Governments role in the 4. 7 billion deal to buy the american pork company, smithfield farms. The chinese, they paid a 30 premium. Very interesting. Not exactly the best business deal. So, whats really going on here . What really is it that this merger, this purchase, was all about . Woodruff and its friday, mark shields and david brooks are here, to analyze another week full of news. Those are some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Ive been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it. The ones getting involved, staying engaged. They are not afraid to question the path theyre on. Because the one question they never want to ask is, how did i end up here . I started schwab with those people. People who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff the Obama Administration faced growing questions today about the coalition its trying to build against Islamic State militants. Secretary of state met with turkish leaders in ankara, hoping to win their support. Later, he said the roles of turkey and other potential allies have yet to be determined. It is frankly inappropriate at this point in time to start laying out one country by one country what individual nations are going to do. More than 40 countries had already offered assistance of one kind or another before i left washington. Meanwhile, french president Francois Hollande was in iraq, meeting with the new prime minister, haider alabadi. Afterward, abadi said france agreed to join in air strikes against Islamic State fighters. Secretary kerry also announced nearly 500 million in humanitarian aid today for syrian refugees, and the countries where theyve fled. Some three million syrians have taken refuge in neighboring states. More than twice that many remain inside syria. The World Health Organization has issued an urgent new appeal for health workers, to fight ebola in west africa. The agency announced today the death toll in the outbreak has topped 2,400 out of nearly 48 hundred cases. Cuba, meanwhile, announced plans to send 165 Health Specialists to sierra leone to help in the effort. The United States and the European Union both formally imposed new economic sanctions on russia today, for fomenting unrest in ukraine. The u. S. Measures target russias largest bank, plus energy and defense companies. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told russian state t. V. That the moves could jeopardize the ceasefire in ukraine. This was already commentary and our position is that making this type of decision at the very moment when the Peace Process is gaining stability, it means choosing the path of disrupting the Peace Process. Were going to respond calmly, adequately and, most of all, from a need to protect our interests. Woodruff the kremlin said later it will issue its own retaliatory measures. In south africa, doubleamputee olympic runner Oscar Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide, akin to manslaughter, in the shooting death of his girlfriend. The judge acquitted him of murder charges. Afterward, police and bodyguards led pistorius through a mob of Television Cameras and supporters. He could get as many as 15 years in prison. The embattled mayor of toronto, canada, rob ford, has dropped his run for reelection, after discovering he has an abdominal tumor. Ford had previously insisted hed stay in the race, despite drug and alcohol scandals. In a statement today, he said hell run for a seat on the city council, instead. His brother, who now holds a council seat, will run for mayor in his place. The fiery, longtime leader of northern irelands protestants, the reverend ian paisley, died today. For decades, he rejected compromise with catholics, and demanded the defeat of the irish republican army. After the i. R. A. Disarmed, paisley stunned the world in 2007 by forming a unity government. The reverend ian paisley was 88 years old. Deportations of undocumented immigrants from the u. S. Have fallen 20 this fiscal year, to the lowest level since 2007. The Associated Press reported today. Its partly because Border Patrol agents have been swamped by a surge of Central American children crossing into the country. President obama has postponed any official immigration policy changes until after the midterm elections. On wall street today, the Dow Jones Industrial average lost 61 points to close at 16,987. The nasdaq fell 24 points to close at 4567. And the sandp 500 slipped nearly 12 points, to finish at 1985. For the week, the dow and the sandp lost about one percent. The nasdaq fell a fraction of a percent. Still to come on the newshour former president bill clinton on the legacy of americorps, the threat of Islamic State militants, and more; how an airbag defect has triggered the recall of fourteen million cars since 2009; what you should know before checking into outpatient surgery medical centers; the role of the Chinese Government in buying americas largest pork company; and mark shields and david brooks on the weeks news. Woodruff they celebrated at the white house today, 20 years after a landmark law that enshrined a domestic version of the peace corps. And the man who signed that law, was on hand. Woodruff with the stroke of his pen, former president bill clinton made the Americorps NationalService Program a reality, in 1993. A year later, the first class was officially sworn in. Will you all raise your right hand and repeat after me i will get things done for america. Woodruff in the 20 years since, more than 900,000 participants have spent in excess of 1. 2 billion hours working on projects across the u. S. Today, that spirit of service was celebrated at the white house, as clinton and hundreds of current and past americorps members joined president obama to mark the anniversary. Americorps has changed the life of our nation. And now its up to us to make sure it continues cause were not just here to celebrate whats already been achieved. Were here to rededicate ourselves to the work that lies ahead. Woodruff a new class of some 75,000 volunteers was sworn in today at the white house and around the country. Members must be at least 17 years old and commit to volunteer for a year or two in exchange for a modest living allowance as well as an education stipend. Over the years, theyve tutored and mentored children in under served communities and helped rebuild after natural disasters. Volunteers have also worked to combat hunger and on Environmental Conservation projects. Matthew little joined americorps shortly after its inception. He worked with the Service Organization city year at an Innercity School in boston. This is a onceinalifetime opportunity that people dont typically get to have. You get to serve your community. You get to serve the nation. And you get to serve these individuals. Its just something that makes you a better person for having done it. Woodruff but the program is not without its critics. Some republicans have objected to giving a monetary incentive for civic service. At todays ceremony, former president clinton called it a wonderful investment in americas future. Americorps works because all of you who went before kept your promise to get things done. I hope that congress will on this occasion reconsider its opposition to its budget requests and give us a chance to grow americorps some more. Woodruff i sat down with the former president this afternoon to talk about americorps and other matters. Former president bill clinton, thank you for talking with us. Thank you. Woodruff as we just saw, youre celebrating the 20t 20th anniversary today of ahmeamericorps. You said this was one of the proudest things you did as president of the United States. But from the very beginning, many republicans said this is something that should be done in the nonprofit sector, the government shouldnt be funding it, its been difficult to get it fully funded. Why do you think its been so hard to get bipartisan buyin . I think it violates their ideology, but if you think about it, it costs us less to hire an americorps person on basically a living stipend and give them College Credit like the g. I. Bill than it does to pay a years worth of unemployment, and every dollar we spend on americorps represents a dollar spent on the community, every dollar on an independent study provides almost 4 worth of benefits and every dollar spent that way saves governments, federal state and local, more than 2 they would have to spend otherwise because of all the free labor. And the americorps, like when the tornado hit joplin, we sit americorps volunteers down there and they were adept at generating and organizing large numbers of other volunteers, something not everyone knows how to do. Its just been a great thing. And, you know, we still have to fight it, but i guess well just keep doing it. President bush supported it, and i appreciated that. So weve had three president s in a row that have really been in here for it, and i think with 900,000 people having served in americorps now, i think its part of the fabric of our national life. Woodruff even some big supporters of the program have said that its been harder than you would have expected to get young people interested in this. Last year, there were half a million young people who applied, but thats out of 32 million in this 18 to 24 cohort. How do you explain that . Well, first of all, they were applying for 75,000 slots. So they knew that there was i mean, thats like trying to get in an ivy league school. Thats first. Secondly, i think a lot of young people still dont know about us, but i believe if we had 250,000 slots, which is what we wanted to have by 2017, i believe there would be millions of people apply for it. Im amazed. I think whatever we can provide, the demand will exceed the supply in americorps. Woodruff president clinton, you the Clinton Global Initiative has now become a big annual happening in new york city coming up in a few weeks and you raise tens of millions of dollars every year for a variety of causes. One of your major focus this year is women and girls. In the wake of the ray rice incident and other domestic abuses and after all the education thats been done in this country on domestic abuse, why do you think this is such a problem in our country . Oh, i think its a problem around the world. You know, there was a recent survey, at least sometime in the last couple of weeks, and i wish i could remember who did it, but the number of women and girls who have been physically and sexually abused, the percentage around the world is staggering and far greater than it is here. I think the reaction to the rice incident shows that were still moving on it here, but i dont know that you will ever eliminate it. There is an enormous amount of violence in every society within the home, sadly, where people live in proximity and are under pressure, have lives they dont show to the outside world. But i actually think america is making headway here. Its a big issue to me. Ive lived with it and hillary spent a lifetime fighting against it, and its a big issue. But i think what we would like to do primarily with the c. G. I. Is to keep trying to empower women and girls around the world and to work against much more institutionalized violence against women and girls that exists all over the world. Woodruff let me turn you to some news of the week, the big story, president obamas announcement of his plan to go after, in his words, to degrade and destroy the terrorist Islamic State group. How confident are you that this is going to be successful . And how long do you think its going to take . Well, this group, i think they can be degraded and eventually destroyed if and only if the people they are abusing are willing to fight. In other words, the strategy he outlined, which i strongly agree with, requires us to use air power and people on the ground to give training and support and intelligence and to bring in equipment they need so it will be a fair fight. But ever since vietnam, we have learned that if the United States goes anywhere in the world to fight i hate sports analogies but potentially its an away game, and we need to be back in the home team. And now because of the changes in the iraqi government, it appears that the sunni tribal chiefs are, once again, having been abused by i. S. I. S. , and they were by al quaida and iraq, are willing to fight and, this time, looks like theyre going to be involved in a more unified iraqi government. The peshmerga of the kurds has fought. We need to keep them equipped, trained, full of intelligence and give them support, i think they can win, but its not going to be easy or quick. Woodruff i must ask you about russia, vladimir putin. You know this plan, his government. Theyve annexed crimea, now effectively control much of eastern ukraine. There have been more sanctions announced today, they dont seem to phase him. Is the west helpless to stop him . No and i dont think they will phase him. The allocation of money and power in russia is not as it is here and theres nothing that resembles the free market and theres a lot of politics in it and thats going to be felt. But putin controls the media. Russia doesnt have a free media, so by the time they get through whipping everybody up, he can maintain ocularty longer than popularity longer than he should. Poroshenko is probably the best president ukraine can have right now. Hes a responsible, strong man. We need to make sure theyve got equipment and other support. And theyre not n. A. T. O. Members. We cant commit to put troops on the ground. We dont want a major war, but we ought to back them and protect and support them as much as we can. Woodruff question about american politics. You have been all over the country, you will continue to go all over the country campaigning for democrats, you and secretary clinton will be in iowa this weekend. Despite that, all the experts are saying republicans are going to take control of the senate this fall including in your home state of arkansas. Whats your assessment . Cant tell you. In arkansas, it is a question of whether the democrats can get over their primary disability as a Political Party which is we can produce in a president ial race but not a midterm race. Mark pryor i believe can win a substantially victory if we had a normal turn out of africanmanner, hispanic voters. We have too many lower income white voters. We have too many voters in state after state offafter state where thats the case. I dont know whats going to happen yet but im going to help all over the country. Woodruff youre not going to predict the democrats . I think we have a slightly better than 50 chance to hold the congress. I still think we can win in georgia and kentucky. Were now competitive in kansas, and we have to, i think i think we have a great chance to win in North Carolina. I think were now going to hold michigan, and i believe well win in iowa, and i thinken mark and Mary Landrieu will win, so im not with the skeptics. Woodruff president bill clinton, we thank you very much for talking with us. Thank you, judy. Woodruff General Motors major series of recalls has so far been the defining consumer safety story in the Auto Industry this year. But now, to add to that, there are concerns being raised around airbags on the part of honda and ten other car manufacturers, that have prompted more recalls, and a focus on disclosure, regulation and safety. Jeffrey brown has the story. Brown as with g. M. , the problems may date back a decade or more. In this case, its the rupturing or explosion of air bags that injured drivers and are linked with two deaths. The airbags are supplied by takata corporation. Which makes them for automakers around the world. Honda first began recalling a few thousand as early as 2009. This year, recalls related to the airbags have grown dramatically. And now exceed 14 million overall, six million of them by honda. While toyota, b. M. W. And nissan have also recalled large numbers of cars. David shepardson of the detroit news joins me now. First, remind us what the problem is with the air bags. Sure. These are abags deploying in a frontal crash. Rather than just getting the pillow you see in a standard air bag, they are rupturing because of the high force and in some cases sending shrapnel or pieces of metal causing injuries and reports of two deaths. Brown as we reported here, it was found first a long time ago. It has taken a long time to get to this number of recalls. Kind of quickly bring us up to date. Whats been happening . Well, its been a real puzzle both for honda and regulators, in part because you had two different plants, one in mexico and one in Washington State that had two different issues with these air bag inflaters that prompted, you know, starting with honda to recall these vehicles and grew to almost a dozen worldwide. In fact, the government is Still Deciding whether the recalls that have been done so far are enough and still may be more vehicles to be recalled, and that goes to the issue of its hard to figure out exactly how many vehicles and which specific air bags should be covered by this. Brown and thats led to the question whether ford and honda have done enough or have tried to keep it quiet. As standard procedure in the auto industries, some Auto Companies have settled suits but the settlements are