>> it's like whenever i do see the police, i don't feel safe. >> woodruff: plus, the head of the world bank on the devastating effects of ebola. those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> at bae systems, our pride and dedication show in everything we do; from electronics systems to intelligence analysis and cyber- operations; from combat vehicles and weapons to the maintenance and modernization of ships, aircraft, and critical infrastructure. knowing our work makes a difference inspires us everyday. that's bae systems. that's inspired work. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> supported by the john d. and >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> 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. >> woodruff: the people of pakistan were staggered today by the worst terror attack in at least seven years. when it was over, scores of young students lay dead at the hands of taliban gunmen. chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner begins our coverage. >> warner: the wounded children were brought to a hospital in peshawar, one after another. some on stretchers, others in the arms of teachers or parents. their dark green school uniforms, bloody. most of the dead were students at a military-run school for first through tenth graders, along with nine staffers. classes were underway when the taliban killers stormed in. >> ( translated ): as soon as the firing started, our teacher made us sit in a corner and told us to lower our heads. after around an hour, when the firing subsided a little, army personnel came and rescued us. when we came out we saw in the corridors our friends who had been shot three or four times, some dead and some injured. their blood had spilled all over the place. qtr and physics lab assistant 6at army public school, mudassir awan, saying: >> ( translated ): i am the physics lab assistant. we were sitting in the canteen. we saw six people climbing the wall. we thought it must be the children playing some game. but then we saw a lot of firearms with them. they started firing at us, so we ran into the classrooms and closed the doors. >> warner: army commandos ended the siege, eight hours later. officials said seven attackers, all wearing explosive vests, were killed. taliban attacks on pakistani schools are frequent, but never on the scale of today's slaughter. the pakistani taliban claimed it was in retaliation for a new government military offensive in north waziristan. that's a tribal area west of peshawar used as a base by taliban and other extremist groups to launch terror attacks in both pakistan and afghanistan. and for years, the united states had urged pakistan's government to clear out the safe haven, to no effect. but in june, after a militant assault on karachi's international airport that killed dozens. pakistani forces launched a concerted campaign in north waziristan, and recently boasted of killing nearly 2,000 militants there. rushing to peshawar today, pakistan's prime minister nawaz sharif vowed the military offensive will not falter. >> ( translated ): this is a barbaric act, this high level of terrorism, we condemn this act strongly. our wishes go to the families who lost their loved ones. i must say that the struggle will continue until we clean our country of this terrorism. there are no doubts about that. >> warner: and in london, secretary of state john kerry joined in the worldwide condemnation. >> mothers and fathers send their kids to school to learn, to be safe and to dream and to find opportunity. instead today they are gone, wiped away by taliban assassins who serve a dark and almost medieval vision. >> warner: as night fell in pakistan, families held the first of scores of funerals for the dead. hundreds of other pakistanis gathered to mourn, at candlelight vigils. >> woodruff: later, the afghan taliban, a separate faction, condemned the attack on the pakistani school as against islam. for the latest on the brutal school attack we turn to reporter tim craig of the washington post. he is in islamabad, pakistan. i spoke to him a short time ago. tim craig, thank you for talking with us. first of all, how are people reacting to this? what are they saying? >> it's just incredibly sad. when you're in pakistan long enough, these are routine attacks. terrorism attacks are nothing newing but this took everything to a whole new level. to have the taliban go into a school and basically have massacre of more than 100 schoolchildren, it sort of touched a very open, raw nerve with people, and it's just very sad. many people are referring to this as sort of pakistan's version of 9/11. i was out earlier today in islamabad for a while while this was transpiring. and you could see people staring at the television with that glary-eyed stare that we remember from the u.s. on september 11th when people were just watching in shock and disbelief that this is actually happening now in their country. >> woodruff: this was a military-run school. are there questions raised about why there wasn't more security? >> i think that's going to be a big debate and discuss in the coming days and the coming hours as this continues to unfold. it is a military-run school. it's located on the outskirts of a military containment or a base. you would think there would be more security, but when you work and live in pakistan, you can often spot little things that happen that, you know, it sort of makes you wonder why the security wasn't better. a couple months ago there was a major attack at the karachi airport where suicide bombers made it on the runway, able to bomb, you know, aircraft or try to bomb aircraft with explosive devices and started several large fires on the runway. that's another example of how could this happen, where was the security. obviously it's a major lapse, but at the same time, as people in the u.s. ehave been know and the west even know, schools are generally pretty soft targets. thankfully there have not been more serious major terrorist attacks targeting schools, but there are many ways into schools. they have security in some corridors and entryways, but they generally are fairly soft targets across the world. >> woodruff: why is the pakistani taliban targeting these schools? they said it was in retaliation for the military's offensive against the militants in this part of the country. is that an offensive that's been successful? >> there does seem to be some indication that the offensive has pushed the pakistan taliban sort of out of some of their traditional safe havens in north waziristan. the operation began in earnest this sumner june. it involved air strikes as well as a sustained ground campaign. they have been dislodged. many military analysts here said this sort of shows that they're up on their heels, that they're now targeting softer daughter gets. they're looking for targets of opportunity. but still, this attack was so horrific and such a... just massacre of so many students that many people believe this may have crossed some sort of line in terms of public opinion. you know, the pakistan taliban is not widely supported in pakistan. many people do not support them, do not agree with them and actually speak out against them, but for years this has been going on where there has been this tolerance of the pakistan taliban and what they were able to do in the northwestern part of the country. this, many people believe, is a red line that will not be tolerated. and there will be i'm sure in the coming days calls for tougher and more stringent military action to try to deal with this one way or another finally once and for all. at the same time, this operation, you know, this is a multi-year struggle. it's a multi-year war. i don't think anyone expects it's going to be over soon or even in the coming three, five years. this will still be going on. >> woodruff: tim craig, you're right. such a sad, sad thing to have happened today. we thank you. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: this was a day for mourning in sydney, australia. the city and nation paid respects to two hostages killed in a day-long standoff yesterday at a downtown cafe. john sparks of independent television news filed this report. >> reporter: today, the people of sydney found a place to meet and grieve after a terrible 24 hours in their city. this makeshift memorial, one city block from the lindht café, marks the loss of two innocent lives after a self-styled sheik took 17 people hostage. the prime minister, tony abbot, came to pay his respects after admitting there were difficult questions to face. why, for example, was the hostage taker, man haron monis, allowed to walk into that cafeé with a gun? >> how can someone who has had such a long and checkered history not be on the appropriate watch lists and how can someone like that be entirely at large in the community? >> three victims lay dead. one man tried to seize the gunman's weapon in the final moments. the authorities said tonight it was an isolated incident. but this 16-hour siege has shocked the nation. >> woodruff: the gunman was allowed to enter australia as a refugee from iran in the late 1990s. allowed to enter australia as a refugee from iran, in the late 1990's. iranian officials said today they tried to extradite him, but were refused. two suicide car bombings in yemen killed at least 26 people today, south of the capital sanaa. the first vehicle exploded at a shiite rebel checkpoint as a school bus passed. at least 16 students were among the dead. a second blast struck the home of a shiite leader. the rebels blamed sunni militants from al-qaeda. the two factions are battling for control of parts of yemen. in syria, islamist fighters have captured a major military base, after 100 government troops and 80 militants were killed in two days of fighting. the base at wadi al-deif is located on the main north-south highway linking the capital, damascus, to aleppo. syrian activists say the militants included members of al-qaeda's syrian branch, the nusra front. back in this country, a pennsylvania man suspected of killing his ex-wife and five of her relatives, was found dead today. iraq war veteran bradley william stone had been the subject of an intensive manhunt for 24 hours. his body was discovered in the woods, near his home in pennsburg, just north of philadelphia. >> we have not received official confirmation from the coroner as to the cause and manner of death, but based upon what we found at the scene, we believe that he died of self-inflicted cutting wounds in the center part of his body. >> woodruff: stone's killing rampage unfolded in three separate towns, within a few miles of each other. some schools in the area closed today, out of caution. a hackers' group warned america today to expect a problems with a new movie about the interview, a comedy about a c.i.a. plot to assassinate kim jong un, the north korean leader. the u.s. department of security says it hasn't found credible evidence of a plot. last month the hackers group broke into sony pictures and released everything from financial data to embarrassing e-mails. the district attorney in los angeles will not file charges against bill cosby for allegedly molesting a teenager in 1974. the l.a. county prosecutor's office said today the statute of limitations has expired. a woman had accused the comedian of forcing her to perform a sex act when she was 15. she's one of a number of women to charge that cosby sexually assaulted them over the years. this is another roller coaster day for the price of crude oil. it was down sharply in early trading in new york, but as the day wore on, the price rallied, and ended the day about where it had begun. on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 112 points, to close below 17,069. the nasdaq fell 57 points to close under 4,548. and the s&p 500 slipped almost 17, to finish at 1,972. still to come on the newshour. jeb bush moves closer to a campaign for the presidency. how police officers in oakland, california, are working to combat racial bias. sanctions and cheap oil trigger a steep drop in the value of the russian ruble. and the head of the world bank on the fight against ebola. >> woodruff: a man who's family is no stranger to politics got an early start shaking up the 2016 election. in the first major salvo in the fight for the white house, jeb bush, the former florida governor, turned to social media to say he is actively exploring a run for president. if he runs, he'd follow in the footsteps of his father, george h.w. bush, the nation's 41st president, and his older brother george w., who was the country's 43rd. >> woodruff: the younger bush made headlines this week after announcing he would release a quarter-million emails from his eight years as florida governor. while in office from 1999 to 2007, he pushed through education and medicaid reform, funding for the restoration of the everglades, and tax cuts. it wasn't, however, a time without controversy. in the case of terri schiavo, he directed doctors to resume life support, despite her being in a vegetative state and against her surviving husband's wishes. bush also disagreed with the clinton administration's decision to send elian gonzalez, a young boy brought to miami by extended family, back to cuba to live with his father. if bush were to win in 2016, it would be historic. no family has ever had three members in the oval office. a marist poll out today shows bush a few points behind 2012 nominee mitt romney, who has said he's unlikely to run again. even without romney in the mix - 2016 is likely to yield another crowded field on the republican side with as many as a dozen potential candidates. we asked people today from denver to new york for their reaction to bush's announcement. >> i just think he'd be great. i liked him. i liked when he was governor of florida. >> i don't think we need another bush in the white house. i would be open-minded about another republican. if jeb bush were to secure the republican nomination, it could be two familiar families topping the tickets, as former first lady and secretary of state, hillary clinton leads on the democratic side at this point. another bush-clinton contest is sure to raise questions on the power of dynasties in american politics. joining us to talk about those dynasties and what another bush candidacy might mean are philip rucker, a national political correspondent for "the washington post." and susan page, washington bureau chief for "usa today." so phil rucker, does this mean he's definitely running? why take this step right now? >> well, it sure looks like he's leaning in that direction. his aide said today he has not made a final decision, but, you know, a lot of his associates say his head is in that place, that he wants to begin feeling out what a campaign might look like. he needs to start raising money. he needs to start identifying some operatives who can work with hi. we expect a final decision about a campaign some time in the next couple months. >> woodruff: susan, do you expect this means he's going for it? >> it's hard to imagine why he would release 250,000 e-mails unless he thought that was necessary because he's running for president. i think the fact that he needs to raise money, he needs to tell establishment type, establishment fund-raisers and staffers not to go with somebody else, that he's going to be in the race, to hold on for him. he needs to freeze the race in place. i think he largely succeeded in doing that today. >> woodruff: let's talk about what built-in advantages and disadvantages does he bring to this campaign, assuming he's running. >> some huge advantages. everybody in america knows his family. that's a burden and a blessing in some ways, but he has the ability to raise money in an instant, to put together a campaign staff. those are all formidable advantages. some disadvantage, too, people don't remember the george w. bush presidency entirely favorably. people remember the iraq war as being very controversial. and one other disadvantage he has i think is it's been 12 years since he ran for any office. you know, the state of campaigning today is different, faster, more driven by social media than it was the last time he was out there. >> woodruff: that's right. phil rucker, it was 2002 the last time his name was on the ballot, but we notice he announced this on twitter today. >> he did, on twitter and in a statement on facebook. there were a couple typos and he did not have a campaign web site, there is no video, there's not the kind of full digital presence that a lot of modern campaigns have. i'm told he's looking the try to run a digital campaign. they're trying to hire some good talent, and i expect when he actually announces his final decision in the next few months it will be much more of a splash. >> woodruff: phil rucker, how does this affect the field? susan just said he's doing this to get his name out there, to say to donors, hey, i'm serious, i'm here, you know, look at this before you make a move. what does it mean for the field and for these other many names who were thinking about running? >> so there are huge implications. he is going to freeze up a lot of these establishment donors. it basically means there's not much space at all for mitt romney. he's basically the same kind of figure as jeb bush in this potential primary. it causes a lot of complications for chris christie, the governor of new jersey who was counting on support from a lot of the same donors who appear to be migrated toward jeb bush, also senator marco rubio, also from florida, there is a lot of overlap in his donor network. bush is just a very attractive candidate to these donors for the reasons susan identified. >> woodruff: susan, there are so many names out there, in fact, brand-new names. south carolina's lindsey graham, former new york governor george pataki both saying today they're looking at running for president. but how do you see the bush announcement affecting some other names we've been hearing about? i mean, rand paul, the governor of texas, former governor of texas, rick perry. >> i think it makes it hard for marco rubio to run and maybe harder for chris christie to run mitt romney. but otherwise he's not the field-clearing candidate like hillary clinton is on the other side. he's ahead in the polls, but there are questions about how he will do in debates. will republicans who nominate candidates be willing to accept his views on immigration and common core where he's at odds with the mainstream of the party? i think a lot of these candidates we've been hearing about like rand paul and scott walker, i would not think they would be deterred by the idea jeb bush is getting inment some can dates would be, but i don't think there is clearing the field. i think we'll have a big field on the republican side and a big fight. >> woodruff: phil rucker, already conversation about how jeb bush's big challenge would be in the primary where you have somewhere conservative republican voters making decisions and he's certainly not seen at the more conservative end of the spectrum. >> he's not. that's interesting because when he was governor of florida, he was considered a conservative governor, but his positions on immigration and common core education standards are both potentially lightning rod issues in iowa and south carolina and some of these other early voting states. and you mentioned earlier that he hasn't been on the ballot since 2002. that's really the last time we've actually seen him perform as a candidate. we know he generates a lot of enthusiasm among party leaders, among donors, among businessmen and those types of figures, but it's unclear how he'll do in a town hall meeting, for example, in iowa, or with some of the activists that are really going to nominate the next presidential candidate. >> woodruff: susan, how do you see that and what's the effect on the democrats, on hillary clinton? do you think her camp is sitting around talking about this today? >> i think this is great news for hillary clinton. she's got some disadvantages in terms of being a dynasty, a family that's been in power for a while. he offsets that very nicely. being a fresh face, it makes her look like a fresher face in contrast to him. in that sense i think they both... they each do, jeb bush and hillary clinton, do each some good by minimizing some things that might otherwise be negatives. >> woodruff: well, we've got... here we are just a month after the mid-term election and we're already deep into talking about the presidential bid. we love it. susan page, phil rucker, we thank you both. >> thank you. >> thanks. >> woodruff: now, race and justice in america. tonight we look at efforts in oakland, california to address bias by law enforcement. special correspondent jackie judd has the story. >> i can't breathe. >> you can't breathe. >> the racial turmoil in the u.s. stemming from encounters between police and black men strikes a cord with jennifer everhart. the social psychologist at stanford university, in palo alto, california, has spent her career exploring racial bice -- bias and how that plays out in the criminal justice system, still it came as a shock to her how embedded biases can be, biases we're not even aware of. i'm on an airplane with my son. he looks up and he sees a black man, and he says, "hey, that guy looks like daddy." and i look at the guy, he doesn't look anything like my husband, and i notice he's the only black guy on the plane. and he says, "i hope he doesn't rob the plane." i said, why would you say that? and he looked at me and he said, "i don't know why i said that." so even with such severe racial stratification that even a five-year-old can tell us what's supposed to happen next. >> everhart has moved from the research lab to the streets of oakland 35 miles north of palo alto and a world away to help a troubled police department change its ways. like ferguson, cleveland and staten island, the oakland police department has an uneasy relationship with the minority community it serves. >> there's times when i'm walking down the street, and i'm accosted. >> you didn't even ask me for my name. first thing he said, "are you on probation or parole?" >> only 28% of the population here is black, but the majority of police stops, searches and arrests involves black residents. in 2009, an unarmed black man, oscar grant, was shot dead at the fruit sale bart station. even though a transit officer killed grant, long-sitting resentment erupted. >> this area is known as the fruit sale area of oakland. >> this woman became a community organizer after a confrontation in her home 21 years ago which led to the death of her husband who was black, their son and a police officer. >> good morning. >> today while she says there are some fine officers and progressive commanders in the department, she believes two systems of justice prevail, one for wealthy whites in the hills around oakland and another for minority residents in the flatlands. >> there is an intuition that officers have about what they can do under which circumstances. depending on what neighborhood they're new york depending on what they believe to be the socioeconomic profile, the resources of that person or that person's family. >> and the police department would probably say because that's where most crime takes place. >> but we're making assumptions on the group someone belongs to. that is racial or ethnic profiling. >> back in 2003, the oakland police department agreed to implement court-ordered reforms that grew out of the case in which several officers were accused of framing criminal suspects. to this day, leaders are still struggling to improve relations between the police and the public. assistant chief paul figueroa, tasked with finding ways to eliminate racial bias as the court ordered, is teamed with jennifer eberhardt to help change the entrenched culture. >> those are the questions i get asked quite a bit. what's it like? >> one of the big things that i focus on is what i call the race-crime association or the black crime association. >> so it's not surprising really that people might associate blackness with crime, but it can come up in surprising ways or it can influence us in ways that we don't always recognize or know about. >> and that so-called implicit bias is what eberhardt is sharing with department supervisors. among the many studies of bias that she's conducted, one in particular brought a startling discovery. study participants were shown pictures of black and white men all in very rapid-fire succession. then they were shown fuzzy images of weapons, which slowly became clear. >> the black faces facilitated the detection of the crime objects, whereas the white faces inhibited the detection of those very same crime objects. so for those objects, just being exposed really quickly to these black male faces led them to need less information or fewer frames before they could pick out what those objects were. >> a gun. >> exactly. they needed fewer frames before they said, that's a gun, that's a niefer. >> the stereotype of blacks as hostile, dangerous and criminal is one of the strongest stereotypes in american society. >> it is not always easy for department supervisors to hear what eberhardt has to say, but they listen, and then they try to sensitize officers. >> you're not alone in this, right. you're not the only one sitting in the classroom thinking, wow, is that me? you know, you can see the looks on everyone's face, that they're doing. wow. okay. >> what kind of pushback do you get from officers when you're asking them to do things having to do with racial sensitivity? >> oftentimes some of the pushback is, well, are we being called a racist? what's all the accusations coming at us when we're working as hard as we can to bring about safety in the community? that's part of the conversation. >> the agenda is to look at the multiple stopgaps. >> eberhardt and a team of student researchers also are in the midst of analyzing stop data and importantly body cam videos from oakland police to determine what happens in that crucial and sometimes fraught moment between officer and citizen. >> so you can look at things like pitch. you can look at the rate at which people are speaking, and you can look at loudness and those things can tell you a lot about weather things are heated, whether things are going to escalate. >> sure. >> it is the power of videos that brought tragedies, like those in cleveland and staten island to public attention. eberhardt hopes the videos she is examining become tools that lead to better policing. >> i feel like we're in a moment now where things can really shift. we near a position to actually know and really understand what happens in these interactions and why it is that sometimes they go awry. >> i really think jennifer's research is going to help us identify what issues are there. it will help us design some strategies to help us intervene in some circumstances. and in others, question our programs and policies that are leaning to some of these outcomes. >> assistant chief figueroa acknowledges it will take years to transform the department. promises have been made before. lieutenant laron armstrong, who leads his own racial sensitivity session, knows the department has a lot of kinging to -- convincing to do. >> we're as close as we've ever been to finally coming into compliance with all the requirements the negotiated settlement agreed. >> does the immunity feel it? >> i don't know if the community feels it. because when you look at the climate in the community, currently it doesn't seem that way. >> i think people are feeling vulnerable in different ways, and both sides. you have community members who feel vulnerable around the police, and then there's a vulnerability on the police side where when something happens and you know cuss in or anywhere in the country, police departments all over the nation feel it. >> it's supposed to be feeling safe because the police are there, but it's like whenever i do see them, i don't feel as safe. it's kind of like irony. >> this is jackie judd in oakland, california, for the "newshour." >> woodruff: now, why economic alarm is building inside russia, as the country's central bank made a dramatic move to stabilize the economy. the russian currency, the ruble, still declined for much of this day, before recovering some in late trading. jeffrey brown has the story >> brown: moscow banks nervously charted the ruble's course, hours after an extraordinary middle-of-the-night move by russia's central bank to hike a key interest rate nearly seven points, to 17%, in a desperate bid to shore up the currency. >> ( translated ): without any doubt, the situation is really very difficult and it requires absolutely coordinated actions of the government and the central bank. and we are ready for such coordination. >> brown: since january, the ruble has lost 60% of its value, fueling inflation, and leaving many on the streets of moscow feeling the pinch. >> ( translated ): prices are rising for us at a faster rate than our pensions. it is bad. it is bad for us. >> >> ( translated ): look how the price of bread has risen, and i'm not talking about a little rise. the situation is very difficult. >> brown: the plunging price of oil, one of russia's main exports, has been a primary driver in the currency's devaluation. but officials at the moscow stock exchange voiced doubt today that oil will turn around soon. >> >> ( translated ): in such an unstable and volatile atmosphere, it seems to me that panic prevails which is not good. naturally, at some point it could reverse with the same speed, but at this moment the mood in the market is not very positive. >> brown: western sanctions imposed over the kremlin's actions in ukraine are also weighing on the ruble and the russian economy. even so, president vladimir putin has sounded defiant. >> ( translated ): the modern world is very interdependent, but this does not mean the sanctions against moscow and a sharp drop in the prices of energy commodities and the national currency devaluation will have negative results or catastrophic consequences only for us. nothing like that will happen. >> brown: but another setback is coming. the white house confirmed today that president obama will sign a new round of sanctions into law this week. and for more i'm joined by angela stent of georgetown university. she has served in the state department and at the national intelligence council. and eswar prasad is an international economist at cornell university and the brookings institution. eswar prasad, this extraordinary move, middle of the night, what were they trying... what was the central bank trying to do? >> i think they were trying to signal, but i think it's come across as a degree of desperation. the objective of raising interest rates is to try to keep russian money in and try to bring investors from abroad attracted by higher interest rates, the problem is the economy is tightning, and with oil at less than $50 a barrel, it will be very difficult to make the economic numbers add up. >> brown: and the currency is going down because all that money is flowing out. >> that's right. russians are taking money out and foreign investors are also taking money out. the objective of raising interest rates is to try and stem the panic. but with about one quarter of the economy's gdp tied up in oil and natural gas and half of the budget accounted for by the energy sector, the number don't add up for russia. >> brown: angela stent, when you look at those causes, oil prices and the sanction, how vulnerable is russia turning out to be? >> i think russia is quite vulnerable. the russian economy wasn't doing well even before the ukraine crisis. the government had not undertaken the kind of structural reforms the modernization program they should have been doing for years. then, of course, you had the sanctions, the first round of sanction, the second round of sanction, and that's really hit the financial settingor and it's hit the energy sector, too. then, of course, you have this totally unexpected tanking in oil prices, which, you know, when the west imposes sanction, nobody anticipated that, so you have this perfect storm, plus i would say, and i'm in the an economist, but markets react to psychological factors,, too and the fact that president putin and the kremlin have been so unwilling to make a compromise to admit what's happening in ukraine and making their neighbors very nervous and you have this incidents now where you again have a swedish civilian airliner that nearly crashed into a russian military plane that had turned off its transponder, all of these aggressive acts really, i think that's fueled some of the lack of confidence in the russian economy and in the ruble. >> brown: eswar prasad, you are an economist, so how much does psychology play into something like this? and how much is a currency crisis, in fact, an economic crisis? >> what we've seen in the last day or two is probably panic driven, but it's driven largely by fundamentals at one level because the russian economy has not been doing too well. it's barely growing. the russian central bank itself has indicated that if oil is under $60 a barrel, it expects the economy to shrink by about 5% next year. there is no room to maneuver in terms of the government policy. so ultimately the currency crisis is a very important indicator of lack of confidence in the russian economy because the only way to get out of this mess at some level is to print more money, which means more inflation, the value of the ruble will be driven down even further, so there's a lot of pain ahead for russia. >> brown: angela stent, when you look at the implications so far and going forward, start with the impact on vladimir putin. he's been very aggressive in recent years. he's been asserting russia's power. does this somehow weaken his position? >> in the longer run it might, but right at the moment, i mean, he's still the... the state media is still blaming the united states and the west for russia's economic troubles. the line people are getting from the media and from tv is that the u.s. is out to destroy russia, to break it up. president putin is about to give another mammoth press conference in two days' time. we may hear something different from him. but so far he sounds quite defiant. now, having said that, his foreign minister, for instance, mr. lavrov a couple days ago made more conciliatory remarks about the possibility of a settlement in ukraine, about the outlines for this settlement, the ceasefire is doing a little better in southeastern ukraine. so there are small glimmers that something might work out there, and obviously if there were to be an agreement and a ceasefire that holds, then some of these sanctions might be removed, but we have not heard those words from the president himself, and i have to say, his popularity is still pretty high. it may not be 85%. it may be slightly under 80%, but so far he has not run into popular response to this, popular opposition to this. but i think you can see in what's happening in the major cities like moscow with the panic buying, with people sending all their money abroad if they can. but in those crucial areas, in those cities, people are scratching their heads, and the former finance minister who is very well respected in the west, he himself has said today, they really have to come to grips with their own domestic economic problems if they're to come out of this. >> brown: is there, eswar prasad, a kind of warning for other countries, i'm thinking specifically of the oil price factor, other countries that are big exporters of oil, that this might trigger implications for other countries? >> many of the middle eastern economies, venezuela in particular in latin america, nigeria, all of these are economies that are very dependent and export revenues from oil in particular, and they're all counting on oil prices remaining well above $50 a barrel. some countries have also borrowed in dollars. with their currencies plunging, the value on that debt rises. there are some economies like the u.s. and india that might do better, but many emerging market economies will hurt. >> very briefly, the implications of russia's economic troubles are more for the rest of the world in terms of oil prices rather than its economy going weak? >> that's exactly right. russia's collections for the rest of the world is more limited. what's posh is it signals some things can go very badly wrong if oil prices stay so low. russia is an extreme example of that. >> brown: all right. eswar prasad, angela stent, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now an update on the ebola outbreak in west africa. as of yesterday, the world health organization reported nearly 18,500 confirmed cases in liberia, sierra leone and guinea, with more than 6,800 deaths. and while a newly published study finds that the number of unreported, and therefore undercounted, cases may not be as high as once feared, health officials say that to halt the outbreak, every infection must be traced to its source. herto talk about that and more, is the president of the world bank group, dr. jim yong kim. he is a medical doctor, and has just returned from west africa. dr. kim, thank you for being here. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: so you wrote while you were there, this is the worst epidemic you have ever seen. i guess to many that wouldn't with surprisings considering the numbers, but what did you see in west africa? >> when i say it's the worst, i spent a lot of my time fighting aids in after cash and that was pretty bad, and drug-resistant tuberculosis. the reason this is so bad is because it is so deadly, and we have to get to zero. there's no getting almost to zero. each one of the epidemics in the three countries started with a single case. what we now know, especially in this epidemic, is if you leave a single case untreated and then if you let that transmission continue, it could explode again. i'm very, very worried about this because we still don't have in place plans to get to zero in each of the three countries. >> woodruff: so what is it going to take? in the column you wrote the other day, you said it's not just money, it's more local control over what's happening. >> right. >> woodruff: what do you see that needs to get done that isn't getting done in. >> let me tell you about two countries, senegal and nigeria. i had a chance to talk to the presidents of both of those countries. in senegal they had one case, a ghanaian student. it took everything at a cost of $1.3 million, and they had to do contact tracing. 78 people had contact with him. they had to provide food for them. they had to take their temperatures twice a day. it was $1.3 million for the one case. in nigeria, same thing, more than 200 physicians, more than 600 other health workers, 19,000 home visits for 19 cases. just get that in your head. $13 million. we're going to have to do that in each of the three countries for all the cases in order to get to zero. that's a level of rigor and discipline that is very hard to get even in the united states. to do it in those three countries will be a challenge, but we have no choice. we have to do it. >> woodruff: it sounds impossible. >> it's not. the senegal and nigeria examples really gave us a sense that it is possible. but the health systems in those two countries are much more developed. so we now have to bring in experts who can on a day-to-day basis make the judgments. these are really virus hunters. these are the people who shut down the sars epidemic. we now have them on board. they're in these countries working. they have to work with local people. we're hoping that one of the things we can do is to hire local people to be the contact tracers, and so while on the one hand we're doing all the work that you need to do from a public health perspective, we hope that it will also be an employment program and put some badly needed cash into the economy. >> woodruff: what about the organization, just the idea of pulling it all together and making sure it happens, the follow-through. is that in place in these countries? >> not yet. but especially the u.s. and the u.k. have done a lot of fantastic work in putting some of the infrastructure in place. so up until now, the idea has been, is there anything we can do to just take some of the heat out of the epidemic? can we knock down in any way the rapid increase in the number of cases? we did that in liberia. in guinea the numbers aren't going up as quickly inch sierra leone we're still in very rapid growth. so we have to on the one hand do all the things we need to do, safe burials and just identifying people to slow down the rapid rise in the number of cases, but then after you do that, you take on this next stage, which is every single case has to be traced. >> woodruff: talk about the world bank's role in all of this. people think of the world bank as a place that's economy focused. you focus on developing parts of the world. you know in these countries there had been some economic advances made. but this ebola outbreak has set them way back. >> just as an example, sierra leone in 2013, its gdp grew by 20%, among the highest rates in the world inch 2015 we think it's going to contract by 2%. so where the discovery of minerals, for example, in liberia, despite the fact that the rubber industry had not come back from before the civil war, it was beginning to come back. there were mineral discoveries. guinea has bauxite and iron ore. there were a lot of very positive signs. this has really set them back, but if bigger issue, judy, is we have to sit back and ask a deeper question: what if this weren't ebola? what if it were a worse virus? what if it were a faster-moving virus? what if it was pandemic flu? these are risks to not only the local economy but the global economy. we did not have a mechanism in place to immediately disperse millions of dollars to tackle epidemics in the way we need to. now the world bank is one of the institutions that has to protect the global economy from these downside risks that are very real for which we don't have buffers. so not only are we responding in these three countries, but we're now looking to the future and saying, what can we do to make sure that this spiraling of an epidemic out of control never happens again. >> can you make that assurance now? >> not right now, but one of the things we're doing now, we just had a meeting at the institute of medicine where we brought the people who led the smallpox response and other response, h5n1, we sat down and said, what would it take to truly protect the world from an even more devastating pandemic. for example, if we mad a flu outbreak that was as deadly as the one in the early 1900s, percentages of global population died in that particular outbreak. we need to be ready right now to respond much more quickly and much more effectively the next time ebola or any other virus break out. >> it sounds like you're saying you think it can be done? >> we know it can be done. it will be extremely difficult. it's going to take everything we know about public health. it's going to take groups like the world bank group, using our balance sheet. the good news is we're a bank. so we can actually put our balance sheet to use in putting together innovative instruments like insurance policies almost that when something happens, boom, it will fall into place. but, you know, we've been humbled by this, every single one of us. >> woodruff: as the head of the world bank, you're someone i have to ask about the segment. jeffrey brown just did that interview about what happened in russia, the collapse of the currency, the ruble, the effect of the falling price of oil. how roar wind are you and other folks who look at these issues about what's going on in russia right now? >> we're worried, but contrary to what but -- was said before, i think we could have seen this coming. the supply of oil had been going up for quite some time, and these prices do go up and down. we've seen this in the past. and in this particular case, there are winners and losers. and so, for example, even the countries that are dependent on remittances from russia who are oil importers are going to see... are going to have problems with their economies. so it's a very complex picture. the currencies of brazil, of norway have also gone down. so it's not just russia. but the russia case is a little bit more dramatic than some of the others. our role is to really think about what are the macrofiscal measures that can be taken. we're especially concerned about the poorest countries, but if you look at other countries, for example indonesia, indonesia is an importer and in this case their price of oil is going to go down. they may be able to actually take off some of the fuel subsidies that they've been wanted to take off for quite some time. so the hope is that some good will come out of this in countries, for example, taking action now because it's easier to do, removing fuel subsidy, which will have a positive impact we hope on climate change. now, the other part of it is that if the demand for renewable energy goes down, then it makes it even more complex. >> tough for some, but you're saying a possible opening. >> we really have to watch this carefully. the situation is very worrisome right now. >> woodruff: dr. jim yong kim from the world bank, we thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: finally tonight, a new series looks at the growth of spiritual pilgrimages around the world. pbs begins a series tonight called "sacred journeys." it focuses on pilgrimages among many different faiths. host bruce feiler travels to the ganges river in india, visits mecca as muslims make hajj, and sees how different religions value the holy city of jerusalem. tonight's opening episode is about american combat veterans visiting lourdes, a religious site that's famed for what some believe are the healing powers of its waters. here's a short excerpt about a retired army staff sergeant, juan roldan, who was wounded in iraq and lost both his legs. juan: last time i was here was three years ago. i was battling a lot of depression, stress and just fear of the unknown; what was going to happen with my daughter? i definitely prayed for my health. i was open to everything and anything they had us do. and the most beautiful experience i had while here was when we went to the grotto. they get you in the room; they take your clothes off, they wrap you up in a white sheet. >> narration: like the inner sanctum of many religious spots, the baths are modest, unadorned and private. cameras are not allowed when pilgrims are present. bathing here is a personal, sacred act each pilgrim alone with volunteers who assist them into the water. >> juan: being a man, i felt very awkward at the moment but i kind of went with it. i was still very uncomfortable when they placed me in the water; i was still very uncomfortable. the water was really cold but as soon as they placed the water over my head, i felt a sense of relief with my left side of my body. the following day i felt a change within me. i wasn't having as much back pain. i wasn't having as much pain in my shoulder, for some reason my face felt lighter. i used to have real bad headaches and since then i haven't had a severe headache; i always wanted to come back here. >> juan: i , how do i say this, it's an experience that's so unique and everything that it really makes you feel blessed. >> lytska: i feel lighter, relieved, and a sense of peace. i do. >> woodruff: you can watch "sacred journeys" tonight on most pbs stations. again, the major developments of the day. taliban gunmen killed more than 130 students and nine staffers at a military-run school in pakistan. it was the country's worst terror incident in seven years. the people of sydney, australia mourned two hostages killed by an iranian gunman yesterday after a day-long siege. and the price of oil stabilized, but stocks kept falling. the dow industrials lost another 100 points. online, it's day nine of our "12 days of newshour." just like sunday's crossword puzzle, today's gift is also a word game that you can print out and enjoy at your leisure. that's on our homepage. and a wisconsin artist converts her childhood experience growing up in the foster care system into intimate collages. see her work, on our art beat page. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we explore the benefits of arming police officers with body cameras. i'm judy woodruff. join us on-line, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.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. this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. funded in part by -- thestreet.com and action alerts plus where jim cramer and fellow portfolio manager stephanie link share their investment strategies, stock picks and market insights. you can learn more at thestreet.com/nbr. chutes and ladders. the dow gives up 250 point gain and ends up down, triple digits. what was behind the wild swings one day before the federal reserve wraps up its final meeting of the year? economy in crisis. russia's ruble rounded steepest drop in 16 years as the country's economy gets hit both by tumbling oil prices and financial sanctions. is russia's pain the west's gain or not?