captioning sponsored byws ur productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. don the newshour tonight,p freeze blankets the american midwest. cities like chicago are as cold as the arctic. how climate change drives the polar vortex. then, protesters take to the streets across venezuela amidst a power struggle over that country's presidency. plus, woulyou chose to be a borg? we explore the promise and perils of putting microchips in humans >> i can understand people have very strong views. there's big ethical arguments around microchipping peopl but currently it's by choice. no one is enforcing you have to be microchped. if that happens, a completely different ball game and lots more arguments to be had around it. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> supported by the john d. and cathine t. macarthur undation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for tblic broadcasting. and by contributioyour pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: this has been a day for the record books. it was colder in parts of the american midwest today than it was at the south pole. the arctic assault claimed at least seven lives and disrupted planes, trains, automobiles, and just about everything else.s visi a frozen world. a wall of steam rose off lakemi

igan in chicago this morning, rivers in the windy city and detroit froze to sheets of ice. and in milwaukee, sub-zero readouts at a landmark clock tower were topped by flags standing at attention in winds that sent chills down to minus- 43. human in can freeze within 15 minutes in minus-25, as michigan's governor warned today. >> it's not just the person who is risking iby getting outside, it is other people, our first responders, who mahave to show up on the scene. and so it's important that people understand the magnitude of the issue. >> woodruff: all across the midwest, wind chills hit recordr lows today 70 below in parts of minnesota to 57 below in northern illinois to 40 below in michigan. hundreds of schools and businesses closed. homeless shelters from minnesota to michigan filled up with people seeking refuge, including

one native of hawaii. >> that wind chill out there is not even a joke. i feel sorry for anybody that has to stay outside. >> woodruff: officials in chicago even turned buses into mobile warming centers. >> if somebody's there that does not want to come to a city facility, again, the city will come to you and they can get on the bus and warm themselves up. >> woodruff: the cold took its toll in other ways, as well. more than 1,600 flights from chicago's airports were canceled, and amtrak stopped all trains in and out of the city. minnesota pulled snowplows off the road in some places, saying drivers could freeze to death i thows broke down. and, the u.s. postalce suspended some or all delivery in 10 states. but,ome people had to brave the brutal conditions, regardless. firefightedi in hammond, a, battled a house fire in wind chills of minus-50. and power ews tended to

damaged and downed lines. others got creative, as inhis facebook animation from a school superintendent in south dakota. >> i'm not a cold dog, i'm a hot dog. you cannot have school! it's too cold outside. >> woodruff: but never too cold, apparently, for the arrowhead 135 endurance race in northeastern minnesota. 13 hardy souls finished the three-day bike, ski and run today. hein the day's other news, federal reserve kept a key paterest rate unchanged, and it and pledged to bent in ordering future rate hikes. ral bank raised rates four times last year, and drew fire from president trump. but fed chair jerome powell insisted today that the turnabout is a response to economic conditions, not criticism. >> we're always going to do wha we think is ght thing. we're never going to take

political considerations into account or dcuss them as part of our work. you know, we're human. we make mistakes, but we're not going to make mistakes of character or integrity. i would want the public to know that and i would want them to se >> woodruff: the fed announcement went down well on wall street. the dow jones industrial average jumped nearly 435 points to close at 25,014. the nasd rose 154 points, and the s&p 500 added 41. president trump fired back today at his intelligence chiefs, who contradicted him before congress. they testified tuesday that north korea is unlikely to dismantle its nuclear arsenal r and that the iran nucleadeal is still working. but the president tweeted today that the relationship with north korea is "best it has ever been." he also declared: "the intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to iran." and, he suggested: "perhaps

intelligence should go back to school." u.s. and chinese officials begai -stakes trade talks today in washington. negotiators do not expect a resolution after this round. instead, they hope for a deal before march 2nd. if there is no deal by then, the u.s. is set to increase tariffsi onse goods from 10 to 25%.an the euronion has roundly rejected talk of re-negotiating itain's deal to leave th bloc. british lawmakers voted yesterday to replacevision that keeps britain in the e.u. stoms union. it's designed to avoid a hard border between northern irelando and the republireland. in brussels today, european clcommission president jeade juncker said the "withdrawal agreement will not be re- negotied." >> the withdrawal agreement remains the best and only deal possible. the european union said so in november.

we said so in december. we said so after the fir meaningful vote in the commons in january. the debates and votes in the house commons yesterday do not change that. >> woodruff: british prime minister theresa may will now try to negotiate better terms, as time grows short. britain is less than two months away from its deadline of leaving the e.u. in brazil, the death toll to 99 in the collapse of a mine waste dam last friday. more than 250 people are still missing. the collapse also released a torrent of iron oxide sludge. it's heading downstream toward a river that provides drinkingwa r to hundreds of towns and cities. dangerous levels of air pollution in thailand shut down more than 400 schos in bangkok day. officials said heavy traffic and stagnant air are causing a buildup of tiny particles in the air. the air may not clear until xt

week. back in this country,t electronics gixconn is shifting a major wisconsin project from manufacturing to research it cited changing market conditions today, but ntid it still to create 13,000 jobs. the original plan was hailedumy president it called for foxconn to build liquid crystal displayanels, and to receive $4 billion in tax incentives. and, the u.s. house approved a pay raise for federal civilian workers today, in the wake of the government shutdown. it amounts to 2.6%-- te given to the military last year. majority democrats argued federal pay needs to keep upof with the cosiving. most republicans opposed granting a blanket raise without performance reviews. still to come on the newshour: the connection between climate change and the deadly ld sweeping the midwest. protesters take to the streets

amid political upheaval in venezuela. congress grapples with border security ahead of another looming deadline, and much more. >> woodruff: more than 80 million americans, about a quarter of the u.s. population, are expectedal with sub- zero temperatures this week. it's especially brutal in places that are long used to the deep freeze of wier. minnesota, for example, could break temperature records dating back to the 1800s. this blast is tied to a huge pocket of cold air, now known as the polar vortex there are lots of questions about that and amna nawaz is here to try to get some answers tonight. >> nawaz: judy, wind chills in several states have already dropped, or soon will drop, to the negative 40s or 50s. which leaves people trying to

understand what is behind this weather phenomenon. is there a connection between climate change and this cold front? among those asking questions is president trump, a skeptic not buonly of climate change, also the scientific consensus behind te. as the polar vorset in earlier this week, the president tweeted: "what the hell is going on with global warming? please come back fast, we need you!" let's get a better understanding of what's behind the polar vortex, and any connection to climate change, with jennifer francis.sh s a senior scientist at oods hole research center, well known for its wothe impact of climate change. >> jennifer francis welcome to the newshour and thanks for making the time. the polar vortex is no trending hashtag on twitter, lots of people have a lot of questions. let's start with that. what exactly is the polar very temperature anwhy w are we dealing with it right now? >> yes. so theolar vortex is a new word in the lexicon of americans, just starting a few

years agoand it gets used wrongly often. what the polar very temperaturel is is way up in the atmosphere over the north pole, inout 30 miles up is a ring of winds blowinhe counterclockwise direction that keep the cold air bottled up over the arctic, way high up in the atmosphere. so this is called the strafs, stratospheric polar vortex and what it often gets used wrongly for is to the talk about the jet stream, which is much lower in the atmosphereable, it is really what creates all of our weatherl that we own here on the surface. it is also a river of wind that flows around the northern hemisphere but at a much lower level. so there are these two spinning rivers of wind up over the northern hemisphere that conheol our weand right now the true polar vortex has acually split into two, which doesn't happen very often, and one of

those loebs of cold air that is normally bottled up over the north pole has drifted down ove north america and brought u brof that cold air with it and that's why this particular 0 cold front or cold air mass i just so severe. >> so that's high we are dealing with it right now, but you mentioned it split into two. explain that to me. why did that happen? >>hat we think is happening that connects back to climates changeat, back in the summer we lost a lot of ice in a region just noh of wstern alaska in the arctic ocean. that allowed a lot of extra heat to get absorbed in the water there and in fact the ice still hasn't grown back, and that heat thenmiets reeed back to the atmosphere during the fall and winter when the cold airom back, and it makes kind of a bull j in the atmosphere and if that bulge gets big enough it can make the jet stream take a northern swing a if that northern swing is big enough it will send wave energy up into the stratospre where the par

vortex is and it can kind of knock it off its rocker, if you will, if you can think of a top spinning up there, it can bump into this top and get it to wobble and sometimes it wobbles so much that it actually creates this split in the polar vortex. >> so just to summarize you think that heat there, as a result of climate change, is ptbasically causing a disn in the polar vortex that already exists, that's what is calling it to shape shift and move and that's w we are experiencing it? now that's a link between client change and a this weatheris phenomenonhat right. >> that's what we any is going on. it is a very new topic of sresearch. itertainly not settled. there are only a handful of papers that have come out so far that are supporting this hy certainly looks like it, this year is a classic example, last year was too, aninwe ththat this is a robust connection. >> well let me ask you about that, though, because if youif don't knowhis is what we believe is actually happening, then are people right tbe casting doubt on this?

>> well, you know, that is how science wor. somebody has a hypothesis or an idea of how sometng is connected, they do a bunch of experienced, experiments, they look at the real world and analyze the real atmosphere and look at how things are connected to the real atmosphere and thn sometimes they use numerical climate models or sort of like our weather recast models to try and simulate those connections. anby doing that, that gains credibility and gives us some confidfce that these sorts cnnections exist. but the problem is there atmosps a very complex beast, so there is still a lot 00ing -- lot of research to do but i think this concept has gained a lot of traction in the last few years and there is really -- there is really no alternative explanation other thanhis is just happened by random chance. >> dr. francis i would like you to make another distinction between us between weather and climate, the events we are seeing and talking about and a

this overall trend of clima. chan >> right. so more generally, climate is just the long-term average of the weather conditions that happen in a given are s for example, where i am right now in florida, typically it is a warmer climate than it is up in boston, where i usually live. so that would be climate. but weather is the day to day variations. some ds it is colder than normal, some days it is warmer than normal, some days it rains harder than others so the day to day fluctuations are the reather. sometimes theyeferred to as the difference between youral persy, which is kind of how you are most of the time, and your mood on any given day. so iis that kind of a relationship. but as we know, theli cte is grad callly change, gradualac changingtually it is changing rapidly as baird to changes inhe past but that is graduated change we are, gradually change that is happening and we kno, it is

because of human activities, including the gre thouse gases atmosphere that trap a lot more heat down by the spas. >> that's an important explanation and dis dr. jennifer francis, thank you so much for taking the time. >> you're welcome. >> >> woodruff: the showdown over the future of venezuelant ued today both in caracas d d in washington. protestors answecall to take to the streets from the man the trump administration a recognizthe country's interim leader. and as nick schidain reports, s protests come amid an intense push by the unitedat to push out venezuelan president nicolas maro. >> liberd! libertad! >> schifrin: on the streets venezuela's pital today, a revitalized opposition demanded freedom and expressed confidence they could change the future. >> si se puede! si se puede! >> schifrin: thousands of protestors filled caracas,

calling for president nicolas maduro's ouster. they braved physical threats to request new, free elections, and the transfer of power to national assembly head juan guaido.gu todaaido's supporters chanted that when he declared himself interim president lastek wehe brought back hope, as he was mobbed with cameras. ( translated ): i'm protesting because i want my >> schifrin: since the latest round of protests began last week, human rights groups say at least 35 people have been killed by security forces. toy's demonstrations were smaller, but spread from areas that were once government strongholds, to elite caracas neighborhoods. "new york times" reporter ana vanessa herrero was there. to the opposition asked everyone for two hours towhat they were doing, and for example l re, it's a private hospi the capital city. in the east side of the captial city.

and we can see doctors, we can see nurses, stopping their jobs, stopping their day to day livest to protest agaicolas maduro. >> schifrin: maduro relies on the military's support to stay in power. as seen on state tv today, he rallied troops, and offered toh meet we opposition. but he also opposes u.s. influence, and today rec video message addressed to the american people. >> ( translated ): am appealing to your conscience, i am appealing to your solidarity, i am appealing for you to wake up to the truth. let's not permit a vietnam in latin america. if the united states tries to intervene here, they will have a vietnam that's worse than you can imagine. >> schifrin: but the u.s. is increasing its intervention. today president trump had the first phone conversation with. guai on monday, national security advisor john bolton spoke to white house reporters while holding a notepad suggesting the u.s. could deploy 5,000 troops

to neighboring colombia. and the u.s. is trying todi ct payments for venezuelan oil, which account for 90% of the country's revenues, to gugudo. todado's self-declared ambassador to the u.s. carlos veccio said that process had begun. >> we want to start the process of recover them, to controlem correct? we need, we want to do this, as i said before, progressively,lo orderly, and fng legal procedures. >> schifrin: but madruo has powerful allies. a russian plane was spotted at the caracas airport. russia could help target maduro's enemies, and prop him up financially. today russian foreign minier sergei lavrov urged guaido to accept international mediati. >> ( translated ): we call on the opposition to display a similar constructive approach, reject ultimatums and act independently, basing their decisions only on the interests of the venezuelan people. >> schifrin: but many venezuelan people argue their country has

collapsed. supermarket shelves are empty because there's been a shortage of food. medical patients have protted a shortage of medicine. children play in the dark because of a shortage of power. and inflation is more than one million percent. the economic collapse has sparked the region's largest ever exodus. and now, led by a new, popular f oppositiure, demonstrators say they have nothing else to lose, and vow to keep fighting. so is the u.s. making the right decisions on venezue for more on this we're joined by benjamin gedan. he was the south america director on the nationalou securityil staff during the obama administration. he's now with the woodrow wilson international centeror scholars. and isaias medina, he was a senior diplomat at the united itions under nicolas maduro. he publicly resign2017 in protest of human rights violations. >> thank you very much to you mth. isaias medina, lstart with you. this is one of the most aggressive attempts by thit states to change a

government in latin america ins. deca do you support it? >> first of all, thank you, fo having me in your program and thanks, pbs for their interest in the dire situation in my country. not only i but 30 million people support not only the u.s. circumstance but also the latin-american initiative to restore the rule of law, democracy and freedom in venezuela. >> oka so benjamin gedan let me ask you about some specifics about what the u.s. has pursued, as we just discussed trying to divert some of the money away from nicolas maduro on oil, which iso abut v percent of venezuelan enue and also a lot of discussion from the national security advisor about possibly usi troops or suggestions there could be troops extent to columbia, do you support thoo se ves. >> i think both of those steps are problem ten, i think the sense of urgcy the united states administration has shown

is absolutely correct. the situation is tragic. kiit is heartbr, the lack of food and medicine in venezuela, the question is how can assist the venezuelan people promote a peaceful transition in venezuela without harming the people themselves or fracturing the coalition that e built over two administrations. >> so isaias medi, let me drill into that a little bit. there are some fears that diverting the oil revenues will hurt the venezuelan peoplelv them. you have already got three and a half million refugees, those numbers could go up, and a ot of talk of troops and as ben just said, ben risking the, in, in congress and regionasupport in the region. the do do you have those same fears? >> no, i actuay belief that the forced displacement of 3.5 million refugees spillover into neighboring countries is actually because maduro's regime has been oppressing, and rampant violence, there is a humanitarian apocalypse that has

been caused and induced by maduro's regime andhe targeted oil sanctions have been right on point, coordinated with president guaido and will crsh ththe financial boost from maduo to keep harping the venezuelan civilian population. >> benjamin gedan what is wrongc with trying ush maduro's economy? >> that means crushing the t venezuelan people, i doink these people can bear anymore suffering. the fact these refugees have left venezuela and these migrants is certainly a sign that the situation is poorly imagined by the authorities to say the least. the question is how can you affect a transition the without worsening the migration crisis or the humanitarian a crisis and i am not sure we pound the right tools by threatening an invasion or cutting off entirelthe economic lifeblood of the economy. >> isaias medina, national security advisors reerence to 5,000 troops in columbia on his pad helonsistently says al

options are on the table. ?s that helpf >> yes. you know why? because there is a proxy faled estate, state with at least 22,000 cuban agents that have infiltrated the armed forces. they are running the show and then we have also the financial clout of china with $65 billion in loans and we have th military footprint of russia with at least $12 billion in arms and wednesday so if we do o not show our strength now we will not be able to either offer a way out, thecare eithebe a peaceful way out or he will choose with hisvierolate anti-western rhetoric. but what we have to look at here is that more than half a million venezuelans have been silently extermated by this humanitarian crisis, which has been induced to maintain the regime in power. rtant that we im have a show of strength and that we can bring humanitian aid as

soon as possible. it needs to be with military support, so be it. venezuelans will welcome the troops from a coalition that will preserve the humanitarian aid with open arms. >> benjaminedan, how do you get that humanitarian aid into venezuela if you d't have some kind of military backing? >> i think the first thing you can dos provide humanitarian aid to the venezuelans who left, i think the united states has not been generous in that regard, the millions of venezuelans that fled could use u.s. support, about $100 million the u.s. committed it needs to be me generous and more protections for the venezuelans in the united states seeking asylum. >> to get aid into the venezuela. i don't see any solution to that other than a peaceful transition of power in veezuela. >> isaias medina, i want to quickly get to you on the future. will the military continue to support nicolas maduro? quickly. >> well, first of all, we need

to separate a distinction between what there are militaries, they are thugs, they are involved in drug tr and links to terrorism, national ornized crime and wearing uniform, for example, just look at this. there are g 1,000enerals in the armed forces of venuela for 100,000 troops. so honestly, i believe that right now, progressively and slowly, some soldiers and police and even dissidents have shown the support to president guaido's government, but inois enough. people are dying daily on the basis of hundreds of people just from weaponization of starvation scarcitcin so we will see progressive terioration of the armed forces, but we need faster solutions to this huge humanitarian crisis. >> benjamin gedan. >> io thinkr members of the military have been robbing

venezuela for years, i thinkey ill stick to the government until the absolute lastinute. some type of amnesty is needed when they decided they got a ba deckrds. enjaminas medina, gedan, thank you both. >> thank you. >> >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: the ethical guments over human microchipping. undocumented efrloyees fired the trump national golf club. and author sarah smarsh on theca false policategories that divide us. but first, today was the first meeting of theipartisan group congress tasked with coming up with a border security bill president trump will with just over two weeks untilng government fununs out again, mr. trump said today

lawmaks are "wasting their time" if they don't discuss a wall. republican senator shelley moore capito of west vir tnia is part conference committee and joins me now. >> woodruff: sbaator, welcome to the newshour. so how did this meeting today go? >> actually, i think it wen very well. we went as a united bodof republicans and democrats, house and senate expressed our great desire to reach a conclusion and then we talked, you know, each one of us about the areas possible contention, but also the areas of agreement. i felt really good coming out uf. there i tend to be an optimist anyway i think it is important on a lot of different levels that we solve issue. >> woodruff: what we heard the democrats saying among others who represented -- of course who is in house appropriations committee say that democrats are prepared to expand on the 1.6 billion that had been in the

original proposal for border security. >> uh-huh. >> oodruff: but there wasno specific mention of a physical barrier, of a wall. how do y read that? >> well, i think, you know, ite can congratuher for keeping an open mind here. i think all of us talked aboutw need more technology, a smarter technology, but we also thneed more personnel an we get to the issue of a physical barrier. as you know it gets into semantics sometimes. is it a wall? is it a fence? is it a levy? i think if we look at the experts, which is the customs and border patrol, think they need all of the above, which includes a physicalba ier. now, remember, on the senate side, 10 democrats voted for 1.6 billion of a barrier, ade rian fencing, in the bill we voted on in june. >> woodruff: so let's go tom the tics. i mean you mentioned fencing. you mentioned a levy. >> yes. >> woodruff: is that the kindio of conversyou are going to be having about could you define

something as a physical barrier that would satisfy the president and that the demoatwould be prepared to go along with? >> well, i think that's where the sweet spois here. i think we agree on so much more humanitarian aid and technology and all -- and more border agent as,e have got to find that point at which it says a physical barrier which is the cpb is asking for that is effective the in the more populated areas of texas, where we see most of the legal immigration occurring. and i think the democrats are open to this, and it could be how we phrase it and i thin that is going to be critical, but we have to have the president's support in order for him to sign it and that is -- at is also critical. >> woodruff: so give us a sense of how that conveesation i mean, do you literally sit around the table and look at photographs or artistic renderings of what some kind of barrier could loll like? >> , i think that that is

phere we really need to leave it to thfessionals. i mean, some of it is still fencing, some oft is gates for vehicles that can't get through. some of it is access roads into these areas. it is a whole variety of different things tat go into border security or prevention, and, you know, this is the challenge, i think for us to make sure tha t we aret hitting any of the hot button words like a cone crll would be a hot button word, i believe, and that we go to fencing, preventative measures, levies and others things. >> woodruff: do you have something in mind rit ht now tat might be that sweet spot that you just mentioned? >> well, we hava bill that ten senators voted for that has 1.6 billion, as i mentioned on pedestrian fencing:it also has echnology. the president came back with a greater ask, and expressed his concern about the numbers going up and the different ways that

people are coming across.t they are n coming across the single men anymore, it is families that is really putting a crush on the system not to just figure out from a humanitarian way how to take care of it but how to process people. so i think a t of it is going to be -- the talk is going to br nd what we do about a barrier or fence but really i think we need to have somof that and have a lot of the other and all of that under the umbrella of border secu >> woodruff: how much is the president himself going to be involved in these talks a? i mean, i asmsume soebody on the committee is going to be briefing him wherever day? can you make a move on this committee without the president being on board? >> well, it is incumbent upon us appropriate fors, we are the ones that are the spending body that initiates the spending. that is our .. prerogative, and i think that we are all pretty committed in there to followt through on tr a couple of reasons. number one, it sets a precedent for the next two years, b people lost a lot of trust in

this government over the shutdown. we need to restore that trust and one way we can do it is getting a compromise between us, the president is going to be in the room, i a f sure hisolks were there today. i would expect that to be part of the conversation, just like i expect speaker's people to be there and leadercconnell's people to be there. but really it is us in that room that is the most importantore. >> woodruff: so it sounds like you are saying both the president and the speaker back sff, because we are the ones who are going to get tone?. >> well, there were a couple of people that actually expressed that thought in theirublic statements, you know, if we just put, just put us in a room we ecan figure this out tty quickly. testostertess and i have done st bian bill and ribbed each other in that direction but at the end of the day the speaker is important and so is the president in terms of gettingh this across finish line. >> woodruff: you mentioned of juurse senator jon testet

then. but finally, senator, you don'td you have every confidence now that you can come to an h agreement worried are you still? >> i am concerned. i am concerned because it has gotten so politicized. i will say that in our opening statements as much as we could we stuck to the will to succeed here on both des, and t to they is a good signal. in other words, there was no bomb throwing, well, there was minimum bomb throwing. i will put it that y. and i think that is good. i am optimist and a natural optimist anyway, but i think it is important to us to make our mark and to make this decision and to 0 convince the president and others that this is -- this, is a g solid move towards border security. >> woodruff: but you au saying that ink -- you see good faith there on the part of tort party? >> oh, deinitely, definitely. >> woodruff: senator shelley moore capit working with this conference committee trying to come up with a solution.

ank you very much. >> thank you. te woodruff: an intense de is underway over the benefits and drawbacks of human micro chips. they're used to identify ranch animals and pets across the but the practice of implanting chips in people is othe rise. those who are embracing it believe they are taking back control of their personal data. but others are worriedbout how that data could be used. special correspondent malcolm brabant reports from southern england as part of our breakthrough series on the leading edgef science technology and medicine.. >> i don't want to lead a normal life. i want to ad an exceptional life. and i want to try things and do things that perhaps others in my situation have never done. >> reporter: meet alex lewis. interior designer, businessman, adventur and motivational

speaker. >> we were just an ordinary family. me, lucy, and our son sam. then just over two years ago, ig ht a common cold. it was to change the course ofe my lernight. i'm in this condition because o an incredire case of strep c and it led to toock syndrome, septicaemia and subsequently sepsis. i lost all four limbs within six or seven months. reporter: alex is a pathfinder for those with serious medical conditions. in the remains of each arm, a micro chip has been implanted. one is to hold medical information. the other for a chore the able bodied take for grand. >> for me as a prosthetic user, one of the fiddliest things is keys. keys are a nightmare for us. and the microchip, when looking in to it, we realized quite quickly it could save a lot of time. so for me it was going to be beneficial for that, i could

lose 15 minutes trying to get in my front door. i could lose ten mutes trying b get out of my back door. and now all thatn saved. >> reporter: these microchips contain a system known as near field communicatio. it's exactly the same type of technology used in contactless debit and creditards. like the bank cards, the chip's information can be scanned. but it cannot transmit. once banking security has been configured, developers believe consumers will soon be free to spend with the implant. a itish railway ticket. but it's much different in sweden, a country supposcrly leading tho chip revolution. on the country's high speed rail lines, for the past 18 months, implanted passengers have put their travel payment on the chip. >> i think its really good with a chip ticket. i love all companies that use the chip technology. >> reporter: but the rail company is stopping the micro teip experiment. the number of impl passengers is relatively small,

and it wants to pursue other this is not a setback, insists sweden's micro chip pioneer jowan osterlund, a formeeebody piercer,here giving a ted talk. >> we can do easier travel we can do faster and safer payments. we can do something as mundane as opening a door. i mean, the opportunities are endless. >> unfortunately, these innovators often don't think about the political ramification >> reporter: gus hosein is the executive director of privacy international, a non profit that challenges over reaching state and corporate surveillance. av in today's world particularly, weto imagine how governments and ambitious politicians and even how ambitious corporate executives will try to imagine putting this type of technology into you so they can exploit your data and ultimately exploit you. ee i'm going to ask you to your hand nice and relaxed like it is.

>> reporter: i.t. student kieran anderson is being chipped by dr. geoff watson, a consultant aesthetist who is drivin research into the medical benefits. >>he micro chip is actuall inside here and there's a sort of an introducer pieat of plastic ill push it out once it's in. okay, so this is the implant coming now. eu'll feel a bit of press and a biof a clunk. so you are now a cyborg, welcome. >> not to painful, fine. >> kiern has a near field communication micro ip in his hand. and that can be used to store data, store informatio his name address and contact details, anything he chooses to put on there. blood type, allergies, drugs, basic medical information. >> the idea of everything being able to communicate together excites me quite a lot. so automatic payments and that sort of thing withouhaving to do anything. >> the idea of this chip is that it's not transmitting anything. it has to be actively read. you choose whoan read it and

when they can read it. i think that gives a lot more control over our personal information than your mobile phone is giving away. >> reporter: but privacy international's gus hosein is yet to be convinced. >> already governments are keen to capture your fingerprints. they are keen to capture your iris scans and they want to be able to do this at a distance so they can identify you as you walk through areas. they're doing facial recognition.th e are all fallible technologies. they're hard to do well. but the idea that they could actually just embed you. it is the modern form oftt ing bar codes on people and we've seen governments do that in the past.us this jt the next generation. >> reporter: but stevetham the co owner of the british implant company believes those fears are exaggerated.o >>ve been compared to hitler before for microchipping people. it's been commented, mean, i can't really see the connection personally. i can understand people have very song views. there are big ethical arguments

around microchipping people. but currentlit's by choice. no one is enforcg you have to be microchipped. if that happens, a completely different ball game and lots more arguments to be h around it. >> reporter: eddie curry favors using chips to replace keys at his weekly newspaper on england's southern coast. he fears his newspaper is at risk in the changing global media market and wants to attract new income by turning the company into a hub for digital innovators. >> i'm well aware that this technology could be used for sorts of sinister things but for us here, we're an ethical firm,s we don't ee doing anything more than that and we wouldn't force anyone to have one because wenderstand they may be reticent about it. >> reporter: but the majority of staff have rejected the offer t. be chipp >> the benefits, you know of just being able to open a door,l 't really be sufficient for me to have something implanted in my body.t i havey concerns because this is obviously quite a smi l

company ann't think it will be abused her >> i supposed somebody has got thto be the trailblazer so people can see how it works, but i don't want that to be me. >>eporter: geoff watson se huge potential, especially in the medical field for those wi a illnesses sudiabetes. >> take a diabetic who collapses w the street. and people don't kat to do. by the time the ambulance has arrived and works thin out, it make take hours before they are properly treated, whereas a simple instruction read from the phone, my name is joe bloggs, pleaseontact this number for my next of kin, i'm diabetic, please give me some sugar and it should make me feel bett. those kind of things could make life changing advances for individuals. >> reporter: the chips can be read by scanners installed in the latest mobile phones. so how easy is it would it be for a hacker to steal the information from the ilants used by alex and others? >> any technology is open to abusand anybody would be abl

to hack it. il order to hack these devices it has to be held for a period of time. the moment it takes abo three to four hours to hack it. >> reporter: alex's wife lucy is not troubled by security concerns and is looking forward to the second generation of chips. >> alex travels overseas anlo awfu before he goes overseas i havele to do this wackaging of medication, what medication he's on. and passports. i'm always worried about who's got his passport. ll of those things it will eventually come into its own he'll be able to use all of that information without me worrying about whereis or who it's with. >> reporte at the moment alex lewis relies on a driver. but he hopes tim next breed of plants will put him behind the wheel. >> to be able to getnto the car, to be able tooutart it withany kind of key, with the microchip to start the c would be fantastic. but it just opens up a bit more freedom for me. >>eporter: privacy

international's gus hosein insists he is not a luddite, a person opposed to new technology. >> every technology that comes along has to be treated with completeuspicion until we're able to sort out the ethical barriers around our actions. >> i live an incredible life, a life i'm incredibly happy toe living. >> reporter: as this technology improves, the debate will intensify as to whether implants generate or diminish freedom, ay well as the hades of grey in between. for the pbs newshour, i'm outhern brabant in england. dr >> wf: president trump's hard-line stance on immigration has been a central tenet through his candidacy and presidency. t what happens when that clashes with his financial interests? recent reports suggest his business empire may have employed undocumented workers,

some of them for years. b yamiche alcindins there. >> alcindor: last night, the president's son ic trump announced that the trump organization will begin using e- verify. kthe system is used to ch employment documents and weed out undocumented immigrants. over the weekend, the "washington post" reported that a trump owned gulf c new york fired about a dozen undocumented workers. david fahrenthold is one of e reporters who broke that story. he joins me now. >> thanks so much for being orre. >> you rd some of these undocumented workers had been working for trump owned properties for years. tell me a little bit more about these workd how did they go under the radar for so long? >> well, these are folks that were originally mainly from mexico, some from other countries in latin america and have come to the u.s. mostly on foot, crossed the warden on foot and ce were at the gourse in new york city. >> some have been there since 2000, 2001, but all have been there at least three years and they were sort of the about a backbone of the blue collar staff of this club, we are not

talk tact wintertime club. it decreases from a few dozen down to only about 20 in the winter, and these fo, there were 12 of them kept on so that is at least half of the entireti wint staff of the club that turned out upon further review to be undocumented >> i want to play a video of a woman named marguerite cruz, she at a golf club in new york for eight a yeausekeeping staff. let's just show people what she was talking about. >> forhem to tell you from one day to another, you know what? this is over and that is it, they change your lm e froe day to another without thinking. how can they be so cruel to simply say it is over after so many years of employment? >> she is talking about cruelty and she sounds distraught. how is she and other workers that have been laid off or fired now, how are the this and what do they want to happen next? >> well they feel sort of discarred, so clearly these pembroke the law as well, they brought fraudulent documents and

submitted them to the trump organization 0 and in is a bargain that a lot of employers have, undocumented employees, they work very hard and accept the lack of advancement and not as my benefits as legal employees do but in return they get steady work and they get, employers who don't ask questions and that d been the way the trump club worked for many, many years and felt very safe there and then all of 0 a sudden the trump club says wait ee didn't know these people wer undocumented. they thought that was hypocrisy nt now they are hoping by bringing more atn to themselves by raising awareness about their case bloat the medio and cahill where they have been this week they can sort of protect themselves through publicity and maybe they won't be deported now because ice will fear the publici them away, they are also hoping there are special categories ofs visas for foho have been the victim of crimes or who are material witnesses in important investigations they are hoping perhaps that they can be deemed to be one of those two categories by som as a result of coming forward and then they might get legal stat, at least for the cours of the investigation. >> i want to tak take a step ba. the president still owns his business, which includes 11

hotels around the world and 16 golf courses. what is your sense ohow much the president and managers knew about these people's statuses? and how widespread do you think these firings have been? h> so in terms of the question of where else isis happened? we don't know. we know about two clubs, westchester where illegal immigrants have been identified d fired a in last few weeks and another trump golf clubs that share similar characteristics and not enrolled in he he verify and on the east coast it seems possible there could be undocumented imm in those places as well but we haven't been able to manage any firing of those folks ao far. one of most striking things about the reporting that you did is that yohave workers describing the president as giving them hundreds of dollars in tips, as bing nice to them, even helping them clean windows ahen they can't reach at times, that was in other reporting but also have a president who just shut down the government for 35 days because of border wall funding ad border security. how do you reconcile what the present really believes about immigration? >> you are right about that

contrast, these folks, i mentioned earlier there were definitely down sides to working as illegal immigrant. trump club felt like they had no chance to advance, to a management positions or better positions. they felt like they weren't paid as much, couldn't get as many nefits and when president trump got into the presidential race and they saw loo that like ing rest of us they sta calling mexicans rapists and brought crime and drugs when they saw that, wel, you know, how could he think that about us? we worked for him for so long 0 and they said one interesting aftereffect effect of that wa nothing changed at that club, they were worried he is staying lat in public as a poitical figure he is going to crack down onus the club and things willan exchange for u they said nothing change. they said that people at the club considered it sort of a matter for the outside world, inside their world, nothing changed until right now. >> and we have about 30 sends left i want to ask you about the change you mentioned to he he verify, what impact might that change to he verify have and are there any consequences that you

think the trump organization might face because they employe so mdocumented immigrants? >> it is hard to know if they will face legal consequences for what they have already done. the attorney general is investigatg and somebody may come out of that, he verify and to go to all legal wrsorould be tremendously costly for the trump organization. there is a reason people don't do he verify is legal workers usually cost more, and if they are going to go to he verify and use legal workers, new legal workers in many cases for kehousekeeping and groundsping it will raise their labor costs tremendously at these clubs. and it will be interesting to see how that af business. >> thank you so much for joining us, david farenthold of the "washington post". >> and a postscript late today >> woodruff: late today, one of the workers fired from the trump national golf ub has been invited to attend the state of the union address. democratic congresswoman bonnie waon coleman of new jersey asked victorina morales be her guest at the capitol.

>> woodruff: political labelson can benient, but are they thlpful. we all do it-- imedia, around the dinner table, with our friends and colleagues. trying to understand our country politically, we reach for shorthand: red versus blue. rich versus poor. why if we put an end to bin thinking? tonight, author and journalist sarah smarsh offers her humble opinion, on why we need to drop the labels. >> i grew up on a wheat farm in kansas as the fifth generation of my family to work that same patch of land. i'm the first woman in my direct maternal line, back to when women wore corsets, to not have a baby as a teenager.f moste brilliant people i grew up around didn't finish high sch their life outcomes, i assure keu, had far more to do with

powerful forces olicy and culture than with individual merit. on my professional pate entered spaces no one i knew had ever neared: an ivy leag university, the "new york times," the nadsonal book aw i now have a foot in two different worlds, allowing me to call b.s. on stories claimingwo they containnnately different kinds of people. my work as a journalist and my day-to-day life in kansas tell me that most fol, not all, but most, want a fair and decent society. but they have different influences, some with dangerous intentions, telling them how to make it so. my own ideas changed when i was in my early 20s. was i a less moral and decent person before then? no. what changed was my environment and information sources, from a conservative small town to a liberal college campus with peers from liberal households. with such different experiences, we don't even share a common set of definitions. some women, for instance, have been taught to reject the word

"feminist" even as they exemplify feminism every day: taking no flak, being the breadwinners of their households. that's where we're divided-- our social influences ana streams-- not in our hearts and humanity. and those divisions aren't predicted by location or identity. s judging te election outcomes, about 40% of americans ivte for the party that usually loses where they they are erased by reductive political headlines, as are millions who defy prev stories about their race or class, the conservative christian person of color, say, ns my dad and my partner, both of whom are white uction workers who vote for democratic socialists. r let's keusing to compromise with those who wouldm ur country, our communities, our children. but let's drop the bogus frameworks of red vs. blue, urban vs. ral-- misleading categories that drive tv ratings but shut us down to one another. and let's resist the temptation to view our political

affiliation as a mark of inner superiority. more likely, it's a mark of our experiences, and many we perceive as our enemies aren't so different at their core. >> 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 p newshour has been provided by: t. >> ordering takeou >> finding the west route. >> talking for hours. >> planning for showers. >> you can do the things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. with talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more atns ercellular.tv >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language. it

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