corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. president trump is promising action on tax reform and health care. in an interview taped yesterday and broadcast today on cbs "face the nation," the president said the revenue losses from his plan to reduce personal and corporate tax rates will be offset by economic growth, better trade deals, and-- he seemed to suggest-- a new tax on imports. >> we have countries where if we make a product, and we send it to that country, they charge us 100% tax. if they make the same product and send it to us, we charge them nothing. you think that's smart? it's not, we're going to come up with reciprocal taxes and lots of other things on those countries. >> sreenivasan: mister trump predicted his second try at repealing and replacing president obama's affordable care act will get approved" quickly." he said it will maintain the requirement that insurance companies cover people with pre- existing medical conditions, and at the same time, drive down insurance premiums and deductibles. with no major legislation passed yet, the president was asked what he's learned so far on the job. >> it's just a very, very bureaucratic system. i think the rules in congress and in particular the rules in the senate are unbelievably archaic and slow moving. and in many cases, unfair. in many cases, you're forced to make deals that are not the deal you'd make. >> sreenivasan: instead of attending the annual white house correspondents dinner last night, the president held a campaign-style rally in pennsylvania to mark his first 100 days, telling supporters he'll keep pushing congress to fund a core campaign promise-- a wall along the u.s./mexico border. >> year after year, you pleaded for washington to enforce our laws as illegal immigration surged. your pleas have finally been-- oh don't worry, we are going to have the wall. don't worry about it. >> sreenivasan: donald trump is the first president since ronald reagan in 1981 to skip the annual white house correspondents dinner. at the time, mister reagan was recovering from being shot in an assassination attempt. at the dinner last night, journalists bob woodward and carl bernstein described what they learned reporting on president nixon's "watergate" scandal. >> unreasonable government secrecy is the enemy, and usually the giveaway about what the real story might be. and when lying, lying is combined with secrecy, there is usually a pretty good road-map in front of us. >> sreenivasan: the correspondents association president defended news organizations from the constant barbs from the white house. >> it is our job to report on facts, and to hold leaders accountable. that is who we are. we are not fake news. we are not failing news organizations, and we are not the enemy of the american people." >> sreenivasan: and the featured entertainer, "daily show" comedian hasan minhaj, joked about the absence of the usual guest of honor. >> the leader of our country is not here. and that's because he lives in moscow. it's a very long flight. it'd be a hard for vlad to make it. vlad can't just make it on a saturday; it's a saturday. as for the other guy, i think he is in pennsylvania because he can't take a joke. >> sreenivasan: the trump administration said today it's willing to pay the billion dollar price tag for a new missile defense system the u.s. is deploying in south korea, but that the deal could be renegotiated. for now, national security adviser h. r. mcmaster told his south korean counterpart in a phone call, the u.s. will honor the agreement reached during the obama administration. just three days ago, president trump said he wanted south korea to foot the bill for the" terminal high-altitude area defense system," known as" thaad." hundreds of residents from the village where the thaad missile defense system will be deployed protested the installation. they blocked army trucks from entering the site. filipino president rodrigo duterte, who publicly urged president trump yesterday to show restraint in dealing with north korea, has been invited to the white house. mister trump invited duterte during a phone call yesterday in which they discussed security concerns in asia and duterte's controversial crackdown on illegal drugs. since duterte took office ten months ago, thousands of suspected drug dealers and users have been murdered in extra- judicial killings. a duterte spokesman said mister trump wants to develop a, "warm, working relationship." the white house described the call as "very friendly." no date is set for the visit. in canton, texas, 50 miles east of dallas, search teams today combed through the ruins of homes destroyed by tornadoes. the severe storms yesterday killed at least five people and injured more than 50 residents. the mayor called the damage" heartbreaking" and said the town was caught in a path of destruction 35 miles long and 15 miles wide. shortly after president trump took office, immigration and customs enforcement, known as" ice," began arresting hundreds of immigrants in very visible raids across the united states. but as internal ice documents obtained first by "the washington post" show, half of those detained had either no criminal record or traffic convictions. joining me now from washington to discuss this is one the reporters who broke this story, maria sacchetti. you have a set of-- set of data this is around operation crosschk which is one of the things we all heard about. what did the data reveal and how does that work with all of the larger roundups that have been happening? >> well, the data offered the first look at a breakdown of the immigration raid that occurred right after president trump took office. and the way ice classified it is traffic offenses, but we asked for more information. and they said that more than 90% of those offenses were drunk driving offenses. >> sreenivasan: i don't want to minimize drunk driving as not a serious offense but what about the criminals, murdersers and so forth, that the president said that was the focus, that is who he wanted to go after. >> exactly. and we know there are hundreds of those folks who are out there, who were released, who were released under the obama administration. and trump very clierly made that a priority. he said what happened under the obama administration would not happen under his administration. and we just haven't seen that. >> sreenivasan: what is the difference between what has been happening and what was on the books in terms of regulations or restrictions that the obama administration had put on eisen forcement and how they should prioritize who to round up and deport? >> well, the obama administration, we've reported this, deported a lot of people who had never committed a crime, got a lot of criticism for doing that and over time, the obama administration issued memos that sought to curtail exactly the types of folks immigration officials could arrest and deport. and in 2014, late 2014, that really took affect. you can see the number of noncriminals, and overall deportations going down the last couple of nears with his administration. >> sreenivasan: is there a chilling effect in terms of people that are coming forward, say whistle-blowers or witnesses to crimes or maybe even victims for fear that they will be deported in the process? >> well, at least two cities, los angeles and houston have reported that they are seeing fewer crimes, particularly sexual assaults an other crimes being reported by latinos. so that is a big question. and the o bad-- the trump administration has said that the victims or witnesses could be picked up. they said they're not the priority, that there are still protections in place for them but if they're lawbreakers or have had an issue in the past, victims and witnesses could also be detained. >> sreenivasan: so there are two steps. there is the detention part and the deportation part. is everybody getting detained being deported. are the countries agreeing to take them back? >> so one really important detail here is the difference between immigration system and the criminal system, in the criminal system we know who gets arrested. when someone is arrested, the next thing you see is their name and a little background about them. the immigration system has not worked that way. we don't know who is getting arrested. we can't look at their files. can't read the reports, and the charges against them even though there are charges. they are often held in the same types of jails as criminals. but they're very little public accountability in the immigration system. >> all right, maria sacchetti of "the washington posts," thanks so much. >> thanks. >> sreenivasan: the news websi"" stat" focuses on health, medicine, and science, and in an article just published "stat" reports how hospitals nationwide are cutting jobs. the reasons are financial and political. from escalating costs to uncertainty about changes to the affordable care act. joining me now from cleveland to discuss all this is the author of the story, casey ross. >> when are relikely to feel the impact of these hospitals cut, i know you looked at places all over the country. >> yeah, you're going to see cutbacks in clinical services at hospitals. some hospitals are choosing to reduce psychiatric services, for example. a lot of hospitals are cutting back on obstetric services, closing down lane and delivery units. in boston brigham and women's hospital large harvard affiliated teaching hospital offered a buyout to 1600 employees, md anderson in texas is laying off a thousand. catholic health i nsh tiffs one of the largest providers in the nation laid off about a thousand employees, in kentucky, in texas and elsewhere. so i think you are going to see cuts in all of those communities in hospitals that are large and small, rural or urban. and i think the people in those communities are going to see that through a reduction in some of the medical services that are available. >> sreenivasan: but why now? and how do we know that this isn't just sort of a business correction where perhaps some of the hospitals that you are looking at or found aren't just correcting for errors that they might have made or just bad accounting. >> no, these are structural financial problems in the health-care business. the biggest problem is is that you have a large number of americans every day who are aging into medicare. the baby boomer population is aging into medicare at a rate of 10,000 people a day. and that causes problems for hospitals because medicare pays less than commercial insurance does for medical services. so you have a problem where hospitals can't make money on their largest population of patients, which causes margins to get thinner and as those margins get thinner they have leslieway to deal with some of the ever-rising costs. >> sreenivasan: were any of the hospitals opting out or creating a two tier system where a medicare patient might be, while they are less valuable dollarwise, they would maybe get less prefer recommendation treatment? >> i think that is happening at hospitals across the country in different ways. seldom are they out in the open about the ways in which they do that. but certainly they find ways to prioritize commercially insured patients over medicare and medicaid patients often by choosing to locate in strategic locations where they can serve more commercially insured patients. >> sreenivasan: how does the fight on capitol hill play into this, on what could happen to the affordable care act and the number of uninsured people that e ripple affect it has one and hospitals. well, it kreats a lot of uncertainty. because all of the hospitals certainly are concerned about the potential loss of 24 billion insured patients over the next decade. that is the estimate of the congressional budget office of the number of people that will become uninsured if the current law being considered in washington is enacted. so those hospitals are concerned about losing paying customers, essentially. those people are still going to need care regardless. and the hospitals are worried that those folks are not going to be able to afford their care because they are not going to have insurance. their uncompensated care costs rise and that puts more pressure on an already thin bottomline. >> sreenivasan: casey ross of stat, thanks so much. >> my pleasure. >> sreenivasan: in the serengeti region of tanzania, african elephants routinely graze into farmers' crops and destroy the livelihood of poor villages. but when those farmers try to protect their fields, they risk being trampled to death by elephants. sometimes people even kill elephants in self-defense. now there's a surprising new method for preventing human elephant conflict: drones. in tonight's signature segment, "newshour weekend" special correspondent christopher livesay traveled to tanzania to see what can be done to protect both the elephants and people. >> reporter: the massive elephant footprints are still visible in kusekwa elias' cornfield. just outside serengeti national park in rural tanzania, he says an elephant pillaged the field two days earlier. >> ( translated ): there is no animal we hate here more than the elephant. the elephants destroy our food. children sleep hungry. sometimes you cultivate acres, only to find out that elephants have eaten them all. >> reporter: to keep elephants safely apart from people and their crops, park rangers are training with remote-controlled drones a few miles away. it sounds like a swarm of bees, and that's precisely the idea. so we're trying to turn them around and get them going back. the matriarch is being vigilant, while the rest leave. >> reporter: nathan hahn is a researcher with the american non-profit "resolve." in this training exercise, an elephant stands its ground against the drone, but quickly backs away. >> there they go. >> reporter: for more than two years, hahn has been studying the use of drones to prevent what's known as human elephant conflict, when elephants cross paths with human beings. >> human-elephant conflict, it's a big problem anywhere there's elephants and people coexisting. and it's very tough to deal with. elephants need a lot of resources and a lot of space to move. and people also need that same space and resources to develop and grow economically. so you get this butting of heads around park boundaries where wildlife is. >> reporter: the serengeti ecosystem in tanzania is made up of serengeti national park, and a network of game reserves and wildlife management areas just outside of it. inside the park, there are clear rules meant to protect both animals and humans: for instance, you can drive only on marked roads and must stay in your vehicle at all times. but just outside the park is another story. nothing stops animals, including elephants, from wandering into areas where people live. while the african elephant population has fallen 30% over the last decade, the elephant population has increased in the serengeti thanks in part to anti-poaching efforts. since 2006, the number of elephants is up more than 250%. at the same time, the human population has also grown, increasing more than 50% since 2002. >> regarding the habitat, being also very observant. >> reporter: julius keyyu is the director of research at the tanzania wildlife research institute, a government agency. >> the increase in human population has resulted in demand for more land for human settlement, for cultivation, for livestock grazing. >> reporter: so both people and elephants are fighting over the same natural resources? >> natural resources. because it is becoming scarce, because of climate change. so you see wildlife, people, livestock are sharing water resources. >> reporter: and that's created a greater likelihood of conflict. farmer mbesi ndongo says an elephant nearly killed him a year and a half ago. >> ( translated ): the elephant was hiding in the forest and came suddenly and knocked me down on my head. i picked myself up, but it pulled me back with its trunk and threw me. i knew that by the time it would be done with me i would be dead. but i did not want to die without fighting. >> reporter: the attack left him with a fractured skull and wrist. he still suffers from pain today, and can no longer farm, so he has trouble supporting his family. >> ( translated ): it has really affected my life, because i cannot perform duties that require a lot of energy. all the energy i had is gone. >> reporter: veterinarian and animal protection specialist nick de souza says destruction caused by elephants can lead people to violently retaliate. >> this could be a spear, bow and arrow; slingshots are used a lot. unfortunately, the worst of all is the use of poisons. >> reporter: de souza has worked for conservation groups for the past 15 years >> the consequences are appalling. you find both dead and dying animals in quite large numbers that cross cut across the whole family spectrum, from tiny babies, to grandmothers. >> reporter: there are no reliable numbers on how many elephants people kill in self- defense or retaliation around the world, but conservationists believe the problem is getting worse. de souza says human elephant conflict occurs everywhere elephants live in the wild near human settlements. with deadly consequences for both elephants and humans. from sub-saharan africa to indonesia, to india, elephants kill hundreds of people every year. >> what's really the challenge is that the population that co- exists with elephants are the most marginalized communities on earth. >> reporter: in those communities, there are a variety of old-fashioned methods for preventing elephant incursions... ...scaring them off with loud noises and flashing lights, as these rural tanzanians demonstrated. ...surrounding crops with fences covered in hot chili oil, which torment elephants' sensitive trunks. and rangers charging at them with vehicles or using guns. >> they'll actually fire live rounds into the air, and that'll sometimes scare the elephants away. >> reporter: many of those tactics can put humans dangerously close to an elephant, but wildlife ranger rainley mbawala says the newest method of using drones is much less risky. >> ( translated ): when you use a gun, sometimes the elephant charges back, or you may fire a gun and end up firing at a villager accidentally. but the drone has no bad effects, because even when the elephant charges, nobody is caught in between. >> reporter: over time, elephants often outsmart conflict mitigation tools once they get used to them. but researchers say, so far, elephants haven't caught onto drones. the breakthrough of using drones came a few years ago when researchers were taking aerial photos of elephants and made a surprising discovery. >> well, it turns out they're very scared of the drones. they would run away almost instantly and seem to be very frightened. we're not sure why. it could be it sounds like a swarm of bees. there's lots of flashing lights. it's this big, white object coming at them very closely. >> reporter: there was a sort of unintended benefit? >> you think you're using a drone just to film some elephants, and all of a sudden you've discovered this new way to deal with human-elephant conflict. >> reporter: hahn and his research group now train serengeti park rangers to use the drones and collect data to measure their effectiveness. in 2016, hahn and julius keyyu co-authored a study of 51 instances in which drones were deployed. >> if it is used properly and properly maneuvered, the drone is 100%. >> reporter: 100% effective. >> 100% effective to flush elephants out of a crop field or, if i'm called with the farmers, that elephants are coming to my farm, to drive them back. >> i just need to land. >> reporter: of course, the drones have limitations. >> the wind is too strong! >> reporter: they don't work in high winds and rain. >> whooo >> reporter: they're also harder to use at night, when most elephants raid crops, so rangers need to use them in tandem with a strong spotlight. and drones are of no use if rangers can't arrive to deploy them, as we saw during a night patrol the rangers allowed us to join. on this night there's not a single vehicle on hand, so rangers are limited to what they can cover by foot. if a farmer calls to report an elephant threat just a few miles away, they're on their own. serengeti district game officer john lendoyan oversees the region. he's not yet convinced that drones can be effective and says that at roughly $800 dollars per drone, he has more pressing priorities. >> ( translated ): the issue of human/elephant conflict is sometimes very difficult for us to address because of lack of resources. including people, vehicles, and at times, fuel. so implementing these new techniques is difficult. >> reporter: lendoyan is focused on educating people to avoid elephant habitats and to appreciate the value they bring to the country's tourism industry. >> ( translated ): the government has tried to create an environment in which the villagers can benefit from the conservation process. the daily fees from the parks, and these funds are usually channeled back to the public through development projects. >> reporter: the government does pay damages to people who are injured or lose crops because of elephants, but many farmers we met with, including kusekwa elias, whose cornfield was pillaged, say elephants are the government's real priority. >> ( translated ): from the way we see it, elephants are more valuable than humans, since they can destroy our crops, and nothing is done. >> reporter: for now, hahn and his group "resolve" are donating drones to the rangers, though they hope tanzania will eventually pay for them. resolve is also working with the government to try and find longer-term solutions. >> it can definitely be described as a reactive solution. but in the end, it's what's needed right now. that's how we look at drones. >> sreenivasan: the east african nation of south sudan is embroiled in a civil war that has led to a man-made famine. and according to the united nations, this has put 100- thousand people at immediate risk of starvation. tomorrow, "the newshour" begins airing a three-part series on the crisis from special correspondent jane ferguson, who looks into the reports of ethnic cleansing by government soldiers. i saw many people killed including my brother. they called pie brother to come out of the house and shot him in front of me. >> the u.n. said in december in a statement, south sudan is on the brink of all out genocide and yet its peace keepers seem unwilling or unable to stop it. last year government soldiers forced their way into the camp, and over several days murdered more than 25 people, and injured and raped many others. >> sreenivasan: finally, florida congresswoman ileana ros- lehtinen announced that she plans to retire. she is the first hispanic woman and first cuban-american ever elected to the house of representatives. the republican won her seat in 1989 and later became the first woman to chair a standing committee, the house committee on foreign affairs. the havana-born ros-lehtinen came to miami when she was eight and didn't speak english. the 64-year-old lawmaker says," it's time to take a new step." that's all for this edition of" pbs newshour weekend." i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. good night captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. welcome to japanese american lives. i'm kristi yamaguchi. coming up are two films about individuals caught in history-changing moments who rise to the challenge. "honor and sacrifice" tells the inspiring story of roy matsumoto and how he rose above the internment of japanese americans in world war ii to become an unsung american hero. "don't lose your soul" introduces the four-plus decades of friendship, activism, and music between anthony brown and mark izu, co-founders of the asian-american jazz movement. "honor and sacrifice,"