captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh and the woman who accused him of sexual assault are invited to testify before the senate judiciary committee next monday. tithen, first responders ce to help carolinians recover from huicane florence but many environmental hazards remain. plus, the story of a family separated: a father is deported without his young daughter after entering the u.s. illegally. and, controversial efforts are underway to re-make puerto rico's pchlicl system after the devastation wrought last year by hurricane maria. >> when you're trying to implement change, that's a remarkable momt in time, because you're not normally

given a stop button and then a reset button. that created a receptiveness to some of the ideas. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. ajor funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions:

>> this program was made possible by the corpor bion for publadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: questions are swirling tonight around supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh and s confirmation prospects senate republicans have called a hearing for monday ttion kavanaugh and the woman who accuses him of sexual assault in high school. mocrats say the f.b.i. should first investigate the allegation. we'll ve a full report, after the news summary. in the day's other news, the confirmed death toll from hurricane "florence" climbed to 35-- most of them in eastern north carolina. and, thousands of people in the region struggled for another day inainst catastrophic flood william brangham has the latest. >> brangham: the sunny skies over north carolina make it appear the worst is over, but

florence's waters continue to ague this state. ge swaths are still underwater today. 1,200 roads remain closed. interstate 40, a main east-west artery, looks more like a river. the town of wilmingt remains largely cut off. commissioner urged evacuees not to try and re-enter the flooded city. fema administrator brock long visited the state today and issued a similar appeal: >> it's going to take some time for the water to recede. some rivers still haven't crested.bl it's increfrustrating for you, for responders, for people fixing infrastructure. >> brangham: the rainfall dropped by florence is staggering: elizabethtown, north carolina took nearly 36 inches in four days, roughly what seattle, washington gets in a year. in fayetteville, this was the cape fear river on thursday, and isre's that same bridge morning.

s is history here, we've never seen this before. never seen anything like this before.>> rangham: 300,000 north carolinians are still without power, and rescue missions continue. an estimated 10,000 evacuees are living in shelters. in the town of trenton, this man piloted down main street in a boat, to check on his flooded home. >> i don't know, looking at all this is depressing, but all you can do is take it day by day.or >> brangham: carolina governor roy cooper tried today to urge his constituents to hang on just a bit longe >> i know for many people this feels like a nightmare that just won't end. i know many people are tired of the present, and are scared of thefuture, but please know: will not give up on you. >> brangham: it's hoped that once the rivers crest today, florence's floodwaters will

finally start to recede. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. >> woodruff: the storm's remnants blew across the tonortheast and new englany, touching off flash floods in new york state and new hampshire. north korea's leader kim jong ue with south korea's president moon jae in today, to begin their third summit. kim greeted moon at the airport in the north's capital, pyongyang, as crowds waved flags symbolizing korean unification. later, at a banquet, moon talked of his objectives. >> ( translated ): we will candidly discuss ways tora completelycate the military tension and threats of war. denuclearization of the koreanes peninsula anblishment of peace are also important issues. rm will take the first step to open a new era of ent peace and cooperation. >> woodruff: moon has also said he hopes to help talks between the u.s. and north korea get back on track. in libya, rival militias have resumed fighting in the capital, tripoli, shatting a new cease-

fire. the clashes damaged generators and caused mass power outages today across large parts of the militias have fought over tripi since the dictator moammar gadhafi was overthrown and killed in 2011. tensions between russia and israel ran high today after a russian military plane was shot down off northern syria. all 15 on board were killed. syrian air defenses hit the russian aircraft by mistake. they were firing at israeli jets that attacked targets inside syria's latakia province. russia's military initially blamed israel, but lat president vladimir putin took a more measured tone >> ( translated ): it looks more in of tragic accidental circumstances, because an israeli plane did no take down ane. but certainly we have to seriously look into it. referring to response acthons, will be targeted at

ensuring additional safety ofta our mi personnel and objects in syrian arabic republic. these will be the steps that everyone will notice. >> woodruff: iaeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu expressed sorrow, but said syria bears the blame. he also said israel will continue attacks against iranian forces inside syria, and weapons headed for iran's proxy, the hezbollah militia. back in this country, the u.s. supreme court today refused to block a lower court ruling that forced a conservative group to disclose its donors. the ruling requires that so- called "dark money" groups name all contributors who've given t le00 dollars in the past year. such groups are playing a growing role in political campaigns, including the current midterms that will decide the balance of power in the congress. the u.s. interior department has rolled back an obama-era rule mthat said energy companit capture methane gas at drilling sites.

it was aimed at curbing climate change, but had been tied up in court. last week, the environmental protection agency proposed weakening a milar rule on emissions from public and private lands. and, on wall street, gains in tech, bank and energy stocks outweighed worries about a trade war with china. the dow jones industrial average gained almost 185 points to close near 26,247. the nasdaq rose 60 points, and the s&p 500 added 15. still to come on the newshour: gaplications of the sexual assault allegationst supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. the president announces tariffst on anoth hundred billion dollars worth of goods imported from china. a honduran man is deported without his ughter after entering the u.s. illegally, and much more.

>> woodruff: we begin with supreme court nominee brett a kavanaug the allegation that he sexually assaulted someone in high school. senators jousted today over plans for a public hearing next wed the president weighed in as well. >> honestly, i feel terribly for him, for his wife who is an incredibly lovely woman and his beautiful young daughters.th is not a man that deserves this. >> woodruff: president trump defended his supreme court nominee, at a news conference with the president of poland. earlier, mr. trump said brett kavanaugh is ready to defend himself. >> judge kavanaugh is anxious to do it. i don't know about the other party but judge kava anxious to do it. and a delay is certainlyle accept >> woodruff: the "other party" is christine ford, a psychologyl professor atalto

univerty in california. she says a drunken kavanaugh sexually assaulted her pt a high schoty 36 years ago. the judge flatly denies it, and says he is ready to testify monday before the senate judiciarcommittee. but republican chuck grassley, chr of the panel, said thi yemorning that ford has no agreed to testify. democrats pressed for more time. senate minority leader chuck schumer called for a full f.b.i. investigation into the allegations, and fortnore ses. >> there must not be a hearing on monday and then a possible vote on the nominee a day or two after. this morning, chairman grassley said there'd be only two witnesses. that's simply inadequate, >> woodruff: the justice department said last night that ford's allegations do not involve a federal crime, and so, the f.b.i. won't reopen the background check on kavanaugh.

>> not only do women like dr. ford who bravely comes forward need for be heard, but they need to be believed. they need to be believed! >> woodruff: on capitol hi today, female democratic senators accused republicans of trying to discredit ford. they compared it with g.o.p. attacks on anita hill in 1991, when she accused supreme courtar nominee ce thomas of xual harassment. n an op-ed today for "the new york times," hill wrote of judge kavanaugh, "the weight of the govetoment should not be used destroy the lives of witnesses who are caed to testify." senator dianne feinstein, ranking democrat on the judiciary committee, said the hill/thomas hearingsid show why it's vital to have more than ju the two antagonists testify. she said in a statement: "compare that to the 22 witnesses at the 1991 anita hill hearing and it's impossible to

take this process seriously." for their part, republican leaders questioned democrats' motives, but said theyill allow a public hearing to proceed. >> it's pretty obvious this is all about delaying the process est the accuser certainly deserve to be heard. >> woodruff: but two republican women may have a big say in what happennext. senator susan collins of maine says she's uncommitted on kavanaugh so far. in aetter today to judiciary committee leaders, she called for kavanaugh's and ford's attorneys to be allowed to ask questions during the hd ring. anlisa murkowski of alaska, also undecided on kavanaugh, said congress should take time to hear both sides. >> some have hoped that would have already wrapped up. it's a process i think that >> woodruff: all of this, as the supreme court makes ready to begin its fall term on october

first. here to help us digest another whirlwind day of developments on this story, is our own lisa desjardins, who was reporting on capitol hill forost of the day. and newshour regular marcias coyle, who cove supreme court for the "national law journal." druff: and hello to both of you. so lisa, you have spent the day on the hill. what is the latest in terms of the senators coming together on this? >> republicans and democrats are further apart on what this hearing should look like monday. we know a hearing is scheduled to happen now. we do not know if christinell blasey ford ppear as of just a few minutes ago, checking my e-mail, the comremittee blicans have not had a response from her or her attorney yet. we also do not know if this will be an entirely public or some portions of this hearing will be private. it depends on what e wants if she's willing to testify monday. we do know mark judge, a friend of judge kavanaugh's, he has

said he does not want to testify and republicans are not going to force him to testify some republicans are moving ahead with two witnesses only on monday should ms. ford want to appear. meanwhile, republicans are putting out phone calls, gathering information. democrats are not participati in that. they refuse. to on the other hand, democrats are saying they would likan outside investigation, a background investigation by the f.b.i. republicans are refusing to put that in motion. >> woodruff: so clarifying things, number oar, republicans calling all the shots on this. do democrats have any say in what happens? >> no. republicans do control the committee, and they control exactly the format dar mon >> woodruff: and in terms of what republicans are doing, you said they're putting out lsl but they're not conducting the kind of investigations that democrats are saying is necessary. >> that's right. they're doing calls with potential witnesses, judge kavanaugh and his friend mark judge, they trieto call'v him but they exchanged e-mails with him instead.

those are calls for which th people can be held not quite under oath, but they can be considered some kia of perjury if you lie on those calls. usually democrats and repuicans are both aff members on those calls. in this case just republicans. >> woodruff: marcia coyle, you, in fact, i wasro also und at the time of the thos, clarence thomas-anita hill hearings in 19918 wha parallels do you see with that time? >> i think in terms of similarities, you have obviously two women making serious claimsn against republupreme court nominees. you... i actuany thithe differences are stronger, but anottr similarity would be th both women have taken polygraph ests. i know thatey're not respected much in a court of law, but on the other hand, it's a good-faith gesture in trying to show that you are somewhat credible. but in terms of the differences,

they're rather stark. the claim being made by dr. blay is money more serious than what profsor his accused clarenc thomas of. professor hill was bringing a sexual harassment claim. there was no evidence of any violence, physical touching or anything like that, whereas dr. blasey, i think that's how she says her name, she is making a claim of attempted rae, and that's several degrees more seous. also, in terms of differences, professor hill had quite a lot in corroborating evidence terms of witnesses to whom she had spoken about wht was happening in the office with clarence thomas. ir. blasey, her corroboration comes much late 2012 after the incident, and that is through her therapist and to her husband.

and there's also the length of time between the actual eve and coming forward. with anita hill, i think it wast not ten years, but with dr. blasey, it much longer. so there are pretty stark differences. and y,will say, too, judhat the context is very different. when anita hill made her clims, sexual harassment was not something that was talked about a lot. women knew about it happening in the workplace, but itas not a big issue. this claim, this charge is being made in the middle of the "me too" movement, and certainly everybody is aware of what has been happening with charges madr againsty powerful men and how they have fallen because of those charges. >> woodruff: see is a, we're being reminded marcia there was corroborating evidence back then. there is not that much of it arw. thersome people whoy

professor blard has talked to in the last year or two, including therapy sessions with her husband six years ago, but beyond that, not a great deal. >> well, one thing is we don't realow, because there haven't been really manypu investigatoruing this, except for the "washington post" reporter who was on the story. d i had several democrats tell me today we're left with these being the main investigators at this point, which is why democrats want the f.b.i. now they're not calling for aes criminal igation. some people are getting this confused. tiey know there will not be a criminal investi. they want the f.b.i. to do a background investigation, which is standard pocedure here. and the f.b.i. is choosing not to. now, i thinkalhere are so questions --. >> woodruff: on what grounds? >> part of this is a background check of a nominee, which isth sog mr. kavanaugh has gone through six times. when a file is updated, the f.b.i. can be asked to purae new question about this nominee as i think marcia can say that

happened with anita hill, when the allegations were raised, tho f.b.i. looked that matter, not as a criminal matter, but as a background matter. i think we're also getting into strange waters here, as we see senator collins calling for not just senat ask questions, but opposing counsel, a trial i effect, that seems unlikely at this time, but judy, i asked the senate historian, that has happenedftn the past, not, but occasionally. >> judy, one other thing i was s ing to say the timing here, i went back the look at the timi frame of thl hearings and what's happening now, and the news of anita hill's claim broke the weekend before the senate judiciary committee actuay ld the hill-thomas hearings, and in that week, they were able put together 22 witnesses, almo an equalmber on each side. it's a very similar... well, it's actually... this hearing is going to be held less than a week after we've really heard everything. >> woodruff: but again, only

two witnesses at this point. just quickly, in terms oth questions that were asked then and you've been talking tos, lawyhe legal team for anita hill. what are they saying are theof kinduestions we should look for? >> if it just goi to be judge kavanaugh and dr. blasey ford, there will be questions about details. how much can the ctor recall about the incident. try to be as specific possible. what was the room like. she said she hid in a batmhr afterward, what was that like. how much can she recall. and for jud kavanaugpect questions about his high school days. did he do a lot of drinking? what about hi yearbook page that everybody is showing now where there seem to be... anhed others who really did participate in a lot of drinng. so i think we should look for that. and something else, too, i think we should look at how does the

senate judiciary committee handle this. 991 it was an all-male, all-white committee. this time you have four women only on the democratic side. this is as much a judgment of how this committee handles this as it is of the two witnesses. >> woodruff: ten men on the -- 11 men on the republican side. all right. marcia coyle. li desjardins, we will certainly continue to watch this. thank you both. >> pleasure, judy. >>hoodruff: the trade war w china is escalating, with no end in sight soon. as the number of imported goods subject to u.s. tariffs keeps growing, john yang looks at the impact and where it's hitting. >> yang: judy, china saidoday it would levy tariffs on $60 billion worth of u.s. goods ranging from agricultural products and machinery to chemicals. it's retaliation against new

u.s. import taxes on $200 billion dollars of chinese good that are setke effect next week. to explain this escalating trade tit-for-tat, we're joined by david wessel, director of the hutchins center on fiscal and monetary policy at the brookings institution. david, thanks so much for being with us. are we headed to a war of attrition here, a trade war of attrition? >> it sure looks that way. i mean, president ump put this new 10% tariff on chinese imports, and he said,hey retaliate, i'm taking it up towe 25%. , they retaliated almost instantly. therdoesn't seem to be an quick resolution of this thing, and the president is pretty resolution. >> yang: there was some talki about talks on between the united states and china. has that gone away? >> there is still some po low-level talks, but it looks like at this hour that the chinese leadership has decided they're not going send a high-level delegation here if

trump is opposing -- imposing tariffs on them. so it's not an atmosphere that seems conducive to negotiations. one thing that's clear is there is a split within the trump administration between people like peter navarro and u.s.t.r. and the trade representative, who are pretty hawker on trade, steve mnuchin, the treasury secretary is trying to cut a deal, and the doves here seem to losing. >> yang: secretary of congress wilber ros says american consumers aren't ral he going to notice this because the tariffs are so small. do you agree with that? .> no, i don't wilbur ross is a pretty rich3-g. i bet he doesn't pay that much attention to the prices of things he buys. we know that overall this is only going to have a modest effect on pri ces e united states. but in those affected industries and those groups, it'going to go up. there's an electric bike maker in seattle, rad t bikeat's raised the place of $1,500 bike

by $200. washer and dryer prices have gone up 15% in the last several months because of president trump's tariffs on sted the tariffs on imported appliances. eo in those industries that ar affected, the prices could go up quite a bit. erw, one siining at least for some of us is because the chinese aren't going to buy s much of our fruits and vegetables and nuts, those prices may actually go down for a while. >> yang: the president says he's doing this to protect u.s. manufacturing jobs. is that goal achievable? >> well, i think that when you make it difficult for manufacturers to import things,u some manufrs will choose to make things in the united states. but that wille offset those manufacturers who either can't sell things, because the price of their imports have gone upo much, or foreign producers will just move production to vietn or bangladesh or korea or india, and escape the tariffs, and

we'll be no better off. >> yang: if this is a war of attrition, whos better equipped to go the long haul, the united states or china? >> that's a good question. on one hand this isn't going to bring either th chinese or the american economies to their knees. each one of these countries has lots of trading pners and has a pretty big domestic market. i think the chine economy is somewhat more vulnerable now than ours. they rely more on exports and imports than we do. and their economy seems to slowing down a bit, where ours has not yet begun to slow down. on the other hand, the chinese government doesn't have to worry abouelections. so if the farmers or manufacturers or exporters in china get annoyed, they can't vote out the chinese leadership. donald trump, on the other hand, does have to worry about election, and that may mean we take pn less readily than the chinese. jiesh david. >> yang: dad wessel at the hutchins center at the brookinga

institution, you very much. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: inside controversial efforts to reform puerto rico's struggling school system. and a conversation with bill and urlinda gates on their latest philanthropic ve the announcementast night by the trump administration of new, sharply-lower limits on the number of refugees who will be admitted to the u.s. comes amid an overall clamp-down on immigration. that's been illustrated starkly by the official policy of family separation at e u.s. border, that has left hundreds of immigrant families split apart. as yamiche alcindor reports, for one man in central america, it has meant months of separation from his daughter, and lingering, painful questions. >> alcindor: in a small bedroom in rural honduras, reminrs of an absent little girl.

and a family separated, andsw desperate for s. >> ( translated ): sometimes i don't eat. sometimes don't sleep thinking about her. it's something i wouldn't wish on anyone. uyou wouldn't understand il you go through it. it's something tough, for her to be so far from me and wiout us. >> alcindor: "h" is marianita, the six-year-old daughter of misael ponce herrera. the two were separated in june after they crossed the border from mexico into the united states illegally. they have not seen each otherre for and half months. misael, like hundreds of other immigrants, was deported a few s ys after the separation, without ughter. marianita remains in the united states in an children's shelter in new york. imsael has tried immigrating to the u.s. three tes. this time, he left behind his wife ana and the couple's three year old son, jadiel. his plan was to find work in the united states and then send for th.

>> ( translated ): i thoug that with my daughter we would be able to get some kind of permit or political aso um to be ableay there, work an live with my daughter. it never crossed my mind that i could be separated f daughter. if i had known that, i wouldn't' have come with mdaughter. but i didn't know anything. that was the worst surprise i found, that in coming here theya ted me from my daughter. >> alcindor: between april and june, more than 2,500 immigrant children were forcibly separated from adults with them as they tried to enter the united states. hundreds of those adults, in many cases parents, were then ported without their children, back to their home countries including honduras and guatemala. in june, president trump signed an executive order meant to end his policy of family separation. that led to some families reunifications inside immigration deteion centers. others were released from detention, reuted and are now trying to remain in the united states. but, the president's order also orset off a frantic search parents who had already been deported.

it's unclear when, if ever, some of those parents will see their children again. the trump administration flew many parents back to capital cities.s those pareen returned to rural villages where they are often hard to reach, according to immigration advocates. in misael's case, he says he keeps trying to come to the united states to escape poverty and violence in honduras. >> ( translated ): and violence here is tough. in a monththere were five deaths around here. children see that, they hear about these things. all these things make us leave in search for new horizons.lc >>dor: using money he earned working as a barber, misael paid smugglers to get him and his daughter into the united states. but the two were taken into custody only minutes after arriving in south texas. >> ( translated ): we crossed the river. from there officials founds and took us to a station where they held all the immigrants. alcindor: he was detain with his daughter for about a week. then, early one morning, immigration officers came to

take him to court. >> ( translated ): when they told me they would take me to a judge i askeugthem who my er would stay with. they said she would stay with other children here and you'll see r when you get back. "are you sure?" "yes when you get back you'll e your daughter." my daughter hugged me, gave me a kiss. we said goodbye. when everything with the judge ended i was supposed to see my daughter again. but no. >> alcindor: a few days later, misael says he and several other immigrants were pressured into signing deportation orders.ed >> ( transl ): i was trying to read what i was signing but they said no, in a rush they said "rry up, hurry up." i asked about my daughter. "and my daughter? what happened with my daughter? she's staying and i'm leaving?" "i don't have information about that," they told me. was hard, i felt bad. i thought, how can i go and leave my daughter here, it's impossible? these were moments i wouldn't wish on anyone, very hard. >> alcindor: shortly afterwards, immigration officials informed marianita's aunt i they had the little girl.

but it was weeks before a social worker contacted ana, marianita's mother in hondas and told her that her daughter was in a shelter. >> ( translated ): it affected me a lot. i was sick, even hospitalized, because i was very depressed. i got headachezzand constant ess because i found myself always crying, crying, crying. >> alcindor: do you think the presiden you or your family? to >>i translated ): yesink so because if they traveled together they should have been kept together. because if they knew they would deport theather they should have deported her well. >> alcindor: according to court records, the trump administration has reunited more than 1,900hildren with their parents.ha about 200 been sent to sponsors such as family members living in the united states. but more than 400 parents werese rated and then deported without their children. so far, only 12 children have been reunited with those parents in their home countries. the number of reunions abroad is

so small because the trumpas administration done little to help deported paren according to attorney efren olivaras. >> this was a cruel and misguided policy that violates not only u.s. law but international human rights law. >> alcindor: olivras works near the border, in amo, texas, for the texas civil rights project. the group is providing legal counsel to misael and other deported parents. >> they all say yeah i signed a lot of papers. i didn't know whin i was sign they told me that signing was the way to get my child back. so i signed whatever they put io put in of me in some cases >> alcindor: olivaras says the trump administration hasn't taken enough responsibfor a problem they created. >> mr. ponce lives in a remote area of honduras. his daughter hopefully eventually will be sent back to the capital who's going to make sure that mr. ponce n either travel to the capitol or that his daughter makes it all the way to her hometown from the

capitol. >> alcindor: in the meantime, president trump has only doubled down on his hardline ition stance. at campaign rallies and meetings with supporters, he has repeatedly compared separated immigrant families to families hurt by undocumented immigrants. >> the media doesn't talk about the american familiestl permanseparated. they're not separated for a day or two days. these are permanently separated, because they were killedy criminal illegal aliens. >> alcin r: last month, the white house also tweeted out this video. ting ongoing litigation, the department of homeland security declined to comment. back in honduras, when ana talks to marianita, she tellher daughter to hold on. >> ( translated ): she always tells me she doesn't want to be there anymore.

every time i call her she cries and that's why i try not to call her every day because she gets upset. i tell her to wait and wait. >> alcindor: mwiael is plagued guilt. >> ( translated ): i promised my daughter that we wouth always be to and that's why we were embarking on the trip. i want them to send me my daught back now, fast. i'm anxious to hug her, tell her how much i've ssed her and for r to forgive me for all of this. >> woodruff: and yamiche joins me now. so yamiche, let's step mack for justent. give us the overall picture of parents who have been separated from their children, pents who have been deported. >> well, parents that wereit deportedut their children are the toughest group of separated families. advocates say it could be y months, evenears before they see their children, and i want hee walk you through some of the number. there were 414 parents deported without their children by the trump administration. 302 of those parents have beacen

d either by phone or physically found. but only 21 children, es21 faminly have been reunited in their home country. so there are a lot of families that are still separated. >> woodruff: now the man you were talking with was saying that he brought his child because he thought that would help their chances of staying in the united states. but wasn't it meant to be a deterrent to say to parents, you're not going to be able toay f you bring your children. >> that's exactly right, judy. he dtl exacwhat the trump administration doesn't want people to do. into theied to get united states two times before. he had been deported twice. on this third time he said, i'm going to mimi daughter with me, and they're going to see this 16-year-old girl and they're going to say, maybe you can stay. he's fleeing violence and poverty and his little girlcan have a better life here. what happened is officials took his daughter away from him. now she's in a shelter in new york and he's back home. he feels reay guilty.

he feels as though his decision making is why his family is parated. >> woodruff: the other thing is he felt pressured to sign th deportation order. he wasn't aware it would mean leaving his daughter behind. now we have this suit by the aclu, the america civil liberties union that's aimed at reuniting the parents. do we know how that could affect him and other people in his situation? >> there is a little bit of hope that the deported parents that were separated from his children might be able to come back to the united states. a judge, a federal judge st week told the aclu and the government that they needed to get moving on this proposed settlement agreement which would allow parents who are in the united states to reapply for toylum a the really make ther case a second timeay i should be able to stay in the united states because i have a credible fear. under that proposed settlement, ere's part where deported parents can come back to the united states and also say, i had a credible fear and i wasd deported i want a second try, but the trump

administration has not agreed to at portion of the settlement. so it's up in the air whether or not these deported parents bell ble to come back. advocates say they should have chance to come back to the united states,because the united states e-cig acceptly tortured them by separating them from their children. but it's unclear whether or not they'll be able to do that. >> woodruff: such an important i know you'll continue to follow it. yamiche, thank you. >> thanks. >> woodruff: one year ago this week, hurricane maria devastated puerto rico, leading to profound implications for its school system, which had already beennd criticized forperforming. in the aftermath, thousands of chilen moved to the u.s. mainland and almost 300 schools were permanently closed. now puerto rico schools are at a crossroads and facing an. overha special correspondent kavitha

cardoza with ourartner "education week," has a report from the island. >> reporter: 12-year-old yomar sanchez citron says even thinking of hurricane maria" rts his heart." >> ( translated ):if was ted. i lost my house and seeing it destroyed it was.ery, very ha i had my things there, furniture, my bed.er it was very, vtough. >> reporter: yabacoa, was among the hardest hit areas when lihurricane maria came bar through puerto rico. this elementary school was closed for almost foths. principal miraida carabello martinez pla a video of the aftermath. >> that's the luouh room. abt 50% of the school was destroyed. i still have emotions. >> reporter: repairs are ongoing. a third of the students, about

60 children, have scattered to the u.s. mainland. the experience waso traumatic, martinez says even a slight rain can make students cry. >> when it rains, and they see thunder, they hear thunder, they get afraid. >> reporter: psychologist joy lynn suarez says it's not just all of puerto rico. >> it's an island that's been ripped apart. these children were already dealing with so much- violent surroundings, island that's gone bankrupt, people leaving. they can just take so much. >> reporter: suarez, who's also a consultant to the education department here, says she's seeing significant increases in rates of anxiety, depression, s t.s.d. and suicide attempts. >> familing torn apart. we still have a lot of childreni that one of parents is in the states and the other one is hure. so a year after thicane, i feel we're stillenery, very pr in hurricane mode

still. >> rorter: it's against this background that the most widespread, controversial education reform efforts in puerto rico are playing out. first, a bit of history. this school system was struggling long befo the hurricane. the vast majority of studes are low-income but by law aren't entitled to the same amount of federal funding that children on the mainland receive, even though they're u.s. citizens. and each year, for the pas decade, roughly 20,000 students have left the school system. hurricane maa doubled those numbers. >> from one year to the next, you lost almost 40,000 students. >> reporter: julia keleher, the secretary of education here, is pushing for aggressive change. many school buildings were hal full or damaged, so she decided this summer to close more than 250 of them. keleher says the system needed scarce dollars could have more impact. >> the idea was to have

buildings at 85 to 90% capacity so that you could buy sets of books that would benefit more students, put couters in that more students could access and a assign full faculty and have two social workers. >> reporter: keleher belisves ill improve quality, which in turn will improve learning. puerto rico's graduation rate and test scores are far below the u.s. average. >> this year, in the eighth grade there was not one student, not one,ho demonstrated oficiency. >> reporter: but changes to the educational system are fiercely opposed by both teachers' unions here. >> this is by far, the wst semester we've had in the history public education in our system. >> reporter: mercedes martinez padilla is the president of the teacher's federation of puerto rico. >> teachers are very anxious. teachers fear that they may lose

their jobs. teachers are being relocated to distant schools because of school closures. a lot of them don't have transportation. they are in fear they may lose their benefits, their rights, their salaries, their pensions, so it's very bad for teachers right now. >> reporter: padilla says school closings have resulted in overcrowded classrooms and children in special educatio without services. padilla sees a more singster loerm agenda to destabilize education.he >>shut down schools, they create chaos in the public education system. people ask for privatization. they make a business and theyke a profit out of it. >> reporter: padilla is referring to the perhaps the most contentious change: governor ricardo rosselló andde keleher'sion to embrace charter schools. they are publicly funded schooly that are privaun. charter schools were illegal in puerto rico until this year. the boys and girls cluof

puerto rico runs the island's first charter school. eduardo carrera morales is the c.e.o. >> we understand based on research that literacy is t enough tbreak the cycle of poverty that have hindered the economy on the island. so too for us, this is not about school. this is about being able to break the cycle of poverty. >> reporter: morales says this charter school, is one part of their model. they also offer job training for the student's parents and afterschool programs. compared with traditional public schools, his charter school spends almost three times ason much on each child and pays the non-unionized teachers one and a half times the average salary, through private funds. >> we want the best! >> reporter: union leader padilla is pushing for keleher to pay teachers more, limit class sizes and forget aboutch arter schools. >> the government used the hurricane as an excuse toei achieve plans of

privatization. >> when you'reenrying to implchange, that's a remarkable moment in time. you're normally not give an kind of stop button, right, and then a restart button. it created a receptiveness t some of the ideas. >> former u.s. secretary of education john king has a personal connection to the island. >> so this is a picture of my mother and her younger brother. my mother was born in puerto rico and came to the bronx when she was a kid >> king, who is now the p >> reporter: king, who i the president of a nonprofit, the education trust, has in the past supported both traditional and charter public schools. says the bigger point i that the federal government should be doing much more to rebuild puerto rico. >> nearly as many people died in the aftermath of hurricane maria as died in 9-11.

there's a lack of recognnion many parts of the mainland that puerto rico really is a full part of the united states. >> reporter: king says short term needs like water and power are important. but there also needs to be a focus on the long term. >> and that means investing in schools. all of us want great things for our own children, but if we want to live in a great society and a great country, we have to wantor thatll children. >> reporter: wilfred spent se i tell my mom we got to >> reporter: students look forward to graduating, but alfredo has more immediate concerns. >> if another kid comes here, what will happen? >> reporter: for the

>> reporter: for the pbs newshour and "education week," i'm kavitha cardoza in yabucoa, puerto rico. >> woodruff: finally tonight, a conversation with two of the world's biggest philanthropists and billionaires about trying to alleviate poverty in africa and elsewhere. the gates foundaon warned in a report today that for all of the progress made in fighting poverty and disease in recent years, it could stall because of rapid population growth in some african countries. ng was issued as part of an annual look at meenited nations goals. i spoke with bill and melinda gates before the report was released about those concerns. bill and melinda gates, thank you very much for talking with the good news in this report you point t is more than a billion people on the planet have been lifted out of extreme poverty

just since 2000 but the i challenge s not concentrated in parts of this world that where it's really going to be hard to make the next set oimprovements. how is that bill gates? >> well it's amazing how asia including most large countries there have gotten extreme poverty down quite substantially. so as you say africa is going to have a very high share of the people in extreme poverty. and in fact the births in the world are shifting towards africa a quarter of the births today but over the course of the century it becomes half of all e births in the world. so we need to really double down take the positive examples from ia. what was done there in terms of health and education and go to even the toughest pa africa and execute those

investments and so it's a call that to maintain the great progress we're going to be working in tougher places. but that's what we need to do. , >> woodruff: melinda gatat makes it so tough in these particular parts of sub-saharan africa? >> well, i think you know we're talking about places where infrastructure investments haven't necessarily been made. you have a lot of big pockets of poverty but the great thing that we do know is we know how to make these investments wod. we've learned from the miracles that have ppened in asia in china and other places in africa even ethiopia. when i was a kid you know we saw ethiopia's almost holess and the opposite is absolutely true. now ey've really worked on maternal mortality and childhood mortality and they cut the number of childeaths substantially in the last few years. when i go to ethiopia you e that progress is possible. we need to take those lessons to

other places in africa. >> the majority of the peoplee ung people and that is an opportunity because if you do invest in those people their open mindedness their productivity you know being and as they come into working age it can be a fantastic thing. but the challenge to get these health systems to scale up to get the food systems for nutrition to scale up and then the educational systems that not only have the access but the quality as well. that's not going to be easy. we're going to have to have donor resources stay very generous and local governments figure out how to raise domestic resources and then run these systems. >> woodruff: melinda gates, i people look at this and think, gosh hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent by other governments and nolpprofit organizations to

to aid these poor african countries. why you think this new effo will be different? >> well, i think one thing that people should know is that those investments that have been made indhe past have made the wo better. we've seen incredible progress in the number of people lift. out of pover we see childho deaths have been cut substantially over the last 20-25 years. so what we want people to know is those investments make a difference. when you see a country like south korea that went from middle from low income to middle income and they're now giving money to other nations. they're a model for africa. so we want people to know those investments make a difference and we have to keep making them in health and in education and families will lift themselves un hese countries and it will lift up whole economies. >> woodruff: bill gates, i want

to stay with you on that pointyo point out the work you're doing now is at a point many governments are pulling back turning inward. how much of a problem is that? how much of a problem is that for the united states? >> there were a lot that caused the focus on these very poor countries to be somewhat diminished throughoutat all hough there were aid increases the u.k., germany, the u.s. big increase took place under president bush was increased a little bit under obama and even with the executive bnow being recommending cuts the congress has seethe benefits whether it's the stability the economics the relationips and the u.s. foreign aid has been maintained. so although the dialogue you know terms like american first really do have people nsidering turning inward. we hope that events like this tey can see modest resources are making a difference. >> woodruff: but melinda gates,

just quickly, sounds like the trump administration policy the presidents philosophy policy approach america first is not helping. >> no i think any time that you have a world leader who's turning inward, it doesn't help the world. and i think we know as a nation we're better off when we are more together when we are coming together to solve our own problems and to help people as a world we're generous nation. we want people to not only survive but to thrive in the world. and we should be leaders in that in the united states. >> woodruff: the foundioion and educpolicy here in the united states. over the past year your foundation appears to have madhi an important in your apprch from a more centraliz approach to impost standards on teachers to what you're calling local based or locally driven solutions.

original approach did receive some criticisms what lessons did you learn? why are you making the shift? >> u.s. education is the other big thing besides global health that we do. you know we think it's so important that all the kids t a great education. our earlier work was about helping teachers be better and peer evaluation. we saw some benefits there but not sustained over the long period. so now we're doing networks of schools where the exact tactics they pick to help the students progress depends on what they see what they see and ability to make a strong long term commitment to. and so going out to these schools you can see you know teachers care they want to find out which kids are not makingpr anss and have resources and interventions thatork for those kids so you know we're hoping to see the same type of

dr education that we we've seen in olp. but as yet for athe people who work in the field there have been improvements but they've been modest. >> woodruff: just finally to melinda, you've issued a statement recently about the underrepresentation of women especially tech sector.r in the what have you seen? why does it concern you? >> well i think the tech sprtor is havinound implications on all of our lives. and these are incredible jobs in the economy. and what i want to make sure is that everybody participates al women not only have a seat at the table but that their best ideas can be funded and come forward and so it was discouraging to me to see in the last decade that blacks latinas and native americans. their numbers are actual declining in the tech sector. and i think we should address that and do something about it. i think there's something that we can do about it to give them more patays in to make them know it's welcoming and to make sure that their great ideas do

in fact come forward. >> woodruff: melinda gates bill gates we thank you both. >> thank you. >> good to talk to you. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs fwshour has been provided by: >> theord foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement

of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was madeco possible by thoration for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioningponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ - today on milk street we're here in madrid to do something, well, kind of crazy. we're meetoug with two very fchefs, but they're known for their fusion cooking and we're going to ask them to do something traditional, somethinslthat actually tres well to america. now the first is abraham garcia. he's going to make carcamusas. that's essentially a stew with three different kinds of meat made in a skillet in just half an hour. the next g is joaquin felipe. made in a skillet he's going to do pisto,ur. a ratatouille, but in the spanish style.