reporter: this friday, linus is in blin n instd of a at hool. wrorote his speecech the nt befofore, d is n nowoing too print it out at a copyhohop. 18-year-old ragna diedederichss graduating f from high schchools year. ragna: the previous geneneratis didn't't do enough, , or nothit alall. that's a a huge problem, and is one they have toto answer for. covestory about t the young activists anand their movevem. what motivateses them, and h ho they envisagage their fututure? uli: i b believe there i is a l transformatition underway.y. here, , discuss notions like ssss is mo a l lot n, unlili five or six x ars ago. think it has bece sexyxy it's'shat people want. reporter: anand even the politicianans seem to bebe takin intererest. a minist h has inved t the teenagers for a quick chat. lis hahas be held d upso the others havave gone aheadad. linus:s: try to workrk on te minister and tug ahihis hehetstrings a littl thth is a big issue r usus. so we needo o use emotionsnso hopelllly st him i io action. repoporterhigh h hes, indeed. the kids also get to

my sons dydyinin front my eyesesmy child is blin 's paying for hifafather sins. rertrter: r thesese tracized famieses, cas like tse are a refuge, and at the same time, a prison. host: female genital mutilation still regularly happens in around 30 countries, most of them in africa, the middle east, and asia. according to the u.n., around 200 million women and girls worldwide have been subjected to the terrible violation. some are cut as teenagers, others as young children. as awareness of the topic rises, the average age when fgm is carried out sinks. younger girls put up less resistance. female genital mutilation occurs in societies that are christian, islamic, and animist. there's evidence it's been going on in some places for at least 2000 years. where it's common, it's performed on girls and young women from every stratum of society, in both cities and the countryside. and for the rerest of their liv, they suffer from both the physical and psychological consequences. aissata: this is the house where the cutting happened. i remember that day like it was yestste

blin the blatant r.breaks my heart, and i'm wondering what you can do -- this is probably a $6 million question for you, but what you can do to heal the racial divides that donald trump has emboldened, and also what we as white people who don't believe in that and don't support that, what can we do to help offset the obvious flash point of racial divide in this country. >> thank you for having the courage to stand and share your personal story. [ applause ] part of the steps that we must take to get to the place that we know we can get and that we imagine and where we want to be is we do have to speak the truth. you spoke a very difficult truth, and these truths must be acknowledged if we are to get to the place that we need to be. for too long, frankly, in our country, for too long, we have not had these honest discussions about race. we've just not. you can look at textbooks in public schools that have erased so much of the history, the awful, shameful history on race in this country. i'll give you an

what we have done in the fund management world is locate blin, we already had businesses in luxenberg funds business tended to be located. as far as fund managers are concerned, they are reasonably well prepared for a hard brexit if it came to that. juliette: what happens to sterling? martin: sterling weakens a bit. there is certainly -- i don't feel there's anything in sterling towards a hard brexit. stilleople in the u.k. think some sort of deal will get done. at the lastet done minute, when they have to reach a negotiation. juliette: let's talk about your business. there was a huge slump in your stock prices when mitsubishi usj sold out. down frome a thumbs investors about the merger of standard life and aberdeen. how did you read it? martin: mitsubishi has been a long-term shell of hours since 2008. when they bought a business in , mitsubishist year told us they would sell the stock. when you play such a large stock , it has most of that back already. ofwas a strategic decision theirs. as you know, the very strong relationship continues with aberdeen standard investments. juliette

. >> that's what'so weird, first of all, the fact that theay blin y the decision to drop all charges.el as you wl know, sometimes plea deals areso reached. times somebody doesn't plead to all 16 counts, they plead the one and there's some kind of arrangement. here is the situation where there's no deal like that.s prosecutismiss all charges but then say their case was solid and they on't believe he was innocent. itakes no sense. >> somebody is covering for something. as you say, savannah, in a traditional deal where you say andthing is non-violent someone will take responsibility and you have toelt agreement, that can ppen. is isn't that because jussie smollett's lawyers are claiming total vindication which is at odds with the arrangement that was apparently just reached. >> the prosecutor willsay, and it's true, you can do sometimes a pretrial defensive version program and not be charged. he's saying that happens every day of the week, there's nothing funny about this situation. >> what doesn't happen every day of the week is a national campaign, according to the evidence and the other

. >> straight ahead we'll talk t actress amber tam blin about her new book and amy sedar sinchtss.ood morning to you, i'm eun yang. right now let's check on your w morning commuh melissa mollet andour first 4 traffic. the slow is up top outer loop approachin of an earlier crash. arlington, northbound gw parkway, look at southund and northbound, just a mess. avoid gw parkway if youbl pos can. southbound rockville park before red land road, disabled vehicle blocking the l >> we'll take a break and check your forecast when we come back. stay with us. >>> cold sunshine for today, cold, sunny and breezy tomorrow. wmorrow will be the coldest day of the weekh a high around the freezing mark tomorrow and windchills in tos teens of the day. dry and cold thursday. a chance for rain-snow. most of thennow chance friday is along the corridor. a chance for a littlei- melti81n saturday with highs finally back tohe 50s. >>> chuck, thank you. get the latest newsnd weather any time in the nbc washington app. have a great day. >> announcer: from nbc news this is "today" live from studio 1a in rockefe

and the president's $750 billion blin for defense spending gets us right back on track with where we need to to be. >> where does the money go? >> overall, it's rebuilding capabilities, improving readiness of the military, all -- all across the board. so whether it's rebuilding the force structure of the army or rebuilding the nature of the navy, modernizing the navy, a lot of modernization of platforms. it really -- $750 billion goes to all of the above. i mean all of the areas that you think of with defense and with modernizing national defense that the money goes to all the above. >> it would cut non-defense spending by 9%. however the "washington post" notes that the administration now projects deficits would total $1.19 trillion in 2020 or 4.9% of gross domestic product and would exceed $1 trillion the next three years. does that concern you? >> absolutely. spending is -- remains a problem and it's been a problem under the republicans and democrats in washington, d.c. the president's budget does, though, balance around the 12th year and gets close to balancing at the 10-year mar