captioning sponsored by newshour productions, ll >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonihe inquiry begins. under mounting pressure, the white house releases a summaryee of the call bepresident trump and the ukrainian leader now at the heart of the impeachment investigation. then, waves to come. the world's water at a crisis point as climate change ravages oceans, ice, and ecosystems. plus, power and prosperity. on the ground in china as weun kick off our n series focusing on the country's internal challenges and international ambitions. in no other country than china have you had such a great amount of change in such a short

amount of time. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ years. our economy for 160 the engine that connects us.

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amits of executive power. it all comes a der theay speaker of the house announced a formal impchment inquiry. our lisa desjardins begins with the latest. >> desjardins: another rapid- fire day of news centering around president trump, who was atinhe u.n. mewith world leaders today. but the headlines came from his decision to declsify and release a five page memo describing a july krone call withnian president volodymyr zelensky. the text is critical to the fastising impeachment debate. it shows preside zelebrky ging up the military, javelin missiles he wants to buy from the united states,at immey following that, president trump asks for wha ate says immediately following that, president trump asks for a favor: to look into crowdstrike the company that conclud russia was to blame for hacking into democratic party email in 2016, a conclusion the president has questioned. after zelensky resnds,re ing the ethics of ukrainian investigations, inesident trump next says he

heard about a ukn prosecutor who was unfairly shutdown.at ay have been a referenceen to this man, viktor shokin, whom the us saw as birrupt and joe n tried to have fired. a few sentences later mr trump says there's a lot of talk abo biden's son, that biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out abt that, so whatever you can do that was a reference to huntve biden, who son the board of a gas company that was investigated for corruption. the bied f were mentioned three times. attorney general barr would come up again too. smok dlr so did the esident's personal attorney rudy giuliani. trump said he was going to to he attorney william barr give you a call and we will get to the end of it. >it. >> ukraine understood exactly at was being asked from it and

that the president of the us would interfere with our national security wi national security of our ally,i and do so for the illicitpu ose of trying to advance his election campaign, having already soug foreign help i his first presidential campaign, would now abuse the power of his office yet again, thi time to seek tlp of another nation in his presidential campaign is ayal oft fundamental betr his oath of office. >> dickerson: as it happens, also today-- >> trumphe made me more famous. m >> desjardins: --was a scheduled in-pson meeting between mr trump and the ukrainian president. in an extraordinary moment, he was asked if he was pressured to investigate biden. >> i'm sorry but i don't want to involved to democratic elections of u.s.a.

weections of u.s. no. had i think good phone call. it was normal. >> there was no pressure. 7. >> reporter: mr. trp was confident, pointing to poll numbers. but later, zelensky, speaking in his native tongue, seemed to clary that he did not pressure anyone in u.k. as a result. >> desjardins: in the meantime, another thread of the two men's july phone call involved the department of justice, which announced today that the original whistleblower account raised a possible criminal act by the president on campaign finance chars. but according to a justice department spokesperson, after reviewing the controversial call, prosecutors could not make out a criminal campaign finance violation. e justice department also issued a statement that the president has not spoken with the attorney general about having ukraine investigate

anything related to former vice president bi his son. on capitol hill, many republicans circled around the president. >> from my point of view, to impeach any present over a phone call like this would be insane. >> desjardins: many, like southa caroenator lindsey graham, echoed the president's calls for an investigation into biden. >> vice president biden is ago man. i've enjoyed a good relationship. but i can assure you that if any republican family member was engaged in conduct like this, it would raise quesons. a lot of people felt the guy was corrupt. but the one thing that i think has to be dealt with there is that the son of the vice aiesident was receiving a lot of money from the u and some of the sources of the funds were under investigation by the prosecutor. t don't know what the ri answer is. i just hope somebody will look at it. >> desjardins: the spotlight will likely remain on the acting director of national intelligence joseph maguire is set to testify about the original whistleer complaint.

>> woodruff: a lisa joins meou now, ang witwhite house correspondent yamiche alcindor. so, yamiche, the decise n by the whuse to release this memo based on that phone this?rsation, why d they do ll, that question is really at the heart of today. why would the white house takef the risk releasi at least me details of this call between president trump and the president of the ukraine? there are two answers to thate question. esidentst is the p obviously thinks that this call helps him in soe way. the secnd answer is that there was public pressure to release this call, and the white house had no-ce- no chbut to release this call. the president at his press conference today said he hated to do this. he said he felt he had to do this because there's a lot of "fake news,land he like democrats were lying about him. the white house i've-- the white house aid i've been king to s reallysay thi exonerates the president. th say it's okay for the president to bring up the bidens because it's perfectly part of his role as but democrats are really pushing back on that. but this is a calcuted risk by

the president and the white house. i've been talking to some people close to nancy pelosi and close to other democts who say they're taking their own risk by announcing this formal impeachment inquiry. what we're seeing is both sides taking risk here, and today the white house essentially made the decision this call was okay to should see it. the public >> woodruff: and, yamiche, what are you hearing from theou white house ahow they see the political impact of thi the reac among republicans on the hill and so forth? >> president trump is really when it comes to this call. he's trying to argue that democrats were out to get him, that this was all planned to ruin his time at the unitedme nations, and h's been trying to push that message to g.o.p. lawmlyers. today, ehis morning, the white house called several senators into the white house d they had first a conversation about the transcript, or the supposed trscript-- not a verbaitin transcript.but they also had a n about g.o.p. messaging.

they accidentally e-mailed their democrats got a list of things that the republicans want wanted to say. on the list was there was no quid pro quo. the real problem wanot the phone call but the leak and the itct we know about the phone call. also important ll talk about the political implications, the trump campaign manager for the 2020 election bid, said in the last 24 hours, since nancy pelosi annoced a formal impeachment inquiry, they've raised $5 million off of this. they're saying this is it motivating their base andot ating fund raisers to give to their campaign. this is all going to be something to watch as we go forward. >> woodruff: lisa, let me come back to you. we know that speaker pelosi when she announced the impeachment inquiry,gewe didn't a lot of s tails. >> thiis still firming up, but here's what we know right now abouthe democrats' impeachment process first. there are s x committees who have now been empowered to

include their investigation, already ongoingeas part of impeachment process. those committees are being tasked with making cases to the house judiciary committee. committee that will weigh the idence in the end and decide what articles of impeachment ve forward. then the house judiciary committee would vote on any articles of impeachment, then but, judy, it's interesting today we're seeing so much news about is kind of suppose oned transcript, there's more and more focus on it, judythat actually i know from sources in the house, house democrats are now condering, they're weighing the option of only focusing on this particular cissue this, pholl, this exchange of the president and what was happening there. they may leave everything else on the table because they think this is strong than anything else. >> woodruff: so this could have a very significant impacttt on-- on what that inquiry looks like, what they focus on. >> that's exactly right. and we saw just in the last few minutes, actually,e members exiting from reading the complaint itself from the wib,

released just in the past couple of hours. ngressmen and women have just had the chance to read it. democrats coming out have been saying it is significant, it does raisecoven more ncerns. and house intelligence chairman adam schiff said iecifically, well written and it is written in a way they now have things to follow up on-- more witnesses and more documents. they can't say who those are c because itass tied right now. but there is more information getting in the hands of housedso mocrats and replicans tonight. republicans, meanwhile, by the way, most of them are, as we reported, on the president's side. not all, mitt romney, senator from utah, former presidential candidate, sa he found things to be concerned about, there w concern for him in what he read of thatphone call this morning. >> woodruff: and we'll cece how they're reacting as this whistlebloweinformation comes out. finally, lisa, what about the rest of the congressional agenda you were talking to us about, how that igoi to be affected by all this focus now on impeachment? >> right, these are the folkso whare supposed to govern us, e president and congress.

there are several issues that now could be in jeopardy because of, obviously, even semore nse tens relationships here. at the top of that list the u.s.-mexico-canada tral, which the president would like to get passed, but even he mentioned today he is not sure that will get through the congress. after that, gun violence, something the pre is intested in, but, judy, had not actlly put forth a proposal on yet. and after, that prescription drug prices. these are all three issues that there was tamak aboutbe bipartisan negotiating, perhaps rough. coming annow we have to watch them because it seems that those are all going to be made more difficult because of the atmosphere of impeachment. >> woodruff: it's fast moving, to follow. lisa and to yamiche. you, to we appreciateicit. >> woodruff: there are many questions about the role of the department of justice in all of this. h john yang e to examine that. >> yang: judy, the inspector general had asked the department of justice to consider if the

president had violated campaign we are joined by devlin barrett, who covers national security and law enforcement for the washington post. develin, let's get right into this. whistleblower complaints under the law are from the intelligence community, are supposed to go tocongress. how did this one end up at the justice department? >> well, it's a pretty complicated pa, but essentially what happens is once the mplaint is made, folks in the intelligence community question whether this is a val whistleblower complaint because the president, obviously, is not a member of the intelligenceit comm he's not an employee of one of those agency. so what y.ppens is they get legal advice from the justice department. and what the justice department says is that nothis is not a valid legal complaint because the whistleblower rules don't really apy to conduct of the president. but interestingly, and in some ways more importantly, the justice department says but there may be a criiominal violhere, so we need to look at that, so we're-- we, the justice department, are gotag to a look at what happened

here and see if there's reason to pursue a criminal investigation. >> criminal violation of what? >> campaign finance law. the question that was mediately presented by the whistleblower's complaint is, is the presidentseeking a thng of value if a foreign entity, whics violation under campaign finance law? and that question quickly turned into could cuharacterize an investigation by a foreign and that's the question theye? were wrestling with. >> and what was the timing ofs? all th when did it get to justice and when did the folks in public integry clear-- say there wa no violation? >> so it gets the justice department in late daugrtust, a, you know, different parts of the justice department get read in and get involved atdifferent times. but, essentially, you're talking about the public integritywi sectioth some input from the crimin j division at thetiin department and the national security division. but essentially, they look at this question and by last week, we're told-- and that's important because, obviously, a

lot was heaping on this issue publicly last week-- but last week, we're told the justicee departme decided there wanot a criminal case to pursue here. >> and what do been attorney general barr's role in all this? the justice department said in a statement that t president and the attorney general never discussed the biden investigation, but what do we know about what role he played in this? >> so, we're told by senior justice department officials that barr was aware of the legal question thacame in to the justicdepartment early on inis process. that is, is this a valid whistleblower complaint? can this be treated in the normal course of, you know, whistleblower complaint handling? so rr was aware, roughly, that that was going on.th however, they also say that barr was not involved, once the question became a criminal question about camnapaign e law, that barr did not participate in those discussions and he was not a part of that. >> are thereny other qestions this?gal questions arising from

of course we know impeachment is a political process. but are there any other legal questions arising from all this? >> well, i think the's going to still be--us obv, there's a hearing tomorrow, there will ba i lot of, i think, tough back-and-forecast about exactly what indwhividual officials,t opinions did they take on some of these issues? buas a leissal matter, the justice department says this is, for them, case closed. i don't know thay,t, fran democrats and the congress are going to take that as an immediate answer. but t justice department views this as nota criminal issue for them to resolve. >> devlin barrett of "the washington post." thank you very much. >> thanks. re woodruff: and now, for on the memorandum of the phone conversation between president trump and ukranian president zelensky, i am joined by larry pfeiffer, former senior rector senator murphy, thank you very much for joining us. given your lonimknowledge,

familiarity with ukraine, what is your reaction to this memo we are w seeing of the conversation between president trump and the president of ukraine iny? ju >> it's absyolut devastating. within moments of zelensky asking the pesident for more help for increased weaponry to fight russia, thepresident asks zelensky to i vestigate one of the president's political opponents, joe biden, and make some vague suggestion that vice president brden wasgging about getting a prosecutor-- stopping a prosecution in ukraine, which is fundamentally not true. there's no way to come away from that phone call without the impression that a priority of the pre tsident's take part in his political campaign for re-election in the united states. and, of course, this phone cadol n't standots own. rudy giuliani's name is brought up several times.

and we know that giuliani, and perhaps oths, were repeatedly trying to get the ukrainians toh open ue investigations to politically destroy one of the president's rival i don't think we've ever seen anything like it. are you not allowed to trade t away the credibility of the united states in order to score political points or destroy your political rivals. and i think it underscores the need fo ir theuiry the house began yeterday. >> woodruff: senator, as you know, though, thwhite house is saying this is just an effort, an open effort by presidenttr p to encourage the ukrainians to clean up corrupti t in their-- ineir government. >> well, that would be mad te me credible if the president had me oioned anyther corruption investigation over the course of that cal there are, you know, likely dozens of different couption matters that the president could have predeed the ukrainians on, if his actual concern wa cleaning up corruption in ukraine.

he only mentioned one, and itpp ed to be requesting an investigation, which is not presently happening, againstis likely 2020 calipaign opponent. second, if he was really interested in corruption, he would have told zelensky to talk to the embassy. he didn't. he told zelensky to talk to rudy giuliani, who i the is presidens political fixer, who is a representative of thepresident't in charge of rooting out that's the duty of the u.s. embassy. so the president gave away his priorityn the context of this call. he was trying to enlist zelensky in his political operation. >> wooduff: well, if you re the memo, it comes across as if president zelensky isgreeing to do what president trump asked him to do. he sounds like he's agreeing to work with rudy giuliani and to work with the attorney general barr. what do you make of that? you-- you've met with president zelensky. >> i have met with president zelensky, and i raised this

general issith him. at the time i didn't knw the president himself had made these demands of zelensky. i did know at the time that giuliani had made certaince demands. the president with my meeting t with him, presidlensky, said he had no interest in getting involved in au.s. election. i think you can perhaps understand that a novice politician, a new president whve has done this before, is attempting to, you know, set tia good relationship with a u.s. president who is clarly making requests that are out of bounds. and so,, yesyou read that transcript, and it looks as if zelenskyesas an intin doing business with trump. it's possible he was trying to get out of that phone callth t a confrontation. we don't have any evidence that nzelensky actually wentd ordered that prosecution. not, that the new prosecutordid thate brought in has made a decision that there's no meritth to pursuinis. >> woodruff: senator, we know that you and other democrats have been callingn the whistleblower in this case,

others in the intelligence community, to step forward to testify before congress. we now know that the actingct di of national intelligence is going to testify tomorrow morning before the house intelligence committee. what would you want to know from him? >> well, i mean, i'm concerned that this information is only going to flow to the mebers of the intelligence committee. i've got to go back and check the statute. but i just saw the revelation that the whistleblower complaint will be presented to thece intelligcommittee. remembercethat's only a hand full of senators. and ultimately, if this is the subject of an impeachment inquiry, then everyone who is going to vote on impeachment either in the house or the senate needs to see this whistleblower complaint. so that's the first threshold th need to cross. but then, of course, on substance, i don't know anything th's in thicomplaint. so it may have to do with ukraine. it may have to do with russatia. why all of us need to see this as soon as possible, not just the inttelligence committe. >> woodruff: senator chris murphy of connecticut, who is on the foreign relations committee, thank you, senator.

>> thanks. >> woodruff: after that conversationin a press conference, president trump accused senator murphy ofin threatukraine's leader with revoking democratic support in congress. it was onof several unsubstantiateclaims made by mr. trump today. senator mursenay's office the tn sent is statement: >> woodruff: and now, to take a closer look at the memorandum released by the white housof the phone conversation betweencn president trump and ukraine's president zelensky. i'm joined by larry pfeiffer, former senior director of theus white e situation room during the obama administration, and chief of staff to the director of the ci.a. duringth bush administration.

he's currently serving as the grer george mason's university hayden senator for intelligence, policy, and international security. larry pfeiffer, thank you very much for bhaing here. >> you very her for having me. >> woodruff: so as somebody who has worked in the white house, in the situation room, sat in on a number of phone calls between the presidente f ited states, leaders of other countries, how normally would a whistleblowerstomplaint be handled around something like this? >> osh, i don't know if there's a normal really here. we have phoners conions that are being tranziebed, that a memorandum is being written to capture that transcript and be something as explicit as we saw today, or it could be something summarizing the conversation. so the transcript tod, you know, clearly was pretty explicit in what the president was saying. at one level you hape toplaud the president for putting this very explicit document out. >> woodruff: but yoin ur

experience in-- let me just back up for just a second. in record ago it's not recorded. there's no audio recording of these conversations. >> right >> woodruff: so there are individuals there taking notes. >> right. >> woodruff: as fast as theydruf can. >> they're aually e stening to nversation live, and they're typing furiously on their computers trying to capture every singleord and nuance of the conversation. >> woodruff: then what is done with that? >> so we have thre individuals. they work up three separat transcript t they then ggether and reconcile them into a unified draft. that is then provided by the situation room to the n.s.c. director responsible for the have been europe.se it would and an n.s.c. senior director or direct would review, that apply some pertise to perhaps correcting some of the material, and then they would ultimately decide in what format thafinal memo would be, would it be an explicit transcript or more of a summation? in this case it looks like thiy went with the verbaitin transcript. >> woodruff: but again it wasn't recorded. >> no. >> woodrf: it's whatever their notes were. >> absolutely. >> woodruff: but how many

people, roughly-- obviously ings are done differently from one administration to the nexto. >> sure. >> woodruff: roughly, how many people ultimately aculd have ss to that document? >> so the document itself, there would be the idividuals in th situation room. there would be the information in the the directorate. that would be anywhere from onew to three or four people in the. director that memo is then provided to the national security adviser's front office, under normal situations. there could be a few people there. and th it is provided to the executive erkt of secretary of the national security council for filing and distribution. so another couple of peple. and fending where it is-- depending on where it is distributed, it could be anothea ful of people. >> woodruff: wearing your hat as someone who worked in the r telligence community, and we talked about yoperience working in a white house, if one of those individuals either had -- is the whistleblower himself or herself, or sharedor that ition with someone who has now seen this and cided it was concerning enough to bring it forward.

>> right. >> woodruff: but you were just saying a moment ago, this is not a normal thing, clearly. >> no, not-- i mean, to see something so egregious that one would put his career on the le to do a whistleblower complaint suggests to me that they have re than just one phone call, and they have some faiy compelling information to provide. >> woodruff: and in fact that's the inormation that has been-- that has been reported out. we are just now starting to see reaction from members of congre who have seen-- and our lisa desjardins mentioned that-- who have seen wha tte t whistleblower complaint is. and some of them are saying it's redisturbing, includingublican >> right, i'm t surprised.ka. i was fully anticipating that this whistleblower complaint would be b wou more complete, more-- have more information that willltimately require additional disclosures. perhaps he reflects conversaons that he partr ipated in-he oshe paymented in. perhaps it reflects emails or

other thcumentst relate to what was going on with the ukraine problem. woodruff: and just a very quick question based on your experience in the intelligence community, is it-- is it expected that the president, that the white hose would know the identity of the whistleblower? >> no, the whistleblower should be being protected by the i.c. inspector general, an the so the president of the united states should not know the whistleblower's nameunless thec whistleblower es they want their name to be disclosed. >> woodruff: all right, lay pfeiffer, director of the hayde cent georg george mason university. thank you. >> thank you very much, judy. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, iranian prident hassan rouhani used his speech at the u.n. general assembly todayonargely tomn us regional intervention. rouhani denounced the trump administration's withdrawal from

the 2015 iran nuclear deal and blasted usanctions against his he said iran wouldy come to the negotiating table if those sanctions are lifted. >> ( translated ): i hail from a country that has resisted the most merciless economic terrorism. sie us government while im extra territorial sanctions and threats against other nations has made a lot of effort to deprive iran from e advantages of participating in the global economy. this is the of the iranian nation: let's invest in hope a towardtter future rather than in war and violence. >> woodruff: but the white house is showing no signs of lifting those sanctions on iran. us secretary oeostate mike pohreatened tougher penalties on the islamic revolutionary guard corps-- or i.r.c.-- when he spoke today in new york. >> the more iran lashes out, the greater our pressure will and should be.

>> as long as iran's menacing behavior continues, sanctions will not be lifted. th will be tightened. >> woodruff: later pompeo said he would like to see a peaceful resolution with iran, but it was up to thirananians to make tha benjamin netanyahu has now been cision to me.ent made thatw form benny gantz failed to broker a unit government. neither of their parties were able to secure a majority in inrliament in last ek's election. netanyahu now has up soto six weeks to form a coalition. he failed to do that after the first election in april. british lawmakers returned to a parliament today after britain's supreme court ruled that prime minister boris johnson's suspension of the body ahead of the brexit deadline was illegal. the pre minister addressed the house of commons and took aim at the opposition labor party and its leader jeremy corbyn.hn

n challenged them to try to oust him with a no-confidence vote, in hopes of breaking the gridlock over brexit. >> they see evermore elaboratean legapolitical maneuvers from the party opposite.et b ich ismined to say we know best and their noses at the 17.4 million people who voted to leave the europeanvo union. >> after yesterday's ruling, the the honorable thing andaveone resigned. yet mr. speaker, here hes, forced back to this house to rightfully face the scrutiny he tried to avoid >> woodruff: johnson plans to withdraw from the european union by october 3t with or without a withdrawal agreement. but the opposition said it won't back a new election unss a no-

deal brexit is ruled out. the trump administration has trached a deal to send asylum seekers at the us mexico border to honduras, one of the world's most violent nions. the u.s. has already signed similar pacts with el salvador and guatemala. many of the details main unclear, but it's part of a broader strategy to deter migrants from entering the us from mexico. puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands escaped the worst of tropical storm karen. but authorities did rert minorwe por outages and flooding. karen is now moving away from the islands. but forecaers warned the heavy rain could linger across the northeastern caribbean. meanwhile, jerry was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone as it passed near bermuda, with sustained winds around 40 miles per hour. and, stocks bounced back on wall street today, after president china could come soon. feal with

although ask details by a inporter late in the afternoon, he said he had nothin the dow gained 163 points to close above 26,970. the nasdaq rose more than 83 points and the s&p-500 added 18. agill to come on the newshour: the staggering dclimate change is already wreaking onwra e world's oceans. on the ground in afghanistan as the military struggles to root out taliban fighters. pluspower and prosperity -- inside look at modern china. >> woodruff: the world's ocean and the world's ice are of climate change e riskseffects of dire consequences are growing.

that's the message of a new report out from the u.n.'s intergovernmental panel on climate change, or the i.p.c.c. scientists say it's virtuallyoc certain thns and seas have already absorbed an enormous amount of excess heat in our climate system. but if current emissions don't change, the risks for marine life and for people living near the cots will get significantly worse. angham is here with more. part of our regular coverage ofn the leedge of science. >> brangham: judy, the report is filled with some very specific and very sobering asssments. among them, if greenhouse ons emisaren't reduced, sea les arrise could hit three feet by the end of the century, driven in large part by the melting of the ice sheets andee glaciers on and and antarctica. even if emissions are lowered, the report says coastal cities one of the lead authors on t report joins me now. michael oppenheimer is a professor of geosciences and international affairs at the woodrow wilson school at princeton university.ho he ad the chapter on sea level rise.

professor oppenheimer, alwayu good to see ere on the newshour. let's dive right into the section th you authored. this prediction of sea level rise if current trends don't change seems incredibly stark. >> yes, well, sea level is rising, and it' as risin an accelerating pace, and the reason for that is-- you said it-- the greenla and antarctic ice sheets arsie lo isle faster and faster. they're dumping into the ocean and that's a major causeof sea level rise, and also behind that, largely, is human-caused warming of the earth. the second thing to be concerned about is that seae level ris projected to cause a large change in the frequency of occurrence of extreme water levelsest the coasts, and t are the things that cause big floods-- for instance, when a storm like hurricane sandy comes along, and there's a storm surge, if it's rise riding on top of a higher sea level, its

just puse water to a higher level in the places and the third that we have to know about thihs problem is that we basically face at the extremes two types of futures. the changes can keep accelerating because under the "business as usual" scenario, that what happens-- sea lev just keeps rising and rising at a faster pace through 2300. that's the furthest we went out-- the year 2300. an alternative is to start the kind of strong emissi reductions that were agreed tore in the paris agreement in 2015. and in that cae, the rate of acceleration of sea level slows. sea level entually-- long, centuries you out-- stabilizes. and that mns that buy time. that would give us a chance to 'tapt to the problem. if we don slow it down, it's going to becomema unnageable. >> i think the report detailed how what we used to consider these once-in-a-century type

flooding events, by 2050 if we don't make any of the changes you're describing could be happening every single year. i mean, that kind of an impact on castal communities doesn't strike me that the communities are prepared for that kind of flooding. >> they're really not epared. there are very few places in the world-- the nenerlands is oe-- which is prepared for a higher sea level, up to maybe a couple of meters higher. but the trouble is that t s the world hasn't paid attention to this problem. in fact, in most places, they don't cope very well with the current risk. and you can see that in the there's a big storm that comes along, there's loss of property, loss of money, an many cases, loss of life. we have to up ourgame with regard to adaptation, or it's and that's much easier to do if we're working in a worldre whe emissions are going down, rather than a world where emissions are >> the report also details a lot

of the scienti c evidence that the ean is warming because it is absorbing the heat that we have been building up i our atmosphere, and that the acidity levels of the ocean are going up. warming, more asiddifying >>ean do? hen the ocean warms, particularly when 's subject to marine heat wave, you get patches of the ocean that lose their oxyge that's because oxygen tends to disappear from warm waters. it's also because polluon is causing algae blooms when those blooms sink in the ocean, they decay, and decay means basically the organisms or the dead material, eupts oxygen. when oxygen disappears from parts of the oean, organisms that are supposed to be alive and provide us food through fish, for instance, thy disappear. so we're undermining the ability the ean to feed the organisms in the ocean and, therefore, to eus by warming it and asiddifying it at the

same time. >> i'd like you to take off yr i.p.p.c. hat for a section. i want to ask your question about political well. five days ago we saw four million people on the street demanding action. we saw world leaders relatively minor commitments to fight climate change do you think this eviden is going to be enough to move the needle? >> science is nevero enugh. science can set the basis for solving the problem, but it's people who have to decide they want it solved, and they havto irll their leaders that they it solved. that's my personal opinion. i.p.c.c. doesn't criticize or comment on governments. so it's very encouraging to someone like me who has worked on this problem for 35 years to see the young peothple in the streets demanding action. my generation didn'olve the problem. now it's going to be on the shoulders. they know it, and they're angry goto result in political change-- not fast enough, but i think it's coming.

but a part of theblem i'm really worried about is you cannot solve the sta problem just by reducing emissions. the federal government doesn't giveuch, if any money for planning and adapting, doing things like building buildings s that are on stinilts, buisea walls. they just don't give much for this kind of thing in advanceof buoafter a big strm, sure, they come in, they fix up the situation, thy pay billions of dollars. but it's too late by then. it would be much cheaper to fix in advance before people die, before billions are lost in property. >> as always, michael oppenheimer, a pleasure to have you on. >> thanks for having me.

>> woodruff: afghanistan's government is trying to reach a peace deal the u.s. was unable to deliver earlier this month den president trump cance talks with the taliban. ugh more fighting. only be special correspondent jane ferguson traveled togaz me province, and talkedded to leaders in both the afghan the way forward.he taliban about >> reporter: the only safe way to travel to afghastan's ghazni province is by air. helicopters carried us there we went there with top government officials, into areas, u, il recentntrolled by the taliban. not long ago this would have with these fields f to land, taliban fighters. evenay, it's a risky trip for afghanistas national security advisor dr hamdullah mohib. he's here trying to reassure people that government forces are in control. hat ifir main concern is this is only temporary? what if we are not able to maintain what happens to them? >> reporter: that's because all across afghanistan, the taliban

are launching attacks on police and government forces and even popping up in s wns and cities to audaciously grab ground momentarily. the afghan government is keen to show off areas like this they have just recently re-taken using the elite special forces. this area of ghazni, and i'm standing now in the middle of an old police headquarters, was held by the taliban for over five years. the biggest challenge will be to make sure government forces can hold their ground here and they don't have to keep sending in the special forces timd time again. and that threat is never far away. ese soldiers told us taliban fighters are less than three miles from this sptc, and surely d us arriving. for some, not even the army can help. siraj khan is the governor of a neighboring province that fell to the taliban 12 years ago. any pe he had of a military rescue has long faded. they cannot remove them, he told

us. the taliban are veryong there. afgh commando units are kept busy, chasing out the enemy.the but then the next, inevitable taliban advance elsewhere. the regular forces who replace them are weak and ilequipped, and they struggle to hold on. it's the same problem american foes faced here for years. now, more than nine months of intensive negotiations between the us and thealiban have fallen apart, on the cusp of a deal for withdrawi american troops. that deal would have brought american soldiers home, but left the afghan government to largely fend for itself, with justis pr from the taliban to negotiate with president ashraf ghani in kabul. the problem with that-- the taliban refuses to recognize thn american puppet. afghanistan's minister of defense asadullah khalid still believes his forces can get the taliban to negotiate with the kabul gornment by hitting it

even hararder with mil offensives. >> in some cases we doubled our operation and in some cases we made it triple, to put moreor thessure on taliban to pus to come to the table. >> reporter: which negotiating table that? >> afghan government. >> reporter: and so, theec country's spl forces keep raiding taliban strongholds. in the capital kabul we joined them on a late night search on the outskirts of town.do severan soldiers stormed the neighborhood in the moonlight, on the hunt for a liban commander. the forces are heading into the house now. with so many major attacks happening in kabul that kill civilians, raids like this are all the more essential. time, all they found was the man's father at home. he was questioned and let go. with few options on the table other than intensified fighting,

casualty ratesn this war are staggering. prident ghani announced in january that 45,000 afghan national defense and security forces, called the a.n.d.s.f., have been killed since he took office in 2014. 20that's aroun1,000 dead every month. >> it isefinitely not stainable whether it's the civilian casualties, whether t it a.n.d.s.f. casualties or whetbar it's the tacasualties. >> reporter: for former deputy defense minister tamim asey,tehe numbers hahim during his time in office. >> i would go home and sleep well for four or three hours on a day that i would count that in every ho i don't lose two three people. so that would be my best day. h because in ever on average we used to lose one or two a.n.d.s.f. about 24 people, or 40 people, or 48 people.

>> reporter: if america wants to withdraw its troops from this couny without leaving it in total chaos, then the trump chadministration will also haveo deal with afghanistan's neighbors. pakistan has long given safe haven and support to the taliban across the border. and,ccording to asey, iran i increasingly helping the group >> sometimes the iranians have been very blunt: if they essure us we pressure you here. >> reporter: they being the americans? >> yes. >> reporter: any deal to try to end this war is a multi- dimensional minefield? >> so when the balance of the relationship between the us andu ia, us and iran, us and some other country even pakistan changes, unfortunately and sadly we see the consequences here ine afghanistan. >> reporter: even if peace in afghanistan can be achieved, it leaves the question of what to do with the thousands of taliban fighters. a if they remaed, peace would be fragile, yet the likelihogi of them voluntarily

surrendering their weapons is very low. e we would have to integr their rank and file as well. and were looking at these plans that we are making in these districts to utilize theis areas if we were able to.these >> reporter: back in kul, we sat down with national security advisor dr mohib in offi at the presidential palace. he says he is planning for all scenarios. careful.e would have to be very we cannot integrate them into the a.n.d.s.f. right awayecause we would be creating a trojan horse. we have to be careful at whatge percene would are able to do this d maintain the security forces integrity while we do it. >> reporter: flying up to remote badakhshan province,toe headed out eet with this group of they had just surrd toters. government forces as the front line shifted.ir unbowed, tommander was confident the americans will soon be gone.

>> ( translated ): all the foreigners should leave >> reporter: do you still view amera as an enemy? >> ( translated ): all the afghanistan, whether they are from america, canada or anywhere else. >> reporter: these fighters are out of the war, at least for now. c but across tntry, combat rages. more cilians have been killed by the afghan government and us forces in the first half of this year than by the taliban. and the liban continue to kill and maim civilians by the dozens capita ikabul and elsewhere. people like shafiqulh, a tailor, injured by an osion while on his way home from work, find their homes on the front line of this intractable war. with presidential elections coming up, the violence, already horrific, is intensifying.

>> you know taliban are not all looking to make peace. there are certain elements within that may want to make looking to continue fight under other banners. they may not be under taliban but perhaps under isis or rename and rebrand themselves in other ways and continue. >> reporter: forenost wars to communities often have to choose peace over justice. until there is an end to this conflict, afghanistan's people will get neither. for the pbs newshour, i'm jane ferguson in kabul, afghanistan. >> woodruff: beginning tomorrow, we will launch a 10-part series exploring today's china and its relationship with the us foreign affairs correspondent nick

schifrin, special correspondent katrina yu, and producers aroue rld conducted more than 70 on-camera interviews in eight chinese cities and across seven countries. why have we dedicated many resources to reporting on china? nick schifn is here with a preview of our series, cna: power and prosperity. >> the two most important countries in the world are china and the u.s., and where their relationship heads will helprm dee the future of b h economies. global communications and technological innovation, and what kind of world we live in. for decades, u.s. companies have worked with chineppliers to increase productivity and profits. both sibenefited, and china wants the integration to continue says former ambassador. >> cooperation is the onlyoi

correct for the united states. the united states is regarded as china's partner. >> the era of economic surrender is over roarks but the trump administration and bipartisan arpporters have come to reject chinese economicerships and are now trying to confront chinese technology and influence. jake parker is vice president of the u.s.-china business council >> we've seen the opimism of the business community slowly decline over time. and as that optimism has declined, it's been replaced by the strategic voices, by the intelligence community, by military, who see a strategic rivalry between thte u states and china. rivalry, it's not onlyu.he s. that has become more combative. the great wall was built oveurr ces by multiple dynasties, and chinese leaders who took a defensive stangs used it for protection.ks today, china lut over the jects its power with anambitious and exnsive foreign policy. china's belt and road

initiatives spends hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure around the world. chinese communicatio giants, including huawei,export a package of surveillance and city management called "smart cities." and the chinese military has undergone one of the fastest expansions in history.r th chinese, president xi jinping is the symbol of a new nationalism and strength, say central communist party school professor: >> ( translated ): xi jinping's new era is lito rea the great rejuvenation of the chinese nation. >> repster: but the u. fears china's expansion. china created a netrk of more than 200 million cameras, targeting muslim... and crack down on all dissent, symbolized by police tactics hong kong. xi jinping does facea chenges. after targeting hi politicale opponents, h has internal critics. economic growth was slowing even before the tradear.

and the country is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. but china's central planners are driving ahead to create theth world's largest electric vehicle market, and the country's wealth has allowed for the return of what it calls "cultural aristocracy." so as china'sosition on th world stage grows, modernization will only speed up, says the woman known as china's millennial market stewart, 34-year-old sarah jane ho. >> in nort other ave you had such a great amount of change in such a short amount aof tim >> woodruff: nick, we know china does not have a free press. how hard was it to do tis reporting? the first step was just to get vis as, we had to talk to the chinese government, s some of the details of our stories. inside china, many of our interviews were set up by an organization that's inside thein governmentide the information ministry. and during those interviews, we had a got ernmnder with us during most of the interviews. and so not onrely did wport from china, but we also felt

like we needed to go outside of china, and that's why we reported from all over the world. >> woodruff: was thereceone kind oftral message that was coming through from the chinese in all your reporting? >> stick with cooperation, drop the trade war, it doesn't help either side. , and also, from their perspective, they talk abou how their infrastructure program, the technology, it is not a threat to the world, as thes. is describing it. they say that if we cooperate, if the u.s. and china cooperate, e world can improve. d when it comes to hong kong, as we talked about in there, and also will talk about, they say that's about security and stability inside china. >> woodruff: and that's a very different story than you hear c arfrom ttics. >> yeah, talk about hong kong, they talk about suppression and dissent, not allowing any kind ssent. muslims critics are trying to talk about paa camn mto criticize muslim culture and identity. and the u.s., when it coes to chinese technology, chinese infrastructure programs, and general reign policy of china, th ally see that s a threat

and want u.s. is trying to combat it and really sees it as an ideological battle right now. >> woodruff: well, it is a very significant series. we look forward to it. it startsn the newshou tomorrow night. what is it, eight, 10 in a row? >> woodruff: 10 nights in a row. nick schifrin we look forward. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. f >> major fundingor the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> you can do the things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. with talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more at >> financial servirm raymond james.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by e corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributionsur pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captning sponsored by newshour productions, llc ca ioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> u're watching pbs.

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