i'm hari sreenivasan. because of wnet's american graduate day initiative, we are coming to you tonight from another studio in new york city. warplanes from the united states and allied nations struck islamic state fighters today in a town near the syria-turkey border. the jihadists have been battling kurdish forces there, causing hundreds of thousands of syrians to flee into turkey. two isis tanks reportedly were destroyed during today's allied bombings. but isis fighters later shelled the town, wounding several citizens. today, for the first time, british fighter jets flew missions over northern iraq. we'll have much more on the conflict in a moment. in hong kong today, police arrested several dozen pro- democracy demonstrators who had scaled a fence and occupied a plaza outside a government building. the week-long protests followed a ruling that the central government in beijing would have to approve all candidates seeking to become hong kong's chief executive. thousands of others gathered near the scene

from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening. thanks for joining us. secretary of state john kerry traveled today to cairo to try to enlist egypt's support in what the white house describes as america's war against the islamic state, also known as isil. egypt is the most populous country in the arab world. >> it will be our goal in every meeting that we have on the international basis, together, working to degrade and ultimately to defeat isil. >> sreenivasan: in his weekly radio address, president obama also emphasized the need to build an arab coalition to fight the extremist group, which has seized significant portions of syria and iraq. but the president cautioned: >> to meet a threat like this, we have to be smart, we have to use our power wisely, and we have to avoid the mistakes of the past. >> sreenivasan: the iraqi prime minister, haider al-abadi, said today that he has ordered the army to stop shelling populated areas held by the islamic state to help reduce civilian casualties. the group controls a number of iraqi cit

from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. this is pbs newshour weekend. >> sreenivasan: good evening, thanks for joining us. the united states has intensified its bombing campaign in iraq against fighters from the islamic state extremist group. the pentagon said the latest attacks occurred late last night on several militant positions near the haditha dam, about 175 miles from baghdad. at a news conference today, defense secretary chuck hagel explained the risks of extremists seizing or destroying the dam. >> the damage that would cause would be very significant and it would put a significant additional and big risk into the mix in iraq. >> sreenivasan: arab foreign ministers, meeting in cairo today, backed a resolution calling for action against the extremists in iraq. and several senior muslim clerics have now issued fatwas against the islamic state in an effort to stop young people from joining the radical group. that ceasefire announced friday in eastern ukraine is starting to come apart. violence erupted overnight near th

hari sreenivasan is off. the united states and its allies took new steps today to try to limit the islamic state's ability to fund itself. reportedly carrying out air strikes against refineries that the jihadists control in northeastern syria, near the city of raqqa. this, as a top obama administration official appeared on the sunday talk shows to explain the administration's approach toward defeating the militant islamic group. >> what we're not going to do is fall into the al-qaeda trap of sending hundreds of thousands of americans back. that's exactly what they want. they want to bog us down, tie us down, and bleed us. but house speaker john boehner insisted today that air power alone could not defeat these extremists. >> if nobody else will step up, would you recommend putting american boots on the ground? >> we have no choice. these are barbarians. they intend to kill us, and if we don't destroy them first, we're gonna pay the price. >> stewart: according to a new "wall street journal"/nbc news and annen

i'm hari sreenivasan. have a good night.captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> hi, i'm rick steves. thanks for joining us. to showcase the beauties of public television, we've put together a little festival of clips showing europe at play. in the next half hour, we'll experience festive europe. from prancing horses to well-trained sheepdogs to street parties in paris, it's hands-on travel today as europe embraces life with gusto, inspiring us to get the most out of our lives as well. our first festival is in spain. the festival of san fermin in pamplona is an example of how special events are well worth planning for, and h

i am hari sreenivasan.for watching. >> captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. (man) support for this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you! from american university in washington dc, best-selling author and financial expert, suze orman, answers critical questions about your money. tonight is all about you! the goal of money is for you to feel secure. the goal of money is for you to feel powerful. you have problems-- but here's the good news-- i have the solutions. (man) suze provides essential advice in... please welcome suze orman! [drums, guitar, & k

i'm hari sreenivasan. have a good night.captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ho! >> coming up next on "voces," the story of loreta velazquez, confederate soldier turned union spy. loreta is one of an estimated 1,000 women who secretly soldiered during the american civil war. [gunshot] her story is shrouded in mystery. who was she? why did she fight? and what made her so dangerous she has been erased for over a century? >> funding for this program was provided by these funders. and by the corporation for pu

i am hari sreenivasan.for watching. >> captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. narrator: "truly california" presented in association with... next on "truly california"... keehn: if the bay bridge was your canvas, what would you do on it? narrator: long overshadowed by the golden gate, some felt that the bay bridge was in need of a little bling. davis: we're all moths. you know, we all get this attraction to the light. narrator: artist leo villareal took inspiration from nature, technology, and alternate realities, and came up with a plan. critchett: the

from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, thanks for joining us. ukraine continues to be a flashpoint-- officials there say a navy vessel came under fire earlier today from pro-russian rebels on shore. but overnight, there was a rare moment of cooperation between russia and ukraine. in an exchange at the border, nine russian soldiers were swapped for 63 ukrainian soldiers. all this as the european union draws up tougher sanctions on russia. and the ukrainian port city of mariupol continued to brace for an attack from pro-russian fighters who have made advances in the area this week. while some residents of mariupol have fled, others have taken to the streets to demonstrate support for the ukrainian government. for the latest we are joined via skype from mariupol, ukraine by james marson of the wall street journal. journal, prisoner exchange is this a signal that tensions are easing? >> well it is seernl siren that the -- seernl a sign that the ukrainians, ground are saying is there have been a huge influx of russian fighters

from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening. thanks for joining us. in a major reversal, white house officials said today president obama will delay any executive action to reshape the nation's immigration system until after this november's mid-term elections. the president had pledged to act by the end of the summer. white house officials are now saying he will do so before the end of the year. the decision to delay the process is seen as an effort to help democrats in difficult reelection races. nearly 20% of women in the united states have been raped and nearly 44% have been the victims of some sort of sexual violence. this, according to a new report released yesterday by the centers for disease control, the c.d.c. the findings were based on a survey of 12,000 people conducted on both cell phones and landlines. the vast majority of the violence is reportedly perpetrated by past partners or acquaintances. a senate subcommittee, led by michigan democrat carl levin, has concluded that the i.r.s. inappropriately targeted tax- ex

from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. this is pbs newshour weekend. >> sreenivasan: good evening. thanks for joining us. british prime minister david cameron reacted with outrage today to the beheading by islamic state extremists of british aid worker david haines. >> they claim to do this in the name of islam. that is nonsense. islam is a religion of peace. they are not muslims, they are monsters. >> sreenivasan: appearing on the sunday talk shows, white house chief of staff denis mcdonough said the killing, the third of its kind documented on videotape in recent weeks, illustrates the brutality of the group. >> we were obviously painfully aware of their barbarity and their nefariousness even before this video, but this obviously underscores it yet again. >> sreenivasan: administration officials said today that american allies have offered to participate in airstrikes against islamic state fighters and expects some of them to volunteer ground troops to fight soon. those countries were not identified. but south carolina r

hari sreenivasan has the story. >> sreenivasan: cheers erupted at the indian space research organizationword that the satellite named mangalyaan, or mars craft, had swung into mars orbit. journalist pallava bagla was at mission control in bangalore, and spoke with us via google hangout. >> when it emerged from behind mars 12 minutes later and the signal came that the main rocket engine had its stopped firing, oh my god, i have never seen such happy faces in india. >> sreenivasan: india joined the u.s., the former soviet union, and the european union as the only ones to land a spacecraft on the red planet, or place one in orbit. prime minister narendra modi. >> history has been created today. we have dared to reach out into the unknown and have achieved the near impossible. >> sreenivasan: the indians pulled it off on the first try for just $75 million dollars less than it cost to make gravity, the oscar-winning blockbuster movie. but there have been debates over whether the money could be better spent in a country where millions live in wrenching poverty. >> at one end of the spectrum so

hari sreenivasan has more from our new york studios about this potential deal and the wider phenomenonsreenivasan: in the hit game minecraft players maneuver through a lego-like landscape, to build whatever they can imagine, or to battle monsters. as seen in this youtube video by the game's swedish creator mojang. >> yeah, it's very popular. >> sreenivasan: with more than 50 million copies sold since 2011, minecraft has even contributed to a trend of users simply watching others play online. >> why did i do that? >> sreenivasan: now, it's being widely reported that microsoft is in talks to buy mojang for more than $2 billion. the deal isn't a certainty, and would likely draw some criticism. markus persson, who came up with minecraft, has stressed the importance of smaller, independent developers like mojang. >> if you get a game from a big publisher, you kind of expect it to be something different, where on the other hand, because the indie scene has grown so much and you kind of know where that is, you look at it with different eyes and you can actually explore new game ideas and conc

hari sreenivasan, in our new york studios, turns to a well- known tech writer and columnist to find out. >> sreenivasan: joining me is david poge of yahoo tech. imagine without the sock puppets, the net neutrality debay. what is it? >> the idea that all internet traffic should be equivalent. it shouldn't matter whether you're netflix or a startup. the carriers of your internet signal, come cast or so on, should treat it all the same. just as if they can't presume that you will say on your phone call. all internet traffic is treated and charged the same. >> sreenivasan: that's the status quo. >> yes. the cable companies and like verizon and comcast say ne netfx is responsible of 30% of all data going on all pikes. there are no current rules specifying whether there's net neutrality. it's just always been. so let's put laws down. we'll say in general we're in favor of you will internet traffic equally. however, you the verizons and comcast, it's okay to make deals with the big providers and to charge them more for the right to have their data to go stutter-free and go faster. they want a

earlier this week, hari sreenivasan recorded a conversation in our new york studios about its origins sreenivasan: hackers who sell information under the collective name anonymous have been involved in cyber attraction on corporations to intelligence agencies to local governments even the "newshour" web site. we take a close look at anonymous how they incited online vigilantism. ahman now has a slogan, says we are legion. who are anonymous or how are they organized? >> anonymous is an international collection of hackers, protesters and geeks. fundamentally it's sort of a hard thing to wrap one's mind around because you think of organizations as being groups and groups who have leaders and they have committees and meetings, but, you know, anonymous is sometimes referred to as a hive, a swarm. it is somewhat chaotic. there are no real leaders. there are people who organize different actions at different points in time, but essentially, you know, what they've evolved over the past, you know, ten years or so from an organization that was mainly looking for what are called lulls, for kind

hari sreenivasan has more from our new york studios. >> sreenivasan: as the ray rice case cast a growingshadow, the n.f.l. last night called in former f.b.i. director robert mueller to investigate its handling of the situation. the announcement came amid new questions about when league officials first saw images made public this week by tmz sports of rice knocking out his then- fiance, last february. the associated press reported an unnamed law enforcement officer sent the video to the n.f.l. in april. in a voicemail at the time, a woman at a league office confirmed the video arrived and then said: "you're right. it's terrible." earlier wednesday, on cbs news, commissioner roger goodell had again maintained the n.f.l. never saw the video before monday when it became public. > we were not granted that. we were told that was not something we would have access to. on multiple occasions, we asked for it. and on multiple occasions we were told no. >> sreenivasan: but goodell's statements, and his overall handling of the rice matter, raised concerns yesterday even among some players around the

as part of the special broadcast that focused on education, hari sreenivasan led a conversation about importance of exposing children to books as infants and toddlers. here's an excerpt: >> why is oral reading so important to a young mind. >> it is so important because how much it really helps develop their brains. children receive that nurturing by being in their parent's lap, they learn early word and letter recognition. they learn what a book s they learn that books have a beginning, middle and end. they have positive associations with it, so when they start preschool or kindergarten or anything else, and the teacher pulls out a book, they say oh, it's a book. and they don't do what too many children do is to look at that and say oh my goodness what is that. so if we didn't have that y is it so hard to catch up? >> it's hard to catch up because the first thousand to 2,000 days of life are so critically important to children. the brain is much more plastic at that time. they really, all the skills we use in learning really are developed in those first five years of life so we need t

check your local listings and hari sreenivasan will be live tweeting with you throughout.hashtag: #afterfergusonpbs. >> woodruff: there were signs of hope to a peaceful resolution to the conflict in ukraine today. but as margaret warner reports, ukraine's prime minister has reservations. >> reporter: welltive calm prevails across much of eastern ukraine after months of heavy fighting that claimed more than 3,000 lives. ukrainian president petro poroshenko highlighted the turnabout yesterday. >> it is the first day in many, many weeks and months when ukrainians have not had a single person killed. >> warner: on september fifth, kiev signed a 12-step cease-fire blueprint with pro-russian separatists including steps to stop the shooting and grant granting more autonomy to ukraine's eastern regions. it also calls for a buffer zone. ukraine's military says it met with russian and separatist officers near donetsk today to outline it discuss the boundaries. but the russians denied being involved. they also denied backing the separatists' long offensive, nor sending russian troops

student reporting labs to submit questions for malala and when she visited new york recently, hari sreenivasan put them to her. >> sreenivasan: malala yousafzai first we're going to have you listen and react to some reporter questions. student reporting labs has generated these questions out in the field. >> hi. my name is emily. my question for you is when do you think your battle for education for all will finally be won? >> sreenivasan: she says when will your battle for education for all be won. you have a simple dream. when will that be accomplished? >> well, dreams do come true and in our history we have seen that 100 years ago women did not have the right to vote, but now they're able to vote and they have achieved this right. long ago people were struggling for the rights of black people, so that they can vote as well and they are respected in society. and it's getting better every day and now we see that there were dreams in the past and now they are becoming a reality. so i'm hopeful that the dreams which i have now to see every child going to school to see equal rights for women i t

hari sreenivasan fills in the picture from our new york studios. >> sreenivasan: joan rivers first wentthe yorkville endoscopy center on august 28th. but she suffered complications and was rushed by ambulance to mount sinai hospital that day. she never regained consciousness and died september fourth. it is still not clear what went wrong or what procedure she was undergoing and there are no allegations of wrongdoing. but the facility is the subject of a state investigation. it announced the departure today of its medical director and there are questions being asked about similar facilities. shannon pettypiece is covering this for bloomberg news and joins me now. what exactly is the type of facility ms. rivers was at? >> it's actually very common. there's more than 5,000 of these called ambulatory surgery centers. they're basically a free-standing surgery facility for outpatients only and they're typically owned by the doctors rather than a hospital. some of them are small, like the one ms. rivers was at with just a few doctors that focuses on one or two types of procedures like endosco

hari sreenivasan has the story from our new york studios. >> sreenivasan: to give you some sense of thepany's size, alibaba earned more last year than amazon and ebay combined. the company was founded 15 years ago and often described as combining elements of google, amazon and ebay into one web operation. the firm co-founded by a former teacher jack ma is now valued at more than $230 billion. shares opened with a frenzy today, nearly $94 each. yet for all of that, alibaba is hardly a household name in the u.s. to help fill in the picture, joined by david kirkpatrick, looking at how technology is changing business. he's also author of the facebook effect. so we've heard a little bit about alibaba. why is it so significant in opening today? >> well, i think the company was brilliantly market in the i.p.o. process and the first time a major chinese internet company has gone open in the united states. there's two other gigantic companies. jack ma the c.e.o. and founder you mentioned is a uniquely charismatic individual who generated enormous excitement among investors. >> sreenivasan: they

hari sreenivasan, in our new york studios, has more on the fallout. >> we made a mistake and we neededget this right. >> sreenivasan: the brothers who own the minnesota vikings sought to explain today why they've now benched adrian peterson indefinitely. zygi wilf said the star running back will stay off the active roster until felony child abuse charges in texas are resolved. >> our goal is to always make the decision we feel is right for minnesota vikings. and to be clear, we have a strong stance regarding the protection and welfare of children. and we want to be sure we get this right. >> sreenivasan: it was the latest twist in peterson's case. after his indictment became public on friday, the vikings held him out of sunday's game against new england and lost, 30 to seven. on monday, vikings general manager rick spielman announced he was being reinstated. >> based on the extensive information that we have right now and what we know about adrian not only as a person but what he has also done for this community, we believe he deserves to play while the legal process plays out. >> sree

hari sreenivasan has more. >> sreenivasan: the pacific remote islands marine preserve is farther from human settlement than any other u.s. territory. the president's expansion of the reserve today will close 490 thousand square miles of largely undisturbed ocean to commercial fishing and underwater mining. the area is home to thriving colonies of rare and endangered ocean life including a recently discovered species of whale. joining me now to talk about the significance of today's announcement is elliott norse. he is founder and chief scientist of the marine conservation institute. thanks for joining us. first off, what is in these waters? >> these waters are filled with marine life. they have extraordinary coral reefs, extraordinary because they are among the most pristine coral reefs on earth. they still have their big sharks. waters further from shore have large predators, including tunas of several species. they abound with sea birds, sea turtles. there's a species of whale there that was discovered within the waters of that monument just relatively a few years ago. it's full of

tonight, hari sreenivasan takes a closer look at how that region views the group and efforts led by theted states to stop it. >> sreenivasan: joining me now to explore that is the former jordanian prime minister. he's the author of "the second arab awakening and the battle for pluralism." robin wright has reported extensively on the arab world. she's a fellow at the woodrow wilson international center. and we're also joined by the direct you for the center of mideast studies. this week the obama administration has been laying out the case the try to drum up support for the u.s. plan against the islamic state. how much support is there in jordan where you are? >> there's a lot of support in jordan against, you know, isis. that does not mean, of course, again boots on the ground in the case of the jordanian, but it will mean a lot of intelligence support, a lot of logistical support, a lot of support that we've seen before when jordan cooperated with the americans against abu musab al-zarqawi and the predecessor of i.s. in iraq in 2007. you can expect much of that support again. >> sreeni