captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, what the state of the union reveals about the divergent political priorities of both parties. then, the end of aids: the president commits to stopping the transmission of h.i.v. inu. the s. by 2030. what will it take to end the epidem? plus, wild designs-- how engineers are creating newch tenologies inspired by the natural world. yi>> what we are doing is to recapitulate what exists in nature. so now the idea is that well can we start to learn some of those uidesign rules, how can we non-natural systems with these living cells. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> woodruff: president trump's state of the union address has come and gone, but there's no indication that it shifted the political or policy landscape in washington. instead, reactions split along familiar party lines today. the sharp differences in reaction to the state of the union address last night were very much still on display the morning after. on the senate floor, majority leader mitch mcconnell praised the speech, and president trump's calls for unity. >> the president shared a hopeful vision and a bright future for our country. in part he reminded us the future is bright because of the big steps we have taken togetheo ove the nation forward.dr >> wf: but minority leader chuck schumer had a distinctly different view.id >> so the prt's state of the union address did something rare last the union address.f it revealed just how much repair

the state of our union requires. >> woouff: house speaker nancy pelosi accused mr. trump of making threats, when he warned that democrats' inveions of him would destroy cooperation and hurt the economy. and new york democratic congressman hakeem jef insisted the new house majority will use its per responsibly. >> we're not going to over reach. we're not going to over vestigate. we're not going to over politicize our constitutional responsibilities. >> woodruff: meanwhile, the president's demand for funds for a southern border wall remains a flashpoint, and could force another government shutdown in nine days. the president now plans to hold his first campaign rally of the year, next week, near the border, in el paso, texas. we'll look at both the president's agenda, and the democrats' plans, aftethe news summary. in the day's other news, theen house intell committee will re-open its investigation

of russian interference in the 2016 election. it will also delve into president trump's financial interests overseas. the new democratic chair of the committee, adam schiff, announced it today. the president, in turn, branded schiff a "political hack." u last yeaer republican control, the committee said it found no evidence of collutron between thp campaign and russia. there are signs of pe progress among lawmakers trying th work out a border security deal and avert a government shutdown. they hope to get an agsiement, that pnt trump will sign, by february 15th. republican senor richard shelby of alabama is leading the bipartisan group that heard today from border patrol officials. >> it's going to take a number of years to cure our borders. need technology, need barriers and they need people. i hoping from this to create the dynamic to bring us together to fund the government to secure

the border. >> woodruff: president trump has called the process a "waste of time." but house speaker nancy pelosi said today she thinks the negotiators could come up with something this week. the political crisis engulfing virginia's top democratic leaders, intensified. governor ralph northam was already under pressure to resign, over a racist yearbook photo, and his admission that he once appeared in blackface. today, state attorney general mark herring admitted he made up black face as a college student in 1980.li antenant governor justin fairfax again denied that hess sexuallylted a woman 15 years ago. the accuser detailed her claim in a statement on afg taliban insurgent group said trday the u.s. has promised to withdraw half itps by the end of april. thattatement came at a meeti of taliban representatives and prominent afghan figures in

moscow. the pentagon had no immediate response. meanwhile, in kabu a former afghan government legal adviser warned against any sudden u.s. pull-out. >> ( translated ): the war in afghanistan must end, but this opportunity must not turn into a threat thathe withdrawal of american forces from afghanistan paves the way for another war. therefore, the best outcome would be if the final decision by the u.s. government comes out after negotiations show a definite rest. >> woodruff: in the state of the union address, president trump suggested that u.s. anti-terror efforts should continue in afghanistan, even after a troop reduction. but the taliban today rejectedan long-term u.s. military presence. back in this country, there were sharply different reactions in alabama, after the state attorney general cleared a police officer in the killing of a black man. the officer mistook e.j. bradford for a gunman after a shooting at a shopping mall, on

thanksgiving. e incident sparked days protests, and today, the mayor of hoover, alabama, said officials are relieved to t finally ha report. >> we will gather together as a the internal operations for our city, and we'll review reat took place. we want to make hat we're doing things right. we want to be a better city tomorrow a's been a long process. it's caused a lot iety throughout the city we're relieved to have this report in front of us now. >> woodruff: relatives of bradford say the shooting amounted to murder, and they protested again today outside the state attorney general's office. president trump formally nominated david malpass today as the u.s. choice to ld the world bank. malpass has criticized the bank for focusing too much on its own

growth and not enough on. fighting pover and on wall street, the dow jones industrial average lost 21 points to close at 25,390. the nasdaq fell 26 points, and the s&p 500 slipped six. still to come on the newshour: what's next for congressional lawmakers now that the president has laid out his agenda. the possibility, and challenge,d ofing h.i.v. in the u.s. bypl 2030, much more. >> woodruff: as is the case most ofyears, last night's stathe union address was as an occasion anr both parties to lay out their prioritiesstake out ground for political battles to me. the president spoke at length about immigration and jobs, topics he raises fre while also highlighting the fight against "isis", prescription drug prices, and

other issues. our own yamiche alcindor is here now with a deeper dive into the president's statements last night. hello, yamiche. so let's walk about some t the president laid out last night, how this could affect the next few years. first, talk about what he had to say about immigration. >> so the presidt spoke a lot about working across the aisle last night, but his speech was laced with all sorts o misinformation, and it's the kind of misinformation that could complicate the next two years ofdeis prey, when it comes to immigration-- and we'll put it up, the president said san diego and el paso, texas, e much safer because of new walls that were put up. that's simply not true, jud there's been no new wall built, and all that's been happening is existing repairs on existing fencing. and it's important to note the pranident said thisd has said over and over that the wall is being builthat the contributions had started and that's not true. i want to read to you statement the el paso texas put out today.

he's a democrat but he is frustrated with the president's characterizations. he said the chacterizations are falsehoods, "the facts are clear, president trump it bees to give a false narrative about a eat city that truly represents what this great i natiall about." it's also important to note that the president talks about the country being inveiledded by immigrants. border apprehensions are at an all-time low. why it matter is there is aom bipartisanttee working on immigration but the president continues to use information that dmocrats say is completely false, and it's hard it to see how we're going to get to somef sortsolution before the shutdown deadline. >> woodruff: he also talked about health care, talked about how good it wld be if the country would lower prescription ug costs. explain what he had to say there, and how that looks for the next year or so. >> so, health care costs and the cost of prescriion drugs are something that's a really

important hopeful area for bipartisanship in this country.e the sident said, "americans r y vastly more than people in other countries e exact same drugs, often made in the exact same place." that's true, judy. and it's also true that democrats and republicans alike are very interested trying t decrease the cost of health care in this country. ac's important to note that this matters becauseording to a study that was put out by the government last fall, there are some companies that chge 1.8 times higher rate for the u.s. countries.er so as we look forward, the president and democrats definitely don't agree on the affordable care act, but they could rssibly come together some sort of policy change that nd lesselp people spe money on prescription drugs. >> woodruff: so that's a couple examples on domestic policy. the president did spend a good bit of time toward the end of thspeech on foreign affairs, and including talking about the fight against isis. exain what he had to sa there, what he laid out. >> how to tackle isis isth sog that is one of the rash and arpest areas of disagreements between this

president and republicans. the president said-- and we'll put it up again, "isis once controlled ,000 square exphielz they now have been removed from virtually all of its territory in iraq and syria." that's true but it needs more context. the president is sing isis has been basically defeated at some points. what we know is isis used to control up to 34,000 square miles in 2013 fraen. w it's down to 20 square miles. the president said today isis could be rooted out of 100% of the territories they once claimed. but one of the top officials for the middle east and u.s. forces said isis could reclaim that territory iesthe ent pulls out. and the president, of course, in december said he was pulling troops out of syria. when we look forward, this could mean republicans have to now make a dcision. are they going to push back more against the president and say, "we're going to push bk on this and maybe other things," or are republicans going to do what twthey did in the laso years which is largely align with the president. >> woodruff: very quickly, the

economy. the president also touted te progress that's been made under his leadership. how does that square with fact on the ground? >> well, the president loves talking about the economy because it is going well, and it's also a 2020 campaign strategy for him, something that he wants to talk about on the campaignrail. he said we've created 5.3 million new jobs and 600,000 new manufacturing jobs. that's simply not true. he's actlly created 4.9 million jobs and 436000 manufacturing joz. some of the numbers he's using come from president obama's administration. that's important because as we look forward the president and democrats need to get togerther and on a set of facts, and if he's taking information from president o and trying to use that against democrats, you can just see that that would be a hard road to go down, and the democrats will n say, "you't credible on this issue or other issues." so we'll jushave to see how this speech and the misquotes impacts his relationship with democrats. >> woodruff: a recipe for what o we'll fit. another yamiche, thank you very much.

>> woodruff: last night was the first time president trump addressed a democratic controlled u.s. house of representatives. the reality of this new era of divided government was visible in how speaker nancy pelosi, along with a diverse group of freshman members reacted. diversity was also on display in the party's official response-- stacey abrams came the first african american woman to deliver the rebuttal to the presiden our lisa desjardins is here to help walk through what this alls bout the democratic agenda. so, broadl speaking, lisa, you've been looking at what the democrats want tfocus on. explain what that is. >> right. nancy pelosi, the house speaker, is kind f hitting the ground running on a few fronts. let's look at their overall agenda, wh house democrats y they want to do. number one: election andme gove reform, judy. that's at the torch their list. they have a sweeping bill that they have recently introduced. number two: we saw a horg this

today, background cheguns. it's the beginning of what may do further on the idea of more gun control. ayis is what they're doing now. later we expect in the coming months democrats say they will also tackle inrastructure, health care-- that includes drug price dhz yamiche mentioned, which of course is where they haverlve with the president. one other item-- climate change. they are in the middle of establishing a new cmate change committee but it doesn't have jurithdiction. is a tricky area for democrats because some want to go farther than others in their caucus. it's not clear what kind of a bill, if any, they will actually vote on.oo >>uff: a real contrast with what the house was doing under republican control. >> that's right. >> woodruff: let's drill down on the first of those, hr1, the government refor what's in it. >> hr-1, the first bill? >> it is a sweeping bill. it includny items. let's start right away with they want to roll back "citizs united," make it tougher for these pack pacs and special interest groups have dark money in campaigns. and allow public finmpancing of gns.

it would actually help out small donations. if you got a small donation, the government would addi sx times that donation to your campaign. next, automatic voter registration. this is part of a voting rights package in this bill. and also it would include new rules attempting to end jerry manneddering, goes back to the very beginning of our democracy. this hearing today, there was a hearing, as yo see, on this, and it was very heated, judy. democrats said voting rights are being suppressed and this bill addresses that. democrats pushed back-- i'm soey, rpublicans pushed back and said they say grab for power by democrats. one otheitem that's in ts bill that i think will be of interest, this bill would insist-- would demand-- the president and vice president disclose their tax returns f the past 10 years. >> woodruff: an issue-- it's been an issue for trump.ent so assuming the democrats can get all this dun d.n.a. in the house and they do have the mart maduro jort, what about the senate? >> this will be a quick answer. almost all of these items have nearly no future in the senate with the possible exception of

wefrastructure and bills on drug prices. l have to see what those bills contain, though. the devil's in the details. >> woodruff: finally, lisa, as we mentioned in the news summary, the speaker, nancy pelosi, said it looks ke there may be progress, looking at border security. what are you hearing? >> i was outside their meetingda and this is actually a bipartisan story here. those appropriators got in the room. they were talking to border patrol and customs officials.d at's significant, judy, is peey went mile by mile and went through different of fences and borders, where they might go, and the whole point ,f th democrats and republicans told me, very sigficantly, is so that they would operate on the same group of facts. what is it that border patrol says it'st needs and where. they've come down to the idea of somewhere between 0 and 300 miles of border barriers-- could be different types of barriers. and what we see now here is an actual substantive conversation happening behind closed doors.

th's why there's hope for a deal. however, it is, again, the devit being in the ls. i don't think we'll see a deal this week by friday. perhaps over the wekend or next week. we're going to catch carefully. >> woodruff: but by the deadline. not sure. >> there is hope. it's not clear. there could have be another short-term funding bill or woe could have a shutdown. >> woodruff:ut they are making progress. the president is talks over 200 miles. >> it's somewhere in the 0 to 250, 270. >> woodruff: theevil's in the details as always. lisa desjardins, thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: the second nuclear summit between the s. and north korea is scheduled for the end of the month. and how looking to nature inspires better chnology. but first, in his state of the

union last night, president trump made a bold promise: his administration will try to end the spread of h.i.v./aids in america. brangham, who's covered this epidemic extensively for the newshour, reports on what it might take to make that promise a reality.wa >> brangham: ipresident trump's first major pledge to addrs h.i.v./aids in america >> my budget will ask democrats and republicans to make the needed commitment to eliminate the h.i.v. epidemic in the united states within 10 years. >> brangham: president trump didn't specify how much money raticoirmed y ould be new funding, not dollars reallocated from other programs. today, more than 1.1 million americans are living with h.i.v., and there are some 40,000 new infections every year the administration says it's aiming to reduce those newy infections% over five

years and by at least 90% by 2030. it's focusing on 48 specificov counties, wher half those new infections occur. it also pointed to seven states in the southern u.nt with a subsl h.i.v. burden. the southern u.s is also home to half of all unagnosed infections. public health task forces will help local agencies in tses boost prevention and treatment programs. antiretroviral treatment not only stops an infected person from progressing to aids, but it also prevents them from passing the vi others. but today, only about half of h.i.v. positive people in the u.s. are getting this crucial treatment. ply and bisexual men and pe ic color are at particular risk. administration ols said they'll also continue to expandi the use of the. prevention drug called "prep"-- it's known commercially as truvad, it's effectit expensive-- officials today said additional

funding for prep is crucial. >> prep works. if you adhere to prep, i think we all know now with a number of very good studies that the efficacy of preventing acquisition of infection in a high-risk individual is greater% than 9 >> brangham: other proven prevention tools, like needle exchanges, can also help prevent e virus' spread. but ending this epidemic still faces many challenges: in our series on h.i.v./aids last year, we visited miami, florida, one of the epicenters h.i.v. in america. there, dr. hansel tookes who ran the only needle exchange program in the entire state descrid why ending aids was still so difficult. >> i think, unrtunately, what's happened in florida and here in miami is: in the absence of needle exchange, the absence of comprehensive sexual education, in the absence of widespread access to prep, this is what happens. you have a city that has no control over the current h.i.v.c epid >> together, we will defeat aids

in america and beyond. >> brangham: and while the president made the pledglast night, his administration's policies have, in other ways undercut that very eff the trump administration has worked to gut bstantial portions of the affordable care act and the expansion of medicaid. about half of those receiving care for h.i.v. in america do so through medicaid or medicare. the administration has also cut funding to global h.i.v./aids programs like "pepfar,the enormously successful program begun by former prident george w bush. the trump administration will give a dollar value indication of how serious it really is about ending h.i.v. in the u.s.s when it relets 2020 budget. to take a deeper look at thes presidenedge from last night, i'm joined by two men who've studied h.i.v. extensively. jon cohen has covered this epidemic for 30 years for "science" magazine. many of you will also recognize him as our reporting partner on r two multi-part series

h.i.v./aids. and dr. carlos del rio is an h.i.v./aids doctor at emory university in atlanta, a city that's one of the epicenters of america's epidemic. he runs the glal health department at emory's medical school and co-directs emory's center for aids research. last. >> the president said we areen going to the hiv epidemic in 10 years. how realistic is that? 's an internal goal. think it's entirely realistic in some places, and the question is can you do it nationwide? we already see great pgress in cities like san francisco and states like new york at have really tried to bear down and do it with dettailed plans, and a lot of self-criticism. so it's really going to come down, in my mind, to how muclf

riticism there is, how detailed the plans are, and how quickly people evaluate their fault lines and where things aren't working, adjust and me a stronger response. >> brangham: dr. del rio, the same question to you. ow realistic, from your perspective, is thesident's proposal? >> you know, it's a long shot, but, again, in the 1960, whe kennedy said "we're going to go to the moon," it was a long shot. i think what we saw and what is necessary is much needed in our u.s. epidemic sponse is leadership, and whether the president provided that initiative, and now we're going to get all the agencies to working tohe achieve that goal. i think it's doable. i think it's not going to be easy but, again, big things are. never e >> brangham: jon cohen, as i mentioned earlier, the administration has laid out thay e going to target these very specific counties across the u.s. they're also going to target seven states that have rural

epidemico what do we about those places in particular, and why and who is particularly at risk in those places? >> we know quite a bit. the people who arest at risk have fallen out of the health care system. they're hard to reach. a lot of them have mental health issues. they have housing probls. dr. del rio and i earlier today were talking about a lot o the changing their phone numbers frequently. it's hard to connect with them, keep them in c it's hard to get them tested in the first place. gt's a big ask. but there's someth else on the horizon that hasn't been discussed much, and that's the possibility that there will be an improvement in the hiv/aids drugs so they're lo you won't need to take them meery day, which is a major hurd nel tre and prevention. if that happens, that will change the equation, too. >> brangham: dr. del rio, pih up on tat. as jon is talking about, effective treatment, it works. it saves people's lives.

it stops them from transmitting the lives to others. but only half the people who need that triement trooement ar getting it. isn't that really priority number one? >> absolutely. i think the biggest challenge that we have as a nation and response to the epidemic is keeping people in care. we are pretty god to testing. we get them linked to care and e.ople fall out of car and you're not in care, you're not getting therapy, and you don't have your virus suppressed and you're transmitting to others. i think the big challenge is how do we get people engaged in care? and jon and i were talking about peer navigators, case managers, all different strategies we need to make sure people don't fall out of care, that people stay engaged in care. and then we can get the antivirals. >> brangham: jon, this is something you have reported on, you and i have reported on quite a bit. can you talk about the rol poverty and racism and homophobia and-p trabia play

in-- how that complicates our s sponse to the epidemic. >> that's-- thae root of the problem. there is so much stigma and discrimination. and these-- there are so many communities of people who are outside of systems, outside of heheth care, andy're difficult people to help. i mean, you and i worked with san francisco general hospital in 2016, in our series there. we looked at a reallync trated program with about 900 people, who were the most difficult peop in the worlto help, and it took an intensive effort from a reaskllled group of clinicians and outreach workers to achieve what was phenomenal. you know, nearly 90% long-term suppression of thaiot popul of people who are hiv infected. but remember, look at what it. to >> brangham: and, dr. del rio, the other big leg of this stool seems to be prevention e administration officials today said that prevention of going to beab enormous part of their effort. we know that part of that is an education, but also part of that

is ie deployment of prep. why has that been so slow t take off across the country? >> you know, it's been a huge missed opportunity since prep was appf.roved by the d.a. to now, really, there's been just simply a huge lag time of implementation this prep is effective. prep is useful. and the people that are using it the most are the ones that need it the least. so when you talk about concentrated epidemics, like the one we have in the u.s., it is critical that you improve thepe number ople that suppressed, buof but you also scale up prep in a significant way. >> brangham: after the president's announcement, jon, i saw-- there was, obviously, optimism on the apar part of pee focusing on is. but it pointed to the fact that the administration has done other things that chip away at theffort. pushing to not expand medicaid. doesn't that seem like they've got one had fighting the other in this effort?

>> as someone said to me todaydn who want to be quoted, "it's washington." that's how politics works. makes single bedfellows. itdoesn't make any sense that the administration would be work against itself in this effort with discrimination against the transgender population or gay men or the issues that ve co up with people of color. these things have to be addressed holistically, and you can't win until you do it that way. >> brangham: all right, dr. carlos del rio, jon cohen, thank you both very much. >> woodruff: another majorti init of president trump is improving u.s./north korean o relations er to get them to give up their nuclear noapons. the president meh korean leader kim jung un this past

summer. last night, mr. trump announced that he'd meet mr. kim for a second time at the end of this month.'s whn the agenda for this next meeting and what's the state of plaof diplomacy between the two countries? we turn to foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin. so, hello, nick. >> hi, judy. >> woodruff: the ps sident said iing to be in vietnam the end of february. why vietnam? >> first of all, logistics. north korea can get there and has an embassy inet vim. number two, north korea and the united states have relatively good relations with vietnam. number three, for the u.s., vi.nam is a mod it's a communist country that has opened upeconomically, diplomatically, and has become much richer for, that so the u.s. wants north korea to consider that model. and fourth, for the u.s. it's a good tking point. the u.s. likes to tell the north koreans that the u.s. has norm ent enemies. what better place to do that than vietnam? it's not a perct example. vietnam beat the united states in a war, and, of course, north

rea took over a u.s.-backed south korea, so it's not perfect model. >> woodruff: so is there-- what's the u.s. administration approach going into thestalks? we've talked to a lot of analysts, and most of them say there is actually fundamentally different approach than there has been in the past? and that is that the u.s. sees noh korea as having a place in the future a northeaia. and that's just not something the u.s. had made so explicit in e pas so let's listen to steve bea the top u.s. negotiator in north korea. he was talk last week, and he used a different tone than the u.s. has really talked about north korea in the past. and he started by mentioning thd desire tthe korean war, which ended in armistice, not a peace treaty. >> president trump is ready to end this war. it is over. it is done. we are not going to invade north korea. we are not seeking to topple e rth korean regime. we need to advance our

diploamary, alongside our plans for denuclearization, in a manner that sends that mesge clearly to north korea as well. we are ready for a different future. >> "ready for a different future." the trump administration sees this as a moment of opportunity. president trump in the past has said the threat from north korea is over. he's tempered that, buthe trump administration has been very optimistic. critics really fear-- many of em from the right, by the way it's president shouldn't go into this summit so quickly and should instead let people likeeg beigeniate the details and wait. >> woodruff: let me ask you , out the details. up until nowboth sides have been saying to the other one, "you go first." how did the u.s. get past tha in just their thinking on the sequence of this taking place? >> right,thesequence has been vital and the two sides have been far apart and now they' not. the u.s. really has shifted in this. in the past the u.s. has said denuclearization first-- sorry, denuclearizationfirst, and then can talk about sanctions relief.

the north koreans said, wait a minute, wepeed to do this st by step. we take a step, you take a step, and then eventually we'll get to ether.d tog and biegen last week really endorsed the north koreamodel and sthere could be progress on denuclearization, the ending of the war, and improving relations, step by step. >> if we're doing the rightth thing ch other in relations it makes it easier to do right things on nuclear weapons. and it makes it much more conceivable there will be a ace regime on the korean peninsula. >> the suz hoping to create a road map for those ss. >> woodruff: one of the other sticking points has been the a u.s. asking f list of the program, nuclear and missile programs, that the north koreans have. tell us where that stands. >> yet ather sign that the u.s. is moving toward the north korean position. in the past the u.s. said you have to give uets your com list of nuclear and missile programs.

the north koreans saidhanks, but no thanks. that's like giving you a targeting list. instead, biegun said last week there needs to be a colete list but it needs to be at the end of the process. >> before the process of denuclearization can be final, we must also have a complete understanding of the full extent the north korean weapons of mass destruction missile programs. we will get that at some point through a comehsive declaration. >> "we'll get there at some point." that is a real shift.ic crsay this is like a watering down of the u.s. demands. >> woodruff: what you've bee i describihow the u.s. has given in, has made concessions. what are they expecting from the north koreans? >> the u.s. officials areer actuallyspecific about what they want. number one, they're looking for a r, oadma roadmap for future negotiations and declarations. number two, they're looking f what they're calling a "shared understanding of the desired outcomes." basically, what does peace look like? what does denuclearization look like? ookingmber three they're

for what they're calling concrete deliverables. now, what does that mean? that could be inspectors that could verifyhe closure of missile sites. the end of nuclear fuelt production fro north korean side. it could also be progress to end the korean war.oe whatnorth korea want? at the top of their list is sanctions relief. what biegun is doing now, he'sin orth korea, he's going to set framework for these negotiations. e's not goingthat to make enough progress and that president trump will go into is summit without much progress and give too much away, basically, perhaps even lower the number of wroops in south korea. but i have to say, judy, the pro-engagement analysts we talked, to as one of them put it, "this is the gates opportunity they have seen forking from their lives." >> woodruff: it's fascinating that it finally appears about to take place. >> absolutely. and this summit is set. >> woodruff: all right, thank you very much. nick schifrin. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: now, going beyondin re writing and arithmetic to teach leadership and empathys to high schodents. fred de sam lazaro traveled to rural thailand for a return visit with the man leading an effort to modernize education in that country. >> reporter: it doesn't look like the average thai public school. there are games and paper making, and e teachers on this day were visiting students from a unique nearby high school it's part of a new approach the itd.rnment is seeking to expand an itial 1s, schoolnd is based on the non profit 7-12th grade mechai bamboo school, named after itsfo under, mechai viravaidya. >> we have so many schools now waing to join.

the schools want it, thewa it, s really very, very positive. ea reporter: the bamboo school was started nine ago in rural eastern thailand as a way o empower young villagers bring economic development to thr communities. on a typical day, students might be performing for tients at a nearby hospital, afteranding out meals they had prepared atsc thol kitchen using produce grown in the school garden. students do learn in traditional classrooms, but hands-on. soon these math students are outside taking measurements and making real world calculations about how much rice can be grown e eact. still others move udent- designed solar powered water

pump out of the shade to a new spot in the garden. >> we're always trying to get the kids to ink: how can they improve whatever they do. they have many good ideas. >> reporter: mechai viravaidya is an economist who became famous in the 1970s for colorful family planning campaigns.he sed the media, buddhist monks and humor, like condom-g blowntests, to help a conservative culture overcome embarrassment about sexuality as he recalled when i first talked to him in the mid '90s >> we said, one must not be embarrassed by a condom, it's just from a rubber tree. if you're embarrassed by the condom you must be more embarrassed by a tennis ball. there's more rubber in it! >> reporter: thailand's feility rate went from six children per woman to less than two today.it s now considered a middle income country but rural communities have not benefited as much from improved living standards. mechai says modernizing theuc ion system is key to closing that gap

>> the school is more than just a school that all of us used to know. a school is a lifelong learning center and a hub for social and economic advancement in the communities. >> reporter: it means that in addition to academics, each student must start a small business, whether it's selling food or handmade paper or large water storage pots. instead of paying tuition, students and parents perform 400 hours of community service a year, providing daycare for mothers from the community or teaching workshops about gardening to senior citizens. and through internships and partnerships with the business community, students learn about career options in agriculture, commerce, education and much more >> these are the things we have to teach them. life skills and occupational skills. >> reporter: the emphasis at the bamboo school is on leadership and empathy. l students oftd group discussions, like this sex education class which included lomechai's hallmark condomng

contest. and studts conduct interviews to determine which students get admitted and which teachers get hired. the rules at mechai's grade 7 through 12 boarding school are firm: students do chores every morning. there is only one hourf cellphone use a week. when rules are violated, a student panel helps determin the consequences. a few years ago, four seniorsgh were csmoking. ex so the student council said that they should blled and they were expelled. >> reporter: that's pretty radical. >> the issue of discipline i very important, for them to realize that it's not difficult to be honest.it s not difficult to obey the rules and laws. start them young and when they ndget older, it will be se nature to them. >> reporter: the bamboo school goes out of its way to recruit students who have ben marginalizsociety, such as chanida nithikajorn. she's from a minority group in an isolated region of thailand and cried when askeder life has changed after coming

here. >> ( translated ): i never thought i'd have a chance to pursue education. i've always wanted to be a doctor but i thought i wouldn't be able to achieve that. but now things have changed a lot. >> reporter: 9th grader nut mon is stateless because her grandparents came to thailand illegally from myanmar. >> ( translated ): being stateless is the worstble thing that can happen to a person. you are deprived of many liberties. i was not allowed to travel outside my village. reporter: thanks to intervention by mechai, nut was allowed to attend the bamboo school and eventually hopes to go on to college. 85% of the school's graduates do so. >> this is a way of proving that you can stay in rural settings and get a good income and be scientific, rather than having

to migrate like other people. >> reporter: it's an iat graduate jindarat maneeterm has taken to heart. she's since gone on to universi majoring in business management and as her final project, works as an intern back at her alma mater. >> ( translated there's been a huge migration and most people have disappeared from the village. i'm trying to convince youth t t come and see importance of village life and maintain some of it. >> reporter: jindarat says technology has made it possible for rural villagers to have communications and businesses that are tied to the larger t rld. but acknowledges t times technology has had a corrosive effect. >> ( translated ): when i was young, i would go out in the fields and help my parents. it was part of the village culture. now young chdren spend their ys on cellphones watching youtube most of the time. i want to play a role developing ideas for businesses in the village while preserving village identity. >> reporter: at age 77, mechai shows noigns of slowing down.

while most of his time is spent money, he still regularly meets with the young scholars. at this student council meeting, he listened to a propo start actively recruiting students who are orphans. he says it's all part of the plan for students to continue the rk that he has begun her b >> they cok, older ones to teach younger kids. we sayt's like a relay race. whatever we receive, we must pass onto others. >> repter: it's that legacy that mechai hopes will continue to grow as the new public school model expands across thailand. for the pbs newshour, i'm fred de sam lazaro in buri ram, thailand. >> woodruff: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under-told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesot oo

>>uff: finally, how scienists are turning to the elegance of nature for inspiration about machnd bots that can help us. as technology advances, researchers are looking how to improve devices and innovations to transform medicine and much more. miles o'brien reports for our breakthroughs series on the leading ge of science and technology. >> reporter: in thnever-ending hunt for newesigns that jump, pump, or run faster ntd better, scts are finding inspiration when they look out the windows of theirabs, or in the mirror. >> almost everything that weyire to do in engineering is actually really in some ways trying to replicate the beauty, and the intricacy and the complexity of what we find in nature. >> reporter: bioengineer rashid bashir and his team at the university of illinois are developing so called bioots that move using real muscles

activated by flashes of light. bashir sees lot of potential applications, like toxic clean- up or tiny clot-busting bots to treat people with heart disease> hat we are doing is trying to recapitulate what exists in nature. so now the idea is that we can we start to learn some of those design rules, how can we build non-natural systems with these living cells. >> reporter: bashir's work is part of an accelerating trend. welcome to odd, an, yet familirld of bioinspired design, or biomimicry. >> biomimicry is innovation inspired by nature. >> reporter: janine benyus is a biologist and writer who popularized the term, writing a book on the subject in 1997. >> take methane and turn it into plastics. >> reporr: she remains in the vanguard of the field. >> you have nolty and sustainability, i think that's why a lot of inventors are now turning towards biomimicry. >> reporter: physicist seth

fraden is among them he directs the bio-inspired soft materials center at brandeis university.y here tnt to understand the fundamentals of how living ings move. >> we're talking about blurring the boundaries between the animate and the inanimate. >> reporter: he and his collaborator zvonimir dogic are working on artificial cilia, tiny hairlike projections on the surface of cells. they work together in sync to move fluids. ulile these cilia are microscopic, they lead to the development of more sophisticated materials to carry out more complicated tasks, like pipes that need no pumps. >> your heart will pump fluids. your intestines ll pump fluids. now if we want to pumph il thropipe, we have to have a pump at one end and create pressure to drive it. y can't we have tubing that consumes energy, that flows energy through it then contract.

>> reporter: is it alive? ac no, it's not alive. it's just a simplene but instead of having an external pump that's composed of many dead components, it's composed-- fluid is composed of millions and millions of individual components, and under certain conditions, all of these machines go in a certain direction and push fluid with it. >> reporter: kostya kornev and a his clemson university are also looking at nature's means of moving fluids. they are focused on the mout or proboscis, of butterflies to inspire a breakthrough in materials science. kornev and his team want to make synthetic fibers with similar properties. eventually, they want to build a micro siphon that would suck up or dispense tiny drops of fluid. such a device would have wide- ranging applications, like new

medical tools. >> so you can think abt, even poking the single cell, taking a little droplet from say the nucleus, or if you can go to the brain and do the surgery on the brain. >> reporter: roboticist sarah bergbreiter is thinking along. the same lines she and her team build tiny robots inspired by i, which can be impressive jumpers. ireas can leap 200 times t body length.n >> so what we is compress this and store energy in the rubber bands and release the for a jump. >> reporter: bergbiter sees a day when micro-bots could carry cameras and sensors into small places for surveillance, perrm microsurgery, crawl into cracks to monitor the structural safety of buildings and bridgoy, even

den search and rescue missions. >> my have a bucket full of these small robots. you dump them into rubafter a disaster and they have just enough energy to find somebody and say, "hey, dig over here."ep >> rorter: she builds her fabots using 3-d printers. this burgeoning macturing technique enables engineers td inventors nk out of the design box that has existed since the advent of the industrial revolution. near boston, at 3-d printing startup desktop metal, they are using artificial intelligence to do the designing. engineer andy roberts tells the machine what stresses a part will encounter, and the software does the rest. a >> this ature inspired tool that is intended to make it easy to create these crazyap parts here. in this one, we're growing three different stems towards a common kerget. while they look hree organisms right now, they will join together and fuse into a single one.

th ability to simulate the random and cumulative forces that you see inature all the time tends to give these parts a more resilient overall behavior >> reporter: check out this a.i. designed skateboard. >> i've triggered the growth of this design from a single seed cell on this base plate right down here. >> reporter: so when the machine is told to design a machine, it makes something that looks like it belongs in nature. oh, the irony! >> ultimately, the truly biomimetic idea is that you're functionally indistinguishable from the wild landepext door. >>ter: but it does stand to reason. after all, nature has been perfecting designs for 3.8 billion yearr the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in boston.

>> that is about one pound of food for person. it is a staggering figure, considering nearly 13% of this untry's population experiences food insecurity. as christina qun from wgbh reports, boston-area college students are trying to help close the food insecurity gap. >> reporter: lunch just ended inside harvard's annenberg hall. and there's still a lot of food left but these students ne marking sue of it will go to waste. each week, they help package 1200 pounds of leftovers into .crowaveable frozen meals environmental studies major motoy kuno-lewis got involved because decaying food creates methane gas, one of the leading causes of climate change. but of course, there's another reason to do thi >> food insecurity is an issue and it's a very pertinent issue

even in an area like cambridge. >> reporter: the meals are delivered to other schools like mass bay community college in wellesley,here over half the school's population experiences some form of food insecurity. >> so that could mean, you know people aren't geing enough food, simply aren't able to afford food. >> reporter: maxwells morrongiello ion the student government's foo committee and he also grabs a microwaveable meal for himself a couple times a month. >> and so just in terms of me being able to make ends meet it's been helpful. you know, i haven't really suffered from hunger. there's people here o are hungry. and you know that they really don't have access to food at all. it's very important that they have access to that. >> reporter: students can swing by four days a week and pick up frozen mealsree of charge, no quesons asked. food for free, a food rescue group based in cambridge, launched this program. executive director sasha purpura hopes to make it a model other schools and companies will adopt.

>> so this is something that a university in west worcester, a corporation could do. it enables them not only to stop throwing out perfectly good od, it lets them engage their student population, their employee population in group volunteering activities, giving back to their community. >> reporter: tufts university students also package meals and are among a dozen organizations in the boston area that donate their unserved food, including brigham and women's hospital. this allows food for free to churn out over 1,000 meals a week. they deliver these plated meals to bunker hill and northern essex community college, in addition to some elementary schools and food pantries. but there's more work to do. >> it's insane we are throwing away tremendous amounts of food every day. and there are people next door, a block away that ar't getting enough food. >> reporter: a hunger gap that these folks are helping to close. r the pbs newshour, i'm cristina quinn. >> woodruff: on the newshour

online right now, scientists used to believe it was primarily humans who could process numbers in a complex way.ud but a new shows that honeybees can be trained to do math, adding to what we know about other species' potential develop these skills. learn more on our web site, pborg/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> text night and day. >> catch it on replay. >> burning some fat. >> sharing the latest viral cat! >> you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. with talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more at consumercellular.tv

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.io and by contrib to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by mea access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

hello, everyone. and welcome to amanpour and mp y. before colbert, stuart there w dick cavett who found humor in some of america's most troubled east times. then richard e.grant. the surprise darling of this year's award season. and a colle counselor who takes on controversial clients, young men who were discil ined for sassault.