captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: tumult at the top. national security advisor john bolton is out after clashing with the president, the third person to leave thatat critical post in t trump administration. then, back in session. just weeks before the utvernment runsf money, congress returns to washington, and the debates over guns and impeachment are as fierce as ever. plus, rats to the rescue. many cambodians live in constant danger of long-buried landminese but now, sally-trained rodents are sniffing out theng explosives. >> rats have a number of adntages compared to human

de-mins, who must rely on metal detectors, whereas these guys are trained to sniff out t.n.t., which is the explosive in most mine w oodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> youan do the things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. with talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more at consumercellular.tv

>> bnsf railway. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program wamade possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: exit john bolton. the white house national setrity advisor is out of t job tonight.es ent trump made the surprise announcement earlier today, that he asked bton to leave, in the latest turn of a long washington career. foreign affairs corresndent nick schifrin begins our coverage.ec >> schifrin: fades, ambassador john bolton has been one of washington's leading hawks. >> the overthrow of saddam hussein, that military action, was a resounding success. >> schifrin: from defending the war in iraq, to threateninas iran, boltonong advocated

the u.s. military as the best way to det adversaries, and change countries' behavior. >> the iranian rime must be made aware, at if itontinues down the path of international isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences. >> schifrin: and today, a careen of controversynued, when he was fired by tweet. president trump wrote, "i informed john bolton last night that his servis are no longer eded at the white house. i disagreed strongly with many of his suggestio." just 12 minutes later, boltoni shot back,fered to resign last night, and president trump said, 'let's talk about it tomorrow.'" that talk apparently never happened. ietoday, the president's a sounded calm, and described the dispute as normal washington turnover. done for country for a long time and i think the president will get to pick a national surity visor he has more confidence in. >> schifrin: at first, bolton

did enjoy the president'snf ence on major foreign policy issues. >> i am announcing that the u.s. is pulling out of the nucelar deal. >> schifrin: two years ago, present trump withdrew from the iran nuclear deal, which fo years en one of bolton's top targets. >> the iran deal was in fact the worst diplomatic debacle inic am history. >> schifrin: they also agreed on leaving the reagan-era intermediate range nuclear forces, or i.n.f., treaty, with. russ >> i think president trump should say to vladimir putin, you eier bring russia back into compliance with the i.n.f. treaty, or we're going to get out of that one too.ri >> sch but administration officials tell pbs newshour, over time, bolton's positions emerged as too aggressive to a president who campaigned on ending wars. >> we will stop racing to topple foreign-- and you understand this-- foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we

should wt be involved with. >> schifri president trump has negotiated with north korean leader kim jong-un. bolton has long called that kind of negotiation "appeasement." >> schifrin: on venezuela, the adnistration has launched pressure campaign to remove president nicolas maduro. but, administration officials tell pbs newshour, presidentfe trum backed into a corner after bolton repeatedly hinted about military intervention.y >> i will ain, as the president has said from the outset, and that nicolas maduro d those supporting him, particularly those who are not venezuelan, should know, is, all options are on the table. >> schifrin: just last week, the president and his national curity advisor disagreed over how to end the u.s.' longest war. the u.s. has been leadg peace talks with the taliban, and the president wanted to try and seal the deal by inviting the taliban

boto camp david. on opposed that. and even over iran, the two diverged. when iran shot down a u.s. drone in june, bolton pushed for a president trump called it off at the last minute. >> john bolton's priorities and policies just don't line up with the president. >> bolton was president trump's third full-time national securige advisor. sted only five weeks. lieutenant general h.r. mc.ster served for just 13 bolton lasted 17 months. by the end bolton clashed even with those who agreed hithim idealogically, including secretary of state mike pompeo. >> many times amador bolton and i disagreed, that's to be sure. >> a senior offici describes mike pompeo as a trump whisperer. w he h this internal fight, but even he said today the administration policy wouldn't change, judy, because this administration is dominated eveo by one man, the president.

well, along with nick, we are also joined by our white house correspondent, yamiche alcindor. so yamiche, we know it's bn n reported jlton did have differences with the president over time, but what ultimately led to this decision by your reporting? >> soues close to the president tell me this ultimately came down to the esident not seeing john bolton as someone who was putting on a united front.id the prt i'm told likes people that disagree with him. he likes to have spirited ionalssions about nat security or immigration or ade, and he's okay with people disagreeing with him, but sources close to the president essentially to me that oncet the presidkes a decision, then everybody needs to fall in line andly essenliohn bolton was not seen as falling in line. most recently that came about because there were reports that john bolton and mike pence disagreed with president trump on his decision to try to hold a meeting with

the taliban lderat camp david. john bolton thought it was not a place that taliban leaders should come, and that became public, and the white house and peope around the president we concerned that there were leaks white house and tht possiblythe john bolton was the source of that. so what you saw was a long tie coming with the president becoming more and more bustrated with john bolto this really came to a head today.f: >> woodrnd nick, how much do we know about how much in the end john bolton afected policy and affected the process? >> i think there can be no doubt that he affected policy. previous presikents tried to iran inside the nuclear deal. bolton helped push th president ouof the iran dea the two agree on the i.n.f. treaty. they even agreed on the use ofe twitter. timately the president did not follow through on bolton's policies. the president chose not to strike iran.

the prseident chose not to u the military in a more visible way as part of venezuela policy. and the president wants to aegotiate, not only with north korea, which amssador bolton opposed, but also with iran, and monthcould still be this a meeting between president trump, and irian pridt rouhani. that relates to criticism i heard all day. bolton tries to persuade the president, rather than present options tht all of the agencies have as the national security council is designed to do.he people say, no, theree was some proper procedures followed, especially on onic toplike china, but this was not only policy but personality. a fod mer senior official t today that bolton would travel alone to try and, you know, kind of stay out of sight of the president, because the president simply didn't ke bolton on a personal level very much. and that means whiln e bolid have a huge impact initially, especially with iran, the president at the end of the days did not follow through on

bolton's policies. >> woodruff: and ymiche, as both you and nick have been reporting, this is the third national security advisor tos leave th administration. what is the white house saying today about the criticism out t there ths is a white house again in chaos, in turmoil when it comes to national security? >> white house aides are really pushing back on the idea thatn the white house is in chaos, en as democratand republicans become concerned with the idea that we have seen record turnover in the trump administration. now, white house sources i was talking to all day told me that john bolton was continuing to n afterhe president ev he made a dhiision onngs like north korea, on things like venezuela, and as a s sult, this mething they saw coming, but the fact is that at 10:55 a.m. this morning, white house staff put out a press release, press schedule that said that j ambassadn bolton was going to be briefing report esat 1:30 p.m., and then an hour later at tweeted that john was, inident

fact, no longer going to be witt the administration. so what you havis within an hour a complete different message coming from the e,ite hond that in some cases people will say is the chaos of this white house. it's also noted that the president acted on social media when, in fact, with other people, including nikki haley, the former ambassador to the united nations, she had a formal sitdown oval office departure and said great things about her some what you saw is a s love lt with the president and john bolton. so while the white house is pressing and stressing that this was not chaos, that everyone saw this coming, there are people o say this is the white house once again having a revolving door that's spinni a spinning more wildly and more quickly. >> woodruff: not to mention you have the preident sayng he asked john bolton to leave. john bolton says he offered to resign. so you have two completely different stories. so ts is one that is not yet resolved. yamiche alcindor, nick schifrin,

thank you both. >> woodruff: so now, let's get two views now on what this turmoil means for u.s. foreign policy, with wendy sherman, who held a number of senior foreign policy posions in both the obama and clinton administrations. she is now director of center for public leadership at harvard university's kennedy school of government. and, michael doran was senior director on the national security council staff focusing thon the middle east durin george w. bush administration. he also served in the departments of state and defense. he is now a senior fellow at the hudson ititute, a conservative washington think tank. and welcome to the newshour to rtwant to ask bot you, and wendy, i'll sta with you, what was your reaction wheyou heard this, and what is the reaction you're hearing from others? w l, the reaction initially was not really a great deal of surprise, maybe on the time, but not the fact of john boon's departure. i think many of us thought this was gog to be coming down the road at one time or another, and

i think a few weeks ago many of us thought it was going to happen then. as i have said before, jonn bolton saw a war he didn't want to wage. president trump wanted to get americans out of conflict, wanted to take americans out of afghanistan, out of the middle east, didn't want too go to war, want to negotiate directly at high levels with leaders of countries, and john bolton ad a differ tt approach. otherand, as both nick and yamiche pointed out, bolton in some ways provided guardrails for the presouident. hen't just go his merry way. but in both cases, both in the case of president trump andf john bolton, pr ncess is what is important here. each of these are very strong fen who believe their point o view and their way forward is the right way forward. one, however,appens to be the president of the united states, and he doe geto decide. >> woodruff: and michael and what are row ing fromtion,

other people you talk to today? >> my reaction was a little fferent. it was aen combination of... a little bit of disappointment, but like with wendy, i wasn't all that surrid. i was disappointed because i like a lot of john bolton's policies, in particular i like the effect that he's had on the iran deal. and i tend to agree with him. but i was always a little bit surprised by the choice of him as national seclrity advisor, because that job is really beste y someone who is a master of process rather than content. they have to obviously understand the content and they have to have a deep a awarenes deep knowledge of foreign policy, but the job ia coordinating role really. you have to bring all of the other principals together in th national securuncil, make sure the president understands the views of those principles as

those principles want themo e understood. and then to help the president come to decision. and as your reporter said, u have to implement the president's decision and notr pursue yn agenda. >> woodruff: but it sounds like you're saying, michael doran, that you n't think that was john bolton's strength, coordination, keeping the trains running on time in effect at the national security council? >> exactly. i mean, we although he's -- worked with him when i was in the bush white house. he's an extremy talented and intelligent person, and he's also a professional, but he's aa with very strong views. that's not what you look for in an a natial secuty advir usually. >> woodruff: wendy sherman, whato ultimatelyu think is john bolton's effect on u.s. where did he make the most difference? >> i think his effect has been que disastrous, because we don't have a resolution to any of the many problems in front of us.re

thesident, of courthse, left the iran nuclear deal, but iran is now headed back toward getting a nuclear weapon, and we don't have any less state sponsorship of terrorism in the middle east. we don't have a resol dion on venezuela, even though john bolton took aery muscular approach toward venezuela, and the president i think quite frankly just lost interest. h we done resolution on north korea, and as we all know, famously, john bolton got sent the mongolia in the process agreementf his dis with the president. we don't have resolution in the ina tariff trade deal, and i would say the only place where john bolton's hand has reaonlly shown is that he did get the president to withdraw from the i.n.f. treaty, the treaty with russia around missiles and indeed i think the president didn't much care about that and was glad to letth bolton take lead. >> woodruff: michael doran, do you want to react to tha where do you see john bolton

having affected u.s. feign policy the most? >> i don't think that resolution of disputes is the standard we united states is going to have enemies by virtue of who it is and what it has done historically. iran is an eneemy of united states. that's not because of anything the united states has done. it's because iran wants the drive the united states from the middle east. and so bolton help the president put together a containment policy o iran, policy of competing with iran, unlike the obama administration, pwhich basically opened the doors to the region to let iran do whatever it wanted. so i think that bolton played a very good role there. no do you think, wendy sherman, let me put it this way, do you think it will make a big difference, wendy sherman, that john bolton is gone? where do you see it making a difference? >> i thinpresident will feel that he has a mpletely free

hand now to do whatever he wants to do. we have seen mick mulvaney, the chief of staff, take a very different approach to previous chiefs of staff by tting trup simply be trump. the president wants to make his own decisions. he believes he's his own bestso ad he believes in photo opportunities and flair. he isn't someone who very much likes process. he doe't want to rely on experts. he doesn'tant the deliberative process that michael has outlined. so i think we will see the president have a more engthagemt eaders at high level, try to take some creative approaches to various issues of concern, but those approaes are not going to get us an outcome thatr ects american national security because they won't be well prepared. there won't be a deliberative process, he won't rely on the people around him who can bringn historyiourstanding, expertise, and ideas to the table. >> woodruff: and michael change?what do you think will

what will be different without behn bolton? tactics.nk it's mainly one of i think john bolton wanted to have a hard policy against actors like iran, and he wanted it to be constantly hard in every way. i think the president wants to start out with hard policy. he wants to have leverage, but then he nts to have tactical flexibility with how he deals with the iranian, including meeting them perhaps at the u.n. general assembwe. so i thine going to see goa lot more tactical flexibility, but i'll be surprised if there is a very signnificant change the main policies of the government just because people ke mike pompeo, who has a very good relationship with the w president, doesn't h world n ew that's significantly different than jlton. no michael doran and wendy sherman, thank you both very much. thank you. >> thank you, swriewdy. -- judy. >> woodruff: and in the day's other news, secretary of state mike pompeo dismissed news accounts that a c.i.a. informant

was rescued from russia. cnn and the "new york times" reported that the kremlin moleex waacted in 2017. he was said to be in growing danger after exposés of russian meddling in the 2016 u.s. election. pompeo insisted today that the reports are wrong-- t saying why. >> as a former c.i.a. director, i don't talk aut things like this very often. it is only the occasions when there's something that i think puts people at risk, or the reporting is so egregious as to create enormous risk to the i even comment in y that, that i just did. and i won't say anything more about it. i know the c.i. put out a statement. suffice to say, the reporting there is factually wrong. >> woodruff: the reports said that the informant worked for the c.i.a. for dades, and eventually gained access to the highait levels of the kremlin. officials in the bahamas said today that the death tl from hurricane dorian has risen to at least 50. search teams recovered more bodies from the wreckage,y larg great abaco island, and they continued looking

evacuations on aba also continuing, as thousands try to get out to nassau. cethe head of the nationalic and atmospheric administration has joined the furor over president trump's claim that hurricane dorian threatened alabama. neil jacobs defended noaa today for criticizing a birmingham- area forecasting office that contradicted m trump. but, he also thanked t forecasters for "good intent." the "new york times" has reported thau.s. commerce cretary wilbur ross had threatened to fire top officials at noaa over the issue. in iraq, at least 31 people were aslled in a stampede today shiite pilgrims marked the holy day of ashoura. officials say a walkway collapsed and touched off chaos. it happened during an annual pilgrimage that drew hundreds of thousands of worshippers. they mked the death of the prophet mohammed's grandson hussein.

in addition to the dead, at least 100 people were injured. the british parliament was officially susnded today for one month amid the brexit chaos. prime minister boris johnson forced the suspension, but first, lawmakers voted against leavg the european union without a formal deal. they also opposed calling new elections. today, labour leader jeremy corbyn dueled with johnson at issue.>>tance ov the elections o one can trust the word of the prime minister, who isen threg to break the law to force through no-deal.l 't, a geneection is miming, but we wllow johnson to dictate the terms. >> what a load of nonsense. we were very, very clear that if people wanted a democratic momentif they wanted an election, we offered it to the labour opposition and,st iously, they decided not to go for it.

so we're going to get on. >> woodruff: johnson has vowed to deliver brexiby the halloween deadline, with or without a deal. back in this country, voters in north carolina's sprawling ninth congressional district headed back to the polls for a redo of a 2018 mid-term race. the initial results hrown out over evidence of fraud on the republican side. president trump rallied voters in the district last night, in a race seen as a small bellwether for the 2020 elections. the percenta of americans without health insurance rose in 2018, for the first time since obamacare was passed in 2010. e u.s. census bureau say that 27 million people lacked medical coverage, or about 8.5% of the population. at the same time, the poverty rate fell to its lowest point sinc2001. lifornia now has two new lawsd ai doctors who write

fraudulent medical exemptions from school vaccinations. edgovernor gavin newsom sihe legislation on monday. the bills passed amid a surge of measles cases this year, and despite emotional protests by hundreds of vaccine opponents. and, on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 74 points to close at 26,909. the nasdaq fell three points, and the s&p 500 added one point. still to come the newshour: preventing gun violence and debating impeachment.er membof congress return to washington. sniffing out danger. rats find a calling in the and, much more.nd mines. >> woodruff: with the august recess now over, members of coress scramble today to prioritize their agenda items. as capitol hill correspondent

lisa desjardins reports, there's a lot to choose from. >> desjardins: their first full day back from summer break, house demoats wanted to talk guns and gun violence, holding a forum on the issue. >> we will fight on every front: in the courts, and in th congress, and in the court of public opinion, to make sure this issue is too hot to handle for the g.o.p. to block. we're not taking "no" for an answer. >> desjardins: speaker pelosi it particularting a bill the house already passed, to eand most private salesto include that idea has gained new attention after last month's mass shooting in odessa, texas. officials saseven people were killed by a man who failed a background check, but got a gun salater through a private le, where no background check is required. that violence, along with attacks in el so and dayton, ohio led to 40 deaths. and all of that is leadingto

democratressure the senate to vote on more background checks. senate democrac leader chuck schumer: >> a debate on gun safety should be our first order of business, and the place to start a debate d a vote on the house-pas bipartisan background checks bill. >> desjardins: but in the senate, one vote matrs most-- that of republican leader mitche mcconnell, who has said for an ll to get a vote, the president must back it first. >> we do, in fact, await word from the white house about what the president is willing to sign. >> desjardins: this, despite polls showing nationwide, overwhelming support for increased background checks. an npr/pbs newshour/marist survey o today shows that 83% of americans support laws requiring background ches for gun show purases and private sales. this puts enormous pressure on vulnerable republican senators like susan collinsmaine.year,

>> over the august recess, i had extensive conversatith my colleagues on both sides ondthe aisle, a with the white house, reach an agreement on a packaged that would pass the senate. >> desjardins: as senators struggle to vote on anything, house democrats are voti on more and stepped-up ideas,g today, movinlls through committee to limit high-capacitp magazines and t more red- flag laws, allowing law enforcement to take weapons from anyone thought to be dangerous. some house democrats are pushing to return to an all-out ban on assault-style weapons. but, with congress divthe deciding voice may be president trump's, who met with republican leaders about gun violence today. but he has indicated both anhe openness and opposition to gun legislation in recent ys. therein li the challenge, says democratic senator chris coons

of delaware. >> i'm sure he'll take a position. the question is, will he hold it? if he does, he will be able to lead us forward to making progress on guns. ll he doesn't, i think we all be once again disappointed at the lack of progress. >> desjardins: democrats aor hopingore gun votes in the house in coming weeks. joe manchin, who is one of the people involved in negotiation, and he told me that he hears from the white house that staff there plan to pres appropriate dal to the president clear if the president is going to say a clear yes or no on that propos. nchin and others hope, so but we will wait and see. >> woodruff: so much to keep track of, lisa. a lot on the plate. the other big cloud hanging over expectations right now has to do with whether there's going to be a move towaitrd proceeding an impeachment inquiry of the president. what are democrats say rg about thht now? >> democrats told us this morning in the house, on the judiciary committee, that they

tually want the move past or expand past the mueller report with regards to impeachment. they will now investigate other things involving the president. eas far as impeachment s, though, they will change the process and they're going to allow themselves soe more wers within the judiciary committee. thha were taking a vote ont procedural idea on thursday. it's important because it woulde alloy nadler, the democratic chairman of that committee, more ability to link any hearings timpeachment if he wants. his staff would have more poer, perhaps attorneys to do behind closdo doors quelling, and w expect a slu of important witnesses ming up. now, is it an officialen impeacinquiry? a court might say no. democrats are trying the say yes, but the majority ofnt democrats ne. it's in the clear if they have one or not. >> woodruff: so yet another issue. trade, democrats, congress figuring out what to do. the presidenis pushing t democrats to ratify the u.s.-mexico trade agreement. meantime, you have this trade

war escalating between china and the united sta ss. where do ye that moving? >> i think first thing to focus on is that u.s.-mexico-canada trade deal u.s. mca.e ho democrats, the pressure is on them from many businessre in, including agricultural interests and n swing districts for vulnerable democrats. they want to get this through. but house democrats are not sure they like the deal. they're not ure it has enough protections for workers in t. these next few weeks will be my reporting from talking to democrats today, they're not quite sure what their strategy is on this yet. >> brangham: okay. very quickly, last thing i want to ask about, clock ticking on coming up with a way to fund the government. >> oh, just that, let's fun the gornment. >> woodruff: quickly. >> quickly, the hope is, and it look like both the house and senate, both parries arengovi toward a continuing resolution to kind of puptd this down the road, fund government at the end of this month for maybe another month or two while they try to work out a more detailed bill. but today there were many signsh

that next debate is going to be worse than this one for two reson, one,he topic of abortion has come up again, and what funding is restricted or not for abortion, and also the president's decision to divert that funding from military projects for the wal that's a hot issue and it's hard to figure out how they will get past it, b they willry and delay that harder debate if they can until around thanksgiving. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins, you had to have your track she on. >> i did. i wore flats today. >> woodruff: so, there coional agenda depends in large part on president trump's own priorities. our white house correspondent yamiche alcindor iback. so yamiche, let's talk about some of this. the president melt -- met with republican lawmakers today. what are youearning about what, if anything, they agreed on how the proceed? >> well, the big priority ofdm thisnistration is i'm told to come up with some sort of gun w legislation. i'm told ha the president is thinking through exactly what that's goinge o be. the whuse wants to release a plan as early as late this

week or early next week, and i'm told that the preident wants to focus on mental health issues some he's interested in either changing the law so that the background checks that people ge throh now might include se sort of mental health welfare check. there is also this idea that the white house might com with plan to strengthen and make it haer for people who are having a possible mental breakdown to get a gun orn eep their gun. but white house officials have not been very clear about what the president believes and republicans on the hill areor really waitinghe president to give them a strong sort of direction about where he wants to go on gun legislation. so the other thing of note isf that as lisa was talking abo impeachment procedures, this white house is gearing up for a fight on impeachment. they feel as though the impeachment procedures that are being poibly voted on in the house judiciary committee, that's going to be an affront to the presidt, and they're ready the fight on that, they're also ready the fight on the idea that the president's white house aides and his allies may beto called uhe hill. they're thinking through whether

or not they're going to have some sort of privile that t ey're going to assert there. so there is a lot the white house is struggling with, but the number-one thing is on guns and impeachment. >> woodruff: yamiche, i want to ask you about the administration and science. there has been this controversy fer the last number days about how this drawing appeared on a map of the weather of the hurricane dorian, how bad it was going to hit the united staes, whether it was going to hit the state of alabama, which appeared in that drawing that we saw in the white house. what are you hearing at thet white house riw about these questions about whether the white house is ierfering in the prep rat role of agencies thatondt science? >> well, this is an issue that started off small that people thought ns going to go away ad that the president has essentially dragged on and on and on. the white house says the president was right and people are making too much of this, but the head of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration came out and said the wldther shot be politicized.

and there is this idea that the commerce secretary, wilbur ross was threatening employees at noaa to fall in line wih the president and not talk about the fact that alabama was not going to be impacted by the hurricane> oodruff: so much for you to keep track of, yamiche,be een john bolton and all of this. yamiche alcindor at the white house, lisa desjardins at the yocapitol. thanboth.he >> woodruff:are lethal legacies of war. landmines present a constant, hidden threat. special correspondent fred de same lazaro reports fromca odia, where the danger is part of daily life. but, an unlikely battalion of animalis making a difference. this is part of fred's series, "agents for change." ri reporter: let's face it, rodents rarely ter warm fuzzy feelings in most people.

but, these african giantouch rats, being gently awoken from their cages, are called hero rats by their handlers. they have names like harry potter, godiva, and, er...di frederick-- no relation. after getting sunscreened up, this "rat pack" of 11 animals is headed out before dawn to a former battlefield in rural cambodia. their task: sniff out landmines. >> everyone was surprised, even me. before i came to apopo, i heard that the rats were detecting landmines.th it was like sog unbelievable to me. >> reporter: mark shukuru is head rat traer in cambodia for the belgian non-profit apopo. he is from tanzania, where this learned early thaty haveanhe some of the most sensitive noses in the animal ngdom. each comes out of a rigorous program in tanzania, shown in this promoonal veo, that trains them to dtinguish explosives from other scents.ea time they sniff out t.n.t. buried in this test field, a

trainer uses a clicker to make a distinct sound, and they get a treat. >> so, t.n.t. smell, clicker,.t food. t.n.t. smell, clicker, food. t.n.t. smell, clicker, food. >> reporter: the drill can take up to 12 months before handlers are confident that when the animal scratch in place, an explosive is buried below. >> we haveever missed anything with the rats. so they're doing good. >> reporter: rats have a number of advantages compared to human de-miners, who must rely on metal detectors.ey etect a lot of scrap metal-- these are, after all, old battlefields. they are litter, but they don't always contain explosives. whereas these guys are ttoined sniff out the t.n.t. specifically, which is the since 2016, apopo's hero rats have found roughly 500 anti- personnel mines and more than35 unexploded bombs in cambodia. they're the second animal to be deployed in minelearance. dogs were first.

animals can work much faster tthan humans, although wh land is densely mined, metal detectors are considered more effient. thuch ly, who leads the government de-mining effort, says there's plenty of work to go around. the ministry has exhaustive maps of areas it calls "contaminated." >> we come out with thnumbers at are around four to six million anti-personnel landmine in tuntry, so we still have a long way to go to clear all of them. >> reporter: that translates to a lot of contaminated land in this largely rural agrian country, an economic and existential threat. >> we have more than 26,000il peopled and injured over the years-- 30% of them are women and children. >> reporter: it's the legacy ofe three decas of conflict that ended in the late '90s. in cambodia's west, landmines were buried by the genocid khmer rouge regime, and by the from power alongside the newhem cambodian army.

in the east, near vietnam, lie millions of tons of unexploded american bombs dropped during the war. this may be the only country with a landmine museum. it was started by aki ra, who b was conscripted as a child toe he laid mines hims and has spent mu of his adult life trying to remove them. he disarmed many of the devices on display here himself, and says his goal is to raise awareness of what mines can do. >> ( translated ): the children during my time all went through it, but it see like the young, the children growing up duringil this generation, they're not aware of the danr or the casualties of landmines that still occur today in camboa. >> reporter: tens of thousands cambodians live in close proximity to the dormant killers. th school was just steps from the minefield visited with the apopo rats. >> people are forced to enter

these contaminated areas quite simply because they don't have a choice. because their livelihoods depend on it. >> reporter: rebecca letven r works with the british mines advisory group, one of several aid agencies working in cambodia. 27 years into the collective effort, they've freed up some 18,000 acres. that's less than a tenth of the terrain considered contaminated. >> it's important that we don't forget what happened here in cambodia, and we don't forget that the country itself is still ry heavily contaminated. >> reporter: this year's toll s1 far-illed and 51 injured. at this regional prosthesis hospital, a steady stream of victims arrives each day to be fitted or refitted with artificial limbs. >> ( translated he old one wagetting really tight, especial around my thigh. >> reporter: 39-year-old sna him like many patientsere, he's a.

small farmer, growing rubber and cashew nuts wi his wife and three children. >> ( translated ): c am always veeful when i walk in the fields, because i am worried it could happen to my othereg. i feel very upset that i lost a part of my body, because it prevents me from doing other activities that norm people are able to do. >> reporter: meanwhile, the various de-mining teamcontinue to inch forward with the tedious, dangerous work. there's little evidence anymore of the hostility that drove the shattering conflict. old combatants have moved on over tim but, nister thuch laments, so has the world's attention. t >> i thire's a moral obligation for everybody involved in war in the past. i think that it was the cold war and then small nations like cambia are the victims of this. >> reporter: apopo plans to bring in 40 more rats, to expano the e and replace retirees. each animal works about eight

years, and then lives out the o reits days alongside fellow heroes. all, working toward the day when they can broadcast to the worldc thbodia has destroyed the last unexploded bomb. the government wants that to happen by 2025. its big task is to convince enough donors to help with the caus ( three whistle blows ) ( explosion ) for the pbs hour, this is fred de sam lazaro, ne siem reap, cambodia. >> woodruff: harvey weinstein was a titan of the film industry, the prolific and powerful hollywood media mogul behind oscar-winning pictures like "shakespeare in love" and "pulp fiction." but on october 5, 2017, all that came crashing down. imonhat day, a "new york" investigation, led by reporters jodi kantor and megan twoh,

was published. it exposed for the first time a decades-long trail of alleged abuse toward acts, formerme employees and others.d this inclulegations of sexual assault, harassment and a coordinated campaign of intimidation meant to keep women silent. weinstein marked a milesne in on the cultural moment known as the "me too" movement. in their book, "she said," whicd is out, kantor and twohey reveal the inner workings ofat their investn. jodi kantor and megan twohey join me now from new york. thank you to both of you for congratulations on the book. jodi, i'm going to start with you. the two of you did help change the landsce, the culturalnd ape in this country when it comes to how women are treated in terms of sexual, miscondut what i want to ask you is why do you think women before nowno havbeen willing to talk about these

kinds of things? >> to n honest, i our experience, women sometimes still have a really hard time talking about these things. even though "me too" has rtainly changed things d certainly some of the stigma is gone, women still have a pretty tough time coming forward, and there are two stories we tell in the book about this. one is ab a recent stories. one of the figures in our book is a woman who is a central weinstein victim, because there was so much cover-up in her particular als.legati summer of 2017. rowena in the she wouldn't answer our messages or phone calls. we had to show up and knock on her door. we reached only her husband, who knew nothing about these allegations. e turned out she hadver told her husband. for two years we kepin touch with her behind the scenes. she wouldn't even speak to us until a few months o.

finally she went on the record in our book, and it took two years of discussion to get there. and then i think the other story tell that's so indicative is the saga ofhristine plazay ford coming forward and the behind-the-scenes testimony, of tough decisions about whether or not to come forward publicly. >> woodruff: i want to get to some of the investigative reporting you did. you two knocked on hundreds of doors.nt you hundreds of e-mails and texts, megan, what did it take? what did you do, do you think that brow this story open n others hadn't been able to? e realther one of challenges in doing thires rting is that many of the women who had been victimized by harvey had also been legally silenced by him through these secret settlements. these have applied to not just victims of harvey weinstein but victims of sexual haent and sexual assault across the

country. so when a reporter comes knocking, i'll tell you the story, there with was a woman who had worked for weinstein in 1990nd had been allegedly sexually assaulted by him and we tracked her do to a family home here in new york, justr outside new knocked on her door. she opened it. she had a young daughter by her side looking up. an she sd, i have been waiting for this knock on more door for 25 years, and yet bause of this secret settlement that she had been required to sign, she was terrified of speaking out. so this was one of thech lenges that we fae in the course of our investigation. but we als realized that these secret settlements that have been used to cover up misconduct for so many years is that if we're able to piece together the fincial trail of payoffs, it would actually help illuminate the misconduct. >> woodruff: weat, the work oes into investigative reporting comes through loud and clear in youir wrng in the book. jodi kantor, what did it take to

get prominent figures likeyn h paltrow, movies stars, i'm assuming without them, without their talking, it would have been much harder to get other people the talk. what did it take to get them? >> the first step was to try to figure out how to even reach these women privately. we couldn't go through agents. we couldn't go through publicists. and then there's the queion , if you do get uma thurman or ashl judd or gwyneth patrow on the phone, what do you actually say to them in the first 45 secondof the pho call the try to earn that trust. but actually, things ended u working a little differently than you describe, which is essentially we realized that tho hollsilence over harvey weinstein was holding. we were accumulating thistack of off-the-recd disturbing hotel rooorsts, but all of these actresses were very afraid to go on the record, so what we started doing was building a

mountain of other evidence, and that mountain consisted of internal records, the legal and financial trail of the v settlements,y important internal company memo, and it was really being having thaevt idence that we were able to make the case to ashley judd to get on the record, becae we said, we're not putting you into a he sad/she said situation where you're standing here alone. we have 25 years worth of allegations documented b that becomesis that you can stand on for coming forward. >> woodruff: i saw that was part of the argument you wereo making to any women, you were saying, we owe it to theset r women, because of what they have gone through, to talk now. megan twohey, what about harvey weinstein himself? how tough of a character are we talking about going up against? >> when we broke this story in 2017, it was just thin begng. we had been able to connect some of the dots about his allegeoi

spreaddation back decades and how he had been able to cover it up, but with the additional reporting for this book, we started to pull backai the cuon the machinery that was in place that harvey put many place to silence histr victims anthe halt our investigation. that included amassing like team of very high-powered attorneys, including sa bloom, one of the most prominent feminist attorney, in the country who made the remarkable decision to cross sides to work for him i 2016 and 2017 as he was trying to fight back this story. it also included black cube,iv this pe investigative firm made up of former israeli intelligence agents who were basically promised a $300,000 bonus by weinstein if they could succeed in stopping our investigation. i, how much dood you think things have changed for working women as a result of your reporting and the reporting of others on harvey weitein and other prominent men who have been accused in the last few years? >> what's so confounding is that

dverything has changed a nothing has changed at the same time. on the one hand, it really feels like we all lived through a seismic social shift. and there really is lots of evidence ranging from the period after the story broke where alle of thesen were fired of had the leave their jobs, the fact that there are so many state laws to the fact that corporations are taking this much morseriously. we read in-depth about the weinstein company, because we try to show how this organization was trying to protecting women, and in the process it basically destroyed itself.a so on the one, there is all of that change. on the other hif you go to th everyday workplace today, especially for low-income women,om does anything feel reay tfferent? it'sl really hard to report

federal sexual harassment laws are still really weak, and i think that there'slso now a lot of controversy about "me too," which can sometimes seem ake a relly productive debate and sometimes feel like just this huge argument that's not really going anywhere. so i think the question remains to be st n, whae all of us collectively going to do with this period that we live through. what are we goi to tell our grandkids about this era? are we going to say, are w going to be able to say, i was there when things really shifted, or are they gong to be telling us, oh, yes, that still happens at my summer jo >> woodruff: very good question. an megan, finally, you know, jodi just mentioned the controversy. you are one starting to hear conversation more and more abome whetheoo has gone too far, and whether men have gotten swept up in this who shouldn't owve been. how does one khat is too far? >> well, listen, i think there is absolutagreement by both accusers and the accused that there has not been the type of substantial reform that can

guarantee that there is a fair system by which complaints can be made and vetted and by which people can determine guilt or innocence and also what accountability looks like. and listen, there is no question that there still needs to be a lot of systetic change sumoving forward to makre that everybody is adequately protecte but we as reporters feel like you can't really solve a problem that you can't see, and so we really consider it our job to just continue unearthing the cts and helping to bring them to light. >> woodruff: well, remarkable to hear you say you are still reporting on this day after day after y. again, congratulations on the book "she said." twohey.di kant and megan thank you both. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now, celebrating a unique lens to see life.

amna nawaz remembers one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century, part of our anvas" series. >> you know, you're a hunter. you're hunting for a good picture. >> nawaz: he was best known for vividly capturing america'sa' country's social divisions in everyday le. robert frank was born inze swand to a wealthy european jewish family, but he was decidedly an american, one who managed to maintain an outsider's point of view-- as he himself noted in the 2015 documentary about his career, >> i tried not to talk to them, and i didn't want them to talk to me. >> nawaz: frank emigrated to new york in 1947, and started work at "harpers bazaar," but ny ofon became aware of ark contrasts in america society. that perspective was a driving force behind his most celebrated work, 1957's "the americans." starting in 1955, frank criss- crossed the country, snapping o 28,000 photos in just twars,

ultimately culling them down to a collectionf just 83. his work was in sharp contrast to more traditional, optimistic photos of the time. frank reflected on that work in "don't blink:" >> when i look at the 83 photographs i chose for the book, i think i really got the essence. >> nawaz: like this shot of limotorcyclists in indiana a trolley car in new orleans. and a political rall chicago. sarah greenough is the director of photography at the national gallery of art in washington, d.c. she knew frank, d says "the americans" reveale that was plagued by racism and consumerism. >> he looked beneath theac su seeing these ills in american society, but he also photographed novel areas of beauty within the country. subjects that other photographers haven't previously looked at, such as cars, diners, and even the road itself. >> nawaz: greenough says the

book also made frank's unique artistic style influential: >> many of them have a sort of fast, seemingly intuitive look, as if he just turned around and capted the image. gives a great sense of dynamism to them. the book, "the america" was initially reviled by the critic but it very quicklyby became embrace younger generation of photographers, and then others. >> nawaz: frank's work featured other cultural ico of the day. he befriended "beat" writer jack kerouac shortly after compiling "the americans," and kerouac later wrote the book's forward. and, frank's black-and-white photos were featured on the cover of the rolling stones' critically-acclaimed 1972 album "exile on main street." later in his career, frank continued to shoot photos and film, largely focusing his lens on america's least privileged, rather than the powerful.

robert frank died monday, in nova scotia. he was 94 years old. >> woodruff: and there's more online, where we take a closer look at one of frank's most enduring images from his book "the americans."at on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. ord that ithe newshour night. i'm judy woodruff.at for all of uhe we'll see you soonk you, and >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided :f >> bnsrailway. >> consumer cellular. >> financial servicejafirm raymond mes. >> the ford fodation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in

education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of internatial peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing supporte of tnstitutions and individuals. >> this program was made y the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbt ion from viewers like you. thank you. ns captioning sed by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh. >> you're watching pbs. ♪

♪ >>hello, everyone and welcome to "amanpour & co. here's what's coming up. after about a year oppeace talks,sident trump cancels a secret meeting with talibanng leaders atamp david. what does it mean for america's loestes war in afghanistais 18 years since 9/11? >> order. >> then here in britain, suspending parliament, leaving criticalrexit questions answered. my guest is senior aide to the former prime minister david cameron and says boris johnson has overplayed hi hand. also, from harlem haberdher to gucci partner, hip hop fashion icon dapper