Action. Better action, better sex, and better romance. Woodruff those are some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your life and become youre own chief life officer. 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 and. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ifill president obama and republicans in congress moved closer to confrontation today over immigration reform. There was word the president will issue an executive order as early as next week. The New York Times reported he plans to shield up to five million undocumented immigrants from deportation. Many could receive work permits. That drew fresh warnings from the top senate republican. The president has been told over and over again and were telling again today dont do this because his executive actions are not permanent changes. Ifill the top senate democrat, harry reid, said he urged the president not to act on immigration before Congress Approves spending bills to keep the government running. Ifill Congress Also moved closer to a crucial vote on the controversial keystone x. L. Oil pipline. House debate began today, with a final vote expected tomorrow. The legislation would approve construction of the massive pipeline, 875miles of which would be in the u. S. Proponents of the bill say it will create jobs, but opponents say ifill the balance of power in the new congress will change, but the people at the very top, wont. Senate republicans today re elected Mitch Mcconnell as their new majority leader. And democrats chose harry reid to continue, this time as minority leader. In the house, Speaker John Boehner retained his position. Next week, democrat nancy pelosi is expected to be returned to her post as minority leader. Woodruff the president of liberia lifted a state of emergency today, citing progress against ebola. The measure was imposed earlier this month. It banned large gatherings, closed schools and markets and restricted citizens movement. The Ebola Outbreak has killed 5,100 people in west africa more than half of them in liberia. Ifill president obama urged myanmars government today not to backslide on reforms, after decades of military rule. Hes in the former burma, for a pair of regional summits while there, he pressed president thein sein to improve treatment of minority muslims, and lift obstacles to fully free elections but he also offered support. We recognize that change is hard and it doesnt always move in a straight line. But i am optimistic about the possibilities of myanmar. All those who are sincere in pursuing reform will always have a strong ally in the United States of america and we look forward to working together. Ifill mr. Obama holds talks tomorrow with Opposition Leader aung san suu kyi. Under myanmars current constitution, she is barred from running for president next year. Woodruff twelve nationalists were released today after being detained for an attack on three u. S. Sailors in istanbul. Footage posted to the turkish youth unions website showed the assault yesterday. Members of the group called the sailors murderers, threw paint at them, and tried to put hoods over their heads. The suspects may yet face criminal charges. Ifill a doctor in india was under arrest today, in the deaths of 13 women he sterilized. Doctor r. K. Gupta acknowledged conducting 83 procedures in six hours on saturday. But he insisted he did nothing wrong, and suggested the women were given tainted medication. The sterilizations were part of a government effort to reduce indias birth rate. Woodruff back in this country, hundreds of federal contract workers walked off the job in washington, for one day. He is charged with conspiring to violate safety and Health Standards and to impede safety officials. Ifill an internal review blames a major White House Security breach on a series of failures. A man jumped the fence september 19 and made it deep inside the executive mansion. A New York Times report says the review found secret service alarms and radios failed to work properly and an officer with an attack dog failed to react because he was in his van talking on his cell phone. Woodruff back in this country, hundreds of federal contract workers walked off the job in washington, for one day. U. S. Capitol employees rallied forbetter benefits and a 15 federal minimum wage. Employees from the smithsonian museums and the pentagon joined in. Woodruff wall street managed small gains today, on positive news about corporate earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial average was up 40 points to close at 17,652; the nasdaq rose five points to close at 4,680; and the s p 500 added a point, to finish at 2,039. On the oil market, the price of crude fell below 75 a barrel a new, fouryear low. Woodruff still to come on the newshour. Should the u. S. Change its strategy to combat the Islamic State . Complications for the space probe that landed on a comet. Newly elected Congress Members move into their offices on capitol hill. Amazon compromises in an ebook pricing dispute. Alaskas push to retain more teachers. The hazards of earning a living on the slopes of mount everest. And, two unlikely heroes team up to make a zombie movie. Ifill now to the Islamic State group, earlier today a defiant message from its leader was distributed, as lawmakers here in washington took aim at the president s strategy to take down the group. Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports. Warner its the first time the Islamic State leader has been heard from since iraqi officials claimed hed been wounded or even killed in air strikes a week ago. The 17 minute recording exhorts his fight to the end and all but taunts the u. S. Coalition. translated and soon the jews and crusaders will be forced to come down to the ground and send their Ground Forces to their deaths and destruction. Here is obama who has ordered the deployment of 1,500 additional soldiers under the claim that they are advisors because the crusaders airstrikes have not prevented the Islamic States advance, nor weakened its resolve. Warner its unclear when the recording was made, but it appeared as pentagon leaders told a house hearing theres been steady and sustainable progress against the Islamic State, also known as isil. Defense secretary chuck hagel. This pressure is having an effect on potential isil recruits and collaborators, striking a blow to morale and recruitment. We know that. Our intelligence is very clear on that. And as iraqi forces build strength, the tempo and intensity of our coalitions air campaign will accelerate in tandem. Warner california democrat Loretta Sanchez complained thats the vital flaw in the plan. She argued to general martin dempsey, chair of the joint chiefs, that past attempts to train iraqi forces were failures. What are you doing to change that so that these men actually do take the fight to isil and our men and women dont have boots on the ground . One of the important assumptions about this campaign is that the Iraqi Government does establish its intent to create a government of national unity. I can predict for you right now, if that doesnt happen, then the Iraqi Security forces will not hold together. Warner dempsey left open the possibility that in special circumstances american troops might yet be called upon to do more than train and advise the iraqis. There are some places along the path that i think will be fairly complex terrain for them, including, for example, mosul and eventually as they need to restore the border between iraq and syria. Im not predicting at this point that i would recommend that those forces in mosul and along the border would need to be accompanied by u. S. Forces but were certainly considering it. Warner the hearing also focused on the dispute over u. S. Strategy in syria. Turkey and others in the region have criticized training moderate Syrian Rebels to fight Islamic State forces but not to take on president bashar al assad. They say that policy is not realistic, and some republican critics in congress have agreed. But secretary hagel warned today that removing assad from power would do nothing to roll back Islamic State gains. When you look at what isil dominates now, the swath of the control they have, eastern syria, much of north and western iraq, you could change assad today and thats not going to change all the dynamics quickly, certainly in syria. Warner syrian rebel leaders reported the Islamic State and alqaidas branch in syria, the alnusra front, have agreed to stop fighting each other, and work together. Ifill now, for a closer look at the administrations strategy to defeat the i. S. Group inside syria, we turn to former u. S. Ambassador to iraq James Jeffrey. Hes now a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for near east policy. And Phyllis Bennis, director of the new internationalism project at the institute for policy studies. Ambassador jeffrey, is our strategy, such as we understand it to be, the same for deeffect the Islamic State as as our strategy in syria . No, its quite different. As both secretary hagel and general dempsey said we have an iraqfirst strategy but importantly dempsey underlined it is not an iraqonly strategy. We have put considerable resources into stopping isis in the Syrian Kurdish town of kobani. Nonetheless, deal with assad is very, very difficult because hes entrenched in power. Hes one of the generators of this entire conflict and the growth of isis. Yes, we dont have any capable allies as we do, to some degree at least, in iraq. Thus, were starting in iraq trying to push against isis, and theres been several offenses to the north of baghdad and sothe south as well, that have been pretty successful. So i think that this is a smart approach to first start in iraq, and then well see how the situation develops in syria where we have multiple enemies. Ifill Phyllis Bennis, is our strategy correct in that respect . No, i dont think its correct. Its correct to not be trying again to carry out regime change in a country where we are not appreciated, where we are not being asked for regime change by everybody. There are some, clearly, who are asking for direct u. S. Military engagement, but if we look at our history of regime change in that region, its not a model that i think anybodys going to want. Do people want to end up like the situation now in libya or in iraq . Where you end up after regime change with more violence, more chaos, more extremism, not less. So that part i think is true, is correct. I just dont think that we should be saying that thats the next stage. I dont think the military approach here is going to work at all in either iraq or syria. Ifill well let me ask ambassador jeffrey about that. Is there a bad track record for the u. S. In engagement in the kind of countries that Phyllis Bennis mentions . And should we be thinking of a ditch approach . Is that what the white house is doing now . Absolute, shes absolutely right, and ive been involved in some of those bad approaches. But that doesnt mean you simply sit back and walk this thing. Secretary hagel said today there is no purely military approach. I would add a corollary to that there is no political approach at this point with a foe like isis that doesnt have a military opponent. Ifill and a foe like assad . And a foe like assad you also need a military component but somewhat differently. The president s mission is to destroy isis. He hasnt given the same mission to destroy assad. We need to provide credible support toon opposition which is not some people in syria. Its basically the entire sunni population with a few exceptions, to stop assad from winning this thing. If you can generate a stalemate, then we can get back to geneva where we failed twice and get some kind of political resolution. I think thats goal hes looking for. Ifill Phyllis Bennis, you can respond to that and i have another question for you. Sure. I think the question of negotiations is crucial. There was a failure twice in a row in geneva, but the failure had everything to do with the restrictions that were put on the nature of these talks. When we have talks that start with iran cant be at the table, were guaranteeing failure because iran is a major player, whether we like them or not. When we start with a countryitary that says everyone at the table has to start by acknowledging that assad must go, that says that russia and iran are not going to be there, let alone the regime itself. So whatever is agreed to is only going to be agreed to by one side. Ifill except allies like turkey, sometimes allies like turkey, asking for nofly zones, seem to be quite unhappy with our current policy. They are. In fact the russians did show up in geneva, but the question whether iran should show up or not is a very tough one because of exactly what you said that is, the Sunni Arab States in the region and turkey see iran as much of a threat as they do isis. So, therefore, again, we have multiple enemies in the syrian front. This is not an enemy. If were serious about diplomacy and i think we have to be number one, every bomb that we drop drives some people into the arms of isis. When we look at iraq, if were talking about the ambassador the ambassador mentioned the need for an inclusive government, the new Prime Minister is saying some of the right things, but who does he appoint as the minister of interior . The head one most sectarian shia militias in recent iraqi history. That was not a good message to the sunnis of iraq. So thats one part of it. The the other part of it is were looking at a scenario where we have to be serious about diplomacy, not as a subset of the military but instead of the military. If we really want to solve the problem, we cant bomb extremism. We dom bombcities. We bomb people. We kill people. We dont bomb scream exrooemism. Sometimes we hit extremists, sometimes we dont. Ifill this seems to be a unique set of circumstances. Were not talking about one country where were talking about a regime change. Were talking about a region and allies who are not necessarily on the board in the way they have been in past incursions. I wonder if you had to give the Administration Advice about the one thing they should be reconsidering at this stage, what would it be . It would be move a bit faster on putting advisory teams out with these iraqi unit. I think theyre going to need them, from my experience there. Again, the administration is not just looking to the military, as, again, hagel and dempsey point out today. They have a broad program, and they understand you cant defeat extremism with bombs. But you can defeat people in gun trucks and in tanks and artillery with bombs. Ifill briefly. But i think that we cant expect that this is going to work. If we are serious, we have to do diplomacy that is not bound up with the military. We heard about 5. 6 billion more to pay for the military. We didnt hear about any additional funding to pay for more diplomacy. Thats what we need. Ifill Phyllis Bennis of the institute for policy studies and ambassador James Jeffrey for the institute for near east study, thank you both very much. Thank you. Woodruff theres a lot of talk once again today about the rosetta spacecraft and its Philae Lander that descended onto a comet yesterday. It turns out it was a bumpier ride than initially thought and now there are questions about what it may mean for the landers mission. We begin with this report by alok jha of independent television news. Reporter unsecured, positioned precariously, but communicating the Philae Lander sent pictures today of its new home on a comet 500 million kilometers from earth. One of its features in the corner here, in shadow, philae is surrounded by what looked like shisheer worky cliffs. This was taken less than a minute before it touched down. Here we see the lander dwarfed by the comet. Philae ended bup a kilometer from its intended target. The cross is where it was meant to land. The box is where it is now. Its just something emotional within the context of having some manmade feature in the foreground of some alien landscape. And that really gets you. Thats what is getting people now. This is where the emotion is. This is a massive technological feat. Reporter philae landed just before 4 00 p. M. Yesterday but the equipment designed to answer it failed causing the lander to bounce back up off the surface of the comet by a kilometer. Then, after about two hours, it came back down on to the comet again. But once again tpounceed off, eventually settling back on to the surface five minutes later. Scientists now know that philae is lying on its side, two of its feet on the ground, one pointing into space. We dont know very well where it is on the surface of the comet but we have no doubt it is on the surface. It is working marvelously, transmitting data continuously. We dont lose data. Its doing all the operations we command it to do, so its perfectly working. applause reporter the man who codiscovered the comet 45 years ago came