captioning sponsored by wnet >> thompson: on this edition for sunday november 3rd: a look at the week ahead with jeff greenfield.sc tent around the globe. and in our signature segment, the city of seattle tests a first-of-its-kind campaign finance experiment. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:an bernarirene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philimimilstein . rosalind p. walter, inemory of george o'neil.ar bahope zuckerberg. corporate funding is providedof

by mutuamerica, designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your additional support has been provided 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. from the tischnet studios at lincoln center in new york, megan thompson. >> thompson: good evening and thank you for joining us. the whistleblower who set off the impeachment inquiry into president trump's conversation with ukraine's president is willing to answer written questions from republican members of congress. republicans said they had not s t discussed the offer. in intervid on twitter, one of the whistleblower's attorneys said his client's identity musbe protected and at his legal team "offered g.o.p. direct opportunity to ask written questions of whistleblower."

reter spending saturday night in new york city, pdent trump returned to the white house this afternoon where he continued to bmand the whistleblower's identimade public. >> the whistleblower should be re because the whistleblower gave false stories. some people would call it fraud. i won't go that far but, when i read it closely, i probably would. but the whistleblower should be revealed. >> thompson: the impeachment inquiry is scheduled to continue with closed door testimony this coming week but democrats say the process will be public soon after. >> well there will be public hearings very, very soon. this week we're having the last of the witnesses come in, and then it'll be released, the transcripts will be released. >> thompson: for me on the impeachment inquiry, newshour weekend special correspondent jeff from santa barbara.now so jeff, we've had this vote to formalize the procedures, what are we going to see now? >> sometime in the next couple weeks, we're going to s public televised hearings.

we're going to actually get to s dee tositions that some of the witnesses gave in closed testimony. and then the question is, who are going to see in public? will we be hearing from lieutenant colonel vinman, the national security advisor on ukrhoaineas quite alarmed by what he heard on the call? arejo we going to hav bolton, the former national security adviser who was also quiatte alarmed by e heard? he said he will only testify if compelled to by a court. and then the question will be who will republicans try to brg on to aempt to undercut e central story of the president asking for a quid pro quo in return for military aid? so, but it is going to be public. >> thompson: i mean, what impact could esthat have? his represent a risk in some sense or an opportunity for >> we get a clue from the fact that under the rules, each side is goinesg to have 45 minf block time to present their case and talk to their witnesses. and the eson is gonna be done by staff attorneys, not by congressmen. and that means that the democrats have realized that

this back and forthminutes each muddles the story. they want a clear, coherent story to present if impeachment ever comes, as it probably will, to full vote. the risk would be if the testify who basically say this whole narrative is exaggerated or false. >> thompson: just this morning, we saw a new fox news poll come out that said 49% of voters pport impeachment. do we have reason to think that some of this partisanship in congrs might start to erode? >> i really think that even with the slight erosion in support for trump among republicans, it's down, but it's 78%. when yisou look at thethat republican senators up for re-election may be taking, they might want to appeal tovoore moderatrs who were less happy about trump. but do they risk alienating that firm base? so that part of the partisanship, i just think, is not gonna fade, barring some miracle. one other point. if this gets to a trial in the senate in january, you have six democratic senators runng for

president who are going to be, in effect, chained to their desks just as the climax to the iowa caucuses in the new hampshire primary approach. and i doubt that republican leader mcconnell is gonna want to do them any favors. so that's another way th partisanship may play a role in what we see. >> thompson: none of this is happening in a vacuum, of course. ed to ask you historically, when we look at other impeachment inquiries in the last cenry, how have things like the economy and approval ratings played a role? >> one of the things that doomed nixon was that in 1974, as the impeachment waters were ring, the economy was headed into recession and the stock market was in freefall.by ontrast, the economy under bill clinton in the late '90s was as good as it has been int the ire 20th century. and so, his approval ratings, evenuring impeachment, never dropped below 60%. in trump's case, his approval ratings generally are lower than they should be given the state of the econo. so you could say that if something were to turn in the next couple of months, if the economy were really to sour,

that could be a real problem for trump maintaining the base that he d >> thompson: all right, jeff greenfield, thank you so much, as always, for being here. >> nice to be here. >> thompson: for the latest on the impeachment inquiry and the 2020 presidential race, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> thompson: a federal judge in oregon has blocked a trump administration proclamation that would require immigrants to provide proof of medical insurance to obtain a u.s. visa. yesterday, u.s. district court judge michael simda granted a 2temporary restraining order on the policy that was set to. take effect tod under the rule, embaies would not grant visas to immigrants if they could not prove they would have health insurance or the means of paying for medical costs with 30 days of entering the u.s. a federal lawsuit filed on wedn tesday argu policy would bar hundreds of thousands of prospective legal immigrants. >> thompson: protesters in iraq blocked roads with burning tires and barbed wire today in an

attempt to pressure government leaders to resign. the demonstrators are calling for the overhaul of the country's political system-- one that's been in place sincthe fall of saddam hussein. they blame the government for high unemployment and poor publ services. iraq's prime minister has promised government reforms and changes in his cabinet, but the demonstrations have continued. mopere than 25le have been killed during two waves of anti- government protests that began last month. >>oc thompson: proracy demonstrations in hong kong tutrned bloody today when least four people were injured during a knife attack. od ne of the victimhis ear partially bitten off bhothe attacker had been arguing with the protesters. local media reported that the assailant was aupporter of the chinese government and targeted the gathered at the cityplaza mall. th crowd of demonstrators attacked the man before hong kongre police ed him. >> thompson: air pollution in new delhi, india reached the

highyeest levels of ar today just days after authorities declared a public health emergency. schoosols are cled and construction activity is shut down in new delhi, and over thirerty flights we diverted due to poor visibility. starting private vehicles in the capital city ll be limited to either" odd" or "even" license plates the burning of crops this time of year and fireworks set off in celebration of diwali, the hindu festival of light, added to this weekend's high pollution levels despite government warnings. >> thompson: from hong kong and iraq to lebanon, spain, haiti and more, protests have flared around the globe, some lasting for months now. frsor some ctive on what could be triggering the demonstrations, hari sreenivasan recently spoke with former u.s. state department advisor and school of advanced international

stues, vali nasr. >> first, are these in anyway shape or form connected? i mean it seemed with the arab spring it was literally egional, country after country, there seemto have been a tipping point. protestswe are seeing for different reasons in hong kong, in chile, in pf artse middle east. what's happening? >> well, they're t connected in the sense that one group is protesting because it sawpr ests elsewhere on social media or trvetion. but they're-- or television, but sthey are connected in tse that there is a general feeling of unhappiness around the world, unhappiness with where the economies are going, where countries are going.t in the w is he it in form of a populist uprising at the polls. the progloballization, proeuropean integration, prodemocracy forces losing ground toissidents, people are

not happy with what governments are doing and the economic propses they rece in countries where the ballot box is not an option like in lebanon or hong kong, in a sense. you are seeing these things come out on the street. and i would say also that if we looked at the general numbers for wherthe global economy is, we're seeing a gradual decline. we hear less and lesus talk abot the promises about emerging maets, countries from developing world, you know, becoming wealthy and prosperous and self-sustaining, economicically. the economic underbelly is also weak. so finally since president trump has come intoce offihe has given a lot more latitude to as they please.ernments to do and i think in some cases we where seeinauthoritarian overreach triggering backlashes, where we're seeing that that moment where authoritarian government thought that they have it all undonerrol, and

they now can push further, is now receive receiving a push back from the public. >> sreenivasan: over the decade it seems that protes have always been lead by a particular generation, is tre a demographic consistency here? because at least in the videos it seems that they are young comes to south i america or the middle east or hong kong that are really push ig now. >> welean in most of the areas that you refer to, the youth is the overwhelming portion of the population. h so whenever ye large numbers of people in the streets, you will see a lot of young people. otherwise you won't get those numbers in the streets if youngs peoplelt show up. but also young people are both more risk-takers and also more worried about e future, and are more willing to challenge the way things are. things up. desio shake e or inanon, in chil hong kong or in egypt, thisis turning out into being at the forefront of challenging

existing authority and state structures. t the problem wis is that-- that there is also no leadership, there iso party, there is no clear blue print that is driving these protesan. we can see a repeat of what happened during the arab spring where even where they succeeded as in egypt, they were not able new, and elsewher were notng le to sustain the protests and in some cases as in syria or libya, things aually fell apart completely. >> we're also seeing that governmentsmare gettinter in figuring out how to use the same tools or to block those tools that protestors are using digitally so some protestors might be using certain apps to organize and governments are figuring out how to stothat. >> well, what we have seen clearly since the american elections is that the internet is no longer a force for democracy. the way we used tthink about

it. that it actually can be a forcei for under democracy, both democratic practice, as in the case of u.s. elections, but also undermining prodemocracy movements of trying not only to jam their building of the community but also spreading of false information that can confuse things. so governments have become a lot better at that but what we are seeing is that they are not able to assert total erntrol. in oords, there are cases where the populaon still shows its discontent despite what is ing said by the government and despite the limitations of social media. >> all right, vali nasr, a middle east scholar and kinsessor at johns hop school of advanced international study. thank you so much for joining us tonight. >> thank you. s thompson: this tuesday' election day marks the end of

one of the most hotly contested city cncil races in seattle's history. a record 55 candidates competed in all seven districts during the primary-- most 20 more than in the last such election in 2015. and th's not the only figure that's gone up. the number of individuals donating to those candidates went from less than 19,000 in 2015 to more than 50,000 this year a unique public financing due to program in seattle, the only one newshour weekend's ivettey. feliciano visited the city to learn more >> reporter: it's nearing the ead of a long, hard-fought electionn in seattle, and in the second district, two candidates are in the final push to win a seat on the city council. former seattle human rights commissioner tammy moral, who spy,e with us at a local bak ho campaigning on the rising cost oing that's pushing many people out of the city. ha we have to stop the

displacements happening, and really focus on building community wealth, and building shared ownership of cisets in te . nthose are the kinds of issues that i'm iested in. >> reporter: her opponent is mark solomon, a crime prevention coordinator withhe seattle police department and a retired air force reserve colonel. he says his primary focus is on public safety. >> it's the thing that i hear the most concern about, you know, in the district is people ket feeling safe, feeling our police department is understaffed. at the same time, wanting to have a good relationship with the police department, where officers can integrate with community and interact in more meaninays, and not just in enforcement ways, but to build coy trust. >> reporter: two candidates with two visions. but one thing they have in common is how their campaigns are funded. >> are you familiar with the democracy voucher program? >> yeah.> > reporter: by getting these signatures, solomon just earned $100 for his campaign without taking any money out of the

voter's pocket. it's all thanks to a unique campaign funding method, one that seattle voters passed through a ballot initiative in 201 to try to even the fundraising playing field. it involves what are known as "democracvouchers." it works like this: each local electn cycle, all registered voters receive four $25 vouchers cat th donate to up to four city council candidates eeo have volud to participate in the program. it's nded through an annual%$3 h the city says costs the average seattle homeowner about $8 per year. >> we are the very first city in the country to adopt the program. so we are a model for the, for the world. >> reporter: wayne barnett is the executive director of seattle's ethics and elections commission which runs the voucher program. he says it has two goals: one is to increase the number of candidates by making it possible to raise a lot of money witht donors.ions to deep-pocketed

>> and the second is to broaden the base of contributors. you know, i think up to that time, we saw that roughly only 1-2% of seattleites ever contributed to a local camign. and i think the idea was to really broaden that base. >> reporter: seattle's city arcouncil electionnon- partisan. candidates in each of the city's seven districts compete first in a primary election. then the top two finishers face off in the general election for the council seat. nearly all of the candidates in the general this year are using democracy vouchs. mark solomon says he wouldn't have gotten into the race without them. >> quite frankly, i don't know if i would hara been able to e the funds to be able to, you know, participate in this process. the vouchers, in my mind, do level the playing field in many ways. >> reporter: tammy morales says because of the vouchers, it's been different campaigning with low-income voters than it ud to be. >> i could knock on someone' door, and really have a meaningful conversation, and i

knew they were interested. what i was saying resonated, but i wasn't about to ask them for a donation. with the democracy voucher program, there was a way for them to contribute and invest in my campaig a so it was huge. hi, there! >> reporter: so far, morales has raised over $126,000 through the voucherrogram. that's about 67% of her campaign funding. solom $111,000, about 75% of his funding. th have also accepted individual cash donations, but like all the program's participants, they are subject the candidates using vouchers this year can't spend more than $150,000 in combined cash and vouchers over the course of show their opponents, or theiran opponents' surrogates, are spending more. candidates not in the program d as much money as they want. some voters, like gift shop

owner karla esquivel, say the demracy voucher program mak thl em fre engaged in this year's election. she donated the money from all hevohers to morales. >> someone like me-- a woman of color, business owner,o single mom esn't have the extra funds to necessarily donate to cai'ndidates liklike to - that gives me an opportunity to put my money where i would like to s it spent. >> reporter: but the program has had some unintended consequences. so far this year, vouchers account for abint $2.4 million ontributions. but independent political groups which are not subject tinthe same spelimits as candidates have raised more than $8 million. wayne barnett believes that democracy vouchers may be one of the factors that increased outside spending, because candidates who couldn't normall raise large sums can now do so through the program, large donors are trying to out-spend

them through political action committees. in fact, 2019 has seen more expenditures by independent lastlections combined.n in the amazon - whose corporate headquarters is in seattle - alone has contributed $2 million to a pac sponsored by the seattlile metron chamber of commerce. the r aesult this outside money is that both morales and solom spending caps lifted due to independent expenditures in their race. while pacs supharting morales spent about $30,000, those supporting solomon have spent almost two-thirds of that came from the chamber of commerce's pac. >> i have no ctrol over how those funds are being spent. it has not affected how i'm running my campaign. my campaign is funded primarily through individual contributions and contributions from - through

the democracy vouchers. >> reporter: morales says that outside fundraising has undermined the supposed "level playing field" for candidates in the democracy voucher program. >> it's unprecedented how much money is being spent in thise- city council rnot just my race, but for all the other districts as well. this democracy voucher program was intended to try to reduce the influence of that kind of outside money on our local government. it didn't work, i think because of the way this race has turned out, because of all of that outside money that has come in, our council members are starting to look at how they can regulate individual contributions itho ose big corporate pacs. >> reporter: we asked wayne barnett about pacs outspending candidates using democracy vouchers. does that put other candidates participating in the democracy voucher program at a disadvantage in any way? >> i think that depends on how you look at it. 12f e 14 candidates in the general election are participating in the program. so clely, candidates don't

view it as an impediment to their running a credib race. reporter: even though she feels that there are some address, morales remains to enthusiastic about democracy vouchers. >> oh, my gosh. it's a game changer. it really is, because that was more time to go knocs, and talk to people. policy positions.thinking about it was more time meeting with community leaders.rk >> reporter: olomon agrees. >> going to the doors, engaging they are concerned about.at i'm mark solomon. i'm running for seattle city council. and then letting them know about me, some of the approaches that i haveth, and asking i've used their democracy vouchers. some have said, "yes, i've already sent them in. i've already used them." or others have said, "oh, no, i still have those." it's like, "would you be willing to help the campaign by signing those vouchers over?" and many have said, "yes," and that's been-- it's been wonderful.

>> thompson: this year, many young people worldwide are following the example of swedish teenage climate actnbist greta thg and looking for ways to draw attention to global warming. indonenesia isf the world's largest contributors to ocean plastic pollutants. now discarded plastics are being turned into puppets help studts learn the importance of protecting the environment. >> thompson: using bottle-capsr oses and shredded plastic bags for hair, school children from indonesia's central island of lombok are making puppets with guidance from professional puppeteers. >> ( translated ): it is very helpful because it can reduce plastic waste at home and in the environment. >> ( translated ): in school, teachers can teach children to

be more creative when dealing with plastic waste and other types of waste, to make things more useful and it cannge used as pland learning material. >> thompson: the puppeteers started using plastic waste last year to bring environmental messages to their audiences in a country with a long traditionf shadow puppetry. >> ( t aranslated ): smaunts of waste we are hoarding in our homes can cause bigger problems. of course we cannot say making plastic ppets is the best lution, but through it, children may feel ashamed of littering. >> thompson: children ra sing in age fren to 16 help collect and sort plastic waste from their own neighborhoods, and then wash containers and paont faceaper cups, before building the puppets using bamboo sticks. >> ( translated ): for us, at sasak puppeteer school, this is fun. and we hope this can benefit many people, and haur an impact onnvironment, the world's environment.

>> thompson: tomorrow on the newshour, a look at the g: overnor's race in kentuc bellwether of what support the trump administration might have going into 2020. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm megan thompson. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by wgmedia access group a access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:

bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein mily. rosalind p. walter, in memory of george o'neil. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided rica, designing customized individual and group retirement products. at's why we're your retirement compaal. additiupport has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the eamericane. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. be more. pbs.

(upbeat music) (gentle music) - my fsist paid writing ment was a column for the southwest journal. e i wre editor saying there are a lot of kids in southwest minneapolis and you don't have anything written by a child. so i'mhat child.