Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20131231

To the fight against cancer. And mounting concerns over Climate Change. We reached this kind of unfortunate milestone, 400 parts per million of car done carbon dioxide. And that number is something this planet has not seen in millions of years, not in recorded history. Sreenivasan those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan the death toll reached 31 today in the russian city of volgograd, after the second suicide bombing in as many days. The first came sunday at the citys main train station. The attacks raised new security concerns, just over a month before russia plays host to the Winter Olympics. Well hear more on the bombings and olympic security after this news summary. East african nations have agreed to defeat a rebel leader in south sudan, if he rejects a ceasefire. The president of uganda delivered that message during a visit to south sudan today. He said neighboring states gave rebel leader riek machar four days to respond or face a wider conflict. Meanwhile, the u. N. Estimated today that up to 180,000 people have been displaced since ethnic clashes began in middecember. At least 1,000 others have died. New trouble erupted in congo today. The state television station, airport and main military base in the capital city, all came under attack. A government spokesman in kinshasa said the attackers were armed with machetes, sticks and other weapons, but they were driven back by government troops. The government calls the population the victim of this terrorist attack because there were so few attacks and weapons, we think their purpose was to terrorize the people on the eve of new years eve celebrations which are very important in our culture. Sreenivasan the government said the attackers were followers of a selfstyled evangelical prophet. The assault touched off gun battles that left at least 40 people dead. In western iraq, police tore down a sunni protest camp today after protesters agreed to end their monthslong demonstration. The camp was in ramadi, in anbar province. Sunnis erected it to protest what they see as discrimination by the shiite led government. Meanwhile, clashes near the sit in site today left ten people dead, including gunmen and three policemen. The government of afghanistan is rejecting a u. S. Intelligence finding that many of the gains there could be lost by 2017. In kabul today, a spokesman for President Hamid karzai called the assessment baseless. The National Intelligence estimate is the work of 16 u. S. Agencies. It also says afghanistan could descend into outright chaos if theres no agreement to keep some u. S. Troops beyond 2014. The latest attempt to reach a russian ship trapped in Antarctic Ice was called off today, in the face of a blizzard. An australian icebreaker had been sent in to rescue 74 people whove been stuck on board the russian vessel for a week. The icebreaker was ordered to turn back due to poor visibility. The icebreaker plans to resume its mission as soon as the weather improves. The teenager who attacked a denverarea high school meant to claim many more victims than he did. Authorities gave that assessment of 18yearold karl pierson at a News Conference today. Pierson opened fire at Arapahoe County high school on december 13. He shot one student, who later died of her wounds, before killing himself. The sheriff says pierson had a 12gauge shotgun, three molotov cocktails, and more than 125 rounds of ammunition. His intent was to use as many of those rounds as he possibly could. And use the molotov cocktails in the most destructive manner that he was able to do. He was bent on evil. And he was bent on causing the largest amount of harm to the largest number of people that he could sreenivasan the sheriff says pierson got in through a door that was frequently propped open. Six states have been chosen to develop test sites for unmanned, commercial drones. The federal Aviation Administration announced today its chosen alaska, nevada, new york, north dakota, texas and virginia. Theyll Host Research sites and try to develop operational guidelines over the next two years. The f. A. A. Projects 7,500 commercial drones could be flying over the u. S. Within five years after gaining widespread access to the air. Wall street was relatively quiet on this nexttolast trading day of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial average rose nearly 26 points to close at 16,504. The nasdaq fell two points to close at 4,154. Still to come on the newshour two bombings in two days for one russian city; how the Nuclear Talks are playing inside iran; the fight in hawaii over genetically modified seeds; miles obrien on the years big science news. Plus, what the 2012 election tells about 2014 and politics moving forward. Sreenivasan now back to russia, where a pair of bombings have rocked a city in the countrys southeast this week. No one has claimed responsibility in the attacks and there are worries that they may intensify as the start of the socci winter Olympic Games comes closer. Bomb technicians and investigators in volgograd combed through the charred remains of a trolleycar. Hours after a suicide bomb packed with shrapnel ripped it apart during monday morning rush hour. translated i heard it, i live here in the courtyard, i had just started the engine of my car. And i noticed that my wheel was flat. I went out and felt the blast. The ground was shaking, and the windows of the car were shaking. I thought at first that maybe it was a tire exploded or sreenivasan a day earlier, a woman blew herself up at volgograds main railway station, killing 17 people. Closed Circuit Television captured the moment of detonation outside and inside the station. Today, russias main Investigative Agency said the two bombs were similar, and likely the work of the same group. translated according to preliminary information, the explosive device on the trolley bus was at least the equivalent like the explosive device at the train station, it was stuffed with shrapnel and because the shrapnel was identical in both explosive devices, this confirms to the investigators that the two terrorist acts were connected. Sreenivasan a state of emergency has now been imposed in volgograd and authorities have stepped up security at train stations across russia. translated i want to stress that because of these events according to the decision all departments were put under a regime of high alert across the whole country. Sreenivasan volgograd was also hit last october by a bus bombing captured on video that killed six. The Southern City is the former stalingrad, and a key transportation hub for russias restive north caucasus. The region includes dagestan and chechnya, where muslim separatists have long sought independence. The city is also about 400 miles northeast of sochi, where the Winter Olympics will be held in less than six weeks. Last july, Chechen Rebel leader doku umarov threatened to strike civilian targets across russia, including at sochi. The government has employed extraordinary measures, including the use of elite forces, to protect the winter games. But after two bombings in two days, some in volgograd have their doubts. translated i think that of the people standing here, no one would tell you that they feel safe. A lot has been promised, but little has been done. Its clear, everyone can see it. Even so, the head of the Russian Olympic Committee voiced confidence today. He said, everything necessary has already been done. Joining me now to discuss who might be behind the attacks, and the security situation surrounding the upcoming Olympic Games are andrew weiss, a director for russian, ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs on the National Security Council Staff during the clinton and george h. W. Bush administrations. Hes now a Vice President at the Carnegie Endowment for international peace. And Brian Jenkins has been a Security Consultant for major sporting events including the olympics and the world cup. Hes a terrorism expert and Senior Adviser at the rand corporation. I want to start with you. What organization could be behind these attacks . You were also telling me that perhaps yesterdays bomber wasnt a woman, there is more information coming out. Everything we know right now is very fragmentary. The accounts sub that the bomber from sundays attack on the train station is a russian, ethnic russian convert to islam who comes from the russian heartland who moved to the dagestan region to join the fighters there. At this point there is no information about who is responsible for the trolley bus attack earlier today. So Brian Jenkins i want to ask, when we think about these large sort of events like the olympics and some event like this proceeding that, how does russia prepare for it . Well, security has become an extremely important part of olympic planning, ever since the munich attack in 1972. And security has come to really be a dominant issue. We saw enormous security for the beijing olympics and in 2008 and for the london olympics in 2012. By now all of the security measures would have been in place in sochi. Those would include measures to protect the actual venues, the sitesofthe events themselves, measures in place to protect the participants in those events, both the athletes and the officials, as well as measures to protect the spectators who will be coming to view the events. Andrew, if all of this emphasis has been on sochi, does that leave the rest of russian russia unprotected and possibly targets for i guess insurgents. I think there is no doubt that the russian can do good site security k protect important targets, there is no doubt there a Strong Security presence but you go to any major russian train station, there were machines set up to scan your luggage, people just breeze past, i have never had to put my bags in recent memory on those kinds of scanning devices, so i think the country abounds in soft targets. I think the rebel groups that are interested in embarrassing the regime ahead of the Olympic Games are likely to be looking for places where the security presence is either poor or minimal. So Brian Jenkins i have to ask, russia has been dealing with this sort of low level insurgency for years now, why havent they been able to stamp it out . Well, you know, the conflicts in the caucuses go aback centuries h shall this is a long narrative of an area that has been conquered by but never entirely pacified by russia. What we saw recently are two nasty wars. That has, that has activated an increasingly islamist character of the insurgency itself stamping out a group like this, it takes often takes decades. We do see examples around the world where terrorists campaigns have gone on for scores of years. Andrew weiss, the timing of this there is clearly a point to this. This is something that some of the opposition have been saying out loud. We are planning to attack something near sochi if not sochi but theyre making a statement just by the timing of this, right. I think the timing is dreadful. The russian public are on their way to the biggest holiday of the year which is new years, to create an atmosphere of panic throughout the russian body politic is a big deal. If you went to moscow would you have seen strations being evacuated, random searches, it created a sense to people there is a real threat, a live threat and authorities will be struggling to head it off. So Brian Jenkins considering that the eyes of the world are going to be on sochi, what sorts of measures have the russians taken . There have been reports that they have essentially almost sealed off the city or they will seal off the city almost a month before the games. Well, that is certainly their goal. They are going to try to turn the entire city of sochi into the security equivalent of ben gurin airport in tel aviv. And so there will be multiple checks, something thats new at this olympics that we havent seen before are the credentialingly of the spectators themselves h that is people who buy tickets go online to buy these tickets, receive a credential and that will become a way of verifying their identity at the entry to each one of the each one of the venues. In addition they have introduced a system that will enable them to monitor every telephone call, every email message, every form of electronic conversation, Electronic Communications in sochi will be not only monitors but they will have the ability to intervene and modify the messages themselves. Beyond that, though, i mean look, you can defend a piece of territory, protect a piece of territory for a period of time. But if the terrorists have virtually unlimited targets across russia, what youre concerned about is either that there are people already in sochi that have already infiltrated, and there are prepositioned weapons or devices in sochi, and the russians have reported that they have busted up some plots where there have been prepositioned material, at least close to sochi, or you worry about an attack that will be concurrent to the olympics but in another part of the country, but that nonetheless will cause embarrassment. One of the greatest concerns is that we will see Something Like a nairobi Shopping Mall attack or a more ambitiously a mumbai attack or like some of the major hostage seizures that weve seen carried out by the chechens before, with demands to suspend the olympics. So andrew, how much do the politics of vladimir puttin and his tactics now play into this situation . I think the russian tactical playbook has been consist enover the past 15 years. In the case of chechnya they pacified that country with the aid of a local war lord. So they basically said anyone who is religiously on serve ant who is not fitting the standard profile of a peaceful citizen, are you in our sights. In dagestan they have a total mess on their hands, where you have a conflict with three or four layers there is tremendous youth unemployment, radicallization, there is a fight in terms of two different strains of islam, and a very heavyhanded security response. So in many ways the russians have created this problem, they have found no solution to fix it. Andrew weises from the Carnegie Endowment of peace, brian yen kins, thank so sos jenkins thanks so much for your time. Sreenivasan iran, the United States and other world powers met today in geneva to hash out the practical details of the deal signed last month, which suspends key elements of the islamic states Nuclear Program in exchange for limited sanctions relief. Much has been reported about objections to the deal and threats of new sanctions by some in the u. S. And some american allies. Much less is known about how the interim agreement and prospects for a full agreement are playing inside iran. Tonight, Jeffrey Brown takes a closer look at that side of the story. Brown david ignatius, Foreign Affairs columnist for the washington post, recently returned from a reporting trip to iran, where he looked at perceptions and opinions surrounding the countrys negotiations with the west. He joins me now. Welcome back. Thank you. Brown you saw a lively debate within iran about this deal. Explain what you saw and how did the sides divide. I was in iran for four days, not a long time so i dont want to pretend that i have any kind of comprehensive view. But i did manage to see representatives of the most pragmatic, pro negotiation wing, the foreign minister zarif and one of the hardest line people close to the Supreme Leader, a man name the hughes ann maduri who was the editor of the big conservative newspaper. These two spoke about the negotiations over the Nuclear Issue with the United States and other countries in such different terms. And what was fascinating to me was the pragmatist zarif and the hardliner maduri each spoke as if they were talking for the Supreme Leader. Both. Brown they dote both cannot be true. And so i had a sense, some of this im sure is a show for the west, you know, the two factions, it is a classic negotiating techniquement but i think there are real and fundamental differences. Brown you reported that some hardliners believe that zarif even misrepresented the enrichment part of the deal to comaini. I was told that specifically by the hard line editor who said to me when i asked him why did you agree to the interim deal if you think it is such a bad idea. Said well the foreign minister zarif called president rouhani, the new president , in the middle of the night from geneva an gave him an account of what was in the deal. And he on that basis wrote a letter to the Supreme Leader chomeini and he then said this gentleman was not correct in what he said. Specifically on the question of whether the deal provides iran with a right tone rich uranium as it has always claimed it must have for any deal. And the hardliner said this deal does not provide us with the right to enrich. I thought as i listened to this that he was perhaps laying the ground for the Ayatollah Khomeini eventually if he decides iran has not got what he wants to renounce the interim deal and say it was misrepresented to me by the foreign minister. Brown president rouhani of course got a lot of for taking far more conciliatory views and statements than his predecessor. But the question that you are raising, for policymakers is how strong still is this hard line faction. I think theres no way for any of us to know. I asked this hard line person close to the Supreme Leader, do you think compromise with the west is possible on the nuclear deal. And he answered directly, no, i dont think it is. I think this is a matter of identity. We dont know if the Supreme Leader himself believes that, clearly rouhani the president doesnt. He authorized these negotiations, he told me back in september when i interviewed him in new york at the u. N. General assembly he thought this interim deal could be done in three months. It was done even more quickly, i thought at the time it couldnt possibly be so. So i think he sees that ending sanctions, getting iran out from under this cloud is in the countrys interest. Whether he can pull the hardliners and the revolutionary guard with him we dont know. What about popular opinion and how easy or difficult it is to gauge. You write about what you call a fat agency in the country. Again, i was there for a short time. I dont want to overstate what i know. But certainly you sense a kind of shadow hanging over iran. This is a country that is on the verge of being china like developing economy, growing very rapidly. I talked to four different economists who talked about 10 growth rates being possible in the future. I met iranian scientists who had ideas for new companies and products. If the sanctions if the sanctions are off. This is impossible unless sanctions are lifted. So there is a country that sees this incredibly promising future but wont get there unless it can make a nuclear deal to take sanctions awayment so we talk about crippling sanctions. I have to tell you honestly, driving around tehran, talking to people, going to business establishments, you dont sense that this is an economy that is crippled. Its functioning, as people are doing business. What is crippled is its future, is the opportunity that iran has to be the kind of country it wants, that it can be in terms of human capital. You used a colourful line which was tear ran seemed a city caught somewhere between pyongyang and los angeles. Well, its a strange feeling. In many ways you are reminded of los angeles in tehran, it looks similar, its built against a mountain t was winter so it was clear but usually smog hangs over the city. Tehrannians are freewheeling people like americans, it is a very cultured country. The worst thing an iran can why say about another is this person is uncultivated. At the same time that its modern and westernlike, it has an authoritarian clerical regime that does make you think of north korea where you feel this lid on the country, on its people, on its future. And it that sense of being between what they are and what they might be is the strongest feeling i took away. Brown very briefly,so in the meantime negotiations restart even today on technical issues. So what is next . So what is next is working out the details of whether iran will make an offer for a comprehensive deal, and the view of the United States and its negotiating parrer in thes reverses the Nuclear Program so that iran shows the world that it will be a Peaceful Nuclear power only it will have civilian Nuclear Energy only. And theyre going to have to offer quite a lot. They will have to shut down a lotofsubterfuges, they will probably have to close their heavy water reactor for that deal to be acceptable. David ignatius of the washington post, thanks so much. Thanks. Sreenivasan next, to a very different debate, this one over corn. The midwests amber waves of grain now frequently get their start from seeds grown on the islands of hawaii. But there are increasing questions around how they are produced. Thats the subject of one of the signature pieces from the newshour weekend program. We are featuring them this holiday season. This report is by newshour correspondent megan thompson. The Hawaiian Island of kuai is known as the gard enaisle, luring 100 of thousands of tourists to its lush northern shores. But fewer make it down to the dryer southwest side home to native hawaiians who lived here for generations an where farming has always been a way of life. Today these fields are home to large Biotech Companies developing hawaiian biggest agriculture product, seeds, genetically modified seeds, misly corn, to be shipped back and grown on the mainland. Those fields behind me belong to pioneer one of the Big Seed Companies here in kuai the. The reveiling winds below out of the northeast and the residents say when those winds blow they bring dust and pesticides from these fields down into their neighborhoods and homes. And some believe that is making their children sick. In 2007 i gave birth to my son. And within a day we realized he was seizing and we found that his brain had hemorrhaged and he lost the whole entire right frontal lobe. Sixyearold still has frequent seizures arc cording to his mother. After consulting with i pediatric neurologist and blood specialist, she now wonders if all her sons problems were caused by the location of their home in the valley just below the fields. The only thing i could think of is i lived here the whole time im pregnant and im getting this drift of dust constantly with pesticides. You dont know for sure what the cause was of your sons illness. No. And thats scary to me. And i cant know for sure because theyre not disclosing anything to us. A battle has erupted here over the seed farms. More than 150 residents have sued pioneer. Though pioneer declined to comment on the litigation, the families allege that dust and pesticides contaminated their homes. Theyre also seeking damages for lost property value. Thousands of others on the island demonstrated. This public hearing is called to order. Reporter and packed county Council Hearings in support of a bill imposing new reels on the seed growers. It creates buffer zones around the fields and forces the companies to disclose what pesticides theyre using, when theyre spraying, and how much. Several local doctors have expressed support for the legislation citing Serious Health concerns. There is a strong anecdotal evidence that there is a statistically significant difference in the incidence of cancer and birth defects. One pediatrician wrote in an email that he observed rare Heart Defects in babies ten times the National Average but says years of research would be needed to establish the cause. Its really quite simple. Tell us what you are spraying, what you are growing, then let us do a study to determine whether people really are getting sick. Local politician gary hooser introduced the bill. He got involved in 2008 after a noxious odor sent several children and a teacher at a school next to one of the fields to the emergency room. Complaining of dizziness and nausea. This is serious, serious stuff that deserves our attention, it deserves to be dealt with now. Reporter the seed company an their employees can not enforce to fight the bill. We are good people and we do the right thing. Reporter the company said they follow government guidelines on pesticide spraying. And that revealing their farming practices could make them less competitive. Whats more, some of the largest employers on the west side, they said the other requirements could threaten the operations and the hundreds of jobs they provide. Most people on the west side is employed by the seed company. We all live as a community, you know. The four Biotech Companies only lease more than 123,000 12,000 acres close to 20 of the island use willable farm land. Their fields dump up by towns. Seeds are big business in the state of hawaii valued at more than 240 million a year. More than triple the second largest commodity sugar. Mark philipson works for si singenta and president of a seed trade group. Which represents the four companies. The reason that were here is the weather. There is no winter. Were here 365 days a year so we can get three crops a year whereas if we do this research or production on the mainland we would get one crop per year. So something that would take ten to 12 years to develop we can do here in 3 to 4 years. Philipson says Seed Companies have developed better and stronger plants. Genetically modified to withstand drought and pests. Today almost 90 of the corn grown in the United States is genetically modified. And according to one Industry Study since 1996, the technology has brought an economic benefit of more than 24 billion to americas farmers. This is a row of corn and you can see there is a lot of damage here to the ear. That is all from an ear worm. This is the same line, same exact line of corn but it has got our terra traits in it and you can see there is no ear damage at all to this ear, its beautiful. Reporter even though the Seed Companies are only growing crops for research purposes, they still use conventional farming methods, that includes the that includes the application of restricted use pesticides, chemicals regulated by the epa that can only be handled by people with a special licence. We follow all the federal and state guidelines on Pesticide Use and those guidelines are very strict and theyre monitored. Were very careful in how we apply the pesticides. We measure wind direction, wind speed. It is not any advantage for us to have things drift out anywhere. Reporter because of a new state registry on pesticide sales and the lawsuit against pioneer, some information on whats being sprayed has started to come out. But the Seed Companies which invest billions of dollars in research and development had been largely reluctant to share more specifics. Are any of you willing to disclose that amount. So i will take the silence as a no. The people in the community here have been asking for a few years now to know what pesticides are being sprayed by the Seed Companies here, how much when, where. Why has that information not been disclosed . The reason is not some of theres trade secrets but its more of competitiveness, fastest of the Pesticide Use would probably tell me the ingredients that you are using that i might not be using. We each represent a unique company that has a product and a competitive marketplace. Theres a lot of people in this community who say that theyre getting sick. And they think it might be the pesticides. What dow say to that . Probably the first people in the community that would get sick would be our workers. And theres no indication of that. Philipson also points to a recent study by the Hawaii Department of health showing cancer rates are no higher there than in other parts of the state. And other tests showing air and water samples to be safe. But critics accuse the companies of not following spraying guidelines closely enough. Attorneys in the pioneer lawsuit say this video they shot shows pesticides blowing off a field near town. An even though many of the pesticides are the same ones used by farmers in the midwest, for example, critics point out theyre being applied during more months of the year here. How you can tell me i dont have a right to know what theyre spraying. And thats why some residents including local doctors like rick gooding believes more research is needed. The thing about the physicians is we want to be very careful and i think some of them are afraid to say anything because theyre afraid to be perceived as saying theyre spraying and therefore this is happening. Im not saying that. I dont know any physicians that are saying that. What were saying is theyre spraying and we have some problems. Can we find out more about what theyre spraying and can we look at the possibility as to whether its got an effect on some of the Significant Health problems we have in the community. Even though that bill requiring the Seed Companies to create buffer zones and disclose their spraying was passed in midoctober, at least one seed company said its exploring Legal Options to block the legislation. So it could be a long time before these residents get all the information that theyre looking for. Brown since our report sreenivasan since our report first aired, the kauai mayor vetoed the pesticide bill. But the county council came back with a vote to override that veto, and the bill is set to become law. Several other hawaii counties have followed kauais lead and have also passed or presented similar legislation for genetically modified farming and Pesticide Use. Now to a wrap up of progress and potential pitfalls in the world of science. Before she left for vacation, Judy Woodruff recorded our conversation. It was a year when concerns over energy and rising levels of greenhousegas emissions moved front and center again, Domestic Oil Production reached record high levels. But due in no small part to drilling techniques have that raised worries and anger over possible consequences. It came as the u. N. Reported another milestone, scientists said that Global Carbon dioxide levels reached their highest levels in recorded history. This was also the year that researchers said they are finding ways to get the bodys immune system to attack cancers in small numbers of patients. The newshour science correspondent miles obrien is here and he fills out the picture, miles. Its good to have you with us. Good to be here. Warner so the First Development you highlight, the Energy Revolution is kind of remarkable because it seems like just yesterday policymakers worried about needing more oil, needing the import oil but the picture has changed. Its breathtaking how quickly things can change. What we are talking about is Energy Independence in the next few years. But 2015 the experts say the u. S. Will be the Largest Energy producer in the world. I mean when you think of what we want through in the 70s in this country, thats a taggering statement and this all goes to the root of hydraulic track turing which has been around fracturing, which has matured to the point where it is deriving tremendous output for u. S. Sources. And it has an affect on the lives of ode people. It does. You know, it goes acrosstheboard when you think of the economic implications, theres talk of a manufacturing renaissance in this ri . It changes geo politics in a significant way, does the pentagon need to defend the strait of hormuz like it once did. It cuts across a lot of things, there is a lot of potential upside but as you well know there is a big downside. And were hearing more about that. The environmental concern. Well, there is a flip side to all this. You know, all this, the upside talking about the economy is one thing. But when you consider the environmental impact, there is a lot to think about. An this year scientists released a study which definitively linked a series of earthquakes in youngstown, ohio, to hydraulic fracturing, that is the first time those dots have been connected in this way. Intuitively you would think well when you think about the process, drilling down and horizontally, injecting water and sand and other chemicals in order to pull the natural gas and the oil out, you would stand to reason that this might cause earthquakes. But this is a concern when you think about that potential and also Water Quality issues and general concern about the environment that goes along with all this. And then couple that with the fact that a lot of people who are very concerned about Climate Change see this as kicking down that kicking the can down the road on moving toward renewables. If fossil fuels are that readily available, that inexpensive and that plentiful in this country, the move towards solar energy, the move toward alternatives that would get news a situation where we were hastening the climb at change problem gets moved down the road. And that is a concern. And speaking of Climate Changes thats another area that you highlight. The world saw some really stunning developments when it came to Climate Change. Yes. I mean the largest recorded storm ever, that struck the phil fienns, its very difficult to connect the dots and say Climate Change caused a particular storm but we do know hurricanes, cyclones are fed by warm ocean water. The oceans are warming. We know that, that is a scientific fact. And so there are a lot of studies out there, which indicate a lot of good data that would suggest that there will be more storms and stronger storms in the future. This is still emerging science but i think you know intuitively when you think about what fuel its a storm like this, Climate Change might have something to do with it. And then on top of that we reach this kind of unfortunate milestone. 400 parts per million of car done dioxide. What does that mean . Put it this way, scientists will tell you 350 is a good number. Were over that and that number is something this planet has not seen in millions of years, not in recorded history. And this occurred in the course of the industrial revolution. We are speeding up the climate in ways, were part of an sperm we dont know where were headed with it. And all of it in the last year, so miles turn to medical science and we lewded to that just a moment ago. Exciting news on the cancer front. A lot of research right now which indicates that the scientists are coming to the point where theyre able to use our own immune systems to attack cancer cells. Now the problem with cancer is basically its our own cells replicating in an uncontrollable way so the immune system doesnt recognize it as a threat. And so with some vaccines and use of antibodies and ways of extracting and adding additional tcells as theyre called which are kind of warrior cells in your body, they are coming up with ways in clinical trials, its very early, to show some progress and remissions in various forms of cancer, its extremely exciting because think of the alternatives, radiation and cheam thermy which kill cells allover your body. Tell us what those trials have found. It very early so we have to be careful because it can give false hope to people who are facing term nal illnesses. But in case of melanoma, lieu keep ya, pancreatic cancer, some of these small trials, researchers have been able to essentially augment our own immune system to help it identify cancer at a problem. The problem is we cancer is our own cells so our immune system doesnt identify it as a threat and doesnt go after it with the tcells and all the things which go after and keep our bodies healthy. And so if you can tweak those things either genetically with vaccines or by adding additional amount its of them to go after and identify cancer as a threat, it raises the possibility of very targeted therapies which go after only the cancer cells and dont cause all this Collateral Damage to our bodies. The initial indications from these early trials are that this has a lot of promise. Many years before this is going to be widely used but cancer researchers are extremely excited about this. And yet this is happening mims at a time when federal dollars, the monies thats required to do this research is getting scarcer. I was tempted to put that at the top of my list. Every researcher i talk to every scientist speaks about what a dark time it is for federal funding for basic scientific research. A lot of people in washington would say well why dont we have the private sector fund this. The private sector doesnt fund things if it doesnt see a good solid business plan. There is a role for Foundation Money and federal funding to fund basic research. This kind of thing. Were talking about this work on cancer, the big pharma entities did to the get involved in this until very recently. All this work happened in large part thanks to federal funding which was there when there was no business plan, there was no obvious conclusion. And this was a case where in washington earlier this year when we had the socalled sequester, the automatic acrosstheboard spending cuts, had a direct effect on the money that the organizations like the National Institutes of health, other science oriented organizations and what their budgets were. They want into sequester with flat lines or reduced budgets. The sequester ruined a lot of good science and fundamental science that happens at nih which ultimately leads to cures for cancer, we hope, was set back tremendously. And this is something that as washington struggles with the budget, its easy to say these things are, you know, extra and not necessary. But in the end were talking about peoples lives. Woodruff and there have been some changes just recently with the kbuj agreement but not, but a lot of that money is gone. Its gone. Woodruff but and theres a connection miles with the last area that you want to point out, space. I would be remiss if we didnt talk a little about space. Nasa has been affected dramatically by this. In this past year one of the two voyager spacecraft left the solar system into interstellar space it went. Launched in 1977, we could go on and on about the Scientific Data that it brought in during that time. It was a stig milestone but in the same year that happened, the administration of nasa said were not going to be able to afford any of these socalled Flagship Missions in the future. Again, budgetary type of problems. An meanwhile, the chinese have a rover on the moon. So what is it that the chinese have learned about us that we have forgotten . I wonder about that. Woodruff miles obrien our science correspondent, we thank you. Youre welcome. Sreenivasan finally tonight, a look back at last years president ial campaign, and what the result means for our politics heading into 2014 and beyond. Gwen ifill taped that conversation before leaving for the new year holiday. Ifill one year after president obama won his secretary term in office we are still learning about what the 2012 election taught us about what americans expect of their leaders and the path those leaders take to the presidency. Much that is captured in moments like those chronicles in double down, game change 2012 win by Mark Halperin and editor at large and senior political analyst for Time Magazine and john hileman thank you both fo for heilemann, thank you for making time to us. So what did we learn about ourselves from an election like 2012, mark . Well, this was a big choice election for the country as it always is. And president obama as we were writing the book felt this was in some ways a bigger election for him. He felt to some extent he won the first time based on people want hope and change, a change in direction from the bush years, so he wanted to as the title of our book says have the country double down on his vision of the economy, his vision of what washington should and shouldnt do, his Healthcare Plan and in the case of the country at large, i think, it was a choice that was not necessarily one that people were wildly enthusiastic about, but it did divide us even further. A number of elections have caused more division than unite unity. John, in the area since we have seen everything that happened in this second term presidency, the first year of it. Have those choices been realized, do people look at that sand say this is what they voted for . Well, i think the people voted for to a large extent f you think about the end of the election, mitt romney won in the exit polls in almost every metric except for the one that mattered most which is without cares about people like me. So people voted for president obama to a large extent because they liked him and trusted him to identify with their concerns, with the real lives of real people for most american voters. I think even a year later with all the problems president obama had, people still believe he has their best interests at heart. What they lost is a sense that he is competent at any time to implement the policies that hes put forward. And i think that is the biggest problem with what happened with him with the Healthcare Plan is people lost faith in his ability to actually get the job done. And to some extent they lost faith in his honesty and his candor with them. Those are huge problems for him Going Forward in the course of the next three years. They still feel he estimate path identifies with him but not as willing to put their faith in him as in the past four years. You followed the same kind of template you did four years ago with game change which you did exhaustive reviews of a lot of people, 500 interviews for this book. And yet people didnt really disagree that much about the basic facts of how this Campaign Came to be, and why it came to be, even though we all days agree befering else right now. Well, in terms of the narrative of the book 00 interviews is more than we were able to do in our day jobs and most political journalists are able to do these days for any project. An i think you had in for instance, governor romney, central character obviously in the campaign in our book, the very things that caused him to be limited as a candidate were things people in both parties saw in advance. There were a lot of skepticism about him that is why Chris Christie and others were in the race, and why you saw even at the lowest point in the presidency, barack obama anticipated mitt romney would be the nominee and thought i can take this guy. That, that consensus about where governor romney was going to come up short is one of just a lot of examples where youre right, even though politically there is a lot of division, the an nis, and some of the personalities was consistant. Was a personality and is that the way we do our democracy now. I think not now, i think is always been that personality matters a lot. And personality makes it sound trivial but character matters, right. And weve seen this over every election we ever covered, all of us. Whether people believe that the candidate they are voting on are honest, have empathy. Whether they have leadership, strength, all those personal characteristics because at the end of the day the presidency unlike almost every other office there is an office where this person lives with you in your living room 24 7, 365 days a year, you have to kind of like that person and be comfortable with having them in your home and be a piece of you emotional or psyche chroj will psychological furniture to vote for them for president and that is driven by characteristics and attributes. Lets talk about some of those people because i think times sometimes we burn out our leaders, mitt romney was a potential leader, tim pawlenty was very much cheered at one point in the campaign, people like jon huntsman for a moment there were moments for all of them. And now all on the sidelines forever, probably. Is that a healthy way to run a democracy. We have seen people run and lose it has become conventional wisdom that running once gives you the experience, better the next time. The last three guys without won all won they won the first time they ran, and governor romney in this race thought you know, ive got a big advantage over everyone else running because im probably going to be one of the only ones who has run before. I think there are second acts in american politics. Look at the people in our book. Some who didnt run, but who came right up to the edge. People like Chris Christie, people like Mike Huckabee who has run once before but passed this time. I think you seem in game change and double down one of the realities of this is people often dont run for personal reasons. Not pure political calculation i can raise the money or you know, who else is running but a lot of the people in our book dont run for personal reasons. They dont feel in their gut it is the right time. Their wife doesnt want them to run, their kids dont want them to run. Some considerations are they want to make money, it really is personal as opposed to political. There is also a lot of continuity in some sense there are these people in the 2012 race who were supernovas and will probably never be seen again on the national stage. At the same time two of the great constants in both of our books in game change and double down have been bill and Hillary Clinton who were huge characters in both of those books and have been parts of our National Life now for more than two decades and very well may be paut of our that is right life for another decade. There are those who never seem to go away, sarah palin, hadnt gone away, joe biden ran for president and now is Vice President for two terms, he is to the going away and Hillary Clinton. Well, look theyre great brands in american politics and one of the constants one of the big themes in this book is the relationship between ot bamas and clintons. They were warring parties warring families in our last book, in this cycle pretty remarkable. You think about how different barack obama and bill clinton are, how estranged they were coming out of the 20 o 8 election and in this race a huge coming together, kind of one now joint political family. The courtship president obama doing something, we write about, almost never does at least that we know of, admits he needs the help of someone else. Bill clinton seeing the opportunity to help his party but also to kind of rehabilitate himself. And now we have their joint operation, Hillary Clinton has got a ton of advantages if she wants to run in 2016. The fact that her political family married up with the obama family is a huge benefit. I have to say one of the interesting things it seems like a theme in this increasingly every four years, a money theme, to agree that individuals with a lot of money can determine outcomes or think they can determine outcomes, the amount of money sppbt on mitt romneys campaign by individuals, people like by individuals Newt Gingrich stayed stay add live longer because of individual support. Doesnt that change the nature of the kind of elections we have. It sure does. There is no question about the fact that in 2012 especially in the republican nomination file that those wealthy individuals, stay alive much long never the race than they would have been able to foster freeze helping Rick Santorum stay alive longer through the super pacs that they largely selffunded. Elongated the nomination fight and made mitt romney spend more resources, fight longer and talk on more water over that time. But look at the general election where tuns of millions of dollars were spent on the republican super pac side to almost no effect whatsoever. There are tons of republican donors out there, many rich millionaires and billionaires incredibly frustrated at the end of the day saying we poured money into karl roves group, into the cdoch brothers group, what effect did it have in the end, very little. There is no doubt there will be a lot of money spent in 2016 but it will be interesting to see how the people who spend that money whether they have a different kind of scrutiny they put on those groups, whether they ask tougherer questions w whether the game is played with a greater degree of sophistication and less just throwing money out the window than there was in 2012. You say how the game is played. I wonder if americans arent just sick of this and to the degree that elections never end. Do they ever end. Or are they a constant, not just the elective process but the whole idea of choosing and judging our leaders. I think we spend a lot of time in this country if a fortune 500 company has a open job, they will spend a lot of time f an anchor slot opens uping people send a lot of time looking for replacement an kerm i think it is a big job. I dont think there is a problem with a constant running. I think the candidates benefit from it. Part waf worries me about some of the people who ran in 2012 and some of the people looking at 2016 is they havent spent years out there meeting people around the country, getting understanding in different regions of the country. Bill clone ton, Ronald Reagan spent you know decades in the political vineyards. Are you saying it is a necessary thing. I think it is good for the candidates, good for the country. I would rather get to know people over time, not in a rushed way. Follow the nfl 12 months a year pretty much. We follow Country Music 12 months a year, i think we can handle this. Speak for yourself. John, final word. I think all that is true. I have to disagree i think it is a little bit worrying when you see barack obama come out of the 2012 race and people talk about him having you know a nine month window in his whole second term to get anything done before midterm politics first and then president ial politics second will blow Everything Else out of the water and make it impossible to get Business Done in washington d. C. The country faces huge problems and those problems have been really hard to solve for a long time. To give up a reelected president who won with a big mandate, in the sense of a Big Electoral College margin, 5 million votes in the popular electorate, to give that person nine months to get a budget deal done to implement healthcare reform to get Immigration Reform done, that seems like a narrow window to have a time of governance and that is the one part that seems unfortunate to me. John heilemann of new york magazine, mark pal herin of Time Magazine, the authors of double down, thank you both very much. Thank you, gwen. Sreenivasan again, the major developments of the day a second suicide bombing in two days hit volgograd, russia, killing 14 people. It raised new questions about russian readiness for the Winter Olympics in sochi, just six weeks away. The government of afghanistan rejected a u. S. Intelligence finding that many of the gains there could be lost by 2017. And east african nations warned theyll move to defeat the rebel leader in south sudan, unless he accepts a ceasefire. On the newshour website right now, why do we drop a ball on new years eve . We track the evolution from maritime signal to todays 12 foot crystal and l. E. D. Light times square ball. Meanwhile in other cities, the ball has transformed into a giant peach, a guitar and a sardine. We have a slide show of the many different american variations on the tradition. All that and more is on our website newshour. Pbs. Org. And thats the newshour for tonight. On tuesday, a record year for wall street, but the broader economy didnt share the wealth. Im hari sreenivasan. Well see you online and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. 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