captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> yang: good evening, i'm john yang. judy woodruff is awa n on theewshour tonight, n urnalists are sentenced to prison terms ianmar after reporting on the military's ethnic cleansing campaign thainst rohingya muslims. , on the eve of brett kanaugh's confirmation hearings, we take a look at the supreme court nominee's life and record. ane one year after hurrican harvey, are emergency response systemprepared to handle another catastrophic storm? >> will our systems be able to prioritize any of us who might have a medical emergency at home in the midst of a disaster? >> yang: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major fundingor the pbs newshour has been provided by: mo ♪ ving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that coects us. >> consumer cellular understands that not everyone needs an unlimited wireless pla our u.s.-based customer service reps can help you choose a plan based on how much you use your ss., nothing more, nothing learn more, go to consumercellular.tv

>> the william and flora hewlett foundation. sur more than 50 years, advancing ideas anorting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcastin and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> yang: the gulf coast is bracing tonight cor a storm that d grow into a hurricane and reach land by late tuesday. tropical storm "gordon" formed

y over the florida keys tod headed toward mississippi and louisiana. rains and winds up to 50 miles an hour closed beaches in miami today. there were also limited power outages. a u.s. soldier was killed today in eastern afghanistan, and anher was wounded. ficials said it appeared to be an insider attack involving afghan security forces in all, six u.s. troops have been killed in afghanistan this year. thousands of people turned out in chemnitz, germany today, for a concert against far-rit groups. protesters, including neo-nazis, have descended on the city since migrants allegedly stabbed a german man last sunday. some chased foreigners and gave the "hitler salute." concert organizers said today they hope to send their own signal. >> ( translated ): and i think sometimes it is just impornt to show that people are not alone, and that we are not being left alone, for which we are very grateful to everyone on stage with us today, but also everyone who will come and be in

front of the stage today. >> yang: german authorities announced today they will increase surveillanche far-right alternative for germany party. activists from the group have joined neo-nazis in the recent protests. migrants trying to reach europe from libya are dying at high rates this year. the united nations reports arrivals in europe are down 82% in the last 12 months. but more than 1,000 miants have died at sea-- one for every 18 arrivals. that's up from one death for every 42 arrivals in the previous year. officials say libya's coast guard is intercepting more boats, so smugglers are using more dangerous routes. and, in brazil, a huge fire destroyed the country's 200- year-old national muse in rio de janeiro overnight. firefighters and museum workers struggled to save some of the 20 million artifacts. they included relics from ancient egypt and greece, and the oldest human skull found in the western hemisphere. >> it's a loss for the world.

this can never be recovered, for the people, the building. there is no way to get it back. thankfully no one died but the loss can never be recovered. >> yang: there was no word on how the fire started. firefighters efforts were slowed .ecause two nearby fire hydrants did not reill to come on the newshour: two uters journalists sentenced to prison terms after e porting on rohingya massacres. a look into fe and work of supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. politics monday with amy walter and tamara keith, anch more. ju >> yang: today, e in myanmar sentenced two reuters reporters to seven years in prison. they wercharged with illegal possession of official documents. as nick schifrin reports, they had been reporting on government lld massacres of rohingya ers.

>> reporter: this morning, wa lone walked into court as a journalist. he walked out a cocted criminal and told a fay links of his former colleague his conviction overroad his cotry's riewferl. >> they're obviously threatening esr democra and destroying freedom of the prs in our country h >> reporter:and his colleague kyaw soeoo were bundled into the back to have a police van for doing their jobs. >> we believe journalists should be able to practice without intimidation a fear and ths case has very much undermined freedom of the media mirn ma. >> reporter: last year, wa lone and kyaw soe oo began investigating. rohingya have long been targeten by the imum yarr millet.

last year p min myanmar military was accused of setting fire with genocidal intent. the reuters journalists discovered ten muslim forced to watch neighbors dig a shallow grave, soon afterwards all dead, shot by minimum mar troops. they have testimony from the buddhi villagers. the government refused to consider their work journalism. myanmar's transition was supposed to be led to a burgeoning democracy from military rule, but e government pursued the charges against the journalists. >> we must in the long term preserve the stability of our country. >> reporter: human rights activists say today's ntencing is about silencing criticism and is a parody of justicesays reporters without borders

daniel. >> this very heavy sentence of seven years against the journalist is clear and set sign that the transition, the democratic transition in myanmar is going to an end. >> brown: kyaw's wife used to eyke her daughter to school. ried outside court as he and his colleague were sentenced to prison. >> yang: stephen adler, thank you ve much. the judge accused your reporters of breeching officialss secrt, did they? >> absolutely not. they violated no law and in fact did absolutely nothing wrong. they are guilty of committing journalism. >> and they and their lawyers told a specific story about w they ended up in court. do you believe that they were actually set up by the police?

>> yes, absolutely, and it's not just the story that they told or that the lawyers told. police capta testifying for the pros cushion admitted under oath in court that the e thing was a setup, that there had been o a meetingscuss how to set them up, how to provide them with documents wrapped up in local newspaper and what to do and the fact that they had to beey arrested when eft the restaurant where they were meeting. so it was clearly a setup. also the testimony of the police was completely non-credible.d they hdiculous locations where they claimed the arrest occurred. one of the people supposly at the arrest said that he had notes of the arrest but head burned them, so he did not have them in court. t onher one wrote his scr his hand so he wouldn't forget what to say. this was something where the was just no ambiguity. >> dyou think the judge ignored some of that evidence to the contrary and do you believe that this conviction wasor prined?

>> well, there's no evidence that rule of law was involved herevidence that a typical due socess trial wa occurring. this did seem like just did not comport with what anybody would view as a rule of law case. so we were not at all surprised at the result because they shanldn't have been arreste charged and they certainly shouldn't have been convicted. so there was jus no evidence, and there were diplomats from many cntries in court. no ambiguity about it, nobody saeed, no debate, everybody understood this was a complete setup. >> not everyone, of course, believes that. suchi is the de facto leader of myanmar and has defended the court in this case. do you believe she has been an impediment to the release of the journalists? >> i say every outside observe b studying this trial isso tely clear that not only are they not guilty but that the

trial was a setup in many ways a sham. p to what the government's involvement ition is, i think now is the time for us to truly come to understand that because now is the the trial is over and the government is in the position to do something about it. the government is in the position to release them, to free them. so now's the time we're going to find out to what extent the government is prepared to, first of all, undo this wrong, but also reestablish their position of some respect in the global community. i think everybody is watching. diplomats from all over the world have been in the courtroom, have been participating. secretary pompeo went to talk to nie foreign minister. i haley at the u.n. spoke strongly on behalf of our journalists in the security council. so i think now the is the timeat to find out he myanmar government actually intends to do. >> do you have a notion the vernment would consider commuting their sentences or

su chi could be involved in trying to reverse this decision? >> i have no evidce at all but we are going to work hard starting now to get them released and we think there are opportunities to get them released and it's our job and we solutely committed to avying to get them out. >> andyou spokennen to su chi or has ere been any communication with her and has she been an impediment in this? >> i don't want to compromise anybody who may have done win thing or another in this case, but we're not trying to make this a personal thing, we're trying to hlp te process go forward so that they can be released and that is our only goal. we're not taking sides in any conflictwe're not anti-government. we don't take positions as reuters, we just try to report the news. so in this situation, we're just trying to get them out, that's all we're trying to do. >> and you are still reporting the news. what will the impact of this case be on bility and your desire to cover myanmar and the

ongoing story in myanmar and bangladesh. >> we published the story. we published the massacre of the ten rohingya muslims a we've continued to do investigative pieces about howta various ks and massacres have occurred and what's going on in the fugee camps and we absolutely intend to do that. we have not been intimidated, deterred and we won't be. we think this is a very important story. the only reason we're there is to do important stories. the only reason an organization like ours goes to dangerous places is not to court dangerous stt to get importanies and we think this is an important story and will continue to cover it. >> stephen adler, editor-in-chief of reuters, thk you very much. thank you, nick. e yang: tomorrow brett kavanaugh faces nate

judiciary committee in the first day of his confirmation hearings to sit on e supreme court. tonight, lisa dejardins has a look at the man and his record. >> desjardins: brett kavanaugh has been here before, before the senate judiciary committee, and before many of the same senators, 12 yrs ago. >> i have dedicated my career to public service. >> desjardins: the aim then was rfs current job: a judgeship on the po d.c. circuit court of appeals. then, as now, republicans praised kavanaugh's qualifications. >> i don't see how we can find a cetter person to serve and give public serhan you. >> desjardins: while committee democrats, le senator chuck humer, said he was too political. >> if there has beli a partisan cal fight that needed a cary bright legal foot soldier in the last dede, brett was probably there. >> desjardins: it was a pivotal washington test for kavanaugh, who has a thoroughly wngton resume. born and raised in the nation's

capital, he returnedfter yale law school to clerk for supreme court justice anthony kenny, the justice kavanaugh is now tapped to replace. kavanaugh's next job dropped him into a once-in-a-generation spectacle: he became a deputy on independent counsel ken starr's investigation of president and mrs. clinton, and helped draft blrts of starr's report that detailed poslegal grounds for impeaching mr. clinton. since then, kavanaugh has openly questioned the power of independent prosecutors, including the supreme court ruling that upheld their exisnce as constitutional. >> can you think of a case that deserves to be overturned? >> yes. >> would you volunteer one? >> no. actually, i'm going to say one: morrison v. olson. >> they said that's the independent counsel statute case. >> it's been effectively overruled,ut i would put the final nail in.

>> desjardins:avanaugh has also questioned if presidents should be prosecuted at all, writing in a 2009 law thview article,indictment and trial of a sitting president... would cripple the federal government... such an outcome would ill serve the public interest". kavanaugh soon had another brush with history, joining the george w. bush campaign team in florida in 2000 for the state's decisive recount. the bush win led kavanaugh to the bush white house, ere he eventually became staff secretary, overseeing the flow of documents into the oval office. t mocrats, like senator patrick leahy, seized on tle, and bush white house controversies, at kavanaugh's 2006 confirmation hearing. >> did you see documents of the president relating to the n.s.re warrantless pping program? >> no. >> what about documents related to the administration's policies and practice and torture? ngd you see any documents on that whatsoever, go the present? >> no. >> desjardnfs: his final mation vote was among the

more partisan of the time, 57 votes "for," 36 "against," and seven senators did not vote at all. he has had a life outside law and politics, coaching his daughters basketball team in a catholic youth leae. but judge kavanaugh t known for his writing-- hundreds ch opinions and dozens of sp and articles. those reveal his role models, what he once called conservative icon and late justice antonin scalia. and last year, he pointed to a different former justice, a chief justice, in a speech at the conservative american enterprise institute. >> i wanted to speak about william rehnquist because he was my first judicial hero. >> desjardins: in 1973, rehnquist was one of two justices who dissented in "roe v. wade," the landmark case legalizi abortion. kavanaugh addressed that in last-year's speech. >> it's fair to y that justice rehnquist was not successful in convincing a majority the justices in the context of abortion either on roe itself in the later cases, but he was successful in stemming the

general tide of free-wheeling judicial creation of unenumerated rights that were not rooted in the nation's history and tradition. >> desjardins: kavanaugh's own judicial record on the abortion issue is tlun. but it is a notable case in the past year, azar versus garza, which weighed if the trump administration had to allow an undocumented teenage girl in its custody to obtain an ortion. kavanaugh voted for a compromise ruling whi assumed the girl had a right to an abortion but which did not have to help her get it, it gave the government more time to find a solution that was quickly overturned by others on his appeals court and mee government was ordered to imdiately allow the abortion. kavanaugh sharply criticized that as "a radical extension" om the sucourt's abortion d lings. that opinion, s experience were selling points in the asesident's eyes. >> judge kavanaughevoted his life to public service. >> desjardins: but his long

record is also fodder for senators, as he faces the judiciary committee for the most rtant confirmation heari of his life. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> yang: and this week we will oadcast the confirmation hearing for supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. it begins tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. eastern. check your local pbs station for broadcast details. a will also be streaming pbs.org/newshour. >> yang: stay with us, coming up on the newshour, what the trump administration's recent battles with federal workers mean for labor unions. one year after hurricane harvey, a look at the failure of the 911 system there. and, author keith gessen discuss his new book, "a terrible country." but first, we break down what to

expect at the kavanaugh confirmation hring beginning tomorrow. for that and more, we're joined of our politics monday tea tamara keith of npr and amy walter of the "cook political report." welcome to you both. folks, when folks turn in to watch on pbthe hearings tomorrow, tamara, what can they expect? >> tomorrow, there will be a lot of speeches. it is opening statement day. mm each senator on the judiciary tee gets ten minutes. there will also be people introducing brett kavanaugh, and then, finally, at the very end, after this long day of speeches, brett kavanaugh will himself give an openint state that's what he's been working on for the last little while t. befohat, he'd done sort of mock hearings with senators and others to practice to get ready to build the stamina for what is to come on wednesday and thursday, whh is 30 minutes per senator asking him questions. >> yang: is there any drama i

this? >> first off, we have to say that people who are up for supreme court positions get to these hearings, and their goal is to say as lile as humanly possible about how they could possibly rule on anything. that's sort of the lesson, that's the way this has developed in the last couple of decades, and it means these arings in some ways have gotten kind of boring. and in terms of whether brett kavanaugh is going to be confirmed, the votesare there if republicans hang together, which it seems like they will, the votes are there, as long as he has a solid hearing. >> yeah, the drama, too, becomes -- you have a number of raople on the committee, especially democ, i don't know, who may be interested in running in 2020. this is a gad opportunity for them o, in frontf a national audience, sort of show their ops, maybe gia statement that's so pithy it gets them on national broadcast you have some, like senator dianne feinstein, who had been

challenged by her left, so she's probably going to make some pretty stronraiments. but overall, i think tamara put it very w tll,e drama comes town to something we either don't oow that comut that he said something or something is raised there that reallyth throws into question, but the bottom line is the numbe 51. republicans have 51 seats, they will soon. we're awaiting dove do yo govery from arizona to fill johinn mc seat so there will be 51 votes. no republicans look like they at this point oppose him. republicans don't needny democrats to push this r the finish line. >> yang: not only in the committee hearings but once it moves to the senate floor, what can democrats do? >> that's been the question all along, how can we do smething about this?

and there have been all sorts of theories about maybyou shoul shut down or slow walk the hearings. the bottom line is they don't have e votes, they are in the minority and, when you're in the mirity, you don't have the power. there was a time when being in the minori didn't give you the power on judiciary appointments, but in 2013, democrats then in the majority, frustrated by republicans, slow walking or blocking obama's appointments to the lower courts, unleashed what was called the nuclear option, sayingnehey onleded a majority in order to put judicial nominations through and, at that time, republicans said be careful, this is going to have bigger conseqnc, and look, lowlow and behold, the republicans came in and said looks like we don't need filibusters for smct either. >> be careful what you wish for. we're here in part because mitch

mcconnell held open the seat merck garland was nominated to through the pronidential elecnd that's how president trump has, too, and some could argue that is one of the wasiys pdent trump would be is that conservatives and especially evangelicals cared so much about that seat that they were moat motivated to vote fo him. >> yang: tam, we've lot the last primaries coming up this month, five in all, and four ratse are insurgent democ challenging incumbents as the party still tries to figure out who they are after 2016 what should we be looking for in those contests? >> you know, i thk that it would be oversimplifying it to say it's the berniecrats versus the hillarycrats. i think that's a mistakee there her interesting dynamics including racia dynamics where some of the candidates who have on wn, like

alexandria cortez, in a district heavily latino she was challenging a big irish guy and she won. rand in the massachusete, there's a similar discussion about representation taking place. >> the interesting thing about the primaries thus far, so we are here at the end, is there hasn't been really one theme that's tied all of these together. sn fact, there have been very few ups overall. we're supposedly in this anti-establishment era and three incumbents have lost primaries, two repuicans and one democrat tam mentioned. the one thread that is pretty consistent in the democratic primaries, at least, is the ccess of women, and when we look at all races that don't include an incbent, but a man and woman are running for democratic nomination, women have won almost 60% of those primaries. so being a woman in a primary probably the most important thing much more so than ideology or who's supporting yoor

anything else. in fact, i think that's what's really been helpfule frankly, to democrats this year is the fact that many of the red state democrats who have been thting as moderates did not get challenged froleft in their primaries, unlick many republicans back in the 2010 year, haves the republicans' big year, who were being challenged from the right and the sort of anti-establishment you know we need to throw over the card table, and they knocked a lot of the establishment people off.pp that hasn't ed opened the democratic side. >> yang: we had over the weekend the final services for john mccain, particularly the service at the washington cathedral. a lot of people, most notably his daughter ghan, lamenting what passed, not just this great man t the spirit he represented had passed. is that likely to changand echo in some of these years and

thoughts as we move forward? >> on the eve of the midterms, i don't mean to be cynical, but that was aemial service for ohpartisanship that passed well before mccain. ct and the bottom line is the incentive ste in washington now does not reward that. t politics is nhat complicated. people do things that, if they get somesort of reward for it. if voters said, you know watt?k i thcompromise is the most important asset somebody can bring to the table and i'm only going to vote for them who show bipartisanship and compromise, we would likely get a different congress. but unss or until primary voters decide that's an important value, the values that we have now, the zero-sum politics, that's going to

continue. >> the hilarious thing is, the public, everybody says, i just yont congress to get things done. know, i want them to work with each other. then they're like, but i hate the other rty, they're the worst. >> but don't work with that agreen, and don't ever with so and so. >> yang: amy walter, tamera keith, thank you very much. >> you're welcom >> yang: president trump marked s bor day today by attacking the head of americggest labor union. the president said a.f.l.-c.i.o. chief richard trumka spoke "so ainst the working men and esmen of our country and the suof the u.s. itself that it is easy to see why unions are riing so poorly." trumka hadcized the president's strategy for renegotiating nafta. white house correspondent yamiche alcindor takes a look at the trump administration and labor unions.

the trump administration recently ramped up pressure on figanized labor and federal workers. , the president issued executive orders limiting the activities of the unions trehat esent them. about a week ago, a federal judge blocked that action. then, last week, president trump issued a notice to congress, eliminate ago potetial pay hi for federal employees. that action is also expected to wind up in court. now, we take a labor day ltook a those stories, and the overall state of collective bargaining, with dmison who covers labor issues for "huffington post." thank you so much for being with me. if president said he's canceling pay hikes for government workers. oes that mean for workers and what's happening now? >> this isn't something the president can do unilaterally. in the pay schedule, there was supposed to be a 2.1% pay bump r federal workers. the president said he wants to see a zero percent pay increase, kicking the ball the congress. the senate said they think there rease, be 1.9 pay inc

whereas the house is basically deferring to the president. so this willet ua situation in the congress where the senate and house will have to get together and figure this out. the options amp to s do nothing, in which case the president's zero percent raise would go into effect or mei xiang do a 0.9, 1 or something like that, b then the bill would be sent back to the president, with a raise he didn't want to see, and maybe he would veto it but maybe not blow up del over the pay raise. >> how much power does congress have if everything they do has to be signed by the preside. >> the president said on pri he was going to look at the pay issue over the hoday weeke so there is a chance he comes back after labor day and says i've changed my mind and want to see a raise. but i think the ball with is the house of representist, where you have a lot of republicans who normally would wantto see

smaller government, lower pay for federal workers, and they're going to have to decide, ay, is it worth bucking the president on this and doing some so't of raise that he doe want to see? but there's a lot of polital movements here where you've got vulnerable republicans especiallyn placelike virginia, barbara comstock vulnerab w in a race nre she's got a lot of federal workers in her district. so this puts her in an uncomftable spot where basically her president is saying no pay raises. so there's going to be ite a bit of pushback on this. >> i want to turn to collective bargaining. the president signed a series of executive orders. talk to me a little bit about what he did. >> earlier in this year the atite house issued these three executive orders were really a broad side on the federal unions. one of them would have made it a lot easier to fire underperforming workers. another would have pred back, what's known aofficial time, this is hoursu that nion representatives can devote to

union issues and doev grious while on the clock. and these were really seen as an attack on the unions. and, so, more than a dozof the unions filed a lawsuit, saying that this was ainst the law, and just the other day a federal judge agreed, basically said that these agencies -- federal agencies were required ao bargain in good faith with the unionsnd trump's executive orders would have made that impossible. so the key part of those specific orders have basically ocked downetely and, now, you know, unions are celebrating what is, ou know, a momentary victory in their fights with trump on this. >> the administration said it would appeal. where does it go next? >> it's not clear now. on wednesday the white house issued guidanceng follow the judge's order but there's been conflicting thingcoing out of different agencies where the unions in some case said they're not following the

judge's order. in speaking with the union reps recently, they said hopefneully everill come back after the holiday, and this will be sorted out and life wi go back to normal. >> we often talk about federal workers as people who live in d.c., maryland, virginia. but where do all these workerswh might be impacted by these moves? >> president trump likes tdelump in the al workforce with what he calls the swamp. but federal workers are very different from fatat lobbyist in a steakhouse on k street. federal workers are all across the country. the vast majority don't even live in the washington area. they work for agencies, like they do social security, medicare, the v.a. there is not a district in the country that doesn't have some amount of federal workers in it, wd most of them are basically earning middle claes,

keeping their heads down and doing their jobs. >> it's labor day 2018, what's your view of the laborin this country? sh labor movement looks bleak. unioe is just 6.5% of workers in the private sector are actually in the union, and ntions are fighting battles all over the cry. what's going on in washington is one piece of it. a lot of fights in state houses now. they're having a hard time. that says, there are bright spots for unions. you look at the teacher strikes that swept the country last year, stateske west virginia, oklahoma, arizona. teachers shut it down wanting meaningful pay raises in a lot of case. there are quite a few victories for unions. >> thank you dave jamison of the uffington post." >> thanks for having me. >> yang: tropical storm gordon heads toward the gulf coast just

as texas mks the one-year anniversary of hurricane harvey. many of the poorest redents in the houston area are still trying to get the assistance arey need. and therother questions as well. tonight, we look at how the emergency response system was overwhelmed, as told through one family's tragic ordeal. the storm hit with a fury not seen along the gulf coast in more than a decade. 27 trillion gallons of rain poured into texas and louisiana in just six days. at the storm's peak, more than a waird of houston was under r. flooded roads stranded tens of g ousands of people. amem: wayne dailey, his wife, casey, and their two sons. casey had just returned home to their trailer park outside of houston afr surgery to remove a benign tumor. local officials initially decided against mass rvacuations. ha presented an enormous test for the region's 911 system

and how it dealt with medical crises like the daileys'. their tragic story is detailed in a new york times magazine e port, "lost in the storm." i spth the author sheri frank. she's both a journalist and a physician. >> and the storm bears down and their street starts to fill with water, but they have a lot of preparions. you know they're used to this kind of thing. there was a fear that if there were mass evacuations, people would just get trapped on the roads like they did with tropical storm allison in 2001. so wayne had done as much as any of us could do. >> yang: wayne recorded the rising floodwaters. as the rain worsened, so did casey's pain and complications. o yne decided she needed tgo back to a hospital-- by helicopter. on monday afternoon, wayne called 9-1-1 and got the police. >> okay, you need medical or is this for a water rescue? >> this is for a water rescue.

my wife recently hadurgery last wednesday. she had a tumor removed from her left kidd she has been very sick with vomiting for past day and a half, with constant pain, so i don't want her to get water in her sutures. she needs to be airlifted to a hospital. t do know that coast guard is doing air rescues right here in my neighborhood. er>> yang: but the second or cut wayne off before he could give key information about casey's worsening condition. as a result, casey was not listed as a medical emergency. >> okay, we do have over 1,000 calls for services in this area for assistance with evacuation rtd as soon as the fire dent can make it into this haea, you will be evacuated. >> okay, you very much. >> so when he called back and called back again he kept getting classified as a water rescue call. now that did have an effect.

it was pushed down to the local fire departments. there were so many calls that it st went into their computer system. once it moves into that response phase the local fire department was in charge of rescues. bwever that fire department did not have ats that didn't have any high water vehicles. so it had to just try to coordinate as best as it could with volunteers who had boats untrained volunteers and they d st couldn't be everywhere. cause wayne's call didn't get prioritized, it didn't end up being one that they went out to. >> yang: it wasn't until wayne's fourth call to 911, more than 24 hours after his first, that casey's situation was recognized as a medical emergen by then, the emergency responders couldn't find a way to reach her. st and they never got up the s to what wayne asked for in his very first phone call which was a rescue helicopter and it ntjust all those various pin the chain were not set up to really work together that

communications bro down. and as a result they waited and waited for help as she got sicker. >> yang: a paramedic called wayne and told him to flag down any boat he could. volunteers loaded casey onto eir boat and, with great difficulty, managed to reach one of the state's high water dump trucks that could reach an ambulance. but it was too late. sey died on the way to t hospital. she was 38 years old. sheri fink says the daileys' tragedy illustrates the problems of a 9-1-1 system that has not entered the digital age. an internet-based system could automatically redistribute calls to less overwhelmed caters and prioritize needs like casey's >> we think it as 911 but it's a very localized system. and shockingly it's primarily analog based. it doesn't have a lot of coexibility. there's a ition that we

need to move to a sort of internet protocol based systems. ut because it's public safety and it tends to erfunded, that hasn't happened a lot as a result. the call centers became the backup point. there were just many call takers who could take these calls, as the call volumes went up four mes five times up to tn times normal. and whse calls started backing up the call takers just gave up those protocols that help them do that crucial o ing which isioritize who needs help the most. >> yang: in yo reporting you get any sense that there are lesson >> well hopefully there will be. what we haven't sort of talked publicly about too much is will our systems be able to prioritize that any of us who atght have a medical emergency ome in the midst of a disaster. and that is just critical from the first step of 911 all the way through to the response and all the levels of the response

to figure that out to have a solid plan in placand invest in the kinds of resources that would allow the system to do that. because i was told from the county o that was their goal their goal tes to prioritize people who had a life thrng situation in the midst of a mass disaster. it should. there should be a way to do that. >> yang: the full storbe found on the "new york times" web site. >> yang: and now, jeffrey brown has the latest addition to our newshourookshelf. >> bro: the year is 2008 and young andrei kaplan, born in the soviet union, raised in the u.s., is suggling in his would-be academic career and been dumped by his girlfriend.

what to do? return to russia to care for his aging grandmotheand find his way in the new russia. the new novel is "a terrible country." author keith gessen was himself born there, raised here. he's a journalist and editor, translator of the nobel-prize winning writer, svetlana alexievich, and this is his second novel. and welcome to you. >> thank you. >> brown: so this , in fact, thinly-veiled fiction. can we say tt? you went back to russia yourself at that time? >> i did. i did. you know, the question of how much of the material you use from your life ian interesting question. >> brown: mm-hmm. you know, some things you kind of have your raw material, and then you look at it and you say, well, what can i do to make this interesting to someone els o isn't me. you take some things up to ten, otght. you take somr things down to two. you look at it and see if that

works, and you kind of tinker with it. >> brown: you took a lot of things up to ten year, as in bringing this young character to t is land he sort of knows but doesally know. >> i was trying to express something that happens to me every time i go to moscow, which is that i expect it, from reading the news, to be this kind of horror chamber, right. i expect that i'm going to see people beingrrested on the streets, that i might myself get arrested. then every time i show up, it gets nicer and nicer, there are cafes, thereerele driving nice cars, they're talking onth r cell phones, it seems perfectly normal. >> brown: you have andrei going in the book find heg can't even afford acc cappo because they're six dollars and seven dollars brand-new cafes. >> and he can't understand how all these new people are walking in and buying these expens coffees and sandwiches and not

even uttering a word of protest, and at the the kind of paro paradox. on the ne hand it's nice but the other stuff is going on at the same time. >> brown: yeah, all the stuffs in the news real, right? and it comes to you in the book , too, along with the afflueannce the growth, there is the political atmosphere, rit, oppressive political atmosphere. >> when ey were surreering to end the cold war, they were basically told by us that if ving built a kind of thri consumer society, they could also have political freedoms. s that actually happened i they built that consumer ciety, but they lost their political freedoms. it didn't go the way anyone thought it would go. >> brown: you wan essay recently titled "russia wa my obscure interest, now everyone

is paying attention," because there was the period where no one was payi attention to russia, and now it's every day in t newspaper. are you surprised in some way, or how do you respond to it once again becoming this sort of boogie man of our political culture? >> i have mixed feelings. as someone who knows a lot about russia, it nice to see it on people's minds. at the same toue, know, the political atmosphere in the.s. right now with regard to russia is, in my min, poisonous. >> brown: in what sense?we i thinke blame ago lot of things on russia that have nothing to do with russia, right. i think the russians interfered in the election. i think they'dike to be a maligne iluence on our political culture, but it was the american people elected

donald trump. to put all of thati on rua like some people would like to do, i think, is a mistake.is >> brown: whiction the way to tell what is, after all, yovery complicated tale that re even trying to tell me right now about how we see russia, how it really, is what we might be missing? >> there are two reasons i wrote ase book. one of them w to kind of describe russia at a more intimate level than i had ever be able to do as a journalist, to describe what it smells like and sounds like.th ught that could be done in a novel more effectively. and the other reason was a ki of personal reason, which is that i had spent this arth my grandmother, taking care of her and hanging t with her, and that was ala -- it was a really profound experience, it was a very emotironal exnce, it was an experience where i

learned not just a lot aboutmy grandmother but a lot about russia, an not just the soviet experience that she had had, but the post-soviet experience that she had had, and her feeling of being kind of a leftover or irrelevant person who didn't fit in to thd new worlthat russia had become, and that w a kind of personal experience that could only really be expressed, i thought, in a novel. >> brown: and i'm wondering if for yu, as andrei, it is still a country that you know but don't know, a country that is, in some ways, your t clearly not yours anymore. >> certainly when i kept iting, i saw one of the things andrei was allowing me to do was, because he didn't really know the country, because there were things that he encountered that made him mad or that surprised him or th depress

him or that delighted him, that that was something i could sort of walk the reader through, you know, through andrei's eyes, and, in that sense, he was a very effective narrater for me. >> brown: the new novel, "a terrible country," keith gessen. thank you very much. >> thank you. i >> yanour youth-obsessed inciety, there is a multi- billiostry to fight the signs of aging. most of the advertising, warnings, the messaging is directed at wome but women don't have to take the bait. tonight, an american in paris shares her humble opinion on how to age gracefully. >> i've never been beautiful, but in my 20s, i found m superpower: i looked young.

in my 40s, i figured i'd reached what i deser obviously is a permanently youthful glow. but then i had hat a french .all an age blow waiters started calling me madame. mywas shocked. lan had been to look as young as possible for as long as possible. look, i know this sounds ridiculous. i'm an educated, modern feminist, but i wasn't alone. for a lot of middle class american women, that's the strategy. so, when madame happened, i only saw a few optio -- spend the rest of my life pining to look 35 again sor gradualrt to say that i feel much younger insi, or it's great to reach the age where i don't care what anyone thinks. none of these were appealing or even then i noticed that my french corlfriends took a different approach to ing madame.

they explained that, instead of trying and failing to permanently young, they aspired to be the best version of the age at the they are. they kept saying that they want to be "comfortable in their own age." french women do point out that the beauty of nature changes as you age. t your 40s you look like you have a story, but that story can become part of your allure. we're drawn to an older woman t because she's unlined and perfect, but because she's unique. a parisian in her 60told me beauty is to see someone's humanity. we don't want to look like we came out of a box. we're not fren b, we're alive. to age gracefully, in other words, is to show who yoare, ted you can't do this if you're ified. i haven't flipped a switch and started to age like a french woman. agek, not all french women

like french women. i do secretly hope bartenders will still ask f my i.d. but just naming my cultural assumptions takes away some of ing hopower, and decid i'm going to age feels like a very adult act. maybe that's my new superpower. >> yang: finally tonight, a story about a young girl who has been given the gift ofn lay. ella mors born without bones in one hand. d traditional prosthetic hand wove cost up to $10,000. but, thanks to one organization, ella can play just like her sisters, at no cost to family. this story was produced by mary williams, a gwen ifill legacy fellow from hughes stem high school in ncinnati, ohio. >> reporter: advanced chnology is changing the way we live our lives; but for four-year-old ella morton and her mother heather, it has made a huge difference. thanks to some engineering students and a three-dimensional printer at the university of cincinnati, ella is able to enjoy the same activities as

most children her e. >> when ella was born she has no fingers, she has no bones the palm of her hands um she has bones up to her wrist and she can flex at her wrist but that's pretty much where hes stop. she's always been very outgoing and doesn't let anything stop her. so ella what do you call your special hand? >> lucky fin. because nemo had a lucky fin like me. >> reporter: eden barcus, ishan anand, and jacob granger are engineering students and members of enable u.c., a student group collaborating with enable an open source organization that provides a variety of cost- effective prosthetic assistive uvices. >> one of enab.'s main missions is to provide 3-d printed prosthetics for children.os etics are very expensive, and children grow at a rapid rate. >> this is the second hand we've given ella. and so like if she was buying a

telly commercial fully mar prosthetic, every two years you're going to need a new hand, and where we can just say yeah he'll print you off another one. >>iggest thing is getting the right measurements of the patient because each patient's a lile bit different. and how they use their hand, and how they hope use their hand are all different variables you have to take into account. >> it's incredible that can give someone a prosthetic and fuve them the opportunity to have fultion in both hands. >> reporter: jacob knorr, now a medical student at the cleveland clinic, founded the enable u.c. program in fall of 25 to promote 3-d printing technology as a way to bridge the gap between engineering and medicine. av ella i will say is probably my fite, i mean you can tell she just lit up when we gave her this hand and she was able to catch a tennis ball for the first time ever, which is pretty amazing. >> reporter: ella's mother says her daughter can do so much more

now that she has two hands. >> i don't think they've under-- maey totally get-- how much of an impact they'v on our family and ella. the first thing she's always said when she puts it on is look i have two hands now mommy just cke my sisters and i can hold both barbies and play, and i can do all of the same things as my sisters do. mi'd like to think we neve her feel different, but this just makes it feelnormal. >> yang: on the newshour online right now, merely seeing a political symbol like an elephant or a donkey can cause you to reject facts that you inuld otherwise support, accoto a new study. learn more about the science of partisan rancor on oureb site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. tomorrow, don't forget we will broadcast and stream the

confirmation hearing for supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh, beginning at:30 eastern. i'm john yang. 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: >> and by the alfred p. .oan foundati supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> suppor catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. morg information at macfound

>> and with the ongoing support of tse 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. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ ♪ barbara ehrenreich: historical war is often what definanhood. when you wouted to prove that were a man, yod to participate in a battle. you know in a certain kind of warfare, men on average ve an advantage. and that is one on one combat, y-traditionally with hebladed instruments.