>> 14 minutes is a long time with a roaring fire and a blackout from the smoke, and no place to go, and if it were any bigger, i'm sure we would have lost that spacecraft. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> ♪ love me tender ♪ love me true we can like many, but we can love only a precious few. because it is for those precious few that you have to be willing to do so very much. but you don't have to do it alone. lincoln financial helps you provide for and protect your financial future, because this is what you do for people you love. lincoln financial-- you're in charge. >> you were born with two stories. one you write every day, and one you inherited that's written in your d.n.a. 23andme.com is a genetic service that provides personalized reports about traits, health and ancestry. learn more at www.23andme.com. >> fathom travel-- carnival corporation's small ship line. offering seven-day cruises to three cities in cuba. exploring the culture, cuisine and historic sites through its people. more at fathom.org. >> md anderson cancer center. making cancer history. >> bnsf railway. >> genentech. >> 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: hillary clinton celebrated today after clinching the democratic presidential nomination and winning four of six primaries on tuesday. bernie sanders insisted he's not dropping out, even as he plans to meet tomorrow with president obama. and republican donald trump appealed to democrats, even as he feuded with g.o.p. leaders. all three spoke to their supporters last night: >> now, i know it never feels good to put your heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in, and to come up short. i know that feeling well. but as we look ahead to the battle that awaits, let's remember all that unites us. >> i know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight. but we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get. >> to all of those bernie sanders voters who have been left out in the cold by a rigged system of super-delegates, we welcome you with open arms. >> woodruff: and we'll have our interview with hillary clinton, plus campaign analysis, after the news summary. >> ifill: in the day's other news, california voters awoke to yet another first: for the first time, there won't be a republican in november's u.s. senate race. under state law, only the top two vote-getters advanced from tuesday's primary. both were democrats: state attorney general kamala harris, by a wide margin; and congresswoman loretta sanchez, a ten-term veteran. meanwhile, representative renee ellmers of north carolina was ousted by another republican in a redrawn district. she'd been endorsed by donald trump. >> woodruff: in israel, two palestinian gunmen killed at least three people and wounded five in tel aviv. police said the attackers were detained. the location was a popular open air market. it is the latest in eight months of palestinian attacks, most of them involving stabbings. >> ifill: for the first time, italy has custody of an alleged kingpin in the smuggling of thousands of migrants from libya. the suspect from eritrea was arrested in sudan two weeks ago. he was flown to rome overnight. officials say intercepted calls show him talking about cramming more people on rickety boats. >> woodruff: india's leader of the world's largest democracy went before congress today to declare that india and the u.s. have overcome "the hesitations of history." william brangham has our report: >> the prime minister of the republic of india. >> brangham: it was a rousing welcome today for prime minister narendra modi, and another sign >> brangham: of course, things were not always so friendly: for decades, the u.s. and india were divided by mistrust and cold war politics. and modi himself was refused entry to the u.s. in 2005, after religious riots killed more than 1,000 muslims in the state he governed. but since becoming prime minister, in 2014, he's worked to foster new cooperation with washington. sumit ganguly is a professor of political science at indiana university in bloomington. >> unlike a host of other indian prime ministers who had cut their political teeth during the cold war, and thereby harbored all manner of misgivings about the united states, modi does not carry the same sort of political baggage. >> brangham: the two countries share growing concerns about china's assertiveness in the asia-pacific. climate change could be another area of agreement. modi suggested yesterday that india-- the world's third largest emitter of carbon-- could join last year's paris climate pact by the end of this year. >> to take from nature only what is most essential is part of our indian culture. >> brangham: still, serious differences remain. human rights groups say modi has failed to stop indentured servitude and sex trafficking as well as protect india's minorities. >> this is where i think he as fallen short and he does really need to wake up and address this matter. >> brangham: but such concerns have clearly been pushed to the background, as washington and new delhi move closer together than ever. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. >> ifill: there has been another incident between the u.s. and china in the east china sea. the u.s. military says a chinese fighter jet flew too close, too fast to an american reconnaissance plane yesterday. but in beijing today, a spokesman for the chinese foreign ministry said the u.s. is to blame for the encounter. >> woodruff: and on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 66 points to close at 18,500. the nasdaq rose nearly 13, and the s&p 500 added seven. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour: an interview with hillary clinton, the presumptive democratic presidential nominee; what to expect as candidates move full-speed ahead into the general election; child labor rebuilding an earth-quake struck nepal, and much more. >> woodruff: now, to our interview with the presumptive democratic presidential nominee, hillary clinton. secretary clinton, thanks for joining us and congratulations. >> thank you so much, judy. it was an extraordinary time last night. >> woodruff: so while you are celebrating, senator sanders is saying he's out there going to fight, continue to fight for every vote, every delegate. we know your staffs are talking, but do you have plans to personally talk to him? and what are the remaining hurdles to come to an agreement on rules an platform at the democratic convention? >> well, i called senator sanders last evening and congratulated him on the hard-fought, determined campaign that he ran. and i am looking forward to working with him to unify the democratic party against the threat that donald trump poses to our country. so we are talking. we will be having an opportunity to discuss in greater detail in the days ahead how we can best work together. i know he's seeing the president tomorrow at the white house. so everyone is focused on bringing the party together behind our goal of being sure that a democrat succeeds barack obama next january. >> woodruff: welk you clearly won many more votes than senator sanders did, but he appears to have generated more enthusiasm, especially among younger voters. how do you go about winning them over, winning their trust and getting them to vote for you in november? >> well, judy, first of all, let me say i think my supporters are pretty enthusiastic, too, and they've turned out for me by the million, many more millions than bernie sanders and donald trump, and i want the stand up for my supporters. you know, they may not be the most vocal and demonstrating, but they show up and vote, and we have a broad-based, inclusive foundation for this campaign that we're going to build on going into the general election. but, of course i recognize that senator sanders really connected with young people in our country. a lot of his energy came from their support for him, and we are going to be reaching out. we're going to be working to make sure that every young person who supported senator sanders, if that young person cares about income inequality or making college affordable or making sure everybody has health care, those are goals we share. >> woodruff: well, let me ask you about donald trump, because it's typical in modern american politics, voters want a change in direction, usually after one president for this long. doesn't he represent that? >> oh, i think he represents a great threat to our society and our economy. now, there may be some people who respond to his slogan nearing and his bigotry and bullying, but i just don't think that a majority of americans are going to buy it, and we saw just this past week his racist attack on the federal judge accusing him of being unable to be impartial in hearing the case that is exposing the fraud at trump university, and it is just heartbreaking as well as outrageous. so i think he has a lot of challenges in overcoming the words and deeds that he has already used in this campaign and before that i think make him unqualified to be president, temperamentally unfit to be commander-in-chief. >> woodruff: well, donald trump is saying, as i think you know, that he's going to make a major speech early next week. he says he's going to detail how you as secretary of state, that there were conflicts of interest while the clinton foundation was doing business with foreign countries while you were in office, that the foundation benefited personally from this. he's going to talk about he said millions of dollars being exchanged. is this something you're worried about? and is the foundation something you need to sever you and your family from completely if you're elected? >> i am not worried about this. i mean, this is just more of the same recycled attacks that people like donald trump have been making against us for a long time. there's no factual basis to it. that's been proven time and time again. i can't stop someone from retreading arguments that have been disproved over and over again. he can say whatever he wants. to he can run whatever campaign he wants to. so i'm not going to respond to his personal attacks. that's something that, you know, he can choose to do. i'm going to respond, however, to the attacks that he makes on women and immigrants and muslims and people with disabilities and p.o.w.s and federal judges and the list keeps growing. >> woodruff: secretary clinton, one question on foreign policy. you were described in a recent article as being the "house hawk" in the clinton's war cabinet. we know that you, and you talk about, this you encouraged the president to intervene in libya in 2011. recently president obama said his worst mistake in office was probably failing to plan for the day after what he thought was the right thing to do in intervening there. how do you see your responsibility in that? >> well, first of all, it's important to remember where we were and why the president made the decision he did. because this was a presidential decision. i have advised the president, sometimes he follows my advice, sometimes he doesn't. sometimes he uses a combination of what he hears from his advisers. we were looking at a potential disaster as qaddafi threatened to massacre large numbers of his population. the europeans, our arab allies were urging us to help them to try to prevent that. after due diligence, we came up with a way of supporting their efforts that did not cost a single american life. and we saved a lot of libyan lives. now, could we have done more after the qaddafi regime was ended? that's always second-guessing and i'm sure there's more we could have done, but let's look at what we did do? we along with the u.n. and others helped to superintend two free and fair elections, something that is still quite an accomplish. by the libyan people. they chose moderate leaders. unfortunately, preexisting rivalries within the country have prevented the government from really being able to act on behalf of the nation. so of course if there were more things to be done that we could have influenced, i think that's something we should be looking at and evaluating because libya still is a country that is struggling to be successful. >> woodruff: finally, a quick running mate question: how big a negative do you think it would be to choose a sitting senator from a state with a republican governor knowing that would mean a republican replacement? >> well, i know it's big concern to my friends in the senate, and i respect that concern. i'm going the choose someone who i think would be ready to be president at a moment's notice. obviously i will listen to my former colleagues as they are working so hard to take back the senate, but i'm going to really be focused on the qualifications that the person brings to the job, and i haven't gotten into that in the depth i will, but that's what my guiding star will be. >> woodruff: secretary clinton, we thank you, and again, congratulations. >> thanks a lot, judy. great to talk to you. >> ifill: and now for some context on this historic moment. we are joined by rebecca traister, writer-at-large for "new york" magazine, and author of "all the single ladies: unmarried women and the rise of an independent nation;" presidential historian ellen fitzpatrick, author of the book "the highest glass ceiling: women's quest for the american presidency;" and john lawrence, visiting professor at the university of california, washington center, and former chief of staff to house minority nancy pelosi. ellen fitzpatri, this takes me back to margaret chase smith in 1964, shirley chisholm in 1972, but neither of them got this far. how big a breakthrough i guess is what hillary clinton accomplished last night? >> huge, as our current candidates would say, it's absolutely an extraordinary achievement. i think hillary clinton really has been underestimated as a politician. but when you set her campaign within the long arc of history, you can see what an extraordinary achievement it is. 150 years almost since the first woman attempted to run for president. victoria woodhall in the 1870s, and now hillary clinton has actually won the nomination of a major or come close to, will soon win the nomination of major political party. >> christa:>> ifill: rebecca tr, you know eight years ago when barack obama bested her, there was a general idea that took hold that she wasn't that good a candidate, and even though it was close, she just couldn't pull it off. what's the difference between 2008 and 2016? >> well, i think she was running against a less formidable opponent, and that's not to take anything away from bernie sanders, who ran a tremendous campaign. he was a long-shot candidate by many measures and he generated an enormous amount of excitement, was very inspiring, very inspiring to so many young people, so many people on the left, was wonderful, but when she was competing against barack obama, she was really competing against one of the most gifted politicians of our lifetimes i think. and the idea that she didn't perform well in 2008, there were all kinds of problems with her campaign, and she wasn't as good a candidate in 2008, but she did have a very strong performance. remember that she earned 18 million votes in 2008. i mean, both she and obama ran exceptional campaigns by some measures in terms of getting people enthusiastic and involved in the process. in this case, i think the campaign was stronger. she's a more comfortable and a more confident candidate this time around. i think that she trusted herself a little bit more. she still has flaws. she's still not wonderful on a big stage. but i think that she was much more in control of her campaign and her candidacy this time, and i think she just wasn't up against a superstar like barack obama. all respect to bernie sanders. >> ifill: john lawrence, you worked for nancy pelosi for some time. we remember that moment when she became speaker of the house and a huge gavel was handed over to her. how different was it when a woman, in this case the speaker of the house, became such a breakthrough candidate? >> it was a very historic moment. i think maybe you remember that she asked all the children who were in the chamber to come up and join her on the podium, although that was technically against the rules, but a she wanted to symbolize the importance of a woman, someone who was primarily concerned about the economics and the needs of american families, to be part of that transition. but speaker pelosi used to say, we've made history, now we have to make progress. i think she was adamant about wanting to define her speakership in terms of legislation and policy goals that she vaught, not simply in terms of gender. >> ifill: i heard a lot of talk then about her hair, her clothes, the fact that her husband shopped for her, what designers she wore, which you didn't hear about men. >> i actually worked for somebody for 30 years before that and if i could get him to comb his hair i thought that was a major accomplishment. i think that's true. i think women are still subjected to standard that most male candidates and male office holders are not subjected to. we used to talk in the office about the fact that john boehner would cry at the drop of a hat. imagine if nancy pelosi had cried when she faced a difficult vote? there's a standard. but the women who get to this stage in olympics -- politics, they've learned to live with the challenges thrown at them. >> ifill: ellen fitzpatrick, you're on a college campus. perhaps you can explain to us part of the generational divide that we've seen. i don't know whether we're talking about strategy or ideology or just fact. what's the leap for young women? why are so many of them so unimpressed by this kind of breakthrough? >> well, i'm not sure that that's actually true, gwen. i think we have to see how things unfold in the next few months. it is the case, of course, that bernie sanders really excited a lot of college students, and i think they were drawn to his message, his idealism, the scope of his progressive platform, and less so perhaps to hillary clinton or clearly so. >> ifill: rebecca traister, you spent some time with her on 2 campaign trail prior to the primary. i wonder, a, if that's true, and i wonder, instead of not knowing her well enough, we feel that we know hillary clinton too well? >> yes. all those things are true. in part i think that what ellen is talking about is very true. there is more enthusiasm for her than is necessarily made clear by the media narratives around her. i mean, after all, look, she won more votes. despite all the stories about the enormous enthusiasm for bernie sanders, which clearly existed, amongst young people and people of all ages, hillary clinton got three million more votes than he did in the end. there is obviously enthusiasm about her, but there are some translation issues around how to express that enthusiasm. i think that's something that has to change. one of the things that i did notice on the campaign trail, as i mention, she's very bad in these big... well, not very bad, she can be bad in these big, inspiring speech constand text, the big stages, but she's really and exceptional retail politician. when you're with her not just one-on-one in a social or friendly situation, but watching her shake the hands of voters, of local politicians, address rooms full of people talking about their individual stories, their issues, she really lights up a room and people get thrilled about her. that doesn't often come through in the media coverage of her. >> ifill: judy woodruff just interviewed, so i'll let the viewers judge how well she does in the press. i want to ask john lawrence as the donald trump factor, donald trump as the foil, macho guy, not hesitateing to throw the gauntlet down, does that change what she has to do as a breakthrough woman candidate? >> i think that trump in that sense is a bit of a gift because he has such a strong misogynist tone to so much of what he says that he almost insulates mrs. clinton against some of what might otherwise be questions about being a woman or being the first woman candidate. i think the other problem that mr. trump will find running against secretary clinton is that security is a very high priority issue, particularly a high priority issue with women voters. to be running against somebody who is a secretary of state, a united states senator, sat in the situation room, met with dozens of foreign national leaders and then play that off against a complete lack of experience, i think really it will cause a lot of voters who might otherwise be somewhat ambivalent to mrs. clinton say, in a world this is as uncertain and dangerous as this world, we really feel more comfortable with somebody who has been around the track as she has. >> ifill: i'm afraid we'll have to come back to this topic again and again as the year unravels to see if what you just said is true. john lawrence, thank you very much. rebecca traister and ellen fitzpatrick, thank you, as well. >> thank you. >> thanks. >> woodruff: for more on donald trump's campaign for the white house, i'm joined by susan page, washington bureau chief for "usa today;" and reid wilson, chief political correspondent for the morning consult. welcome back the both of you. so let's pick up the conversation, reid, about drum. all this focus for days after days now about what he said about this judge of mexican heritage. how much damage has been done? >> well, not only has he done more damage to his own campaign, he's doing damage now to the rest of the republican party. the republican party has spent years trying to rebuild relationships with the hispanic community in particular, george w. bush got 44% of the hispanic vote when he won reelection in 2004. mitt romney got 27% of the vote, the fastest-growing minority group in america. republicans need to make those inroads. donald trump is busy erasing all of the inroads that have been made. and it's starting to impact down-ballot republicans across the country. the "des moines register" takes chuck grassley to task for not having repudiated donald trump's comments saying they've seen better spines on invertebrates. >> woodruff: how do you see this, susan? how long lasting is this? >> we've been talking about divisions in the democratic party and whether bernie sanders will embrace hillary clinton. the divisions in the democratic party is nothing compared to the civil war brewing in the republican party. >> woodruff: civil war? >> civil war. we had the top-rank republican of the united states, paul ryan, say the party's presidential nominee was making racist statements. this is an extraordinary situation, and we saw donald trump try to be more restrained last night when he talked with the benefit of a teleprompter, kind of a different message than he's had before, but the test will be over the time of this campaign, over the next six weeks before the convention, can he keep that more moderate tone? >> woodruff: we read that donald trump today said he was disappointed that these republican leaders are being critical of him. how does something like this get repaired? >> and he is disappointed that his comments have been misconstrued. i find it hard to imagine how those comments were misconstrued. he was pretty clear about what he said. i think that how this gets repaired depends on how professionally donald trump's campaign is going to be run. he ran this primary campaign on a sort of seat of his pants basis. these big megarallies without the sorts of blocking and tackling that are required to run a professional, modern presidential campaign. if trump is not going to build that kind of modern campaign, i don't think this can be repaired. >> woodruff: is this the kind of thing that has legs as long as that there's oxygen to part it? >> as long as donald trump is at center stage, and he's going to be at center stage for the rest of this year, until election day, you know, he's going to be the face of the republican party. other republicans are going to have to either embrace him or distance themselves from him. and every day they spend doing that is a day they don't attack hillary clinton and the democratic party. every day that goes on, it makes it less likely that republicans will be able to hold control of the senate, for instance, even longer shot get control of the house. so i think that republicans... senior republicans are now looking at this and trying to figure out, how can we not only be competitive in a presidential race, but avoid longer-lasting damage down the ballot and in years to come? >> woodruff: all right. reid, we showed a clip showing donald trump last night appealing to bernie sanders' supporters in this election. what do people think? is that something that could happen? >> every four years i feel like we get to this point where we talk about how deeply divided one party is and how one party's voters might go and vote for the other party's candidate in protest. it never really happens. even today we've got close to 90% of republican voters saying they'll vote for donald trump, about 85% of democratic voters saying they'll vote for hillary clinton. once there is a clear contrast between hillary clinton and donald trump, those partisan voters will largely come home. i think the notion of appealing... donald trump appealing to bernie sanders' voters is fanciful at best. >> i think there is one way in which there could be some overlap there, where donald trump could in fact appeal to bernie sanders' voters in that there are some voters who are just so eager for change, so disgusted with the way the system works now that they might have supported bernie sanders. they might be open to trump. that's the tantalizing thing for republicans. there are some strengths that donald trump could bring to a presidential campaign, an ability to appeal to some voters that republicans haven't traditionally gotten. the question is: does he wash that away with some of his more provocative statements. >> woodruff: very quickly, i asked hillary clinton about donald trump's threat really to bring out new information, damaging information about the clinton foundation. is that something she should be worried about? >> i don't think so. hillary clinton has been in the public spotlight for 25 years? what is there new? who is undecided about hillary clinton and whether or not they have favorable impression? i think a lot of these attacks will be the same things that republicans have tried for a very long time and they haven't worked. >> it does reinforce her biggest vulnerability, do you trust her? is she honest? that's a weakness she's going to have to face in the months to come. >> woodruff: susan page, reid wilson, thank you. >> thank you. >> ifill: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: scientists try to protect astronauts by setting fires in space crafts. but first, a report about the scourge of child labor in the back-breaking brick manufacturing processes in nepal. that's from special correspondent fred de sam lazaro, and is part of his series, "agents for change," a collaboration with the christian science monitor. >> reporter: heavy lifting is a way of life in this himalayan country, but workers in nepal's brick kilns are in a league of their own. here, work is an endless cycle of loads that weigh more than the laborers who carry them. of polluted, oppressive conditions-- grinding coal to stoke kilns that must be kept alive at some 2,000 degrees fahrenheit, round the clock. of making clay and molding raw bricks that feed the ovens. >> ( translated ): you don't use your brains to do this work. it's just physical labor, but we have no choice, we have debts to pay. tilok moktan and his wife rina say life is a never ending cycle of debt-- for medical bills, for just running the household, they say, and to put their children in school. >> ( translated ): i want to see that my children are educated, that they complete their higher education. work is too tough in the brick sector. >> they'll get up at midnight before it gets too hot, work until dawn, sleep for a few hours, wake up, mold some more bricks, then do it again next night. it's physically demanding at all aspects. that's why i think its startling to see children. >> reporter: these images are by photographer ann hermes of the boston-based christian science monitor. we partnered with hermes and writer michael holtz on this story, looking at an industry notorious for trapping children and families in poverty. >> i think we really wanted to get a sense of now that reconstruction is finally getting under way in nepal and demand for bricks is going to go so high, how that would affect the brick kiln industry itself. in terms of, would there be increase in child labor, bonded labor, things like that. >> reporter: there are some 1,100 brick kilns across nepal, a number that's grown recently, anticipating large scale rebuilding for years to come. >> so these are the areas where they make bricks. >> reporter: all told, they employ about 250,000 people, says homraj acharya, who is part of a two-year-old initiative called better brick nepal or b.b.n. how many children did you say are working in kilns today in nepal? >> we can find around 60,000. >> reporter: 60,000. >> because, you know, it's a family based industry. >> reporter: they live in brick shacks, surrounded by lego-like fortresses: molded bricks, stacked up at the start of an almost pre-industrial process. for brick makers there are no set working hours. the basic rule is you work until you're too tired to continue, and there's every incentive to continue to the point of exhaustion, because workers are paid by the brick, a little less than one u.s. cent for each one of these. >> because it's paid on a piece count basis, if children make a hundred bricks more, that means you might get a hundred. >> reporter: they're paid for productivity? >> exactly. >> reporter: but do the children help mold bricks, i asked the moktans? seven-year-old ritesh, no, but 12-year-old ritika, yes. >> ( translated ): she works a few hours a week. she helps with the cooking and some times when their mother needs to do the cooking, she helps out with the bricks. >> reporter: it may seem normal for children to pitch in with chores. but acharya says these desperately poor families invariably grow to depend excessively on the children to scrape together more income. >> the system creates that enabling environment for children to be used. >> reporter: the better brick program wants to create a different environment by using a set of market-based incentives for kiln owners. those who sign on, agree to pay for preschool facilities like this one-- to get children into a classroom and away from the brick workplace of their parents. and b.b.n. works with owners and parents to insure that older children attend school. for owners, these steps could be good business. >> giving them incentive in terms of access to loans, and there is helping them to improve their quality of bricks and then, when there is a bidding process, we are talking to the government. >> reporter: so you'd want the government to procure bricks from operators that are certified as not employing children? >> absolutely. that is one of the major point of this program. >> reporter: this is one of 23 kilns that have so far signed on to the program. co-owner shiva regmi said he's happy to improve conditions for workers and he can certainly use the technical help. >> ( translated ): for every one brick that we make two are broken. >> reporter: regmi is a newcomer to this business-- this kiln is just a few months old-- and may be more receptive to the better brick program than others. at another facility the owner complained to acharya that his industry is being unfairly singled out by advocates. >> ( translated ): we are giving opportunities to 400,000 people who work in our industry and we don't ask their children to work. people are spreading rumors that we are hiring children but that's not true. >> reporter: many owners can technically make that claim, acharya says, because their contracts are with adults, not with their children who come along. then there's the murkier world of sub-contractors who provide laborers, many of them children, who are not with their families-- brought here under various arrangements by labor agents or traffickers. it was quite common to see young boys loading and herding the steady train of work animals that carry raw bricks to the kilns. it was more difficult to talk to them. i did manage one fleeting conversation with this young man. "i had to leave school because my mom and dad weren't earning," he said, "so i went to work." how did you get this job, i asked? "a rich man from our village brought me here," he said. how many others accompanied him? >> oh many of them. all of these guys are from my village. >> reporter: how many? do you get any time to play? >> not at all. >> reporter: and no more time for a visiting stranger. his is just one anonymous story out of thousands in an underground labyrinth that preys on poverty and illiteracy and that nepal's government admits it has few resources to adequately police. but homraj acharya sees a tiny silver lining. reconstruction will soon get into high gear in coming months, with a windfall of foreign aid. >> $4 billion has already been pledged by different countries and we want to make sure that all of those countries are giving money to nepalese government. we want them to use the bricks that are produced child-labor free. >> reporter: he says nepal's builders' association has agreed to buy bricks from kilns his program has certified as free of child labor, where they're available. and it seems more likely the moktan family's bricks will be free of child labor, especially after our interview, when i asked sixth-grader ritika what her favorite subject was. >> english. >> reporter: when you grow up what kind of work would you like to do? >> i would like to be a doctor. >> reporter: why? >> because i want to help the poor people. >> reporter: two short, hesitant sentences, but to her parents, she'd moved a mountain-- and she'd moved them to tears. >> ( translated ): i'm really proud that she was able to speak to you in english. >> ( translated ): they are tears of happiness. >> ( translated ): we will work as hard as we possibly can to see she completes her education. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, this is fred de sam lazaro in nepal's kathmandu valley. >> ifill: fred's report was supported by the pulitzer center on crisis reporting and is a partnership with the under-told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. you can find more on this story from our partners at the christian science monitor on our website. >> woodruff: now, how nasa is trying to fight fire with fire, in space. researchers are conducting new experiments that would limit that particular danger for future space travel. science correspondent miles o'brien has the story, part of our weekly series on the "leading edge" of science and technology. >> reporter: we are crossing an international boundary. we are on the u.s. side now, and now we are on the russian mir space station. >> reporter: by 1997, the russian space station mir was 11 years old and showing its age. during the fifth shuttle mission to the station, astronaut john grunsfeld documented the warren of modules brimming with a disorienting maze of cables, hoses and trash. >> i feel like i am exploring a cave. >> reporter: can you imagine being in a fire here? u.s. astronaut jerry linenger lived that nightmare on february 23, 1997. >> the fire was basically in this region here with the flames shooting across. >> reporter: the source was a canister filled with chemicals designed to generate oxygen. >> you've got a two- or three- foot flame, blowtorch-like in intensity, sparks flying off the end of it, it looks like a hundred sparklers all at once. >> reporter: linenger and his russian crewmates donned masks and frantically fought the fire. >> the fire took about 14 minutes total, and 14 minutes is a long time with a roaring fire and a blackout from the smoke, and no place to go, and if it were any bigger, i'm pretty darn sure we would have lost that spacecraft. >> reporter: for nasa scientists and engineers it was a big wake- up call. >> one of the things that you learn is we really didn't have a way to put that fire out. >> reporter: gary ruff is a scientist at nasa's glenn research center in cleveland ohio. this is where the agency does most of its research on fires in the weightless environment of space called micro-gravity. >> they used water foam fire extinguishers that they had, but that probably at most just kind of cooled everything else around it and kept it from spreading. >> reporter: ruff leads a team that is trying to learn more about big fires in space. so the plan is to deliberately set one and watch what happens. really! >> this is the saffire iii module. >> reporter: david urban is the principal investigator for the spacecraft fire experiment or saffire. we spoke beside saffire iii, slated for launch at the end of 2016. the one currently in space-- saffire i-- is an identical box strapped inside a cargo ship. once the craft makes its delivery, departs and is a safe distance from the international space station, it will be time to light the fire inside saffire. fire and a spacecraft is a pretty scary thing, isn't it? >> yeah. it's a very small space. what you would normally tolerate in your house are completely non-tolerable in a spacecraft. >> reporter: nasa's most painful fire lesson came in 1967 when three astronauts were killed during a countdown test on the launchpad in florida. it prompted a lot of changes in spacecraft designs. the agency took great pains to eliminate flammable materials wherever possible. but fires in micro-gravity are harder to predict. a lot of unanswered questions about fires in micro-gravity, right? >> a huge number. basically, we don't really know how fast they'll grow or how large they'll get, nor do we really understand given the way the spacecraft are built, how quickly that temperature and pressure rise will be a problem for the crew. >> reporter: on the ground, when you light a candle, the heat of the flame melts the wax near the wick. this wax is drawn up the wick and vaporizes, fueling the flame. so if gravity is pulling everything down, why does a flame go upwards? the air surrounding a flame puts pressure on it. but because gravity pulls colder, denser air down-- there is more pressure exerted on the bottom of the flame. that's what pushes the flame up: it's buoyancy, the same thing that keeps a boat afloat. in space, when the gravity meter reads zero, the cool dense air no longer flows downward. instead, the air puts equal pressure on the flame from all directions. the end result-- candle flames in space are spherical. over the years, nasa has conducted several combustion experiments on small samples of paper, cloth, plastics and hydrocarbons in special chambers on skylab, the space shuttle and station. >> but they've all been really small. and so one of the open questions that we've got is how large that flame can get, how rapidly it can grow. when the experiment is done, the cargo ship will be guided to its own fiery end over the south pacific. the saffire team is planning three more experiments, for a total of six, the fires will be larger, eventually simulating a full-fledged spacecraft fire scenario. >> since we're going to release the gases into the cabin, we want to have some material there that the crew would have to help clean up after a fire. >> reporter: jerry linenger certainly would not disagree with that. >> packing up, time to head home. >> reporter: linenger made it home safe and sound after all, but by the skin of his teeth. >> people say, "how brave you were"-- i don't know. bravery, you've got to have an option. you've got to have an option to run. >> reporter: as nasa sets its sights on long duration human missions to mars, it really isn't a question of if there will be a fire, just when-- and how will the crew be equipped to respond? miles o'brien, the pbs newshour, cleveland. >> ifill: we'll be back in a moment. but first, take this time to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your >> ifill: on the newshour online right now, the fluctuating u.s. dollar and its impact on the global economy. but how does it affect american consumers? we take a closer look in our "making sense" column online. all that and more is on our web site, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday we'll talk to the secretary of homeland security, jeh johnson. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> you were born with two stories. one you write every day, and one you inherited that's written in your d.n.a. 23andme.com is a genetic service that provides personalized reports about traits, health and ancestry. learn more at www.23andme.com. >> bnsf railway. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> md anderson cancer center. making cancer history. >> fathom travel, offering cruises to cuba and the dominican republic. travel deep. >> genentech. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. foundation. >> 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 this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and sue herera. not too hot, not too cold. why oil prices may be entering a level that is just right for the economy and your investments. >> dousbling down, am zon makes a big investment in india and it's not the only major american company on the prowl there. why eight years after the housing crisis the american psyche has yet to heal. all that and more on the "nightly business report." the dow closes back above 18,000, but we begin with big news about oil where prices hit a new high for the year and that may be what the