captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff.to on the newshought, the f.b.i. investigation concludes-- republican senators say they are satisfied, but democrats charge there were limits placed on the inquiry into judge brett kavanaugh. then, the lungs of the earth-- we journey inside the amazon jungle as economics clash with conservation. and, making sense of the plastic problem-- we take a look inside the uncertaieconomic future of recycling. >> 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 holthand store material and take materif: in. >> woodrll that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs edwshour has been provided by: >> and by the al. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations inuc ion, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >>tnd with the ongoing supp of these institutions: and individuals.

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs statn from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the results are in from the f.b.i. report on supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh, and allegations oflt sexual assnd misconduct. now, a handful of senators have to decide. congressional correspondent lisa desjardins begins our corage. >> desjardins: outside the supreme court, some 3,000 protesters demanded the kavanaugh nomination be rejected. inside the capitol, senators trooped to a secure room to read the f.b.i.'s report on theti

alleons against bretth. kavana all eyes were on key voters, like arizona republin 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 new credible 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, president trump tweeted that the allegations against kavanaugh were "totally uncorroboratedar but democrated the report resolved nothing. dianne feinstein is top democrat on the senate judicary committee. >> the most notable f this report is what's not in it. it looks to be a product of an incomplete investigation that was limited perhaps by the white house. >> desjardins: lawyers for christine blasey ford, who's accused kavanaugh sexually

assaulting her in high school, complained she and other witnesses were never terviewed. in a statement, they, too, blamed the president, saying: "those directing the f.b.i. investigation were not interested in seeking the truth." >> mr. president did you put any limits on the f.b.i. investigation? >> desjardins: mr. trump ignoreh ted questions about the probe, as he left the white house on a political trip. but prs secretary sarah sanders insisted the white house did not "micro-manage" the process. >> we accommodated all of the senate'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. >> desjains: democrats also argued there's not enough time for all senators to view the documents before a key procedural vote tomorrow. virginia senator tim kaine: >> only one copy. they're letting senators come in for hour long blocks. guess what? not 100 hours from when they made it available at 8:00 a.m. 'til when they want to do the vote, so they don't want 100 senators to read i

i'm not allowed to discuss it, she public can't see it. it's a complete .es >> djardins: but one previous north dakota's heidi heitkamp, announced that she will vote against confirming kavanaugh. heand pressure mounted on :pp suters of kavanaugh showed up at the officer f alaska senasa murkowski, who remains undecided. >> woodruff: and lisa joins me now, alo with white house correspondent yamiche alcindor. so, lisa, what do we know about this report? what aresenators saying, and it changing any votes? >> we know the supplemental report itself was something lik 50 pages or so and included interviews of at least ninele pend apparently the f.b.i. reached out to at least a tenth person who may not have spoke ton them. senators are not supposed speak about it, bt the whole kavanaugh file is about this big, is what the senator said. behind closed doors, senators split up the supplemental interviews and passed themne

aroundy one. at one point they had staff reading out loud the entire supplemental report. in the end, i did not hear anyte senator indihat what they found in today's report is something substantially new. good news for republicans whopp t mr. kavanaugh, but democrats are claiming this report was stacked in that direction from the get-go. that's their feeling. >> woodruff: yamiche, what's the state at the white house? >> the white house and trump are very happy and want the vot to happen quickly. the fact there is no information seemingly in this f.b.i. investigation is nt only goo news for republicans, it's good news for the white house, who was a little worried about what they could find. sarah sanders gave a vigorouset defense of kavanaugh today. she said he's given more than referringnominee, and to his interviews, to the documents he handed over. e's also referring to the testimony that he gave and, really, what she's saying is enough is enough. brett kavanaugh needet a

vote, everyone should be able to have an opinion right now. i was at thehite house toy when the president walked by our reporters, screaming and rea asking all these different questions. i myself wanted to ask him abo mocking dr. ford and whether or not he feels like he has the votes to firm hism noinee. he didn't say anything to us but tweeted, as the pre does, and said this is a very important time in our country, due process, fairness and common sense are now trial. so that's the white house's take. >> woodruff: so, yamiche, you've also been tag to the other side. what are critics of betr kavanaugh and defende christine blasey ford, her legal team, what are they saying? >>he number oneomplaint is the f.b.i. should have done more -- talked to morople, had more time to conduct this investigation. everyone thinks that the white house, or at least the critics of this thinkthe white house somehow limited the f..ib., told them you can only speak tose the people and don't speak to dr. ford or brett kavanaugh. the white house vigorsly

denies that. dr. ford's legal team put out a four-page litter today. usually they have been giving statements with a couple of paragraphsut this is four pages. what they are really saying is ahere are a if you number of pee f.b.i. should haveed to -- the polygraph examiners and hadi him exthe results of the polygraph they say she pas ssed, thy she should have talked to dr. ford's husband, should have talked to. ford's friends as she told about the idea she had bn sexually assaulted long before brett kavanaugh was a nominee. that's what the people were ousaying, that the white did this on purpose, but the white house is again saying we did not limit or micromanage this. >> woodruff: what doeslike like in the senate. >> what brett kavanaughas ruled in the past, his past hearing, all comes down to tomorrow, juy. the senate has scheduled theeyo

vote 10:30 tomorrow morning. thetimes got a no vote they wanted for heidi heitkamp.sh was significant because she was a yes vote on justice gorsuch. she said i voted for justice gorsuch because i fet his legal ability and temperament qualified him to serve on the supreme court. and kavanaugh is different. she said or actions 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. also, there's four senators to watch how they votin the next day, senator cole,lins, jeff flisa murkowski of alaska, joe ma jeff flake was a yes at one point, he's never indicated otherwise. joe manchin, one of the last henators to read the report today, i am toldill return tomorrow morning to look at it

again hours before the vote. >> woodruff: so much interest in what these senators are doing. lisa desjardins, yamiche, thank you both. d in t's other news, the death toll in indonesia's tsunami topped 1,550 as aid trickled in. but some devasted villages are still waiting for help. john irvine of independent television news reports from one such place. >> reporter: a look down a street that a ship came up. she surfed the tsunami, more an 1200 tons riding the wave and plowing into the fishing village of wani. 13 crew weretin board at the , and one of them described how after feeling the ship t shudder duri earthquake, they saw water retreat from the shoreline. knowing that meant a tsunami, they ran to the bridge, the highest point on the shi then they could only look down in horror as villagemped were swamped by the violent

surge of water. they heard screams but powerless to help. since friday, access to wani hau been dif so nothing in the way of aid has reached here yet and people feel let down. whatev help is at hand in the disaster zone, it always seems to be destined for somewre else. of all the vessels washed ashore here, it is perhaps this small one that is the best indicatorow of the sheer of the tsunami. you e when disaster struck, this boat was lying on the sea bed whe it sank three years ago. fishing villages likthis will need a lot of assistance. after such a colossal assault by the sea, they will take a long time to right themselves. >> woodruff: that report, from hn irvine of independent television news. another american service membera been killed in afghanistan,mb

the 7th death this year. today's announcement gave no details, but the ovedell u.s. commfor the region said afghan casualties are also rising. psabout 14,000 american trre still in afghanistan. vice president pence accused china today of trying to undermine presidstt trump's ding with the american people. he cited the ongng tariff war, and said beijing is targeting states that voted for thees ent, in a bid to sway the mid-term 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. t it's employis power in more proactive and coercive ways to interfere in the domestic policies of this country and to interfere in the politics of the united states. >> woodruff: president trump made a similar claim at the

united nations last week. meanwhile, "bloomberg" reported chinese sps hacked major u.s. companies and government agencies, by inserting secret microchips into servers built in china. several of the companies denied it. first lady melania trump spe much of this day in malawi, on a four-nation tour of africa.sh was greeted with chants ander flowthis morning, as women danced and sang and scores of children waved flags. the trip is being seen in part as fence-mending, after president trump used a vulgar term to refer to african nations, earlier thi. back in this country, a chicago jury began deliberating in the murder trial of a white policeman who killed a black teen-ager, in 2014. jason van dyke shot laquan mcdonald 16 times, saying the teen menaced him with a knife. today, a defense lawyer argued that a video showing mcdonald

moving away was "essentially meaningless." the prosecion 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 salvador, haiti, nicaragua and 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 lowe 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 aftethe senator was fatally shot. that was in june 1968, and kennedy had just won california's democratic presidential primary. he died a few hours later. juan romero died monday of a heart attack. he was 68 years old. still to come on the newshour: what the f.b.i. report means foa bretnaugh's potential confirmation to the supreme court. russia's brazen hack int ganizations investigating moscow's crimes. conservation clash with economics in the amazon rainforest. and inside the uncertain future of recycling. >> woodruff: we return to our lead story: the fate of judge brett kavanaugh's confirmation. the f.b.i. has finished its investigation and now thidsenate must d

we will hear from senatorsir shortly, but, we want to explore this latest investigation. gregory brower is a former f.b.i. official who served under bothormer director james com and current director christopher wray. one of the offices he worked in provided legal guidance for anb.i. background investigators. gregory brower, you very much for joining us. what does it take for a background inestigation to be thorough and to be credible? >> well, that is process in te normal course that is dictated by the white house. it's a process that existsor the benefit of the white house, so as to allow the white house to fully vet potential nominees. so, both with respect to scopedu anation, the white house does guide the f.b.i. in that procrs. but the pess is essentially run by f.b.i. agents who are provided with an sf86, anio applicfrom the potential

nominee that includes the names of neilbors, cassmates, family members, a variety of different people from the person's life who agents then go out an interview, and those interviews can lead to other leads, and other interviews, and when a process is mpleted, 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 the nuber of people or the sject matter, how can -- is that still considered aorough investigation? >> well, it sort of depends. as i mentied, in the nomal course, the white house does place such limits on the background investigation, but often there's a lot of back and forth between the bureau and the white use counsel's office. for example, if the white house counsel's office puts a 30-day limit on theackground but, in the course of doing the background investigation and witness interviews, the f..i. comes back to the white house and says, look, we've done what you've asked, but, based upon

what we've found, we really need to do more, in my experience,us the white will generally say, go do more, we want to get the fullest picture we can about this potential nomd,ee. o, here, of course, we've td anything but a normal process with respe the reopening of the kavanaugh background. t many observeought that the one-week limit was too much, but i think the bigger issue now is the apparent fact thathe bureau did not interview ford or kavanaugh, and that has left a lot of people,ncluding senate democrats, wondering just how was.ete this investigation >> woodruff: why would that have been important to do? as you know, the f.b.i. did not terview eitr judge kavanaugh or ms. blasey ford. >> yeah, i think most experienced investigators and prosecutors and, frankly, mos ordinary lay people observing this process would think that the reoning of this investigation, given theby allegation dr. ford, would,

at a minimum, incde interviews with both ford and kavanaugh. so it's curious to me and to a lot of observers that that di not happen. it's given the democrats, obvisly, a major process foul to talk about, and i'm just surprised, frankly, that the white house didn't direct that those o individuals be interview so as to take that issue of wthe table. druff: but are you saying it's typical, mr. brower, for the white house to specify who the f.b.i. cak to, to say you can talk to these people but you can't talk to thse? >> no, that is not normal. as i mentioned, the bureau starts with a lit ofames that are provided by the potential nominee and, as interviews with those individuals, perhaps, lead to other individuals who are identified, they will -- th agents will go and interview them. it's uncommon, in my experience, for the white house to micromage that pross. the overall way in which thet

white housically manages the process is they provide a deadline for the bureau to complete its work. >> woodruff: and you're saying because th means the f.b.i. can then go and do whatever it deem-- it thinks is necessary to get a thorough investigation done?ge >> that'rally the goal for the bureau is to do as thorough an investigation as possible, enefit of thee white house so as to allow the white house and the president to have as much ormation as possible before publicly announcing a nomation. here, of course, the new allegations emerged after te public announcement and, in fact, after the first hearing and, so, it made this a very 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 lookon capitol hill: republican senator mike rounds of south dakota read the f.b.i. report earli today and he

joins us now.to se what did you make of t e f.b.i. report? you've perhaps jard from this former agent we've spoken with, and we're also hearing from democrats who are criticizing the limits placed on the investigation. >> well, first of all, there were no new items. there s no shocker anyplace. there was lots more detail for us to listen to with regard to the explanations made by individuals, but nothing thatod shocked an no new revelations. confirmation o been said or discussed within the pubrelic'ew during the hearings that came up, basically had confirmed what we already heard. but they did go through the process with a number of different witnesses who basically showed no collaboration with any of theti alles that had been made to begin with and, basicwaly, ther nothing new there that we hadn't basically heard abouth th relevancy to the issues

at hand. >> woodruff: so you weren't bothered that they placed limits on the people theycou talk to? >> well, i think the question that had been raised was why weren't we having thdge and also professor ford, once agavi, ed, but remember that, in this case, as in all cases, the f.b.i. will do an investigation onhat thy call 302 which is basic information asking aboutnd issueshe accusations specific. but bo pofessor ford and judge kavanaugh went through literally hours anhours of testimony in front of the individuals who are the decision-makers, who are the judiciary committee, and for all of us th listen to tat testimony, which we'll not only listen to once but go back and review again. i suspect what happened hey said, look, we've already gone through and had a chance to ask questions and double down with regard to the questions and concerns that the senators haof ach of these two individuals. >> woodruff: we know, senator, that dr. blasey ford contacted her member of congress back in

early july before judge kavanaugh had beenamed. she contacted -- she reached out when she thought he -- he was just under consideration, she wanted to get the inormation across. democrats are now conceding that it may not have been handled very well, once the name was passed on to congress, but their point is, once that information wa out there, isn't there an obligation to explore it fully? we think it haen explored fully and, in ft, you are correct, it was not handled right. he had made the shortd list, an that's when, apparently, there had been a contact made. t at data had been brought forward in a regular order, if it had been discussed among the committee like all of these traditionally are, that information could have been vetted ithose six weeks in which it was hidden from sically the majority part of the committee. on top of it, when it was lea and she was not given the information by her own

attorns, apparently, that th committee would offer her a private discussion in california, and she says she didn't know anything about it, honestly, it made us a lot of us threk there was intent th that was not appropriate, and i think that still stands today. >> woodruff: senator, excuse me. i want 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 orchestrated political hit fueled with appareent-up anger about president trump and the 2016 election and revenge on behalf of the clintons. do you belie dr. blasey ford was put up to this by democrats who are out for revenge? >> i think professor ford was probably not honored ey she should have been with her request by thoise indviduals who sought political gain 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, because i watched carelly as he cplied the real frustration a lot of is in his position would have, what you saw was a man who was going to call balls and strikes. we talked ant his judicial temperament and said he was straight shooter and would lay it out. he didn't hide hisfeelings. he said you threw four pal baaings at me, this one you're throwing at me head. he called it exactlyay he saw it. reexpressed the frustration and the anger that i think anyone would. and for professor ford, this could have been done in a private setting, it waer off. she never got that information because somebody didn't deliver it to herand it wasn't the folks who are responsible for operating the committee that didn't do that. >> woodruff: senator, i heu. just finally, very quickly, former justice john paul stevens,anninterview today, said he once thought brett kavanaugh did have the qualifications to serve on the court, based on his record, but

he said, watching m in the hearings changed his mind. he said senators should pay attention to that. >> well, i think a lot of us did and that's part of the responsibility that we have, and we were there, we watched it, but there is something else as well and that is we sill have 300 cases that judge kavanaugh has issued lings on that we can go back and look at. it shows a lotu aboutdicial determination and judgment, it's been well respected over anex nded period of time. what you're finding now is a man who's been attacked, his familyt has beenacked, he's been through a process that, literally, i thi a when it's said and done, i think he's going to have a huge respect for the value of someone who is innocent to have te riht to be innocent until such time as he is prven guilty. if nothing else, i think that has been seared into his min forevermore, if it wasn't there, already. >> woodruff: senator mike rounds, thk you very much. thank you.

>> woodruff: we get a democrat's take from senator patty murrayto of washistate. she is the highest-ranking woman in senate leadership. i spoke to her earlier this evening. senator patty murray, thank you very much for joining us.ic repus are moving ahead with this vote on judge kavanaugh. they say this f.b.i. report provides no corroboration for any of these allegations. what did you see in the repor >> well, judy, obviously, i 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 have learned about allegation of sexual asslt is that often takes a long time for someone to come forward and tell someone about it, to be able to rememben all the ute details of it. they often just remember a few things, as dr. ford herself showed us last week in a very emotional way, and to not speak toeheople that she has said

to talk to really says to me that this is not a thorough investigation and iteally is an attempt to just sweep this under the rug and move on, and that is such a disservice to is nominee, this countd women who are victims of sexual assault. >> woodruff: well, the white house and republicans, senator grassley, are saying th was a thorough investigation. they're saying they followethall the lead were related to the sexual assault allegations. >> well, what we do know is that both dr. ford and ms. ramirez gave the f.b.i. additional witnesses that were not contacted, so, to me, that says right there it's not ahorough investigation. >> woodruff: they also say, senator, that, during judge kavanaugh's 12 years as a federal appellate judge, there were no acincusations aga him, that what we are really talking about here are things that happened three, four decades ago when he was in high school and college, that it just doesn't

rise to the level that democrats are making it out to be. >> well, let me answer that in a number of ways. first of all, character and judgment do matter when you're putting someonon the person, on the supreme court for a lifetime service, and it matters because you want to know when you come before them you will be judged fairly. so their judgment, their character matterstheir veracity matters and theirer teent matters. if he, indeed, did lie to the committee about what he had done, that speaks volumes, and that's why this is so cri wtica. druff: do you believe he did lie to the committee? >> i do believe that there is create grasp -- great gaps in his testimony about dr. ford and 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 otheruestions that cme before. so, to me, those questions were already there. or>> woodruff: senhow do you answer republican charges that democrats were, all along, planning not to vote for hajudge kavanaugh, anyway, you have this comment from senator schumer at the outset that he was going too everything he could to prevent him from being confirmed. they are sying democrats have basically, from the get-go, have done erything they could to prevent this nomination from going though. >> well, let me speak directly to dr. ford, dr ford contacted her member of congress because she told us very clearly she thought it was her civic dutyw for us to knsomething about a nominee that was going to go before the -- or become a united states supreme court justice. rightfully and truthfully. and that invtigation took some time and, obviously, no one likes how it came about, but the

fact is it is in front of us now, also a consideration, so we have to do our best job to evaluate that. could it have been done better in the future? i think we all pe so, but it's here now and this is what we have and this is what we'reg lookt. do we put someone on the supreme court that both his veracity and his -- how he has treated woen p in theast, i just think that it's wrong to put him on there. at's why i will be voting now. >> woodruff: do you believe he will be confirmed? >> i think none of us know how the last few votes will come down. what i do know is people are watching. i hear from so many women and men who have told me their own personal stories of sexual ngsault, they're sa they're watching this closely and, if the senate siseeps tnder the rug, doesn't take it seriously and puts this man on the supreml court, it end a message nationwide to women, once again, to be duiet,on't come forward,

and i think that is such a wrong message for today, and i thk if that is the message we send, women are going to be out in force over the next few months to speak out. >> woodruff: senator patty murray of washington state, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: american and dutch officials today iacused the rugovernment of a widespread series of computer attacks aimed at agencies investigating moscow's alleged crimes. as william brangham reports, it is the latest major effort against what western leaders 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 intelligence unit known as the g.r.u. the russian's goal was to attack and compromise several investigations into moscow's eiongdoing. andrew worked on the national security councist the ate department, and theme depart of defense. he's now with the carnegier endowment ternational peace. >> well the russian military totelligence service which is commonly referrey its former acronym, the g.r.u., has become the pointy end of the spear for the russian government. >> brangham: in the netherlands, dutch officials said back in april, the four russian agents tried to hack into computers at the o.p.c.w.-- the organization for the prohibition of chemical ogapons in the hague; it's the international watchat monitors the storage and use of those weapons. the o.p.c.w. is investigating several alleged chemical weapons

attacks by the russians. one of those was the use of a bann nerve agent in an assassination attempt on the former russian spy sergei skripal in england this past march.e the dutch say ur 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, investigators found devices they allege were used for the hacking. >> ( translated ): this 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 tgas zation'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. >> brang ministry denied the allegations, calling them "western spyo mania," but,lster their fse, the dutch say one of the cellphones recoverm the

men had been recently activated tside the g.r.u.'s mosco headquarters, and another man was caying this taxi receipt, showing a trip straight from the g.r.u. to a scow airport. since the men were all traveling on diplomatic passports, they were expelled from the countryst rather than ar. in the u.s. today, the department of justice indicted seven members of the g.r.u., four of the same men named byhr the dutch, and others. >> this indictment alleges a conspiracyo use computer hacking to obtain non-public, personal health information about athletes and others in the files of anti-doping agencies and sporting federations in multiple countries and to release that stolen information selectively and sometimes misleadingly. >> brangham: the seven men were implicated in a separate sers 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 thatf r wada's actions, the g.r.u. agents hacked into the computers of anti-doping officials in four different countries, stolerm sensitive inion and data, and publicized much of it alline. that included pers information about u.s. athletes including serena and ven williams, and gymnast simon biles. the indictment alleges, "the stolen information was publicized by the g.r.u. as part of a related "influence and disinformation" campaign designed to undermine the legitimate interests of the victims, further rusan interests, retaliate against russia's detractors and swon public opin russia's favor." >> they're trying to say see 've caught red handed. we know what you're doing. we're going to work more aggressively to harden ourselves against your influence operations and to expose your cyr operations whenever we

can. whether that deters russia is an entirely different question. russia hashown repeatedly that it's not embarrassed that it really doesn't care what the outside world thin. it's not clear that this effort today will change that but its certainly potremendous amount of scorn on russia g.r.u.'s military intelligence efforts. >> brangham: given that all seven men are now believed to bs back in , 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. for the pbs newshour, m williabrangham. >> woodruff: this sund brazilians go to the polls to elect a new president. haing in the balance is no only the political future of latin amica's biggest country,

but also the future of one of the planet's most vital toolsr ghting climate change, the amazon rainforest, often called "the lungs of anet." tonight, with the support of the pulitzer center, and in collaboration with the nation magazine and p.r.i.'s "the enworld," special correspo 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 to set this country straight. >> reporter: he's referring to presidential candidate jair bolsonaro, a right-wing populist leading in the polls who's often referred to as brazidonald trump. bolsonaro, known for hisks divisive att 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 aign rally on september 6th.

the event was captured on cell phones. his popularity has since soared. >> ( translated ): in these parts you have to oove a little in your veins. >> reporter: but it's bolsonaro's promise to withdraw l from the paris climate ant and his politicaignment with the powerful congressional agribusiness lobby, called the ruralistas, that has farmers li farinon and ilson redivex ted about their candidate. their soybean farms are close to 10,000cres each. located on the southern edge of the amazon rainforest inar brazil's thirdst state, mato grosso. america' has caused global demand, and prices, for brazilian soy to surge. the temptation to clear more amazon rainforest to mat 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 thism environmentaliement, 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 agbrazil nut, and we would along. back then we learned how to work with the brazil nuts. we would gather more selectively, just to eat. we would pick only the big os 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 samesi e.

>> ( translated ): the river, the wind, the weather. it's all different now. in the past, what we call summer used to come elier. and today the wind is hot and dry, it doesn't bring that calmness that it used to. >> reporter: he says a few years ago the brazil nut trees didn't produce ts at all for the first time. these changes are worrying scientists who say deforestation, combined with rising temperatures and the droughts and fires the 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 billionto of carbon dioxide. that sink is declining over time >> reporter: nobre says totaln deforestat the amazon is coly a few percentage points shy

of triggering angical tipping point that could cause more than half of the amazon forest to die off. an event, he says, that would release so muccarbon into the mosphere that it would send global warmi into hyperdrive. but as the world's demand for meat and the soybeans used in animal feed on grows, nobre says if nothing changes, reaching that tipping point is just a matter of time. the amazon bas has been locked this fierce battle between conservation and indigenous rights on one side and extraction based economy on the bher. itically a losing game. which is why many are asking, is there a third way for the amaz. one that values a forest left standing like this one as a global public good. d how do you create economic potential so that the people living within the forest see this as much more valuable than clearing their land. at the munduruku's village, th

chief rings a bell to announce a meeting.ca the on 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 their forest into a badly needed cash crop. >> ( translated ): if we want to save the amazon forest, we need to invest in this kind of value chain, to lue to the products, to value the work of the traditional communities, of the people that have been helping to keep this forest standing for millennia. >> reporter: brazil's banking system still prefers to invest its money in cattle ranches and soy farms. but nunes says making even some of that capital available to enterprises like thi 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 this little bit of forest we are preserving. it's o insurance for the future. >> reporter: but nunes says that's only lf the battle.ea to rlly protect the forest against the enormous economic pressures aimed at tearing it down, he says you have to create fr entirely new value chai 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 ays by processing the brazil nuts in the factory the value increases by a factor of 20. money that stays right here in the amazon.zi ne lustosa is theiv coopers president. >> ( translated ): i wthe beginnindidn't believe that the brazil nut would work lt. the price was real, 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 ilmen, processes and sells refined brazil nuto the eco-friendly cosmetic giant, natura. it also supplies nuts to more than 42,000 children for schoolo meals, other contracts. and for local women like ana ngmaria medina, it's provi valuable employment. zicoopavam not only buys b nuts from indigenous lands, like the mundurukus, they also buy from the cooperative'swn 20,000 acre forest reserve. agrarian settlements in the amazon like this one come withth the mandat only 20% of the forest can be cleared for farming, a law that's more often broken than foowed. and lustosa says it would have been the same here. >> ( translated in the beginning people didn't accept that. they would say: why would we want a reserve, we need that land for farming. there was even talk about divvying up the reserve so

people could deforest, because our individual plotsso small. we didn't know that if we keptit tanding, we would have whatto we havy. >> reporter: now, lustosa says everyone's talking about planting more trees. paulo nunes says through this project farmers and indigenousam people in thon are now tworking together to save rainforest, and to create sustainable livelihoods. thpotential, 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 institions can see that it works. that it's worth investing ine because onomics are sound. we believe that overtime it will be possible to bring about this transformation, this ce. >> reporter: nunes says brazil's future, and the world's, hangs in the balance.

for the pbs newshour, i'm sam eaton, in mato grosso, brazil. >> woodruff: finally, we return to a special series on our plastic problem. as we have noted in prior stories, the troubles with recycling are a major part of all of this.t 's become even more pronounced in recent months as the global market for recycling waste has changed dramatically. economics correspondent paul solman has the story as part of his weekly take,ofmaking sense" inancial news. >> reporter: it's trash day in cambridg massachusetts. ery week, meera singh dutifully totes her recycling ind compost to the curb, t care of most of the family's waste. >> thiis two weeks worth of trash. >> reporter: tt's two weeks? >> and what it has is plastics,

these are flower sleeves.o i try alwaysll them i don't need a flower sleeve when you buy flowers. >> reporter: uh, huh. >> but sometim i'm not quick enough.gs i compost te. so this is the string, and because it has a staple, so it shouldn't go into thost. so that's a string off the teabags. >> reporter: really? >> the teabags, yes, i'm very anal about t >> reporter: so are you kind of a recycling fanatic? >> i wish there was a 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 discipline seems heroic, if not angelic. >> these should not go in recyclin >> reporter: and yet, there may be,o takers for her recycli in industry parlance, her "materials." >> the plant's running good, got 460 tons again today, man oh man. >> reporter: ben harvey runs a recycling plant just west of cambridge.e' >> 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 this material an itake igterialn. >> reporter: you m call this harvey's great wall for china, because, till this year, china c had bebridge's', america's, and indeed the world's number one recycling market. but environmental protection and a reputation makeover have shut china's dooro all but the purest of recycling imports. plastics have been banned completely, and could result in more than 100 million tons of waste with nowhere to go by 2030. and what about our biggest recycle export: paper? any non-paper items in the two- ton bales,ike bits of plastic, count as contamination. >> they went from a three ton % contaminatwn to a .5% contamination level, which is almost impossible today to make that product.

>> reporter: so harvey, like so many other recyclers across the country, is forced to unload once-valuable commodities to other buyers-- thailand, vietnam, indonesia, india-- 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 stuff in bostohas 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 five loads at a time. as you can see, we don't have the space to store five loads of de.h g >> reporter: and chinese inspectors are required to visit the facility, says the man whose job is to market the material, rc galardi. >> they'll break open a bale or two, they'll take pictures of what's inside the bale'll probe the bale to see the moisture content.

>> reporter: so, they want to make sure that you haven't waterlogged it to be hvier, or what >> yeah, or if material's been sitting 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 half a day, depending on how many loads we're shipping. >> reporter: and that's just too time consuming? >> it'too time consuming and we can't ship any other product during that period.te >> repor but how in the world, you ask, did our recycling become so reliant on a country half a world away? greg cper 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 china saw an opportunity to utilize some of the materials, the raw materials, and the commodities that we were producing through recling. >> reporter: and those merials were pre-sorted at home, as fred rogers and mr. mcfeely taughtr th audience back in 1990. >> the cans go in there, and the bottles in another one. m >> reporter: the new str pre-sorted recyclables was an

opportunity that quickly prompted chinese investment. >> they started to build a lot of paper mills and plastic manufacturing plants. >> reporter: just as they were shipping us more and more goods. once unladen though, the ships had little but ballast to take back home. so how about the growing stream of u.s. recyclable erik levy is the c.e.o. of save that stuff. >> t recyclers were in a gre spot. you know, if these containers are going bafi empty, we can it with product. >> reporter: at a rock bottom shipping cost. recyclables soon became one of america's biggest exports, mainly paper. to up the volume even further and get even more citizens to recycle, municipalities en introduced single stream recycling. >> common bottles, cans and paper are placed in one bin for collection. >> reporter: theaterial still

had enough value that recycling centers could affordrto do the g for us. more recycling; less attention to detail. resulting in... product adulterated with who what. >> people just say, "oh, throw it in the bin." and fo okay.g time, that was >> reporter: but it's not okaye. anym >> we're not moving any material to china. very china right now. into >> reporter: and countries that had been accepting what china uldn't have also tighten their standards on u.s. recyclables. again, the man who moves the material, marc galardi. >> this'd be a mixed paper rht here. multiple grades of paper, mixed together right now, that's gonna go to india. >> reporter: how can you stay in business if you're paying peopod to take the t that you were selling? >> well, right now, it's been very difficult. it's really hurt the bottom line. we're trying to do price adjustments to stay ahead it. >> reporter: which means 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 contracts come up for renewal? >> municipalities who were either getting paid or getting rid of their recyclables for free are now having to pay fees anywhe from 40, 50, $60 a ton to have them processed. >> reporter: it's become so prlyey in california that ne 1000 recycling centers have closed in the last two years. the only thing making recycling of paper enomically worthwhile in massachusetts: the state is ls.sing down its landf so with trash costs rising, recyclables remainfor the moment, a cheaper way to go. but if consumers have to pay to recycle, says ben harvey... >> we're wondering if they would be as excited to do its they have been in the past. in some areas of the country there are laws that they must recycle, in other parts of the they're free to go back to a disposal, to a landfill or a waste energy facility. >> reporter: meanwhile, athe beginning of august, china announced plans to impose a retaliatory 25% tariff on paper

and plastic recyclables, threatening make el harvey's great wall even grfoter. the pbs newshour, this is economics correspondent paul solman, doing a dirty job, but someone has to do it. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and agae 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. >> major funding for the pbs nehour has been provided b >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com.

>> and with the oning support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corpn for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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