Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20240622

Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ifill wall street was hit by a wave of selling today, triggered by chinas currency devaluation. The price of oil and other commodities plunged, amid fears of slowing growth in china, and materials stocks followed suit. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 212 points to close near 17,400. The nasdaq fell 65 points, and the s p 500 dropped 20. Woodruff nine people are facing federal charges in a hacking scheme that gamed wall street for 100 million. Federal prosecutors in new jersey and new york city say hackers in ukraine stole Corporate News releases before they became public. Then, traders in the u. S. Allegedly used it to engage in insider trading. Five of the suspects were arrested today. Ifill the head of the Environmental Protection agency apologized today for a waste spill caused by Agency Workers in colorado. Three million gallons of yellowish, toxic liquid released from a long abandoned mine has polluted rivers in colorado and new mexico. The e. P. A. s Gina Mccarthy said crews are working roundthe clock. The e. P. A. Has taken steps to capture and treat the discharge at the mine itself so we are addressing the risk of any additional downstream incidents. And we have constructed four ponds at the site where we are treating the water to lower the acidity levels and remove dissolved medals. Ifill the e. P. A. Says the tainted rivers are flowing too fast for the arsenic and heavy metals to pose an Immediate Health threat. But stretches of waterway will be off limits for Drinking Water and Recreational Use until at least the middle of august. Woodruff ferguson, missouri remained under a state of emergency for a second day, after a night of relatively peaceful protest. Crowds came out again to mark one year since the shooting death of 18yearold Michael Brown. There were 24 arrests, but no shooting or looting as there had been the night before. On sunday night, police critically wounded an 18year old after he allegedly fired on them. Ifill in turkey, the military stepped up its assault on kurdish militants. Warplanes struck sites of the kurdistan workers party, or p. K. K. , in a province near turkeys borders with iran and iraq. It was the latest move in a new government crackdown, and it followed attacks on Turkish Security forces yesterday, by the p. K. K. And other groups. Woodruff the government of greece and International Lenders reached agreement today on a new bailout. Negotiators worked through the night to nail down the deal, worth more than 90 billion. A European Commission spokeswoman said it still needs approval from Greeces Parliament and eurozone countries. What we have at the moment is a technical level agreement reached by the staff of the institutions and the greek authorities on the ground following the weeks of negotiations. What we dont have at the moment is a political agreement and thats what we would need. Woodruff greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras immediately called a vote in parliament for thursday night. He faces opposition within his own party to some of the terms of the deal, such as selling state property and cutting pensions. Ifill chaos grew on the greek island of kos today as authorities struggled with a wave of migrants. Fights broke out after officials moved about 1,500 people to a stadium for processing. Some jostled for positions and police sprayed fire extinguishers to subdue the crowd. At least 124,000 migrants have reached greece this year, up 750 from a year ago. Woodruff and, theres word a truck driver had been awake for 28 hours before the wreck that severely injured comedian tracy morgan and left another person dead. The National Transportation safety board reported that today. Its reconstruction found the truck blew past warning signs and slammed into a limousinevan carrying morgan on the new jersey turnpike last year. And, it said, no one in the van was wearing a seat belt. Ifill still to come on the newshour what a weaker chinese yuan means for the global economy. Google adopts a new alphabet to protect its core business. And much more. Woodruff now to chinas decision to devalue its currency, the yuan. This effort to revive Economic Growth in the country shook up Global Markets today and sparked fears among u. S. Exporters. The decision to devalue had an instant effect the yuan currency fell nearly two percent against the u. S. Dollar the most in a decade. Beijings goal to make chinas exports cheaper and boost an economy thats been slowing markedly. translated the export sector is facing great pressure. Inventories are high. Manufacturing, including investment, is facing over capacity. So, in order to stop sliding export figures, we need to adjust the currency rate. Woodruff indeed, chinas exports were down sharply in july, by more than eight percent. Even so, reaction to the currency move was mixed on the streets of beijing. translated it should be a good thing for the peoples lives. Exports will be easier to export, and it will be easier to sell things. translated in the short term, it doesnt look like it will have any particularly obvious effects. Woodruff meanwhile, the European Commission welcomed the prospect of a weaker chinese currency. To the extent that the changes announced overnight reflect a shift in operating regime, allowing the daily fix to better reflect the balance of demand and supply in the Foreign Exchange market, we consider that this is a positive development. Woodruff u. S. Exporters have long complained that chinas currency valuation is already too low giving its goods an unfair advantage. But in washington, the state department was reluctant to criticize todays move we have pressed china to continue financial reforms and while we want to see additional Economic Reforms we believe that are needed, we have seen progress. That has included the recent commitments by china that were secured at the most recent security and economic dialogue. Woodruff china is the latest large economy to devalue its currency. In the past two years, japan and the European Union took similar steps. We take a closer look at the move with greg ip, chief economics commentator for the wall street journal, and orville schell, director of the center on u. S. China relations at the asia society. Greg ip, why is china doing this . I think there are a couple reasons. The first one is that the chinese economy is slowing. Its growth rate has dropped to 7 this year. Now a country like the United States would kill for a 7 growth rate, but historically thats actually rather weak for china, and given the problems we know that exist with chinese data, it may be that the economy is actually growing even more slowly than that. The recent numbers show that exports in particular have really fallen quite hard. So a natural response for that is for a country to lower the value of its currency in hopes that boosts the performance of exports in other country. Woodruff the Chinese Government put out a statement. They mentioned the growth rate, but they also talked about wanting to go along with marketbased fluctuations in currencies, as well. Whats that part of it . Thats a very important aspect of this announcement, because historically in most countries, like the United States or europe, the Exchange Rate is pushed up or down by Market Forces of supply and demand. Not in china inch china the government says what they want the Exchange Rate and the market is expected to follow. For years the United States and the International Monetary fund have said, china, to be a modern economy, you must allow Market Forces to hold sway. Thats what china said yesterday. They said, from now on well allow the market to tell us which direction the Exchange Rate should go. Its just telling us, in this circumstance it should go down. It will take time to see if china stands behind that commitment. At times when the market wants the Exchange Rate to go up. Woodruff orville schell, what more would you add to that . What more is going on that would explain what china has done in. Well, i think we see embedded within the chinese Economic System this extraordinary contradiction. I mean, remember, its half hybrid capitalist Market Driven and half valley controlled command economy. So we see these state decisions that happen quite often. We saw just when the stock market crashed where the government intervened to artificially prop up the price of shares. And here we see the government really determining what its currency should be worth on the International Market rather than allowing it to spontaneously happen according to Market Forces. The dilemma here is hue jinping by his own admission, wants to allow the market to determine the allocation of resource, but here we see the state intruding again in a way that falsely manipulates the value of their currency. This sort of heightens the degree to which we can see the chinese economy is on the horns of a dilemma, a real contradiction. Half of this and half of that. Woodruff orville schell, you were telling us earlier today this also tells how much stress the Chinese Government is under just over its legitimate similar what did you mean by that . Well, the Chinese Communist party does not really have an ideology anymore. The basis of its legitimacy is by in large its Economic Performance ability. Lately weve seen a number of big hits on that. That legitimacy. Mainly weve seen Slower Growth rates, 7 , probably a lot lower. Weve seen a housing bubble. Then we had the stock market crash. Now we have flagging exports. So at the same time they want to increase consumption at home and diminishing the need to rely on exports, theyre stimulating exports by lowering the cost of their currency. So this again sort of puts everything at the doorstep of the government. If they succeed, they succeed. But if these measures fail, then the government takes another hit at its legitimacy. Woodruff meanwhile, greg ip, the rest of the world is watching. There was a lot of reaction today. What is the impact on the United States . Well, it will partly depend on whether other countries feel they have to lower their currencies to compete with china. Assume for a moment they dont. The United States lost millions of jobs over the last two decades as trade with china expanded. That process is largely over. The decline in the yuan in the last day is too small to make a big difference to the u. S. Economy. It will make imports a little cheaper, so maybe that keeps inflation lower, but i think the impact on the u. S. Economy will be very, very small. Woodruff so if youre a u. S. Consumer, what do you look to happen . Some things we know that are made in china like clothing and toys and many other products might be a little cheaper. The really big issue will be political. This is a big problem for barack obama as he seeks to get the Transpacific Partnership completed, because as you know, there are a lot of people in congress who wanted precisely this sort of activity prohibited, currency manipulation prohibited, by that agreement. The administration resisted that. Woodruff and we saw a leading member of congress saying today they may look for ways to penalize chinese as a result of what they did. Orville schell, so whats at stake here for the Chinese Government . What has to happen for them to come out of this feeling stronger, or what are they worried about . Well, they pride themselves, hoisted on their own petard. In effect theyre becoming responsible for more and more aspects of an economy, which theyld have just stood aside and said, well, were going to let the market determine value. And this is the future, this is where were headed. I think the problem is that there is going to be political fallout. We near a president ial election year. Moreover, president jinping from china is coming in september for a summit with obama, and theres so many issues now dividing the country, that to have one more sort of thrown on the fire is going to make it doubly difficult for them to, for instance, come to some agreement on Global Climate change issues and things like that. Could be that Climate Change will be our saving grace, but this is an area where we can agree on, where we do have a common interest. Well have to wait and see. Woodruff if you mentioned additional pressure on the president , greg. What are his options . I saw speculation today that said maybe this means the Federal Reserve might delay raising Interest Rates in the fall. How do you see that . There is that possibility, but given that the change in the Exchange Rate is so tiny and it only affects right now trade with china, i dont think it will have a big enough impact on overall inflation to affect the Federal Reserves decision one way or the other. I think the United States, weve seen for the obama administration, they got a little bit of what they wanted because they have longasked china to make the Exchange Rate more market determined and they lost what they wanted because the Exchange Rate went in the wrong direction. I think the burden on them is well take a waitandsee attitude. They have long resisted all these calls from congress to brand china a currency manipulator. Out of the view that would just cause more problems and they could use quiet pressure instead. I think their hope will be that the chinese are sincere and that when the markets start to push the Exchange Rate up, that will be allowed to happen. Its Great Britain to be a waitandsee process. Woodruff greg ip, orville schell, we thank you both very much. Thank you. Ifill now big changes at a global techbusiness icon. Google announced late yesterday it is restructuring. The core internet search business with which it is most closely identified now becomes the largest subsidiary of a newly created Holding Company named alphabet. Other enterprises under the google umbrella, like the home Automation Division nest, become part of alphabet. Google cofounders larry page and sergey brin will oversee the new conglomerate, and current Vice President Sundar Pichai will become googles new c. E. O. But what difference will this make for consumers . By way of background and explanation, we turn to david yoffie, a professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business school who writes about the technology industry. So professor yoffie, why the reorganization . I think larry had a couple ideas in mind. Probably first and foremost, he probably wanted to streamline the company, make it much more entrepreneurial, and give people in very Small Businesses to be their own c. E. O. , so they could run the company in a more entrepreneurial way. They also wanted to make the business respond faster to the market, streamline the bureaucracy at the top of the organization. And i think he also was hoping it would be a great way to retain some of the really good people who otherwise might be looking for other opportunities in silicon valley. Ifill what are these other nonsearch businesses . I think you call them moon shot enterprises. Well, i dont call them that. Thats what larry calls them. They are things like google x, which is robots and selfdriving cars, kaliko, which is looking at how do you expand life expectancy, naft, which you already mentioned, and drop can, an internetbased video which you can put in a home or a business. There are businesses like Google Capital and google ventures, which are traditional Venture Capital firms or latestage venture firms looking at longterm investments in technology trends. Ifill tell us about Sundar Pichai. What does he have to do about this, and what difference does it make that hes taking over, any . I think sundar is known to be a great manager, extremely wellliked within the company. Hes largely going to continue doing what hes doing before, except he goes from a senior Vice President to a c. E. O. , at least in the context of the google umbrella, which is now going to be called the alphabet umbrella. Ifill how does google or alphabet, but in general the company, make its money. It makes a lot of money, but is it really from all of these enterprises, or is it from what we know and what we recognize . There are two answers to the question. We dont know. Google doesnt tell us. They keep all of the information about their segment reporting, what each individual business makes a secret. But we know that they make about 90 of their profits from advertising, which is the business where sundar is going to be the c. E. O. Ifill okay. So when you get your google screen up for your search with your google cood l or whatever else you find there, what difference will it make for the average consumer that the company is structuring itself differently now . So the average consume her not see any difference whatsoever. The google web site will be the google web site. The chrome browser will be the chrome browser, and android on your smartphone will be exactly the same, rub by the same people in the same organization. So for a consumer, it shouldnt be meaningful. The real question is will bit different for investors. Will they get more information . Will it be different for these other businesses, where they will potentially be unlocked and able to move more quickly. Also will it be different for this Public Perception of google, which has a reputation of being kind of different, a little quirky, and now it seems like its headed more in the direction of berkshirehathaway or a ge. And thats the open question. Is alphabet really trying to become a conglomerate like a berkshirehathaway, or is it just a reorganization . That part, the verdict is still out. Its very hard to be a conglomerate in the tech world. Its a lot easier at berkshirehathaway when youre dealing with Companies Like fruit of the loom and net jets or insurance. But in a company such as alphabet or google, youre dealing with very hightech, very capital intensive and in some cases certainly deintensive businesses where innovation is the key and not simply running the business for cash flow. Finally, does this protect good until any way from the challenges to its primacy, especially in europe, regulatory challenges, by reorganizing itself, does it become less vulnerable . I dont think so. Googles core business, whats going to still be called google inc. , is the primary business where theyre being challenged by antitrust authorities in europe. That will be equally vulnerable under this structure as well as the old structure. So google still has to deal with potential antitrust issues, whether theyre trying to put other competitors in their business out of business, and this structure really doesnt help them at all. Ifill professor david yoffie of the Harvard Business school, thanks for helping us out. Thank you. Woodruff stay with us, coming up on the newshour a resurgence of segregated schools in the u. S. Artistic portals bridge connections across cultures and borders. Plus, stories of note that flew under the radar. But first, the highprofile killing of cecil the lion by an american dentist in zimbabwe recently has put the spotlight back on big game hunting and poaching in africa. Today, zimbabwe lifted the ban on lion, leopard and elephant hunting which it imposed after the killing and worldwide attention which followed. Tonight, we take a look at efforts to stop illegal poaching in neighboring south africa, with a oneofakind Group Fighting to protect endangered species. Newshour special correspondent Martin Seemungal has our story. Reporter they take their name from the most feared snake in africa. The black mambas are a specially trained, allwomen, antipoaching unit, protecting rhinors and other endangered species. I wanted to protect the rhinors. Reporter uhhuh. Because i heard a lot about people killing rhinos. So i just had an interest that i must come and work here and protect those rhinos. Reporter theyre critical eyes and ears on the ground, patrolling the perimeter fence, looking for any signs of poacher incursions. They walk 20 miles, often longer, during the day, and they work at night, a loud, very visible display that they are stitch watching after dark. They use a vehicle at night because it is far too dangerous to come out on foot. But there are still threats. The wild animals, thats an elephant they have to back off. Lions and leopards hunt at night. Poachers are usually heavily armed. All of the women admit it wasnt easy in the beginning. One of the black mamba veterans runs the operation center, but she spent three years on the beat in the bush. Knowing that there is danger, you just think, i dont know if i am going to face a lion. I dont know when im going to face a rhino, so, yeah, first time, i was afraid. Reporter all of them got over those fears. At first i was scared, but each and every time when you go out, i get used to it, and im loving it. Reporter the black mambas learn in balloley game reserve, part of the Greater Kruger National park. Kruger is enormous, the size of the state of new jersey. The rhino population is constantly threatened by poachers, but here there has been a sharp drop in attacks since the black mambas were deployed. They are African Women in an african context doing this job for the first time in the history of africa. Copy that. I copy that. Good luck. Reporter Craig Spencer is the warden here and the one who created the black mambas. He rates their overall performance as excellent and sayings they often do better than men on the foot patrols. The womens ability to pick up those things, you know, to see those subtle differences is much higher than the men. So theyre much more observant. Men are too interested in riding quad bikes and carrying big guns and jumping outs of helicopters. The women arent interested in any of that, at all. Reporter they dont carry weapons. The poachers usually do. Theyre often caught on cameras mowlted throughout the park. The pictures are transmitted to three different smartphones. If you zoom in, you can see the guy in the front is carrying a weapon. Theres a third guy backing him up behind. Hes also carrying some sort of a weapon. If we put it on the computer, we can advance the picture. You can see, these guys are up to no good. Reporter if the black mambas spot a poacher or need support, they call for backup. Armed rangers are on constant standby, ready to react when the call comes. In the three years they have been operational, they have earned the respect in a profession long dominated by men. They are determined to prove themselves. Theyre wondering, what kind of woman are you, doing mans job. I told them, thats in the mans job. Anything that man can do, i can do it. Reporter but work in the park is only half of the black mamba equation. There is a furious battle going on in the many villages surrounding the park, a battle for hearts and minds. The Unemployment Rate in these areas is 80 , sometimes even higher. The poachers know that, and they take advantage of it. But when the women return for their regular breaks, they bring an important message. This woman is home for a sevenday break. She will spend much of that time talking to teenagers. Im warning them that its too risky for them if they want to poach, because rangers are waiting for them so they can kill the poachers. Reporter the women also target schools in areas where poachers are known to be most active. Were letting information go out to the community, but in the reserve, weve got black mambas that will protect our rhinos. So if a parent is a poacher and they come into our reserve, the kids can act as an Early Warning system that the parents shouldnt come into the reserve, so thats what we want. Reporter 11yearold jenny has her own ideas on how to fight the poachers. We must make lots and lots and lots of poachers, everywhere around youre going, save the rhinos and the poachers. Reporter the message is getting through, making it more difficult for the poachers to successfully recruit people in these villages. There are 26 black mambas at balloley. The warden wants the train more, but funding is already tight. Amy clark manages the office. Its very frustrating. Because potentially there is so much more we could do, but we need the funding to enable us to do that. It does get very frustrating. And quite stressful, as well, at times, when you sort of are running around sort of almost feels like youre begging sometimes, but unfortunately thats what we need to do to be able to get the funds to continue. Reporter the mambas salary is covered by the south African National parks authority, but its not much, about 250 a month. The extreme low end of south africas national pay scale. Yet similar to what other park workers get. But they say theyre driven to do this because they say they want to preserve something for their children. We want our children to be able to see rhinos, not from a television or a magazine. We want them to see them live in the reserve. It is important for us to save the rhinos so that the next generation will be able to see that they are rhinos. Not just by history that there was rhinos. Otherwise they will be like dinosaurs. For the pbs newshour, im Martin Seemungal in south africa. Ifill for the first time this school year, nonwhite children made up more than half of the countrys Public School students. But the countrys schools have grown only more segregated since 1988. The most recent data shows the average white student goes to a school that is more than 70 white. And less than a quarter of black students go to majority white schools. Jeffrey brown takes a look at whatever happened to integration. Brown one metropolitan area where schools are largely segregated is st. Louis. And one year after the shooting death of Michael Brown in ferguson, its an issue that continues to resonate there and beyond. New York Times Magazine writer Nikole Hannahjones has reported on the situation in ferguson and elsewhere in the country. Her work has appeared in pro publica and on the radio program, this american life. Also joining us is sheryll cashin, a law professor at Georgetown University who writes on desegration efforts. Her latest book is titled, place, not race. Welcome to both of you. Nikole hannahjones, let me start with you. Give us a quick overview of what you saw in ferguson and its schools. What struck you most forcefully there . Well, the thing that strikes you most is this is the most segregated, impoverished districts in the entire state. There are 520 districts in missouri, and this district ranked dead last. It was stripped of its accreditation, and in the classrooms, sometimes theres very minimal amount of teaching occurring. There was even a shortlived effort i gather there to bring some of the students from that School District to another suburb, which was mostly white. Yes. Because of the missouri transfer law, i call it accidental integration, because the law was never intended as an integration statute, but because normandy is almost entirely black and lost its accreditation, under the law it was given the right to send its students to an accredited district new york this case the accredited districts are mostly heavily white. Michael brown sheryll cashin, it is more, not less common that american schools are segregated. Right. In the 70s and 80s, many School Districts were under court order to desegregate. In the 90s, the Supreme Court signalled it was time for courts to stop policing desegregation and twothirds of the School Districts that had been under desegregation orders have come out from under them. Weve had a rapid, massive, recession recession immigration since 1998. Brown have we largely given up on the idea of reintegration . I hope thats in the true. There are about 80 School Districts in this country that voluntarily have School Integration plans. They tend to use economic integration as their model rather than race. The Supreme Court makes it hard. But those 80 School Districts are out there trying without a lot of encouragement frankly from the federal government or others. So i hope, because there are successful places like louisville, like montgomery county, maryland, increasingly people are looking to the hartford example where 45 magnet schools that are well resourced and integrated have been built because of a lawsuit, and theres a Multiracial Coalition of parents that supports it. So there are positive examples out there. I hope we have not given up on it. Brown Nikole Hannahjones, what did your report tell you about integration and what are the key factors in it . Well, it tells you that integration efforts in this country peaked in 1988. Thats also when the closure of the achievement gap peaked. So since then weve seen largely an unraveling. Sheryll talks about there are 80 School Districts that are actively attempting integration, but there are thousands of School Districts in this country, and most of them are not. As nation weve decided that desegregation efforts are not politically worth our while. And so you have seen a pretty rapid recession immigration, particularly in the south, and in much of the northeast, there was never much desegregation in the first place. What are the biggest factors in all of this, as to who is getting a better education. Is it money . Is it teachers . What is it that makes the difference . What do we know . Well, there are two things. Now were seeing in black and latino schools, a high concentration of poverty, which provides a very difficult learning environment and teaching environment. But also Data Collected by the u. S. Department of education shows that to this day we have failed the make separate equal. So schools that are heavily block and latino get the least qualified teachers. They get the least rigorous curriculum, their facilities are worse. So separation is continuing to harm these students. What would you add to that . Well, nikole is right. I dont want to misrepresent the facts. 80 districts pursue integration. 14,000 dont. And nikole is right. The vast majority of black and latino students at Public Schools today are in separate, unequal schools. And the United States of america does the opposite of what its competitors, who are beating us in the International Test scores, do. Our competitors put the most experienced teachers in disadvantaged areas. We do the opposite. We tend to put, you know, the weakest, often uncertified teachers in schools with the most need, and only 1 of highpoverty schools succeed. Unfortunately, the department of education has focused its efforts mainly on trying to turn around highpoverty schools with not much success. And it hasnt focused much on deacons traiting poverty, which is proven to be successful when it is achieved. Brown well have to leave it. There sheryll cashin, Nikole Hannahjones, thank you both very much. Thank you. Thank you. Woodruff now, an art project attempting to build individual connections across the globe. Its called portals, and is the brainchild of artist and former Television News producer amar bakshi, who told us that in his former profession the most meaningful conversations often came once the cameras were turned off. We spoke to bakshi during an installation earlier this summer that connected people in washington, d. C. With those in herat, afghanistan. Heres our look. My everyday life is not that crazy, or i dont live in a war zone. But occasionally you know there are that unfortunate events where there is a bomb or Something Like that. But life is good good its a bit intimidating to walk into a room and talk to a total stranger. The news always latches on to whatever is like the most attention grabbing, worst, the most horrible piece to show everybody. I met someone that i didnt know before and you know its almost like learning something new. My name is amar bakshi, im the creator of shared studios. Were looking at a portal. A large, gold shipping container so when you enter it you talk to someone in a similar space abroad, another gold container, live, full body with translation as if in the same room, one on one for 20 minutes. How do you feel . Is there weather there hot or not . It was wonderful experience that we shared our ideas about our cultures. Really . I can speak a Little German too. He asked me what i was studying, where i was from, if i would ever go to afghanistan. I think he was trying to convince me to come visit so. It is meant to enable encounters across all sorts of distances both geographic, ideological, genderbased, political you name it. My parents really wanted me to be a doctor but that was just not my path. I was a little bit worried about whether there would be anything to relate to, whether the conversation would just be filled with awkward pauses. Thats like everybodys parents this is a rare space where both people are in it in a similar contextual arrangement which doesnt immediately tell them to do or try to acquire to try to accomplish a particular yeah, what do you eat typically . Meat, uh red meat, uh, chicken or Something Like that. Thing and that i think is powerful in itself for people. I had actually planned to talk about some maybe more in depth, tough questions. Do you live in washington, d. C. . But when youre faced in just that short moment of someone you havent met its difficult to dive right into the meaty kind of controversial tough questions. People can go in there and chit chat about the weather and often they do because its hot here and there. But they can also go in and talk about and they do marriage, online dating, you know freedoms, war, loss. Life has really changed in afghanistan and everything has had a really big impact on our lives. Learning about a culture through tv or media is really hard but getting to know people and getting to talk to them in person, its much more effective. For a lot of people here you can feel conflicted about you know to what extent did we play a role in causing that. It was a really good experience and really interesting to hear kind of about his life and his perceptions of the u. S. And kind of to get a feel for a real person living in afghanistan. What is your favorite sport . I wasnt disappointed that we talked about some of the lighter stuff because a lot of times thats what you actually talk to people about in daily life. I think the value in this experience is just having that moment with someone partway across the world that you absolutely would not meet otherwise. And i think it tells you that every human on the planet has something to connect around. And so it was a pleasure to get to talk to someone that i otherwise would not meet and um, make that small connection, even for a moment, to start off my day. Ifill well be back with a look at interesting people and ideas online you may have missed. But first, its time to support your pbs station. This intermission gives your local station the opportunity to talk to you about making a ifill time now for our look at interesting people and ideas that you may have missed on the web, stories that are not trending. I sat down yesterday with carlos watson, the head of ozy. Com. Carlos, i want the start by talking to you about some of the stories that we dont hear that much about. One of them we do read a lot and see a lot about drones, drones getting in the way of planes landing at j. F. K. Or drones dropping off packages at your house. But it turns out the people are now looking at drones, these motorized, autonomous vehicles, airborne, and they have different uses for them. Two really interesting ones recently, gwen. One is in search of rescue. As you know, people use planes, boats, cars, trying very hard the find people who are lost, where people are hiking at sea, et cetera. Now theyre using drones. Theyre not only using drones to find people, but they can also bring food, they can bring medicine, they can carry up to seven pounds. So incredibly interesting use, only got permitted by the f. A. A. About six months ago. But it could radically change search and rescue. Ifill they also have the kind of drone you can put a camera in a ball and throw into a tight space to see things you otherwise wouldnt be able to see in very much some needless to say, our military has been using drones for a long time, using it in that regard. The other place youre now seeing it over in bhutan, a very small country on the edge of india, theyre now using it more to deliver health care services. So theyre saying that theyve only got 30 hospitals for almost a million people, relatively few doctors. Our ability to get the people in need of aid and to look around and understand and even to take sometimes some of the diagnoses from folks, its facilitated by this. They say in the future, gwen, even in cases of ebola outbreak, those sorts of things, where its difficult or sometimes unsafe, drones might facilitate. Ifill you mentioned india. One of the most interesting pieces on your site was about the most powerful politician most of us have never heard of. His name is vijay jolly. What a great name. 55 years old. Not elected to anything right now, but hes a key aide to the groundbreaking Prime Minister there in minute who, as you know, throughout the Longtime Congress party was quite controversial overseas in part because of some of his role a dozen years earlier when there was muslimhindu violences. Many muslims were kid. He wasnt even allowed, the Prime Minister, to visit the u. S. Jolly is this spokesperson outside of india, will lets change the image. Part of the way we change the image is regularly meet with socalled nonresident indian, indians who grew up in indians and now live in canada and the u. K. Ifill who can still vote. Who can still vote. Some 11 million of them had the possibility to fly back home last time around and vote in that big, historic election. The son and grandson of one Prime Minister ran against a former tea seller. Ifill how does he do is that . Does he do it with scwiep or technology as much as everything . Hes doing it with that, but hes doing with it the way major preachers and mange musicians have done it, with meeting at Madison Square garden and literally holding huge events. So, yes, the small events, but also the large events are quite interesting. This is the guy who is on the far right, a hindu nationalist hes sometimes called and regarded, but hes seeking to paint, if you will, a different image, a more inclusive image of the socalled b jp, now the ruling party. Ifill another thing going under the radar is a potential cure for stuttering, which theres. Its really ruined a lot of young childhood. In this case identifying a predisportion . Many adults and children suffer with stultering. There have been various kinds of behavioral therapy. Some of them shown in the movie about king george vi. Ifill the kings speech. Very famous people, everyone from wilt chamberlain, the basketball player to, someone like samuel l. Jackson, the actor. For years people encouraged children and adults to be less tense when theyre speaking as a way to ease the stuttering only in some cases to pronounce certain consonants more softly, now the question is is there interesting new genetic testing that one day may say to you, this young babys likely to struggle with this, and so perhaps encouraging you to intervene soorer with the belief if you intervene sooner it may allow you to prevent that child from beginning a pattering of stuttering. Ifill that intervention could be just a pill . That today is science fiction. Thats further away. But the fact were talking about using d. N. A. And genetic testing in order to identify these kind of markers represents a lot of excitement in the area. Now, when you talk to the scientist, they say, i want to caution you, i want the caution you, i want the caution you because were still a little bit away, but its an area thats opening up. Given all of the heart heartacht stuttering and speech disorders can cause, you can imagine what a big deal this would be to millions of adults and children. Ifill not trending yet but it may be soon. Carlos watson, thank you very much. Always good to see you. Woodruff on the newshour online right now, a different look at the american spirit, a journey through u. S. History to understand why alcohol and america go hand in hand, and have since the nations earliest days. All that and more is on our web site, pbs. Org newshour. Ifill tune in later tonight, on charlie rose, actor leslie odom on the hit musical hamilton. Woodruff and thats the newshour for tonight. On wednesday, well look at a program in boston that transforms the lives of lowincome kids using classical music. Im judy woodruff. Ifill and im gwen ifill. Join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org report with Tyler Mathisen and sue herera. Surprise move. China devalues its currency causing concerns in markets around the globe that the worlds second largest economy is in worse shape than many think. Old crime, new twist. The world of hacking is entering a new front and it exposes a vulnerability within the financial world. Little known benefit. Why thousands of Young Children qualify to collect their own Social Security checks. All that and more tonight on nightly Business Report for this tuesday, august the 11th. And good evening, everybody. Im Bill Griffeth in tonight for Tyler Mathisen. Im sue herera. If china was looking to jolt the Global Markets, it certainly