captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. t newshour tonight, president trump's conflicting statements sow confusion on how the white house views the threat of russia to u.s. democracy. en, we explore what we know moscow is doing now to disrupt this year's elections and u.s. efforts to secure the vote. plus, as carbon changes the ocean's chemistry and makes it ha,er for shellfish to grow researchers turn to plants for i solu. >> what we're trying to do is deliberately grow kelp within a specific area and thereby remove co2. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new 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. s >>porting 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 alemelson.org.

>> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. morg information at macfound >> 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. >> woodruff: more wh at the white house today over russian interference in u.s. elections. it came as president trump appeared to dismiss the threat, and denied that he ducked confrontion with president vladimir putin. >> there's been no president ever as tough as i have been on russia. >> woodruff: the president used a cabinet meeting to insist he's been firm with russia, at thet

helsinki sumd beyond. >> i think president putin knows that better than anybodyce ainly a lot better than the media he understands it and he's not happy about it.f: >> woodrhen came a potential new bombshell, when a reporter asked m trump if russia is an active threat. >> is russia still targeting the u.s., mr. present? >> thank you very much. no. >> you don't believe that to be the case? >> we're finished here. >> woodruff: that seemed to contradict the director ofna onal intelligence, dan coats, who warned last week thae russia is, i still trying to penetrate the american democratic process. >> what's serious about ther russians is thtent. they have capabilities, but it's their intent to undeour basic values, undermine etdemocracy, create wedgesen us and our allies. >> woouff: it was left to white house press secretary sarah sanders to say just what the presidt meant by his answer today. >> i had a chance to speak to the president after those

s,comments, the president said "thank you very much" was saying no to answering questions. we're making bold reforms to make sure this never happens again because we take this seriously and becaus recognize our election system are incredibly important and a cornerone of our democracy. >> woodruff: >> woodruff: all of this, after mr. trump appeared to accept the argument of russia's president putin, on monday, that moscow did not interfere in the 2016 s. presidential electio that touched off a storm of bipartisan criticism, and yesterday, mr. trump claimed he i.simply misspoke in helsi >> in a key sentence in myhe remarks i saidord "would" instead of "wouldn't." the sentences should have been i don't see any reason why i wouldn't or why it wouldn't be russia. >> woodruff: after that, some republicans, like senator bob

corker, chair of the foreign relations committee, had seemed ready to give the president the benefit of the doubt. but then, came his commes today. >> i don't know what it is about the president's relationship with putin that causes him to doubt, to trust him over our intelligence community but it's really damaging morale. th's baffling to those of us who have concerns abe integrity of our elections. >> he's walking back the walk back. >> woodruff: senate minority leader chuck sumer lambasted mr. trump's tuesday clarification as "weak" and said the president would need another walk-back, after what he said today. and, he called for the u.s. translator in the trump/putin one-on-one meeting to testify. >> the translator works for the federal government, works for the taxpayers, and maybe the only person who can accurately report what president trump said to president putin behind closed

doors, what concessions were made to vladimir putin. we want to know, did the president make concession that hurt tour national security, what did he agree to? >> woodruff: in a series of tweets this morning, the pr summit with putin was a "success." he wrote tt "so many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press confee nce harforma helsinki." and, he declaredrussia had offered to assist u.s. nuclear talks with north korea. secretary of state mike pompeo heso talked up progress at summit, sitting next to the president today. >> we can now begin to have important dialogues to put that relationship in a place where we reduce the risk to the united states from threatfrom russia. >> woodruff: but adding to the ongoing furor, mr. trumpin an interview that aired last night, appeared to question again the

reason for nato, and its bedrock pledge to mutual defense among allies, designed with russia in mind. >> why should my son go to montenegro to defend it from attack. why is that? >> i understand what you're saying, i've asked the same question, montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people. >> yeah, i'm not against montenegro. >> yeah, right >> or albania. >> no, by the way, they're very strong people, they have very aggressive people, they may get aggressive, and congratulations, you're in world war iii. m >> woodrufbers of both parties are now demanding that tp national security and diplomatic officiatify before congress, and disclose any deal mr. trump may have struck with putin. secretary pompeo will be first up. a week from today. late today, cbs news released part of their interview with president trump where he claims he told vladim putin the u.s. ll not tolerate election interference.

>> do you hold him personally responsible? >> well, i would, because he's in crge of the country. just like i consider myself to be responsible for things that happen in this country. so certainly as the leader of a country you would have to hold him responsible, yes. >> what did you say to him? >> very strong on the fact that we can't have meddling, we can't have any of that. >> woodruff: and newshour white house correspondent yamiche alcindor joins me now. yamiche, you've gone from the president saying in helsinki that he was inclined tove bel vladimir putin to then saying he misspoke and then the back andda forth and now this comment that he holds vladimir puti personally responsible. what do we understand at this point about what the president believes? >> well, based on his conversationith cbs news, he's saying that he does holend presputin personally responsible for election interference but, at the same time, is contricting the intelligence community who has said over and over again that

russia medydled man if election and putin ordered it personag y. he's sayinm a bit responsible for things that happen in general in the unitedu statesh as putin is responsible in general for things that happen at russia. i would assume a lot of people would say he's not being asht forthrt he should be. the president did not walk back other things he said in theen press conf. it's not just the would and wouldn't, it's the fact that he said that the f.b.i. and doj were having witch hunt, a probe that was hurting u.s.-russia relations.id het say he takes that back or that putin offers strong denial and he base bastecally was taking him at his wrd. that is something he did not walk back so, while the esident was sayg there are clarifications that need to be made he isn'thanging all the things that happened at the press conference i attended. >> woodruff: one of the things, it's not clear because itid sound and may still sound

as if the president is equating the u.s. intelligence community in terms of its cdibility with ia's president putin. >> well, i asked sarah sanders directly on thiofs questio whether or not the president was having a false equivalency. i said specifically, after charlottesville, virginia, when the young woman was killed whi protesting neo-nazis, the president got a lot of backlash for nying there was violence both sides. then in finland before the world the president said both parties, both vladimir putin and the u.s. intelligence agencies had their issues when it comes to the russian election interference, and why is he putting them both on these equal playing fields? sarah sanders said, one, it was not fair to putot chasville and russia on the same -- compare them at all, that they shouldn't be compared. she also said the united states and the trump administration takes election interference very seriously and are looking into this. that said, the president didn't back up or backtrack from what

he said when he said bot parties had issues with when russia interfered in the he's not taking that back. >> woodruff: how are republicans handling this? some are giving the plicans the benefit of the doubt, others have come out in a way never before and queioned and even criticized him. >> some republicans like senator rand paul and conescollins coming out and saying they agree with the president that they have issue with the mueller probe, that they question whether or not russia interfered like they claimed and then you have newt gingrich who came out and clarified himself and you have senator liney graham and richard burr of north carolina both saying the president needs to be way more forceful on this, both republicans. republicans have noed back on this president very much but deese two and others republicans are saying the pre needs to get this right and he need to be more clear about. at's the other thing th happening, democrats are using this to fund raise just the d

triple c said today they raised in june $15.2 million. james comey is also coming out urging people vote for democrats. of course that's the former f.b.i. director president trump fired, so democrats are seein this as a wy to win in the midterms. >> woodruff: democrati congressional campaign committee raising money. >> yes. >> woodruff: yamiche alcindor, the story continues. thank you. >> thas. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, a fedel judge ordered a russian woman jailed without bond, on charges she infiltrated american politicalroups and aided russian intelligence. maria butina is formally accused of being an unregistered foreign agent. prosecutors argued she's a flight risk. her lawyers called the charges overblown.ro the an union hit google with a record fine of $5 billion today for allegedly abusing its corporate power. regulators said the u.s. tech giant forced smart phone makers to use its android operating system to install google's search and browser apps.

google immediately announced plans to appeal.'l have a full report, later in the program. in thailand, 12 young soccer players made their first public appearance since they were rescued last week from a flooded cave complex. neil connery of indet television news has our report. >> reporter: looking happy and strongfter all they've endured, the twelve boys and their coach rescued from the flooded thai caves. the wild boars football team f speaki the first time adul sam-on, who's 14, spoke of the moment british divers found them: >> ( translated ): i did not know what to say to him, i said hello, and then he said hello back, it was a miracle, he said, how are you, how many of you? >> how many of you? 13? brilliant. >> reporter: the boys considered swimming out when sudden rains flooded the caves. they had no food until they were

found nine days later, surviving only on dripping water. >> ( translated ): i triedo go underwater and dig to see if we could get through, but all i could feel was sand and rocks, we couldn't get out that way. >> reporter: titan, the youngest member of the team, at 11, talked of how hungry he was. >> ( translated ): i tried not to think about food, i didn't think of my favorite meals, i just thought of plain normal dishes like fried rice. >> reporter: the boys said they will never forget the thai navye seal whotrying to rescue them. they've written messages for samarn kunam's family. >> ( translated ): please rest in peace, we feel sorry for your family, i want to say youfo your sacrifice. >> reporter: the boys are now finally heading home, and know there's a bit of explaining to do. >> ( translated ): i want to apologize to my parents, when i get home i know i'll get yelled

at by my mum. f >> reporter: b now there's relief and joy for families reunited. >> woodruff: that report from neil connery, of indnt television news. another migrant tragedtoday in the mediterranean. 19 people drowned off northern cyprus when their boat capsizeco the turkish t guard rescued more than 100 others, and helicopters aiifted them to turkey. 25 people were still misng. a two-year-long state of emergency in turkey expired tonight. president recep tayyip erdogan imposed it in 2016 after a failed coup against his government. since then, authorities have detained 75,000 people and fired about 130,000 public employees. now the government plans new anti-terror la, and erdogan's opponents charge he'll use them to stifle dissent. back in this country, the state supreme court of californiano blocked mber ballot

measure to split the state into three parts. supporters argue the state has grown too big and too diverse to govern. but, the court ruled it needs more time to hear questions about the proposal's validity. the measure might still appear on some future ballot. republican congresswoman martha roby has won a primary runoff, defeating a democrat-turned- trump loyalist. the four-term incumbent got president trump's endorsement, despite criticizing him as candidate during the 2016 campaign. the president took credit for roby's win, in a tweet today. and,n wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 79 points tolose at 25,199. the nasdaq was down a fraction of a poi, and the s&p 500 added six. still to come on the newshour: the risk russian hackers pose to the midterm elections. u.s. commerce secretary wilbur ross under fire for his

investmes. the plant that could reduce pollution's effects on the ocean, and much more. >> woodruff: u.s. intelligence agencies are unanimous in their assessment that russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and senio officials warngoing efforts to do it again in the 2018 midterms. t, examine the threat and what's being done to stop'm joined by two women with recent and extensive experience focusing on voting infrastructure and russiandd ng in the u.s. juliette kayyem worked in the department of meland security in the obama administration and led a review of state election systems. and laura rosenberger is director of the bipa project, alliance for securing democracy, which is based at the

german marshall fund and tracks foreign interference in the u.s. and europe. she previously worked in the state department and on the national security council staf during the obama administration. we invited the department of s homelaurity to be on tonight's program but no one was available. i want to welcome both of you to the program i'm going to start with you, laura rosenberger. tell us a little bit about the project. we heard the man who heads intelligence for the country, director of natlio intelligence dan coats, say last friday, he said russia has been the most aggressive foreign tor, no question, they continue their efforts to undermine our democracy. what is your project on the lookout for? >> that's right, judy. and what we see, actually, is exactly consistent with the kinds of things that director of national intelligence coats was outlining. we're looking at trying t understand and expose the full range of tactics th russia is using to undermine our democracy. one of the things we see consistently is the kind of

engagement on social media, thet divisions hey're playing, that they're trying to further hivide americans against eac other, weighing in on hot button issues. we're tracking the kinds of messaging they're promoting trying to polarize americans even further. >> woodruff: so soci media you're monitoring and what else? >> we're also looking at the ways that tinat'rsecting with cyber attacks. one of the things we know that happioed in the 2016 ele of course, was the use of hacking, combining that with releasing that information, promoting that on social media, we're looking out for that kindt of aivity. we're looking at the ways that elicit financing and money laundeng may be used. what you were talking about with the maria butina case, ang interesttegory in that realm of things, trying to understand the full picture of what's happening. >> woodruff: juliette kayyem, you are looking at ways toen prthis from harming our

electoral system, our democracy. what would you add to what laura said? >> a cple of things, first, we should anticipate that 2018, the attempts to get into state and local election systems will be more persistent, better sourced, longer term. so the fight has started no because the election is very soon. i think the other issue is that the failure -- i mee need to think about elections as any other type of critical infrastructure -- water, the electrical grid, nuclear system, all of them are critical infrastructure that makes our systems work, that help us live. ection system is now part of that, and the sort of lack of focus by the federal government on thiles right now, at from the white house perspective, and even questns about whether 's ongoing as we saw today, really does undermine the tremendous activity on the state and local level. this is a homeland security issue. this is being fought, you know, on the street street corner, not, y knw -- it's not a war abroad. so we need to empower our ccretaries of state and lal

officials in ways that just aren't being done sufficiently right now, given one would anticipate the russians want toa do it agin. >> woodruff: now, some of the reates, juliette kayyem, are being movigilant than others. they are beginning working on what are they doing? >> so there's a couple of things, and i think it's really important for people to understand that putting the wd "cyber"before security doesn't make it different than any other security. essentially you want to avoid the single point of failure.t you dont the one access point to bring the system down. what we've learned over time is cyber defenses are the same as enses.al security def you want a layered system you want conol control access information, you want to isolate information, you want to make sure your vendors are taking security seriously becausehere is a private sector component. >> woodruff: vendors meaning who? >> i'morry, third-party vendors. so a lot of these election systems, the ballot boxes, the electrical boxes are actually owned or actually run and owned

and operated by other -- by company, essentiay, so there a private sector component to it. so i think if we can just sort of take the sort of mysticism of ber, you know, sort of out of this and just say how would you want to t up a security system, this is what states are doing and they're also, obviously, educating their election personnel to ensure if anything we to happen on election day, that they have a quick response or are able to protect the system. essentially it gets back to you do not want to have a single int of failure. u need the layered defenses and we know how to build them. >> woodruff: laur, rosenberlearly the russian knows the u.s. is on guard at this point. this year they must be trying difference thing what do you see that is different or better or more sophisticad from them now? >> yeah, that's right. one of the things dan coats has said is we think they have learned lessons and we think they're adopting those as

they're looking at new ways to divide americans. so some of the things we see ise themghing in on things like , e n.f.l. protests, whether it was, you knod or bad, appropriate or not for n.f.l. players to be taking a knee during the nationa national ant. we sawccounts on twitter tht have now been identified as ones created by the internet research agency but were pretending to be americans, a council that had -- accounts that had tens of thousandof followers, weighin in on both sides of that issue. we've seen social media accounts oat we now knw were operated by the internet research agency in st. petersburg weighing in on issues like the #metoo movement, things like roseanne bar's racist comments. so we see these kinds of activities trying to stoke tensions within america. >> woodruff: you mentioned a minute ago, juliette scwwlt, that you're still waiting for the federal government to do more to pull this together. the white house, the department

of homeland security says they're working on this, what more needs to be done fromin washington an the state? >> so i think we need to view this as a threat to any other critical inrastructure. we do not leave transportation security to the states and eycals. we distribute mo we have actually oversight from the fedalerspective, and off focus from the federal -- and you have t focus fromhe federal government. that may be true from the agency side of department of homeland security is clearly working with states and locals in this regard, but until we begin from the white house and president's statements to understand that this battle to protect our systems has begun, already, as dan coats has said, you're notgo g to get the focus you need to on the state and local level, and we need to t treat ihat way. we need to treat this as a critical infrastructure threat, just like we would i foreign entity went after our electrical grid. we would not say it's nebraska's problem, it's, you know, shington's problem. we would say, you know, this is a national security problem.

>> woodruff: and do you see just quickly, laura rosenberger, thmefederal gove weighing in -- monitoring this as it needs to? >> i think there is activity being done to monitor this. it's not as it needs to. similar to what juliette just described on the cyber security side, on the disinformation, informion side, this is a challenge that requires working across different parts of the federal government, with the private sector, the th csector. this is a complex problem that requires a whole bunch of people coming together that requires political leadership from the top and that, unfortunately, is what we're missing now. >> woodruff: and the alarm bells couldn't get an louder than they, are given what dans coe director of national intelligence has been saying. >> that's right. >> woodruff: thank boh both you. clearly, we'll continue to watch this story, as important as is. laura rosenberger, juliette kayyem, thank you both. >> thank you. s, judy.

>> woodruff: the pre promised to "drain the swamp," as he put it, when he was running for office and since he was inaugurated, but several top officials in his cabinet and administration have come under sharp scrutiny. one cabinet head that's entting more aon of late is the secretary of commerce, wilbur ross. amna nawaz has a look at the etscs concern about mr. ros own finances and meetings while in office. >> nawaz: judy, last week, the acng director of the u.s. office of government ethics sent a letter to secretary ross criticizing the commerce secretarfor failing to fully divest stocks by january 15, 2017, 18 months ter ross agreed to do so. the letter stated "your failure to divest created the potential for a serious criminal viotion on your part and undermined public confidence." ross has sce admitted to "inadvertent errors" and announced he has finally sold

all equity holdings but questions about the timing of ross's actions as secretary related to his personal wealth remain. dan alexander of "forbes" has been covering the story and his reporting was cited by the office of government ethics in that letter last week. he joins me now.de dan alex welcome to the "newshour". i want to ask you about some of your latest reporting. s you lookedecifically at secretary ross' calendar, specifically between february emand novr of 2017. those were his first few month fice. what about that time raised red flags for you? >> we started looking through it and, immediately, you can see there are dozens of meetings with companies in which secretarross that did financial interests or ties to the company. there are also meetings with foreign leaders that have oversight over businesses that he owned at then time,d there are also meetings with sovereign wealth funds thavit presly pumped millions of dollars into secretary ross' private equity funds. >> so look specifically at one day, for examp7,, may 18, 2

you detail in your reporting, it's a busy day for the secretary, has meetings with foreign officials, trade hearing, some calls. there's one lunch you hone in on, one that lasts in lnger than any other meeting, a lunch with the c.e.o. of aia lcar manufacturer called greenbriar companies.ha why ist significant? >> it's shocking when we saw it on the calendar. you can see it's listed as lunch with wendy and bill fuhrmano if you at see who bill fuhrman is, you can see he is the c.e.o. of greenbriar companies and wen appears to be wilbur ross' secretary of staff. so ons thee.o. of greenbriar, one is wilbur ross and the third appears to be we ty teramoto. e time wilbur ross had a secret interest in greenbriarev which he disclosed to ethics officials and had this interest while having this meeting, went ials had a financial interest in greenbriar. three at the meeting, two haved

undisclo the public interests in the company that the third person is running. what ty discussed abouts going to be a question a lot of people are wondering. e commerce department says it was all friendly, but it's hard to imagine they didn't get into any business topics at all. >> as part of your reporting, you mentioned you found out greenbriar had been lobbying for renegotiations of nafta and saw action from secretary ross' office that same day. is that right? >> yeah, the meeting starts at 12 nn and, at 11:59 a.m., 'scretary ross puts out a statement that hoing to be renegotiating nafta on behalf of donald trump and, as you said, greenbriar had been lobbying other parts to have the federal government to make changes to nafta at that point for months. >> so he didn't disclose the interest in that one com he did disclose, however, interest he held in a private equity front, one whose single biggest investment is a company that buiip in china. what's the ethical conflict

there? >> s is a company you're referring to called nautical bulk holding, another one that he did not diest originally -- excuse me -- did notisclose originally. he just disclosed he had the fund, but you have to di all the underlying holdings of the fund, and that biggest interest, as you said, was to make ships in china and, at the time, bisho wilbur ross is one f donald trump's lead lieutenants in what is now the ongoing trade tradwar between the united stats and china. sowf a guy whose financial interests are positioned tora benefit from in china at the same time he's negotiating over trade in china. , because ask you th we asked secretary ross' office for comment and they pointed ush back t july 12th letter we cited in the introlgtz they basically cited a part that said, look, though this is a office o government ethics, his actions could have run him afoul

of common interest law but found he wasn't in any such vilation of that law. they also pointed us to a part of their de department statement, the commerce department statement, in which they said, "the t asjority of the holdings described in this story have been told by a secretary ros he has committed to sell the remainder." so does that solve the problem? >> no, it dos not solve the problem. there are a couple of tings there. first of all, the letter was looking at the interests he held after he said he was going to divest them, companies like greenbriar which wentioned earlier. it does not say they looked at all his meetings, overad there are other meetings with companies in which ross and his wife had interests at the time of those meetings. so those sorts of meetings are the thing the federal investigators would want to look at as well.ct and the hat he's now saying that he's in the process of divesting some of them, or that he's divested some of them, already, that does not absolve him ofhe fact ofhat he did at the time he owned those

companies. so this is not, you know, a source-based story. you can just look at the calendar and his disclosures. you can see what he owns, what his meetings were and seeth e's clear overlap. people will be looking at that, whether or not he's out of those companies at this point or not. >> there's a line between something that looks bd is bad, right, between unethical and illegal. ere does secretary ross seem to be on the line and if there isceome larger co, who holds him accountable? >> so there ar several different legal issues here, but with many of the legal issues, the line is whether he was sloppy and made mistakes in not divesting of these things or whether he intentionally lied to federal officials, saying that he had divesd the it's very difficult to believe that a guy who's known as one of the smartest investors in the united states could have simply forgotten about a $10 million-plus stakhe still held in his former employer, but

that's what ross says and says that o several other ierests as well. it's hard to get inside people's heads, b that's what people will be trying to do to figure out whether those were lies or series of mistakes. >> dan alexander of forbes, thanks for your time. >> thank you. >> woodruff: an increase in carbon emissions are showing up not only i water.r, but also in as oregon public broadcasting's jes burns reports, researchersd ellfish farmers are teaming up to see how marine plants can help stave off the effects of "ocean acidification." this rort was produced in collaboration with the public media partnehip earthfix and is part of this week's "leading edge" series, which focuses on science, tech and medine. >> reporter: tide is money at baywater shellfish fm west of

seattle. >> these geoducks are so big. s reporter: the tide flat exposed for only a few hours a day, and tre's work to be done in the geoduck clam patch: "pullin' tube." >> these guys are really hard to pull out. >> reporter: the tubes kept the clams safe the first two years of their lives. joth davis owns baywater, part of the pacific northwest's $200l million ish industry. he grows geoduck for export andn other clams d oysters for local markets on the west coast but both his business, and the industry, are in trouble. >> it's just more difficult to raise oyster larvae these days than it used to be. they used to be kind of weedy and you could grow oyster larvae easily. now that's not the case. >> reporter: that's because the ocean's chemistry is changing. it's called ocean acidification. and it's in part caused by people pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at unprecedented rates.

the ocean acts like a giant carbon sponge. and all that extra cses the ph of the seawater to deease. but it's not really the acid th's hurting shellfish. baby oysters use certain compounds to bui their shells. the same chemical reaction that lowers the ph of the wer, transforms those building-blocks into something the oysters can't use. and the mo carbon there is, the more difficult it could become for any sea creature with a shell to survive. 250 miles south, along oregon's coast, scientists like george waldbusser are discovering a common aquatic plant called eel grass could make a big difference. eel grass is like other plantsat use photosynthesis-- it gets energy by absorbing e.sunlight and carbon diox and that could lessen the effects of ocean acidification. >> they're the same s of oysters. on this shell what we have are paci c oyster larvae or juveniles.

so all these dark areas aredi invidual oysters. these have been grown in the eel grs bed. and then on this shell, we have again small oysters, fewer of them, and much smaller that have been grown not in the eel grass bed. >> reporter: fellow oregon state university resrcher caitlin magel, has been starping at estus in oregon and washington, taking random samples from the flats. she's trying to get a handle on just how much carbon these shallow eel grass beds pulling out of the water by sampling the plants' shoots and roots. >> they have this below-ground carbon storage that can lead to long-term sequestration of carbon. >> reporter: eel grass could benefit shellfish growers in different ways. >> it could be grown in and amongst, for instance, an oystea lture bed. or in the case of a shellfish hatchery, they could pinpoint where they drawing their water infrom so they are drawing from within an eel grass bed.

>> reporter: and that water would have more of those shell building compounds needed by the oysters to grow. ck at baywater, joth davis wants to take the idea of using ocean plants to sequester carbon to a new, deeper and tastier level. >> we got some fresh sugar kelp. it's a little tough, but it'sbl definitely e and yummy. >> reporter: a team or davis and puget sound restoration fund director betsy peabody has been tracking kelpby growth at a neest plot. >> what we're trying to do is deliberately grow kelp within a specific area and thereby remove co2 and measure whether or notro that is conditions locally. you could create, in theory, aki nd of seaweed filter, you know a curtain, around where you're growing shellfish.

>> reporter: much of the kelp is more than six feet long and that mass of algae is evidence of carbon pulled from the water. >> i'm looking at interspersing ngshellfish in baskets, haing below buoys and then every other line would be kelp. between the two of them we'll be able to harvest kelp and shellfish. >> reporter: marine plants aren't likely to provide relief from carbon emissions on a broad scale. but for shellfish growers and researchers in the pacificno rthwest, the greener grass on the other side of ocean acidification is beginning to look more like tide-swept eelgrass and towering forests of kelp for pbs newshour, i'm jes burns on washington's hood canal. >> woodruff: the european union has been taking a tough stance against u.s. tech giants

and today it announced its most aggressive fine yet against a google fi-trust concerns. the e.u. has given the company 90 days to make changes. gole says it will appeal t lscision. but as john yang ts, the e.u.'s decision was made with an eye toward getting changfe that would the future of the mobile phone market, search and advertising. >> yang: judy, european officials say google has abused the dominance of its android operating system to entrench its apps and services on smartphones. about 80% of the world's devices n on android. we asked google for someone to talk to, but they declined. instead, they provided a video in which company c.e.o. sundar pichai said android gives consumers more choice. all of those choices have encouraged innovation and competition, which in turn lowersost so thaeven more people have access to all the

world's >> yang: earlier, i spoke withro an commissioner for competition margrethe vestager. i began by asking her about europe's case against google. >> this is a ce where we fin onogle has put in place three illegal restricto cement its dominance in search. say, fo instance, if you want to have an android operating system, well, then, of course, your users would like to have thelaytore, because they want to have apps. then google will y, you c have the play store, but then you have to take google search, you have to take google chrome, and not only do you have to take them, but we will also makeyo -- we will also pay you so that google search is thre exclusively, no competition. and last but not least, if you do something else, if you have a line of phones where you will do another android version or something else, well, then, youe

cannotny of our products on any of your phones. and this, of course, limits innovation, limits choice and makes it more difficult for rivals to present new things to us as consumers. >> in addition to the fine, you're asking for changes to google's business practices. what are they? >> they have the -- they have to pay a fine of 4.34 billion euros and they have to stop their illegal behavior. they have to put a stop to the instringment in an effective manner, and i have to go so in 90 days. at a minimum, they ve to change the contracts because you find thesetu contr restrictions there. now it is google's sole responsibility to make choices to make this happen. >> google says its android operating system expanded the choice of phones available around the world and also say

that some of thehones come pre-loaded with come competing apps, appthatcompete with google's apps and urs can download other rival apps. whawhat do you say to that? >> we all dowa nloat of apps, that's why if you have an wadroid phone you want the play store because yot to download games, weather apps, traffic apps or whatever is your liking, but there are some very fundamental apps that we all like, and when it comes to, seard when it comes to the browser, well, we might do something else but the fact we don't. only 1% of users havwe donloaded another search app and only 10% of users hs downloaded another browser app. so, you see, even though we might do it, we don't, because when it there out of the box's experience, we just start using it and we don't think ut that we could do something else.

and this is why competition is very fr away, if you first have done something illegal to make sure that the out-of-the-box experience is the google experience. >> android is already so dominant with the smartphones, are these actions going to make a de in that? >> that, of course, remains to be seen because goo will have to make sure that they stop thenfringement in an effective manner, and that will mean that th tse who produe phone for us now have a fre choice as to what apps to put on the phone when we have the out-of-the-box experience and open it and find a new phone that we have bought and look forward to so that we have re choices when it comes to search apps, when it comes to browsers, when it comes to what version of an operating system would be new and better version of an operating system. i think that yo find a lot of gifted people out there, people with skills, with ideas, of

course, to challenge our ida of search, to challenge our idea of what is a browser, how should an opering system work. because this is why google became so big, because they challenged the way things were. that's, of course, the point in competition. >> the fine e.u. impose as record for the european union but amounts to less than 1% of google's annual revenues. is that really going to make any difference? >> we have set of guidelines to help us calculate the e fin that the fine is the reflection of the duration of the illegal a behavi the seriousness and, of course, also, to some degree, the size of the company. we always, of course, tryo proportional, so that you have the illegal behavior and then you have the level of the fine to reflecthat. >> i have seen you referred to

as the person that silicon valley fears thmt. there is a sense there that you are taking a very aggressiveth stance towar digital companies in silicon valley. is that fair or accurate? h >> ie on a very simple mission, and that is to make sure that euopean consumers, they can enjoy the benefits of a fair competition, competition on the merits, choice, own violation, affordable prices, and if you see a lot of u.s. companies are doing geat business within the european union because they have great products, on consumers like them, and that i vercy muh encourage because success is a good thing, only you shouldn't y misuur success and start doing something illegal becau, then, consumers lose trust. >> of cour, this comes at a time of heightened tensions, trade tensions between the united states and the european union. the president of the united states even called the european

union one of the top enemies of americ how do your actions fit into at context? >> well, we live in a world that seems to bmore and more unpredictable, and the thing is that i think it's important also to do the predictable things,it ans predictable because we have done this for decades that, if you're if the european market, and you're doing something illegal, and we can prove it, well, then wel wil come and we will take a decision and impose a fine on you and say you have to stop this. this is a predictle thing. we have done that for 60 years by now, and we will, of course, continue doing that. >> european commissioner for competition margrethe vestager, thank you very much. >> it was a pleasure to be withh you. k you very much for having me.

>> woodruff: this week marks 100 years since nelson mandela's birth. he was a giant of the 20th century, a man who led a struggle against apartheid and brought s country to a new democratic future. he set a political and moral example recognized around the e obe. mandela served fars as president and died in 2013 at the age of 95. jeffrey brown has more on a new book that offers insight into ndela's remarkable story. >> nelson mandela told much of his own story in the 1994 memoir "long walk to freedom." a follow-up volume published last year. w "the prison letters of nelson mandela." 255 letters written over the more 27 years he spent as a political prisoner from 1962 to 1990. my colleague charlayne

hunter-gault was there the day mandela was released and covered him in the epic making events in south africa in the years that followed and joins me no. first of all, nice to see you again. >> nice to be here again. you know, whaemerges from these letters that we perhaps didn't know, thi ws man was both private and public? >> actually, jeff, i think that we get into the interior man, some of the pain that he went through, some oin the prples that he continued to stand for, no matter th terrible conditions under which he and e fellow prisoners lived, and then the love of his family, starting with winnie and his children, and the larger family. so it's things we never heard before. >> let's start with that part. we pulled excerpts from some of these letters i want to start with one that is very personal. this is from after he got a photo from winnie. >> april 2, 1969. all i wish to say now is that

the pictures has aroused all the teer feelings in me an softened the grimness that is all around. it's sharpened my long for you and our sweet and peaceful home. all of these have come back again as i examine the portrait. >> so the gris, but also the tender feeling. >> it is so clear throughout that his love fo winnie was undiminished and his caring for her and the children, in ways that you didn't see particularly in "long walk to freedom." these are very intimate moments when he's writing to her. >> you talked to him in 1990, and i want to show you a vdeo excerpt of that where he's talking about how he coped with that. >> we decided to fight back right om the beginning. nobody would order usuo rn. we refuse to do that. wd we said that the war has regulations and uld not do anything outside the

regulations. >> this goes to the reistance at the he and other prisoners, leeir acts of resistance whi in prison, that comes through in the letters, too. there is anoer excerpt i want us to listen to now which goes to that. >> july 12, 1976. it's futile to think that any form of persecution will ever o chan views. your government and department have a notorious reputation for their hatred, contempt and persecution of the black man. >>hat's from a letter to the mminister of justicekeeping up the resistance. >> absolutely. what was amazing was he would write the long letters to th minister of justice, to the head of the prisons, and it woulde very legalistic almost, you know, because he had studied to become a lawyer, although it took many years in prison for him to finally ean his dree, but he would write these long letters that were legalistic but, at the same time, they were impassby the things that he was complaining about. li he demanded that the

prisoners be released and that they stop being trated in aterrible ways tht they were. one man was once put into a hole, and you could only see his head like this. and mandela was often put inta so confinement himself. but he let the prison authorities know that their heads were, in effyect, blo but unbowed in terms of why they were there >> there is that. there is that strength, but also coming through is a kind of painful, powerlessness, right, of having to deal with -- o not being able to be there. >> sure, because this comes outi most forcefully and poignantly when he was not able to go to his mother's funer and he talked from his heart about how pained he was that o go.would not allow him t >> we have another excerpt i want to listen to, which is, inagain, to wnie, as she was

about to go on trial. >> november 16, 1969. you're engaged in a ceswith an adversary who possesses vast resources and wealth and means of propaganda and who will be able to give t facts anywist he considers expedient ."re >> so e is offering advise, prisoner to prisoner, in a sense. >> well, he was actlly demanding that he be allowed to come help represent he. >> and to erand everyone else, the eye on the goal neverg wavered, ht? this future that he envisioned? >> what's amazi is -- what i found amazing about the letters is from time to time, he talked about, when i see your when we get together again, and asked max, a son of one of the prisoners with mandela, walter, was he just psyching him wself that uld get out? and he said, look, those guys focused on their vision of the future, and ty were prpared

to die, and, so, this helpeto keep the vision alive. it wasn't that he thought he might get out, t his vision for the country was somathing ept him going. >> here's one more excerpt that goes to that. >> august 1, 1970. one day we may have on ouride the genuine and firm support of an upright and straightforward man holding high office who will consider it improper to shirk his duty of protecting the rights and privileges of even s bitter opponents in the battle of ideas that is being fought in our current today. >> so he's saying one daywe may have such a man, and he turned out to be, of course, that man. >> well, you know, it's hard to know whether he thought he would ever be, but he certainly laid down the principles that he believed in as a person who was fighting for a free south africa. i mean, he talked about how hesu ized a world where there would be no famine, no war, no racism

>> you know, we think about this long arc. he was, of co rse,eleased, he became the president of a democratic south africa. you and i have talked about.is was there just last year looking at that legacy, and that legacy, by a younger generation, is still questioned, righo? much change has there really been? how much change did and his generation really affect? >> well, i've heard the younger genetion are, you know, complaining about what he did and didn't do, and it reminds me of point in thbook where he talks about a younger group of prisoners were broughtfter these older guys had been there for a while, and they were all up in the air aboutw come you didn't do this and why aren't you doing this, and he eventually won them over. and i'm sure that someone with the principles ofnelson mandela and the commitment today could address some of the lingering problems in the country. >> because they do exi. ey exist and as martin luther king said and i'm sure

mandela believed this, the ac of the moral universe is long and involves a lot of struggle. but in the end, it bends toard justice. >> the new collection is "the prison letters of nelson mandela." charlayne center-gault. o talk to you. >> jeff, it's great being with you.uf >> woo and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. 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: c sumer cellular understands that not everyone needs an unlimited wireless plan. our u.s.-based customer service reps can help you choose a plan baon how much you use your phone, nothing more, nothing less. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> babbel.

a language app that teacheske language, panish, french, german, italian, and more. >> 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. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productns, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org december 3 30, 1884.

residents of austin, texas, prepare to celebrate the new year. but as the clock strikes 12, a nightmare begins for the city. [ woman screaming ] that night, a 25-year-old cook, mollie smith, is attacked in her bed. in the light of dawn, gruesome revelations: a room in violent disarray, a bloody ax... and a broken, ravaged body. there would be seven more killings that following year. in many ways, it was more horrifyingac than the jk the ripper murders. and the orgy of violence would almost tear the city apart. they're starting to say the whole leadership of the city is broken. three years before jack nd the ripper terrorized , eight years before h.h. holmes