Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20160908

It seems appealing to say, oh, just have the Major Social Media Companies take a hard line approach to anything having to do with isis. But the fact is, that will end up blocking a lot of speech. Woodruff all that and more, on tonights 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 willingi to do so very much. But you dont have to do itu alone. Lincoln financial helps you provide for and protect your financial future, because this, is what you do for people you love. Lincoln financial youre in charge. Bnsf railway. Xq institute. Supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems skollfoundation. Org. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a moreit 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 fore public broadcasting. G. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. O thank you. Woodruff an emerging question in the president ial campaign who would be the better commanderinchief . Donald trump and Hillary Clinton will both make their cases tonight on a television special. Trump was out this morning, witp an early peek at his argument. Today, im here to talk too you about three crucial words that should be at center, always, of our Foreign Policy peace. Through. Strength. Woodruff Donald Trumps visit to philadelphia today was all about military policy. He called for big increases in defense spending to beef up the army, navy and air force after years of congressionally mandated spending limits. As soon as i take office, i will ask congress to fully eliminate the defense sequester. I will submit a new budget to rebuild our military. It is so depleted. Woodruff tonight, trump andm Hillary Clinton appear separately in a televised forum on national security. Meanwhile, Clintons Campaign unveiled a list of 95 retired generals and admirals backing her. That a came a day after trumps team touted a list of 88 endorsing him. Meanwhile, former president clinton stumped in orlando,cl florida, and called out trumps attacks on his wife, and the Family Foundation i mean, i saw where her opponent attacked my foundationp i think that is because he knew they were about to report that he used his foundation to givegi money to your attorney general, which is not legal. audience reacts woodruff trump has denied d that his donation of 25,000 dollars to support floridasdo Republican Attorney general pama bondi in 2013 was meant to influence her offices possiblei review of trump university. Meanwhile, there is fallout from trumps meeting in mexico last week with president pena nieto. It has drawn wide criticism in mexico, and today, the treasury minister resigned, amid reports he arranged the trump visit. Woodruff we will turn to the changing shape of the president ial race as reflected in the polls after the newsen summary. In the days other news president obama urged americans to learn more about the world, and to reject isolationism. He was in laos, where he touredh a centuriesold buddhist temple, and then held a town hall with youth leaders from across Southeast Asia. I believe that the United States is and can be a great force for good in the world. But, if youre in the United States, sometimes you can feel lazy, and think, were so big, we dont have to really knowto anything about other people. And thats part of what im p trying to change. Woodruff later, at a regional summit, the president met informally with philippinesl leader rodrigo duterte. The white house called off a formal meeting when duterte referred to mr. Obama with foul language. The philippines also used the summit to highlight chinast expansionism in the south china sea. Filipino officials released images said to show an increased number of chinese ships near a contested island. The summit issued a vaguely worded statement, but did not mention china by name. The United Nations reports intense new fighting in western syria has put at least 100,000 people to flight. Theyre fleeing homes in hama province, where islamist rebels launched an offensive last week, triggering Government Air strikes. An estimated 11 million syrians have fled since the war began in 2011. Many of those migrants have gone to europe, and germany alone took in one Million People last year. That has caused a political backlash. Ba but today, german chancellor g Angela Merkel went before parliament and insisted the country can handle the influx. The situation today is many times better than a year ago,s for everyone, but there remains a lot to do. Change is not a bad thing. And we especially and i can speak for myself who experienced german unification have seen how change can be a very positive thing. That will not change. Germany will remain germany, with everything that we love and treasure. Woodruff also today, britaia said it is building a wall at the french port of calais to stop illegal entries of migrantt through the channel tunnel. Back in this country the president has nominated a man who could become the first Muslim American federal judge. Abid riaz qureshi is a washington d. C. Lawyer. He would need senate confirmation, but it is unclear if he can get it before congresb goes home next month. On wall street, the Dow Jones Industrial average lost nearly a 12 points to close at 18,526. The nasdaq rose eight points, and the s p 500 slipped aan fraction. And, a woman who flew noncombat missions in world war ii, and died last year, was finally laid to rest today in Arlington National cemetery. Elaine harmon served with the wasps Women Airforce Service pilots. But last year, the Army Secretary ruled them ineligible for arlington, citing limited space. It took an act of congress to revoke that ruling. Still to come on the newshour the newest polls showing donaldt trump and Hillary Clinton in a dead heat; the two candidates views on Climate Change; chicagos struggle to stem its growing gun violence, and much more. Woodruff and now, we turn to politics, and a tightening race, both across the nation and in key battleground states. New polls indicate hillaryil clinton has a slight advantage, but donald trump is closing the gap in a few decisive states. Lisa desjardins has our report. D reporter theres a theme ina this weeks political headlines different polls with one conclusion nationally, the race between donald trump andd Hillary Clinton is getting closer. The big picture . Clinton leads by three points, according to the real clear politics polling average. That is half of her lead a month ago. In other words, her post convention bounce is over. She still has some key advantages, leading in states with a bonanza of electoral votes, like california and new york. She also has narrow leads in pivotal battleground states like colorado and virginia. Also in clintons favor some demographics. She is now far in front with at muchwatched group white, collegeeducated women, according to the washington post. Thats a reverse from 2012, when republican mitt romney won that group. But trump has strengths, too. T he is leading in the midwest overall, and in striking distance in michigan and wisconsin, which typically vote democratic at the president ial level. Trump has also widened his lead among older, white voters. And, among those without college degrees, he now leads clinton in at least 43 states. What might be most important here is the timing. These dynamics are in play 60 days out from the election. In the past four elections, this is exactly when breakaway shift began in the polls. For the pbs newshour, im lisa desjardins. Woodruff so what do all these polls tell us about whats driving voters . And nine weeks out from election day, what do the candidates need to do to drive their message home . We take a deeper look with dan balz, chief correspondent for the washington post; and Carroll Doherty, director for Political Research for the pew research center. And we welcome both of you back to the program. B dan, im going to start with you and your newspapers 50state0 poll out today. What do these numbers tell you about where the the race stands today . Judy, they tell us severalse important things. First, that the race has tightened from where it was after the conventions. On Hillary Clinton got a bigger bounce out of the Democratic Convention than donald trump got from the republican convention,i and that moved the polls early in midaugust. In but what weve seen since then is a tightening. Weve seen a different donald trump on the campaign trail. I i cant say what reason it is that its tightened, but it has tightened. So thats the first point. The second point is that our 50state poll underscores the degree to which Hillary Clinton still has an easier path to 270 electoral votes than donald trump does. P our numbers show that all she would need to do at this point is to add florida, and she would have 270 or more electoral votes. Donald trump has a long, longna way to go to get there. He has very few options. He has to thread the needle, and she has many choices and many options, both in an effort to block him in the states he has to win but also to open up the map in some area wheres shes might be able to expand. Woodruff and carrollro doherty, looking at the polls which you look at, which are a lot of them, including your own pew poll. What do you see there in terms of Hillary Clintons path . Nt well, i mean, we look at the national picture, and what you see is two candidates who just are viewed in extraordinarily negative ways, in different ways, but in negative ways. In our poll is in august, only three in 10 voters said Hillary Clinton would make a good or great president , and 27 said s donald trump would make a goodd or great president. There are more people voting against than for these candidates in some ways. So negativity is really driving a motivating factor in this election. Dan, given so, that and we have been hearing about this negativity for some time given that, how do you explain Hillary Clintonshi advantage . Well, i think at this pointli she has become less unacceptabla than donald trump is. You know, we have as carroll said, we have to keep this in negative terms. One of the things we looked at we asked a question of, do you think donald trump or Hillary Clinton, if they became president , would threaten the wellbeing of the United States . 95 of the people across thehe country when you aggregate it up believe that one or both would be a threat to the wellbeing. E so there is great concern. These two candidates. But because of many of the things that donald trump hasas said up to now, the record he has established as a candidate has raised more questions about him than Hillary Clinton. Hi woodruff and, Carroll Doherty, it is the case that questions are out there aboutbo donald trump, but there are also some opportunities for him,fo which show up in the polls. P absolutely. I mean, you know, 43 way he would make not just a bad but a terrible president. Te theres probably an opportunity to move some of these numbers a little more in his direction. And some of these key groups, such as whites whites college degrees, importantly who have been trending republican in recent years, i think there is an opportunity there possibly to bring some of those voters backs woodruff dan, we have already seen some movement on his part. As you mentioned, just since the conventions. Well, we have. In the polling which we did, we we did, online polling with the firm survey monkey, he does have strength in the midwest. There are a number of midwestern state, some of which have gone democratic for five or six f elections in a row where hes doing reasonably well and is within striking distance. So theres opportunity in those areas where the the electorate is older and whiter, and as carroll said, one of the problems he has at this point not not certainly that will be the the case onth election day, but right now, is with white collegeeducated voters and particularly white women,an who have college agrees. R mitt romney won whites with College Educations with 56 of the vote, and Hillary Clinton is winning that group at this point. So donald trump needs to do that. And the other thing he needs to do, which you would expect over time, he will have some success on, and that is consolidating the republican vote in the way that Hillary Clinton has already consolidated the democratic vote. Woodruff why has he had a hard time with the white, more educated voter and republicans . Well, and republicans, people forget that he won over a divided field, and didnt win a majority of all republican vote inic the primary. So some of this is normal consolidation, and then some ofo it is selfinflicted in terms ot some of the things he said and done since then. Ce woodruff just quickly, q Carroll Doherty, how undecide read how many voters out there are undecided . E how malleable is voters thinking at this point . The broadest range we havee been able to estimate maybe one in five. N its down from where its been. B you have to factor in the thirdr and fourthparty factor thisct time where they might go with gary johnson and jill stein but one in five, and thats less than prior electioning at this stage. Woodruff how many voters are there out there who still might make up their mind, might change their minds, go in another direction . Its very hard to estimate,i and i think polling doesnt hels us a lot on this. I mean, as carroll said, theree a sizable number who say they havent quite made up their mind or might change their mind. But as weve said, this is such an unhappy electorate, you haveu to think that most people kind of know where theyre going too end up, put theyre not theyre just so conflicted aboud the choice that theyre not really ready to say with any certainty that they will definitely do that. So i think it leaves some uncertainty out there in where these polls might move over the next 60 days. Woodruff and quick final question to Carroll Doherty about these thirdparty candidates, gary johnson, and jill stein. You can say at this point howin much of a factor they can make . History suggests that measures of thirdparty support would decline over time, perhaps, but this is a very v unusual election. We had gary johnson at 10 in our most recent national poll. His profile voters, very young, very young profile voters for gary johnson at this point . Rd as you say, and, dan, ill come back to you very quickly on this, typically the thirdparty candidates lose ground in thegr final weeks of an election. Thats usually true, but i think the issue is if gary johnson were able to qualify and hit that 15 threshold, that would change that because he would then have nationalav visibility that he doesnt have at this point. P but so far, hesion not quite at that level. Woodruff well its an election like weve never seen in so many ways. W thank you, both, dan balz, d Carroll Doherty. Thank you, thank you. Woodruff and next, we turn now to our periodic look at the major issues facing the country, and where the president ial candidates stand on them. Tonight, the cfocus is Climate Change. It is a subject that has gotten very little attention thus far during the campaign, even as it highlights one of the starkest differences between the candidates. Atn,st William Brangham has our report. Reporter this past weekend, the u. S. And china officially ratified the socalled parishe climate accords they are theco most substantial move by the worlds nations to put some limits on the Greenhouse Gas emissions that are driving Global Temperatures upwards. And upwards they keep going. 2016 is on pace to be the hottest year in recordedye history, breaking the record set by 2015, and 2014 before that. As many climate models predicted, a warming planet has coincided with increased heat waves and droughts, as well as more intense storms. Glaciers and ice sheets continue to shrink, sending sea levels upwards and threatening coastal communities all over the world w with potentially catastrophic, costly flooding. Michael oppenheimer is a climate scientist at princeton university. If we dont start with rapid Emissions Reductions and substantial emissionss reductions, we will pass a danger point, beyond which the consequences for many people anf countries on earth will simply become unacceptable and eventually disastrous. Reporter but the parisr accords only set voluntary capsa on carbon emissions. So how seriously the United States follows through on these commitments as well as its other efforts to curtail carbon will fall largely on the next president. And while there are plenty of policies where clinton and trump have different views, theres probably no greater divergence between them than on the issuete of Climate Change. One thinks it is real and poses a grave threat; the other thinks its a fantasy. An i think its a big scam, to make people a lot of money. Reporter donald trump has repeatedly called Climate Change a hoax. Al he claims the planet is freezing, and that scientists are stuck in ice. He has also argued Global Warming is a concept cooked uprm trump argues that environmentalu regulation is an enormous anti competitive tax on u. S industry, which also threatens american jobs, especially in the coal industry. He says a Trump Administration will undo as many regulations as possible, starting with president obamas clean power plan, which has put limits onwe coal emissions. Trump has also promised to rip up or cancel the paris accords, and block any funding for international Climate Change efforts. He supports the expansion of coal and oil and natural gas as main Energy Sources for the u. S. On the issue of renewables,s. Trump has been largely silent. Il Climate Change is such a consequential crisis to everyone in the world. Reporter Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has repeatedlyep called Climate Change an urgent threat, and one that is driven in large part by human activity namely, the burning of fossil fuels. Clinton supports cutting carbon emissions, supports the goals of the paris accords, as well asri president obamas clean energy plan. Clinton acknowledges these plano will cost coal industry jobs, and she has proposed a multibillion dollar Renewable Energy plan that she says will attempt to replace some of those lost jobs. To help understand what ato clinton or Trump Administration might mean with regards to Climate Change, im joined now by coral davenport, who is an environmental reporter for the new york times; and chris mooney, who covers science andnd the environment for the washington post. Thank you both very much for being here. Chris, id like to starty with you. Before we get to the candidatesc lets talk for a moment about what is the current science tell us about the current impacts of Climate Change . Well, 2016 is a very, very hot year. Ye were probably going to have three hottest year records in a row, 2014, 2015, 2016 topping them all. Em weve seen some really striking chiementrelated effects on the world. Most starkly this year i think the bleaching of coral reefs. R this is something climate scientists have been predicting for a long time and now its happening. There are all kinds of impactski all around the world. We are losing more and more ice from the polar regions and, of course, temperature records are being broken. B brangham anything you would add to that, coral . I would say the specific marker that a lot of scientists and scientific institutions have put forth is the warming of the atmosphere beyond 3. 7 degrees fahrenheit on average. Thats kind of the point at which a lot of Scientists Say we will be irrevocably locked in to a future of these climate impacts, and were at the point right now where Scientists Say a lot of that is already baked in. There was a point brangham theres no way were going to stop hitting that mark. Correct. The climatepoint in debate where how do we keep from getting there . At this point, in terms of the emissions that are already in the atmosphere and the rate of emissions now being produced today, scientists are saying were probably set to go past that tipping point, and the debate is really about how do you keep it are getting far, far worse . How do you keep the planet inhabitable by humans . Brangham okay, stayingha with you, im going to put the crystal ball in your hands now. Its january 2017, donald trump is inaugurated president. Whate does u. S. Climate policypo look like . Ok well, most significant Climate Policy that donald trump has talkeddo about is he calls t cancelling the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement was a look accord reached last year in paris which for the first time joined almost every country on earth, over 195 countries, spoop committing to taking actions to reducing their carbon emissions. It was key for the u. S. To be a centerpiece of that. The u. S. And china are the worlds two largest emitters of carbon emissions, the u. S. Historically the largest. A if the u. S. Actually were towe pull out of the Paris Agreement, the deal could potentially unravel. And so the question now is what would happen in a trumpum administration, and the rest of the world led by u. N. Secretaryn general ban kimoon is trying to kind of figure out, how do we keep the paris accord intact ift there were to be a President Trump . Brangham chris, take on that question, does the president have the ability, doli they have the leverses to rip up the paris accords . Or it depends what happens during this administration before the next president comes in. There is a sort of rapid push reet now by the Obamam Administration and many nations of theat world to bring it into force, and once it actually enters into force, thenue have to have 55 countries representing 55 of the global emissions in order to achieve that. Once that happens there is language in the agreement saying you need three years beforeng yu can withdraw again, and then theres a year waiting period. So it sounds like from that language the hands of the next president could be tied if this thing enters into force, and were going to have to see right now only about 40 of global emissions, 39 have signed on, and thats because u. S. And china did. You need india, canada, Great Britain you can do the math, but you have to get to 55, andnd you have to do it this year. Then it would be more difficult to withdraw, but a President Trump, if he didnt want to comply but couldnt make it go away, could just not cooperate. And its not clear what would happen then. Brangham crystal ball is in your hands now. W january 2017, Hillary Clinton is inaugurated. What does Energy Policy lookoe like . I think it looks like a pretty strong continuation of obama Climate Policy. I think absolutely you could be fulfilling the paris climate agreement and trying to reduce u. S. Emissioning and the goal is to get them 26 , 28 below levels in 2025. Im sure president clinton would be very much on board with that. I think domestically one of the most interesting things you would see under president re clinton would be the big Energy Infrastructure transition. How much solar do we install . I how do we integrate it on to the grid . How much of a role is natural gas going to play . Brangham corrable, i know youve been following this t somewhat. Hillary clinton got into some trouble when he said as we make this push to Renewables Coal jobs are going to be lost. She put out a proposal saying we will beef up the renewables and try to save some of those jobs. How realistic is it . Its interesting to seeee Hillary Clinton even if it didnt come out quite the way she meant it too on openly acknowledge that Climate Policy does take aim at coal. L coal is the largest source of planetwarming emission in addition the u. S. S so if youre trying on stop Global Warming youre going to take aim at coal. L. That means eventually coal community, the coal miners, coalfired power plants, are going to get hurt. Brangham chris, lastm question to you, the ability of a president on make meaningfuln contributions to this debate. If you were to go forward 50, 100, 150 years, would we be able to tell the difference between a Clinton Administration and a Trump Administration, meaningis how much influence do president s really have on this policy when were talking about a global problem . Some significant influence,nc but i agree with you, that there are so many other things going on. For instance, one of the reasons the United States has actually been reducing its emissions in recent years isn actually that theres been a boom in natural gas. Its displacing coal. It emidst less Carbon Dioxide when you burn it. I this is not really an obama policy. Its something that happened because of technology and the free market. And globally, youre seeing a big trend in installation of Renewable Energies across the world. Youll see huge installations of wind and solar in places like africa. These things are going to happen for largely nonpolicy freemarkets. I think there are forces movingr not at the president ial level. En but at the same time, the Obama Administration kind of shows how you can use diplomacy to pring the most important countries together and get the whole world on board. So i wouldnt discount that, either. So i think that the world will continue trying to grapple with the climate problem, no matter who is u. S. President. But i think that depending who that president is, it can have a significant influence on the trajectory. Brangham all right, chris mooney, coral davenport, thankon you both very much. Woodruff stay with us. Coming up on the newshour the woman who revitalized the traditional textile industry in laos; and what social Media Networks should do to combat terrorism online. But first, a bloody year in chicago; and residents, police and Community Leaders are asking why the violence is gettingth worse instead of better. It is already the deadliest year in more than two decades. 500 homicides so far; 90 in august alone. The killings were mostly clustered on the citys south and west sides. John yang went to find out why, despite changes and repeated calls for new action, violencevi there is so tough to rein in. Reporter on this busy Street Corner in englewood one of the hardest hit neighborhoods on the citys troubled south side it looks like a party. Kids are playing. The grill is fired up. In the past though, 75th and stewart felt like a war zone. This corner is a corner where a man was killed. Well, several men. A woman was killed, and a child was killed a nineyearoldar girl was killed washing her dog in broad daylight. And if men and women and a reporter but for two summers, mothers against senseless killing, known aswn mask, led by tamar manasseh, has been out on this corner and there hasnt been a single shooting. Volunteer Laura Lambert comes from nearby hyde park. And 91yearold Edwina Knight crosses the street every day from the house shes lived in for 57 years. Show up, grab a lawn chair and pair of sunglasses and you can do this. You can change the world with that. Reporter but the moms of r mask are only on one corner, in a city of 2. 7 Million People. Killings have spiked this summer. Chicago has already recordedo more homicides than it did in all of last year. Thats what were seeing t here, is the epidemic nature, the epidemic curve of ofde violence. Of Reporter University ofy illinois at chicago physician gary slutkin says epidemic is exactly the right word. He argues that violence is a contagious disease. Youre exposed to flu, youre more likely to get flu. U you dont actually get flu without being exposed. Same thing for t. B. , cholera and violence. I mean, why does someone who wa exposed to child abuse, abuse, their own kids . Thatd be the person who youd think would be least likely to do it, because he knows how bad it was. Ea but in fact, hes picked up this contagious set of behaviors. Reporter so dr. Slutkin treats gun violence as a contagious disease. He founded cure violence, now an International Effort that trains former gang members and felons to stop violence in its tracks violence interrupters. They are always in the community, aware of whats going on, and asking families and people, you know, whos upset . You know, who is somebody slept with someones girlfriend, someone was disrespected, someone owes somebody money. And we can reach those peoplee with these health workers. They know how to cool people down, know how to buy time, reporter chicago violence interrupter Chico Tillmon knows how to cool people down. He drove us around the south side last week, where much of the violence happens. Wead a situation, maybe in early january, where twowh h individuals or two cliques were arguing, so one clique went into another cliques neighborhood and got on Facebook Live and was like, eff you all, were inr yalls gas station. Within 30 minutes on that walkth from the gas station back to thi house, two were dead, one was wounded. Reporter its not like this is a gang war over turf, this is just, sort ofthi interpersonal. I said something you didnt agree with, you responded negatively, it ended up in gunde violence. Reporter violence interrupter ulysses u. S. Floy was a leader in one of chicago most notorious gangs, the gangster disciples. I know i helped start this mess, so i wanted to help cleani it up. Reporter he told us gangs are very different now than in his day. One or two men control everything. Now youve got a lot of cliques, different little, you know, gangs, split all over. They, they, they offsprings of the major gangs, what they call cliques. Oal and they just do what they wannw do, aint nobody really in control, no structure, no rules reporter the number of neighborhoods where chicagos branch of cure violence operates varies based on funding. But a Justice Department study found at one point, the group helped reduce violence by 40 to 70 in some of the areas where they were operating. Today, they are in only five of the citys 77 neighborhoods. You see these young men andse women in what looks like school uniforms. Reporter what are you thinking about when you see kids that age . Man, im praying that they survive through this epidemic thats going on in the city. Its not a woodlawn problem, its not a southshore problem,m, its everybodys problem. And we dont understand that until the disease hits home. Until one of our loved ones ists killed by gun violence. Then we want to get involved. Reporter police have siezed nearly 6,000 illegal guns off the streets about one pers hour. But the summer surge comes as police face unprecedented challenges. The Justice Department is investigating their use of deadly force, and longstandingry mistrust in the police reached a breaking point last year with the release of a dashcam video showing a white officer fatally shooting black teenager laquany mcdonald in 2014. Do chicago mayor rahm emanuel is under pressure to rebuild that trust. I i really see this problem as a, as a cultural problem. Reporter Lance Williams isth an associate professor of urbanl affairs at Northeastern Illinois University and an inner city youth advocate. This is not a Law Enforcement problem. I mean, you can hire all of the police that you want. Youre not going to solve this problem because these young men are acting in, in alignment with their cultural value system. They need a cultural retooling process. Em reporter williams says its a culture thats developed in the absence of working institutions and in the midst of crushing poverty. One big cause of much frustration nearly half of black men in chicago aged 20 to 24 are not in school and are out of work, far higher than the National Rate of 32 . Theres a lot of rage, theres a lot of, of, of anger. They just see their lives, you know, just passing them by. They dont, they havent been to school; they cant, theyre,to theyre not, you know, qualified for jobs. There are no businesses, viable businesses in their neighborhood, so theyre really depressed, and then theyre r selfmedicated, through drinking and drugging. And the only individuals arounda them are other Young African american males like themselves, who have these, these same forms of depression. Reporter another structuralu factor playing into the violence chicago is one of thes nations most segregated cities. All of the poor blacks live way, way, way, way away from affluent people, from the, the, the business district, from the tourist district. You know, you have some kids in these neighborhoods far south, that have never been downtown and you have folks, in the White Communities that have never been to the south side. So, what happens is, you have an out of sight, out of mindkint of deal. I was 23 when i went to prison. Reporter for Chico Tillmon, the violence is never out of sight or mind. Turning other peoples lives around came after he turned his own around. And being able to see all thd violence and chaos in the community that i once was a part of, and that i once helped produce, pushed me or gave me an obligation to make a change in that, in that situation of chaoc that was going on in theos community. Reporter since you got out of prison yeah. Reporter you got yourou bachelors degree. Yes, sir. Reporter you got your masters degree. Yes, sir. Reporter youre working onr your phd. Yes, sir. Reporter how long, how many years are we talking about here . Five years. Reporter pretty determined. Yeah. Te f reporter pretty motivated. Yes, sir. I, i got out with a purpose, and i got out trying to not only do something that was beyond what i believed i could do, but toou inspire hope within all the people that i left behind in prison. Reporter and back on thend corner of 75th and stewart, tamar manasseh is also determined that change will happen. Its going to take a lot of people all doing something not saying something, but doing something to fix that problem. And the doing something is theso sitting here, having ahe conversation. I live on this block with you, i live in this city with you, inyo this country with you and were all affected by the same things. And sometimes when we dont talk to each other, we miss that. Reporter for the pbs newshour, im john yang in chicago. Woodruff and online, you can take a closer look at chicagosy history of violence. We go back 50 years to count ala of the citys homicide victims. Thats at www. Pbs. Org newshour. Woodruff now, how the u. S. F government is trying to stem the tide of terrorism messages online, and the role of social media. The story is part of our coverage of the 15th anniversary of the 9 11 attacks. It was produced as part of tonights nova special, 15 years of terror, reported by miles obrien, and its our weekly segment about the leading edge of technology. Reporter they called it think again, turn away. The concept use sarcasm as way to turn Islamic State images into an argument against their grim techniques of terror. The creator and producer the u. S. State department. Today, everyone agrees the message was worse than ineffective; it played right into the hands of the terrorists. You know, part if it is that i dont think the government should do snark or sarcasm. I dont think were good at it. Reporter Richard Stengel is the under secretary of state fof Public Diplomacy and public affairs. He realized he was the one who needed to think again. One of the things that weth realized is that were not the best messenger for the message that we want to get out there. In fact, when we were a messenger at all, they use that against us. Reporter so they stopped trying to do it themselves, and hired some marketing pros. So, i think that they just was out of their league. Reporter tony sgro is anr advertising and marketing veteran who is spearheading a novel competition for College Students to create a counter or alternative narrative to the Islamic State propaganda campaign. The government is not the most capable person to develop a counternarrative for a 21year old. Theres no credibility factor there. Reporter they call the competition peer to peer. Undergraduates at two dozen schools all over the world have participated. In afghanistan, they created a campaign that included a talk show that focused on understanding the real message of the koran against extremism. They reached more than five Million People. Lahore university produced a plea from students to students to turn apathy into empathy. The winner of the competitionmp was the Rochester Institute ofe technology. Students there came up with thie Multiplatform Campaign its beyond bombs, bullets, i and drones. It really is. We need that stuff. Tu but we really how are you going to win the hearts andw minds . Thats communications. Its a Marketing Communications issue. Reporter countering the messages is one thing. Trying to stop them from spreading in the first place is another. For years, the social networking platforms took a laissezfaireai approach to this problem. And it only got worse. But in 2013, things started to change. During a horrifying assault on a Shopping Mall in nairobi, kenya, attackers with the alqaeda affiliate alshabaab live tweeted for hours, as they shot more than 175 people,an killing 67. That was the first time where twitter was actively removing the content that they were posting. Reporter jeff weyers is a Police Officer and terrorism analyst based in ontario canada. They were actively tweeting their attack online, and it was the first time we really sawnl that. Isis completely blew that out of the water. They took that concept and magnified it by a million. Reporter today, twitter claims it aggressively goes after accounts linked to terrorists. The company says it closed 360,000 of them in the past year. They were very much pushed into it as opposed to wanting to go down that road. And now, i have no doubt that theyre spending millions of dollars just countering that message. Reporter facebook is the largest social networkingrg platform on the planet. It says it has a zero tolerance policy for extremists, but it must contend with a tsunami of content. Facebook has more than one billion users actively posting every day. The company says about one half of 1 of flagged items are linked to terrorism. But that is still a lot of material. Monika bickert is facebooks head of Global Policy management. We use photo matching technology to identify when somebody is trying to upload to facebook an image that weve already removed for violatinge our policies. Of course the image may or may not violate our policies when its uploaded again because it could be somebody who is sharing the terrorist image as part ofng the news story or to condemn violence. Ol so we use automation to flag content that we will then have our teams review. R reporter but are there more advanced ways to stop the extremist messages fromex spreading . Sp is there a better technological solution . We have the technology to disrupt, not eliminate, but to disrupt the global transmission of extremismrelated content. Reporter hany farid is a Computer Scientist at dartmouth college. He has developed a technique to permanently attach unique Digital Signatures to images making it possible for the social Networking Companies to identify and stop the spread of videos made by, of and for f terror. So here is the actual raw frame that youre seeing. Processing one frame at a time. And within a frame, we actually. Analyze multiple blocks within it. The yellow crosshairs that youre seeing are enumerating the various blocks of the video that were analyzing. This yellow histogram is a distribution of the measurement that were making from each individual block, and then that gets translated into an actual Digital Signature which i visualize here with a stemplot. Reporter the sheer volume of the problem is daunting billions of uploads a day, each of them with millions of pixels. Can a computer possibly bebl trained to sort through it all and find the images that inspire new recruits, insight new violence and terrify us all . Farid has already proven the technology works. He got the idea 10 years ago. The internet had become ae platform for child pornographers. Applying Digital Signatures to those images has greatly reduced child pornography on the big social networking sites. So if theres just one image in an upload of yours that has child pornography, the account can be frozen. The contents of that account can be assessed and new content can be discovered. Be reporter but extremist content is much harder to clearly define. The director of Free Expression project at the center for democracy and technology is emma llanso. The challenge with having a hard and fast rule against any a kind of content is that it really does shut down the opportunity for discussionsc around that sort of material. Reporter in june 2016, david thomson, a french journalist who reports on islamic extremism, found his Facebook Page suspended for three days. The offense . A photo he had posted in 2013 as part of the story he was doing included a partial depiction ofi the Islamic State flag. A cautionary tale of the unintended consequences of targeting terrorism online. It seems appealing to say,et oh, just have the Major Social Media Companies take a hard line approach to anything having to do with isis. It but the fact is that will end up blocking a lot of speech thatbl will end up deactivating the accounts of many users. Ny i mean, some of the platformss have had issues with just deactivating the accounts that women whose first name is isis. This is a difficult kind of censorship to enact. Ns reporter its no longer just a war of bullets, drones and bombs. Technology has created a new battlefield online, and Civil Society is still grasping for strategies to engage in a virtual battle. Im miles obrien, the pbs newshour, washington. Woodruff you can watch miless full report, 15 years15 of terror, tonight on nova, on most pbs stations. Woodruff now we return to laos a country of rich and deep history, scarred by American Bombing during the vietnam war. Special correspondent mike cerre reports now from the capital, vientiane, on how one American Woman helped heal frayed ties between the u. S. And laos by preserving tradition there. One thread at a time. Reporter the First Americane president to address the lao people, from a podium decorated with traditional lao textiles,ti made by the First American company allowed to do business here since the end of the war. They actually arrived inac laos, found us and found something that we had that was appropriate. Red, white and blue, of course. U reporter how this american weaver from connecticut and her ethiopianamerican husband helped save an endangerednd traditional craft, in a country ravaged by a secret war the u. S. Waged here during the vietnam war, is the stuff of Southeast Asia lore. Like jim thompson, the legendary, former c. I. A. Agent who launched the thai silk industry after world war ii, before he mysteriously disappeared Carol Cassidy helped resurrect the traditionae lao textile trade after their war. He had a great idea, which was to build a business based on traditional skills. Thats something that weve done here in laos with lao textiles. We have done as well. I think one of the importanthe distinctions is i am a weaver. Ea i have devoted my entire life since the age of 17 to weaving 1 and designing. Reporter when she and heran husband came here nearly 30 years ago as u. N. Developmentye advisors, full diplomatic relations between the u. S. And laos had yet to be restored. Americans were still viewed somewhat suspiciously by the communist lao government the u. S. Having been on the losing side of the laos civil war and communist takeover. So it was really this rebuilding of lao americano relations that we have felt that. And my husband and i who, weba built the business together. He is much more diplomatic thanm i am. And i think its been very helpful, navigating the complexities. Reporter they eventually set up a textile business of their own with a core staff of weavers from the north, many of them the wives and mothers of the pathet lao communist forces who had been living and working out of caves during the nearly ten years of u. S. Bombing. So the technology is very simple, its portable. When they fled the bombing they were able to take with them Simple Technology and their family traditions with them. Reporter the work is incredibly painstaking, from the hand dying of the silk, to spinning the silk yarn, and reproducing traditional designs from memory, using traditional lao looms many consider to be the inspiration for the First Computers and binary code. The important part is this vertical heddle, and that is tht storage system which is the floppy drive. Ve this is the program, and down there and every string represents the program. He reporter carol produces worldrenowned textiles for top interior designer and architects around the globe. And this is part of the dying art, which is the creation of complex patterns. This is a skill that boua and i chan learned from their mother and grandmother. Reporter her real passionss and commitment has been using her weaving expertise to help empower local women, which she first started doing in africa. And most of the artisans are indigenous people, rural people. They are not the most visible and they dont have a voice, and thats really what ive been trying to do working with these communities. Reporter she might have started her globetrotting career as a weaver, but over the years since shes been here in laos, she has become an American Ambassador and an evangelist fon the role of traditional arts in economic development, while maintaining a countrys culture. I feel that an important part of who you are is through yourth heritage, and its through your past. In laos and in Southeast Asia, in general, textiles are among the most important parts of their past. So your uniqueness is expressed by what you wear, how you wear it, what you weave. The director of the i. M. F. , christine lagarde, was heree earlier this year which was a very important visit because wey had the opportunity to show her that stability, ethnic identity, employment, Women Empowerment culture is all interwoven in what were doing here at lao textiles. Reporter carol lives and l works out of a French Colonial home in the center of vientiane, where she also raised twosh children. Her husband and Business Partner dawit seyoum takes cares of the operational side of the business. Its run more like an extended family coop, with many of the original weavers and their children still working withng them. And because weve been able w to retain our staff for more than 25 years through our pension plan, through our healt plan, weve been able than to weave these extraordinaryes projects. Reporter she has experienced firsthand the many changes laos has undergone since coming here in 1989, when the only way to cross the mekong river inton thailand was by boat. Vientiane, the capital, had noth traffic lights or buildings taller than a palm tree, and everyone in her neighborhood knew each other. And you go away for a month, and this was all Old Buildings that came down, and i guess thih is going to be a hotel. Reporter as successful as her business has become, both ab an enterprise and a model for maintaining traditional textiles, her biggest concernsxt are with the latest assaults on traditional weaving from theom modern reality of mass production of textilesod throughout the region. Oh, no, this was not made in laos. We dont have the industrial capacity. In laos, we still handcraft hign quality, excellent textiles. Reporter having embraced the lao culture as completely as she has over the years, she has faith that traditional weaving will somehow withstand yet another challenge to its legacy. Where your spirit goes inoe life, in marriage, and death, are all interwoven in the story of the textiles. Reporter for the pbs newshour, im mike cerre in i vientianne, laos. Os. Woodruff and thats the newshour for tonight. Im judy woodruff. Join us online, and again herehe 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 moving our economy for 160 years. S. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. Xq institute. 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 pbn 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 evolution or revolution . Apple shows off its newest iphone but are the changes to the device too conservative at an especially challenging time for the company . On our shores, why the bankruptcy of one of the Worlds Largest shipping companies is causing chaos and confusion and why the effects could ripple through the global economy. Slam dunk, what under armour is banking on to gain market share in chi. Good evening, everyone. Welcome. The worlds most valuable company captured the attention of wall street, main street and the ifaithful as it usually does with a