bayer aspirin regimen to help prevent another heart attack. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. stepped-up screening, incoming passengers at jfk airport checked for fever. how much can it help in the fight against ebola? rally in ferguson. thousands descend on that missouri city to mark two months since the shooting death of michael brown. what's the message for marchers today? a live report. on the ballot as much as mitch mcconnell might want him to be, it's my name. >> did she or didn't she? alison lundergan grimes p why didn't she want to answer one key question about the president? in california, battling drought. some have decided to take their fight to the streets, so to speak. we'll explain.

high noon here in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." a new line of defense is in place to prevent the spread of the deadly ebola virus. jfk airport here in new york began enhanced screening procedures for passengers arriving from west africa. jfk is the first of five major u.s. airports to screen passengers flying in from ebola hot zones. screenings begin next week at dulles, o'hare, hartsfield-jackson and newark. nbc's kristen dahlgren is live at jfk where we just got an update from officials. how's it going so far? >> reporter: 43% of passengers from these ebola-affected countries come through jfk here. that's why this is first -- there was a flight that got in from guinea earlier today, originated there. so this is the first test of those enhanced screening procedures. they said what they're doing is they're separating all the passengers that come from those nations and they're doing a few

things, taking their temperatures, the coast guard is doing that, to determine whether or not they have elevated temperatures. they're also asking them questions, looking at passports to determine whether they have been and they hope to find out whether or not they were in contact with anyone who could have possibly had ebola. if they suspect there's been exposure, they separate them further. the cdc takes over and they can either say, you're cleared, you can get on your flight and continue on, or they would refer them to a hospital or to another health organization, possibly quarantining them if they suspect that they have the ebola virus. so this is just layered approach to what's going on overseas. officials talked about this earlier today. >> no matter how many of these procedures are put into place, we can't get the risk to zero. that will not be the case. but this additional layer should add a measure of security and assurance to the american public. >> reporter: remember that the incubation period for ebola can

be as long as 21 days before someone starts exhibiting symptoms. so therein lies kind of the problem depending upon how long travel time is. we saw that with thomas eric duncan who died earlier this week. and that echoes what the head of the cdc said earlier, in order to get to zero risk, we really need to control what's going on in africa. >> so first question is, reaction from passengers to the new screening procedures, what are you hearing? >> reporter: it really is a mixed bag. there are some that say they're relieved, they've been thinking about that. we saw some of those scares earlier this week like in the dominican republic when you had everyone in the full biocontainment suits going onto the plane. it shows you there's a lot of anxiety. some passengers say they're relieved that there is this extra layer of some type of screening. but others say they really fear that it's not enough and that there will be people who are able to sneak through this additional screening without being detected. >> okay. we'll talk to you next hour.

today in iraq, a desperate plea for help. officials in baghdad say the western anbar province is close to falling to isis. the militants have seized army bases and they're attacking the provincial capital of ramadi. seizing the city would give isis control of an area stretching from northern syria to just outside of baghdad. this comes as the united nations warns that thousands of people could be massacred if kobani falls to isis. isis is believed to now hold about 40% of the city. u.s. warplanes fly overhead pounding the outskirts of kobani but so far avoiding the city center where approximately 700 elderly citizens are believed to be trapped. in an interview today, london mayor boris johnson said uk security services are monitoring thousands of terror suspects in that city. and now uk police are being warned of increased threats for their own safety. and the u.s. state department has issued a worldwide alert warning

americans of kidnappings and terror attacks by isis as retaliation for the air strikes in iraq and syria. joining me with those details is kristen welker. with a welcome, i know the state department often issues the travel warnings. but this one appears to take it to a whole new level. >> reporter: it does. the state department renewing a travel warning that was put into place in april. emphasizing the increased risk of kidnapping and other reprisals. here's the statement the state department put out, quote, in response to the air strikes, isil, the group we typically call isis, called on supporters to attack foreigners wherever they are. authorities believe there is an increased likelihood of reprisal attacks against u.s., western and coalition partner interests throughout the world, especially in the middle east, north africa, europe and asia. of particular concern, alex, lone wolf attacks. authorities say they have a tougher time tracking lone wolf agents.

and also four -- for nationals who have traveled overseas to join isis. this all comes against that backdrop that you mapped out. the fact that isis is gaining ground in key areas in iraq as well as syria. we are learning from the defense department today that the u.s. and its allies launched six more air strikes in syria yesterday and today. and of particular concern, that area, kobani which sits on the syrian/turkish border, the isis group seems to be poised to overtake that region. u.s. officials say it is of concern to them. they say they're launching air strikes. but what is needed is ground forces. so they're really trying to put pressure on turkey to put ground forces there into effect. it doesn't look like turkey is going to be moved to do that. this was a key part of the obama administration's strategy to put

arab troops on the ground. so far, no indication that that is going to happen. to sort of underscore the urgency to all this, general martin dempsey is holding a meeting on tuesday with 20 of his counterparts at joint base andrews to discuss the war strategy moving forward. we have the sunday shows coming up tomorrow. there is going to be a robust discussion about this strategy and about the lack of ground troops. a lot of military officials saying that air strikes just aren't enough to get the job done. >> definitely a topic we'll cover tomorrow on the show. thank you so much, kristen welker. target, home depot and now k-mart, the retail giant announced this week that their payment system was hacked some time in september and tlej discovered the breach. the company says they were able to remove the malware but could not disclose how many cards were affected. north carolina is the newest state to allow same-sex marriages after a federal judge struck down the state's ban on friday. the judge issued his ruling shortly after 5:00 p.m. paving

the way for hundreds of gay and lesbian couples to immediately start tying the knot. the governor says the state will comply with the ruling. overseas, at least one man is dead in the northwestern italian city of genoa. the city is particularly vulnerable to flooding as we saw back in november 2011 when seven people were killed there. funding has been allocated for flood defenses. but the money is held up in legal disputes. developing now, protesters are gathering in missouri holding a major rally in st. louis. they're demanding justice two months after michael brown was fatally shot by a white police officer. msnbc' tremain lee is in st. louis for us. the organizers are calling this entire weekend the weekend of resistance. talk about the scene there right now. >> reporter: right now just a

few blocks away, hundreds of people are lining up and marching towards the old courthouse. it's a much more diverse crowd than we've seen before. members of the sierra club, various unions, clergy groups have organized folks around the country as well as college students. so it's a swelling crowd, bigger than we've seen but more diverse than we've ever seen. this is a change in tone from some of the anger and outrage. now it's galvanizing and organizing. folks are ready to make their voices heard. >> it's extraordinary. you talk about the diversity. the police have released reports that say diverse in terms of age from teenagers up through people in their 80s, everyone of all ethnicity backgrounds, even people from overseas, right? this is a live look at that area that tremain was talking about. but overseas people as well? >> reporter: certainly. especially pivoting off of what was happening in ferguson in all of august. then we go into what's happening in hong kong and the symbolism

that people are referencing. the hands up. people all across the world, especially across the country and the world feel disenfranchised and feel that law enforcement is overpolicing and underprotecting them. so now is the time where people's voices are all coming together. again, today we see diversity of the crowd alone, people representing lgbtq issues, issues with low-wage workers, unions. it's an amazing sight to see. >> when you talk about what they're clamoring for, seems they're demanding charges be filed against officer darren wilson. what's the latest on the investigation? >> reporter: right now, a grand jury has been convened by the st. louis county. they've been reviewing evidence. word is they're almost complete. they've interviewed officer darren wilson, a number of witnesses and going through the evidence. even though their term has been pushed back to january, the prosecutor says that a decision could be made as early as mid

next month, mid november. so, remember, this protest began organically, spontaneously on the ground. people in ferguson saying, we demand answers. we have a lot of questions that are being answered and above all, we demand an arrest of officer darren wilson. >> i want to let our viewers know -- and let you know if you don't have return there. on the other side of our screen is a shot from where you are at the courthouse looking down a few blocks. you see the protesters gathering for a march. can i ask you what the role is of police today? we see a couple of police cars and police officers standing around them right now. are they leading the march and how much are they out there in force to make sure things don't get unruly? >> reporter: you don't get a sense of what we've seen in the past where there's a blockade or officers that seem to be intimidating. you don't have that. streets are being blocked off. police officers are directing traffic. so far, it's been relatively leisurely. but there isn't any sense at all at this moment that there's turmoil or anger necessarily in the air. you don't get that sense that

things are teetering on edge. right now, it's more crowd controlled than anything else. there are hundreds of people set to march this way. so i think right now, more crowd control than anything else. >> this is just going to be a gut interpretation from your vantage point. this is st. louis where you are right now. this is not ferguson. would this police/protester situation and set-up have the same tenor to it right now in ferguson, do you suspect? >> reporter: it depends. if you had the same group of people today in ferguson, it would be very much the same thing. we have to remember. though things got chippy and violent in the beginning, on the side of the protesters, it was a small minority. on the side of police, they were braced for what they felt was the worst. then you had the misstep, the sniper rifles and the m-16s and ar-15s. but in this gap while we're waiting for the grand jury to mull what's what, things have

changed. protests have gotten more organized, more focused on their goals politically. there are demands of bob mccullough, the prosecutor, stepping down. it's not just raw fervor. that's dissipated. >> tremain, thank you. let's go to the weather. severe thunderstorms in the south and midwest. while some areas are put on tornado watch, the weather channel's alex wallace is here with the forecast. good day to you, alex. >> good saturday to you. as we track this weekend, wet weather is the name of the game. gulf moisture streaming in from the gulf of mexico and still moisture from what was a tropical system in the pacific, simon. that's entangled with a frontal boundary that's stuck in place. that stretches from eastern parts of colorado all the way towards the mid-atlantic. that will be the focus for showers as well as storms. as we head through today, anywhere from the southern portions of new england, even around new york city, boston, you'll see some of that rain, stretching back into the mid

south around the memphis area, little rock, into eastern parts of texas. by the time we head into tomorrow, northeast dries out but still seeing the wet weather from the ohio valley back down to the mississippi river valley. that's where we could see some of the heaviest of the rains. totals in some areas could reach 2 to 3 inches through our monday morning. surrounding that, 1 to 2 inches of rain. and a heads-up of what will be coming for the end of the weekend into early next week. the chance for strong and severe storms. pretty large area that may be impacted. in total, we're talking tens of millions who are at risk. we'll be certainly following it. back to you, alex. >> we appreciate that, thanks so much. new york's kennedy airport has begun screening passengers entering from western africa from the ebola virus. how effective will it be in preventing an outbreak here? for my business. and i get a lot in return with ink plus from chase. like 70,000 bonus points when i spent $5,000 in the first 3 months after i opened my account.

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the cdc calls it an added layer of protection against an ebola outbreak. right now at jfk airport here in new york, passengers arriving from west africa are getting their temperatures taken and are being asked questions about whether they've had any exposure to the deadly ebola virus. let's bring in dr. anthony faucfauci from the national institutes of health. good to talk with you again. we want to start with the new screening procedures that began about four hours ago. they're going to begin at four other airports this week. how effective do you think this is going to be in preventing a potential ebola outbreak in the u.s. and is there anything else we should be doing as well? >> this is an extra added layer, as you mentioned. already when you have the exit screening that takes place at the airports in the west african countries, that diminishes greatly any risk. if you add now the entry screening that you've just described, that's an extra added

layer that brings the risk down even to a much, much lower level. so the risk is really diminished by both ends, by the exit end and this end. that's really about enough. i don't think there should be any more vigorous screening than what we've done right now. we've thought about this carefully. and that will maximally protect the american public. >> as you know, the world health organization says more than 4,000 people have died from ebola. where do you think we are in this fight overall? will it get worse before it gets better? and as you know, it's been equated to being the worst viral outbreak since the outbreak of aids. >> well, certainly it is still raging in west africa. and the rate of expansion of the new cases is outstripping the input of resources that are there. now, there have been resources that are on their way from the united states certainly. we have the promise and they'll be coming very soon of the 3,000

to 4,000 military who will be doing command and control logistics and will help set up the 1,700-bed hospital units. but we need much more than that. we really need a greater effort from the community of nations because if you look at the rate of increase of what's going on right now, what we will need to contain it is far greater than what we have there now and what's actually planned in a totali totality. so people need to step up to the plate. nations need to step up to the plate. otherwise we're not going to get this under control. >> i want to ask you specifically about thomas eric duncan who died of ebola at that hospital in dallas on wednesday. we have now learned, sir, that he was initially sent home from the hospital, despite having a fever of 103 degrees. that is the new nugget of information. we've talked about the protocol between nurses and doctors and the communication they need to have when evaluating patients in an e.r. are you confident other hospitals won't make the same mistake that is this hospital

clearly made? >> i would be very surprised, alex, if that, in fact, happens again. first of all, the protocols at the cdc continually gives a health alert network warning and advice to emergency room and clinic docs to be careful about making sure they do a travel history when someone comes in with symptoms suggestive of ebola and to act on that travel history and decision making. the extraordinary publicity that the dallas case has gotten now, i cannot imagine as a physician who has spent times in emergency rooms, in clinics early on in my career, that anybody now would not think of that right up front as a big red flag. so there may be some indirect good that comes out of this misstep in that the alert now among emergency personnel and clinic personnel is at a very high level. >> doctor, i want to talk about something that's a bit more

practically an issue here over ebola in our states. it's the flu. three children have died this year from the flu, now hearing some patients have to wait to get their flu shots because the supplies are running low across the nation. how big a concern is this for you? >> first of all, i believe the children who died, died of the associated with the enterovirus d-68 and not classical influenza. but flu is a disease that comes every yeear. it's predictable seasonally. sometimes it's a bad year, sometimes a moderate year. and hopefully occasionally it's a good year. but we have a vaccine against the flu that's very good. we need to make sure people get vaccinated. the cdc recommends that everyone 6 months of age or older should be vaccinated. right now as we're entering into the early part of the flu season, we should get the people vaccinated, particularly the vulnerable people like young children, people who have

debilitating diseases and the elderly. >> dr. fauci, great to hear your expertise and insight. thank you. >> good to be with you. a look at the key races to watch come this midterm election season. and in our number ones, our favorite snacks. where americans turn when they've got the munchies. by evs was the first modern airliner, revolutionary by every standard. and that became our passion. to always build something better, airplanes that fly cleaner and farther on less fuel. that redefine comfort and connect the world like never before. after all, you can't turn dreams into airplanes unless your passion for innovation is nonstop. ♪ in life there are things you want to touch unless your passion for innovation is nonstop. and some you just don't. introducing the kohler touchless toilet.

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another look at number ones. down under, australia is named the best country in the world to live, according to a new ranking of developed countries. the capital is named the world's best city. they get highest marks for safety. norway is second. and canada is third. sweden comes in fourth. and rounding out the top five, that's us, the good old usa. we have all the doughnuts in the world. >> he loves them. but they don't make the list of america's favorite snacks. the number one munchies? potato chips. 59% put chocolate on their list. and cheese at 58%. that's a quick look at today's number ones. almost every day, you notice a few things.

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it's now time for headlines at the half. a typhoon is whipping up powerful rains and storm surges in japan. it is expected to reach okinawa tomorrow with winds of up to 100 miles an hour. fireworks lit up the sky in moscow as the circle of light international festival kicked off. the event's organizers aim to educate people about various cultures and traditions. amanda bynes has been hospitalized. she'll be held for 72 hours and it can be extended for 14 days. this news comes after the former child star wrote a series of tweets accusing her father of sexual abuse friday morning. bynes later recanted the violations blaming them on a microchip in her brain. the pentagon has just announced that u.s. warplanes conducted six air strikes around kobani, syria, today. yesterday, three more in iraq. and multiple airdrops to resupply iraqi troops north of tikrit.

iraqi officials are begging for help as isis advances on ramadi while the united nations warns a massacre this kobani is imminent. joining me now is one of the rising experts on extremism in the region and shiite militias. philip smyth is a researcher. i wish people could have heard our conversation during the commercial break. nonetheless, i want to talk a bit about your background. tell me where this all came from because you have been interested in this area of the world and these topics for some time, since a child. >> well, i found it to be very understudied and anything that's understudied gets my interest going. and particularly when i find venues to talk to people and learn more, that's how it grew. luckily i had a very facilitating mother who allowed me to have these interests and would help push me to follow them. >> and thanks to monitoring

social media, twitter, facebook, things like that, your expertise now is the shiite militias and there is legitimate concern today that isis is going to take ramadi and fix its sights closer to baghdad. the iraqi army is in tatters. the kurds are bogged down in the north. can the shiite militias stand up to isis? >> well, they have been for a while. and they've had some hits and misses. i think they're doing a number of different defensive operations just to stay a matter of fact, the internal security forces would not be able to stand up against isis without these shia militias presence. in terms of effectiveness on certain fronts, that really remains to be seen. >> can you gauge how significant iran's boots on the ground presence is in both iraq and syria? >> the way they operate is with a smaller footprint. they do have boots on the ground. some reports have said there are

around 2,000 islamic revolutionary guard corps members in syria. the numbers can be anywhere. but they actually operate through proxy groups. their creation of a multitude of different proxy groups for the syrian campaign and for iraq has just been an ongoing process. so they already have thousands of well-trained, at times ideologically loyal fighters present there and can help essentially run the show in terms of armed involvement. >> but i'm sure as you're aware, there have been recent reports out of iran that isis is targeting checkpoints as well as some revolutionary guard officers. is it at all realistic that they would target iran in any substantial way? >> well, isis would want to attack iran. they don't consider the shia islamist government there in place to be muslim. and they're fighting iran's proxy forces for quite a while.

it wouldn't surprise me that they would want to strike out there. i was reading a story about this. the interesting thing is many of these isis attacks were halted because al qaeda had a running relationship with iran. so i'm assuming this could actually symbolize a fall between al qaeda and isis in terms of how many strings al qaeda can still pull with isis. >> to what would you attribute that fall between them? >> can be a variety of things. i really wish i could give a more definitive answer. but they've had a split that's gone on for quite some time. on top of that, i think the iranians have also increased a lot of pressure inside of iraq in terms of building their shia militia apparatus and placing other foreign fighters on the ground to counter isis. this was bound to happen. isis had been talking about this in a number of their different social media circles for quite some time.

that they wanted to attack the iranians. >> you have often been ahead of the attack on where militancy is spreading. what are you watching now? >> in my world of kind of focusing on shia jihadism, you have to look at yemen. yemen is going to be big for sunni jihadis and shia jihadis. for sunni jihadis, my colleague and friend would say libya is a place to watch. nobody seems to be watching it anymore. and also kind of the recruitment that's going on, i have caught recruitment now for iraqi shia groups that's going on in pakistan for shia to be brought over as foreign fighters. this is now really becoming kind of a broader whole islamic world that's being engaged for fighters, for recruits, all sorts of things. >> as i listen to you talk about yourself and your work and mr. zellen, your friend, there are those who would suggest you are

often ahead of the curve when it comes to getting information, ahead of our super stealth intelligence agencies. if that's the case, why is that? >> well, i try to synthesize and look at many different varieties of information. i'm very self-deprecating so taking credit for getting things first is a bit of a problem for me. but the intelligence services, they do a very hard job. and unfortunately sometimes they get trapped in a bubble where they don't want to look at anything that's new. for instance, looking at facebook, this would have been played off -- people would say, that's unreliable. but if you juxtapose that to a lot of other information out there, it would demonstrate and also give a lot of new information. this happens a lot in different bureaucracies. >> philip smyth, thank you very much. good to speak with you. >> thank you very much. let's go now to politics. new polls reflecting how tight

the race may be for taking control of the senate next month. 24 days until the midterm elections. republicans need six seats to take the majority in the senate and several battleground states are at play, that includes kentucky. alison lundergan grimes is leading mitch mcconnell. but then this happened. >> did you vote for president obama? in 2008 and 2012? >> you know, this election isn't about the president. it's about -- >> i know. >> it's about putting kentuckians back to work? >> did you photo for him? i was a delegate for hillary clinton in '08. kentuckians know i'm a clinton democrat through and through. i respect the sanctity of the ballot box. >> you're not going to answer? >> again, i don't think -- the president is on the ballot as much as mitch mcconnell might want him to be, it's my name. >> joining me now, lauren foxx. welcome to you.

do you think this nonanswer is going to help or hurt grimes in kentucky and explain why? >> i certainly think it's going to hurt her in kentucky. one of the reasons is, look, this race, mitch mcconnell has wanted to make it about president obama from the beginning. if this race is about a fresh-faced new candidate, mitch mcconnell is in trouble. if this race is about an unpopular president, then mitch mcconnell seemed to lead in a lot of polls. so i think this is certainly going to hurt her, certainly just the question being asked in the beginning is going to hurt her. but her answer and the way she couched it and wouldn't answer it, i think it's just kind of breeds into this fact that maybe she's too young of a candidate. she's inexperienced and not able to just straight-on answer a question about whether or not she voted for the president. >> what about the close race out there in colorado? there's a poll, the latest one showing the incumbent democrat with a three-point lead over the republican.

but just this week, gardner was endorsed. why do you think udall is facing such a tough reelection battle? >> colorado is a swing state. one of the issues that's going to be fascinating is the amount of latino voters who come out to the polls in the midterm elections. a lot of folks said the fact that the president did not act unilaterally on immigration reform, if it was going to hurt anybody, it was going to hurt mark udall because there are 14% of eligible voters in the state who are latino and that might actually make an impact at the ballot box in terms of "the denver post" endorsement, that hurts mark udall. it's a big paper, a paper that has endorsed him in the past. so i think it's going to weigh on voters' minds there. >> do you think people take that last point you're making -- this is a left-leaning paper, isn't it? >> it is. denver is a very left-leaning city. it's a place where marijuana is

legal. it's a very liberal place. i think it certainly makes an impact. and it says something about what kind of election cory gardner's run there. >> let's move on to iowa. senator tom harkin is stepping down. you have republican joni ernst leading bruce braley by two points there. who has the momentum there? >> i think joni ernst has the momentum there. she's gone out and really rallied folks in iowa. and iowa remains a swing state. this remains a place where -- it can be anyone's race. but she's the dynamic candidate there. and bruce braley hasn't run as strong of a campaign as she has. in that race among any in the senate that i've seen this cycle, it really is about force of personality. >> yeah. let's look at south dakota. this has suddenly got interesting. democrats are pouring money into that race. not to help their own candidate

but to tear down the republican because what they're doing is betting on the independent, larry pressler. is this any sort of a sign of desperation that democrats are worried about the other senate races, too? >> i certainly think that this is a surprise that republicans weren't expecting to m co up in the last weeks of the campaign. it's a fun surprise that really reminds me a lot of kansas and what's happening there in terms of the independent. i don't think that larry presser in the end will come away with the victory. but it's not a place where republicans thought they would have to be on the air waves this late in the game. >> so what do you expect in terms of surprises? do you want to go with any predictions? will republicans get a majority in the senate and pick up those six seats? >> it's going to come down to turnout. we've talked about it since the beginning of the cycle. but i think the republicans need to just keep doing what they're doing. meanwhile, democrats really need to have a strong turnout operation. there's been a lot written about the turnout operation that one like the senator in alaska has

and something like what udall has in denver. but we have to see in the final weeks of the campaign who gets voters to the polls. >> lauren, thank you. >> thank you. kim jong-un is m.i.a. where could he be and who's running north korea? that's ahead. my name is karen and i have diabetic nerve pain. it's progressive pain. first that feeling of numbness. then hot pins. almost like lightning bolts, hot strikes into my feet. so my doctor prescribed lyrica. the pain has been reduced and i feel better than i did before. [ male announcer ] it's known that diabetes damages nerves. lyrica is fda-approved to treat diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is not for everyone. it may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, changes in eyesight, including blurry vision, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling or skin sores from diabetes.

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you're never quite sure what is coming your way. but when you've got an entire company who knows that the most on-time flights are nothing if we can't get your things there too. it's no wonder more people choose delta than any other airline. a town at the center of a near month-long manhunt for the killer of a pennsylvania state trooper is canceling almost all halloween activities that would include trick-or-treating. authorities say it is a precautionary measure as the search for eric frein continues. so where in the world is kim jong-un? the north korean leader skipped yesterday's celebration for the founder of the workers party. it's been more than a month since un has been seen in public.

with a welcome to you, evans, everybody has a theory. there's a kcoup. what do you think is going on? >> the theories are proliferating. there are a lot more theories than there are facts as we deal with this political ly opaque country. the facts tell us certain things. including the fact that there was a man who has been severely limping on a number of occasions. so there's obviously some sort of physical issue that he's dealing with, with his feet or his legs. he has not been seen in public. we have the north korean media,

the north korean government confirming that he is suffering from discomfort, which is a very interesting word. the north korean media almost never makes reference to the physical status or health of their leaders. in this case, they have. we had at the party commemoration, the party founding commemoration that you referred to in the opening, some wreaths that were delivered that all had a very interesting message wishing him health, which is a rather unusual thing to be doing. normally those wreaths would congratulate the korean workers party on its anniversary. so a number of interesting indicators that there's something physically not right with him. i would also just add the fact that if the north korean government wanted to quell a lot of the rumor-mongering going on out there, all they would need to do is show a photograph of him. it could just be him seated at a desk. we haven't even seen that.

so this is feeding all the speculation. but obviously there's some sort of a physical issue here although i don't know that it's so serious as to justify some of the rumors about coups and his having been replaced. >> if something more machiavellian is going on, are there those on the inside that want to take power from him? >> i doubt that. you would see indicators if there was anything like a military coup or an attempt to replace him. i just came back from a full day in washington dealing with a number of my former colleagues in the government and was asking everybody the same questions you're asking me. and what i have detected is that there are no indicators of military movements, no indicators of political reshuffling. i've talked to south korean government officials as well as u.s. government officials. there's nothing out there to support this notion that there's been a coup or a power shift. >> how about un's younger

sister, kim yo jong, that she may have stepped in for her brother's absence. is that plausible? >> i don't see any basis for putting any credibility in those reports. he has two sisters, in fact, he has two brothers. and if he were to be replaced -- once again, we're dealing in speculative possibilities here -- almost certainly another member of the kim family would step in. for six-plus decades, the kim family has been running north korea. and they are the font of all power and legitimacy. if he were to be ousted or if he were to pass away, another member of the family would step in. but i think we're getting ahead of ourselves here. we need to be very careful. there's no evidence to support any of the theories that there has been a coup or a replacement. >> evans revere, glad to have spoken with you. thank you so much. >> thanks. coming up, everybody, we'll take you live to st. louis,

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developing right now, at least 1,000 protesters are gathering in st. louis. they're marking two months since the fatal shooting of michael brown. organizers are calling this entire weekend the weekend of resistance. it's part of a four-day-long protest. joining me now is faith jenkins. faith w a welcome to you, how much does a huge crowd like we're seeing here today, how much does that influence the legal system? do these thousands of people put pressure on officials to keep the process moving forward? >> you know, alex, i really think that authorities thought if they put enough time in between the mike brown shooting and this grand jury result, that passions would calm and people

would sort of go away and this wouldn't be such a heightened issue for them. and i think the opposite has happened. i think that's what you're seeing now with these protests and everything that's going on. the grand jury is still out. they have until january 7th to decide to case -- >> faith, does that seem like an extraordinarily long amount of time or is it appropriate? >> yes. >> why? why is that happening january 7th? >> because this is not a complicated case. it really isn't. now you have this extension until january 7th. with a grand jury proceeding, the issue is you don't know what's going on. we don't know what evidence has been presented. there are results that officer darren wilson testified before the grand jury. but we simply don't know what's going on, what evidence has been presented and when you combine that with the investigation that a lot of people talked about and discussed before the grand jury even started and the skepticism about the investigation, if it was fair from the very beginning, you combine that with

the secret proceeding, of course a lot of people are going to question it and wonder what's happening, is justice really being served? >> isn't there some sort of a timely requirement, faith, for a grand jury to come back and make their statement on how they plan to move forward? is there always a time commitment there? >> well, grand juries can hear and investigate cases for months on end. and an investigation -- darren wilson has not been arrested. so the time factor has not really started yet. had darren wilson been arrested and then this grand jury proceeding started, that's when time would be of the essence. because this is just an investigation, they can take their time. and i think that, again, they were hoping that passions would sort of calm because of the amount of time that the grand jury is taking. >> i know i've asked this question before, but how difficult is it for prosecutors to prosecute another law enforcement officer? >> it's very difficult because people -- the public, they know that officers have very dangerous and difficult jobs. and in so many of these case,

you look back over history at the number of officers who have been prosecuted for killing someone else unjustifiably, they're few and far between because people want to give officers the benefit of the doubt. so they are very difficult cases to start from at the very beginning. >> if it had not been an officer involved here, wouldn't that person have already been arrested by this time? >> depends on the facts of the case, alex. but most likely when you have a shooting, it would be if it were a civilian, the question would be, was it justified, was it self-defense? i don't think that you would have this len think of a grand jury investigation. but when you have an officer that complicates a lot of things because we give the officers the power to carry guns and to enforce the law and uphold the law. but the issue is why people are so upset, they have to abide by the law. and i don't have people don't they that happened in this case. >> faith, thank you.

>> thank you. ahead in the next hour, the tragic story of a young oregon woman diagnosed with an incurable illness. how brittany maynard has chosen to die with dignity, ahead. stay. that's why we created programs which encourage people to take their medications regularly. so join us as we raise a glass to everyone who remembered today. bottoms up, america. see you tomorrow. same time. another innovation from cvs health. because health is everything.

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even bigger one tomorrow. when csx trains move forward, so does the rest of the economy. csx. how tomorrow moves. it's the top of the hour. we have a lot to bring you now. it is a weekend of resistance, a demand for justice in the name of michael brown. battling ebola, a new line of defense begins in this country. running low, you might have trouble getting a flu shot right about now. will you be able to get one before the flu season takes hold? it's a brave warning. the barbarism of islamic state militants may lead to all-out massacre. and precious time, a cancer patient's courageous decision to die with dignity. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." just a little bit past 1:00 p.m. here in the east. here's what's happening.

the u.s. state department has issued a worldwide alert warning americans of kidnappings and terror attacks by isis as retaliation for the air strikes in iraq and syria. in an interview today with the telegraph newspaper, london mayor boris johnson said that uk security services are monitoring thousands of terror suspects in the city. this comes amid reports that uk police are being warned of heightened threats for their own safety coming in just the last 24 hours. despite those threats from isis, the u.s. bombing campaign continues today. the pentagon has just announced that u.s. warplanes conducted six air strikes in syria, four more in iraq over the past 48 hours. the air strikes in syria have so far, though, been little help for the people of kobani where the united nations is warning of a massacre if isis takes the city just across the border from turkey. and today iraq has issued a plea for help, warning that western anbar province could soon fall to isis. the provincial capital of ramadi is under attack and several army bases have already been seized. joining me now from the

turkish/syrian border is richard engel. hello to you, richard. >> reporter: alex, a u.n. envoy warned that unless action is taken, there could be a massacre of civilians and fighters inside the city of kobani on the scale of the worst massacre of civilians in europe since world war ii happening in bosnia. so it is a very ominous comparison. what we're seeing in kobani right now is, according to the u.n., there are roughly 700 civilians, many of them elderly, who are holed up in the center of the city. there are also several thousand fighters, we assume, and about 12,000 other civilians who are trapped between the city of kobani and the turkish border. there is a few kilometer no-man's-land between kobani and the turkish border. and isis militants have surrounded kobani on three sides. they've pushed into kobani and

according to social media, according to pictures that the militants themselves are posting, they are already carrying out atrocities. we've seen images, we haven't been able to independently verify them. but they come from accounts that do seem to be from fighters inside kobani. they show beheadings. they show piles of what seem to be kurdish fighters piled into the backs of trucks. we see isis fighters proudly posing with piles of bodies. and this is just the beginning, potentially, because kobani hasn't completely fallen. there is still this core group of fighters in the center of the city who are holding on. but the u.n. says unless they get more support, unless there is an international response, a greater international response, we could all witness another atrocity. this is all taking place right under the watchful eyes of turkey. turkey has tanks just a few hundred yards away.

those tanks have been silence. turkey hasn't taken any decisive action. in fact, the turkish government has recently said that it's not turkey's problem, that turkey has done a great deal already to host over 150,000 refugees from kobani, that it has sent in some humanitarian supplies, but that ultimately, according to the turkish president, what happens in kobani is not turkey's problem. it is syria's problem. and the u.n. is saying, remember the world never forgave what happened in bosnia. >> thank you, richard. we'll be speaking with senator ben cardin in about 10 or 15 minutes from now. also developing this hour, at least 1,000 demonstrators are taking to the streets in st. louis calling for justice. part of a four-day protest marking two months since michael brown was shot by a white police officer in the nearby city of ferguson. amanda is in st. louis for us. what's going on right now?

i know we have the marches under way. it's been pretty peaceful and loud and very well-attended. >> reporter: hi, alex. yes. the marchers are just now reaching the end of the route here and are pouring into the plaza here behind me. this is the most diverse crowd i've ever seen join any type of protest here in honor of michael brown. we see unions, student groups, religious organizations, gathering behind banners and waving flags in the air. and behind a message that is beyond michael brown. it is more than just the racial injustice here and more than just racial injustice around the country. they really want to broaden this message and really get it out that this is not going to go away. people are organize and they are going to be coming together for solutions. >> they are so organized, they have an entire week planned. what's going to be up next? >> reporter: this entire weekend have been very well planned and plotted out.

today is more of a day of bringing folks together with organizations, with advocates who are well-versed in organizing to come together for solutions to really brainstorm ideas, see what action people can do. and take it from the streets and really into the political system, into the legislative process. and even into student groups of how people can be more involved, not just in the st. louis region but also throughout the country. >> amanda, thank you for that. ebola screening is jumping to a new level today. new york's jfk international airport is the first airport in the states to have a screening program that checks the temperatures of travelers and screenings will be implemented at other airports next week. nbc's kristen dahlgren is joining me now from jfk with more on this developing story. so what all is involved in the screening, kristen? >> reporter: hi, alex. what they're doing -- a flight came in from guinea earlier today. so this is really the first test

of it. they took those passengers off of the plane. they separated them and began to ask questions, look at passports, first to determine whether exactly these travelers had been. a big part of it, as you mentioned, is taking their temperatures, obviously one of the symptoms of ebola, one of the first signs is an elevated temperature. so the coast guard has infrared guns, no touch. they're running over passengers to determine whether or not they have a temperature. they're giving them information about ebola, what symptoms to look out for. and then if they were to suspect that there's been some type of exposure, here's what happened next, according to officials. >> if the traveler has a fever or other symptoms or has been exposed to ebola, customs and border protection will then refer that traveler to the centers for disease control for a public health assessment. and from there, the cdc determines whether the traveler can continue on.

>> reporter: so it's estimated about 150 people come into the u.s. on average per week through the five airports that we've been talking about, jfk, almost half come in through jfk. that's why it's beginning here first by the end of next week, they say they'll be screening aa about 94% of the people coming in from those affected countries. >> and we have a map showing the other airports forthcoming. are there plans to extend beyond these other four announced? there are certainly other international ports of entry. >> reporter: there are. according to the government, these five airports, talking about newark, washington dulles, atlanta, o'hare and here at jfk, handle about 94% of the people that do come in from sierra leone, liberia and also guinea. and so they think that they have

a really -- good coverage. there was a lawmaker from texas that's asking that to be expanded to houston, to dallas, of course, thomas eric duncan traveled from dulles and ended up in dallas. and so the point there was that there are other places where people come in, other places where people go to. as of now, though, looks like it's just going to be these five airports. >> travelers seem okay with this? they're okay with the patience they need to go through these screenings? >> reporter: yeah. it's not your average passenger who's coming through who is going to get this extra screening. they will be looking at passports and if, say, you went from one of the affected countries through somewhere in europe and then came here, they'll be able to tell on your passport because you'll have the stamp. then you'll get the extended screening. but for most passengers coming internationally, they won't have to go through that. passengers we spoke to said it is giving them a little bit of relief that there's this little

bit of additional screening, trying to catch them as they exit those affected countries and again as they come here into the u.s. >> kristen dahlgren at jfk, thanks. and in dallas, the death of ebola victim thomas eric duncan is raising the question of why the hospital did not initially admit him even though duncan had a 103-degree temperature, doctors sent him home. sara dolloff is joining me from texas. how are hospital officials explaining this? >> reporter: we have asked the hospital very specifically about this new revelation from the "associated press," this 103-degree temperature. and they have not gotten back to us. however, they did release a statement yesterday saying that they are changing their intake procedures to better screen for ebola and that they continue to review and evaluate the chain of events leading up to duncan's diagnosis. in the past few days, they've also given us more insight into duncan's treatment, that he was given the experimental drug brincidofovir as soon as it was available and his condition

warranted it. they also explained why he did not receive a blood serum from a surviving ebola patient. and that is because no match was available. dr. kent brantly said he was willing to give that donation. unfortunately, it turned out the two men were not a match. now, dr. brantly spoke yesterday at abilene christian university saying that his heart is breaking for duncan's family. his fiancee and her family continue to be in isolation along with 48 other people who had some type of contact with duncan. officials are doing twice daily temperature checks but say so far no one has shown any signs or symptoms of ebola. back to you. >> nbc's sara dolloff, thank you. what are the chances isis militants could sneak into the u.s. through mexico? i'll ask ben cardin next about that. and does leon panetta's memoir criticizing president obama of purchases for my business. and i get a lot in return with ink plus from chase. like 70,000 bonus points

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developing now, the united states has conducted ten air strikes in iraq and syria over the past two days. but the reports on the ground tell little of how the ground is being gained. isis now controls 40% of kobani, that on the syrian/turkish border. and iraq is warning today the western anbar province and ramadi could fall next. is the u.s. strategy working? joining me now, democratic senator ben cardin. senator, always a pleasure to have you on the show. thanks for joining me. >> pleasure to be with you. >> sir, is the u.s. plan working? what do you think? >> well, we are clearly in the leadership making sure that we attack any way we can isil and try to eliminate it. but we have to work with the international community. we're not going to win this by military actions alone. it's going to require us to cut off the financial and political

support for isil. and i think we're working in a multifaceted way in order to do that, including trying to to have a representative government in iraq and trying to work with the vetted opposition in syria. so it's a multiple facet campaign. yes, i think we are showing leadership and we are making progress. >> where, sir, are the arab ground troops that are a critical component to the president's plan? >> well, we know we have a challenge with ground troops. in syria, we've been in syria -- we've been recently providing help for arming and training the syrian vetted rebels. in iraq, we've been there for multiple years. we saw that just our presence there alone doesn't guarantee there will be an operational ground capacity. so i think we have to continue to work to train and to help the people from the countries in

which isil is operating, to take care of their own needs. we're not going to have the sustained u.s. presence in these countries. >> i'm looking at a report here, sir, we have two republican congressmen, jason chaffetz and duncan hunter, recently claimed that terrorists in the middle east have crossed the mexican border into the united states. congressman hunter in particular has said ten isis fighters crossed the border. the department of homeland security is flatly denying this claim. but they said that four kurdish men were arrested and they're going to be deported. in terms of counterterrorism, are you at all worried about the security of our borders? >> of course we're always concerned about those who want to attack our homeland. and our intelligence is the best in the world. so we rely in large measure on intelligence and on technology in order to deal particularly with those who are not carrying american passports. but we also have problems with those carrying american passports and western passports.

we know some have been involved with extremist groups. so it's a challenge. in an open society, there's always the challenge of protecting the homeland and also protecting our civil liberties. but i think we understand the risk and we've taken the steps in order to protect the people of this country. >> one perhaps surprised critic of president obama's middle east strategy is leon panetta. i'm sure you've heard about his new book which seems to really second-guess everything from the iraq war pullout to this current fight with isis. white house officials are hitting back saying that panetta is rewriting history. are you surprised by all of this? >> first, i have a great deal of respect for leon panetta. however, we were in iraq for 11 years and that didn't solve the problem. so i think that it's clear to me that the answer about security in that region does not rest with u.s. long-term presence, that we have to develop the capacities within the countries themselves. i think leon panetta may have a different view. that's fine.

this is an open debate. i think some of it is revisionist. but clearly we want a policy where the iraqis can take care of their own security needs and the united states doesn't get drawn into another lengthy commitment where there's really a difference among the population as to who should government. >> interestingly, though, sir, the president's also been hit by jimmy carter recently. these are not political novices that we're talking about here. in terms of timing, they know it is just a month, less so, now, before the midterm elections. so why come out with these criticisms now? >> sounds like he's getting hit from both sides. maybe he's doing the right thing. look at the facts of what's going on. our economy is rebounding. we are -- the united states is showing the leadership we need internationally. in iran, the president's been able to get an international coalition so iran is at the table negotiating. we hope to end their nuclear weapons programs. the united states is exercising that leadership under president obama and we're moving forward

and i'm proud of his leadership. i think you just have to look at the record. >> and the math of the midterms coming up in terms of who controls the senate. the gop needs six seats to win control. your democratic colleagues in west virginia, south dakota, montana, they're all retiring. a lot of analysts say those seats will easily go red. if you look at that, you're down to only needing three seats for republican senate. if you look at the states that are in play, how confident are you that the senate will stay in democratic hands? >> first, alex, we're not going to concede those three seats you just said. it's been an interesting discussion this week, particularly in south dakota -- >> i agree. you're right. >> there's interesting debates going on. we know it's very close. we know that we had a very difficult number of retirements and number of seats that are up for the democrats. however, we believe we will hold the united states senate. the news over the past week where recent polling has shown progress in many of these battleground states for the

democrats. so we think momentum is starting to move in our direction for good reason. and we're optimistic we're going to hold the united states senate. >> were the senate to go in the hands of the gop in terms of control, how would that change the last two years of this president's legacy? >> no question that the control of the united states senate is extremely consequential as to what issues can be brought up for debate in the united states congress. what happens between the house and the senate, where there's been a check and balance with the senate holding back some of the extreme agenda from the house. clearly it would be much more difficult to have an agenda move forward for our country, on the environment, on helping the middle class, on dealing with making college education more affordab affordable, sensitive regulations to protect our environment. all that would be much more challenged if the control of the senate were to switch to the republicans. >> senator ben cardin, always a pleasure.

have a great saturday. >> thank you. a terminally ill cancer patient makes a heart-rending decision to end her life. you'll see how she hopes to make a difference for others next. pehabits of cleaning theirld dentures with toothpaste, and dentures are very different than real teeth. they're about ten times softer and have surface pores where bacteria can grow and multiply. polident is specifically designed to clean dentures daily. it's unique micro-clean formula kills 99.99% of odor-causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains, cleaning it a better way than brushing with toothpaste. that's why dentists recommend using polident. for a cleaner, fresher, brighter denture everyday. ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you outlive your money? uhhh. no, that can't happen. that's the thing, you don't know how long it has to last. everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive..

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bringing new meaning to the word partnership. banking. loyalty. analytics. synchrony financial. enagage with us. a terminally ill woman is creating a storm of controversy with her youtube video outlining her plans to die on her own terms. the video of brittany maynard has received more than 6 million views. brittany is suffering from brain cancer. >> i will die upstairs in my bedroom that i share with my husband, with my mother and my husband by my side and pass peacefully with some music that i like in the background. i can't even tell you the amount of relief that it provides me to know that i don't have to die the way that it's been described to me that my brain tumor would take me on its own. >> joining me now is barbara

daley, the director of clinical ethics at case medical center in cleveland. i'm glad you're here to talk about this. are you concerned about the message that this is sending to terminally ill patients or do you understand and sympathize with brittany's plight? >> you know, i think that all of us as we get closer to the end of our life, are likely to be thinking just as brittany is about the physical experience and also the -- what could we could call the existential part of the end of life or what's important us to. so i have a considerable sympathy for the struggle she's going through and the decision she's reached. >> i think it's hard for any of us to think about it. i look at the calendar. she has chosen this day of november 1st. that's three weeks from today. you think about what she will be doing on a daily basis leading up to this time. i'm certainly not alone in this, right? >> right. i think for any of us contemplating the end of our

life is always frightening and scary. this young woman has, i think, reached a period of peace in her mind and has focused on getting some meaning out of her last days. and i think she deserves a lot of respect for that. >> what are you learning about the public's view of self-imposed euthanasia as a result of all the publicity around this video? >> we know that since oregon passed their aid in dying law, which is now about 16 years ago, there's been a pretty steady increase in the public's view that being able to control the circumstances of your death and the experience is a fundamental human right. now, not everyone agrees with that, of course, and that's why the legislation hasn't always passed the first time states have tried it. but there's no question that the public is in growing support of this right. >> how about the medical

community? how is the medical community responding? >> well, there is an additional concern among all the health professions, i think, that participating in an explicit act that would hasten death may be contrary to the fundamental mission of health care providers to support life. but i would also say that that's not unanimous. many health care providers think that staying with patients and supporting their decisions and being with them at the end is in some ways the highest service we can provide them. so i think the health care professions are moving in the same direction as the public. >> how do you think brittany will affect the death with dignity conversation in medical schools and hospitals going forward? >> i think there's no question that her willingness to share with us her feelings and her beliefs and the struggles she went through as she came to this decision can only be helpful.

it's an excellent way to prompt discussions and particularly to help our young trainees start to think about their role in these situations. >> barbara daly, thank you for the conversation. >> thank you for having me. new details about that horrific case of hazing in new jersey are emerging while the prosecutor files charges. that's next. then the spill. now the scrub and the second guess. finally, the rewash. or you can make it easy and do the pop with tide pods. the first 3 in 1 laundry pack. it cleans, brightens, and removes stains in one step. tide pods one step to an amazing clean.

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[ garage door opening ] [ sighs ] honey, haven't i asked you to please use the -- we don't have a reception entrance. [ male announcer ] ship a pak via fedex express saver® for as low as $7.50. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." it's now 32 past the hour. seven high school students in new jersey are facing serious charges today as part of a hazing investigation of the school's football team. the students are all from sayreville war memorial high school. they range in age from 15 to 17. six of those seven were arrested last night. three are charged with aggravated sexual assault and criminal restraint. four others are charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact. earlier "sports illustrated" contributor greg handlin shared new details he's learned about the case. >> there are several incidents over the period of about ten days between september 19th and

september 29th. and this all sort of came to light a week ago from this past thursday when they canceled sayreville high school's football game. at that point, word got around the school -- a lot of what happened got around the school and people started to realize that this was some pretty serious, disturbing stuff. >> absolutely. the reality is for canceling the season, they figured somebody had to know what was going on. would that include any of the football coaches or the staff at the school? who was it that made the decision to cancel? >> the superintendent is the one that made the decision to cancel. which in light of what has just come out and what had previously been reported was obviously the correct decision. in terms of the culpability or the knowledge of any coaches or anything, that is still under investigation. it should be noted, though, that the coaches -- kind of the spatial configuration of the locker room and the coach's

office is the coaches are down about two hallways from the locker room. so there's really -- it's kind of the perfect storm almost for something like this to happen. >> so conceivably it could have happened without their knowledge. the past, is this alleged to have happened before? is it just this season? >> it's not alleged to have happened before to your knowledge now. but we'll see what comes out in the investigation. something like this -- obviously it's conceivable that this is behavior that has been passed down where -- who are now the senior perpetrators were once the freshmen victims. >> you mentioned seniors, in your article for "sports illustrated," you quote a high school senior who said, the media is gassing this up, you're messing with people's scholarships. it happens at all the schools. it's just that it happened to leak out. why don't you go to the next town over where the same thing's happening? you can write a report on that.

is this alleged hazing incident isolated for this school or is it happening at other schools? >> you would think it's pretty likely to be happening at other schools. in 1999, there was a study by alfred state university that said that 80% of college athletes have reported hazing, have been hazed. and of those, about 42% were also hazed in high school. >> that was part of my earlier conversation with "sports illustrated" columnist greg hanl hanlon. to help sayreville heal from all this, a community vigil is being planned for tomorrow night. as if the ebola virus wasn't enough to worry about, there's now concern about a flu shot shortage. already three children have died from the through in year. and nationwide, the vaccine supplies are running low just as the peak vaccination season kicks in, which means some people are just going to have to wait. while worries about ebola have dominated the headlines, the flu is much more serious in a practical way to our citizens. the cdc says in a good year, 3,000 people die from the flu

but in a severe season, 49,000 have died. let's bring in maggie fox, writer for nbcnews.com. how concerned should we be? how concerned are you about the reporting you've uncovered here? >> it is a little concerning that there is a bit of a flu vaccine shortage. i've talked to people at the american academy of pediatric and some pediatric infectious disease specialists. they say it's not too far behind. last year this time, there were ant 110 million doses available. right now, we're just under 100 million doses available. so while there are some spot shortages, the manufacturers think they're probably going to get up to what they should be within a few weeks. they say by the end of october, they should be where they want to be with the flu vaccine doses. and infectious disease specialists say really you have well into december and even january to get vaccinated against flu. flu season doesn't usually start kicking in till the end of

november, the beginning of december. and it hits its peak in north america in january. so as long as the manufacturing process is on schedule now, it should be all right. >> i want to point out that what we're concerned about is the injectable flu vaccine. that's in short supply. but the nasal mist, is that okay? >> that's okay. the flu mist that's skirted up your nose say they have plenty. that's only a small part of the market. the good news is there are seven different companies that make vaccines for the u.s. flu market now. only a couple of them have had trouble making some of the injectables. so the shortage isn't so much that there isn't enough of any vaccine at all. it might be just that you can't get the particular one that you want right now. and some of the pediatricians who can't use flu mist on kids are asthma are concerned they don't have the pediatric formulations they want. but the manufacturers tell the

that will be coming within the next few weeks. >> if someone in the high-risk category has to wait a few weeks for the vaccine, are doctors saying they have to do a lot of ha handwashing? >> handwashing protects you from norovirus, the vomiting disease that there's no vaccine against. it can protect you against rsv and the enterovirus. handwashing is a great idea to protect yourself from any kind of virus that's out there. >> maggie fox, many thanks. the 2014 alma awards. you know those two, eva longoria and mario lopez co-hosting the annual event. it aired live right here on msnbc. last night's winners including

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new reaction from inside the white house to criticism leveled against the president by his former defense secretary leon panetta. panetta criticizes the president in his new book for first leaning toward and then deciding against military action against syria for its use of chemical weapons. >> i really believe when you're commander in chief of the united states of america that when you lay down a red line, when you put our word on the line that if they use chemical weapons, that we will take action and they use chemical weapons and there are innocent men, women and children that are killed as a result of that, everybody confirmed that that was the case, that when that happens, we have an obligation, the president has an obligation to take action.

>> this new article by politico's author in which he says, quote, as a current senior administration official put it to politico magazine, there's concern within the administration that panetta is trying to rewrite history. let me bring in jonathan alter who's also the author of "the center holds, obama and his enemies." and with a welcome to you, your reaction to this? is leon panetta trying to rewrite history? >> when i looked at it for a piece i wrote this week for "the daily beast," my first reaction was this was really going to sting the obama white house and that these were very telling criticisms. but a couple of things have happened. first of all, he is apparently not giving the full story of the various policy debates and there's also -- there's a -- it's not the impropriety.

it's the sense that it's a little bit of an elbow to the ribs almost that is kind of undeserved. so it's not that the president has not made a series of mistakes. it's not that panetta isn't right on some particular issues. it's the sweeping nature of the judgments that he makes against the president saying that he, quote, lost his way, for instance. or saying that he won't fight for his ideas. now, it's true that in some cases, he hasn't fought enough for somebody like me, for his ideas. but to make that the kind of defining assessment of the obama presidency after he served him as first c.i.a. director and then defense secretary, he's a democrat. it's not like gates -- robert gates, where you could say, well, he's a republican. to make this the defining

nature, it's increasingly striking a lot of democrats as below the belt. >> a quote from the article, it talks about the white house. they don't want to address this, add more fuel to the fire, they just hope it goes away. is that true? do they want this story to go away? do you think it's going to? >> i think what they're worried about is that because panetta is a democrat and has immense stature inside washington -- >> look what he's done with the clinton administration, high position there is. >> what people are saying privately is that this the panetta basically showing that he's a clinton man and that he's getting himself not necessarily ready to serve hillary clinton because he'd be rather elderly after she becomes -- if she becomes president. but that he would be basically saying that he might have been in obama's administration as well as the clinton administration. but he's siding with the clintons.

so in some ways, this goes back to some bad blood from 2008 inside the democratic party between the clinton wing and the obama wing of the party. but people inside the white house are understandably really upset about this because it really can't be described as anything except disloyal. >> but this is not the only person throwing out this kind of criticism. the president is facing it -- you mentioned robert gates. we also have bill clinton. we also have former president jimmy carter. let's listen to what he had to say about all this. >> i notice that both of his secretaries of defense after they got out of office have been very critical of the lack of positive action on the part of the president, sometimes he draws red lines in the sand and when the time comes, he doesn't go through with it. >> i'm curious about the timing here. these are savvy democrats and they know that the midterm

elections are 24 days away. >> well, they're looking to history. they're not thinking about what they would consider to be petty politics. and that's okay. i think -- actually panetta convinced me in his book that the president not bombing syria after they crossed the red line on chemical weapons was a mistake because it's made it harder for him to put together the international coalition that he needs to fight isis. i thought he was also convincing in saying that the president should have fought harder for an agreement with the iraqi government to leave a residual force there that would have at least -- wouldn't have been boots on the ground in the old style but at least allowed us to have some pressure, some minimal pressure on the maliki regime to include more sunnis in his government. if he had done that, maybe isis wouldn't have spread as fast. no guarantee.

so these are legitimate areas of second-guessing the president. that's all fine. that's all kind of within we want for a vital debate p the issue is whether stigmatizing him as essentially a failure in the last couple of years is something that leon panetta, you know, as a democrat who was given the opportunity to serve should have done. and that's really what they're saying inside the white house. >> okay. we'll be back in just a few week and talk about your hat as executive of alpha house. can't wait for that. >> thanks a lot. why china may be the big winner from the war in iraq. that's next. plus buying america. china's financial life claims the waldorf astoria. vegetables!? no...soup!

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this week china had its coming out party at the waldorf

astoria. a chinese insurance company purchased it from hilton for $1.95 billion, the most ever paid for a hotel in the u.s. and largest chinese real estate investment. it marks a turning point. joining me now, james mann, author of the china fantasy and scholar and resident at johns hopki hopkins. he was previously a beijing correspondent. james, was this purchase any surprise to you and was it a good thing or good thing for the u.s.? >> it came on the ou out of the blue, so of course it was a sur prifs. on the other hand, china has been buying a lot of properties not just in the united states. europe, too. was it a good thing for the united states? you go back a couple of decades, there was a point when japan was buying large and symbolic properties in the united states, including rockefeller center

where you're sitting now. and there was no long term harmful effect. nbc thrived. but on the other hand, you have to ask yourself why did the chinese have so much money to spend. and that's the result of fairly mercantilist trade practices over the last 20 years that have enabled them to get quite wealthy. and you also have to ask the insurance company that is buying the waldorf has all kinds of family ties to the chinese leadership. >> and i'm curious, because as you mentioned, this isn't the only big trophy building. you also have here in morning the chase manhattan plaza, atlantic yards project, general motors building. so i use the word trophy there. are these trophy purchases or it do the chinese investors do these as smart buys? >> they view them as smart buys

do the chinese investors do these as smart buys? >> they view them as smart buys do the chinese investors do these as smart buys? >> they view them as smart buyso the chinese investors do these as smart buys? >> they view them as smart buys. the japanese 20 years ago were buying at the top of the market and found themselves in trouble because of it. but i'd say this is a good investment. >> africa, chinese investment, that has increased by 2,000%. that far exceeds the u.s. and europe. what has that dominance bought them? >> it's bought them access to resources. chinese tend to be active in africa, in places that have lots of oil like angola or nigeria. and the chinese have sent an awful lot of their own personnel to africa. i think it's a growing concern to them because they, too, with large numbers of people in africa are worried about ebola. >> well, james mann, a very

interesting conversation. thank you very much for joining us. that is a wrach weekenould be week ends with alex witt. up next, betty nguyen. introducing the kohler touchless toilet. ♪ nineteen years ago, we thought, "wow, how is there no way to tell the good from the bad?" so we gave people the power of the review. and now angie's list is revolutionizing local service again. you can easily buy and schedule services from top-rated providers. conveniently stay up to date on progress. and effortlessly turn your photos into finished projects with our snapfix app. visit angieslist.com today. ♪ i have the worst cold with this runni better take something. dayquill cold and flu doesn't treat your runny nose.

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