captioning sponsored by newshour productions, ll >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, herri attorney says ine blasey ford is prepared to testify some time next week to clai of sexual assault by brett kavanaugh if terms are "fair." then, what washes up in the water-- we explore the environmental hazards used by florence's historic floods. plus, the trump administration defends its policy in yemen amid mounting civilian sualties. plus, a helping hand-- why celebrity chef and restaurateur jose andres is on a mission to provide food to storm ravaged areas. >> when disaster strikes, people need to be eating today. nottomorrow, not next wee next month.

we will be there making sureng that tare getting better quicker and faster rather than later. that's the least we can do for. people >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and bythe alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance anfinancial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engageme of international peace and security. at carnegie.org.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs statio thank you.rs like you. >> woodruff: the drama swirlinge around s court nominee brett kavanaugh has taken a new turn.ac the woman whsing him of sexual assault in high school now says she might be willing to testify next week, after all, but not mondpu, as senate icans want.

amna nawaz begins our verage. >> nawaz: they protested tay in the halls of congss. supporters invoking the name of christine blasey ford, spued by her sexual assault allegation against supreme court nominee brt kavanaugh. that, as debra katz, a lawyer for ford, sent an email to the senate judiciary committee, to negotiate the terms of any potential testimony. in that email, the text of which was obtained by the newshour, katz said ford "would be stify next week," but only under "terms that are fair and which ensure her safety."ei the lawyerrated that ford "has been receiving death threats." the committee, chaired by republican chuck grassley, previously invited ford and kavanaugh to testify monday, a date ford's lawyer now says is "not possible." today, republicans stayed largely out of public view, even

president trump ignored q reporters'stions, while departing the white house earlyi this eveng for a las vegas rally.it but on cap hill, democrats echoed ord's request for an f.b.i. investigation. >> you have the entire force of the president and all the-- and on the other side you have dr. ford, who doesn't even he the benefit on an f.b.i. investigation we've called for. >> nawaz: republicans have downplayed the need for further investigation. in today's ema, dr. ford's lawyer reiterated that ford's "strong preference continues to be... a full investigation prior to her testimony." for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. >> woodruff: and with that, we turn to our own lisa desjardins, for more on the fallout from capitol hill; and william brangham, on what more, if anything, could be gleaned from

an fbi investigation. hello to both of you. so, william, ca the f.b.i investigate this? >> absolutely. therg is nothing preclude f.b.i. from looking into this, - providand this is the big provided -- that the white house request it. that's the barrier here. the white house needs to say reopen this background investigation intoavanaugh. once they do that, i that you could to a retired seen your official in the f.b.i. today, he said if that request comes in, there's nothing off limits the f.b.i. can look into any of the allegations a they see fit. what exactly sit democrats want to get frothe f.b.i. investigation? >> they're asking something new of the f.b.i. in jusa few minutes. senator patrick leahi says he nts the f.b. to investigate crimes against dr. blasey ford including hacking of her emai and death threats against her. there is an ivestigation into

what's happening to her the democrats are requesting. democrats in particular would like the f.b.i. to interview mark judge, the other person professor ford says was there and they think he needs to be under oath and accountable for what he says. >> woodruff: that's the other ys wase have of who she sa at the party at that home that night. william, how long does it tae, do we know, to conduct this kind of investigation? >> as with any of the investigation, it depends on the complexity of the investigation. a lot of the democrats pointed out at anita hill's investigations in the early '90s against clarence thoma were also investigated by the f.b.i. and that took just two days to do. ny said that was somewhat a curse riinvestigation, but there's really no determining.ow it dependseep the democrats -- i mean, how deep the f.b.i. wants to go into this. >> woodruff: and, lisa, what are republicans saying? how do they see this latest tem term? >> we're waiting to see what they come t with publicly but now they are not backing down

about the mon dayearing. privately, we're hearing from key republican offices, they feel they will need to accommodate dr. ford. if she's saying she can meet next week, they don't think it'a good for repub to force a monday hearing without her. athe same time we're seeing on the campaign trail pressure ispr mountingtesters at the capitol, but also we're seeing republicans like a man wh use to be a republican now the independent governor of alaska hacome out an said he opposes the kavanaugh nomination, that's important laws alaska senator lisa murkowski is a swing vote. the determines her own vote bu if the man running for reelection is the governor ofis that stat now a no on kavanaugh, that's something to think about. >> woodruff: political chloeback. >> yes. >> woodruff: republicans are saying i even ifhe f.b.i. investigates this, they can't make a judgment call, so what value is it? >> this is true. this is what the f.b.i.'s protocol is for all cases, not just this case, that they gather

the evidence and simply put it t,rward and then it's to whoever receives the repn this case the white house, to determine what to do of it and what to makto have the assessments. i talked to c boyden grey ho was in the bush white house in the anita hill allegations and he me e the samgument that the f.b.i. can't really render a judgment. so what woulwe learn we don't already know? supporters of dr. ford, including janet napolitano, who i spoke with today, said ther are so many other threads to. this they could interview north america judge, the other students who might have been at that party, the therapist dr. ford allegedly told this to. so they arigue that ths time line set forward with the g.o.p. is completely artificl and there's no reason why it couldn't cake days, perhaps weeks to reopen this andet to the facts. >> woodruff: in the meantime, we pate. the republicans are in control of this. >> stay tuned. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins, william brangham, thank ou both.

we will hear from the congresswoman with whom blasey ford first raised her accusaon and from a woman who clerked for judge kavanaugh after the news summary. in the day's other news, the death toll from hurricane florence rose to 41, as the long, slow recovery continued in the carolinas floodwaters closed part of interstate 95 in south carolina. parts of 95 and i-40 are also closed in north carolina. heavy flooding still covered parts of lumberton today after a levee breach. the governor toured a railroad bridge, with no floodgate, that let the water through. >> this is going to be a multi- billion dollar effort. we have roads and bridges to repair clearly we have a situation in w lumberton here we need toat make sure t the csk line we've got protection from the ver under the bridge. there's a lot we need to do to shore our infrastructure.

>> woodruff: duke energy declared an alert today at a cled power plant near wilmington, north carolina. vee utility is watching a flooded lake near l coal ash dumps at the site. we'll take a longer look at the environmental damage fromte florence, in the program. today marked one year since hurricane maria struck puerto rico. it's estimated that nearly 3,000 people died from the storm and its effects in the months that followed. the hurricane devastated the u.s. territory of three million people, destroying hundreds of homes and wiping out the power grid. one year later, power has been restored. but many homes look the same as the day after the storm hit. the latest summit of the koreas has concluded, and the north's kim jong un sent word that he's eager to resume talks on denuclearization, with the u.s. that's according to south korea's president moon jae-in. the two leaders and their wives

visited a legendary volcano in north korea today. afterward, moon returned to seoul and conveyed kim's message. >> ( translated ): he said he hoped secretary of state mike pompeo would visit north korea soon, and also that a second summit with trump would take place in the near future, in order to move the denuclearization process along quickly. w ld be a political declaration that would mark a starting point for peace negotiations a peace treaty would be sealed after the north achieves complete denuclearization. >> woodruff:oon said he'll meet with president trump at the u.n. general assembly next week, and relay other meages from kim. the world anti-doping agcy has reinstated russia after a three- year suspension. it allows moscow to bid again for major international sporting events. the russians were suspended in november 2015 after findings that they used state-sponsored doping to help their athletes at the 2014 winter olympics russian officials denied the accusations.

and, on wall street, tech stocks led a charge to new records. the dow jones industrial average gained 251 points to close near 26,657, an all-time high. the nasdaq rose 78 points, and the s&p 500 added 22, closing at a record 2,930. ind, for the first time, women will take the stagarvard's famed "hasty pudding" revue.n' that hhappened since 1844, when the annual productions began.ce today's annont says 6 women have roles in the 2019 show. it will also still include men in drag in what the troupe calls a "no-holds-barred burlesque." still to come on the newshour: the trump ministration defends its policy regarding the war in tmen. the focus shifts environmental hazards in the wake of hurrane florence, and

much more. >> woodruff: now back to our lead story: the sexual assaulton allegaagainst supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. the first lawmaker chrtine blasey ford contacted about her allegations was representative anna eshoo, democrat california. shs serving her 13th term congress and she joins me now from mountain view. congresswoman eshoo, tell me, now that we've heard from christine blasey ford's attorneys, that she is prepared to testify under fair conditions, what do you make of that? doou consider that progress? >> i do consider that progress cause this is so important to the people of our country, nd i think that's an element that's been left out of this entire

story. but my constituent, dr. ford,ha deserves t a fair hearing. i don't think it is unfair f her to ask that her safety be assured because of the death threats that have come since she oke out publicly to tell her story and not allow others to mischaracterize it and, also, i think that her request that the f.b.i. do the background investigation of this -- i mean, just think, sh's asking not for less scrutiny but for me, and i think it would be instructive to all of the senators from both sides of the aisle. so i think she alws -- onc she went public, she said she was willing to tesattify. o time has she said th would not. so we have to weigh this,

obviously, in terms of t weight of a lifetime appointment to the supreme court, and integrity and character do matter. >> woodruff: do you think she has a responsibility to testify, given the gravity of what she's accused judge kavanaugh. ed well, she certainly wei the risks and consequences for her family, number one, and herself, and tt's why she was so extraordinarily, i think, courageous to, once there was some leaking, that she would speak out, tell her story and was willg to testify. >> woodruff: the nomination of judge kavanaugwas on july 9, this summer, by president trump. professorr blasey fod contacted your office, as we understand it, in the days that.

you agreed to meet with her. how did sheome acoss to you? did you learn something in that session? you spent an hour and a half with her. beyond what has become public?l, >> when you spend an hour and a half with someone, you take their measure. that's a log period of time. it was quiet. i assured her that her anonymity and her privacy -- privacy is absolutely paramount to all of my constituents, but certainlyin ases of sexual assault, and i also emphan'ze that i wast there to tell her what to do but ratherf there was something she wished me to do, that i would do everything to assist her. she is itelligent, shewas soft spokas. i think itrenching for her to repeat her story, her experience, the experience that -- as i and it was

said, i asked her many questions, and, at the endf that period of tim i did say to her, i believe you, and if you wish me to take this to another lev, we can discuss that, but it is entirely up to you, and your anonymity and your privacy will always be protected, and we have kept our word on that. she chose to have -- i spke to senatorianne feinstein. she is obviously the ranking member of the house judiciary committee, and dr. ford is ourst mutual couent. she asked for a letter, and dr. ford drew a letter up that was confidential,nd we made sure that dr. ford's letter was delivered to the right person ie senatonstein's

washington, d.c. offices the same date that ther lettes dated. >> and that was on july the 30th, i believe. i just want to ask you, there dence. corroborating nvi why did you believe her? >> because of the details. really finite details that remained with her. i the ink th something that is not appreciated in our country, and that is that 93% of sexual asault victims are found to have toled th truth, and, so, yes, there's a juxtaposition of almeone that essen is your next door neighbor -- she's married, she has two yong ss, she's a professor -- but this woman doesn't have a political bone in her body, which she dide

cond -- what she did comprehend were the risks and the consequences of the risks of goinpublic, and that's terrorizing. i think it was terrorizing to her, and i think some of that terror has been confirmed because of the death threats and other really terrible things that se's been subjected to. but she is a pern of integrity. from what she shared with me, she has a firm set of vals, and she has an inner strength to her as well. >> woodruff: representative anna eshoo, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: now i'm jby someone who's known judge kavanaugh for more than a decade. orjennifer mascott clerked kavanaugh during his first year on the u.s. court of appeals in 2006. she also clerked for supreme s.urt justice clarence tho today, she's an assistant professor george mason

university law school. welcome to the "newshour". thank you for being here. you st heard what rongresswoman eshoo said, that she listened an hour and a llf to professorsey ford and believed her. >> well, yes, this is a very challenging set of circumstances and everybody should be listened to and treated with dignity and respect. my personal expience with judge kavanaugh, and i've known him twelve years, him and his family, worked for him his first year on the bench and he has acted with the utmost integrity and character. before and after the lat developments came forward, people testified to his character and my understandingas is he hince given a statement to chairman grassley under penalty ofr pejury categorically denying the accusations and, you know, everything i know of him, these accusations are flatly

racter.stent with his cha >> woodruff: have you spoken with him since these allegations surfac? >> i'm no going to be able to talk about personal conversations and interaction with the judge. what i can tell you is i worked for him elve years ago and he maintained a mentor, a personal contact, someone i go to for professional advice. he and mrs. kavanaugh annually get together with all the lawer . they're a wonderful supportive mechanism for us and the many students he's taught over years. >> woodruff: when you heard this allegation, what was your reaction?he >> well, when d the allegation, the immediate reaction i had is it souponded e te of everything i know about judge kavanaugh and his character and what i've seen from him over the years. i also wondered and questioned why it was comn ing up nowe process and, obviously, again, you know, it's important and needs to be heard, everybody needs to have a chance to be listen t to andeated with absolute dignity and respect. at the same time,

judge kavanaugh, i believe, went through more than 30 hours of questioning at his hearings. i think he had 1300 written questions that he answered, my derstanding is he had a lot of private meetings with senators, and, so, it's also challenging, would seem from, that perspective, you know, to come up and have to answer questions about this now after the fact rather than them being posed earlier or in more of a private setting. >> woodruff: you've known him for a dozen years. you don't say you knew him when arhe was that young, 17 y old in high school, so what makes neu -- are you convinced that it couldn't have hap how do you look upon this? >> so, from everything i know of judge kavanaugh's character for twelve years, it's flatly inconsistent with everything i know of him. also, as you know, 65 women who did know him around the time ol high sceers have also come forward in a letter talking to his character at that time. so he's had people throughout the process, rly on in july, now later in september, come

forward from all walks of life, from all different political and ideological persuasions testifying to his character. iten's consiy been a comment about his fairness, even handedness, his transparence you know,s a fantastic public servant, community leader, written ove300 opinions on the d.c. circuit court of appeals. i joined a tter of his female law clerks, many of them early on in the process, and stand behind that support. >> woodruff: and in your conversations with him over his years, has he talked about his high school years at ? has he made reference to georgetown prep or his high school years? >> i personally have not haddi occasion tuss that with the judge. we've talked about the law, we've talked about law school,ta we'ved about my career, you know, we've talked about case law, talked about his family. >> woodruff: right. jennifer mascott, if you -- if it now looks as if professor blasey ford is going to testify in some form, we don't know yet the details, next week.

hoe will you judge what she says? you, someone who knows the law, how do you as a human being watching all this, how will youh judge whetheis credible or not? >> well, i think at this point in the process, you know, president trump nominated judge kavanaugh and, you know, is standing behsind hi nomination, and now this is really with the senate. the sena will listen to both sides. i think, so far, has tried to be veryair in the process, is my understanding, and we'll have to look a ed weich senator, you know, listening to people's story, but judge kavanaugh has already come forward, he's categorically denied these and i trust will have an opportunity to clear his name. >> woodruff: do you think either judge kavanaugh or professor blasey ford should given the benefit of the doubt here? >> i think both par be treated with the utmost respect and listened to, and i think the senators, so far from what i can tell and know, have tried to make this a fair process and i trust they will continue to do that and trust

their judgment in fact confirmation process. >> woodruff: jennifer mascott,proof at george masonsc ol of law, thank you very much. >> thank you so much for having me. appreciate it. >> woodruff: today on capitol, hificials from the pentagon, state department, and the intelligence community held a rare briefing for top staff there. the topic: what is u.s. policy in yemen? and what role is american support playing in the ongoing vil war there? nick schifrin has that. >> schifrin: the war in yemen has kied at least 10,000 people, and endangered millions more. there are raant shortages of food and medicine. the u.s. is supporting a saudi- led coalition thats fighting, largely from the sky, houthi rebels aligned with iran. they controlhe capital, sana'a; but a battle is ongoing for the major port city of hudaydah, held by the houthis. and there are questions on capitol hill and inside the

state department about u.s. support. congressional officials tell me there's bipartisan frustration with what they call a lack of accountability and transrency. at the center of the controversy are those air raids: whether saudi arabia and the united aram ates are doing enough to limit or prevent civilian killings. one man who would know is larry lewis, research director at the center for naval analyses. he used to lead the defense department's efforts to prevent civilian casualties, and was the state department's senior advisor on civilian protection. larry les, you created the team in saudi arabia that investigatesivilian casualties respect what was your mission and were the saudis interested in your helping the >> so i was asked to go over to saudi arabia and work with thesa i coalition and try to repeat the kind of work i'd done with the u.s. international forces inifghanistan, work them to identify patterns and causal factors fo civilian casualties and help them to reduce them.

>> were they interested? they were definitely interested. they actually embraced the kind of measures i was trying to take place and, in fact, as we were measuring operational outcomes for the first few months, we tually saw measurable reduction in civilian casualties. >> if the saudi kohl's seemed interested several years ago when you were there in reducing civili casualties, why are we getting so many incents of civilian casualties? >> so i was able to work with them for a long time and they were inerested. they were starting to make changes to their operations, but those were changes not to the institution but to the individuals within the operational chain of command. so what happened was there was cere, and then, you know, basically i went away, they stopped fighting. about six months later, the fighting started happening again, they actually reached out and asked for me to come and ntinue me work. at that time, the state separtment and the white hou were really concerned about

reputational risk and, so, they decide no more advising to help them. >> and that was back in 2016, 2017. >> yes, 2016. 2016. fast forward to 2018. now we've got certification from ae department of statend department of defense that the saudi-led coalition is doing its st to prevent civilian caicialts. secretary mike pompeo's statement, the governmf saudi arabia and united arab emirates are taking demonstrable actions to redisk of harm to individuals from military operations of these gvnments. that's certification. does it make sense, do you think? >> no, it doesn't fit the facts. so if you look at the monstrable actions they talk about in the accompanying memo, there are tour actions, three of them are over two years old. no they don't seem to have bee effective because we see these problems continue. the actions they're talking abtht in the memo are not kinds of things that actually

help reduce civilian casualties. ar you mean the actions saudis have to take not those the state department says they're already taking? >> correct. one to have the problems was this horrific attack that killed school children on a bus, and the saudi-led coalition diome out and make a statement and let's listen to the statement. this is from colonel turkeyal aliki. >> we fully accept the findings. we launched the air strike at a wrong time and made mistakes in crossfire rules. we will hold all of those making mistakes in accountable with the laws and regulations. >> we fully accept findings and hold all tho reonsible for mistakes. not so bad, right? >> it's good they admted a mistake. the details of the explanation don't look right. so troy talked about pblems in the timing of the air strike, but the common unrstanding of what happened was the problem was actually the taget

selection. i mean, they struck a school bus with kids. and the fundamental problem is if theare not getting the details right of what went t ong, it's unlikely that they will be able to lutions in place to get better. >> the main debate, it seems to me, is some are saying, stop, don't help them at all, that absolves some, at least, of u.s. responsibility, and another part says, look, we have to help them get better. the u.s. is selling weapons to this coalition. is that the debate we need to be having now? >> we're kind of at a fork in the road. you can either lessen support or continueupport but also help mitt gait theg neative effects through advising, through mored focutention to the problems that we're seeing and helping to fix them.ri t now, the certification decision does neither and, as a result, what we're doing is we're letting the humanitarian disaster just cntinue.

we are letting our partner, saudi arabia, suffer in terms of legitimacy and, also, in terms of makes it herao resolve this ongoing conflict, and, of course, we have reputational on the u.s. as well. >> larry lewis, thank you very much. >> good to be >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: chef jose andres on bringing together chefs to feed storm victims. remeering the economist who created the famous "marshmallow test." and a brief t spectacular take on telling stories on the radio. as rescuers evaluate the human toll of florence, continued flooding poses serious environmental risks. floodwaters are sweeping up

chemical pollutants and animal waste, leaving environmental groups worried about the long- term effects and public health impact. john yang has our story. >> yang: judy, in north carolina, those concerns are rising after duke energy said today that three inactive coal ash basins in goldsboro are underwater.el the ectric utility said it is monitoring the site and only a small amount of ash leaked. coal ash is a byproduct of coaln burning that cins toxic metals like mercury and arsenic. pr decades, it's usually been stored in open-as filled with water, though duke energy says the goldsboro sit covered by forestland. but the heavy flooding has entronmentalists worried ab other duke energy coal ash sites. and therare other hazards: the flooding breached dams at more than 40 lagoons on hog farms, spilling pig waste into floodwaters. s so in those waters: the carcasses of milli chickens, turkeys, hogs and wild

animals killed by the storm. will hendrick is a staff attorney for waterkeeper alliance, a group conducting aerial surveys ithe carolinas to identify contaminated sites after florence. he joins me now via skype from chapel hill, north carolina. mr. hendrick, thanks for joining us. what is your assessment of the current public health threat from the waters in the flood area right now? >> well, it's dark. it's a significant threat and sadly one that will continue to increase as flood o ters continuese. there are a number of sources of pollution, some of which you alluded to in your introduction. we areth monitorinm closely. we are conducting both aerial monitoring and ground patrols and water quality sampling effortto better understand that public health thr ieat. sadlis a threat that is exacerbated by decisns made by

powerful industries with respect to their waste management. >> you say it's dire. i mean, in storms, you alwayso haveme -- flood waters always contaminated. you've got sewage trement ants that overflow, even in heavy rains. what makes this worse in north carolina than it might be someplace else? >> well, h'nestly, i think its that we should have known better. in north carolina, we have been hit in the past by hurricanes that havhexposedthreat posed by inadequately stored and managed coal ash, posed by inadequately maintained and stored waste by industrial we saw in hurricane matthew what flood waters could do, what hurricanes could cause in terms u breaches, indation and in terms of releases of

contaminates that, based on past experience, are leaders and are -- o leaders and industries in h this state should have acknowledged and migated by removing that imminent threat from our flood plains. >> we talked to duke energy a little bit ago. they said the goldsboro and wilmington site are the only two sites they are concerned about. they say they're working with state and environment protection officials and that they're confident that there is no public health thrt from the coal ash. what do you say to that? >> my response is that duke energy has shown time and again that it will understate the threat posed to public healthal and environmeuality by its own actions. it will underrert volumes discharged, it will understate the threat that its own facilities are uder and, mot importantly, will understateand try to diminish public

understanding of or response to the threatos by discharges of its coal ash and the con stitch we want b that are therein. >> you sayweha should have known or recognized this threat, this problem. what, in your view, in your group's view, can be done or should be done to preve this from being a problem in the future, in future storms? >> well, coal ash and swinery waste and pouaste should, for starters, not be stored in our 100-year floodplain. the fact is that all of duke energy's coal ash is stored in online pits within half a mile of our rvers, lakes and streams, and there are currently 62 hog operations located in the 100-year floodplain in north carolina, and more poultry operations as well.

as a first step, given the increasing frequency and severity of these sorts of weather events, i think it's necessary and oveue that those waste impoundments, that that waste be removed from those inherently vulnerable locations. >> will hendrick of the waterkeeper alliance, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: jose dres, who's already well known to television audiences, is becoming increasingly known for his work to help in the wake of natural disasters like florence. in fact, the celebrity chef has been on the ground in the carolinas. in a new book, andres details his experiences in puerto rico and elsewhere. he spoke to jeffrey brown about what he learned, and the challenges of disaster relief.

>> brown: he was an unlikelyfi t responder after hurricane maria tore through puerto rico o year chef jose andres prefers the term, "food first responder." and if you wonder what a chef he says this:a natural disaster, >> our profession is a profession that is chaos. try to survive in chaos we try to-- >> brown: chaos is your normal life in-- >> we try to organize the chaos and that's the difference between successful restaurantssf and not succes restaurants because it's, kind of, chaos. and in the moment this was very much like a crazy restaurant, but only at the largest ale. >> brown: for years, andres gr his brand as a celebrity chef: high-end dining, cookbooks, tv shows, michelin stars. a native of northern spain, he became a u.s. citizen in 2013. his washington, d.c.ased

company is called think-food- group, where we watched him working on ideas and recipes for sme of his 30-plus restau around the world. but in recent years, escalating after the devastating 2010 earthquake in haiti, andres has wanted to do more-- to use his knowledge of and passion for food to help create a new kind of activism his world central kitchen, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that not only responds to disasters, but looko for solutionunger and poverty. >> chefs like me, we love to feed the few. >> bro: you love to feed the few? >> but more and more, we are very in love of feeding the many. i cannot have my fancy restaurant doing well in this corner, and then in another part of the city, people are doing poorlyus >> brown: so jt four days after maria t puerto rico, andres was on the ground, and his team was cooking within hours.

he enlisted the help of local restaurants, grocers a bakers, mobilizing a network of kitchens on the island that ultimately fehundreds of thousands, making nearly four million meals. their efforts are chronicled on social media with the shtag" chefs for puerto rico." >> we opened more an 26 kitchens. my crazy idea was not crazy. my crazy idea was doable. i think we did very good work in a very difficult situation. so i guess we got the right to write a book and share what we learned with everybody >> brown: that book is called," we fed an island," published on the imprint of his friend, the late anthony bourdain. the initial challenge, andres recalls, was convincing officials he was equipped to tackle the problem. >> for me was, in my brain, it' almost li knew how to feed

one or two million puerto ricans and i was trying to communicate that. and obviously when you're a chef and you go to talk to-- imagine a government official, "listen, i want to, i can help you feed two million people. torrow. just give me the resources. just belrove in us. >>: how could they not sort of see who's this crazy guy kind of comingn thinking i know how to feed a whole island. who are you?fi >> it's not tht time you show up in one of those. when they see that you havmore than 30 restaurants where i feed thousands of people a day. when you are manning an organization that has more than0 employees, you have some skills. >> brown: he worked with fema, the federal emergency management agency, but describes his frustration with what he saw as endless bureaucratic red tape. >> the truth is that the men a women, the volunteers aream

ing so you need to be careful in the criticism, especially on tv because it sounds very harsh and seems nobody did anything. a that's fy from the truth. but yes, it's true that the systems and the organization in charge sometimes are not creating a way that gives an opportunity for people to be successful. >> brown: andres has been a frequent critic of presidente trump for whatnsiders an inadequate response to the crisis. just in recent weeksthe official death toll frvi maria was red to almost 3000, a hefigure president trump tn sharply disputed. andres believes the president has consistently underplayed the true scopef the devastation. >> to watch him th tw paper towehungry and thirsty crowds, while i'm sure hdidn't meant bad, the image, the

perception, was one of him like saying, hey, here i am to give you some paper towels so you can take care of your own. e problem was big, the problem was huge. >> brown: his group has now been active in other disasters. this is like a battle map, almost, right of-- >> it's a battle map. and then i can show this to everybody and everybody understands. and so those are the shelters, those are the kitchens. >> brown: in recent months, world central kitchen has been on the ground and feeding people after volcanoes in guatemala and hawaii, an earthquake in indonesia, and the wildfires in california. this week he and his team are in north carolina, helping residents after hurricane florence. they've prepared and delivered upwards of 80,000 meals from relief kitchens in wilmington and raleigh. at the very end of this book you write, "we need to build a new model of disaster relief and food aid."

>> when disaster strikes, people need to be eating today. k,not tomorrow, not next wot next month. we only need to make sure that organizations like ours, will be there makingure that things are getting beer quicker and faster rather than later. that's the least we can do for people. brown: all this, based on a simple idea: >> nhing nurtures people better than a plate of hot foodf a platood was bringing hope, was bringing a message of saying, we care. we're going to fight for you to make sure that tomorrow things will be better. >> brown: for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in washington, d.c. >> woodruff: with some 10,000 baby boomers hitting retirement oage every day, the probl

financial self-control, savingtu for the , has become more and more pronounced. our economics correspondent, paul solman, has been following the connection between savingd ychology for years. the death last week of itsre seminaarcher, walter mischel, triggers this retrospective, part of our making sense series, wch airs here every thursday night. >> reporter: how hard is it for you personally to save, instead of spending your money right away on something you want? >> you know, we are not born kning all these things. >> reporter: an interview conducted on sesame street itself aew years ago confirmed what many might have suspected: that grover cano more delay gratification than many of his felle, americans who on averag reserve, have less than $4,000 in savings. 57% of u.s. adults have less .than $1,000 to their nam but if you can maintain self- control, psychologist walter mischel told me...go >> you hava much better

chance of taking the future into account and likely to have better economic outcomes. >> reporter: mischel, who died t st week, is known for an experiment he firsran at stanford in 60 with four to six year olds, and that you're probably familiar with: the marshmallow test, which i ran on age appropriate grover. i will give you a marshmallow now, or if you wait a little while, i will give you marshmallows, but only if you wait. >> two marshmallows. >> reporter: would it be hard to wait? >> it would be very hard to wait, yes. you know-- you know, just looking at this marshmallow right now makes me want that marshmalw right now. >> reporter: leaving aside the dubious charms of the foodstuff, the marshmallow test is actually among the most famous and replicated in the history oflo psyc. >> there's a marshmallow. you can either wait, and i will bring you can have two, or you can eat it now. >> i will save it. >> okay, i will be back. >> reporter: of the 600 preschoolers at stanford on whom it was run, most wolfed down the little pillow of pleasure.

but one-third delan d gratificatng enough to get another. >> you get two! >> reporter: follow-up research found that the more temperate types had higher s.a.t. scores as teens. and later, an ongoing study of 1,000 random new zealanders from birth to now their 30s yielded even stronger findings. their self-control, or lack of p it, almofectly predicted their future prosperity.or duke profeerrie moffitt: >> so, the children who are of very littl deep financial trouble by their 30s. -ose who are very high se control are doing really well. they're entrepreneurs. they have got retirement accounts. they own their own homes. and those who are average self- control are right in the middle. >> reporter: one challenge to the marshmallow results has suggested that trust in the perimenter is the key to resisting the temptation. but mischel was more interested in teaching kids how to resist. and found that the successful self-deniers employed simple strategies. >> they transform an impossibly

difficult situation into a relatively easy one by distracting themselves, bynd turning ar >> reporter: by putting the marshmallow farther away. >> or i can do it by exploring my nasal cavities or my ear canals and toying with the product. the fancy word for it now is executive control. lm able to use my prefron cortex, my cool brain, not my hot emotional system. i am able to use my cool brain in order to have strategies that low me to make this miserable, effortful waiting effortless and easy. >> reporter: or effortful and hard. >> ten minutes. ten minutes. >> reporter: a question that's plagued this research: is self-a contro-wired? d >> i think some people f much easier to exert control than others. but no matter whether one is reasonably good at this overall or easily bad at this overall,

it can be enormously improved. the idea that your child is doomed if she chooses not to wait for her marshmallows is really just a serious misinterpretation.>> eporter: and that's why mischel worked for years with the kipp charter school program to put his ideas into prtice for those who, he felt, most needed them. >> clap twice. put up your right hand. put up your left hand. put up your right hand. >> reporter: the kipp inddnity school in new york city's harlem, where, in addition to the three r's, these predominantly poor fifth graders study character to maximizeat success in l life, qualities li optimism and curiosity, zest and social intelligence, and one skill above all. >> what is this talking about, don't eat the marshmallow? brittany in the back. >> self-control? >> okay, so we're talking about self-control. >> reporter: in fact, they'd been talking about self-cofirol since tht day of school, when teacher leyla bravo-willey gave all of her stents the

marshmallow test. lter mischel's other major collaboration was with the sesame street workshop... >> me want it. >> reporter: ... videos starring their guru of gluttony to teach tots how to dey gratification. me can take deep breath. me can self-regulate. me wait. >> reporter: we had one more question for mischel, and it formed the basis of a new year's resolution story we did a few years ago: how to apply marshmallow test strategies as adults? so if i have a new year's resolution to drink a little less than i do, what do i do? >> what you need is a plan tt ys, at the end of the day, 5:00 is the time that i am t likehave a drink. >> reporter: right. >> okay? i have to have a substitute activity at that time, so there

will be an alternative and it will be very, very practiced. to give you an example from my own experience, a chocolatell mousse is geneirresistible for me. >> reporter: his self-control strategy? >> i will order the fruit salad. and that's a specific rehearsed plan, so before the guy can tempt me with the mousse, i'y alordering the fruit telad. >> reporter: walmischel died at age 88. buis cliche though it is, h work lives on. this is economics correspondent paul solman, reporting for the pbs newshour. r woodruff: now, another of our brief but spectacuisodes where we ask people about their passions. jay allison is an independent journalist who produces the "moth radio hour" and is the

founder of the public media website, transom.org. tonight, we get hithoughts on how he goes about finding stories for radio and the importance of paying attention. >> radio isn't a performance medium in the usual sense or even like tv where several people might be watching.ne lly, it's maybe one person with headphones in or a person in the kitchen and if you can ma sey're doing and stay stopped until you finish try, that is our definition of success. when i began in radio, i only talked to pele who'd never. been interviewed before. the thing about talking to strangers is you-- you probably never gonna see each other again. if you go and talk to people with a camera like you're doing or with a microphone and focusfu y, it's that the things come

out of lock boxes and people start revealing things because they can feel that you really care and that you're really paying attention. the conversation you're having has to be a real one because lce you-- they start to f like, "oh, this is an interview then?" they kind of present themselves in an interviewee way, the amazing thing is when that gets stripped away and you just see a person whose soul is coming out or you hear that person. you can hear it in their voices, and you know this a person you're speaking in an unmonitored way. they-- they aren't really caring that it's being recorded because it's-- they feel like the nessity of speaking. i work with a microphone and a rig, i disrespect the equipmenty i tawn face with the microphone. a because itort of a powerful symbolic thing to hold like a stick in your hand and then put it in somebody else's face. so you have to neutralize that and you have to make it seem like, 'eh, this is not

i'm a believer in the stories of human beings. it's when we fully understand somebody else that we thought we didn't like, the we thought we were afraid of, that-- that we didn't care about, and, we hear they're story and we recognize, "oh, wait. they're just like me." or, "maybe, they're not just like me, but at least i feelem then suddenly you fundamentally change. it's as though when you go out in the world and encounter actual life and you collect it, almost like a biologist with a collecting net and you bring it back and you study it and then enyou figure out how to pr it, how to honor it, and, this-- that work of telling the storys of the thiu find out i-- i never get tired of it. may name is jay allison. that was my brief but spectacular take on finding stories.

>> woodruff: you can findal additirief but spectacular episodes on our website,pb org/newshour/brief. supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh late today sent a let tore the senatitjudiciary coe chairman. judge kavanaugh wrote that he will be there monday if there is a hearing. he again denied the allegations of sexual assault. and on the "newshour" online, we have more on the newshour online, we have more on our top story, including a detailed explainer on what the fbi might investigate in the allegation of sexual assault by supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks on the fallom the accusations for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon.di >> major fun for the pbsee newshour hasprovided by:

>> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learmore at raymondjames.com >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made g.ssible by the corporation for public broadcast 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 wgh. access.wg

ehello, everyon and welcome to amanpour andpa comny. will politics as usual be a decisive moment for the me too movement? plus, as the president hopes to broke a middle east fades, our v exclusive intew with the head of thenited nations on that and other major global challenges. and then, why we should be a bit alre skept about embracing millionaires. speaking with anand giridharadas about his