more, 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. >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> collette. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: 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. >> sreenivasan: congressional republicans shifted their focus today to cutting taxes, after the senate passed a budget bill overnight. the vote was 51 to 49, with kentucky's rand paul the only republican to vote "no." the house already passed its version of the budget. the spending plan provides for tax cuts that would add $1.5 trillion to the deficit over ten years. we'll get details on the budget and tax plans, right after the news summary. there's more fallout in the political feud over the nation's war dead. congresswoman frederica wilson is rejecting an accusation by retired general john kelly, the white house chief of staff. yesterday, he accused her of eavesdropping on president trump's condolence call to a soldier's widow, a call she criticized as insensitive. today, the florida democrat answered. >> i wasn't listening in. i was in a car where a call was being taken on a speaker phone. i wasn't listening in. don't-- please don't characterize it as that. >> sreenivasan: kelly had also charged that in a 2015 speech, wilson falsely claimed credit for getting funds for an f.b.i. building. in fact, she did not mention the funding. but at the white house, press secretary sarah sanders said kelly was right, and wilson was grandstanding. >> she also mentioned that, and she also had quite a few comments that day that weren't part of that speech and weren't part of that video, that were also witnessed by many people that were there-- what general kelly referenced yesterday. >> sreenivasan: in turn, house minority leader nancy pelosi today defended wilson as a "wonderful, kind person." on the broader issue of honoring the war dead, pelosi said: "let's just take down the heat on this." in afghanistan, suicide bombers killed at least 72 people today, the latest in a string of bloody attacks this week. one of the bombers blew himself up in a shiite mosque in kabul after it filled with friday worshippers. the other struck in the central part of the country. the death toll in last saturday's bombing in somalia has risen to 358. more than 200 others were wounded, when a powerful truck bomb exploded in mogadishu. the somali prime minister said late today the country's president will announce a "state of war" against the al-shabab militant group. government troops in iraq traded shelling and rocket fire today with kurdish forces at the kurds' last enclave near kirkuk. the clash came just outside the autonomous kurdish region. the iraqi army advanced on kirkuk and its oil fields in the wake of a kurdish vote for independence. a major new study finds pollution is killing an estimated nine million people a year, worldwide. that's more than war, disease and natural disasters. the medical journal "the lancet" reports that india led the way with more than 2.5 million deaths from pollution in 2015. scientists in new delhi said today the situation will get worse, despite legal action to clean the nation's air. >> because, as the pollution level is not going to decrease soon, and even with the various supreme court orders, we are seeing that a lower peak is coming, but then again, all the other sources are negating the effects of the supreme court orders that have come in place. >> sreenivasan: the study was based at the icahn school of medicine in mount sinai, new york. back in this country, a federal appeals court in washington d.c. blocked an undocumented immigrant girl from getting an abortion. the 17-year-old is being held in texas. she's 15 weeks pregnant, and texas law bars abortions after 20 weeks. federal officials have refused to assist, so the court today gave her until october 31 to find a sponsor who can help. otherwise, it may reconsider its ruling. the number of american adults with no health insurance is up nearly 3.5 million this year. that's according to a "gallup- sharecare" well-being index released today. the increase comes amid rising premiums and political turmoil over obamacare. on wall street today, banks and tech stocks kept pushing the market higher. the dow jones industrial average gained 165 points to close at 23,328. the nasdaq rose nearly 24 points, and the s&p 500 added 13. for the week, the dow gained 2%. the s&p 500 rose nearly 1%. the nasdaq added a fraction. and first lady melania trump presented her inaugural gown to the smithsonian today. it took place at the national museum of american history. the gown will join an exhibit of inaugural ball outfits worn by all of the nation's first ladies. meanwhile, jackie robinson's rookie jersey from the 1947 rookie season is on the auction block. online bidding runs through november 19. the jersey could fetch more than $3 million. still to come on the newshour: the trump agenda. how passing a budget makes tax reform possible. after isis and the fall of the terror group's de facto capital. the virgin islands, rebuilding after hurricane maria. and, much more. >> sreenivasan: it's been the focus of congressional republicans for a while now: taxes, taxes, taxes. they cleared a big hurdle last night by pushing that budget resolution through the senate. now, here to discuss why it matters, and what's next in the ongoing debate over a potential tax overhaul, is correspondent lisa desjardins. so tell us what happened. >> all right. the senate passed a budget resolution. that's a non-binding framework for how congress should spend. it's usually not a big deal, hari, but this year is a very big deal because this budget resolution in theory gives republicans the ability to use another procedure that will only need 50 votes to pass tax reform. they have to get a budget to get to that special 50-vote reconciliation with the tax reform. so here's speaker paul ryan on cbs this morning. >> our plane is in place, the train is on the tracks, and we're rolling down the track. the whole point of getting tax reform done: increase people's wages so we have a healthier economy and more jobs. >> that's the republican argument. tax reform will lead the a better economy. not all economists agree with that idea and certainly democrats disagree. >> sreenivasan: democrats and republicans would love all those things he just said, but the devil is in the details. what do we know about the specifics on how this tax overhaul would look? >> think of the budget resolution as a foundation for the home. it tells us the direction republicans are going for tax reform. the most important thing is they would allow up to $1.5 trillion in deficit spending, were rowing, for tax cuts. now, republicans don't like the add to the deficit. we have to see the details. those haven't come out yet, but they are saying they're willing to borrow for these tax cuts. that was in the budget tha was passed last night by the senate. >> sreenivasan: how do they lure some of those conservatives in the senate and the house? >> they have to convince them this is a once in a generation change, not just a big tax cut, but also reforming the entire code. they plan to get rid of a lot of tax deductions, change corporate rates, it's all in the package i think. but still, some conservatives may not be comfortable with adding to the deficit. >> sreenivasan: speaker ryan presents it in a very polished manner. but what's next? what has to happen for this to pass? >> okay. it's time to pay attention next. week we may see the budget pass in the house. once the budget passes both chambers, we'll see probably an outline and specifics on tax reform. we could see those in the house by the end of november or even maybe the end of this month some people are hoping. >> all right, lisa desjardins, thanks so much. >> sreenivasan: today in syria, forces trained and supported by the united states declared victory in the city of raqqa, the self-proclaimed capital of the islamic state. beginning in june, kurdish and arab fighters had fought a brutal house-by-house battle, backed up by punishing airstrikes launched by the american-led coalition. now that the battle is over, what's next for the war in syria-- and for isis? here's special correspondent nick schifrin. >> reporter: after four years of isis, this is liberation. kurdish fighters flashed "v" for victory, in what was the heart of isis' power. but from above, after four months of fighting, raqqa is ruined. in order to save the city, the u.s. destroyed it, says "times of london" reporter richard spencer, who was in raqqa this week. >> the whole city was completely empty. every single house or apartment block or shop or industrial unit had been basically knocked to the ground by airstrikes. the coalition air forces went through the city, building by building, and nothing is really left standing. >> reporter: the u.s. dropped tens of thousands of pounds of bombs. the u.n. estimates 80% of the city is uninhabitable. hassan hassan is a senior fellow at the tahrir institute for middle east policy. >> they wanted basically to turn isis territories into a killing box. but that came at the expense of civilians. this is not what we expected the end of the caliphate will look like. we wanted this moment to be a moment of celebration. >> reporter: for years, isis described control of territory the size of portugal as proof of its power. isis collected taxes and released propaganda videos depicting moral police as neighborhood cops. now, it has a plan to revert to its roots and go back underground, predicts former deputy assistant secretary of defense andrew exum. >> they're not all going to go away, and we should be prepared for them to transition from having been a state-like entity into an insurgency, which of course is what they were before the declaration of the islamic state. >> reporter: isis doesn't need land to use propaganda to spread ideology. it can continue to recruit online to launch terrorism, like the august van attack in barcelona. and in syria, it's down, but not out. the syrian government is fighting isis in nearby deir-al- zor. isis still controls 4,000 square miles in syria and iraq. and there's no easy way to target its remaining 6,000 or so fighters. the group is wounded, but its wisdom has grown. >> it has more experience in fighting and in, kind of exploiting the political environment and the social division. we have an environment that allows for groups like isis and others to arise and flourish and sustain themselves in these areas. >> reporter: that's because in syria, there's no political solution in sight. no reconstruction-- or reconciliation or reform. tens of thousands of syrians fled their homes and are living in camps. shia president bashar al assad, backed by russia and iran, has made no concessions to his sunni opponents. >> the assad regime is not going to change its nature, and they're going to continue to antagonize a sunni arab majority in syria that could absolutely continue to create the conditions that would allow groups like nusra and the islamic state to arise or to come back. >> reporter: isis has long exploited that political resentment. and, so long as the resentment remains, isis will still have sympathizers. but the u.s. priority is not fixing syria. it's exclusively defeating isis. which leads critics to argue the us and its allies in raqqa might have succeeded tactically, but still have no strategy. >> the achilles heel of american foreign policy, especially as it pertains to the war on terror, is the, not paying attention to the grievances and also the environment that led to the rise of groups like isis and al qaeda >> reporter: there's no doubt this week is a milestone. the square that once hosted isis beheadings, hosted that kurdish celebration. the children isis recruited in raqqa, their minds not old enough to resist propaganda, now safe in nearby shelters. and raqqa's women embraced their female liberators, and shed subjugation. but there's a lot of work left. and the very political and regional conditions that helped launched this war, still exist. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> sreenivasan: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: in california, finding a place to live after so much has burned. mark shields and david brooks analyze the week's political news. chinese artist ai weiwei's newest project. but first, what life is like in the u.s. virgin islands one month after hurricane maria struck. william brangham has an update. >> brangham: given what happened when recent hurricanes hit texas, florida and puerto rico, it's easy to lose sight of the u.s. virgin islands where 100,000 american citizens live. they were hit by two category-5 storms in the span of two weeks. progress is being made, but there's a long way to go. on st. john, for example, power is largely still out for everyone. electricity is quite limited on st. thomas and st. croix, too. many structures, including two hospitals, schools and police stations, were destroyed. for a look at the latest, we talked by phone with a state senator on the island, janette millin young. senator, thank you very much for being here. i wonder if you could just start off by giving us a sense of what daily life is like there now. >> daily life continues to be a struggle for many people here in the united states virgin islands. if you were here, the optics would tell you a little different, because we've started to... it seems like it's normal because we're in traffic, the plants and the trees and everything is turning green again, but the life of most people is still a struggle. and for that reason so many have left. you just noted how many schools have been closed, and the department of education has condemned a few. that means parents have to find a way to take their children to school, especially our seniors that have to meet certain requirements. so we have lost a lot of people. i don't have a sense of how many people. and that is a question that i will definitely be asking on the floor when we have committee hearings. because we're not getting information, especially as senators, so if the senators are not being informed, imagine what the average person is not being informed, as well. so that presents another problem, because while you have your own despair because you don't have your roof, you don't have many basic necessities, the lack of information becomes another part of the struggle. >> brangham: i just want to remind people, so you had to deal with irma which tore some roofs off and stripped the trees bear, and then you have another storm coming in right as you're trying the clean up from first. >> yes. and, you know, i will tell you, from my personal perspective, because i work for the administration back in '95 when we had a hurricane, and when that hurricane hit, i think it was a category three, but it's still devastating, we did so much to clean up this place. the airport was open in three days. we cleaned up the main streets the make sure commerce was going. and now we are not. and so i understand we had two category 5s, but we didn't do enough after the first so much less after the second. so that has really crippled us. the economy is tanking. and we need to get commerce going. many of the stores are still cash only. we have a lot of people unemployed because you had all these hotels close. so that means it displaced about 1,000 people. well, that represents families, doesn't it? so the economy has taken a real blow, and we really need to get this going. >> brangham: can you tell us a little bit about the situation with regard to electricity? >> the electricity, as you yourself mentioned, we're still really struggling there. some places have no power. whoever is open is open with generators. so the generator companies are doing really good, because we're not moving fast enough. i will say, in defense of the work that is being done, we do have about 500 linemen. we have linemen coming from all over the country, and we're really appreciative of that. it should have happened sooner. i won't say that i'm not grateful, because i am super, super grateful, because so many in the united states have come down either with fema, law enforcement, linemen, but we need to operate as if it is a small place, because it is a small place. we should have been further along despite the fact that it was category five hurricanes that hit us. >> brangham: so who do you put that responsibility on? i know fema is the one that's in charge of the response. do you feel like they haven't been doing enough? where do you apportion blame in this? >> well, i have to say, it comes from the top. the senators are not at the table when it comes to emergency management. we're policy-makers and we approve funding, but we are not at the table for emergency response. when you ask certain federal officials, they'll tell you, well, the state didn't make this request. i know that i have asked for many things to happen, but i don't see them. sometimes we can get caught up politically when we shouldn't, because we have lives at stake. >> brangham: i understand you were in washington, d.c., recently speaking the senior lirp -- leadership here in the senate and the house. did you get a sense they were hearing you? >> i got a very good sense that they were listening to what our plight was, despite the fact that the media, the national media, has not been paying a whole will the of attention to us. you hear marathons and relief efforts for puerto rico. i'm half puerto rican, so i'm happy that people are responding to puerto rico, but i am a public servant for the united states virgin island, so it hurts every single time i hear what is happening in puerto rico and no one mentions what's happening in the united states virgin island. once again, i thank you for the attention being placed here because our hurt is very real. >> brangham: senator janette millin young from the u.s. virgin island, thank you so much for talking with us. >> thank you. thank you so much. >> sreenivasan: it's been nearly two weeks since deadly wildfires broke out in the northern part of the state. at least 42 people have died. fire officials hope to fully contain the most destructive fires by early next week. thousands of homes have been destroyed. for many returning residents, there's the question of where to relocate or rebuild, in one of the country's most expensive housing markets. special correspondent cat wise has our report from sonoma county. >> reporter: for the second time in the past 12 days, santa rosa construction worker agustin aguilera and his family have had to move, with the few possessions they still have. several groups of friends have been sheltering the family since their small rental unit went up in flames, one of more than 8,000 homes and structures around california's wine country destroyed in the recent wildfires. aguilera, who has not had work or a paycheck since the fires started, says it was tough to find a place to live in his $1,500 price range before. now, he's worried he won't be able to compete in the new, more competitive, rental market. >> i think there's going to be a shortage in housing, because, i mean, there are thousands of people there that got affected by these fires. they were pretty high prices before the fires, and i think this is going to be even worse. as of right now, i don't know, what am i going to do? >> reporter: the aguilera family's struggles to find housing in the wake of the fires is a common story now throughout the region. here in santa rosa, the housing market-- like in so many other bay area communities-- was hot before the fires. rental vacancy rates hovered around 1% and housing prices have been rising rapidly. the wildfires destroyed a wide spectrum of the city's housing inventory-- from low-income mobile home parks, to middle class ranches in coffey park, to multi-million dollar mansions in the fountain grove neighborhood. one industry that's been impacted up and down the economic ladder is health care. at the santa rosa memorial hospital, and affiliated clinics run by st. joseph health, 152 staff lost their homes, including more than 50 physicians. >> i'm spending as much time on housing, on housing issues for our community, as i am in just dealing with, kind of day-to-day hospital environment issues. >> reporter: todd salnas is president of the hospital. he and his family have been staying with his dad since they lost their fountain grove home, but he says he hasn't had much time to think about his own situation because he's been so focused on helping his staff. >> it's really hard to ask people to be what they need to be in a very stressful, highly- driven healthcare environment, and not have their families settled. so we're trying to work very hard to get people settled. >> one bedroom apartment, it's downtown closer to the hospital. >> reporter: soon after the fires began, the hospital established this "housing command center," where teams are trying to connect displaced staff with temporary housing. and nearby medical offices are being turned into small apartments. so far, about 30 employees have been placed, but salnas says he's already thinking about their long-term needs-- and the community's. >> one thing is providing this immediate, short-term need, right? we've found a hotel for you, for tonight, for the next week. but once that wears off, having the capacity to, to serve the community, and recruit and retain our medical community, which largely was wiped out in some of these, in these fires, is, is a major issue. >> reporter: how the rebuilding effort will proceed is now on the minds of many. >> this is not something that can be rushed, this is going to be a long process. >> reporter: steve kreig has been a local farmers insurance agent for 30 years. more than 100 of his clients have lost homes. he believes most home-owners in the region had fire insurance, although policies and coverage varied. but the costs of rebuilding for homeowners and insurance companies are a big unknown at this point. >> the city and county are already putting out guidelines of what they're going to do. we're hearing that they are going to waive fees for permits, but we're also finding that any rebuild is going to have to be to current code. so that means a lot of homes are going to have a lot of changes. and, we don't know if the policies are going to have enough coverage to cover that. are building costs going to skyrocket because of the shortage of materials? we don't know! from what we heard, a lot of our materials just went to houston to take care of the issues that they just had with their weather calamity. we need those materials back now. i've also heard that mills are running around the clock up north of us, so they're trying to get out as much lumber as they can. is it going to be enough? we don't know, because we've never had this many homes at one time. >> reporter: some in the community are hoping the city will use the rebuilding process to address some long-standing housing issues. >> the people that are most likely to get pushed out are low income, people of color. >> reporter: omar medina is with the "north bay organizing project," a housing and community advocacy nonprofit. >> i think that the most critical thing that our community and our elected officials can do is really, think about, not only increasing the housing stock, but making sure that there's affordable housing, and a significant amount of it. >> reporter: for construction worker agustin aguilera, the promise of more work in the coming months is not easing his housing concerns. >> i'm afraid the wages are not going to go as high as the expenses or the living in the area. unfortunately, if we cannot find an affordable place to live, we're probably going to have to relocate. i'm sad because i don't want to move from here. i don't want to relocate. >> reporter: so far, more than 10,000 households impacted by the fires have registered with fema, and local officials are now considering a range of options for increasing short- term housing and expediting the rebuilding process. but, it is expected to be years, not months, before the community recovers. for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in santa rosa, california. >> sreenivasan: it was another news-packed week in washington, as president trump dealt with outcry over his comments to a gold star family, and the public statements of his presidential predecessors. it's time for the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks. mark, let's start with this controversy that sprung from really a tragedy of four soldiers in niger. and then we have the president, the chief of staff, a widow, and a congresswoman all involved in this. >> well, first, the reason we have it is the president. on the defensive, he can't answer a question. his default position is to attack and criticize. in this case he criticized his predecessors. this was because there were 12 days with no statement on niger, what their mission was, how it happened. he tried to absolve himself by attacking unfairly and inaccurately president obama and president bush. it became so bad, the political bleeding, that they felt it necessary to bring out general john kelly, the chief of staff. general kelly is a four-star marine general who served himself, his son robert was killed in combat in afghanistan, and both whom... he asks people not to talk, not to speak. when he's introduced, he prefers that not be mentioned. it became his chief of staff's obligation superseded. he stepped in to stop the bleeding for donald trump. he spoke eloquently. he smoke movingly. he spoke from personal experience and conviction. and then he went too far. he went oned a home anyone, an attack upon the congresswoman of florida, which was inaccurate. he said that private communications, the third most quoted writing of abraham lincoln, his letter to mrs. bixby whose five sons were killed in the civil war. so, you know, he defended... he was on the high ground. he's got a marvelous record, but now he's in the mix. he's now a chief of staff and he's mixing it up. >> i'm reminded of karl marx that all historical events happen twice. first is tragedy, next is farce. the four soldiers being killed is tragedy. then trump made the call, and one imagines he made the call in clumsy form, as john kelly said, that the soldier died doing what he loved to do and that he chose to be amongst the 1%, the best amongst it. donald trump is not oprah. he doesn't speak particularly well. i'm sure it was clumsy. so that happened. then it's off to the circus. we then get a political charge against trump. then trump lies and says something about obama, and then it's just back and forth. and these are like the typical pseudo events of the trump era where it's really about nothing except we want to have a fight with each other. so they're going to have a fight over something, and nobody to my mind comes out looking particularly well. >> sreenivasan: senator mccain earlier this week when receiving an award at the national constitution center in philadelphia, i want the get his quote right, he spoke out about "half-baked spearious nationalism." later in the week, just yesterday we had beth presidents before trump, mr. bush and mr. obama, in separate speeches come out and make statements. they didn't call trump out by name. but let's take a listen to what they said. >> instead of our politics reflecting our values, we've got politics infecting our communities. instead of looking for ways to work together and get things done in a practical way, we've got folks who are deliberately trying to make folks angry, to demonize people who have different ideas. >> our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication. we've seen nationalism distorted into nativeism. we've forgotten the dynamism immigration has always brought to america. >> sreenivasan: mark? >> there's no question who they're talking about. they don't have to say donald trump's name in all three cases. and john mccain... george w. bush has been quite circumspect, quite silent during the eight years of barack obama. even when he accused george w. bush of knowing there were no weapons of mass destruction and yet sending americans into combat and some to death. but mccain i think speaks from a position that is unassailable. i mean, this is man that trump said is not a hero. he spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war being tortured every day, and he said the rest of his life has been devoted to public service. he hasn't closed any big real estate deals, so he doesn't qualify. i thought if he challenges him right now, jeff flake has picked it up. bob corker has picked it up. to some degree ben sasse has. >> sreenivasan:what are the oths going to do? are they just going to remain silent? >> sreenivasan:>> steve bannon y about world history and that the post-world toward two world order is a mistake and donald trump has that theory. no one has made a case for what was a bipartisan consensus in favor of that order and that we're a country of immigrants, that we're country of the future. so bannon and trump have had the intellectual field to themselves, at least as far as elected officials have gone. neither obama, bush, or probably mccain will ever run for office again, but at least they're making the case. at there's counter-argument is beginning to be made. and i think what's occuring to a lot of people is that first we're in a 50-year debate about what the 21st century, well, maybe an 83-year debate about what the 21st century will look like, and it's probably a debate between some form of populism and some form of openness and diversity. it's occuring to people that they have to get involved in that debate. and second, i think it's steve bannon who has gone to pick off other republicans, it's become clear to a lot of people in the republican party, there's no escaping this debate. you can't hide and hope you'll get ignored and bannon will pass you over. even in wyoming they're coming after you some you might as well take a side. so i think we're finally beginning to see some two-sided debate. >> sreenivasan: let's talk a little bit about healthcare. some confusion on that, where the white house stood, where the legislative agenda stood. two senators, senator alexander and senator murray are working together, reached what in other congresses would be pretty normal, a bipartisan approach to this, yet there's still a lot of tension on whether this is going to move forward or not. >> i think the jury is very much out, but both parties... it's what legislating used to be about. you give up something in hopes of getting something. the democrats see this as a way of sustaining and strengthening the affordable care act. republicans realize that they can't go into 2018 just having eliminated healthcare for 18 to 20 million americans. so if they have any hope of any block granting it in some form of repeal and replace. i think there is. the president was for it before he was against it. and then he was for lamar alexander, the republican senator from tennessee and patty murray the senator from washington who were the grown-ups in the room, who actually legislated. >> sreenivasan: at this point, you have the 60 votes you need? >> if you have 12 republicans and 12 democratic cosponsors, it looks good. as mark said, it's an outbreak of normalcy. it's in nobody's interest for the insurance markets to crater. you have people responding to a genuine problem. whether it can get through a house is another question. paul ryan has not been super enthusiastic about it. but i think they'll defer to the white house. we'll see if the white house changes their minds, but at least you're beginning to see people behave like senators. if you can get 12 and 12 cosponsors on this, why can't they do some other things? why can't they begin to get some legislation, at least in the senate, and put the house on the defensive for a little while. >> senator mcconnell is in that position. >> sreenivasan: last night was one of the few times of year when people put down their swords. take a listen to a couple jokes. >> when you read the papers tomorrow, everyone will report this differently. breitbart will read, "ryan schramms the president among liberal elites." "new york times" will read, "ryan defends the president in state hillary won." and the president will tweet, "300,000 cheer at mention of my name." >> sreenivasan: jokes are often funny because there's some truth to them. there are several other very good one liners he made a videotape of. but how much of this is stuff that has to be cleared by the white house? how much of this is a pressure release and opportunity for paul ryan to say the things that otherwise he doesn't say? >> well, it was a side of paul ryan that has been kept out of the public eye. david can tell us whether that's what republicans wear when they're alone in private. but it's good to laugh. he showed an ability to laugh both at himself as well as the president. he said he wakes up every morning, first thing he does is tweets to see which one of the president's tweets he's going to have to deny that he read that day. so he did show a certain awareness. and i think humor... whatever you say about this administration, it is humor-free. i mean, self-deprecating humor and donald trump are mutually exclusive. >> republicans wear riding jackets. it was a catholic dinner. >> a catholic dinner for al smith, first catholic nominee. haven't elected a catholic since then. john kennedy and then jack kennedy. >> it's always a great dinner, not that i've been. i watch on c-span. it's always funny with one exception, and that was donald trump last year. he turned it into what usually is quite a funny dinner into just a bitter diatribe. and that, you know, you can tell a lot about a person by whether they laugh, how they laugh, and what they tell their jokes about. and paul ryan is a good guy. he's stuck in a miserable circumstance, but he's a good guy. he can be quite funny. >> sreenivasan: david brooks, mark shields. both funny men. thank you. >> sreenivasan: and now, a well-known international artist and political activist turns his creative powers to a global crisis. jeffrey brown explores "human flow," a documentary by ai weiwei which opens around the country tonight. >> a group picture, to see how human rights are being treated globally. >> brown: at the hirshhorn museum in washington d.c., portraits of leading dissidents from around the world. but they're rendered in lego toys-- the mix of art and political protest, gravity and playfulness, for which ai weiwei has become internationally- renowned. >> it takes time for people to realize, but of course you have to introduce a new language. otherwise, what are you offering to the world? it's nothing but a repeat of the same kind of aesthetics, which is not interesting at all. >> brown: the chinese artist likes to think big, and now he has created a film titled "human flow" about an enormous problem-- the refugee crisis-- on a vast canvas: shot in 23 countries around the globe. >> i think that will make a big difference, to show people the total landscape, and so they have a chance to think and to make a more profound judgment. >> brown: the film begins on the greek island of lesbos, where many syrian refugees have come to shore. and then takes the viewer to humanitarian trouble spots around the world. there's no narration, and just a handful of interviews with the displaced, and experts. >> brown: the artist himself is occasionally seen interacting with people in desperate situations. much is familiar from news stories, including on this program, but ai wants to capture the big picture. >> it's a symphony, it's not a, you know, a solo. you can see the humanity much larger, very different scales and very different skin, different race, and for different reasons they have been pushed out from their home. so there is less individual cases, because we see the individual type of film quite often, short films about one person, one child, or to talk about their story. so i was much more ambitious to know the global situation. >> brown: that global situation: some 65 million on the move, more every day, displaced by war, poverty, environmental disruption-- leaving governments in richer countries wrestling with a response. for ai weiwei, though, all this is personal: his father was a renowned poet who was forced to leave beijing with his family to be re-educated in a rural village during china's cultural revolution. >> my father spent 20 years in a very remote area, and forbidden to write words, so i grew up in this condition and i have a natural understanding of people who are forced to leave their homes, and their fate can really not be decided by themselves, and they're constantly feeling of uncertainty and distrust. >> brown: among ai weiwei's best-known projects: helping design the bird's nest stadium for the 2008 beijing olympics. but other work has led to continuing battles with chinese authorities. including exposing poor construction that contributed to the death of thousands of children in the 2008 sichuan earthquake he spent 81 days in prison in 2011 and was not allowed to leave the country for the next four years. you have always talked about not separating art from activism, so what is this film? is it a work of art, is it a work of activism? >> it's art, it's a documentary, it's activism, it's all combined. >> brown: it is? because-- >> it's always combined. i think as a human being, you cannot separate this, and for many people, maybe they don't have to be, come to this conscious level. but for me as an artist, my duty is to express myself and to build this communication with the audience, or the people. so i'm always interested in the issues which relate to most people, what affects our humanity today, and what is our politics in relating to those issues which i feel i'm very privileged to have a chance to speak out. >> brown: for some, he goes too far at times, inserting himself into others' tragedies: a photo recreating the body of a drowned syrian infant refugee on lesbos drew derision and scorn. do you worry about crossing a line of art and tragedy, or how people will see that? >> my art, in principle, is about crossing lines, you know. if i don't cross the lines of the common assumption, i will never make a single piece of art. >> brown: but you do have a privileged position as an internationally famous artist to come in and show these things. >> my privilege is, i have to bear the responsibility for the people who are voiceless, the people who lost their life before they understand the world, and people have to die in this ocean. >> brown: ai weiwei lives and works mostly in berlin now. i asked about the situation for free expression in china. >> i'm as free as a bird, but, you know-- >> brown: you're as free as a bird? >> yes, but a bird always can be put in a cage. many of my friends are being held in jail without trial, and many of them even disappeared, nobody knows where they are. and these people will never have the same kind of voice as i have. so i have such a responsibility to speak for them. >> brown: do you feel protected by the international position that you have? >> it's very hard to say. it's like to ask a boxer why, after 12 rounds, they're still standing there, those punches doesn't matter, or is it that, who knows, the next punch maybe can just knock him down, and maybe he's pushing the limit. so it's very hard to say. >> brown: ai weiwei will continue his provocations this fall in a large-scale public art exhibition throughout new york's five boroughs. it's titled "good fences make good neighbors," and it again explores immigration and borders. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at the hirshhorn museum in washington. >> sreenivasan: what if we didn't show the "best" and the "greatest," but rather shared, or talked about, our mistakes? tonight, david litt shares his humble opinion on the secret power of self-deprecation. >> it's 2011. i'm 25 years old, a junior white house speechwriter, and just seconds ago, i've been introduced to the president for the very first time. i've imagined this moment for years. this is my chance to make an impression. he says how's it going? and exactly one thought runs through my head. "i did not realize we were going to have to answer questions." i have no idea what i said next. i actually blacked out. i guess it can't have been too bad, because for the next few years i kept writing speeches and jokes for president obama. and when it came to comedy, he understood that the number one rule of political humor is: be self-deprecating. don't be afraid to make fun of yourself. but how many of us follow that rule in our own lives? we're always told, "put your best foot forward." "fake it till you make it." "don't let them see you sweat." and sometimes, that really is good advice. there's no reason to wallow in every failure. if someone asks, "what's your biggest weakness?" in an interview, do not tell the truth. but what i've learned is that you don't have to be president to benefit from a little self- deprecation. sometimes the best way to get ahead is to put your worst foot forward. in a world where everyone feels pressure to be perfect, there's real value to admitting that you're only human. when you can laugh at your mistakes-- and get other people to laugh at them too-- that means you have the confidence to move past them. self-deprecation is a way to admit your faults without letting them define you. it's also a way to stay balanced. you need to leave room for humility, for the knowledge that even when you do your best, you'll sometimes come up short. only humor lets you have both doubt and self-confidence simultaneously. and laughing at yourself takes the pressure off everyone around you. because when we're kids, we think the world is run by grown- ups. and then we get older and we learn the truth: there are no grown-ups. there's only us. and we're imperfect. we stumble, and we come up short, and we black out in front of presidents. okay, maybe that last one was just me. once we accept our own imperfection, it's not disappointing. it's liberating. because it means we don't have to wait for perfect people to save us. instead, just like those who came before us, we can each be only human, and yet together, we can do big things. >> sreenivasan: now to our "newshour shares:" something that caught our eye, that may be of interest to you, as well. the smithsonian institution's collection is 150 million objects strong. but when the time comes to take those priceless pieces on the road, how do they keep them safe? the newshour's julia griffin got a behind-the-scenes look at their latest tour. >> lift off. we have a lift off, 32 minutes past the hour, of apollo 11. >> reporter: july 16, 1969: launch of the historic apollo 11 mission that captivated a nation. now, nearly five decades later, the command module that bore neil armstrong, buzz aldrin and michael collins to the moon and back is on its latest adventure: a two-year, four-stop tour across america. >> being in the presence of the real artifact. there is nothing like it. >> reporter: kathrin halpern is project director overseeing the "destination moon" traveling exhibition. >> to share the original object with the public, for them to see it in their hometown, or to at least be able to travel an hour or two, as opposed to having to come all the way to washington. i think it's going to be incredibly inspiring for all sorts of different people. >> reporter: national air and space museum object conservator lisa young gave us an up-close look at the columbia module before it left the nation's capital. do you think this could do the trip again in this state? >> probably not. haha. >> reporter: young's team prepared not just the spacecraft, but a treasure trove of mission-flown objects-- including the crew's medical kit, aldrin's visor and collin's watch. >> these are sensitive fabrics. they are mylars, velcro, things that we have today and we use everyday, but in the 1960s, that was not common. so, we need to look at how they are degrading, stabilize them for the tour. >> reporter: but taking apollo 11 artifacts on the road isn't as simple as moving your family across country. >> think of coordinating a ballet. that's really what's involved here. every step, every move, is choreographed to make sure that the objects are safe, and the people working around them are safe as well. >> if it's a complicated object, it has layers of packing. >> reporter: viki possoff, the tour's registrar, outlined the steps smithsonian took to protect the apollo 11 objects in transit. >> in each box, there are internal fittings that are custom cut and shaped for each object. special linings keep unwanted vapors out. silica gel packets help maintain optimal humidity levels. and, custom cushioned feet shield objects from vibrations during transport. but moving the command module itself presents its own mammoth challenge. >> it's an awkward heavy object with fragile surfaces. so we can't wrap it like a traditional museum object. >> reporter: its upgraded stand can be lifted and repositioned without ever touching the spacecraft. and a special "raincoat" to shield the module during outdoor transits. >> i mean, anything could, at that point, happen. you could have a bird fly by, you could have pollen in the air. all of those things that can get on the surfaces from our environment outside. >> reporter: fed-ex has partnered with smithsonian to move the exhibition from one place to another. it's the last part of a big the plan to keep the objects safe. >> making sure that these objects are around for future generations is probably the most important part of our job. we want this to be another 50 years worth of time that they get to spend in the public eye. >> reporter: "destination moon: the apollo 11 mission" is now on display at texas's space center houston. for the pbs newshour, i'm julia griffin in chantilly, virginia. >> sreenivasan: online, we have a behind the scenes look at more artifacts in the exhibit, including buzz aldrin's helmet. that and more is on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. robert costa is preparing for "washington week," which airs later tonight. robert, what's on tap? >> we'll have the latest on the two federal probes into the deadly attack on u.s. special forces in the african nation of niger. plus, republicans clear the way for tax reform. that's later tonight on "washington week." hari? >> sreenivasan: thanks. tomorrow on pbs newshour weekend, we'll do a deeper dive on how pollution is causing millions of deaths around the world. plus, as catalonia's secessionists refuse to give up their independence dreams, the movement is dividing friends and families. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm hari sreenivasan. have a great weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language. >> bnsf railway. >> collette. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions 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. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs. >> jeff: welcome to the program. i'm jeff glor of cbs news filling in for charlie who is on assignment. we begin tonight with a look at the rise of bitcoin with catherine wood, paul vigna and lily katz. >> it's so resillient is the interesting thing at least in the last year so i mean you had it split into two different currencies. you have bitcoin and bitcoin cash, and people were really scared before this happened and the price of bitcoin dropped and then it bounced right back up and then china banned these initial coin offings and then it bounced right back up. >> jeff: we continue with rich cohen. he has a new big called chicago cubs story of a curse. >> the cubs fan thing is people ask me why i'm a cubs fan. i don't know it was given to me as a kid but it's become so intense you try not to put your head through a wall during some

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