captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, combing through the ashes-- in california, the search for victims of the wildfires could be hampered by approaching storms. then, the last seat standing-- a runoff senate race in mississippi becomes more competitive following controversial comments by the republican candidate. plus, testing the waters: scientists in north carolina examine the effects of contaminat aftermath of hurricane florence. >> it's gone on longer than wexp might haveted and we're also seeing contamination popping up in locations we might not have expected it.

>> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ moving our economyyeor 160 ars. bnsf, the engine that connects us

>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most oressing problems-- skollfoundation. >> the lemelson foundation. itted to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the w at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. munarthur tion. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. your pbsontributions t station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> woodruff: rain fell across california today for the first time sin 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 missin firefighters in the town of paradise said the showers will help them battle the wildfire that's 80% contained. but the rainfall will also hinder their search efforts. >> the rain is really a double- edged sword for this fire. any precipitation is going to help with fire suppression clearl but it definitely has its drawbacks and its disadvantages as well. the hillsides, without the ground cover that's been burned away, it definitely makes moreia potefor mudslides. >> woodruff: in southern california, firefighters are also bracing for potential mudslides. the woolsey fire there is now more than 98% containe we'll have a closer look at thee challenges overy efforts

in northern california, after the news summary. a the humanitari group save the children estimates that 85,000 yemeni children under the age of five have died of extreme hunger sincehat country's civil war broke ouitin 2015. ttributes that tragic tolldi to a sed coalition's intervention in the conflict, and recent fighting in andt around the pty of hodeida. u.s. defense secretary james mattis said peace talks between yemen's warring parties willt take place nnth 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 use the role to target political 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 president is, it's not affecting interpol's neutrality, and the independence of ou organization. it is fundamental to interpol's existence that we are neutral and that we are independent. >>lyoodruff: kim has tempora led interpol since october, after his chinese prwaecessor arrested on corruption charges.th back i country, the number of abortions in the u.s. has plunged to an histor new data out today from the centers for disease contprl and ention showed a 26% decrease between 2006 and 2015. it's the smallest number of american women seeking abortions w nce "roe-v-wade" became 1973. the decline was largely attributed to state laws aimed ng the procedure,

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, defted his republican opponent, two-term incumbent congresswomamia love, by nearly 700 votes. that victory gave democrats net gain of 39 seats in the house. on wall street today, stocks tried to claw their way back after yesterday's massive sell- off. the dow jones industrial average fell nearly a point to close at 24,464. the nasdaq rose 63 p and the s&p 500 added eight. and, former librarian of congress, james billington, died yesterday at a hospital in washington, of complications from pneumonia. billington was a foremost scholar onussian culture. in his 28 years at the helm of

the library, he doubled the size oo its collection and helped found the nationalfestival 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 historicalgs audio record >> we're trying toeareserve the vity of the american people, in all its richness and ofvariety, all formats, al which really, since about the mid-th century, have been on relatively fragile, perishable material, often hard to find, often imssible to play back or to read, even, because of brittle paper and so forth. so we're 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 newshour:e test on the ground from a fire ravaged california.

new orders from president trump for u.s. troops on the border raise legal questions esupreme court chief just roberts rebukes the president's criticisms of the judiciary a mississippi senate race becomes more competitive following controversial comments, and much more. >> woodruff: it's a verydi icult thanksgiving weekend in california for tens of thousands of residents there. while the fire in southern part of the state is said to be containere's fear rain could lead to mudslides in the coming days. meanwhile, in the northern part of the state, the camp fire is still not fully out and it's left a burn scar, so to speak, that's larger than the city of san jose. many people are still stuck with temporary shelters and few

housing options. raquel mar dillon of public 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 them, i think the wolks who are e off are expecting this wal-mart parking lot and rvs or an empty fieldnnd tets. when i left there earlier today, 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 them get through the bad weather. people are putting wooden pallettes underneath the tents and getting tarps out. i got the sense at some of those folks were really living ck the edge when they were ba home in paradise. one guy told me straight up he was homeless. another gentleman was telling me

out his asthma and medical conditions and he really shouldn't beleeping out in a tent. but i would say the vast majority of the evacuees are crashing with family 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 stressful 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 or place to go anymore? i mean, is there a visible organizing presence doing any organizing? >> yes, fema opened up an old shuttered sears department store. people pick number, wait a while, get their number called and then wait a long time again, to it connects them to services there. it's mainly fema and the state office of emergency services, and there is aid available, but there just aren't enough homes, motel and hotel rooms to put up

all the people who fled the fire. >> woodruff: you said people have to wat. they come, you said they take a number and then they wai >> exactly. it's a bureaucracy. some of the people i spoke with, you knw, coun't verify their rkdresses or didn't have the right paper 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 loose ends. they had forgotten their fema number and had to go back. so it'n'a pure i dot care si. i think people who might be struggling with oter issues might have a hard time b navigating tureaucracy and need help. >> woodruff: what's happening on thanksgiving tomorrow? is there any hope better living situation by then or what's going to happen? >> well, the fema center will be open 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. tomorrow. there's a lot of organizations in town -- in the town of chico

who are hosting dinners and making sure at the peoplare well fed and taken care of the holiday. but the big picture is chico has a housing crisis. it's a city of 86,000 people that has poured out, you know, their generosity to these fire evacuees, but i found a report dfrom last year that sa the vacancy rate in chico is9%, and it might have even gone down further this year. so in termof long-term spaces for these people to stay, it's a real problem. >> 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 doneco interesting reporting about fema has 80 trailers at the air force base right outside sacramento but they are not designated for this particular emergency. it just takes a long time to find the right place tput them. you know, you have to have sewer

and electricity and s to be an environmentally sound place to put housing foril fs, so that's a real challenge and it's moving a lot slowern thayone had thought. >> woodruff: really tough situation. raquel maria dillon, kqe thank you very much. >> thank you. woodruff: for weeks, u.s. military forces have been deployed to defend the u.s. border with mexico from almost 10,000 migrants and asyler se the military has insisted these troops wernot armed, and would not confront would-be migrants. but a new directive from the white 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 border. their mission has been support, by installing concertina wire, reinforcing ports of entry, and sending helicopterto move border patrol agents. but overnight the president went further than that, issuing a directive that authorized troops to defend border patrol agents, "including a show or use of force, including lethal force,ss where necey, crowd control, temporary detention, and cursory search."ri federal law res when military force can be used domestically. so does this directive violate the law? ngd what does it actually mean troops will be d to talk about that i welcome retired lieutenant colonel jeffrecorn, professor of law a south texas college of law, and a former legisor to the u.s. army. professor corn, thank you very much for being on the "newshour". does the show of force including lethal when necessary violate the law? >> well, it's definitely troubling because the law is

clear that absent invocation of a law called the insurrection act, the president is not supposed to deploy federal active duty military forces to engage in law enforcement type activity. having read the order, it sms to me thathe administration is trying to walk a tight rope, arguing that this use of force, if necessary, would beim lited to extreme situations where it was necessary to protect a vital federal function, namely the actual customs and border patrol agents, if they were to be subjected to some te of mass attack that would overwhelm them. but whenever you start to cross that line, you're going to raiue a lot ofions about whether this very significant law called the possie comatatus act is being set up for violation. >> so ocretary mattis tried walk theright tight rope.

let's take a listen to how he defended the order he habeen given. >> there has been no call for any lethal force from d.h.s we don't have guns in their hands right now, so there is n armed element going in. i will determine it based upon what d.h.s. asks for in a mission analysis. >> to clarify, there's no culprit, but you have the authority -- >> i have the authority. you do. eah, but we are not evenin empl-- 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't asd for the use of force and to quoat jamestis, because, in fact, i'm jace mattis. is that good enough? >> i think the secretary is trying to emphasize that whatever interpretations of this authority people like me or her observers might want to adopt, his view is extremely

limited and that it wouldnly be relevant, again, in aer situation these forces that are performing lawful support missions were tor encoun a situation where somebody -- a custom border patrol agent's life was actually put in jeopardy by soe type of overwhelming assault. is is part of the problem here that secretary mas basically saying trust me ass jattis rather than having some kind of institutionaen arrang >> well, i don't think that's a problem. i think that's something we should all be e -- takme comfort in. the secretary is the conduit between the president and the forces that are going to conduct these missions thinugh chaf command through northern command, and the secretary is advised by very competent lawyers, an those lawyers areng advihe secretary that there are strict limits on when federal military forces can engage in activity like using

force, like det painiple, and like searching for seating them in any way. >> the directiveenalso tions temporary detention and curse risearch. let's lisn to whasecretary mattis had to say about that. >> we do not have arres authority. detention, i would put it in terms of minutes. eonether words, if som beating on a border patrolman, and if we wre in position to have to do something about it, we could stop them from beating on them and take them over and deliver them to a border patrolman who would then arrest them. there's no violation of the act here at all. >> again, is that goodo enugh? well, look, this is a manifestation of what is embedded in certain department of defense regulations andin ructions called the commanders emergency response authority. so what secretary mattis, ain, is emphasizing is that it really is a common-sense principle.un

if a jior commander or a squad leader is out in the field conducting a logistics pigs, and they observe somebody's life being put in jbyopardn unlawful act of violence, what wod we expect them to do? to stand by and watch a borolder pagent be beaten to death? of course not. if this is all this means, then i thk it is consistent with the kind of v customay, very narrow limit of the ability of the military to act to a dire emergency that's right in front of them. but, again, if it's implemented in a broader fashion, if we start to deploy federal military forces to look for sittions where they might be needed, then i think so it's a recipe for a violation of the possiet comatatus ecause they might end up intervening in situations where the extre need is not

apparent. p fessor jeffrey corn, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. > woruff: in a rare statement, chief justice of the united states john roberts today pushed back at president trump's attacks on the judicry. roberts said the u.s. does not have "obama judges or trump judges, bush judges or clinton judges" adding we should 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 jude, and i'll tell you what, it's not going to happen like this anymore, and the 9th circuit is really something we have to take a look at because it's -- because it'sot fir. people should not be allowed to

immediately run to this very friendly circuit and file their case. >> woodruff: for me we are joined by our regular supreme , urt watcher marcia coye chief washington correspondent for the "nationalalaw jou hello, marcia, and welcome backn you wo be surprised to know it didn't take long for president trump to respond to what the chief justice said. here is what present trump tweeted just this afternoon. he saiusd, sorry chieftice john roberts, but you do indeed they have judges and a much different point of view than the people who are charged with theafety of ou country. so, marcia, how unusual is itr chief justice, any keefe justice, but in particular this one, to take on the president? >> well, it is very unusual, judy i can't -- well, first of all, i think it should be clear that he was asked to comment on the president's own comments, so it was not spontaneous. but i can tell you that, afterob

rving him for almost 13 years, that chief justice roberts is probably the most cautious of the justices in terms of sticking even a little toe into the political fray. you do notm see hiking appearances or speeches at any partisan-related events -- for example the conservative federalist society's annual dinner, he restricts or limits his public comments to law schools as well as meetings of judges. so i think this is something that has been on hisind, though, recently. if you recall, just last month, after the confirmation of justice kavghanthe chief justice also made some comments during one of those limited appearances that he makes in

eich he talked about t kinds of judges we have. >> woodruff: well, we know it is the case, marcia, that the nd9th circuit does to be a circuit -- appellate circuit that does issue rulings in some instances, ia number of instances that tend to be more liberal than other circuits, just as we know some circuits issue opinions that tend tbe more conservative. so does the president have a point here? well, the 9th circuit has been a punching bag for a number o years from the conservative side. i think it's important to realize that just about all presidents get frustrated with courts at times.m i certainly ber that the obama administration was very frustrated when it's policies on immigration, on the environment were blocked or temporarilyy thwarted federal district courts. so afar as the 9th circuit

goes, it's a huge circuit. it's the biggest circuit court that we have. it is probably, right now, 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 youet. 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 hd political connections. 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 ump administration, new policies or rollbacks of old policiesme somethat ideology is going to play a role as at a apply the standard tools that judges apply in trying to interpret the constitution and federal laws. but they are not blank slates.we >> woodruffl, it certainly is an unusual moment, i think, in the relationship tween the president and the supreme court, and it's one at the we are going to continue to watch. marcia coyle with the national law journal. k you, marcia. >> my pleasure, judy.he >> woodruff:late this evening, president trump tweeted >> woodruff: late this evening, president trump tweeted again-- he wrote that there is talk of dividing up the 9th circuit court into two or three circuits. that would require aof congress.

>> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: scientists in north carolina examine the contamination of post-hurricane flood waters. inside russia's long hisry of using disinformation to destabilize the west. and a new book explores how the "battling" kellogg brothers changed how we eat breakfast. but first, the midterm election aren't ot. the final votes will be cast next tuesday in a run-off to choose the next u.s. senator m frsissippi. john yang has more. >> yang: judy, the race between republican senator cindy hyde- smith, who was appointed earlier this year to replace thad cochran, who resigned, and former democratic congressman 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 spoke publicly about it for the firsts timenight in the candidates' only debate.

>> you know, for anyone thatas offended for my-- ts my commi certainly apologize. i there was will, no intent, whatsoever, in my haatements. i also recognizethis comment was twisted, and it was turned into a weapon to be used against me-- a political weapon, used for nothing but personal and political gain by my opponent. that's the type of politics mississippians are sick and tired of. >> mr. espy, secretary espy. >> well, no one twisted your comments, because the comments were live. you know, it came out of your mouth. and i don't know what's in yr r art, but we all know what came out of yuth. and it went viral, and within the first three minutes around the world. and so it's caused our state harm. it's given our state another black eye that we don't need. it's just reted old stereotypes that we don't need anymore.

>> yang: for more on this final senate election of 2018, we're joined by sarah mccammon of npr, who is just back from mississippi. thanks for joining us. the original comment from senator hyde-smith in what she said in the debate last night. how is this playing with voters in mississippi? >> i spent a couple of days tading to both republicans democrats, and i must say i heard a lot of concern across the board, alto fromemocrats documents it was not surprisingly much more intense concern, but even someave the republicans i talked to acknowledged that these were unfortunate comments, that she shouldn't have said it the way she did, at least, although several people said they didn't think she ant it in a racially offensive way, but it was nonetheless tan that way, given the history in mississippi of horfic history of lynchings and racial violence. le naacp said mississippi had the moching of any states from the late 1800s to the

civil rights era. >> and this is not the only 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 te,o votnd she said -- her campaign said that was sort of taken out of contest text and -- context and was just a joke. it's the kindf thing in a state like mississippi with voter suppressionf african-americans, a lot of people here with concern. also in recent days, a facebook post in recent years surfac where she could be seen wearing a confederate t and carrying a rifle and a caption that said sometng like mississippi history at its best. given the racial overturns and histical context, a lot of person particularly from democratic and black voters i talked to. in mike espy was senator

n's agriculture secretary whose tenure was ended b corruption charges, charges for which he was acquitted. there's also ben some discussion about his lobbying history. has that become an issue inhe 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 debate last night. it's something that espy has responded to repeatedly and and reiterated at the he was exonerated. but we've seen both candidates t tryiquestion the character and integrity of the other. >> mississippi is a deep red state. president trump won it b 16 points, roger wicker, the other republican senator who won it this month by 20 points. president trump is gtong back in ampaign for senator hyde-smith monday.re are thpublicans worried about this race? >> well, i think they are. i mean, we see thesending the president, as you say, making

two stops in mississippi monday. this is a deep red state. a democrat has not won a senate seat in mississippi since 1982,i so tngs are in republicans' favor, but this is an unual election. it's a runoff right after the holidays, right after theks thving holiday. the kind of election that reallm ontivated voters come out and vote in, but, so, both parties really want to drive out their base and i think there is concern amonglirepns that these reactors by senator hyde-smith might turn out the democratic base to vote for mike es and that certainly is the vote for democratic act vests. >> sarah mccammon of npr thank you so much. we'll find out how it turns out next week. >> thank you. >>oodruff: as hurricanes become more intense and wetter due to climate change, major flooding events from hurricanes

florence and harvey may become even more severe and occur more frequeny. yet surprisingly little is knowb t the contaminants lurking in storm waters afterward and their impacts on human health. special correspondent cat wise reports now from north caroltha where's an effort underway to change that. it's part of our weekly look at the leading edge of science, technology and health. >> reporter: eight trillion dllons: that's the estima amount of rain that fell across north carolina from hurricane florence. during the catastrophic flooding agoon waste,d, hog raw sewage, and coal ash were among the toxic sutances that owed into waterways and communities. >> thanks stacey, that's good. reporter: university of north carolina scientist rachel noble spent a lot of time in those aoodwaters. she collects sampler extreme storms, more than 1,000

since florence, and brings them back to her lab. noble and her students are studying the pathogens in floodwaters, drinking water, and shhslfish. two mofter the storm, they continue to see problems. >> 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. >> reporter: contact with flood waters can cause skin infectns and diarrheal illnesses, but in rare instances exposure can be deadly. i wounected 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 salmonella cases. is reporter: vicki morris is a local infectiousse doctor who has seen an uptick in flood associated illnesses. o she says it's often hardow to what her patients have been exposed to. >> right now the patient comes in, we have to do a culture and it can take 48 to 72 hours for the germs to grow.

if i knew what were in the flood water or the drinking water 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 watery qualsting during floods and faster results >> the way the system works is taat we often tell people about the results of cnated water after they've already had them to drink or been exposed to them. we're telling them in the newspaper or on the internet after the fact. >> reporter: part of that lag- time she says is due to water testing agencies often being overwhelmed and out of power during floodinevents. but it's also because current tests, which look for signs of e. coli, a tell-tale bacteria for other pathogens, are slow. she's developed a way to speed things up. >>his 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 for 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 is being made on rapid water tests, another challenge for researchers aftert bims is tracking where contaminated waters are flowing. but a now underway to tackle that problem with some sophisticated new tools. on recent morning, duke university scientists dave johnston and rett newton joined noble for a scenic boat ride with an important scientific thal: to test two devices hope will one day transform the way floodw contamination, are tracked.

>> once we have the autonomous boat on station, then we can get the drone ready to go so we wtoneporter: johnston and are in the early stages of using autonomous boats and drones with highly sensitive cameras to survey and sample wate difficult for resechers like noble to reach. back on shore at duke's marine lab, which was hit hard by hurricane florence, johnston explained why the new tools are helpful. >> there are 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 take a sample, those are revolutionary technologies that allow us to sample in places people just can't get to. >> reporter: the team is also prtfitting drones with thermal cameras which caide a clear picture of where sources of water are flowing, a tool that could be helpful when trying to pinpoint sources of

contamin cion. >> in the we can see water that's coming from a warm area, and we're able to see where that water islly going. it's pretty cool, it's actually takes a sharp left hand turn. we'd be able to say hey there's a potential for exposure at these locations. >> reporter: rett newton is a ph'd student at duke who knows his way around high tech equipment. he also happens to be a retired air force colonel who flew f- 15's, and he's the current mayor of beaufort, a pictureue coastal town which experienced flooding after flonce. when he's not tending to the needs of his community, he is often out flying drones over the local waterways. >> it's really exciting, yeah, even for a crusty old guy li me watching the young folks, the young students, and they're really fired up. everyday we're seeing new platforms, new sensors, new applications. lot of the power is in t 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, believbe associated with russia's military intelligence, targeted american think tanks, media outlets, and the u.s military with fake emails. they were designed t like the state department's spokeswoman had sent them. thck schifrin is back now conversation he recently had with a journalist anfilmmaker who's dug deep into the ongoing campaign that russia calls "active measures

when you hear the term fake news, you probably think of how y's used often today president trump, but it's actually an old term used by the soviet union as a reference tonf dimation campaigns that the soviets and now the russians have long used to the west.e it worked before, and it's working again now.th at is the tale told by operation infektion, russian disinformation from cold war to kanye, rivetting three pt series released by the noims w adstbrook and adam ellick who joins me in the stdio now. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. a lot ofnalk about russ disinformation in 2016, 2018 but this st yted long before asour film nonstraits. i want to show a clip from the lm that starts with two kgb defectors who said this information had one goal. >> to change the perception of reality of every american to such an extent that, despite the abundance of information, no on

is able to come to sensibllu concsions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their comnity and their country. >> within the kgb is a department that specializes in planting false stories and forged documents -- >> we knew it was run from department a right to the top of the kgad, and it h a multi-million-dollar budget. >> the people inside and outside the soviet union involved inat ind of actions on a daily basis. >> 15,000 people carrying disinformation stories as seemingly crazy as the u.s. created aids. >> and many of them were super creative. we're talking about planting fake stories in communist newspapers in india, south korea. we looked at the aids campaign launched in 1984, and we foundin newspaper cli planted by the soviets about this story in

80 different >> did those stories end up in the u.s. press? >> they worked in the sense they were toxic and successful in the sense that they sowed chaos and even some of the cases like the aids one that we examined, there are millions of americans whoie still be in that hoax today. >> another cospiracy 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 u.s. didn't know what to do, then president reagan came along. >> president reagan changed the policy when it came to disinformation t before reaga thinking went if you respond to a fake news story, you dignify it, and that's somethinge've heard a lot in the past few years. but reagan came in and st throwing punches right away. his policy was we're going to take this on and dxpose it an he started a team in the state department called the active measuresorking group. >> active measure being the determine the soviets used to

describe their own campaign. >> their disinformations. campai it wasn't funded lavishly. some people worked part-time, but they were motivated bytr h, and they worked day and night putting out the fire hoseu of falsehood out by the kremlin. it was a painstaking process, it took them six years to debunk the aids conspiracy, but they did it with many, many reports, and one of the really heart-wearing scenes in our film is we interviewed a woman who is 8ow retired but she led that team in the 19 and she tells a story that that report ended up in the han of mikheil gorbachev, the premiere of the soviet union at the time, and he was forced to apologize about the aids conspiracy to reagan. >> fast forward to today and perhaps some to have e solutions to fake news, to disinformation today. and i want to play a t clip to that conversation up from right near the end of your series.

>> the things that make demoinacy good, living an open society with a free press and political diversity, those are the things weirdly that make us vulnerable. any country with anor authitarian leader and limited freedom of speech, they're the ones with the advantage chght now, wind of raises the question that maybe only history can answer. with the good guys ever win? >> you absolutely never win, emver. this prowill get a lot worse before it gets better. >> the next few yeabers wil worse than the last few years. >> and they will continue usi, gardless of what we say here in the discussion, regardless of the outcome of the discussion and inv btigation. we will not always be losers in this game. it will be victhries here and e, it's only when we quit the game, quit trying to exposea them tt we lose.

>> it's only when we quit the game thate.e los so there's a lot of talk about the media aspect to try and solve this, riht? fact checking media littersy,al good joum. then there's the speedia aspects, the toolrussians and others have used to spread this information much faster now than in the past. can social media companies do a thislone? >> certainly not. i think they've failed at that opportunity over the past four years. these attacks started in 2013,14 and they have taken some baby steps, but it's not enough, and it's noteing treated with the urgency that the crisis demands. sonk it's time for the government to get involved. >> but the u.s. doesn't think the way, does it?sn it d think of disinformation as some kind of f ttlefield, right, whereas russia does think t that way. >> yeah, and it's not military war fair, but it's stillwar fair. its disinformation war fair. >> that's how the russians see

it. >> yes, they operate in a constant state of wartime and our politicians are elected fori idle pea. >> the way to define the wartime is adverry is still t united states and attempt, whether dills information or military, satlantic the tran alliance and weaken the united states and west from within. >> yeah, as the old spies will tell you, america is target number one, enemy number onehe, and,you can fracture and weaken western countries both om their international alliances and even within by sowing chaos, then you can bully countries one on one as opposed to eaking on thentirety of the west when it's unified. >> and that is what disinformation does, right? ve>> very effec. i don't want to simplify the solution, but it's one that we need to be grappling with much more aggressively a opposed tour the nt state of american politics which is even trying to come to terms whether or not these atacks happened. >> adam ellick with the "new york times," theilm is

operation infektion: from cold war to kanye.an you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: roughly 350 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 of the newshour bookshelf. mesh's stomach achhe for much of9th and early 20t 20th century. walt whitman called it the greac am evil, the nation's intense, widespread indigestion fueled in part by what americans were eatin for breakfast -- potatoes cooked in congealed fat, heavily salted meats, gre

schools and mush, slow cooked for hours over wood-burning stoves. ter the kellogg brothers. out of their medical complex, grand hotelnd spa in battle creek, michigan came an invention, ready to eat, easily digestible, quick to prepare breakfast cereals. dr. jog harvey kellked the first batches of cereal with brother wi, who turned th recipe into corn flakes anda birthelti-million-dollar company. together the brothers transformed the american breakfast and helped foster many of the ideas now considered central to health and wellness. but it all came at gre personal colonels. their story is the focus of a new book out in t paperbace kellogg's, the battling brothers of battle creek, by dr. h markel, a medical historian at the university of michigan and regular columnist for the pps "newshour". dr. howard markel joins me now.

the kellogg nae in american society is hopelessly associated with breakfast and breakfast foods, but even before that, they had, escially john, had some very pioneering ideas about health way before their time. >>knbsolutely. yow, dr. kellogg created the term that we would now call ll fess, and, so, he -- wellness, and he prescribed al sorts of healthy living practices with a notion it's far easier to prevent the diease than to treat it after the body is broken down. so he advised aboutd diets, grain and vegetable diets but no meat. he advised against nicotine or smoking of any kind, caffeine, alcohol, and he prescribed lotsn of exercis fresh air when people were not doing that at all. >> they created a sanitarium in battle cre, what was called a sanitary yum, and centered around what you referred to as ologic living, a term that they coined. >> yes. what does that mean? w th the doctor's term

for wellness and the thought body.you took care of you it came from some of his religious beliefs as a southern day adventist, but he added on to them, usingthe best medical literature of the day, alw shoehorning the latest science to his world view, and he wanted to teach both the healthy ad the unhealthy how to live healthier lives, but it is also a complete medical center, grand hotel and spa all rolled into one. tens of thousands of people came to battle creek every year, the most popular train stop on thech an central between chicago and detroit, and lots of celebrities came asell. johnny rice mueller the old tarzan, would do his tarzan yell before the meartl sta. amelia earhart, thomas edison, henry ford, john d. rockefeller, jr., they all came. >> one of the dr. kellogg's goals was to develop an easilyal digestible cehich turned out not to be so healthy after

all but what was his gol? >> you have to remember who he was seeing. they were mostly a very constipated people. >> rr)ltly. (laugh -- literally. (laughter) not just an adjective. they were eating terribly fatty diets and often obese. he thought, if i could may grains more digestib, maybe that would help these patients. first, it was rolls until one lady broke her dentures on these hard double baked rolls and wanted him to replace her dentures. then he ground them up into tiny kernels and finally they came up with the cer il. easily digestible and if you have a stomach ache would bb probabgood to eat. >> they were oiginally wheat flakes and now corn flakes. >> yes, and john's l brother experimenting wit on and

on and developed corn flakes because corn was a cheaper drain and was tastier, and when it came out in 1906, it took the world by storm because now, evn a father could make breakfast simp by pouring it out of the box, and people just 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 real antipathy between them. can you describe a little bit about -- h, putting it mildly. john harvey was eight yearsn older thll and he treated will like a little brother, but he could also dominate him and treat him very badly. so when the doctor was riding his bicle across the campus of the sanitarium, will had to run along and take notes. when the doctor had one of his five daily bowel movements, he would order will to come into the bathroom with him and take notes on his latest lecture or book chapter so he wouldn't miss it. no wonder will hated his guts. you know, with all this dominant

relationship, will finally deded 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 the most famous kellogg and was at the time, best-selling author, lecturer, so on, butill said i've advertised everywhere, spent millions of dollars, i have the largest electric sign in the world in times square. >> i was a genius. he was brig yent, he adanced lack triesty, factories, conveyor belts, apted the demographic of mothers and children, the toy i the box which was great was it took up little space and cheaper and the corn flakes. he said i am thle real kelogg and it went to the michigan supreme court and the judges

said when we think of kellogg, we think of the cereal. sowill won the problem is they rarely spoke to each other after that and st a great deal. this is is great american story. the fact they had this sadness, this rift is the tragedy of the kellogg's. elloggs:ook is "the the battling brothers of battle creek." dr. howard markel, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and a quick news update before we go tonight. facebook officials have now admitted to targeting their company's critics, including jewish billionaire george soros. the revelations were exposed la" week in a "new york tim investigation. the liberal financier had called facebook a "menace to society" when he spoke at the world economicorum in davos last january. the social network's head ofco unication and policy has now written a blog post

acknowledging they hired ach reseirm to spread disparaging comments about its its chief operating officer sheryl sandberg added that theye never ed for the criticism of soros to appear anttic, writing, "being jewish is a core part of whcoi am, and our any stands firmly against hate." .st week's facebook's c.e mark zuckerberg denied knowledge of the smear campaign. george soros spokesman said they still want congress at look into acebook did. on the newshour online right now, how do you transform bland turkey into a culinaryer maece? we give you a step-by-step guide to making a scientifically correct but also delicious thanksving centerpiece. that's on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us on your thanksgivingon ne and again here tomorrow

evening. for all of us at the pbs newsho, thank you and have a wonderful holiday. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular understands that not everyone needs an unlimited wireless plan. customer service reps can help you choose a plan based on how much you use your phone, nothing more, nothing less. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> and with the ongoing sunsort of thesetutions and individuals.

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>> pati narrates: my travels in the baja peninsula have rable firsts. of exmetings four-wheeling. swimming with whale sharks. new food experiences. woah! mmm. i'm dying. and today, two more firsts for me. i've never seen them, like, in their habitat! sea urchins right from the beach. and deep sea fishing. first of all, you have to teach me how to fish 'cause i'm clueless. first of all, you have to twe're in los cabos, e of the greatest fishing destinations in mexico. i'm very antsy, i don't know if fishing is for me. in my kitchen, i'm a little better with the whole patience thing. risotto is all about timing. i'm making a velvety, creamy,

sweet and spicy to butternut squash ris and inspired by that fishing adventure, a tender flounder covered wi a crunchy guajillo,