captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: a defining question. the supreme court hears arguments on the controversial casue of whether the censu ask people if they are u.s.ci zens. then, as democrats weigh the possibility of impeachment, we look at specific moments highlighted in the mueller report, when the president's requests and orders were ignored, or not followed up on, by his staff. plus, the only known survivingar abic-language memoir from a muslin slave in the u.s., newly preserved and made pub the library of congress. >> his literacy and culture comp .arrative that slaves were not capable of cultu in fact, they were persons with distinct histories, abilities,

culture and background. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs d newshour has been provi: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin? >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> text night and day. >> catch it on replay. >> burning some fat. >> sharing the latest viral cat! >> you can do the things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. with talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more at consumercellular.tv >> bnsf railway. >> babbel. a language program that teaches spanish, french, italian,

german, and more. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. th woodruff: the death toll keeps climbing ieaster sunday massacre in sri lanka. it reached 321 today, as the islamic state group made an unconfirmed claim of responsibility, despite having lost allts territory in iraq and syria. officials in colombo blamed a local group, and sugsted the attacks might be retaliation for the killing of muslims in new aland. meanwhile, the people of sri lanka observed a national day of mourning. debbie edwards, of independent television news, reports.

( ♪ funeral songs ) >> reporter: in the grounds of st. sebastian's church, they have erected a makeshift alter at which this morning coffin after coffin began to arrive. ( ♪ funeral songs ) on sunday, this congregation lost more than 100 of its worshippers, and at a mass funeral, the lives of each of them was remembered and honored by those who survived. at a house nearby, we found the community gathering to pay their respects to a mother and her three children who were also killed in the same attack in negomb prideep had joined his family at church that day. he described having to go identify his children at the morgue, and then the moment he sent to visit his wife in hospital, only ther lose her fight for life.

policeave released this footage of the suicide bomber in the moments before he murdered prideep's family. it shows how brazenly he walked into the church, wearing h deadly backpack, his hand poised to detonate. one of the priests leading the easter service told us of the devastating impact it has had. >> almost all families have lost somebody. >> reporter: cctv has also emerged of the two m targeted tourists at the shangri la hotel. one entered the breakfast room, another stood in the path of those that tried to escape. following the discovery of more unexploded devices, and claims that those responsible were connected to isis, the government warned the sri lankan people that there could be more attacks to come.

the investigators are making good progress in regard toti iding the culprits, but it means that we need ttify all the culprits and look at what the network is. e reporter: there was a heavy security presencin negombo as they began to bury theead. this town is known as little rome, of the catholic community in sri lanka. but on this y of national mourning, people of all faiths have come out intohe streets and joined christian services, to show their solidaritynd share their grief for those who died. in a nation still under threat, so many families are having to deal with the trauma of laying their loved ones to rest. >> woodruff: that report from debbie edwards of independent television news. saudi arabia's government carried out the beheadings of

37 people today-- the kingdom's largest mass execution since 2016. saudi officials said the accused had been found guilty of attacking security installations, killing security office, and cooperating with what it called "enemy organizations." one of the bodies, and the severed head, were put on public display, as a warning. in washington, deadline day came and went for the treasury to release president trump's income tax returns. democratic representative richard neal, chairing the house ways and means committee, asked for six years bu personal and ness returns, but the white house refused. neal may now issue a subpoena,in probe of the president's business dealings at home and abroad. the president's son-in-law, jared kushner, says the mueln r investigats done more harm than allf russia's interference in the 2016 election. the whithouse senior adviser

spoke today at a new york city event, and played down the russian meddling. >> quite franklythe whole thing is just a huge distraction for the country. if you look at what ussia did, buying some facebooko sow dissent, and do it. it's a terrible thing, but i think the investigations and all the speculation over the past two years has had a much harsher impact on our democracy than a couple facebook ads. >> woodruff: the mueller report found that russia engaged in a sweeping campaign of interference in an effort to aid the trump campaign. the man who granted jared kushner his security clearance ignored a subpoena today from the house of representatives oversight committee. carl kline was white house personnel security director during president trump's first two years in office. at issue is whether he improperly gave clearances to kushner and to others. in the philippines, an s earthquatruck the central part of the country, but there were no reports of deaths. just yesterday, another quake killed at least 16 people in the

northern philippines. the shockwaves brought down a supermarket and damaged an airport.te in egypt have overwhelmingly approved lettinge president fattah el-sissi stay in power until 2030. 90ections officials say the proposal won nearlof the vote. el-sissi is a former general who overthrew anslamist president in 2013, and has ccked down on dissent since. back in this country, in first, federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against a drug company executive inhe opioid epidemic. laurence doud once ran rochester drug co-operative, a distribution company. prosecutors in new york say he ignored warnings about opioid addictionsn order to keep sales surging. >> this prosecution is the first of its kind. it is the first time that executives of a pharmaceutical distributor, and the distributor

itself, have been charged with drug trafficking. our office will do everything in its power to bring to justice anyone responsible for unlawfully fueling this opioid epidemic, and that includes executives who illegally distribute drugs from their boardrooms. >> woodruff: doud is 75.et he coulden years in prison if he is convicted. in the presidential campaign, it was widely reported today thater foice president joe biden will announce his bid for the 2020 democratic nomina.on on thursd most polling suggests that bide will start outont-runner in the crowded democratic primary. and on wall street, solid earnings reports pushed stocks to new records. vethe dow jones industrialge gained 145 points to close at 26,656. the nasdaq rose 105 points to a new record close, and the s&p 500 also had its best finish ever. still to come on the newshour: putting a citizenship question on the census reaches the supreme court.

where democrats stand on possibly of impeaching the president. a killing in northern ireland revives dark memories of the troubles. and, much more. >> woodruff: it is a massive effort every ten years, that's critical to our country: counting the roughly 327 million people currently living in the united states. before the next census moves forward, the u.s. supreme court must decide whether the trump administration should be allowed to add this question: "is this person a citizen of the united states?"rs the controover that question-- one of the biggest o thterm-- went before the justices today. while the trump administration argued for their right to add a citizenship question to the

census, inside the court... >> what do we want? >> a complete count. >> when do we want it? >> now! >> woodruff: ...protesters outside railed against the addition. the a.c.u.'s dale ho challenged the government's intention behind including a question on cizenship. >> if you add it, we're going to get fewer people responding to the census, and a less accurate nsus. and let's not forget what the administration's purpose i they say they want to publish block-by-block counts of citizens and non-citizens. well, you don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to be concerned that if that data is out there, it could pose a risk to you. >> woodruff: commerce secretary wilbur ross says he added the question to help enforce voting rights, but house democrats challenged his intent at a hearing last month. >> i have never intentionally misled congress or even intentionally said anything incorrect under oath. >> mr. secretary, you lied to congress.

you misled the american people. and you are complicit in the trump administration's intent to suppress the growing politicalr of the non-white population.dr >> wf: but why is the census important enough to involve all three branches of government? the u.s. census is an attempt b the governmentunt every person living in the united states. every ten years, the census bueau gathers information l gender, age, race and income. >> we di hit. we did i! >> what did you do? >> we helped mommy fill out her census form. >> and we iled it back. >> why? >> because everybody counts in the census form. >> woodruff: but why does the government collect this data? first, the constitution says to. >> one of the ways the constitution preserves our rights is toequire the government to conduct a census every ten years. >> woodruff: the founding

fathers decided the number of seats in the u.s. house of representatives is determined by the number of people in each state. the official count is used to draw voting districts at the national, state and local level. but there's another important reason the u.s. conducts a census: money. >> 2.4 million, 2.5 million. >> the u.s. census isn't just a population count. it helps allocate federal, state and local funds to our community. >> woodruff: the federal government decides how muchfu ing or grants to give states, counties and cities by looking at the detailed census data. m theans money for updatingld schools, buig new hospitals, repairing broken rds, and maintaining public utilities like water, sewage and electricity. >> you can answer ce000 and get what you need. or you can leave it blank and get th: nothing. >> woodruff: private companies

also make major decisiont based on whae census says, like where to bui grocery stores or new housing developments. but, like any government agency, the census bureau needs funding to do its job. and it's not cheap. the last census, in 2010, cost taxpayers $13 billion, with more than 500 field offices and 635,000 staffers nationwide. census watchers look now to the supreme court for a quick resolution, less than a year out from the next census. today's arguments are just the latest step in this long-running controversy. and here to cover this, from both angles, are our regular supreme court analyst, marcia coyle, of the "national law journal." and, hansi lo wang. he's on the census beat for npr. welcome to both-of-you. you were both in the courtroom today. nsi, i'll start with you. this really is the end of a long

controversy, iit not? >>es, this is a legal battle that officially started more than a year ago after commerc secretary wilbur ross, who oversees the census bureau,ce annothat he planned to add a citizenship question to the >> woodruff: remind us, hansi, what is it that experts at the census bureau themselves say the meaning of adding this question would be? what would the effect be, in their vi? >> census bureau research suggests it's highly likely that households with non-citizen, and that could include some citizen is, would be very discouraged, scared to participate in the census if it were to include a tizenship question. this is a very sensitive question, especially in this current political climate of anti-immigrant rhtoric and also growing immigration enforcement. >> woodruff: mar shark what s the legal argument that brought this case toey bef the supreme court? >> judy, three federal courts

have decided that secretary ross' decision violated federal duw, specifically the administrative pro act, which really guides federal agencies in rule making, regulation making. they found that, on judge in particular said the secretary had committed a vartile smorgasbords of federal law violations. sohat case was appealed by the trump administration to the supreme court. an we have the arguments today.s >> woodruf tell us in sum what is it tht the commerce department under secretary ross is saying we need to do this? what is the argument they make? >> well, secretary ross has given as the primary reason that the citinship question is necessary for the justice department to enforce the voting rights act. and during the qustioning today, the questions sort of revealed almost very quickly the

ideological divide on the court itself. on the liberal side of the bench, justices kagan and sotomayor really pressed trump administration lawyer noel francisco about the secretaryv reasons for g the citizenship question. justice kagan ponted out that the secretary has the authority not to agree with the census bureau experts, but under federal law, he has to give reasons, and she id as she looked at the record and the evidence, she found noeasons. justice sotomayor said it appeared to be hlhad a soution in search of a problem. and then on the other side of the bench, the more con side, you had chief justice roberts saying to new york solicitor general barbara underwood -- >> woodruff: whos a critic, one of the many critics. >> they had sued the government, he said, well, you know, the census asks a lot of questions. it asks your age, your sex, yout marital . why not citizenship?

and general underwood responded, but for tho questions, there is no evidence that they result in an undercount, and there is ample evidence th the citizenship question will result in an undercount. >> woodruff: go ahead. >> i was also going to add justices gorsuc kavanaugh also pressed her. they noted that the unitedc nations ommends that countries include a citizenship question and that thre many english-speaking countries that have citizenship questions, and she said, while that information might be useful to some countries, those countries may not have ou constitution, which has as the enumeration clause the principle function of counting everyone. >> woodruff: so hansi lo wan sg, ebody who has followed the d nsus as a story for as long as you have, what u hear in the courtroom? was there a new argument made? s there some new ray light shown on this issue today?

>> there really are no new arguments that i heard today. there are a lot of issues thae t ought up in this case, and a lot of them are very technical.h this is te -- the heart of it is a lot about methodology and st testics, and some of the justices even remarked, wow, we're getting very technical during this oral argument. so this issue is going to be... thit appears thae justices, a lot of them have already made up their minds baed on the wa they asked questions and the comments they made during this ruling, dung this oral arguments rather. >> woodruff: so marcia, between you, you're making it sounas if it's excted the way the justices are going to come down on this? >> well,t's always hard to say. they're very good at playing devil's adt cate. you doow when they go back in their private conference room how they will hash things out. but it did look as though they re divided, and that division generally favors the trump

administration. but we'll have to wait and see. that are der some time pressure. the census has to be printed i think in july, and so the justices do need to reach a decision by the end of june in order to resolve this. >> woodruff: hansi, quickly, that's what i wanted to ask you. what does the census ñ>uáuu do whichever way this goes? >> well, it has two different20 versions of th0 census ready to the printed. so it's waiting for theur supree to make a decision or to tell a printer which one to start printing. there are 1.5 billion pieces ofn mailuding paper form, letters, postcards, in order to prepare properly for the 2020 census next yedr. >> wf: a lot hanging over the supreme court on this one. hansi lo wang of npr, marcia coyle, thank you both. >> pleasure, judy.

>> woodruff: we have devoted a significant amount of ti to the special counsel's investigation into russia and the president. but there are many details in the more than 450-page redacted report worth higighting. yamiche alcindor will continue our look at specific sections worth highlighting. >> alcindor: nearly half ofpo mueller's focuses on whether president trump obstructed justice. while it does not reach a definitive conclusion, in one critical section, mueller makes clat the president trump was protected by his advisors. the special counsel's report states, "the president's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests." it makes clear just how manye people in thesident's orbit were saying no. the list includes former whitese house codon mcgahn and former attorney general jeff sessions. we're gog to talk about a few of them now, with "washington

post" investigative reporter carol leonnig.l, cahanks so much for joining me. talk to me about how former white house counsel don mcgahn was pushing back against the president. rsey and says he wants to fire f.b.i. director comey. in that insnce, the white house counsel is a little bit gob smacked that that is the plan for the day but tries to carefully tone down the rhetoric and the rage of the president at the f.b.i. director and make sure tat his original draft of how he's going the fire this person is not the one he actually uses. and there is a notation in one of the notes taken of white house counsel don mcgahn's deputy saying, this original talking point should nosee the light of day, the president'sal origissive because it is legally questionable how the president plans to do this and why, and it looke obstruction of a criminal investigation. so then the next moment that don mcgahn tries to send off a

emoblem for the president -- fend off a proor the president is when he insists that, again, raeful, insists that sessions should not recuse himself from the probe and insists that don mcgahn get involved and ma sure that doesn't happen. and don is explaining to the president the law and saying thathe department of justice ethics rules are governing thi and sessions is doing the right thing. that's a hard one to take, but finally we get to t moment when the president, furious that a person he trusts is not running the investigation, mrious that robeeller is, insists that don mcgahn fire him. the president is in camp davidke when he mthese orders, and he's calling don mcahn at home over the weekend, and don mcgahn packs up his things as ife's going tosically leave, that that is his only option. ultimately the president relents, doesn't insist on him firing muler, and don mcgahn does not have to quit.

>> alcindor: former attorney general jeff session, there is this remarkable detail where jeff sessions is carrying around a resignation letter every time he goes to the white house 's goinghe is scared h to be fired. talk to me about the imression jeff sessions gave folks publicly and privately and what that tells us about e president's understanding of the role of the attorney general. >> i think this is such an umportant question that yo raise, because publicly we were watching it in real-time, youi. an at the "washington post," we had team of reporters working all weekend, because we envisioned the attorney genal getting sacked on our watch. the president was tweeting publicly, almost goading in hist humig tweets, goading the attorney general to give up the ghost and resign, and jeff sessions did not. he was beng encouraged by his friends not to do it. in private, the president was also haranguinjeff sessions, getting minions of his to communicate to him that he

should resign or unrecuse, and it was a stunning moment. the pressure that sessions wasth under was sog we've never seen before in washington save for the saturday night massacre of president nixon when he actually fired archibald cox. but what was also striking about it, and you hinted at it in your question, was the president doesn't delineate between the white house counsel, the attorneydeneral, an even his personal attorneys. in his mind they're all his guys, they're all supposed to be pullk g the yolfor him to protect his flank, and this is not the role of th general.ey that is not the role of the white house counsel. and yet that is at president trump expected. >> alcindor: your paper, the "washington post," as well as "the new yk times" reported on a lot of the details inside the mueller report as they were haening in real-time ovr months and months. what impact do you think that had on how this report was received and did the president

benefit from that reporting? >> i mean, this is such an interesting point, itear to me that the president benefited from this not being a shocker. it is stunning the level o detail that mueller's team brings to bear from people whoar under oath and testifying before a grand jury or givtsing statemo the f.b.i. the dialogue inside the white house that we didn't know about, the pushback that some of the aides were giving the esident. we didn't know all of the details. we didn't know the color of the drains, so the speak, butt a president iittle bit helped politically by the fact that many of these stories have en told in their raw form, so it is not so shocking to gethis 448-page tome dropped in your laha >> alcindor:does it mean for the future of the president and specifically president trump if his orders can simply beif ignorehere is an

international crisis, if there are things that he wants done, what does it mean that he can just not be listened to >> i think it's such a good yes. it's clear to me in this reporte that severaple felt uncomfortable doing the president'sdding when it crossed lines they recognized,se crthe lines between the white house and a criminal investigation by the department of jutice, crossed lines between the white house counsel's office and the tattorney general's officese borders that we all observe, however, this is part and parcel the trump presidency. welcome to the world in which many of th president's senior aides have tried to talk him oug of ththat are his whim, his impulse, his instinct, and sometimes they have not even had the sort of wherewithalo directly confront him, but actually they have just not carried through on his orders on evdoything fromestic policy to immigration to foreigl policy, ng out of nato, one

of the president's requests. these are thingthat many people who serve around him have tried to avoid happening, and they believe that they're serving the president by preventing him from doing what he wants to do. >> woodruff:>> alcindor: carol g over at the "washington post,u thank you so. >> of course. my pleasure to be here. >> woodruff: >> woodruff: let's turn to the political fallout of the mueller report, as democrats debate the best way to reond. on the campaign trail, senator elizabeth warren was the first presidential candidate to call for impeachment. in a town hall last night, senator kamala harris was asked where she stands. >> i think we have very good reason to believe that there is an investigation that has been conducted which has produced evidence that tells us that this president and his administration engaged in obstruction of justice. i believe congress should take the steps towards impeachment. >> woodruff: like the democratin

presidentialdates, democrats in the u.s. house are also divided on initiating impeachment proceedings against president trump. representative jared huffman of california supports impeaching the president, and he joins us now from san francisco. congressman, huffman, thank you very much for being with us. we know you were on that conference call with speaker other democratic minute of the house last evening. it's reported that you spoke up at one point during the call and said, "he script has flipped." what did you mean by that? >> well, thank you for having me, idy. the poinried to make to my colleagues is that for months we've heard some people say that there is this tremendous downside to initiating an impeachment process, that ft would be br the country, that it would be politically unwise. now that we haveeceived mueller report, and now that we know that the president of thes united sta an unindicted coconspirator known as individual one in illegal campaign finance conspiracy that extended into his presidency, just on what we already know, i

think the burden has shifted to the downside not acting. the constitution created our impeachment authority for exactly this kind of oircumstance, and it's really damaging to thetry and to our institutions if we punt on something likehis. >> woodruff: you're saying it's damaging if you don't act? >> exactly. >>oodruff: what is it -- be a little more specific about what is it in the mueller report that has changed cirtacues? >> well, first of all, the mueller report is done. it was completed by a lifelong republican whose reputation isyo reproach. it was independent. it was objective, and at leawist respect to obstruction of justice, multiple counts ofof obstructioustice, it was fairly conclusive. the only reason this president was not ndicted was an internal department of justice policy against indicting that president, but every element of the criminal conspiracy for multiple countsf obstruction of justice was met and laid out

in great detail by robert mueller. >> woodruff: so you're making this argument, but from everything wa cn tell, speaker pelosi, the leadership of the democrats, most democrats the house at this point are still saying, let the process work its way. let's cotinue the inquiry, the hearings, calling people to testify, getting documents, but not going ahead with full-blown impeachment proceedings. >> here's what i think is important, judy. the investigation, the continued oversight ad accountability that has to move forward with even greater urgency now, and this is happening. so functionally, the next steps are the same whether you call it an impeachnquiry or whether it is just a full-throated investigation and accountability that leader pelosi and others are moving us forward with. and i el fine with that. i think it will inevitably led to an impeachment process, because i think constitution requires that we do or job.

>> woodruff: you're saying functionally it's the same as an impeachment process, but aren't there powers that are granted in that process that you don't have that memrs of congress don't have on the current course? >> some. but many of the same investigations, the sam inquiries will be moving forward. functional the same thing we would need to do in an impeachment inquiry. we'll be getting at the same information, asking the same questions, and frankly it's a lot more than what we have just from the eller report. there is all of this financial accountabilityhat needs to be brought forward, the tax return, the deutsche bank inqhuiriest chairman maxine waters is pursuing. there is a lt of further investigation, and my guess isth the potential articles of impeachment, the potential grounds for impeachment will only expand this goes forward. >> woodruff: but congressman, what do you say to the argument that many americans if no most americans are just not there,

that they are sick of hearing out the russia investigation, the mueller probe, and they want move on, that this is -- if the president, and you even hear democrats making this argument, the president should be judged by the voters and not by a bunch of democrats in the congress? >>on't blame them. this president has exhausted us. he has in some cpees intimidated le to the point where they're just sick and tired of dealing with him, but we have think carefully about the precedent that would establish all of this unpleasantness, if this perception of a political risk causes congress to punt on a fundantal constitutional responsibility, that is dangerous ground for this country. at it really means is that this president for the next year and a half would know he's not going to get indicted by the departmentf justice for anything he does because of their internal policy, and the congress doesn't have th stomach to carry out its constitutional backstop dut and so i shudder to think what

we might see in the next yearlf and a rom donald trump and the precedent that it would establish for future administrations is just as troubling. >> woodruff: are you saying, thou, congressman that public opinion really doesn't matter here? >> public opinioalways matters, but if impeachable offenses is t a close call, you don't punt on your duty, obecause you're worried a public opinion. look, i grew up in a household where my parents during the watergate era were big nixon supporters. and i remember how hard it was for them and many other nixon supporters as watergate, as we began the impeachment inquiry, but you know what? thth impeachment process drawing out of facts, the telling of the full story of the american people caused peop to realize, including my own parents, that this president had done some very rrible things and we needed to make a change. hopefully this process will begi wto change some minds go forward here, as well.

>> woodruff:presentative jared huffman of california, we thank you. r>> thank you foaving me. eae growing frustrations of educators, after aof teacher strikes. and, a one-of-a-ki slave memoir, now made public by the library of congress. but first, a young journalist was shot and kled during a riot in northern ireland last week. her murder-- and the rt she s covering-- happened on the 21st anniversary of the goodme friday agr, the landmark peace deal that put an end to northern ireland's decades-long sectrian conflict. but as william brangham reports, this killing has raised fears f that conflict ring up again. >> brangham: her name was lyra mckee. she was a 29-year-old acclaimed

writer and journalist. the riot she was covering began when police raided a housing demplex in londonderry, looking for members of dis groups. a gunman stepped from behind a building and fired at the officers.bu mckee, who was standing next to them, was hit. the unrest echoes the decas- long, brutal sectarian conflict knowas "the troubles" which took some 3,500 lives, from theo 1960s h the late 1990s. a group, called the new irish t republican armk responsibility for mckee's killing, and apologiaying she was shot by mistake. the new i.r.a. is a smallgr offshoot of thp that fought british rule of northern ireland for decades during the troubles. to cover all this-- and how the ongoing fight over brexit plays a role in the unrest-- i'm joined now via skype from londonderrry by reporter leona o'neill. leona, thank you very much for

being here. i wonder if you can just start by telling me a little bipeabout what hd that night. i understand that you were there the night that she was killed. can you tell us what happened? >> there were serious riots in the area. fireworks for fired at police vehicles. around 11:00 p.m., msked gunman emerged from the shadows and fired toward police vehicles indiscriminately. and he hit lyra mckee with a bullet and sadly she died. >> brangham: my understanding, the new ror.a., the gup that has claimed responsibility, atey're not necessarily the same as the i.r.a. tany americans will know from decades ago, but who is this group? who te they? hey are a new group. they are made up mostly of young people who were born after the good friday agreement who were born in peace, who knew nothing of our troubles and who knewyt nothing of evhing that went on in those days. they didn't have the baggage of the past.

they have been fed noslg perhaps, and that's why they're turned to these methods. there are hundreds of them of these new i.r.a. members across northern ireland. derry seems to bea bit of a stronghold for them for whatever reason. a lot of theirs activitnter around derry. we had a car bomb in january. >> brangham: my understanding is that the outrage over her killing has been from both sides. just curious, how important do you think that is? because many of us rember some of the atrocities that occurred during the troubles anhow whn some of the violence reached such a level and both si would look at the violence and say, enough is enough. does this strike you as one of those moments? >> yes, it does. it seems to be a bof a sea change happening here after the murder. the day after her murder, there were unionists andti bri

politicians and irish nationalists for the first time ever in their 40, 50-year political history, and that was something of a monumentalsi oc. they have vowed to work together to make a better future after what happened to lyra, and we're only hoping that that will be the case. >> brangham: i know i mentioned this at the beginning, but you have written and sev others have written about how the ongoing negging legislations over brexit might be exacerbating these problems. that's not obvious to many of us here in the u.s. explain how that culd be causing this. >> reporter: well, brexit inan irnorth and south has caused huge problems because there would be a border if brexit goes to a head. the deadline now is halloween. and it is a total nightmare would what would happen here in northern ireland. brexit comes with it a lot of hagulations. we might have toe a hard

border. that would be a board ben -- between northern ireland and southern island, so not only have we got economic concerns over breck yet, bualso have oue serious concern over the delicate nature o peace. people from outside northern ireland think that we have had peace for the last 20 years, but in reality those living on the ground le me here knw that our peace is very, very delicate. it can be upturned at a moment's notice. tension bubbles to the surface, violence bubbles on to the surface constantly. and sometimes it just expdlodes. brexit has serious... it could very, very serious for us. >> brangham: all right, journalist leonaneill, thank you very much for your time. >> thank you very much.

>> woodruf the wave of teacher strikes and walkouts is building once again in 20. just in the past few ds, teachers in south carolina have said they plan to walk out for a day next week. the largest teacher's union in mississippi is considering taking a sick-out day. while the strikes started in red states like west virginia, they've now read across the country to cities and blue states, too.th many oissues are the same: pay, spending, lack of support, testing, and increasingly, the role of charter schools. john yang has a conversation for our regular education segment, "making the grade." >> yang: judy, every year, state education officials hoe best of the best in the national teacher of the year program. recently, an essay by the four finalists from three years ago caught our eye: "t16 fate of the eachers of the year." today, only two of the four

finalists from that year areil stin a classroom, and only one is still at the same school. nate bowling wrote that essay. he is a government teacher at lincoln highchool in tacoma, washington. and, fellow 2106 finalist shawn sheehan is now on a fellowship on capitol hill. when that ends, he intends to return to teaching algebra in lewisville, texas. shawn and nate, thank you very much. thanks for joining us. nate, i want to begin with you, and i want to quote something you said in that essay. you sngid, "teacs a profession, and great teachers need to feel respected andpo red. if they don't, they will leave and should." respected and empowered. talk about that. why are teachers not feeling respected and empowered? >> there's a thest of reasons that contribute to that. there are three issues for me, pay, work conditions and professional respect. if we look at the strikeso happening and sts across the country, there's unsteadiness across the coartry. partic on the west coast with housing casts, for a lot of teachers, the pay hasn't ke

up. >> yang: you talked about pay, but you also metioned work conditions and professional respect. >> the conditions teach verse to work tpurough, i thinblic have a difficult time understanding, particularly working in a low-income school in an urban area. you're doing more than academics. i sometimes act as a social worker, a councilor, a surrogate parent. all those jobs take a toll. s i love mudents and i love the work i do wituth them, b the workload we ask teachers to do in low-income schools isbl unsustai >> yang: shawn, you were teaching in oklahoma. you're now teaching in texas. why? >> it wasn't an accident. air was selected ch tea of the year, i wanted to advocate for teacher pay and making movements better. i ran for oklahoma state senate unsuccessfully. after this new election site cameround, folks didn't make good on their promises to make

conditions better, my wife and i we gave ourselves come wined a $40,000 raise. >> yang: you nearly doubledyo take-home pay. >> yeah. >> yang: you wrote at the time that "teaching i oklahoma is a dysfunct what do you mean by that? >> it is. there is that component of guilt. you're mlte to feel gu as if you say, going into this job, you should have knot wn tha wasn't going to be lucrative. i said, sure, i knew it wasn't going to be financially reward, buit's also n even financially stable. our perspective changed siificantly when we welcomed our first daughter. now we've got to consider someone ee's future and now we have to worry about putting more food on the plate. that ws a game changer for u. >> yang: nate, you were thone teacher who is still in the same place. joanna hayes has also left teaching. she's now in congress. you have got some news. you made a decision within thee past coueks. >> yeah. at the end of the scool year, my wife and i will be stepping

away from lincoln high school. nti love my studeat lincoln high school. i love that school and that faculty. t we have chosen to moe abroad. and we'll be teaching at the american community school in abu dhabi next year. >> yang: i heard you talk abint. this exphis decision. you said one thing that made this decision for you is you ll be able to focus on just teaching in abu dhabi. you mention all the other roles that you have to fill. w has what changed? how have those additional roles been added? too many students in america are going to school without their basic life needs met. and essentially school fills that gap for them. school is a face that feeds them, that clotheses them. i maintain a drawer in my classroom that has ties so my students have like ties for job interviews. so many of the hours that i spend at my school are about meeting my students' needs and e king care of circumstances in their lifat prevent their learning. i don't get to focus on s aching. when i make thive, my job over there will be to teach.

my students' life needs will be taken care of, and i will be able to teach. yongbyon shawn, doou find this same thing? >> absolutely. most folks don't know how many things we educators have to juggle. we have to be parents and ncilors and cou handle all of these different aspects of the whole child. now even some folks are asking us to consider security as part of our job duties, one of which i absolutely refuse to do. so it's like continually being asked to do more with les and at some point teachers are calling it. they made their voices clear. weave seen that in th teacher strikes and walkouts. y g: when you moved to texas, you got a reaction from a fellow tacher in oklahoma, "i'm just in it for the students. if you're not in it for the kids, don't let the door hit you

on the way out."ou how doespond? >> that's a dig. it's definitely a dig for folks whe maybe don't experiee same financial constraints as we do. the fact that my wife anry bth educators living off of oklahomr teachers s that was pretty unique. a lot of teachers don't share e.that same strug maybe their spouse is the primary bedouiner. teaching can be a best-time, a hobby, they're not quite as invested in the struggle that educators face, but for a two-teacher couple trying to raise family on those teacher salaries in oklahoma in 201 absolutely not doable >> yang: faith, shawn talked about the teacher strikes, which are continuing into this yar. you have been out on the picket line twice in your career. what's that like for you? >> it's a miserable experience to be on strike. i got into this to make a difference in students' lives, but what i can say is we see ring strikes that the public rallies for teachers. we had wide community support. parents came out and honked horn, brought food to the picket lines and supported us.

what i see happening in anymm ity is when make an ask for materials for my classroom or for eqp for students, they're 100% behind us. like the problems for me are with the state legislature. they're not allocating the funds in order to fund schools to provide services and social workers and provide after-schooe programsed for students. >> sean, in oklahoma you campaigned for an increase in the state sales tax to fund increased fuing for schools. it lost. given that experience, how do you -- what's your read of the public support for schools? >> the publ very muh supports public schools, they just don't know how to support it. oftentimes they get lost, the message gets lost in the shuffle. legislators in our state in my home state of oklahoma are great at twisting and bending the message. and so toney get cfused some that was the case we saw with the sales tax. they sid, it's going to discourage businesses from coming here and setting up shop. our counter-point was it also

discourages coming and setting up shop are uornderpeng schools and teachers that are vacating the state. >> yang: very quckly, shawn, optimistic or pes mystic about the future? >> i'm actually optimistic. this year oklahoma has taken itepses to provide raises. the governor will off on a $1,00 raise. that will bring th average up by $8,000. so the challenge is to stay competitive in the region is going to be oklahoma's biggest hattle. >> yang: nate,about you? optimistic or pessimistic? >> i'm optimis nc about ther future. i think parents and communities really support schools. it's about policy-makers and state capils who aren't ng their share. >> yang: teachers nate bowling and shawn sheehan, thank youuc very >> thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: a one-of-a-kind

manuscript written by a slave has now been preserved in the library of congress. the arabic-language autobiography spent decades in private collections, before the library acquired it in 2017. now, it has been digitized for n e world to read. amna nawaz reportse remarkable journey for "nvas," our on-going arts and culture series. >> nawaz: born and raised in west africa, omar ibn said was 37 yea old when he was kidnapped and taken to america as a slave in the 1800 >> ( translated ): "before i came to the christian country, my religion was the on of mohammed." e nawaz: his autobiography, in his native langu arabic, is believed to be one of the a ly ones of its kind-- the original words oslim american slave. >> ( translated ): "then there arcame to our place a larg, who killed many men, and took me, and brought me to the grea sea..." >> his literacy and culture completely goes ainst--

abolishes, one might say annihilates-- the narrative at slaves had, were not capable of culture. in fact, they were persons withi with distincories, abilities, culture and, and background. >> nawaz: ala alryyes has studied and translated the words of omar ibn said. >> ( translated ): "they sold me into the hands of the christians who bound me and sent me on board a great ship, and we sailed upon the great sea a month and a half, when we came to a place called charleston." >> he was wealthy. and he was highly educated, because in his autobiography he speaks about spending 25 years studying. >> nawaz: mary-jane deeb is the chief of the african and middle east division at the library ofg ss, where ibn said's manuscript now lives. >> so there was a man who was caught at the age of 37, and shipped off to south carolina.in country he doesn't know, and a people whose language he doesn't know. >> nawaz: ibn said says he waso sold"small, weak, and

wicked man, called johnson." after years of abuseled, but was caught in north carolina. >> he is then captured and brought to a jail cell, and he begins to write on the walls of his jail cell, in arabic. so, that attracted the attention of people, pretty important peop, because the man who en up buying him and releasing him from jail was the brother of the governorf north carolina. >> nawaz: over time, ibn said converts to christiani. in his 60s, he writes his own story-- but only in arab. >> and so, his masters could n really read at all. they could not try to influence its writing. so it was really his exact words, unfiltered by the machinery of the editorship of ssters and abolitionists, other slave narratives were. >> nawaz: a machinery alryyes says erased countless narratives, including the fact that up to 20% of africans

enslaved in america were muslim. ibn said, in fact,hose to open his autobiography with a verse from the qu'ran.x >> the c this quranic chapter is that it's only god who has the possession and the ownership both of human beings and of things. and therefore it seems to me kind of a hidden, hidden text.r what o saying is that you guys have no right to own me here. >> it's a narrative that challenges the original concept of who the slaves were when thea here. that they didn't really have a system of belief, that they were uncultured, they didn't have a written system.s this iwhat he brings to the table, and basally says, no, at is who we really are. >> nawaz: but before the pages written by omar ibn said could be shared with the world, y conservators at the libr congress worked for months tge bring those to life. >> we're trying to prent the item as close to what it looked

like at the time as possible >> nawaz: sylvia albro led the effort to rescue the nearly-o 200-ye manuscript. the materials themselves, she says, tell us even more about the life of omar ibn said. >> it's actually surprising that the quality of paper for his manuscript is really pretty good. and the fact that he had at his disposal good quality materials is an indication of the respect that he had as a figure, even as a slave. >> nawaz: that respect brought ibn said to the attention of prominent abolitionists, missionaries and linguists at the time, who translated his story and used it in their fight against slavery.re the enanuscript is now available online for a new generation to read ibn said's words for themselves.th fopbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz in washington, d.c. >> woodruff: and whaa gift that i

and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here hemorrow evening. for all of us at pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> maj funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french,a german, it and more. >> consumer cellular. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> bnsf railway. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the going support of these institutions and individuals. t

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[theme music playiying] hi. i'm rick bayless, and i've been exploring, cooking, and eating in mexico for over 40 years. now i'm taking you to mexico city for a deep-dive into the classic dishes you've asked to learn. it's time to share my best recipes ever. announcer: "mexico one plate at a time" is made possible by these funders... [music playing]