captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening.f. i'm judy woodr on the newshour tonight: e membering john mccain-- highlights from izona memorial service for the late senator. then, china's crackdown on uighurs-- new reports reveal the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world. plus, making sense of middle east peace-- a college program brings israelis and palestinians together to collaboratup on tech star >> we want to make sure that they build trust. 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, 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 ceular understands at not everyone needs an unlimited wireless plan. our u.s.-based customer service 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 spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, o online. more information on babbel.com. >> financial sonvices firm rajames.

>> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporng innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at cargie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadonsting. and byibutions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> arizona have said their final farewells to senator john mccain. a vimorial s today

celebrated the state's senator, who died last saturday, at the age of 81. ♪ "amazing grace" flowed from the north baptist church in phoenix this morning as friends, family, ordinary citizens and v.i.p.s honored the life and legacy of senator john mccain. >> it 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 former 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. >> john mccain believed 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 the constitution, or the bill of rights-- including the first amendment. >> woodruff: long-time friend tommy espinoza-- a democrat and mexican american activist-- rememb to americans of all ethnic backgrounds. >> we all make america great. so i hope that in his legacy, the senators, governors, mayors, ty council members, elected officials embrace the thought of love. because john reflected 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 service to the nation, along with an unlikely friend of mccain's-- arizona cardils wide receiver larry fitzgerald. 24 sitting u.s. senars were

among the more than 3,500 attendees. the main speaker-- former vi president joe biden-- was a longtime colleague of mccain's in the senate. >> i always thought of john as a brother-- and we had a hell of a t of family fights. >> woodruff: perhaps the toughest of those fights was the 2008 presidential campaign, when mccain lost barack obama and biden, his running mate. but, biden remembered mccain's bipartisanship a f his courage hting the same cancer that took the life of biden's son beau three years ago. >> the world now shares with you the ache of john's death. >> woodruff:ccain had feuded th president trump over his policies and conduct. day, biden defended his close friend, without mentioning theid prt, directly. >> and he could not stand the abuse of power wherever he saw

, 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, and undetanding that as americans we're part of something much bigger than ourselve >> woodruff: president trump is not invited to saturday's memorial service in washington. instead, former 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.li he wilin 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 pay rae in january after all. president trump today canceled an across-the-board raise of 2.1%, plus additional increases in areas with higher cosvi of . the action does not affect plans for a military pay raise of 2.6%. the president also says attorney general jeff sessions will 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 investigation. ina today dismissed a call for u.s. sanctions over a crackdown on muslims. a group of u.s. laakers made the appeal, in a letter to the trump administration. they cited reports of ethnic uighurs and other muslims bein

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 position enclave. the target is idlib province, and syria's foreign minister says the regime will "go all the way", unless the rebels surrender. in geneva today, the united nations'yria envoy warned that three million people are in jeopardy. >> while we are aware that efforts and discussions aro taking placeoid 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 majonaval exercises on saturday, just off the syrian coast.nt back in this c: michigan state university said today it's been cleared of mishandling a

sexual abuse scandal. the school released a letter from the n.c.a.a. saying a review found nnsrules violat michigan state has denied it covered upor former sports doctor larry nassa he's now serving up to 175 years in prison. for assaulting hundreds of girls and women. at ohio state university: igators say at least 145 people have accused a former school doctor of sexual abuse. richard strauss alledly groped scores of male athletes and other students over two decades. he committed suicide in 2005.if an encino, cnia man was arrested today on charges of making death threatsgainst employees of "the boston globe". federal prosecutors say robert m chain mae 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 pushing back on president trump's attacks on the news media. and on wall street: stocks fell on fea the u.s. will impose new tariffs on china next week. the dow jones industrial average lost 137 points to close below 25,987. the nasdaq fell 21 points. 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 brett kavanaugh has ruled on business issues, and much more. >> woodruff: the u.s. department of justice dived into a battle

today over race college admissions. it's a case heading to federal court this fall centered around admissions practices at harvard 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 affirmativee action in collmissions focused on whether it discriminated against white students. but today the trumpst admition backed a group of asian-american students. they say harvard's divltsity goals re in them being rejected and less qualified applicants of other races being accepted. katie benner covers the justice department for "the new york times" and joins me now. katie, is today's filing in this case, is this an indication that the trump administration would like to get rid 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, it's simply the justice department weighing in on what they say is a statement of interest to say this cae as merit. >> is this a legal atton affirmative action saying it discriminateagainst racial minorities rather than whites? >> right, first of all this case s brought by an attorney named ed bloom. mr. bloom has brought seral affirmative action-related cases. it's clear he's trying to nd plaintiffs who have sympathetic cases to make an argumt affirmative action polls have harmed they chances for success. what makes the harvard cases different is he found plaintiffs who are asian-american minori students saying affirmative action hurt them and they're qualified and there's no reason

they should have gotten into rvard. harvard will say their admission policies factors in race but many, many other things and race is not thel ony determinate. >> what are they arguing about harvard's policies that results with in what they say is discrimination against asian-americans? >> absolutely. they're saying harvard is using ce and they want to create a percentage of students by race, they wt to control the population the student body pool, so onof the ngs they're using are subjective factors, it's called the personaltist or personal score, and what the students contend is asian-american are consistently 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 statistics around race, ian-american have consistently made up about 20% of the class for years and yrs, and they say how could this be? we should be let in onmerit and if that were to happen, you

would see the numbers change. t some ofhe things in the case are damning for harvard. there is evidence that shows admissions professiona harvard said disparaging things about asian-americaand eir personal scores, so this is not a clean and clear-cut case of one side ring rightrong, like all things related to affirmative action, it's incredibly grey. we will see what happens.ls it'semotionally charged. >> if this case were to go to the supreme court, of course, there will be another new justice reacing justice kennedy. the no, ma'amnoy is brett kavanaugh. what do we know about brett kavanaugh's record on affirmative action? >> brett kavanaugh is anst integ person, an interesting figure because he is known for having a loft clerks who have been women, who have en people of color, so his own personal record on affirmative action or at least on race-conscious hiring pocy seems quite strong. at the same time, he has made statements in an orial saying he felt that, soon, some

day, thldsupreme court wou view people not through the lens of race, that the supreme court would you see. citizens as just one race. add vo contacts of affirma action have seen that statement and they say it points to the fact that he may not support affirmative acion once he his the supreme court, which makes a case like this, which it's hardi to i won't reach the supreme court, extraordinarily portant when it comes to the future of affirmative action policies in th>>united states. 'm sure we'll hear more about that at the confirmation hearings next week. te kate o -- katie benner of the "new york times," thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: as we reported c earlier, tnese government objected today to a call by some u.s. members of congress to levy sanctions on beijingor its treatment of the uighur ethnic group, whoive 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 province, to be a uighur muslim is to be accused of havdg a contagiouease. muslims from shin jong to beijing, say chinese repression is stronger thanr. eve where chairman mao looms over the city, chinese polreice accused of creating the world's most extensive surveillance. uighurs arenavies. a>> the chinese government systematically assimilates the uighur people while we're struggling for freedom and human lrights. it'se or death struggle. >> the urn says thetruggle is happening to 1hill uighurs seen

in camps on satellite images. the camps are expanding thanks to a blog the chinese law student. he didn't believe the uighurs at first. >> many say they are fake newse beca's impossible to contain so many people. >> but the project begs forwhat chinese call reunification mps. > so i look at the location with the satelliages and i found that some very large detention camps. >> he found a construction boom and could even identify which structures were teaching >> the expansion of the detention facilities, especially the education camp, i think it likely doubledder even tripled

size. >> radio-freation journalistld ongress last month her family iin camps subject to torture and indoctrination. >> i learned in february mynt cousins, their children, noorn 20 people have been swe t by authorities in the same day. >>hat hearing was called y senator marco rubio. yesterday he and 16 others sent state and treasure departments a letter accusing china of arbitrary descension, torture and egregious restrictions on religious practice and cultureon and callinanctions on senior chinese offyicials. to chinese spokeswoman said the u.s. had no right to criticize. >> chinese 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 whatt calls uighur terrorism

and a uighur separatistme move. china says it's trying to maintain stability and does not detain anyone arbitrarily. for more, joined biomar kant 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 not vocational centers, it is actual jails. there are a lot of evidences that shows that there are jails. we have victims, we have witnesses, we have victims who spent, you know, several nths and later are released from this i call it concentration camp, and they tolddtheir stories how people are being tortured in

these so-called vocat centers, how the people are insulted, how the people are humiliated, how the people are deprived from food,o m 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 of all, denounce their culture, denounce their evn traditions. >> jim millw another line the chinese have. they say there is a serious threat in the area from militants, separatists. there have beeterrorists attacks in the area.ch are these right to worry about stability? >> well, they're certainly worried -- certainly worried about stability and various kinds of unrest. what the chinese d o isrefer to all violence, any kinds of action or disst from peple as

terrorism, and, actually, it runs the gam from smll scale into rural uprisings, maybe t farmers wiheir agriculture tools attacking a police station to what we would call race riots. so stability is a concern. the problem is their reaction to it, this response to it with these camps is indiscriminate and it's excessive, it's way beyond anything that, youkn , good policy would dictate as a response to this kind of relatively low-level unrest. >> is this about economic concerns fromina and china's belton road plan? this is president xi jinping's signature contributionnd he's very much thinking about his legacy in terms of this. it's drawn on the map as rail lines and roads and, you know, the beltacross central asia, but we really should understand it as much broader than that.

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 ne running from shin jung to central asia, they may worry about uighurs doing something to the rail 'sline. but th a small part of the bes line. china that very well under control. there's no danger to this. there's a recent editorial from the chinese npped "global times" which reflects state policy, and it says that there was a danger of shin jung becoming china's syria or china's libya an therefore these harsh measures vent necessary to help pre that from happening, to maintain stability and prevent shin jung from becoming syria or libya.ic

that's rous. if you look at securitization of the region, there are police with boots on the grund, facial recognition cameras everywhere, there's no danger of littering, practically. >> it doesn't have anything to do with the fight against terrorism, fight against extremism. it's a war against the people to eliminate the people, elimina an ethnic group, so it doesn't have figure to do with the terrorism. you can note that it's not an excuse for chinese to say that a fighting against terrorism. more than 1 miion uighurs are in actual jails in detention enters and more than 2 million people arein political and cultural indoctrination centerso >> and jime quickly in the time we have left, uighurs haved been targete before, minorities have been targeted before, but

is this on a scale that we haven't seen? >> so what we're seeing now is really unprecedented as a human rights atrocity in china. not sie t cultural revolution, perhaps, not since 89e tiananmen incidents of 19 has there been anything this serious that the world shouldto pay attentio it's sad, at least because china is better than. this china has a tradition of multiculturalism. it's not libal, western style mueiculturalism, but they h a way of managing different groups within one state, and if they would stick to that, they could provide an example of managing diversity, albeit within an authoritarian context, that in some ways measures up to the ys we manage diversity in the west because these are difficult problems everywhere. jim millward, nat, thank you very much.

>> thank you. >> woodruff: we've frequently reported in recent years on incidents of police shootings, gun violence, and community action 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. >> reporter: in texas, a rare gulty verdict. lowed by an even rarer sentence in a police shooting case. >> wjury having found the defendant roy oliver guilty of murder. >> reporter: last night, a dallas county jury sentenced ivrmer police officer roy to 15 years in prison for killing jordan edwards. on tuesday, oliver was convicter of mdering the 15-year-old. edward's family and friends welcomed the verdict. but after the sentencing, the dteen's stepmother had mi

emotions. >> we're thankful for the verdict that we rece although we wanted more years. this is a start for us and we can get some kind of closure. so we'rehankful. >> reporter: jordan edwards died on april 29, 27 when oliver opened fire into a moving car of black teenagers whwere leaving a party. he and his partner had responded to reports of underage dnking. oliver claimed the car was moving toward his partner, and that he had no choice but to shoot. but body cam video showed just the opposite. the car was actually heading away from the officers. oliver's partner also testified 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-dutye officers tried, let alone convicted in fatal shootings. study from bowling green state university found that between

2005 and april 2017, 80 police officers were charged with murderr manslaughter for on- duty shootings. only 35% were convicted. on tuesday, a lawyer for the edwards family took note ofat >> this "guilty of murder" to us is jus when you think about it, you think about all the cases, all the unarmed black and brown men and women who have been victims to police brutality and who have noreceived justice. >> reporter: oliver is the first police officer found guilty of murder in dallas county since 1973. >> reporter: for more on this week's conviction, and what, if anything, it might mean to the broader issues related to policing, we turn to by packnett, an activity and educator, and phil stinson, a criminal justice professor at bowling green state university. his research, which we mentioned in our story just now, focuses in part on police shootings. thank you to both of you.

brittany, you emerged as nainonal voice after the kig of michael brown in ferguson, missouri. the officer in that case was controversially not indicted. what do you make to have the guilty verdict and the ver?encing of roy oli 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 ourpast experience shows us this will yrobably be an anomaly, that at the end of the we actually saw a police officer be convicted of a shooting of a young black man and we know historically less than 1% of the of 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's enough, and until this is a trend of accountability andon prevenwe won't be satisfied. >> dr. stinson, trends is it so rare for police officers to be sentenced, convicted and

teractions?tal in >> the best estimate is between 900 and 100,0 times each and every year on duty police officers shoot and kill someone in nations a loss the states and only a handful of times is an officer actually charged with rder or manslaughter. ninety-three have been charged 5.nce the beginning of 200 the reason we have so few is most police shootings are to be found legally jusr tified, in otrds that an officer had a reasonable apprehension of an imminent threat of seriou bodily injury or deadly force directed at the officer or someone else. >> to the case of jordan edwards, his family welcomed the verdict but his step-mother said she wished the officer god me time. how does her reaction gel with your reaction and the experiences you've had and work done? >> so i'm conflicted. i don't believe in the current state as it stand and i think we should be discussing atives to prison.

however, the kind of justice in this country requires that people who commia criare punished by going to prison and, in a state likxae te where the death penalty exists, 15 yearse hardly like enough for take jordan edwards life. i certainly don't believe in the death penalty, but there is a wide chasm between 15 years and the death penalty, and especially when we look at the kind of disproportionate prison sentencing that occurs in the state texas, we know that at a rate of 4 to 1, black men and black people are convicted more than white people are and ve longer sentences than white people do in texas. d so i certainn't think that 15 years is enough. i agree with his step-mother, and, yet, i am hopeful notto see just more justice and accountability ton back end, but i aually wish jordan edwards were still alive. >> what britta about is really the criminal justice system in this country. we have been having aco ersation nationally about the policing and the police'sit

relationship african-american people. have you, dr. stinson, seen any change in the way that prosecutors or judges or jurisinteract with police officers after these fatal ino,ractions? >> think we haven't seen any trends in terms of anything changes. if anything in the last few years, i think we have seen perhaps prosecutors takingk closer l these cases, being more willing to bring charges when it's appropriate. prosecutors generally decide to bring a case, if thethink they can obtain a conviction. they're worried about their win rate. but in thecasees, prosecutors are starting to look at the broader picture of simply doing justice, which is what prosecutors are supposed to do, and they knreow these not easy cases to win and they may actually lose the case, in terms of not being able to obtain a conviction, buthope that doesn't deter prosecutors in the future from bringing thesen charges wh's appropriate. >> it's still very, very rare, brittany, for a police officer to even be indicted, let alone

charged, let alone convicted. when you through about this, what do you make to hav -- makee rariy of thespecially when we have video of these interactions. >> the problem is the standard. when you talk about whether or not a police officer felt as t thouir life was threatened, you have to enter into that conversation perception of race, gender, class status. often blackness is treated as a weapon unto ielf when, in reality, it's not. so many times in the strts of ferguson we were armed with nothing but cardboard signs and cell phones and ourselves but were treed as eats. if that continues to be the standard, we will see more and p moice officers not be held to account for these activities. the other point is there are ways in wach te legislators police european yuns and police departments thmselves can actually take this on. we've done a lot of research atr campaignthat shows the kind of use of force policies,

the kind o changing in leonslation that cannotly help prevent the crimes but assure accountability on the back end. we know there are eight different yous of force policies and ifp a olice department adopt them there will be a dramati shift and decline in police violence. the question is will there be a will to do these things. >> are you encouraged? i'm encouraged by the for 'tude of the people, by theirur continued e and i'm encouraged that we are at least continuing to have this conversationthat we have not let it go by the wayside, even though there's so much happening in this country now. i'm certainly not encouraged by th tdirection e criminal justice system, yet i will always believe in the people. >> thank you so much both of you for joining me, brittany packnett and dr. philip stinson. a

>> woodruff: swith us. coming up on the newshour: makingense of how tech ups could foster peace in the middle east, and remembering the life of modern dance master, paul taylo but rst, with just a few day left until heated confirmation hearings for supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh begin, we continue our look at his record on key issues senators will likely press him on.in tonight: bs and labor-- the subject of a large percentage of cases that reach the high court. d,i'm joined by: karen harhe executive director of the small business legal center at the national federation of independent business. and daniel goldberg, the legal director at alliance for justice, an advoca group. and we welcome both of you to the "newshour". karen harned, i'm going to start with you. how, as you look back at brett kavanaugh's record, how are his decisions seen by the people you

represent, small businesses? >> we are very encouraged, aslo we'ved at his record, because, really, what he does is give you predtyictabind certainty in the law because of the way he approaches hisin decision-m he starts with the text of a a ayatute and starts with what the constitution so, therefore, the laws on the books, you have a better understanding of how ae ight actually come out because he really doesn't deviate from the rule of law. >> woodruff: daniel goldberg, what about from your perspective? what do you see? >> when the white house introduced brett kavanaugh, they bragged brett kavanaugh has undermined 75 federal protections for workers, for consumers and for the environment. brett kavanaugh is somebody k o, if you l his record, has repeatedly sided with the wealthy, the poerful, large corporations, people who are trying to take the country backwards and eviscerate many of

the protections thr wokers, consumers and the american people rely on. >> woodruff: so we've got twof very ferent perspectives here. let's take a few specifics here. if you look at the ruings hand down that he's written or have a role in involving, say, worker rights and safety, what do you see? >> it's more the approh he takes. we don't necessarily look at the 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 thir congressional authorization, is whatever congress has said, e.p.a., whatever the department of labor can do under their stutory authority. and that predictability, where congress is the one making the laws, the admncistrative bra is interpreting them, that is, we thk,he appropriate way to keep everybody in their laneshe ans very, very aggressive

in keeping the agencies in particular in their lane 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 are handled. what do you see when you look at s record on workers and worker safety, worker rights? >> wel i think the case that really is illustrative of who brett kaanaugh is the seaworld case. this is a case where a trainer at seaworld was killed by a whale. congress had given osha -- >> woodruff: office ofon occupa safety and health. >> -- that'scorrect -- and congress made a determination that in this nation woabers should b to go to work every day and come home, and charged osha with the authority to make sure our workplaces were

safe. in this one case, osha found that seaworld tha had ignoredut warnings abhis particular whale, had not made the saty conditions that were required, and they had fin seaworld. brett kavanaugh dissented in this case and called eventhe notion of workforce safety standards "paternalistic." that's who brett kavanaugh is. workers across the country know that he iswh somebodo will undermine worker safety laws. >> woodruff: what do you think about anat. >> i c speak to that specific case, but time and time again we've se that he wil only let agencies act as far as their statutorily authorized to do, and i have no reason to doubt that in this case. congress is there to make the laws, they're the ones accountable to all of us, and h,

has been veery clear in his work that, if there is a problem with the statute, that if it doesn't go far engh to do a protection, that's on congress, not on the agency to gap fill, and we think that gives the certaintiy that small business owners i represent can rely on's because ard enough for them to know what the laws are on the books to know what other agencies m promoting. >> woodruff: looking at the e.p.a. regulations and rules, what do you see there, daniel goldberg >> similar e worker situation, where congress has made t determination t want clean air, we want clean water, the american people are entitled to be ae tobreathe clean air and drink clean wateri anng the e.p.a. the authority to protect our families. in case after case, brett kavanaugh has worked to undermine the protections

there's one case where he ruled that the e.p.a. did not have the authity to require upstates that were polluting t remburse down state areas. that meant e.p.a., when they issued the rule, found that thousands of people were alive cause of the e.p.a. rule which protected this clean air. >> on that i will just say, again, with his environmental record, i understand if you just want the look at theend result, you can pick the winners and losers and maybe nothink it's fair, but what kavanaugh does is goes with the authority the agency had.wi e.p.a. in particular, what we've seen in the last several vedecades, is they h pushed the envelope as far as they can d far ng the outermost bounds of what any statute they have requires them to do, and he is pushing back on that, and we

think that is appropriate, because it's time for congress to relook at the lawles, thean air act and clean water act for results and not continue to let them legislate. >> woodruff: do you expect a change of the supreme court on tissues with brett kavanaugh joining. >> sadly not. the robert court has beera po corporate court. just this year you saw them rule in the epic systems case to make it harder for people having their wages stolen fromholding corporations accountable. >> woodruff: kern, do youpe much change? >> i think the court will remain very committed to protectinghe t separation of powers between the branches of governments and suring statutes and constitutions are followed by s ose tasked with doing so. >> woodruff: tsumes he is confirmed and, again, confirmation heangs get underway next tuesday. karen harned, daniel goldberg, thank you both. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: for as long as anyone can remember, the middle east has defied prospects of lasting peace-- especially between israelis and palestinians. but there have been many efforts over the years, includinthsome aren't political or diplomatic. tonight, o economics correspondent, paul solman, looks at one program that helps develop start-up businesses promoting cross-border collaboration. it's part of his weeklseries, making sense. >> reporter: in gaza, the sometimes violent palestinian protests of last spring still reverberate. in april and may, more than 100 palestinians were killed, many ousands wounded. just last week, israel closedno the hern border crossing for several days after violence flared 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 homfor qual-i.t. >> reporter: in an office sharing space thatould be at home in boston, new york, or palo alto, 27-year-old montaser amro runs a software firm he helped found last year. it can compete with anyone, sayf its i.t. cmohammed 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.t. engineers come at a steep discount to the

competition. >> in the united states, they'll probably charge $80 to $120 an hour. >> reporter: what about bangalore? >> india, we're talking about $20 to $25 an hour. inmalestine, we can do it f $10 to $15 an hour. we can compete with ukraine, you kn, we can compete with belarus, with romania, with those countries that are leading this outsourci business now worldwide. >> reporter: but amro's not pitchi the global market just yet. instead, this palestinian entrepreneur is concentrating his people's long-hated neighbor: israel. thanks to a program at brandeis university, just outside boston, that promotes cross-border collabation among promising young arab and israeli entrepreurs. >> welcome to microsoft in israel. >> reporter: amro is eyeing some of the business that multinational tech firms are sending isel's way. >> a lot of u.s. companies have their r&d departments in tel aviv, in haifa.

google, microsoft, 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 almost unthinkable. >> most of my childhood was a lot of violence, a lot of war, o of killing. >> reporter: did you throw rocks and stuff like that? >>oes, please don't take me 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. they break into our house, they search everything in the house for no reason. and they leave after two or three hours, for me, that's-- th's israel, that's 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 elhelo, a former israeli intelligence officerd >> i'm a sep jew. i grew up in ashdod, the fifth largest city in israel. it's a jish city, not even one

arab, and it's more than 200,000 pele. >> reporter: and yet his job was to police the angry arabs throwingocks. >> the only place for israelis and palestinians to meet each other is either if they live in jerusalem where theylly run into each other, or in a militaryelated situation, which, i tell you paul, is not the most sociable interaction 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 toon build a relaip of any kind. >> reporter: so to help fostersh these relatis, elhelo-- a brandeis graduate-- started a allowship program at his alma mater to road testidea that dates back to the european enlightenment: good business makes good neighbors. or as the french thinker montesquieu put it in the 18thur ce "commerce cures destructive prejudices... polishes and softens barbarianwa ." the program, our generation

speaks, houses the start-up business incubator whereo montaser aarted qual-i.t. two years ago. sticks religiously to a one- m -one ratio of israelis to palestinians-- fe board and staff to the couple of dozen start-up hopefuls accepted each summer-- out of hundreds of applicants. once at brandeis, thows undergo bootcamp training for entrepreneurs and are put into ateams-- again, equal parb and israeli-- to create business plans. the credo here is indeed better to make money than war. iarab/israeli collaboratiso charged, however, that many of the brandeis fello wouldn't speak on camera, for fear of reprisal back home. g this is a risk i'm will take. for some people, this risk is gger. some people come from communities in which their neighbors not just not gonna like it, they migheven express how unhappy they are with the fact that a neighbor in this communitis doing this work with the other side. >> reporter: and they could be

in danger.d. >> they co 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's go" in arabic. >> "let's go" in arabic. >> reporter: so, learn arabic by chatting live with native speakers at a mere 25 cents a minute. >> so all these palestinian who sadly don't have jobs cause of the economical situation, they can have a supplementary income by using this app and selling their service. >> reporter: then the's "solar box." solar energy 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 panelsor free. >> we just split the savings. >> reporter: solar box's israeli e.o., yo'av moshe. >> and after ten years, the contract ends and the clients get all of the profiall of the savings. >> reporter: now not all the toartups here are tech-focused.

>> i think you neeind a way to make people taste it. how do you do that? >> reporter: leaves of canaan herbal tea with a mission to eate jobs for low-skille 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 palestinian ptners miran aswad and ahmad muna.is >> our slogactually 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 difference onbeing, no conflict but cflict resolution? >> yeah, like working together. >> reporter: and finally there are nonprofit ventures like the one launched by dr. yasmeen abu fraiha, who was profiled last year by forbes 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 i

saw that the bedouin community is sicker than i thought compared to the jewish people. >> reporter: sicker with genetic diases due to intermarriag >> we mostly have very rare diseases like neurolog prlems, deafness, congenit insensitivity to pain. >> reporter: so abu frha, half douin herself, took a page from orthodox jews, who were also plagued with rare, sometimes fatal, genetic diseases due to intermarriage. one disease, "tay sachs," has been virtlly 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 the goal

of ourar geneon speaks: to, at the very least, create bridges between young israeli and palestinian entrepreneurs. >> it's not just about building byccessful companies, whic the way is great no matter where usu do it, we want to make sure that they build why? because if in ten or 15 years from today one of our alumni will lead the israeli government and anothe palestinian government, we want them to be able to talk to each other. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, this is econ correspondent paul solman. >> woodruff: finally tonight, remembering a giant in the worlp of dance and tforming arts-- choreographer paul taylor. jeffrey brown has our remembrancof his career and why he became one of the most influential creators in his field. >> reporter: joyful, athletic, and lyrical, paul taylor's

choreography was often complex always human. hailed as a towering figure of 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 byov the way they and walking is the most revealing. a walk is like a fingerprint.no wo people walk the same. >> reporter: taylor was born int 1930 and speart of his early years on a farm in maryland. an athlete in his youth, he went to syracuse university on s swimmiolarship but discovered a love for dance in his 20s. >> well, i fell in love with the idea of dance. ddit just hit me all of a ,

and the idea of s ing a dancer ke the idea of being a flame, you know? and i love to move. >> reporter: a virtuosic rformer with a six-foot wingspan, he quickly captured the attention of dance legds, performing for martha graham, merce cunningham and george balanchine before devoting himself to his own troup 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 performance repertoire today. taylor even pushed the boundaries for what was considered dance, as in his minimalist 1957 work called nguet" where-- for four minutes- - he and a reclioman never moved. esover more than six decad taylor explored all aspects of

the human experience, from joy to the horror of war. and he always offered his audiences a range of styles from the classical to slapstick.k, >> dance, i thonsciously or unconsciously symbolizes life. and it reflects the condition, or it can. it tells us the joys, the sorrows, the fallacies idiocies, the brilliance, anything human >> reporr: through it all, a >> reporr: taylor retired from performing in 1974, but continued to choreograph, often stillishing 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 newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mavi shields and 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 teacheer real-life cotions in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and mor15 babbel's 10-inute lessons are available as an app, o online. more information on babbel.com. >> consumer cellular. >> and with the ongoing support these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs thank you.om viewers like u. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh sacgbh.org martha stewart: hahave you ever seen a fanciful pie

or an innovative beautiful cake and wondered, "how did they do that?" then you won't want to miss this season of "martha bakes". join my kitchen where i'll teach you the techniques you'll need for creating picture perfect recipes, brilliantly colored cakes, elegant cookies,ri magnificent ues and swoon-worthy desserts. all guaranteed to be as delicious as theare gorgeous. welcome everyone to "martha bakes". "martha bakes" is made possible by: for more than 200 years, domino and c&h sugars have been used by home bakers to help bring recipes to life and create memories for each neration of baking enthusiasts. ♪ man: the cows are in atlantic ocean behind them.sn this an image, this is reality, and it's a reality every day here.