captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, we are on the ground as the carolinas bracfor hurricane florence. then, we take to the sky-- miles o'brien flies with scis into the eye of the storm to better understand destructive hurricanes. >> with this aircraft, being able to fly right through the storm, getting into the storm environment, actually sampling the atmosphere, not just looking at it from afar, you cua't get that qty of data anywhere else. >> woodruff: and campaigning on kavanaugh: abortion politics and the supreme court nomination become central issues in the race for an important u.s. senate seat in missouri. >> everybody goes, "oh she's to figure out what the winner is for her politically." there is none. no matter what i do, there are downsides to it.oo >> wuff: all that and moreon

onht's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-io skollfoundatorg. so >> the lemfoundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and

urtherine t. macar foundation committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. re information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: hurricanenc "flo has millions of people across the southeastern u.s. asking tonight: which way will it go? the target area moved south and west today, and sustained winds adropped some, to 120 mil r ur. p.j. tobia begins verage, from wilmingn, north carolina. >> reporter: the storm'ss enormous masis clear enough from space, but its shifting track also means growing uncertainty. "florence" is now projected to

slow near the north carolina- south caroine, then come ashore on saturday. sofrom there, it could turh and west across south carolina. the changes put new areas in jeopardy from what forecasters are calling the "storm of a lifetime." federa agency officials say this was the day to get out of harm's way. >> if you're in an area where you know it's going to flood, or if you're in a mandatory evacuation area, or if you justo t feel you're home is safe, now is the time to evacuate. >> reporter: thousands heededrn the gs, and major highways filled up. that left gas stations shortages as drivers crowded in to buy what they could. in north carolina, buses ferried people from lmington and other coastal towns to shelters in leigh, some 150 miles inland. george alsberg is 103 years old. today was the first time he's evacuated for a hurricane.>> 've never had an occasion to itink about it before.

this time i thinobvious. >> reporter: i south carolina, eastbound lanes on interstate 26 were reversed, with all traffic moving away from the coast. those who stayed, boent more hourding up windows and filling sandbags. t,t the mayor of mt. pleas south carolina, near charleston, said there is only one way to be safe.ch >> when yose to leave and get out of its way, you have more control over yur destiny th do if you choose to stay here. >> reporter: civilian and military leaders alike were gauging the potential of 30 inches of rain, hurricane-force erwinds and power outages wide areas. north carolina governor roy cooper warned the state is in for a sustainebattering. >> plan to be without power for days. understand that the ay last for days and not hours. and this may be a marathon and not a sprint. >> reporter: on the front lines, local officials said they're as ready as they can be for what's coming, and what follows. >> the worst of the storm's not here.

we think we got a good evacuation plan, a good shelter an in place, but we're already planning for what happens after florence makes impact >> reporter: meanwhile, many of the evacuees face the prospect of days in shelters. >> it's coming right for us, literally right for us. so we're just like: you know what? let's just do this.ju let' go to the shelter. >> reporter: staff at senior care facilities are also having to make tooices about whether to evacuate the most vulnerable. tted goins said staying w right choice. >> this building is should be able to stand up and not be insu ane or flood zone. so it was the right decision to make when you considerhe lems you have when you t to transport 100 or almost 100 very debilitated folks.

-he jokingly told me the facility had a big enough generator to power the entire city of wilmington. he seriously told me they had enough food and medicine socked away to last for days in case florence knocked them off the power grid. s >> woodruf p.j., we heard you say the nursing homes are making the decision, sol of them not to move. what about the elderly senior citizens who are not in nursing whathey saying about them? homes? >> folks at that facility and others who take care of vulnerable and elderlysa population the best thing that folks in those populations can do is be with their community. get with family, get with friends or neighboy . don't d ride out this storm alone, because even if you're in a secure house, the power can go out. a tree could fall on your roof, and when bad things happen, no b one wi there to help them p.t. >> woodruff:., tell us about the shelters that are operating there in the wilmington area. what is going on at this point. what are t handling? >> sure. just in the 4:00 hour, the redcr

s released a statement that about 1,600 people spent last night in shelters in north and south carolina. but today is really the day that most folks in tiohis regmade their way to shelters if they were going to go to shelters. we vis sited oneelter where over 100 people had come, many were streaming in as we were in there lking to the director there. so many that they were actually out of cots.er was still plenty of space for folks to stretch out. they even had a space for pets, which as you may knis a reason that a lot of folks don't want to go to a shelter ise because theyraid their pet won't be allowed in. hundreds of people in this area haveeade their way to shlters over the last 24 hours. >> woodruff: and finally, we know we're getting se to the hour when people have to get out for their own safety. what are you seeing there in >> well, things are closing up here. pharmacies have basically started shuttering today. goesryontores, gas staare running out of gas. earlier today around 10:00 a.m. we went to a home depot, they

were closing early, within that hour. there was a line t the door. so it's getting to zero hour where if there is ything yo need to do to prepare, it's getting to be too late awfully quickly, judy. >> woodruff: p.j. tobiaus reporting fo from wilmington, north carolina. thank you, p.j. the president has said the federal government is "totally pr florence. hurricane but there have been questions in recent days about that in light of the response to hrvricanes and maria last year. we get an assessment from two people who have watched this closely. craig fugate was the administrator of fema during the obama administration. he now consults in that world. and chris currie of the u.s. government accountability office or g.a.o. he oversaw the agency's recent report on fema's response to disasters in 2017. leman, we welcome both o you to the program. i should say at the outset, we invited fema to participate today, but they were not available.

but craig fugate, as somebody who knows that agey very well, how prepared are they for this rricane that's coing do you think? >> well, they're in better shape. think about what we were facing with maria. it was the third major hurricane to hit. so they're busy. they're in guam. we have hawaii.we ave wildfires, but at least on the east coast, this will be the first maurricane to landfall. they're using a lot of resources. the other thing is you're going into an area, these states have quite a bit of resources and capabilities themselves. local governments have been faced witcah hurs before. you have a pre tty goodread from local to the federal government working on this. it all ces down the people evacuating and heeding those orders. we can always rebui communities, but rescue operations at the height of the storm are impossible.e you look at hreat. 88% of deaths are related to water, not wind. so the evacuation is key. g>> woodruff: so craig ate, you would say they are better prepared than last year? >> i say they gotu more stff

because this is the first hurricane. when you got to maria, you were on your third major hurricane, and three hurricanes back-to-back of harvey, irma, and maria, it's going to stetch you every time. but this being the first one on the east coast major hurricane, they have more res available that they had literally run out by the time maria got here. >> woodruff: so chris currie, your agency. g.a.o., the report you t out last year looking at the response to puerto rico and the other storms, you did int out that there were many factors cluding the particular situation of puerto rico, but you also looked very closely at peopleotck and amonr things, you said they were overwhelmed, they were not prepared to deploy enough hoalified staff. would you sum that up? >> absolutely. thk you for having me. you summarized it very well, judy. by the time, andh ik craig summed it up pretty well, too. by the tiiame marit, you had three sequential hurricane i

harveyrma, main rhea happened within 28 days of one another, so by the ta e mat, supplies and resources and people were already allocated to other parts of the country, which made it very, ry difficult to marshal the resources in puerto rico. >> woodruff: becausehen you read some of what you reported, you spe about it, you know, cloak wally, being down to the barrel. more of half of the staff they were using were notlified for the jobs they were holding. >> yeah. what i was referring to was the numbers of fema persoel. they had hardy deemployed thousands of people y to, irma in florida, and at the time, fema had over 600 open disasters throughout the country. so very, very difficult to marshal both the numbf people you need and you neededic in puerto but also a lot of their highly qualified staff ch made other place, whi it very difficult to fill critical positions in puerto rico. >> woodruff: craig fugate, does it surprise you, did it

surprise you to seis assessment? >> no. again, quite honestly, we face the same challenges in the obama administration. we would often times be running so many sequential disasters, we were pulling people out of active casters to go to the next one. we had to do n it whesandy was threatening. we had to do it numerous times. this goes back to how fema resourced and our dependency on reservists who quite honestly, we only pay them when we're working disasters. we don't really have good incentives. s we've made recommendati give them status to apply for career jobs as an incentive. we've asked for opportunities to pay them when they're not doing disasters, similar to the military for the reserves, but we're demanding upon akf worce who may or may not be available when disasters happen at a scale we're talking 10,000 to 16,000 people. that's not sustainable with the rrent workload we're having. i think congress needs to go back and looks at how do you ffild and maintain a stor these types of events with the

frequency we're seeing, because be current system wasn'lt for it. >> woodruff: chris currie, what about thak i want to aou about that point, and just looking at this, we know there was no way anybode could orecast there was going to be three major storms within the course of one month. but does it reflect a a lk of planning on the part of fema last year? >> ihink it reflects a lack of planning in terms of the scai ofasters. you're correct. nobody expected to have three quential disasters just like, that and four if you count the california wildfires aft but if you look at the atlantic ocean right now, we have three disasters and maybe even four looming out there. so these rare events are happening every year. so i think craig mentioned, we have to start planning and preparing for these tyes of nings routinely and having the workforce and thmbers of staff we need to do that every year for this potential number of disasters is part of that. >> woodruff: craig fugate, how does that happen?

there's politics involved obviously when you talk about onngress and you talk about appropriating more. where does the change need to come from? >> well, it needs to come in the appropriations process, something that we've had a challenge with congress just passing budgets. it seems they can always come u with the monter the disaster, but the key part if we're going the change these etcome, we need to sp more money before disasters happen. we'll have to grow and sustainth workforce, and unfortunately for fema, we tend to get resources after we failed in a disaster, and then whewe don't have a lot, they cut the budgets again. we wh t throquestration in the obama administration, and that had an impact on femy s abil respond last year. it goes back to we can either pay for a lot of costs after disasters very inefficiently, or we can make investments and build a team for the type of disasters that we'll happen in support of the states andlocal governments, but it is a resource issue. if you don't have the resource and funding, hard to build a team when you have that money

disaster, you're going to run out of qualified peopl as a result of that, the response suffers and we put our citizens on the wrong end of what we are capable of doing. >> woodruff: chris currie, as vomeone who is serving right now in the federal nment, do you see the pieces in place to make these changes happen in time to make a differce? >> i agree that funding is a really important part of. this at g.a.o., our responsibility is to provide independent oversight. we've been looking at these issues for years and years, particularly after katrina. 've made a number of recommendations to fema over the years. i think there is aon rebility on the agency to plan for the workforce it needs and then to trn that workforce with the abilities they need to perform the mission. so funding is important, to build upour numbers, but once you have the people, you also have to ensure that you trainre and you tain those people so you're ready to go when something like this happens. >> woodruff: well, all othis is really important the think about as we confront yet another

major hurricane. chris currie with the general accounting ofice, g.a.o., craig fugate, formerly the head of peoplea. ot thank you bh. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, tropical storm "olivia" brout heavy rain to the hawaiian islands. it lost some punch as it neared maui, with winds at 45 miles an hour, and then, continued on a track southwest. the islands could get 10 inches of rain, with a storm surge up to three feet in places. pope francis will host bishops from around the world in february, to discuss sexual abuse by catholic clergy. today's announcement came ahead of a vatican meeting tomorrow with u.s. church leaders.ca it als as francis is facing new criticism over the long-running abuse scandal. the refugee crisis in syria is tting even worse. the united nations reported today the country's war has ed a record one million people this year.

several hundred thousand have fled to idlib provincee northwest, and now, they face a impendingovernment offensive. but france todayarned syria's president to back off. >> ( translated ): the hypothesis of war crimes cannot be ruled out, that's what france is saying, when you carry out indiscminate bombing on civilian populations and hospitals. we know at assad can only see a military solution. we only see a political one. we need to be active if the worst is to avoided. the worst isn't for certain yet, if everyone acts responsibly. >> woodruff: the.s. and turkey also have troops in syria. both have warned the syrian regime against an assault on idlib. in eastern afghanistan, the death toll from a suicide bombing climbed to 68 today. more tn 100 others were wounded by tuesday's blast in nangarhar province. it was the latest in a string of recent suicide attacks. the taliban has denied any involvement.

russian has rejected claims that two russians poisod a former double agent in britain. last week, british authorities charged alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, and identified taem as part of russian mi intelligence. in moscow today, putin said the two men are actually civilians, and he dismissed thesh allegations. >> ( translated ): we have looked at who these people are, we know who they are now, we found them. i hope that they show up andth speak foselves, that would be better for everyone. there is nothing special or criminal there, i assure you,e but in t will see. >> woodruff: britain accuses the two russians of usinrve agent in the attack. but, there is virtually no chance that moscow wer extradite them to stand trial. ene european union's parli issued an unprecedented rebuke to hungary's far-right government today. lawmakers accused budapest of subverting democratic values by mistreating migrants and curbing press freedoms.

the vote could lead to suspending hungary's e.u. votini ts. back in this country, president trump signed an executive order that authorizes sanctions against foreigners who interfers inelections. the president would have the final say on imposing the toughest penalties. several senators in both parties said the order does not go far enough. median household income in the u.s. rose last year, for a third straight year. that puts them where they were just before the recession. the census bureau reports a gain of 1.8% in 2017, topping $61,000. but for the poorest one-fifth of americans, incomes increased just a half a percent. and, women still earned 82 cents ker every dollar that men cbs news has fired jeff fager,e ecutive producer of "60 minutes." he'd been under investigation

for allegedly gropinwomen and fostering an abusive workplace. cbs said the dismissal was not directly related to those allegations. last sunday, cbs chief executive les moonves was forced out after allegations of sexual misconduct. and on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 27 points to close near 25,999. the nasdaq fell 18 points, and the s&p 500 added one poin still to come on the newshour: we follow hurricane hunters into the eye of the storm. how abortion politics are playing out in missouri's closely-watched senate race.wh the f.d.a. is cracking down on a so-called "epidemic" of teen vaping, and much more. >> woodruff: naturally, we and

most news organizati as are spendiot of time this week trying to alert people about the power and trajecry of the hurricane. but how is it that meteorologists and scientists are able to make these projections? sat's the focus of tonigh report from miles o'brien. oined a crew of scientis that flew right into the eye of the hurricane, just as it was starting to develop into a major storm, a few days ago. buckle up for thiseek's story on the leading edge of science and technology. >> reporter: another beautiful morning in hamilton, bermuda. the crew of a wp-3d orion inspects, prs and briefs for an eight-hour mission straight into the worst weather nature has to offer. loey are hurricane hunters. and on this day,nce is their quarry.

the aircraft brims with three powerful radar systems, sensors to analyze clouds and tubes for dropping probes. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration offered me a seat on this airborne science laboratory, so long as i could buckle up mybe and harness in a hurry. no small feat for your humble one-armed correspondent. but i passed, and soon the aircraft they call "kermit" was airborne >> so, essentially, mission is from bermuda down to tropical storm florence t you can see s map, these are initial suite of points. >> reporter: o flight director meteorologist mike holmes.

>> so, we're going to do a circumvigation and then we're going to do a series of lakes that bisect the storm, starting sth end points 90 knot mi and to fix the center, 90 nautical miles out. rotate that, we're going to doat hree times and then >> reporter: the plane is filled with scientists, engineers and technicians. much of what they do depends on howell things go here. >> we call this station 5. this is where we deploy all of our expendables from. >> reporter: aerospace engineer nick underwood is releasing dropsondes-- tubes filled with sensors that fall to the sea under parachutes, with precise timing. dictated by the scientific objectives, they beam temperature, humidity, pressure and wind data to make forecast models more accurate. >> the more accurate data, the more up-to-date, the more precise data they have, the

better that those models are fting to be. so, with this aircbeing able to fly right through the storm, getting into the storm envinment, actually sampling the atmosphere, not just looking at it from afar, you can't get that quality of data anywhere else. >> reporter: much of tat data they gr is beamed back in real time to forecasters at the national hurricane cter in miami. adople like flight recon coordinator warrenn. when we met him a mw weeks befoflight into florence, he was monitoring the same aircraft as it flew into hurricane lane, as it bore down on hawaii. >> and what you're looking atu right now ow, we have variety of screens up soe can keep track the whole situation. >> reporter: he flew hurricane hunter missions himself, for 14 years. >> the aircraft is flying and sending us information through a satellite connection back into our office here, and so we can , ack where the aircraft is, how strong the winds a can bring up various plots about you know the wind speeds from not instruments that we drop out at

the bottom of the plane that float down to the surface that can measure the wind speed and the pressure and the air temperature floating down. >> reporter: all that data is entered into complex computer t models, th to predict the path of the storm, and its intensity-- the blind spot in the forecasts.as >> forng hurricane intensity has been a big challenge for many years. >> reporter: michael brennan is a senior hurricane specialist at the national hurricane center. >> one of the big investmentma that u.s. ha is with hurricane forecasting improvement project, where congress provided a big infusion of money to focus research and computer modelg development on e intensity forecast problem. in the particular, trying to forecast the rapid changes and intensity where we see storms strengthened by 30 or 40 miles per hour in one day. >> reporter: he says predicting dden shifts is a kind of holy grail. some progress is being made.. but it's painfully slow. w still have difficulty forecasting it accurately because it's, we're not surewh exactl it's going to start or how long it might last. in 2017 for example,e had 39

instances of rapid intensification in the atlantic basin and we forecast six of them correctly. now, it doesn't sound like a lot but 10 years ago that number probably would have been zero. >> reporter: there are a lot of factors at play, and forecasters struggle to identify the triggers. aboard kermit, they are focused on vertical wi shear-- a sudden change in wind direction as altitude changes. wind shear causes cyclonic storms to tilt, reducing their ability to gain strength, so a sudden decline in wind shear can lead to rapid intensification. they spe westward edge of florence sampling the environment whereis the storeaded in addition to plowing through it. heather holbach is a meteorologist at noaa's oarricane research division. >> one of the main of our research is to try and collect data that we can use understand this process, which is why this flight is really interesting, because potentially catching the

beginning of the reorganization of florence before it begins to intensify. so that would really help inform us about the wholerocess that florence will undergo in the coming days. >> reporter: hurricane forecasting has come a long way since the early days of airborne storm hunting. jon zawislek is a scientist at the iversity of miami. >> it's really aombination of having more satellite ntasurements and then the aircraft measuresuch as we're taking today. just generally, we've seen improvements in computing power and such, so we can get higher resolution models, better pararimarization of certain things like clouds processes having near the surface and then itso maybe including how the ocean may interactthe atmosphere as well. >> reporter: but even as forecasts improve, the hurricane center is focused on how best to

communicate all the complex, often misleading, data to the public. it's a new kind of weather front, where physics, math andme orology meet the social sciences. for example, while we all tend to focus on he most likely path of a storm, the called cone of uncertainty, it doesn't tell the whol risk. about who is at >> you can't sit there and say, "well, now i'm outside the cone." >> reporter: kenneth director of the national hurricane center. >> it's not a cone of wepact. i thintill have some work to do to really talk about what some of these things like the cone mean and get people understand the impacts could a be 100 of miles away from the ne. >> reporter: case in point: hurricane irma, last year. the stm left downtown jacksonville inundated, even though it was not anywhere near the "cone of uncertainty." aboard kermit, scientists and engineers are trying to put more certainty into the cone.

satellites using radar can measure how rough the sea is, and that correlates to wind speed. but how accurate are they? data gathered by the aircraft is used to calibrate the satellites, and thus refine the models. engineer paul chang leads the ocean surface wind science team. >> our objectives are both to calibrate and validate and improve like current satelliteth sensor are up there and also investigate new remote sensing technologies. as new satellites are launched, we try to conduct these flights to validate the measurements in the extreme conditions. >> reporter: eight hours and 19 dropsondes later, we find ourselves on f al approach to bermuda.ta the s good and plentiful, and the crew is tired but happy. in the days that followed, florence intensified rapidly, just as they suspected. they hope missio like this will help make it possible one day to turn those suspicions

into predictions. for the pbs newshour, i'm mile o'brien in hamilton,da. >> woodruff: stay with us, >> woodruff: now campaigning on kavanaugh: we travel to missouri, where the contentious confirmation of the next supreme court justice looms over a competitive senate race. lisa desjardins reports how one of the most divisive topics incs polias taken center stage in the campaign. >> desjardins: it is:00 a.m., cold and raining at an abortion clinic outside saint louis missouri. ou>> we just want to let y know that we're here for you. >> desjardins: 26-year-old reagan barklage aims for a soft approach, but she is here to try to intercept women and talk them out of an abortion.he >>women pull up to the driveway, we can go up to the vehicle and just say, "hi, h are you?

can we help you? we're here to offer free resources today." >> desjardins: barklage, who works at students for life, an anti-abortion group, is part of a highly-motivated community that wants two things: brett kavanaugh on the supreme court and more anti-abortionbl reans in the u.s. senate. >> my faith tells me that i need to do something to end the injusticit so for m not a religious issue; it's a human rights issue. >> so that's two buildings over. >> desjardins: a few later, in downtown saint louis, pamela merritt is also incribly motivated, in the opposite direction. >> missouri is teetering on the brink. the likes of whichen have never , and i've been doing this for awhile. >> desjardins: she organized a conference this weekenfor progressive campaign activists- after building her own non- profit to advocate for abortion access. >> the women who are overwhelmingly impacted by restrictions and also by you know criminalization are poor

women of color and who look just like me and who deserve access to abortion without limits and without restrictions. >> desjardins: the two women wi counter campaigns share a current focus: how a potential justice kavanaugh coulpact the future of the supremet' colandmark 1973 decision to legalize abortion, roe v. wade. >> it means everythi. you know. right now, despite our best efforts, we are looking at a nominee who would cement a five judge, all male conservative court that is opposed to abortion >> this supreme court nomination is huge, because this will determine history and it could reverse what's already been done. >> desjardins: you want it overturned? >> i would love to gee roe v. waback to the states and go back to where people can vote on it. >> desjardins: so does, it ses, missouri's republican candidate for u.s. senate, josh

hawley. >> we believe that every person was created in the image of god, that every person has ind rent dignity lue, that every person deserves the right to life! >> desjardins: hawley, thest e's attorney general, has called roe v wade one of the most unjust decisions in u.s. history, and is centering part of his campaign against two-term democratic senator claire mccaskill around the court. recent polling shows hawley anda ill are neck and neck. >> the eyes of the nation are on missouri. we decide which values control the senate and the supreme court. claire mccaskill wants liberals in charge. that's how she votes. >> desjardins: kavanaugh met privately with mccaskill last month. she has not announced how she'll vote. she got an overflow crowd in rural franklin county saturday, a group of democrats that want her to vote no on kavanaugh. p the formsecutor explained the pressure is coming from both sides. >> everybody goes, "oh, she's ut what theigure winner is for her politically." there is none. no matter what i do there are

wnsides to it. >> desjardins: missouri has been a hotbed odebate and court action over abortion since the 1970s and a factor in the last time mccaskill ran six years ag her opponent then, republican todd akin, sparked outrage when he said: "if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." >> mccaskill really exploited that, promoted that. and that helped her have a huge victory that fall. >> desjardins: st. louis public radio's jo mannies has covered missouri politics for almost four decades. she says this ar stands out for the dollar signs. outside groups have poured over $27 million into missouri, the most of any senate seat this year. one conservative group launched a statewide bus tour about kavanaugh. others are blitzing tv screens. >> president trump has nominired another independent justice. will senator mccaskill stand with us or them? >> desjardins: the fight has soured some voters on both senate candidates.

>> i'm not too thrilled about ther of them, not necessarily about them personally, but neither of them are interested in what i'm interested in.s: >> desjardut in others, you see the state's sharp divide. >> i am a pro choice woman so i don't really like the idea that e government can tell me what to do with my body. >> the fact that i don't believe in abortion is a big deal for me.>> esjardins: mccaskill also has a geography problem. teshe needs some moderate e om the suburbs, but also more liberal voters in ties, to pour out for her. >> i mean she has to keep there prives energized. you've got some of the abortion rights activistso n the state e telling her she's to be more upfront on the issue. >> desjardins: like pamela merritt.of >> on the issubortion in general i think senator mccaskill is too timid. >> desjardins: merritt is tapped into key campaign groups, likee ortion rights group naral, whose office she visited to plan an upcoming demonstration. >> i'm not a moderate. i'm an unapologetic lefty.

and the one, number one reason why i elected or vot for claire mccaskill was because the supreme court is on the line. >> desjardins: merritt also lives inhe city of st. louis. she's the kind of fiery progressive mccaskill needs to excite. out in the suburbs... >> i liked having the shade open. >> desjardins: ...reaganrk ge is precisely the kind of republican josh hawley needs: ve and motivated. >> if josh hawley were elected, i definitely think that he would confirm kavanaugh to the sreme court. and i don't think mccaskill will confirm him to the supreme court. and their vote matters. this is a battleground state.rd >> dess: and pressure over kavanaugh is mounting now. the senate is expected to vote e is month, meaning mccaskill will have to makr decision soon and come down on one side of this heated campaign issue. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins in st. louis, missouri.

>> woodruff: the food and drug administration today issued its toughest crackdown yet on the makers of electronic cigarettes. these vaping devices have become increasingly popular with young people, and, as william brangham reports, the f.d.a. told manufacturers they have two months to prove they can keep their e-cigarettes out of the hands of minors. >> brangham: in announcing its action today, the f.a. said the use of e-cigarettes among young people had hit "an epidemic proportn." it's illegal for anyone under 18 to buy any tobacco or nicotine product, including these e- cigarettes. in a moment, i'll talk with the head of the f.d.a., dr. scott gotlieb, but first, to give you a sense of what these e- cigarettes are, and how kids are using them, here's an excerpt from a report special correspondent kavitha cardoza of "education week" did two months ago at a high school in connecticut

>> reporter: fran thompson, the principal of jonathan law high school, opens what he calls his "vaping drawer."e >> these are s the items that we have confiscated this week. >> reporter: the "items" are all e-cigarettes. the most popular brand by far is called juul. >> this is a juul. i know it looks like a flash drive, right? so, thliquid goes in here. >> reporter: basically, they're devices that heat up a liquid, often nicotine, and you inhale the vapor. >> and then they smoke it, they vape it. >> reporter: kids can hide them anywhere. >> their socks, their backpacks or pockets, their wallets. their bras, back pockets, everywhere. >> anywhere, yeah. >> reporter: "juuling" as it's called has spiked all over the country among youth. but unlike alcohol or cigarettes, often parents aren't even sure what it is. parent liz goodwin h teenagers in this school. she found nicotine liquid pods in their pockets while she was doing laundry. >> when i found the pods, i googled it.

ngand i couldn't find anyt i had photos and tried to describe it. what is this? then i saw the amount nicotine. it's one pack of cigarettes. i also understood some of my adult friends used e-cigarettes as a way to get off of smoking so i didn't know how dangerous it was. >> i'll show you what was going on. >> reporter: principal thompson says his "aha moment" was in the bathreom. >> so yoypical high school bathroom right? >> reporter: brings back memories. >> just like watching grease! but what was happening was you might have five or six kids hanging out in here with the door closed and vaping. >> reporter: suchitra krishnan-y sarin runs thee tobacco centers of regulatory science at yale university. she says the flavors are a big part of e-cigarettes' popularity. they sound playful and harmless- mango, mint, cotton candy, blueberry pie. >> these products codi in over 7,00erent flavors.

they can also mix and matc oto create the, again, which introduces a sense of novelty. or>> reporter: but the vap inhaled have been found to contain lead, zinc, um and nickel. and krishnan-sarin says nicotine, the main liquid ins these devi extremely addictive and can cause memory and attention loss. especially in the developing teenage brain. >> brangham: that was from a report by special correspondent kavitha cardoza. in its warning today, the f.d.a. told theour main manufacturers of e-cigarettes that if they can't prove within 60 days that they can keep these devices out of the hands of kids, the f.d.a. would consider taking them off the market totally. the f.d.a. also sent over a thousand w retailers that sell them-- places like drug stores and gas stations.n for moreday's action by the food and drug administration, i'm joined by the head of that agency, f.d.a. commissioner dr. scott gottlieb. commissioner, thank you very much for being here. could you just explain to me,

this clearly seems like escalation on the f.d.a.'s part today. why today, why now >> well, we have access to right w data that demonstrates there is nothing short of an epidemic of se among tnagers. er knew use was rising among high school teen among young people, kids, but we now have access to some preliminary data that we'll make publiat pretty soon shows this is nothing short of an epidemic of use. we feel we need to stin with dramatic action to try to curtail that use. unfortunately, we d these e-cigarettes as a viable alternative for adult smokers ti ate off of combustible tobacco on to products that might not have l the risks associated with them of smoking, but unfortunately, in order to close the on-ramp for kids, we'll now have to take some actions that we think will narrow the off ramp for adult, and that's a trade-off we have to make based on what we're seeing in the market right now. >> brangham: you mentioned an epidemic level of use among kids. as a physician and as the head

of the f.d.a., ca you just sketch out for me, what do you see as the main health problems with kids using these products? >> w'sll, themultiple problems. first of all, we know that tick tick -- nicotine has direct effects on the developing brain. so nicotine in a childnot harmless. it's not a benign substance. but also if we see the trend in use that we're seeing right now, that's create massive pool of young people who are becoming habituated on it, addicted to nicotine, and some componentf those young people are going to migrate on to combustible tobacco yooducts, so ifu believe, that we do, that no child should be using any tobacco product, and we certainly don't want the see a new generation of young people and kids become addicted toco ne and start smoking, this pool of users oftt e-ciga, and it's a pool that's growing very sharply based on the data that we have represents risk for the future that some component of these kids are going to migrate on the cigarettes ancd ultimately ome long-term smokers with all the health effects that come from

that. >> brangham: so you have told the manufacturers, you guys have t days to prove to ushat you can keep these out of kids' hands. leas say the mfacturers fail to meet that test. what happens then? >> well, what we sd today is we're actively looking at removing from the market the flavored products. we believe that one of th aspects of these products that makes them appealing to kids are the flavors, and system of those flavors come in fruity flavors and other kinds of flavors that we thi are increasing the appeal of these products to kids. ductsght now those pro remain on the market because the agency allows them to remain on the market under what call an exercise of enforcement discretion. we haven't requirethe manufacturers to file documents proving they have a net benefit. we have the legal authority to do that. so what we would dell the manufacturers the favors need to come off the market. if they want to reintroduce the flavored markets, they will have to file successful applicationst with the f.d.at demonstrate the existence of flavors provide

a net public health benefitth the benefits of favors in terms of helping adult smokerso quitbustible tobacco outweigh the risk that it's also going to appeal to young people and getoa kid hoked on e-cigarettes. >> brangham: so the f.d.a. wouldn't necessarily be taking these products completely. you'd be taking specifically the on that have fruity flavors, candy flavor, desrt flavors that... it seems to me you're arguing those appeal partularly to kids. well, the bottom line is all options are on the table, and if the trends in use that we're seeing right now continue, we're going to have the take even more dramatic action. we think right now we can step into this market with a come by nation of enforcement actions against the places w kids are getting access to this product, which includes retail establishments that are selling them without carding minors, as e ll as the onltes where we think there are straw purchases being made where someone is going onluying a lot of these products and reselling them to kids. but the other action we would take immediate is look at

removing these flavored products from the market. if we don't thik those actions are sufficient to curtail the scope of use we're now seeingk amons, we're willing to step into the market and take even morice dr. maction. ly say, we do think the e-cigarettes offer a via alternative for adult smokers. we don't want to extinguish this e portunity entirely, beca do see some potential benefit from having these products on the market as a way for adult smokers to get access t nicotine without all the harmful effects of comeb busting acco. but it's going to have to come i think going forward with somead tional limitations on the availability and the types of products being marketed in order to stem what we see as an epidemic of use among kids. >> brangham:juul labs, o of the main manufacturers of e-cigarettes, several months ago they said, we're going to put $30 million in a campaign to keep e-cigarettes out of the hands of kids. they said theyupported the idea of raising the national age

to 21 for these products. they put out a conciliatory statement supporting what you did today. but clearly you don't think the manufacturers have done enough thus far. >> well, look, i'm mearing what the manufacturers are doing and frankly what we're doing based on the results, based on this data that we're seeing, and the day that we're seeing is showing the proportion of teenagers and high school students using these products is growing at a very fast clip. ultimately ttht's going to be e measure that i judge the manufacturers and i jng our own success by. that's what i'm looking at. a >> brangham:ll right, dr. scott gotlieb, commf.sioner of the.a., thanks very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: as part of our ongoing race matters solutions series, tonight special correspondencharlayne hunter- gault looks at how lessons from a successful interfaith effort

may be used to bridge racial divisions as well. nc finding common ground while respecting differe is what brought these 450 college students and educatorsher from across the country.e theyending part of their summer vacation at this chicago hotel, learning how to bridge the toxic divides in our society. the trainers a part of the "interfaith youth core," an organization aimed ahelping people of all religis, ethnicities and beliefs. the non-prof was founded on the notion that the united states was the first country built on the prose of shared values rather than shared heritages, and that a 21st century democracy can thrive only if its citizens have the skills to successfully navigate divides of all kinds. eboo patel is the founder and president of the organization, the largest of its kind in norts

americrted in 1998. patel is muslim, born in mumbai and raised in middle-class suburban chicago. there are chapters on nearly 500 campuses now, focusing cn service inmunity, pressing issues on campus, and making meaningful cooperation with others a normal part of the college experience, in and outside the clsroom. >> we are the eyes and ears of the trainer. i don't have a story.s we're the ono turn the engine and... >> get them going. get them thinking. give them some ideas. >> reporter: durceg the conferi sat down ask why, after studying sociology of religion as a rhodes scholar, he decided to set o on this

challenging path. >> i want to go back with you a few years, you had just gotten your phd at oxford, you came back to america, and you started this program. what caused you to do that? >> mandela, 1999, south africa. i remember seeing him speak, and he begins by pointing out intosa the cape, anng i spent 27 years of my life on that island, in prison, and i wouldn't be on this stage today if it wasn't for the interfaith movement in south africa, that brought down and at that time, if you had told work, i might have kind of rolled my eyes. i didn't realize that people from different faith backgrounds coming together had built this stunning movemt in south africa. and so, i thought to myself, you know, going into the1st century, are we going to forfeit our societies to religious

extremists? or, are we going to try to build atan interfaith movement, hees all of us build divers democracies where everyone can thrive. and i thought to myself, i want to be a part of the next chapter of history. >> then what did you start to do? >> so i was a big part of both the diversity and the service learning movements in college, and part of the intersection of that movement was the idea that you bring people from diffent racial, and class, and geographic backgrounds together, to do service.ay so thenterfaith youth core gets its start is to say why don't we bring young people from different religious backgrounds, each of whose religious traditions has an inspe.ation to se >> did you find that there was a better age than another one to reach these young people, and what was your selling point?

us so, american college ca are a treasure of our civilization. it's where so many young people get a sense of teiir calling, vocation. we thought to ourselves, let's partner with u.s. college campuses to educate and inspire a geration of college studen to be interfaith leaders. ere american ideal is deeply intertwined with iith cooperation, and we need a new generation of interfaith leaders to write the next chapter. does the racial divide that we have today, compare with when you were starting out? >> we are living in an ugly time. part of what interfaith work has to be about right now, icalls for justice with ronciliation, building a new community where we can all thrive. and i think part of the power of religious language, and the bridges that people from different faiths have built in the past, in the civil rights movement, in the struggle dagainst apartheid, is th exactly that. >> one of the things i found

interesting in your general session with all of the 500 was the question how many of you all talk to strangers, how many of you all talk toomeone who doesn't share your politics, and i was just wondering where you were going with that, do you work o sthat? we've got this really thorny set of problems, and i think that one of the ways that we address it, is with the kind of interfaith partnerships that create spaces where it's easier for people to cooperate. that doesn't mean we're going to agree on every election, that doesn't mean we're go agree on economic policy, but we can start a baseball league together. we can help make the school play successful. we can participate in disaster relief efforts together. there's all kinds e things that ntral to our civil society, and our civic culture in the united states, that i usel are now being shredded, because of a poisoolitical environment. if we're not willing to do the work of citizens, with other citizens, you can't have a

healthy, diverse democracy. having said that, we can't paper over the problems ofiz marginion, we can't paper over historic ugly injustice, especially around race. so how do we address that, without making some group of people feel like the enemy? because i think that the great lesson of lincoln, and jane adams, and king, and mandela is for every stitch of hate, or distrust that you put into the fabric now, you're going to have to unstitch at a later point. >> i look at collegeyoampuses, wher have such hostile racial divisions. how do you account for, that anb what do you dot that? >> i'm on 25 college campuses a year. i edobably visomething like 130 in the past eight or ten years. it's not like things don't ever get tense, but what i read about

in the news on college campuses is foreign to meto which iay it is by definition sensational. >> so, are you, in the end, optimistic about our count now, and iows future? >>m i not going to be optimistic? really, right? i me, i feel like if i wasn' optimistic, i would be, i would be being ungrateful to the work that martin luther king junie did to bring this country, and i'm serious about that, right. td the beautiful thing is, there's lots of t feel this way. there's this whole growing network of college student interfaith leaders on american , mpuses, basically saying where's the dividet me bridge it. that's the future of america, or we have no future at all. >> woodruff: eboo patel has also just released a book entitled "out of many faiths: religious

diversity and the american promise."ou find more that work, along with his recommendations on books you should read as you consider developing your own faith. all of that is online at pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i sit down with bob woodward to discuss "fear," his explosive new book on the trump white house. i'm dy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. di >> major f for the pbs newshour has been provid by: >> consumer cellular understands that not everyone needs an uslimited wireless plan. our u.s.-based ctomer service reps can help you choose a plan based on how much you use your phone, nothing more, nothing less. to learn more, go to consercellular.tv nd

>>ith the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made ssible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ca ioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by cess group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

[ train horn blaring ] >> this is the new silk road. a thousand years ago, european and middle eastern traders found their way to china on the ancient silk road. towns and ttlements along the way became prosperous by the trade. chengdu was one of them. today the new silk road connects chengdu to europeig byspeed train. "one road, one world" next on "yan can cook." ♪ >> [ speaking chinese ] ♪