captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> schifrin: good evening. i'm nick schufrin. judy woois on vacation. on the "newshour" tonight, the u.s. is set to restore sanctions on iran, theonirst major ecic punishment, since pulling out of the nuclear deal. we talk with president trump's national security advisor, john bolton. then, we travel to iran for an inside look at the economic and pitical fallout. plus, a key witness takes the stand in the trial of president trump's former campaign managern asew questions emerge about the 2016 meeting at trump tower between trump campaign aides and a krd emlin-connecwyer. all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour."

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>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> schifrin: the united states began re-imposing sanctions on iran today as it proto do when president trump withdrew from the iran nuclear deal. ck" target autos, aircraft,p gold and other metals. nt, president trump said iran has a choice: "either change its threatening, destabilizing behavior... or continue down a path of economic isolation." hours later, iran's president hassan rouhani acprcuseident trump of hypocrisy. >> ( translated first step would be for president trump to selhow that he genu

wants to engage in negotiations to solve a problem. what's the meaning of negotiations when you impose sanctions at the same time? it's like someone pulling knife to stab a rival or an enemy in the arm while at the same time claiming "we should be talking and negotiating." >> schifrin: we'll talk to the president's national security adviser-- john bolton-- after th news summary. star eswitness rick gook the stand late today in paul manafort's tax and bank fraud trial. rick gates testified that he hid foreign bank accounts and helped manafo returns.lse income tax that was in the years before manafort served as trump campaign manager. we'll discuss the gates testimony later in the program. a manhunis underway in venezuela, after an attempt to kill president nicolas maduro. so far, six people have been arrested. the attack came saturday evening as state tv broadcast maduro speaking in caracas. suddenly, two explosions erupted, and body guards tried to shield maduro as hundreds of

assbl troops scattered. venezuelan officials say drones carrying plastic explosives targeted maduro, and they blame conspirators in the u.s. and colombia. washington has denied any involvement. in indonesia the death toll 's powerfu in sunday earthquake on the reso island of lombok, east of bali. rescuers today used everything from hands to heavy machinery to clea more than 13,000 homes are s.maged, and tourists said they ran for their li >> we didn't get any tsunami warning at a and then it was literally everyone started running to t hills, everyone followed each other and then we slept on thmountain until morning, until daylight and then everyone started going back down there. >> schifrin: this was the second earthquake to rock lombok in the last week.rs the one killed 16 people. canada and saudi arabia faced off today in a diplomatic struggle. first, ottawa criticized the arrests of s'saudi womights activists.

riyadh expelled canada's ambassador, and the saudi foreign ministry warned against interference in its internal affai. canada's foreign minister responded that her government will always stand up for human rights-- everywhere. back in this country: city leaders in chalicago are apg for public help, after 11 people died in weekend shootings. most of th violence was linked to gangs and targeted large gatherings on the west and south sid. about 70 people were wounded. today, police suntpedent eddie johnson implored residents to help identify the killers.eb >> sy knows who did it. they do. they know they hold me accountable. they hold the mayor accountable. you should be able to gather on your block and have a block club party without the fear of being gunned down. and it's the same individuals that continuously cmit these crimes. where's the accountability for them? >> schifrin: the deadly shootings sparked prests, with people demanding the ouster of

both johnson and mayor emanuel. in fact, last year homicides in chicago actually dectoned, from 7750. a sprawling wildfire burned across more of northern california today, becoming the second largest in state history. the mendocino complex fire was two fires that merged into one over the weekend. it has charred nearly 300,000 acres, destroying 75 homes, and forcing thousands to evacuate. strong winds and temperatures0 overdegrees are fueling the fire. and on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average3 gaine9 points to close at 25,502, the nasdaq rose 47 points and the s&p 500 added ten. still to come on the "newshour," one on one with national security adviser john bolton. a view from iran-- an economy in turmoil after the u.s. pulled out othe nuclear deal. how climate change is exacerbating the world's wildfires. and much more.

>> schifrin: the snap-back of economic sanctions on iran today wlfills president trump's promise 90 days agn he withdrew from the iran nuclear deal. at the same time, the ministration is trying to get north korea to give up its nuclear weapons, and dealing with ongoing ssian aggression. at the center of all this-- national security advisor, ambassador john bolton. i spoke to him a shile ago. >> schifri ambassador thank you very much. what is the goal of the sanctions that are snapping back today? >> well, we believe that the government of iran has not given up its intention to get deliverable nuclear weapons so by abrotek the iran nuclear deal which we felt was numently flawed, tushis enables to put sanctions back on and re-create the pressure that we think will beecessary to get the regime to change its behavior. we've been in consultaton with our ally beings this.

we're all of a mind we don't want iran o get nuclear weapons but i think we also recognize that the iran deal didn't cover ballistic missile development it didn't cover iran's terroris activity. it didn't cover iran's we lige rant military activity in the middle east. we ink all of those issues need to be on the table to talk to iran about. >> some of those activities th you mentioned across the mid e8 east are fundamental to iran's regime and fundamental to iranian behavior. are you actually trying to imenge the iranian reg itself. >> no, that is not the admiwhstration policy buen you say support for terrorism is fundamental to the iraan regime, it puts us on a course that is flatley contradictory to basic american national interest. iran has been the central banker for international terrorism for a longme. that's not behavior that we should tolerate. and when you consider theer dang of a terrorist regime in possession of apnuclear ons i think you can understand why our concern with the badly flawed

iran nuclear deal lead the president 20 withdraw the united states and to take the steps we have taken which we think have already had a significant detrimental impact iran. >> with all due respect, sir, a lot of people listened to what you said and what you have written over the years 679 your support for the group mek, a group that advocates for regime change and also the administration's policies right now in general, advocating forr protests thatcalling for political change as well as putting economic pressure on the regime, is that not a policy to actually change theegime itself? >> no, it's not. and i'm always happy to have reporters and anchors refer to my previous wglritings. i' you had a chance to read them. but that's not what i do you no. i give hevice to tresident. i don't make decisions. i think i can say that we are determined to put enormous, unprecedented pressure on the regime to get it to change its behavior. and i think the collapse of the

iranian currency, it's down by t mon two thirds from the beginning of the year, much of it in thela 9-- dr 90 days. the flight of large amounts of money out of iran. the iranian elites are taking their money out of the country and putting it in european ban counts to safeguard it and 9 protests we've seen all aroundro iranthose in tehran itself to small towns and villages where the peoplere showing their enormous discontent with the regime of the ayatolla shows that the pressure is having an effect. >> schifrin: the regime often uses anti-u.s. propaganda but the u.s. itself is actual relatively popular among the iranian people. i wonder if you have any fear whether your strategy risk alienating the u.s. among theia irpeople at the very time are you calling for iranian people to protest. >> look, what we have seen in these demonstrations which as you know began in earnest in over a hundred towns and cities last december, is that the protestors, farmers, shop

keepers, worrs, not the educated he realities although they are getting increasingly involved, what they have been chanting is death to the regime. they haven't been chanting death to america at this time. actualle give regular pe a good deal of credit for common sense. i think they know their probleim isthe regime in tehran, not with the united states. >> mr. ambassadoant to move to russia and i want to read you something that you wrote last summer. as you said, you've changed roles now but do i want to read oteyou wrote last summer qu trump got to experience putin, looking him in the eyes and lying to imhad. denying russian interference in the election t should be a fire bell in the night warning about the value moscow places on hosty whether regarding election interference, nuclear prolive raise, armings control or the middle east. negotiate withtoday's russiat your peril. you also wrote russian meddling in 2016 was a qte actof war. if that was an act of war, has the u.s. responseeen proportionate? >> well, as i say, i love hearing my words re back to

me. what i can say today is that the president is deeply nenc about russian election meddling. he said so onumerous occasions and that's why he ordered after a briefing by key agencies on the national security council of the steps they were taken o prevent russia and other foreign meddling in the 2018 election, and the broader issue of influence operations against the united states-- . >> schifrin: i think we saw rhat briefing and we saw othe security officials in that briefing but we also see the president himself and the rhuoric he chooses tose, especially standing next to a putin, and saying that he believes hisi dal on election meddling in 2016. >> well, now yowill let me finish the answer i was giving. de heard all of what you hear in that briefing. he knew exactly what people were going to say, lss detailed because classified information was withheld. and he wanted t american people to hear what the

government was doing to protect the integrity of our elections so that they would continue to have confidence in our constitutional i think really one of the objectives of russia and other add ver tear-- adversaries is to erode confidence, erode mut 50u8 trust among americans and i think hearing that we were working effectively to stop it was importan the president has said on multiple occasions that he believed that russia had meddled and he was determined to stop tment and that is the position, that is the policy wee all pursuing shdz were there any areas of cooperation that came out of the hell-- sihelsinki summit that you are pursuing suing with russia t> oday. didn't really anticipate there would be concrete agreements. we felt there was an opportunity for the ta leaders of these two gnificant nuclear powers to have what we call in diplomacy an exchange of views. and they did, across a fum rangr of issues-- fuge of issue you including election midelling. th schifrin: on the russia side they sae two presidents

discussed syria as well, about humanitarian assistance in thattier, repatriate some refugees in this area and help renstruct syria. s there any agreement specifically on working together in sir why? >> well, no, as i say, there was a broad discussion. we said, and tuch his discussion, i might say, also took place in the expanded bilateral meeting where the two leaders were joined by senior advisors. we talked abouthe importance of having a political framework within which to consider these questions. and in particular, the president's strong view that we needed to work with the russians to get iranian forces out of syria and back into iran. >> you mentioned syria, you d mentiossia and iran, russia-- do you believe that russian and iran are actually guaranteed president a sad victory? >> well, it's possible. on the other hand president putin told me in my prepractice

tore meeting before the helsinki summit, he told president trump there that the russian too would like to see iran out of syria. althn'ough they dithink they could guarantee it on their own. i think it's unclear exactly what the relationship among the three is. the a sad reg eem,-- assad reangime, russian and but the trump administration inherited an expanded russian presence in yria from the obama administration. and the growth of the iraniant throk place substantially during that administration as well. ident trump's objective hear is to get iran out of syria, get itf iraq and lebanon, get it out of yemen, get it back inside iran. whyt's one of the reasons any discussion with iran about their nuclear wpons program has to take place in this eroader context or else we'r ignoring a significant aspect of the iranian threat. >> just want to ask in the brief time have ik a couple of questions on north korea. north korea has frozen nuclea tests, as you know, they have run up the ent rans to their

nuclear test facility, shut down an engine testing site, they handed over remains of u.s. soldiers and north korea new says that the u.s. is backtracking from some of the commitments that the president made in singapore, what steps has the u.s. taken to liv the president's commitments in singapore to provide security guarantees ando establish a new relationship with north korea. >> well, the president at singapore suspended majorex cises, joint exercises between the united states and south korea. at has been done. but what was significant about singapore was the north korean commitment to denuclearize and they have not taken affective ste to do that. let's just take the decision to close the entrances as you correctly sayo the nuclear test site, that was done before there were no international observers present really to inspect what was done. thereere some, will you forgive me, representatives of the media who were kept at a distance and not shown anything except the bright explosion.

and i t shink the view th korea and elsewhere is that that test site is n nessarily disabled. that is why when you engage in the process of denuclearization, yonaneed intonal inspection. you need declarations of what korea has. you need observers and inspectors who can verify exactly what is happening. that needs to take place in a process of negotiation. we've asked again recently for secretary of state mike pompeour to rto pyongyang to meet again with kim jung-un on this subject. we're not looking for rhetoric here, were looking for performance of north korea's own commitment made usto, madeto south korea before hand, to enuclearize. >> schifrin: are you suggesting north korea is not ngving up to that commitment? >> i'm suggestpresident trump has held the door open for them. they need to walk through it. >> schifrin: ambassador john bolton, national security advisor, thank you very much. >> thank you. #r

schifrin: as you heard john bolton just say, the sanctions re-imposed today by the administration will, by design, accelerate a steep economic decline in iran. as special correspondent reza sayah reports from tehran, that's leading to anger-- at the united states and the iranian regime. >> sayah: even in the best of times, playing in a street band ehin tn is a hard way to make a living, but members of rising star say these days,ting by is harder than ever. this time last year, they each pocketed the equivalent of roughly $100 a d this year, they're lucky to make $30 bucks each. >> ( translated ): before we had savings. now, after daily expenses, not much is left. every day is a struggl >> sayah: things are so bad, they say, they can't replace broken instruments. and sometimes they skip a meal. >> ( translated ): we can't reach our goals.

we all have things we want. we can't have them. everything is put on hold. ♪ ♪ >> sayah: the twenty-something mufcians are among millions working class iranians in the grips of one of the country's worst economic crises ever. >> the united states will withdraw from the iran nulear deal. >> sayah: in the three months since u.s. president donald trump pulled out of the iran nuclear deal, iran's currency as lost almost half its value. companies have retreated investments in iran, fearing vi.olating u.s. sanctio a combination of scarcity and inflation has the cost of real estate, cars, everything from eries to imported goods soaring the price of eggs? doubled. apple's popular iphone x? doubled. ( translated ): this time, things are awful. i think many won't be able to withs many will go bankrupt. >> sayah: the struggle is life and death for sanaz allah

bedashti. sanaz' mother is recovering from breast cancer. finding and actually buying her mother's life-saving drug, she says, has become increasingly difficult. >> ( oftranslated ): the fea cancer is awful. i think about all the people struggling to get their medication. the same thing happened when my mother was diagnosed with cancer during the previous sanctions. >> sayah: u.s. sanctions don't specifically target medicine, but pharmacists say so prices and u.s. warnings about banking transactions with iran is hurting their ability to import the drugs. for some, the pressure is rineaching a bopoint. scattered protests have broken out throughout iran. last week demonstrators marched in isfahan, shiraz, mashhad, and the tehran suburb of karaj. the crowds are small- numbering in the hundreds-- but increasingly angry. protesters lash out at iran's

religious clerics and what they call a corruptystem of governance that's long mismanaged and looted iran's onomy. fueling turmoil in iran appears to be the trump administration's objective. st>> right now the unitees is undertaking a diplomatic and financial pressure campaign. >> sayah: in a speech last month, secretastate mike pompeo said the pressure decampaign igned to reign in iran's destabilizing behavior in the region. rathe trump administon's other goal, he said, is to help iranians frethemselves from an oppressive regime. >> the united ates hears you. e united states supports you. the united states is with you. >> that's sheer hypocrisy. >> sayah: says washington's real intention is regime change, even at the cost of hurting ordinary iranians. >> how can you help people by imposing sanctions on the country? who is hurting by the sanctions? no,ar wnot saying the situation is perfect here.

we are trying to make it better and improve it, but i think nobody trusts the united states. >> sayah: the street band rising star agrees. >> ( translated ): in my opinion, they' not out to help. if they succeed in getting rid of this government, th it's oy about fulfilling their own agenda. > o> sayah: the signingthe nuclear deal with the administration produced hope and optimism in iran, especially among political moderates. today, mistrust of the trump administti spans iran's political spectrum. at a heated public debate in tehran last week, pro-reformist sadegh zibakalam argued in favor of the rule of late iranian monarch reza shah pahlavi. hibas conservative opponent salimi namin argued against. after the debate both agreed on ou.ne thing: th should keep out of in.

>> ( translated ):athose people hey have experience and know the history, won't accept this. >> ( translated ): the biggest mistake would be to overthrow the islamic regime because we wld move backward not forward. i think the best help that trump and other western leaders can give to iranian people is first, not to meddle in iranian affairs- leave iran alone. >> sayah: washington is unlikely to ease the pressure. that's why iran is turning for help to european powers, co- signers of the nuclear deal. europe is devising a plan to sidestep u.s. sanctions and deliver to iran economic benefits guaranteed in the nuclear deal, according to the u.k.'s ambassador to iran, rob macaire >> as i said, there is no single recipe that is going to... no magic bullet here.

but in the area of protecting european companies through issues like the blocking statute which is a piece of e.u.nc legislation inasing the mandate of the european investment bank. inthrough export credit facilities and work looking at special e financial vehicles and of giurse also en with the u.s. administration, where there has been a very senior l engagement to talk about what exclusions would apply to us sanctions. >> sayah: in many ways saving the nuclear deal means taking on washington. >> i wouldn't put it in those terms. i think the united states is our olst and closest ally and there are a lot of things that we continue ee with the u.s. on when it comes to iran policy. obviously we have one major disagreement which is over the j.c.p.o.a., the nuclear deal, an agreement which the u.k. has been absolutely clear that we are signed up to and committed to. >> sayah: even if europe helps,

many analysts say iran's economy will continue to suffer under u.s. sanctions. many here say the key to resolving the crisis with the u.s. is not escalating tensions with the u.s., but instead enacting long overdue domestic reo address decades-long mismanagement of iran's economy. >> the first thing that all peoptile are demanding is fi corruption, making economy improve. that's what people want. >> sayah: until then, it's harder days ahead for members of rising star and millions of ns stuck in a spiraling economy. as the street band finished with michael jackson's "they don't care about us," many here are wondering if and en someone will. for thebs newshour, i'm reza sayah in tehran.

>> schifrin: stay with us. coming up on the "nehour," president trump's changingtory on his son's meeting with russians. and from the newshour bookshelf, what could be our biggest threat-- cyber-weapons. s we reported, californi is struggling with two enormous fires simultaneously. they're being driven by high winds, high temperatures and a pervasive drought. but as william brangham reports, these extreme conditions are prehrvalentghout the american west and now, in much of northern and western europe; now are causing many to point the finger squarely at the impact of climate change. >> brangham: firefighters in california were already stretched to the limit by the carr fire near the town of redding, but then this weekend, 150 miles south, the mendocino complex fire exploded in size, burning now over a quarter of a million acres. it's become the second-biggest fire in california history.

>> in this particular location, its burning somen our favor, but in other areas, it is not in our favor whatsoever. >> brangham: it's been devastating fire season for california -- and n r other westates, where roughly 85 large fires are burning simultaneously-- allrbated by a widespread years-long drought that's created prime, dry fuel for these blazes. at least eight people have died, including two firefighters. thousands have bn evacuated across california, washington, arizona, colorado, and utah. >> i'm waitiprobably break down in a minute here. pretty overwhelming, pretty overwhelming, especially since we've been here since 1989, that's a lot of years. >> brangham: in july, california spent more than $114 million fighting its fires. last week, california governory brown described this as w normal for his state-- with fire seasons growing longer and more intense, as a resulof climate change.

>> fires now are more a part of our ordinary experience. the predictions that things wouldet drier and hotter are occurring, and that will continue. >> brangham: but this isn't just an american problem. northern and western europe is suffering a similar fate with fires burning through large swaths of portugal, spain, sweden, norway, latvia, ireland, and most devastatingly in greece. europe is also in the grips of a brutal heat wave, with temperatures over the last few days reaching 116 degrees fahrenheit, as well as suffering a prolonged drought. >> sifrin: how much is clima change driving these events? for thati'm joined by dr. michael mann-- he's an atmosphec scientist at penn state university, where he directs the each system science enter, and co-author of "the abmadhouse effect" which it climate change. united states be thank you for being here. this is a series of striking events happening, ghthe dr,

the heat waves, the fires. none of those in and of themselves are unique. so could you help us understand, what is the scien say about how climate changer is exacerbating these types of events. >> yeah, so's not saying tha climate change is literally causing the events to occur. what we can conclude with a great deal of confidence now is that climate change is making these events more extreme. an's a not rocket science. you warm up the atmosphere, it is going to hold more moisture, you get larger flod events, you get more rainfall. you warm the plen et, are you nding to get more frequent a intense heat waves. you warm the soils, you dry them out, you get worse draught, you bring all that together, and those are all the ingredients for unprecedented wildfires. now beyond that, there is something elsehat we think is happening. and that's why there is this comentioner that-- coherence that off these events around the northern hemisphere, extreme

dreuts, flohas, wildfires, connects them is the fact these weather systems are remaining in they are remaining stationary. we have these large undulations in the j stream that gives us extreme weather. but what is also happening is the jet stream isn't moving them a ong. we have ow jet stream so these weather systems stay in the same place day after day. r thn on the same locations day after day, that is when you flooding.edent they bake the ground day after day, that is when you get unpredented heat and draught. and we think that climate clang is actually creating those conditions. climate change is literally making the jet stream more wild, it undulates more so you get those weather extremes and kawtding the jet stream to slow down so those extreme ather events stick around. that is when you get unprecedented damage and threat. >> you heard governor brown of california say this is the new normal for us, really speaking globly and not just in

california. is that true? >> it is actually worse than that. a new normal makes it sound like we have arrived in a new position and that is where we are going to . but if we continue to burn fossil fuels and put carbon pollution into the atmosphere we are going to continue to warm the surface of the eart we're going to get worse and worse draughts and heat waves and surstorms and flos and wildfires so it is unto us. if we act to reduceese carbon emissions, to move away from burning of fossil fuels to renewable energy, than we ct prevese changes from continuing to get worse and worse. >> there has been some talk recently that civilization had a moment sevdeal de ago to try to act and ameliorate the impacts of climate change and that that moment passed and we did not act. do youagree with that assessment? >> no, i don't. i think it's incorrect framing of the problem. it makes it sound like there's some cliff and we've gone off the cliff and there inothing we can do. but what we are doing instead is

we are wa king out on tne field. as we continue to move forward on to th fat mild, as we continue to burn fossil fuels we are likely to encounter ore and more extreme and damaging and irreversible impacts on our climate. 9 only sensible thing tho do is stop walking forward on to that mine field. we can do it we can move away from the burning of fossil fuels. the pariseagreement ha a course for us that if we follow and improve on that ayreement in thears ahead, we can prevented the worst impacts of climate change from occurring. >> thank you very much. >> thank you t was .pleasu >> schifrin: president trump is on vacation at his home in new jerseyt as yamiche alcindor reports, the president's comments on twitter are raising n aew questiout his 2016 campaign and ties to a russian

lawyer. >> alcindor: an evolving explanation. on sunday, president t offered a new reason for a controversial june 2016 meeting ap t trwer. in the room: the president's son, donal jared kushner, campaign chairman paul manafort and a russian lawyer with ties to vee kremlin, naselnitskaya. at issue? what the meeting was about. mr. trump tweeted, "this was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics-- and it went nowhere. i did not know about it!" that justification was just the latengst in a year of shif stories. the meeting has become a central question of special counsel robert mueller's investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to the trump campaign. last july, the "new york times" first reported the meeting happened. in response, don junior responded wh a statement aying, "we primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children..." within days, a clarification,

saying ,"the information they suggested they had about hillary clinton i thought was political opposition research." and the president himself offered public support. >> i do think this: i think from a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting. it's cled opposition research or even research into your ponent. >> alcindor: the predent's involvement in his son's first has become a topic of debate. white house press secretary sarah sanders-- just days into the job-- said this a year ago. >> he certainly didn't dictate, but he-- like i said, he weighed in, offered suggestion like any father would do. >> alcin "new york times" published a letter written by the president's lawyers to muell. in it, the lawyers acknowledged that mr. trump did in fact "dictate" that first misleading statement by don junior. om thetest about-face president set off a flurry of new questions about his campaign. trump's lawyer jay sekulow playing defense: >> the question is how would it be illegal? i mean, the real question here

is would a meeting of that nature constitute a violation, the meeting itself constitute a violation of the law? >> alcindor: new explanations have not stopped questions about the president's role and potential obstruction of justice. for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. schifrin: pair that wit today's testimony of rick gates, a former t aide in the trump campaign, and there is plenty to breakdown coming out of robert mueller's investigation. here to help make sense of it all, we turn to tamara keith of "npr" and elianaliohnson of "co." welcome, so is if a big deal hat trump tweeted this yesterday, somethiat he said in the past. >> it is something that he has precisely said in the past. it seems this is lkly related to a "washington post" article over the weekend that said he was concerned that his son done 58d-- donald trump, jr. would be at legal peril apart of the mueller investigation. i think it is interesting that the president is emphasizing t at he didn't know abit 234

advance-- in advance. this comes after an port that michael cohen, his former personal lawyer and fixer had said that he might be willing to tell the fbi that donald trump did know about it. so the psident is sort of emphasizing that in particuchla. >>rin: is this a big deal am you heard jeh secretary youly say how could this be a bheig deal. >>irst thing to note is we know bob mueller is looking too this, would certainly be a big deal if bob mule prer to find that the president's son who was an integral part othe campaign were criminally at fault in anyway. and that is why n though we don't know that the president knew about this in advance, the president seems to be intervening and has been involved himselfin this whole thing. at first helping his son craft a response to a new york times story and now a awrvi different response so the president seems to have embroiled himself in this by

being concerned that his son may e criminally liable and the crime really would be it is illegato take anything from value from a foreign to help an amican presidential campaign or any kind of political campaign. >> the president is trying disembroil himself, if you will, from the testimony of paul nafort and rick gates today. former campaign chairman, former ysputy campaign chairman. the president saook, this happened way before these people joined my campaign and these people, frankly, have nothing to do with me. so is it important tosee gates testifying against manafort? >> gates is the sort of key witness for the prosecution in this case. and paul manafort, president trump likes to say he only worked on my campaign for a couple of months. he was there with the president's campaign for about five months, a critical five months in that campaign. and although this isn't specifically about the campaign, this is about things that ppened well before the campaign, this is the first time that there is a trial related to robert mueller's special counsel

investiretion, so the stakes very high for. this and based on the reporting coming out of the trial, the prosecution has built a stro case. >> are the stakes high coming ist of the trial even though none tfer pecifically about russia or the campaigntself. >> it stakes are high, people considered him a criminal and though it isn't specifically with russia clusion i feel if he is convicted it helps speed the narrative that donald trump surrounded himself by criminals, if he is convicted and i think that michael cohen investigation appening in the southern district of new york helps speed the same narrative. >> and if wtheye, if the prosecution were to win, that sort of pushes back on the idea of a h wit, you know, president trump's lawyers have said, sort of put up or shut up well, getting a conviction would be putting up, i guess. >> schifrin: let's go to domestic politics and switch

over to ohio. congressional district 12, this is right outside of columbus, a special electiotomorrow, th has been a republican stronghold for 35 years. but right now it looks like it is a tight race, why is it a tight race, what is going on here? >> this is a special election, as you mejed a deep red district in ohio with the republican candidate leading by ly one point, president trump has thrown his weight behind theda republican can. and of course as people watch this race, they're asking what does it mean for the mid term election. and i think this is giving republicans cause for worry because the take away i have, if republicans tlos race, i think the take away really is ell of the economic good that republicans are campaigning on may not outweigh all of the drama and m ult we are seeing from the president on twitter, the neck tiff headlines of cld separation at the border. people have said, you know, look, americans vote their poact books. if republicans lose that is a real dire warning sign i think for november. >> it seems to that special

elections are tough, right? they are tough to understand whether they are parts of waves or not parts of waves or totally local issues. do you believe special eleions are a bit of a bell weather for how things could go the next few months. >> there have been af special election this area. and in those special elections even in the races where democrats lost, they outperformed the candidates outperformed how hillary clinton performe016. -- 2016. one thing i'm watching for with this particular special election is the sort of revenge of the suburbs. the suburbs have been rising up and favoring democrats or pushing more towards democrats, more independent voters leaning away from president trump's ection.ince the 2016 el so that will be something to watch. >> schifrin: and then one other election that we should bring up, the governor race in kansas. and we saw a presidential tweet endorsing chris kovac and 9 tweet res chris kovac, a strong and early supportedder of

mine is running feror gnor of the great state of kansas. he is a fantastic guy who loves his state d our country. he will be a great governor and has my full 57bd total endorsement, strong on crime, rder, and military vote tu kovac as the president tweeted, not perhaps a surprise, strong and early supporter of the president or should we be rised about then dorsment? >> not surprising because it is rais president who has really buckedtion by getting involved in primaries in his own peamplet and unlike the special elections where republicans have faced democrats and tump doesn't have such a strong record, he really hailshown the y to tip the scales in republican primaries where the republican base remains loyal to the esident and they have shown that they, that trifer a trump endorsement makes a dirchls. this kansas race, vecrowded republican primary and trump's indoorsment really could help kovac in what is a sevenway race. >> president trump's endorsement hasn't always helped, right. there is a bit of a mixed rec

d on that. qut president's endorsement help y shouldand how close we be watching this racial. >> this endorsement comes pretty close to the day of voting. so you know, certainly the president will be watching to see how it furns out. everyone will hang this on the president, depending on which way it goes. but i thk this is also a signal, kovac is a candidate whout is very trumpy. and he, in fact, lead up the president's election fraud commission that fizz eled in a big way. and so the president seems to be betting for these mid terms on candidates that are very much like him. he wan- he's trying to turn out the base. he's not actually at the moment yet with hilis ra reaching for independents. >> schifrin: ileana johnson, isit controversial for him to endorse this particular candidate and can he be as 'tumpian as trump, if you will? >> you know, i d think it's controversial at this point because the president has into so many republican prime

airs. but it is atypical for a republican president to wade into republican primaries. now chris kovac who was one of trump's very early supporters, he has made immigration and border enforcem t one ofhis signature issues. he may even outtrump the president on this. >> schrin: he is very, very right on the immigration. >> the president wanted to make him secretary of homeland security and sort of told he couldn't be concerned by confirmed by the senate. this is almost strump's revenge against his own advisors who thwarted his wish to make him part of the cabi i think hoping to see ckovac to become governor of kansas. >> thankou both. >> you're welcome. >> thank you. >> schifrin: last week, david sanger of the "new york times" reported that russian intelligence hackers are now more focused on disrupting the u.s. electrical grid than they are on sowing chaos in america's

electoral system. stefore that report, judy woodruff sat down with sanger to discuss his new btek, on the spof cyber warfare; how the united how prepared america is to defend against it. the book is a perfect weapon, war, saboange fear in the cyberage. you know, i don't normally say this in an interview, the fear is in e title but in is a frightening book, did you mean for it to an? >> i it more to be an explanatory book but st an explanatory book about a frightening time. and the frightening part of this is that cyberweapons have moved almost without us recognizing it, to be the primary way, judy, that countries are beginning to undercut each other, do sort of war operations against each yther, operations that the don't think will start a military spofnlts you know, we spent years worrng about the giant cyberpearl harbor that was

going to cutoff all the lights from boston to washington or san francisco toan.a in fact, that kind of blinded us to the much more subtle uses of sien in which all of us are the clrl damage to this war-- collateral damage to this war going on far above our heads. >> woodruff: you have so many fascinating stories, you had i think incredible access to some. key playersment one o points you make, david sanger is that the u.s. has not only stress secretary resee above all, but it hag been much mcoore ortable talking about what other countries are doing to the u.s. than it has ever been theing to talk about what u.s. is doing to others. >> we've hit this moment, judy where i ink in the reporting i became convinced that the secretary resee surrounding cyberwhich arises from the fact that it's one of the first wepons doaferled bit intelligence agency and they are naturally secretive is actually beginning to become a security

problem for us, getting in the way of us establishing rules and deterntds. let me give you an example. we have felt free to go attack nucleafacilities in iran, or as this book reveals, north korea's missile program. and yet because we won't talk about our own capabilities and operations, we can't get the government involved in a serioio conversabout what is off limits. >> and why haven't u.s. officials been morelling to talk about that? >> you know, they've confused keeping secretary resee around how we build these weapons and what we do, from secretary re he abo we want to go use them. and even in the nuclearage we kept everything about how we built nuclear weapons, worhere e them secret and we had a big public debate about how went to go use them. and it ended up in a completely dif>>ferent place. ou write at one point that the u.s. is sphil ahead but you

said that ch naand russia very close to catching up and maybe even north korea and iran. how well equipped right n is the u.s. to fend off a bejor rattack? >> well, much better at our offense than we are at ourfe e. and that's partly because most of the targets in the united states a in private hands, utilities, fincial firms. but also because even while our cyberdefenses have impved or improved dramically in the past five years, the number of targets has expanded so dramically that we can't k up. so you now have an internet connected refrigerator or the cameras outside your house, i you've got them prrks internet cotoected. your mous car. there have so many new ways in that no matter how much better have a defense t seems like there are mortar gets. >> woodruff: of course wufntd things that arises out of this is the timing of he book, is what happened in 2016, the

russian reported, russian attempt to interfere in the u.s. election. what did you find out about that? did you come away convinced that that happened? >> i not only came awce convthat it happened but i came away convinced that we missed huge numbers of signalsnn g up to it. there are four quhap teres in the book on russia but the first one starts in ukrainend it's called putin a pet ree dish because basically every single thing theo russians did , they tried out in ukraine first. and we didn't have the imagination to think that they would take that and try here. the second thing was the fbi was way too slow on the investigation into what happened to the dnc. it took nino months b they really got everybody to wake up to it. and even they then the british had to step in and warn us that rusan military intelligence was inside the dnc. and then the white house got involved in a lengthy internal debate about whether to calmou

- call out president putin. once again, they made the decision that they had made when the russians went into the whit house, the state department and the joint chiefs of staff, not to publicly pennallize the russians, at leasttiefore the el. >> and of course the whole argument about whether president obama moved quickly are enough or not. >> and aggressively enough. >> and aggressively enough. last thing, david sanger, you ask an important question at the end about how the u.s. is really almosteen as a hypocrite because we argue against-- we argue against other countries interfering in what we do and yet it is something that the u.s. is guilty of doing. >> and then you go on to say it's up to us, up to the united ates to comep with ways to control this monster. >> uh-huh. >> that eawe have d, that the u.s. has created. do you think that's going to happen? >> if so it's goingha toen very gradually and it's going to require a change of v united states and a change of

view among our. adversaries one of the individuals that is ocked around. you hear the presidentf mieblg soft smith, executives a siens and other places talk about, about having a geneva digital conventioner rules you wouldn't do to civilians. would they get violated all the time, sure, b then again the syrians violate the geneva conventions ef retime they gas civilians, but we would have some vinormings of be and a few efforts so far ta to start that at the u.n. has reay gone off. >> which is a bleak prospect for the future. >> it is. you don't want to wait until you have such a big paralyzing set of events or a series of smaller ft incredibly damaging cyberattac us to think about those in retrospect. >> david sanger, i started out saying the book is frightening, it is, but st so fascinating and so important to read at this particular time.

it's the prfect weapon, a war, sabotage and fear in the cyberage. thank you. >> thank you, ju-- judy. >> schifrin: book clubs are very popular. in 2015, the "new york times" estimated that some five-million americans belong to one or more book clubs. lar culture, book clubs have been mostly judged as a woman's pursuit, but tonight, author nick humble opinion of why men should start reading tether more >> maybe you'ra guy. and maybe you like books. maybe you like talkingutith people aooks. maybe you're a guy who cou be described as book club-curious. but maybe, while you're a pretty enlightened guy, youso still a guy's guy, and all the book clubs you know seem to be by and for women.

can you have a book club for men? yes. it's easy. rule 1: don't call your book club a "book club." you're enlightenedbut some guys might be a little wary. make it easier for them by naming your club-that-reads- books something that shows it's for tough guy-guys. call your club, for example, the literary domination society. rule 2: keep it small. tg ake turns pickoks. each person gets their turn. choose mostly novels, because thesy are easy to have opini about and argue over, kind of like quarterbacks. rule 3: you can only chose books that no one in the club has ever read before. this wayre all plunging into the unknown together, adventurers in land. rule 4: everyone has to read the book. if someone fails to read t it's okay to mock them a hit them with trash talk. is this, or is this not, a literaryomination society?

rule 5: after discussing the book, everyoneates the book on a scale of one to ten. this forces everyone t formulate an opinion, which you can then argue about. which is fun. think, mixed mtial arts. but much less painful. ruleep records. track not only how each book is rand, but how good each per is at picking books. it's competitive. it's like fantasy football! but books! last rule, keep doing this, meeting every month or two. kearp meeting for and years. have incredible conversations. share things you've never shared with anyone else. if you're lucky, you'll make some of the greatest friends of your life. friends who can talk about the nature of fate in the novels of elena ferrante, and they will somehow also become friends who can help you to retain your grip on sanity when going through an unexpected divorce, when facing the cppling anxiety of

unemployment, or when you find yourself in the inexpldeable crush oession. st, that's what happened to me and my book club-- i mean, literary dominsociety. where, by the way, i am the best at picking books. and i have the data to prove inl >> schifrin:e, the newshour h its own book club, in partnership with the "new york tis." it's called "now read this," and you can learn all about our latest pick "what it means when a man falls om the sky," and how to join on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm nick schifrin. join us on-line 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. >> consumer cellular. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and catherinunt. macarthur tion. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more informatioat macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these ititutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viers like you. thank you.

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