>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: new escalation today, in the war of words between the u.s. and north korea. the north now says it's ready to shoot down u.s. bombers in the face of threats by president trump. that follows the president's weekend tweet that north korean leaders "won't be around much longer." today, the north's foreign minister said such language amounts to declaring war. he spoke in new york, where he's attending the u.n. general assembly. >> ( translated ): since the united states declared war on our country we will have every right to make counter measures, including the right to shoot down the united states' strategic bombers even when they are not yet inside the airspace border of our country. >> woodruff: the white house dismissed the north korean complaint. press secretary sarah huckabee sanders brushed aside any talk of war. >> we've not declared war on north korea and frankly the suggestion of that is absurd. it's never appropriate for a country to shoot down another country's aircraft when it's over international waters. our goal is still the same. we continue to seek the peaceful denuclearization of the korean peninsula. that's our focus. >> woodruff: the korean war ended in 1953 with an armistice, but there was never a peace treaty. as a result, the u.s. and north korea are technically still at war. the u.s. supreme court is dropping, for now, upcoming arguments over president trump's controversial travel ban. the move comes one day after the white house issued a revised and expanded ban. it indefinitely bans almost all travel to the u.s. from eight countries, including five on the original ban: iran, syria, somalia, yemen and libya. new to the list: chad, north korea and venezuela. for more on the ban and what comes next, we are joined by yeganeh torbati. she covers the state department for reuters. yeganeh, welcome back to the program. what is mainly different about this one? >> so what happened was the administration essentially dropped sudan from the list of countries that -- whose citizens can come to the united states. it added a couple of other countries, chad, north korea and restricted travel to the united states by certain venezuelan government officials and their families. but five named countries on the travel ban list, the ones you just named, the restrictions are largely in place and they're indefinite, no time limit on them. >> woodruff: what was the rationale behind the change? >> so what the administration said over the weekend, friday and again sunday, is they went through a rigorous process where they engaged with countries around the world to get more information from them on their citizens and get certain assertions and certain agreements of cooperation, essentially, to help the united states verify their citizens' identity. what they've told the public and us is that those countries that didn't provide that either were not able to or willing to provide that level of cooperation. those are the countries whose citizens are now basically banned from coming to the united states. >> woodruff: so it's no longer then a muslim ban, which is what the critics were saying it was, even though the administration denied that. >> right, the administration denies that, but what critics of the ban are saying is that throwing in countries like north korea and venezuela into this ban doesn't sort of take away from the original intent or what they see as a original intent which was to ban people from muslim-majority countries from coming to the united states. north korea last year sent about 109 individuals to the united states in the form of immigrants and non-immigrants, a tiny number, with the restrictions on venezuela, another non-muslim majority country in this new list are very narrow. it's certain government officials and families can't come as tourists to the united states. chad is 53% muslim so critics still see this as a muslim majority, a ban on countries that are muslim majority. >> reporter: finally, the supreme court put off hearing these arguments. what is likely to be the effect? were lawsuits filed on the basis of this being unconstitutional, where is all that likely to go? >> the legal experts see the supreme court's move today as essentially an indication that it really doesn't want to rule on this case and it likely will rule it moot. the supreme court has a long-term view and realizes president trump will not be the last president, there will be presidents after him, and they don't want to rule on a case, immigration, national security, areas that are the prerogative of the executive branch, they don't want to set far-reaching precedents if in fact the original reason for the case expired. >> woodruff: yeganeh to batty of reuters, thank you. >> woodruff: now, to puerto rico and the disaster that hurricane "maria" left behind. the u.s. territory is a vast scene of wreckage, and there are new calls to do more. john yang has that story. >> yang: across puerto rico, there is heart-wrenching devastation. most of the u.s. territory's three and a half million people can only wait... wait for water, wait for power, wait for fuel. >> ( translated ): we don't have communications, i have no telephone, we have nothing, we do not have supplies, in my house we do not have water, there is no gas, the lines are long. >> yang: in san juan today, lines wrapped around gas stations. others flocked to a point near a cell tower, damaged but still functioning, hoping for a signal strong enough to reach loved ones. >> ( translated ): i have been trying for days to get in touch with my family in the united states, and just today i found out that there is a signal here. so i came with my mother to call my father who is there, and let him know we are okay. >> yang: elsewhere, people waited to fill any container they could carry with precious water. some in the central mountains resorted to the only source they could: a stream that was once off-limits. >> ( translated ): we didn't know we could get water because it was prohibited in the past but it's open now to the public to be able to get some. >> yang: still more lines at san juan's international airport, hoping to get a flight off the island. >> ( translated ): since we are without communications, we don't have phones, internet, we have nothing, we came in person to see what the status of the airport is, and what the possibility is of taking any flight. >> yang: others are bent on returning home. many who fled toa baja, on the northern coast, have begun to return, only to find the ruins that the hurricane left behind. >> ( translated ): every time i get here to my house i get the tears because it's not easy to start again, start, clean, pick up, pull and see that there is nothing, i do not have anything, but i'll start again with the help of god, i really will. >> yang: almost a week after maria hit, some isolated towns still have not been heard from at all. it's in those places, cut off from the rest of the island, and the world, where some fear the worst damage and loss of life. and, there is still danger elsewhere: officials said a dam on the guajataca river remained in danger of failing. about 70,000 people could be in danger and have been urged to evacuate. much of puerto rico's economy is in shambles. 80% of its agricultural crops were wiped out, a calamity for a territory that was in fiscal crisis even before "maria." national guard planes are delivering sorely needed supplies, but there are calls for much more. today, house democratic leader nancy pelosi urged president trump to deploy the military for search-and-rescue, maintaining order and providing transportation. house speaker paul ryan vowed puerto ricans will have what they need. to encourage private giving, the five living former presidents expanded their one america appeal to include puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands. for more on the situation in puerto rico, i spoke with the territory's governor, ricardo rossello. governor rosselo, what's the latest on the go ha go ha tacka, is that stabilized? >> we sent a group of engineers to assess the situation. we're going to get information in the next two hours. however, we're still on emergency protocol making sure people are out of harm's way. we are accepting mitigation plans to make sure that we can stop the damage that has already occurred within the dam, so things are still in flux. but, of course, we would rather err on the side of caution. >> yang: you sawed you sent teams to the dam. how hard is it to get information to reach various parts of the island? >> it's very difficult in terms of telecom. we only have 27% of telecom working and mostly in the metropolitan area. we've established teams, however, going to the different municipalities. we've made sure mayors and their representatives come to our center of operation so we can communicate the needs and start being effective. we send a crew of runners every day to every municipality so we can get information back and forth. so it's a little bit rudimentary but it's working for us at this moment and hopefully we'll have a mitigation strategy in the next 24 to 48 hours. >> yang: governor, are you getting the aid fast enough from the staintsd all you need? >> we are grateful for the administration. they have responded quickly. the president has been very attentive to the situation, first of all calling me several times. fema and the fema director have been here in puerto rico twice. as a matter of fact, they were here with us today making sure that all the resources and fema were working in conjunction with the central government. we have been working together, we have been getting results. the magnitude of this catastrophe is enormous. this is going to take a lot of help, a lot of collaboration. my call is to congressmen and congresswomen to take action quickly and conclusively with an aid package for puerto rico. we are in the midst of potentially having a humanitarian crisis here in puerto rico which would translate to a humanitarian crisis in the united states. so i call upon congress to take action immediately. you know, puerto ricans are proud u.s. citizens. we have shown as much when irma went through our region, it impacted us but that didn't stop us from going to the aid of almost 4,000 u.s. citizens stranded in some of the islands. we gave them food, shelter, took them out of harm's way and helped them go back to their homes. now it is time for, you know, the u.s. citizens in the mainland to help puerto rico as well and, because we are a territory, we need to be equal because we're u.s. citizens as would happen in any other state. the aftermath would be health emergencies, problems with infrastructure and mass exodus of people of puerto rico which would cause a tremendous demographic shift in puerto rico and in the united states. >> yang: you say it has to be consistent with the aid that went to harvey and irma. do you worry that because that was texas and florida that puerto rico might be overlooked and in some sense sort of forgotten in the wake of all of that? >> we can't be treated differently. you can't build half a house. you need to have all the resources to restructure and rebuild puerto rico properly. and let me just say this, puerto rico's situation is very unique. fema, you know, recognizes as much. it's a situation where we essentially had two category 5, 4 and 5 hurricanes go through puerto rico in a matter of two weeks. this is unprecedented and as such the response should be unprecedented as well. >> yang: governor ricardo rossello, pre-k o puerto rico. we wish you the best. >> thank you. >> yang: as hurricane maria bore down on puerto rico last week, miami herald reporter patricia mazzei was on one of the last flights in. yesterday, she was on one of the first flights out. patricia, tell us what you saw. what it was like down there in the days after maria hit. >> what was really impressive was the extent of the damage. i mean, it wasn't just centered in one place. everywhere you went, everybody had a story about the horrific storm and just how it had wreaked havoc on their property, on their loved ones. city after city was flooded, had huge mud come into people's homes, had all the roofs torn out. it was unrelenting in seeing the extent of the catastrophe. >> yang: how widely from san juan were you able to get from the island? >> we were concerned about running out of gas because there was a gas shortage after the storm. we were able to get east and west of san juan, so we're talking maybe 60 miles, 70 miles each way, because we didn't want to get stranded anywhere. it was different going in each direction. to the east, there was a lot of flooding that we saw, a lot of sand coming on to the streets, just reach erosion. to the west, we went toward the dam that has the crack in it that's threatening some towns and their water supply, and there's where we saw the mud and where we saw people who were completely isolated. that's where the eye went out of the storm and they had yet to reach even their own government officials for help. >> how are food supplies holding up as you traveled around? what did you see? >> we saw a few little grocery stores open up here and there, but they were selling supplies they had had since before the storm. no one was getting resupplied, and people were starting to run out of their own stocks of water and things like that. there was one bakery in the town of louisa that we went to that would open everyday at 7:00 a.m. and make all the bread so there was a line out the door and as soon as they ran out, that was all they had. in san juan, we saw at least one hotel where foreign and locals were staying, they didn't have anymore water bottles, either. they ran out of plantains. no supplies were coming in to any of these places yet. >> yang: did you see signs of relief aid? >> we saw san juan starting to get on its feet. we saw debris removal, big tractors on the road, out of the city as well. we did not see utility trucks anywhere. we did not see any distributions of food or water. the relief that was present already in the shelters, those folks were trying to get together cots and things like that, but they were putting lists of supplies they needed together and it was the bare essentials. toothbrushes, toothpastes, female hygiene products, toilet paper, they were running out of all of it. >> yang: i want you to tell us about the scene at the miami airport when you arrived yesterday evening. >> oh, well, we saw family where a young girl had a big puerto rican flag unfurl when she saw the first people come off the flight. there were tv news crews waiting to speak to people who were telling them about, you know, arriving in the u.s., and anyone on the plane as soon as we landed, people were turning on their phones and getting to call their relatives for the first time, and the woman behind me started weeping because she hadn't been able to reach her family till she landed in miami. they didn't know she was here. >> yang: patricia mazzei of the "miami herald," thank you so much for sharing your stories with us. >> my pleasure. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, the official death toll reached at least 324 in last week's earthquake in central mexico. today, crews in mexico city were still searching the rubble of collapsed buildings, though hope of finding survivors is all but gone. meanwhile officials cleared just 103 of the city's nearly 9,000 schools as safe to re-open. texas has won another legal round in its bid to ban so- called sanctuary cities that protect undocumented migrants. a federal appeals court in new orleans gave the lone star state more latitude today to enforce the statute. that means police chiefs and jail officials who don't cooperate with federal immigration officials can face jail time. in germany, chancellor angela merkel now faces a struggle to create a new ruling coalition, after sunday's election. her conservatives finished first, but lost seats, as a far- right party surged to new prominence. matt fry of independent television news, reports from berlin. >> reporter: angela merkel told into her party headquarters this morning after a night of licking wounds, wringing hands and expecting supporters. what coalition is far from obvious. germany could be facing months of instability. >> i'll use all my strength to serve germany and a stable europe and let others decide how they want to describe me, which, by the way, varies quite a bit in europe. >> indeed. (cheering) >> reporter: supporters of the hard right wing afg or alternative for germany party, this is their stampede into the history books, from zero seats to 94. their motto is familiar, "we want to take our doesn't back." (chanting) >> reporter: outside,," you make us sick ," you get the drift. alexander, co-leaders and supporters voicing opinions that dare not speak their name especially on immigration till now. what do you say to those people, and many germans who look at you and your party and say you are racist? what do you say to them? >> we are no racists. we are not socialists. we are a democratic party. >> reporter: germany, too, caught a bout of populist contagion. it, too, has joined the tortured dewaide-- debate of our time abt national identity. >> woodruff: that report from matt fry of independent television news. japan's prime minister shinzo abe is calling for early parliamentary elections. he said today that he hopes, in part, for a stronger mandate to oppose north korea's nuclear activities. the election is set for october 22nd. back in this country, former u.s. representative anthony weiner was sentenced today to 21 months in prison for exchanging lewd messages and images with a 15-year-old girl. the new york democrat begged the judge for leniency, then broke down and wept. he remains free for now, but has to report to prison by november 6th. there's word that russian-bought advertisements on facebook tried to sow divisions in the united states over race and religion during last year's presidential race. "the washington post" reports tonight that the ads played up discord over groups like black lives matter and muslims in the u.s. a separate "post" report says president obama warned facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg to crack down on "fake news." they spoke after the november election. today marked the 60th anniversary of the "little rock nine." on this day in 1957, nine black teenagers had to be escorted by federal troops past an angry white mob to attend central high school in little rock, arkansas. today, in the school auditorium, the eight surviving members were honored for their courage. >> making history is not something we aspired to do. we wanted the best education our parents taxes afforded. we wanted what the constitution said: the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. and i saw education as part of that right. >> woodruff: the confrontation in 1957 came three years after the u.s. supreme court struck down racial segregation in public schools. and on wall street, the dow jones industrial average lost 53 points to close at 22,296. the nasdaq fell 56 points, and the s&p 500 slipped five. still to come on the newshour: president trump takes on the n.f.l. for taking a knee. iraqi kurds cast their votes in a long battle for independence, and much more. >> woodruff: it was not any given sunday. professional sports turned political, kicking off a national debate over protest, race and respect for the national anthem. jeffrey brown begins our coverage. ("national anthem" playing) >> brown: a day of defiance in the national football league. in stadiums across the country, players chose their form of protest against a president whose distaste for such >> it was very emotional for all of us. we all had decisions to make. some guys kneeled, some guys stood. rest assured we all care about any form of injustice. >> brown: league-wide, more than 200 players sat or kneeled during the national anthem. others locked arms with their teammates and some owners in a show of unity. three teams, the tennessee titans, seattle seahawks and pittsburgh steelers, chose not to take the field during the anthem. the issue jumped into the headlines on friday night, when the president spoke at a campaign rally in alabama: >> wouldn't you love to see one of these n.f.l. owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, "get that son-of-a- off the field right now, out. he's fired. he's fired!" >> brown: indeed, n.f.l. owners responded, but many in opposition to the president. even longtime trump supporter and new england patriots boss robert kraft released a statement, saying: "i support our players' rights to peacefully affect social change and raise awareness in a manner that they feel is most impactful." still, in the following days, the president doubled down on his remarks, with more than a dozen tweets, including one with just the hashtag "stand for our anthem." it was a steamy sunday outside fed-ex field in suburban washington. the home-town redskins were getting set to take on the oakland raiders in a prime-time matchup. but as tailgaters fired up grills, tossed footballs and cheered on their teams, the political conversation loomed large. >> athletes have the platform and if that's a way to get the message out i'm all for it. it's peaceful there's no violence. i'm all for it. >> i want them all standing. if they want to lock arms that's cool. but everybody stand up. if they don't want to stand then stay in the locker room like pitssburgh did and be over with it. >> brown: the debate drew a wide range of opinions on the role athletes should play in such national conversations. >> they're getting paid millions of dollars to play a game, a kid's game. well you ought to respect a country that allows you to do that. i mean you don't have to agree with the way things are and there are other ways to protest. stand up for the flag because a lot of people died for it. >> they're getting paid millions of dollars year after year to even put their lives at risk even to the point of concussion. but when it comes to them having consciousness and when they feel they need something to change the entire motive shifts. it's crazy how that is. >> brown: many of those who argue against kneeling say the protests disrespect the military. but veterans we met were split. >> i've been in iraq and afghanistan i fight to protect our rights as an american citizen with freedom of speech. but kneeling for the flag isn't going to change what's happening. >> i think that was a stupid thing for the president to say. everybody has a voice, and if they disagree with what the flag stands for, or whatever meaning behind it, that's their decision. >> brown: corey lee was at the game to watch his son, marquel, a starting linebacker for the raiders. the navy veteran supports what the players are doing, but when it came to his own son: >> he's going to stand for the national anthem. he's definitely going to stand for that. that's my son he knows our beliefs as a family. >> brown: but lee's wife, katanya, said marquel can make up his own mind: >> i want him to do whatever he feels in his heart is best for him. we raised him to be very independent and to not be followers but be leaders and so >> brown: elsewhere, shows of support for the player who sparked the debate: quarterback colin kaepernick, who first kneeled during the anthem last year to protest police brutality against minorities. the president has insisted his comments aren't about race. but greg banks disagrees >> he's totally disregarding what the message is. and the message is we don't want to be killed. >> brown: the next act could come tonight, as the arizona cardinals face the dallas cowboys on the national broadcast of monday night football. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: we take a deeper look at all this now with jerry brewer who has been reporting on the story for the "washington post." jerry brewer, welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: you wrote in your column for today's "post" and they made it the headline n.f.l. beat trump. what did you mean by that? >> well, i think trump wanted to take on 1,800 members of a league and essentially tell them what to do and they said, no, this is our constitutional right is to express ourselves peacefully, and that's what they did sunday and, ultimately, that's what that was about. colin kaepernick, it's about bigger issues. but yesterday was really about what do we stand for as a football league in the face of the president saying some vulgar things about us? >> woodruff: what is the message that the league is united behind, do you think? >> i think thar united in -- they're united in solidarity that you do have a choice and they're united in the message that if you choose to peacefully protest that does not make you an s.o.b. it's very much that simple. >> woodruff: when the president and his spokeswoman sarah huckabee sanders today at the white house said this is not about race, this is not about anything other than respecting our flag, respecting our country? >> well, i don't think that you can -- just like you can't take words out of context, you can't take actions out of context. it's very dangerous. so the first thing i believe whenever someone protests, you have to ask the question why and you have to get to the why, and the why is, from colin kaepernick standpoint and a lot of players who started this before sunday, it's about police brutality, it's about inequality, it's about racism, it's about just building a better american society. we've kind of gotten away from that. they feel a sense of helplessness in that no one is going to listen to this issue unless i who have a platform do something. and people forget that protests are not supposed to be polite. you protest something because you feel like your voice isn't being heard. so they're speaking for hundreds, thousands, millions of people who have these legitimate concerns in their own communities, and no one wants to pay the appropriate attention to them. >> woodruff: does it get more complicated when you have people taking it, as you saw some of the fans at the redskins game yesterday, saying they shouldn't be disrespecting the military, people who sacrificed and put their lives on the line for this country? >> yeah, i think it becomes a dangerous oversimplification, and i don't think -- when you go and talk to any of these players, no one is saying that we're doing this against the military, that we're doing to this because we hate the united states, they're doing it to get attention. again, i think you have to put it in context and we have to understand what they are doing. we understand that symbols are very powerful in this nation, in the entire world, but ultimately it is a symbol. can we get back to caring about the people that they're trying to represent instead of being so ferociously angry at how they're misrepresenting a symbol. it's a symbol. again, the flag is a very powerful thing. i have family members, a huge history of family with military backgrounds, but, at the end of the day, you're choosing to peacefully kneel or sit down in front of a flag in order to say please, please, please, would you pay attention to these issues of inequality that are ruining america, in my opinion. >> woodruff: we noticed a number of players, i saw the number 200, kneel yesterday and a number of others stood and locked arms and we saw the owners lock arms, and the president tweeted yesterday saying great solidarity for our anthem and country. standing with locked arms is good. kneeling is not acceptable. is there a difference? >> i do think there's a difference. i think, ultimately, what the n.f.l. was trying to do yesterday was say, no matter how you want to express yourself, we're with you. it was a very empathetic statement that they were trying to make and they were trying to show that you can be united. i think, in this country, name any issue, we are never going to be perfectly aligned and in agreement on anything, and that's, in a lot of ways, the beauty of our country. you're allowed to be that way, but you should care about the man to the right of you, the woman to the left of you, and that is the way that we get better. we can't just -- we can't just say this is how i feel, go argue at my brick waldorf there in the -- brick wall over there in the corner. >> woodruff: this started last week with reports about concussions, c.t.e., the new information that's affecting the athletes much younger. that's out there. the president tas saying in alabama friday night, the new rules that are protecting the players are, he said, ruining the game. what are we to take away from all of that? >> if he hadn't cursed talking about the protests, i think what he said about the game would be a lot more inflammatory. you're talking about -- we're talking about athletes who play this game for ten years, leave, and then 15 years later, they are committing suicide because they have brain damage, because they have c.t.e., and you can't just come back and say i want football to be the way it used to be. what is the value of a life? these aren't just disposable human beings. again, that speaks to just football. but when we talk about america in general and issues that people care about, human beings are not disposable, and we have to get back to having empathy. we all understand we all aren't going to agree, but we can listen to each other and we can learn from each other even though we may not agree. >> woodruff: so much more to talk about here. jerry brewer of "the washington post," thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: protests erupt at the senate hearing for the republican health care bill. and our politics monday team examines the latest dividing lines. but first, millions of kurds in northern iraq went to the polls today to vote on whether to begin the process of creating their own nation, and separating from the rest of iraq. it's a vote opposed by governments in baghdad, in washington, in tehran and elsewhere. but as special correspondent jane ferguson reports, that's doing little to divert the kurds from their goal. >> reporter: voting for a new country. a national identity for themselves, farida mamand wouldn't have missed it for anything. how does it feel? >> it feels wonderful! >> reporter: iraq's kurds went to the polls to vote in a referendum to decide their fate asking: do they want to remain a part of iraq or break away as an independent nation of kurds. farida's family live for kurdish independence. they have been fighting and dying for it for generations. her father is general hussain mamand and he has been a proud member of the kurdish armed forces, known as the peshmerga, most of his life, just like his father before him. >> ( translated ): i joined the peshmerga in 1965, when our leaders led us in a revolution for our freedom. the government in baghdad was bombing the kurdish people, bombing our villages. >> reporter: his leader back then was mostafa barzani. now it's mostapha's son, massoud barzani who is leader of iraqi kurdistan. >> ( translated ): after the referendum we are ready to start the process of dialogue with baghdad. that we are never ever going back to baghdad to renegotiate the failed partnership that we had in the past. >> reporter: the vote is not binding and kurdish leaders will not declare independence immediately or even soon afterwards. instead it is meant to give them a stronger mandate for negotiating a breakup with baghdad. the kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without a state. excluded when european powers carved up the middle east in the 1920s after the collapse of the ottoman empire, kurds were divided between turkey, iran, syria and iraq. those in northern iraq have not stopped fighting for their independence ever since. over the years that struggle has cost them dearly. saddam hussein was their worst enemy. after rising up against his regime in baghdad in the 1980's, he shocked the world by using chemical weapons against kurdish civilians. in 1988, the people of halabja town were gassed, massacring thousands of kurdish men, women and children. the horror of those times has never been forgotten here. >> ( translated ): in the ¡80s, there were chemical weapons used against the kurds and we were the kurds were given even more reason to fight for our rights. >> reporter: they rose up again >> reporter: that fight cost general mamand and his family dearly. his 27-year-old son abdullah was killed fighting the terror group. >> ( translated ): from bashiqa they were heading into mosul. he was wounded twice by gunfire and a suicide bomber. he was not alone, a couple of others were killed too. >> reporter: the trump administration has pushed the kurdish leaders to cancel the independence referendum they say breaking apart iraq is too destabilizing for the region. brett mcgurk is the top u.s. envoy to the coalition fighting isis, and has been working in iraq for over a decade. >> the referendum, to get to your question, just carries an awful lot of risks and that's not something that, that's not something the united states can control. >> reporter: kurds here know they will have to go it alone for now. >> ( translated ): for 100 years we are disappointed with the americans now, but i hope this will not last. i hope they understand that the kurds are only fighting for their rights, nothing else. >> reporter: in the capital of iraq's kurdish region, erbil, there is growing excitement about the latest independence bid. it would be very tough to find anyone in a market like this who doesn't support the referendum and independence, but beyond kurdistan's borders, anger is growing. neighboring countries turkey, syria and iran are threatening military action if more moves towards independence are made. they are afraid the kurdish minorities in their own countries could start agitating for independence too. those are not baseless fears. in a café in erbil, a group of kurds originally from turkey and now living in europe have gathered. they traveled here just to witness the historic vote and show support. they are not iraqi citizens so cannot vote, but to them a kurd is a kurd. >> ( translated ): we don't say we are kurdish from turkey, or kurdish from iran or kurdish from syria, we say we are from northern kurdistan or eastern kurdistan or western kurdistan. we are from kurdistan. >> reporter: to these men the issue of u.s. opposition to the referendum is just a case of political necessity for now. professor dlaweer ala'aldeen heads up the middle east research institute in erbil. >> now, when the current administration says ¡don't do it' this has not translated into people feeling abandoned or bitter about it. people still love america. but what they expect is that after the referendum, and if they enable this process of independence they expect that understanding from america. that there will be more friends respecting this move and trying to calm things down. >> reporter: baghdad angrily rejects the referendum, and the inclusion of disputed areas like kirkuk city in the proposed future kurdish country hasn't helped. kirkuk is home to an ethnic mix of arabs, kurds and turkmen. it also holds great oil wealth and baghdad will not give it up easily. >> ( translated ): we will not relinquish our kurdish people. we have rejected a sectarian and racist state. iraq will remain for all iraqis and we do not allow anyone to do what he likes without bearing consequences. >> reporter: that hasn't frightened those in the mamand family, who all showed up, excited to vote. farida's mother aisha was overcome with emotion, voting for the creation of a country her son has already died for. whatever the result of the referendum, negotiating for independence afterwards will be fraught with difficulty and the threat of violence from all sides. despite the peaceful vote, more blood may be shed before the kurds ever win their own country. for the pbs newshour, i'm jane ferguson in erbil. >> woodruff: in all the back and forth over how to repeal the affordable care act, there was a first on capitol hill today. the first hearing on a replacement plan this year. but passage of this latest republican push, the graham- cassidy bill, is far from certain, even as senate leaders say they plan to hold a vote in coming days. lisa desjardins is here to help bring us up to speed. lisa, the republicans have been doing all sorts of thing to try to win more votes, but as of right now and just in the last hour it's proving it's hard. >> that's right. we have some news. for all intents pulitzer prizes this version of graham-cassidy and the shape of this bill, it's dead. susan collins is a hard, no the third after rand paul and john mccain. three republicans nos means a bill does not go forward in the senate. the republicans have decisions to make. do they make people walk the plank and get them on the record on this or try to come up with a magical last-minute, last-ditch formula? they have till 11:59 saturday night to use the reconciliation process this year and pass something with 50 votes tivment clock is ticking. >> yes. >> woodruff: we were talking about the statement senator collins has put out. i was going to ask you, is there any glimmerrer of hope anywhere, but this is a pretty devastating indictment. >> oh, it's a lengthy and certainly well-thought-out statement for her in which she mentioned the cuts to medicaid, the cuts and effects for people with pre-existing conditions and the loss of coverage or people who may not get coverage under the bill, and we have news from the congressional budget office that looked at a previous version two days old now of the graham-cassidy bill and said they don't have enough time but they did believe it would mean millions fewer americans with coverage. managed to get a night off as republicans try to figure out what to do next e. this appears to be dead unless someone who's declared change theirs mind. >> the most likely people think is rand paul, finding something that appeals to him. but to have something that appeals to rand paul and lisa murkowski seems unlikely and you would have to dramatically change the bill. >> woodruff: the hearing is the first we've seen this year. dramatic? >> unbelievable. i don't think i've experienced anything like. this protesters. dozen of them. play sound from what it was like. (everyone speaking at the same time) >> okay, the committee is in recess -- (shouting) >> they were saying "no cuts to medicaid," "save our liberty," and they had to recess the hearing for 20 minutes while they took all the protesters outside. the hearing did get back underway and we got into some of the court debate. this is the first hearing this year the senate had on the healthcare bill. so it's significant. you heard republicans more power to states, and from democrats more power for protesters and individuals. >> literally hundreds of people were sitting outside this hearing room wanting to have their voices here. if this is such a great idea, let's take the time to analyze it, review it and put it through all the same hoops that obamacare went through. chances are there might be democratic amendments that would actually be accepted but, no, we're going through this trumped-up process to try to get a political scout before september 30th. >> they miss the obvious point that, for so many people today, the aca isn't an option. one thing is clear, residents and citizens throughout the entire country say that their local and state politicians have their confidence more than their federal poll -- politicians. this seems like a no-brainer, so give the money to the states. >> this is the substance five days before the deadline when they have had many months to talk about this. >> woodruff: many months, and just a few days to go, and now they don't have the votes. >> definitely not. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins, we thank you. >> woodruff: for more now on the fight to repeal the affordable care act, the feud between the president and nfl players, for politics monday with tamara keith of npr and amy walter of the "cook political report." amy, you just heard lisa's report. apparently the republicans' effort is dead once again. >> yes, and the question beyond do they have the upvotes is what would happen if they actually passed this? after the weekend, there were a number of polls that came out showing that this bill is not particularly popular. people don't know much about it which goes to the question about how hard the president himself and republicans were selling it to the public, which is the answer is not a lot. but even on the question about whether people like obamacare, you heard senator tim scott say people really hate of course, we need to do something about it, when the abc poll asked voters if you had a choice between obamacare or this bill, 53% said obamacare, 33% said the republican proposal. even if something passed, republicans would have to spend a bunch of time defending it, defining it and talking about it and trying to get people to like something that right now they're not particularly interested in. >> woodruff: maybe they're better off without it, tamara. (laughter) >> i won't be the one to decide that. (laughter) you know, i think that republicans want something. clearly, the president wants something, anything. he was on a talk show this morning in alabama, mostly to talk about the senate race, but was also talking about the repeal and replace effort, and he was not kind to his fellow republicans. he said they were posturing, that he was just totally upset with john mccain. but he also said he would vote no on the measure and on a previous version did the thumbs-down that president trump found very upsetting and he talked about that. but, you know, he wasn't making a hard pitch for the legislation, and he also just didn't even seem that op optimistic. there have been times the white house said it's going to pass at this point in the process but they aren't saying that this time. >> yeah, republicans have been saying their greatest fear because they haven't been able to pass it donors are getting upset and sitting on wallets which impacts candidates in 2018. may not impacts president trump but certainly impacts his party. >> woodruff: you mentioned alabama, tam, i'll use this to turn to that. the president was there friday, made news for a lot of reasons. what does that race look like between luther strange, the appointed senator, and roy moore? >> well, it is a fascinating race, and we talked about this last week, but it pits president trump who has supported luther training who is the appointed sort of fill-in for the senator who left to become the attorney general, it pits president trump's candidate against basically all president trump's people. you've got steve bannon, you've got sarah palin, you've got all the trump allies campaigning for roy moore who, according to recent polls, seems to have an advantage. yeah, i was talking to one republican analyst who said, you know, you've got people that went to this rally that president trump had for luther strange. put on their make america great again red hats and probably walked out and planned to vote for roy moore. >> it is this debate and this sort of interparty fighting between the establishment, anti-establishment has been going on for years. we remember starting in 2010, the difference this year is in 2010 it was republicans at the out party, they were from you strayed with their own party saying they weren't fighting hard enough against president obama andtimes in congress, so they were trying to figure out who they were and how to define themselves. now republicans have the white house, the house, the senate, the interparty rifts are as strong as ever and even the president, while he went down to endorse luther strange, said maybe i shouldn't have done this in the first place, that roy moore is actually a pretty good guy. you know, his stamp of approval isn't necessarily helping to heal this rift, and i think we're going to continue to see this. we already started to see primaries is that right to emerge among republican senators up in 2018. it will be curious to see if we see an increase, if roy moore does win, of the interparty fights on the senate and house side. >> let me say if roy moore wins, president trump will find a way to turn it into a victor for himself. >> absolutely. president trump finds victory in defeat. >> woodruff: the other news that the president made in alabama was, of course, going after the nationa national footl league, the players who have been protesting during the national anthem. it's become a huge topic of conversation over the weekend, at every professional game yesterday. what does the president gain politically by doing this? >> i think this has been true since he was a private citizen, as a candidate and now as president, getting into the culture of peace, whether we call the culture wars or divide on some of these issues, is much more comfortable than debates about policy. that's where he likes to sit. it's where he feels the most confident. remember, all through 2016, he took these positions that a whole bunch of folks even on his own side said don't get involvey those, they will be politically damaging, you can't recover from this, so he won. he trusts his gut and instincts on these issues. they play to people who show up at his rallies. i think that's the other piece to remember. he loves getting the applause and add regulation of the folks who show up at the rally. having a 90-minute speech about health care and taxes wasn't going to get people riled up. >> woodruff: is it helping him? >> this is a base-feeding feud, and he keeps picking these feuds. he's done it again and again and again. it excites his base. now, you know, these protests were originally about protesting racism and police brutality, but now the president and the white house say this isn't about race. they say it's about patriotism and the flag, and president trump, on many occasions, has turned and said, patriotism. whatever it is, whatever the fight, is he makes it about patriotism. >> woodruff: so we watch but, for the time being, amy, it seems to be splitting the country. >> it absolutely is. it will be curious to see when polls come out, but when we looked at polls from when this first started, it was split among racial lines not surprisingly. >> woodruff: amy walter, tamara keith, "politics monday," thank you both. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, we share ways you can help recovery efforts in puerto rico, in the midst of a humanitarian crisis after hurricane maria. that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> 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. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> rose: welcome to the program. we begin tonight with mike allen and a look at the week in politics. >> the amazing thing about this is, charlie, that republican leaders once again got themselves out on this limb. like, i don't know how many times republican leaders need to put their hand on the healthcare stove to learn this is not going to have a happy ending for them. so senator rand paul of kentucky, a hard no. senator sno john mccain a hard . susan collins of maine saying likely no, and that's enough to kill it. the other vote that was in doubt as you know senator lisa murkowski of alaska. look at the fact checks of the bill, dig into the policy of this bill. this was going to be, of all the different versions that have come up, this wago