done, or certainly hasn't been done to the level that we're planning to do it. >> woodruff: all that and 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. >> 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: former sports doctor larry nassar will spend the rest of his life in prison for repeatedly sexually molesting young gymnasts. a michigan judge today ordered him to serve as long as 175 years behind bars. the sentence followed a dramatic, week-long hearing. we will have a full report, right after the news summary. robert mueller's team in the russia probe. president trump told reporters, "i would do it under oath." mueller is investigating connections between russia and the trump campaign. in libya, the death toll rose to 33 today, after two car bombings in the eastern city of benghazi overnight. as day broke, eyewitnesses told of medics aiding victims of the first blast, when a second bomb detonated. >> ( translated ): they tried to get people away, and were yelling "get away," because usually when one bomb goes off, another follows. but people wanted to stand and watch, and that is when the second mercedes car bomb exploded. prec state remnants remain a threat in libya. isis militants in afghanistan stormed an office of "save the children" today, killing four people and wounding 26. the attack happened in jalalabad, the capital of nangarhar province in eastern afghanistan. plumes of smoke rose after a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance. that triggered a shootout that lasted nearly ten hours. also today, the state department announced that four americans died in saturday's taliban attack on a kabul hotel. president trump urged turkey today to limit its offensive against u.s.-allied kurdish fighters in syria. he spoke with turkey's president, recep tayyip erdogan, by phone. the white house says mr. trump warned against any actions that risk conflict with u.s. forces in syria. pope francis denounced "fake news" today, in his annual message on social communications. in a statement, he lambasted the spread of misinformation as "evil." francis greeted the faithful at the vatican, as a spokesman underscored the pope's call to rediscover "the dignity of journalism." >> the pope is actually calling on journalists, people working in communications, to reach higher, basically. you know, he says it is very easy that we descend into division and into hatred, and a lot of false news is that. it is denigrating others. and he is saying, "we don't have to pretend that everything is fine." it is obviously not. >> woodruff: the papal statement came after newspapers in chile had accused him of slandering victims of sexual abuse by priests. francis has since apologized, while defending a bishop who is accused of covering up the abuse. in britain, the parliament echoed today with condemnations of a charity fundraiser that blew up into a sexual harassment scandal. the "financial times" reported that scantily dressed hostesses were groped, harassed and propositioned at the men-only gala last week. one female lawmaker said today that the women served as "bait." the charity announced later that it is closing down. voters in oregon have approved new taxes on hospitals, insurers and managed-care companies to pay for a medicaid expansion. the measures won approval in a tuesday referendum. the state greatly expanded its medicaid rolls to one million people under president obama's affordable care act. the u.s. senate today confirmed alex azar to be the secretary of health and human services. he is a former drug industry executive, who held senior roles at h.h.s. under president george w. bush. azar succeeds tom price, who resigned last fall over his use of expensive charter flights. and on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 41 points to close at 26,252. the nasdaq fell 45 points, and the s&p 500 slipped one point. still to come on the newshour: how was a doctor allowed to sexually abuse so many young athletes? mayors push back against a justice department threat to sanctuary cities. this is davos, the elite gathering president trump will attend this week. and, much more. >> woodruff: first, the day of reckoning for larry nassar. the one-time doctor was sentenced today in lansing, michigan in a case that sent shock waves through american gymnastics and beyond. >> it is my honor and privilege to sentence you. >> woodruff: after a week-long hearing, michigan judge rosemarie aquilina pronounced larry nassar's fate: up to 175 years, for sexually assaulting scores of women and girls, including olympic gold gymnasts, under the guise of medical treatment. >> you do not deserve to walk outside a prison ever again. you have done nothing to control those urges. i've just signed your death warrant. ( applause ) >> woodruff: with the sentence, the courtroom erupted in clapping, as some of nassar's victims and the prosecution team embraced. the former sports doctor had pleaded guilty to victimizing young athletes over more than two decades, with u.s.a. gymnastics and michigan state university. >> your decision to assault was precise, calculated, manipulative, devious, despicable. >> woodruff: today, nassar attempted to apologize to his victims. >> there are no words that can describe the depth and breadth of how sorry i am for what has occurred. >> woodruff: but the judge was having none of it. she read parts of a letter that nassar had submitted to the court, in which he charged, his accusers were not telling the truth. >> would you like to withdraw your plea? >> no, your honor. >> because you are guilty, aren't you? are you guilty, sir? >> i've said my plea exactly. >> woodruff: more than 150 victims had shared wrenching testimony over the past seven days, concluding today with rachael denhollander. she was the first to publicly accuse nassar in 2016. she says she was 15 when he first abused her. >> and this is what it looks like when people in authority refuse to listen, put friendships in front of the truth, fail to create or enforce proper policy and fail to hold enablers accountable. >> woodruff: just last week, three u.s.a. gymnastics board members resigned, and now, the n.c.a.a. has launched an investigation of michigan state. that is after "the detroit news" reported that 14 university officials learned of nassar's crimes over the past 20 years, but did nothing. judge aquilina called today for a federal investigation into how nassar wasn't exposed earlier. the michigan assistant attorney general, angela povilaitis, said nassar would still be in his position, had it not been for those who bravely came forward. >> the breadth and ripple of this defendant's abuse and destruction is nearly infinite. but we have also seen how one voice can start a movement, how >> woodruff: povilaitis said she hopes the nassar case will encourage girls and women everywhere to speak out. >> the fact that the women led the investigation, the prosecution team, and that three female judges now sentenced defendant nassar is poetic justice. >> woodruff: nassar has already been sentenced to 60 years in federal prison, for possession of child pornography. there were also new developments late today related to the leadership and culture of gymnastics that allowed these assaults to continue for years. the c.e.o. of the u.s. olympic committee apologized for failing to protect the girls and women involved. he also called for the resignation of the entire board of directors of u.s.a. gymnastics. and, michigan lawmakers called for the resignation of the michigan state university president. after seven days of painful testimony, there are still so many questions about why the abuse went on for so long. we explore just some of those now with robert andrews. he is the founder and director of the institute of sports performance. he is a coach who worked on mental training with olympic gymnasts simon biles and laurie hernandez, among others. robert andrews, thank you for being here. first of all, tell us what is the institute of sports performance? what sort of work do you do with athletes? >> help them handle pressure of big performances like national world championships, olympic games, help them manage distractions, create a real strong mentally tough mindset, and i do a lot of work with injured athletes, helping them overcome the psychological impact of serious sports-related injuries u. have you been surprised at the the revelations about larry nassar -- surprised about the revelations about larry nassar? >> yes and no. it doesn't surprise me, given the culture. i'm shocked at the depth of it and how many victims have been affected by this and their families. so it's a mixed bag for me. it's not surprising, though. when i heard the news initially, a lot of things started clicking and falling in place for me. >> woodruff: tell us quickly a little bit about the world young gymnasts live in, what they go through to get to thest levels of competition? >> a lot of that depends on the culture in the gym where they're training and their parents. i call it the three-legged stool, the parent, coach and athlete and any weakness in those legs can prevent the athlete from reaching their potential. in an ideal world there would be great relationships. however, in the current u.s.a. gymnastics culture, there is quite a few gyms out there with horribly abusive coaches running the shows, and i think this has started with the leadership on the national level. coaches go to national team training camps and watch how athletes are treated, on the women's side, i want to clarify, and they go back to their gyms and carry that virus with them. on the men's side, i worked with the men's side over five years and i didn't see any psychological abuse or scream org yelling. there are other issues on the men's side i feel like need to be addressed, but on the women's side a tremendous amount of horrendous psychological abuse, shaming, degrading, humiliation and you dare not question authority, and that's what set this whole thing up. >> woodruff: but how could it be that he had access to these young girls for so long without any eyes, any supervision of what he was doing? >> that's the question we all have to get the answer to. he created the perfect feeding ground for himself, and that might sound cold or harsh, but when you have girls terrified of leadership and a guy like larry nassar comes in and sneaks them food and is kindo them and treats them with some kind of dignity and befriends them and listens to their problems and complaints and he's a renowned doctor, he created trust with them and groomed them over many, many years. and i also think there are many people in leadership positions with u.s.a.g. that were totally asleep at the wheel if not in tote del nile about what was going on, and i believe there were people who knew what was going on and refused to do anything about it, just like m.s.u. >> woodruff: you mean knew this was sexual abuse in additional to the mental abuse you are describing? >> the mental was well known. a lot of my work was teaching these girls how to deal with that or teach the coaches how to buffer the athlete from that kind of psychological and mental-emotional abuse. but if we have girls getting hush money, then people knew, right? to me, that's obvious. i would like to know names. you know, who was it that set up these hush money accounts with these girls to not speak up and not say anything or, when things were reported years ago, why has it taken this long and why has it taken these brave women's voices and empowerment to create the change, when this has been going on for so long? dominick musiano has been talking about horrendous psychological abuse way back when. i'm just wondering why it's taken so long. >> woodruff: that's what people are trying to understand because it's clear, with that sort of system, what he was doing, it was much easier, it seems, for him to get away with it because everybody was used to some kind of abuse. >> absolutely. >> woodruff: i keep coming back to who was in charge? is anybody being held accountable? >> evidently not. you know, it's an old cliche, but leadership always starts at the top. you look at the president and begin to work your way down through national team coordinator, women's program director and other people in positions of power who clearly saw the way girls were being treated. you look at maddy larson's testimony yesterday, she was shunned and ignored and degraded and humiliated. she was a beautiful, dynamic, powerful gymnast that the system just crushed. when she made two mistakes at world championships that cost u.s.a. a gold medal, she's one of many who have been victims of that type of abuse in the system, and that can set them up for, you know, i don't have a voice, i don't have any sense of personal power, i can't ask for help because i know i'm not going to get it, and, so, larry just swept in and picked whoever he wanted, is what i believe happened. >> woodruff: do you believe that this sort of -- that sexual abuse could be taking place right now on the part of other team doctors? other individuals who were involved? >> i don't see that. god, i hope not, but i don't see that. you know, larry was -- the 2012 championship a girl on the national team texted me to meet to get ready for the competition. where are you? in the treatment room. that was larry's domain. i said i will be right there. when i walked in, it was almost like have you ever seen a mother dog with puppies and when another dog comes around they go on full alert? i felt that. i'm a real intuitive guy and i remember i felt that reaction from him, like, what are you doing in here? and when i found out he has been accused and arrested, everything made sense. he didn't want me in that domain. if those girls confided many in me over time they might let me know about him. he never referred me anybody knowing good and well how i could help them. all the pieces fell into place. he had it under wraps. he had his system under place. i just don't believe there would be anybody else abusing girls in that system, at least not sexually. >> woodruff: we certainly hope not and we certainly hope things will change because the system you described is just horrible. i don't know of any other word for it. >> well, i can guarantee you there's going to be change because so many of us are demanding it and these brave 160 women and girls, they've busted the door down and created the room for all of us to push through and demand change. >> woodruff: robert andrews, we thank you. >> my pleasure. >> woodruff: president trump told reporters late today that he envisions protections for young undocumented immigrants-- in his words-- "morphing into" citizenship in 10 or 12 years. this, as the white house said that it will make public an outline of an immigration reform bill next monday. all this on the same day that the u.s. justice department stepped up pressure on so-called sanctuary cities that shelter undocumented immigrants. officials sent letters threatening to subpoena officials in two dozen cities to prove they are complying with immigration rules. john yang has more on the immediate backlash to the move. >> yang: judy, anger over the letters led some mayors, like new york's bill de blasio, to skp a white house meeting with mr. trump to talk about infrastructure, opioid addiction and other topics. speaking to the city leaders who did attend, the president had a message for those who did not. >> sanctuary cities are the best friend of gangs and cartels, like ms-13, you know that. the result in the death rate in around the sanctuary cities, in and around, for innocent americans is unacceptable. the mayors who choose to boycott this event has put the needs of criminal illegal immigrants over law-abiding americans. but let me tell you, the vast majority of people showed up. okay? the vast majority. because the vast majority believe in safety for your city. >> yang: for more on this, we're joined by two mayors-- republican john giles, of mesa, arizona, and kathy sheehan of albany, new york, who is a democrat. mayors, both of you, thanks for joining us. mayor sheehan, let me me begin with you. you were not invited to the white house meeting but you were a recipient of one of the letters, your city was a recipient of one of those letters. what's your reaction to that? >> well, i think it's unfortunate that we continue to hear rhetoric out of washington that really fails to understand what's happening in our cities and why a city like albany would choose to label itself as a sanctuary city. this is not about hiding undocumented immigrants in the basement of city hall. it's not about allowing criminals to be free. if somebody commits a crime in the city of albany whether they're an immigrant or citizen, they're going to be prosecuted. this is about making sure that all our residents feel safe coming forward to law enforcement if they have been the victim of a crime. if they have been the victim of human trafficking. we want to ensure that our cities are safe, and i think that mayors can add a lot to the dialogue and to the understanding that i think the white house and this department of justice needs to have with respect to what neighborhood policing means, to what it means to truly have community policing in a city. >> mayor giles, you were invited and you did attend the meeting at the white house, explain to us your policy in mesa about how you cooperate with the federal authorities on illegal immigrants, people in the country illegally, and also address what mayor sheehan just talked about, about the relationship between the police and the people in your city. >> sure. well, it would not be fair to say mesa is a sanctuary city in any way. we cooperate with i.c.e. and immigration enforcement whenever we have folks that have been arrested due to some sort of violent crime that has resulted in them being put into our holding cells. we do make that information available to i.c.e. and occasionally, several times a year, i.c.e. will come by our holding facility, so we do 'do cooperate -- do cooperate in that way. some things we have in common with the mayor of albany is we are a border state, and we have a large amount of immigrants in our city and we do our very best, particularly our police department, to work in a good way with those folks to help them feel comfortable, to know that we are a welcoming and diverse city and, by all means, we let them know that if they are ever the victims of a crime that they have nothing to fear by calling local law enforcement, that we are not aggressively enforcing immigration laws. however, when folks are caught up in the system and they're placed into our jail facility, that information is shared with i.c.e. >> yang: mayor sheehan, today sarah huckabee sanders said mayors can't pick and choose what laws to to obey. >> we are not picking and choosing. the president's own chief of staff when asked to define it said i haven't got a clue. there is no feral definition of sanctuary city. it's a term thrown about that i think is misunderstood. i think ultimately when it comes to policing, it's local decision-making that needs to drive our policies at the local level, and we also cooperate with i.c.e. this isn't as though we are hiding people from the feral government, but what we're -- from the federal government. but what we're saying is that, in the city of albany, it's not our police officer's role to be checking on people's immigration status. that's not part of the role we play with respect to policing at the local level. so i think there's a lot of inflammation of this issue, and it's really dividing us, and the concern that i have is a city that has a large refugee population is that it frightens people. it frightens newly-arrived immigrants to our city in a way that's not healthy and helpful for keeping our entire city safe. >> yang: mayor sheehan, are you going to provide the documents that the justice department is asking for? >> we believe we've already provided the information they've asked for. we're in the prosoafsz reviewing the new request for information and i'm waiting for our law department to review that and we'll look at that and if there's additional information that we need to provide, we'll provide it. >> yang: mayor giles, you may have heard the president said that he supports daca recipients, a fix to the daca program, allowing them to become citizens in ten to 12 years, which is essentially what was in the lindsey graham-dick durbin proposal he earlier rejected. can you support that? >> that's great news. absolutely. as i indicated earlier, a lot of folks that live in my community are daca-registered folks. i have been very outspoken in support of daca. it's great to see the president evolve on that plea that he and mr. schumer can get that down in writing and we can have stand-alone dreamer act and get this out of the football arena and provide a pathway of citizenship to these committed people and i hope the president follows through on his comments today. >> yang: mayor giles and mayor sheehan, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> woodruff: a small town in the swiss alps becomes a focus of world attention one week a year. davos hosts the world economic forum, with a rarefied guest list of tycoons, prime ministers and, this year, for the first time in nearly two decades, the american president. special correspondent ryan chilcote is there for us, and has our look at this most-alpine of summits. >> reporter: the heaviest snowfall in two decades-- six feet dropped on the swiss alps in less than a week-- didn't stop the world economic forum from getting underway. no, the main challenge for many of the 3,000 movers, shakers, scribes and gawkers-- just getting here. >> i've never seen anything like this before. it's a bit of a struggle. i didn't even bring snow boots, so i'm trying not to fall. >> reporter: this year's official theme is "creating a shared future in a fractured world." klaus schwab is the forum's founder, now in its 48th year. >> the world is fractured. it's socially fractured. it's environmentally fractured. but it's also politically divided. so what we want to do here is to analyze what are the reasons, but what is much more important is to afterwards search for solutions. >> reporter: the elite, annual gathering is being held under tight security. there are some 70 heads of state there, hobnobbing with titans of industry and academia, celebrities and advocates. there's nothing quite like it. in my first hour here, i bumped into the head of one of the world's biggest jewelers, an entrepreneur starting his own crypto-currency, and the c.e.o. of a brazilian bio-tech company. davos is where legacy businesses meet the disruptors, and where the developed and developing world come together to network, learn from one another and do deals. indian prime minister narendra modi's opening address called on countries to unite, while ignoring some of his country's own protectionist policies. >> ( translated ): many societies and countries are becoming more and more focused on themselves. it feels like the opposite of globalization is happening. we will have to accept the fact that globalization is slowly losing its luster. >> reporter: the four-day meeting aims to tackle a number of pressing geopolitical issues in addition to globalization, like climate change, the migrant crisis, and gender equality. canada's prime minister, justin trudeau: >> we need to have a critical discussion on women's rights, equality and the power dynamics of gender. >> reporter: global inequality is another major topic, said christine lagarde, the managing director of the international monetary fund. >> there are still too many people who are left out of that recovery and acceleration of growth. >> reporter: the week's most anticipated speaker is perhaps its unlikeliest: president trump, who'll be rubbing elbows with the very same folks he berated on the campaign trail. >> this wave of globalization has wiped out totally, totally our middle class. >> reporter: it's the first time a sitting u.s. president has attended the forum, since bill clinton in 2000. mr. trump is bringing much of his team here. top white house advisers previewed the trip yesterday, and were asked, in essence, why he's going to a forum that goes against his "america first" agenda. economic adviser, gary cohn: >> "america first" is not "america alone." the president is going to davos to speak to world leaders about investing in the united states. moving businesses to the united states. hiring american workers. >> reporter: but president trump won't be welcomed by everyone. >> wipe out w.e.f.! >> reporter: protesters routinely blast the invitation- only conference, arguing it's an unabashed celebration of capitalism gone awry: >> we've been protesting all the years now against the world economic forum, and if trump comes or not, we don't care. trump is just-- maybe he's the best symbol for this world. >> reporter: president trump gets the final word, when he delivers the closing address on friday. for the pbs newshour, i'm ryan chilcote in davos. >> woodruff: now, to our continuing look at the first year of the trump presidency. there has been much focus on the president's track record, when it comes to congress, and legislation he has tried to pass. but just as notable is a major rollback of regulations throughout the federal government. some businesses have praised those moves, and the president has said that it will lead to greater economic growth and job creation. many critics, however, worry that important protections are being lost. hari sreenivasan zeroes in on some of those changes, and how you might be affected. >> sreenivasan: during the campaign, president trump pledged to eliminate two existing regulations for every new one. after his first year, he seems to be well past that mark. there are dozens of regulations and rules once on the books that are now revoked, and there are hundreds of others that were set to take effect or were planned that are essentially frozen or withdrawn. in fact, it's far more than we can cover in one segment, but we're going to look at some of the biggest ones, when it comes to energy and environment, eric lipton has covered this extensively for the "new york times," and joins me now. eric, you and your colleagues have focused on the morning and environment, impact of rules or lack thereof. starting with the e.p.a., what are some of the big rule changes americans will feel in? >> one of the things the obama administration was trying too do is reduce emissions from oil and gas operations and groundwater and other effects. there was a rule on methane emissions from oil and gas facilities and regulating fracking on land, both those rules are gone or in the process of being eliminated. a moratorium on coal minus that's been lifted. there was a change in royalties so that anyone that was going to be taking coal from federal lands was going to have to pay a greater rate to compensate the american citizens for the use of that coal, and that rule has been revoked as well. so those are just a few in the environmental. there's more than 60 we've counted up that have already been eliminated or are in the process of being eliminated just in the environmental sector. >> sreenivasan: and it changes the landscape when you combine this with measures the department of interior has been taking. >> in that sector, there was a rule that prohibited the filling of rivers and streams near coal minus, simply taking the fill and dropping it into valleys where there were streams, that rule was revoked by congress early on with the support of president trump. others in coal mining have to do with regulations relative to workers being looked at. across all sectors of the economy, we are seeing changes taking place most of which has to do with new rules that were being planned that are now being put on enactive status and not being finalized. >finalized. >> sreenivasan: how do you measure the impact to have the changes? does the e.p.a. lack the teeth it had, measures taken or a difference in frequency of the type of cases the e.p.a. is bringing? >> not only are rules being rolled back but we're seeing a reduction in enforcement by the e.p.a., for example. we've seen fewer cases initiated. i spent time in ohio where there was a community where there was two different kinds of pollution occurring in the city. a hazardous waste incinerator that was there had been chronically sending toxic pollutants into the air on one side of town. on the other side of the town, there was a metal ingredient processing plant sending manage gay knees into the air in a way some thought was threatening the health of local children, and there has been no action to finalize enforcement against these companies. we've seen lots of cases where there has been a decline in the number of initiated cases and the value of the fines being collected so far under the new administration. >> sreenivasan: people heard about net neutrality rules. how did that factor? >> the federal communications commission, one of the most active players so far in rolling back rules, moved late last year to revoke a law -- a rule adopted during the obama administration that put limits on the ability of your broad brd providers to cap the rate at which data moves across the internet depending on who the provider is. the rule is called net neutrality and ultimately could affect how quickly you can get access to various internet sites. the f.c.c. has revoked that rule throw there is movement in congress to try to overturn that action by the federal communications commission. the federa federal communicatios commission is also revoking rules that prohibit the merger of broadcasters over the federally controlled air waves and they're pulling back rules that have been in place in some cases decades to allow more consolidation of the broadcasters in the united states. >> sreenivasan: i should point out several industries and companies are happy about the rule changes. this is the first year c.e.o.s said regulations are not top of mind for what could affect their bottle lines. >> that's certainly the case, and is welcomed by the business community and businesses cite it as an explanation as to why they're able to make expansion decisions now because they feel fewer rules will be thrown at hethem. it has brought more predictability for the business community in terms of estimating how much it will cost to comply with the whole range of federal rules. we did a piece that looked at apple farmers, and the many, many layers of rules the federal government has. at times, the federal government can go overboard in terms of demanding so many things that different business sectors do to try to comply with public safety and public health. but usually there's a reason why different rules exist, and there are various folks in the environmental community, democratic state attorney generals who are trying to challenge some of these rollbacks who think that public health and financial stability is potentially at risk because of some of these rollbacks. >> sreenivasan: eric lipton of the "new york times." thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: on monday, the kingdom of saudi arabia announced that it will send more than $2.5 billion in humanitarian aid and financial assistance to war-torn yemen. this comes after nearly three years of a saudi-led military operation, backed by the united states, to beat back houthi rebels who control much of the country. the fighting, including saudi air strikes, has killed thousands. millions are suffering there, in what the united nations calls "the largest humanitarian crisis in the world." meantime, saudi arabia is dealing with rapid changes within its own borders. this june, women will finally be allowed to drive, among other social opportunities, and the crown prince, mohammed bin salman, has dramatic plans to wean the country off of oil. for more on all of this, we are joined now by the spokeswoman for the embassy of saudi arabia, here in washington, fatimah baeshen. ms. baeshen, thank you so much for being with us. assistance to yemen -- after the war has been going on three years, these terrible casualty figures i have been citing, why now is saudi arabia offering help? how much difference is this money going to make? >> so just a few points here. the kingdom of saudi arabia has been aiding yemen for a long time, both domestically within saudi arabia and within the country. the kingdom of saudi arabia has given the central bank $2 billion to support the yemeni currency. this is the second donation. the first one was done in 2014 before the conflict. the important thing to keep in mind is that there -- aid has been diverted due to the iranian-backed houthi militia which has threatened the yemeni people and threatened the rouge and their activities have threatened the kingdom of saudi arabia. >> woodruff: again, i want to say, on the one hand, saudi arabia has been behind this military operation that has led to thousands of deaths. just yesterday there were civilian casualties, children and women are dying, but with the other hand saudi arabia is offering aid. you know, how do you explain the contradiction? >> the kingdom of saudi arabia entered into the conflict by request of the legitimate government and is key to providing relief to the yemeni people and providing their needs. that is primary to the kingdom. simultaneously the kingdom is playing defense with respect to thwarting threats to yemen by the militia. despite 90 missiles have been shot into saudi arabia from yemen provided by the houthi military, the kingdom is still donating aid that is going impartiality all across yemen regardless of what side of the conflict you're on. unfortunately, all warfare results in civilian casualties. the reality is there is an operation center that is proactively ensuring that there's over 40,000 no-target hit lists. so there's a proactive measure that ensure that civilian casualties are either none or minimal. and in the cases where there are civilian casualties and mistakes which unfortunately are inevitable, there is an assessment mechanism with respect to an assessment team that goes back and rectifies the situation, assesses and accomplishes a report to make sure it doesn't happen again. >> woodruff: i want to ask you about several other important things. in saudi arabia, there's a fair amount of political turmoil. the crown prince mohammed bin salman institute ago number of reforms, changing policy internationally and internally setting up a blockade in qatar, internally, a crack down on what he says is corruption, arresting hundreds of people from members of his own royal family, the business elite. people are asking why is he doing this and why not explain more about what's behind it? it seems to be done behind closed doors. >> so with respect to the anti-corruption proceedings, when the current king assumed the thrown, he stated corruption would be eradicated in the kingdom. shortly thereafter the current crown prince who was the deputy crown prince at the time also went on public tv and said no one would be above the law, paraphrasing, and anyone who had evidence -- enough evidence against them would be held accountable. >> woodruff: i want to quote what human rights watch has said about this whole process. they are saying what saudi arabia has done is compile a dismal human rights record, detained people with no legal process or explanation, they have thrown opposition activist into jail, they have been executing people for non-violent crimes. so when the rest of the world looks at this, it looks as if there's no clear legal process going on. >> the attorney general has publicly come out in two different statements and explained how the anti-corruption proceedings are going and where they are. just recently there have been indication they're coming to a close. 90 people have been completely absolved of their charges and have gone back into society and there are no restrictions on their movements, 95 are still detained still going through the investigation. >> woodruff: let me finally ask you about women in saudi arabia. you are the spokesperson. you happen to be a woman for the saudi embassy in the united states. back in saudi arabia, there are significant restrictions on what women can do. they haven't been allowed to drive till this summer. women have to have a male relative's permission before they can travel, before they can handle so many different -- before they can accept a job, before they can execute a legal agreement. saudi arabia has a very long way to go with regard to women, doesn't it? >> actually, saudi arabia has come a long way when it comes to women. saudi women have been doing amazing things for decades. there are rocket scientists, mothers, the chair of the saudi stock exchange, the largest in the middle east, is a woman, the chair of the airport is a woman. saudi women have been doing amazing things. since vision 2030 with the announcement of vision 2030 when crown prince bin salman announce the pace of change has changed in saudi arabia which is really fascinating and rev latin with respect to women's advancements. women have systematically made trades in the public space in the last year and we've seen this in several different arenas, in sports -- >> woodruff: but to the outside world, it looks as if saudi arabia restricts women's activities. >> this is actually a very kind of convoluted view. the challenge people reference is the guardianship system, but the guardianship system as an institutional policy is very different than what exists on the ground but that's not government, that's cultural normals that exist within an immediate proximity like family. i'll tell you, when i was in saudi arabia, i rent add home, had two bank accounts, changed jobs twice, never had permission, and a saudi woman next to me would have a very different experience, but that's not the government or the guardianship system itself but that's really a cultural normal within the very specific microkossum. >> woodruff: you're saying it's changing. >> absolutely changing. >> woodruff: fatima baeshen for the saudi embassy in the united states. thank you very much. >> thank you very much for having me. >> woodruff: finally, the challenge of finding a new home for dolphins long held in captivity. that is the goal for a group of dolphins who have been living in baltimore's inner harbor, so to speak, and have been a major attraction to millions of visitors over the years. like other retirees, they may be headed south. but it's no simple decision. miles o'brien has the story, for our weekly series on the "leading edge" of science and technology. >> o'brien: at the national aquarium in baltimore, a dolphin's day is carefully planned, and meticulously executed, by a team of trainers. susie walker is one of them. >> our dolphins get fed six meals a day, and there's a lot of different goals we have to accomplish with them throughout the day. yay! we have enrichments between 12:00 and 1:00. it's their free time. they can do pretty much anything they want. 1:00 session is a learning session, so we're focusing a lot on learning new behaviors. 3:00 is a relationship session. it's very important that we really understand them as individuals, because they're all very different from one another. and then, the 5:00 session is an exercise session. so just like us, they need physical fitness. so they need to exercise, you got to get those heart rates up. >> o'brien: somehow in the course of this busy day, there is time for this... >> good morning, everybody. welcome to dolphin discovery. >> o'brien: ...a chance for people to enjoy these beautiful, smart animals in action. it's a thrill to see them up close. >> really good look on how powerful these guys are. >> o'brien: but don't call it a show. the aquarium prefers to describe it as a presentation. the semantic shift is telling, part of a sea change, a new way of thinking about whether this is humane. >> this show model doesn't really work in this aquarium. >> o'brien: john racanelli is the c.e.o. and president. he says the public, and the professionals, have become increasingly disenchanted with this spectacle. >> we need to get out of that awful era that we've been through for the last 100 years of caging animals. but habitat-based organizations: places that really try to give the animals that kind of choice and control, create naturalistic setting for them, recreate habitats as best we can-- i think that's the best hope we have, for humans to be able to continue to connect with animals in an increasingly urbanized, distant world. >> o'brien: but that is not possible here in baltimore's inner harbor. that reality, coupled with a looming need to spend up to $30 million to repair and renovate this 26-year-old facility, prompted racanelli to announce a bold decision in 2016: the show will not go on. and despite all the doting care, the dolphins' days here are numbered. in 2020, the aquarium plans to move its captive dolphins to a large outdoor sanctuary in an enclosed yet natural environment that none of these animals has ever known. >> as far as we know, there are no sanctuaries like this for dolphins in the world. there are many people talking about it, but it hasn't been done, or certainly hasn't been done to the level that we're planning to do it. >> o'brien: the $15 million dream looks like this. making the rendering real has prompted racanelli and his team to log a lot of mileage on the overseas highway in the florida keys. >> this has been their habitat for, probably, millions of years, ever since florida was a giant coral reef. so, the idea of the dolphins finding a home in a place where dolphins have always made a home is a really good one, and it is a big driver for us to want to do this here. >> o'brien: on this day, they visited cudjoe key, 20 miles from key west. it is one of about 30 sites they have seen, and it is a leading contender. can you imagine your dolphins being here? >> you look at this and you look at that rendering, side by side, all we need is an egret to fly into the picture. >> o'brien: racanelli and dive safety officer jackie cooper got geared up for a look beneath the surface. >> this would be a good spot to work with the dolphins. >> so, so far, so really good. >> o'brien: it is an abandoned limestone quarry excavated in the early 1900s to build the railroad. it contains about 150 times more water than the concrete tank in baltimore. it is enclosed, but limestone is porous, so it is naturally filled with the water and life found in the gulf of mexico. what they saw underwater did nothing to change their minds about the suitability of this place. how was it? >> i think the thing that was most impressive was, there was life everywhere, everywhere. every time you turn around, a bunch of little clams and scallops are closing their doors. did you hear the snapping shrimp? >> i did hear the pistol shrimp this time. >> absolutely! that was really cool. they were cracking it up down there, wherever they are. >> lots of life though, lots of lots of life. >> o'brien: 14 miles up the overseas highway is another possible location, on no name key. the site holds some allure, but sits inside the national key deer refuge. the miniature deer are federally endangered, complicating zoning and permitting challenges. here, racanelli met matt sexton with the conservation fund who is helping the aquarium acquire a site. unlike cudjoe, this site is adjacent to a residential neighborhood, and some of the people who live here are wary. so, maybe it's just a question getting the neighbors to understand what this is all about, perhaps, as much as anything. >> absolutely, and the neighbors are-- they like this project. i mean, they think this is a great thing that the aquarium is doing. so, they're on board. but they have concerns about how it might impact them, and that's just part of the processing. we'll work with community, we'll talk to them about their concerns, we'll help them understand what the goal is of this project and we'll listen to their concerns. >> o'brien: meanwhile, back in baltimore, they are working hard to make the move less stressful, for the dolphins and the humans. they have taught the pod to drink water, so their system can be flushed if they eat the wrong thing, and they are teaching them how to swim onto stretchers. kerry diehl is an assistant curator of dolphin discovery. >> eventually, we'd like to have them come up out of the water and be held by multiple people. from there, we want them to be comfortable being lifted in a stretcher. and in theory, we can take them for a ride around baltimore and get used to that, used to being in a truck, the sounds, the sights of all that. it's just like any other behavior. we break each behavior down into baby steps. we're going to do the same thing with this. it's just a bigger, more challenging behavior. >> o'brien: they have raised the water temperature in the tank to 80 degrees and are allowing algae to grow. >> algae is a natural part of the environments that they are going to, so we're starting to show it to them here. and it's also acclimation training for us, because we can't see them as well, and we're used to, right now, being able to see them at all times, right down to the bottom of the habitat. so, it's also acclimating us trainers at the same time. >> o'brien: to be sure, these dolphins are not going to be set free. without regular meals, they would likely not survive for long in the wild. >> their world, since birth, has been governed by interactions with humans. it is one of their key stimuli, and as a result, i really think taking away the humans would be one of the worst things we could do. this team is very tightly bonded with the dolphins, and several of them will go with the dolphins. i think that interaction will continue for a long time, if not for the full lives of these dolphins. >> o'brien: so, even once they are here, dolphin days will be similar. >> the goal is to try it help the dolphins really feel comfortable with some of the things that they're going to experience, so that it's not a whole bunch of change all at one time. o>>'brien: you guys are like helicopter parents. >> yeah, oh, yeah. you better believe it. we love them very much and we know that they are very unique. >> it's an exciting experiment because everything we're doing is groundbreaking. and there is something about that that's very satisfying, to give these dolphins the opportunity to truly thrive. >> o'brien: this is the road not yet traveled, but if it works, the aquarium expects other captive dolphins from other facilities will come here, making it easier to imagine a world where dolphins are no longer confined in concrete. in cudjoe key, florida, i'm miles o'brien for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: we will miss them here, but wish them the best. and that is the newshour for tonight. 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: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language. >> 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. wes: this week on history detectives: [ airplane engine buzzes ] how did this scrap of paper help change the course of worldwar ii? oh. that is amazing. tukufu: what can this faded document tell about a u.s. volunteer fighting in another country's civil war? 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