esidential nominee tim kaine about the tightening race, national security and s hillary clinton's strategy to win voters' trust. >> woodruff: also ahead this tuesday, in a historic visit, president obama appologizes to the people to laos, and pledges to help the nation heal after the u.s. dropped 290 million bombs, an average of eight a minute from 1964 to 1973. >> ifill: and, the rapidlyll changing fight against terrorism, 15 years after 9-11. >> the work we're doing now with our partners in the intelligencs

community often doesn't involve really, really sensitivevo intelligence. it involves looking at twitter. >> woodruff: all that and more a on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.mo thank you. >> woodruff: hillary clinton and donald trump traded new jabs today, amid polls showing the presidential race has tightened. clinton said there are growing questions about trump's ethics, and she linked them to his refusal to release his tax returns. >> i'm going to continue to raise this, because i think its a fundamental issue about him in this campaign, that we're goinga to talk about for the next 62 days, because he clearly hasne something to hide. >> woodruff: later, in tampa, florida, clinton charged that

trump's policies would lead the nation back to war in the middle east. in turn, trump released an opent letter of support from 88su retired generals and admirals. and, in virginia beach, virginia, he belittled clinton's argument that she'd be toughernt on the likes of russia. >> putin looks at her and he laughs. he laughs.r putin. putin looks at hillary clinton and he smiles. boy would he like to see her. that would be easy. just look at her decisions. look how bad her decisions have been. h virtually every decision she's made has been a loser. >> woodruff: clinton and trump will appear separately on ate nationally televised forum on national security tomorrow night.el >> ifill: in the day's other news, congress returned from its august recess with a full to-do list.et house speaker paul ryan said tha priority is to finance the government past october 1, when the fiscal year begins. there's also pressure to approve money for fighting the zikae virus.

and, it all has to get done in about three weeks, before lawmakers head home for the final dash to election day. >> woodruff: president obama was in the asian nation of laos today, attending a regional summit and pledging to heal scars from the vietnam war.sc he's the first sitting american president to visit laos, and he cited a "moral obligation" to help the country recover from heavy u.s. bombing. the president also met with south korea's president at the summit, a day after north korea test-fired more missiles: >> we are going to work diligently together with the most recent u.n. sanctions that are already placing north koreal under the most intense sanctions regime ever. we are going to work together to make sure we're closing loopholes and making them even more effective.e >> woodruff: meanwhile, the u.n. security council stronglyou condemned the north korean missile tests and threatened new sanctions.h

>> ifill: security forces in afghanistan ended a standoff today, killing three taliban gunmen who seized a building in kabul. that left crews to clean up from a bombing that began the 11-hour siege.s the target was a building housing the aid group care international. it all happened hours after twin bombings elsewhere in kabul thaw killed 35 people. >> woodruff: one of the biggesto for-profit college chains, i.t.t. technical institute, is closing all 130 u.s. campuses.pu the announcement today affects some 35,000 students. last month, the u.s. education department banned i.t.t. fromi. accepting new students who useac federal aid, over allegations of poor-quality programs. >> ifill: on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average gained 46 points to close at 18,538. the nasdaq rose 26 points, and the s&p 500 added six. >> woodruff: and, american

conservatives today marked the passing of a leading voice: phyllis schlafly.ve she died yesterday, after more than half a century of activism on major social issues. >> the equal rights amendment is a dead issue now. >> woodruff: phyllis schlafly>> was one of the leading conservative firebrands of her time, especially on the role of women in american society. she rose to prominence in the early 1960's with a manifesto for the right: "a choice not an echo." it helped boost senator barry goldwater to the top of the 1964 republican presidential ticket. a decade later, schlafly led the drive to defeat the equal rights amendment or e.r.a. it would have barred gender discrimination, but schlafly warned it wouldn't stop there: >> it is the position of theit advocates of the equal rights amendment that they don't want it unless they get, in the same package, abortion, abortion funding, gay rights, drafting

women. >> woodruff: schlafly said she was defending what she called "the real rights of women," including "the right to be in the home as a wife and a mother." she and her "eagle forum" also became a force on other social issues-- opposition to abortion, chief among them.em >> the republican party must keep the pro-life plank in the platform and must reject any language in the text or in the preamble that will be perceived by the press and the public as watering down our 1984 and 1988 platforms. >> woodruff: and, she remained active into old age, even appearing at a rally in marchg for donald trump. phyllis schlafly died of cancere at her st. louis home, yesterday. she was 92 years old. and still to come on the newshour:on tim kaine discusses his role in the home stretch of the presidential campaign.ro a promise to clear unexplodedlo

bombs left in laos since the vietnam war. fox news settles a sexual harassment suit with gretchen carlson, and much more. >> ifill: for more on the race for the white house, we turn no to hillary clinton's running mate, virginia senator tim kaine. c before becoming senator in 2013, kaine served as governor and lieutenant governor of virginia and mayor of richmond.gi judy sat down with mike pence during the republican national convention.wi i spoke with tim kaine earlier today after he delivered a national security speech. welcome, senator kaine. >> you bet, gwen. g >> ifill: from our account, listening to your speech just now, mentioned donald trump 577 times and hillary clinton 29 times. are you the hillary clintonry defender in this campaign or tht donald trump attacker?

>> well, i'm not a hillary clinton defender. i'm a hillary clinton promoter, and i am also drawing a sharp contrast with donald trump.u pause on this issue of national security, the power of the the president, as commander in chief, and as the nation's chief diplomat, the differences are incredibly stark and very, very important. >> ifill: let me ask youll something about something your republican counter-part mike pence had to say about your running mate. he said that secretary clinton is the c most dishonest candidae for president since richard nixon. here's your chance to promote. >> hillary clinton is somebody who has had a passion for families and children since shed was a kid, in a methodist youth group as a teenager in the suburbs of chicago. and what i tell people, gwen, is this-- if you want to know about the character ofu somebody in public life, look to see if they have a passion that has animated them throughout their life, whether they were in office or out, whether they were winning elections or losing them. and hillary clinton has that, a

passion to empower families and kids, and a desire to measure health of society by how families and kids are doing. you can see this from her service as a lawyer, first lady of arkansas, and united stateste senator, and secretary of state. and i draw that contrast with a donald trump.ld what's the passion that has animated his life, other than trump? and there really isn't one. and so that is the important definition in my view of character and public life-- can you count on somebody? do you know what motivate them? and with hillary clinton, i think that's very, very plain. p >> ifill: why would mike pence say something like that? >> youli know, i'm not going to pretend to understand why hee would say it. i think the nixon analogy is an interesting one because whenn mike pence mentions nixon, here's what i think of-- richard nixon, under audit, released his tax returns so the the americani public could look at them and know what his financial situation was, whether he was following the law, and whether he was beholden to anybody. a

donald trump promised in 2014 that if he ran for president, hh would do the same, but he's not even willing to do what richard nixon did. and then the second thing i think about when i hear about richard nixon, is richard nixon was a republican presidential candidate who encouraged crooks to commit espionage against theh democratic national committee in order to gain an edge in a presidential election. e and that forged a constitutionan crisis and impeachment and a resignation. donald trump has encouraged russians to cyber-hack the united states to give him an edge in an election. and that just shows how serious and seriously misguided donald trump is. >> ifill: what evidence do you have to support the notion that donald trump directly, otherld than that one comment that he made, but that he's been in touch with russians, has had a direct connection with them to urge them to effect a united states election? >> that-- that is the evidence,

gwen, that he publicly-- not privately, publicly encouragedy in a press conference during the democratic convention inic philadelphia russian hackers toc get involve and try to find information that would help him win the race. that's the evidence. and he repeated it, and then when he was confronted with it, he suddenly said, well he was just being sarcastic. but anybody who would joke about that, about espionage committedt by the russians against theth united states to help him in an election, that was an example oe donald trump showing us who he is. and if he thinks that's funny, then he has a sense of humor unlike anybody i ever met. m >> ifill: but that doesn't necessarily show-- that shows him if he thinks he's being funny, that doesn't show he's in cahoots with the russians, does it? >> no, but he publicly encouraging the the russians tos do it.do there are a series of questionse over business deals he has with russia or russian interests that could well be disclosed if he

released tax returns, which he won't. his longtime adviser and campaign chair had to step down within the last month because of very, very questionable ties to pro-russian element elements ina and th ukraine, including allegations of undisclosed paymentes of cash to effect ukrainian elections. there are a series of connections between donald trump and his closest advisers, and russia that at least raise significant questions. some of those questions could be answered if donald trump was willing to release his tax returns, but he's unwilling toil do that.a when you add that to his public encouragement of russia, it's got to raise questions in people's minds. >> ifill: you see the polls ashe much as i do, senator, so youu know there's a wide gulf of distrust that americans feel towards your running mate. even joe biden came out today and said hillary clinton has got to open her hearts to americans. she's, obviously, been in the eye for a long time. t what do you think that she has h to do and what has to be done

between now and november 8 for your ticket to make the case for her instead of the the case against donald trump? >> yeah, and we are making the case for her, gwen.w i'm passionate about that, especially on these national security issues.se we just have to make it every day in the the states that really count. yesterday, i was in pennsylvania and ohio, states that are close. today i'm in north carolina, making case. i was campaigning with hillary in ohio yesterday.in so we're going to make our case on these issues, who is pest suited to grow an economy that will work for all?ll and then the issue of the day, who is best suited to be the t commander in chief, be our chief diplomat, and also the person who has the nuclear codes and c the control of the american military. this is just deeply, deeply important, and we think when we make that case, the american public lawyer clear on who's most fit to be are the, and that's hillary clinton. >> ifill: as you travel making that case through all these battleground state you gist named, do you find voters are driven by national security

issues, economic poornz in either case, donald trump seemsn to be leading in most recent polls? >> i think people are very focused on the-- on the economic issues. they want an economy that works for everybody. and, actually, we're feelingng good about polls we're seeing. some different polls came out today in different directions,s but in the battleground states,s like north carolina, we'rero feeling good.g the top choice that people upon to ask about is who's going to create an economy that does work for all? but the national security issues are very important for two reasons. first, because everybody knows that we want to be safe. but secondly, people see these issues as probably the clearest window into somebody's temperament, their judgment,am whether they're steady or volatile. and so the national security issues are really good windowd into the character of the person that somebody wants to haves as commander in chief. and wean think those questions show off hillary clinton's strengths and her experienceie very, very well. >> ifill: why does it seem like independents are leaning towards donald trump? >> again, sigh polls in virginia

other and states where we're doing very, very well with independents. so, again, on the polling side, i see polls are close. but in the battleground states that matter, you know, virginia, virginia was, assumed to be ond of the closest and most important battleground statest going into this election.io we like what we see in virginia. we like what we see in north carolina. we like what we see in pennsylvania and ohio.nn these are states that are going to be close, but right now we like what we see. s >> ifill: let me ask you another question about somethinu donald trump had to say over the weekend. he said hillary clinton didn't look presidential. and he was asked.d that and he didn't quite answer what he meant. what do you thinkea he meant?he >> well, gwen, i'll quote it precisely. he said, "hillary clintonn doesn't look presidential, does she, fellas? does she, fellas?"el and to me, i didn't have a hard time figuring out what that meant. he was basically saying that because she's a woman, that she

somehow didn't meet his standard of what a president looks like. and i think that is very, very easily understood by the vast majority of people who heard him make that comment, and they find it offensive. >> ifill: does it help or hurt you when there are veiled or unveiled comments referring to your running mate's gender? >> whether it helps or hurts us, it's bad for our country becausu we live in a country where we put our north star out there in 1776 and said that north star was going to be a quality.qu it took us 144 years to make the decision that that meant women could even vote, and now we're 96 years after that, and thank goodness we've broken a glass ceiling and a major party has nominated a woman for president. but for donald trump to suggest-- and he's suggested it before-- that for some reason r hillary clinton couldn't cross over theto hurdle because of her gender when we've stated that our principle is the equality

principle. and nations around the world have been able to elect women as heads of state. i think that shows that he's living in a different time, a time that is not a match for what americans now believe about who our leaders should be.er >> ifill: senator tim kaine, the democratic vice presidential nominee, thanks very much forry joining us. >> thanks so much, gwen. >> woodruff: as we reported earlier, president obama is now in laos, the small southeast asian nation where the unitedte states dropped millions of tons of bombs during the vietnam war. he stopped short of a formal apology expressing regret.

in a speech this morning, mr. obama said the u.s. would now increase funding to helpwo clear the bombs that still maim and kill. >> many of the bombs that were dropped were never exploded. over the years, thousands of laotians have been killed ornd injured. farmers tending their fields, children playing. the wounds, a missing leg or arm, last a lifetime. and that's why, as president,'s i've dramatically increased our funding to help remove these unexploded bombs. as a result, laos is clearing more bombs. a given our history here, i believe that the united states has a moral obligation to help laos heal. >> woodruff: now, special correspondent mike cerre reports from laos on the american effort to clean up this deadly legacy. >> reporter: a lao grandfather who lost his left hand in 1964

to a u.x.o.-- unexploded ordnance, pointing out injuries to his three grandsons from a u.x.o. from the same war. >> two of the fingers were cut- off. >> reporter: the war may have ended here in laos 40 plus years ago but the casualties of war continue on places like this soccer field where some kids just two weeks ago found a f little bomblet. they thought it was a ball and took it home to play with. despite official u.s. government denials and downplaying, during the vietnam war from 1964-73, the united states dropped more bombs per person on laos than have been dropped on any countrc in the world, in any war. the u.s. defense department estimates as much as two milliom tons of ordnance were dropped on laos, much of it focused on the ho chi minh trail that paralleled the vietnamese border. the north vietnamese used the trail network to transport troops and supplies into south vietnam where american troops were fighting.

it was part of "the secret war" conducted in laos, which remained secret until one determined american aid worker made it public. >> there is a good deal of evidence to suggest that the united states has been carrying out the most protracted bombing of civilian targets in history in laos.e >> reporter: while working inep laos as an educational advisor in 1969, fred branfman was struck by the number of refugees fleeing the countryside into the capital, vientiane, at the height of "the secret war." >> i estimated at one point that i had interviewed over a thousand refugees and every single one without exception said that his or her village haa been destroyed by bombing. b >> reporter: he also asked the refugees to draw pictures of the bombing which he used when he testified before congress in 1971 in his testimony. >> so these were accounts of people who actually lived under the air war and at this point nobody outside of laos had known what was happening.

>> reporter: channapah khomvongsa is a laoamerican who left laos in 1979 with her family when she was seven andth was raised in virginia. she left her job at the ford foundation twelve years ago after she first saw thee refugees' drawings, to start a foundation of her own to deal with these dangerous legacies of the war, which more than 20,000 people have been killed or maimed since the war's end. >> but what i realized as i got older is that america left behind such a dark legacy here i felt compelled to do what i can to help remove the millions ofi bombs that are still left over from the war.re >> reporter: according to theate defense department estimates, 20-30% of the bombs dropped on laos didn't go off as designed as designed be it a technical malfunction or having landed in soft rice paddies. either way, 25% of the country is still contaminated by u.x.o.'s.

>> since the end of the war in 1970-73 there have been four deaths in this village. this land is used for agriculture and the farmer had been planting fruit trees but hu came across too many bombies so he made a request to u.x.o. lao to clear the land. they just started clearing this land two days ago and they've already found 42 bombies. >> reporter: "bombies" are the baseball size explosives packed by the hundreds into larger cluster bombs designed to open in mid air, raining the smaller anti-personnel bombs filled with ball bearings and other shrapnel over wide swaths of land. (explosion) >> so about 270 million were originally dropped of the cluster munitions and an estimate of 80 million still remain on the land. obviously we still have a lot more to go.

but for the villagers here it's so important that their land gets cleared. >> reporter: u.x.o. lao is one of several ordnance removal operations that receive u.s. funding to find and safely remove u.x.o.'s throughout the (explosion) >> i think one of the challenges to clearing the ho chi minh trail has just been again awareness and attention.d there has been clearance over the last 15 years. but we just need more resources. >> reporter: daniel clune, thes. u.s. ambassador to laos, believes the improvement of u.x.o. clearance protocols is one the reasons the u.s. will b. spending more on remediationdi efforts here. >> the substantial increase that the president has announced for u.x.o. clearance in laos from roughly $15 million a year to $30 million a year. a doubling is very significant. >> reporter: have we ever paid reparations for the bombing we conducted here? >> we have a responsibility to clear the unexploded ordnance

that we left here during the war. and this is not to make as judgment one way or the other about what happened here and who is at fault and who wasn't at fault. it's simply a question of youngo children being injured or killed as the result of ordnance that was dropped here in a war that happened 40 years ago and that >> i mean president obama being here is historic as the firstor u.s. president to visit here. and so we're elated that he'ste going to bring greater g visibility to this issue. but we're not near or hardly done you know. even a doubling is not going to solve this problem overnight and it's going to take you know thea next administration and maybe a even the next the one after to really address this issue. (explosion) >> reporter: all agree that no amount of money, resources or o time could ever find every unexploded bomb in laos -- ordnance from both world wars is

still being found in europe.un the primary objective here is to make laos safe, by focusing u.x.o. efforts on areas of known contamination in the more populated areas and educating laos on what to look for and who to call when they find something. emma atkinson is the state department's program manager for weapons removal in southeast asia.'s >> right now we've got about 85 percent of our funding that goes to surveying clearance activities with the remainder 15 percent being split between survivors assistance and risk education. >> reporter: channapha's washington based legacy of war foundation, funded largely by other lao-americans, helps the state department identify the local needs and the mix of local and mostly international organizations working on them.za from victims assistance, to counseling and job training. >> i think the americans obviously knew a lot about vietnam and cambodia. some might have heard about laos but i don't think they know about the history of u.s.

involvement here and in particular about "the secret war." i think very few are aware that millions of bombs are still maiming and killing laotianse today. and that's what we're really concerned about. especially the small bombs which can be easily confused with the balls they can play with. as this third generation of u.s.o. victims mistakenly did with tragic consequences. >> as long as the u.s. continue to remain committed by sustaining and increase its funding as needed, i think we'll be able to you know address this issue hopefully in our lifetime. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, mike cerre reporting from xiangkhuang province, laos. >> ifill: staying with the i president's trip to asia, we look at a flashpoint created with mr. obama by the new president of the philippines. it's not only rodrigo duterte's blunt, often-profane style, but

how those words have led to a mounting body count on the streets of his country. william brangham reports. >> brangham: president rodrigo duterte arrived at the asean summit in laos with his staff in full damage control mode. a day earlier, duterte used a profanity about president obama, warning him not to raise the recent mass killings of drug suspects in the philippines. >> president duterte explained that the press reports that the president obama would lectureen him on extrajudicial killings led to his strong comments, which in turn elicited concern. he regrets that his remarks to the press have caused much controversy. >> brangham: but the damage was done: the white house had already canceled a meeting between the presidents, at the summit. all of this centers on the new leader's war on drugs. since he took office, at the end of june, more than 2,000 people have been killed by state police, and by vigilantes, in a sweeping crackdown.

>> plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets. until the drug manufacturer is killed, we will continue, and io will continue. >> brangham: in addition to the killings, hundreds of people have surrendered to authorities. reactions are sharply divided: some filipinos say they support the president's efforts: >> ( translated ): oh yes, there are far fewer addicts now. he's really good, duterte is o doing a good job. it's really good for our country. >> brangham: but there've also been protests against this wave of violence.ut some came last week, when vigilantes accidentally killed a drug dealer's five-year-old a granddaughter. >> ( translated ): all of us want to eradicate illegal drugs, but it should be done through due process.ro the president should understand >> brangham: many outside of the philippines have expressedts concerns, as well. chief among the critics: the united states and the united nations. last month, u.n. human rights

experts said that claiming you're fighting illegal drugs doesn't protect anyone from responsibility for illegal killings.t eg in response to the criticism, duterte threatened to pull the philippines out of the u.n.ne >> i do not want to insult you, but maybe we will just have to decide to separate from the united nations. >> brangham: and today, after arriving at the summit, the philippines president declared his country "will not be cowed." it's also clear that his often- profane style isn't going away. in addition to president obama, he's lashed out at filipino judges and senators, pope francis, and u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon. last month, he went after the w u.s. ambassador to the philippines, philip goldberg,be who'd criticized him during the philippines presidentialed campaign. >> i had a fight with their ambassador, that gay, son of a ( bleep ) he annoys me.p he was meddling in the elections, giving statements here and there.iv you weren't supposed to do that. >> brangham: tomorrow, both duterte and president obama will attend a gala dinner at thell asean summit. it's unclear if they'll speak to each other.

>> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the "newshour: 15 years after 9-11, combatting a different kind of terrorism--n online. and the benefits of teaching math to three-year olds. but first, fallout from the sexual harassment casessm involving fox news and its former chief, roger ailes., parent company 21st century fox announced a settlement today with former fox news anchor gretchen carlson. carlson had charged ailes, and others at fox, with harassing her, starting back in 2009. multiple sources say carlson will receive $20 million, and that fox has settled other lawsuits.20ts

fox also issued an apology to carlson as part of the deal. it read: "we sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that shs and all of our colleagues deserve." for more, i'm joined by stephen battaglio of the "los angeles times."in he's in chicago. steve battaglio, thank you for being with us.ev remind us first in brief, what was it that gretchen carlsont alleged? >> gretchen carlson was on fox news for 11 years, first on the fox morning show and then she had an afternoon show of her own. her contract was not renewed ina june of this year, and shortly a after that, she filed a lawsuit in which she said that roger ailes sabotaged her career and retaliated against her because she rebuffed him when he made comments of a sexual nature in meetings that they had had.me she also said that he wase

punishing her because she complained about a hostile work environment. she was not happy with her--pp with how her coanchors treated her when she was on "fox and friends." and she had very detailed statements talking about things that roger had said to her of ao sexual nature, inappropriate, and that's what takes us to where we are today. >> woodruff: and he, ofnd course, initially denied all of this, but now with this settlement, essentially, the company is saying, as we just read, "we're sorry," and acknowledging that at least aac lot of this is true? >> well, not only is the settlement large, but the apology is extraordinary. it is very rare when companies settle with employees that they actually admit wrongdoing and apologize like this. it almost never happens in sexual harassment cases.ca it's probably guaranteed that

gretchen carlson required this as part of the terms for the settlement, that she be-- that it would be acknowledged that this was how she was treated. >> woodruff: now, $20 million, as you said, it's a huge amount of money for this kind ofey lawsuit. there was some reporting today that roger ailes himself would be liable for some of that. is there any confirmation of that? >> i don't think there's any truth to it. roger ailes was indemnified by fox. he left fox news with a $40 million severance package. i don't think when they negotiated that package they said, "here, roger, here's $40 million, but you may have to give some of that back if we settle the lawsuit." i don't think that's the case. i think that 21st century fox paid all of this. >> woodruff: stephen battaglio, what does it say that fox decided to settle this and at it this amount? >> it says that they wanted to i avoid a trial, which would have

made this an ongoing story for months, perhaps years. this is all that people in the new york media circles in new york and washington have been talking about as an ongoing story. the details get more sordid. more women come forward. more charges are made. some may not be true, but it just gets thrown into the theet pot, and i think that the murdochs, the owners of theoc 21st century fox want to get past this. they want to take fox news intow the post-roger ailes era. >> woodruff: and we know that there are other allegations that have been out there regarding ailes, and potentially others at fox. what's the status of those other potential cases? >> i'm told that the-- that the complaints that came forward during the investigation of carlson's complaints have been settled, and there is a three-year statute of limitations on sexual harassment complaints in new york state.

so other people may issue complaints, but if they're not within that window, they can't, go forward to litigation. so they think they're covered there. there is one other case involving another fox news host, andrea tantaros. fox says she was not sexually harassed and that she was suspended because of her breach of contract, or that she's in breach of her contract, and they feel that that's a separate issue, and they will go to court with that one, if they need to. >> woodruff: what do you think>> the effect of this is on fox news, on its fortunes as a news organization? >> the bad news has certainly not affected its ratings. it's been the number one network in all of cable-- not just fox news, pretty much the entire summer, week after week. they own a certain part of the audience, a part of the news audience who doesn't feel that conservative views are fairly represented in the rest of the press. that's a niche that they own. and it's very dependable for

them. and a lot of those people probably don't care about this. >> woodruff: and finally, what do you think-- what effect do you think this has on the culture of television news, television entertainment, a culture that would haveou permitted something like this at fox to happen? >> well, you're actually talking about the culture of roger ailes. you have to remember, rogers. comes from another era of show business, when the casting couch was very common, where it was not unusual for an executive or a producer to say, "young lady, if you spend some special time with me, it will be veried any for your career." i think that was pretty common in the 1960s and 1970s, and i think that stayed with roger until today, where it is not appropriate, acceptable, or legal. >> woodruff: we certainly hopeuf it's not acceptable anywhere. stephen battaglio, we thank you very much with the "los angeles times." >> thanks for having me.

>> ifill: this weekend will mark 15 years since the 9/11 attacks, and we'll spend time in theth coming days showing how the u.s. is pursuing its campaign against terrorism, and the state of thes war in afghanistan, and the lives of its people. we begin with the first of a two-part series from miles o'brien on the technological evolution of terrorism and thost who fight it since 9/11. it's the focus of the film he produced for the pbs program nova premiering tomorrow night o "15 years of terror." tonight, an inside look at the changing face of counterterrorism. >> reporter: this is the room 9/11 built. the operations center at the national counterterrorism center just outside washington, d.c. >> so on a 24/7 basis, we have officers here working in shifts who are consuming, reading, analyzing, and assessing every

bit of available information that there is, to try to figuree out what terrorist threats are aimed at the united states. >> reporter: nick rasmussen isai the director here. the agency itself, and this room in particular, were created to encourage the myriad of intelligence, military and law enforcement organizations involved in national security to share classified information. this is where they try to connect the dots. >> so there are probably officers in n.c.t.c. from 17 or 18 different government organizations all across the government.ov basically, every three or four letter agency that you could probably name, we probably have somebody here at n.c.t.c.at serving from that organization on a one or two or three-year assignment. >> reporter: the nature of the work here has changed dramatically in recent years. >> they had this radar as early

as 2013 >> reporter: more lone wolves, fewer face-to-face meetings ando phone calls, the internet as aca source of inspiration and planning. self-radicalization doesn't have to take many months or many years. m >> increasingly, what connecting the dots means to me is dealing with the huge, huge volume of publicly available or open source or unclassified information that's out there that may have terrorism relevance.e. and the work we're doing now with our partners in the o intelligence community often doesn't involve really, reallyni sensitive intelligence. it involves looking at twitter or looking at some other social media platform and trying to figure out who that individualdu behind that screen name, behind that handle might actually be and whether that poses a threat to the united states. >> reporter: the term of art in the world of espionage is socmint. social media intelligence. open source spying. >> anybody can track a war online, can track a terrorist group online, can develop

informants and contacts online. >> reporter: intelligence r analyst jeff weyers is expert and gleaning intelligence from social media. his "operations center" is his living room.is the data is hiding in plain view. all it takes is patience, persistence and a little bit ofe technical know-how to find it. for instance, many islamic state fighters do not disable the geographic tracking capability built into their mobile phones. >> some i think do it by error. so they don't realize that their phone is broadcasting the information or they simply don't care. so when we look at raqqa and mosul over the last year, theree were lots of content, lots ofts geolocated content coming out of those areas. >> reporter: the technology makes it easy for anyone to track a terrorist. >> if he broadcasts from raqqa and then i again see him in i turkey and then i again see him

moving into europe, well this is a way that we can potentially interject with somebody that is maybe looking to do an attack. >> reporter: that, combined with some selfies, might provideid plenty of intelligence needed for targeting. >> so if you are looking for a drone attack and you're seeing where they're going for morning coffee, twitter could tell you.y >> reporter: when it comes to terror, the problem isn't a lacs of data. it is separating the wheat from the chaff.f. >> if you look at the orlando shooting or baton rouge or the recent cases in germany and france, just because thehe government has all this data, doesn't mean they have the capacity to analyze all that data, right? so, they have all these data, but how do you then go and makeu a determination as to whether that person poses a threat tor the public. >> reporter: with so many electronic breadcrumbs scattered out in the open, couldn't it be possible for computer scientists to harness the right combination of software and hardware to see where they lead? >> alright howard marks, where

are you? >> reporter: and make pre crime arrests as depicted in the 2002 movie "minority report." >> i'm placing you under arrest for the future murder of sarah marks. u and donald dubin that was to take place today, april 22nd, at 0800 hours. d >> reporter: provocative, dark science fiction now, but maybe not forever. at the university of maryland,he computer scientist v.s. subrahmanian is applying a big data approach to fightingap terror. he is trying to put more objective analysis into decisions about which terrorists to target. >> i'm a scientist, and when somebody says, "we degraded al- qaeda by taking person x out." if i can't measure it, i don't believe it. >> reporter: he and his team focused on thed islamic terror organization lashkar-e-taiba, the group responsible for the 2008 attacks on mumbai, a dozen coordinated

shootings and bombings lasting four days that killed more than 160 people.pe >> what you see here is the terrorist network corresponding to the terrorist group, lashkard e-taiba. each node that you see hereer corresponds to an individual. >> reporter: they compiled 21y years of data on the group and its actions. all of it is fed into some sophisticated software, an algorithm, that he calls stone, for shaping terrorist organization network efficacy: it's a schematic of a terrorist network identifying individualss subgroups and affiliations. the software assigns an arbitrary number to measure the lethality of the terror organization.mb the higher the number the more dangerous the group is. >> let's take a look at the leader of the group here. number one, if you right click on him, we will see some information about him.li >> reporter: he is hafiz h muhammad saeed, a man with $10

million bounty on his head. >> let's pretend we are in the role of an analyst and we're considering the consequences of targeting him and removing him from the network.ns >> reporter: here's what surprising: the software predicts, if you take out the boss, the lethality of the terror group actually goes up. >> you may be faced with awi situation where the new leader is either much more aggressive about carrying out operations or much better liked or much more confident in carrying out his operations. >> reporter: but what would happen if saeed's three top deputies were all taken out? the number goes way down. lashkar-e-taiba becomes much less of a threat. >> you can have a much more efficient counterterrorismun operation that significantly weakens a group by targeting just the right people. >> reporter: so can the same>> software one day predict an attack? is it possible to identify surefire signals of troubleo ahead? sort of. >> we could have predicted the mumbai attacks.

however, we could not have predicted exactly where they would have occurred. so we can say things like, "wein expect these kinds of targets to be hit in the next one, two, three, four months but we cannoe say, "this specific target will be hit in the next one, two,rg three, four months.e, >> reporter: not as accurate as a hurricane prediction, but human nature may be the perfect storm of unpredictability. miles o'brien for the pbs newshour in college park,fo maryland. >> ifill: tune in tomorrow night. miles continues his look at the efforts to stem the tide of terrorism messages online andan asks what social media platforms can and should do. you can watch his entire film, "9/11 15 years of terror" on nova tuesday night.s novauesday night. >> woodruff: students in bostonu

are heading back to the classroom this week where the school district's youngest learners are taking on math in a whole new way. special correspondent cat wise reports for our weekly education segment, "making the grade." >> ready, go... 1,2,3,4,5... >> reporter: the scene may look like indoor recess, but these pre-school students are jumping for joy about a lesson in - mathematics.s. >> who's getting warmed up now? >> reporter: even the teachers in this boston public elementary are warming up to the idea of math instruction for 3, 4 and 5 year olds. >> beautiful. >> reporter: sara gardner teaches pre-kindergarten at edward everett school. >> the curriculum activities, they're fun, they're fun and as a teacher you really get to dig deeply into the development of math and math ideas in youngea kids. >> reporter: boston schools have adopted a curriculum called building blocks, which encourages kids to think about and discuss math conceptss throughout their day. linda ruiz davenport directs

math programs for boston public schools. >> getting young children involved in mathematics at an early age helps foster their curiosity about mathematics, particularly mathematics in their environment. >> ok, no skipping, count at one time. >> reporter: here, gardner has students explain math mistakesxp by their puppet mr. mix up. >> 1,2,5,6,9,11 >> nooooo! >> you did it wrong. >> i don't understand what i did wrong. >> you need to say correct number. you need to say correct words and correct names. >> mr. mix-up is making counting errors, so the children are trying to learn how to explain to him what those errors are as they're building up their understanding of the number system.ngem >> reporter: building blocks was designed by early learning experts who say math has been largely ignored in the unitedhe

states, pushed out by literacy, a subject some refer to as the bully of the pre-school curriculum, because it dominates the day.re >> research shows that kindergarten, mostly, is a mathematical wasteland right now for kids. in other words, kids knew that stuff before they walked into the kindergarten door. what are they learning? almost nothing.. >> reporter: doug clements is an early learning expert at the university of denver and one of the creators of building blocks. >> early math is surprisingly important.y what kids know in their preschool or entering kindergarten year about mathematics predicts their later school success, in mathematics, sure, that makes sense, but it even predicts later reading success, as well as early literacy skills do. early math is cognitively fundamental. it's not just about number and shapes. there's reasoning and thinking imbedded in what we do in early mathematics that forms a foundation for years to come.

>> alright watch me, how many now? >> five. >> how do you know it's five? >> because you had four and now it's five.yo f >> as they play this game, they become quicker and quicker at identifying quantity, and seeing quantity in different arrangements. >> okay, how many are here?" >> six.ray >> watch me. how many now? >> seven.ch eight. >> reporter: university of denver professor julie sarama is the co-creator of building blocks, she's also an expert in childhood learning and married to doug clements. >> children love talking about mathematics. we go way beyond what's the answer, to how did you think about that, how did you get thaw answer, what were you thinking? what are these maurice? >> squares. >> four sides and what else? >> four right angles, >> four right angles! oh my, give me a high five! >> reporter: sara gardner is r with her students, not all early education teachers embrace it.

>> they'll say, 'i never liked math, i'm not a math person.' >> reporter: susan neuman, a professor of early literacy at new york university, advises teams of early education teacher-coaches. while the teacher she's observing on this day get high marks for her style, neuman describes visiting other classrooms where pre-k teachers have struggled to teach even basic math concepts.ea >> the teacher actually said to the children, a triangle has three sizes, rather than "three sides," and then the coach actually had to go to theth blackboard and draw it, and show it had three sides, rather thane three sizes. yet the teacher then repeated, "it has three sizes." >> reporter: how important is the teacher's own comfort level with math when they are teaching math to preschoolers? >> it's extraordinarily important. they have to feel comfortable, but they also have to like it.th

they have to understand things from an understanding of notn only the topic itself, such as math, but how children learn about that topic. >> reporter: that was apparent at this professional developmenp class sponsored by boston public schools, where pre-k teachersc stephanie kudriashova was learning how to teach the building blocks curriculum. what is your own relationship with math, how do you view math? >> honestly, i hate math. no, my instructors would say stephanie, don't say that! i've been working really hard not to be math-phobic, and coming to workshops like building blocks has helped me as an adult. >> reporter: do you think backo on your own childhood, and your own education about math, and think, gosh, i wish i hadab learned this. >> i wish all the time, and today, you know, i actually at one point started getting nervous, and sweating, becausese they gave us something to do, and i was like oh no. >> reporter: you often hear about fads in education.

school districts will be rah- rah, spend a lot of money implementing these curriculums, and then they fade out forse whatever reason. is that a possibility here? >> yeah, it's true, curriculum come and go. we've got to get away from jumping on the bandwagon, andd then jumping on a new band wagon. curriculum may go, but the understandings, the scientific research based understanding of how kids learn, and how you can best support that learning,n should stay. >> reporter: education expertson are now waiting for new research, expected later this year, on the lasting impacts of early math instruction. in boston, i'm cat wise for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, we trace thehe political impasse in congress over funding to prevent and fight the zika virus in the u.s.

that and more is on our webth site, pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: later tonight on pbs, continuing our coverage of 9/11, 15 years later. we air a documentary focusing on the events in and around washington that horrific day. "9/11 inside the pentagon" uses first-hand accounts and rarely seen footage to describe what happened after american airlines flight 77 slammed into the department of defense. >> from where i was standing, you could see these navy personnel who had come to help pull people out of the damaged area, which was the navy command center. when a plane came to it, if you can imagine, a room full of partition furniture, and you have this force coming through there, it's taking all of that furniture and people-- people and everything.

it was kind of in the area where everything had been shoved into. >> ifill: the hour-long program premieres tonight at 8:00 on-l most pbs stations.t and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs ili newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide.>>in >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democraticns

engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security.ocem a at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.ya thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.orgti

this is night business report with tyler mathis heating up, a flurry of deals helps lift the market and to a record close. cracks in the economy. investors t addst to the s be about pace of economic growth? and made in space. one company is bringing the digital future to the final those stories and much more tonight on "nightly business rep for tuesday, september 6th. good evening, everyone. i'm sue herera. tyler mathisen is off evening. call i ove tuesday. germany's bear is sweetening its over for