captng sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, a forecast for rain in california. residents to get relief from fire to brace for potential and mudslides. then, "maybe he did - maybe he didn't." the president signals that the ed states will not hold saudi arabia accountable in the murder of a urnalist directed by the saudi crown prince. plus, we take a lookt how some teachers and schools are re- thinking the way they teach thanksgiving. >> there's a tendency to be over critical or blindingly patriotic and i really think we would move ourselves tremendously forward if we could do both together, side by side. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has beeprovided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbe station from v like you. thank you.

>> woodruffa new sell-off has wall street wobbling. today's rout ranged from tech to retail to energy stocks,s s weak earnid sliding oil prices fueled worries about economic growth. the dow jones industrial average plunged more than 550 points to close at 24,465. the nasdaq fell 119 points, and the s&p 500 slipped almost 49. the dow and the s&p are now down one percent for the year. the confirmed death toll reached president trump says he will not sanction saudi arabia's crown prince mohammad bin salman, in the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. mr. trump also announced today that thewill not cancel arms sales to the saudis. he said that would hurt the u.s. economy and damage efforts to contain iran.

we'll discuss all of this, later in the program. there's word that the president has submitted answers to questions from robertueller, the special counsel in the russia investigation. two of mr. trump's lawyers, jay sekud rudy giuliani, confirmed it in statements this evening. the president also slammed a al judge's ruling on his new asylum policy. the judge, in san fran psco, found tsident violated u.s. law by refusing arolum to anyoneing from mexico illegally. n turn, mr. trump took aim at the 9th judicial circuit, in the western u.s., where courts have issued several rulingagainst his immigration policies.

we'll get back to that in a moment. with with the judge bars that for one month until in afghanistan, a suicide bomber attacked a gathering of muslimar religious schin kabul today, killing at least 50. another 83 people were wounded, after the attacker slipped iide the kabul banquet hall and blew himself up. a waiter said several hundredsc lars and clerics were marking the birthday of the prophammad. >> ( translated ): we went out to bring water for guests and while i was walking down the stairs, we hear sound offrn explosion inside the hall, after we entered the hall everywhere was covered with smoke and dust, there ead bodies all around on the chairs in large numbers. li>> woodruff: both the n and the local islamic state affiliate have targeted religious leaders aligned with

the afghan government. back in this country, police in chicago are working to piece todther why a gunman shot d three people at mercy hospital. officerswarmed the site esterday after the shooter killed his former fiancee outside the hospital, then ran inside and killed a staffer and a policeman. today, the head of the hospital's e.r. said they're just trying to cope. >>here's no way we can prepare for this. there's no way we can adjust to it but we step up to the plate when it happens. we take care of our patients. we take care of our staff. this is just a tragedy. it's a senseless loss of life. we have three young, vibrant people with very bright careers. >> woodruff: the gunman was identified as juanopez. officials say he killed himself, after being wounded in a shootout with police.ri

house mi leader nancy pelosi got a boost late today in her bid to become house speaker again when demoats take control in january. ho democratic congresswoman marcia fudge announced that she will not run against pelosi after all. she said that pelosi has assured her that black women in the democratic caucus will have a voice in key decisions. and just in time for thanksgiving, the u.s. food and drug administration is warning people tovoid all row -- romaine lettuce. f.d.a. cites an e. coli outbrk that has sickened 32 people in 11 states and 18 more in canada. it is the second such outbreak affecting romaine lettuce this year. still to come on the newshour: california preps for potential floods and mudslides as rains replace fires. the trump administration signals a reluctance to punish saudi arabia over the murder of a journalist. ivanka trump uses personal email for white house work, and much

more. >> woodruff: rain is expected to fall in california over the next few days, helping to further snuff out the camp fire in northern california and reduce the risk of further wildfires for the coming weeks. bu the overall situation remains catastrophic for many residents in the region. housing remains a critical situation, and for some, the sses are staggering. william brangham gets a view from e ground tonight. >> brangham: the rain may also help eliminate some of the smoke in the area. but it could lead to a risk of flash floo in some towns. the recovery and relief efforts all come as the trump administration is layie blame for wildfires at the feet of wt interior secretary rya zinke called "radical environmental groups" who aren't

willing to cut down trees. we'll tackle that question in a moment. but first, mat honan is the san franscico bureau chief for buzzfeed news. he just published aiece called "there's no looking away from this year's california fires." i spoke with him earlier today via skype. >> i was trying to write something for peoplede of california to help them see what we're seeing here. the last couple of years, and especially thi ts yeae fire situation has gotten horrific. itin really tied with a couple of things in california. it's tied ie with whmes are built and it's tied in with cltiate change, it's ed in with the drought. but this year so many homes hese beenoyed, so much land has burned up, and recently smoke has been covering the state almost end to end for days nowing, for i think going on 12 days. it's made it hard to breathe throughout the state, and it's certainly sent all these people into a station of desperation

who have lost their homes and now have nowhere to go. for i belysve 12 daow the air, especially around the bay area, and a lot of the state, the bay area where i live, has been so bad it burns your eyes and irritates your sinuses. one of mychildren was coughing a lot. the schools closed. it's bee you know, it's very unhealthy. there are debates asan to howy cigarettes it's the equivalent of smoking, but, you know, any is too many and it's also just weirdly unsettling to look outside and not be able to see nearby buildings, to not be able to make out the sun, to not see the stars at night. the air itself is kind terrifying. >> brangham: what are you hearing from people athe immediate needs they have? >> so to be clear, everybody i o lked to has been in pretty good shape. these are people in san francisco, sacramento, places where they have been able to -- they have the option of packing up their car and going to a

hotel room, which is what we did. there are a lot of people who don't havehat option. the conditions on t ground outside of paradise neachico where a t of peopve taken refuge from the fir they're living in shelters, in tent city, there's norovirus going around. 's a terrible situation. we've had a reporter brianna sax who has been up there for a week now talking to a lot of those people on the ground. they don't know what's ing to happen next. they don't know where they're going to go in some cases to spend the night or certainly next week. in some cases they don't know the condition of their home. they don't know where their loved ones are. there was this detail that brianna sax uploaded last week that many people who don't know where their relatives are were asked to come in and takea d.n.a. test so they can identify remains. it's really bad. >> brangham: a moment ago you

touched on climate change. the president says climate change is not adding to california's fire risk. he has said d the interior secretary echoed this today, that better forest management is needed. >>that would have done nothing to save malibu. that's ridiculous. we filed a story today on the effectiveness of thinning programs, of thinning out parts of the forest. even that is suspect. the real problem is that we have got many, many thousands of californians living in places where they didn't used to live. over the past several decades, you know, a lot of people have moved into places like paradise that were once wilderss areas. california already has a housing crisis. i don't think you're going to convince a lot of the state to move out of those areas. meeanwhile, weliving with a drought, a multiyear drought.

we'rliving with weather that seems to get warmer every year, and, you know, whether or not you think thinning is effecti, and there is a debate about that, the reality is you're not going to get people out of the areas they're in, and you're noi going to marain. >> brangham: you're describing the need for some very serious public policy changes going forward. does california have the appetite right now for this conversation >> i think after the last two years people are beginning to really be ready to take it on. i don't know what those answers look ike, an i n't think anyone really does, but, you know, especially when you've got a year like this one, when you have the largest d the most destructive fire taking place in the same year, last year hereld thrd for the largest and the most destructive fire. i think that, you know, you combine those with people in san francisco, sacramento choking on smoke, fires raging through malibu, you know, fires coming

into los angeles, there are fires just all up and down the state, and i certainly hope that it's something that we're ready to wrestle with state and ready to think about what we can do. some of those solutions might th making sur houses are built so they're more fire-proof. we ao may have to have e peopleons about wh actually live. >> brangham: all right. mat hohan of buzzfeed news, thank you very much. >> woodruff: we return to the murder of jamal khashoggi, the saudi journalist and "washington post" columnist, and to the post reported friday that the c.i.a. had assessed the powerful crown prince of saudi arabia, mohammed n salman, was responsible for the october murder in istanbul. trump made his clearest statements yet on the killing, why he is not blaming e crown prince, and the ramifications

for american policy in the region, and relations with saud> t's a very complex situation. it's a shame, but it's-- it is what it is. saudi arabia, if we broke with them, i think your oil prices saudi arabia, if we broke with them, i think your oil prices would go through 2 roof. just take a looat iran. and you look at what they're doing. they are a terrorist nation rio t now. we aed a counter-balance. and israel needs help aelso. if abandon saudi arabia, it would be a terrible mistake. >> woodruff: for more on all this, our forefairs correspondent nick schifrin is here with me now. nick, what's the thinki behind the administration's decision to handle this this way? >> that strategic interests are more important than human ri concerns and the president wants to stuck by not only saudi arabia but by the crowprince, mohammed bin salman. on the strategic concern, you

heard what the pntsideaid. saudi arabia is critical for keeping oil down, for the pee plan to counter violent extremism. he's not the first president the say saudi is a strategic ally. each of his prcessors have decided that the saudi strategic interests are more important thanuman rights concerns. mohammed bin salman is rejecting hiintelligence community's assessments. the president said, "our intelligence agencies continued to assess all information, but it could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event, maybe he did and maybe he didn't." now, the c.i.a. assessed that mohammed bin salman was likely responsible for khashoggi's murder. ut u.s. officials i speak to say there no smoking gun. there is some circumstantial eviden, and there is an assessment,i therno way the crown prince wouldn't know this is coming given the nature of how saudi arabia works. that's an assessment. the president is exploiting that

ambiguity. the president has questioned the intelligence communitye about russia in 2016, but at the end of the day, the c.i.a. provides assessments and the president provides policy, and he's not first president to receive an intelligence assessment and decide to do something different than what assessment reads. >> woodruff: so after the rministration made it cle what their position was, criticism, serious criticism froth republican parties. >> especially from republican senators. let me show you first what thet presidote in his statement. he wrote that representatives o saudi arabia say jamal khashoggi was an enemy of the state and a memberf the musl brotherhood, but my decision is in no way tbased t. this is an unacceptable and horrible crime. this is a saudi arabian talking point. jamal khashoggi's past conntion with the muslim brotherhood somehow invalidates his criticism. the saudis have be whispering that, and the president repeated that in his statement, which led bob cork, chairman of the

senate foreign relations committee, to tweet this afternoon,thi never ght i'd see the day a white house woulid mot as a public relations firm for the crown prince ofsa i arabia," and senator lindsey graham, more of an ally of the president, released this statement, "it is not in ouonr na security interests to look the other way when it comes to the brutal murder of jamal khashoggy i ful realize we have to deal with bad actors and imperfect sinaations on the internat stage, however, when we lose our moral voice, we lose our strongest asset." next week senators will come back and will have to ecide whether they want to put pressure on the president and put more pre arabia than the president has and one republican aid did tell me today that this statement that the resident released will likely encourage senators to put more pressure on saudi arabia than the president did. >> >> woodruff: well, reaction will continue to come in, andi know you have been staying on this shiry. nick scfrin, thank you.

>> woodruff: now, for reaction from the "washington post," where jamal khashoggi was a columnist, we are joined bitthe paper's ial page editor, fred hiatt. fred hiatt, welcome to the program. the "post" reaction to the administration's announcement? >> i'm stunned, judy, to be nest. you know, there have been a lot of kind of amazing anday dismg things from this president, but i really don't think i ever expected to hear a united states president say, "maybe he was responsible for murder, maybe he wasn't, it doesn't matter." i mean, that's just almost beyond belief for a country to take that position. >> woodruff: well, you have long covered american foreign policy. u.s. foreign policy, fred. you are familiar with what the president said today. he said this is entirely in u.s. trategic interests not to do anythi alienate, in so many words, not to do anything that would separate the u.s. from its close relationship with saari

ia. >> yeah, i think it's wrong on so many level is. evyou wanted to say human rights don't matter and strategic interests o, it makes no sense, because eerything this reckless 33-year-old crown prince has done has hurt american interests. he entered this war in yemenbe which ha a disaster. he broke with qatar, that's been harmful to u.s. industry. he kidnapped the lebanese prime minister and so forecast. even a polisiical analywould not say this person is acting in u.s. interest, and more broadlld i way, you know, if we want to live in a world where a dictator can lure one of his own citizens to a diplomatic compound, whicis supposed to be a sanctuary, deliberately murder and dismember him, and get away with it, that's what's going to make the world a

dangerous place, and acceting that is what's going to make the world a dangerous place. everything trump said in that ward.d is just back >> woodruff: so when the president argues, as we heard him in that report just a momeng say that we think this is going to drive the saudis into the arms of the cnese and the russian, you're saying that's not a real concern? >> look, i'm in the saying the united states and saudi arabia ouldn't be -- shouldn't have a relationship, shouldn't have an alliance if bo countries thi it's in their interest, but first of all, mbs is not saudi abia. the king is the ruler in saudiab , and, you know, a perfectly possible for t united states to say, we want a relationship, but we also think there was a murder, andhoever was responsible for the murder should be held to account.e the two separate questions. and also, you know, i thk they

are playing trump for a fool in the sense that, you know, they present ts story now of how khashoggi died, which is a clear lie, and we swallow it. and they have him kind of, you know, the saudis, as he said mself a few weeks ago, need the united states a lot more than the united st needs saudi arabia. 30 years ago maybe that wasn true, but the united states is now an energy exporter. you knowthese arms sales that he's always talking about, it's been maybe $4 billion, not $110 billion. so the power balance is very much different than how he seems to see it. >> woodruff: fred hiatt is the editial page editor fo the "washington post." fred, thank you very much. >> thanks for having .

>> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour:ho some teachers are reconsidering e way they teach anksgiving. inside a laboratory that conducts vital research by burning down houses. and the conductor of the los nigeles philharmonic on trng the next generation of musicians. but first, inka trump says she didn't know it was against the rules to conduct government business through her personal email. this, after the washington post reported the president's daughter, and advisor, repeatedly used her personal account to conduct government business last year. carol loennig is one of the reporters who broke the story, and she joins me now. >> it's really interesting, judy. e learned was the white house that review that was triggered in the fall found she

had been using it from the dthay her was inaugurated, but she wasn't really covered by the rules until she officially joined the white housen march 30th. but personnel use of her e-mailn for official bs continued until they discovered it in the fall. >> woodruff: in the fall 2017? >> that's right. >> woodruff: remind us how this was discovered. >> so it was triggered by something fairly mundane and small, which was that a watchdog group was interested in her communications while she was sort of an unofficial employee, and they made a public records request for agencyns communicatith her. you can't seek public records from the white house, but you can make a formal request from cabinet-level agency, and that's what they did. when thatas happened, he agencies were gearing -- gathering up the records that they needed to turn over, they

realized that the president's daughter was using a personal e-mail account >> woodruff: so you wrote hundreds of e-mails. what were they about? what was she writing about and to whom was sh writing? >> so when they found out that she was using this personal e-mail with cabinet-level officials, they started to dig a little deeper. and the white house and ivanka trump's lawyer discovered that she was communicating in three basic ways, one, to cabinet-level officials before d after she was in an official ole, second, she was making a lot ofheduling and sort of logistic arrangements with asi personal ant, so she was writing on a personal e-mail all sorts of details abt her public life to sort of keep her household manager and her childce manager in the loop about what she was doing. and then finally, in the third group, she was talking to close

confidantes inside the white house about official business but using h personal e-mail. >> woodruff: was this illegal? >> it violates the presidential records act, an act that governs the white house andma helps sure that there's always an archive, a permanent record of meery presidency. so even though ing as mundane as, "i'm going to idah tomorrow to talk about childcare on behalf of my father, the president," even though that's fairly banal, it has to be h stored, s to be kept as a record. she broke that rule quite a lot. >> woodruff: i was just going to say, as i understand your report, her response when she was asked about it was that she wasn't aware of the rule, a yet presumably she had been brfed? >> so she received a briefing a ttle late because she arrives later than the other members who are brought in aftethe

inauguration. however, it's hard to imagine shandidn't knowhing about the personal e-mail use prohibition. there is oe wrinkle, once they discovered in the fall of 2017 all these personal e-mails that olated the rules, she mde the argument, look, i didn't know, i wasn't reminded, and it turned stt that she wasn't getting regular all-f reminders about prohibitions on personal e-may use. everyb the white house got periodic reminders. for some weird reason she wasn't on the all-staff list and wasn' getting thdates. >> woodruff: of course, one of the reason, carol loennig, this isteetting so much ntion day is what president had the say about hillary cluston' of a private e-mail server, thousands and thousands of e-mails, and today we know when the president was askeud abot this he said, oh, this is a very different case, because his ds aughter t dealing with classified information, he said, and he said she didn't destroy

e-mails. so his coention i guess, her contention is it's not the same thing at all. >> i think -- i'm of mixed minds about that, judy. on the e hand,i agree, based on the reporting we have so far, that this is different than the cretary of state at the time, hillary clinton, setting up a whole server and a completely separate e-mail system to never use her gernment account. so there is no evidence that ivanka was doing that. however, the similarities are pretty striking. she was using private e-mil. she should have been on alert that she shouldn't do that. as well, she has a privateey attooing through her e-mails as hillary clinton did to help her decide what's personal, what's public. 't haven't seen the personal e-mail, so you dknow what's gone, what might be business clated. you ju't know. and then finally, we really don know whether or not classified materials are discussed.

remember, hillary clinton also said there was no classified markings on her e-mails, and it turns out that many of the things she discussed were mpassified. did ivanka tver talk to a foreign official or discuss a foreign official on her personal e-mail? if she did, that could be a class find discussion. -- classified discussion. >> woodruff: we know the house oversight mmittee is going to be looking into this. perhaps we will get more information about what was in those e-mails. carol loennig of the "washington post," thank you. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: thanksgiving is often seen as a feel-good quintessential u.s. holiday. t many argue the traditional inrrative perpetuates myths as well as disrespectful to native americans because it o often leav the context of

relations between the tho groups: hosettlers brought diseases, for example, that decimated tribes. or information about the massacres that followed. now there's a growing movement to help history teachers "unlearn" what they themselves were taught. not everyone agrees about what should be taught to students toda special correspondent kavitha cardoza with our partner "education week," has this report for our weekly education segment, "making the grade." >> there's certainly some information inhe textbook but ere's a lot of bias and a lot of slant. >> reporter: there are about 50 social studies teachers at the museum of the american indian in washington, d.c. they're learning how to teach the first thanksgiving in a way that is true to actual events and respectful of native cultures. for example, pilgrims weren't the first settlers in the u.s., native americans had celebrated fall harvest feasts for years already and they had a sophisticated society. teacher diane wright says she

was taught the opposite in school . >> it was very much with a white focus and white presentation and european colonialism. >> reporter: renee gokey i member of the shawnee tribe and runs the workshop. we know that the stories are either inaccurate, they'rele incote and almost never tell a native perspective.r: >> report the museum, teachers learn about the deanksgiving story in context. >> all of these feral policies, assimilation, the dawes act, american removal under jacksonian policy, these affected my people, my commity personally. >> reporter: and they see how the consequences are still being felt tay. d'adre blake says that connection is importanuse textbooks often refer to american-indians in the past. >> when you tell them that native people are stl here in america, they're like, "oh, we didn't know that." >> reporter: here, teachers listen to first person stori, analyze historical photos, and learn about traditional native foods.

karen brown is an arts educator. she says making thanksgiving rafts like dream catchers headbands with feathers is" outdated a inappropriate." >> my colleague is shawnee, and she taught me that feathers are very sacred. she was given one feather by her elder, and she keeps it and brings it out for specia ceremonies. it completely changed the way i relate to feathers. they're not a craft item from the crafts store any longer. >> reporter: so she teaches them alternatives that are rooted in history. like making catalogues to trderstand how native people ed seeds. >> it's not a monolith. >> repor may have to "unlearn" what they were taught because simplifying e.e past is damaging not just to native peo >> they do a disservice to us as a nation and forming our identity. i think there's much more opportunity when we speak frankly and truthfully about the past.

and i think from there then, w can start to heal. >> reporter: but how to teachth past is very controversial. what students learn in different school districts varies a lot across the country, influenced by social and political values as well as a community's demographic makeup. some see bias in the opposite direction. roy white says america's rich culture is in danger of being lost to revisionist history. he's the founder of truth in textbooks, an organization that trains volunteers to review history textbooks for what they see as bias. they've successfully lobbied for change. >> we're trying to remove the political correcess that we found in a lot of the textbooksn begin to put back things that have been omitted purposefully over the years. >> reporter: he gis examples. re those who were founding our country errible towards all indians and that's really not a fair, accurate characterization of everything. when you talk about world war ii and emphase the japanese

internment camps or the moral dilemmas of dropping the atomic bomb. when you talk about the falling of the berlin wall and all you talk about gorbachev and you never talk about reagan.ta there's a consnt berating of amer na. and sudden you as a student say, "well, i'm not proud of america anymore. i mean, why would i want to be proud of tho kinds of things?" >> reporter: white believes history textbooks should emphasize american exceptionalism and the country's ros as a christian nation. eric shed teaches history siteachers at harvard univ. he says understanding the past is important because it's about narratives or stor ms, that help e sense of the present. >> narratives are fundamentally important to us as a society in termof they're what binds us together. >> reporter: shed believes including the difficult parts of history, teaches children empathy and citizenship. >> i think all civic issues are rooted in history, right? we just didn't have sort of issues around immigration, economic policy, womenhts.

those very important issues today, are fundamentally rooted in the past. >> reporter: in colorado springs, at fremont elementary school, rebecca daugherty' third graders have started a week-long unit on thanksgiyong. >> so arguys ready to have your mind blown? >> yes! >> so if you guys can take one thing away from social studies in third grade i want you to take away the pilgrims overtook the native americans and took oerything that had worked hard for.>> eporter: daugherty herself graduated college still believing in the thanksgivingso myth, he's determined to teach her students the truth. >> they're going to be the future of this country and if everyone has a misunderstanding and no one tells them the truth then we're a nation built on lies.st so i did bheir bubble but hopefully i taught them to notie always b what they hear the first time, but to lookfu her and investigate more.

if they didn't get along, then why do the ptures show that ey did? >> reporter: students look at pictures and analyze how thanksgiving has changed over time. h i can see no phones. >> oh this pictu a phone. >> yes, there are tons of phones i see. >> reporter: joan jahelka oversees social studies for the almost0,000 students in this district. >> the way we taught social studies was very much about how do we win on a game of jeopardy: >> reporo a lot of dates, a lot of names? >> yes, very much a stereotypical history class. >> reporter: now she says they've moved away from history textbooks, to teaching students to become historians. >> when students rely fully on a textbook, someone else has done s e thinking for them. wheren students interact with primary sources, they're really learning about those sources and how they are significant in understanding out y as america.

>> reporter: she says it helpsts studearn to ask questions, research information and analyz material-- lifskills. >> i want you to talk about what from this picture puzzu, confuses you or you don't get? >>eporter: eric shed, the harvard professor, says when students learn about our countrs problematic past, it makes the stories of our achievements more powerful. >> it's really that conversation between our ideas and our reality, that striving to meet these wonderful goals that we were founded on.ha it is reallymakes america truly an amazing place. i do think there's a tendency to be either overly critical or blindingly patriotic and i really think we would move ourselves tremendously forward if we could do both together, side by se. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour and "education week," i'm kavitha cardoza in colorado springs, colorado.

>> woodruff: before departing the white house for mar-a-lago this afternoon, president trump handed out another presidential pardon-- this time, to a recipient who gobbled up the chotlight. yaalcindor reports on how bee annual thanksgiving tradition. >> peas, i hereby grant you a full pardon. >> alcindor: call it a feather in his cap. president trump taking part in an old thanksgiving : sparing one fortunate turkey from the thanksgiving dinner table and naming an alternate. >> thanksgiving is a time of eat american traditions, and today, we continue a very special one, when a lucky turkey gets a presidential pardon. that turkey is so lucky. i've never seen such a beautiful turkey. >>dor: that tradition has happened every november for theu

past quarter-c. but there are some, let's say, ruffled feathers, about how it all got started. >> president truman was the first president to pardon a turkey. >> alcindor: but that's not true. in fact, the truman presidential library says: truman sometimes indicated to reporters that the turkeys he received were destined for the family nner table. truman was actlly the first naesident to receive a turkey from the natturkey federation 71 years ago. so, who was the first president to pareydon a tu lincoln, it appears, was the first on record. but it was a christmas turkey that his son had taken a liking to. in 1963, president john f.ke edy was the first to pardon a thanksgiving turkey. despite a sign hanging around the turkey's neck that read, d ood eating, mr. president," kennedy sent the bck to the farm. richard nixon also gave the birds a reprieve, sending his turkeys to a nearby petting zoo. ronald reagan was the first to use the word "pardon" when he

was talking turkey in 1987. the turkey pardoning became formalized in 1989, with prident george h.w. bush. >> let me assure you, and this fine tomurkey, that he will not end up on anyone dinner table. not this guy. >> alcindor: exactly.e thrkeys are no sitting ducks. they rode 1400 miles for their freedom this year, from south dakota to washinon d.c. they even spent some time at a luxury hotel. from the white house, they'll be sent to virginia tech dyiversity, where they alr have a prominent gobbler mascot on campus. the event has become a white house holiday tradition. >> this is the eighth i have had the privilege to meet and set free in the rose garden. >> alcindor: in 2000, jerry the turkey from wisconsin sported a white house pass around his neck. four years later, the bush administration also had some with fun. the names of that year's turkeys were chosen in a vote on the white house website. >> this is an election year, and biscuits had to earn his spot at

e white house. biscuits and his running mate, gravy, prevailed over the ticket of patience and fortitude. >> alcindor: when president obama pardoned his final turkeys, he said that he wouldn't stop, even after leaving office. >> we are going to do this every year from now on. no cameras, just us, every year. no way i am cutting this hab cold turkey. >> alcindor: this year's finalists: peas and carrots. the top turkey was selected in an online ll, and president trump endorsed the results. >> this was a fair election. unfortun to concede and demanded a recount, and we're still fighting with carrs. and i will tell you, we've come to a conclusion. carrots, i'm sorry to tell you, the result did not change. >> alcindor: for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. cu

>> woodruff: as thent outbreak of wildfires in california shows, 2018 will likely be one of the worst wildfire seasons in recent history. but how does fire spread and what can you do to protect your home? as part of our web series "sciencescope," newshour producer nsikan akpan explores the science of fires aives us some tips. >> reporter: ahough this year's wildfire season should be winding down, it continues to leave behind a record wake of destruction. as of early november, flames have scorched more than 8.2 million acres in the u.s., a 25% increase relativto the last decade. wildfires have raged in recent years, emboldened by c change. though the overall number of wildfires has declined slightly alsince 1985, their indivi size and the damage cause have more than quadrupled.

apart from lightning strikes and careless cp fires, around 500,000 structure fires start indoors in the u.s. each year. cooking equipment is the main cause, but the deaiest cases involve cigarettes and upholstered furniture. so today, we're going to turn this chair into an inferno, to show you how to protect your house from indoor and r fires. sciencescope watched ts blaze at the national fire research laboratory in gaithersburg, maryland. this 32,000-square-foot facility is one of the largest labs in the world dedicated to studying how buildings respond to fire. >>renything that you can mea related to a large fire, we do it. >> reporter: matt bundy, a mechanical engineer, has l the group for 10 years. >> we make measurements of structural perfoance looking at how suctures deform. so, everything from fires on ltall pieces of furniture up to story multi-bay structures. >> reporter: as part of the national institute of standards

and technology, or n.i.s.t., their experiments form the basis of fire codes for buildings and furniture. their lab resembles a movie set. each experiment is filmed from various angles to build computer simulations. these vivid models split the area into millions of one-inch boxes called grid cells. >> in each of those li boxes, we solve conservation equations of mass momentum and engy. >> reporter: kevin mcgrattan, one of the lab mathematicians, ys small grid cells allow for a closer look at the chemical reactions that occur deewithin a fire now, you might think temperature dictates whether this fire spreads. but you'd be wrong. >> for us, the key parameter in these experiments is the heat release rate. that is how much energy is given off by the fire. >> reporter: all furniture is essentially combustible fuel. much like the food that you eat that fuel has calories when you or a fire burns these calories, it generates energy and heat.

here, watch how the heat release rate changes over time. notice how the chair isn't fully consumed until the heat relee rate spikes. that's dangerous. >> what happs is the heat from the fire rises up to the ceiling and then spreads across the ceiling. eventually that hot layer near the ceiling starts to descend as more and more heat and smoke is pumped up from the fire. so, then all the contentroin the , all the other chairs, the carpet, any items that are around, they start heating up. >> reporter: eventually you get what's called a flashover-- whem all the s in the room seem to burst into flames simultaneously. to stymie furniture fires, the lab is testing flamedants made of silicon dioxide, the same material in sand and glass. heat-related fires can also be prented by replacing old kitchen appliances with worn out insulation and by keeping space heaters away fammable material. but flashovers can occur outdoors, too.

research shows once a fire gets with 33 feet of a home, the heat alone from the fire can cause combustion. wo help communities resist wildfires, n.i.s.ts with people like pam leschak, the als. forest service's nati program manager wildland-urban unterface and fired-adapted coies. >> the most effective thing people cano, the simplest easiest do it on a weekend or a couple of weekends, is to create defensible space and harden your home. >> reporter: a "defensible space" involves clearing flammable material from about a hundred feet around the home, unless it's steep terrain, then it needs to be mor 100 feet. for full details, look up" firewise usa." but you can start by watering bad mowing your lawns on a regulas. clear away pine needles and store deck furniture when it isn't being used. remove any flammable materials in the yard. opane tanks, lawnmowers, oowned trees, limbs, brush. swappingn fences for metal ones and replacing wood roofs

can help too.k oh, and bly crevices around your garage door >> wind blown embers can get into your garage, and there are usually a lot of things in your garage that can burn. >> reporter: building houses more than 20 feet from each other can also significantly reduce the spread of fires. people that use defensible space programs are twice as likely to save their homes and bses during a wildfire. but plan ahead, because you never know when a fire might spark. for the pbs newshour, i'm nsikan akpan reporting from gaithersburg, maryland. >> woodruff: now, making beautiful music, in and outside the conct hall. jeffrey brown takes us to los angeles for a look at the work of conductor gustavo dudel and the orchestra he leads, now celebrating its 100th anniversary. >> brown: at the camino nuevo

charter academy, a public school in los angeles' macarthur park, the star of the sh recently was l.a. philharmonic conductor gustavo dudamel. he was there to open aite for yola, the youth orchestralo angeles, a program to offer free, high quality music lessons and support to students in underserved communities. >> when i see them, i'm one of them. i back -- >> brown: you feel that still? >> completely. for me to do music, i have exactly the same feeling as when i was sitting in the orchestra for the first time, nine years old, 10 year old boy, playing in the middle of the second violin section of an orchestra of 500 musicians. and then we were playing and that was like wow! th is the thing. >> brown: by now, dudal's own story is the stuff of legend,

coming up through venezuela's famed el sistema program, created in 1975 by jose antonio abreu, which has brought music lessons and orchestra training to hundreds of thousands of children, many from poor backgrounds. as a teenager, dudamel became conductor of the program's simon bolivar youth orchestra. and today, still just 37, dudamel is one of the atst cele classical musicians in the world. ten years into his time as conductor in a city of stars, his image is everywhere. and he remains committed to changing the image of orchestras in today's culture. >> i think it's a representation of the community, the orchestra. we have to avoid that kind of, o t know how to call, but elitist way we see arts. >> brown: elitist? >> elitist, yes. that we are on a mountain herere and th of the people is there. it's not about that. >> brown: but a lot of people do

see it that way. sfpecially classical music. >> but we are trming that. because the people have to fee when the people see that they are represented by the best art, by the best culte. >> brown: this year the l.a. y ilharmonic is celebrating its 100th anniversar a grand style that began with a dalong street festival, and a free concert at the hollywood bowl featuring katy perry and other stars alongside the orchestra. they've commissioned 50 new works from contemporary composers, and dudamel is presenting innovativ collaborations, as this one with the choreographer benjamin millepied -- in prokofiev's 'romeo and juliet,' in which dancers used unconventional spaces inside and out of walt disney hall, itself a world famous building by architect

frank gehry. gehry is now designing a new home for the philharmonic's youth program in an abandoned bank building in inglewood, a majority latino and african- american community. music, dudamel says over and over, is a fundamental human right. >> it's a big idea but it's simple and is very objective, because art is creativity. art is access to beauty. what our cldren in our times are living is not, they are not having access to that. we live a very pragmatic world where you have to produce, you have to do this, you have to tn in that way. but where ishe space to tivity, too n, to cr work as a team teate beauty. >> brown: the immediate goal i to double the number of children participating, now at around 1200. we visited yola @hola, an

afterschool program in the where chdren six and up have access to instruments, lessons, and orchestra practice. occasionally, the mentoring here is peer to peer. two young cellists, 16-year-old zenaida aparicio and 14-year-old mariely flores, attend nearby schools.u did ve the opportunity to play music at school? >> no, the only opportunity i had was >> brown: and when you got here what was it like?t >>s amazing. i got to learn, i got to experience things that i didn't figure i would get to experience.ro >>: really, like what? in like getting my own instrument, gettg private lessons, like academic tutoring, and stuff like that.id >> brown: whatou find when you got here? >> i saw tre was opportunity not only for certain people in this country but that there was neportunity for people tha it the most. b brown: did you need it?

>> yes, i diause i don't have enough money to pay for an instrument, lessons, and all those things. so, i found it here. >> brown: what they've clearly also found here is a community of friends and mentors including maestro dudamel himself. did you get to meet gustavo? >> it was pretty exciting, so many feelings just at once. he's a big person in our life. >> brown: as dudamel is moving forward in los angeles, his homeland of venezuela is another story, after years of political, economic and humanitarian crisis. el sistema is a government- funded program. and the simon bolivar orchestra regularly performs at government functions. dudamel has been strongly criticized at home for being too cozy with the regime of president nicolas maduro and not speaking out against his ariutrian policies. yoter dudamel did write a "new rk times" op-ed last year

critical of the government, maduro rponded by canceling two tours of the bolivar orchestra. i asked how this has shaped his own sense of what music and an orchestra can do. >> you have to understand your on and your role in the society. and i believe and i really believe thatou can create bridges. can unite.e for me music h unite. if you get from one side to the tother, then you kill than you destroy that possibility to build a communication. rsat is the thing. but of ci suffer every day of whaisappening in my untry. because i have my family there, --d they suffer this thing. and we have ou know, this have to change. this have to change and people have to take responsibility for at. in brown: here in los angeles, he meantime, the focus is on playing beautiful music, and reaching more young people.

>> every child have access to music and to art. that is the dream. that is my dream, you know, to embrace the world with art. and it's not naive. access to art. that's it. it's simple. that is the most beautiful thing.r >> brown: e pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in los angeles. >> woodruff: later tonight on pbs, "frontline" and propublica present the second film in their "documenting hate" series. "new american nazis" continues their investigation into white supremacist groups in the u.s. and what influence they may have had on the gunman hind the recent attack on a synagogue in pittsburgh. h "documentie: new american nazis" airs tonight on most pbs

stations. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff.jo us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social chang worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democraticth engagement, anadvancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs ion from viewers like yo thank you. captioning sponsoredney hour productions, llc pt ned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. pressure mounts on the saudi trcrown prince as presidenp gives a tomorrow deadline for a very full report on the as khggi murder. but could that backlash help end the saudi-led war in yemen? former south carolina governor and head of the u.n. world food program has just returned with a devasting assessment.us >>, the scandal that up-ended american politics andoo nearlydown a president. what the clinton affair can teach us about our political presence. and with hate crimes once agai on the rise, a deep dive into the groups that fuel them.