captioning sponsor by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away.ew on theour tonight: a disaster of massive proportions. a cyclone destroys nearly an c entiy in mozambique, flooding vast stretches of land, and cutting off aid to victims. then, one-on-one with secretary of housing and urbanve pment, ben carson. plus, surviving one of syria's harshest prisons. protester details the torture tactics of the assad regime. >> for the first time, i wau protesting b it was fun. but then i get arrested, and it getortured for two days. and lost my nails. and they shocked me with electricity. >> nawaz: all that and more, on tonight's pbs wshour.

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>> babbel. a language spanish, french, german, italian, and more. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the cooration for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> nawaz: mozambique and neighboring states are still struggling tonight to rescue victims of a deadly storm, and reach others with aid. the cyclone killed hundreds when it struck last week, but the dimensions of the disaster are still coming into focus. from above, e destruction is near total, and stretches as far as the eye can see. homes in this mozambique port city of beira are now

flattened, flooded, vered in mud and debris. a tropical cyclone tore through this edge of southern on friday, and headed into malawi and zimbabwe on saturday. julia luis is a mother of three in beira. her family lost everything. >> ( translated ): we don't have anything to eat here, no food, nothing; it's a problem. at night, we don't eat. , don't even have a blanket to cover ourselves wi only wave the clothes we are wearing. >> nawaz: huge ss of land were left underwater in mozambique, what one aid worker calls "an inland ocean."b survivors han stranded in trees and on rooftops as floodwaters continue to rise. the ternational red cross describes the damage as "massive d horrifying." e united nations says more than 1.7 million people were in the cyclone's path in mozambique alone. more than 400,000 have been displaced. with hard-hit areas ssible only by helicoer, this medical rescue team dropped into the floodwaters and swam through

swift cuents to find one stranded family, perched on a small pile of debris in a lone grove of trees. the group said they've carried out more than 50 rescues like this. u.n. officials said today is may be the wst cyclone-related disaster ever in the southern hemisphere, and the full scale is yet to be seen. >> all over is water. you see water. if people are lucky, they are on the roof, the top, the rooftop heof their homes and they, ask for help. but a lot of other people that we have, we know nothing about for the moment, are not as lucky as that. >> nawaz: getting aid into the region will be a daunting job. residents have been forced to carry crates of bread and other supplies around collapsed bridges and roads. meanwhile, electric power is out nearly everywhere. all of this, in a country where some 45% of the total population is under 15 years old. it all but ensures that children will bear the brunt of this disaster, and a recovery that could last decades.

in the day's other news, devastating oods across parts of the midwest have no claimed three lives and caused hundreds of million dollars in damage. in nebraska, aerial views show thousands of acres and hundreds of homes submerged, as the missouri and platte ri trs pour acro countryside. the story is the same in iowa, where governor kim reynolds is warning the damage could get even worse, as the region prepares for spring. >> we're in for the long haul. we're just getting sta we really haven't seen the snow melt yet, that wilimpact it, and even-- just the spring rains that we'reoing to get. so, what typically would be handled by the levee system that's in place, because that's been compromised, this could be a potentially difficult situation all througthe spring and summer. >> nawaz: vice president mike pence flew to nebraska this

evening to meet with state officials of both states and visit affected communities. a new analysis finds far more heat records have been broken i. the ver the last 20 years, than records for cold. the associated press looked at weather station data across the lower 48 states. they found that for every new cold-weather mark, there were two w records for high temperatures. climate scientists say it's part of a global trend. stin new zealand, prime mi jacinda ardern urged public support for a grieving muslim community after the massacre at two mosques last friday. ardern addressed parliament and highlighted the heroism among the 50 vicllms. she for new zealanders to remember them, not the gunman.er >> he is arist. he is a criminal. he is an extremist but he will, when i speak, be nameless. and to others, i implore you: speathe names of those who were lost, rather than name of the man who took them. he may have sought notoriety, but we in new zealand will give him nothing.

not even his name. >>awaz: meanwhile, officia began releasing bodies of those killed to their families, after autopsies were completed. pope francis has refused the resignation of french cardinal philippe barbarin, convicted of failing to report sebuse by a priest. the vatican says that instead, the pontiff asked barbarin to do what he thinks is bestor his archdiocese. barbarin is appealing his conviction for covering up for a priest who allegedly abused boy scouts in the 1980s and '90s. back in this country, the attorney general of westrg ia is suing the state's roman catholic diocese, alleging that it knowingly employed child sexual abusers. the suit filed today is believed to be the first of its kind. it charges that the wheeling- charleston diocese knew about abuse complaints against priests and failed to report them. church officials had no mediate response. a federal appeals court in virginia heard arguments todayth on w president trump is gtolating the constitution,

through his wash hotel. the emoluments clause bars federal employees from accepting befits from foreign or sta governments without congressional approv t. in richmon district of columbia and maryland argued the president's hotel profits are the problem. >> all of this stuff is a dangerous constitutional violation. we have the right to have the president to put our interests first, and it appears that he's not doing that. he's putting his financial interests first. >> nawazthe president's lawyers argue the emoluments clause bars only those payments he might receive in his official capacity. they also say he is immune from suits like this. mexican migrant has died in custody after being apprehended for illegally crossing thear r. it's the fourth such death since early december. u.s. customs and border protection says th40-year-old man was detained in texas on sunday and died yesterday at a medi el center inpaso.

he suffered flu-like symptoms and liver and kidney failure. an american professor has become the first woman to win the prestigious abel prize in mathematics. karen keskulla uhlenbeck of theo universitexas at austin was named the winner today. she was recognized for work in gegeometric analysis and g theory, and as an advocate of gender equality in math and science.ab th prize is seen by many as the equivalent of a nobel prize. s and, on waeet, the dow jones industrial average lost 26 points to close at 25,887.th nasdaq rose nine points, and the s&p 500 was down araction. still to come on the newshour: president trump welcomes the controversial leader of brazil to the white house.it one-on-onesecretary of housing and urban development, ben carson. a report from the syrian frontline of the fight against isis. and much more.

>> nawaz: today, president trump welcomed brazilian president jair bolsonaro for an offial visit to the white house. bolsonaro has been dubbed "the trump of the tropics" because of the many overlaps in the two leaders' rhetoric and policies. as nick schifrin reports, the two presidents are trying to overcome more than three decades of u.s.-brazil antagonism. >> we're going to exchan jerseys. >> schifrin: today at the white house, the leaders of the western hemisphere's two largest economies declared themselves on the same team, and allied in a new, north-south american axis. >> we're going to have a fantastic working relationship. we have many views that are similar. >> ( translated zil and the united states stded side by n their efforts to ensure , berties, respect for the traditional famispect for god, our creator, against gender ideology and political correctnes and against fake news. ed schifrin: jair bolsonaro is the first unaba pro-american brazilian president

since the end of military rule in the 1980s, and made the u.s. his first bilateral foreign visit. >> ( translated ): it is time to overcome old resistance and explore the very best potential that is there between brazil and the u.s. after all, it is fair to say, today, brazil has a president who is not anti-american, which is really unprecedented in t last few decades. >> schifrin: the trump administration considers bolsonaro a key conservative ally, especially on venezuela, as the u.s. tries to ot president nicolas maduro. maduro is propped up by his military, and the u.s. is trying to convince the venezuelanry milio give him up by using the brazilian military as an interlocutor. as part of today's visit, brazil agreed to open a military base, to u.s. satellites. the two sides are increasing trade agreements, and the u.s. labeled brazil a major non-nato ally. but those agreements were less important than what wa, argues "america's quarterly" editor in chief, brian winter. >> in bolsonaro, you really have, there's really no other

leader in the world, that has so openly tried to copy the donald trump model in terms of both substance and style. that was really what both leaders wanted, to a certain extent-- validation.n: >> schif back home, supporters call bolsonaro myth, a reference the almosts mythical statu achieved after surviving a campaign trail stabbing last september... and to his middle name: messias. they elected him, a po, to fight corruption, end the country's longest recession, ae. tackle viole but critics of the man dubbed "trump of the tropics" call him an extremist. ( yelling ) in 2014, he argued with aaf lawmaker andr pushing her, yelled, "i would not rape you because you are not worthy of it." after he tried to shout down the female head of a commission investigating gender violence, fellow parliamentarians forced him to leave, calling him a fascist. in a 2011 interview with "playboy," he said he would "rather his son die in a car accident than be gay." ( yelling )

and right before his election, when calling in to a rally,ls aro promised the rule of law would be become rule by law unleashed on his political opponents. >> ( translated ): these red outcasts will be banished from our homeland. it will be a cleansing never seen in brazilian history. >> in brazil's case, where they were still immersed in many respects in the worst recession in their history, a country with 63,000 homicides a year, with as e corruption scandal, a lot of voters heard those kinds of comments and thought, "ah-ha, this is a guy who will do things differently in brasilia, in the capital." anso that's why he's in office. >> schifrin: but bolsonaro faces some internal resistance in aligning bral to the u.s. brazil has not followed the u.s. lead in moving the embassy to jersualem. brazil has not left the paris climate accords. and, brazil is among the west's most protectionist countries, and could oppose opening up the country to more u.s. trade. but president trump is focusing on his personal connection with

bolsonaro, and the administration called today ato "historic steprd realigning two countries whose leaders' world views are, themselves, aligned. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> nawaz: president trump's proposed budget would cutfu ing for the department of housing and urban development by 18%, including cs to public housing programs. yamiche alcindor takes a closer look now at some of the challenges the department is facing, and solutions its leadership is considering. >> alcindor: more than five million families rely on federal rental assistance programs run by h.u.d.wo for the pastears, decisions about how to spend the department's $50 billion budget have been made by dr. ben carson. secretary carson joins me now. thank you so much for being on the program tonight. i first nt to talk to you about president trump. he recently suggested that whitr

acist groups are "a small group of people." experts in organizatis that study white supremacists say they're a growing group and they're leading to a in hate crimes across the country. do you agree with the president's stance oite supremacists? >> well, i don't kn anything useful comes from talking about what side they are. they're a despicable group of idividual, as any group thaot hatehers and purports themselves to be superior. >> alcindor: but the president said they're still a small group. do you see them as rising issue? should the government be dealing with them in some way? >> well, i think we should all,regardless of what ourpr politicaspects are, condemn anybody who is gra hatoup, no matter what their size, whetherr thgetting smaller, whether they're getting larger. >> nawaz: >> alcindor: but the problem is getting wrse you think? >> i personally have not seen evidence of it. but again, if there is even one, it's a poblem.

>> alcindor: and you said recently that you're open to serving a second term as h.u b.. secretar you also said you might leave after first term. are you concerned as the only black cabinet member from president trump, are you concerned that the lack of diversity of the cabinet and in the administration might impact the president's rhetoric and policies? >> well, first of all, i indicated that, you know, i would prefer to be in the private sewoctor. ld prefer to be in the private sector now. this is sacrificial work.r however, it's y important work, because for an extrely long period of time, you know, the poor people in our country have been takor granted, and, you know, we've concentrated both administrations, democrats and republics, on getting people under roofing, getting them into programs. we haven't concentrated on how do you gethem out of those programs in an economically viable way. n az:

>> alcindor: are you worried about the lack of diversity the administration would have if you ft? >> i am not concerned about what happens if i leave, but i do believe that there needs to be a representative sampling of our society. >> alcindor: you said that poverty is a s otamind. do you still believe that? >> again, let me correct the record. what i said is largely a part of the mindset, because i'll give you an example. if a rookie playing baseball comes up and, you know, his first time at-bat and there's nolan ryan out there. he says, nolan ryan, oh, no, he's got a 95mph fastball -- >> alcindor: but you have said it's large lay state of mind. let me finish. the next rookie comes up and sa, he's an old man. i'm going to knock the cover off this balance. a lot depends on how you look at

it. that doesn't mean you don't sympathize with people who are sor. many grow up in tuation where they don't have an opportunity to see any other way of life. so naturally they feel that way. you couple that with some of thi things that arn the way, for instance, if you get assisted housing, you're told if ou make any more money, you have to report that, if you bring another persointo the household, who is making money, you have to report that, so your rent can go up. don't even think about getting married, not only will your rent go up, you'll use your subsidy altogether. >> alcindor: you're talking about rent going up.ca yoed for tripling the rent on people living in public housing. what do you so to peple who think you're making rife harder for poor people? >> alcindo i'm glad you brought that up. i'm talking about people who may the nimum rent of $25 to $50 who are able-bodied. we're not talking about disabled or elderly peo we're talking about people who are perfectly capable of working

paying $25 to $50 a month. we need to get them stimulated. this is the perfect time. there are more jobs than there e people to do them. we need not to couch and coddle these people. but we need to develop them. it will be for their own good. >> alcindor: and you haveaid thu came to h.u.d. to fix the rats, the roach,e violence, but h.u.d. records show that last year more families lived in h.u.d. housing that failed and safety inspections than before as compared to 2016. there was a rise o 30%. what do you say to people who think under your leadership, under your tenure, public housing has become more dangerous to live in? >> i think they should find out what the real facts. v are i have bery concerned about this. so we stepped up the inspection process. we put more cotrols on it. so obviously you're finding things that were glossed over before. that's going to be the case. and we're doing something about it. you know, we have decreased the number of days to 14 for an

inspection, so yti don't have to cover over all the things. and, you know, we'are trining the inspectors the right way. we're bringing i.tte. sys in so that we get consistency. these are things that take tim and you can spin them any way you want depending on what your political perspective is, but we're concerned aout the people. >> alcindor: your administration has champiozod opportunits and your signature program is a business center, but some of these centers d some ofhese opportunity zones experts say have failed to garner financial backing from the whuse and from the private sector. can you point to one tangible achievement that envision centers have achieved since you've been at h.u.d.? >> i'm glad you asked that question actually. in chicago, the envision center there is having a system where they take addicts, and they give them medically assisted

treatment, programs that will actually get them ouof addiction. and the choice, they're actually teaching young people some skills like ow to run a pizza shop. you know, what people don't recognize is that when you create a new program, you don't just declare it and it pops up. >> alcindor: those are all open envision centers, because i was reading a soft opening in washington state. are the other ones you're taing about open already? >> yes, they're already functioning, and there are several more that are going to be opening before the summ is over. >> alcindor: i want to ask you about the watchdog group american ovt. they got ahold of some of your schedules. they said you went to florida dozens of times. they also say that you and your wife - >> they said i went a dozen times. >> alcindor: the said you weveral times or a dozen times. they also say they have e-mails that show you and your wife are directly involved inchasing

a $31,000 dining room set for your offsae. what do yoto people who think that schedule and tha s dinit, that they are really not aligning with the mission of >> i'm glad you brought that up, because as you know, i washington, d.c., most of the members of congress go home frequently on the weekend. it wouldn't be any different for a cabinet member, quite frankly. many of them go home on thursday. they're complaining about the fact they left on fday afternoon. if that's all they've got to complain about, i think we're in pretty good shape? >> alcindor: what about the dining room set? >> i find that kind of hilarious because you would have to look long and hard to find anyone who cares less about furniture than >> alcindor: but you were directly involved. >> and even harder to find someone more thrifty than my wife.in we'rlved only in the sense that they said, you need to look at these catalogs and pick

something out. thfurniture in there no long erepairable. they tried the say it's a table at cost $31,000. it was 17 pieces of furniture. anyone who knows anything about e lid furniture knows that's not an exorbitant prd that was a government catalog they ask%/b you to choose from some what wa really going on is people wanted to say, you're cutting the budget on poor people and you're buying expensive furniture, that's the only narrative they wanted. they didn't want the truth. a >> alcindo those people would be wrong? >> they would be extraordinarily wrong, and it would be wonderful if people would actually look for the real news and not try to create these narratives. >> alcindor:ell, thank you,er is --ar secretary, son. i appreciate you coming on tonight. >> absolutely. pleasure. >> nawazstay with us. coming up on the newshour:

an american diplomat with first- hand experiencdealing with vladimir putin. and, high school students talk about the road to getting into college, in light of a major admissions scandal. after nearly five years of fighting, a u.s.-led coalition has almost completely destroyed what's known as the "territorial caliphate," the islamic pseudo- state crea iraq and syria by isis. the final battle is now nearing its end in the town of baghouz, in eastern syria on iraq's border-- but that doesn't mean the end of isis. special correspondent jane ferguson is on assignment in syria for the newshour, and joins me from the city of qamishli, in syria's northeast. so, jane, the group is basically surrounded now. what does the actual battle look like on the ground? >> th last hold out, amna, of the caliphate so-called by isisf isectively a tiny patch of land that looks something like a torn-up playing field or perhaps even a scrapyard. it's filled with rusted old vehicles as well as makeshift

tents, manof which catch fire under the bombardment of coalition air strikes and fire coming from the syrian rces.ratic fo those left inside are believed to be the most hard core who have not given up, who have not come out through the humanitarian corridor. a reason for that is likely because many are foreign fight ers. wee ourselves on the ground there in houses where they had retreated from, and you could see english writing on the walls and memorabilia from fighters that b basically would han part of the caliphate. it would not have been easy for them to slip away into the surrounding countryside in recent months and years dung this campaign. >> nawaz: again, that tiny oned, of land you men when that has been retaken, does that mean the battle is over, isis has been defeated? >> it won't mean the end of isis, amna, but itme doean the end of the so-called caliphate, as in any areas of land that they themselves can control. but isis months ago morphed ito an effective and deay

insurgency group. that's the next phase for them. we have already seen attacks. >> brown: i.e.d.s on thewe ground a as suicide car bombs here. in january four americans were killed in a towe.n her whenever an isis cell attacks the syrian democratic forces announced today that they detained a number of isis members who they y were involved in that attack. >> nawaz: specialt correspondne ferguson on the ground for us in syria. thank you, jane. >> thank you. >> nawaz: now, to anther story from syria, one of inhuman suffering,nd near superhuman perseverance. a warning before we go further: the account you are about to hear may upset many viewers. it's been eight years since the uprising against bashar al-assad bega the brutal war that followed has killed hundreds of thousands, rced millions from their homes, and led to the imprisonment, torture, and murd by assad's regime of thousands more. now, even as the syrian leader secures his gain international efforts at accountability are

beginning. many hope those could one da lead to justice. from oslo, special correspondent malcolm brabant reports. >> reporter: at a time of extensive indifference to syria, omar al shogre strives to energize outrage at the bestiality perpetrated by president bashar al-assad's regime. >> for the first time, i was protesting because it was fun. but then i get arrested, and i get tortured for two days. and i lost my nails.ho and theyed me with electricity. >> reporter: al shogre was in oslo to attend a human rights film festival. a before hearance, he told me how torturers repeatedly sought to extract confessions for a crime he hadn't committed. >> "how many officers have you killed? no one?" they come torture me with electricity. like that.d u can't continue and then you say, "okay, i killed one." so he nail.to take out my ( screams )n oh, hit you agd say, "look, you should look!"

and... ( screams )yo i didn't kill ! and then he say, "okay, we move to the next one." d he goes, "look!" i killed, i killed, i killed, i killed, killed. "okay, how many have you killed?" one. "continue." ( screams ) two. "continue." three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. when i said n, he was satisfied at this time. >> reporter: after first being imprisoned at the age of 15, al shogre ended up in a mountaintop compound north of damascus. its name? sadnaya. the pinnacle of syria's industrialized sadism. >> they say, "we torou ten belts. if you're silent, it's only ten. if you scream just one time, we're going to continue until you die." so when i got the first belt, i uld not control myself, i was like... ( screams )th

belts are like a rainy day. the belts are just coming, coming, people are hitting me, likemetal and electricity and without stop. just getting hurt of everything. we call it the welcome partywh you come to a new prison. >> sadnaya is petoaps equivalent death camp, because people are coming there to be executedt or starvdeath. tw we're going into the vehicle, the trut brought those prisoners on to the site. reporter: professor eya weizman is a forensic architect. he lead a team whor orked with otrvivors of sadnaya, to build virtual images of the prison, trigger memories and testimony that may one day be used by a prosecutor. >> it really is the st station that you would pass through after you've been arrested by the syrian government forces. it is absolutely hell on earth. reporter: weizman sees comparisons between assad's methods and the holocaust.

>> there is a banality of that evil, which is the kind of management of life and death. the management of reduction of bodies to bare bones. to put people on the threshold between life and death, a kind of calcu you're not executed outright. >> reporter: amid a lif depravity, one of the most gruesome allegations is of summary executions before naked inmates were given their onlyy. meal of the >> every day they killed more than two or three people inev ery room. but it's not the torture hours when you get your food. it'sust good morning. and the head of this dead body should be over the food so the blood ca ccome in. so y't any day without the blood in your food.e so you get in dy. you should put the head on the food. if you don't, you get tortured. >> reporter: al shogre's powers of recall captivated the norwegian audience, and fell

panel members like gerald folkvord of amnesty international. >> i believe it's very credible, because it's the same storyrn amnesty inional's researchers have heard many times, from both survivors but also from prison guards. we've also been in contact with somee people who actually worked there, including some of the people carrying out torture. and they're all teing the same story. >> reporter: former prisoners told the forensic architects that they were forced to communicate by whispers. al shogre tells a similar story. >> it was the university of whispers, because we weren't allowed to speak in prison. the person next to me was a doctor, the other si psychologist, in front of me an engineer, behind me a lawyer. he died, you get a teacher. he died, you get an economist. the doctor is sharing knowledge how to take care of our wounds.c the hologist, how to be happy in prison. >> reporter: al shogre says hiss fellow inmrovided him with the mental fortitude to survive. >> it was like torture, physical and psychological torture,

sexual torture, a lot of dead people. eople was just killed, like... like, cable or something. some people were killed by torture when they question them. they tortu you and you get electricity until you die. other people died from starvation. >> reporter: like thnazis, the syrians apparently kp extensive records and coerce prisoners into performing key tasks. >> when anybody di, you take the body to the isolation room, you get a pen and the paper andr yoe the number on the forehead. the bodies were in the room more than seven, eight days, which means their bodies wereye dest so we were forced to take the legs here, so when i take a body, we take just two arms, two legs, like a bit of body and a head, and take it out. >> reporter: three years of violence and malnutrition alst killed al shogre, and once, he was dumped with other corpses for disposal. >> i just woke up and i was like almost dying.

i looked at the ceiling when i opened my eyes, it was like, an arm over my head. i couldn't breathe.ov and i just this arm. i tried to take me to the door, and started knocking on the door. someone opened and said "what?"g i said, alive again." like, second life. and he said "why? you should die." >> reporter: hala alghawi's brother also disappeared into sadnaya prison, and she flew from turkey to oslo in the hope that al shogre might have some information. >> unfornately i cannot be hopeful. m the same time, i still have something that telmaybe he's still alive. i feel justice is very important, because no peacju withouice. >> reporter: legal experts believe the volume of evidence of war crimes and human rights abuses in sya outstrips that available at nuremburg, where nazis were put on trial after

the second world w. so what are the chances of the syrian perpetrators facing justice? russia and china blocked the international criminal court from dealing with syria. so it's up to individual countries to act. there have been arrests of suspects in germany and france. austria has launched an investigation, and in sweden, a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the survivors of torture. after norway came washington, and a briefing on capitol hill for senior members of the foreign affairs committee, who made sympathetic noises. >> these people in prisonve deserve to sur >> assad cannot now deny his crimes. a his criminst humanity. and he will pay for these crimes.s >> reporter: t how al shogre looked when he was finally released-- he thinks by mistake-- and was subjected to a mock execution. >> aim, shoot, poom. was thlast thing i hear.

>> reporter: somehow he managed to escacross the border to turkey, and followed the refugee trail to greece, through centrae eund eventually to sweden, where he's had death threats from damascus. >> i'm the strong guy. i survived. you tried, you made me silent for three years in prison, and today, you are silent in this picture. i am talking. i won this challenge, i won this war. i'm the survivor, i'm the winner. i love it. >> reporter: such caor carries the risk of assassination. but al shogre says his liberty comes with an obligation to speak out. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in oslo. >> nawaz: no other american diplomat has spent more time with russian president vladimir

putin than william burns. and, in a candid conversation with judy woodruff about his new memoir "the back channel,"as the former ador didn't hold back in his criticism ofru thian leader, or of president donald trump. >> woodruff: ambassador bill burns, thank you very much for joining us. >> it's gre to be with you. >> woodruff: the book, "the back channel: a memoir of american diplomacy and the case for its renal." you are cheerleading for reconstructing something that u say in the book is lgely invisible. you say it's an unheroic, quiet endeavor unfolding in back channels out of sight and out of mind. if that's the case, in this noisy 2we7 worl live in, why do we need to restore it? what happened tot? >> well, i think there has been a drift, to be honest, that predates the current administration, going back through the post-coal -- cold war period, after the end of the ecold war when we were

singular dominant player on the landscape, i think we bec little complacent. diplomacy didn't seem quite as important. then came 9/11, a huge shocto our system and an even greater emphasis on the military and less emphasis on diplomacy. what i would argue president trump has done is taken that drift and accelerated it and rade it infinitely worse. >> woodruff: youe about the u.s. having a diminished role in the world. how much of it was outside events out of our control and how much of it was what the united states did? >> it was a combination. i think in the natural order of things, china's ride, it's hard to predict the pace of that, was bound to happen. i think russia's resurgence, again, we may not have gotten a sense of the pace of it right, but it was coming, but also there were unforced errors on our parted. the most obvious was the war in iraq in 203 whewe kind of bcelerated that shifting landscape a litt. >> woodruff: you did mention president trump a minute ago,

and people talk about how he is somebody with strong opinions. he makes decisions very quicklym and people pare him with president obama, who was seen as cerebral, deliberative, sometimes too deliberative. >> i have very high regard for president obama, and i oug his very careful and thawingful a yle made a lot of sense and continues to makot of sense for the united states. i think, you know what, you see in president trump is a tendency to see diplomacy more as an exercise in narcissism than the kind of hard work and reliance on institutions that his predecessors in different ways i think all appreciated as wel. president trump was asked a little more than a year ago about the mummer with ofn seior vacancies in the state department. he said, i don't really care about that. i'm the only one who matters. i think that's a very ineffective way of looking at the way in which the united states promotes its interests in the world. >> woodruff: you write a lot t book about vladimir putin, about russia and about

vladimir putin. y i thiu spent more time with him than any other american diplomat. wu first started dealing h him, what, in the early 2000s? >> yeah, i was ambassador fo 2005 to 2008, so i spent a lot of time. >> woonguff: you write amo other things that you think you saw the seeds of what went on16 the happen in when the russians interfered with our presidential election. what did you see eay on? >> well, i will never forget my first meeting as ambassador with president putin whennt to present my credential, which any new ambassador does, and the kremlin, which ishere this ceremony happened, is built on a scale that's meant to intimidate foreigners and particularly new ambassadors, and before i culd even hand over my letter of credentials or get a word out oo myth, president putin said, "you americans need to listen more. you can'thhave eveg your own way anymore. we can have effective relationss but not on your terms." that was vintage putin, in my dxperience, unsettle, a chip on his shoulder, a defiantly

charmless. >> woodruff: what do we know about him that should inform how we think about rsia going forward? >> he has a sense of grievance. his world view is that at russia's moment of historical weakness in the 1990s, thewe and in particular the united states took advantage of that weakness. now, that'inhis view. i it's largely unjustified in terms of how history actually unfolded. but he is an apostle of payback, so he was determined as hs suffering on $130 barrels of oil to push back. he did that aa number of different instances, but i think he was also convinced, he drew a straight line from the color revolution in georgia and ukraine in 2003 and 2004 to what he saw to be ou own efforts to undermine him and undermine his regime. so when he saw an opportunity in 2016 to sow chaos amidst the

polarization of our own political system, he tok advantage of it. >> woodruff: the middle east,st l questions persist today about what happened during the ama administration when president obama made the decision not to go in to syria wh the syrian leader ha used chemical weapons. and people are asking today still, was there sufficient awareness then of what ar destabilized s would mean? >> well, i think honest answer is none of us anticipated the scale of the human catastrophe or e geopolitical tragedy that the civil war in syria would become. so the honest answer is it was a failure of imagination on all of our parts. i did believe personally at the time, and i continue the believe, that we should havede resp militarily when assad, after we had set a red line, used chemical weapons and killed iane than 1,000 innocent syr civilians. i think that was one place where we could have avoided any slippery slope, because assad

had crossed such a very clear international red line with regard to the use of chemical weapons. >> woodruff: you have referred tseveral times to presid trump. you talk about his erratip leadereaving america and its diplomats dangerously adrift. can that be fixed? >> i think we're digging a deep ho for ourselves today. and my concern is when we top digging, which we eventually will, the sooner the better i hope, we're going to climb back to the surface and look out over a landscape that i think in some ways will have hardened againsts our interests and our vlues because adversaries are taking advantage, rivals are taking advantage, and think many of our closest allies are beginning to lose faith and beginning t hedge a little bit. and the institutions that we worked so hard to shape in our own enlightened self-interest over the last seven decades are beginning to teeter. so what i worry about is the long-term corrosive damage we're doing to ourselves. you know, if we understandthe

significance of dip can certainly repair a lot of the damage, but i just worry that some of that corsion is going to endure for a long time. >> woodruff: ambassador bill burns, the book is "the back channel: a memoir of american diplomacy and a case for its renewal." thank you. >> thank you so much. >> nawaz: it's been a week since federal prosecutors pulled back the curtain on a college admissions cheatscg and bribery dal. the scheme involved wealthy parents, a pair of actresses, including lori loughlin, business leaders, and a college placement firm at the center of it, led by william singer. it enaed students to get into high profile schools such as yale, u.c.l.a., georgetown and the university of southern califoia. u.s.c. said yesterday it is blocking students associated with the scandal fm registering for classes for now.

it's also set off a wider conversation. john yang is going to ck up on that in a moment. but let's hear first from high schoolers themselves. our student reporting labs reached out around the country for our weekly segment, "making the grade." here's some of what they had to say. >> it's easier to get into college if you're rich. i feel like that's just a given. everyone knows that. >> i feel like it really degraded the process, how, like, people try so hard were able to pay someone to get in, and how it, like, messed up r e whole system. and how it's not fr anyone else, because some people just don't have that money. >> you know, maybe it used to be, ur parents donated a library. and now, it's, you've got a fixer who bumps your s.a.t. but, yeah, i'm not that surprised. >> our a.c.t. scores are higher, sed theirs aren't, but that won't matter bechey have enough money to just pay their way in. >> by the d of my senior year, i will have taken nine a.p. courses, three s.a.t.s and two a.c.t.s, but that won't even arantee me an admissions opportunity institution. >> a lot of us have spent yr whole senir, and a lot of

time and energy and conversations and money trying to get into the schools that we see as our best fit, and to e that they can just loo around and pick whichever one they want to go to and then just hand money over and then there in, is kind of disturbing. i upsets me because my mom is a hardworking mom. and, like, i going to be the first one that graduates from high school and go to college. and it's just, like, i have to pave my way for college. i have to make sure that i do... i've got to grind so i can get into a college. and they're just paying their way throh, their parents are just like "oh, here you go, baby." no. like, that's not fair at all. >> i know people in the lower milwaue area who work very hard at their school work, and they work so incredibly hard trying to get out of their situation, but they just can't because they have to go home and they have to care for their family and they have to work two jobs to make ends meet. and i feel like, then, to have somebody who doesn't do any ofth , come and pass you over is

just a big disrespect. >> there's future scientists, and lawyers, and doctors, and teachers that aren't getting a shot because people like lori loughlin are just paying their way in for their kids. >> most of the people that i know don't have an extra $15,00$ ,000 to throw at someone like singer to, you know, pay their way into college. >> my parents can't pay $500,000 to get me into any college i want. so, that does put a lot of pressure on making sat, like, all my grades are good, and like, g.p.a. and everything. >> it kind of just almt demeans the meaning of what a higher education is, because we like to hold it to a very high standard. but if you can just pay your way in, if you have enough money, what does that truly mean? >> nawaz: the parents of most of the students we just heard from can't afford to hire a private counseling company, like the one at the center of the scaal. instead, they rely on high school counselors, who,

on average, each advise 482 students. jayne fonash was one of them until very recently. she was a counselor in the loudoun county, virginia, public schools for 24 years. she is now an independent college consultant and president-elect of the national association for college admission counseling. jayne fonash, thanks and welcome. >> thank you. >> yang: you hear those students. they all talk like the system is stacked against them. what do you say to them? what do you say to theirs? pare >> what i would say to them is i would want to acknowledge the pressu that they feel to get into what they perceive as the best college, and it saddens me becae process should be an adventure and a growing experience for students and families. there's more and more need for good high school councilors all over the country because research shows that students who have access to a councilor in high school and who can plan and

go through the process with the support of a d councilor are likely to be admitted and to be successful as undergraduate students. to their parents i would say, ease baca little on the pressure, and remind your students that no matter where they go to college, they will haveor oppnities to grow, to have internships, to be successful. they will create their lives themselves regardless of where ool. go to sch >> yang: what's the best support? you talk about supporting the students through the process. what's the best suport that a student can get? >> an exale of good support that a student could receive is having act s.e.c. to -- having access to a councilor throughout high school, beginning conversations early on the be sure they are ta challenging courses and being involved in some things in the community that are important to e and then during junior and senior year, visiting schoolsma anng some inform decisions fuout schools where they would likely be succeand where they would have a good chance at being admd.it

>> yang: when you were in the london loundoun couy public schools, how how many students would you council at one time? >> loundoun county is on the lower end of na the ratio of councilors to students is approxitely 320, 300 to 1, which is lower than the number you cited earlier. those public school councilors are responsible for post-high scho plans but for mental health issues, academic advising, responding to family crises, so the aifficulty f public high school councilor is that they wear many hats in any given day, and they cannot devote 100% of their time to college counseling. that being said, they are great councilors and they have the best interest of their students in mind, and they try to spe as much time as possible on each of those things that helps to build a strong, confident, well-prepared student.re

>> yang: yoow an independent consultant. the independent consultant in seis case, you don't do tho things, but what does an independent consultant do? what support does an indntepen consultant provide? >> so as an independent onsultant, i am available work with individual students at their request of that of their parents. it is a private arrange. m , buny independent consultants also do volunteer work in the cirommunities with first-generation students, with community-baganization, and i hope to spend some of my time doing that, as well. loundoun county, as you know, is a very well-endowed county. there are lots of opportunities. our families enjoy lots ofbu privilegesthere are still pockets ofç#b students, students whose milies don't have the access to other counseling, and those are some of the students that i along with other independent councilors hope to serve, as well, along with all the goodwo that's being done by the public school councilors. >> yang: what can the system or how can the system changeed?

what can be done to make the students that we just heard inp that t spot feel that it is a fair, level playing field? >> you mentioned that i'm president-elect of the national association for college admission counseling. we were founded over 80 years ago for the specific purpose of legeg sure that the col admission process was ethical and that there was a level playing field for students to go through this process. so while the recent indictments do focus on several unscrupulous play0s, we have 15,00 members along with thousands more high school councilors and college admissions officers who do our work on a daily basis adhereing to an ethics code that ensures that our behavior and the opportunitie conducted in an ethical manner. >> yang: jayn fonash, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me.az

>> nlater this evening on pbs, "frontline" presents a film about the mastermind behind what someonsider the worst atrocities in europe since world war ii. "the trial of ratko mlic" details the war criminal's motives, the ethnic cleansing he commanded his troops to carry out, and a portrait of the victims left behind during the goslav wars of the 1990s >> ratko mladic is f11 charges, including two counts os genocide, coered the most serious crime under international law. the prosecution must prove his intent to destroy in whole or in part the non-serb population in bosnia. the defense insists he's innocent and never participated in or ordered any crimes. >> this is case 09922, the

prosecution of ratko mladic. >> thank you. is the prosecution ready to make its opening statement? >> it is, your honor. >> then you may proceed. >> youhonors, four days ago marked two deades since ratko mladic became the commander of the main sta of the army ofbl reca srpska, the v. r.s. on that day mladic began his full participation in a full endeavor of ethnically much of bosnia. the world watched in disbelief as neighborhoods and villages iwithin europe,ilians who were targeted for no other reason than they were an ethnicity other than serb. their land, theirve l their dignity attacked in a coordinated and carefully

planned manner. the next time i address you about the evidence in this case will be at the end of the trial. at that time, when i come before you again, iaill ask tht you give the people of bosnia what they have waited so long for, the truth about what ratko mladic did to that beautiful and complex land, theruth about what ratko mladic dido bosnia's people.az >> n"frontline's the trial of ratko mladic" airs tonight on most pbs stations.ou on the newonline right now, we share some ways to help the people affected by the devastating cyclone in mozambique, malawi and zimbabwe. find that on our website,ww pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'amna nawaz. join us online, and again here morrow evening. r all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and

see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> terrorists have seized the hotel. >> jason icic, arm pi hammer, "hotel >> babbel. a language program that teaches spanish, french, german, italian, and more. >> csumer cellular. >> american cruise lines. >> bnsf railway. >> the ford foundation. working wi visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york.pp ting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement

of intnational peace and security.or at carnegi >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was madeco possible by thoration for public broadcasting. and by contributionso your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access gro at wgbh access.wgbh.org hello, everyone.

and welcome to ammanpour and company. here iwhat is coming up. >> they are us. >> new zealand shows courage and grace, after the devastating massacre of muslim worshippers. as the prime minister and opposition leaders madr,cl gun reform is coming, i speak with the mayor of christchurch. >> then, how did the terrorist become radicalized? i talked to a former neo nazi who is now fighting against this extremishate. >> and with proof that the terrorist was inspired by anti-nationalist balkans we look at the genocide of the 1990s. and finally little steven van wndt, bruce sig steen's leadman talks toalter