captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, august 25: world leheers gather in france for g7 summit. a look into findings from the d.e.a. opioid database. and an author's exploration of conflict-- through food. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter, in memory of george o'neil barbara hope zuckerber corporate funding is provided byutual of america--

designing customized individual and grouretirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. addional suprt has been provided by: and by the corporati for public broadcasting. a private corporation funded by the american people.d contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in w york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. at the g-7 summit in biarritz, france today, president trump made a whirlwind of comments and announcements on everything from the trade wawith china to brexit to a new trade agreement with japan to north korea's latest missile lnch. at a breakfast meeting with the british prime minister boris johnson and aides, the president appeared to waver about his recent decision toncrease tariffs against china again. >> mr. president, any second thoughts on escalating the trade >> yeah, sure.? why not? >> second thoughts? yes? might as well.

might as well. >> you have second thoughts >>out escalating the war with china? have second thoughts about everything. >> sreenivasan: hours later the white hosued a statement saying the president¡s words were "misinterpreted." correspondent yamiche alcindor is covering the g-7 meeting and she joins us now from the south of france. >> he joins us now from the south of france. what's the misinterpd tation? he s had secondfá thoughts. >> the white house has been trying its hardest to walk back e hesident saying that he'sxd had second thoughttowhen it came he escalating trade war china, but reporters asked theti president thres are you u)jáq(j said very clearly, i%90qhoughtsh now, soon after the white house press secretary sent out a statement saying the president is haing second thoughts because he wants to escalate the cade war wiinaw3 even more instead of dialing it back, he wants to dial itt( up. omso treasury secretary -- he said that the roas verylp loud, that the president might not have heard the question right, but it goes back to theñi idea the president repeated the quhttion, i have second thou

onq so it's very rare for the president to express any sort od self-doubt,fá very rare for the president to/5/ has second thoughts on something, but in this case, he might have been where he wants to have somec self-reflection, but the white house is quickly pivoting ayxmui >> all right. onsort of onne conversations with these leaders, primet( minister abe of japan and the president e conversation? >> the u.s. and japan aheounced a pretty significant potential trade deal here inxd the southõk the two leaders said japan is going to be potentially buyçóbi ions of dollars of corn from the u.s. and that's really important because the escalating trade warr that a lot of u.s. farmers haven't had a market to sellei corn. i talked to a u.s. official who talked about this trade deal is big win for farmers and ranchers across the country. a lot of those people are the base of president trump, he said he wants toxd do somethingúp he's having a win for them. said, the prime minister ofñi japanxdx#u(áhp lot less confiden resident trump.

president trump was talking as if the dealko?h abe,xd the prime minister of jan saidok it's a potential deal. they want to try to set a goal ge signing it at the next month of the u.neral assembly in new york, but the deal is t all the wayt. >> let's talk about e of the parties missing from the table, russia. the presidentçó wants russia there. the allies do not. >> the president has been pushing tow3 have russia added back to the which used to be the g8, but the president has been lying about russia wasñr kicked out of what usee whthe g8 ! president trump is saying thexd green whyfájgn russia was kicket was because hisss prede prepy by vladimir put russia was kicked out because they annexedt( crimea and world g8. the president todayt( adding russia back into thee1 g7 is a work in progress d he w pretty clear that there are a lot dor

it's stillqjáa will happen withr >> this was the -- e meeting between boris johnson the new prime minter of theñrfá u.k. and president tp 20 pretty warmly. the president praised borislp johns comes to the u.k.çó andñi brexi, but johnsonzd that he really liked the idea of free trade and het( sai) the u.k. hasw3 benefid from 200 years of free trade whileñi the president has pushed back on that. boris johnson also said that he is not a fan oflp tariffs so in some ways while boris johnson was smiling d it seemed as though it was a very warmre meeting, the was some pushback world leaders throughout thisñi7 push back on the president whil keeping things positive. >> we also had a surprisexd guet of sorts not at the table but in the town. iran's foreign minister :par# showedxdr

g7. it completely blidnd sided prt trump and u.s. officials here.4b] told that ths still weighing whether or t he might meet with the foreign e minister zarif, but what know is thatñi the president is blind-sided, and he feels as though this is -- not doing their due diligence ainbout te them what's going to be happening here. the president is going to be advi. pompeo. it's 100% going to be president trump's decision if he meets with zar right now, zarif is expected to only meet with french officials here. sapresident macaronok id he was going to try to -- that might be why zarifq visit. >> all right, how is this g7 compared to previousnes? >> the big looming question of this g7 wasxd really president trump going to be? unpredictab

is he going to get into confrontations? what we sawas a less confrontational g7. the president's top economic advisor said that there are quote good vibes here. also, we've seen the presidentxd have warm meetings with world that said in meeting after meeting we've seen leaders gently push back on the presidentz( with abe the prime ministñ$8 of j, as i said, there was the issue of the trade deal. also, the president said that he didn't think northe1 korea was violating any sort of aeem when it as testing itsñrçó miss, whereas abe said he seesq complete violation by north korea because of those missile tests soe see somet( pushback there.xd boris johnson again was really talking about free tradexa embracing it while president trump was not.4' that's becaus presidt doesn't want to have aco unique that the u.s.q want to sign so they've done away with it completely. overall, it's been a pretty calp , but there have been fundamental changes because of presidenpresident trump's predid behavior. >> allfá right, joiningr

from the south of france. nkanks so much. >> ts, hari. >> sreenivas: vient political rest continued in hong kong for the second day in a row today. for the first time in the weeks of demonstrations there were reports of police officers drawing their guns and firing an least one ing shot above a crowd of protesters. police ao used water cannons on pro-democracy demonstrato who attacked officers using sticks and rods. brazil's military is now part of the battle to contain massive fires in the amazon rainforest officials reported nearly 77,000 wildfires across the country so far this year, that's up 85% over the same period last year. farmers set many of the fires clear land for plantinduring the dry season from july to september. mining and commercial companies also illegally clear-cut and burn areas for development. brazil's president jair bolsonaro is facing international criticism for delaying a response to theow ing number of fires and for encouraging more development of the rainforest regions. the fires have also spread into neighboring bolivia, burning close to two million acres and forcing evacuations.

former illinois congressman joe walsh is now the second republican to challenge president trump for the party's 2020 white house nomination.da on abc's ¡this week', waauh said he is rning becse mr. trump is "unfit" and that"so body needs to step up." he also called the predent a bully and a coward. walsh was elected to congress in 2010 as part of the tea party a vement. he lost a bid focond term to democrat tammy duckworth in 2012.du after leaving congress, walsh became a chicago-area radio talk show host. former massachusetts governor bill weld is also running for the republican nomination. for the latest developments from the g-7 summit, visitsi pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: the manufacturers and distritors of opioid prescription painkillers supplied billions of pills throughout the country, and it led to addiction, abuse and death. you can see how and where the epidemic grew in a new "washington post" report, part of the investigative sies "the opioid files." using a newly-public drug

enforcement administration database that tracks every pain pill sold to pharmacies across the country, reporters analyzed millions of transactions and shipments of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills from 2006- 2012. i recently spoke with steven rich, data editor for "the washington post," about how the newspaper's team got the database and what they found. case in ohio in which this data became an exhibit in order to try to force its release. we did so with the charleston gazette ailn west virginia and over the course of the last year, weig managed to an appeal and make it public. and what we learned was that there are way more pills flowing into the pharmacies across the untry than we had expected. there were 76 billion pills ovey the sever time frame all over the country, but the pills

themselves wen't equally distributed. there were far more pills per person in places like appalachia, in wesvirginia, in kentucky. >> and you can go on the site and basically plug it in by county on a county by county level and see, d one of the breakdowns that you have was really fascinating is you've kind ofivided it by the population there, you say how many pills per person actually showed up and the numbers on some of these counties are staggericr. >> yes, sos the country, the national average was 36 pills per person per year. but some of these counties, especially inwe sou virginia have upwards of 200 pills per person per year. and this is not just for people o were prescribed the pills. this is 200 for every man, women and child living in that county. >> and, you know, in this, you're also uncovering e-mails and part of the reporting and part of the opioid file stor and what is the culture that's happening at the companies that are distributing this down to the pharmacy level? instead of saying hey, wait that seems like a really large

number, what were the conversations? >> so i think one e-mail sort of sums it up pretty well for me, which is one sales manager e-maed and just said sell, sell, sell. the culture was, you know, the people who sold the most of these drugs into these pharmacies were ree ones who etting the biggest bonuses and there was a lotñr of, you know, in many of these e-mails, there was a callous nature this.d the addiction aspect of and so really what we're starting to see for the first time is how these companiese handled se unuleal shipments to these pharmacies. for example, in onease we found a pharma executive who got a suspicious order e-mailed to him and one minute later he approved it. and so they are required to report these suspicious orders to the d.e.a. and so that's why they had the system in the first place, but if somebody is approving things that quickly it's hard to tl whether they're actually trying to figure out if the order is

suspicious or they're just approving everything. >> depending on the case, some of the companies say listen it sn't our fault, we're not respsible, even given all these e-mails that we're talking out, but what is the consequence? what is the epercussion? what can congress do? >> it's hard to say. heart of th prescription pillhe crisis and into the fentacrnyl is. so trying to stop this wave of opioids is sort of where they need to be. right now, the current solution to that is using these oveose reversing drugs like narcan and ing the sort of ste problem a little bit iplas like ohio, but it's sort of a band-aid of a solution. r and so thelly needs to be from getting into e countrytanyl and also in treatment fr people who are addicted to i >> you know, even though we've seen some slight improvement in the numbers wlre stil talking

60,000 plus people dying every year as part of this crisis. so when -- i wonder younumbers 20 to 2012. did you think that the problem is worse or did it get wornse those last three or four years and we don't have the data for it yet? >> so we think that it probably got a little worse in 2013 and 2013 and around that time is when the d.e.a. really started to crack on preription pills and so we think that it probably started to get a lite better in 2015 and 2016. but around that same time, these and unable theted to pills anymore started to switch to heroin and as a result of that they ended up getting over to fentanyl and that's how today.ended up where we are >> and finally, what is the kind of revolving door in government about this? i mean, espeal considering that this is aat.e.a. database that you found all of this threw. what's happening to some of those employees now?

>> we know that a lot of the d.e.a. employees who work specifically in the division to prevent uversion of these gs to the black market are now working at many of these drug compies in their diversion departmentand so ty're literally sitting across the table from where they used to sit where they were trying to op it,ow they're trying to convince the d.e.a. that these companies are w doil with stopping it and so we've seen years make the jump directlyt from the d.e.a. to these drug companies for muchmore lucrative jobs. >> steven rich, data editor of the washington post, thanks so much. >> thank you for having me. >> sreenivasan: news in and around the middle east these days is usually about conflict. but food writer yasmin khan set out to explore the region. through food. she collected recipes and tells the stories of palestinians in the west bank and gaza in her cookbook "zaitoun: recipes froms the palestinian kitchen."

i spoke with her previously about her book and why she feels food can help foster cultural understanding.rk >> i've in human rights for about 15 years. i trained in law and in my past career. that was my vocation, and my brief for several years was israel got me interested in the region. and you know i'm really interested in sharing people's stories.he that'sommon thread tt i had in human rights campaigning ud now in my cookbooks, and food can be suchful vehicle for exploring places of conflict because as a l subject that everyone enjoys fowe can offer a vehicle tha can better understand each other. >> sreenivasan: right the old idea of eaking bread with yo neighbor or your enemy, right? do you find that even food it charged in tgion? >> i mean, everything is charged in that region. and, and certainly, you know, for many palestinian communitief you know td that they eat and how they experience food can't be separated from the political situation, you know from the wall being built by the

israeli government in the we bank that cuts off water supplies and cuts rough lpalestinian agriculturaland to their blockade of gaza that's left over 80% of gazans dependent on u.n. food aid to survive. you know, food and thepa ocon are incredibly linked for the palestinian community. >> sreenivasan: and even the word ove, or "zaitoun," it means "olive," right? and you're talking about the olive trees that are in the region. >> that's right. agricultural land.est bank is s d the uredominant thing that is grown are olid i chose "zaitoun" as the title for the book because olives really represent both the essence of palestinian cookery. you always have a bowl of olives and then you always finish meal with delicious extra virgin olive oil, but olive trees havem alsoto represent the palestinians and their connection to the la their steadfastness. and when they're uprooted as the u.n. reported last year they routinely are by israeli, illegal israeli settlements in the west bank. they've come to represen

palestinian displacement. so olives represented everytojng that this t was about. >> sreenivasan: i mean, how do you write-- technically this is apalestinian food, this i stateless area, right? i mean, you're talking about a people that don't ha a country. but you're talking about that food and that is distinct in some ways from israeli food.me allean, tocans it' middle eastern food, which is our problem. >> yeah, i mean, it's such a tfunny-- i'd love us to g the state where in the u.s. we middle eastern culinaryerent traditions, you know. you know, when we say european foode know that german food is different to french food which is different to italian food. and it's the same in the middle east. you know, i mean undoubtedly because there have been jewish communities living together for thousands of years in that region. there are many similarities, ut palestinian food has its own unique flavor, its own unique recipes because you know palestinian identity has, is a rich culinary and cultural tradition. >>reenivasan: so is there, is there something that'sin ssentially palestinian that we just for, take for

granted as middle eastern in general? what is something that is, you know, what's a recipe that you might have, that say now ifis you're eating this is actually something the palestinians haveaten for whatever, thousands of years?nk >> i thit's musakhan, whichav is one of myite recipes in the book, and it's pieces of chicken that you marin sumac which is this astringent spice, and red onions, and you roast it and then yosome bread and put the chicken on top and pour the chicken juices on top so it soaks into the bread, and it's a big sharing dish that you'd kind of tear apart with isyour hands and that is a that you'll find in all palestinian communities. and for me reay captures the essence of sharing that is so integralo palestinian food. >> sreenivasan: was it logistically difficult for you to get aund when you did the research to talk to all these people? >> it was very hard. i mean as, as a joarnali, you know, and a writer i was detained at tel aviv airpo when i was entering the country on both occasions. and also just, you know. >> sreenivasan: did they believe you that you're woeling on a

cookbook? >> well, you know, they-- after six hours of detention they, they certainly d, and my, my interviewer went on over and over every aspect of my life my history my work my family and at the end of it i was like, look, if you know everything about me au know i'm just writin cookbook. you know, why don't you just let i'm not that interested. and my interviewerho hadn't introduced himself in the whole time we were talking just looket at me wis dead face andhi was just like, but do you know anyone in hamas? and i was like, oh, you know the, the levels of, of i think intimidation that many, many people of muslimeritage have when they're entering israel is along those lines of just every bit of their lives questioned. >> sreenivan: what abouthe response from the sources when you're actually having this conversation with them, do they, how ty perceive your tempt to chronicle this? >> well as an outsider tnd i think thre is a very important role that travel writers have aays played, and

journalists, in bearing witness to situations and just as in my first bk, "the saffron tales." i've had a very similar reaction in the response for "zaito" because people in the middle east are so frustrated at only ing depicted as either terroris or victims you knowt the idea tis was a book that was about celebrating palestinian culture about sharing some of the joy and beauty that exists within thisat fraught sin was something that yeah, i mean, it meant that we were constantly gettingvi d into people's houses for dinner you know i got invited to a wedding you know having just never met the person before. >> sreenivasan: hey there's a feast you should check this out. >> exactly. but also, you know, palestinians are incredibly hospitable and generous people and that isn't something you get to hear about very often and that's what i was, you know, it's really driven me to write this book. i mean there was this old jewish proverb that i learnt during the researchor the book that is "my enemy is just a person whose story i haven't heard yet." and that for me really is such a

moving phrase and really encapsulates everything that i'm trying to do in my work justd share stories y to break down this, this dehumanization that too often happens we're reporting on the middle east, and build connection because i reallyenelieve at thof the day, humans, no matter where we are in the world, havgot more to unite us than divide us. >> sreenivan: all right. the book is called "zaitoun." yasmin khan, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: finally tonight, while leaders of the g-7 nations met in the south of france today, in paris people lined the streets to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the city's liberation from the nas. cheering crowds waved french flags during a parade featuring vintage cars and military vehicles and people dressed in 1940's costumes. two million people filled the streets of paris on august 25,st 1944 to celebrate.

that's all for this edition of" pbs newshour weekend." i'm hari sreenivasan. anks 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:ar beand irene schwartz.ga sue and wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the j.p.b. foundation. lind p. walter, in memor of george o'neil. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products.t why we're your retirement company. additional supportovas been ed by:

and by the corporation for public broadcasting. a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. be more. pbs.

announcer: explore new w worlds and new ideas through programs like this, made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. ♪ john: folk music hs been around as longere have been folks to sing it. lk music is about real people and real lives and the frustrof dissent. it was a time in america when the simple act of gathering together to share experiences united us helped us sing our troubles away. how do you do, i'm john sebastian, and that was me, and this is my music. tonight, we're gonna look back at some of the most popular songs of the folk era. ♪ and we'll go dancing, baby, then you'll see. ♪ ♪he magic's in the music and the music's in me, yeah ♪