Most acclaimed singers, the grammywinner Angelique Kidjo we transform africa, completely, by educating more women. Because we need new leadership. Woodruff those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. And friends of the newshour. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff the search for the missing malaysian airliner may be getting warmer nearly three weeks after the plane disappeared. The australian Maritime Safety authority, amsa, shifted its focus almost 700 miles to the northeast today, and planes quickly radioed in new discoveries. John sparks of independent television news, reports from perth, australia. Reporter the search for any sign of the missing malaysian aerials mh370 has been lifted 11 kilometers to the northeast of the existing search area is now the most credible lead as to where debris maybe located. Well, heres why they moved it. Experts reexamined radar data as the boeing 777 changed course, turning west toward the malacca strait. They found the aircraft was flying faster than thought, using up more fuel and limiting the distance it could fly. They now think the aircrafts final location lies somewhere here in 120,000odd square miles of indian ocean. The previous search was far to the south. For three weeks, search teams have scoured the surface of the earth and up above satellites have done the same, producing a series of socalled credible leads. But theyve come to nothing. The australians have, in effect, abandoned the search in the southern indian ocean. This is the normal business of search and rescue operations that new information comes to light, the analyses takes you to a different place. Reporter flight 370s black box is fitted with an underwater beacon which could lead personnel to the wreckage but the device is running out of power and if it falls silent, well, it could take years to find the aircraft. Planes scoured the new search area today and multiple objects were spotted, were told. This picture taken from the window of a new zealand airplane. Officials said theyve analyzed this object and others overnight. Ifill hari sreenivasan, more on the search for the plane after the news summary. General motors is recalling 23,000 small cars that may have faulty ignition switches. The recall expands what began last month with chevy, pontiac and saturn models dating back to 2003. Gm has come under fire for not acting on the problem years ago. Woodruff president obama stopped off in saudi arabia today, hoping to mend frayed ties with the kingdom. The saudis have been critical of u. S. Nuclear talks with iran, and they were angered last year when the president scrapped plans for a military strike on syria. Iran is supporting the assad regime in syria. Well look deeper into the u. S. Saudi relationship in a few moments. Woodruff late today, russian president Vladimir Putin telephoned president obama to discuss ukraine. They spoke for an hour. The white house said mr. Obama urged him to pull Russian Troops back from the border. Earlier, in a c. B. S interview, the president rebuked putin over his seizure of crimea. He may be entirely misreading the west. Hes certainly misreading American Foreign policy. We have no interest in circling russia and we have no interest in ukraine beyond letting ukrainian people make their own decisions about their own lives. Woodruff the kremlin announced new, retaliatory measures against countries that have expanded sanctions against russia. Nato is getting a new secretary general, amid the crisis over ukraine. Former norwegian premier Jens Stoltenberg will assume his new post, starting in october. He succeeds anders fogh rasmussen. In washington state, bad weather hampered the search for mudslide victims today. The official death toll in last saturdays disaster remained at 17. A local fire chief said efforts to recover at least nine more bodies are continuing, despite rainstorms that soaked the site all over again. And its kind of like a fibreglass. Youve got the trees infused with the mud with the homeowner stuff with everything its all enfused together. And the digging has been very rough especially lately because its rained the last few days so theres a lot more mud and the mud is much more fluid. Ifill 90 people are still listed as missing, roughly half the population of the Tiny Community of oso before the mudslide buried it. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie defended a report for closing a bridge. The candidate hired the lawyers who did the report including a form federal prosecutor randy mastro. Democrats branded it a whitewash, but in trenton, christie rejected the charge 23 i think the report will stand the test of time. But it will be tested by the other investigations that are ongoing and it is limited, as randy mastro pointed out, in small part by some of the access they had and didnt have um to certain people. Woodruff separate federal and state legislative investigations of the bridge closing are continuing. Woodruff there are two new studies on cholesterol and heart health out today. Researchers at Baylor University report onethird of preteens may have borderline or high cholesterol. They studied 13,000 youths in texas. Another study at New York University concludes married people are less likely than the unmarried to suffer heart or blood vessel problems. It involved more than 3. 5 million people. Woodruff on wall street the Dow Jones Industrial average was up nearly 59 points to close at 16,323. The nasdaq rose and the sandp 500 added 8 points to finish at 1857. For the week, the dow gained a tenth of a percent. The nasdaq fell nearly three percent, and the sandp 500 lost half a percent. One of the bestknown p. O. Ws during the vietnam war Jeremiah Denton died today, at a virginia hospice. He was a navy combat pilot, shot down over North Vietnam in 1965. The next year, he was seen blinking the word torture, in morse code, during a propaganda interview. He later wrote of repeated beatings in his book when hell was in session. Denton was finally released in 1973 and served one term in the u. S. Senate from alabama. He was 89 years old. Still to come on the newshour a new turn in the hunt for that missing airliner; president obamas visit to saudi arabia; the president s point man on education under fire; shields and brooks on the weeks news; plus, a grammy winners songs of empowerment for africas women. Woodruff the search for flight 370 is resuming but it has shifted by almost 700 miles following new leads and new radar data about the missing airliner. Its been three weeks since the airliner first disappeared, and time is dwindling before some potential pings from the black box may end. Hari sreenivasan in our new york studio gets the latest on the investigation. Sreenivasan and for that, we turn to our own miles obrien. Hes a pilot, aviation analyst and our science correspondent. Help us understand this recall calculation of the radar and how it impacted changing the location of a search. Well, its kind of like, you know, a story problem from mathematics in middle school, distance equals rate times time, and factor in fuel consumption. Anybody whos driven down the highway, you drive 80 miles an hour, you will be stopping for gas sooner. Same goes for an airliner, if youre flying faster at any given altitude, you will burn more fuel and you will go a shorter distance. So, basically, what they have determined is that the aircraft went down to 12,000 feet, give or take, based on military radar returns on the primary target, the transponder being off, but they were able to determine roughly the altitude, and have concluded at, at that altitude, the aircraft was flying over what pilots call the redline speed which would be 400 nautical miles an hour true air speed. That is as fast as you want to go at that altitude. And when you factor in the distance and time and fuel con semption, that puts them well short of perth at that location where they moved the search. Reporter why is this information coming out now and not a week ago . Im just as incredulous as you are, hari. This is an investigation thats very opaque, difficult to draw concrete conclusions, but the fact is it shouldnt have taken uppardz of 20 days to draw this conclusion. I think part of the problems is the malaysians were late to organize the investigation in a multinational way and i think there is some National Rivalries that are involved here and the fact that the information being shared is, in fact, based on military radar systems. So there is a reluctance to share this information. You throw that all together in one pot and you have data that has been analyzed probably a little later in the game than it should have been, and thats a shame because the weather is terrible there, the conditions are awful, and its only going to get worse. Very soon, it will be winter and theyll have to suspend all searching. Sreenivasan best case scenario, lets say the objects theyre seeing today are parts of the plane. Its still going to be hard to find it under water. Yes, 20 days of drift. Oceanographers are good at figuring out the current. They will try to backtrack the debris to see where the impact zone might be. But there are Big Questions at this point. Were getting to the edge of the expected life to have the batteries inside the identify life of the batteries inside the black boxes, the sort of pingers that can be detected using an underground listening device. Its unclear if theyre working in the first place, but assuming everything went well and to spec, theres not much time to get the hydrophone underwater to see if they hear a ping. Sreenivasan is the geography of the new area beneficial to searchers . Water more shallow, closer to australia . Its closer which is good news because the landbased aircraft have had very little time on station searching. Theyve had to fly four hours just to get there, a couple of hours on site and four hours back. Not an efficient use of time. Its closer to land. There will be more time to do search grids on station. Thats good news. As far as the depth goes, it still gets down to around 10,000 feet, a couple of miles, which is about the range of the pingers. Thats why you need to put something under water and get it lower to try to get your best chance at hearing the pings. Sreenivasan in all this, while the clock is ticking on whether the batteries have already run out or running out as we speak. Yes, and in the case of the air france 447 crash in 2009, they actually did take the hydrophone right over the wreckage site and did not hear a ping. Within the time frame that the pingers should have been working. So its now thought the pingers never worked in the case of air france. So theres no guarantee that there are in fact pinging. So there have to be concurrent to use other technology to basically map the ocean floor in the area where they think the wreckage might be because that maybe the only way you find the wreckage. Sreenivasan as the batteries run out on the pingers and boxes, does that change the psychology of the search . Well, it does, but we dont know exactly when theyre going to run out. 30 days is the sh specification. They may have go longer, may have stopped. You continue to search using other means. Really, the constraint is going to be Mother Nature here. Eventually, the conditions will be too bad to search at all and they will have to suspend for the winter, which is why i think they need more assets on station, additional aircraft, additional ships. The u. S. Navy is ideally suited to provide the kind of tools that could really saturate, you know, sort of do a fullcourt press in the limited time available, either send an Aircraft Carrier down there or provide additional landbase search aircraft. Theres got to be a more concerted effort and i think there are reasons that isnt happening but it should. Sreenivasan miles obrien, thanks so much. Youre welcome. Woodruff president obama wrapped up his week long trip overseas with stop in saudi arabia, in an effort to heal a growing rift with a key partner in the middle east. Jeffrey brown has that. Woodruff the president arrived in saudi arabia at a tense time in u. S. Relations with the desert kingdom. He met with King Abdullah for two hours, at a royal farm outside riyadh. The elderly monarch wore what appeared to be an oxygen tube. He was joined by prince muqrin bin abdulaziz whos just been named second in line to the throne. There were no public statements, but aides said mr. Obama hoped to reassure abdullah on key concerns. On syria, for example, the saudis want the u. S. To provide more military aid to sunni rebels fighting president bashar alassad. Hes backed by shiite iran. In washington today, the state departments marie harf sought to play down divisions over syria. Weve always had same goals with saudis, right . Weve had some tactical differences, weve had conversations and worked through them and today, feel like we are in a stronger place with our two countries, closely coordinating even more what kinds of assistance were providing, how we can increase that assistance, what makes the most sense in how we can change the balance of power there. Brown in fact, reports today indicated the president may reverse his opposition to supplying the Syrian Rebels with surfacetoair missiles. But riyadh also harbors deep doubts about u. S. Nuclear negotiations with iran. And, the saudis took a dim view of u. S. Support for arab spring uprisings in egypt and other arab states. All of this led senior saudi officials last year to warn of a major shift away from their longtime reliance on the u. S. The kingdom even turned down a seat on the u. N. Security council, accusing that body of failing to take firm action on syria and other issues. Brown for more on the state of this relationship, im joined by toby jones, a historian at Rutgers University who studies and writes on the gulf states. And frederic wehrey, a former u. S. Air force officer who served in and around the middle east, including the persian gulf, hes now at the Carnegie Endowment for international peace. Let me start with you, frederic. Tell me about the recent tensions. What are the main issues . I think the discord stems from a series of disagreements about the way the immediately is unfolding. Iran, syria, egypt. The saudis fundamentally are worried this nuclear deal will leave irans regional aggression unchecked, that the United States is really being sort of hood winked by iran. On syria, they believe were not doing enough to check irans influence in that country, that were not supporting the Syrian Opposition enough. But theres also a series of fundamental disagreements about the postarab spring middle east, especially in egypt. The saudis believe the administration had a dangerous nie yeefty about the brotherhood and the saudis stepped in and backed the military government there. Brown so all of these are big developments to have the last few years. Yes. There is also something more fundamentally at stake with with respect to riyadh and thats the United States was am biff leapt at best about the process of democracy following the uprisings. The saudis are fearful about the idea of political empowerment and rule and acting aggressively to counter that. I think that caught the americans offguard, though could have been easily anticipated. In addition to the geopolitical problem that fred outlined clearly, the saudis are terrified by the prospect of the new political order across the region and that the americans might support it. Brown what did the u. S. Want out of this meeting and what does it want now from this relationship . Well, i think american and saudi interests align theoretically around issues of terrorism, about how to deal with iran if it doesnt accommodate the United States demands with respect to its Nuclear Program and negotiations there. But in practice, there are deep decisions and i think the americans wanted to show up to assure the saudis that this is a relationship thats lasted for quite a long time and should proceed Going Forward. But also theres a moment on the horizon, if you will, in which these things might have to be rethought. Brown frederic, how big a rift, how does it show itself, whats being done if anything to mend it . Well, this is a significant, i think, period of turbulence were going through. We have to remember, throughout the history of u. S. Saudi relations, theres always been the sense by the saudis that the United States is not a reliable security guarantor. You go back to the kennedy administration, they were saying youre not doing enough to support us against naser, after the iranian revolution, same thing. Brown an old story. It is. I think the region is changing in fundamental ways. The u. S. Sees it going one way, the saudis see it going another, and i do think the relationship will have to be renegotiated later on. Right now the fundamental pillars of the relationship, the cooperation between the u. S. , the military assistance that the u. S. Gives to saudi arabia remains solid and excellent cooperation on counterterrorism. Brown from both sides, from the saudi military and u. S. Military . Those interests have not changed, youre saying . Thats my understanding, yes. I think there is still this fundamental recognition by the saudis that they need u. S. Military support. We see them going on shopping sprees to other countries china, indonesia, pakistan but fundamentally no one else is providing the type of support that the u. S. Provides. Brown toby jones, youre suggesting some of this rift is really due to the perceptions by the saudis of the Obama Administration, and more recent actions. Yeah, i think thats correct. I think the Obama Administration has staked out a minimalist position in the middle east where it would like to sort of reduce the american footprint there. I know military strategists dont see our position in the persian gulf as being sustainable over the long term. This is a very serious concern for the saudis. I think that is exactly right, that the relationship, at least rhetorically, has been framed through the language of security and saudi arabias anxiety about stability in what it calls a dangerous neighborhood. The americans have bought into that and protected it for their own political and economic interests. But lets also remember the americans profited from being in the region. This hasnt been something were strongarmed into. Theres a great deal of oil wealth that goes through the economy and massive and expensive military weapons systems. So theres been a lot of agreement on basic issues. And i dont see those things necessarily changing. The question is whether the americans are willing to commit military resources for the long term in the region. Brown what about the the values issues, the human rights issues in the white house said today theres no discussion of human rights today but this remains important for many people. Should the u. S. Be taking those more seriously, have we turned a blind eye to the practice of saudis within their own country and throughout the arab world . I think we have turned a blind eye. Its unfortunate we seem to be focused on soliciting saudi support for regional objectives, that were ignoring or brushing off very disconcerting and i think alarming domestic developments. The saudis have just enacted a sweeping antiterrorism law. Theres massive censorship. Theyve criminalized the Muslim Brotherhood which most other arab states in the United States regards as a generally political movement. This is very worrisome and we should be race raising these issues not solely because they align with our values but from a security perspective. We know from 9 11 what happens inside the kingdom and the gulf doesnt stay there and can affect our security. Brown toby jones, one other issues, we saw in our setup piece, an aging monarch, a new person named as number two. There are many princes vying for that, i gather. How much of this unsettle period has to do with what happens with the sex sessio sucn saudi arabia . I dont think the saudis have anxiety about succession. They know what it will look like. They have had difficult moments in the 1960s and the end of the 1970s with succession. Their priority is to protect the family status. They dont rule by popular consensus, they rule through brutality, the threat of violence. But they have an idea they want to stick together through good and bad times and will protect themselves pretty effectively. Brown toby jones and frederic wehrey. Thank you very much. Woodruff this week indiana became the first state to drop the socalled common core Public Education standards adopted across much of the country. State officials there will now create their own plan. Indiana may be the first to do so, but likely wont be the last. Theres growing anger about the overall role of the federal government in education, and often it focuses on the secretary of education. The newshours special correspondent for education, john merrow, has our report. Reporter education secretary arne duncan, who ran the Public Schools in chicago for eight years, is president obamas friend and trusted confidante and this former probasketball player can still hold his own on the court. However, with National Visibility and power comes criticism. On the right from john kline, chair of the house education and the workforce committee. When you give the cabinet secretary a big pile of money, and then he starts changing policy, and in fact dictating policy, thats acting like a superintendent. Reporter and on the left from diane ravitch, author of reign of error. We now have local communities asking their state for permission, and the state asking arne duncan for permission, and arne duncan as the Nations School superintendent. Reporter why are critics on the left and the right accusing arne duncan of meddling in the nations 100,000 Public Schools . How much power do they think he has . How much power does he have . It turns out, quite a lot. Only nine men and women have served as secretary of education. Thats because the u. S. Department of education didnt exist prior to 1979. And this administration declares unconditional war on poverty in america. Reporter washington became deeply involved in education in 1965 with the passage of the elementary and secondary education act, known as e. S. E. A. It gave money to schools serving impoverished children. The idea was, we have to create social institutions that will help compensate for different kinds of disadvantage. Reporter so, it was about equity. Absolutely. Reporter everything changed in 2001 with the no child left behind act, or n. C. L. B. The fundamental principle of this bill is that every child can learn, we expect every child to learn and you must show us whether or not every child is learning. Reporter washington was no longer giving money to help one group the disadvantaged. Now the federal government wanted results every school had to prove that all students could meet the mark. Education historian Jonathan Zimmerman of New York University explains. I think it was unprecedented in what it, had the federal government doing, which is requiring everybody to test the kids in grades three through eight, requiring them to, disaggregate this data in different ways, including, based on race and ethnicity, tying various sanctions, positive and negative, to those outcomes. Reporter if schools did not improve, they faced significant consequences. Schools could be shut down, all teachers and administrators replaced. Before long, the law that everyone once supported was being roundly criticized. I fell for it, lots of other people fell for it. Now Everybody Knows it wont work. It is time to fix the law. My plan a was always to work with congress to fix no child left behind, no child left behind is fundamentally broken, it is obsolete, it had many perverse incentives, led to a dummying down of standards, led to too much of a focus on a single test score. So no child left behind was doing frankly a lot of harm. Reporter no child left behind, which requires all students to be proficient this year, expired in 2007, but it remains the law of the land until congress rewrites it. Because not a single state has achieved 100 proficiency. All 50 states are breaking the law, or would be, if secretary duncan did not grant them waivers. The waivers are, in effect, carrots to avoid the big no child left behind stick. The secretary is allowed to grant waivers; his predecessors granted waivers. But what hes doing is granting temporary conditional waivers. That is, you get the waiver if you do what i want you to do. Reporter duncan has granted waivers to 43 states that have agreed to certain conditions, including using student test scores to evaluate teachers. Thats a terrible way to establish education policy. Previous secretaries have provided waivers to states on various things, so this is again, legally folks are happy to challenge this if they want to, but were on strong, solid footing there, and were going to continue to partner with states. We are out traveling in the country every week. We talk to teachers, we talk to parents, students, school board members, and hopefully what youve seen is a much better sense of partnership. Reporter when the economy tanked in 2009, secretary duncans power over education increased dramatically. A Desperate Congress approved a 100 billion education stimulus package to keep schools from shutting down and teachers from being laid off. Nearly five billion of that was discretionary, meaning that duncan could spend it as he saw fit. No previous secretary of education had ever had such power. In 2009 the president announced a competition for the money. Rather than divvying it up and handing it out, we are letting states and School Districts compete for it. Reporter almost every state entered the race, but few were expected to win. Were nervous. Reporter so, states will get more money if they do this thing that duncan wants. If you play by these rules. Absolutely right. Some of us like to talk about race to the top as no child left behind on steroids. The principles of race, race to the top are the same as no child left behind, which is, you know, were going to reward states that set and maintain a high standard. Reporter states that agreed to duncans conditions, including developing common standards and assessments and using student test scores to evaluate teachers, had a better chance of winning. Im a much bigger believer in carrots and not sticks; you know, you encourage people to go in a certain direction. If they want to go into a different direction they absolutely have the right to do that. Reporter what the secretary called encouragement, his critics saw as coercion. The states went along with race to the top because they were all broke. Reporter youre saying the states were bought . They, yeah, well, yes, of course. Reporter during the race to the top competition, a coalition of states released the common core state standards. These were developed with money from private foundations, not federal dollars. 45 states and the District Of Columbia adopted them. If you adopt the common core, youre much more likely to get race to the top grants. Youre much more likely to get a temporary conditional waiver. And that puts the secretary in the business of starting to drive National Standards and perhaps, National Tests and national curriculum. We dont want that. Reporter the common core is not curriculum. Its up to individual states to develop how and what to teach. But duncans Education Department has funded the development of common core tests, to the tune of about 350 million. I believe this new generation of assessments is an absolute game changer for american education. Reporter duncans critics say he went too far when he financed the tests. The law is very clear that no agent of the u. S. Government may do anything to direct, control, or supervise curriculum and instruction. Reporter testing is testing reporter not curriculum. No, its not. But it controls curriculum. Testing, what is tested is what gets taught. Everybody knows that. Thats the ultimate fear, that the federal government does get in the curriculum business and tells the states what theyre supposed to teach. Reporter as for the secretary, he stays resolutely on message. Its important to have high standards, weve encouraged that, how you teach to those higher standards, the curriculum behind that we have never touched that, never have, never will do that. Reporter although the discretionary dollars are almost gone, secretary duncan still has the power to grant or withhold waivers. And if any of the 46 states with race to the top funding or n. C. L. B. Waivers do not live up to their end of the bargain, the secretary could force them to return millions of dollars. Woodruff and to the analysis of shields and brooks. Syndicated columnist mark shields and New York Times columnist david brooks. Thank you very much. So president obama in europe this week, mark and david, trying to rally the allies, stiffen their spine to stand up to Vladimir Putin if it becomes necessary but mark is the United States ready to do what it takes to stand up to russia if they need to . I dont, judy. We hope thats the case. But were closer this week than two weeks ago because, if anything, putins actions have driven the driven the western allies closer together. There was lingering problems. The United States and asian occupation of iraq was opposed by france and germany, there have been disagreements sometimes on what to do in the middle east, but theres been now the recognition of dependence and interdependence, that they have a lot more in common than they have dividing them, and i think, if anything, the allies, as we call them, the western europeans are a lot closer and more united than they were, in large part because the leadership of the leaders, including the president , but particularly because of putins actions. Ifill more united, david, and Strong Enough to do what it takes . Well, those are two separate questions. More united, for sure. Certainly united on our analysis of Vladimir Putin. I think president obama said it very well in brussels this week that putin represents a threat to the global order, the idea that you can change borders, the idea that you can have spheres of influence, thats not acceptable in a postcold war world and i think the europeans and americans see that the same way. What we can do about it, there is union but some division. The europeans are obviously, for economic reasons, a lot less willing to go far on sanctions. They rely on russia for energy. They rely on Russian Oligarch money through their banking systems, real estate, schools, so they have been a little more hesitant. Nevertheless the sanctions have been strong. The issue Going Forward is aggression. Putin doesnt seem to be moved by economic sanctions alone, i see ukrainian troops on the border. Do you have to have a military deterrent . Arming ukraine, some other method of deterring from putin from going in and rewriting the borders. Ifill does the west, mark, have the stomach . Is it prepared to do Something Like that . I dont think ukraine or anybody thinks thats the case. I think the appetite for military engagement is diminished, after afghanistan in particular. But i do think the isolation of putin rather than the hu humiliation, which i think is the way the president has approached, has been wise. Lets understand, putin doesnt represent some international movement. Its not communism in the sense that there are outposts all over Central America following putin. This is one man. He is russia right now. I think to the degree that he can be isolated and made, as president reagan didnt say lets go in and take down that wall and destroy it, he said tear down that wall, and i think thats been the approach president obama has taken this week. Ifill maybe the phone call today david late today was a good sign. We dont know what really came of it. Right. I disagree with its putin, one man. Putin is sort of a nationalist ideology. The books he sends out to Regional Governors really saw russia as a crucial world power. The bridge between east and west playing a much larger role. And one thing weve seen in public opinion, hes become very popular in the course of this crisis and the idea of invading ukraine is popular. And the question is not his popularity in russia, but im saying there are not putin outposts in nic nicaragua or cel and latin america. Theres not really an ideology or philosophy here. Ifill next stop for the president was rome when he met with pope francis. The pictures were captivating. How important is it for the president to be seen or any president to be seen as aligned with the catholic the Roman Catholic pope . Yeah, i think this pope is great, has captured the imagination. Pope francis is 8 or 9 to three favorable among americans. Hes where barack obama was five years ago. Hes man of the year and sort of captured the imagination, a rock star. But i think, politically, its important in this country because, very bluntly, Republican Leaders have been shrewdly close to catholic bishops particularly on cultural and social issues, on abortion, samesex marriage, have identified with them, and this pope has not changed the words, just the music, and he talks an awful lot more about the idolatry of money, he talks about trickledown economics being a failure, and treating human beings as throwaways. So hes actually on the broadcast last night with gwen, hes to the left of obama. He talks about the poor, barack obama ta talks about the middle class. Economically and politically it was good for the president and strengthens his economic argument here at home. Ifill so some of the popes popularity can rub off on the president or is that not the way it works . Maybe if he converts laughter no, i dont think so. To be honest with you about these meetings, for any u. S. President , the pope obviously, this is a magical pope, but any pope comes with a history of catholic social teaching behind him and probably always. And thats a communal social teaching. Thats a social teaching that presents solidarity. On economic terms, thats going to put the church more on the left, on social terms more on the right. There is always going to be differences with any u. S. President s as far as politics is aligned, and i always think it has a positive effect on the president from reminding a u. S. Leader of a more communal philosophy, and the pope gave the president his book and personally and theologically he reads that book. Ifill two other things to ask you about, one, mark, is the healthcare law, the white house celebrating yesterday the deadline is the end of march. Theyre celebrating. They have 6 million americans now signed up we know the law is still very unpopular, largely unpopular with the american people. Is this, though, in some way taking the edge off the negative that the republicans have made this as an issue in. Better than expected is where it is. 7 million was the target. Now 6 million and the democrats are doing a little victory dance in the end zone over that. Its certainly far better than it was and you can see theres been an allout effort made. I do think the republicans, quite honestly, have promised to come up with one that will cover everybody at a lower cost and at no intrusion. Were still waiting for that. It hasnt happened but it has been an abject failure on the part of the Democratic Administration to sell this plan. It was 36 approval four years ago in the cbs poll, 39 approval two years ago and 41 approval. Its a failure to convince people, persuade people that theyre right and the other sides wrong. Ifill david . Yeah, well, i think the plan has achieved credibility. Theres some possibility, not that there was a large possibility, but some possibility people wouldnt sign up and the whole thing would collapse by lack of effort. So it crossed that threshold. So it will function, the question is whether well or poorly, whether the exchanges will work, where the innovation will be driven by this, and cost, and its too soon to tell. It will take two or three years to begin to get a sign of that. What we have now is people reacting to it individually. A lot of people pleased theyre getting insurance at lower cost, a lot are displeased when premiums go up. I think over the next six or seven months the individual experiences will replace the more ideological reactions. I think it will be a good issue this time for republicans. Ifill people are paying to new Jersey Governor Chris Christie. An internal report common rated him in any role of this bridge closing, whats become a political disaster. Does this report in any way mitigate the political damage that hes taken, the hit hes taken . Bulletin governors christies lawyers find governor christie innocent. As i understand it three investigations are being conducted at the taxpayers expense, a Million Dollars to the firm who represents the governor. So its not really Leon Jaworski and independent council or star chamber. They interviewed everybody except the three people the governor continues to throw under every available bus. Kelly, gain and a steppian. So i think theres a lot of questions. But we still have the u. S. Attorney investigating, and we still have the legislature investigating. And the governor wants to declare himself innocent. Hes free to do that. I just think what youre seeing, judy, is him going from 41 to 12 41 favorable to 12 unfavorable in wall street journal to a 44 swing and trailing hillary clinton. I think this has been a real blow to him and he just cant whitewash it himself. Woodruff he told diane sawyer at abc hes still thinking about running for president. At least he didnt rule it out. Right. I guess i agree with mark it is an internal investigation. Bun thing we can say is less likely is there will be some smoking gun email that will surface. I assume this firm and its run by reputable people, i assume they did not bury some sort of smoking gun email they found among the document searches. So he may still have to face the testimony of these three people, the testimony of the people that he did know what was going on but theres at least so far no hard evidence he knew what was going on with the lane closure. So i think thats good news for him. Im struck by two things, ive seen him talking to republican donor groups and they are not interested. They want to talk about the national issues. The longterm problem which is what mark referred to is the popularity. I think he has a little possibility, using the money hes going to be getting, to build back some longterm pop particularity but hes obviously hurt. Woodruff we thank you. Woodruff finally tonight, one of africas most notable singers. Jeffrey brown caught up with Angelique Kidjo here at George Washington university recently where she called on the world to sing, dance, and lift up the women of her continent. Brown Angelique Kidjo dedicates her new album eve to the women of africa to their resilience and their beauty. Born in the small west african country of benin, now living in brooklyn, kidjo has made the empowerment of women and girls a part of her music and lifes work for decades. Brown to her anthem afirika. She sings in a variety of african languages, along french and english. And mixes african rhythms with western pop, soul and jazz. The idea for her latest work came during a trip to kenya, when she encountered a group of women singing traditional songs. She went on to record them and then other womens choral groups in benin, and it all became part of an album celebrating womens potential. A woman does not sit home doing nothing. Its impossible. 5 00 a. M. In the morning shes already up humming a song, getting ready, thinking about how this day going to go, what can i do to make this day special a one even though there are challenges. Its not living its survival but they have a skill of survival in beauty, resilience, mind and strength and every time i go im reminded every day when i go that its not about money its about how you fall and how you rise. Its about how you see yourself in the role you play in your society and in the world. And who you are, you have to know yourself to be able to go no other people. And that is something i want their voice to tell the world. Brown the grammywinning kidjo has attracted a global following and performed and recorded with leading western stars including bono and alicia keys. And now shes told the story of her rise to the international stage, in a new memoir spirit rising my life, my music. Timed to a u. S. Tour and the release of her tenth album. The story begins at home, with nine siblings, two supportive parents, her mother was a dancer and her father an amateur musician, and one very determined young girl, ready to sing her heart out. The voice is the mirror of your soul and i want my soul to touch other peoples souls. Brown you knew this even as a young girl . I have so much fun when im singing. Music has always been my breath, my strength, everything comes back to it. Ive grown up in a family where my parents have made this house available to every human being. Thats my fathers will to open the house to peoples brain. My father sees people more as what we can intellectually in the heart share together. Brown but in her culture, girls werent supposed to aspire to be aretha franklin, an early role model for the young angelique. The defining moment for me was coming back from school one day where out of the blue i start hearing people throwing stone at me, spitting at me, calling me a whore, a prostitute a kind of horrible name. Brown it just wasnt something girls were supposed to do. No. You sing traditional music its okay because our tradition is oral. So i came home crying saying i dont want to sing anymore and my grandmother said to me, thats all . You are crying because some stupid people are making comments . I have advice for you you cannot be loved by everybody and you cannot love everybody. If what you do makes you happy and within our circle of family we support you, we love you, we dont judge what you do. Brown kidjo left her homeland in 1983 after a communist regime took over and cracked down on artistic freedom. She went to paris and established herself in the music scene there. She also met her musician husband, jean, now her manager. Brown in a further nod to her past, on the new album the 53 year old kidjo recorded the voice of her 87 yearold mother yvonne eve on a song called bana, which urges people to value each other over money. At eight years old when i was singing womens rights with my mother, i didnt even know i was being a feminist at the time so for me for her not to be there, it wouldnt be completed. Her voice was the last one that i recorded. I always ask why women are blamed for everything and she said to me because men have told our story for us. We need to tell our stories of all of us, men, women, all around the world. Brown that is what she aims to do, with her work as a unicef goodwill ambassador, and with her own batonga foundation, which has promoted education for girls across africa since 2007. Women are the backbone of africa. And when you educate a young girl, once she becomes a mother she put boys and girls equally to school, she understands sanitation importance, she understand vaccination, she understand a lot of things that would help her kids grow up to be healthy and to be well educated. The woman that is educated raises the g. D. P. Of the country. Child death at birth is reduced drastically. Diseases disappear. I mean, we transform africa completely by educating more women because we need new leaderships. Brown empowerment theme continues to animate her music one song suggests that since women suffer during war, they should have a role in brokering peace. And, another addresses forced marriages. At the end of concerts, Angelique Kidjo invites the crowd to join her on the stage. A festival of dance and song, of all ages, sizes, men and women. Music nourished the person that i am to be able to give and when im on stage, stage is my little piece of heaven. If heaven looked like this the day i die, oh boy im dying tomorrow. Woodruff you can listen to more of angeliques music on art beat. Woodruff again, the major developments of the day. Australian authorities shifted the search for a missing malaysian airliner nearly 700 miles to the north. General motors recalled another 824,000 vehicles that may have faulty ignition switches. And president obama urged russian president putin to pull his troops back from ukraines eastern border. They spoke by phone for an hour. On the newshour online right now, mobile banking is on the rise, especially among consumers who are underbanked. See how technology is helping the underserved gain access to mainstream financial systems. Thats on making sense. All that and more is on our web site, newshour. Pbs. Org. And a reminder about some upcoming programs from our pbs colleagues. Gwen ifill is preparing for washington week, which airs later this evening. Heres a preview ifill why Vladimir Putin has the three u. S. President s, plus the president meets the pope. The healthcare law has a good week and abortion arguments at the supreme court. Thats a lot to get to but well manage later tonight on washington week. Judy . Woodruff on tomorrows edition of pbs newshour weekend, correspondent Megan Thompson looks at a california lawsuit targeting teacher tenure in Public Schools. Heres an excerpt from her report. The nine student plaintiffs in the case in california are challenging two main areas of state law. Employment protections the plaintiffs say make it difficult to dismiss bad teachers and the senioritybased layoff system which they say makes it hard to keep good senior teachers during difficult times. There are certain teachers you knew if you got stuck in their class you wouldnt learn a thing. There is certain class coloring and watching youtube. And well be back, right here, on monday,with a look at the latest u. N. Report on the impact of climate change. Thats the newshour for tonight, im judy woodruff. Have a nice weekend, 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 foundations. And. 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 Macneil Lehrer productions captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org this is bbc world news. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newmans own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years, and union bank. At union bank, our relationship managers work hard to know your business, offering Specialized Solutions and capital to help you meet your growth objectives. We offer expertise and tailo