captioning sponsored by wshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good ening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight...ar >> iran apto be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned, and a veryood thing for the world. >> woodruff: ...president trump vows to impose new sanctions and calls for european countries to abandon the nuclear deal after iran's missile attacks on u.s. forces in iraq. then, australia burning. the devastating toll of the historic wildfires that have darkened the skies of a continent. >> all the side of the highway was on fire. we just knew then didn't we that we weren't going to go back to anything. >> woodruff: and, personalized care: as d.n.a. tests skyrocket in popularity, genetic researchers promise individualized medical

treatment. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. vi the lemelson foundation. committed to improng lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org.

supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peac world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing suort of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. to your pbsibutio station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: president trump says iran is standing down, after firing missiles at u.s. troops in iraq but causing noes casual once again, foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin begins our coverage. ta schifrin: with every mi service chief standing at the ready, the commander in unief

today and the u.s. would respond to iran's attacks, without the military. >> as we continue to evaluate options in response to iranian aggression, the unitedtates will impose punishing economic sanctions on the iranian regime. >> schifrin: in one way, last night's attacks were an escalation: ballistic missiles fired from inside iran at u.s. forces for the firstime in decades. but senior u.s. officials tell pbs newshour they believe iran calibrated the strikes on two bases in iraq to avoid casualties. and iranian foreign minister javad zarif tweeted that iran took and concluded proportionate measures, suggesting iran wanted to de-escalate. >> iran is standing down, whh is good thing for all parties concerned, and very good thing for the world. >> schifrin: president trump reiterated his own decision to de-escalate, by saying he could work with iran. >> the destruction of isis is

good for iran, and we shouldet workher on this and other shared priorities. we must al making a deal with iran that makes the world a safer and more peaceful. >> schifrin: iran called the missile strikes a response to this u.s. drone strike, that killed qassam soleimani, the head of iran's network of regional proxies, and a general so popular, hundre of th.sands attended his funer his assassination was one of the u.s.' most aggressive moves at iran, ever. but senior u.s. officials told pbs newshour they inrpreted iran's response as minimal retaliation. and today, predent trump emphasized a message of restraint. >> our missiles are big, powerful, accurate, lethal and fast. under construction are many hypersonic missiles. the fact that we have this great military and equipment however

does not mean we have use it. we do not want to use it. >> schifrin: senior iranian ficials warned the military was not their only tool, and called their ambitions, long- term. supreme leader ayatollah alien kh: >> ( translat ): these military actions are not enough. what is important is that the corrupt presence of america in this region comes to an end. >> schifrin: iranian president r hasshani: >> ( translated ): the revenge for that is toorce america out this region. the real revenge and the ultimate response by regionalhe nations isamerica is expelled from this region and its hand of aggression is cut off forever. >> schifrin: at any one point, th0e e between 60 and 80, service members across the middle east and afghanistan. 5,000 of them are in iraq training iraqi forces, and fighting isis. already, a majority of the iraqi parliament urged theovernment to expel u.s. troops, and iraq's

caretaker prime minister suggested u.s. troops leave. it's unclear if, or when the iraqi government will enforce that. but on the streets of baghdad, popular opinion is anti-u.s., and also anti-iran. >> ( translated ): we demand the irann government, and the united states, provide material and moral compensation to the iraqi people for every missile that falls, and every martyr or wounded person. schifrin: on capitol hill, the administration's top national security officials briefed congress behind closed doors. democrats said the claim soleimani represented a new, imminent threat, was convincing. >> to the extent that they provided facts, in my judgement, they did not support any claim of an imminent threat. r >> schifrin: tublicans skeptical of the use of military force, agreed, and promised to support a democratic effort to block president trump from waging war with iran. >> probably the worst briefing i have seen, at least on aue military iin the ne years i have served in the united states senate.

t schifrin: but most republicans argu president was justified. >> it would have been negligent, it would have reckless, and it would have been at intentional odisregard for the safety americans for the prt not to act, and not to take out soleimani. >> schifrin: but dpite that debate, today both president trump and iran decided now was the me to deescalate. >> woodruff: for a deeper look at all angles of the story, i'md joy karim sadjadpour, an iran expert at the carnegie institute for international peace. it's a nonpartisan think tank in washington. foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin. and white house correspondent yamiche alcindor joins us from pennsylvania avenue. thank you all for being here, nick. thank you for being with us after that report. so, to you first, yamiche, walk us through the president's thinking here. you have these missile strikes by iran last night on u.s. interests, and then you have the

president toay talking peace. >> the president decided to tapurs deescalation ank about peace instead of military action against iran after hours and hours of careful thinking through this with his top national security advisor advis. the president s gathered in the situation room,a secure room in the white house, where a lot of these issues arehe discussed anad a range of tions including military action and decided to do deescalation because he was relieved there were no americans killed bthe strikes last night and reieved american equipment was able to detect those missiles early on and people were able to go and cover and be safe and, as a result, president trump decided to say, you know what, what i want to do is sanction. the white house is looking at sanctions as a way to financialleconomically respond to iran. there are some democt lawmakers who told me they see that still as retaliation on the united states' pare but th white house and president trump

are essentially saying this is what we want to do because w want to pursue peace and didn't want this to get any worse or escalate any further. >> woodruff: so, nick, you have been talking to folks in the national security, the intelligence community. what's their asessment of these strikes? >> yeah, they're echoing whayat che is saying that the president gave a clear message of deescalation,nd when you talk to senior u.s. officialsth anintelligence community there is an assessment in washington today that iran did not want any casualties. they calibrated this strike so that there were no casualties, and the secretary offeee mark esper talked about the type of damage that has been on the base and there are actually now satellite photos we have about this dame and it shows what happened before the strike on the left and after the strike. he says it actually wasn't tat significant damage. the targets were attacked via helicopter, tense parking lot. the idea was they did not target these bayes in a wahat would kill a lot of u.s. troops, although, judy, chairman of the

joint chiefs mark milley just talked to repeorters at pentagon, he said there was an intent for structural damage and intent to kill, that the reason nobody died wasn't iran's choice, but what yamiche was talking about, the early warning systems and the steps they took to try and avos.id casualt but that's the chairman disagreeing a little bit with other senior administration officials. >> woodruff: so now, karim, what's your understanding thousand of the iranian leaders, how they see all of this after the president's remark this morning? >> well, i think iranian leaders view donald trump with a mix o mistrust, contempt and fear, fear at hisve impulss and erraticness, and i think last night was just an opning salvo for iran. last night was maximum drama, mii mal impact. n't think they're going to necessarily continue in that vain and i think iran is highvay mod to try to make donald trump a one-term president, just as thefeel they made jimmy carter a one-term president with

the 1979 hostage crisi >> woodruff: we are being told and heard from the president that iran apears to be standing down. you're saying what? >> i think that this is gog to be a sustained response from iran over the course of many months. one of the talking points you'r not hearom all iranian officials is they want all american troops out of the middleast. i can imagine a certain area ereby, six months from now, when americans are no longer paying attention, iran detans group of american sailors in the persian gulf.th in the past,y've always released these sailors after a couple of days but they say they will only release them if america removes all troops from the region. ld trumpoing to put do in an incredible bind just ahead of the general election, vd i think, gen how unprecedented the attack was on qasemha soleimani, w to think outside the box about iranian responses. >> woodruff: so you're saying we may be too quick to believe that the hostilities arete

comp over? >> i think we're just beginning. this is not concluded. >> woodruff: and finally, back to you, yamiche. obviously, we're in the middle of an election season, ati presid election season, which karim just referenced. what is the sense thhe folks you're talking to about how any of this is playing out politically? >> well, the president's actions in iran and his speech tod ha really become a political call the fine here in washington ann the campaail. first you have the president through his reection bid through the trump campaign now running ads saying hey, everybody be reelected because he killed the iranian general on facebook and social media saying he should be seen as commander-in-chief because of that. i want to add the presidenmade a misstatement about a democrat made the case that iran was able to make the strike thmorougy given to them by the obama administration. that's not entirelyccurate.

judy, the iran nuclear deal was about unfreezingssets that iran already had. this was not just barack obama writing a eck, although there was some money given to that. ube other thing to note is that democrats and recans still seem very split on party lines about the way they're seeing the killing of this general. you have democrats largely skeptical, telling me and white house producer mary beth, that they aren't really buying the admistration's assessment o whether or not there was an immediate threat. largely republicans are backing the president on this,xcept for, as nick noted, mike lee, who said not only was this one of the worst briefings he attend bid top national security officials but also said he was insulted because at one point during the a briefing national security officials said lawmakers should not be debating whether the president should be doing more military intervention and he said he took that n a insult because they should be ba able t about what the president is doing militarily.

so the president's own party questioning whether they're seen as an equal branch of government. we'll closely watch how this plays out in washington and on the campaign trail. >> woodrufwh that's right. we saw a little of senator lee with those comments a few minutes ago. all right, yamie alcindor at the white house, nick schifrin here in the studio with me aong with karim sadjapour. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: let'stourn now to cahill for reaction from lawmakers. first up, republican congressman heke gallagher of wisconsin. he's a member ofrmed services committee. ig deployed to iraq twice a commander for intece teams. congressman gallagher, thank you very much for joining us. we did hear the president say, in so many words, that the united states, iran appears to have stepped back from th brink, but we're also hearing, and we just heard it from our analyst, karim sadjapour, that it very well may be that iran

has other -- other things in mind. how do we know that ho are at an end? >> well,eth too early to tell. the dust is indeed still settling, and x wouldpect iran to revert to its modusan op for at least the last two years, but really the last three decades, wheret traditionally uses proxies, cutouts, terrorists groups to do s dirty work for it. i do, however, think initial indicaomons are pring that we've managed to reestablish some semblance of a credible military deterrent in the region. if nothing else i think the iranian regime understands i they kill more americans we will strike back fork cefully. i that's a good thing. i've supported takin soleimani and others off the battlefield. i think it's aon combinaf maximum economic pressure and a credible military deterrent. you have to go back to 2003 when is the last time the iranians

suspended their nuclear program. i think that combination gives us more opportunity to put mor pressure on the regime and drive a wedge between the rege d people. what iran fears more anything else is its opln peo >> woodruff: quickly, then, do you believe the president was too quick to say this morningra that thenian people deserve a great future, deserve peace? >> no, i think that's an incontrovertible statement. the iranian people do deserve a great future and peace, and the primary obstacle to peace and future for the iranian people is eir own terrorist-sponsoring murderous regime which recently was soleimani's death squads gunned downin 1200 ira civilians and shut down internet for ten days in iran at the cos of hundre millions of dollars they don't have all because of fear of their own people. i think we need to reunite the traditional allies in the region and shia g rups in theegion around the idea that standing in the way of your future, standing in t way of inependence, sovereignty and strength in the

region is the iranian regime. >> woodruff: mold you now describe right now the relationship betweat the united and iran after all this is this i mean, last thursday night, the american people, i think, thought maybere on .he brink of war today we hear the president talking about peace. what is it? >> i i thi's intense competition, and it will have, younow, nonkinetic forms. it will have kinetic forms. the iranians have been attacking us consistently through proxies in recent years and i think the trump administration showed remarkable restraint in response to attacks of vessels in the straits of hormuz, and attking the facility.y but when thossed the red line of killing an american and attacking our embassy, that was oro muchresident trump. who knows what the future will hold. i think we've given the iraqi people a chance. lost in all th is the fact the iraqi people have taken to the streets, been in tahrir square since october protesting iraniae

ine? their country and corruption in their own government, and i think we should send a strg signal now we're not going anywhere. fe want to continue the partnership so eective in dismantling i.s.i.s. and we'reet not going toran and proxies stand in the way of that. >> woodruff: two more questions. do you now believe that the administraon had clear evidence that general soleimani was planning something new, new threat against american interests that justified his killing? . >> woodruff: can you share any of that with the amican people? no, i'm a counterintelligence, human intelligence officer btr e so i'm a bit hesitant to share anything in the realm of classified information but i see nothing to change my basic assessment we needed to take actionin ce is not the standard here. we sent alear red line that if you kill americans we will respd forcefully. >> we know speaker pelosi said today she's going to introduce a resolution to be voted on

tomorrow, limiting the president's ability to take military action in iran without approval from congress. is the administration prepared to suprt anything like that, in your view? >> well, ion't know what the administration is prepared to support. i think my initial reading of the revolution it counterproductive. their plans were to introduce it prior to having readny of th intelligence which suggests this is not a serious effort. there isanguage in the resolution that further puts the blame for the escalation on the american military which i think is wrong and creates a false moral equivalence between the terrorist-supporting iranian regime and ourswn troop and people trying to keep america straight and it's uncliewlet r the war powers relution largely ineffectual in its lifetime has this option. the president has the authority and congress hast taken the time to repeal. i would be for repealing that ngand replait with something more tailored, though.

>>oodruff: congressman mike gallagher, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and now for a mocrat's take. just this morning, he and several of his democratict colleagues sletter to president ump calling for the administration to release to the public an unclassified explanation for killing leimani as well as their strategy for dealing with iran. colorado congressman jason crow, who serves on the house armed services committee was one of them. representative crow is a former army ranger who served in iraq and afghanistan and he joins us now. congressman crow, thank you so much for joining us again. how convinced are you? the first thing i want to ask is that hostilities have endtwed n e united states and iran? the president today was talking peace, but how certain are you that there wot be another attack of some kind? >> good evening, judy. good to be with you again.of i'm not certaihat. you know, if one thing is clear, i think we can expect iran to continue its regional aggression, continue to do that it's done for dechaades and

is use proxy forces, use unconventional forces to tryo destabilize the reason.ei overarching goal is to remove the united states and iraq from the region because they know if they can do that they can be the main force in the region because nobody else eck.actually keep them in >> woodruff: we just heard congressman gallagher say he is absolutely convinced that the administration was justified in targeting and killing general soleimani. he also said he didn't think the standard had to be that there was an imminent threat. how do y see that? >> well, i haven't seen anything that absolutely justifies the killing of general soleimani. to be very clear, general soleimani was very bad actor. i was in iraq in 2003 as we started to see t improvised explosives and the roadside bombs increasingly as a result i anian intervention and it's very clear that he was a dangerh bu's unclear to me is the justification this administration is relying on fo the strike.

half of the administration is relying on the imminent standard, which under article 2 the president has the authority to defend the united sta against imminent threats. the other half of the administration is coming out and saying they're relying on the 2002aumf. those are two different authorizations, two different sources of authority. the administrion deserves to give us a clear answer about which one they're relying on. but, overall, you know, we have not received the answerthat we needed. i let a letter of over 40 myes collean the house that we sent to the president earlier this morning in advance of the, briefieoutlined eight questions that, you know, we deserve and the american people deserve to have answered about our volvement in the region, and those answers -- those questions have not been answered. >> woodruff: i want to ask you something the president said in his remarks tod and tht's he contends iran went on a terrorre with the money it received under the nuclear deal that it signed with the united states and other countries. how do you see that? >> i haven't seen anyd

intelligence ay facts whatsoever that corroborate that. that appears to be made out of whole cloth. it's a very dangeus allegation to try to draw connections between those things. you know, iran habeen a dangerous and aggressive actor in the region for decades. you knthw, long beforunited states was involved in iraq and in the almost 20 yars that we have been involved in iraq, they cked, but, youche know, the president's attempt to try to put this on prior administrations and draw atnnections between things th don't have any factual connection is dangerous and makes it m fh hardor us here in congress to have a legitimatd poliate about the issue. >> woodruff: what is congress' role in all of this? i just asked congressman gallagher about the resolution idthat speaker pelosi she's going to be introducing and having the house vote on tomorrow, war powers, having limits on what the president can do without congressional approval and taking military action against iraq. his comment was that it's not at all clar that congress has any

role -- should have any role at this time. >> i would evehemently disagree. the ounders veted in the united states congress the authity to make war and to send our young men and women h inrm's way. it's up with of our most sacred andolemn responsibilities. it's a responsibility i take seriously given my background. my military career started as a private, and i will never forget ts andprivate crow in boo a uniform, being asked to do things, and i later became an infantry officer, working on the ground in afghanistan andr iaq, and seeing firsthand the consequences of the decisns made in this town on young men and women throughout our country. you know, the responsibility tor care fur sons and daughters and to make sure that we are hang a robust debate o when we do -- when we send those folks into harm's way is in the united states' congress, and it's a debate that we can only have if we're prvided information by the president and have a robust dialogue with

them. >> woodruff: and you're saying that that isn't the case? >> yeah, that is not happening right now. the resident trying to notify us via tweet, hving briefis that don't give us all the information that we've asked for, even though we asked forl that veryarly in advance. we need to be able to have that discussion. awe have been at war forost 20 years now, and i remeer, in 2003, when i was a youngff infantryer leading paratroopers in the invasion int iraq and streets of baghdad, i've heard the same political argument that some people are ma, ng nowat now is not the time to have that discussion, that, you know, we have to ha that discussion later. well, here we are, thousands of americans have been ki the last 20 years, tens of thousands have been wounded. we have spentr ov trilli on these wars. the time is now to have that discussion about what is the future of security r america, what is in our national interests and when are w going to senour young me and women

into harm's way. >> woodruff: congr osman jason cr colorado, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, as iran confronted thels u.s., itfaced a major air disaster. a passenger plane from ukraine went down ouide the iranian capital, killing 176 people. john yang has our report. >> yang: a pink blanket. tattered books. markers of the lives lost when a ukrainian in rnational airlines jet crashed just after takeoff, killing all 167 passengers and nine crew on board. t kiev airport in ukraine, a father mourned. >> ( translated my son is a senior flight attendant. my daughter called at 6:15 this morning to say that in thes they were had crashed, a ukraine

neinternational airlines p and then we found the video of the plane crashing. >> yang: the flight ok off from tehran's international airport this morning bound for kiev. after two minutes, it had reached about 7300 feet, and contact was lost. iranian officials offerednf cting explanations for the crash, but rejected suestions that a missile downed the plane. ukrainian airline officis said the aircraft had been in good working order. >> ( translated ): the plane was manufactured in mid-2016. it was received directly from the boeing factory and was not used ever before. there was no rebuke regarding the ple's technical condition.e thst check was conducted on january 6, 2020, and was in good condition. >> yang: it was a boeing 737- 800, one of the world's most widely used airliners. the model does not have the software implicated in the crashes of the 737-max, which has been grounded worldwide since march.

as the investigation begins, ukraine's prime minister said his countries airlines would stop flying to iran. >> ( translated ): we decided to suspend all the activities of all ukrainian aviation companies in iranian airspace until the causes of this tragedy become clear. as soon as the causes are coletely clear the decision will be reviewed. >> yang: iranian investigators are taking the lead hope to find clues in the recovered black box flight data recorders. they said they will not be sent to the united states for analysis. for the pbs newshour, i'm john ng. >> woodruff: in washington, there wano break in the standoff over a senate impeachment trial of president trump. last night, house speaker nancy pelosi insisted again on seeing the rules for a trial, before transmitting the artics of impeachment. the senate's republican majority leader mch mcconnell shot back today. >> there will be no haggling th the house over senate procedure. we will not cede our authority to try this impeachment.

the house democrats' turn is over. the senate has made its decision. >> woodruff: house democrats said they are united behind pelosi. but one senate democrat, richard blumenthal of connecticut, said starting the trial could force the hands of republicans. >> i think we are reaching a point where the articles of impeachment should be sent, and we should have votes on whether witnesses should be called. the cover up that senator mcconnell is engineering has to broken at some point. >> woodruff: the articles of impeachment accuse president trump of abusef power and obstruction of congress. the death toll in austlia's wildfires rose today to 26. 2,300 firefighters areaboring in new south wales, during a break from high windand high heat. but, they say, the weather is also hindrance. >> this rain that we've had

hasn't been enough to extinguish the fire, but it stopped our ability to do back burning on a blmber of these fires. so we haven't beento set fires to try and control the fires. >> woodruff: we'lleturn to australia, after the news summary. half a million people in puert rico still had no power today, and more than 250,000 had no running water, after tuesday's earthquake. it was the strongest to hit the u.s. territory since 1918. lmany people slept outdoot night, for fear their homes uld crumble in aftershocks. more than a thousand others stayed in government shelters. the rate of cancer deaths in the u.s. has fallen by the most ever recorded, going back to 1930.ar reers at the american cancer society report the rate was down 2.2% from 2016 2017. they credit progress against lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death in the u.s.

the fugitive, former nissan chief carlos ghosn, spoke outy, toefending his decision to jump bail in japan. ghosn was facing charges of financial misconduct when he fled to lebanon last month. today, in beirut, he dismissed the allegations and called his detention a "travesty. >> i had spent the previous mouphs being interrogated fo to eight hours a day without any lawyers present, without an understanding of what exactly i was being cused of. i left japan because i wanted justice. that's why i left japan. i didn't run from justice. i want justice. >> woodruff: ghosn did not off any details of how he escaped. britain's prince harry and his american wife, meghan markle, are stping back from royal duties and going their own way. they announced today they want to gain financial independence and promote their charities

while dividing time between britain and north america. buckingham palace called thesi ation "complicated" and said it will take time to resolve. and, on wall street, stocks rallied on hopes that iran and the u.s. will avoid outright war. the dow jones industrial average gained 161 points to close at 28,745. the nasdaq rose 60 points, and, hee s&p 500 added nearly 16. still to come onewshour: a continent caught in the grip of wildfire-- australiansth grapple he magnitude of the loss. iod the potential for d.n.a. testing to revolutze individual medical care.

>> wdruff: the devastation from the fires in australia is on a scale that is hard to comprend. in a moment, william brangham will talk with a top official there about how the government is responding. but first, a closer look at the toll. more than 20 million acres have burned, killing at least 27 people and destroying two thousand homes. hundreds of millions of animals are believed to have died, including thousands of kangaroos and koalas. fires burned across the country last month. at the moment, new south wales is one of the hardest hit areas. kylie morris of independent television news reports from the town of rocky plain. >> reporter: mid-afternoon in the new south wales' high country, and it feels like driving at night. but these fires are so immense they create their wen light, and her. we're trailing a strike team--ol fiunteer fire trucks and a d lead carpatched to a frontline fire station, the

surreal outpost at rocky plain. there's concern over a spot fire that could threaten a small group of houses. but behind that, another looming danger. t>> that's what they callt the dunn's fire down in there. >> reporter: the duns fire is a monster that'slready burned through more than 300,000 hectares, and is out of contl. >> this is on a scale we've never seen before. >> reporter: the demands on the state's nely 70,000 volunteer firefighters are now relentless. there's fatigue in the air at rocky plain as well as ash a smoke. so are they just constantly in crisis mode now? >> you just have to ide other work. i'm farming,o things aren't getting done on my farm, but, well, as it happens it's all in the path of the fire anyway so

it might all go. >> reporter: this place seems t encapsule battle australians are locked in against these fires. this place a band of volunteer firefighters, who normally areer nurses and teaand scientists and farmers gathering together to fight with meagers resourres on a scale they've never seen in their lifetimes. >> it's frightr:ing. >> repors it climate change? >> i believe it is. the scientific evidenc.is overwhelmi i think our present course is madness. y we have to change the produce and use energy, or globally we have to australiwith a three degree temperature rise frightens the he out of me. this wou be the norm. >> reporter: so every summer? >> this would be the future. >> reporter: under that scenario the new normal for a south coa beach rather than this, could be

this. that's not seaweed, it's ash at the normally idyllic merimbula main beach. fierce fires still burning to the south have laced the sand with spidery cinders. there are evacuees here too, who've fled those same fires. david iredale and his wife and their dog evacuated from a bush property near eden. >> the sky just turned red right round the horizon then it went black. i decided it was time to go. >> reporter: on the outskirts of cobargo, the fire's already done its worst. taking the lives of two of its tiny pulation: father and son farmers. shops on theigh street and a hous gone. >> words can't describe the noise and the venom and the heah anferociousness. it was just awful. >> reporter:ho were you with that stage? >> only my son.

just the two ous. hardvery hard. good boy. great people here. heroic people every house has the same sry. >> reporter: there's a py'de here-- the set up the relief center themselves-- and are taking care of one another. >> potatoes, bananas >> reporter: the centro doles out bananas and shampoand comfort as well. denise works in the post office, and her son tom on local dairies. the fire drove them out of their house at speed. >> all the side of the highway was on fire. a house was there alight that we drove past. we just knew then didn't we that we weren't going to go back to anything. >> reporter: there was no time to grab even a change of clothes, just a few keepsakes, the passports some jewelry. are you gettinppthe official t you need? >> we do have to appreciate that resources are spread incredibly

thin over the wholstate, in fact, over the whole east coast of australia. but they're trying to push theal communities into the bigger towns, so they're only having to worry about the bigg towns. so they're kind of forgetting about us a bit. >> this a water tank, where our mains water supply. >> reporter: this wause denise built with tom's father, on land that's been in her family for 50 years. the fire rushed over that hill, its heat so intense it melted thmetal of her decorative doors, into a stream of silver, but theye recasting their loss into a new beginning. >> we're done feeling like this. we just want to start our lives again. >> for sure. >> reporter: as more roadspen, they'll reveal more difficult truths: the intimate costs of reis already catastrophic season. >> brangham: to examine the extent of the damage and the australian government's

response, i'm joined now by david littleproud. he's the minister responsible for natural disasters and emergency response in australia. minister, thank you very much for taking the time to speak us. could you just give us a sense of where you are now in the fight against these fires? >> we are currently worng up our response to the recovery but also to a situation that's unfolding ov. the weeke again, we're concerned ability worsening weatr conditions, abou alater todater the prime minister and i meet with our national security committee, we'll be going oud visiting a number of communits nearby, less than a couple hundredte kilo away, who have borne the brunt of these fires in the last couple of days and we will be going to look at what the needed in terms of recovery. we're tackling this onw to levels, one in terms of recovery. these fires have been going since september in some parts to havehe country and they're stilgoing. some parts we're helping with

recovery, others we're still fighting. it's multitasked at the moment in terms of how we're reonding to this disaster. >> many americans were surprised to learn the vast majority of firefighters in australia are volunteers. given the vastness of the fires, do you have any firemen and equipment to fight the fires. >> we're very proud of our firefighters. they're nearly 1% of our population.be for them toble to put their safety on the line for our fellow australians, we're proud of that. we're geographicay dispersed into a number of small towns across the va continent, we made sure they're equipped with plimentedtools and com by the aerial assets from the northern h we work closely. we've got nearly 250 firefighters from the u ated statd canada here now.

in fact, i met them in sydney airport. some of them came about three weeks ago and another cohort came in early in the last 48 hours. >> we know that there are thousands of people who have been evacuated from their homtos anwns. where are those people living seght now and what's your sen of how long they have to stay away from home? >> well, obviously, we tryo repatriate them back into their homes quickly as possibly can and that comes after safety checks becalot of the roads are aligned with tres, and those trees have lost a lot of their integrity and they have to be checked meticulously by arborists and firefights, and as soon as that's done we try to get people back to their homes. that's the best way to recover is to get them back toeir homes. over the 2,000-odd-homes we'velo so far, those people are being looked after in centers, but more so they're being looked after by family andi frends. our insurance agencies are cming in and making sure that

they're acting swiftly in terms of the recovery. most of those homes are iured. those that aren't, obviously, we're a rich nation, aproud nation and making sure we look after one another, but invariably most are looked after by family and friends. we are close-knit communities. a lot of the towns that have born the brure in small rural areas where everyone knows one another. you look after one another and that the australian way and we're damn proud of it. >> woodruff: we heard from people who live in the rural ars who say they understand moving people into the city and protecting the denr areas, but that has to be an enormous challenge to protect people spread over such a large geographic area. >> it is. that's why a lot of the andholdersrs are themselves and some of them, tragically, ree of those volunteer refighters have lost their life during this event.

ththey've given e ultimate sacrifice to their community and leir nation while defending someone else'sfe and someone else's operty, but, invariably, a lot of those rural firefighters are volunteers, they're professional but volunteers, and a lot of their homes, they protect by making sure they're prepared. this, in fact, is on the most severe fires in our nation's written histo the fact that, while, tragically, we've now lost 27 lives and just or 2,000 homes. without the professionalism of ou full-time and volntary firefighters, is would have been a much more severe eves in te loss of life and property, so we're proud of what's happened, but were obviously cognizant of continuing to do better in making sure we are prepared but also that our recovery is buildi back tter. the infrastructure that we build back is better, it's more resilient and it makes sure that our people are more resilient and safer for future events.

>> reporter: climate change models predicted lonor droughts,ter heat waves that makes the condrions ripe f these kind of wildfires. are you all preinred, as som the u.s. in california have been saying, that this could be the new normal for you.t >> wm most prud of in terms of fire commissioners fro the states is the training they undertook before this event. the first advice i got was the seon was going to be earlier, more severe and protracted for longer periods, they were right and they prepared and they llaborated with you guys in the northern hemisphere and that's one thing, this has become a global effort, and i think we should be very proud that we have been able to work collaboratively, and ourel research and dment has collaborated between the northern and southerhemispher and our assets are. >> best of luck to you fihting these fires, min

littleproud. >> thank you. >> woodruff: earlier in the show we mentioned the latest drop in cancer deaths. one of the many reasons for that is the rise of personalized medicine and an ever-expandingc genetabase. miles o'brien looks at the larger hopes for that field, bue wee realions and risks surrounding it a. it's part of our ongoingco verage on "the leading edge" of science, tecinology and me. e reporter: like most of million people who have signed up for 23ame, jessica algazi saw the do it yourself glimpse into her dna as little more than a lark. >> i honestly had no idea what theyere testing for. i just thought maybe we'd meet some cousins we don't know and maybe we'd find some things out, but i literally didn't even look into it. >> reporter: but the results

unexpectedly led her to theon intersecf heredity and health, and a stunning prognosis. >> i saw right at the top of the page, something bad is there, i look at it, and i'm like, "oh, god, this isn't good." >> reporter: the grim report: her d.n.a. includes a brca1 mutation.% women who have it will develop breast cancer before age 80. 44% will get ovarian cancer. it was a devastating surprise. >> i had no family history of breast cancer, ovarian cancer. nothing to justify being sent for a brca test and it wouldn't have been covered by insurance because i didn't havthe right, i didn't have the family history, nothing. so, i nd of was somebody that fell through the cracks. >> reporter: a hollywood entertai ent lawyer, jessica knew well the story of actress angelina jolie, whpeshocked many le by choosing to have a double mastectomy in 2013, after

discovering e carries a mutated brca gene. so jessica faced a momentous decision: enabled by technology that is moving ft from the laboratory to our lives. it's called precision, or individualized medicin >> individualized medicine for us is really understanding as much about each indivi patient as we possibly can. >> reporter: keith stewart runs the center for individualized medicine at the mayo clinic in rochester, minnesota. is this a revolution? >> i think it is. i think it's transformative. it's really a paradi shift in how we think and manage cancer. >> reporter: here at mo, ty are helping find the getic needles in the haystack that cause cancer and other genetic diseases. they built a huge biorepository for the national institute of health's "all of us" initiative. the goal: sequence the full mes of one million americans. so, when you get to the day,

where you have this repository of a million sequences, million genomes. that's a very powerful tool r science is it? >> it's going to be an amazing tool for scientist and ecresearchers for years, des to come.or >> repr: it is an ambitious undertaking-- our genome consis of three billion distinct data points, that are assigned the lette atgc. by anonymizing and anang tthis rich trove of data,y hope to reveal the nuanced genetic terplay that is at the root of disease. the lo term promise; inherited diseases like cancer detected while they cantill be cured. but in the short term, genetic insight is already saving lives. it allows doctors to tailor medications to their patients, protecting them from adverse reactions and maximizing the efficacy of drugs aimed at fighting arthritis, high cholesterol, depression, h.i.v. and more. >> so really, this is the camel's nose coming under the

tent in terms of genomics being right at the bedside. >> reporter: richard weinshilboum is a professor of medicine and of pharmacology at mayo, and a pioneer in the field of pharmacogenomics, which is focused on the interplay between genes and drugs. >> now we can scan across the whole genome and we find all kinds of genes thaplay a role in variation in drug response that we would have never imagined. where the world is going to go, ti think, is preemptivelyhave that kind of genetic information parked in your electronic health record. >> reporter: direct to consumer genec testing services like 23andme are pushing this trend. it's as simple as spitting into a tube, sealing it up - and shipping it off. a few eks later, the results confirmed a lot of what i knew... the big surprise - i have an unusually hi number of neanderthal genes it explains so much!

but most importantthe test uncovered no genetic diseases. emily drabant conley i 23andme's vice president of business development. >> i think a good way to think about this is, we're aenreat scg tool. we're looking at lots of different-- over 90 different health conditions, and you're getting all that information. and then some of those thingse may requditional follow-up with a doctor. >> reporter: at first 23andm offered health reports without any federal regulation. but it is now an f.d.a. approved tool for assessing the risks for 13 diseases.or but it's int to understand its limits. our d.n.a. has three billion pairs of letters, and 23andmely reads 600,000 of them, or .02%. it's like reing a book, but only every 5,000th letter. but d.n.a. is 99.9% identical ir human, so nearly all of the letters in this book are the

same for everyone. the letters that vary from person to person are called single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or s.n.p.s. so 23andme focuses on a subset.n of.s-- it is more practical and much cheaper than reading the whole genome. >> the things that we are looking at in d.n.a. are the things thawe know change between people, they differ and that's why we've chosen them. >> reporter: but buyer beware, and consider the story of matt fender. in 2013, he bought a 23andme kit. but he didn't settle for the standard genetic report from the company. he uploaded his raw d.n.a. data to a trd party website that compares the genetic report to hundreds of scientific papers. the report delivered a grim pognosis: that he had a mutated gene that carries a very high risk of alzheimer's disease. >> and in that moment, i was like, "yeah," like i can totally see this really im future

where in a couple of decades at most, i'm going to be like late stage alzheimer's. and i was just in shock. reporter: almost overnight, he changed his lifestyle. he started running regularly and eating healthier foods.r but aftetesting, he learned it was a false positive five weeks later. he doesn't carry that particulan muta he claims 23andme made the mistake. while the company doesn't deny a s.n.p. was misread, it warns downloadinthe raw data and using third parties carries additional risk. hi>> i think some of those parties have done a disservice potentially by not always having accurate information or interpretations. w s can't contrt they say. i sort of feel i to consumers, like if you want to take your data file somewhere and have it need to know the risks of that. we're not going to be paternalistic and say you can't do it. but people need to be careful. >> reporter: this is what

jeica algazi did. and once her doctors confirmed the 23andme report, she made the decisi .er ovaries and fallopian tubes. she has no regre >> if you don't have the frgery, that means every single time you're going mammograms and ultrasounds and kiu're just going to be fr out that much more every single time. so, for me, it was a no brainer. >> reporter: so what began as a fun way to learn about heritage, traits, becameomething deadly serious. >> they quite ssibly saved my life. >> reporter: at the mayo clinic, they hope stories of pre disease detection and prevention like jessica's will become routine. >> i think if people are involvedn their health, they understand more about it, and its part of their health record. i think that can't be bad. >> reporter: as more people sign up, and the biorepository fills up, the collective d.n.a.

database is growing fast. it might sound like a scary big brother overreach, but proponents insist all this data will remain anonymized, and the risks to privacy come with a huge potential reward. reearchers are convinced patterns are likely to emerge, making medicine more precise, predictive and preventative. for thpbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien, in rochester, minnesota >> woodruff: and on the newshou onlitrove of letters written by thetooet t.s. eliot is lifelong friend emily hale were made public for thewe first time las. while it will take months or even years f scholars to fully digest them, but a few revelations popped out right away. we tooa look at some of them on our website, pbs.org/wshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening.

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> hello, everyone, welcome to amanpour and rempany. whas coming up. >> we will respond. we will respond proportionately. not disproportionately. >> the u.s. braces for retaliation. i spoke to secretary marksper andhe message from iran. iranian vice president joins me from tehran. plus, what action will congress take? we hear from the former cia analyst who served in iraq and even the saudis are calling for restraino. we talk t the kingdom's former bassadors to washington, d.c.