Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. Supported by the rockefeller foundation. Promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world by building resilience and inclusive economies. More at rockefellerfoundation. Org 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 individals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan the white house has stated that Russian Hackers tried to sway the u. S. President ial race. And now, its laid out the punishment, targeting key leaders and agencies in moscow. The kremlin had been waiting and watching. Today, the white house ended the waiting. President obama announced a range of retaliation for election meddling that the u. S. Blames on top levels of the russian government. It includes sanctions on russian intelligence services, and on top officials in the unit that ordered the hacks. And expulsions of 35 Russian Diplomats within 72 hours. Both the c. I. A. And the f. B. I. Have concluded that russia hacked democratic groups, and the emails of john podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clintons campaign. Mr. Obama called todays retaliation a necessary and appropriate response. Not just to the hacking, but to aggressive harassment of u. S. Officials in moscow. He also said the u. S. May take other actions at a time and place of its choosing, some of which will not be publicized. President elect trump has played down the hacking, as he did again last night i think we ought to get on with our lives. I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what is going on. Sreenivasan moscow today dismissed the u. S. Announcement. A spokesman for president Vladimir Putin said he regrets the move and will consider countermeasures of his own. In the meantime, a u. S. Government report detailing russian meddling in american elections is due out in the coming days. Several Top Republicans in Congress Said the president s sanctions are overdue. They plan to push for tougher action. Well hear from the top Homeland Security official at the white house, after the news summary. The u. S. Had no role in the days second major development, but russia did the announcement of a nationwide ceasefire in syria. The Syrian Military said it was taking effect at midnight, local time, and most rebel groups signaled theyd accept it. A full report, later in the program. In the days other news, Iraqi Security forces launched the second phase of their offensive to retake mosul from the Islamic State group. The new assault focused on several eastern neighborhoods in the countrys secondlargest city. Smoke could be seen rising above the skyline as elite special forces and army troops fought their way deeper into the city. Its the last major stronghold for isis in iraq. Russias military says flight recorders show no evidence of an explosion on a transport plane that crashed in the black sea. But, as workers pulled out more wreckage today, a russian general in moscow said investigators have not ruled out a terrorist act. translated other than an explosion on board there could have been some mechanical impact. A terror attack doesnt always involve an explosion. The flight was quite normal but one of the pilots sentences and an analysis of it, tells us about the beginning of a special situation, about the beginning of it developing and nothing else yet. Sreenivasan the general offered no detail on what that special situation involved. Earlier in the week, the main Russian Intelligence Agency had dismissed terrorism as a possible cause. The crash killed all 92 people on board. In germany, officials have released a man they detained yesterday, in last weeks berlin truck attack. Prosecutors had said his phone number was found in the phone of the attacks main suspect, anis amri. He was killed last week in italy. Today, authorities said the man was not in contact with amri after all. Back in this country, wall street struggled again. The Dow Jones Industrial average was down about 14 points to close below 19,820. The nasdaq fell six points, and the s p 500 lost a fraction. And, the death of Actress Debbie Reynolds left generations of fans stunned today. News of her passing came last night, just 24 hours after her daughter, carrie fisher, had died. Jeffrey brown looks at reynolds life and career. Brown Debbie Reynolds was just 19 in 1952 when she appeared alongside gene kelly and Donald Oconnor in singin in the rain. She later told the American Film Institute she simply didnt know enough to fear the challenge youre not afraid, and i wasnt afraid, you know i was so dumb, and i didnt feel you could fail. I felt it was me and i really just marched straight ahead and i wasnt frightened of the huge task. Brown reynolds would act, sing and dance her way through the decades, in films like tammy and the bachelor, how the west was won, and 1964s the unsinkable molly brown, a rags to riches tale that would earn reynolds her only oscarnomination. She may have been just as famous for her personal life most of all her 1955 marriage to the pop music idol eddie fisher, and their divorce amid his affair and then marriage to elizabeth taylor. But her career continued in films like the singing nun, and in 1973 she introduced herself to younger generations as the voice of charlotte in a film version of charlottes web the autumn days grow short and cold and christmastime again brown in the 1990s, reynolds played the titular role in mother, opposite albert brooks. And she appeared on sitcoms including will and grace and more movies until just recently. At the 2015 Screen Actors Guild awards, her daughter presented reynolds with the Lifetime Achievement award. And my Favorite Movie was the unsinkable molly brown, in the film i sang i aint down yet. Well, i aint. Thank you very much for this wonderful honor. Brown yesterday, one day after her daughters unexpected death, reyonlds suffered a stroke and was rushed to a los angeles hospital, where she died. She was 84 years old. Sreenivasan still to come on the newshour the u. S. Retaliates against russia for cyber hacks leading up to the election. Will a russianbrokered cease fire help end the Syrian Civil War . The Global Economic outlook of a newly tapped trump advisor, and much more. Sreenivasan now, the administrations imposition of sanctions against russia for trying to influence the vote during the president ial election. I spoke earlier today with lisa monaco, the assistant to president obama for Homeland Security and counterterrorism. I began our conversation asking her about the impact of the new sanctions. So the impact is to make clear that we are imposing consequences for russian aggression and their interference and attempts to interfere in our political process, specifically the impact is for the individuals who have been sanctioned. It imposes a travel ban and inhibits anybody from doing and bars anybody from conducting Financial Transactions with them. Importantly, also, what we often see is the International Financial system and european banks and others who would take steps to follow our lead when we take these types of actions, so it can have a Ripple Effect and impose real consequences. Sreenivasan considering these are the actions youve decided to publicize, are these enough of a proportionate response to russian meddling in the u. S. Election . Well, i think we should always be asking the question are we h hitting the right balance, and we have decided to take these actions quite deliberately, and weve done so with precincts, consistent with whats going to be in our National Interest and whats going to protect our national security. What i think we should be very clear about is the actions taken today are done in response to a range of russian aggressive behavior, both harrisment and mistreatment of our personnel in moscow and, of course, the accomplishes cyberactivities against our and efforts to interfere in our election process, but these actions today follow very clear steps that we took earlier this year, the unprecedented disclosure and attribution to the highest levels of the russian government done in the statement from the d. N. I. And the secretary of Homeland Security back in october making quite clear that we attribute the efforts to interfere in our election to the russian government, and these actions today also follow repeated both public and private warnings to the russian government, including at the level of the president , and these actions also follow extensive outreach to state and local governments to shore up their cyber defenses ahead of the election because, of course, we are focused very keenly on maintaining the integrity of our election process, and these are actions also follow our extensive briefing of congress. Sreenivasan how much is based on concern that the Incoming Administration might not take this step . So these actions are taken deliberately and precincts because we feel it is very important to make clear both to russia and to any other actors that there will be consequences for violating norms of International Behavior both with respect to mistreatment of our diplomatic personnel and with respect tot accomplishes cyberactivity. Sreenivasan you mentioned in this lone report, government administrations, think tanks, universities, political organizations and corporations all hacked. So besides the d. N. C. , who else was hacked . Were the republicans hacked as well . So ill leave that to the intelligence and Law Enforcement experts to detail in their reporting and in their investigation, but what youre referencing there is the statement weve made already from the Intelligence Community and elsewhere that russia has become an increasingly aggressive actor and has engaged in a years Long Campaign in malicious cyberactivity across a range of public and private sector institutions. Sreenivasan since youve laid out you know who and how theyre doing this, can you say with certainty if the hacks have stopped and have we defended against them . What we did over the summer is to be very clear about what the threat is, and we did that by briefing both congress and state and local officials who, of course, own and operate and manage the electoral infrastructure in this country and enable them to take steps to defend themselves and provide them assistance in shoring up their defenses. So we also were very clear, during the election season and on election day, that we were monitoring and making sure that there had not been an increase in that accomplishes activity, and we did not see an increase and, indeed, we are confident in the outcome that there was not a accomplishes cyber meddling such that it affected the vote count or the vote of operations. Sreenivasan so have all these think tanks and universities and important infrastructure entities, have they all been alerted of the types of attacks and what they need to do and are we safer now that this information is out there . I think one of the steps we are taking today in the responses we are issuing is very importantly to expose russian activity, and, so, one of the elements of the announcement that we made today is a report by the department of Homeland Security and the f. B. I. That provides Technical Information that will allow Network Defenders thats the owners and operationers of systems both in the public and private sector to use that information to defend themselves. So were exposing the russian tactics, techniques and procedures that they use to infiltrate our systems, allowing Network Defenders to defend themselves and, importantly, making it harder and more complicated for these ma lyrics bad actors to undertake these activities. Were basically forcing them to reengineer their approaches. Reporter lisa monaco from the white house, thanks so much. Thank you. Sreenivasan this evening, in a statement, president elect trump said its time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. But he said that in the interests of the nation, hell meet with intelligence chiefs next week on the russian hacking. Sreenivasan the russians and turks announced a ceasefire deal among some of the warring parties in syria. It is due to take effect at midnight, local time. Margaret warner has the story. Warner confirmation came from the kremlin, and russian president Vladimir Putin translated the agreements reached are of course fragile and need special attention. But this is a notable result of our joint work and efforts by our partners in the region. Warner one of those partners, turkish president recep tayyip erdogan, called it an historic chance. translated we have an opportunity to stop the bloodshed in syria with a political solution. We must not squander this chance. Warner russia has been a critical backer of syrian president Bashar Alassad, while turkey had pressed for his ouster. But they joined to work out this ceasefire, and plans for future peace talks in kazakhstan. The russians say rebel groups numbering more than 60,000 fighters are taking part. They include the westernbacked free syrian army. translated during the talks, the russian government guaranteed to us that they will keep the Syrian Regime forces and their allies under control. Warner other groups are excluded the Islamic State, which controls a swath of eastern syria, the alqaeda offshoot jabhat alfateh alsham in the northwest, and the Kurdish Militia y. P. G. Battling Islamic States forces in cooperation with the u. S. Iran is also a major ally of the assad government, and is expected to be involved in peace talks. Absent entirely from the negotiations the United States. Three years of talks between secretary of state john kerry and his russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov produced a number of cease fires, but they didnt hold. Instead, 15 months ago russia launched a fierce Bombing Campaign to bolster the Syrian Regime. Earlier this month, the rebel stronghold in eastern aleppo finally fell. Nonetheless, the state department voiced support for the truce today, saying any effort that stops the violence, saves lives, and creates the conditions for political negotiations would be welcome. Russian foreign minister lavrov said today the Incoming Trump administration would be welcome to join the peace talks in kazakhstan. Sreenivasan William Brangham takes it from here. Brangham so will this latest cease fire last where others have failed . For that, im joined now via skpe from tuscon by andrew tabe lurr, whos a fellow at the Washington Institute for near east policy. And joshua landis, who directs the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma. Welcome to you both. Josha landis, i would like to start with you first. We have seen cease fires come and. Go are you at all confident that this one is going to last . No, im not confident. This is really not about the cease fire holding. Its about turkey being involved with russia and iran and essentially letting the rebels know that a new page has been turned, that turkey cannot keep its cannot keep its door open to the rebels and its closing the door and that theyre going to have to fend for themselves in negotiations with the assad regime. Brangham andrew tabelurr, take that up. Is it your sense that this will hold . Are some positive this might be the beginning to have the end to have the war in syria . Im also skeptical. I think its impossible to tell. I think its very interesting that, after the capture of aleppo and we were in this situation, i agree its important turkey is involved and on this kind of level with the russians and the u. S. If the room, thats new territory. Whats also interesting is by pausing now and going into diplomacy, i think it shows that the russians are setting the table for president elect trump to become involved in some sort of diplomatic process and a diplomatic process that is with assad remaining but large parts of the country being outside his control and potentially in the hands of the rebels. Brangham there is obviously a lot to unpack in there. Josha landis, help us understand for people who havent been following this all along, lets talk about, whats turkeys very complicated ro