correspondence nick schifrin has been covering this war extensively so he joins me now. nick, quickly, they say this is a strategy about south asia. >> the only solution of afghanistan is a regional one and that means not only will the president announce some troop increases inside afghanistan but talk about a political solution to the problem that means engaging pakistan and inside of afghanistan trying to cackle comion go after the afghan economy, perhaps talk about a politically negotiated end with the taliban. the headline of course judy will be more troops to afghanistan. >> woodruff: nick schifrin. lets now turn to president trump at fort myer, virginia. . >> thank you very much, thank you. please be seated. vice president pence, secretary of state tillerson, members of the cabinet, general dunford, deputy secretary shannon and colonel dublin, most especially, thank you to the men and women of fort myer and every member of the united states military at home and abroad. we send our thoughts and prayers to the families of our brave sailors who are injured and lost aft

nick schifrin has our report. >> reporter: it was an alarminga way to wake up-- 6:00 a.m. on japan's hokkaido island, and the air raid sirens go off as a north korean missile flies unseen above. residents posted videos on social media, and received a text that was also displayed on computer screens: "please take refuge in a sturdy building or underground." never mind most japanese homes don't have a basement. >> ( translated ): they said "please get into a solid building," but we were thinkingi ours here would be gone in the first blast. >> reporter: the test shook a key u.s. ally, admitted japanese prime minister shinzo abe. >> ( translated ): the missile, which passed over our nation, represents the greatest and gravest threat to our nation, ever. it also is an egregious threat to the peace and stability of the asia pacific region. >> reporter: south korea's response was even more aggressive. the defense ministry released video of every step of a drill that it called a direct strike on north korea's leadership: a fleet of american-made f-15s flying two sorties and droppi

special correspondent nick schifrin tries to decode north korea's propag special correspondent nick schifrin decided to take a look. >> reporter: in his military's strategic forces h.q., a commander in chief studies his options. his generals reveal a plan to test fire missiles near the enemy's strategically important base. the target is on the wall-- the u.s.' anderson air force base on guam. the narrator promises quote enveloping fire. >> ( translated ): us imperialists put the noose around their necks due to their reckless military confrontations. >> reporter: that sounds ominous, but the sentence continues: >> this was the signal that he's dialing things back again. >> reporter: for 33 years robert carlin studied north korea for the u.s. government. he visited the country more than 25 times, and he says kim might be signaling he wants a diplomatic path. >> you can get distracted by language which really isn't important, and read right over what is significant, and how it's supposed to click together. are we in a period like that now? i hope so. >> reporter: often, the west focuses on nort

special correspondent nick schifrin begins our coverage. >> things will happen to them like they never thought possible. >> reporter: today president trump doubled down on his threats against north korea. >> i will tell you this north korea better get their act together or they're gonna be in trouble like few nations ever have been in trouble in this world. >> reporter: he met with his national security team in new jersey and disparaged a quarter century of what he called failed north korea negotiations. >> look at clinton. he folded on the negotiations. he was weak and ineffective. you look at what happened with bush, you look what happened with obama. obama-- he didn't even want to talk about it. >> reporter: meanwhile, on the streets of pyongyang, this is the season of steadfast support. tens of thousands of north koreans, scripted and staged, pledge allegiance to leader kim jong un as he faces off against what they call imperialist america. and the regime's mouthpiece, state tv, declared the president of the united states, reckless. >> ( translated ): sound dialogue is not possible

newshour special correspondent nick schifrin has this report. >> reporter: as visuals go, this is asvocative as this month's u.s.-south korea exercises get. four men with 15 stars in front of a patriot missile defense system in south korea. >> we have had the responsibility of providing military options to our national leaders. and exercises are a way of making sure the option is a ready option, a capable option, >> reporter: general vincent brooks is the u.s.' top commander in south korea. he is leading exercises that are almost entirely computer simulations, as seen here in the 2013 version. it doesn't look like much, but the exercises allow the u.s. and south korea militaries to test their communication in case of war. >> command, and being in readiness to fight tonight if we have to, is what we do. >> reporter: but exercises the u.s. calls defensive north korea calls provocative. today state tv showed a smiling kim jong un ordering the production of more rocket warheads and engines. and a not so subtle hint on the poster that north korea is developing a new missile design. north

special correspondent nick schifrin reports. >> reporter: this weekend on the neva river in st.ersburg, russia celebrated its global naval ambitions. president putin hailed thousands of russian sailors lined up on ships and submarines. he said his hopes for a revamped, reenergized navy had been realized. and he admitted his hopes for a better relationship with the united states, had been dashed. >> ( translated ): we had hoped that the situation will somehow change, but apparently if it changes, it won't be soon. >> reporter: on friday, the russian government ordered the closure of this u.s. embassy moscow storage facility. today, american workers packed it up. the russian government also ordered the closure of this country home used by u.s. diplomats, and an unprecedented, even stunning reduction in us staff, from more than 1,300 to 455. putin said he hoped he wouldn't have to deliver further punishment. >> ( translated ): we certainly have something to respond with and restrict those areas of joint cooperation that will be painful for the american side, but i don't think we ne

special correspondent nick schifrin reports from istanbul. >> reporter: 39-year-old aynur barkin hasg been a proud member of turkey's opposition. she's always known her activism carried risks, but she never anticipated being labeled an enemy of the state. >> ( translated ): they want us to teach the way they like. they want us to dress the way they like. they want us to obey them wherever we go. and we say, no. we have our own identities and values that we believe in. we believe in democracy. >> reporter: for the last 15 years, she's been a third grade teacher, the kind who takes selfies with her eight- year-olds. but she's also a self-described leftist who's opposed the government's education policies. and one day in february, she looked online and learned she had lost her job. >> ( translated ): they do not take your statement or give any notice. there was just one sentence that read, "they might be in contact with terrorist groups." might. they do not have conclusive evidence. it's all hearsay. >> reporter: she and these other fired teachers lost their jobs because the government

nick schifrin begins our coverage. >> reporter: today, in the birthplace of the taliban, afghan president ashraf ghani praised president trump's decision to deploy more u.s. troops without an end date. >> ( translated ): from now on, there will not be any timetable or conditions. america will stand with the afghan nation till the end. >> reporter: afghan chief executive abdullah abdullah, who came to prominence fighting the taliban, said the new strategy should serve as a warning. >> the message is very clear: that if there are groups that they think that they can win militarily, they should give up their thinking. >> reporter: but afghan officials say that statement also applies to u.s. the u.s has been targeting the taliban for 16 years, and the 4,000 or so troops that will newly deploy is a fraction of the 100,000 troops who didn't break the taliban's back during the war's peak. ( gunfire ) so u.s. officials say most of the new u.s. troops won't be firing their own weapons, but teaching afghans how to fire theirs. that's a mission nato trainers have been doing since the war began, like

special correspondent nick schifrin starts our coverage. >> reporter: in afghanistan this weekend, anious country celebrated its independence day. security was extremely tight. the government controls only half the country. over the last couple years, violence has increased, stability has decreased. and the afghan government says it still needs the united states. >> hopefully there is one day we will be a good partner without having any troops in afghanistan. but for the time being, it is necessary. >> reporter: mirwais yasini is the first deputy speaker of afghanistan's lower parliament. in 2009, he ran for afghan president. he speaks for many here when he asks president trump to increase us troops. >> we would like to have a steady and continuous war against isis particularly, and taliban. ambiguity is costing us. and we are paying, and international security is paying, the prices for the delay of the strategy which is coming out of the white house. >> reporter: for months, the trump administration's been debating its policy. now-fired senior advisor steve bannon advocated withdrawa

special correspondent nick schifrin starts us off. >> reporter: the u.s.itary calls guam the tip of its pacific spear, and today it showed off bombers that carry more conventional weapons than any other american plane. from guam, b-1 bombers can reach north korea in only a few hours. >> that's what this continuous bomber presence does. it assures our allies and deters our adversaries. >> reporter: the military wouldn't detail the bombers' mission, but the message was clear, as president trump tweeted this morning: "military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should north korea act unwisely. hopefully kim jong-un will find another path!" he continued his warning late this afternoon. >> i hope that they are going to fully understand the gravity of what i said. and what i said is what i mean. if he does anything with respect to guam, or anyplace else that's an american territory, or an american ally, he will truly regret it, and he will regret it fast. >> reporter: on guam, authorities are taking no chances. they distributed a fact sheet in

we go to special correspondent nick schifrin for more. >> reporter: joining me now is mike elleman.s a senior fellow for missile defense at the international institute for strategic studies and a former consultant to the pentagon. and melissa hanham is a senior research associate at the james martin center for nonproliferation studies at the middlebury institute. thank you both for being here. mike, let's start with you because you wrote the paper. you come out with a notion that north korea has advanced from middle-range missiles to icbms fast than any country has and your notion is they got technology, they stole the technology, specifically, from eastern ukraine. what's the evidence? >> the enjing they are using for the longer-range missiles has an appearance that's very similar to a well-known engine family that originates in russia and ukraine, and i've talked with sources that are -- that have been to some facilities in ukraine and n the recent time, and they've seen the modifications that would have to be made from this existing engine of russian-ukrainian heritage to the one

for a closer look at both, we're joined by our own lisa desjardins and nick schifrin. we become both of. so, lisa, to you first. there does seem to be bipartisanship break out gee, that's right, the death of a partisan-led has led to the birth of bipartisanship in both came bers. in the the house, we saw a group of 40 members, called the problem solvers caucus, propose a health care compromise to stabilize the markets, essentially add more funds, but also limit the mandate on employers so fewer businesses would actually have to pay for insurance for their employees. that's the house. on the senate side, judy, the entire ball game rests with senator lamar alexander of tennessee, the chairman of the health committee, and his democratic ranking member, patty murray. talked to both of their staffs today. the efforts on both sides, judy, are narrowly tailored on stabilization. >> woodruff: if they were not to agree what would that mean for these insurance markets and for the cost of premiums? >> that's right, for all of us, and especially those on the individual market. we

plus, nick schifrin reports on a controversial new law in russia that decriminalizes some forms of domesticlence. throughout the weekend, stay with us. we'll be tracking harvey online at www.pbs.org/newshour. and we'll have the latest, right here on monday. that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs. >> rose: welcome to the program. it is the end of the summer. as we prepare for the next season.