captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening, i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight, a moment of reckoning-- as controversy swirls around the draemc governor of virginia and those who might succeed him, we look at the limits of fblorgiveness in pu life. then, the u.s. has pulled out of a major nuclear weapons treaty. what this means for the furore of arms coand our relationship with russia. plus, a priceless donation: making tsense long- reaching effects when people give kidneys to complete strangers. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newsur has been provided by:

>> on a cruise with american cruise lines, you can experience american cruise lines fleet of small ships explore american landmarks, local cultures and calm waterways. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs newshour. >> babbel. a lasnguage app that teac real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. oa>> and by the alfred p. foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in

education, democratic engagement, and the advancement international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadca and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> nawaz: acting attorney general matthew whitaker says he wonco't testify beforress tomorrow about the russia probe, unless democrats drop their subphreat. the house judiciary committee voted today to approve a tubentativeena to guarantee whitaker's testimony.

meanwhile, a separate house oversight panel is reviewing whether presidbet trump should orced to publicly disclose his personal income tax returns, as is tradition. republicans on the committee accused democrats of unfairly targeting the president. democrats pointed out that congressional oversight, t the i.r.s., uncovered tax fraud committed by former president richard nixon. >> should the public know whether for the office or who is currently leading our nation pay the correct amount of taxes? in the case of nixon the answer was yes. >> congress is prohibited by law from examining and making public the private tax returns of americans for politicalrp es. such an abuse of power would open a pandora box that would be tough to get a lid on. it would set a dangerous precedent. >> nawaz: on twitter this morning, president trump called the house democrats' mounting investigations "a continuation of [the] witch hunt!"...

and he lamented that republicans "never did this to president obama." mr. obama did release his tax returns, as a candidate and then president, as has every president for the last four decades. meanwhile on the senate side, the judiciary committee voted today to advance the nomination of willm barr, president trump's nominee for attorney general. the vote was split down party li, s. if confirmrr will oversee special counsel robert mueller's prosobe intoble coordination between the trump campaign and russia. y republicans toid they had faith in barr's judgment... democrat >> even though many of my colleagues asked him to pledgec to make the l counsel's report public and he had some language in which he pledged he would consider doing that, he didn't fully commit to do that at a time when this nation needs transparency and at a time when our nation needs the infoatn. >> as to mr. barr and how he

will han trust that he will make sure that classified information is protected. if there's a privacy concern he'll protect that, but he wil share as much as he reasonably can. >> nawaz: barr's nomination now goes to senate vote, where he's expected to be confirmed. the government health official in charge of reuniting migrant families separated by the trump administration spoke out today against the zero-tolerance policy. commander jonathan white of the u.s. public health service said he warned his colleagues of the serious psychological trauma it would cause to children. white told a house subcommittee he, and the office of refugee resettlement that cares for migrant children, would n sever have endorsh a policy. >> i do not believe that separation of children from their parents is in the best interest of the child. neither i nor any career person i en o.r.r. wour have supported such a policy proposal. >> nawaz: the government reported nearl0 children were separated from parents under the zero tolerance policy last year. a recent watchdog report said

there may have actually been housands more separated children. united nations investigators sen they have ev that saudi arabian officials planned and carried out the murder of journalist jamaal khashoggi. turkey's intelligence agency has said the dissident and "washington post" columnist was killed and then dismembered inside the saudi consulate in istanbul, turkey last october. u.n. officials today said they had access to rt of the "cilling and gruesome audio material." they also said saudi arabia "seriously undermined" turkey's efforts to investigate the crime scene. british prime minister theresa may was back in brussels today, trying to rework her deal to withdraw from the european union. but the two sidedeadlocked over concerns about a potential hard border between british northern ireland and e.u. member ireland. may's last deal to leave the bloc lost handily in parliament. the prime minister met with european commission president jean-claudker, and remained confident she could get a result. >> now it's not going to be easy.

but crucially, president juncker and i have agreed that talks will now start to find a way through this to find a way to get this over the line and to ver on the concerns the parliament has. so we get a majority in peaarliament and i'm that i am going to deliver brexit. i am going to deliver it on m me. that's what ing to do for the british public. i'll be negotiating hard in the comi days to do just that. >> nawaz: e.u. officials have said britain exiting thdebloc without in place is "not an option." the u.k. is set to leave the e.u. on march 29th.ba in this country, suntrust and bb&t banks announced pns today to merge, creating what will become the nation's sixth- largest bank. it's the first major bank merger siaince the 2008 finacrisis. the deal between two of the country's largest regional banks is valued at $66 billion. stocks fell sharply on wall street today over concerns the global economy is weakening. the dow jones industrial average plunged mo than 220 points to

close at 25,169. the nasdaq fell nearly 87 points and the s&p 500 slipped 25. and, major league baseball hall of famer frank robinson has died. he passed away in hospice care today at his home in los angeles. robinson was a 12-time all-star outfielder who86 career home runs. he is the on player to win the m.v.p. award in both the american and national leagues. in 1975, he became the first black manager in major league baseball, and skippered five ams over a 17-year career. frank robinson was 83 years old. still to come on the newshour: a moment of reckoning-- will virginia leaders besieged by scandal step aside, seek forgiveness? what's next for arms control now that thu.s. has pulled out of a major nuclear weapons treaty with russia. a look at the green new deal: what it is, and how it's shaping

th agenda, plus much more. >> nawaz: nearly a week after revelations about virginia governor ralph northam first emerged, questions continue t who will lead the stat democrats have to decide what the future of their party will look like. in richmond, virginia, an unprecedented scandal engulfing the state's top the elected oficials. it began last friday when a racist photo from democalratic governor northam's 1984 medical school yearbook surfaced. but the next day, he said he wasn't in the photo. though he had worn blackface in 19, essing as michael jackson for a dance contest. r ight now i am simply asking for the opportunity b demonstraond a shadow of a doubt that the person i was is

not the man i am today. he am asking forpportunity to earn your forgiveness. >> nawaz: party leaders, at the state and national level, have called for northam to resign. t.as of today, he has meanwhile northam's number two, lieutenant governor justin fairfax, faces his own scandal. on monday fairfax responded to an anonymous allegati of sexual assault, calling the accusation "defamatory and false." vanessa tyson, a california professor, providing details of the alleged assault in statement through her attoey. tyson says in 2004 fairfax led her to his hotel room in boston, where "consensual kissing quickly turned to sexual assault." fairfax issued a response admitting "a consensual encounter" with tyson, but said he "cannot agree with a description of events that i know is not true."

fairfax ignored questions from reporters today in richmond. also on wednesday, virginia attorney general mark herring admitted to wearing blackface as a 1le9-year-old c student in 1980. herring had previously called foesr northam ton. the admission came after a meeting with the state's legislative black caucus. in his statement herring said "this was a onetime occurrence and i take full responsibility for my conduct." all three men, once seen as democratic rising stars, are so fusing to step aside. if all three democesign, house speaker kirk cox, a republican, will assume the role of governor. the turmoil in virginia's stcapital is just the la example in a larger reckoning happening across american relitics and culture. for on that, i'm joined by eugene scott. he is a reporter covering identity politics for the "washington post and leah wright rigueur. she's a professor of public policy at harvard university's kennedy school of government. lae's also the author of "the

loneliness of the republican." and welcome to you both. eugene, i want to ben with you here. middle east following governor northam's pictures surfacin from that year book, there was a strong collective call for h resignation. that subsided somewhat. unpack how that has evolved. >> i think what democrats in virginia have come to realize is the complexity of what's happening in their state at the top levels. you have the three most powerful lsliticians, all democrats, all in scandalo that a year ago democrats would have easilyi called for tr resignation over. i think what they have come to realize, though, is that if all three of these individuals lea office that the most powerful politician in virginia will be a rean, and we have to remember that, after the midteom elec there was some discussion about how virginia had finally turned blue consistently, and if these three men leave their position, that

won't be thease, and i think some on the left are trying to aluere out where their v are, what's most important and what's at risk long term. >> nawaz: professor rigueur, we have to separate out the situations. there are allegations of sexual assaulte and racist before in others. senator kamala harris hacalled for an investigation into the allegations against justin fairfax. but help me draw the line. we remind people this is the party that forced out al franken based on sexual assault allegations. how are the democrats weighing this? are they treating justin fairfax diffthently? >> so k part of what's going on right now are that virginia democrats are hunkering down, they're in their war roomsics an they're trying to find aay out of this really complex, messy situation that has no easy aswer. what is the pathway where we do the moral thing, and where is the pathway that we do the

uslitical thing that allow to maintain power, including policy-making power. i think what you're going to see and what we've seen thus far is at northam has lawyered up, fairfax has lawyered up,ca inng they both intend to fight and they both want to keep their positions h but e seen increasing pushback from virginia democrats, first on northam in blackface, but increasingly, it's slow ming, but it's coming, we've seen criticism of this -- you know, of cusations of sexual assault. so i think athat investigation heats up and particularly around the claims. we know the amuser that is e forward and made a very powerful and very forceful statemt tt virginia democrats but also the democratic party much more broadly is going to have to have a real reckonin both racial reckoning but also a gender and sexual assault reckoning in the coming weeks and they're going to have to do it on aublic stage.

>> nawaz: professor rigueur, i want to ask you, in a follow-up, now,the party has centered womes rights and minority rights and racial justice as part of their platform, particularly as they try to omstinguish themselves fr republicans moving forward. >> the moment we have a blackface scandal and sexual assault allegation charges, that pushes back arat this l high road or the idea of the moral outrage or having the h moraligh ground, but we also know that sexual assault and wearing blackface and eofaging in kind acist and disrespectful acts doesn't ve a partisan bent, thatteth actually a bipartisan endeavo it's been clear, there's a long history of ts in both political parties. what's different, however, is the way in whh democrats more generally have addressed this. we saw this again during the

#metoo movement where there was explicit calling out. parpart of what you're beginnino see particularly around sexual assault and #metoo is democrats are consistent with calling for , in calling an saying, you know, i believe women. so we are seeing tet, wh they're also trying to be sensitive to what it takes to intain power. with something like ralph northam and blackface, that hasa beco far more trickier question, particularly once the fairfax accusations emerge. so before there was any doubt that -- about replacements,t was almostretty natural for democrats to say northam needs to step down, northam needs to resign. now we're seeing a pulling bhaak ona little bit because of the reality of what happens if all oflhe people, you know,l of the people involved in these scandals resign in terms of ceding power. but there's also wrestling with the very reareality that the

democratic party based its outward appearance on res for minority and women's rights. >> let me ask you about the outward appearance. the big question is is there room for forgiveness? will virginia voters and other democrats say look at theseil folks, therebe a place for you in the party. what are they telling voters there? it's time to remind people black americans are not a monolith. some would he wanted to see northam leave immediately. some are more aware this is what happened 30 years ago and this is not where he is right now. others are deeplyedoncern about losing powero the g.o.p. and having someone at the top of virgina politics who is more in line with donald trump than opposed from donald trump and the real implications that that ll ha on their ability to live the lives that they believe they should have. beoing whate are starting to realize in ways that maybe we didn't see discussed the last year or the years before is how

significant the ramifications of having an automatically you're out approach to issues related to racism, related to sexu violence and other problematic issues could be when it comes to public policy. >> nawaz: how do you think this complicates democrat future efforts to make the case nd voters in virginia a beyond. >> it's going to be difficult to argue you arthe party o diversity and marginalized communities and you're a much betterarty than the party on the other side of the aisle when some of your most prominent faces have this as part of their irrative and seeming not to have respondediately in a way that appeased the con stitch we want that put them in office. i think it's worth pointing out black law-makers in the virginia legislature say they've lost confidence in northam's ability

to leave. >> the store sevolving. eugene scott and leah wright rigueur, thank you so much for your time. >> thanks for having me. you. >> nawaz: the trump administration notified russia last week that it was withdrawing from the intermediate range nuclear forces agreement, or "i.n.f." the move sparked outcry from arms control experts. in a moment, nick schifrin talks with the state department's top arms control official. but first, some background from nick. >> today, on this vital issue, at least, we can see what can be accomplished when we pul together. >> schifrin: it was 1987 and president reagan and soviet leader mikhael gorbechev laid a cornerstone of nuclear arms ction. a treaty that eliminated an entire class of u.s. and soviet missiles. in the 1970s and '80s, the u.s. d soviet union deployed mobil nuclear-tipped missiles to europe. under i.idn.f., both removed

thousands of warheads and dedestrround-launched missiles with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles. but for the last few years, the u.s. says russia deployed this n.ssile that violates the treaty. russia refused us requests to destroy it, sou.ast week the . suspended its partication. >> while we followed the andgreementhe rules to the letter, russia repeatedly violated its >> schifrin: but russia says this u.s. missile defense systed could be modio launch an offensive missile, and therefore the u.s. is the violator. last weekend russian president vladimir putin also suspended russia's i.n.f. participation, and this week the russian military vowed to develop new ground-launched missiles. but russia's not the only u.s. concern. u.s. officials say china and iran each have more than 1,000 medium-range missiles. at>> perhaps we can negoa different agreement, adding

and others, or perhaps w can't, in which case, we will outspend and out-innovate all othersr. >> schifrin: that presidential promise raises questions about an arms race, as the u.s. ently debates what to do about another arms control cornerstone, the new start trty, signed in 2010 by president obama and then russian president dmitry medvedev. it limits the number of long- s,range nuclear weaponnd is up for renewal in 2021. we are joined now by andrea thompson, under secretary for arms control and international secut the state department. secretary thompson, you very much. welcome to the "newshour". >> thanks fo havin me. >> schifrin: what's the plan to avoid an arms race o are you trying to get russia in an arms race. >> we're not trying to get russia in an arms race. we have remained in complaints t he treaties where russia

violated them. my counterpoint irussia started the arms race when they violated it yearsgo. >> reporter: are you okay with an arms race now. >> i remind folks we've called out russia repeatedly. r partners d allies have called out russia repeatedly and continue to deny theyvi're ating the treaty. if you allow a treaty party to violate it without consequences you've undermined arms control. >> reporter: this is opportunity first time both sides thought the other one was not complying so why not consider an offer that's been on the table. the russians examined the missile defense systems that they have a problem with which do have the mechanical and electronic components that could launch an offensive missile, and you examine the russian missile in return. >> the differencrussia is in violation and material breech to have the i.n.f. treaty and our allies have been consistent with that. no one came forward and said

you're right, u.s., maybe russia has not made a mistake. you saw the n.a.t.o. statement after the secretary made his anam the strong n.a.t.o. statement this weekend after the president made his announcement. we continue o present that intelligence and information to russia. they continue to disavow that. they've countered with our systems that are in violation. sia said other than r these systems are in violation, and we continued to show them the intelligence where they aren't in compliance. >> rorter: but lockheed describes the capacity to have the offensive missiles, but do have the capacity, don't the russians have the point? why not exhaust the possibilities and we mutually examine. >> we have remind in complian with the i.n.f. treaty. we've had inspections with their teams, our technical experts have met, we've consulted and

ca system is not in compliance. >> reporte the u.s. from the i.n.f. treaty eliminate the threat posed by the russn missal? >> our obligation is to fulfil the obligation to the treaty and underscoring that is safety and seririty of the an people. russia chose to violate it. we by suspending our obligations can conduct the research for the systems. but the foundation ishe safety and security of the american people. >> reporter: foundation is the safety of the american people and allies, the threat you say is posed by the russian missile, how does withdrawing from the i.n.f. enate the threat? >> the threat is there. we are now able to conduct the search and development to put our systems into place. the systems are already there. for the person public and who's watching, this isn't a system in the lab. this isn't a prototime russia

has fueled multiple battalions, hand and equipped that can reach our allies now. >> reporter: are you planning to deploy any grond launch cruise missiles to europe? >> that's noin the planut when we develop next steps it will be the consulttation with partners and allies a dod has been clear on next steps. >> reporter: in talking to n.a.t.o. officials, they say th u.s. has briefed n.a.t.o. on a plan to test a new ground launch cruise missile after the hsnext six moafter the i.n.f. is officially over. will you test new gund launch crui missiles in the next month. >> i won't speak for the dod counterparts. the piece is consulting with partners and allies. we m with russians in jefe january 15, and the 16th we were in brusselsiefing our n.a.t.o. partners, we'll continue to do that. >> reporter: i want to move to

the new start treaty which talks about long nge missiles. to extend new start beyond 2021 will you ask for new terms with whe russians. >> we've got timh new start, and the important point is we've met our central limits with new start. we're in compliance with the new start treaty and russia is in compliance with the treaty. the 50-meter target is i.n.f. and getting in coliance with that. we have a couple of years with new start and look forward tfu illing our obligations with all the treaties. >> reporter: both sides are under the complienls. i want to bring up john bolton who is opposed to the new start and start with when he opposed the anti-ball listing missile treaty. >> abst an agreement with the russian side, which is oerur prence, then we will exercise our unilaterion to withdraw.

>> i would urge him to get out of the iran deal completely. i think president trump should ughtto vladimir putin, you to bring russia back i nto compliance with the i.n.f. treaty or we're going to get out of that one, too. the next step in the bilateral relationship with russia is for this administration to aggrega the new start treaty so we have a nuclear deterrent that's equal to our needs to prevent future conflict. >> reporter: four major arm controls treaties, four treaties he wanted to leave, e national security advisish, led by him is the u.s. going to withdraw from the new start treaty? >> i have no intention of addressing that now. the fundamentals is what's best for the saety and security of the american people. it's a complex environment. we'll see what 2020 holds. >> reporter: secretary andrea thpson, thank you so much. >> thanks, nick.

>> nawaz: stay with us, coming up on e newshour: making sense of the altruism behind donating a kidney to a stranger. catholic church is rocked by new revelations that priests sexually abused nuns. and caroline clark gives her brief but spectacular take on being deaf. 20we learned this week tha was the fourth warmest year on record, making the five warmest years in recorded history have been the las. william brangham takes a look at how lawmakers are responding to climate change today. >> brangham: this green new deal for the u.s. to take dramatic action to reduce the carbon emissions that are driving climate change which are also so intertwined in our every day lives. the plan calls for the u.s. to be carbon-neutral in just ten ars, which would require massive changes to how we get around, how we power our homes and offices, how we grow our fo. and, its supporters argue, we e n make these changes, while boosting jobs and onomy.

it's two co-spsors, senator ed markey of massachusetts and congresswoman alexandria ocasio- cortez of new yorkintroduced their plan today to address what they say is the growing danger of climate chang >> in order for us to combat that threat, we must be as ambitious and innovative in our solution as possible, so what we're doing today in introducing these resolutions here today is that it's not a bill, its a resolution. and what this resolution is doing is saying thour first step our first step is to define the problem and define the scope of the solution and so we're here to say that small incremental policy solutions are not enough. >> brangham: and senator markey joins me now. welcome to the "newshour". >> glad to be here. >> reporter: there are parts of this that deal with housing, unio, jobs a wages and all

that but i really want to talk to you about the climate change impact of this. make the case why we need this deal. >> the case iscntific. both the united natios scientific community and every single u.s. federal agency in the trump era have now saidhat it's much worse than we ever thought it was going to be. >> reporter: the threat of climate change. ng the threat of climate c and what the impact could be on our country and on the plane. d now, they point towards 2030 as ar that we have to target, if we're going to avoid the wot most catastrophic consequences of climate cng now, we saw the wildfires out in california. we see the storms which are far tmore dangerous they ever were before. it cost our country $300 b ylion laear, just to deal with the

impact of climate change. >> reporter: the costs we have been incurrint this par are evident, as you've laid out. the costs opothe pls you are putting forth in this plan are also costly. i know you would argue the benefits saved would accrue to the country enormously, but do yothink thests are surmountable? do you think we can generatethe funds to dhis? >> i actually don't think we have an option. the costs are prohibitive. we don't take -- if we d take this action, we're going to be losing areas of our country along the coastline that would have been avoidable, but it's going to total trillions of dollars. so we should spend the money now, you know. an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. >> reporter: how do you imagine we wil c becoarbon neutral? what are the tangible steps you would tagine we wouake? >> what we do in the resolution is we talk about each one of the sectors -- transportation,

agriculture, electric power generation -- and we talk about what the goals should be for us to find the best technologies that can be used in order to reduce dramatically the grouse greenhouse gases that come out of each one of the sectors and to challenge the country. but to challenge the united states house and senate and the white house to deal with this issue, but it's ready to be a politically weaponized issue. you can really feel that this younger generaton, millennials in this country are fed up with no action on it, so i think this is far differenant ten years ago when i was the author of the climate change bill that passed the house and died in the senate. i think now we have an army out there. weleave the resources to be to fight back against the koch brothers, fight bang against those who don't wish to say this issue alt with. >> reporter: what seems to be

crucial is government investment in these technologies. the market is working, we've larn incredible growth in and wind in the past few years that largely have been private sector, but tto make he changes you're talking about, do you imagine the government will have to heavily invest in these tex knowledge? >> there is going to require some government invement. no question about it. we need to tax code to provide the same opportunities for wind and solar and all-electric vehicles and new battery tehnology that we have been providing for 100 years to the oil industry, to the natural gas indust, to the coal industry. it's about time we really had a true level playingield in terms of where all these subsidies go. we have to fight every yearust to continue the wind and solar tax breaks. there's always been a federal role in energy policies. the nuclear power plants have federal guarantees when they're built in our country. so noe talking about the renewable revolution, we're talking about l-electric

vehicles, we're talking about mandating all new buildings in the united states are twice or three times mor efficient than the ones built today and to refurbish the old ones so they meet higher energy efficient standards, but that can be a huge pvate sect job creation opportunity. we now have 350,000 blue-collar workers in the wind and solar industryand there's only 50,000 coal miners left. we're going to take this up dsto hundf thousands, no, millions of workers in this sector. we to have this become a voting issue in our country. it really wasn't back in 2009 and 2010. it's about to become one of the two or three most important issues in 2020, in the presidential and in the cgressional and senate races, sd, with that, i think we're going to be able t a lot more progress. >> reporter: senator edward markey, thank you very much. >> thanks. thanks for having me on.

>> nawaz: there are more than 100,000 people in this country waiting for a kidney transplant and the wait time is more than three years. a nobel prize-winning economist has a solution :kidney transplant chains. it starts with a donor giving to a stranger with nothing guaranteed in return. and the mentum builds from there. paul solman has the story of two donors who volunteered to start a chain, saving multiple lives, part of our weekly series, making sense. >> emotionally i'm feeling a little aocious. >> knknock, good morning. >> reporter: that was barbara ne back in october, minutes before surgery at saint barnabas medical center in new jersey. >> scary! >er> reposine -- a 53-year- old mother of two, works at a prep school, teaches spin classes on the side, is healthy as a horse. her operation was 100% elective. and yet, lifesaving. on was all due to a story npr. >> i actually brought my husband

in the car. i made himpoisten to that dcast and that interview. and i said i havto do this. and-- and i still to this day get very emotional. >> reporter: so that was you. >> on the freakonomics broadcast. >> reporter: turns out barbara nd those like her are ke players in a medical revolution, and economics nobel laureate alvin roth deserves much of the credit. as a market expert, he'd been puzzling over how to increase the number of kidney transplants. dialysis keeps patients alive while they wait, usually years, for a deceased donor kidney, or, if they're lucky, a kidney from a living donor who's a good biological match. and then al roth says he heard about two spouses chatting in the waiting room of a dialysis clinic. i'm waiting for my husband. i would give him my kidney, but he has blood type b and i have bod type a. oh it's a funny thing my, you know, we're just reverse. >> reporter: so the wife with blood type a gave one of her two kidneys, we can live with just

o the other spouse. and her blood type b husband got a kidney from the person she'd the waiting room. but roth saw a way to go beyond two couples swapping two kidneys, by using computer ae lgorithms to crenor- recipient chains, matched for blood and tissue type, even for age. one problem, though: everyone needing a kidney also needed a partner to donate a kidney to another pair. second problem: all the operations had to happen simultaneusly. >> just to make sure that no li.nk is brok what wouldn't be good is if you give a kidney to my brother today and tomorrow, for whatever reason, i fail to give a kidney to your sister.u had a surgery that didn't help your sister and you can't take part in next kidney exchange because you no longer have a kidney to exchange, you've already given yours. >> reporter: and th created a gistical logjam. >> what that means is, that if you want to do en that simple exchange, you need four operating rooms and four surgical teams to be available at the same time to do a three- way exchange, you'd need six operating rooms. to do a four way exchange you'd

need eight operating rooms. >> reporter: there was, however, a solution. >> it turns out there are a couple hundred people a year in the united states who want to ive a kidney to someone don't have a particular patient in mind. we've learned how to use them to start chains of transplants where they give to a patient donor pair and the donor in that pair gives to someone else who gives to someone else, gives to someone else. and each pair gets a kidney fore they give one. because if i fail to give a kidney, the patient i was osed to give a kidney to will be very disappointed. but their donor will still have his or her kidney. so they can wait for the nt opportunit >> reporter: and all this f just one non-directed donor, like barbara sine. >> i think prior to this if i had known someone who needed a kidney i'm sure i would have stepped up. but i don't know anybody. so i can just kind of throw it up there to fate and let it land where it may. >> reporter: what's different about you? i mean it's so unusual to have someone altruistically give a

kidney. >> i'm a hospice volunteer. i foster animals. so i think this is kind of a continuation maybe at a different level. >> reporter: 26-year-old eric walano gives blood regularly. >> i actually just finished up my fourth gallon. >> reporter: takes a homeless man he's befriended to lunch. >> we go to five guys sometimes. >> reporter: walano too is a non-directed kidney donor. >> so about a year and a month ago i went to a charity organ donation gala type thing. and i turned to my parents and it was like, kidney donation. i can do that. >> reporter: and they said? ou>> and they saide probably a little bit drunk. like what if god forbid something happens to my other kidney down the road. and then a month later i was in sainbarnabas. >> undergoing rigorous physical and psychological aaluation. hecleared to donate, gave a kidney in april. but to who as the months passed... >> i was in a little bit of a f iunas like, ahhh, why am i a little bit sadder today, what am i missing. >> reporter: because it was a feg el irresolution or not

having been acknowledged. yeah, you hit the nail on the head. >> reporter: and you weren't getting anything back. >> and i didn't get anything back. >> reporter: no wonder tsat of the thou or so people who contact saint barnabas each year about living donation, only one percent are would-be nos. directed don and only half of those are approved marie morgievich.ctor >> they want to help another person because they're good people but maybe it's just not the right time for them come forward. >> reporter: meanwhile, the waiting list for cadaver eys, 2500 people at sain barnabas alone, 100,000 or more nationwide, keeps growing, growing faster than deceased donor organs come in. >> we'll do approximately 170 deceased donor kidney transplants, but we'll add 400 or more candidates to that list. so we know that we're in a losing battle. >> my hope was down here and every day was darker and darker. >> reporter: 39-year-old rosario davi was on dialysis over a year. i >> i could do 10% of whaed

to do physically. mentally, that demon's on your shoulder the whole time through this process. >> reporter: but last april, eric walano sent davi's demon packing. >> angel on eart i n't know what else to say. >> reporter: and in december, wnaalano y did get something back when he was allowed to meet his kidney's new owner, and the entire transplant chain his gift mhad set ion. >> it's just so unfathomable that you would go through this process of having thery and the recovery time for a lete stranger. >> reporter: but after rosario got raeric's kidney, his wife also gave to a complete stranger: michael dunn in california. >> you'reuch a blessing to do what you did, to sacrifice what you did. and i'm very grateful. >> reporter: michael's wife sandy gave a kidney to eduard cardenas-rios. >> how are you feeling? >> i'm feeling ry well. yes. i was on dialysis for seven years. >> oh my god.

to be able to give it to someone who needed it so much, it just makes me really happy. >> can i just say something to her? >> reporter: eduard's sister, .n >> he has a life to look forward to now. and it just means everything to me and my family, i just wanted you to know that. >> reporter: and ines cardenas- rios donated a kidnekethat's ing leo lunney alive. >> i'm the biggest person in the room emotional.y the most >> reporter: his brother richard had agreed to donate a kidney on leo's behalf. it went to leslie naples. >> it's working great, yay! >> reporter: leslie's had kidnee e for 23 years. >> i want to say that i love you because i do. >> i love you too. >> i love you too. >> i'm leslie's husband rick. >> reporter: rick naples donated a kidney, ending the chain, to perhap of all: sharon bloch of

cafornia. with a hard-to-match blood type, and no one to donate on her behalf, she's been on dialysis, and deceased donor waiting lists, for years. >> mson is eight years old a i kept promising him i will dventually get a kidney you'll see a different mom. i even flew here one time beuse there was a kidney. got to the airport here. then turned around and went back because it fell through. right? yeah. so when this happened it was like-- >> a miracle. well eric just take a look and look what you've created. all of these people's lives have been changed. >> i'm going to take this picture from today and i'm going to put that up. that's going to be the trophy case now. >> reporter: meanwhile, barbara sine has yet to meet her recipient. >> i know that a man about my age got my kidney and i do know that his wife was scheduled to donate i think the following

week. and that's about all i know. or>> rr: would you be more and more happy as a function of whether or not more and more people were in your chain? >> well, yes, i mean, i think tpehe morle who are helped the better. t che idea that help 10, 15, who knows! >> porter: and bottom line, that's what makes this tear- jerker an economics lesson as well. >> well, altruism seems to recond to some of the econo incentives that other goods do. if you can do re good with a dollar, you're more likely to give a second dollar. >> reporter: oka you can't give a second kidney. but you can sure do a world of good ging just one. this is economics correspondent paul solman, reporng from new jersey.

>> nawaz: pope francis broke his silence on wednesday acknowledging for the first time that clergymen have sexually abused nuns. john yang has more on the story >> yang: amna, for decades, the persistent allegations of sexual abuse of nuns and religious women by roman catholic priests and bishops have been overshadowed by other scandals. now, decades of silence are ending. last year, a bishop in india was arrested after a nun told police he had repeatedly raped her between 2014 and 2016.ts many p celebrated when the breishop waleased on bail. he faces trail later this year. this week, forirst time pope francis addressed the issue as he returned to rome from the ited arab emirates. >> it's not somethint everyone does, but there have been priests and even bishops who have done this. and i think it is still taking place because it is not as though the moment you become

aware of something it goes away. the thing continues, and we have been working on this for someim t we have suspended a few clerics and sent some away over >> yang: the pope was responding to a question from associated press vatican correspondent ce winfield, who joins us now from rome. nicole, thank you so much for being with us. you published nvantigation last summer that documented abuse going back decades and spreading across at least four continents. why has it taken so long for this silence to bak and for this to surface? >> the first public reports were in 2001, the national catholic reporter did a groundbreaking report and provided documentation that had been given tothe vatican a decade before about the situation in africa. so i took that as a starting point and decided that, with e reckoning that was going on in the united states, that it was a time to really look at what was

going on around the world as f as the religious sisters were concerned and, indeed,und that really nothing had changed. >> reporr: and you also wrote about the forces that kept these religious women, these nuns from speaking out, from reporting the abuse. >> in all situatns of abuse, tendency notneral to report, right there's a sense of shame, a sense of guilt, so there are all those normal forces that we've heard over and over again n talking about abuse in general. the religious sisters though, it seems like there's htmpounding interests that mig have conspired to keep this quiet, some of that is that the sisters have a real fear ofit repercussionin their own congregations if they speak out, especially if they belong to some of these smaller

diocese-level congregations, that order is whoenlly dnt on their local bishop, so if the bishop himself is doing the abuse or one of his priests is committing the abuse, there are real vested interests in not having this come out. >> reporter: and as i saeaid rlier, your reporting found this over at least four contine ts. give us dea of the scope of this and i don't know if severity are is trying twod, but there are nuns who have been rorced to have the abortion o forced to have the children of these priests and bishops. >> sisters were reporting that theywere getting pregnant and, in some cases, even he priests themselves were paying for the abortions, so kind of a compou compounded, as far as the church was concerned, a kind of compounded sin, and then there would be the cases where the sisters would also give birth and then very obviously, then, be town out of the congregations, and, indeed, it seems like telhe ding world

has been -- some of the places where poit has been ed at least more frequently than elsewhere. >> reporter: what's the significance or the importance of the fact that the pope in answering your questione acknowlethis for the first time? >> well, i think it was quite courageous of him to even take the question. i admit it was a bit out of left field, so -- but it seems like there was momentum building for it. the vatican's own women's magazine just last week had written an article about it, so it seemed like it was fair game. neveheless, the fact that the pope said it, he admitted it, he said it was problem, he said we're working on it, and he committedhomeself to do evee more becauseaid more was needed, i think is enormously significant. if you think of this as a problem of secrecyand a culture of secrecy, having the pope come out and say, i get this, i know it's aroblem, think is

enormous significant maybe for the sister themselves, maybe they might feenel emboldnow to break the silence. >> reporter: briefly, this pssue comes up just before a summit of bisto talk about the abuse of children, se sexual abuse of children in the church. is there anyense that the abuse to have the religious sisters is going to come up at that meeting as well. >> is this i would be surprised if it did only because already this meeting has enormou expectations, perhaps unreasonable expectations, placed on it. it was called to address a very specific issue, the prevention to have the ab of minors. i think if they were to add in the issue of abuse of religious cyst, that would detract attention from the core issue. so i ink it would open a bit of a can of worms if they were to redirect this meeting to address that issue, and ihink so they'll probably just keep it focused on its original intent,

which was on preventing abusef minors. >> reporter: nicole winfield, vatican correspondent for the associated press, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> nawaz: last week's brief but spectacular featured melissa rnmalzkuhn, who was eaf and into a deaf family. tshe spoke about how acce sign-language offers access to humanity. t, we have a separate ta on language and deafness from caroline clark. born into a hearing famiag, clark was sed as deaf at the age of two. ects on her relationship with words and how she turned to tchnology to help her speak. clark now works wi baker institute, a non-profit that provides speech therapy for deaf children. >> i've been diagnosed with deafness when i was two and i will never forget the word, th first word i learned, and it's the word "up." so, my mom told me this story.

she said she was in my grandmother's house. and she holds me in her arms and she would carry me up and down the stairs. and she was saying to me," caroline, up, up we go," and she even sometimes kind of take my hand and place it on her throat and i feel the vibrations of what she was saying. and finally, when i was two and a half, i said the word back to her, "up." and when my mom heard that, she cried tears of happiness because i think in that moment, she knew that i learned to speak. learnintopeak when you speak while you can't hear, it's an interesting s. you pay close attention how in forming th. and most of all, just repeatedly try to learn over and over again. there's a magnet that is inside of my-- insi of my head and ere's a magnet outside of my head.

so, sound comes through the gnet. when it first get turned on, you don't understand anything you're hearing. it sounds like beeps and it fully sounds like dona duck. and then one day, i asked someone, "can u say that word door?" and they said, "yeah, it's about that word." so over time, i begin to understand this new language. i didn't learn sign language. my mom made a constantion to teach me how to speak. as i got older, she said, "okay, you can learn sign language." and i honestly, i her things i wanted to learn other thiganlanguage. one time, i was in a grocery store and i was just browsing along and buying some groceries and this guy comes up to me. and instarted sito me. and i couldn't sign back. it was very awkward for me and ashamed that i'm currently a deaf person, but i can't even communicate to the other deaf pe ton. and t moment, i felt this huge divide between our walls

between my world and his world. and yeah, i felt a little bit embarrassed. is not a big piece of my identity. frankly, i identify more being a n and being gay over bei deaf. so dating while you're deaf is an interesting experience. wifirst-off, peopl ask you where you're from in the beginning conversation. avand you have to actuallya deaf accent and things get awkward prettnkquickly. i tommon misconceptions of deaf people is that we experience theamorld in a futally different way. we can't see the same things or we can't hear the same things if we don't experience it the same thing and that's not true. we want the same things, we crave the same things. we want to feel loved, we want to be included ywhen i wnger, i was so annoyed. uld be leaving school an all my friends were going off play dates. and i was going to speech therapist. i think that fundamental lyexperience of reearning how to fail over and over has really molded me into the person

i am today. being told constantly, "do not pronounce it that way. try again. dit over." and so, i really have raised this growth mindset and i have a firm belief that i could do anythingt if i tried hard enough. i'm caroline clark, and this is my brief but spectacular take on being deaf. >> nawaz: you can watch last week's episode with melissa n and all our brief but spectacular episodes at pbs.oierg/newshour/br and that's the newshour for tonight. iwa'm amna for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new languag german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com.

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

. hello, everyone. welcome to "amanpour & company." >> members of congress the state of our union is strong. >> president trumpou unity only to fall back on the division that will define the 2020 presidential race. i will hear from both sides of the debate. plus, as yet another government shutdown looms, just nine days from now, it's deja vu all over again, withde the pre still standing by his wall. texas congresswoman veronica escobar on why he has it all wrong. with all the division, shouldal the country it quits and break up? comedian collin qnn on the role of