ioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, the house of representatives't oversimmittee holds trump administration officials in contempt, as the white house refuses to hand over documents related to adding a citizenship queson to the u.s. census. then, on both sides of the u.s.r mexicor, where the unceasing flow of migrants strains resources in both countries. and as the tools to selessly alter digital video becomes more widely available, the threat posed by expertly doctored videos-- known as deepfakes-- grows more dire. >> the nightmare situation is that there's a video of president trump saying, "i've launched nuclear weapons against north korea." and somebody hacks his twitter account and that goes viral, and in 30 seconds, we have global

nuclear meltdown. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversationuain a new la, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> consumer cellular. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems--sk lfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention. in the u.s. and developing countries.eb on thet lemelson.org.

>> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. comm just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.orh >> and with e ongoing support of these institutions: >>his program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers likyou. thank you. >> oodruff: protesters in hong kong are promising more mass demonstrations after a day that erupted into violence. police battled crowds in a growing crisis over giving mainland china greater control over the city. debbie edward of independent television news reports, from hong kong. >> reporter: this was the moment today's prest in hong kong turned nasty. the protesters engulfed in tear gas.

as the police moved to disperse a demonstration which had brought part of the city to a standstill. such is the strength of opposition to an extradition treaty with china, thousands took to the streets this wednesday to derail a council debate on the new law. >> ( translated ): many hong kong people have come out protest today and i'm sure there will be more of us in the coming weeks showing our isposition to ill. >> reporter: tensions have been running high here since a mass march on sunday. this was not on the samecale, but the largely student crowd showed a dged determination. the tear gas has left a think, stinging fog in the air, but still protesters surge forward chanting quit the bill. as the afternoon wore on, the violence escalated.po thlice forced to retreat at times.

but then regrouping to charge at the crowd, firing rubber bullets. two people were seriously injured. hong kongs chief executive condemned the trouble, and vowed >> any violence will not be tolerated by our enforcement authorities because toleranceo violence also gives rise to very adverse consequences. >> reporter: tonight more riot police were brought in as the standoff continued. sethey are under orders to d erything at their disposal to is protest, and not allow another occupation to take hold. debbie edward "itv news" hong hong. >> woodruff: later kong officials postponed a hearing on the extradition proposal. in washington, president trump said he hopes that "it all works out for china and for hong kong."

democrats in the u.s. house of representatives moved today to ci attorney general willia barr and commerce secretary wilbur rosfor contempt of congress. the oversight committee voted after both men refused to hand over documents on adding a citizenshiquestion to the 2020 census. hours earlier, president trump claimed executive privilege for the documents. secretary ross, in turn, accused the committee of bad faith. we'll get the details, after the news summary. the president's older son, donald trump jr., testified again today about a 2016 meeting with a russian lawyer who allegedly promised dt on hillary clinton. he went behind closed doors with the senate intelligence committee. but he said he had "nothing to change" from his previous testimony. and, former white house communications director hope hicks agreed to talk to the house judiciary committee. she is the first former presidential aide to do so.pr

thident announced today he will send 1,000 more troops to gpoland as part of a grow alliance. that's on top of 4,500 americans already stationed in the former soviet bloc state.st mr. trump polish president andrzej duda, and praised him for spending more on defense-- including g for the u.s. forces. >> poland will still p bang and infrastructure to support military presence of about 1,000 american troops. the polish government will build these projects at no cost to the united states. the polish government will pay >> woodruff: earlier, the presidents and first ladies watched an f-35 fighter jet fly over, after announcing that land will buy more than 30 of the planes. in israel, the pwime minister's , sara netanyahu, agreed today to a plea rgain involving allegations of overspending on lavish meals.

she will pay a $15,000 fine to close the case. netanyahu was accused of using state funds to spend some $100,000 at luxury restaurants. an ongoing ebola outbreak in central africa has now claimed i its first lifeuganda. the world health organization f sayse-year-old boy died there today, after crossing from ngo earlier in the week. the outbreak has killed nearly 1,400 people in co.o since augu back in this country, a north carolina man pleaded guilty to killing thremuslim college students at a chapel hill condo back in 2015. craig hicks entered the plea after prosecutors dropped plans to seek the death penalty. instead, he accepted three consecutive life sentences. the victs' relatives said it was a hate crime, born of bigotry against muslims. a former michigan state university dean, william

strampel, was convicted today of neglect duty and misconduct. he was acquitted of sexual assault. strampel oversaw sports doctor larry nassar, who admitted t molesting female athletes for years and is now in prison. prosecutors said strampel willfully failed to monitor nassar, even after being ordered to do so. still, his attorney claimed a partial victory. >> we're happy with the fact that he was acquitted of the most serious charge of sexual assault. we respect the jury's decision in this case. we're disappointed that he was found guilty of any of these charges, but we'll address the pest of this case at sentencing. >> woodruff: strcould face five years in prison when he is sentenced in july. later in the program we will verdict fromth one of larry nassar's most prominent accusers. the first person sentenced in a college admissions scam will not

go to prison after all. former stanford sailing coach john vandemoer was sentenced today to six months of home confinement and a $10,000 fine. he admitted taking money for the stanford sailing program to help children of rich parents gainss adn. there's word that u.s. nursing homes are failing to report thsands of cases of neglec and abuse of medicare patients. the insptor general for the department of health and human services estimates 6,600 cases went un-reported in in16 alone. nufacilities are required to report any abuse to state inspectors. on wall reet today, the dow jones industrial average lost 43 points to close at 26,004. the nasdaq fell 29 pois. and the s&p 500 slipped five points. and, it turns out people have been getting high on pot for at least 2,500 years. archaeologists in far western china say they've found the earliest direct evidence of

marijuana use. it includes ten wooden bowls containing burnt residue of pot, apparently used in burial rituals. c still e on the "newshour," in contempt: why is the white rn overefusing to census documents to congress. on the border: coping with the crush of immigrants on both sides of the u.s. and mexico. long shadow: congressional delays in funding healthcare coverage for 9/11 first responders. orabuse in the church: eff by the southern baptist church to stop sexual abuse. plus much more. >> woodruff: as we reported earlier, congressional democrats today escalated a legal fight with the trump admintration over the u.s. census, voting to hold attorney general william barr and commerce secretary

wilbur ross in contempt of congress.: at isse intent of the administration's move to include a citizenship question in the nationwide survey. democratic representative gerry connolly of virginia blasted the motive behind the question. while in the oval office today, president trump defended the additional question. >> i think it's totally ridiculous that we would have census without asking, but the supreme court is going to be ruling on it soon. i think when a census goes out you should find out whether or not, and you have the right to ask whether or not, somebody is qcitizen of the united states. >> the citizenshstion is not just a normal question, by the way hasn't been asked on th1 census sin0, the year i was born, for a reason: because is going to intimidate a discourage. t and it hbe seen in the context, the context of an antic immigrant poliing out of

this whiteufouse. >> woo hansi lo wang who covers the census for npr is in new york. welcome back to the newshr. so, hansiwhat, we have going here, we have the presidentsa ng it is perfectly right of the administration to ask whether people are citizens or ensus. but then separately, you have claims that there is evidenceth that administration was adding this question for political reasons, and then trying to cover it up. >> right. there are recently disclosed documents the plaintiffs in the new york-based lawsuit in the citizenship question point to these are from the hard drives a g.o.p. strategist, thomas hoffler. he died last year. his estranged daughter came across files that suggest hoffler was iraolved infting the administration's push for the citizenship question. hoffler concluded adding a citizenship question the

census could politically benefit republicans and non-hispanic white people by using theto responseedraw political maps after the 2020 census. this is a major dispute between the trump administration and the plaintiffs. the trump administration, of g urse, says this is about protecting the votights of racial minorities. >> woodruff: so hoffler, north carolina political strategist passed away, his w daught able to get access to this information. how is that, though, connected tothe trum administration? >> well, the plaintiffs here are saying that hoffler possibly ghoswrote one of the early requests to the census bureau to request a systemship question becausthe plaintiffs found a paragraph, word for word, that appeared in hoffler's file as well as an early request for citizenship questiontrhat the p administration was preparing. they say that shows hoffler was involved and helped come up with a strategy for using the int rights act as a rationale for justifying the additionaveze cihip question.

>> woodruff: and the administration is-- whatever these document documents are, te administration is sat ng we're ing to turn them over. >> well, the documents that thei stration is protecting right now and invoking executive privilege over, these are internal emails and memos within the justice department, and als mmerce department. and the democrats on the house oversight committee said they want to see all the documents. they want to see unredacted versions. and, you know, one of these emails helped reveal this questionthis request for a request started months earlier than the administration was saying initially they said that this was initiated by the justice department, but one of these emails, the unredaked portion shows, commerce secretary wilbur ross had a months-long requesti for s question shortly after he was confirmed as commerce secretary. >> woodruff: let's talk about what's astake here. there's the nonpartisan think tank, the urban intitute, has done a study that shows-- at least their work shows, if you add a citizenship question it

could result in as manyas four million people being undercounted in the census. >> right. these are the estimates. and one former census bureau director told me that could be a conservative estimate. when we're talking about the census, we're talking about money. mi're talking about power. they det how many electoral seats states get, and hundreds of billions of doll an estimated $880 billion in years for federal funding for schools, for roads, for other public services, including medicare and medicaid. that money is edistributed b on census numbers. so the concern here is if there ni an undercount, specifically of immigrant comes, communities of color, that some parts of the country may not get their fair share in federal funding and political representation for the next 10 years. >> woodru: so serious-- serious funding decisions at issue here. but, hansi, republicans still are make the argument that, in their wordsaythere's alws been some kind of citizenship question on thlcensus. >> w the first census back

in 1790 did not include a question about citshiz status. the first time the census asked about citizenip status was back in 1820 and since then it's been on and off the censu and it's really been asked of parts of the population, not every household, necessarily, consistently. back in 1950, the last time a citizenship question was included on the forms forv eery household, but that question, back in 1950, was only asked of people born outside the u.s. you know, really if you were to dig back into the history books, the census history books, youal would e that the 2020 census, if it were to include a citizenship question, it would be the first time a census in the united states has be used to directly ask citizenship status of every person living in the >> woodruff: well, we will see where this goes. a lot of people are waching the courts. thank you, hansi lo wang. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: last month,

apprehensions of undted migrants at the southern u.s. border reached their highest total since 2007. president trump claims his threat of tariffs will mexico to stem the flow of migrants. in tnthe me, communities along both sides of the border are forced to respond to the increase in families anddr ch, fleeing instability and violence, in need of immediate help. our amna nawaz reports from el paso, texas, ad juarez, mexico. >> reporter: two months ago, emerita fled her home country of honduras. she fears for her life, she shows us these scars, as evidence of the abuse she's suffered. she fears for her life, she says, because she's gay. she crossed illegally into the u.s., seeking asylum.a but undeump administration policy, was sent back to mexico until her court date. with no money, and no support, she sought refuge in this church shelter in juarez.

her first hearing, later this month, could determine her fate. the sudden increase in the number of migrants being forced to wait in mexico hassed already-thin resources here. faith and private communities have leapt into action, opening shelters like this one in west juarez. the trump administration had already slowed legal entry, borcing thousands of migrants to wait across ther here in mexico in lines. then came a policy sending asylum-seekers back to mexico, over bridges like this one here in juarez, while their cases unfolded in the u.s. now, an expansion of the policy means thousands of more people will be forced to wait here in mexico, facing uncertainty. but the mexican government only accepts a certain number of migrants awaiting immigration hearings in the u.s.-- a number the trump administration says is increasing. the rest of the migrants arriving at the southern border are allowed to cross ait their court dates. b over tder in el paso, it's

a very different scene.a ruben garciangtime immigration advocate here, has moved quickly to respond to the g influx of families crossto the u.s., partnering with faith communities and aid groups, and fielding pvate donations. >>hen all the buses arrive the vast majority of these cots will be out, and thewill have someone on tm, 500. >> reporter: border patrol buses regularly drop off families as they're released from custody-- often from outdated, overcrowded, and under-resourced facilities. most arrive with nothing but the clothes on their backs. and most leave within a day or two, to destinations across the country, wre they'll await their court dates. volunteers here connect migrants with sponsors, usually family, help to arrange traveland swiftly move them out, care packages in hand. >> the federal government, d.h.s., c.b.p., border patrol, ice, their inability to understand that if attention is

paid to organizatias then the reof people does not have to be chaos. it doesn't. >> reporter: 13-year-old herefani came with her f from guatemala. the number assigned to her by border patrol-- 46 is just hastarting to fade from he. porque? esternni says she wants to lea english, get a job, and one day return to guatemala. but while the border cities beau then, the effect of the influx is being felt further north, too. we're on our way now to las huces, new mexico. it's a city about r north of the border, where the federal government has been busing migrant families. utand we're going to check shelter that's actually being run by the city. >> we ally recognized it was a humanitarian situation we were faced with, d the city council knew that if we didn't take care of them, the risk was the border patrol would dump them at bus stops or on the street. >> reporter: udell vig works for las cruces. >> the city's been running this

shelter-- a former national guard armory-- for almost two months. they house roughly 200eople, for about 24 to 48 hours-- offering a meal, a shower, clean clothes, and medical care-- before helping families on to their next step. so far, they've procsed around 10,000 migrants. a they are coming here with absolutely nothing, they are fellow human beings and they need to be treated with dignity and respect, and we are going to do that and do it the best way we can. >> reporter: but back in el paso, ruben garcia argues that once migrants are vetted and released from federal custody, it's up to private communities and help them. that's the way, he says, it's always been. t it costs you $30,000 a month just to rent this place, right? ea yes. >> reporter: youy think there are communities out there that can just pull together $30,000 a month? >> you mean dallas can't do this? denver can't do this? it is inconceivable to me, that

the faith communities of these cities would not, at the drop of a hat, step forward and say we absolutely can. and websolutely will. >> this whole system is broken. >> reporter: dee mar is the mayor of el paso. what he calls political drama, he says, has gotten in the way of finding solutions. >> i mean, these are solvable problems if congress wld develop some intestinal fortitude to do what's right irrespective of how people perceive it on a political basis. >> reporter: what do you want to see in terms of specific action from the federal government? what would help your city? >> you take away the politicos and those who say "well i need 'x' million in for a fence or i want this in the way of troops or i want that," no, homeland security should be given that authority to come up with what the solution is to control our borders and the resources should be provided by congress.

>> reporter: i didn't hear youwa say or mexican tariffs. >> i don't think that was a viable solution.or >> rr: what would the impact of tariffs increase in tariffs have been on el paso? >> draconian. >> reporter: while private groups and local governments have worked to meet the arriving migrants' needs, the federal government has worked to keep them out. in juarez alone, an ted 7,000+ now wait for their turn to legally enter the united ates. in a city with few resources to help them... on a journey witht. no end in si for the "pbs newshour," i'm amna nawaz, in juarez, mexico and el paso, texas. >> woodruff: it's been nearly two decades since the terror attacks on september 11th, but many first responders are stilas dealing withng health effects.

and, as lisa desjardins report congress continues to struggle with how they should be compensated. >> reporter: covered in a thick smoke, rescue and police workers were the first on the scene after the 9/11 attacks. in the days after, thousands more responders and vonteers came... digging through rubble. also surrounding them: toxic air full of chemicals and dust... that decades later, s left disease and disability. the federal government is responsible, in part, because the e.p.a. at the time declared the area safe, even asires burned at ground zero.ma the who headed the e.p.a. then, christine todd whitman, defended tt declaration six years later-- pointing to a lack of information. >> i do not recall any e.p.a. expert or scientist responsible for reviewing this data ever advising me that the test data from lower manhattan showed that the air or water proposed long- term health risks for the general public.

>> reporter: soon the longtime health risks were obvious, as respiratory illness and cancer appeared in thousands of responders. congress first set up a temporary fund, but did not take long term action until 2011. that is when the james zadroga act became law. named for an n.y.p.d. officer who died fm toxic exposure, it set up two funds. one for the health care of 9/11e workers and anto compensate them. many were no longer able to work full time. it did not pass easily, but did pass. the health care benefits o athe bill aret risk.em theyain through 2090. the issue is the multibillion- dollar compensation fund, in use two problems: congress set it to expire next year, but even before that, the funding congress provided is falling short. officials announced that without more funds, benefits must be cut now. responders have been raising

this alarm for years, but it gained new attention yesterday when comedian and former t.v. s host jwart chastised congress at a hearing on the issue. >> your indifference cost meese men and their most valuable commodity time! ng>> reporter: also testif yesterday, former n.y.p.d. detective luis alvarez, who is set to startis 69th round of emotherapy. >> i shoulnot be here with you, but you made me come. you made me come because i will not stand by and watch as my friends with cancer from 9/11, like me, are valued less than anyone else because of when they get sick they die. >> reporter: a bill to keep the fund going until 2090 made it through a house committee today, but it is not clear when the senate could act.

it has been a long journey. journalist michael mcauliff has covered this fory "the da show" and other outlets since the day of september 11. he joins me now. i know you've been covering this, this week as well. we're going to come back to congress and what's happening now. but i want to first ask you to explain what ethactly are e first responders dealing with? >> well, you heard we mentioned in the report that it started off with respiratory illnesses, and it was the classic world trade center cough which was iconic at the time. that got much worse. they got horrie stomach problems, sign situs, and surgeries to repair their nasal passages so they could actually breathe, and then the cancers started and a lot of them were very aggressive, fast-moving cancers and people who were young and lived healthy lives before thaly so it reaade a lot of people take notice. >> is this population growi? even the funds they have now, it seems they're running through it

faster than they expected. >> oh, yeah, they're going through it much more quickly e than theypected. much more people know about it and they're finding out they can apply, and also there are more cancers and more illnesses that peare being recognized andple are coming forward. >> you told me a story about a current police officer who had tojave his aw replaced with a leg from his bone who, nonetheless, was still coming to testify before congress. i'm curious, the issue for n ngress seems to have bethe amount of money involved. how much money is invoo ed? how muchey think is involved in the future? >> well, they passed-- it ad up to $7.4 billion after they passed that legislation last time around in 2015. they've ne through ab$5 billion of that. so there's probably a little bit less than $2 lion. it's a moving target because they're paying out money as we hgo. and as te special master testified yesterday, she needs about $5 billion to fill the current five-year gap at the rates they've been payinu and then y're talking about

10-plus years in the future, and that numbeis anone's guess right now. >> certainly many billions of dollars. >> oh, many billions of dollars. and the congressional bget office has been tasked with coming up with a number. they had they would have it, a they don't have it yet because i think it's a very hard number to pin down. >> an we should mention the special master, that is the person who administrates this particular fund. all right, it's come down to congress and i think the question a lot of people had, s rtainly jon stewart had yesterday, why his been so hard for congress? what has been the hold-up for congress on this issue? >> well, the hold-up has been it's a new york issteue. that first rush of excitement or terror or horror after the attacks, it faded a little bit and sort of was seen as a regional issue. but that's really faded be ause peopom all over the country came, and people from all over the country are getting sick. so that has changed. and now it's actually moving little bit better than it has in

the past because here we are, a year and a half before the expiration of the fund, they've realized it's runningf money, and the house is in the process of acting, which is much better than it was in the previous go-arounds. >> you said-- i think a lot of ople will be surprised know to know that the people affected, it's a population of tens of thousands of americans who rely tho fund either now or in the future. what other states are we talking about? we're not just talkin talking at newark. where are these peopl. >> they're from 433 out of 435 congressional distrand that somebody sometimes changes because people move, right. for instance, in teas, there are some 700 people who applied for the fund. and i believe-- xas.n t >> in texas. and i believe it's around 400-- i'd have to do--le cheho are actually eligible for some form of compensation. you just go around the country, you'll find soebody. florida has thousands of people because so many new yorkers and new jersey residents moved there. >> and then they respondedn 9/11. >> correct. >> there, at pennsylvania or the

pentagon. >> at the pentagon, one of the advocates, john field, was here the day before that hearing with jon stewart, doing oureach for the government, and he found 15 people th cancer who will probably qualify for the fund. >> just thiseek. >> just this week. in virginia. >> to wrap t thup,nk now the eyes are moving to the senate. the house is expected to pass this bill thimonth. senator mcconnell said he expects to do something compassionate as they have in the past, hat hesn't scheduled this bill. is the pressure enough now, do you think, to moe vis through the senate quickly? >> no, i don't think it's quite enough yet. mitch mcconnell has kentucky to worry about and kentucky madoesn't have thaty responders in it. they have other issues. but at the other-- yoknow, the other sort of side of the equation, he's up for re-election, a he might have a strong challenger. so perhaps he won't want to have that hanging out there. and then we'll see. >> allright, we'll continue to watch. and thank you for all your

coverage. michael mcauliff. >> all right, thanks, lisa. >> woodruff: stay with peming up on the "newshour," the looming threat of ly-- and easily-- manipulated digital video. >> nathan englander shares his liinion on the power of ritual. with nearly 15 m members, the southern baptist convention is the largest protestant denomination in the united states. now its facing a reckof its own over sexual abuse. d "houston chronicle" investigation fondreds of clergy or staff allegedly committed abuse or misconduct over two decades. this week, delegates of southern baptist churches appro changes for the first time to make it easier to expel churches that cover up sexual abuse cases. rachael denhollander was the

first woman to publicly accuse larry nassar, the former sports doctor who was convicted of assaulting multiple girls and women. she spoke at the convention yesterday on a panel with fellow sexual abuse survivo is on the denomination's sex abuse study group. she is also the author of "what is a girl worth? my stor breaking the silence and exposing the truth about larry nassar and usa gymnastics." rachael denhollander, thank you very much for being with us. so, you-- we know now that the church has made these changes. you've been talking to anumber of survivors. i want to understand what your sense is of just how widespread this abse was. >> you know, unfortunately, the "houston chronicle" article didn't reveal anything that surexpriefers advocates haven't known for a long time, and that is that we have a severe problem in protestant circles with

sexual abuse, not jut by pastors, but by members of the church, and a severe problem with how churches frequently handle disclosures of abuse. the top protesntnsurance companies receive more claims by sexual abuse by clergy tn even the catholic churches, and a lot of the protestant organizations have been held liable in federal court for more than a decade for the issue of sexual abuse. so this has not come as a surprise it surexpriefers advocates. >> woodruff: you have said onha your ownyou believe that the church in your experience has not provided the kind of support, the relief to survivors of sexual abuse that ituld. what do you base that belief on? theell, again, we see numbers in terms of the rate of abuse. we see the numbers in terms of how many churches are found liable for handling sex aassault claims. and in addition to, that the survivor community has repeatedly said that the church has been, unfortunately, one of

the worst places to go in recent survey, that asked survivors what they thoughtl wouldn't most ul versus what actually ended up being the most helpful, chus rcre listed as one of the things-- one of the institutions thought to be the most helpful until survivors went for help. and when survivors actually went for help, unfortunately, churches ranked dead last, behind the option "other." so, unfortunately, again, this is not a problem that is new to survivors and advocates. r ownodruff: in you experience, has that been the case? >> i have received both ends of i was abused in a church setting when i was seven years old, and i have-- i havad very negative experiences with the church. i have also had very positive experiences with the church, and so my hope is that as the. s.p.c is moving forward with these reforms and with a growingaw eness of the problem, that more and more survivors will be able to experience the help and the comfort and the community thperienced from one of my churches. >> woodruff: and so these changes that were voted onby

the southern baptt convention, the s.b.c., to require churches to, in effect, to require more eisclosure, to ask the churches to p up, to do more, are these the kinds of changes that you think are going to make a difference? >> i think these are absolutely the first steps that need to be taken. you know, one o of the critical steps that the s.b.c. took wasto mend the constitution to create a credentialing committee that can examine claims of abuse, and this is critical, because th provides greater transparency, greater accountability, and it puts the eamework in place as we never had before for being able to deal with these claims. the curriculum that has been put together to help equip churches on the journey towards understanding abuse and be able to prevent and respond to it is a critical first step. that being said, again,an survivor vacation aware that this is a first step only. the frame and the foundation is going toe only as good as what's built upon it. and so my hope is that as the

s.b.c. moves forward that will build upon this solid frame and foundation. >> woodruff: it's my understanding you have said some in the sthern baptist convention are undermining these changes, that they were clearing some of the local churches that should have beou punished, have been reprimanded. why did you make that statement? >> well, fortunately, that's a matter of public record. the s.b.c. president, j.d. greer, had put forward a list of churches that he believed merited closer scrutiny for ow they had handled sexual abuse claims. but within a matter of days, th. 's executive committee, who is in charge of doing that investigation, cleared seven out of those 10 churches without talking to survivors. and, unfortunately, did so on a four-pronged base that was almost useless in evaluating whether churches mishandled abuse. and advocates and survivors and experts the field of abuse could have explained to the executive committee that there's four prongs that they were usin to evaluare not the correct

standards to be using. they were not helpfulguidelines to be using. but, unfortunately, expert advice was not sought. and so why that was done i think is something that the executive committee needs to wrest wel. i believe there are some in the executive commithey made those decisions out of ignorance. they simply didn't know. and there were some that made those decisions knowing that the criteria they establiere not helpful and useful criteria. so, unfortunately, we have seen efforts to undermine what is being done in the s.b.c.a that being, the steps that were taken today by the majority of s.b.cssengers i think are very positive, so i am hopeful. >> woodruff: and thaat i wanted to ask if you, if you overall have confidence it is moving in the right direction. i do want to bring us back to michigan state university, ortedse today, as we rep earlier, the former dean, who was also the boss of dr. larry nassar, was convic he himself has now been convicted of criminal conduct,

neglect of duty, acquitted of uliminal sexual misconduct, though, but he still face up to years-- up to five years in prison. what's your reaction toall this? >> you know, dean strampel's negligence in supervising larry, putting larry back in the office when he was under police investigation is something that so've known for quite a long time. am grateful to see the conviction for thaconduct. i think it is necessary, and i think it is just. i am dintsapp and discouraged to see that the survivors who reported assault by strampel, by dean strampel himself were not believed by the jury, because we know. we understand what dr. strampel's conduct was. his personnel file was full of warnings about his predatory behavior. and so i am disappointed to see a jury acquittal on that count. >> woodruff: more broadly speaking, rachael denhollander, we know at a lot has happened since you initially came forward to be the firstperson to accuse

dr. nassar. we know that a nur of institutions have made changes as a result of the disclosures by you and so many other, so many other women who suffered sexual abuse. what do you think it all adds up to? do you think things have changed enough? what do you thias been done right and what more do you think needs to be done? >> i think there is an extent to which we erestimate the change that has been made, honestly. because where the real test comes is how weespond when it's in our own community. how do we respond when it's our university, when it's our favoriteaports tem, our favorite coach, when it's in our religious institution or it'sli our pocal candidate, when it would cost something to care. and by and large, we are stil seeing a circling of the wagons. the statistics on the ability to convict sex offenders have not shifted. we an excellent case of this with the university of southern california, u.s.c., where a

gynecologist at u.s.c., dr. george tyndall has had over 500 women report sexual abuse. there are decades of evidence of nurses reporting dr. tyndall's conduct and yet there has not berg a single criminal ch filed in his case. so the idea that we've had a massive culturalhift, that kes it easy for survivors to speak up and easy to get justice, that's simply not accurate. we have a great deal of worko left, and it starts with how we respond when it's in our own community. >> woodruff: very discouraging, but very importan. to he rachael denhollander, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: for the record we invited j.d. greer, the president of southern baptist convention to join us for an he declined our request at this time. and tonight, u.s. roman catholi bishops vo create a new national hot line for reporting sex abuse allegations. it would be run by an independent group who would relay claims of abu to regional supervisory bishops. the service is supposed to begat

opg within a year. >> woodruff: there's growing alarm over the use of false videos, knn as "deepfakes." videos that spread virally and often look real. in just the past few days, we've seen the problems they can a eate for political leaders. it's the focus oaring tomorrow in the house intelligence committee. miles o'brien has a look at how those videos, once the source of some fun, are being manipulated and how artificial intelligence scientists are trying to respond. it's part of our weekly segment on the "leadinedge" of science. >> reporter: okay, let's see you being me. ( laughs )fa scary as "de" videos may be, there are times when they can be fun.

a place where a 3d mod of my face gets electronically isastered onto computer sciehao li's head... making him the puppet master, and me the dummy. >> really a scary look individual. i do need to change my hair. >> reporter: li is an associate professor at the university of o-southern california, and founder of pinscreen, an app that allows consumers to makest instant cu 3d avatars for virtual reality gaming and shopping. >> so now i created your avatar, right? so, we have your-- >> reporter: a nice, trim miles o'brien. the real-time puppet mter trick is how he refines the technology. and here i am as our president. oh, yeah, that's about right, i think.im shinzo abe, minister of japan. jin, leader of china. trudeau. it's not a bad look for me.

me as justin bieber. >> what do you think? >> reporter: i think i'm going to do this on the newshour all the time for my career.be good li says he never saw it as anything more than entertnment. >> of course, it can be used for something really bad, but the main purpose was never for that. it was to use for entertainment, a fun tool that could give us more things to do for fashion, lifestyle, et cetera. >> reporter: "deepfake" videos cleverly combine what's real with what is synthesized by a computer to make people appear to say things they never did-- or never would >> i like vodka. >> reporter: the ever increasing teed of computers along with the advancement artificial intelligence technique called "mach learning" is making these composites harder and harder to dect with the naked eye. >> we all assumed that there will be a point where there's no way to tell the difference. i meanor visual effects, i think you can get pretty close already. it's just the estion of how much effort you put into it, but

in terms of content at it can be created by anyone, i think it's getting very close to the point. >> reporter: one technique is the face swap, which put steve buscemi's facen jennifer lawrence's body, nicholas cage onto a series of marquee stars in iconic roles, or jimmy kimmel's mug on mine. >> terrific! or jimmy kimmel's mug on mine. >> i've had to relearn very simple things. >> reporter: but there is a deep dark side as well. indeed, the technology has been used to paste the faces of celebrities onto the bodies of porn stars. computer scientist hany farid is a professor at dartmouth college. >> i am worried about the weaponization and i'm worried about how it's impacting us as a society. so, we a working as hard asib po to detect these things. >> killing monger was right.r:

>> reporhis video crystallized much of the deep concern. what seems to be president ..rack obama making a spee >> see i would never say these things. >> reporcor: is actually dian and filmmaker jordan peele doing his excellent obama impersonation synced with software created with artificial intelligence-- or a.i. >> the a.i. system synthesized the mouth of president obama to be consistent with the aud stream and it made it look like president obama was saying things that he never said. that's called a lip-sync deepfake. >> reporter: just this week, the technique was used to put some pretty outrageous-- and comical- - words into the mouth of facebook founder mark zuckerberg. >> spectre showed me that whoever controls the data controls the future. >> reporter: it's a potent technology that is ripening at a time of deep polarization and suspicion fueled by social media. >> so sad, and here's the thing... >> reporter: just last month--

something much less sophisticated than a deep fake, a doctored video of house speaker nancy pelosi making her seem drunk, went viral. >> we want to give this president the opportunity to do something historic. >> reporter: deepfakes ratchet up the ris. the nightmare situation is saat there's a video of president trumng, "i've launched nuclear weapons against north korea," and somebody t hacked htter account and that goes viral, in 30 seconds, we have global nuclear meltdown. do i think it's likely? no. but it's not a zero probability and that should scare thesu beout of you, right? because the fact that that is not impossible is really worrome. >> reporter: farid is most worried about deep fakes readung their uglyring the 2020 election. so he and his team are carefully learning the candidates' patter of speech and how they correlate with gestures, as

way to spot deep fakes. >> and we do that, of course, by analyzing hundreds of hours ofur of video of individuals. we're focused on building models for all of the mor party candidates, so that enough we can upload a video to our system. we can analyze it by compari it to previous interviews just li this interview here, an then asking, "what is the probability that this is consistent with everything we've seen before?" >> reporter: computer scientists have pushed this technology using "generative adversarial networks," or gans. >> a gan pits two artificial intelligence algorithms against each other.st one rives to create realistic fake images while the other grades the effort. >> so, the synthesis engine ate a "i'm going to c fake image, i give it to this a.i. system that says, ¡this looks fake to me,'" so it goes back and you change it and you do that a few billion tis in rapid succession and the computers are teaching eache other how to mtter fakes. and that's what has democratized access. >> reporter: and that's why the pentagon is interested in deep fakes.

its research enterprise, the defense advanced research projects agency, or darpa, is exploring ways to defend against the threat of deep fakes. computer scientist matt turek runs darpa's media forensics, or medifor, project. >> so, there's an heportunity for us to essentially lose all trust in images and video. >> r some of the 70 counter deep fake techniques darpa is helping nurture. >> necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another. this software is designed to characterize lip movement and compare it to the audio. >> reporter: and so, when see these red bars, that means actually that sounds of the speaker are not actually consistent with the movement of the lips. >> reporter: now take a look at this video. supposedly two people sitting together. but software that determines the lighting angle on faces

concludes it is a composite. >> so, it estimates a 3d model for the face, along with that 3d model, iestimates properties of the face, the reflectance properties of the face and also the lighting angles. and so, here we're primarily using the lightning to see whether those are consistent or not. >> reporter: in this example, video apparently gathed by a security camera shows only one car. this artificial intelligence algorithm is designed to predict how things should move. >> what that is triggering off of is discontinuities in the motion. ord so, that gives us a signal to look at an imag video and say, "well, perhaps frames were removed here." >> reporter: and it flags the video as doctored-- another vehicle was edited out. >> there's a cat and mse game, right? the more aspects that you can use to debunk an image or video, the more burden that you put on the manipulator. >> reporter: none of these ias will work without the cooperation of the big sociala

mediatforms-- youtube and facebook-- which would need to deploy the software and delete the fakes, something facebook refused to do when the pelosi video emerged. >> and the platforms have been, for the most part, very cavalier about how they deal with this type of illegal content, harmful content, misinformation, fake news, election tampering, non consensual pornography, and the list goes on and on, because it gets eyes on the platform and that's good for business. >> reporter: a fake video amplified in an echo chamber can go an awfully long wore the facts even enter the picture. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in los angeles, berkeley f >> woo religion and its effects permeate the work of noveli nathan englander. raised in a highly observant jewish family, englander turned

away from religion and made a decision to ve a secular life. but the rituals of religion stayed with him;ot in prayer, but in the way he lived his daily life. tonight, englander shares his humble opinion on the discipline and focus he found, and joy that comes with it. >> when i left the religious community, i left it with a vengeance. like a rubber band stretched to breaking and then released, i shot off in the other direction- landing as far as i could om the orthodox jewish world in which i'd been raised. instead of being faithful about faith, i turned faithful about fiction. and for a long time, i saw it as a zero-sum game. but the more i wrote, the more i began to realize how the religious rituals of my childhood fed the creative routines of my writing life. that is, i may have left the fold, but i seem to have brought two pillars of orthodox judaism along with me. sacred time and the other to sacred space. the time element was an obvious fit.

i adopted the "six days for creation and a seventh for rest" model. i figured, if it worked for building this world, it should work for fictional ones as welli as theng years piled on, i noticed something else: how i'd wait to sit at the same table at the same coffee shop every day, how i'd stake out my spot in the library, and i can hardlypr s how much i now cherish my chair and my desk and my unchan this is where the sacred space comein. i finally understood the bigger idea behind what i was doing. it related directly to the notion of the makom kavua, of one's set place. it reminded me of sitting next to my father in synagogue, how we sat in the same seats, of the same row, every ek, in front of the little brass tags with our last name engraved on them i'd thought that reserved space for my father was about respect. i'd thought it was about honor. but it was more about engaging with worship-or writing-om a fixed place. because it's the combination of those two elements, the daily rituals and the physical

routines, that i am convincedte are key to wr kind of transcendence it is you're after. whether you race to a 6:00 a.m. yoga class, or morning mass, whether you need theouindow seat inown coffee shop, or your shoes kicked off so you can better feel the floor under your feet, providing that kind of continuity for the body, is the best way to free up the mind. cr the writer, it helps you build up a kind ative reflex, so that the synapses fire off, and the images come. and from there, all you ne do is sit back and watch your fingers fly. >> woodruff: nathan englander, we thank you. larger-than-average algae bloom is forecast in the gulf of mexico this summer. you can learn why and what thatu means onr website, pbs/org. pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshr for tonight.

on thursday, democratic presidential hopeful beto o'rourke joins me he in studio. i'm judy woodruff. join us on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the "pbsnk newshour," thaou and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> text night and day. >> catch it on replay.om >> burningfat. >> 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 learn more at consumercellular.tv >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. >> and with the ongoinort of these institutions and individual >>

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through programs like this. made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station, from viewers like you. thank you. tonight i'm proud to introduce a landmark in musical theater history -- the "les miserables" 25th anniversary concert; broadcast for the first time on pbs. musical theater has been a staple of the pbs lineup for many years, and i think you'll be thrilled by tonighttelecast. it's part of our long-term commitment to bring the best of the arts to every home in america. in the coming months, you will see even more of thebsrts here on yourtation. of course, none of this would be possible without your support. i want to ske this opportunity thank you. we simply couldn't do it without you. in a little while, some of my colleagues