captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: a disaster of massive proportions. a cyclone destroys nearly an m entire city ambique, flooding vast stretches of land, and cutting off aid to victims. then, one-on-one with secretary of housing and urbant, developmen carson.pl us, surviving one of syria's harshest prisons. a protester details the torture tactics of the assad regime. >> for the first time, i was protesting because it was fun. but then i get arrested, and iur get to for two days. wid i lost my nails. and they shocked m electricity. >> nawaz: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> babbel. a language program that teaches spanish, french, german, italia and more. >> and with thongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs u.ation from viewers like thank you. >> nawaz: mozambique and neighboring states are still struggling tonight tue 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, the deruction is near total, and stretches as far as the eye can see. homes in this mozambique port city of beira are now

reattened, flooded, and co in mud and debris. a tropical cyclone tore through thn edge of southern africa friday, and headed into malawi and zimbabwe on saturday. julia luis is a moth of three in beira. her family lost everything.ed >> ( transl ): we don't have anything to eat here, no food, nothing; it's a problem. at night, we don't eat. we don't even have a blanket to cover ourselves with, we only have the clothes we are wearing. >> nawaz: huge swaths of land were left underwater inmb moique, what one aid work calls "an inland ocean. survivors have been stranded in trees and on rooftops as floodwaters continue to rise. the international red cross describes the mage as "massive and horrifying." the united nations says more than 1.7 million peoplwere in the cyclone's path in mozambique alone. more than 400,000 have been displaced. with hard-hit areas accessible only by helicopterscthis medical ue team dropped into the floodwaters and swam through

swift currents to find one stranded family, perched on a small pile of debris in a lonegr e of trees. the group said they've carried out more than 50 rescues like this. u.n. officials said today this may be the worst clone-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 of their homes and they, 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 theon re 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 ouh nearly evee. 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 uld last decades. d

in t's other news, devastating floods across parts of the midwest have no claimed three lives and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. in nebraska, aerial views show thousands of acres and hundreds homes submerged, as the missouri and platte rivers pour across the 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 started. we really haven't seen the snow melt yet, that will impact it, and even-- just the spring rains that we're going to get. so, what typically would be handled by the leveeystem that's in place, because that's been compromised, this could be a potentially difficult situation all through the spring and summer. >> nawaz: vice president mike pence flew to nebraska this

evening to meet with stateof cials of both states and visit affected communities. enew analysis finds far m heat records have been broken in the u.s. over the last 20 years, than records for cold.as thciated press looked at weather station data across the lower 48 states. they found that fo-wevery new cother mark, there were two new records for high temperatures.ts climate scientay it's part of a global trend. in new zealand, prime minister jacind support for a grieving muslim community after the massacre at two mosques last friday. ardern addressed parliamenthi anlighted the heroism among the 50 victims. n she called for zealanders to remember them, not the gunman. >> he is a terrorist. he is a criminal. he is an extremist. but he will, when i speak, be namess. and to others, i implore you: speak the mes of those who were lost, rather than name of the man who tookhem. he may have sought notoriety, but we in new zealand ll give him nothing.

not even his name. >> nawazmeanwhile, officials 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 seiling to report sexual a by a priest. the vatican says that instead, the pontiff asked barbarin to do what he thinks is best for 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 west i virginsuing the state's roman catholic diocese, alleging that it knowingly employed child sexual abusers. the suit filed today is believeo e the first of its kind. it charges that the wheeling- charleston diocese knew about riabuse complaints againstts and failed to report them. church officials had n immediate response. a federal appeals court in virginia heard arguments todayre on whetherdent trump is violating the constitution,

through his washington. the emoluments clause bars federal employees from accepting benefitsrom foreign or state governments without isngressional approval. in richmond, theict 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. >> nawaz: the esident'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 the boarde it's the fourth such death since early december. u.s. customs and border protection says the -year-old man was detained in texas on sunday and died yesterday at a medical center in el so.

he suffered flu-like symptoms d liver and kidney ilure. an american professobecome the first woman to win the prestigious abel prize in mathematics. karen keskulla uhlenbeck of thea university of at austin was named the winner today. she was recognized for work in geom theory, and as an advocate of gender equality in math and science.ze the abel is seen by many as the equivalenof a nobel prize. and, on wall street, the downe industrial average lost 26 points to close at 25,887.aq the naose nine points, and the s&p 500 was down a fraction. still to come on the newshour: president trump welcomes the controversial leader of brazil cr the white house. one-on-one with ary 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 official visit to the white house. bolsonaro has been dubbed "the inump of the tropics" because of the many overlaphe two leaders' rhetoric and policies. as nick schifrin reports, thepr twidents are trying to overcome more than three decades of u.s.-brazil antagonism. >> we' going to exchange jerseys. >> schifrin: today at the white house, the leaders of thehe western hemi's two largest economies declared themselves on the same team, and allied in a new, north-south american axis. la we're going to have a fantastic working onship. we have many views that are similar. >> ( translated ): brazil and the united states stand side by side in their efforts to ensure liberties, rpect for the traditional family, respect for god, our creator, against gender ideology and political correctness, and against fake news. >> schifrin: jair bolsonaro is the first unabashedly pro-american brazilian president

since the end of military rule in.he 1980s, and made the u his first bilateral foreign visit. >> ( trslated ): it is time overcome old resistance and explore the veryest potential that is there between brazil and the u.s. after all, it is fair say, today, brazil has a president who is not anti-american, which is really unprecedented in the last few decades. >> schifrin: the tru administration considers bolsonaro a key conservative ally, especially on venezuela, as the u.s. tries to oust president nicolas maduro. maduro is propped up by his military, and the u.s. is trying to convince the venezuelan military to 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 was said, argues "america's quarterly" editor in chief, brian winter. >> in bolsonaro, you really have, there's really no other

leader in the world, openly tried to copy the donald trump model in terms of bost substance ane. that was really what both leaders wanted, to a certain k tent-- vidation. >> schifrin: bachome, supporters call bolsonaro myth, a reference to thelmost mythical status he achd after surviving a campaign trail astabbing last september. to his middle name: messias. they elected him, a populist, t fight corruptid the country's longest recession, and tackle violence. but critics of the man dubbed "trump of the trics" call him an extremist. ( yelling ) in 2014, he argued with a lawmaker and, after g 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,o bolsonomised 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 histily. >> in br case, where they were still immersed in many respects in the worst ion in their history, a country with 63,000 homicides a year, with ao massivuption scandal, a lot of voters heard those kinds of comments and thought, "ah-ha, is is a guy who will do things differently in brasilia, in the capital." and so tt's why he's in office. >> schifrin: but bolsonaro faces some internal resistance in aligning brazil 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. esd, brazil is among the wt's p motectionist 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 a "historic step" toward realigning two countries whose leaders' wld views are, themselves, aligned. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> nawaz: president trump's proposed budget would cutg fundr the department of housing and urban development by ublicincluding cuts to housing programs. yamiche alcindor takes a closer look now at some of the ischallenges the departmen facing, and solutions its leadership is considering. >> alcindor: more than five million families rely on federal rental assistance programs run rs h.u.d. for the past two y decisions about how to spend the department's $50 billion budget have been made by dr. ben carson. secretary carson joins me now. ank you so much for being on the program tonight. i first want to talk to you about president yump. he recenuggested that white

supremacist groups are "a small group of people." experts in organizations th study white supremacists say they're a growing group and ney're leading to a rise hate crimes across the country. do you agree with the esident's stance on whte supremacists? >> well, i don't know anying useful comes from talking about what side they are. they're a despicable group of idividual, as any group that hates others and purports themselves to be superior. >> alcindor: but the president said they're still a small group. sh you see them as a rising issue? ld the government be dealing with them in some way? >> well, i think we shuld all,regardless of what our political prospects are, condemn anybody who is oa hate grup, no matter what their size, whether they're geting smaller, whether they're getting larger. >> nawaz: >> alcindor: but the problem u think?ng worse y >> i personally have not seen evidence of it. but again, if thsere i even one, it's a problem.

d> alcindor: and you sai recently that you're open to u rving a second term as h.u.d. secretary, but yso 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, fir of all, i indicated that, you know, i t would prefbe in the private sector. i would prefer to be in the private sector . this is sacrificial work. however, it's very important work, because for an extremely p loiod of time, you know, the poor people in our country have been taken for granted, and, you know, we've concentrated both administrations, demoats and republicans, on getting people under roofing, gethem into programs. we haven't concentrated on how do you get tm out of those programs in an economically viable way. >> nawaz

>> alcindor: are you worried about the lack of diversity the administration would have if you left >> i am not concerned about what happens if i lieave, but do believe that there needs to be a >>presentative sampling of our society. lcindor: you said that poverty is a state of mind. do you still believe that?t >> again, me correct the record. i whaid is largely a part of the mindset, because i'll give you example. a rookie playing baseball comes up and, you know, his first time at-bat and the's nolan ryan out there. he says, nolan ryan, oh no, he's got a 95mph fastbar: -- >> alcinut you have said it's large lay state of mind. >> let me finish. the next rookie comes up and says, he'sn 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 sympathize with people who are poor. many grow up in a situation where they don't have an opportunity to see a other way of life. so naturally they feel that way. you couple that with some of the things that are ie way, for instance, if you get assisted housing, you're told if you make any more money, you have to report that, if you bring another person into te 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 tatogether. >> alcindor: you'rlking about rent going up. you called for tripling the rent on peoplliving in pubc housing. what do you say to people who think you're making rife har for poor people? >> alcindor: i'm glad you brought that up.a i'm talkinout people who may the minimum rent of $25 to50 who are able-bodied. we're not talking aboleut dis or elderly people. we're talking about people who are perfectly capable of working

paying $25 toa $50 nth. we need to get them stimulated. is is the peect time. there are more jobs than there are people to do them. we need not toouch and coddle these people. irt we need to develop them. it will be for thwn good. >> alcindor: and you have said you came to h.u.d. toix the rats, the roach, the violence, att h.u.d. records show 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 of 30%. whato you say to people wh think under your leadership, under your tenure, publicho ing has become more dangerous to live in? >> i think they should find out what the real facts. are i have been very concerned about this. so we stepped thenspection process. we put more controls 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 a

inspection, so you don't have time to cover over all the things. and, you know, we're training the inspects the right way. we're bringing i.t. systems in so that we get consistency. these are things that take time. and you can spin them any way you want depending on what you political perspective is, but we're concerned about the people. >> alcindor: your administration has championed opportunity zones and your signature progrin is a buss center, but some of these centers and some of these opportunity zones experts sayto have faile garner financial backing from the white house and from the private secto can you point to one tangible achievement that envs ision centve achieved since you've been at h.u.d.? >> i'm glad you asked thatua question ay. in chicago, the envision center there is having a system where they take addicts, and they give them medically assisted

treatment, programs that will g actual them out of addiction. and the choice, they're actually teaching youngpeople some skills like how to run a pizza shop. you know, what people don't recognize is that wheyon create a new program, you don't just declare it and it pops up. >> alcindor: those are all open ecvision centers, ause i was reading a soft opening ingt wash state. are the other ones you're talking about open already? >> yes, they're already functioning, and there are ng toal more that are go be opening before the summer is over. >> alcindor: i want to ask you about the watchdog group american oversight. they got ahold of some of your schedules. they said you went to florida dozens of times. they also say that yoou and yur wife -- >> they said i went a dozen times. >> alcindor: they said you went several times or a dozen times. tho say they have e-mails that show you and your wife are directly involved in purchasing

a $31,000 diing room setor your office. what do you say to people who thinthat schule and that dining set, that they are really not aligning with thsion of h.u.d.? >> i'm glad you brought that up, because as you know, in washington, d.c., most of the mbers of congress go home frequently on the weekend. it wouldn't be afony differen a cabinet member, quite frankly. many of them go home on thursday. they're complaining about the fact they left on friday 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 >>res less about furniture than i do. lcindor: but you were directly involved. >> and even harder to find someone more thrifty than my wife. we're involved only in the sense that they said, you need to look at these catalogs and pick

something out. the furture in there is long erepairable. they tried the say it's a table that cst $31,000. it was 17 pieces of furniture. anyone who knows anything about solid furniture knot'ws thas not an exorbitant price and that was a government catalog they ask%/b you to choose from some what wae ly going on is people wanted to say, you're cutting the budget on poor people and youyie expensive furniture, that's the only narrative they wanted. hhey didn't want the truth. >> alcindor: ande 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: well, thank you,er is -- secretary, carson. i appreciate you coming on tonight. >> absolutely. pleasure. >> nawaz: stay with us. coming up on the newshour:

an american diplomat with first- hand experience dealing 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 created in 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 aignment 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? >> the last hold out, amna, of the caliphate so-called by isis is effectively a tiny patch of land that looksomething like a torn-up playing field or perhaps even a scrapyard. it'silled with rusted old vehicles as well as makeshift

tents, many of whch catch fire under the bombardment of coalition air strikes and fire coyng from the srian democratic forces. those left inside are believed to be theost hard core who have not given up, who have not come out through the humanitarian corridor. a reason for that is likely icause many are foreignht ers. we ourselves were 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 basically would have been part of the calitiphate. ould not have been easy for them to slip away into the surrounding countryside in recent months and years during this campaign. >> nawaz: again, that tiny patch of land you mentioned when that has been retaken, does that mean the battle is over,is as been defeated? >> it won't mean the end of isis, amna, but it d tes mehe end of the so-called caliphate, as in any areas of land that they themselves can control. but isis months ago morphed into an effective and deadly

insurgency group. that's the next phase for them. we have already seen attacks. >> brown: i.e.d.s on thes ground as wellicide car bombs here. in january four americans were killed in a towhere. whenever an isis cellttacks. the syrian democratic forces announced today that theym detained a nber of isis members who they say were involved in that attack. >> nawaz: special correspondent jane ferguson on the ground for us in syria. thank you, jane. >> thank you. >> nawaz: now, to anther story from syria, one of inhuman suffering, and nr superhuman perseverance. a warning before we go further: the account you are about to hear may upset many viewers. it's been eighyears since the uprising against bashar al-assad began. the brutal war that followed has killed hundreds of thousands, forced millions from their homes, and led to the imprisonment, torture, and murder by sad's regime of thousands more. now, even as the syrian leader secures his gains, intnational efforts at accountability are

beginning. many hope those could one day 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 w protesting because it was fun. but then i get arrested, and i get tortured for two days. and i lost my nails. and they shocked me with electricity.>> eporter: al shogre was in oslo to attend a human rights ralm festival. before his appeae, he told me how torturers repeatedly sought to extract confessions for a crime he hadn't committed. >> "how many officers have youll ed? no one?" they come torture me with electricity. like that. and you can't continue and then you say, "okay, i killed one." so he starts to take out my nail. ( screams ) oh, hit you again and "look, you should look!"

and... ( screams ) i didn't kill anyone! and thene say, "okay, we move to the next one." and he goes, "look!" i killed, i killed, i killed, i killed, i killed. "okay, how many have you killed?" one. "continue." ( screams ) two. "continue." three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. when i said ten, 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. >>enhey say, "we torture you belts. if you're silent, it's only ten. if you scream just one time, we're going to continue untildi yo" so when i got the first belt, i could not control myself, i was like... ( screams )s

the bee like a rainy day. the belts are just coming, coming, people are hitting ml like with med electricity and without stop.st etting hurt of everything. we call it the welcome party c when youe to a new prison. >> sadnaya is perhaps equivalent to a death camp, because people are coming there to be executed or starved to death. now we're going intohe vehicle, the truck that brought those prisoners on to the site. >> reporter: professor eyal wet.man is a forensic archit he lead a team who worked with other survivors of sadnaya, to build virtual images of the prison, to trigger memories and estimony that may one day used by a prosecutor. >> it really is the last 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 d 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 calculated ofyolow killing if re not executed outright. >> rorter: amid a litany of depravity, one of the most gruesome allegations is of summary executions before naked inmates were given their only meal of the day. e every day they killed m than two or three people in every room. but it's not the torture hours en you get your food. it's just good morning. and the head of this dead bodyou be over the food so the blood can come in. so you can't any day without the blood in your food. so you get in the body. you should put the h the food. if y don't, you get tortured >> reporter: al shogre's powers of recall captivated the norwegian audience, and fellow

panel members ke gerald folkvord of amnesty international. >> i believe it's very credible, nacause it's the same story amnesty internats researchers have heard many times, from both survivors but also from prison guards. we've also been in contact withe some of thle who actually worked there, including some of the people carrying out torture. and they're all tellinthe same story. >> reporter: former prisoners told the forensic architects that they were forced to communicate by whispers. al shogre tells a silar 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 side a 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. the psychologist, how to be happy in prison. >> reporter: al shogre says his fellow inmates provided him with the mental fortitude to survive. >> it was like torture, physical d psychological torture,

sexual torture, a lot of dead people. some people was just killed, like...ke cable or something. some people were killed by torture when they question them. they torture you a you get electricity until you die. other people died from starvation. >> reporter: like the nazi the syrians apparently keep extensive records and coerce prisoners into performing key tasks. >> when anybody dies, you take the body tthe isolation room, you get a pen and the paper and you write the number on the forehead. the bodies were in the room more than seven, eight days, which means their bodies w destroyed. i we were forced to take the legs here, so whake 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 almost 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 s couldn't breathe. and i just moved tm. i tried to take me to the door, and started knocking on the door. vemeone opened and said "what?" i said, "i get 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. >> unfortunately cannot be hopeful. at the same time, i still have emething that tells me ma he's still alive. i feel justice is very important, because no peace without justice. >> reporter: legal experts believe the volume of evidence of war crimes and human rights abuses in syria outsips that available at nuremburg, where nazis were put on trial after

the second world war. so what are the chances of the syrian perpetrators facing justice? russia and china blocked the international criminal courtng from deaith syria. so it's up to individual stuntries to act. there have been arof suspects in germany and france. istria has launched an investigation, asweden, 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 prison deserve to survive. >> assad cannot now deny his crimes.st his crimes agaumanity. and he will pay for these crimes. >> reporter: this is how shogre looked when he was finally released-- he thinks by e-- and was subjected to mock execution.oo >> aim, poom. ows the last thi i hear.

>> reporter: somehe managed to escape across the border to turkey, and followed the refuge, trail to grehrough central europe and 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 sent in this picture. i am talking. i won th challenge, i won this war. i'm the survivor, i'm the winner. i love it. >> reporter: such candor cares 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 vladimirm

putin than wilurns. and, in a candid conversationru with judy wo about his r w memoir "the back channel," the former ambassadn't hold back in his criticism ofn the russader, or of president donald trump. >> woodruff: ambassador bill burns, thank you very much for joining us. >> it's great to with you. >> woodruff: the book, "the back channel: a memoir ofer an diplomacy and the case for its renewal." you are cheerleading for reconstructing something that you say in the book is largely 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 24/7 rld weve in, why do we need to restore it? what happened to it? >> 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 cold w when we were the

singular dominant player on the landscape, i think we becliame a le complacent. diplomacy didn't seem quite as important. then came 9/11, a huge shock to our system and an even greater emphasis on the military andm lesshasis on diplomacy. what i would argue president trump has done is taken that t drd accelerated it and made it infinitely worse. o>> woodruff: you write 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 hadid to p 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 rrors on our parted. the most obvious was the war in iraq in 2003 k where nd of accelerated that shifting landscape a little bit. >> woodruff: you did mention president trump a minute ago, and people talk about how he is

somebody with strong opinion he mas decisions very quickly. and people compare him with present obama, who was seen as cerebral, deliberative, sometimes too deliberative. >> i have very high regard for president obama, and i thught his very careful and thawingful style made a lot of sense and ontinues to make a lof sense for the united states. i think, you know what, you see in president trump is a ten sdey e 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 well. president trump was asked a little more than a year ago about the mummer with of senior 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 unird statesmotes its interests in the world. >> woodruff: you write a loto in thek about vladimir putin, about russia and about vladimir putin.

i think yo spent more time with him than any other american diplomat. you fit started dealing with him, what, in the early 2000s? >> yeah, i was ambassador for 2005 to 2008, so i sp a lot of time. >> woodruff: you write among other things that you think you sathe seeds of what went on the happen in 2016 when the russians irterfered with ou presidential election. what did you see early on? >> well, i will never forget mye first ng as ambassador with president putin when i went to present my crandential, whichy new ambassador does, and the kremlin, which is where this ceremony happened, is built on a scale that's meant to intimidate foreigners and partilarly new ambassadors, and before i could ofen hand over my letter credentials or get a word out of my mouth, president putin said, "you americans need toisten more. you can't have everything your own way anymore. wean have effective relations, but not just on your terms." that was vintage putin, in myen expe, unsettle, a chip on his shoulder, and defiantly

charmless. >> woodruff: what do we know ouabout him that sh inform how we think about russia going forward? >> he has a sense of gevance. his world view is that at russia's moment of historical weakness in the 1990s, the west and in particular the unfed states took advantage that weakness. now, that's his view. i think it's largely unjustified in terms of how history actuallo ed. but he is an apostle of payback, so he was determined as he was suffering on $130 barrels of oil push back. he did that at a number of different instances, but i thi 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 our 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 politil system, he took advantage of it. >> woodruff: the middle east, still questions persist today about what hapened during th obama administration when president obama made the decision noto go in to syria when the srian leader had used chemical weapons. and people are asking tod still, was there sufficient awareness then of what a destabilized syria wuld mean? >> well, i think honest answer is none of usnticipated the scale of the human catastrophe or the geopolitical tragedy that the civil war 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 continue the believe, that we should have ad,ponded militarily when ass after we had set a red line, used chemical weapons and killed more than 1,000 innocent syrian civilians. i think that was one place wherl we chave avoided any slippery slope, because assad

had crossed such a very clear international red line with regard to the use of chemicalon we >> woodruff: you have referred several times to president trump. you talk about his erratic leadership leaving america and its diplomats dagerously adrift. can that be fixed? >> i think we're diging a deep hole 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 values because adversaries are taking advantage, rivals ataking advantage, and i think many of our closest allies are beginning to lose faith and beginning to hedge a little bit. and th 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 diplomacy, we can certainly repair a lot of the damage, bu i just worry that some of that corrosion is going to endure a long time. >> woodruff: ambassador bill burns, the book is "the bac channel: a memoir of american diplomacy and a case for its renewal." thank you. >> thank you so much. >> nawaz: it's been since federal prosecutors pulled back the curtain on a college admissions cheating and ibery scanda the scheme involved wealthy parents, a pair of actresses, includg lori loughlin, business leaders, and a college placement firm at the center of it, led by william singer. it enabled stunts to get into high profile schools such as yale, u.c.l.a., georgetown and the university of southern california. u.s.c. said yesterday it is blocking students associated with the scandal from registering for classes for now.

it's also set off a wider conversation. john yang is going to pick up 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, "makingr thade." here's some of what they had to say. >>t'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, and otrers ble to pay someone to get in, and how it, like, messed up the whole system. yod how it's not fair for else, because some people just don't have that money. >> you know, maybe it used to be, your parents donated a library. and no it's, you've got a fixer who bumps your s.a.t. score up 400 points. but, yeah, i'm not thatsu rised. >> our a.c.t. scores are higher, and theirs aren't, but that hawon't matter because the enough money to just pay their way in. >> by the end of msenior year, i will have taken nine a.p. courses, three s.a.t.s and two a.c.t.s, but that won't evente guarme an admissions opportunity institution. nd a lot of us have spent our whole senior year, lot of

time and energy and conversations and money trying to get into the schools that we see as our best fit, ando see that they can just look ndound and pick whichever one they want to go tohen just hand money over and then they're in, is kinof disturbing. >> it upsets me because my mom is a hardworking mom. and, like, i'm going to be the first one that graduates from high school and go to llege. 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 getge into a col and they're just paying their way through, their parents are just like "oh, here you go, baby." no. like, that's not fair at all. >> i know people in the lower milwaukee ar who work very hard at their school work, and ey 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 to make ends meet. and i feel like, then, to have somebody who doesn't do any ofco that 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 $15,000 or $20,000 to throw at someone like singer to, eiu know, pay 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 ,essure on making sure th like, all my grades are good, ang.like, g.p.a. and everyth >> it kind of just almost demeans e 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 scandal. 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 thm? what do you say to their parents? >> what i would say to them is i would want to acknowledge the pressure that they feel to get into what they perceive as the best college, and it saddens me because thprocess 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 whan can plnd

go through the process with the support of aco goouncilor are likely to be admitted and to be successful as undergraduate students. to their parents i would say, ease back a ittle on the pressure, and remind your students that no matter where they go to coy llege, thell have opportunities to grow, to have internships, to be successful. they will create their lives themselves regardless of where they go to school. >> yang: what's the best support? you talk about supporting the students through the process. rtwhat's the best suphat a student can get? >> an example od goopport that a student could receive is having act s.e.c. to -- having access to a councilor throughout high school, beginng conversations early on the be sure they are taking challenging courses and being involved inme hings in the community that are important to them. and then during junior and senior year, visiting schools s and makime inform decisions about schools where they would likely be successful here they would have a good chance at being admitted.

>> yang: when you were in the loon loundoun county public schools, how how many students would you council at one time? >> loundoun county is on the lower end of nationalthumbers. ratio of councilors to students is approximately20, 300 to 1, which is lower than the number you cited earlier. those public school councilors are responsible for post-high school pla but fomental health issues, academic aadvising, responding toily crises, so the difficulty for a 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 andhey have the best interest of their students in mind, and they try to speasnd uch time as possible on each of those things that helps to build a strong, confident, well-prepared student. >> yang: you're now an

independent consultint. thpendent consultant in this case, you don't do those things, but what does an independent consultant do? what support does an independent consultant provide? >> so as an independent consultant, i am available to work with individual students at their request of that of their parents. it is a private arrange. , but many independent doconsultants als volunteer work in their communities with wfirst-generation studenth community-based organization, and i hope to spend some of my time doing that, as well.lo doun county, as you know, is a very wll-endowed county. there are lots of opportunities. r families enj lots of privileges, but there are still pockets ofç#b students, students whose families don't have the access to other counseling, sed tho are some of the students that i along with other independent h counciloe to serve, as well, along with all the good work that's being done by the public school councilors. >> ysyg: what can thestem or how can the system be changeed?

what can be done to make th students that we just heard in that taped spot feel that it is a fair, level playing field? >> you mentioned that i'm president-elect of the national association llege admission counseling. we were founded over 80 years ago for the specific purpose of being sure that the college admission process was ethical and that there was a leel playing field for students to go ilrough this process. so wh the recent indictments do focus on seval unscrupulous players, we have 15,000 members along with thousands more high school councilors and college admissions officers who do our work on a daily basis adhereing eo an ethics code that ensures that our bhavior and the opportunities for studndts are ucted in an ethical manner. >> yang: jayne fonash, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me.

>> nawaz: later this evening on pbs, "frontline" boesents a film the mastermind behind what some consider the worst atrocities in europe since wod war ii. "the trial of ratko mladic" details the war criminal's motives, the ethnic cleansing ho commanded his to carry out, and a portrait of the victims left behind during the yugoslav wars of the 1990s. >> ratko mladic is facing 11 charges, including two counts of genocide, considered the most serious crime under international law. the prosecution must prove his intent to destroy in whole or in part the noner-spopulation in bosnia. the defense insists he's innocent and never participated in or ordered anymeri >> 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. >> youhr ors, four days ago marked two decades since ratko mladic became the commander of the main staff of e army of republic srpska, the v. r.s. on that day mladic began his full participation in a full endeavor of ethnically cleansing much of bosnia. the world watched in disbelief as neighborhoods and villages with europe, civilians who were targeted for no other reason than they were an ethnicity other than ser their land, their lives, their dignity attacked in a coordinated and carefully

planned manne the next time i address you about the evidence in this case ll be at the end of the trial. at that time, when i come before you again, i will ask that you gi the people of bosnia wh they have waited so long for, the truth about what ratko mladic did to that beautif and complex land, the truth about what ratko mladic did to bosnia's people. >> nawaz: "frontline's the trial of ratko mladic" airs tonight on most pbs stations. on the newshour online right now, we share some ways to help the people affected by thede stating cyclone in mozambique, malawi and zimbabwe. find that on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour.d at's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz., join us onlid again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and

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