captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> sreenivasan: good evening. i'm hari sreenivasan. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: police say the driver was planning the deadly new york attack for weeks, as investigators piece together what lead the suspect to extremism. then, crime and punishment. we get the latest on the sentencing hearing of army sergeant bowe bergdahl, who pleaded guilty to deserting his post in afghanistan. and, five years after superstorm sandy devastated new york city, how new construction hopes to prevent history from repeating, and the challenges still ahead. >> the dollars don't show up when the storm shows up. and so, you know, it took three months for congress to decide that they wanted to help the new york region. it took another two years to allocate the funds. >> sreenivasan: all that and

more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language. >> collette.

>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: the federal government charged the suspect in the deadly new york attack, sayfullo saipov on two counts

today: provision of material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization; and violence and destruction of motor vehicles. according to the federal complaint, saipov told authorities he started planning the attack about a year ago, rented a truck about a week before the attack to practice turns, and chose halloween because he thought there would be more civilians nearby. president trump today called saipov an "enemy combatant," threatening to send him to guantanamo. the f.b.i. says a second person is wanted for questioning, mukhammadzoir kadirov, a 32- year-old native of uzbekistan. marcia biggs reports from manhattan on the mood in the city, and what we know now. >> i was sitting in class right there and i was nervous because this is so close to where it happened over there and i was looking out the window just in case. >> reporter: as new yorkers returned to school and work today, forensic investigators

and law enforcement officials were piecing together a clearer picture of what led to the deadly truck attack on a new york city bike path yesterday. police today said the alleged truck driver, sayfullo saipov, had been planning the attack for weeks. saipov immigrated to the u.s. from uzbekistan in 2010 on a visa through the u.s.' immigration lottery program. he worked as a commercial truck driver, and later as an uber driver. police found multiple knives, a pellet gun, and a paintball gun in the vehicle, and say that the attack was likely isis-inspired after saipov was radicalized on u.s. soil. >> he appears to have followed almost exactly to a "t" the instructions that isis has put out in its social media channels before, how to carry out an attack. >> reporter: the victims of yesterday's attack are two

americans, one belgian and five argentines, celebrating the 30th anniversary of their high school graduation with a trip to new york. and boston. at 2:06 p.m., saipov rented the truck from a home depot in passaic, new jersey and drove east towards manhattan, entering the city at 2:43 via the george washington bridge and continuing southbound on the west side highway. at 3:04 p.m., the truck then entered the hudson river bike path at the intersection of west and houston streets. it barreled down the path at a high speed for 16 blocks, hitting the eight victims before colliding with a school bus. two adults and two children onboard were injured. witnesses and police say saipov exited the vehicle waving a gun and yelling. 28-year-old n.y.p.d. officer ryan nash, one of three police officers to first on the scene, then shot saipov in the abdomen, who was then taken into custody.

ryan stroker uses the path every day to take his daughter to school. >> so, picked her up at 3:00. we were stopped at pier 40, where we saw about six bikes completely destroyed. luckily, just missed it. >> we have to get much tougher, we have to get much smarter and we have to get much less politically correct. >> reporter: speaking before a white house cabinet meeting today, mr. trump called for the dissolution of the u.s. immigration lottery visa program, and move to a merit- based system. >> diversity lottery sounds nice. it's not nice. it's not good. it's not good. it hasn't been good. we've been against it. this man that came in or whatever you want to call him, brought in with him other people. and he was the point of contact, the primary point of contact

for, and this is preliminarily, 23 people. >> reporter: fouziah and riyadh davids are visiting from south africa. riyadh plans to run in the new york city marathon this sunday. >> did your heart sink when you found out he was muslim? >> oh, absolutely. he doesn't represent what we stand for. >> reporter: mayor bill de blasio and new york governor andrew cuomo warned against politicizing the matter. >> you play into the hands of the terrorist to the extent that you disrupt and frighten people in society. and the tone now should be of unity. >> reporter: and john miller, of the n.y.p.d.'s counter-terrorism unit, cautioned against blaming a entire group of people for the attack. >> this is not about islam.

it's not about the mosque that he went to. >> as the victims' family begin to grap welwhat happened yesterday, and the city begins to get back to normal, it is important to remember there are still nine people in the hospital tonight, four with critical injuries, one with a do you mean amputation so people here still fighting for their lives tonight, hari. >> sreenivasan: marcia biggs in new york, thank you. i'm joined by jeffrey ringle. he worked at the f.b.i. for more than two decades focussings he worked at the f.b.i. for more than two decades, focusing on counter-terror investigations at the new york field office and abroad. he is now at the soufan group. what stage of the investigation are we at? >> roit now, they're still trying to discover more about the attacker, people he associated with, places he went basically building the background, building the story

on him. >> sreenivasan: there's this overwhelming sense of despair and the idea the authorities have these people on the radar, but they cannot take any action against them. why is that? >> well, it's a little frustrating, and i think people need to understand that law enforcement, the n.y.p.d., the joint terrorism task force, they're having thousands of individuals who have been brought to their attention by people calling in suspicious activity or reporting something that they didn't like. the joint terrorism task force will do an investigation, and then determine if there needs to be more investigation, if the accusations have been validated. if not, the investigations are closed. but there are so many of these allegations coming in, that basically the f.b.i. is overwhelmed. joint terrorism task forces are overwhelmed. >> sreenivasan: we just learned from the most recent press conference, that they found hundreds of videos on his cell phone, images of isis

videos, beheadings, and so forth. it seems the radicalization was happening here, that he didn't have to go to a terror training camp. >> absolutely. and that is the problem that's going to face law enforcement and the intel community for decades to come. social media has made it so easy for these hate mongerrers overseas to press their message to disillusioned individuals here in the united states and throughout the west that one of the trip wires we used to look for, the travel of subjects to terrorist areas, that no longer needs to be done. they're being radicalized over social media. >> sreenivasan: so how do you stop that? do you stop all videos that are coming in and are questionable? youtube seems paralyzed to try to figure out the answer to these things. >> you're walking that fine line between constitutional rights, freedom of expression, you know, freedom of religion and criminality. and that's where-- and this is where i'm saying that the law enforcement, the joint terrorism task force, are overwhelmed

because they may be following people, or they know about people who have these videos or have contact with suspicious email addresses or suspicious websites, but that in itself is not enough to arrest somebody. that is a piece of the investigation. the joint terrorism task force will try to do more investigation, put sources up against the subject, try to get that person to do something where wherethey can then be arrested. but until some violation of law happens, law enforcement, somewhat, have their hands tied. >> sreenivasan: this attack followed almost a textbook. i think there was an isis magazine that put this out, kind of a bookolt how to do this, but we've seen this now in france, in germany, in spain, recently. >> it's the weaponnization of everyday items-- cars, knives. it is-- it's almost ingenious on the part of the isis propagators

to put the message out that just stay where you are and create hate and discontent in your neighborhoods and some people take that message up. >> sreenivasan: finally, is declaring him an enemy combatant a smart move? >> i don't think so. i think that our law-- our legal system has done a tremendous job of trying people in our legal system, in the open, presenting the evidence against these individuals, and then convicting them and, basically, incarc rating them for long periods of time. once you make an enemy combatant and create a different legal is, there's always going to be-- it's not the way to go. we have a legal system. >> sreenivasan: jeffrey ringle, thank you. >> sreenivasan: house republicans are scrambling to finalize a plan to cut taxes, after delaying the release of the bill to buy an extra day of negotiations. members of the house ways and means committee were cloistered

behind closed doors today, but president trump spoke at a white house cabinet meeting. he said he would be standing beside republicans when they debuted the tax plan tomorrow. >> the house ways and means committee will unveil a historic tax plan, that will create new jobs, higher wages, which hasn't happened in many years. and now it's starting to happen, i'm happy to tell you. but it'll lead to tremendous prosperity for american families, communities, and also for our job-producing businesses. >> sreenivasan: in a tweet, president trump also called for using the tax bill to repeal obamacare's individual mandate. a navy investigation has found that two deadly ship collisions this year were caused by preventable errors made by under-prepared crews. the report blamed no one individual, but instead found a broader problem of watch crews that did not adhere to protocol. the u.s.s. "fitzgerald" and u.s.s. "john mccain" crashes left a combined total of 17 sailors dead. npr's news chief, michael oreskes, has resigned following

accusations of sexual harassment. two women accused oreskes of abruptly kissing them while they were discussing job opportunities, when he worked for the "new york times" nearly two decades ago. in a statement, oreskes apologized, saying "my behavior was wrong and inexcusable, and i accept full responsibility." british defense secretary michael fallon also stepped down today in the wake of allegations of inappropriate behavior toward a female broadcaster. earlier this week, a british newspaper reported fallon repeatedly touched the woman's knee at a 2002 event. in a statement today, fallon said his previous conduct had fallen below the high standards of someone in his position. a saudi-led coalition airstrike in yemen today killed at least 29 people, including some children. dozens of people were also injured. the bombs hit a market and a hotel in northern saada province, where the iranian- backed houthi rebels are concentrated. the coalition has waged a punishing air campaign on the houthis since 2015, after they

ousted the yemeni government. some 100,000 civilians have died in the war. back in this country, president trump's commission on the opioid crisis issued its final recommendations today. they include expanding drug courts to all federal districts, increasing access to rehabilitation programs for substance abusers, and more training for doctors. but the commission did not request any additional funding. the report comes nearly a week after the president called the opioid epidemic a "public health emergency." at the united nations today, the u.s. voted against a resolution calling for an end to its trade embargo on cuba. u.n. ambassador nikki haley's "no" vote marks a course change from the obama administration, which sought closer ties with havana. the resolution passed 191 to two, with only israel joining the u.s. in opposing it. and stocks were mixed on wall street today, after the federal reserve left interest rates unchanged. the dow jones industrial average gained more than 57 points to close at 23,435. the nasdaq fell 11 points, and

the s&p 500 rose four. still to come on the newshour: social media faces questions about russia's influence in 2016 election. bowe bergdahl, the marine who left his post in afghanistan, in court. recovering from superstorm sandy, five years later. and much more. >> sreenivasan: what role did social media play in russian efforts to influence the 2016 u.s. presidential election? we now know fake accounts created by moscow reached more americans than the total number of u.s. citizens who voted. for the record, the newshour has worked with both facebook and twitter. the three tech giants were back on capitol hill today. appearing before two separate congressional intelligence committees, facebook, twitter and google lawyers faced tougher

questions than yesterday. first, at the senate intelligence committee. the democrat from california, dianne feinstein: >> i must say, i don't think you get it. that what we're talking about is a cataclysmic change. what we're talking about is the beginning of cyber warfare. we are not going to go away, gentleman. and this is a very big deal. >> sreenivasan: yesterday, facebook admitted that from june 2015 to august 2017, 120 fake russian accounts posted 80,000 times and reached as many as 126 million americans. that number was revised to nearly 150 million today, as 16 million more people were reached by russian instagram posts. all three companies admitted fault, again. facebook's general counsel, colin stretch: >> the fact that foreign actors were able to use our platform to exploit that openness is a

deeply painful lesson for us, and one we're focused on learning from going forward. >> sreenivasan: the representatives vowed to invest more money, time and people to do better. at times, lawmakers used the hearing to draw partisan lines on russia's impact on the election. republican marco rubio: >> these operations, they're not limited to 2016 and not limited to the presidential race, and they continue to this day. they are much more widespread than one election, and it is about our general political climate. is that correct? >> i would certainly agree with that statement, senator. >> sreenivasan: democratic senator from new mexico, martin henrich: >> last month, president trump called russian-purchased facebook ads a hoax. are they, in fact, a hoax? >> no. the existence of those ads were on facebook, and it was not a hoax. >> sreenivasan: the house intelligence committee released dozens of those ads, some exhibited with blown-up versions. lawmakers chided facebook for their existence. all of the ads focused on hot- button, divisive issues, one for an event called "down with

hillary!" by the group "being patriotic." another mirroring the social movement, "black lives matter." back on the senate side, twitter was singled out multiple times. the republican senator from arkansas, tom cotton, questioned where twitter's loyalties lie. >> is it biased to side with america over our adversaries? >> we try to be unbiased across the world. >> sreenivasan: top democratic on the senate committee mark warner expressed doubt over twitters' claim it found only about 2,800 accounts linked to russian operatives. >> i'm concerned that twitter seems to be vastly underestimating the number of fake accounts and bots pushing dis-information. independent researchers have estimated that up to 15% of active twitter accounts or potentially 48 million accounts are fake or automated. >> sreenivasan: representatives from each company said none has yet to identify the full scope of russian interference on their platforms.

>> sreenivasan: the sentencing phase of u.s. army sergeant bowe bergdahl's court martial neared its end today, at fort bragg, north carolina. the soldier pled guilty to severe charges, including desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, which carry heavy prison terms. bergdahl was captured by the taliban in 2009 after he walked away from a military outpost in eastern afghanistan; he was held in captivity for five years. the obama administration engineered a controversial prisoner swap with the taliban in 2014 for his release. for more on bergdahl and the searing testimony at his sentencing hearing, we turn to "new york times" reporter richard oppel at fort bragg. so, the defense has made their case. what was it? >> reporter: well, that's right, hari. the case has a couple of prongz for the defense. one is bergdahl has already paid a huge price for what happened-- five years of horrific torture,

being beat bien copper cables constantly, constant disintery and diarrhea, locked in a cage for four years. they also are presenting mental health testimony that he's had a severe mental disorder for some time, including, in their view, when he boaftion briefly in the coast guard at boot camp and then when he enlisted in the army. they've also put on testimony that when he returned after the prisoner swap in 2014, even though he did not have any sort of promise of protection for prosecution, he was emphatically helpful to intelligence analysts, to debriefers from the pentagon, to anybody in the u.s. government who wanted to talk to him about taliban tactics, about his captors, and anything of that nature. >> sreenivasan: the prosecution still has an opportunity to rebut, but during their side of the case, they brought on some of the family members and some of the members who were injured in the process

of trying to rescue bergdahl. >> reporter: that's right. they had powerful testimony, mainly about one rescue operation, or one mission where a team of six men with some afghan troops, six american men, were trying to gather information from local villagers about where bergdahl might be. this was a little over a week and a half-- i'm sorry, a little over a week after bergdahl had left his base. and one of the men, sergeant first class was shot in the head. he now is unable to speak, read, write, communicate in any way, or even take care of himself. and two other men were wounded on that mission. but most profound injuries were of this one sergeant first class, a national guardsman from georgia, named mark allen. so there was a lot of testimony about his injuries, and also testimony from his wife, shannon, about how much, you know, everything changed enormously for their family, for their two kids and for her.

>> sreenivasan: what about bergdahl's decision to plead guilty to this? what did this change at all? >> well, to a lot of military experts, a conviction was almost certain, in large part due to the fact that bergdahl had talked extensively to army investigators and really, actually, had answered every question put to him by army investigators. so the prosecution already had an enormous amount of evidence through bergdahl's own words to convict him on. so by pleading guilty, you know, what he was doing was basically, you know, in the view of a lot of military law experktz that this was basically a gamble. he's taking absolute contrition and responsibility for what he did. , again, in hopes of demonstrating to the judge, who will decide his punishment, that he has absolutely taken responsibility for what he's done. >> sreenivasan: you know, did the president's comments, both before and after he was elected, factor into this?

>> reporter: yes, so, the comments, the very inflammatory comments that the president had as a candidate, the judge had ruled in february that while they were disturbing comments, he did not think they had prejudiced the case, even though trump had,ob, been elected, and as commande command chief was nn charge of everybody in the military justice system. but then a couple of wiegz another right after bergdahl entered his pleas, trump said words to the effect of, "look, i can't comment on the case, you know, it's about to go before a sentencing hearing, but i think everyone, you know, knows what i've said in the past about that." and so the judge ruled that, you know, he was effectively trying to say to people, you know, everyone-- you know "people know how i feel about this. and i haven't changed my opinion." so on the one hand, the judge did not find that the comments, however hprejudiced the case because, a., he is a decision maker, said was uninfluenced by

his comments, and the judge point thiewtd he is actually going to retire next year. but he also felt that the public had not-- you know, their view of the military justice system had not been really harmed, that perception had not been harmed by the comments. however-- and this is the key thing it's judge said he will take the comments-- he will consider the comment as mitigation evidence when he decides the sentence. it's not clear how much weight he will give those comments-- maybe a little, maybe a lot-- but they will be one factor in sentencing that could help bergdahl receive a lighter sentence. >> sreenivasan: all right, richard oppel of the "new york times," joining. thank you. >> thank you, >> sreenivasan: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: obamacare open enrollment begins under president trump. opposing views on the russia investigation and the new york terror attack. and, a remote alaskan community

that gets 99% of its power from renewable sources. but first, let's go back to new york for a different story. this week marks five years since superstorm sandy. it flooded coastline communities and led to tens of billions of dollars of damage. in new york, there are many plans on how to prepare for-- and withstand-- the worst of another disaster, but turning those ideas into reality remains a huge challenge. it's the focus of our "leading edge" segment tonight. miles o'brien has our report, starting off in queens. >> reporter: on 15th road in broad channel, new york, they're working hard to keep their heads above water, five years after superstorm sandy barreled in. >> what they're doing is basically elevating homes and rebuilding homes all with your idea to get above the 100-year floodplain. >> reporter: new york firefighter dan mundy is the third generation of his family to live on this spit of land in the middle of jamaica bay, not far from kennedy airport.

>> we have a house that's completed here. this was an elevation. the rest of the house was original house, just lifted up ten feet in the air up above flood elevation. >> reporter: but it has taken a long time to get to this point. the federal money and the myriad of government approvals to raise houses, raise the streets, and build seawalls, moved a whole lot slower than the storm. >> i think everybody thought at the get go, we're just going to come in here and do simple construction project. you are probably standing in the most complicated area in the city of new york to build residential homes. >> reporter: nothing here is simple or cheap. down cross bay boulevard, at rockaway beach, i met the city's chief resilience officer, daniel zarrilli, at the recently completed 5.5 mile, $340 million boardwalk-- minus the boards.

>> it's been built out of stronger material, so it's now no longer going to be that projectile that can get thrown across the neighborhoods here. but we've also integrated in with our coastal protections. >> reporter: this concrete rampart against a steadily rising, sometimes raging sea, is buttressed with sand dunes planted with seagrass. but it is only 5.5 out the more than 500 miles of coastline in new york city alone. it's a reminder of the scale of the problem, and the challenge of responding to it in a affordable, timely way. >> the dollars don't show up when the storm shows up. and so, you know, it took three months for congress to decide that they wanted to help the new york region. it took another two years to allocate the funds, and now we're in the process of spending that money. >> reporter: they are pushing plans to build floodwalls and other hard barriers in lower manhattan, east harlem, at hunts point in the bronx, in the redhook section of brooklyn, and in staten island. dunes and bulkheads have been

upgraded, but no concrete has been poured for the more complex projects. meanwhile, the utilities have done some work. verizon replaced its copper phone wires in lower manhattan with fiber-optic cables. and the electric utility, consolidated edison, has fortified the manhattan power plant that flooded and failed in spectacular fashion, and has protected underground lines elsewhere, spending $1 billion. bill de blasio is new york city's mayor. is new york city better prepared for a super storm than it was five years ago? >> yes, and we'll take this very seriously. let's face it, sandy was the ultimate wake-up call for new york city, and it's the worst natural disaster in our history, and we're still feeling the effects. so, we have to change the way we did things. we still have major issues to

address, but we're a very different city today. >> reporter: while private homeowners are now finally making improvements, many people in public housing are still waiting for the work to begin. >> a lot of the issues that are going on here in east river housing are not being addressed. >> reporter: carmen williams is a longtime resident of the east river homes in spanish harlem. >> the layout for what we saw, it looks good on paper but that's not going to help us. we need the work to actually be done. >> reporter: the federal emergency management agency earmarked $3 billion for flood mitigation improvements to new york city public housing. the promised work here includes floodgates and moving the boilers higher. sandy filled the courtyard where we met with knee-deep water. you guys are just as vulnerable as you were five years ago, you think? >> i think so right now, because it's not completed. so if it's not completed and we

don't know where we're at, yeah, we feel just as vulnerable as we did then. >> reporter: community organizer cecil corbin mark is concerned about delays in the east harlem flood protection project. >> it was a physical infrastructure project that was supposed to be completed by last year. it still hasn't been done. and i don't give the city good marks for that because, that means that with the next event, that east harlem residents along 1st avenue on the harlem river drive corridor could be seeing floodwaters at their doorsteps and beyond again, and that's not acceptable. >> climate change is not a hoax! hey-hey, ho-ho! >> reporter: that frustration welled up on saturday as hundreds of protesters staged a rally at the brooklyn bridge, hoping to spur action on the threat posed by climate change, which could spur another superstorm. karen blondel, fifth avenue

>> we're asking the mayor and the governor to get on it now. we don't have time to waste. >> reporter: since sandy, engineers, environmentalists and politicians have spent a lot of time debating the merits of building a massive harbor-wide storm surge barrier, modeled after the huge project that protects netherlands from the north sea. it would take decades and cost tens of billions of dollars. >> i'm very interested in it, if there's a way to do it. it might be one of the better solutions, but i know i can't wait for it. so, i think we end up recognizing we've got to take all the actions we can here and now. >> reporter: and here and now looks a lot more green than gray. dan mundy knows a lot about this. >> we're in jamaica bay, and we're going out to the most recently restored, wetland island. >> reporter: in 2013, he led a community effort to rebuild some of the islands of jamaica bay that he remembered from his younger days. discharges from sewage treatment

plants had polluted the bay, killing the marsh grass. the islands got swallowed up by the water. >> we were looking to restore these islands, and we used the old footprint of where they were before they were degraded, and got together with partners like the national park service. >> reporter: mundy's two islands are now flourishing here. he hopes to build more. scientists concluded the natural wetlands prevented $625 million in sandy related flood damage from maine to north carolina. it's nature's speed bump. new york city faces its own hurdles as it looks to build out the defenses it envisions. once it finishes its $20 billion plan, using city and federal money, there is no more resiliency funding for new york in the pipeline from washington. >> my fear is, in the absence of a federal policy, it ends up being a catch-as-catch-can approach. and the jurisdictions that are

more focused will get more done, and the jurisdictions that have proportionally more resources will get more done, and others will be left very, very vulnerable. >> reporter: those vulnerabilities have been highlighted again and again this --n uston, florida and puerto rico. many predicted superstorm sandy would trigger us to harden our infrastructure, and perhaps in some cases, retreat from the water. but the pull of this special place is strong for people like dan mundy. you guys aren't retreating, are you? >> no, so that's is a strong opinion about that down here. these are generations of families that have lived down here. they love the water. we know we're at risk. we'll take the risk. we're willing to take it. >> reporter: with the help of taxpayer subsidized flood insurance of course. five years after superstorm sandy, new yorkers are determined to hold their ground against a rising tide of water, and ebbing interest from

washington to join the fight. in new york, i'm miles o'brien for the pbs newshour. >> sreenivasan: president trump has made it clear he remains strongly opposed to the affordable care act, or what's been referred to as obamacare. and the president says he hopes to make another run at eventually repealing it. but for now, it remains the law. and today is the opening of sign-up season for the insurance marketplaces. lisa desjardins helps guide us through what people need to know. >> desjardins: the president's feelings and beliefs about the affordable care act are about more than just words. there are significant changes in store for this enrollment period. for one thing, there's a shorter amount of time to sign up for insurance through the federal exchanges: enrollment lasts six weeks, until december 15. that is half of what it used to

be. while this marketplace accounts for only a fraction of overall healthcare coverage in the u.s., more than 10 million people signed up for their health care this way last year. mary agnes carey of kaiser health news is here to help fill in the picture. thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> let's start with what changed? >> i think there's a lot of confusion. people are wondering is it even here? is anyone participating? will i still get help on the exchanges? as we know healthcare.gov is open for business as of today. we have seen big drops in advertising. the federal government will spend 90% less this year in advertising, they're spending 40% less for the on-the-ground people who help you walk through the health insurance navigators and assistors. the insurance brokers and insurance agents are out there to help you, but the reduction in the navigator is causing concern because they did a lot

of community events all over the country. >> a number of people are watching to see if the number of insured drops but there are those who are trying to counter-act this, including president obama himself. >> president obama was on twitter and facebook asking people to go to healthcare.og, and get america covered, former obama administration officials trying to get the word out about enrollment. a lot of advocates for the affordable care act are going to be doing the same thing. >> let's talk about what the state of individual markets means for individuals. what we know from the department of health and human services, they expect in the next year the average monthly premium will go up 37%. that's for the benchmark plan. and they believe 29% of americans, nearly one-third, will have just one insurer on the individual market in their county. now, tell me, exactly, mary agnes, who will be hardest hit? we know individual markets affect different people differently. >> the hardest people who will

be hit are the people who buy insurance on the individual market but don't qualify for about financial assistance. that's roughly five million people. when we hear about the premium jumps, they're getting hit 100%. one thing they can think of this year is look for health care plans not on the affordable care act exchanges, because for a variety of formula funding reasons, they jumped up in price perhaps more than those not on the exchanges so that could be an alternative this year. >> people who get subs dreez individuals making just about 48,000 and family of four $98,000. talk about how some of those people might actually see some benefits or better options this year. >> absolutely. due to some quirks in the marketplace, what might happen is the plan you had last year, especially if it were a silver plan, might be more expensive than a gold plan pup might be able to get a bronze plan for less money, perhaps, even a zero

premium. that's why it's really important to go back. your subsidy amount is likely to rise this year so you might be able to buy a better plan for that money. >> and it has to do with the fact that a law in place the administration opposes, and the forces are leading to situations that aren't necessarily logical. >> there are also a lot of factors that added to the premium increase. there were some concerns about, perhaps, people who got in who were sick, more costly, the medical costs were higher in a certain area. there was a particular subsidy that helped people with cost sharing that went away, so rates went up to accommodate for that. but the bottom line is what you had last year may not be what is best for you next year. >> that's the advice. what do people need to do right now in this market? >> get help, if you can get it. and remember to move early because this year, as you noted, the open-enrollment season is done by december 13. if you're in california, your state exchange will allow to you

enroll until january 31. >> people need to start look now, shop around, and need to realize they will not have as much time. and one other thing, of course, the individual mandate is still the law of the land. so if people don't sign up for insurance they could be risking a penalty. >> that's absolutely right. >> mary agnes carey, thank you so much. >> sreenivasan: the president responds to another terror attack on u.s. soil, while republicans on capitol hill continue to debate the path forward on tax reform. and trump campaign associate are handed indictments, in a federal probe into 2016 election interference. john yang has that. >> yang: thanks, hari. for two different perspectives on these top stories, we're joined by karine jean-pierre, a senior adviser to moveon.org, a contributing editor to bustle, which is an online women's magazine, and a veteran of the obama administration. and, chris buskirk, editor of the conservative blog

americangreatness.org, and a radio talk host out in phoenix. welcome to you both. chris, i'd like to start with you. much is being made about the difference or the seeming difference between president trump's response to the shootings in las vegas, and this attack yesterday in ne new york. after las vegas he said it's not time for a policy debate. this time he seemed to jump into a policy debate, and identified chuck schumer, the democratic senate leader in the senate. what do you make of this, chris? >> it's because we know a key fact that is different in these two incidents, and i think that key fact kind of drives where the debate goes. you know, in las vegas had we had this lone gunman not acting on ideology, at least one one

that was discernible. in new york, we had somebody acting on a knowable ideology, an ideology that we have unfortunately seen come back and kill thousands of americans time-- over time has killed thousands of americans, has killed thousands of people throughout the west. so we can sort of get past that part and say what drove this person to do it? we know that. we than already with the new york attacker. it was islamic supremacism. he said so. we can say what do we do about it? is there a way to make americans safer? and what the president was reacting to was saying we played the so-called diverse lottery on immigration and we lost. let's try to change policy again of in a way that will make americans more safer, more protected. >> karine. >> first i want to say my thoughts and prayers go out to the families in new york city that was affected by this horrific event. i'm from new york. i grew up there. new york is incredibly

resilient, and i know they will bounce back. look, terrorism should not be plilt sized, and it is troubling and pretty shameful that that's the first place that this president went to in the aftermath of this horrific event. and, look, there is a stark difference. let's be very clear-- in las vegas you had a white man who killed 58 americans and injured more than 600 people. the white house was silent on his motive. they were silent about him. and they took a page out of a playbook of "n "n" r.a., and dit want to talk about how to present these types of mass shootings. and last night with the eight people dead and 11 people injured, it was he couldn't wait. he ran to twitter and started tweeting about immigration policy expect then after, that he went and attacked a new york senator who was busy trying to figure out how he's going to help out his constituents and help out the responders in new york city, and that's what he

decided to do. and there is, also, this type of kind of thing that he continues to do, which is-- like he did with the san juan mayor, which is attack local officials who are trying to do the best that they can with what's happening in-- with their constituency in their city and their state. >> chris, i want to pick up on that point about going after chuck schumer. yes, he did introduce the legislation when he was in the house that led to the diversity veez-- diversity visa lottery. but he also tried to get rid of it, the gang of eight, the immigration overhaul, that died-- that passed the senate but died in the house, the republican house. is that-- i think a lot of people were taken by that, by immediately making-- trying to make schumer the culprit in this. >> yeah, well, look, i say this-- and i say this for both sides of the aisle-- let's let politics be political, you know.

and when we have something that requires a policy response, i say, fine, let's have at it, and let's have that debate because americans' lives on the line. when it comes to chuck schumer specifically in this case, i think the good news for senator schur is he's going to get another bite at the apple. if he really wants to repeal the diversity lottery program that he was in part responsible for-- he sponsored it in the house-- he's going to get another chance to do that and he should sponsor a clean bill, an up-or-down bill, that repeals that, if that's what he's serious about. >> the problem is not senator chuck schumer. the problem is the president of the united states, when at times like these, past presidents -- both democrats and both republicans-- have unified this country and brought peopling in the these times and he just refuses to do that. he refuses to grow into the office of the presidency. he wants to divide and just continue to govern for a very small part of this country. >> chris, another big event this week, of course, the first charges by the mueller

investigation on monday. we're now seeing reports that the president is being advised by some-- some advisers to get a little tougher in this, to be a little more combative, taking on mueller, maybe even talk about trying to cut off the funding for the investigation. do you think that would be a good idea? >> yeah, i don't know if it would be a good idea to-- to cut off the funding for the investigation. that's a-- that's a purely political question. it's a complicated one. what i will say is i think a lot of attention needs to be paid to robert mueller and rod rosenstein, for that matter, too. these are two people i think the more we dig into their records, particularly when you look at something like uranium 1, they're deeply compromised. and i think it bears keeping the spotlight on them as well. i mean, these indictments over the weekend, after all the ink that's been spilled, all the hyperventilating about russian collusion, the only thing robert mueller can come up is a 15-year-old tax fraud case?

it begars belief that this is what he's doing, and you have to wonder why. >> i think this is just the beginning of robert mueller's investigation. we have a long ways to go. look, i think donald trump has made this really clear as to what he thinks about this investigation. he thinks it's a hoax. this is what he's told the american people. and we should really listen to him and believe him when he says that paps we saw with former f.b.i. director comey, he's not afraid to obstruct. he's not afraid to fire-- to fire people. so i think we have to be really mindful. we can't-- i think congress needs to really make sure that they protect mueller, they protect his budget, they protect the investigation. because if donald trump does, indeed, fire mueller, we will be in a constitutional crisis. >> you know, chris, i always sort of turn to you-- you've got a very good feel for the president's base. he called "the new york times" this afternoon to tell them that he's really not angry over this, over this russian investigation, over the indictments. does his base want him to be

angrier about this and to fight back on this? >> i think-- i don't know about angry. that's the wrong word. i think that the base looks at the mueller investigation and says this is not about-- this is not about donald trump, per se. he is, of course, talked about a lot with regard to the mueller investigation. this is basically about what we found out is a clinton campaign/d.n.c. dirty trick cooked up last week, right. they paid for the yiewgz g.p.s. dossier, and this is something that has now been turned into a cooked up scandal. it's a beltway scandal that is trying to overturn the results of the election. and so, do people who support the president want him to be angry? no, but maybe "indignant" say better way, saying why are we allowing this to go on? we had the election. we know that this is really something that was cooked up during the campaign to try to win the election. that didn't work. and so now it's being used as a way to try to undermine the exprt prevent him from governing after the election.

people don't like that. and i do think people want that story to be told. >> quickly. >> well, there's a larger part of the population that wants to know exactly what happened. we have a foreign government that compromised-- potentially compromised our election and that's cornerstone of our democracy. >> karine, that has to be the last word. karine jean-pierre, chris buskirk, thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks, >> sreenivasan: kodiak, alaska is not only home to brown bears and abundant fishing grounds, but also one of the most innovative power grids in the country. from alaska public media, rachel waldholz reports. >> reporter: kodiak, alaska is all about fish. from commercial fishermen, to the island's four-legged residents, everyone depends on seafood. james turner manages the ocean beauty seafood plant. the town's half-dozen processors serve the second busiest fishing port in the nation.

>> this is a 24-hour plant, so we run around the clock. this plant will do 40 to 91 million pounds a year. >> reporter: processing all that fish takes a lot of power. and in kodiak, all that power comes from renewable sources right here on the island. kodiak decided to aim for nearly 100% renewable energy back in 2007. >> there was risk. there was engineering risk. there was construction risk. it was, it was taking a leap. >> reporter: jennifer richcreek works for the kodiak electric association, the local co-op that runs the community's power grid. a decade ago, the co-op had a problem: the cost of diesel. back in the '90s, kodiak got just about all of its electricity from a hydro dam. but as demand increased they had to use diesel generators more often, and diesel costs were going through the roof. >> we were burning millions of gallons of diesel oil. it was a very vulnerable position. diesel is very expensive. its price is very volatile. >> reporter: so the co-op decided to harness something kodiak has a lot of: wind.

but wind isn't always easy to work with. >> wind is a wild child. you don't know when it's going to blow, you don't know how long it's going to blow. >> reporter: it's that variability that communities across the country, large and small, are struggling with as they try to add more renewable energy to their grids. the way you deal with that? energy storage. >> energy storage is the hot topic in renewable energy because of the variable nature of solar and wind. to be able to stabilize that energy storage is huge. >> reporter: kodiak's first solution was a bank of batteries. wind can drop away in a moment, but it takes minutes for the hydro power to ramp up behind it. the batteries bridge that gap. they absorb excess power when the wind is blowing hard, then release that energy back into the grid as the wind drops. but just as engineers figured out how to balance wind and water, a new challenge was brewing over at the port. >> our old crane was diesel- powered, it was fairly small, and it started breaking down

quite a bit. >> reporter: rick kniaziowski manages the kodiak shipping terminal for the company matson. >> so we'll go up to the elevator and then head up to the third floor. >> reporter: the company wanted to install a new, larger, electric crane. that was a big ask. >> how do we supply that much power, that fast, while maintaining all of the other power quality factors throughout the grid to keep it stable? so, took some time to think about it, modeled it out, and came to the decision that the flywheel could do the job. >> reporter: just like the batteries, it's a kind of energy storage. >> a flywheel is a massive piece of steel and it's spinning in a frictionless environment hovered by magnets, which is so cool. >> reporter: it does sound cool, but it looks-- well, it looks like a trailer parked along the side of a road. in practice, it works a bit like the braking system on an

electric car. as the crane lifts a shipping crate, it draws a bunch of power from the grid, pulling energy from that spinning flywheel, but when that container is lowered back to the ground, the crane's braking system generates electricity. the flywheel stores nearly all the energy required to power the next lift. >> there are no grids this small that operate an electric crane. so this was kind of a leading edge. >> reporter: the result is a grid like nowhere else on the planet. and they've managed to do that while keeping electricity costs slightly lower than they were a decade ago. for kodiak, that means a local source of power that isn't vulnerable to swings in the price of oil. jennifer richcreek believes the lessons learned here could help communities around the globe. >> as renewables continue to grow and displace fossil fuels, it will require a shift in infrastructure design. so we're collecting the data, we're modeling it, we're sharing it. and that could help other communities follow kodiak to more than 99% renewable power. for the pbs newshour, i'm rachel waldholz in kodiak, alaska.

>> sreenivasan: on the newshour online right now: a "momentous" u.s. supreme court term is underway, and a legal tsunami is heading toward the justices. that's according to marcia coyle, newshour regular and correspondent for the national law journal. she shares a guide to watching the big cases this term, which is on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. and tune in later tonight. on pbs, "frontline" presents part two of their documentary, "putin's revenge." with representatives from facebook, twitter and google on capitol hill this week, the timely film looks at what motivated vladimir putin to target american democracy through the 2016 election and how the u.s. struggled to confront the russian leader. "frontline" airs tonight on most pbs stations. and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, we'll speak to the texas republican congressman behind the tax overhaul. i'm hari sreenivasan. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you

and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> bnsf railway. >> collette. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world, by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at www.rockefellerfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals.

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for several centuries, scotland was ruled from london. parliament hadn't met here since 1707. recently, the scots voted to bring their parliament home, and london didn't object. in the year 2000, edinburgh resumed its position as home of scotland's parliament. scotland's strikingly modern parliament building opened in 2004. the catalan architect enric miralles mixed bold windows, wild angles, and organic themes into a startling complex that would, as he envisioned, "surge from out of the rock and into the city."

>> rose: welcome to the program. we begin tonight with more on the mueller investigation. we talked to phil rucker of "the washington post." >> i was here -- it was here at "the washington post" in 2016 where then candidate donald trump revealed george papadopolous as a list of advisors for his foreign policy team and during that same trip to washington trump was actually photographed in a meeting with papadopoulos and other foreign policy advisors as well as then senator now attorney general jeff sessions. so papadopoulos, i do not know him to be a major figure in this campaign but he certainly was involved in the campaign and a foreign policy advisor by the candidate's own announcement.