captioning sponsored by wnet iv >> srean: on this edition for saturday, may 18: presidential candidate joe biden holds his campaign kick-off. an election upset in australia. and in our signature segment: the brexit effect on europe's parliamentary elections could deal blow to britain'sbl estahed political parties. next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. seton melvin. lthe cheryl and pmilstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelo the j.p.b. foundation. keosalind p. walter.

barbara hope zerg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for toublic broadcasting, and by contributionour pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thank you for joining us.lo u.s. dts in kuwait and the united arab emirates relayed a warning today to commel airlines flying over the persian gulf about potential danger from iran. on thursday, the federal aviation adminisnoation issued a ce cautioning airlines that ebecause iran has long-ra missiles, there is "...an increasing inadvertent risk to u.s. civil aviation operations, due to the potential for miscalculation or

sidentification." downplaying the possibility of an attack, iran's foreign minister repeatesofficial tatements today that his country is not seeking war. but, the commander of the iranian revolutionary guard said today that the two countries are already in a "full-fledged intelligence war." and in iraq, some exxon mobil employees, including americans, have begun evacuating an oil field operation in the province of basra, according to iraqi officials. exxon mobil would not confirm the report, but did say it is monitoring the situation in the region. on wednesday, the state department ordered all non- essential diplomatictaff to leave iraq. also today, bahrain ordered all of its citizens to leave iraq and iran immediately, citing the "unstable situation in the region." fighters in yemen, loyal to the internationally-recognized government, have recaptured a key southern district, accordint to secofficials. the government-led offensive to take qataba from iranian-backed

houthi rebels was launched yesterday, and has killed at least 120 people on both sides.h tens of sands have died inea yemen's fourcivil war between houthi rebels and the saudi arabian-backed government forces. in australia, prime minister scott morrison's consee coalition government won a surprise victory in federal eltions today. morrison, who has expressed support for president trump, became prime minister last august, when his center-right liberal party ousted former prime minister malcolm turnbull. as australia's immigration minister in 2013, morrison instituted operation sovereign borders, known as the "stop the boats" policy, that denied migrants and asylum-seekers arriving by sea the right to apply for settlement. analysts were predicting that abe opposition center-left party would win a majority. its leader, bill shorten, proposed more govement intervention on climate changean in the economy. shorten conceded defeat before all the ballots had been counted, and resigned as opposition leader. u.s. customs and border

protection has reportedl reversed a proposal to send hundreds of migrant families to two largely-democratic counties in florida. as first reported in "the hill" today, a c.b.p. offial now says the trump administration does not plan to transport theli fa to broward and palm beach counties "at this time." there were reports earlier this week that hundreds of migrants waiting for asylum hearings would be sent to florida.th state's governor, republican ron desantis, pushed back immediately, calling the proposal "not acceptable." to watch democratic presidential candidate joe biden's entire address, visit pbs.org/newshour. >> senivasan: with 23 candidates now in the race for the democratic nomination for presidt, one of the most recognized names is former vice president joe biden. at a rally iphiladelphia today, he promised not to speak ill of other democrats in the contest, making clr he will focus his political fire on president trump. >> the single most important

thing is we have to acsh is, defeat donald trump. ( cheers and applause >> sreenivasan: listing priorities from infrastrucre to climate change policy, biden still came back to the president. ng as long as donald trump is in white house, as s donald trump is in white house, none of these things, these critical things, are going to get done. so you want to know the first and most important plank in my climate proposal is, beat trump. beat trump. >> sreenivasan: newshour's digital politics editor and senior writer daniel bush is covering the rally and speech today, and he joins us now via skype from philadelphia. what's the tone that he's trying to set of the first rally of sny that we're likely to from him? >> so the biaien ca really tries to use this kickoff to follow some of the points the

former vice president has already hit on since announcing his campaign.an he to restore integrity to the country. he says our politics have become mean and pet he called the president the divider in chief. he was trying to drive the message home that he would bring back a more civil tone to politics, to worki aisle with republicans on capitol hill to get things done if elected president.>> reenivasan: what about the policy prescriptions? what about the things he might do that would be pps different from barack obama? >> so i touch on a broad numr of issues from healthcare to the economy to climate chnge, utlked about boosting renewable energy, talked afree community college tuition, but he didn't offer how he would pay for some of these atitiives, unlike some of the other candidates in the race who have put out already seral different pretty specific policy proposals. i asked democrats after the speech whether onot they were

concerned that biden wasn't getting specific enough. senator tom carper of delaware,c an earlyr of biding, said there are about 500 days to flesh it out, meaning listen, slow down a little bit vice president biden still has a lot of time to figure it out.an hari, i also spoke to simone sanders, a senior advisor on the biden campaign, and she said, he just got into this race, but you can expect to see policy very soon. she pointed to the umpqua mg democratic debates, which kick off next month in florida. she said, we know you can't get on tb e stage with flat issues and broad brush strokes. so the biden campaign seems to be signaling they will get down into the weeds on some of these policy issues pretty soo >> sreenivasan: what about the fact relatively speaking that there are already so many candidatesho have made their policies clear on a wide range of thing and they're all now trying to compete for attention. i certainly has name-brand recognition, buts still a

long way to go.e >> wl, harry, this very much looks like a general election s rally witheping back drop of the city of philadelphia in the background, and biden did not mention a single one of his primary candidates by name, notn e. so he's really running with a focus on the president and trying to mend his front-runner status. we see to a certain extent that it is working before he entered the race. he was leading in polls, a little bit ahead of vermont senator bernie sanders. in the last couple weeks that lead has jumped out to in som cases ten, even 20 points. biden is now polling in the high 40s at times. of course, we have to take those polls with a grain of salt given that goters are notoing to start to go to the polls for another six, sev, eight, months, the beginning of next year, but it does show that his apprch of focusing on the president at least right now is paying off. >> sreenivasan: the "newshour's" daniel bush joining us live tonight via skype from

philadelphia. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: ters across europe will go to the polls on thursday to elect a new european union rliament. the united kingdom was supposed to have made its brexit from t e.u. two months ago, but has not because the country'sti conser government has failed to reach a deal that satisfies either the british parliament or the e.u. so, the u.k. will hold elections as usual.'s but, the twist. polls suggest that the candidates most likely to be seat in the european union parliament are those who are most determined that britain must leave the e.u. newshour weekend special correspondent malcolm brabant reports. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: "zorba's dance," as greek c, rings out at a traditional fair in what has long been the conservative party's heartland in southern england.

( music ) it's an ironic selection for hsexiteers, because two mo after britain was due to leave the e.u., the nation is still dancing to europe's tune. >> i did vote "come out," and i think its been going on far too long. and it's a terrible met the moment. >> a shambles. >> it's... it's a bi embarrassing, really, a representation of britain and our politics. t y should have taken britain at its word when we voteto leave. >> please welcome to the stage, nigel farage. >> reporter: nigel farage formerly led the u.k. independence party, the driving force behind the 2016 brexit referendum. he's trying to convince voters in featherstone, a gritty town 0 miles north of london, to

return him to the e.u. parliament, an institution he holds in contempt. >> generally, the brits are very placid, very slow to anger. but right at the minute, they're y.gry because their democr and think about this, we've had a continuous parliament for 800 years.mo it's called thther of parliaments. we've spread this model of democracy to the rest of the thrld, and yet it's here where 's being betrayed.r: >> reporeatherstone used to be rock solid labour party territory.y like mrmer labour strongholds across britain, this region voted overwhelmingly in favor of brexit. >> let's make a big noise forow them to hearin westminster. what do we want? >> brexit! >> when doe want it? >> now! >> allowing them to dictate the terms of our trade deals is not leaving! >> reporter: ann widdecombe, a former prisons minister and conservative party veteran, is another brexit party candidate.

she believes victory for the new pay will help to ensure th britain leaves the e.u. >> i think it's very importale that when peook at the british delegation in the european parliament, they see phalanx of people determined to leave. that is very important because i think there's a very misinformed view in brussels and strasbourg that is a very misinformed view, that somehow we're not very serious about it, that britain doesn't really want to leave. well, that may be true of some of our leading politicians, but it's not true of the british people. >> our message is that no longer are we prepared to see our great nation humiliated in front of the rest of the world. it's time we stood up, stoodou tall, of who we are, and able to start forging our own fresh relationships around the world. and we're going to fight on, rough may the 23rd and on, to make this a better, more democratic nation. thank you!

( cheers and applause ) >> they have totally betrayed us. 17.4 million people are betrayed by the gov, nment. up nor don't seem to matter. >> i don't know what my father would think if he was still here rcause he was an avid lab supporter all his life, but it doesn't seem like.politics anym it seems lik"corruptics." >> reporter: these rallies have given farage's party a commanding lead. latest pls predict they'll get around 35%, capturing suort from traditional labour and conservative voters. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: farage's surge has panickedhe two main parties, but is this a temporary or permanent shift? quentin letts writes about parliament for the "times of london." y >> i think it's pretty o protest vote at the moment. i'm very nervous about going further because as soon as mrs. may is gone, if she ever goes, then i think it all changes. and a different conservative leader will be a very different proposition for the brexit party

to take on. >> reporter: many opponents despise farage for this anti-immigrant poster from 2016 depicting droves of migrants heading towards western europe. some critics say it resembles 1930s nazi propaganda. >> nigel farage is the ultimatec ta politician in the sense that through his political career, he's been in favor of al set of different things from fairly right-wing economic policies like selling ofrebits of ourured national health service. sst he's adapted. >> reporter: pro anand menon of king's college london says farage is managinhrug off race issues during this campaign. >> one of the things that his wformer party did very we realize there was a whole pool of left-leaning voters, labour voters, who could be appealed to by talking about more state spending. and, hey, presto, that's what they did so, he's very tactical. he's very flexible. he has been defid in his career by this one issue of our membershipf the european union, and, at the moment, of course, that issue is serving him well.

>> reporte normally in britain, elections for the european parliament aren't significant at all, largely because of voter apathy. at the last round five years ago, t turnout was less than 37%. but this time, passions arein ruhigh because of the failure of prime minister theresa may's conservative government to deliver brexit. and if, as the polls predict, nservatives are humiliated at the ballot box, then theresa may could finally lose her grip on power. >> for brexit! >> reporter: so-called remainers have also lost faith in the main opposition labour party because it's continually flip-flopped on brexit. in fact, some labour m.p.s have left and joined a new party: change u.k. >> our politics is broken.br ain's two-party system needs to be shaken up. m thissy brexit process is thexa clearest emple of this.ng >> reporter: ce u.k. wants britain to stay in the e.u. it's a mix of defectorom the

conservatives and labour. spokesman chuka umunna former leading labour member of parliament. >>hee are not seeking to set wealthy in this country against people w are not so wealthy. we are not trying to seek to set the people in this region against people in londr or in any otgion. we are not seeking to set different ethnicities, nationalities and religions against each other because we know ultimately you will not do anything but fail. >> we aren't fighting for ourselves, and, rtainly, my generation, we're fighting for the futures of our children and for our grandchildren. >> reporter: former cabinet minister anna soubry is a conservative defector to change u.k. and onef the most vocal opponents of brexit. she accuses the conservatives of turning further to the right, and labour of becoming socialist extremists. >> the majority of people in our country frankly find that nobody genuinely and absolutely represents them, and this is

about trying to do things differently. it's also giving people who occupy that sensible moderate centrist, that progressive crowd, a place to come and joint us achange british politics. >> reporter: but change u.k. is floundering in the polls. nigel farage says this is o indicatidissatisfaction with mainstream politicians.we >> i think thae seeing a sea change in politics across anthe entire western worldi think that's the big pattern we've seen with brexit, with e ump in america, with the wholesange in italy. and i think we're now at a point where thtwo-party structure in britain is under threat in a way it's not been since the end of the first world war.k >> reporter: b southern england, at the may fair, local mayor chris funnell is bracing himself for the impact that this wrecking ball of an el will have on his conservative party. >> i think we've pven over time that we... we do adapt. this is what is going to go down in history, where we're going to

have to prove that we can adapt to one of the biggest changes that we've er seen. ( whistle blowing ) ( horn honking ) >> reporter: brins may express their frustration this coming thursday, but the slow train out of the european union will be no closer to reaching its destination. >> sreenivasan: the south china sea has become a dangerous strategic flashpoint. the busy waterway is home to mar shipping lanes and fisheries that account for more than a tenth of all the fishe caught in rld. greg poling is the director of the asian maritime transparency initiative at the center for strategic and international studie we spoke recently about the ecological toll the disputes in the region are taking on food supplies and the livelihoods of many. >> well, ecologically speaking, the south china sea uably the most productive fishing zone on the planet. it accounts for about 12% of total fish catch and employees ovin half the fishing vessel

the world. and amid this decades-long series of maritime dis between china and its neighbors, those fish stocks e now on the verge of collapse. >> sreenivasan: so, what happens when those fish stoc inevitably collapse at the rate that we're fishing them? >> well, the first thing is, southeast asian communities will be devastated. you're talking about hundreds of thousands of people that rely on fishing or fishing-related industries, and millions of more ther rely on this fish and o marine life for food security. so, it doesn't matter nearly as much in china as it does in the philippines or vietnam or indonesia. and it's also going to accelerate the disputes, right, incause everybody is going to be race to pull the last fish from a dying sea. >> sreenivasan: okay. and when you're talking about "dying sea," you're also talking about the impact that's ieppening to the coral reefs, the nursright now, as all of these fishing vessels converge and try to catch those fish. >> that's right. so, we have a series of catastrophes piling on top of one another. the first is the overf problem.

because there are outstandingte maritime dis- nobody can agree on whose water these are-- eeere are incentives for all of the countries topushing their fishers out there as signals of sovereignty. and on top of thar, in recent you've had china's very famous island-building campaign aat's destroyed thousands of acres of reefs; pleries of harmful fishing practices, especially the harvesting of giant clams, which, mainly from and that has damaged over 50,000 acres of reef. >> sreenivasan: and it... just to put in pepective, coral reefs don't go back... come back overnight. >> that's right. some of these-- the onro that you'vebly seen pictures of chinese air bases going on top of-- those are dead forever. a lot of the others uld come back, but it's going to take decades of being left alone. thd right in there, about now, e's very little chance that they're going to be left alone. >> sreenivasan: give us also a list of the countries that are all disputing it, because when you look at different maps, there's different people that have claims to similarind of overlapping areas. >> so, if we just talk about the waters, set aside the islands onemselves, we're talking about china and taiwan ohand; and then, vietnam, the philippines, malaysia, indonesia

and brunei-- all with overlapping claims to the waters and the reefs and no path forward at the moment. >> sreenivasan: d what is the u.s.' interest in all of this? where do we stand? who do we support, or who are we allied with? >> the u.s. is interested primarily about the rules, right? so, we don't really care, ultimately, who controls which rock or who controls which reef that is for ates to decide themselves. we want to make sure they do itc rding to the rules. and the problem from the u.s.' perspective is that china's claim and taiwan's claim doesn't follow those rules. every country in theorld, under international law, gets a 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone in which o.y they can fi china claims 1,000 miles, five times the legal limit, and we're d t prepared to accept that. >> sreenivasan: at about the ship traffic that goes through this area? >> it is the busiest shipping area on the planet. so, the... the strait of malacca, at the south soutrn end of the south china sea, sees more ships faster than anywhere else, about three times that o

the panama canal. no... none of the parties have an interest in stopping that traffi the chinese are just as reliant on that trade with abody else. but inevitably, if there's a conflict, you're going to see traffic have to divert around the south china sea with not inconsiderable cost. >> sreenivasan: so, if china takes a more aggressive stance towards, say, the philippines, does the united states get involved then? >> if the chinese use force, thp phnes are unique here and that they are a u.s. treaty ally. the united stas is legally and morally bound to come to the defense of the philippines if lipino troops or planes vessels are attacked. and when secretary of state mike pompeo visited manila after the failed hanoi summit with north korea a couple month he clarified exactly this point, that a chinese attack on filipino assets in disputed w wateld fall under that obligation for the u.s. to respond.iv >> srean: all right, greg

poling, the director of the o ian maritime transparency initiative, thanksch. >> thank you. >> this is "pbs newshour weekend," saturday. >> sreenivasan: this june marks one year since the death of ax bren who fell victim to gang violence. newshour's student reporting labs, ong with bronx arena high school, produced this story with instagram tlight youth-driven community stories about public a. >> this mural was thhardest one i've ever done because just experiencing everything, jt everyone's emotions, the... the hundreds of people watching me do it. >> reporter: the 15-year-old n.y.p.d. explorer with plans to one day become a dective, brutally murdered back in june by alleged members of the trinitarios gang. >> so, i learned about junior's death on instagram, and i just started following the hashtag. i just had a thought, like i need to go there and... and paint a mural for him. you know, when i showed up here, i wanted to do it the right way;

to, like, find junior's mom, get her permission first, and, then, from that point, i got permission from the building owner. and everybody kind of, like, chipped in. i was just wondering if you could come up so i could see you. >> o, when... when i was a kid, there was somebody that... that died on my block.ed somebody pai mural of the... of the person that passed away, and the mural is still there. wd.. and the... and the guy that passed awayas, like, the older brother of the... of the block, and he used to watch over all e little kids when we played outside and whatnot, so... it was just cool to see that.

>> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of pbs ur weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made

possible by: tz bernard and irene schw sue and edgar wachenheim iii. sen melvin. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagel diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. lter. ba acorporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirent products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributis to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. be more. pbs.

narrator: on this episode of "earth focus," climate change is forcing people to migrate in search of food and shelter, altering traditional lifestyles across the globe. in tijuana, mexico, haitians fleeingva ation are building a neighborhood as their dreams of entering t united states dwindle. while in mongolia, the traditional herding festyle is threatened as drought forces a new generation to the capital in search of opportunities.