on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> 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. >> woodruff: all over florida tonight, they're laboring to turn the lights back on and repair hurricane damage. and now, there's a new fear. eight people died today at a nursing home, spotlighting the plight of the elderly caught up in irma's aftermath, in a state with four million senior citizens. our john yang begins our coverage. >> reporter: the tragedy struck at this nursing home in hollywood, florida. officials said it had electricity, but the air conditioning was not working. >> our investigation has revealed that it's extremely hot on the second floor of the facility. >> reporter: police chief tomas sanchez gave few details. >> we are conducting a criminal investigation inside. we believe at this time it may be related to the loss of power in the storm, but we're conducting a criminal investigation, not ruling anything out. >> reporter: authorities evacuated more than a hundred patients to nearby hospitals, many on stretchers and in wheelchairs. robert gould, with the state's largest power utility, suggested it all could have been prevented. >> it points to the need for having plans in advance when it comes to emergency preparation. this facility was not listed as a top-tier critical infrastructure facility. and that's what we work with the counties, for them to help identify those facilities. >> reporter: across florida, utility crews have been working around the clock to restore power, and there have been other reports of elderly tenants trapped in their homes. the situation is especially dire in the keys, home to some 70,000 people. some areas remain unreachable to all except search-and-rescue teams. the aircraft carrier "abraham lincoln" is off key west, a floating base for helicopters delivering aid. urgent repairs are underway on u.s.-1, the lone highway connecting the islands, and water service is slowly being restored to those like shawne street, who rode out the storm in cudjoe key. >> when katrina hit louisiana and stuff like that, and you feel sorry for the people and you think, what are they going through? but when it hits home, it's totally different, you know? and it's not just us, it's everybody. >> reporter: evacuees are slowly trickling back, returning to survey what's left. >> i expected some debris, because we knew the direction that the winds were blowing, they were going to carry debris onto our property. it has happened before. we were not expecting to find somebody else's sailboat on our backyard, and someone else's dock with a fishing station on our backyard. >> reporter: the economic costs of irma are mounting. state agencies report an estimated $250 million in storm preparation and recovery expenses so far, and that price tag is expected to soar before it's over. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: now, to the northern caribbean, where island dwellers have spent a week amid smashed ruins, with no power, and reports of fighting over food. the president of france visited st. barts today, after spending the night on a cot on st. maarten. british foreign secretary boris johnson was on anguilla, and so was alex thomson, of independent television news. >> reporter: a lot of criticism, foreign secretary, that the british have been tardy in their response, compared to the french just over there in st. maarten. what do you say? >> well, i don't obviously agree with that, because i think if you look at the facts, we've had r.f.a. there on the spot, on time. >> reporter: but a week gone by and still no substantial aid has come into this place. >> i can tell you that you've got, on the streets of anguilla, of the british virgin islands, and the turks & caicos islands. you have u.k. armed services personel. you've got british police officers. >> reporter: but they want food, foreign secretary, they want water, and they're not getting it. >> on that very plane i've just arrived on, is laden with aid. >> reporter: except that very plane was not laden with food or water aid. we checked. it was laden with british military personnel, and their necessary rations and water. aid, of course, in the wide sense, but not the specifics we put to the foreign secretary. anguillans say they need fuel, water, electricity, food. and it's true the red cross has been distributing food parcels for some days. the anguillan red cross has been handing out food to islanders here since the day after the hurricanes, and that's impressive. but the fact is, as fast as the food goes in, they're giving it out. and for these people behind me, these islanders, they're waiting from the early morning when this place opens for distribution, several hours later, at noon. >> the anguilla red cross, we lost our roof for the offices, we lost our roof for the relief supplies. the building was torn apart, so in terms of regrouping and getting things together, getting things organized, it was a huge effort. >> reporter: you get one ration a day, and everyone we spoke to said it's not nearly enough. >> i came back and this is what they gave me for a family of five? now i can just go home and we eat this in no time. and then i'm hearing that we have help, everything is done, everything is okay. >> the island needs help. we need help from britain. if britain says that they are responsible for anguilla and anguillans, they need to stand up to their word. >> reporter: it's the anguillans who so far have done an extraordinary job in terms of clean-up, and will continue to shoulder the burden. british marines are making a difference though, lifting and shifting rubble at the hospital this morning. royal engineers, royally engineering a new roof, part of what is now britain's biggest overseas military deployment since libya seven years ago. but the criticism of too little, too late, is persistent here, from the street up to the political establishment. >> woodruff: we keep our focus on the caribbean and the havoc irma unleashed on the u.s. virgin islands. jordyn holman of bloomberg just returned after spending 36 hours in the u.s. territories, where some complain they're being forgotten. we begin with what she witnessed. >> so i went to the virgin island where's they were hit by a category 5 hurricane irma last week. so i went to st. thomas and st. john, which really got the brunt of the hurricane. i saw a lot of devastation, you know. it's a tourist attraction, usually plush, green, beautiful island. it was pretty much barren from the strong winds air, lot of utility poles down, a lot of crushed cars, houses without roofs. >> woodruff: so what are the circumstances people are living in now? do most people have a place to live? >> so on the islands, electricity is really down. there's not running water in a lot of homes. like i said, roofs are off of homes, so people are living in complete darkness. there's no a.c. it's a very hot island. and so people are just trying to find a way out or to figure out how to hunker down and work through the situation. >> woodruff: so they've decided to stay, most of the people you talked to? >> some of the people i talked to. some were waiting in line to get on a boat to go to puerto rico, to get a flight to the mainland. >> woodruff: and, jordyn, we've been reading about some folks who live down there being angry, upset that they haven't been getting more help, more support, because these are, after all, the u.s. virgin islands. what were they telling you about that? >> yeah, so when i was in st. thomas, which is a very touristy attraction, i talked to some residents up there who were on a hill. they felt like they hadn't gotten enough aid. they would have to walk down the the hill to get water and medical assistance. and they just didn't feel like the attention of put on them like we had coverage for florida and texas. and so some people wanted, you know, to get more federal aid. you know, president trump has said that he's planning on coming down within the week, but some people want it-- a quicker response. >> woodruff: what did you see in the way of help when you were were? who was providing the help? >> so the coast guard was there, the u.s. marines, they were helping out. but a lot of it was volunteers, people on st. croix, another island of the virgin islands, got over on their boat, a two-hour ferry just to give water, assistance, sometimes hugs, just to tell people, "hey, we are all in this together and we can try to help you get off this island if need be." >> woodruff: and we know that these islands depend on tourism for their economy. what is the state of their-- their hotels, the tourism system there? >> pretty much everything is closed. one woman i spoke to, she works in a restaurant and a hotel on the side. both places are closed. so this means people aren't getting incomes on top of already losing their homes, they're not getting the paycheck they so badly need to maybe evacuate to puerto rico or the mainland. so it's just everyone's in a rough spot, especially since their economy is built on tourism. >> woodruff: jordyn, one other thing, we've already read some accounts of some crime taking place, people taking advantage of the situation. did you see or hear about that at all? >> i think the biggest concern people had was with safety. because their houses don't have roofs or there's no lock on their door, and there's no electricity at night, people are just in the pitch darkness, and they're with their children who just, you know, want to be safe. school's out, so everyone was really just trying to help out each other, and there is a curfew for people to stay inside during those dark hours. so i think everyone is just focusing on their personal safety right now. >> woodruff: but it sounds like this is going to take some time too work on. >> yes. fema said this is not a month's-long or week's-long recovery. it's going to be a years'-long recovery. >> woodruff: well, we know that we're all thinking about them, and thank you for sharing what you saw with us. jordyn holman with bloomberg. thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, president trump said he'll reach across the political aisle again, this time to help pass a tax reform plan. to that end, he invited nancy pelosi and chuck schumer, the house and senate democratic leaders, to dinner tonight. he also called in republican and democratic lawmakers this afternoon to talk about cutting business and personal income tax rates. >> if we can do things in a bipartisan manner, that will be great. now, it may not work out, in which case we'll try and do it without, but i think if you look at the greatest legislation ever passed, it was done in a bipartisan manner. and the rich will not be gaining at all with this plan. we're looking for middle class, and we're looking for jobs-- jobs meaning companies. >> woodruff: the president also voiced support for a new effort by four republican senators to repeal and replace obamacare. meanwhile, independent senator bernie sanders announced his "medicare for all" plan, alongside 16 democratic co-sponsors. neither bill is likely to come to a vote. a man who was a longtime fixture in the u.s. senate died today. new mexico republican pete domenici had complications from abdominal surgery. domenici served for 36 years, until 2009, and became a bipartisan powerbroker. for much of that time, he worked with now-majority leader mitch mcconnell. >> i served for a number of years with senator domenici. i came to know him as a smart, hardworking, dedicated and a very strong advocate for his home state of new mexico. so, mr. president, we're all saddened by this news today. >> woodruff: pete domenici was 85 years old. the u.s. and south korea sent fresh signals to north korea today, to back off its nuclear and missile testing. the south's military announced it tested a new air-launched cruise missile that can fly 300 miles and evade radar. and, the "new york times" reported seoul is assembling a so-called "decapitation unit" that could target kim jong-un in a crisis. meanwhile, u.s. defense secretary jim mattis said he no longer favors phasing out the u.s. arsenal of long-range ballistic missiles. myanmar's leader will skip this month's u.n. general assembly session, amid outrage over the treatment of rohingya muslims. aung san suu kyi's office announced today she will not attend the meeting. some 400,000 rohingyas have fled to bangladesh, reporting atrocities by troops in mostly buddhist myanmar. the u.n. security council condemned the violence today. >> aid activities by u.n. agencies and international nongovernmental organizations have been severely disrupted. i call on the myanmar authorities to suspend military action, end the violence, uphold the rule of law and recognize the right of return of all those who had to leave the country. >> woodruff: myanmar claims it's only reacting to attacks by rohingya insurgents. back in this country, the trump administration barred federal agencies from continuing to use computer software made by kaspersky lab. the company is russian owned and operated, and a federal directive cited concerns about its ties to russian intelligence. kaspersky denied it's played any role in russian cyber-hacking. on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 39 points to close at 22,158. the nasdaq rose almost six, and the s&p 500 added about two the big number in baseball tonight is 21-- as in, 21 wins in a row for the cleveland indians. they beat detroit today, 5 to 3, to break the american league record. the old new york giants in the national league won 26 without a loss in 1916, but that streak included one tie. congratulations to the indians. a lot of celebrating in cleveland. and, the maestro was a machine in pisa, italy last night. a robot dubbed "yu-mi" directed the luca philharmonic orchestra as part of the first international festival of robotics. it included a performance by world-renowned tenor andrea bocelli. and they can't replace him with a robot. still to come on the newshour: the democrats' pitch for universal health care. the spacecraft that's given us stunning images of saturn nears its end. could taking down violent videos online also erase evidence of war crimes? and, much more. >> woodruff: we turn now to politics, and an intense day of closed-door negotiating in congress about daca, the program to protect people who were brought to this country illegally as children. joining us to talk about those developments and more, from the capitol is reporter yamiche alcindor of the "new york times." yamiche, thank you for being with us. you have been reporting on a story this morning in "the times," saying there's been a remarkable lack of progress on this. where does it stand right now? >> well, lawmakers have really tied themselves up in knots trying to figure out how to proceed. the republicans i have talked to have said this issue is on the back burner and they are worried that congress is losing focus as it tries to deal with tax reform and health care. but a meeting just wrapped up, in speaker paul ryan's office just a few feet from where i'm standing now. and lawmakers tell me in the quick interviews i was able to do in the last 30 minutes, that the meeting went great, there was some progress made. but at the end of the day it will come down to democrats not wanting to fund the wall and the republicans wanting to have some sort of border security mto pass the dream act, and, of course, the the dream act is legislation that has been in congress now for 16 years trying to get passed, and so far republicans and democrats have not been able to get it together. >> woodruff: yamiche, there was a question about whether there was a sense of emergency among republicans, open this issue, but in general. what-- how do you read that? >> i feel like there's two things. on one side you have republicans who really do feel as though the dreamers a special set of immigrants. they feel as though these are people through no fault of their own were brought to this country. they are scared to see them all deported. but on the other side-- and i would say that's the more vocal side and the side speaker paul ryan is more scared of-- that those republicans are saying there needs to be a host of other things that need to happen. i interviewed the chairman of the house judiciary committee yesterday, and he told me that he wants to deal with criminal aliens. he wants to deal with gangs. he wants to deal with agricultural workers' visas. he has a whole host of other things he wants to deal with before daca and he saida is at the end of that last. i think republicans are split on this issue, the majority of them wanting to do something, but like i wrote in my story, i think this is an issue that has stumbled in congress so far. >> woodruff: yamiche, i want to ask you about something completely different, and that is republican senator tim scott, the one african american republican in the senate, went to a one-on-one meeting today with president trump. the white house put out a statement saying they had a good conversation about the administrationee relations with african americans in this country. you have been talking to senator scott. what did you learn from him? >> senator scott essentially told me and a couple of other reporters that he lectured president trump on the history, the long history of racism in this country. senator scott said that he was not ready to say that his moral authority that he had said was compromised is now restored. the senator essentially said he went there to tell the president that he was very angry about the fact that he seemed to e85icate white supremacist groups with protesters. so i think the overall meeting, while the senator told me there wasn't any tension in that meeting, i think there was, of course, tension in that meetingg and that senator scott essentially for 40 minutes talked to the president about how he needs to do better when it comes to race relations. >> woodruff: yamiche alcindor with "the new york times." i know you're going to continue to follow that. it was triking that the white house put out a photograph of the meeting, the president listening to senator scott. thank you, yamiche. >> yeah. >> woodruff: we'll see you again soon, thank you. and for more on the politics on both end of pennsylvania avenue, there's a lot. we turn to karine jean-pierre. she's a senior adviser to moveon.org, a contributing editor to bustle, an online women's magazine, and a veteran of the obama administration. and, matt schlapp. he's the chairman of the american conservative union and the former white house political director under president george w. bush. we should note for the record that matt's wife, mercedes schlapp, is now a senior communications advisor to president trump. this is something the white house announced today and we want too put it out on the table. >> and i have to get home and make dinner so i have to get dinner here. >> woodruff: one of you is gainfully employed. i was talking to yamiche alcindor about daca, but i want to turn to you now, karine, and ask you about health care. senator bernie sanders has been talking for some months about this. today he formally reeled out his proposal to-- for medicare for all. he has what, 16 or so democratic cosponsors. what does this look like? how do you read this move by these democrats? >> i think it's a great way forward. we have a third of the democratic caucus essentially in the senate who have signed on. a lot of them are rumored to be running for 2020. i think this is a great sign for the party forward and, also, for american people. health care is a right, not a privilege. and all americans should have health care from the moment that they're born until they die. and i think, you know, people have been asking me, "oh, well is this a political play? it's not going to work." i am glad, i am glad that democrats are standing for what's morally right, the right thing to do. and it's about-- it's about the country, not about the party. but it does send a strong, unifying message, i believe. >> woodruff: what are the chances, matt, that republicans and democrats can work together in any form or fashion on health care, including this one? >> this is the problem is the right side of the table sees government too large, too intervening, too involved in these markets. and here you have the democrats -- this is quite shocking-- after obamacare passed not that many years ago, and they didn't want to have nationalized, centralized health care. they specifically went to set up these state exchanges. this is, in essence, an indictment of obamacare. it's not working. it's not covering everyone as they had it would. and they have a new plan. the new plan is an old plan which is a plan from the 1960s which is the federal government will pay all the bills and the taxpayers will pick up all those bills. and i think that makes it very hard for the two sides to come together. >> woodruff: there is a sentiment, though, the polls are showing, there is increasing-- not only support for obamacare, but i noticed bernie sanders quoted in his poll today said even 45% of republicans like the idea of expanding medicare. >> it is actually very popular, unlike the republicans' version of their health care, which they tried about two, three times that was incredibly unpopular. but here's the thing-- this is-- i don't think it is a-- a statement against obamacare. obamacare actually covered 30 million people. it actually is working according to the congressional budget office, which is an independent office, with which is led by paul ryan's person of that office. so i disagree. i think we need to start taking it to the next step. i think this is what single pair is all about, medicare for all is all about, taking it to the next step. >> problem is obamacare didn't work, which is why bernie sanders is saying he wants to try to cover everyone in a new way. and the fact is that obamacare has left millions of people not covered, and i think if you look at the numbers, for four successive elections -- i'll give you obama's re-election which you did a great job for-- the republicans had the better argument politically. we got our congressional majorities over fighting obamacare. it's a false hope to expect that obamacare is now popular and will take the democrats to political winning. it just won't happen. >> woodruff: but just quickly, do the republicans have the votes to repeal obamacare? >> well, we've seen that they failed. by the way, i've been pretty honest about that, failure to live up to their promise to repeal and replace is disastrous for them politically. but don't assume that means this nation wants centralized health care for all. that's a big mistake. >> woodruff: i'm going to turn to both of you to talk about tax form, the white house, the administration saying smsing this they are going to focus on this fall? what are the prospects. we heard from the treasury secretary saying this is going to be revenue neutral. it's not going to change how much money the government takes in, even if we cut taxe taxes fr certain middle-income people. >> they have said so many things at so many different points. they are going to come out with a new set of principles, they say, on the 25th of this month. we have a chance to get a tax bill done. i don't think it will be fully paid for. i think it will aggravate the deficit. but most republicans and most conservatives, which dominate the republican party, are not so concerned about its effect on the deficit as they are about the effect of the tax cut on the economy. they want to grow this economy and create job economic opportunities for americans. that's benchmark that conservatives care about. >> woodruff: why wouldn't that be appealing to democrats? >> i think what we're hearing really primarily is deems even democrats are meeting with donald trump tonight-- it is not actually a tax reform. it's a tax cut to the wealthy millionaires and billionaires and corporations. and i think that's what we do not want. that's what democrats will not stand for. and i think that is-- that is what we're hearing. >> the hard part in that is that you have to actually cut the taxes of the people who pay taxes. and if you want to increase economic and job prospects for americans, you have to encourage people to create jobs. unfortunately, the people who create jobs are people that run small businesses, own small business, are in important positions in coopererations. so you kind of can't have it both ways. do we want to help americans or not? >> you can't do it on the backs of middle americans? >> i agree. they should have a tax cut, too. >> sreenivasan: >> woodruff: what are the prospects of serious tax reform? >> i would say it has a 75 p80% chance to pass this fall but there wil will be hurdles. my belief is these tax provisions will not be permanent. they will be temporary in nature. they will not be revenue neutral, and i think we have a chance to pick up some democratic votes on the house and senate, not the eight to go through the regular order. i think it still goes through wreckob sillation. >> democrats from red states are saying they are not going to allow the tax cuts we're talking about just for the wealthy. we'll see. there is going to be a meeting tonight, a dinner tonight. let's see what comes out of that. >> they have a seat at the table. >> woodruff: fascinating the president is spending more time with democrats. last week cut the deal with democrats. >> i'm okay with it. guess what? he's everyone's president. let's see if he can cut a deal, let's see if they can cut a deal. maybe there will be some tweets from the dinner. >> oh, gosh. some pictures definitely. >> woodruff: jean-pierre matt schlapp, thank you, both. >> woodruff: this friday, the cassini spacecraft is set to end its long tour of saturn with a fatal plunge into the planet. it's been a workhorse and source for much of what we know of saturn. it will beam back images until its final moments, from some 800 million miles away. william brangham has more. it's the focus of this week's "leading edge." >> brangham: some of the numbers involved in its mission are mind-blowing: more than 290 orbits of saturn. nearly five billion miles traveled over the years. 450,000-plus images taken. nearly 4,000 papers published about the work. and, the participation of 27 nations. our science correspondent, miles o'brien, has an appraisal. this was produced in partnership with our friends at nova, whose program "death dive to saturn" airs tonight. >> reporter: 20 years after it began its detailed tour of saturn, its rings and moons, nasa's cassini spacecraft is winding its way toward a suicide plunge into the planet. it's the end of an epic space odyssey. cassini's grand finale. >> as the orbits progress, we get closer and closer to saturn's atmosphere. >> reporter: project scientist linda spilker joined the cassini team at the jet propulsion laboratory, before launch in 1997. their challenge now: thread a cosmic needle, sending the spacecraft in between saturn and its rings, eking out some final morsels of data before the mission is over. >> the mysteries we want to solve with the grand finale mostly have to do with revealing saturn from the inside out. >> reporter: surprising discoveries are nothing new for cassini. the team has been pushing the frontiers of science for years and sharing spectacular images captured by the spacecraft. >> it's just such a surreal looking planet. really, it, it's-- it wins the beauty contest in the solar system, that's for sure. >> reporter: carolyn porco might be just a little biased: she's the lead scientist in charge of cassini's cameras. most recently they recorded a storm on the north pole of saturn that changes color from turquoise in the winter, to golden-brown in summer. scientists believe sunlight interacts with molecules in the atmosphere, creating a sort of saturnian smog. over the years, cassini has shown us the rings of saturn in unprecedented, stunning fashion. they are about 175,000 miles across, but in most places, only 30 feet thick. >> we get to see lots of places just really densely packed, where the particles are protruding two miles above the ring plain. i mean, it's astonishing. >> reporter: and cassini has also turned its instruments to saturn's many moons. porco's team captured images of plumes erupting from the icy moon enceladus. >> this is what we saw. we saw dozens of fine jets shooting off the south pole of enceladus. >> reporter: they later determined the geysers were made of water ice and were loaded with organic compounds. they also found tiny nano silica particles. >> what's so amazing is that those nano-silica grains could only form in really hot water. all of the sudden, the pieces started to fall into place, and so we're thinking, maybe you have hydrothermal vents on the seafloor of enceladus. >> reporter: hydrothermal vents, organic compounds and liquid water-- the combination is very intriguing for scientists because it is likely life began on earth under similar circumstances. >> it doesn't get any better than this. to go to saturn and come away having discovered what we think might be the best place in the solar system to go to search for life. >> reporter: the prospect of life on enceladus prompted the cassini team to change plans for how the mission should end. if the spacecraft smashed into the icy moon, it might bring hitchhiking microbes from our planet with it. so instead, cassini will auger straight into saturn, swallowed up by the giant gas planet where there is no possibility for the development of life. still, cassini's fiery end is no small task to engineer. the spacecraft has to be in tip-top shape so it can beam data back to earth for as long as possible. >> we are responsible for the health and safety of the spacecraft. >> reporter: julie webster is the manager of the cassini spacecraft operations center. using exact replicas of the vintage electronics on board the spacecraft... >> everybody talks about gigabits these days, we're down to kilobits. >> reporter: ...she and her team are simulating scenarios for cassini's final dive. >> no red alarms and we are go for orbit trim maneuver 467. >> the timing of everything is highly choreographed-- >> the accelerometer is powered on at this time. >> --because we are doing something almost every second on the spacecraft, certainly every minute. >> the wind roll turn has started. >> to have either an anomaly on the spacecraft or a sequence that isn't quite right, there's very little time to figure out what's wrong, fix it, clean it back up, put the sequence back on board the spacecraft. we don't have a lot of time to recover at that point, we're game on. >> reporter: and then it will be game over: a bittersweet moment. saying goodbye isn't easy. >> the sense of an impending end is the hardest experience i've had to experience in a long time. >> reporter: it will be a long time before nasa gets back to saturn. in fact, there are no plans right now to return. but a visit to europa, another >> are there other planned missions to go to the moons of other planets? >> yes, a similar moon which orbits jupiter also has a liquid ocean beneath is one of nasa's targets. the your openna clipper is slated to launch in the 2020s, and it's intriguing to scientists in the sense it might harbor life. stay tuned for that. >> miles, before we let you go, i understand you're hosting a very special pbs special tonight about the rediscovery of the uss "indianapolis." this was a famous world war ii vessel. they've now found it. viewers will be able to see some of this wreckage live from the bottom of the ocean. you can tell us a little bit about this? why is this such an important find? >> well, the u.s.s. "indianapolis" was sunk right at the tail end of world war ii. 880 men were lost. it's the worst disaster in u.s. navy history. the vessel had only a few days prior delivered the components of the little boy bomb, the atomic bomb that was dropped on hihiroshima. they were transiting to the philippines sunk by a japanese torpedo. the story most people may be familiar with, though, is no one knew they were sufng. they were forgotten. and 800-plus men were in the water bobbing for four and a half days. they sufficiented from hypothermia, dehydration. and they were attacked by sharks. it was a dramatic event. and the wreck has only been found three and a half weeks ago. >> why so long to find this? >> it's in about 18,000 feet of ocean. it's one of the deepest spots on the planet. so technology has only gotten to the point to make it even practical to hunt for something like this in such deep, rugged, completely lightless terrain beneath the sea. it was found by a group led by microsoft cofounder, paul allen, who has decided to make it one of his missions in life to find these historically important shipwrecks. they were determined to do it and they did. you'll see live pictures from 18,000 feet below the philippine sea, live tonight on pbs, 10 >> sounds really great. miles o'brien, as always, thank you so much. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: two kentucky cities that have taken two very different stances on what to do with confederate monuments. but first, from syria to ukraine to iraq, a window on the modern battlefield is a click away, across the internet. but now, there are concerns that some video evidence from those potential crime scenes could be endangered. hari sreenivasan has that from new york. >> sreenivasan: recently, youtube took down hundreds of thousands of videos posted to its website. the company, owned by google, used an algorithm designed to review, and rein in violent content. but researchers, legal experts and advocates pushed back. they said in some cases, youtube was removing potential evidence of human rights violations carefully catalogued over years, from the syria war, in particular. youtube relented some, and said it made the "wrong call." they are working to restore substantial amounts of that material. to explore this issue, i'm joined by stephen rapp. he's the former u.s. ambassador at large for war crimes, and is now sits on the board of physicians for human rights. and issie lapowsky, a senior writer covering national affairs and technology for wired magazine. first i want to start off with you both, stephen, you first. what do you think of what happened when youtube pulled down these videos? >> well, i think it's very unfortunate. this is primary evidence of massive violations. physicians for human rights has documented almost 500 attacks on medical facilities, more than 800 doctors and medical personnel killed, in, you know, an enormous number of incidents and an enormous number of facilities. to build the evidence for these cases you really need to see the pattern of all of it. removing it, i think, eliminates what's needed in the future if we're going to have accountability, if we're going to in the future begin again forcing this norm that protects humanitarian workers, protects the health of innocent civilians. >> sreenivasan: issie lapowsky. >> yeah, i would say that uobviously, google and youtube are well aware they have become a portal to extremism for a lot of people. so they have been really ahead of the curve in the tech industry in terms of trying to mitigate that access to extremist content. but here, i think you're right. this is machine learning as a blunt instrument. i think it has gone too far. but you look at how much content is going up on youtube every day. it's 400 hours of content per minute. that is more than any team of human beings, no matter how large, could ever properly filter. so google and i think youtube are doing the right thing using technology to combat extremism, but obviously it is early days and this is not going so well out of the gate. >> sreenivasan: issie lapowsky, staying with you for a second, 400 hours of video per minute. when you said "machine learning," is this a fact that the machines are actually learning now what the mistakes are as well when they scan all these videos at the same time? >> i think the team will work to correct, that yes. i think it's important to understand how machine learning works. it works like the way children learn-- if you point to four different pictures of a table, a child will start to learn what a table looks like, whether that table is square or circular or brown or white. these systems work similarly. they are fed with tons of content about what violent imagery looks like. and they start to learn over time how to detect it. and had they encounter new imagery, they make a decision, and they say, "is this violent? is it not? and you tube has reported its systems are flagging far more content than human beings are. in fact, the majority of these videos are coming down without a single human being flagging them. so, obviously, the machines are over-correcting for this problem, and i think that now that google and youtube are aware of that overcorrection they will work to sort of fix those systems. but it's going to be an ongoing process, of course,. >> sreenivasan: stephen rapp, you touched on this just a little while ago, but the the crucial nature of this evidence, the fact that you're starting to draw patterns together from air strike after air strike? >> it's extremely important to have that. i prosecuted the rwandan media because of the genocide and the u.n. tribunal, and we were talking about messages that incited violence, that incited genocide. here what we're really concerned about is images of events themselves, of bombings of hospitals, the kind of thing you need in the absence of having the targeting maps of the syrian authorities or insider information to show that this was intentional. it wasn't just accidental. and certainly the patterns that we have, documented by physicians for human rights, show that. but they're relying on this youtube material to corroborate the statements of people on the ground. where is it going to be in the future? there are civil society organizations that have been relying on this in the field. they're storing some of it. there are u.n. mechanisms storing some of it, but people don't have the storage to keep all of it, and there's the danger it will be compressed, metadata will be left out, and it won't be the kind of valuable evidence that exists right now. >> sreenivasan: stephen, what about the chain of custody? when somebody is making a case in front of a tribunal, how do you know this video is legitimate, that this air strike happened in this particular place? >> i've dealt with other kinds of material. to a large extent, some of this material can be self-verified. the material itself may contain metadata that can be analyzed and you can determine whether it's a composite, if it's taken at different seconds, different minutes, and put together, that's going to show up. and you're going to also see information sometimes about g.p.s., sometimes about time of day. and you're going to get several of these things together, and they're each going to fit together from independent sources, and you're going to have people on the ground. and so all of those things together can give you a reliable picture of what happened. it's not quite like a bank robbery where the police are there the minute afterwards and putting up the yellow tape. you've got to put these things together. and courts are able to do that. but we're going to lose the raw material, and it's going to be much harder to prove. and the syrian victims who really do feel themselves abandoned-- 500,000 killed, people tortured to death in government custody, poisoned gas, and this attack on medical facilities that violates rules that have been in the geneva conventions for 150 years. and they see this being taken down by machines, as if to say their suffering didn't matter. >> sreenivasan: issie lapowsky, it seems that there's a central tension here that these aid agencies that don't have the wandwidth to create their own archives of things, use youtube, but youtube and google have perhaps different shareholder missions. they want to have experience where the bulk of their users don't run into violent, horrible content? >> well, it's not only, that but pressure is increasingly being put on these platforms to eradicate that type of platform. they're getting pressure from the government and users saying, "we don't want these platform where's we spend our lives to become tools of radicalization for isis and other terrorist groups." so they're facing this pressure, yes, on one side to take down the content that truly is trying to radicalize people. on the other hand, you have groups, aid groups, you have researchers, you have journalists, frankly, working in these regions. i recently reported on a group called raqqa is being slaughtered silently. they are the only journalists inside raqqa, and they rely on these programs to get their message out to the world about what's happening there. and international news organizations use their content to tell their story to a broader audience. >> sreenivasan: all right, issie lapowsky, from "wired," stephen rapp, thank you both. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: after the violence in charlottesville this summer, cities around the country are grappling with history and whether to keep or take down monuments. last week, the dallas city council voted to take down a statue of robert e. lee. just yesterday, protesters covered a statue of thomas jefferson at the university of virginia in charlottesville. and in new york city, a statue of christopher columbus was vandalized in central park. jeffrey brown recently traveled to kentucky, a slave state that never joined the confederacy during the civil war, but one where the echoes of a divided history continue to be heard. >> reporter: louisville, kentucky: home to the kentucky derby. the slugger baseball bat. the great muhammad ali. and, for 121 years, until last winter, this 70-foot-tall monument honoring confederate soldiers. university of louisville professor ricky jones walked past it for 20 years. >> i knew what it was, what it represented. and so when you understand that a symbol like that is something that represents an era of slavery and dehumanization in the country's history, it's demeaning, dehumanizing to walk by it every day, if you're an african american. >> reporter: today, the statue stands some 40 miles to the southwest in the town of brandenburg, population 2,600, on the banks of the ohio river. and mayor ronnie joyner is thrilled to have it. >> to me, there's no controversy. to me, it's a civil war monument that we have now, and we're proud of it. you can look at it and see that it's something that this city can be proud of. >> reporter: the story of the monument, that once stood on this empty traffic median, in many ways encapsulates the passions over history and race being expressed around the country today. it was given to city of louisville in 1895 by the kentucky women's confederate monument association. once on the outskirts of town, it was gradually encircled by the expanding university of louisville campus. there were earlier protests against it. in 1947, then-mayor charles farnsley responded with a rifle, "protecting" the statue. then, two years ago, following the killing of nine people in charleston, south carolina by avowed white supremacist dylann roof, professor jones, head of pan-african studies department here, started a new effort to remove the statue. >> when you really look at the history of these statues, you look at the history of the flag, you look at the history of the confederacy-- which was a treasonous region of the country-- you understand that it was steeped in racism, it was steeped in brutality, it was steeped in the idea that one race of people had the right to own, to enslave, to brutalize another. then you can still support the statues, you can still support the flag, you can still support memorials, but you've got to be very clear and honest about what you're supporting. >> reporter: the city joined the effort, helping overcome resistance, including a lawsuit by the "sons of confederate veterans." mayor greg fischer says it's part of an ongoing rethinking of the city's past and present, which includes the creation of" freedom park," not far from the confederate monument. so this is explicitly a kind of "balance" to the statue? >> an attempt at that, yes. so this went up in 2012 by the university of louisville, to say, "look, we know not the whole story is being told here with this statue, so let's commemorate some of our powerful figures, in terms of african american leaders in our city here." >> reporter: the statute, says the mayor, had no place in modern louisville. >> we're a compassionate city, but there were still some charged emotions. some people, of course, accused me of erasing history. some people said, "mayor, you're the taliban. you're destroying history." i said, "no, we're not destroying it, we're just moving it," but... >> reporter: you're moving history? >> history is always dynamic. it can be interpreted in different ways. when this statue was put here over 100 years ago, it was on the edge of the city. six months ago, it was in the middle of the city. very different context. also, our consciousness as a community, as a country, has changed as well. clearly a statue like that was the white order's way of saying it's a way of saying, "we are still in charge." and i ask people would you be okay if somebody came into your house and took your wife away from you, never to be seen again, brutalize her, rape her on the way down the river, separate your family, and then we put up a statue to those people. >> reporter: but when louisville decided to take down the monument, brandenburg welcomed it with fanfare, at a ceremony attended by some 400 people. the monument is seen here as part of a history walk along the riverfront park, with much smaller statues commemorating native americans and the underground railroad. and the town has added plaques that purport to tell civil war history, from both a southern and northern perspective. now, says mayor joyner, who with judge gerry lynn, led the effort to bring it here, it's "" civil war," not a "confederate" monument. >> it's veterans. i would compare this pretty much to the vietnam wall. because this monument, it honors veterans. it wasn't put up to say, "ha, ha, ha, we did this." because the south actually lost the war. >> reporter: you don't see it as a symbol of slavery? >> no. absolutely not. it's in honor of veterans. it was never put up because of slavery or black versus white. >> reporter: but there is controversy in this country over what some people see as symbols of a civil war history and a racial history and a history of slavery and oppression in this country. >> yeah, i guess there is. but i don't see it that way. and the majority of the people here don't see it that way. >> reporter: and, the mayor says, the monument is not going anywhere. >> the thing in charlottesville, it made news, and so everyone wants to know, what am i going to do? well, i'm going to do not anything. i'm going to try to preserve what we have and take care of business. >> reporter: it was a sentiment we heard from others in brandenburg, including jeremiah caddell, a groundskeeper at a nearby golf course. >> it represents our history. everybody's wanting to throw it away, throw it away, sweep it underneath the rug. >> reporter: when you say "our" history, who's us? >> "us" is african americans, white, caucasian people, it's asian americans. there's wars fought overseas. >> reporter: what's next? in brandenburg, mayor joyner told me he'd like more monuments, but isn't sure that's possible after the violence that erupted in charlottesville. >> those propaganda tools... >> reporter: while in louisville, the city is holding hearings to decide if other statutes should come down. >> i'm here to honor john b. castleman. >> reporter: the most contentious is john castleman, a confederate officer who, after the war, joined the u.s. army and helped build louisville's park system. the question now? which aspect of castleman's life should this city recognize? last month, the statue was vandalized, splattered in bright orange paint. but when we visited recently there was another message nearby: "save me." for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in louisville and brandenburg, kentucky. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now: called the "the man who conquered yellow fever," walter reed is better known today as the namesake of the u.s. military medical center in washington. we look back at his greatest contribution to public health on the anniversary of his birth. that's on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. and tune in later tonight. on "charlie rose:" tennis star maria sharapova on her return to the game and the new book that tells her side of the doping scandal that led to her suspension. and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, the vietnam war. i sit down with filmmakers ken burns and lynn novick to discuss their new landmark documentary. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again right here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world, by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at www.rockefellerfoundation.org. >> 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 >> you're watching pbs. - [host] about 10 years ago i started researching a documentary film about a 19 year old mexican kid name joaquin murrieta. he had been hunted down by a group of bounty hunters during the summer of 1853. they decapitated him. they put his head in a jar and they displayed it in saloons, brothels, hotels, all across the west. so i went out to california to meet this guy who said that he had the head. and he told me that he had gotten rid of it and he didn't have it anymore. so i never made the film, it was a dead end.

Related Keywords

New York , United States , Louisville , Kentucky , United Kingdom , Texas , Washington , Vietnam , Republic Of , Florida , Rwanda , Whitehouse , District Of Columbia , Syria , New Mexico , Russia , Ohio River , Puerto Rico , Mexico , Seoul , Soul T Ukpyolsi , South Korea , Bangladesh , Raqqa , Ar Raqqah , Iraq , South Carolina , Virgin Islands , Saida , Dar A , British Virgin Islands , Italy , Anguilla , Libya , Dallas , Americans , Rwandan , Mexican , Russian , Britain , British , Syrian , American , Tim Scott , Jeffrey Brown , Greg Fischer , Chuck Schumer , Ricky Jones , Christopher Columbus , Carolyn Porco , Obamacare , Jim Mattis , Paul Allen , Pete Domenici , John Castleman , Jordyn Holman , Stephen Rapp , Gerry Lynn , Suu Kyi , Julie Webster , Judy Woodruff , John Yang , Robert Gould , Stormin Cudjoe , Kim Jong , Karine Jean Pierre , Joaquin Murrieta , Walter Reed , Ronnie Joyner , Hari Sreenivasan , Alex Thomson , Paul Ryan , Bernie Sanders , Muhammad Ali ,