Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20140830

See how they perform throughout the semester, and then i evaluate them. Sreenivasan and its friday. Mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze the weeks news. Those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and with the ongoing support of these institutionshe s this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Le bri El Sreenivasan rebels in a ukraine consolidated a new conquest today. Us at the same time, russianut president Vladimir Putind remained defiant amid charges o and countercharges over russiao role in the rebel offensive. G the Border Crossing betweenne novoazovsk, ukraine, and russia was quiet today. Que its now under the control of prorussian separatists. Sis, in the past 72 hours, the port town has become a new front in the ongoing war for control of Eastern Ukraine. The rebels claim no russians art helping them, despite ukrainian claims that Russian Troops have invaded. De translated it is the ukrainian authorities fighting against their own people. P they are killing their own civilians. Ns there are no russians here, e there is no russian equipment coming through here. Wi we are fighting with these machinery they themselves abandon. They just dump them and flee. Sreenivasan nato had saidn. Satellite images proved russiand has 1,000 soldiers and heavyin weaponry inside ukraine, but today russias foreign ministeri rejected the allegations. Gate translated its not thea first time that we hear all a sorts of conjecture, and nots once have any facts been presented to us. Tepo there have been reports that there are photographs from space showing movements of russianed troops, but as it turned out it was Computer Games and the images were taken from there. T sreenivasan that drew a sharp response from natos secretary general, anders foghel rasmussen, in brussels. This is a blatant violation i of ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity. Tyat it defies all diplomatic efforts for a peaceful solution. N. Ai sreenivasan ukraine is not member of nato, but many of thes countries it borders are. Ri now, the ukrainian primes minister says his government wants to join them. D translated the government of ukraine will brina before parliament a law to scraa the nonaligned status of thend ukrainian state and establish ab course towards membership of nato. Ck sreenivasan back in russia,i at a youth camp, president d, Vladimir Putin warned,me its best not to mess with us,i and he ratcheted up his rhetoric against ukraine. translated both small villages and large cities are u surrounded by the ukrainiantl army, which is directly hittings residential areas with the aim r you know, it sadly reminds me of the events of the Second World War when german nazis, the o german fascist army, surroundedi our cities, like leningrad. Wh sreenivasan meanwhile, f Foreign Ministers from the i European Union met in milan,fo italy, amid calls for new sanctions against russia. L and the human toll kept growingp the United Nations reported h nearly 2,600 people have beenuk killed in Eastern Ukraine through august 27. Ea leaders of the European Unionor nations meet tomorrow. E theyve invited the president of ukraine to address the summit. Ay the white house today defended president obamas statement that theres no strategy yet on howmi to deal with Islamic State forces in syria. Ar press secretary josh earnestnt said mr. Obama wants an overall plan, including a military component. Nt he said the president is waitin for the pentagon to show him options. W there are some who probably would make the case that it is f okay to not have a formulated comprehensive strategy, but jusr as one pundit i know recentlye suggested that we could just go drop some bombs and see what happens. Om p that is not what the president rt believes is a smart approach. Es the president believes it iso important for us to pursue aeg comprehensive strategy wherene military action is one component of that strategy. N sreenivasan on another matter, the white house said h its not aware of any specific threat to the United States by Islamic State militants, buts britain raised its threat level today to the second highest alert over concerns of possible attacks. Prime minister david cameronam said its largely a response to the growing number of britons and other westerners joining radical Islamist Groups in the middle east. Rnsl california may become the first state to have colleges define what it means to give sexual consent. The socalled yes means yes bill won final approval thursday evening in a bid to battle sexual assaults. The measure says there must be affirmative, conscious and voluntary agreement before sexual activity. Silence or lack of resistance would not qualify as consent. The bill now goes to governor jerry brown for his signature. Wall street closed out the month of august with modest additions today. The Dow Jones Industrial averagl gained nearly 19 points to close at 17,098; the nasdaq rose 22,5 points to close at 4,580; and the s p 500 added six points to finish at 2,003. D for the month, the dow gained s more than 3 , the s p gainedsd nearly 4 and the nasdaq rose almost 5 . 5 still to come on the newshour e new report traces the origins ou this latest ebola outbreak; we take a look at the proxy wars shaking up the middle east;oo tennessee looks to boost College Graduation rates by rethinking s its funding model; syrianop refugee numbers top threed million, with no end in sight to the crisis; shields and brooks on the weeks news; and teens react to the Michael Brown shooting and its aftermath. Sreenivasan the sreenivasan the ebolaic outbreak in west africa has nown spread to a fifth country amidll forecasts that it will get far worse. Em the latest case emerged despitee efforts to stop the virus frombo crossing national borders. The announcement came in dakar,u senegal, a major Tourist Destination and transit hub that now has its first case of ebola. translated it is a youno guinean, a student who came fore a consultation on tuesday,os august 26, at the hospital in at infectious state without hemorrhaging, but hiding thehe information that he had contact in guinea with people close toe the victims of the disease. To sreenivasan doctors confirmed the next day that the man had ebola. Ct hes now in satisfactory condition. N. Nearly 650 people in his homen country of guinea have beenhi infected, and twothirds have died. At thats the worst death rate of any country. A new report in sciencesc magazine traces the outbreak to a funeral on guineas bordern with sierra leone in may. W at least 14 women were infected there. Ch five local researchers who worked on the paper and f collected samples from infectedc patients have since died of ebola themselves. H in all, the World Health Organization reports 500 newts cases this week, the most yet. U. The director of the u. S. Centers for Disease Control says itse could get much worse still. I he spoke yesterday in sierra leone. It if we dont stop it here,al were going to be dealing withnd it for years around the world. S but we can still stop it. A sreenivasan and a top w official with doctors withouty borders called today for a faral greater international response. Otherwise, he said i dont see how we i dont see how were going to control the outbreak. Ro is for more on all this, i amre joined by stephen gire. Sc he is a Research Scientist withn the Broad Institute and harvard university, and a lead author o the study published yesterday in science. E, so, stephen, tell me, how was it that you were able to go back and trace this spread of thetr most recent case of ebola virus to one specific event . We used both epidemiological data which is data thats collected about people and who theyre in contact with when a disease happens, and compared this with genetic data we collected from Patient Samples and we actually sequenced the full genome of the virus from 78 individual patients and, so, we used this data and the mutationh that are there within that virus to actually build the sort of family tree that allows us to see, for one, how these viruses are related to each other but then to see how we can trace them back to their origin. Sreenivasan when you got to the root of this particular o tree, what is it about a funerai or african burial customs that made this the perfect ground for ebola to spread . On may 25th in sierra leone on the border between guinea and sierra leone, theres a funerall that took place of a traditional healer who had been treating ebola patients in guinea and she had herself become sick and died of ebola. At this funeral a large number of over a dozen members at the funeral were actually infected. You notice from epidemiological data, but we also know an attendant from the funeral actually came into the hospital at the Government Hospital where we work and was diagnosed, so wl were then able to go out and find other people at that funeral and then start to build this phylogenetic or family tree of what the virus actually looked like. Sreenivasan is it because people come in contact with thet body thats infected . Thats correct. Th you know, the burial practicesri in a lot of african countries, the people or the friends or family that know the deceased person usually take part in preparing the body and washing it. Just like funerals here in america and around the world, we often interact with the body once its died. There are opencasket viewings and many people touch the body. The same thing is true in africa as well and this can be part of spreading the disease. Sreenivasan one of the most serious costs of the paper is five of your colleagues on the ground became sick and diedd in the work that they were doing. Th yeah, its really very tragic. I was on the ground in sierrahe leone and kenima in early july and as soon as i returned and began processing the samples we collected for the study, we gotd word a few of the members who p had been part of this project g had become sick. At that time, it was sort of numbing and you didnt quite accept the fact that they were sick and you had hope that theyd survive. A so you kept pushing and doing your work and, you know, then word would come that somebody had died and it would just sink in deep. But, you know, just as hard asro people have been working on the ground, we have also been trying to work very hard here to try to get this information out to thee public, out to the scientific te community so that it can be used in this outbreak and other outbreaks. At so weve really tried to honor their memory by continuing to work really hard and push this information out so that it makes a difference. Sreenivasan all right, stephen gire, thanks so much for your time and your research. Thank you. Reen sreenivasan as the obamaer administration considers further action with partners in the middle east to contain an islamic extremist group, tonight we take a look at the shiftingg landscape of the region and thee challenges it poses for theta United States. Jeffrey brown reports. Any successful strategy, though, needs strong regional partners. Ir brown president obama called for alliances yesterday in confronting the Islamic State group in iraq and syria. Im encouraged so far that countries in the region, countries that dont always agree on many things, increasingly recognize the primacy of the threat. E ive asked secretary kerry to travel to the region to continu to build the coalition thats needed to meet this threat. Brown but when kerry touched down in the middle east, hell be stepping into a profoundly muddled situation thats rife with risk. Old regimes have fallen, starting with the u. S. Invasion of iraq in 2003 and spreading across north africa with the arab spring. In their wake, both sunni and shiite groups, from moderate rebels to the extreme Islamic State, now vie for power and look to likeminded states for help. Illustrating the tangled web of new ties, the liberal blog think progress has charted the flow of money, weapons and aid between various factions and supporting nations. E, in syria, for example, regional powers qatar, saudi arabia and turkey have backed the Free Syrian Army against Bashar Al Assads government. On the other side, assads fighters have been helped by hezbollah, the lebanese militia allied with iran. , elsewhere, egypt in recent days partnered with the United Arab Emirates for air strikes onn islamist militias in libya. That countrys conflict hask revealed a sunni split as turkey and qatar back the islamists. And iranian officials were in baghdad sunday for talks aimed at stabilizing iraq against the Islamic States gains, a rare intersection of interests with the United States. And joining us now to help us understand this new landscape of the middle east is steven simon, a former senior directoro for middle eastern and north African Affairs on the National Security Council Staff from 2011 to 2012 hes now a senior fellow at the middle east institute; and hisham melhem,ur Washington Bureau chief of al arabiya news channel. Welcome to both of you. Hisham, its a given, the worldh has changed, right . Help us first by laying out the camps, so to speak, that we face. As we know, the uprising that began three and a half years ago unfortunately have morphed into civil wars in yemen, libya and syria. Syria is a place where there is a proxy war for powers. The camps so to speak, the regime in damascus which is islam supported by iran which is the major region of shiite power as well as by hezbollah hezbollahs working for certain iranian interests and also supported by militias from iraq. So you have the shia coalitionit fighting to save the regime in damascus and in that sense iran and syria are more important in supporting the regime than mosnd cows. Then you have sunnis from turkey, jordan, saudi arabia, qatar and others. Attracting volunteers, quote, unquote, from the sunni world from africa, the caucuses, froma central asia as well as from europe and the United States. This is the 20th century prototype civil war with spain in which everybody in europein fought each other on spanish soil and attracted volunteers from all over the world. Syria is essentially our owno version of the spanish civil war. Brown steven simon, thats complicated enough. You see it playing out all over the place, syria as a focal point but elsewhere. Well, yeah, syria has become a hot pit for some of the rivalries hisham was just talking about, but the camps can be viewed, likewise, as consisting of iran an saudi arabia, sort of at the highest level, i guess, and then, within the sunnis, youou have qatar and turkey arrayed against saudi arabia and the United Arab Emirates and even egypt. Then you have a tacit alliance between israel and the conservative growth monarchies directed against iran, and boosting egypt. So you have all this overlaid on a sunni and shia sectarian conflict thats been largely mobilized by these biggerli geopolitical tensions. Brown are these shifting, still, as we sit here or are these pretty well now set at this point . Thats a good question. I think theyve pretty much consolidated. Brown what do you think . I think so. I think the sunnishia conflict, which is really new the first time in my lifetime in modern arab, recent history where you have one front stretching from basra in the gulf to the mediterranean. At the same time, there is a nen sunni shift and divisions, and you have the iraqi which is breathtaking, then a country flying its own jets to egypt to launch an airstrikes against islamists in libya. Brown without telling the u. S. So you have the camp of egypt, thats another sunni camp, egypt, saudi arabia against the islamists. On the other hand, qatar, turkey and sudan supporting the libyano islamists in libya and other places. So you have two sunni camps under this huge shiasunni rivalry. And because of sectarian rivalry between the saudis and the iranians and supporters are extremely combustible because sectarianism is a very effective tool of organization because you can frame the issue in existential terms. Brown so when we see the president speaking yesterday and the secretary kerry going, hower does this impact u. S. Policy . Thats a big question. S how does it impact kerrysn ability to form a coalitionc against the Islamic State . Complicates it hugely. The United States is trying to thread a needle between states that are fundamentally opposed to assad and states that think that hes actually a good stabilizing force. Now, in terms of European Partners to which hes appealed, theres very little that they can contribute as a practical c matter, militarily, for example. They can make some contribution but not really for the use of force. Otherwise, you know, hese. Dealing with countries that disagree on the role of the actual government in baghdad in terms of spurring the revolt in iraq that the United States is now trying to tamp down. And the administration has also got to ponder the consequences of trying to cut off i. S. I. S. T safe haven in syria and attack targets there because the farther west they go the more likely they will be seen as Assads Air Force and intervening in the Syrian Civil War at long last but on the side of the regime which will anger some of its very close allies. Well, yeah. I mean, youve argued when weve had these discussions before for a more forceful u. S. Role. P nothing significant is going to happen in the middle east today without clearcut, defensive leadership role. Does that entail picking one . Yes, we have to pick one. We have to have leadership here. Im not asking for american boots on the ground, but leadership, preventing qatar from helping i. S. I. S. In syria, work on a coalition that includes the likeminded spirits or Strategic Partners and take a decisive role. The problem is lack of american leadership. Why would u. A. E. , a simple state, go to africa, a different continent, and do what they dido last week if theyre not convinced there is no middle eastern leadership . They tell you, we dont think the president is assertive enough, whether he waited too long in syria he didnt get rid of maliki early on, didnt push iran hard enough in syria and other places. Brown we have about 30 seconds. Do you see that strong a roleou for the u. S. , the ability to do it . I think you have to accept the fact that theres a serious difference of view on how toer deal with some of these major problems both with respect tode islamism in the middle east and the conflict in syria. Differences are viewed between the United States and its allies that may not be reconcilable. And if theyre not, then the u. S. And its allies are going to be proceeding on different paths. When that happens, some will say, well, its lack of leadership. Ou others will say, sometimes you cant always get what you want. Brown all right. On that, steven simon, hishamro melhem, thank you very much. Sreenivasan now, our final report in our weeklong series on rethinking college. Tonight, we look at a funding w model used by more and more states for their public universities. Moit its all outcomebased. The institutions receive funding based solely on their Graduation Rates. Sreenivasan four years ago, educators in tennessee became alarmed by a troubling statistic. As candidates please rise. Sreenivasan only 51 ofly students enrolled at the states public universities actuallyhe graduated. Ub the disturbingly high dropout rate raised questions aboutai higher education. Is a Public Institution really successful if only half its students ever graduate . It was the big question in 2010 before tennessees commission of higher education. 2reon russ deaton is the commissions chief financial officer. Our schools were very good at opening their doors to students, and the financial precious were not on retaining students and graduating them. Sreenivasan so tennessee decided to dump the traditional funding model. Instead of paying schools to enroll students, the state now pays schools to graduate students. We used to just count up enrollments, now we count degrees. How many bachelors degrees didb you produce the past Academic Year . How many students successfully t placed in jobs . How Much Research did the university do . Simply counting up other outcomes. Al seems real easy. R sreenivasan now the more t students that graduate, the more money the school gets from the state. Its trying to find ways to get schools to respond to incentives the same way people respond to incentive. As a professor, i dont grade students on the first day of class; i see how they perform throughout the semester and evaluate them. Sreenivasan performance based funding is catching fire. 25 states now use some form of it. Tennessee was first and mostgi aggressive, tying 100 of funds to outcomes. Ag not everyone is happy with the change. On in memphis, the new policy cost southwest tennessee communityol college more than a million dollars. Provost Joanne Bassett says the new model hurts community colleges, especially ones thates attract students who struggle. We have students whose averaging entering is 16. 5 . But we have a short amount of time to get the students finished in two or three years. Sreenivasan memphis is the poorest large city in america and basset fears it will force them to be more selective abouta the students they accept. The formula says find better students, do better, produce better outcomes. We will never do that. We take anybody who has a dream that wants a college education, that wants to rise out of poverty, and we try to do the best that we can. Whats the first thing we have to do . Sreenivasan but at austin peay state university, Graduation Rates have climbed and the school reaped an extra 4 million. What are you studying . Sreenivasan president tim haul says he worked hard toas build strong student to school connections, what hall calls stickiness. The stickiness of anin institution is what holds students in place across time. Graduation takes typically 120 hours, and the great enemy is life. Nd life is constantly taking students off pathway. So you have to Pay Attention to how life can redirect people away from College People away from college and try to increase the stickiness of the College Experience so life doesnt knock them off course. Ready for finals . Yeah. Sreenivasan to create stickiness, experiences are carefully scheduled. When we structure time for faculty and students to come together that good things happen. Sreenivasan like social events for students andeha professors outside the classroom. Ev it might be for an english professor taking students to see a local production of a shakespearean play. For a scientist, it might be taking our students on a biological field trip out into some area where they study something that they also study in class. Me sreenivasan like grouping students into the same classes. About 35 of our students this past fall took three courses together. Imagine a student who is a brandnew freshman, doesnt know anyone and is wondering, when is the test in that class . I know the professor said. That student might be reluctant to turn around and ask a stranger, but if the student ise looking at someone he or she hae had in the same class now forow several months and more than just one class, theyre more willing to ask questions like that. Ng success is built off of such trivial matters as the willingness to ask, to get help, to turn and rely on somebody else. Go ahead and click on health educators. Sreenivasan one of the innovations hall is proudest of is a degree compass, a Computer Program that works like amazon. Com or netflix. Its a Prediction Program that predicts how well a student will do in a course. It takes every studentswe academic record and compares it with every other student we have and on the basis of that, it can make remarkably accurate predictions about the courses that you will do well in and the courses that you will do not so well in. Sreenivasan advisor Ashlee Spearman explains how software prevents students from take too many difficult courses at the same time that can lead to failure and dropout. We have stats that can show you, you may want to take ats specific class, but according to your past this may be more challenging for you, so yeah may want to pair the appropriatewa courses with that course. So that definitely will help the students as theyre matriculating through to graduation to not only take courses that are going to be challenging. You are predicting to do well in the actual course, but the lab youre potentially only going to do 4. 5 stars. Sreenivasan in tyler miltons case, the system predicted she would need help in extra classes. When youre going to college in your freshman year, you dont know how to prepare, youre freaking out, stressed out, away from home. So its different. But looking at that, i did prepare myself and go to tutoring classes. Did i do tutoring because the star system helped . I ended up doing better in some classes. Sreenivasan the tennessee model is spreading to other states. Austin peays president timothy hal is moving to a Small College in new york state where he planm to introduce the same changes. Campuses are thinking how to better serve all students. T sreenivasan the threeanda halfyearold conflict in syria reached another grim milestone today. Ic the United Nations reports thate more three million syrians haves now been forced to flee their country. Jeffrey brown has more. T brown most of the refugeesef have fled to bordering nations, some of which are buckling from the strain of the massive influx. P one in four people in lebanon today nearly 1. 2 million are syrian refugees. Jordan has more than 600,000as syrians; turkey, more than 800,000. And iraq, now with a growing humanitarian situation of its own, has more than 200,000 refugees. Joining me now with more is paur obrien, Vice President for policy and campaign at oxfam. Welcome to another benchmark and very large number, first broadly speaking. How significant is that . Its significant. Its tragic. We have been watching numbers grow ever since okay familiar started working on the crisis. We have been calling on policymakers both in the region and the United States and globally to do something about it. E no one has done enough. So we see a tragic number like today. Brown inside syria, how much do we know about the situation, where people aresi fleeing, how many there are . T we know its bad. We know there are 11 Million People with humanitarian needs on the ground in syria still. Thats half the population. A quarter of million of those we just cant even reach because theyre facing so much fear of conflict that no one can get near them. Oxfam is trying to reach. Hard to verify, but we havetr about a Million People with water, digging wells, trucking water. Its a difficult place for oxfam to work. It were doing the best we can but its hard for all organizations. Brown you mentioned humanitarian needs and said water. Ow thats a key one. Ta reporter what else . Safety. Thats what people really want is the ability to stay where they want. T syrians would like to go back but many are reluctant to because of safety. When they dont get safety, weut deal with water, food security, shelter, basic fundamentals to get through the day. Were trying to help the population survive until we can start to help them rebuild their lives. Brown in these bordering countries, very large numbers. This puts a great strain on these countries. Yeah, theyre buckling. This cant go on. The countries that you mentioned, jordan, lebanon, turkey, the populations of refugees there have grown beyond what they are capable of managing. Its not economically viable, not viable in terms of security and were going to see the consequences if the International Community in i general does not help. Brown give examples of what is life like in borderi camps and elsewhere that you are seeing . Re people are literally waiting to live. They are trying to rebuild life. Its been three years so theyrr trying to eke out an economic livelihood, working with local populations, sometimes competing with local population forceat jobs, that wont work in the long term if the numbers keep growing. Theyre not getting enough aid to give them near the ingredients they need to rebuild their lives. The u. N. Tried to get the money needed to serve these populations; its 2 billion short in terms of its most recent appeal. Actually, its not the United States thats the problem on the aid front. Its been quite generous relatively speaking. Brown so where is the problem . Well, its twofold in terms of the donors. Other donors are going to have to step up to the plate in some way. Weve got to get the kinds of p numbers the u. N. Is calling for. Thats one thing. Th but because the number of refugees has grown so much ande looks like its going tofu continue to grow, thes neighboring countries cannot bee expected to continue to absorb them. So that presents a different question for the United States. Is it willing to start absorbing resettlement flows some offl these people . Brown thats the question. Yes, it is. Since the crisis began, weve observed less than 200 syrian refugees. Collectively, the europeans have absorbed less than 200,000, but that question is going to keep coming back. Brown very briefly, youac said it looks as though the number will continue to grow. A sign that three million 3 benchmark will be well surpassed. And with the iraq situation, its only likely to get worse. They are sometimes leaving for economic reasons, buts fundamentally for security reasons, and the securityns situation is not getting any better. July of this year was the worst month yet in terms of fatalities of civilians since the crisisit started, so its getting worse. Sreenivasan thank you so much. Sreenivasan and that brings us to the weekly analysis of shields and brooks thats syndicated columnist markat shields and New York Times columnist david brooks. So, the phrase from yesterdays press conference everybody lept on is we have no strategy. But since were the newshour, well go deeper than that. Is there a time now in this country and appetite for a national conversation, ae congressional debate about whether or not to use force and what sort of force . I dont know if theres an appetite. Theres a need, an urgency. I want to start off by givingrt the props or the shout out to three members of the house which is usually an institution that gets much scorn and abuse than those of us in the press. The democrat of california, congressman walter jones, republican of North Carolina and democrat jim mcgovern of massachusetts, wrote a letter to john boehner urging the speaker upon return to the houseer september 8 that they take up the question of iraq and syria and the authorization of added force or whatever it is andve define the mission, to debateeb and to determine just exactlyet what the United States policy is and to vote on it. This makes them unpopular with their colleagues. Vir as bob dole said once, members of Congress Love to make tough speeches but dont like to castr tough votes. And this will be a tough vote,he especially near an election, most people dont want to do itp it is necessary. We did not do it 12 years ago. We had a hurried, a rushed election, a debate whenct democrats were terrified ofm being accused of being soft on terrorism and they were cowed and we had misinformation andnd misdirection and tragedy result. I just think its absolutely imperative and urgent. I agree. Im a big fan of president ial action. I think the president has the right to take action in thisn case, nevertheless for the effectiveness of the action and the good of the country, i think we need a National Debate and ii think you could probably get a bipartisan support fore something. The crucial issue is how we frame this. Do we see these as a distinct war in syria, something distinct in lebanon, syria, something distinct in iran . To me, its what we need in thin this debate is an appreciation of. Step back and ad appreciation of the problem and this is not what theba administration has given us so far. Hisham melhem earlier in the program had a good analogy of spanish civil war that you had o global mean coming in on two different sides and thats scary because the spanish war was precursor to world war ii. Richard haas has called it the 30year war, a horribly destructive war in europe in the 17th century. So to figure out what werey. Dealing, with what is al qaeda, i. S. I. S. , the relationship between the two, with otherut. , jihadi organizations and how dow we get involved in what will be a longrunning probably mediumlevel conflict for a long time to come . We havent really had the postiraq debate. Sreenivasan shifting to ukraine. Each day president vladimiruk putin is able to increase thedi rhetoric, whether video game or satellite images of a thousandhe Russian Troops crossing thean border, whether its called an invasion or an incursion. How does ukraine deal with this and what is the american role if there is one . America has an obligation. In 1994, to get ukraine to surrender its considerablers Nuclear Arsenal at the time, there was a guarantee given byen the United States and western w democracies and european nations of support and defense and security. Se and i dont think there is any question that that obligation is on the table right now. The plausible deniability that putin could hide behind has been totally exposed, totallyd sabotaged for the fraud that it is. This is an attempted on his part, whether an alley, an avenue down to crimea and thenea his concern about the water port and openness there. But i would think the obligation is there, and i think the world is watching him, and n. A. T. O. Next week will bring it to a front. Sreenivasan is this t n. A. T. O. s responsibility . No, its everybodys. Most of the middle east and whav happened in ukraine are symptoms of a vacuum, a post in the post21st century order and partly a vacuum of american power, certainly a vacuum of European Cohesion and power, certainly an inability of the major countries of the worldbi including china to get together and impose an order that would be good for everybody. M when you have no order, thedy putins of the world get more aggressive. No i think a lot of people in theti administration have beeng aggressive rhetorically, they understand the problem. In i think the president has not been aggressive enough. This is an invasion. When you take over a part of the country so you can have a landy route to crimea, thats an invasion, not a continuation of, what they have been doing. Its not lowlevel harassment, its a major invasion on european soil. You jt cant allow that to happen. To me, the first step has to be if the russians are givinghe sophisticated material to their proxies, the west has to pour more sophisticated material into our proxies essentially and thats been an issue that has been debated over and over again. But raising costs to putin has to be the first step. Sreenivan if the u. S. Makes attacks inside syria, ama sovereign nation, is that not a declaration of war . I think its certainly one definition of a declaration ofh war. On thats why i think the debate i mean, the debate that we didnt have 12 years ago for example, if were going to do this david is talking aboutri 30 years, 20 years, whatever, a long twilight struggle, call it what you will i mean, its a country fights a war. An army doesnt fight a far. If this country isnt willing to fight a war, you should never send an army. Its not just something were rooting for, supporting the troops and standing up at a ball game. I mean, we will be the First Americans since the civil war not to accept the responsibility of paying for a war. In every war since the civil war, americans have increased their taxes. I mean, we need a debate on sacrifice the equality of sacrifice in war as well as what the objective is. How do we know what our mission is . How do we know when wie achieved it . I think this debate is so urgent and so necessary to understand and agree upon what were willing to take on. I agree with that and the president is playing a role. An important statement he made is not the one that got all the attention. He keeps calling i. S. I. S. A cancer and i think thats the right metaphor. Its going to spread unless you stop it, which if you diagnose it as a cancer which i think is the right diagnosis, then you have to do something about it. And the paradox of the Obama Presidency will be a much more militarized presidency in the final two years than any of us could have imagined. But the the alternative is a middle east much worse when he leaves office than when he took over, a europe in much worse shape when he leaves office, and a global world order in much worse shape. O figuring that out, its not going to look like the world wars one and two or iraq and afghanistan, it will be a low level war fought on all fronds, financially, militarily, otherwise. Figuring that out is still in the future for us all. So thats why i do think we ought to link all these things and think as prodly as possible and have this debate. To his credit, the president doesnt have a macho that american leaders often affect alt a time of national emergency, he doesnt have a swagger about him and i think thats to his credit. At the same time, a president s job, especially a complex time like this and a confusing, confounding, fastchanging world, is to be the explainer in chief. He wasnt that so much yesterday. Hes being dragged in against his will. He doesnt want to be here. Even with his own party, a lot of Foreign Policy experts are taking a more aggressive substance. He is Foreign Policy is to dig in his heels and get drug in against will. Immigration, should the president have the authority and should he got it alone right now given where his supporters, given the midterms coming up . Well, lets take the high road and go directly to the midterms. The senate is in balance and for the president to act unilaterally at this point through executive action on immigration would be in, i think the judgment of most democrats, a disservice to people like mark pryor in arkansas and states that do not have either a large hispanic population or where this issue is not front burner. Mark udall in colorado, where the latino vote has carried the election twice, and Michael Bennett as well, is the exception. I think the more the democrats raise this issue and this possibility, it brings out the worst in the republicans. I mean, this is really about defining and putting a face on your opposition. To the degree that senator ted cruz and this issue, steve king , the congressman from iowa, become the voice and the face of the republican party, it undoubtedly helps the democrats because they have not seen as rational people who voted down the government. Both democrats can play. Brack backdoes not scare people, but the prospect of closing down the government does scare people. This is the debate that apparently some people think it will hurt democrats in the states if the president takes away the threat of deportation. Some think the republicans will overreact and it will help us nationally. I know people who think this will be bad in the midterms will make a case. It will hurt us in the short term as dam but help us in theoc long term because it will solidify latino votes for us if the republicans go bananas on this deportation issue. Its all interesting and fought on political grounds. On matters of substance, i agree with the policy i do not think the white house has the constitutional right to impose a major legislative change on its own. I do not think this is a legitimate act for the white house to do as much as i think on policy grounds its a good act. There are 11 millionra undocumented immigrants in this country, some of whom were brought here as children, had nothing to do about it. But we are not going to it is somewhat of a manufactured issue. Were not going to explore, deport, round up 400 Million People. Mi so, i mean, this is really il is a political issue. Cant really its effectively changing the law if you say, okay, this is officially not going to happenu and congress has to be involvedn i hate the idea of president doing this all by himself. Si sreenivasan in florida, interesting governors race. Er morning line email noted today it would be if Charlie Crist was able to win, it would be the first time in florida a governor was able to switch parties and succeed twice. Could he be successful . He could be. The irony of this i mean, Charlie Crist was elected as ad republican, as you know, and ran as an independent of the senate and is running. President obama who is not sought by most Democratic Candidates except to raise money this year could be of help. When he carried the state, theel composition of the electorate was 67 white. The turnout of latinos, africanamericans and asians. It was threequarters white when scott was elected in 2010. The president could be a help to Charlie Crist. Sreenivasan 5 seconds. Im a little more skeptical. Too lefts for the republicans and two rights for the democrats. Sreenivasan thanks so much. Sreenivasan finally tonighta teens from around the country look at the events in ferguson, missouri, this summer. We asked our network of student reporting labs how the shooting of Michael Brown and the violent aftermath affected their views of justice and race in america. E here is a sample of those responses. He did commit a crime in the store and that led to at the vent of his death but that doesnt mean his death wasth right. In my eyes, i dont even think it should get to that point. Being that youre an officer, you have to go by a set of rules known as the use of force b continuum. So once the perpetrator gets toe close into your level, your First Defense should be to grab a taser or to use handtohand combat because they are taught that. Deadly force is the last, the very, very last method theyre supposed to use. I thought we were a little bit further along as far as race injustice in america. Of course, we still have progress to make, but as far as race injustice and how theme police are handling the situation, i had no idea that it could get this horrible, really. Unfortunately, racism is going to be here for a while as it has been for a very long time. R i dont think its fair that we blame all Police Officers for the actions of a very few and i think its important we wait for every fact to come through. Disperse immediately. This is no longer a peaceful protest when you try to injure people it makes total sense to me why the general public would feel like theres a loss of meaning in the police, like this ideal of police being here to protect and serve you, when there are people in ferguson whn are protesting the death of one of their children and the devaluing of young black life, and Police Respond with tear gas, tanks, rubber bullets, flash grenades . What happened in ferguson, missouri, was a tragedy but also a bit of a logical progression. Living in the type of community i do, i see the issues more tham some people around the country would, and i feel like its the start of almost a Second Civil Rights Movement because its the same as the first one started,me and that the racial tensions have been building up andl reached a boiling point now. It really showed that eveng though segregation is over and we have a black president , equality isnt here. You know, you end up thinking police are my friends, police would never harm me. Police have my best interest at heart. Then you see Something Like this and you think thats not the way it is for everybody and the events need to change. I think the events in ferguson have revealed to me that racial tensions are still very real in america and theyre just something we dont talkta about as a society anymore, and its become kind of a taboo subject, and i think schoolsab should do more to create a dialogue about that so that we can begin to curb those long lasting prejudices that we have. Sreenivasan you can see more student voices as well as a teachers lounge blog with strategies for talking abouto ferguson in the classroom on our web site. Sreenivasan again, the major developments of the day. The World Health Organization confirmed 500 new ebola cases in west africa this week, the most yet. They included the first case reported in senegal. Rebels in southEastern Ukraine consolidated their conquest of a key town. They also denied Russian Troops are fighting on their side. And the white house defended president obamas statement that theres no strategy yet for dealing with Islamic State forces in syria. A spokesman said the president is waiting for pentagon options. On the newshour online right now show up early, dress appropriately, dont date thepr boss pretty good job advice tw remember as we set off to celebrate the Labor Day Holiday this weekend. Our pbs partners at the web site next avenue asked readers for the best lessons they learned from their first jobs, and we invite you to add your best advice. Jo leave a comment on the story or tell us on facebook or twitter. R all that and more is on our web site, newshour. Pbs. Org. Ha and a reminder about some upcoming programs from our pbs colleagues. Gwen ifill is preparing for washington week, which airs later this evening. Heres a preview. , ifill the debate over t strategy tonight, whether its about syria, iraq, ukraine, or American Business and politics, we dive into the issues captivating a nation. Tonight on washington week. Hari . Sreenivasan in tomorrows edition of pbs newshour weekend . Ill be taking a look at how the Islamic State is more savage and media savvy in its campaign to gain control of iraq, syria and beyond. N an and well be back right here on monday, labor day, with a paul solomon report on how some part time workers are coping with c this slow economic recovery. Thats the newshour for tonight. Im hari sreenivasan. Have a nice weekend. Thank you and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by charles schwab, proud supporter of the pbs newshour. Bnsf. Bae systems. Carnegie corporation of new york. Supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace andns security. N, at carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions. And friends of the newshour. This program was madess possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. O and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by Macneil Lehrer productions captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org. This is nightly Business Report with Tyler Mathisen and susie gharib. August asent, the s p 500 turns in the best monthly performance since january. Could stocks go in a different direction . Walmart is making a push into primary care and could change the system as we know it. Market monitor, why small cap s are the big shots in this market. We have that and more on nightly Business Report for friday, august 29th. Good evening, everyone. Tyler is off tonight. Forget about those dog days of summer on wall street. The major averages just wrapped up a blowout month of august, one of the best this year pp