Mature n.p.r. Slows the news down with historical context and broad perspectives listen every day . This is k. P.b.s. Where news matters. At 10 hours g.m.t. President Trump celebrates his 1st $100.00 days in office in Pennsylvania but I could not possibly be more thrilled then to be more than 100 miles away from Washington Swat each chose to miss one of the biggest social events in the Capitol the White House Correspondents' Dinner the leader of our country is not here I think is in Pennsylvania because he can't take a joke listening to the news room on the b.b.c. Hello I'm Valerie Sanderson we go to a stand Bull where the head of an Iranian t.v. Station has been shot dead in the street after 10 years in a worldwide search costing millions of dollars the hunt continues for a British girl Madeleine McCann who went missing in Portugal aged 3 no parents. On the child unless they know for. A chance that and they just don't have any evidence and one of the world's most famous mine he is known as the Swiss machine has died on Mount Everest after this news update. B.b.c. News within Montgomery one of the most famous climbers in the world only stag has been killed and Monk have wrist Stagg who was 40 died in an accident while a climate ising for an attempt on the mountain on a new route Steve Jackson reports. Set new standards in Alpine climbing breaking a string of records by making breathtakingly quick solo a sense of classic roots he also played a big part in bringing the sport to a new audience through the epic films made of his exploits he was nicknamed the Swiss machine for his ruthlessly methodical approach and his ability to keep going even after pushing himself to the limits of human insurance in 2015 he climbed one of the world's most famous walls the north face of the Eiger in 2 hours 47 minutes at a time that would have been unthinkable to the early pioneers of the sport who took days to complete it the un in Iraq says that 36 years he did people who were being held as slaves by Islamic state militants have been rescued With more here's our Middle East analyst on Johnston. The United Nations says this group of survivors includes men women and children they were held captive by ins when really 3. But the u.n. Can say exactly where they were detained or how they came to be freed giving out that sort of information might jeopardize future efforts to free the slaves the u.n. Believes that up to 1500 women and girls are still being held they may be subjected to protected sexual abuse the manager of an Iranian television network has been shot dead in the Turkish city vist on Bruno Saeed cut a man was driving with a business partner when massed gunmen opened fire in their vehicle David Bamford reports the reports from Istanbul say that Saeed carry me and the chairman of the reigning language gem t.v. Network and his Kuwaiti business partner were driving through the city when a 4 by 4 vehicle carrying the attackers blocked their path they opened fire on the 2 men killing them both the assassins skate Mr Kerry Meehan's t.v. Network dubs western and other foreign shows into Persian and broadcast them into Iran he's been previously convicted in his absence of spreading anti Iranian propaganda Donald Trump has marked the 100th day of his presidency by addressing his supporters in Pennsylvania and defending his record Mr Trump contrasted what he called the media's $100.00 days of film here with his presidency which he said had been delivering every single day he said he was thrilled to be at the rally and harness brogue instead of attending the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner one of Washington's biggest social events some of the speakers there poked fun at Mr Trump's absence world news from the b.b.c. . A flotilla of Chinese naval vessels has arrived in the Philippines for the 1st time in 7 years as Manila continues its efforts to improve ties with China microburst 2 reports the Chinese ships are preparing to visit around 20 countries but the stop off in the Philippines is significant it shows 2 countries that were involved in a fierce dispute over sovereignty in the South China Sea and now trying to put that behind them another indication of that came following a meeting of self East Asian Nations that's just finished in Manila some of those countries wanted to criticize Beijing's Island building in the South China Sea But in the end the hosts took a softer stance on the issue South Korea says the United States is agreed to pay for a $1000000000.00 missile defense shield despite the u.s. Earlier insistence that So who should bear the cost the agreement came in a telephone call between the 2 country's national security advisers the defense shield is intended to shoot down incoming North Korean missiles Pope Francis has called for international mediation to ease tensions between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile program he criticized the United Nations for failing to assert diplomatic leadership the British prime minister to resign May has reaffirmed her position that no deal with Brussels would be better than a bad deal on the terms of Britain's withdrawal from the e.u. And Saturday the 27 e.u. Members agreed on a united stance and breaks it negotiations this is May was optimistic about resolving the status of both European and British citizens if you look at my article 50 that are all I was very clear that I believe the rights of e.u. Citizens here and u.k. Citizens in Europe should be an early agreement for point of agreement for us and if you look at the guidelines that's exactly what the e.u. Has the 27 who agreed as well as good will there I believe we can get that reassurance to people at an early stage b.b.c. News. It's Tennessee listening to the news room on the b.b.c. World Service with on a recent ison $100.00 days after his election is American president Donald Trump has much the milestone with a speech attacking the media and defending his own record Mr Tung contrasted what he called the media's $100.00 days of failure with his own record of delivering every single day to being industrial jobs but the United States in a break with presidential position Mr Trump missed the White House Correspondents Dinner one of Washington's biggest social events to address supporters in Pennsylvania they are gathered together. For the White House correspondents dinner without the president was and I could not possibly be more thrilled then to be more than 100 miles away from Washington swapping was spending my evening with all of you was and with a much much larger crowd and much better people right was some of the speakers at the dinner poked fun at Mr Trump's absence among them the comedian hasn't been how much. Ok Listen we've got to address the elephant that's not in the room. The leader of our country is not here and that's because he lives in Moscow is a very long flight it be hard for her to make it let's just make it on a Saturday it's assumed that. The other guy I think is in Pennsylvania because he can't take a joke and back in Pennsylvania correspondent Laura because. She says it was a stage managed if. It was deliberate he was looking for that split screen and all networks were going to have to use the President on the left side where he was in what is a farmyard to Reno here in Harrisburg Pennsylvania lined with people lined with those he's cold in the past has forgotten people lined with his supporters and on the other screen the White House Correspondents Dinner an annual event which is dubbed the problem it's attended by Hollywood stars and usually the president who would give a speech is a time for the president of the press to put aside their differences and set down and break bread together have a meal but the president this time around for the 1st time in decades in fact the 1st time since Ronald Reagan and the only reason one of Reagan did attend was because of an assassination attempt and he attended by video link so for him not to attend is a deliberate snap of the press he got his split screen and he got for Donald Trump really thrives off get something from the crowd he feeds off of them and that's exactly what he did. Well Donald Trump presidency has become known for overturning others additions and session to his it had been assumed by many political observers that the Democratic Party would continue to dominate the system because of the massive Latin Americans coming of age to vote in the past immigrants who sided with the Democrats but in the Trump era that hasn't necessarily happened as the North America is or just to have reports from Texas. There's no agreement on the actual proportion of Texas Hispanics who voted for trump the lowest figure seems to be around 20 percent the highest $34.00 let's call it a quarter and in the senior reaches of the Republicans people have noticed and thought about this Hispanics are not moderate people they are conservative Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick Rand trumps Texas campaign back in 2012 when Romney lost your party had a big inquiry didn't it and decided that it needed to do more to reach out to Hispanics and I think all of that meant to people it seemed to mean to a lot of people in the party actually we need to moderate a message and they were all these things they were all wrong Romney was wrong the whole part of the Republican away Nevada was wrong I had a female Hispanic opponent and I beat or by 20 points America is a pro-life country and Hispanics are pro-life they want someone to stand up and be bold What does it say about identity politics that victory people vote for people for issues they look past the person voters are are more educated today than ever before because of social media now they can be a curse and can be a blessing but they know more about candidates they don't follow group think anymore they make their own decisions because they have plenty of information and our candidates are much more visible today my name is Jordan tuna I am co-founder Hispanic Republicans of Texas Donald Trump really many of us basically just said hey we need somebody that's going to know how to create jobs plus we are all about border security we embrace border security because we have families that live does 3 minutes away from the border so when Trump says the Mexicans you come have a rapist the murderers etc Such are actually plenty of form of Mexicans who are here you really going as far as to say that they're saying yes you're right they know the just him saying Ok not all of us are like that or not all of them are like that but they know. Somebody who was they know somebody who is when you voted for Donald Trump did you do so with a heavy heart did you design Ronald Reagan said If you are with me 80 percent of the time you're my friend I was not with Donald Trump 100 percent but I was with him at least 80 percent are you barrister told of having voted for I don't know because the outer lived with worse George Anthony and in that report from Justin Webb 10 years ago a 3 year old British girl named Madeleine McCann disappeared from a resort in Portugal where she was on holiday with her family the search for the child spot a global campaign which crossed continents and has cost more than $14000000.00 despite an ongoing British police investigation no trace has ever been found of Madeleine but as the newsroom is Jonathan Savage reports her parents are refusing to give up hope. Kate and Gerry McCann believe their daughter Madeline is still alive she would be 13 her childhood nearing its end speaking to the b.b.c. The McCann's describe the last 10 years as stolen time I think it's just that number 10 year mark which makes it no significant I think that's reminder of how much time has gone by and I'll say tens of bacon and I think perform modeling for states and we felt great minus 30 fellow perfect nuclear family I find Madeleine McCann's disappearance in prior delusion in 2007 fascinated the British public many of whom would have taken identical family holidays to similar Mediterranean resorts with the local search proving fruitless the U.K.'s largest police force got involved London's Metropolitan Police are spent $14000000.00 supplementing the Portuguese inquiry $1.00 British detectives were working on the case after criticism of the resources devoted to the case of a single missing child Gerry McCann insists it's right that so much time and money was invested and not a single missing child that are millions of prostitute just a quarter mile gas. You know on year on and essentially the oppressed are subject to something of a crime there's no evidence that not once that but the police investigation is seemingly brought the mystery no closer to being solved officers say they are still pursuing a significant lead and the McCann's remain hopeful other children have been found years later Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapped in California in 1901 turned in by her capture in 2009 can be a moblie abducted in 1908 identified 18 years later Gerry and Kate hope the publicist The surrounding the 10 year anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance will prove the catalyst to reuniting them with their daughter. There is progress but also very credible lines of inquiry about the place working on while 1st no evidence to her to give us any negative news you know but hope is still no parents going to give up on that child unless they know for. A chance that and they just don't have any evidence Gerry McCann the father of Madeleine McCann who is still missing after 10 years listening to b.b.c. World Service Still to come here in the newsroom. Comes out and it's offended a musician and sparked a big debate in India that story from her cutter later but 1st Suhas the headlines this hour President Trump has marked his 100th day in office that a rally in Pennsylvania with an attack on the media and a defense of his own record the head of an Iranian language t.v. Network has been shot dead by unidentified attackers in the Turkish city of Istanbul and one of the world's best known monks nears has been killed in an accident on mine type arrest and we'll have more on what happened to early start later in the program but 1st. The 100 how to eat on them but that eat on botany them are doing to our international born Your us this. Morning. Here in extracts from the passion t.v. Network and one of its managers has been shot dead on the streets of Istanbul our correspondent g.-r. Goal joins us from the city live now. What do we know about this killing. I love to see what we know are she last night around 8 pm in the busy hour in a busy street of stumble and s.u.v. Caught their vehicles carrying the vehicle carrying Mr Kenyon and his Kuwaiti business partner and pretty much. You know fired on them in a hail of bullets and kill site carry me an honest spot and his business partner later died in the hospital and later hours later police found the vehicle of a silence in another district which set on fire blazed and left behind it seems to me it was completely professional and well planned assassinations and his family are here in his wife he's in Istanbul but obviously Mr Kenyon has an office or gym t.v. In Istanbul folk right sometimes so the site can't any end to find out and the manager of Jame t.v. Set you think this is a professional job who do you think might have been behind the killing Well there is a lot of room around obviously many family members many of those people who are close to him t.v. They say most definitely it was raining an agent behind this assassination because they say 2 years ago 3 years ago in 2013 some members of his family was arrested in your own fresh they just to petition on Mr communion to shut down Jim t.v. It was one of the most popular t.v. Showing soap opera of the Western culture and many. Prominent clerics inside Iran they thought these kind of show are actually against Islamic rule House also promoting Western values so there is a lot of loom around but in the same time one sources within Turkish government I talk to they say it could be possible that has been a business feud between them and other people but it is I dis time it is too difficult to determine exactly who was behind it but we know police. Just conducted a thorough investigation collecting c.c.t.v. Footage just talking to witnesses is why those people. Obviously just find the clue who was behind this juggle in Istanbul for the 1st time in 7 years a feat of Chinese naval ships has docked in the Philippines it comes just a day after a meeting of Southeast Asian Nations hosted by the Philippines in which criticism of Beijing's activities in the South China Sea was done plate Asia Pacific and chair Michael posters within the newsroom studio tell us about the ships why these are important Well the ships themselves up particularly important there's only 3 of them a destroyer a figure an air supply ship and they're traveling to many countries 20 in fact in Europe Africa and other Asian ports and the significance lies in the fact that they're going to the Philippines of ever arrived in the Philippines at all as you indicated there in your introduction there's been a fierce dispute between these 2 countries the Philippines and China over sovereignty in the South China Sea over recent years the military is the navies were more likely to be facing each other off rather than visiting each other's ports since last year President or Terje has made it is a name to try and appease China to be more friendly towards China and the fact that these ships are now in the city in the southern Philippines suggest that starts working and the Southeast Asian countries they've just met haven't they where criticism of China is notable by its absence Well it's a similar issue really are similar significance in that the president of Turkey was hosting this meeting of salvaged Asian nations wanted any criticism of China not in a final statement not a lot of other countries did because they have their own territorial disputes with China but President eternity really held sway and afterwards he was asked a question about this at a press conference about China's activities in the South China Sea He gave a quite a rambling reply but he indicated his state of mind for. Peace loving but just like me I don't know one rebel. You have 2 very good a boy will never stop about anything but build up or something it will be useless. I think the last word there was important useless as far as President eternity thinks he's pointless confronting China such a strong military might is better trying to appease it try to get concessions the Philippines can out of China Thank you Michael Brister there you are listening to the news you hear on the b.b.c. World Service and Sue has some other stories from monies to us from Israel as foreign minister has called for dialogue with the opposition to end weeks of violent demonstrations in which at least 30 people have died speaking to the b.b.c. Delsea Rodrigo has blamed the deaths and what she called extremist opposition forces saying most of the victims have been supporters of the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro she said the protests were fueled by ideology rather than widespread discontent that last month has seen huge protests in Venezuela in the face of an economy beset by shortages and inflation the authorities in the United States say 5 people are dad and nearly 50 in hospital after a series of tornadoes in Texas at least one powerful storm hit the city of count on about 80 kilometers east of Dallas more were reported in surrounding areas video from a local television station showed up rooted trees overturned cars and flattened homes . And seats on Britain's planned new high speed rail line will need to be bigger because customers are getting fatter That's according to a manager in charge of the project Chris Rayner is reported as saying they will need to allow for much higher instances of obesity among passengers. The h s 2 line from London to permanent is expected to start operating 2020 thinks so Harris from the publication real news says this could cause a problem for the industry when you have largest which means wider presumably or you have been further apart which would accommodate all of people and we are as a as a race getting taller you have your seats in each carriage that does something to the economics I'm not a good thing. 5 months ago then Italian prime minister resigned after suffering a crushing defeat in a referendum but later today he could be back at the top of Italian politics where your reason Ajay might sound is with me in the newsroom studio now remind us why he went this is about a constitutional reform wasn't it that's right under the Italian constitution the $148.00 constitution the 2 chambers of the Italian parliament have equal weight which means that legislation tends to get bounced back woods and forwards between the 2 and takes a very long time for politicians to actually achieve anything so what he wanted to do was reduce the powers of the Senate really make it a just a rubber stamp body in in essence and he put that to the nation the nation said no very definitely 5th the 9 percent against his plans to 41 percent in favor so he was really hammered on that and that left his position pretty untenable he was on his prime minister the 2nd reason is because there was a split in the Democratic Party back in February some of the left wingers went away and form their own party the Democratic and progressive party so he needs to reassert his authority So remind us what's going on today then Well today it's an open primary which means that anybody who signs up to the Democratic Party values and pays a minimum of 2 Euros can have a vote. Students and 16 to 18 year olds have been allowed to register online. They convert to Rennes he hopes that he gets at least a 1000000 voters out and that would be a 3rd of the amount he got in 2013 when it was much more momentum behind and very brief he could become prime minister again he could be facing a big challenge from the 5 Star Movement better Grose movement because there are about a 32 percent to 27 percent lead in the polls at the moment thanks Mike sound is that tweets but a popular musician has spot a public debate in India about the way mosques and temples use lines because in a series of tweets sunny Nigam said he wasn't Muslim and questioned why he had to listen to the religion's call to prayers every day a correspondent a whole town and spoke to us from the street in Calcutta he said we pick Sonu Nigam is a household name here in India has been a popular singer playback singer in the Bollywood industry for quite a long period of time I think some people here were not his fans make use him of noise pollution with some of the songs that he's actually to hand over the last decade or so he woke up one morning and then took to social media as I suppose a lot of people do and want Tweety basically said I'm not a Muslim so why do I need to be woken up by unassigned He then had a series of tweets after that where he said look it's not just about as on itself it's also about temples good waters as well and the noise pollution that comes from that but let's have a listen to the sound that disturbed him. That is the Muslim call to prayer which was coming from a mosque that was close to his flat which annoyed him because he said it was came up in the morning and he said when will this forced religiousness and here in India and it's prompted a huge debate about noise pollution we had a cleric from Kolkata who basically said that sun and against comments were against the constitution and that he should be asked to leave. He this country he also said he would give a reward if somebody shaved off his head Sonu Nigam then shave the hair off his head himself and said Should I get the reward but I think this is serious question I mean you can hear that it's a fairly noisy street mall but. If you go a little bit down there's a church on it as well there's a lot of noise there's a lot of sound but I think there is a debate now about the noise that comes from religious institutions because many of them I can see in front of me have loudspeakers outside them and when it's time to pray whatever faith you off from it can be extremely. Well attended. Antonia popularly known as the Swiss machine has done it while climbing Mount Everest only schtick one of multiple awards for climbing and was particularly known for his speed with in newsroom studios the a.b.c. Steve Jackson himself a keen mountaineer so what do we know what happened to really all we know is he was in the a climatized Asian phase of an expedition to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen that's a hard enough thing to do anyway but he was also trying to climb it by a new route but at this stage he was just getting his body ready for the lack of oxygen at high altitude. He was on a subsidiary summit called not see when he said to have slipped and fallen more than a 1000 meters down the mountain we don't yet know exactly what caused the fall his body has been airlifted off the mountain and there will be a post-mortem. Which will take place in the coming days in Katmandu your mind you yourself I mean how big a figure was he in mind he was really big figure he was very well known for 2 reasons really one was a team managed to push the boundaries particularly with speed he'd taken that to a new level like weight solo climbing was what he mainly did mostly in the Alps. In he set a new record for climbing the north wall of the idea for example in 2 hours 47 minutes this was a route of course that took days when they 1st attempted it in the 1930 s. The other thing was that who popularized the sport a great deal on You Tube So he made epic films of his climbs in which you know he was seen talking in a very matter of fact way about these life and death situations he'd faced interspersed with the footage of him doing the climbs and these sort of films were viewed by hundreds of thousands of people and really made him into a pretty big foot figure in the climbing world yet again Mount Everest claimed another life it's. Extremely dangerous thing to attempt it's even more dangerous if you're climbing it without oxygen and it's yet another step if your climbing it's on a brand new route he wasn't afraid to take these challenges on but that's unfortunately a difficult thing to the climbers face Steve Jackson there on a main uses are the death of one of the world's best known Monckton years early Sheykh You've been listening to the news from here on the b.b.c. World Service and that's it from the. Distribution of the b.b.c. 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Dot org or call us at 180-576-5727 do it today we can't do our job without you thank you. B.b.c. News one of the most famous climbers in the world has been killed in Montana breast he died in an accident while a climate ising for an attempt on the mountain without oxygen stacker was 40 was known for the speed of his climbing the United Nations in Iraq says that 36 years the the people who are being held as slaves by Islamic state militants have been rescued the group includes men women and children who are in captivity for nearly 3 years the u.n. Believes up to 1500 women and girls are still being held the manager of an Iranian television network site Cademy on and a business partner have been shot dead in the Turkish city of Istanbul they were driving when Master gunmen opened fire on their vehicle Mr Karem Ians network German t.v. Broadcast western and other foreign shows into Iran a flotilla of Chinese naval vessels has arrived in the Philippines for the 1st time in 7 years as Manila continues its efforts to improve ties with China the visit comes just a day after a meeting of Southeast Asian Nations hosted by the Philippines in which criticism of Beijing's activities in the South China Sea was downplayed the British prime minister to resign May has brushed off calls by Brussels to settle its financial commitments to the e.u. At the start of Brecht's in negotiations this is May was speaking a day after the leaders of the remaining 27 e.u. Members agreed a united stuns She said both sides accepted that an early priority in the negotiations should be residence rights of e.u. Citizens members of a family in the American Midwest have been describing the moment they found out at short notice that the things put founder Mark Zuckerberg was coming for dinner the more family from Newton Falls said they had only 20 minutes warning of the identity of their mystery guest b.b.c. News. I'm Dr Kevin fall this week on life changes I'm talking to former NASA administrator Major General Charles Bolden about his truly remarkable life and career one that saw him grow up as a child in a racially segregated America to become the 1st African-American to command a space shuttle. I came to know Charlie Well during my time working with NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston and of all the stories I've ever been told of earth and sky his still stands out to me as being the most inspiring I started by asking him about his childhood I actually Kevin and I think as you may know I grew up in Columbia South Carolina and I was one of 2 boys so my my brother's 4 years younger than I am and we were the sons of school teachers so my mother and father had gone to high school together college together got married when they came out of a bag then well still historically black college dog Johnson c. Smith University in Charlotte North Carolina and then they came back to South Carolina to teach so I had grown up with my parents instilling in me several things one you've got to study to be successful no matter what you do you don't have a choice you're going to study the other thing was you going to go to church so I did that too. But the big thing was you can do anything you want to do and growing up I never I never thought about flying airplanes I never I loved technical stuff I used to take things apart all the time and I used to get in trouble a lot but but going into the military was not something I thought about doing and flying airplanes was not something I thought about doing and although I was a science fiction No I never dreamed of going to physically going to space in the America of that time the dream of space flight could not have seemed more remote and not simply because the idea of human space exploration was then in its infancy Bolden 1st set his sights on a career in the United States Navy but as a young black teenager attempting to gain a place in the Naval Academy his inquiries were repeatedly rebuffed. Undeterred his determination saw him petition everyone from his congressman and his senator to the then vice president Lyndon b. Johnson with whom he struck up a remarkable correspondence because I'd been communicating with with Vice President Johnson for a couple of years and so with nothing else left to do I wrote I wrote him a message wrote him a letter to the president typed it out and I said you know I know I'm not eligible for a presidential appointment but we've been talking and I need help I just I cannot get an appointment from South Carolina never heard from him but got a visit couple of weeks later from a Navy recruiter and then some time later retired federal judge Judge Bennett who was sent around the country benefit by President Johnson looking for qualified young African-Americans and Hispanics to go to the Naval Academy and I don't know whether he had anything to do with my letter of what but he came to my school in the end result was I got an appointment to the Naval Academy from Congressman William Dawson in Chicago Illinois so so so goal achieved of going to the Naval Academy when you were communicating with Johnson you know about your problems in getting a place at the academy was it because you perceived that they were holding your your name the fact that you're an African-American going to was that you have been told that explicit Oh I've been told that explicitly by by 2 of the 31 and I want to see it was all in Johnston had actually offered me an appointment to the Merchant Marine Academy but said no way are you going to go to you know to the Naval Academy and so I accepted then I said Ok I'm not surprised so as bluntly as that oh yeah yeah to your face in writing you know I never got an opportunity to go interview with any of them I did not get an opportunity to go interview they just they just sent you a letter and said you know not going to happen so you know great There was no stigma in doing that or saying that that was what was expected and in fact. You know if you I think. Albert Watson It said you know if I do that I'm out of here and I can't do that. People didn't have the courage to do it back then you know growing up in the you know growing up in segregated communities or standing on a balcony in the cinema. How do you how do you not get to the point where you have to dream of these things. Every kid back then dreamed of it and frequently what a lot of kids did you know like what folk had done in my parents' generation was a left the south you will find so many people who moved to places like Michigan where American industry was it that the army automobile manufacturing business is full of people who migrated from the south to the north and blacks who moved there because they knew they could get a good job they didn't have to worry about all this stuff in the south now didn't mean it was easy because frequently you found when you came to the north where where they had the segregated there was still institutional racism but but it didn't make a difference because look I I can get a job I can work and I can figure the rest of Charlie's firm refusal to take no for an answer was rewarded with a place at the Naval Academy and from there he coined a new even ground around Bishan those space flights or even aviation did not yet feature I want to be a frog me and that was underwater demolition team because there were other problems on television it talked about the life of frogmen and I was thrilled by their butt but shortly after I got there I found out from the superintendent you couldn't do that out of naval academy you had to the frogman only underwater demolition team selected their members from enlisted sailors and then if they thought they were qualified they sent them to officer candidate school and they got their commissions and then came back so that's the way they created so I was kind of at a loss I didn't have a clue what I was going to do but I went through the rest of the time at the Naval Academy and so when it came time to graduate and decide on my service election as I want to go in the Marine Corps and I would be an infantry officer. My family was not happy not at all because the it was raging you know the Tet Offensive had occurred the year before my senior year and all people thought about was the short life expectancy of a 2nd lieutenant but I wanted to be an infantry officer I got my commission in the Marine Corps went to Quantico Virginia which is where we train officers in the Marine Corps and going through the the graduation exercise the 3 day war it was November it was so cold and I mean there was snow and ice on the ground I thought I'd die and I tell people for 3 days I did not sleep and I was afraid that if I went to sleep I wouldn't wake up and so I volunteered for every fire watch and everything and I came out of that though and by then my wife Jack and I had married and I went back home because she had always wanted to go to Pensacola and I said Ok you win we'll go to Pensacola I don't want to fly but I'll go try it you know maybe something magical happened we went to Pensacola 1st time I got an airplane and I fell in love with it I mean as soon as I felt the wheels lift off I said I can't believe this cannot believe that I did not want to do this and then just before I finished my flight training one of my instructors in Kingsville Texas with a was a Marine a guy by the name of Pete feel who later became he and his family became very good friends of ours but he was a test pilot and he eventually became the chief test pilot for the f. 18 program and he and I talked about the difficulties of being a test pilot had had to manning it wasn't a challenging which Swizz right down my alley because I always look for stuff that was demanding and challenging so I decided I want to be a test pilot and I go all way from not want to fly airplanes not wanting to be a Marine to want to be a Marine Corps test pilot from having grown up in South Carolina Charlie found himself against all the Olds a commissioned officer and a test pilot in the United States Navy and finally he dad to reach for the stars so for the 1st 6 years of my Marine Corps career. I just kept applying and kept being told no and. So I went to after I came back from Vietnam I got a graduate degree I went to the University of Southern California got a master's and I said Ok I'll apply one more time and maybe this time the Marine Corps will tell me yes and sure enough I applied and I got accepted to Test Pilot School and I went there and while I was there just as I went NASA advertised for people to apply for the space shuttle program and the 1st group of space shuttle astronauts was selected I didn't even think about applying I had still had no interest in going to space but while I was there as a test pilot a group of them who had graduated from the Navy's test pilot school came back for a reunion and with them was Dr Ron McNair who was in that 1st group African-American grew up in South Carolina just as I had in segregated times was from a place called Lake City South Carolina tiny little town and he told me his story and talked about how he had always wanted to be an astronaut and he had gone to North Carolina a historically black college had been on a graduate went on to mit and earned his Ph d. In laser physics and and then applied to be an astronaut was selected in the 1st group and I was I mean I was just mesmerized by his story but still not interested in being an astronaut but before he left he said hey are you going to apply for the program I said no way and he said why not I said they never picked me and he looked at me he said that's the dumbest thing I ever heard he just he just it was like my mom and dad talking and he said How do you know if you don't even apply and then I got He just embarrassed me and so when he left I went home and I got pen and paper and I put my application in and and I got an invitation to come to Houston and interview and ended up being subsequently selected in the 2nd group of astronauts so that's that's how I became an astronaut and it was Ron McNair who we later lost in the Challenger accident but it was raw McNair who is. I give credit for my being sitting here and reminding me that you know you study really hard and you are qualified but you have to believe in yourself and if you do that and you're willing to try things and every once in a while good things come your way so that what happened I mean what was that like you know you put your application and you probably had not much hope that you know I put it in but I didn't have any I said you know I'll do this because he's right if I don't try and I'll feel bad but I did not expect to get a call and you did get a call tell me about the phone call well the 1st call I got was notification that I had been selected to interview so there were a couple of calls but that one said Ok and gave me a date it said you need to come to Houston and you need to plan to be here for a week because you're going through a period of evaluation and testing medical evaluation and the like and so I went to Houston to do this today with astronauts we actually put them through 2 series of interviews they if they pass the 1st one then we bring them back again but for my group it was only one and so I went down for a week and I went when I left Pax River I told my wife and my kids I said look I'm going to go down here and I have a good time and I'm just going to I'm going to go meet astronauts and and when I come back then we can figure out what we want to do next because there's I don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of being selected and I was convinced of that when we arrived in Clear Lake City a little bit airport and the 1st person I remember meeting that I didn't already know was Dr Franklin chain d.s. From Costa Rica and Frank and I ended up flying together on our 1st flight we were both selected but Franklin was a plasma physicist from mit and very Omble guy and we went around and introduced ourselves and I remember him introducing himself he said My name is Dr Franklin Ching d.s. And I'm a plasma physicist and I looked at him I said Franklin you work with blood and he looked at me like where did this guy come did he fall out of a tree. As of then he said no he said I work with with propulsion and energy and I said Ok I get it so we ended up being selected and we flew our 1st flight together and I flew my my 4th and final flight with him and so he became a lifelong friend so I was at the. Final but I'm so interested I'll get there but the call the one you're to get I know I had come back from Houston I had a great time and I thought I had done well but still the people that were there there were there were 20 of us and I I didn't see myself I thought I was qualified but then there's qualified and I mean these these folks were just off the page and so while I thought I had done very well I just didn't think I'd be selected and I came back and that was 51 March and I didn't hear a thing and you know months passed and my wife's birthday March May 31st 1980 phone call I was on my way out to an airplane a flight test flight and somebody said hey you got a phone call here before you go down can you take it I said sure and he said some guy from Houston so I had forgotten about the astronaut office and when I picked up the phone it was George Abbey he said hey this is George Abbey and then all of a sudden it hit me because I remember they said you'll get a call we'll call you no matter what and of Georgia because that was what the rumor was of Georgia because you're in if anybody else calls you didn't make it and so he said this is George Abbey and I went Yes Mr Abbott he said and it was simple he said you still want to work for us and I said You mean the astronaut office he said Yeah I said Oh sure yeah I said Now is this Are you serious he said Yeah I'm serious I said when do I have to be there he said we just relax he said don't worry about it you know and don't tell anybody because we've got a we've got to publish the list and tomorrow you should you'll probably get some calls and stuff like then it'll be Ok you can tell your wife but don't tell anybody else and that was that was how I got. Weird that had been selected and then we took off the next month and or yeah after after the month of June went down to Houston and and spent 14 years down there and I see you then 34 times you'll The mission was your 1st C'mon dufus but exactly and that was Nasa's 1st mission to planet Earth the minus 198 or go for main engine start 6 by main engine start 321 and liftoff of the space shuttle Atlantis. On a mission to planet Earth. That are all but a roll of land if you know the rolling of the proper ups and down to the 1st climb to 57 degree information 150 nautical miles. Although it wasn't my 1st international mission because Hubble had actually been an international mission we didn't have any international crew members but it was the 1st time I had actually flown with an international crew member and it was a an incredible guy by the name of Dick from out from Belgium who was an emergency replacement for one of our American payload specialist who was diagnosed with with incurable abdominal cancer today he is still a professor so it miracles do happen but I had a great time on that mission we did a lot of international travel afterwards and so you know I'd already known that I love foreign travel anyway from being in the Marine Corps but then I came to headquarters for a year and I was the sort of the assistant deputy administrator Maj ob was mainly to work with to go to the Hill and lobby for all intent although it wasn't officially lobbying but to try to convince members of Congress that they should approve a space station and it wasn't wasn't the International Space Station at that was just a space station and incredible experiences but I hated every day of it I just I could not stand being here and I had you know us were there. Let Me Out Of Here I'm never coming back to Washington d.c. And so. Yeah after about 8 or 9 months once again Mr Abbey said hey they want you to go back to Houston and we want you to fly again and so I said Shoot I'd love to do that you know and I said What is it we have not named the crew for the Hubble servicing mission had not been named in my 1st flight was Hubble so we had left it not in great shape and so I had this deep down desire to go back on the servicing mission and fix what I had left so I was kind of hoping that he would say that I had been assigned to command Hubble but that went to Dick Covey and so I was kind of disappointed but I'm still excited about getting another another chance to command and so he said well it's. We've got 2 Russian cosmonauts who are coming to town and we want you to command the 1st joint Russian American shuttle mission I said no way I said forget it you know he said What do you mean I said look I'm a Marine I trained all my life to kill them and they trained to kill me I have no desire to fly with any Russian cosmonaut and so so Mr Harry said Why don't you just calm down and he said they're both in town go to dinner tonight I'll just be the 3 of you and not talk and then you know let us know what you think when you come back and so we did I went to dinner with Sergei and Lattimer Titov and Sergei spoke you've met him you know Sergei speaks fluent English did then Lattimer did not speak a word of English so Sergei was the interpreter for that for us for the night but we sat and we talked and we ate and we talked and and generally the conversation just kept coming back to families what we wanted for our kids what we wanted for the world you know all of us wanted to make the world better and everything and I just I was just intrigued by it so I came came into work the next day I said hey I mean. I'll do this and you know went back down to Houston and started training and I tell people all the time that. So what was your most most interesting or rewarding experience you know in the Astronaut Office thinking it would be a flight or some day on orbit or some I said look it's it was a 2 year period of time during which I I got to know surrogate cricket often Vladimir Titov and their families because we moved their families lock stock and barrel from Moscow to Houston. They had young kids that Amir had an 18 year old daughter who enrolled in junior college but we just helped them to adjust culturally and then after we flew we had an opportunity to go to Moscow and see how they lived and it wasn't that great to be quite honest. But you just you just gained a tremendous amount of respect for them met a lot of the people that you and I talk to all the time in the spring when we go down to Houston for the International Space Medicine summit and you know what kind of collegiality in cooperation is in still there and so it gave me a totally different perspective on on how things should be and and what we could do about it individually so that was the most interesting experience most rewarding experience of my my grand total of 14 years an astronaut do you find it hard to believe that you were able to cooperate with the Russians and knowing you can't believe it I remember Ken right there was my pilot and Ken Ken is now I forget the name of the chair but he holds a chair in aeronautical engineering down at the Naval Academy and we talk about it all the time. Because Ken was the you know every crew has somebody who's the the mother hand of the crew and can was the mother hand he was the one it was I mean he did he just went right into it can was a a Navy p. 3 pilot professionally and then had had when he became a test pilot actually gone back and become the chief test pilot down at Pax River and a transition at 18 after we flew we went to Moscow on our post flight and one day we went to the Kremlin they took us on a Kremlin tour and we actually stood up on. On the roof on the wall of the Kremlin looking down into Red Square and Ken and I looked at each other and he said to me he said in your wildest imagination did either of us ever expect that we'd be standing on the wall of the Kremlin looking down into Red Square I mean as a part of a crew and here on a goodwill trip and we both just kind of shook our heads and said no no way because the wall hadn't fallen that that much before that you know so it was a different world and it was it was just incredible to be to be a part of it yeah. Let's fast forward a little bit and I remember this quite vividly actually was sitting in one of those meetings in Houston in the spring. And someone sent me a text saying Charlie Bolton's just been my NASA administrator you on your way down to the sea. At the time I think you want even sure whether you were going to have the job I remember you I had you know my confirmation hearing well you'll you point out to me as you left. Washington was I'm going to Washington it's not what everyone thinks Yeah and tell me about that how about because when I left then to go up it was actually there it was actually just to talk to the president and they they wouldn't tell me anything except because I had previously talked to Dr John Holdren his science advisor a couple of months before a month before and when I talked to John it was just about NASA and you know what the president wants to know what to do and so he asked me if I talk to you in kind of pick your brain and because you spent a long time down there and so we talked about different things talked about the National Space Council whether there should be one because people were in favor of reinstituting it and I was vehemently opposed because I said I guess it can work but it I've seen where it didn't work when I was in Washington the last time and I just I was very blunt with them and so to get a call and say hey the president when they finally. Told Me 1st they said I can't tell you why while you're being asked to come I said I can't come and they said well the president just wants to talk to a little bit about about NASA and so I came back my wife said I don't know whether you should go or not they're going to offer you something now and I don't want to go to Washington I said don't worry about it I just want to meet the president I want to I just want to meet him and talk to him I said don't worry about it and we sat and talked for about 20 minutes or so and the NASA administrator the term NASA administrator never came up he he did much of the talking because he told me about having grown up in Hawaii you know with his granddad and how his grandfather used to take him down to the to the pier to watch the Apollo astronauts come in when he was a kid growing up and how how fascinating it was and he wanted to give that back to kids in America you know he wanted them to feel proud about the stuff that NASA did and he wanted us to to risk to be restored to prominence again in the world and then he talked about his passion for stem education and and a lot of other stuff and kept using the term inspire he wanted to inspire young people and in the end he asked me a couple of things about you know what do you think we could do and we talked a little bit about what I thought the agency could do and I think you know we were kind of in sync but like I said topic of NASA administrator never came up and I I went back home on cloud 9 and told him to tell my wife but you know what a great experience it had been actually thought there and talked to the president and she said well what do you say I said well we just talked about things and he said Did he ask you anything I said no he didn't he didn't ask me anything didn't offer anything he said you know we just we're Ok I didn't I didn't commit to anything and then that was May and I want to say the next month or maybe it was it was June late June I got another call and they said hey can you come back to Washington and I said for what and I said well I can't tell you I said I'm not coming out have been through this and they said well the president has decided he wants to nominate you to be the NASA administrator so I said talk to my wife I said I have to give me a night I'll call you back tomorrow because I got to talk to my family and we decided I'd go ahead and and at least accept the offer to be nominated didn't have any clue what that meant. But then came up to d.c. And spent about 3 weeks actually going through all the preparation for hearings and I did my confirmation hearing on the morning of the 16th of July. They voted out of committee that afternoon voted voice vote on the floor of the Senate night and I was standing here in NASA headquarters being sworn in the next day so I tell people I was probably the last person in the Obama administration to be treated civilly but Lori Garver who was my deputy at the time she went through we had our hearing together so you know 2 of us sitting there at the witness table we were both voted out both sworn in the very next day and so it was one of these incredible things that just doesn't happen today my last question Charley is you know it is all about inspiration you know I think that's how we young men that's what we talk about if you had a message today you know like children test 7 if you if you had a message for them and their generation what would it be I tell them ignore what they hear on television you know all the negativity and everything dream big. And really believe that they can make a difference in the world that that the world really is supposed to be the way that they visualize the way that they imagine because your kids have had an opportunity to see a lot of things that a lot of American kids have a multi culture many countries stuff like that but I tell him hold on to that dream because we're the ones that will make it happen and they're the ones that are going to make the vision of going to Mars true to anything that's all you would have done differently looking back in my life No I yeah can I get asked that a lot of headlight I would not I mean I don't care how what bad experiences I had I live in fear that if I went back and changed anything I wouldn't be here or I wouldn't have the 3 incredibly wonderful granddaughters that I have of my you know my wife and I wouldn't have the son and daughter that we have or stuff so I would not change one single thing nothing 0 nada. 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