captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good ev wing, i'm judyoodruff. on the newshour tonight, combing through the ashes-- inse california, thch for victims of the wildfires could be hampered by approachi storms. then, the last seat standing-- a runoff senate race in mississippi becomes more competitive following controveial comments by the republican candida. plus, testing the waters: scientists in north carolinact examine the efof contaminated flood waters in the aftermath of hurricane florence. >> it's gone on longer than we might have expected and we're also seeing contamination popping up in locations we might not have expected it. re woodruff: all that and on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> the lemelson foundationmp committed toving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with thongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was madeth possible bcorporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: rain fell across california today for theirst time since a pair of deadly wildfires started raging at both ends of the state.

the death toll from the so- called camp fire in the north rose to 81 people today. some 870 others are still missing. firefighters in the town of paradise said the showers will help them battle the wildfire ilat's 80% contained. but the rainfallalso hinder their search efforts. >> the rain is really a double- edged sword for this fire. any precipitation is going to help with fire suppressionde clearly, but initely has its drawbacks and its disadvantages as well. the hillsides, whout the ground cover that's been burned away, it definitely makes more potential for mudslides. >> woodruff: in southern california, firefighters are also bracing for potential mudslides. the woolsey fire there is nowha more98% contained. we'll have a closer look at the challenges of recovery efforts in northern california, after the news summary. the humanitarian aid group save the children estimates that

85,000 yemeni children under the age of five have died of extreme hunger since that country's vil war broke out in 201 it attributes that tragic toll to a saudi-led coalition's intervention in the conflict, and recent fighting innd around the port city of hodeida. u.s. defse secretary james mattis said peace talks betweenr yemen's g parties will take place next month in sweden. members of the international police organization interpol today elected a south korean to be the agency's next president, in a surprise defeat over a russian frontrunner. kim jong-yang edged out russian general alexander prokopchuk, whose candidacy stoked fears that russia could ituse the role to target pal opponents. interpol's secretary-general reaffirmed the agency's impartiality when he spoke after today's vote in dubai.

>> no matter, of course, what the nationality of the presideni interpol's neutrality, and thede ndence of our organization. it is fundamental to interpol'sc existhat we are neutral and that we are independent. >> woodruff: kim has temporarily led interpol since october, after his chinese predecessor was arrested on corruption charges. back in this country, the number of abortions in the u.s. has plged to an historic low. new data out today from the centerfor disease control and prevention showed a 26% decrease between 2006 and 2015. it's the smallest number of ameran women seeking abortio since "roe-v-wade" became law in 1973. the decline was largely rotributed to state laws aimed at restricting thedure, and better access to contraception. democrats have flipped another seat in the house of representatives, this time, in

utah. ben mcadams, the mayor of salt lake county, defeated his republican opponent, two-term incumbent congresswoman mia love, by nearly 700 votes. that victo gave democrats a net gain of 39 seats in the house. on wall street today, stocks tried to claw their way back after yesterdas massive sell- off. the dow jones industrial avera fell nearly a point to close at 24,464. the nasdaq rose 63 points, and the s&p 500 added eight. and, former librarian of congress, james billington, dieh yesterday atpital in washington, of complications from pneumonia. ulllington was a foremost scholar on russianre. in his 28 years at the helm of the library, he doubled the size of its collection and helpedun the national book festival in washington. billington's tenure spanned five

presidential administrations, before he retired in 2015. he spoke to jeffrey brown back in 2007 about the library's efforts to preserve historical audio recordings. th we're trying to preserv creativity of the american people, in all its richness anda variet formats, all of which really, since about thery mid-19th cenhave been on tlatively fragile, perishable material, often hafind, often impossible to play back or to read, even, because of ittle paper and so forth so we' trying to record this, and we're trying to save it for future generations, as a big part of the american story. >> woodruff: james billington was 89 years old. still to come on the nshour: the latest on the ground from a fire ravaged california. new orders from president trump for u.s. troops on the border raise legal questionsco supremt chief justice roberts rebukes the president's

criticisms of the judiciary a mississippi sena race becomes more competitive following controversial comments, and much more. >> woodruff: it's a very difficult thanksgiving weekend in california for tens of thousands of resents there. while the fire in southern part of contained, there's fear rain could lead to mudslides in themi days. meanwhile, in the northern part of the state, the camp fire ist still lly out and it's a burn scar, so to spea that's larger than the city of l n jose. many people are stuck with temporary shelters and few ofusing options. raquel maria dilloublic media kqed has been reporting from the area around chico and i

spoke with her by phone a short time ago. >> there are just so many of thar, i think the folks who worse off are expecting this wal-mart parking lot and rvs or an empty field and tents. when i left there eaierltoday, the rain was just beginning to come down for real, and it's a low-lying spot, and there's a lot of concern in the community for getting those folks out of there, or just helping th m get through the bad weather. people are putting wooden pallettes underath the tents and getting tarps out. i got the sense that some of those lks were really living on the edge when they were back home in paradise. one guy told me straight up he was homeless. another gentleman was telling me icalt his asthma and me conditions and he really shouldn't be sleeping out in a tent. t i would say thast majority of the evacuees are

crashing withamily and friends on couches and people's rvs parked in driveways and other options like that, but families are split up, and it's a very ressful time and tear situations will not last forever. >> reporter: woodruff: who is in charge of providing facilities for the people who don't have a home org place too anymore? i mean, is there a visible organizing presence doing any organizing? >> yes, fema opened up an old shuttered sears department store. people pick a numbet a while, get their number called and then wait a long timeg aain, to it connects them to services there.it mainly fema and the state office of emergency services, and there is aid available, but there just aren't enough hom, motel and hotel rooms to put up all the people who fled the fire. >> woodruff: you said people have to wait. they come, you said they take a number and then they wait.

>> exactly. it's a bureaucracy. some of the people i spoke with, you know, couldn't verify their addresses or didn't have theri t paperwork. i spoke to one couple, you know, i had gotten the voucher going to a motel room, but they came back to tie up other loo end they had forgotten their fema mber and had to go back. so it's a pure i don't care si. i think people who might beru ling with other issues might have a hard time navigating the bureaucracy and need help. >> woodruff: what's happening on thanksgiving tomorrow? t re any hope for better living situation by then or what's going to happen? >> well, the fema center will be open:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. tomorrow. there's a lot of organizations in--town the town of chico who are hosting dinners and making se at the people are well fed and taken care of on the holiday.

but the big pico re is chhas a housing crisis. it's a city of 86,000 peopl p that hred out, you know, their generosity to these fire evacuees, but i found a report from last year that said the vacancy rate in chico is 1.9%, and it might have even gone down further this year. so in terms of long-term spaces for these people to stay, it's l roblem. >> woodruff: it sounds like there's just no immediate housing solution for many of these people. >> correct, and some of my colleagues at kqed have done come interesting reporting about fema has 80 trailers at the air force base right outde sacramento but they are not designated for this parcur emergency. it just takes a long time to find the right place to put them. you know, you have to have sewer and elity and it has to be an environmentally sound place to put housing for families, so that's a real challge and it's

moving a lot slower than anyone had thought. >> woodruff: really tough situation. raquel maria dillon, kqed, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: for weeks, u.s. military forcehave been deployed to defend t u.s. border with mexico from almost 10,000 migrants and asylum seekers. the military has insisted these troops were not armed, and would not confront would-be migrants. but a new directive from theit house includes the words "lethal force," leading to new questions about what those troops are authorized to do. nick schifrin has the story. >> schifrin: more than 5,700 service members are deployed to the u.s./mexico bord their mission has been support, by installing concertina wire, reinforcing ports of entry, and nding helicopters to mov

border patrol agents. but overnight the president went horther than that, issuing a directive that azed troops to defend border patrol agents, "including a show or use of force, including lethal force, where necessary, crowd control, temporary detention, and cursory search." federal law restricts when military force can be usedst doally. so does this directive violate the law? and what does tr actually mean ps will be doing? to talk about that i welcome retired lieutenant colonelof jeffrey corn, sor of law at south texasanollege of law, a former legal advisor to e u.s. army. professor corn, thank you very much for being on the "newshour". does the show of force including lethal when necessa violate the law? >> well, it's definitely troubling because the law is clior that absent invocof a law called the insurrection act, the president is not supposed to depy deral

active duty military forces to engage in law enforcement type tivity. haviad the order, it seems to me that the administration is trying to walk tight rope, arguing that this use of force, if necessa, would be limited to extreme situations where it was netecessary to pro a vital federal function, namely te actual customs and border patrol agents, if th were to be subjected to some type of mass attack that wold overwhelm them. but whenever you stsst to cro that line, you're going to raise a lot of questions about whether this very significant law calles the comatatus act isin set up for violation. m >> so secretatis tried to walk theright tight rope. let's take a listen to h he defended the order he has been given. >> there has been noall for any lethal force from d.h.s.

we don't have guns in their hands right w, so there is no armed element going in. i will determine it bad upon what d.h.s. asks for in a mission analysis. >> to clarify, there's no culprit, but you have theth ity -- >> i have the authority. you do. eah, but we are not even employing -- you've seen the picture, not carrying guns, so relax, don't worry about it -- >> relarks don't worry about it because the department of homeland security hasn'te asked for se of force and to quote james mattis, because, in fact, i'm jace mattis. is that good enough? >> i think the secretary is trying to emphasize that whatever interpretations of thiu ority people like me or other observers might want to adopt, his view is etremely limited and that it would only be relevant, again, in a situation where these forces that are performing lawful

support missions were to encounter a situation where somebody -- aus ctom border patrol agent's life was acttualy in jeopardy by some type ofng overwhelssault. >> is part of the problem here that secretary mattis is basically saying trust me as james mattis rather than having stitutionalf in arrangement? >> well, i don't think that's a problem. i think that's something we should all be -- take some comfort in. the secretary is the conduit between the president and the forces that are going to conduct these missions through chain of command throh northern command, and the secretary is advised by very competent lawyers, an those lawyers are advising the secretary that there are strict limits on when federal military forces can engage in activity like using force, like detaining people, and like searching for seating i thany way.

>> the directive also mentions temporary detentioand curse risearch. let's listen to what secretary mattis had to say about that. >> we do not have arrest authority. detention, i would put it in terms of minutes. in other wds, if someone's beating on a border patrolman, an if we were in position to have to do something about it, we could stop hem from beating on them and take them over d deliver them to a border patrolman who would then arrest them. there's no violation of the act here at all. >> again, is that good enough? well, look, this is a manifestation of what is embedded in certain department of defense regulations and instructions called the commanders emergency response authority. so what secretaryattis, again, is emphasizing is that it really is a common-sense principle. if a junior commander or a u leader is out in the field conducting a logistics pigs, and

they observe somebody's life being put in jeopardy by an unlawful act of violence, whatec would we ethem to do? to stand by and watch a borde patrol agent be beaten to death? of course not. if this is all this means, then i think it is consistent with the kind of customary very, very narrow limit of th ability of the military to act in response to a dire emergency that's right in frt of them. but, again, if it's implemented in a broader fashion, if we start to deploy federal military forces to look for situations where they might be needed, then i think so it's a recipe for a violation of the possie comatatus act because they might end up intervening in situations where the extreme need is not apparent. >> professor jeffrey corn, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. a

> woodruff: are statement, chief justice of the deited states john roberts today pushed back at pre trump's attacks on the judiciary. roberts said the u.s. does not ve "obama judges or trum judges, bush judges or clint w judges" addishould be thankful for an independent judiciary. this comes the day after mr. trump referred to the judge who ruled against his new asylum rules, as an "obama judge." is was an obama judge, and i'll tell you what, it'snot going to happen like this anymore, and the 9th ciui is really something we have to take a look at because it's -- because it's not fair. people should not be allowed to immediately run to this very friendly circuit and file their case. >>oodruff: for more we ar joined by our regular supremehe

court watmarcia coyle, the chief washington correspondent for the "national law journal." hello, marcia, and welcome back. you wouldn't be surprised to know it didn't take long for president trump to respond to what the chief justice said. here is whaumt president tweeted just this afternoon. he sai d,rry chief justice john roberts, but you do indeed have obamaveudges and they a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country. so, marcia, how unusual is it for a chief justice, any keefe i justice, bparticular this one, to take on the presint? >> well, it is very unusual, judy. i can't -- well, first of all, i think it should be clear that he waasked to comment on the president's own comments, so it was n spontaneous. but i can tell you that, after observing him for almost 13 years, that chief justice roberts is probably thost

cautious of the justices i terms of sticking even a little toe into the political fray. you do noteeim making appearances or speeches at any partisan-related events -- for example the conservative federalist society's annual dinnershe retricts or limits his publictocomment law schools as well as meetings of judges. so i think this is something that has been on his mid, though, recently. if you recall, jt last th, after the confirmation of justice kavanaugh, the chief justice also made some comments during one of those limitedpe ances that he makes in which he talked about the kinds of judges we have. >> woodruff: well, we know it is the case, marcia, that theit 9th ciroes tend to be a

circuit -- appellate circuit that does issue rulings in some instances, in a number instances that tend to be more liberal than other circuits, just as we know some circuits issue opinions that tend to be moreconservative. does the president have a point here? well, he 9th circuit has been a punching bag for a number of years from the conservative side. i think it's important to realize that just out all presidents get frustrated with courts at times. certainly remember that the obama administration was very frustrated when it's policies on immigration, on the enonvnt were blocked or te thwarted by federal district eourts. so as far as tth circuit goes, it's a huge circuit. it's the biggest circuit court that we have. it is probably, rightow n, still

majority democratic appointments, but it's a very diverse bench, and it just depends on what type of panel of three judges that you get when you file your appeal or, if you're in even the lower court, the district court, who you get. so i think, judy, we all have to remember that these judges, when they come to the bench, are not blank slates. they got their appointments because most of them had political cnnections. they went through a political appointment process and confirmation process, and they have certain ideology when they're faced with some very difficult, complicated constitutional and statutory issues, as they are facing now, because of policies by the trump esministration, new policr

cies,acks of old poli sometimes that ideology is going to play a role as at apply the standard tools that judges apply in trying to interpret the constitutionnd federal laws. but they are not blank slates. >> woodruff: well, it certnly is an unusual moment, i think, in the relationship between the president and the supreme court, and it's one a the were going to continue to watch. marcia coyle with the nationalna law jo thank you, marcia. >> my pleasure, judy. woodruff: then late this evening, president trump tweeted again. >> woodruff: late this evening, president trump tweeted again-- he wrote that there is talk of dividing up the 9th circuit court into two or ciree uits.ou that require an act of congress. wi >> woodruff: sta us, coming up on the newshour: scientists in north carolina examine the contaminat

po-hurricane flood waters. inside russia's long history of using disinformation to destabile the west. and a new book explores how thlo "battling" k brothers changed how we eat bakfast. but first, the midterm elections aren't over yet. the final votes wi be cast next tuesday in a run-off to choose the next u.s. senator from mississippi. john yang has more. >> yang: judy, tre race between blican senator cindy hyde- smith, who was appointed earlier this year to replace thad cochran, who resigned, andti former democcongressman mike espy became a national story because of this social media video. >> if he invited me to a public hanging, i'd be on the front row. >> yang: hyde-smith spok publicly about it for the first time last night in the candidates' only debate. >> you know, for anyone that was offended for my-- by my comments, i certainly apologize.

there was no ill will, no intent, whatsoever, in my statements. i also recognize that thisen cowas twisted, and it was prned into a weapon to be used against me--itical weapon, used for nothing but personal and political gain by my opponent. that's the type of politics misssippians are sick and tired of. mr. espy, secretary esp >> well, no one twisted your comments, because the comments were liv you know, it came out of your mouth. and i don't know what's in your heart, but we all know what came out of your mouth. and it went viral,find within tht three minutes around the world. and so it's caused our state harm. it's given our state a black eye that we don't need. it's just rejuvenated oldth stereotype we don't need anymore. >> for more on this final senate election of 2018, we're joined by sarah mccammon of npra who is jus from mississippi.

thks for joining us. the original comment from senator hyde-smith iewhat sh said in the debate last night. how is this playing with voters misissippi? >> i spent a couple of days talking to both republicans and democrats, and i must say i heard a lot of concern across the board, alto from democrats documets it was no surprisingly much more intense concern, but even some to have the republicans i talked to acknowledged that these were unfortunate comments, she shouldn't have said it the way she did, at least, althoseh ral people said they didn't think she meant it in a racially offensive wayasbut it w nonetheless taken that way, given the htory in mississippi of horrific history of lynchings and racial violence. the na said mississippi had the most lynching of any states from the late 1800s to the civil rights era. >> and this is not the oly controversy surrounding senator hyde-smith right now, is it? >> right, she's had a few

incidents, remarks. she was also caught on tape recently suggesting that maybe we should make it harder for liberals to vote, and shesa -- her campaign said that was sort of taken out of contest text and -- context and was just a joke. it's the kind of thing in a state like mississippi with vor suppression of african-americans, a lot of people here with concern. also in recent days, a ccebook post in recent years surfaced where suld be seen wearing a confederate hat and caying a rifle and a cation that said something like mississippi history at its bt.es given the racial overturns ande historical co, a lot of person particularly from democratic and black voters i talked to. >> mike espy was senator clinton's agriculture secretary yhose tenure was ended b corruption charges, charges for which he was acquitted. there's also been some

discussion about his lobbying history. has that become an issue in the race? >> it has. senator hyde-smith's campaign has very much tried to make it an issue, sent out press releases about it, came up during the dete last ght. it's something that espy has responded to repeatedly and and reiterated at the he was exonerated. but we've seen both candidates trying to question the characten angrity of the other. >> mississippi is a deep red state.tr presidenp won it by 16 points, roger wicker, the othern republenator who won it this month by 20 points. presinent trump is going bac to campaign for senator hyde-smith mond are the republicans worried about this race? >> well, i think they are. i mean, we see them sending the, presids you say, making two stops in mississippi monday. this is a deep redte sta a democrat has not won a senate seat in mississippi since 1982, so things are in republicans'

favor, but this is an unusual election. it's a runoff right after the holidays, right after the thanksgiving holiday. the kind of election that really only motivated voters come out and vote in, but, so, both parties really want to drive out their base and i think there is concern among republicans that these reaors by senator hyde-smith might turn out the democratic base to vote for mikt espy and tertainlys the vote for democratic act vests. >> sarah mccammon of npr, thank you so much. we'll find out howurns out next week. >> thank you. >> woodruff: as hurricanes becomeore intense and wetter due to climate change, major flooding eves from hurricanes like florence and harvey may become even more severe and occur more frequently. yet surprisingly little is known about the contaminants lurking

in storm waters afterward and their impacts on special correspondent cat wise reports now from north carolina where there's an effort underway to change that.it part of our weekly look ate thleading edge of science, technology and health. >> reporter: eight trillion gallons: that's the estimated m ount of rain that fell across north carolina frricane florence. during the catastrophic flooding that followed, hog lagoon waste, raw sewage, and coal ash were among the toxic substances that flowed into waterways and communits. >> thanks staceythat's good. >> reporter: university of north imrolina scientist rachel noble spent a lot of tin those floodwaters.co shects samples after extreme storms, more than 1,000 since florence, and brings them back to her lab. noble and her students are studying the pathogens in ndoodwaters, drinking water, shellfish. two months after the storm, they

continue to see problems >> it's gone on longer than we might have expected and we're also seeing contaminatio popping up in locations we might not have expected it. >> reporter: contact with flood waters can cause skin infections and diarrheal illnesses, but in rare instances exposure can be deadly. wounds infected with certain strains of vibrio, a bacteria, which likes warm brackish waters, can kill within 24 hours if not treated. >> the main thing that i think we've noticed is an increase in the number of salmonases. >> reporter: vicki morris is a local infectious disease doctor who has seen an uptick in flood associated illnesses. she says it's often hard to know to what her patients have been exposed to. >> right now the patient comes in, we have to do a culture and or can take 48 to 72 hours the germs to grow. if i knew what were in the flood water or the drinking of my patients, it would help me choose the initial antibiotics

with more info to go on. >> reporter: noble agrees there is a big need for more water quality testing during floods and faster results. >> the way the system works iste that we tell people about the results of contaminated water after they've already had them to drink or been exposed to them. we're tellneg them in the paper or on the internet after the fact. orter: part of that lag- time she says is due to water testing agencies often being eroverwhelmed and out of p during flooding events. but it's also because current tests, which look for signs of e. coli, a tell-tale bacteria for otr pathogens, are slow. she's developed a way to speed things up. >> this is the existing test that we use for bacteria in water. it relies on growing the bacteria from the water and it will take about 24 hours f a result. the new test we've developed actually determines the amount of d.n.a. of a certain bacteria

in this case e-coli and we can get a result from this test in about an hour. >> reporter: noble's new test, which is undergoing regulatory review by the e.p.a., is currently processed in her lab using a d.n.a. sensing machine. but in the future she hopes to be able to go mobile. while progress ibeing made on rapid water tests, another challenge for researchers after big storms is tracking where contaminated waters are flowing. but a unique collaboration is now underway to tackle that problem with some sophisticated new tools. on a recent morning, dukeiv ersity scientists dave johnston and rett newton joinedc noble for a sc boat ride with an important scientifices goal: to ttwo devices they m hope will one day transfe way floodwaters, and sources of contamination, are tracked. >> oe we have the autonomous boat on station, then we can get thdrone ready to go so we

>> repter: johnston and newton are in the early stages of using autonomous boats and drones with highly sensitive cameras to surveynd sample waters difficult for researchers like noble to reach. back on shore at duke's marine lab, which was hit hard by hurricane florence, johnston explained why the w tools are helpful. >> there a a lot of places where you don't want people to actually expose themselves to those places. think about water quality testing at a mine tailing pond, right. so programming a little boat to travel up into a tidal creek, or to program a drone to go over a to a certain spot and ta a sample, those are revolutionary technologies that allow us to sample in places people just can't get to. >> reporter: the team is also outfitting drones with thermal cameras which can provide a clear picture of where sources of water are flowing, a tool that could be helpful when trying to pinpoint sources of >> in this case we can see water that's coming from a warm area, and we're able to see where that water is actually going. it's pretty cool, it's actually

y kes a sharp left hand turn. we'd be able to say there's a potential for exposure atth nelocations. >> reporter: rett on is a ph'd student at duke who knows his way around high tech equipment. he also happens to be a retired air force coloo flew f- 15's, and he's the current mayor of beaufort, a picturesque coastal wn which experienced flooding after florence. when he's not tending to the nes of his community, he i often out flying drones over the local waterways. >> it's really exciting, yeah, even for a crusty old guy like me watching the young folks, the young students, and they're ally fired up. everyday we're seeing new platforms, new sensors, new applications. a lot of the power is in the processing right now, trying to get the processing quicker for us to get some of this data in near real time. >> reporter: u.n.c.'s rachel noble is hoping all that new data, and other rapid water tests she's developing, including one for vibrio, will help to keep the public better

informed during future storms. for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in morehead city, north carolina. >> woodruff: this week two cybersecurity firms reported that hackers, believed to beci ased with russia's military intelligence, targeted american think tans,, media outlnd the u.s military with fake emails.er theydesigned to look like the state department's spokeswoman had sent them.n nick schif back now with a conversation he recently had with journalist and filmmake who's dug deep into the ongoing campaign thactrussia calls e measures." when you hear the term fake news, you probably think of how it's used often today by president trump, but it's tually an old teused by the soviet union as a reference to

disinformation campaigns that the soviets and now the russians have long used tota deslize the west. it worked before, and it's working again now. that is the tale told by operation infektion, russian disinformation from cold war to kanye, a rivetting three partd series relea the noims adam westbrook and adam ellick who joins me in the studio now. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. a lot of talk abut russian bsinformation in 2016, 2018 but this started loore as your film nonstraits. i want to show a clip from the film that starts with two kgb defectors who said this in grmation had oneoal. >> to change the perception of reality of every american to such an extent that, despite the abundance of information, no one siblele to come to sen conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their famies, their community an

their country. >> within the kgb is a department that specializes in planting false stories and forgedocuments -- >> we knew it was run from department a right to the top of the kgb, ant had a multi-million-dollar budget. >> the people inside and outside the soviet union involved in that kind ofactions on a daily rysis. >> 15,000 people cg disinformation stories as seemingly crazy as the u.s. created ais. and many of them were super creative. we're talking about planting fake stories in communist newspapers in india, south korea. we looked id the acampaign launched in 1984, and we found newspaper clippings planted byet the soabout this story in 80 different countries. >> did those stories end up in the u.s. press? >> they worked in the sense they were toxic andes suul in the

sense that they sowed chaos and even some t the cases lie aids one that we examined, there are millions of americans who still believe in that hoax today. >> another conspiracy is j.f.k. was killed by the c.i.a. >> created by soviet origin. let's talk about the responses to that because for a long time the't u.s. dinow what to do, then president reagan came along. >> president reagan changed the policy when it came to disinformation. fore reagan, the thinking went if you respond to a fake news story, you dignify it, and that's something we've heard a lot in the past few years. but reagan came in and started throwing punches right away. his policy was we're going to take this oe n and expit and he started a team in the state department called the active measures working group.as >> active e being the determine the soviets used to describe their own campaign. >> their disinformation campaigns. it wasn't funded lavishly.e

some peorked part-time, but they were motivated by truth, and they worked day and night putting out the fire hose of falsehoods put out by the kremlin. it was a painstaking process, t took them six years to debunk the aids conspiracy, but thy did it with many, many reports, and one of the really heart-wearing scenes in our film sh we interviewed a woman who is now retired but led that team in the 1980s and she tells a story that that report ended up in the hands of mikheie gorbachev, remiere of the soviet union at the time, and he was forced to apologize about the aids coniracy to reagan. >> fast forward to today and perhaps some to have the solutions to fake news, to disinformation today. and i want to play a clp to tee that conversation up from ri near the end of your seri. >> the things that make democracy good, living in an open society with a free press and political diversity, thoseh

are the tings weirdly that make us vulnerable. any country with an authoritarian leader and limited freedom of speech, they're the vantage right ad now, which kind of raises the question that maybe only history can answer. with the good guys ever win? >> you absolutely never win, never. this problem will get a lot worse before it gets better. >> the nexfew years will be worse than the last few years. >> and they will continue using it, regardless of what we say here in the discussion, regardless of the outce of the discussion and .vestigati >> but we will not always be losers in this game. will be victories here and there, it's only when wequit the game, quit trying to expose them that we lose. >> it's only when we quit the game that we loe. so there's a lot of talk about the media aspect to try and solve this, right?

fact checking media littersy, good journalism. then there's the speedia aspects, the toolss rusians and others have used to spread this information much faster now than in thest. can social media companies do this alone? >> certainly not. i think they've failed at that opportunity over the past four years. these attacks started in 201 2014, and they have taken some baby steps, but it's not enough, and it's not being tated with the urgency that the crisiss. dema so i think it's time for the government to get in >> but the u.s. doesn't think the way, does it? it doesn't think of disinformation as me kind of battlefield, right, whereas russia does think of it that way. >> yeah, and it's not military war fair, but it's still war fair. its disinformation r fair. >> that's how the russians see it. >> yes, they operate in a constant state of warti and our politicians are elected for idle peacetime. >> the way to define th wartime

is adversary is still the united states and attempt, whether dills information or military, to weaken the transatlantic alliance and weaken the united states and west from wihin. >> yeah, as the old spies will tell you, america is targe number one, enemy number one, and, when you can fracture and weaken western countries both from their international alliances andhi even wiby sowing chaos, then you can bully counies one on ones opposed to taking on the entirety of the west when it's unified. >> and that is what disinformation does, right? >> very effectively. i don't want to simplify the solution, but it's one that we need to be grappling with muc more aggressively a opposed to the current state of american po ttics which is even tryi come to terms whether or not these attacks happened. >> adam ellick wrkh the "new imes," the film is operation infektion: from cold

war to kae. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: roughly 3 million people ate a bowl of kelloggs corn flakes today. the ubiquitous cereal is a testament to our modern-day revolution in ready-to-eat foods, and it's also the brainchild of two fascinating brothers from battle creek, michigan. william is back with the latest installment the newshour bookshelf. mesh's stomach ached for much of the 19th and ealy 20th 20th century. walt whitman called it the great american evil, the nation's intense, wideaesindigestion fueled in part by what americans were eating for brefa -- potatoes cooked in congealed fat, heavily salted meats, grade schools and mush, slow cooked for hours over wood-burningov . enter the kellogg brothers. out of their medical complex,

grand hotel and spa in battle creek, michigan came an invention, ready to eat, easil digestible, quick to prepare breakfast cereals. dr. john harvey kellogg baked the first batches of cereal with brother will, who trned the recipe into corn flakes and birthed a multi-million-dollar company. togeth the brothers transformed the american breakfast and helped foster many of the ideas now considered central toealth and wellness. but it all came at great personal colonels. their story is the foc of new book out in paperback, the kellogg's, the battling brothers battle creek, by dr. howard markel, a medical historiaerat the unty of michigan and regular columnist for the pps "newshour". dr. howard markel joins me now. the ellogg name in american society is hopelessly associated with breakfast and breakfast foods, but even befe at,

they had, especially john, had some very pioneering ideas about health way before their time. >> absolutel you know, dr. kellogg created the term that we would now calla well fes, so, he -- wellness, and he prescribed all sorts of healthy living practices with a notion it's far easier to prevent the disease than to treat it after the body is broken down. so he advised about good diets, grain and vegetable diets but no meat. he advised against nicotine or smoking of any kind, caffeine, alcohol, and he prescribed lotos xercise and fresh air when people were not doing that all. >> they created a sanitarium in battle creek, what was called a sanitary yum, and centered around what you referred to biologic living, a term that they coined. >> yes. what does that mean? that was the doctor's term for wellss and the thought that you took care of your boy. it came from some of his religious beliefs as a southern ventist, but he added on

to them, using the best medical literature of the day, alws shoehorning the latest science to his world view, and he wanted to teach both the healthy and the unhealthy how to live healthier lives, but it is also a complete medical center, gra hotel and spa all rolled into one. tens of thousands of people me to battle creek every yr, the most popular train stop on the michigan central between chicago and detro , andts of celebrities came as well. johnny rice mueller the old tarzan, would do his tarzan yell before the meal started. amelia earhart, thomas edison, henry ford, john d. rockefeller, jr., they all came. >> one of the dr. kellogg's goals was to develop an easily digestible cereal which turned out not to beea so hlthy after all but what was his goal? >> you have to remember who he was seeing. they were mostly a very constipated people.

>> rirltly. (laughter) -- literally. (laughter) in not just an adjective. they were eatterribly fatty diets and often obese. he thought, if i could may grains more dibestible, may that would help these patients. first, it was rolls until one lady broke her dentes on these hard double baked rolls and wanted him to repace her dentures. then he ground them up into tiny kernels and finally they came up with the cereal. it is easily digestible and if you have a stomach ache would be probably be good to eat. >> they were originally wheat flakes and now corn flakes., >> yd john's little brother experimenting wit on and on and developed corn flauskes becorn was a cheaper drain and was tastier, and when it came outin906, it took the world by storm because now, even

a faer could make breakfast simply by pouring it out of the box, and people jt loved it. >> you write a lot about the relationship between the brothers, and for as close as that working relationship and personal relationship was, it does sound that they really -- there was a al antipathy between them. can you describe a little bit about -- >> yeah, putting itildly. john harvey was eight years older than will and he treated will like a little brother, but he could also dominate him and badly.him very so when the doctor was riding his bicycle across the campus of the sanitarium, will had to run along and take notes. when the doctor had one of hi five daily bowel movements, he would order will to come into the bathroom with him and take notes on his latest leture or book chapter so he wouldn't miss it. no wondewill haed his guts. you know, with all this dominani reship, will finally decided at the age of 46 to leave the doctor's employ after 25 years and founded what became

kellogg's. they did sue each other for almost a decade over who had the right to be the real kellogg. the doctor said i'm the most famous kellogg and was at the time, besllt-g author, lecturer, so on, but will said ertised everywhere, spent millions of dollars, i have the largest electric sign in the world in times square. >> i w he was brig yent, he adanced lack triesty, factories, conveyor belts, adopted the demographic omothers and children, the toy in the box which was great was it took up little spacr e and chead the corn flakes. he said i am the real kellogg and it went to th michigan supreme court and the judges said when we think of kellogg, we think of the cereal.ll so on. the problem is they rarely spoke to each other after that and

lost a gat deal. this is is great american story. the fact they ha this sadness, this rift the tragedy of the kellogg's. >> the book is "the kellogg the battling brothers of battle creek." dr. howard markel, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and a quick news update before weo tonight. facebook officials have now admitted to targeting their company's critics, including jewish billionaire george soros. the revelations were exposed last week in a "new york times" investigation. the liberal financier had called facebook a "menace to society" daen he spoke at the world economic forum is last january. the social network's head of communication and policy has now written a blog post acknowledging they hired a research firm to spread sparaging comments about its critics. its chief operating officer sheryl sandberg added that they

never intended for the criticiss of so appear anti-semitic, d iting, "being jewish is a core part of who i am, r company stands firmly against hate."s last weecebook's c.e.o. mark zuckerberg denied knowledge of the smear campaign. george soros spokesman said they stntl want congress to look what facebook did. on the newshour online right now, how do you transform bland turkey into a culinary masterpiece? we give you a step-by-step guide to making a scientifically correct but also deliciouste thanksgiving ciece. that's on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us on your thanksgiving online and again here tomorrow evening. u r all of us at the pbs newshour, thank d have a wonderful holiday. >> major funding for the pbs

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hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. over.orth korean threat is that's what president trump tweeted after this photo opp. but new images show j the a top expert explains. plus, george soros is a favor target for conspiracy theorists andit anti-sem. so why did facebook get on that bandwagon? and from m thedle east to southeast asia, journalists are unde threat. we hear from our man in myanmarr where two rrs are sentenced on trumped up charges. also the larger than life stor m of theother of black hollywood.