captioning spoored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff.on he newshour tonight, the f.b.i. investigation concludes-- republican senats say they are satisfied, but democrats charge there were limits placed on the inquiry into judge brett ofvaugh. then, the lungs he earth-- we journey inside the amazon jungle as economics clh with conservation. and, making sense of the plastic problem-- we take a look inside the uncertain economic future of recycling.re >> we'tockpiling material hoping that some markets will develop that will open up, but we don't know how long we will be able to hold and store this material and take material in. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major fding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:nd >>y the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic cegagement, and the advancement of international pnd security. at carnegie.org. e >> and with going support of these institutions: and individuals.

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. rsd by contributions to your pbs station from vieike you. thank you. >> woodruff: the results are ine from the f.b.irt on supreme court nominee brett fvanaugh, and allegations sexual assault and misconduct. now, a handful of senaidrs have to d congressional correspondent lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> desjardins: outside the supreme court, some 3,000 protesters demanded the kavanaugh nomination be rejected. inside the capitol, senators ttrooped to a secure roomo read the f.b.i.'s report on the

allegations against brett kavanaugh. all eyes were on key voters, likerizona republican jeff flake, who helped force the reopening of the f.b.i. probe. >> now we're in the process of reviewing it. and thus far, we've seen no newd le corroboration, no new corroboration at all. >> desjardins: but most senators, like susan collins of maine-- she said the new investigation appeared "very thorough." for his part, presidt trump tweeted that the allegations against kavanaugh were "totally uncorroborated." but democrats argued the report resolved nothing. dianne feinstein is top democrat on the senate judicary committee. >> the most notable part of this report is what's not in it. it looks to be a product of an incomplete investigahat was limited perhaps by the white house. >> desjardins: law rs for christine blasey ford, who's accused kavanaugh of sexually

assaulting her in high school, complained she and other witnesses were nev interviewed. in a statement, they, too, blamed the presint, saying: "those directing the f.b.i. investigation were not interested in seeking the truth." i. mr. president did you put any limits on the f.b. investigation? >> desjardins: mr. trump ignored shouted questions about the probe, as he left the white house on a political trip. but press secretary sarah sanders insisted the white house did not "micro-manage" the process. >> we accommodated all of the nate's requests. the president was very clear about that and allowed the f.b.i. to make those decisions and interview who they thought they needed to do so. >> desjardins: democ also argued there's not enough time for all senators to viewhe documents before a key procedural vote tomorrow. virginia senator tim kaine: na only one copy. they're letting rs come in for hour long blocks. s ess what? there's not 100 hoom when they made it available at 8:00 a.m. 'til when they want to do the vote, so they don't want 100 senao read it.

i'm not allowed to discuss it, the public can't see it. a it complete sham. em desjardins: but one previously undecidocrat, north dakota's heidi heitkamp, announced that she will vote against confirming kavanaugh.re and pressuounted on others: supporters of kavanaugh showed up at the office of alaska senator lisa murkowski, who remains undecided. >> woodruff: and lisa joins me now, along with white correspondent yamiche alcindor. so, lisa, what do we know about this report? what are senators g, and is it changing any votes? >> we know the supplemental report itself was something like 50 pages or so and icluded interviews of at least nine people and apparently the f.b.i. reached out to at lea a teth person who may not have spoke ton them. senators arnot suposed to speak about it, but the whole kavanaugh file is about this big, is what the senator said. hind closed doors, senators split up the supplemental interviews and passed them

around one by one. a one point they had sff reading out loud the ente supplemental report. in the end, i did not hear anyse tor indicate that what they found in today's report is something substantially new. good news for republicans who support mr. kavanaugh, but democrats are claiming this report was stacked in that direction from the get that's their feeling. >> woodruff: yamiche, what's the state at the white house? >> the whiterouse and trumpe very happy and want the vote to happen quickly. the fact there is no information seemingly in this f.b.i. investigation is not only good news for republicans, it's goo news for the white house, who was a little worried about what ey could find. rah sanders gave a vigorous defense of brett kavanaugh today. she said he's given more tan any other nominee, and referring to his interviews, to the doments he handed over. she's also referring to the stimony that he gave and, really, what she's saying is enough is enough. brett kavanaugh needs to get a

vote, everyone shoe uld be a have an opinion right now. i was at the white house today when the president walked by our reporters, screaming and really asking all these different questions. i myself wanted to ask him about mocking dr. ford and whether or not he fee like he has the votes to firm his nominee. he didn't say anhing to us but tweeted, as the president often does, and said this is a very important time in our country, due process, fairness and common sense are now on trial. so that's the white take. >> woodruff: so, yamiche, you've also been talking to the other side. what are critics of brett kavanaugh and defenders of christine blasey ford, her legal team, what are they saying? >> the number one complaint isul the f.b.i. shave done more -- talked to more people, had more time to conduct this investigation. everyone thinks thathite house, or at least the critics of this thinks the white house somehow mited the f.b.i., told them you can only speak to these people and don't speak to dr. ford or brett kavanaugh.

the white house vigorously denies that. dr. ford's legal team put out a four-page litter todayth usuall have been giving statements with a couple of paragraphs but this is four pages. whis they are really sayin there are a if you number of pee f.b.i. should have talked to -- the polygraph examiners and had him explain the results of thely aph they say she passed, they say she should have talkedo r. ford's husband, should have talked to dr. f sd's friends e told about the idea she had been sexually assaulted long before brt kavanaugh was a nominee. that's what the people were saying, that the white house did thisn purpose, but the white house is again saying we did not limit or micromanage this. >> woodruff: what doest like like in the senate. >> what brett kavanaugh has ruled in the past, his past aring, all comes down to tomorrow, judy. the senate has scheduled the key

vote for 10:30 tomorrow morning. thetimes got a no vote they wanted for hidi heitkamp. she was significant because she was a yes vot on justice gorsuch. she said i voted for justice gorsuch because i felt his legal ability and temperament qualified him to serve on the supreme court. and kavanaugh is different. she id our actions are a poignant signal to young girls and women across the country. she is running for her life in north dakota to keep her job, and she has voted no. that's significant al, the's four senators to watch how they vote in the next day, nator collins, jeff t ake, lisa murkowski of alaska, joe manchin of wrginia. jeff flake was a yes at one point, he's never indiced otherwise. joe manchin, one of the last senators to read the reportda i am told he will return tomorrow morning to look at it

again hours before the vote. >> woodrf: so much terest in what these senators are doin lisa desjardins, yamiche, thank you both. in the day's other news, the death toll in indonesia's tsunami topped 1,550 as aid trickled in. esbut some devastated villre still waiting for help. john irvine of independent television news reportfrom one such place. >> reporter: a look down a street that a ship came up. she surfed the tsunami, more than 1200 tons riding the wave and plowing into the fishing village of wani. 13 crew were on board at the time, and one of them described how after feeling the ip udder during the earthquake, they saw water retreat from the shoreline. knowing that meant a tsunami, they ran to the bridge, thein lyghest on the ship. then they could ook down in horror as villagers swamped were swamped by the violent

surge of water. they heard screams but were powerless to help. since fray, access to wani has been difficult so nothing in the way of aid has reached here yet t d people feel let down. whatever help isnd in the disaster zone, it always seems to be deined for somewhere else. of all the vessels washed ashore here, it is perhaps this small i one ththe best indicator of the sheer power of the tsunami. you see when disaster struck, this boat was lying on the sea bed where it sank three years ago. fishinvillages like this will need a lot of assistance. after such a colossal assault by the sea, they will take long time to right themselves. >> woodruff: that report, from i john irvine ependent television news. another american serviceember has been killed in afghanistan,

the 7th combat death this year. today's announcement gave no details, but the overall u.s. commander for the region saids afghan casualte also rising. a about 14,0rican troops are still in afghanistan. vice president pence accused china today of trying to unrmine president trump's standing with the american people. her,ited the ongoing tariff and said beijing is targeting states that voted for the president, in a bid to sway the miterm elections. in a washington speech, the vice president said "china wants a different american president." >> beijing is employing a whole- of-government approach to advance its influence and benefit its interests. 's employing this power in more proactive and coercive ways to interfere in the domestic itlicies of this country and to interfere in the ps of the united states.si >> woodruff: pnt trump made a similar claim at the

united nations last week. meanwhile, "bloomberg" reported chinese spies hacked u.s. companies and government agencies, by inserting secret microchips into servers built in china. several of the companies denied it. first lady mania trump spent much of this day in malawi, on a four-nation tour of afca. she was greeted with chants and flowers this morning, as women danced and sang and scores of children waved flags. the trip is being seen in part as fence-mending, afterp president tred a vulgar term to refer to african nations, earlier this year. back in this country, a chicago jury began deliberating in the murder trial of a whitell policeman who a black teen-ager, in 2014. jason van dyke shot mcdonald 16 times, saying the te menaced him with a knif today, a defense lawyer argued that a veo showing mcdonald

moving away was "essentially meaniness." the prosecution said van dyke's account is a lie. a federal judge has blocked the trump administration's efforts to end protections for nearly 300,000 immigrants. they're from el salvadora haiti, nicarad sudan, living here under temporary protected status. the judge, in san francisco, ruled the decision to halt the program, was based on racial animus. the justice department condemned the ruling. on wall street, rising interest rates pushed stocks sharply lower. the dow jones industrial average lost 200 points to close at 26,627. the nasdaq fell 145 points, nearly 2%, and the s&p 500 slipped almost 24. and, juan romero has passed away. he was the hotel busboy who famously cradled robert f.

kennedy after the senator was fatally shot. that was in june 1968, and w kennedy had ju california's democratic presidential primary. he died a few hours later. juan romero died monday of a heart 6tack. he wasyears old. still to come on the newshour: what the f.b.i. report for brett kavanaugh's potential confirmation to the supreme cour russia's bzen hack into organizations investigating moscow's crimes. consvation clashes with economics in the amazon rainforest. and inside the uncertain future of recycling. te woodruff: we return to our lead story: the f judge brett kavanaugh's confirmation. the f.b.i. has finished its investigation and now the senate must decide.

we will hear from senators shortly, but first, we want to explore this latest investigion. gregory brower is a former f.b.i. official who served under both former director james comen and cudirector christopher wray. one of the offices he worked in provided legal guidance fo f.b.i. background investigators. gregory brower, thank you very much for joining us. what does it take for a background investigation to be thorough and to be credible? >> well, that is a process in te normacourse that is dictated by the white house. it's a process that exists for the benefitf the white house, so as to allow the white house to fully vet potential nominees. so, both with respect to scope and duration, the white house doesuide the f.b.i. in tht process. but the process is essentially run by f.b.i. agents who are provided with an sf86, an application from the potential

nominee that inludes the names of neighbors, classmates, family members, a variety of differenth people froperson's life who agents then go out and interview, and those interviews can lead to other leads, and her interviews, and whea process is completed, a report is compiled by the f.b.i. for the benefit of the white house. >> woodruff: but if there are limits placed on either thee number of peo the subject matter, how can -- is that still consider a thorough investigation? >> well, it sort of depends. as i mentioned, in the normal course, the white house does place such limits on the background ivestigation, but often there's a lot of back and serth between the bureau and the white hou counsel's office. for example, if the white house counsel's office puts a 30-day tlimit on the background , in the course of doing the background investigation and witness interews, the f.b.i. comes back to the white house and says, look, we've done what you've asked, but, based upon

really needound, to do more, in my experience, the white house will generally say, go do more, we wa get the fullest picture we can about otential nominee. and, so, here, of course, we've had anything but a nors l procth respect to the reopening of the kavanaugh background.ny bservers thought that the one-week limit was too much, but i think the bigger issue now is the apparent fact that the bureau did noto interviewrd or kavanaugh, and that has left a lot of people, including senate democrats, wondering just how complete this investigation . >> woodruff: why would that have been important to do? as you know, the f.b. did not interview either judge kavanaugh or ms. blasey ford. >> yeah, i think most experienced investigators and prosecutors and, franklymos ordinary lay people observing this process would think thatth reopening of this investigation, given the allegations by dr. ford, would,

at a minimuminclude inerviews with both ford and kavanaugh. so it's curious to me and to a lot of observers that that did not happen. it's given the democrats, obviously, a major process foul to talk about, and i'm just surprised, frankly, that the uaite house didn't direct that those two indiv be .nterview so as to take that issue off the tab >> woodruff: but are you saying it's typical, mr. brower, for the white house to specify who the f.b.i. can talk to, to say you c talk to these people but you can't talk to those? >> no, that is not normal. as i mentioned, the bureau starts with a list names that are provided by the potential nominee and, as interviews with those individuals, perhaps, lea to other individuals who are identified, they will -- the agents will go and interview them. it's uncommon, in my experience, for the white house to micromanage that process. the overall way in which the

white house typically manages the process is they provide a deadline for the bureau to complete its work. >> woodruff: and you're saying because that means f.b.i. can then go and do whatever itks deems -- it ths necessary to get a thorough investigation >> that's generally the goal for the bureau is to do as thoroug an investigation as possible, again, for the benefit of the white house so as to allow thwh e house and the president to have as much information as possible before publicly announcing aomination. here, of course, the new allegations emrged after the public announcement and, in fact, after the first hearing and, so, it made ths a vey different process. >> woodruff: a very different process. gregory brower, thank you very much for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now how all this h looks on capitl: republican senator mike rounds of south dakota read the f.b.i. report earlier today a

us now. senator, what did you make of the f.b.i. report? you've perhaps just heard from this former agent we've spke with, and we're also hearing from democrats who are criticizing the limits placed on the investigation. >> well, first of all, there we new items. there was no shocker anyplace. there was lots more detail for us to listen to with rega to the explanations made by individuals, but nothing that ocked anybody, no new revelations. rnfirmation of what had dy been said or discussed within the public's review during the hearings that came up, basicalla had confirmedwe already heard. but they did go through the process with a number of different witnesses who basically showed no collaboration with any of the allegations that had been made to begin with and, there was nothing new there that we hadn't basically heard about that had relevancy to the issues

at hand. >> woodruff: so you weren't bothered that they placed limits on the people they could talk to? >> well, i think the question that had been raised was whywe weren'aving the judge and also professor ford, once again, reviewed, but remember that, in this case, as in all cases, the f.b.i. will do an investigation on what they call 302 which is basic information asking about issues and the accusations specific. but both professor ford and judge kavanaugh went through literay hours and hours of testimony in front of the individuals who arethe decision-makers, who are the n diciary committee, and for all of us to lis that testimony, which we'll not only listen to once but gock and review again. i suspect what happened is they said, look, we'eave alr gone through and had a chance to ask questions and double down with regard to the questions and concerns that the senats had of each of these two individuals. >> woodruff: we know, senor, that dr. blasey ford contacted

her member of congress back in early july before judge kanaugh had been named. she contacted -- she reached out when she thought he -- he was just under consideration, she wanted to get the information across.no democrats arconceding that it may not have been handled very well, once the name was passed on to congress, but their point is, once that information was out there, isn't tre an obligation to explore it fully? >> we think has been explored fully and, in fact, you are correct, it was no handled right. he had made the short list, and that's when, apparently, there had been a contact made. if that data had been brought forward in a regular order, if it had been discussed among the committee like all of these traditionally are, tha information could have been vetted in those six weeks in which it was hidden from basically the majority part of the committee. on top of it, when it was leaked and she was not given the

information by her own attorneys, apparently, that the committee would offer her adi privatcussion in california, and she says she didn't know anything about it, nestly, it made us a lot of us think there was intent there that was not appropriate, and i think that stillands today. >> woodruff: senator, excuse me. i nt to read to you something that judge kavanaugh said in part of his opening statement last week before the judiciary committee. he said the accusations against him were part of an hestrated political hit fueled with apparent pent-up anger about presidentrump and the 2016 election and revenge on behalf of the clintons. do you believe dr. blasey ford t was put this by democrats who are out for revenge? p >> i thiofessor ford was probably not honored the way she should have been with her aiquest by those individuals who sought political to begin with. in listening to her, i felt very sorry for the position she had been put in, but i think you say

something else here, and i read it this way, beuse i watched carefully as he complied theti real frustr a lot of is in nis position would have, what you saw was a m who was going to call balls and strikes. we talked ant his judicial temperament and said he was a straight shooter and wuld lay it out. he didn't hide his feelings. he said you threw four pal baaings at me, this oe you're throwing at me head. he called it exactly the way he saw it. reexpressed the frustration and the anger that i think anye would. and for professor ford, this could haveeen done in private setting, it was offered. she never got thainformation because somebody didn't deliver it to her, and it wasn't thefo s who are responsible for operating the committee that didn't do that. >> woodruff: senator, i hear you. ckly,finally, very qui former justice john paul stevens, in an interview today, said he once thought brett kavanaugh did have the ralifications to serve on the

court, based on hcord, but he said, watching him in the hearings changed his mind. he said senators should pay attention to that. >> well, i thina lot of us did and that's part of the responsibility that we haver and wethere, we watched it, but there is something else as well and that is we still have 300 cases that judge kavanaugh has issued rulings on that we can go back and look at. it shows a lot about judicial determination and judgmt, it's been well respected over an extended period of time. what you're finding now is a man who's been attacked, his family has been attacked, he's been through a prcess that, literally, i think when it's all said and done, i think he's going to have a huge respect for the value of someone who is innocent to have the right to bu innocetil such time as he is proven guilty. if nothing else, ihink that has been seared into his mind forevermore, if it wasn't there, already. >> woodruff: senator mike rounds, thank you very much.

>> thank you. >> woodruff: we get a democrat's take from senator patty murray of washington state. she is the highest-ranking woman in senate leadship. i spoke to her earlier this evening.na r patty murray, thank you very much for joining us. republicans are moving aheade with this vo judge kavanaugh. they say this f.b.i. report provides no corroboration for any of these allegations. what did you see in the report? >> well, judy, obviouslyi can't talk about what's exactly in the report, but i can tell you i am so frustrated and disappointed that it was a very narrow scope. if there's one thing we hav learned about allegation of sexual assault is that it often takes a long time foromeone to come forward and tell someoneab t it, to be able to remember all the minute details of it. r they often jumember a few things, as dr. ford herself showed us last week in a ver emotional way, and to not speak to the people that she has said

to talk to really says to me that this is not a thorough investigation and it really is an atempt to jst sweep this under the rug and move on, and that is such a disservice toin this nom, this country and women who are victims of sexu assaul >> woodruff: well, the white house and republicans, senator grassley, are saying this was a estigation.v they're saying they followed all the leads that were related to the sexuul asallegations. >> well, what we do know is that both dr. ford and ms. ramirez gave the f.b.i. aditional witnesses that were not contacted, so, to me, that says right there it's not a thorough investigation. >> woodruff:,hey also say senator, that, during judge kavanaugh's 12 years as a federal appellate judge, there were no accusations against him, thathat we are really lking about here are things that happened three, four decades ago whan he was in high schoo college, that it just doesn't

rise to the level that democrats are .king it out to be >> well, let me answer that in a number of ways. first of aller, charand judgment do matter when you're putting someone on the person, on the supreme for a lifetime service, and it matters cause you want to know when you come before them you will be judged fairly. so their judgment, their charter matters, their veracity matters and their temperament matters. if he, indeed, did lie to the committee about what hed done, that speaks volumes, and that's why this is so critical. >> woodruff: do you believe he did lie to the committee? >> i do believe that there is create grasp -- great gaps in his testimonabout dr. ford an also other areas he gave testimony to before the committee, as we saw in the e-mails, whether or not he had -- was involved in judicial

nominations in the past and some of the other questions that came before. so, to me, those questions were already there.f: >> woodrenator, how do you answer republican charges that democrats were, all along, anning not to vote for judge kavanaugh, anyway, that you have this comment fromna r schumer at the outset that he was going to do everything he could to prevent him from being confirmed. they are saying decrats have thsically, from the get-go, have done everythin could to ouevent this nomination from going thr. >> well, let me speak directly to dr. ford, dr. ford contacted her member of congress because ehe told us very clearly sh thought it was her civic duty for us to know something about a nominee that was going to gore behe -- or become a united states supreme court justice. rightfully and truthfully. oand that investigationk some time and, obviously, no one likes how it came about, but the

fact is it is in front of us now, also ao cnsideration, so we have to do our best job to evaluate that. could it have been done better in the future?th k we all hope so, but it's here now and this is what we reve and this is what we' looking at. do we put someone on the supreme court that both his veracity and his -- how he has treated women in the past, i just think that it's wrong to put him onrethe that's why i will be voting now. >> woodruff: do you believe will be confirmed? >> i think none of us know how the last few votes will come down. what i do know is pearople watching. i hear from so many women and men who have told me their own personal stories of sexualre assault, theaying they're watching this closely and, if the senate sweeps this under the rug, doesn't take it seriously and puts this man on theupreme urt, it will send a message nationwide to women, once again, to be quiet don't come forward,

and i think that is such a wrong message for today, and i think if that is the message weend, women are going to be out in t force ov next few months to speak ot. >> woodruff: senator patty murray of washington state, thank you very much. >> thank you >> woouff: american and dutch officials today accused the russian government of a widespread sies of computer attacks aimed at agencies investigating moscow's alleged crimes. william brangham reports, it is the latest major effort against what western l are calling moscow's "brazen" cyber attacks. >> as we announce the indictment of seven russian military officers.

>> brangham: the two different charges... coming from two different governments, allege a complex computer hacking effort by a russian military intligence unit known as the g.r.u. the russian's goal was to attaci and comp several investigations into moscow's wrongdoing. andrew weiss worked on the nation security council, the state department, and the department of defense. he's now with the carnegie endowment for international peace. >> well the russian military intelligence service which is commonly referred to by its former acronym, e g.r.u., has become the pointy end of the spear for the russian government. >> brangham: in the nethfilands, dutch als said back in april, these four russian agents tried to hack into com at the o.p.c.w.-- the organization for the prohibitwen of chemical ons in the hague; it's the international watchdog that monitors the storage and use of those weapons. the o.p.c.w. is vevestigating l alleged chemical weapons

attacks by the russians. one of those was the use of a banned nerve agent in an assassination attempt on the former russian spy sergei skripal in england this past march. the dutch say the four men were met at the airport by a man from the russian embassy. he's the one obscured on the right. the russians then parked this car outside the o.p.c.w. headquarters. in the trunk, investigatfos d devices they allege were used for the hacking. >> ( translated s g.r.u. operation targeted the o.p.c.w. wifi network from short range, with a view to hacking and infecting it. >> so by breaking into this organization's computers, it was presumably to get an inside track on both the investigation and to give russia a leg up on how to embarrass that organization or challenge its analytical findings. >> brangham: the russian foreign ministry denied the allegations, calling them "western spy mania," but, to bolster their case, the dutch say one of the cellphones recovered from the

men had been recently activated outside the g.r.u.'s moscow headquarters, and another man was carrying this taxi receipt,h ing a trip straight from the g.r.u. to a moscow airport.re since the men ll traveling on diplomatic passports, they were expelled from the country rather than arrested. in the u. today, the department of justice indicted seven members of the g.r.u., four of the same men named byth dutch, and three others. >> this indictment alleges a conspiracy to use co hacking to obtain non-public, personal health informatn about athletes and others in the files of anti-doping agencies and sporting federations in multiple countries and to release th stolen information selectively and sometimes misleadingly. >> brangham: the seven men were implicated in a separate series of hacks intended to disrupt the investigation into alleged russian doping during the 2014 sochi olympics. the world anti-doping agency, or wada, reported that in 2014, the

russians ran widespread doping program during the games, and banned russian atheletes from subsequent olympics. today's indictment alleges that after wada's actions, the g.r.u. agents hacked into the computers of anti-doping officials in four different countries, stole sensitive information and data, and publicized much of it online. i thluded personal information about u.s. athletese includinna and venus williams, and gymnast simon biles. the indictment alleges, "the r.olen information was publicized by the as part of a related "influence amand disinformation"ign designed to undermine the legitimate interests of the victim further russian interests, retaliate against russia's detctors and sway blic opinion in russia's favor." >> they're trying to say sed we've caughtanded. we know what you're doing. we're going to work more aggressively to harden ourselves against your influence operations and to expose your cyber operations whenever we

can. whether that deters russia is an entirely different question. russia has shown repeathat it's not embarrassed that it really doesn't care what the outse world thinks. it's not clear that this effort today will change that but itce ainly pours a tremendous amount of scorn on russia g.r.u.'s military intelligence efforts. >> brangham: given that all seven men are now believed to be back in russia, it's unlikely any of them will be extradited to face charges. three of those indicted today were also indicted by special counsel robert mueller early this summer on a raft of charges for interfering in the 2016 u.s. election.s for the wshour, i'm william brangham. f: >> woodrhis sunday, brazilians go to the polls to elect a new president. hanging in the balance is not only the political future of latin america's biggest country,

but also the future of one of the planet's most vital tools for fighting climate change, the amazon rainforest, often callede ungs of the planet." tonight, with the support of the pulitzer center, and in collaboration with the nation magazine and p.r.i.'s "theia world," spcorrespondent sam eaton brings us the second part of his look at what that future might hold. >> reporter: brazilian soy farmer jaime farinon knows who he's voting for on sunday. >> ( translated ): maybe we will manage to get a trump here try set this coutraight. >> reporter: he's referring to presidential candidate jair bolsonaro, a rig-wing populist leading in the polls who's oftet referro as brazil's donald trump. bolsonaro, known for hdi visive attacks on women, blacks, homosexuals, and indigenous communities, became the victim of the same violence he promises to be tough on when he was stabbed at a campaign rally on september 6th.

the event was captured on cell phones. his popularity has since soared. >> ( translated ): in these parts you have to have a little blood in your veins.ut >> reporter:t's bolsonaro's promise to withdrawc from the parislimate agreementan ess political alignment with the powerful congronal agribusiness lobby, called the ruralistas, that has farmers like farinon and ilson redivo excited about their candidate. their soybean farms are close to 10,000 acres eac located on the southern edge of the amazon rainforest inbr il's third largest state, wito grosso. america's trade wa china has caused global demand, and prices, for brazilian soy tosu e. the temptation to clear more amazon rainforest to meet that demand is huge. and soy farmers like farinon and redivo want a government that's not going to stand in the way.

>> ( translated ): i think thisn ronmentalist movement, wants to break the development in brazil. where we have soil like here, highly productive, it has to be exploited. >> reporter: not far from the soy fields raimundo maniwari and other members of the munduruku tribe take motorbikes deep into their 400 square mile forest reserve to harvest brazil nuts. >> ( translated ): since i was a child, my father harvested the brazil nut, and we would tag along.ba then we learned how to work with the brazil nuts. we would gather moreiv seley, just to eat. we would pick only the big ones for ourselves. >> reporter: maniwari says since then farms have surrounded the munduruku's forest on all sides, clearing the trees right up to the edge. things haven't been the same since.

>> ( translated river, the wind, the weather.ll it's aifferent now. in the past, what we call summer used to come earlier. and today the wind is hot and dry, it doesn't bring that yslmness that it used to. >> reporter: he few years ago the brazil nut trees didn't produce any nuts at all for the first time. these changes are worrying scientists who say deforestation, combined with rising temperatures and the droughts and fires they encourage, is taking a heavy toll on the forest. carlos nobre is brazil's leading climatologist. >> the amazon, until recently, was a very potent carbon sink. it was actually extracting from the atmosphere over something between two and three billion tons of carbon dioxide. that sink is declining over time. >> reporter: nobre says total deforestation in the amazon is only a few percentage points shy

of triggering an ecological tipping pointhat could causemorn forest to die off. s an event, s, that would release so much carbon into the atmosphere that it would send global warming into hyperdrive. but as theorld's demand for meat and the soybeans used in animal feed only grows, nobre says if nothing changes, reaching that tipping point is just a matter of time. the amazon basin has been locked in this fierce battle between conservation a indigenouson rights on e side and the extraction based economy on the other. it's basically a losing game. which is why many are asking, is there a third way for the amazon. one that values a forest left standing like this one as a global public good. and how do you create economic potential so tt the people living within the forest see this as much more valuable than clearing their land. at the munduruku's village, the

chief rings ll to announce a meeting. the occasion is the arrival of agronomist paulo nunes. his donor funded program, called sentinels of the forest, has enabled indigenous groups like the munduruku to turn the brazil nuts that grow wild in their forest into a badly needed ch crop. >> ( translated ): if want to save the amazon forest, we need to invest in this kind of value chain, to add value to the products, to value the work of the traditional communities, ofa the people tt have been nnlping to keep this forest standing for mil. >> reporter: brazil's banking system still prefers tst its money in cattle ranches and soy farms. buenunes says making even s of that capital available to enterprises like this, that leave the forest standing, would pay much greater dividends over the long term, helping the munduruku like maniwari protect their forest, and the global

climate, for millennia to come. >> ( translated ): so f is little bitrest we are preserving. it's our insurance for the future. >> reporter: but nunes says that's only half the battle. to really protect the forest against the enormous economic pressures aimed at tearing it down, he says you have to create an entirelvalue chain from sratch. that's why nunes partnered with a small farmer cooperative called coopavam to build this state of the art brazil nut factory near the munduruku forest. it's like a proof of concept. he says by processing the brazil nuts in the factory the value increases by a factor of 20. money that sys right here in the amazon. luzirene lustosa is the cooperative's president. >> ( translated ): in the beginning, we didn't believe that the brazil nut would work out. the price was really low, it had no value, and we didn't have a market but a small group believed that

it could work. >> reporter: the cooperative, now run almost entirely by women, processes and sellsne rebrazil nut oil to the eco-friendly cosmetic giant, natura. it also supplies nuts to more than 4000 children for school meals, among other contracts. and for local women like ana, maria medi's providing valuable employment. coopavam not only buys brazil nuts from indigenous landslike the mundurukus, they also buy from the cooperative's own 20,000 acre forest reserve. agrarian settlementsikn the amazonthis one come with the mandate that only 20% of the forest can be cleared for farming, a law that's more often broken than followed. and lustosa says it would have been the same here. >> ( translated ): in the beginning people didn't accept that. they would say: whwould we want a reserve, we need that land for farming. there was even talk about divvying up the reserve so

people could deforesdi because our dual plots were so small. we didn't know that if we kept it standing, we would have what we have today. >> reporter: now, lustosa says everyone's talking about anting more trees. paulo nunes says through thisoj prt farmers and indigenous people in the amazon are nowto working ther to save the rainforest, and to create sustainable livelihoods. the potential, he says, is enormous. they just need everyone else to get on board. >> ( translated ): what we are doing is to prove that this is viable. so that the government and the financial institutions can see that it works. that it's wortinvesting in because the economics are sound. be possible to bring about this transformation, this change. >> reporter: nunes says brazile future, and rld's, hangs in the balance.

safor the pbs newshour, i' eaton, in mato grosso, brazil. >> woodruff: fally, we return to a special series on our plastic probm. as we have noted in prior stories, the troubles with recycling are a jor part of all of this. but it's become even more pronounced in recent months as the global market for recycling changed dramatically. economics correspondent paul solman has the story as part of hi"weekly take, "making sen of financial news. et reporter: it's trash day in cambridge, massach. every week, meera singh dutifully totes her recyclingto and composhe curb, taking care of most of the family's ksste. >> this is two worth of trash. we>> reporter: that's two s? >> and what it has is plastics,

ese are flower sleeves. i try always to tell them i don't need a flower sleeve when you buflowers. >> reporter: uh, huh. >> but sometimes i'm not quick enough.i compost tea bags. so this is the string, a a because it htaple, so it shouldn't go into the compost. so that's a string off the teabags. >> reporter: really? >> the teabags, yes, i'm very anal about this. >> reporter: so are you kind of a recycling fanatic?wa >> i wish thera word like o.c.d. for recycling. >> reporter: since the average american chucks a hefty four and a half pounds of trash a day, and we generate almost a third of the world's waste with barely 4% of its population, singh's s discipms heroic, if not angelic. >> these should not go in recycling. >> reporter: and yet, there mayh be no takers f recycling, in industry parlance, her "materials." >> the plant's running good, got 460 tons again today, man oh man. >> reporter: ben harvey runs a recycling plt just west of cambridge. >> we're stockpiling material

hoping that some markets will develop that will open up, but we don't know how long we will continue to be able to hold and store th material and take material in. >> reporter: you might call this harvey's great wall for china, because, till this year, china had been cambridge's', america's, and indeed the world's number one recycling market. but environmental protection and a reputation makeover have shut cha's door to all but thest puf recycling imports. plastics have been banned completely, ancould result in more than 100 million tons of plastic waste with nowhere to go by 2030. o and what about biggest recycle export: paper? any non-paper items in the two- ton bales, like bits of plastic, count as contamination. >> they went fm a three to 5% ntamination down to a .5% contamination level, whichs almost impossible today to make that product.

>> reporter: so harvey, like so many other recyclers acr is the countrforced to unload once-valuable commodities to other buyers-- thailand, vietnam, indonesiaindia-- at a loss. some massachusetts recyclers have even managed to get waivers from the state to burn what's picked up in the blue bins, or send them to landfills. save that uff in boston has added employees and hours to try to decontaminate and meet the new standards. but even though some commercial paper bales do, the chinese have now imposed volume requirements for inspections as well. >> they need to ship at least l fids at a time. as you can see, we don't have the space to store five loads of each grade. >> reporter: and chinese inspectorsre required to visit the facility, says the man whose job is to market the material, marc galardi. >> they'll break open a bale or two, they'll take pictnses of what'se the bale, they'll probe the bale to see the moisture content.

>> reporter: so, they want to make sure that you haven't waterlogged it to be heavier, or what? >> yeah, or if materiatts been g in an open dumpster and rained on, they don't want to buy water weight. >> reporter: so, how long does a chinese inspector take? >> ah, they could be here for a whole day, or halfin day, dependon how many loads we're shipping. >> reporter: and that's just too sume consuming? >> it's too time cng and we can't ship any other product during that period. >> reporter: but how in the world, you ask, did our recycling become so reliant on a country half a world away? greg cooper leads recycling efforts in massachusetts. >> about 20-30 years ago when we were starting to ramp up our recycling programs across the country i think ina saw an opportunity to utilize some of the materials, the raw materials, and the commodities that we were producing through recycling. >> reporter: and those materials were pre-sorted at home, as fred rogers and mr. mcfeely taught their tv audience back in 1990. >> the cans go in there, and the bottles in another one.r: >> reporhe new stream of pre-sorted recyclables was an

opportunity that quicklyed prompthinese investment. >> they started to build a lot of paper mills and plasticg manufacturants. nd reporter: just as they were shipping us moreore goods. once unladen though, the ships had little but ballast to take back home. so how about the growing stream of u.s. recyclables? l ery is the c.e.o. of save erat stuff. >> the recyclersin a great spot. you know, if these containers anare going back empty, we fill it with product. >> reporter: at a rock bottom shipping cost. recyclables soon became one of america's biest exports, mainly paper. e to up the volun further and get even more citizens to recycle, micipalities then introduced single stream recycling. >> common bottles, cans and paper are placed in one bin for collection.

il reporter: the material had enough value that recycling centers could afford to do the sorting for us. more recycling; less attention to detail. resulting in... product adulterated with who knows what. >> people just say, "oh, throw it in the bin." and for a long time, that was okay. >> reporter: but it's not okay anymore.ov >> we're notg any material to china. very difficult to move into china right now. >> reporter: and countries thate had accepting what china wouldn't have also tightened their standards on u.s. recyclables. again, the man who moves the material, marc galardi. >> this'd be a mixed paper right here. multiple grades of paper, mixed together. right now, that's gonna go to india. >> reporter: how can you stay in business if you'to paying people ake the product that you were selling? >> well, right now, it's been very difficult. it's really hurt the bottom line. we're trying to do pri adjustments to stay ahead of it. >> reporter: whicheans his" customers"-- the municipalities he services-- will wind up paying more. how much more expensive are you today to a new customer than you

were a year ago? >> more than double. >> reporter: and when the cts come up for renewal? >> municipalities who were either getting paid or getting rid of their recyclables for free are now having to pay fee anywhere from 40, 50, $60 a ton to have them processed. >> reporter: it's become so pricey in california that nearlg 1000 recycenters have closed in the last two years. the only thing making recycling of paper economicallhwhile in massachusetts: the state is closindown its landfills. so with trash costs rising, reclables remain, for the moment, a cheaper way to go. but if consumers have to pay to recycle, says ben harvey... >> we're wondering if ey would be as excited to do it as they have been in the past. in some areas of the country there are laws that they must recycle, in other parts of the country they're freego back to a disposal, to a landfill or a waste energy facility. >> reporte meanwhile, at the beginning of august, china announced plans to impose a

retaliatory 25% tariff on paper and plastic recyclables, threatening to make el harvey's great wall even greater. for the pbs newshour, this is economics correspondent paul solman, doing a dirty job, but t'meone has do it. >> woodruff: and tthe newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening when mark shields and david brooks weigh in on judge kavanaugh's confirmation. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. pr major funding for the pbs newshour has been ovided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com.

>>tnd with the ongoing supp of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributstns to your pbs ion from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

hello, everye, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. i'd like to begin by condemning the -- >> is the u.s. government under attack from within? and is what we don't imagine the most harmful to our health? that is the alarming message o "the fifth risk," the new book by the brilliant nonfiction teiter michael lewis. from the unid states to europe the rise of liberal democracy.es the eu accusungary of targeting immigrants and the rule of law. i put this to hungarian foreign minister peter szijjarto. and one year aer a heavily armed gunman massacred 58 music fans in las vegas, our michelle martin to larry ward, a