. i was at the same time a lot of fun and quite terrifying at the same time because of his ridiculously bad driving. >> woodruff: mccain's >> woodruff: mccain's chief of staff-- and later, arizona state attorney general grant woods-- began with memories of his long-time friend and a defense of his ideals. b >> john mccaieved in our constitution and he stood up for it. he fought for it every step of the way.

so he would not stand by as people try to trample theti consti, or the bill of rights-- including the first amendment.>> oodruff: long-time friend tommy espinoza-- a democrat and mexican american activist-- remembered mccain's commitment to americans of all ethnic backgrounds. >> we all make america great. so i hope that in his legacy, the senators, governors, mayors, city council members, elected officials embre the thought of love. because john refcted love and love of a strong man and that is nowadays hard to come by. >> woodruff: two of mccain's seven children-- andrew and bridget-- honored their father's ngservice to the nation, a with an unlikely friend of mccain's-- arizona cardinals wide receiver larry fitzgerald.

24 sitting.s. senators were among the more than 3,500 attendees. the main speaker-- former vice president joe biden-- was a longtime colleague of mccain's in the senate. >> i always thought of john as a brother-- and we had aell of a lot of family fights. >> woodruff: perhaps the toughest of those fights was the 2008 presidential campaign, when mccain lost to barack obama and biden, his running mate.t, iden remembered mccain's bipart in fighting the same cancer that took the life of biden son beau three years ago. >> the world now shares with you the ache of john's death. oodruff: mccain had feud with president trump over his policies and conduct. today, biden defended his close friend, without mentioning the president, directly. >> and he could not stand the abuse of power wherever he saw

it, in whatever form, in whatever country. it's always about basic values with john. fairness, honesty, dignity, respect, giving hate no safe harbor, leaving no one behind, d understanding that as americans we're part of something much bigger than ourselves. >> woodruff:resident trump is not invited to saturday's memorial service in washington. instead,ormer presidents obama and george w. bush will deliver eulogies. ♪ and at the end of today's service-- to the sounds of frank sinatra-- mccain's family left phoenix to fly with the casket to washington. he will lie in state at the u.s. capitol tomorrow.♪ ♪

and in the day's other news: the roughly two million civilian workers in the federal government will not be getting a apay raise in january aft. president trump today canceled an across-the-board raise of 2.1%, plus aitional increases in areas with higher costs of living. the action does not affect plans for a military pay raise of 2.6%. the president also says attorney general jeff sessions wi keep his job-- at least until november's elections. "bloomberg news" reports he gave that assurance in an interview today. the president has repeatedly criticized sessions for recusing himself from the russia instigation. china today dismissed a call for u.s. sanctions over a crackdown on muslims. a group of.s. lawmakers made the appeal, in a letter to the trump administraon. they cited reports of ethnic

uighurs and other musls being held involuntarily in detention camps in xinjiang province. we'll look at the plight of the uighurs, later in the program. in syria: there are growing signs that the military may soon attack the country's last opposition enclave. the target is idlib province, and syria's foreign minister says the regime will "go all the way", unless the rebelsde surr in geneva today, the united natiats' syria envoy warned th three million people are in jeopardy. >> while we are aware that efforts and discussions are taking place to avoid the worst- case scenario, one cannot ignore that miscalculations may indeed occur leading to unforeseen escalations and we are all very much concerned. >> woodruff: syria's ally russia announced that it will begin major naval exercises saturday, just off the syrian coast. back in this country: michigan state university said today o's

been clearmishandling a d xual abuse scandal. the school relealetter from the n.c.a.a. saying a reviewviound no rules ations. michigan state has denied it cored up for former sports doctor lar nassar. he's now serving up to 175 years in prison. for assaulting hundreds of girls and women. at ohio state university: investigators say at l45 people have accused a former school doctor of sexual abuse. richard stras allegedly groped scores of male athletes and other students over two decades. he committed suicide in 2005. an encino, california man was arrested today on charges of making death threats against employees of "the boston globe". federal prosecutors say robertai made more than a dozen threatening calls to the "globe"

newsroom this month. that's after the paper organized editorials in papers nationwide, promoting freedom of the press and pu trump's attacks on the news l dia. and on wreet: stocks fell on fears the u.s. will impose new tariffs on china next week. vethe dow jones industrialge lost 137 points to close below p,987. the nasdaq fell 21oints. and the s&p 500 slipped nearly 13. still to come on the newshour: the u.s. justice department weighs in on harvard's admissions policies, exposing china's crackdown on a muslim minority, a look at how supreme court nominee brt kavanaugh has ruled on business issues, and much more. >> woodruff: the u.s. department

of justice dived into a battle today er race in college admissions. it's a case heading to federal court this fall centered around admissio university-- one of the most select schools in the world. but it's being widely watched at colleges across the country. today, the trump administration came out against harvard's practices and as john yang tells us, the outcome could affect the future of affirmative action in higher education. >> reporter: judy, previous legal attacks on affirmative i acticollege admissions focused on whether it discriminated against white but today the trump administration backed a group of asian-american stunts. they say harvard's diversity goals resulted in them being rejected and less qualified applicants of other races beg accepted. e tie benner covers the justice department for "w york times" and joins me now. natie, is today's filing in this case, is this ancation that the trump administration would

like to get r of affirmative action? >> i think it absolutely can be read this way. keep in mind today's filing has no legal impact on the case per se, i's simply the justice department weighing in on what they say is a statement of interest to say thisse as merit. >> is this a legal attack on affirmative action saying it discminates against racial minorities rather than whites? >> right, first of all this case was brought by an attorney named bloom. mr. bloom has brought several ion-related act cases. it's clear he's trying to find atheticffs who have sy cases to make an argument affirmative action polls have harmed they chances for success. whh makes te harvard cases different is he found plaintiffs who are asian-american minority students saying affirmative action hurt them and they're

qualified and there's no reason they should have gotten into harvard. harvard will say their admission policies factors in race but many, many other things and race is not the only determinate. >> what are they arguing about harvard's policies that results with in what they say is discrimination against asian-americans? >> absolutely. s using saying harvard race and they want to create a percentage of students by race, they want to control the population the student body poolso one of ththings they're using are subjective factors, it's called the personaltist or personal sco and what the students contend is asian-american aresi conently rated lower on that score as a way to artificially suppress their admission to harvard. the plaintiffs in the case point to the fact that harvard admissions, if you look at tatistics around race, asian-american hansistently made up about 20% of the class for years and years, a they say how could this be?

we should be let in on merit and if that were to happen, you would see the numbers change. some of the things in the case are damning for harvard. ere is evidence that shows admissions professionals at harvard said dirasng things about asian-american and their personal scores, so this is not a lean and clear-cut case of one side being right or wrong, like all thid ngs relato affirmative action, it's incredibly grey. we will see what happens. it's also emotionally charged. >> if this case wereto go to the supreme court, of course, there will be another new justice replacing justice kennedy. the no, ma'amno is brett kavanaugh. what do we know about brett kavanaugh's record on affirmativ action? >> brett kavanaugh is an interesting person, an interesting figure because he is known for having a lofclerks who have been women, who have been people of color, so his own personal record on affirmative tion or at least on race-conscious hiring policy seems quite strong.am at thetime, he has made statements in an editorial

saying he felt that, soo some day, the supreme court would nsew people not through the of race, that the supreme court would you see u.s. citizens as just one race. add vo contacts of affirmative action have seen that statement and they say itpoints to the fact that he may not support affirmative action once he hits the supreme court, which makes a case like this, which it's hard to imagine won't reach the supreme court, extraordinarily important when it comes to thef future of mative action policies in the united states. >> i'm sure we'll hear more about that at the confirmation hearings next week. kate kate o -- katie benner f te "new york times," thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: as we reportedie ea the chinese government objected today to a call by some u.s. members of congress to levy sanctions oneijing for its treatment of the uighur ethnic grp, who live mainly in western china.

as nick schifrin reports, advocates for that muslim minority say uighurs are now being rounded up by the hundreds of thousands >> in china's provie, to be a uighur muslim is to be accused taof having a conous disease. muslimfrom shin jong to beijing, say chinese repression is stronger than evr. where chairman mao looms over the city, chinese police arecu d of creating the world's most extensive surveillance. uighurs are navies. a>> the chinese government systematically assimilates thegh people while we're struggling for freedom and human rights. it's a life or death struggle. >> the urn isays the strus1h

happening to l uighurs seen in caps on satellite images. the camps are expanding thanks to ablog at the chinese law stent. he didn't believe the uighurs at first. m y say they are fake news because it's impossible to contain so manyeople. >> but the project begs for whae chin call reunification camps. >> so i look at the location with the satellite images and i found that some very large detention camps. >> he found a construction boom and could even identify which structures were teaching buildings. >> the expansion of the detention facilities, especially the education mp, i think it lily doubledder even tripled

size. >> radio-freation journalist told congress lasmonth her family is in camps subject toto ure and indoctrination. >> i learned in february my ldren, cousins, their chi noorn 20 people have been swept up by auth torities he same day. >> that hearing was called by senator marco rubio. yesterday he and 16 others sent state and tasure deptments a letter accusing china of arbitrary descension, torture and egregious restrictions on religious practice and culture and calling on sanctions on senior chine officials. today chinesespokeswoman said the u.s. had no right to criticize. >>hinese ethnic minority policies and the rights and the qualit ethnic minorities enjoy are even stronger than in the united states. >> china says it's responding to

what it calls uighur terrorism and a uighur separatist movement. china says it's trying to maintain stability and does not detain anyone arbitrarily. for more, joined biomar kanat and jim millward, a professor of history at georgetown university, thanks to you both. kanat, the chinese call these vocational training camps. are they? >> yeah, that's what they say. it's not vocational centers, it is actual jails.th e are a lot of evidences that shows that there are ils. we have victims, we have witnesses, we have victims whoou spent,know, several months and later are released from this i call it concentration camp, and they told their stories and how peoe are being tortured in

these so-called vocational centers, how the people are insulted, how the people are humiliated, how the people are deprived from food, from sleep in ordein order to obey what the chinese guards and officials ask them to do. what they force them to do is to denounce their religion, first all, denounce their culture, denounce their even traditions. >> jim millward, there is another line the chinese have. they say there is a serious threat in the area from militants, separatists. there have been terrorists attacks in the area.ar the chinese right to worry about stability? >> well, they're certainly worried -- certainly worried about stability and various kinds of unrest. what the chinese do is refer to all violence, any ki

action or dissent from ople as terrorism, and, actually, it runs the mut froall scale into rural uprisings, maybes farmwith their agriculture tools attacking a police stati to what we would call race riots. so stability is a concern. the problem is their reaction t it, this response to it with these camps isindiscriminate and it's excessive, it's way beyond anything that, you know, good policy would dictate as a response to thikind of unrest.ely low-level >> is this about economic concerns from china and china's belton road plan? >> this is president xi jinping's signature contbution and he's very muh thinking about his legacy in terms of this. it's drawn on th map as rails lid roads and, you know, the belt across cenal asia,

but we really should understand it as much broader than that. it takes in all chinese foreign policy all around the world -- loans, some investment, you know, economic involvement, all over. so if we think of it simply as, you know, a rail line running from shin jung to central asia, th may worry about uighurs buing something to the rail line. that's a small part of the belt line. a has that very well under control. there's no dangeto this. there's a recent editorial from the chinese npped "global times" policy, andcts state it says that there was a danger of shin ng becoming china's syria or china's libya and therefore these harsh measures were necessary to help preve that from happening, to maintain stability and pinvent jung

from becoming syria or libya.at ridiculous. if you look at securitization of the region, there are police with boots on the ground, faciam recognition as everywhere, there's danger of littering, practically. to it doesn't have anythin do with the fight against terrorism, fight against extremism. it's a war against the people to eliminate the people, eliminate an ethnic group, so it doesn't have figure to do with the terrorism. you note that it's not an excuse for chinese to say we are fighting against terrorism. more than 1 million uighurs are in actual jails in detention centers and more than 2 million people are in political and cultural indoctrination centers. >> and jim, more quickly in the time we have left, uighurs have been targeted before, minorities

have been tgeted before, but is this on a scale that we haven't seen? >> so what we're seeing no is really unprecedented as a human rights atrity in china. not since the cultura revolution, perhaps, not since theananmen incidents of 1989 has there been anything this serious that the world should pay attention to. it's sadat least because china is better than. this china has a tradition of multiculturalism. t 's not leral, western style multiculturalism, ey have a way of managing different groups within one state, and if they would stick to t thay could provide an example of managing dirsity, albeit within an authoritarian context, that in some ways measures up to the wae manage diversity in the west because these are fficult problems everywhere. jim millward, kanat, thank you

very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: we've frequently reported in recentears on incidents of police shootings, gun violence, and community reaction to them. one familiar question that arises in these cases: are police being held to account for their actions? yamiche alcindor looks at one case in dallas.or >> rr: in texas, a rare guilty verdict. followed by an even rarerpo sentence in ce shooting case. >> we the jury having found the defendant roy oliver guilty murder. >> reporter: last night, a dallas county jury sentenced former police officer roy oliver to 15 years in prison for killing jordan edwards. on tuesday, oliver was concted of murdering the 15-year-old. edward's family and friendswe omed the verdict. but after the sentencing, the

teen's stepmother had mixed. emotio >> we're thankful for the verdict that we received although we wanted more years. this is a start for us and we can get some kind of closure. so we're thankful. >> reporter: jordan edwards died on apr 29, 2017 when oliver opened fire into a moving car of black teenagers who were leaving a party. he and his partner had responded to reports of derage drinking. oliver claimed the car was moving toward his partner, and that he had no choice but to shoot. but dy cam video showed just the opposite. the car was actually heading away from the officers. oliver's partner also testifie he was not in danger. and, he called oliver "trigger happy". the outcome of this case was very different from most high- profile police shootings. it's extremely rare for on-duty officers to be tried, let alone convicted in fatal shootings. a study from bowling green state university found that between

2005 and april 2017, 80 police officers were charged with murder or manslaughtern- duty shootings. only 35% were convicted. on tuesday, a lawyer for the edwards family took note of that. >> this "guilty of murder" to us ust. when you think about it,ou think about all the cases, all n e unarmed black and brown and women who have been victims to police brutality and who ha not received justice. >> reporter: oliveis the first police officer found guilty of murder in dallas county since 1973. s reporter: for more on t week's conviction, and what, if anything, it might mean to the broadeissues related to policing, we turn to brittany packnett, an activity and educator, and philip stinson, a criminal justice professor at bowling green state unty. his research, which we mentioned in our story just now, fuses in part on police shootings.

thank you to both ofyou. brittany, you emerged as national voice after the killing of michael brown in rguson, missouri. the officer in that case was controversially not ndicted what do you make to have the guilty verdict and the sentencing of roy olive what do you think it will mean to the "black lives matter" and our nation as a whole? >> it depends on whether or not this is going to set a trend or be an anomaly. unfortunately, all our past experience shows us this probably be an anomaly, that at the end of the day we actually saw a lice officer be convicted of a shooting of ack young blan and we know historically less than 1% of the officers who shoot black people are ever convicted of that crime. so we're glad to see some kind of justice happening in the case, but we don't think it enough, and until this is a trend of accountability and prevention, we won't be satisfied. >> dr. stinson, trends, why is it so rare for police officers

to beentenced, convicted and tried in fatal innsteract >> the best estimate is between 900 a 100,000 timech and every year on d police officers shoot and kill someone in nations a loss the states and only a handful of times is an officer actually charged with murder or manslaughterty nihree have been charged since the beginning of 2005. the reason we have so few is most police shootings are to be found legally stified, in other words that an officer had a reasonable apprehension of an imminent threat of sous bodily injury or deadly force directed at the officer or someone else. >> to the case of jordan edwards, his family welcomed the verdict but hisstep-mother sd she wished the officer god more time. how does her reaction gel with your reaction and the experiences you've had and work done? >> so i' conflicted. i don't believe in the current state as it stand and i think we

should be discussing alternatives to priso however, the kind of justice in this country requires that people who mmit a crime are punished by going to prison and, in a state like texas, where the death penalty exists, 15 years hardly seems like enough for takeordan edwards life. i certainly don't believe in the death penalty, but there is a wideasm between 15 years and the death penalty, and especially when we look at th kind of disproportionate prison sentencing that occurs in the state of texas, we know that at a rate of 4 t o 1,ack men and black people are convicted more than white people are and have loer sentences than white people do in texas. so i certainly don't think that 15 years is enough. i agree with his step-mother, and, yet, i am hopulot to see just more justice and accountability ton back end, but i actually wirdan edwards were still alive. >> whagbrittany is talk about is really the criminal justice system in this country. we have been having a conversation nationally about

the policing and the police's relationship with african-american people. have you, dr. stinson, sen any change in the way that prosecutors or judges or jurisinteract with police officers after these fatal interactions? >> no, i think we haven't seen any trends in terms of anything changes. if anything in the ast few years, i think we have seen perhaps prosecutors takingos look at these cases, being more willing to bring charges when it's approiate. prosecutors generally decide to bring a case, if they think they can obtain conviction. they're worried about their win rate. but these cases, prosecutors are starting to look at the broader picture of simply doing justice, which is what prosecutors are supposed to do, and theesknow are not easy cases to win and they may actually lose the case, in ter of not being able to obtain a conviction, but i hope that doesn't deterrosecutors in the future from bringing these charges when it's appropriate.l po it's stery, very rare,

brittany, for a ce officer to even be indicted, let alone charged, let alone convicted. aben you throughout this, what do you make to hav -- makee raritiy of this especially when we have video of these interactions. >> the problem is the standard. when you talk about whether or not a police officer felt as though their life was threatened, you have to enter into that conrsation rception of race, gender, class status. often blackness is treatas a weapon unto itself when, in reality, it's not. so many times in the streets of ferguson we were armed with nothing but cardboard signs and cell phones and ourselves but re treated as threats. if that continues to be the standard, we will see more and more police officers not be held to account for these activities. the other point is wathere are nin which state legislators police european s and police departments themselves can actually take this on. we've done a lot of research ata

aign zero that shows the kind of use of force policies,e ca of changing in legislation thatot only help prevent the crimes but assure accountability on the back end. e know there are eight different yoof force policies and if a police department adopt them there will be a dramatic shift and decline in police violence. the question is will there be a will to do these things.u >> are encouraged? i'm encouraged by the for 'tude of the people, by thentir ued courage and i'm encouraged that we are at least continuing to have this cotersation, that we have let it go by the wayside, even though there's so much happening in this country now i'm certainly not encouraged by the direction of the criminal justice stem, yet i will always believe in the people. >> thank you so much both of you for joining me, packnett and dr. philip stinson.

>> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: making sense of how tech ups could foster peace in the middleast, and remembering the life of modern dance master, paul taylor. but first, with just a few days left until hearings for supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh begin, c tinue our look at his record on key issues senatorsel will lpress him on. tonight: business and labor-- s e subject of a large percentage of caat reach the high court. i'm joined by: karen harned, the executive director of the smal business legal center at the national federation of independent business. and daniel goldberg, the legal director at al for justice, an advocacy group. and we welcome both of you to the "newshour karen harnem going to start with you. how, as you look back at brett kavanaugh's record, how are his

decisions seen by th people you represent, small businesses? >> we are very encouraged, as we've looked at his record, because, really, whadoes is give you predictability and certainty in the law because of the way he approaches his decision-making. he starts with the text of a aat e and starts with what the constitution says so, therefore, , you haven the boo a better understanding of how a case might actually come out because he really doesn't deviate from the rofulaw. >> woodruff: daniel goldberg, what about from your perspective? what do you see? >> when the white house introduced brett kavanaugh, the bragged brett kavanaugh has dermined 75 federal protections for workers, for consumers and for the environment. brett kavanaugh is somebody who, if you look at his record, has repeatedly sided with the wealthy, the powerful, largor coions, people who are trying to take the country

backwards and evscerate many of the protections that workers, consumers and the american r peopy on. >> woodruff: so we've got two rery different perspectives let's take a few specifics here. if you look at the rulings hand down that he's written or have a role in involving, say, worker ights and safety, what do you see? s more the approach he takes. we don't necessarily look at te result, the winners and losers, it's nor is he looking at the national labor relations act, what does that say, and he definitely stays true to the words of whatever their congressional authorization, is whatever congress has said, e.p.a., whatever the department of labor can do under their statutory authority. and that predictability, where ngress is the one making the laws, the administrative branch is interpretm,g thehat is, we think, the appropriate way to keep erybody in their lanes

essive's very, very aggr in keeping the agencies in particular in their lanes, and we find that to be very good. >> woodruff: so, daniel goldberg, karen is looking at it from the perspective of how agency rulings and regulations handled. what do you see when you look at his record on workers and worker safety, worker rights? >> well, i think the case that reallys illustrative of who brett kavanaugh is the seaworld case. this is a case where a trainer at seaworld was killed by a whale. congress had given osha >> woodruff: office ofoc pational safety and health. >> -- that's correct -- and congress made a determination that in this nation workers should be able to go to work every day and come home, and charged osha with the authorityk

tosure our workplaces were safe. in this one case, oshnda fou that seaworld tha had ignoredgs warnabout this particular whale, had not made thesafety conditions that were required, and they had fined seaworld. brett kavanaugh dissented in this case and called even the noon of workforce safety standas "paternalistic." that's who brett kavanaugh is. workers across the country know that he is sody who will undermine worker safs.ety law >> woodruff: what do you think about that. >> i can't speak to that specific case, but time and time again we've seen that he will only let agencrs act as fa as their statutorily authorized to do, and i have noreason to doubt that in th case. congress is there to make the laws, they're the ones

accountable to all of us, and be han very, very clear in his work that, if there is a prlem with the statute, that if itr doesn't go enough to do a protection, that's on congress, not on the agency to gap fl, and we think that gives the certaintiy that small business owners i represent can rely on because it's hard enough for them to know what the laws are on the books to know what othenr es may be promoting. >> woodruff: looking at the e.p.a. regulations and rules, what do you see there, daniel imgoldberg? >>ar to the worker situation, where congress has madenaa deteron that we want clean air, we want clean water, themerican people are entitled to be able to breathe ean air and driean water and giving the e.p.a. the authority to protect our families. in case after case, brett kavanaugh has worked to untermine these proions.

there's one case where he ruled that the e.p.a. did not have the authority to require upstates that were polting toreimburse down state areas. that meant e.p.a., when they issued the rulefound that thousands of people were alive because of the e.p.a. rule which protected this clean air. >> on that i will ju say again, with his environmental record, i understand if you jus want the look he end result, you can pick thwinners and losers and maybe not think it's fair, but what kavanaugh does is goes with the autehority agency had. with e.p.a. in particular, what s've seen in the lat several decades, is they have pushed the envelope as far ashey can as far as doing the outermost bounds of what anya tute they

have requires them to do, and he is pushing back on that, and we think that is appropriate, because it's time for congressoo to rat the laws, the clean air act and clean water act for results and not continue to let them legislate. >> woodruff: do you expect a change of the supreme courtn tissues with brett kavanaugh joining. >> sadly not. the robert cou has been a pro corporate court. just this year you saw them rule in the epic systems case to make it harder for people havg their wages stolen from holdingo orations accountable. >> woodruff: kern, do you expect much change? >> i think the court will remain very committed to potecting the separation of powers between the branches of governments and ensuring statutes and constitutions are followed by those tasked with doing so.ru >> wo: this assumes he is confirmed and, again, confirttion hearings ge underway next tuesday. karen harned, daniel goldberg, thank you both.

>> thank you. >> woodruff: for as long as anyone can remember, theiddle east has defied prospects of lasting peace-- especially between israelis and palestinians. but there have been many efforts over the years, including some that aren't political or diplomatic. tonight, our economics correspondent, paul solman,lo s at one program that helps develop start-up businesses promoting cross-border collaboration. h it's part is weekly series, making sense. >> reporter: in gaza, the sometimes violent palestian protests of last spring still reverberate. in10pril and may, more than ns palestinia were killed, many thousands wounded. just last week, israel closed the northern border crossing for several days aftar violence

again. and yet, only an hour's drive away, in the west bank city of ramallah, relative calm prevails and relative prosperity, at least by gaza standards. >> this is the home for many palestinian startups, and it's also the home for qual-i.t. >> reporter: in an office sharing spe that would be at home in boston, new york, or palo alto, 27-year-old montaser amro runs a software firm he helped found last ar. it can compete with anyone, says its i.t. chief, mohammed al- quaisi. >> the palestinian can do the software as piece of cake. >> reporter: amro has a somewhat less colloquial sales pitch. >> we have reliable internet, we have electricity 24 hours a day, we have people who go through five years of training to become i.t. engineers. >> reporter: and with a 50% unemployment rate in the west bank those i.t. engineers come

at a steep discount to the competition. >> in the united states, they'lc probabrge $80 to $120 an hour. >> reporter: what about bangalore? >> india, we're talking about $20 to $25 an hour. in palestine, we can do it from .10 to $15 an ho we can compete with ukraine, you know, we can compete with belarus, with romania, with those countries that are leading this outsourcing business now worldw>>e. eporter: but amro's not pitching the global market just yet.d, insthis palestinian entrepreneur is concentrating on his people's long-hatedra neighbor: . utanks to a program at brandeis university, justde boston, that promotes cross-border iscollaboration among proming young arab and israeli entrepreneurs. >> welcome to microsoft in isr:el. >> repormro is eyeing some of the business that multinational tech firms are sending israel's way. >> a lot of u.s. com have their r&d departments in tel

aviv, in haifa. google, microst, intel they're working straight with companies in israel. we can provide them with professional services on a very, very, very low cost. >> reporter: and for a palestinian who grew up during the second intifada, from 2000 to 2005, that's alst unthinkable. >> most of my childhood was a lot of violence, a lot of war, a lot of killing. >> reporter: did you throw rocks and stuff like that? >> yes, please don't take me to jail, but yes, i did. i only have had interactions with israelis who carry a gun, who were in uniform, middle of the night, i'm a little kid, i'm nine years old, they knock on the door with the back of their guns.o they break ir house, they search everything in the house for no reason. and they leave after two or shree hours, for me, that's-- that's israel, tha occupation. >> reporter: now however one comes down on the conflict in the middle east, it's clear that amro had a huge leap to make. as did 28-year-old ohad elsrlo, a formerli intelligence officer. >> i'm a sephardic jew.gr up in ashdod, the fifth largest city in israel.

it's a jewish city, not even one arab, and it's more than 200,000 people. >> reporter: and yet his job was to police the angry arabs throwing rocks. >> the only place for israelis and palestinians to meet each other is either if they liveern jerusalem they actually run into each other, or in a litary related situation which, i tell you paul, is not the most sociable inraction that-- that could, uh... >> reporter: because these are confrontations you're talking about. >> there's confrontation, and even if it's just, you know, someone trying to pass a checkpoint. it is not a way to build trust or to build a friendship or toa buillationship of any kind. >> reporter: so to help foster these relationships, elhelo-- a brandeis graduate-- started a fellowship program at his alma mater to road test an idea that dates back to the european enlightenment: good business makes good neighbors. or as the french thinker montesquieu put it in the 18th century: "commerce cures destructive prejudices... polishes and softens barbarian

ways." the program, our generation speaks, houses the start-up business incubator where montaser amro started qual-i.t. two years ago. it sticks religiously to a one- to-one ratio of israelis toia palest-- from the board and staff to the couple of dozen start-up hopefuls accepted each summer-- out of hundreds of applicants.de once at br, the fellows undergo bootcamp training for entrepreneurs and are put into teams-- again, equal parts arab and israeli-- to create business plans. the credo here is indeed better to make money than war. arab/israeli collaboration is so charged, however, that many of the brandeis fellows wouldn't speak on camera, for fr of reprisal back home. >> this is a risk i'm willing to take. for some people, this risk is bigger.e some peome from communities in which their neighbors not just not gonna like it, they might even express how unhappy they are with the fact that a neighbor in this community is doing this work

y th the other side. >> reporter: and tuld be in danger. >> they could. they could. >> reporter: but noa radosh, an israeli, and her palestinian partner shaden handal, did talk to us about their mobile app, yalla talk. >> yalla means "let'in arabic.t' >> "go" in arabic. >> reporter: so, learn arabic by chatting live with native mere 25 cents a minute. >> so all these palestinian who sadly don'have jobs because of the economical situation, they can have a supplementary income by using this app and selling their service. >> reporter: then there's "solar box."en solagy would seem like a no brainer in a country with over 300 days of sunshine a year, but it turns out that in israel, most palestinians can't afford the installation. solar box will install the panels for free. >> we just split the savings. >> reporter: solar box's israeli c.e.o., yo'av mosh >> and after ten years, the contract ends and the cliehes get all ofrofits, all of the savings. >> reporter: now not all the

startups here are tech-focused.u >> i thinkeed to find a way to make people taste it. how do you do that? >> reporter: leaves of canaan herbal tea with a mission to create jobs for low-skilled palestinians, producing an upscale organic product for the u.s. market. >> so we're targeting women who are socially conscious. >> reporter: israeli entrepreneur ron peer teamed up with palesnian partners miran aswad and ahmad muna. s >> ogan is actually tea part of a difference. >> reporter: tea? >> like be a part of a difference but... >> reporter: tea part of a difference as opposed to be part of the difference the differencf being, no ct but conflict resolution? >> yeah, like working together. >> reporter: and finally there are nonprofit ventures like the one launched by dr. yasmeen abu fraiha, who was profiled lastfo year bes magazine as one of its "30 under 30." >> after studying in jerusalem i decided to go back home and when

i was working in the hospital ih sa the bedouin community is sicker than i thought compared to the jewish people. >> reporter: sicker with genetic diseases due to intermarriage. >> we mostly have very rare diseases like neurological problems, deafness, congenital insensitivity to pain. >> reporter: so abu fraiha, half bedouin herself, took a page from ohodox jews, who were also plagued with rare, sometimes fatal, genetic diseases due to intermarriage. one disease, "tay sachs," has been virtually eliminated with genetic testing. >> so basically our model is to test bedouin teenagers before they get engaged and we help them with genetic consults. >> reporter: and you have an israeli partner? >> i have two israeli partners. if we can make this happen, i believe it can create bridges

between the communities. >> reporter: and that's thgoal of our generation speaks: to, at the very least, create bridges between young israeli and palestinian entrepreneurs. , it's not just about building successful companiich by the way is great no matter where you do it, we want to make sure that they build trust. why? because if in ten or 15 years from today one of our alumni will lead the israeli government and another alumni will lead the palestinian government, we want them to be a talk to each other. >> reporter: for the pbss newshour, thisonomics correspondent paul solman. >> woodruff: finally tonightgi remembering t in the world of dance and the performing arts-- choreographer paul taylor. jeffrey brown has our rembrance of his career an why he became one of the most influential creators in his field.

>> reporter: joyful, athtic, and lyrical, paul taylor's choreography was oft complex, always human. hailed as a towering figurof modern dance, taylor's success in movement grew from a unique eye for observation, as he told me when we met in 2007. >> watching people has always been something that i've done, even as a kid. and, you know, i changed schools a lot, and i knew almost immediately who was going to be the class bully, who to watch out for. and you can tell sometimes bywa ththey move. and walking is the most revealing. a walk is like a fingerprint. no two people walk the same. >> reporter: taylor was born in 1930 and spent part of his early ars on a farm in maryland. an athlete in his youth, he went to syracuse university on a swimming scholarship but a discovered love for dance in his 20s. t well, i fell in love wi idea of dance.

it just hit me all of a sudden, and the idea of being a dancer was like the idea of being a flame, you know? and i love to move. >> reporter: a virtuosic performer with a six-foot an, he quickly captured the attention of dance legends, performing for martha graham, merce cunningham and george balanchine before devoting himself to his own troupe, the paul taylor dance company. there he created and performed landmark works like "aureole"-- a 1962 piece choreographed to music by handel that remains in the company's perfmance repertoire today. taylor even pushed the boundaries for what was considered dance, as in his minimalist 1957 work called "duet" where-- for four minutes- - he and a reclining woman never dved. over more than sixecades,

taylor explored all aspects of the human experience, from joy to the horror of war. and he always offered his diences a range of styles from the classical to slapstick. >> dance, i think, consciously or unconsciously symbolizes life. and it reflects the human condition, or it can. it tells us the joys, sorrows, the fallacies, the idiocies, the brilliance, anything human. >> reporter: through it all, a >> reporter: taylor retired from performing in 1974, butre continued to craph, often still polishing movement even in dress rehearsals. he created an astounding body of work at least two new works a

year, for a total of 147 pieces. and the company will continue to tour worldwide. >> i think they will always be a need for dance, >> i think there will always be a need for dance, for dancers to dance and for watchers to watch. i believe that. i have to believe that. >> reporter: paul taylor died wednesday in manhattan of kidney failure. he was 88 years old. >> woodruff: and that's the f newsho tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evenings ith mark shied david brooks. for all of us at the pbs newshour, 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 teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italiabb and more. ba's 10-15 minute lessons are available as aneapp, or onli. more information on babbel.com. >> consumer cellular. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this prssram was made le by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewe like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productns, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

a barbkulski: i walked on the senate floor in a pair of slacks, and the senate never had women wear trousers before, and i felt like i was walking on the moon. te jeanne shaheen: i st out addressing envelopes and licking stamps, and then finally decided that the men i had been working for right, and so i needed to run myself. sarah palin: i wepl be honored to ayour nomination for vice president of the united states. kirstepogillibrand: my first nt called me just a pretty face, and of course, i didn't mind. i was going to prove that he was wrong. barbara boxer: money was a real obstae, because there was no place you could go. the gn didn't want toe you money, and thwomen said, "oh boy, i have to ask my husband." kay bailey hutchison: i was like cinderella at the ball. everyonen as paying attent me for the very first time.