Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20170209

Cornish plus, after her doctors told her she had just a few months to live, how one woman fought her cancer with help from a novel treatment. I think it actually took a day or two to fully sink in that my calendar had expanded. Instead of the coming demise that we expected, i was feeling fine. And the cancer was retreating. Cornish all that and more, on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Xq institute. Supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems skollfoundation. Org. The lemelson foundation. Committed to improving lives through invention. In the u. S. And developing countries. On the web at lemelson. Org. 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. Woodruff the legal fight over President Trumps travel ban remains unresolved tonight. A trio of federal appeals judges spent this day considering whether to uphold a lower court judge in seattle who blocked the order last friday. Meanwhile, the president wasnt holding back. John yang reports from the white house. Reporter today, President Trump escalated his war of words with the federal judges considering challenges to his immigration order. I dont ever want to call a court biased, so i wont call it biased. But, courts seem to be so political, and it would be so great for our Justice System if they would be able to read a statement and do whats right. Reporter whats right, both mr. Trump and Justice Department lawyers say, is that immmigration law gives the president the authority to bar any foreign citizen from entering the United States if its in the national interest. You dont have to be a lawyer. If you were a good student in high school or if you were a bad student in high school, you can understand this. And its really incredible to me we have a court case going on so long. Reporter two state attorneys general say the order is unconstitutional because it discriminates against muslims. The president said they dont realize the risk to the nations safety. I think our security is at risk today, and it will be at risk until such time as we are entitled and get what we are entitled to as citizens of this country. Terrorism is a tremendous threat, far greater than people in our country understand. Believe me, ive learned a lot in the last two weeks. And terrorism is a far greater threat than people of our country understand. Were going to take care of it. Were going to win, folks. Were going to take care of it. Reporter hours later, he followed up with a tweet big increase in traffic into our country from certain areas, while our people are far more vulnerable. At a House Democrats retreat in baltimore, leader nancy pelosi called the president s order dangerous and immoral. As long as the president continues down this path. Theres nothing that democrats can work with him on. To protect the security of our nation, to protect the working families, and the sanctity of our constitution, democrats will fight this Administration Every day, with every fiber of our being. Reporter also today, an oval Office Announcement the white house says advances another Signature Campaign promise creating u. S. Jobs. Standing next to the president , intel c. E. O. Brian krzanich announced plans to build a 7 billion factory in phoenix, which he said would create up to 10,000 new jobs. White house officials said the plant had been in the works for four years. Its really in support of the tax and regulatory policies that we see the administration pushing forward, that really make it advantageous to do manufacturing in the u. S. Reporter krzanich opposes the immigration order, but white house officials said it didnt come up in his meeting with mr. Trump. Mr. Trumps attacks on federal judges has now drawn a response from his own Supreme Court nominee. An Administration Official whos working on the confirmation process confirms that in a meeting on capitol hill with the senator, neil gorsuch said the attacks are demoralizing and disheartening and mr. Trump took to twitter to attack i in nordsm for dropping his daughters line. He said they treated her unfairly, asking about the propriety of a president or father getting involved in a childs business affairs, it was said mr. Trump had a right to stand up for his family. Cornish in the days other news, the senate wrapped up an allnight and allday debate to confirm Jeff Sessions as attorney general. Democrats charged the republican senator from alabama is too close to President Trump and hostile to minorities. Republicans defended him as a man of integrity. Well look at the confirmation fight, later in the program. Woodruff this was the first day on the job for betsy devos as secretary of education, and she used it to try to rally the troops. It took a tiebreaking vote by Vice President pence yesterday to get devos confirmed. The michigan billionaire faced criticism over her lack of experience with public schools. Today, she appealed to Department Staffers for unity. Let us set aside any preconceived notions and lets recognize that while we may have disagreements, we can and must come together, find common ground, and put the needs of students first. And when we do disagree, lets set an example by being sincere and honest, passionate but civil. Woodruff devos has championed Charter Schools and other alternatives to Public Education. Cornish in afghanistan, an ambush by suspected Islamic State militants ended in the deaths of six afghan workers for the International Red cross. The Red Cross Team was trying to deliver supplies to a northern town paralyzed by snow storms. After the attack, the Agency Suspended operations in afghanistan. It was a region we knew very well, and its really very experienced colleagues, and knowing that they have been killed, attacked directly is the worst possible news. And of course, the shock is first to realize what it means for our actions in afghanistan, what it means for afghans, for the family, for the colleagues. Cornish the taliban denied it had anything to do with the attack, and promised to help find those responsible. Woodruff a United Nations report warns that more than 120,000 people in nigeria will likely face catastrophic famine this summer. More than half live in borno state, where the Islamist Militant Group boko haram has disrupted food supplies. Overall, the u. N. s food and Agriculture Organization says 11 million nigerians face severe food shortages, in a nation of more than 170 million. Cornish once again, a Russian Court has found Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny guilty of fraud. An earlier conviction had been overturned by the European Court of human rights. This new decision formally disqualifies navalny as a candidate for president next year. He says the kremlin engineered the verdict to sabotage his bid translated what we saw now is a sort of telegram which was sent from the kremlin, saying that they believe that the people whose views i voice are too dangerous to allow us to take part in the election campaign. Nevertheless, we dont recognize this ruling. I have every right to take part in the election according to the constitution, and i will do so. Cornish navalny was convicted for the embezzlement of 270,000 worth of timber, and he was given a fiveyear suspended sentence. Woodruff back in this country, a North Carolina Court Temporarily blocked a state law that stripped the new democratic governor of some of his powers. The Republicancontrolled Legislature passed the measure after the november election. It requires state Senate Confirmation for cabinet members. The court still has to rule on the merits of the law itself. Cornish former republican secretary of state james baker went to the white house today. He wants the administration to embrace a carbon tax to combat climate change. Baker and another former secretary of state, george schultz, wrote in the wall street journal, there is mounting evidence of problems with the atmosphere that are growing too compelling to ignore. Other former reagan and bush Administration Officials back the idea, but its not clear republicans in congress will join them. Woodruff on wall street today, the Dow Jones Industrial average lost about 36 points to close at 20,054. The nasdaq rose eight points, and the s p 500 added one point. Still to come on the newshour my interview with House Speaker paul ryan; senator Elizabeth Warren on recent clashes over the president s cabinet picks; using the bodys natural immune system to fight cancer, and much more. Woodruff now to my interview with the speaker of the house of representatives, paul ryan. We sat down at the capitol, and i began by asking about his relationship with President Trump, after some tension in the campaign. Were doing fine. Were getting along very well. We speak fairly frequently. Mike is coming up for lunch today. So we spent a lot of time together woodruff the thiept. Yeah, the Vice President. So we get along well. Woodruff do they consult you not just on the routine things like legislative calendar but, for example, did you know ahead of time about the immigration ban . We decided on a goforward basis that well have more consulting and make sure no ones caught by surprise on things. We basically mapped out what 2017 looks like from a legislative perspective. Woodruff already. Absolutely. Thats what you do when youre running a legislature, you plan your year. Senator mcconnell and i walked the president through basically what we see 207 looking like. There is a lot of deadline driven events, statutory deadlines you have to meet, and minty other priorities were working on. Just the planning process gets you talking about the big issues, the big picture and all the things were trying to get done and when were trying to get them done. Woodruff i want to stay with the immigration ban. Former c. I. A. Director Michael Hayden joined a legal brief with a number of other National Security experts saying not only do they dont think this will make the United States safer, they dont see a threat from these seven countries but they think it will make the country less safe because it makes it easier to attract terrorist groups saying the u. S. Is antimuslim. After the paris shooting, we brought the department of Homeland Security and f. B. I. Up to capitol hill so say whats happening . Could this happen here in remember at the paris shooting, there was an infiltration of i. S. I. S. Among the syrian refugee population into europe. Woodruff but turned out there were not refugees involved. But that was the issue at the time. Homeland security and f. B. I. Said they cant vet these people. So what we discovered was there was a hole in the vetting process to guard against people trying to infiltrate the refugee population. That is why we passed legislation then about a year ago. The bill passed the house but got phil busterred in the senate. So it never went into law. We have been long on record on a bipartisan basis that we need to get these vetting standards right and take a pause in these programs to make sure we have the vetting standards right. The reason these seven countries which were identified by the Obama Administration are listed is because we have a hard time corroborating the veracity of peoples claims coming from those countries. Those countries in particular, we have a hard time discerning who exactly these people are that are coming into the country. That is why its totally reasonable and rational to have a pause in this program so that we can update and upgrade our vetting standards so that we can be better secure to make sure that we dont have somebody trying to infiltrate the network. Woodruff but there havent been terrorist incidents perpetrated by people from these countries. From these countries or through the refugee population . From these countries, absolutely. The point is we know i. S. I. S. Is trying to infiltrate refugee populations. That information has been unclassified. Were doing everything to guard against that. This isnt a muslim ban. I would be opposed to that. But the rhetoric makes it look like a ban on religion or religious test and that rhetoric is inflammatory and doesnt help us. Woodruff and that raises the question because the president himself and others around him have talked about i disagree with that. Woodruff are you confident i disagreed with it now and then. Thats not what this is. Woodruff i understand that. Are you confident this administration is not ever going in the direction of a muslim ban . Yes, because i and many others around here would oppose that. Woodruff more about your relationship with the white house. We know that you are good friends with fellow wisconsinite chief of staff reince priebus. Hes my constituent. Woodruff thats right. The question is how is your relationship with steve bannon . When he was at breitbart, took a special interest in you, called you the enemy after you became speaker. Yeah, i dont really know him. Gotten to know him two or three times. Weve had a few meetings. We get along fine. Hes not someone i have a history with. I didnt know him when he was opposing me all those times. Were different kinds of conservatives, thats something i can safely say, i think, but were serving a purpose which is to get this agenda passed. On this agenda weve ruled out that we ran on, on that we agree. So i see a person with which i have a common cause and purpose with. Were different kinds of conservatives, we really dont know each other but were all trying to get this agenda enacted and thats why i dont see a problem here. Woodruff russia. You said on a number of occasions you want to see the sanctions against russia continued. President trump made not just conciliatory but even complimentary comments in the last few days about president putin. Were you shocked by that . Yeah, i dont see it that way. I see it differently. First of all,io subscribe to relativism whether in political policy, Foreign Policy or in life. I dont think there is a moral equivalency here at all. So i just disagree with any kind of notion of a moral equivalency. Theres a gaping difference between the United States of america and putins russia. Thats point number one. Point number two, i think what the president is trying to do is not unlike what the past two president s did with russia. I just dont think its going to work. Remember when george w. Bush said i can see through his soul or Something Like that. Woodruff trying to get close to yeah, trying to get close to russia and putin. George bush did that. I dont think it worked. Hillary clinton with barack obama tried to smooth things out with russia. New administrations do. This its logical as to why they want to do this. There are instances where our interests align with russia and those where they dont. The question is can we help steer russia to being something that doesnt conflict with our interests and something in a country that alliance with our interests. Im not going to hold my breath on that. Woodruff if this president were to relax sanctions i dont support that. Woodruff against russia, would you support legislation to prevent it . No, i think the advantages were overdue. I think president obama should have done them a year ago. Woodruff so you support them to keep them strong. Yes, i support sanctions on russia. Turning domestic, a subject close to your heart, tax reform. It has been your top legislative agenda. I love tissue of tax reform. We havent done it since 1986. We think its a once in a generation opportunity. Woodruff here we are, however many years later d31 years. I got my drivers license the last year we did tax reform. Woodruff will the individuals in Corporate Tax cuts in the house be permanent and will the cuts be revenue neutral or require offset . Yes, to be revenue neutral, they require offsets. Were planning revenue neutral tax reform which means you have to take away loopholes and special interest deductions to lower tax rates. Thats what the house blueprint we ran on. It affects the individual and business side of the tax code. We propose it on a revenue neutral basis. We also propose permanent tax reform. When we did the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts in the bush administration, those were only individual tax cuts which you can actually make those temporary. You cant do that on the business side of the code. It actually doesnt work. It produces a lot of uncertainty for businesses. You cant completely redesign the budget tax system for nine and a half years and then flip it back in ten years. It doesnt work like that. So it has to be permanent. So we do envision revenue neutral tax reform that is permanent. With good comprehensive acrosstheboard tax reform, we believe we can get the kind of Economic Growth we need which will solve so many problems we have in this country and fundamental tax reform is critical because now we have the worst tax code in the industrialized world bar none. Woodruff no domestic spending cuts . I ask because the Republican Study Group last year was talking about 7. 5 trillion. Thats to balance the budget. Woodruff i understand, but the public, the voters will look at this as connected. We have a budget problem which is we have a big budget deficit and a debt crisis in the future because of spending. So you have to reduce spending and reform the spending programs in and of themselves. Tax reform aside, theres no way its mathematical. We wont be able to raise the kind of tax revenues to chase the kind of spending coming in the future. So you have to get spending in control if youre going to avert a debt crisis down the road. Woodruff youve committed to repealingreplacing obamacare. One of your colleagues jim jordan said, its so bad, congress has to get rid of every bit of it, every tax, every regulation, every mandate, it all has to be eliminated. Given that view which a lot of republicans share, would any piece to have the current Affordable Care act stand . Yeah, so the reason jim jordan says that is because the architecture is just so wrong. I think that was in reaction to some suggesting we should sort of tinker around the edges and try to refine and repair the existing law. It is collapsing and thats not viable. So what we propose we ran on a replacement plan, by the way, so weve had weve long had a replacement plan for obamacare and thats what were focus on now is building a replacement plan to repeal obamacare and replace it with patientcentered healthcare which we are convinced will give us a better system. Remember the promises of obamacare, lower prices, more choices, those things didnt happen. We believe we can make good on those proms which is improve access to affordable healthcare coverage. Right now people arent getting affordable healthcare coverage. So with we believe to get this right, you have to repeal and replace this law with Something Better and thats exactly what we woodruff including preexisting conditions, not something called continuous coverage which isnt the same thing. No, there are different ways of achieving preexisting condition res form. We think obamacare we want about it the exact wrong way to guarantee people with preexisting conditions get good affordable coverage. The goal is can a woman who got Breast Cancer when she was 45 still afford her Health Insurance . Thats a goal we absolutely share and we think there is a better way of achieving that goal than obamacare, which just so you know, judy, five states only have one plan left to choose from. One out of three counties in america have only one plan to choose from. Those monopolies. 70 of counties in america have one or two. Massive price and deductible increases, the law is collapsing while we speak. Woodruff you stalked about a split ben a there will dollar infrastructure, between the government and private sector. 50 50 . Thats something we have to develop. Weve asked our transportation committees, elaine chao who got sworn in as secretary of transportation who has a long history in experiencing transportation to figure out how best with we can maximize private sector dollars and Leverage Private sector dollars with public money to get the best bang for our buck on building out our infrastructure. So thats something were trying to figure out how best we can do for part of our legislative agenda later this summer. Woodruff to the extent youre counting on the private sector to get involved, its known, we talked to the experts, they say private Business People dont get involved in Something Like this unless there is an incentive, a tax break. Absolutely. Thats what we believe. We believe instead of just having a drar of taxpayer money to go to pay for a dollar of road construction, why dont we take a dollar of taxpayer money to try to leverage many dollars of private sector money so we have more money, federal, you know, taxpayer, private sector money combined to have more impact on upgrading and modernizing our infrastructure. The point is how much bang for our buck can we get to have the best impact on modernizing american infrastructure . Thats what were trying to figure out. Woodruff couple of questions about you in this position. Michael gerson, conservative thinker, writer we used to Work Together for jack kemp, old friend of mine. Woodruff thats right admires you, has written positively about you for years. He wrote yesterday that with your acceptance of President Trump he said youve embraced what he calls a Faustian Bargain with open eyes, a chance to enact legislation important to you as long as you occasionally ignore your conscience. Oh, thats just a bunch of bull. First of all, acceptance, the man got elected president of the United States. We live in a constitutional republic, so whats the suggestion here, that we should ignore democracy, the will of the people, the Electoral College and not work with who was elected president . I worked with the last president , barack obama, didnt agree with him on much but i worked with him. Now i have a president who agrees with and embraces the agenda we ran on in 2016 who gives us a great chance of fixing really big problems in america. Have we seen eye to eye on everything over the last year . Of course not. No two people do. So i reject the premise of this notion that the head of the legislative branch of government should just reject the duly elected head of the executive branch of the government. That makes no sense to me. I think what people want to see happen in government is people Work Together to solve problems. People Work Together to iron out their differences, to make good on making a difference in peoples lives and fix this countrys problem, that is what i believe i was elected to do and im doing. What came through to me and Michael Gerson wrote is he doesnt sense youre standing up to this president on things that Michael Gerson thought you believed in. Im not going to comment on the tweet of the hour, the comment of the day. Im focused on getting an agenda done and making Congress Work and making good on our promises that we made when we ran that im trying to implement now that the election is over. So im just not going to spend my days focusing on things that are outside of my control as speaker of the house. Im going to focus on my days on making progress on the issues that cared to people and not on the random comment of the day. In connection with that, your great mentor was the late new york congressman jack kemp, described himself as a bigtent republican. A lot of people look at donald trump, they dont see a bigtent republican. How do you reconcile . Yeah, well, i think he is. Hes a different kind of bigtent republican. I am nor of the jack kemp aspiration inclusive. I believe in his floss anify and style of politics. But donald trump brought a whole bunch of blue collar he won wisconsin since the First Time Since 1984. Thats expanding the republican tent. He won michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, thats expanding the republican tent. We used to call them reagan democrats. Now theyre trump democrats. These are people i grew up with, went to high school, worked at the g. M. Plant thats gone in jasonville, bluecollar, Union Household that voted for a republican for president. Thats expanding the tent, i would say. Woodruff finally, the only thing i am told paul ryan of wisconsin might like as much as tax cuts and the Republican Party is the packers. So after the sunday super bowl, do you now acknowledge this is the hardest question. Woodruff tom brady, best n. F. L. Quarterback ever . Look, the lombardi trophy is what you get. I will concede Bill Belichick is the best coach ever. Ask me when the two of them are done with their careers. Woodruff youre not ready tto concede that . No, because neither are done with their careers, but i will concede belichick. Woodruff speaker of the house paul ryan, thank you. Thank you, judy. Cornish moving over to the senate, where the debate over the nomination of Jeff Sessions ran deep into the night. And partisan tensions spilled over. Lisa desjardins starts us off. Reporter she was midway through her speech opposing attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions. Coretta scott king also wrote to the Judiciary Committee about the session nomination in 1986. Reporter when massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren turned to a decadesold letter by the widow of Martin Luther king jr. , opposing sessions nomination to a judgeship. Mrs. King called his record on race at that point, reprehensible. Warren read out loud mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge. This simply cannot be allowed to happen. Reporter warren was interrupted multiple times. Is there objection . Reporter told shed broken a rule. Is there objection . I object. Objection is heard. The senator will take her seat. Reporter the rarelyinvoked rule bans senators from criticizing one another directly in the chamber. Republican leader Mitch Mcconnell the senator has impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from alabama. Reporter this led to an unusual vote over whether to silence warren she lost, and now cannot speak again during sessions confirmation debate. Senator mcconnell later told reporters she was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted. This was the latest in growing rancor here. The rare vote to silence a sitting senator came as democrats have forced two overnight debates in a row. It is their protest of sessions, noweducation secretary betsy devos and other trump nominees, and those overnights may continue into the weekend. President trump weighed in on it all last night, on twitter. He tweeted it is a disgrace that my full cabinet is still not in place. Trumps critics point out, several of his nominees did not complete their paperwork quickly. Labor nominee Andrew Puzder submitted his final ethics documents to a committee today. For the pbs newshour, im lisa desjardins. Cornish i spoke with senator Elizabeth Warren a short time ago to get her take on this 11thhour drama in the senate. I began by asking if she believed Jeff Sessions would use his power as attorney general to work against minority voters. What i know is what Jeff Sessions has actually done, and i think it is an important part of the record. I was shut down for saying exactly that sentence, repeating it out of Coretta Scott kings letter. But i urge everybody, read the whole letter because what it talks about is, when Jeff Sessions was u. S. Attorney for alabama, he prosecuted civil rights workers for doing what . For trying to help elderly africanamericans vote, and when he came up, then, for a federal judgeship, both senator ted kennedy and Coretta Scott king said no, and Coretta Scott king sent a letter to the United States senate which was republicancontrolled, and ultimately that Republicancontrolled Senate said no to his nomination to the federal bench. I assume at least part of the reason for that was the information contained in Coretta Scott kings letter. Cornish but the Republicanled Senate is planning to say yes, right . This is the discussion youre locked out of. What aspect of the attorney generals power do you think Jeff Sessions could use against the voters . What are you most concerned about . Im im concerned about every part of it. The attorney general as the ultimate Law Enforcement official in the United States is the one who decides whether or not you prosecute violations of the Voting Rights act. He is the one who ultimately will have the one on how our immigration laws are carried out. Hes the one who will make the decision whether or not the Justice Department is there for africanamericans, whether its there for latinos, whether its there for women, whether its there for people whose rights are being violated, or whether its a Justice Department who just stands on the side of the rich and the powerful. Cornish recently speaking before progressive activists in baltimore, you said that democrats who are focused on just kind of changing the Party Message need to grow a backbone. What do you mean by that and are you seeing them grow that backbone now . Look, i think we have to get out and fight for what we believe in. I get it. We dont have the tools in the senate to be able to stop the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be the attorney general unless we can get some help from the republicans. We dont have the tools to be able to stop someone like betsy devos who does not believe in Public Education to become the secretary of education, and i could continue to go through the list. So what weve got to do is weve got to get in there and make our case, weve got to make our case for the fact that you know, i get it that donald trump and i are not of the same party, we dont see the world the same way, but he is not nominating people who are just conservative republicans, hes going out to the way fringes. Hes bringing in someone to run the e. P. A. Who doesnt believe in climate change, someone to run the Treasury Department to made money by foreclosing against families who had been cheated on mortgages. Weve got to make our case and, ultimately, this ones going to be about democracy, getting enough people around this country to say, im watching, i care what happens in washington, and im going to be pushing back on any of my senators, representatives and on the president of the United States if they do not represent the values of the people of this country. Cornish what do you think the next step should be . There are going to be votes on tom price to be health and Human Services secretary, steve me mnuchen as press secretary. Part of it is why i wanted everyone to read Coretta Scott kings letter. Its a deeply moving letter. It lays out the facts about Jeff Sessions, but it also reminds us of a moment in history when people came together and said, i dont care how many times you knock us down, were going to get back up and were going to fight for what is right, were going to change this wasnt country into a better country, a country that works not just for those at the top, a country that works for all of us. I think thats what we have to do now. Thats what were called on to do, to use every possible tool that we can to do that, and that means, for example, with Jeff Sessions. Right now, i hope everyone will go read her letter. I put it on my facebook, i tweeted about it. But i hope that, even if the republicans lock arms and go ahead and confirm him as attorney general of the United States, that everybody stays involved, that we are there every day to look over his shoulder, to look at every judgment made by the department of justice and make sure that this Government Works, not just for those woof already made it bush wh notjust for those wht but this Government Works for everybody. Cornish thank you for speaking with us. Thank you. Woodruff stay with us. Coming up on the newshour a massive crack in an ice shelf forces antarctic researchers to evacuate. But first, the emerging field of immunotherapy, and its potential to help fight cancer in some patients. Hari sreenivasan has a conversation about its promise and limits, in a minute. We begin with the story of a cancer patient who was told at one point that she only had six months to live. She has now lived several years beyond that, thanks to her novel treatment. Those kind of treatments are the focus of our weekly segment, the leading edge. My name is melinda welsh. Im a writer, and was editor of the sacramento news and review for around 25 years, and when i was diagnosed with cancer, it just came naturally, i suppose, to write about it. I was shocked to hear. I felt stunned. It is squamous cell carcinoma. After we learned that the cancer had metastasized, we went to see some specialists. I asked each of them how much time i had left, and thats when they told me, you know, six to nine months, months to a year, a yearish. You know, i started writing again, and i felt i had something to say that might mean something to other people. The enormity of the news didnt sink in fully, not at first, even after my doctor uttered the words, im sorry, we did find cancer. I have turned my attention to the question, how do i best spend the time that i have left . My answer is writing, family and friends, the pleasures of small things. I was told, dont skip dessert, so we dont. Weve taken to getting up a few early mornings and driving out to see the sunrise, over the flatlands of our mostly rural county. I take solace in thinking that once gone i will occupy a small place in the hearts of the people who loved me most, and perhaps from there i will be the source of a few simple reminders time is limited, life is miraculous, and we are beautiful. I always loved my life, i felt very lucky for so many reasons in my career, and my meeting up with dave, love of my life and best friend, so having cancer, it just made me want my life, but more so. After that first piece was published, we had a breakthrough. I started immunotherapy and dr. Algazi, who is my oncologist, surprises us by showing up in the infusion room. And he says, i just talked to the radiologist, the neck tumor has vanished. My name is alain algazi, im an oncologist. I specialize in head and neck cancer, and melanoma. I work at the university of california, San Francisco. Melinda presented with squamous cell cancer in a lymph node. It was metastatic, but she was diagnosed at a time where we had access to several new drugs that and those drugs turn the immune cells back on, that are in the tumor, and allow them to fight more effectively against the cancer. So basically, we caused the tumors to regress and go away. I think it actually took a day or two to fully sink in that my calendar had expanded. Instead of the coming demise that we expected, i was feeling fine. And the cancer was retreating. So, on the anniversary of all the doctors giving me a year to live, i wrote part two. In the weeks that followed my public coming out about the grim news, a benevolent tidal wave of emails washed over me, from friends, coworkers and thousands of strangers. Now, when i run into friends on the streets of my hometown, they hug me, and tell me i look great, but i can see it in their eyes, what they really want to say is, arent you dead yet . Well, no. As it turns out, i became a terminal cancer patient at a time of sea change and research on the disease. What changed . Immunotherapy. A new set of medicines that helps patients like me use our bodies natural defenses to fight cancer. Basically there are brake pedals on immune cells, so when you turn off the brake pedal, you allow the immune system to function, you allow it to fight. But i think the cancer is always there, and its a battle between the immune system and the cancer. Nobody knows how long the good news will last for me, or other Cancer Patients who are responding to immunotherapy. Like me, they probably feel a miraculous gift, unanticipated time of unknown duration, has been dropped into their laps. Its like working for nasa in the 1960s. You know, can you imagine . That sense of discovery, that sense that youre changing the world, or at least there while the world is changing, and youre able to really help. Unfortunately, many people have cancers that theres no immunotherapy for, they cant get access to trials, or the drugs are very expensive. Also, a lot of people who do qualify for immunotherapy simply dont respond. Melinda, in a sense, is an example of both the potential and the limitation. Its gotten cancers to get smaller, tumors go away completely, but, the cancer didnt go away. A few years ago, she would not survive. Now, she might survive. We dont know whats going to happen for certain, but theres this enormous potential. We dont want to hope for too much. We dont want to go into denial that ive got this deadly disease thats trying to kill me. I do. But, im making milestones that i didnt think i would make. I didnt think id be alive to reach my 60th birthday. I didnt think i would make it to my 35th wedding anniversary, which is coming up in april, which i assume ill be here for. I want to live fully in the present, at the same time, just a little bit of future is awfully wonderful mixed in with that. People come to me, and they have low expectations. People think, im going to die. And my thought is, it doesnt have to be that way. We have, now, ways of keeping people well, not just for a few months, but for potentially years. So this is a time of hope. I am still coming to terms as best i can with my own unequivocal transience. But no, im not dead yet when people are surprised to see me, i tell them, i am among the early fortunate. Facing death has heightened my awareness that our time on earth is finite but quite unexpectedly, it has also made me a living, breathing advertisement for humanitys hopeful new edge on cancer. Sreenivasan lets get a broader look at what these treatments may offer, and their limits. Jeffrey bluestone is a leading researcher in this field. He is the president and c. E. O. Of the Parker Institute for cancer immunotherapy. Hes also a professor of metabolism and endocrinology at the university of california, San Francisco school of medicine; and matt richtel is a Science Writer who has covered this extensively for the new york times. I want to start with you before all our viewers start to call their oncologist ifs theyre facing this. This is still not at the phase where were seeing it effective in lung cancer, prostate cancer, Breast Cancer and the major cancers so many people face . Actually, weve made a tremendous amount of progress, for instance, in lung wants cancer. These socalled immune drugs, checkpoint inhibiters are treating a lot of nonsmall cell lung cancers with Great Success and 30 to 40 to 50 Response Rate as in melanoma and head and neck cancers. A lot of cancers we have a long way to go but in some you mentioned weve made tremendous progress. Sreenivasan great to hear. Matt richtel, youve chronicled people who have had cancers and had immunotherapy work and some who havent. What are shortcomings and limitations . First of all, that was a marvelous piece that captured how remarkable this science is on the very edge of life and death and youve asked a great question and the answer is the very thing that makes this therapy so potentially powerful or powerful also causes some challenges and that is this, when you soup up or unleash the immune system, you have an opportunity to have it attack healthy organs, healthy cells. So sometimes you see very challenging stories where a cancer a tomb already disa a tumor will disappear but the person will become sick with the equivalent of an auto immune disorder and we have with dr. Bluestone an amazing authority to elaborate on that. Sreenivasan go ahead. Absolutely true. The immune system is an incredibly powerful force. Its designed to recognize everything foreign. In the process of doing that, when you unleash it the way these new drugs so, you can often, not often, rare compared to the Response Rate get the auto immune diseases. Weve had several cases of patients who developed type one diabetes, causing destruction of the insulinproducing cells, and trying to understand how to control these side effects is one of the key areas for the Parker Institute, uscf as well. So the goal is to have the unleashing of the immune system which is key to eliminating the cancer while moderating this unwanted attack on your own tissues. Sreenivasan matt richtel, the all different scientists youve spoken to, where are we in this arc . Some of the people who have been profiled in your story says this is almost like where n. A. S. A. Engineers were in the 60s. I love that comparison and ive heard various ones along the same lines. I cant tell you how wide the breadth of potential is. Its somewhere on the continuum from, you know, marvel of science to change the world. Heres what i mean, and then ill answer your question directly. Absolutely, we are seeing at least a marvel of science in that people who were not previously savable from cancer are being saved. That alone is marvelous. On the changetheworld end of the continuum, were certainly not there yet, but the potential exists to attack one of the biggest killers in the world. Weve done away with a lot of the lowhanging fruit of what kills us with things like antibiotics, so now cancer which many people never survived to get is the secondleading killer in this country. It could change the world if this hangs on. Why are we just still at the beginnings of that . Because as dr. Bluestone underscored and as lots of scientists have told me at this point, we cant yet tell if more people will either suffer side effects or relapse ultimately than we know of now, and its so early on that we cant answer that question and probably wont be able to for a decade or so. Sreenivasan jeffrey bluestone, is that about the right timeline . There are still hurdle also we heard of in the piece that the drugs are still expensive, still lots of nonresponsive patients and, as you mentioned, how do you calibrate the immune system per patient so that it doesnt go overboard and attack what we need to survive . Yeah, were certainly at absolutely the change inflection point. The world changed for Cancer Therapy with immunotherapy. Its hard to even explain how different this approach is, instead of using poisons to kill cancer or to wipe out the cancer cell, were actually using our own body to do this. So in this kind of transformational science, we have to know how to modernize the way to maximize effect cay si and minimize tock sissy. I think in the next ten years well see a dramatic survival rate in patients. In melanoma from 5 to 40 survival, weve seen it in certain lung cancers. Were right at the beginning but were already seeing a dramatic change in a lot of these patients and i believe this new science and it truly is bringing together the science of the immune system and immunology and science of cancer in ways we could never believe we would be at at this point. Im optimistic, excited. Every day i go to work, i cant believe were in this world we live in now. Could i just underscore something dr. Bluestone said, you mentioned patients. When dr. Bluestone says treatments have changed. Let me tell you a quick anecdote that underscores how much. A friend of mine jason went through the traditional chemotherapy over years and it ate him alive as chemotherapy can do because youre giving someone toxins. Over the course of literally weeks when he took an immunotherapy drug, you could watch what was like a pumpkinsized tumor in his back disappear by the day in picture after picture, and, so, thats the kind of quantum leap. Now, ultimately, my friend succumbed. But thats the kind of quantal change dr. Bluestone is describing. Sreenivasan matt richtel, jeffrey bluestone of the Parker Institute for cancer immunotherapy, thank you so much. Thank you. Cornish now to our newshour shares something that caught our eye, that might be of interest to you, too. For more than 60 years, british researchers have monitored changes in the worlds atmosphere from a remote lab in antarctica. Now, for the first time ever, the facility will temporarily close to ensure the safety of its residents. The newshours Julia Griffin explains. Reporter at the bottom of our planet, on top of more than 400 feet of ice, sits a state oftheart research station, called halley six. Its an extraordinary place to be. Sitting in what feels like a large ship on the ice, looking out across the vast expanse of essentially nothingness. Reporter David Vaughan is director of science for British Antarctic survey, which runs halley six. The science that we do at halley isnt just about pitting yourself against that extreme environment. Its actually about making measurements that inform how we interact with our planet, about the risk of severe space weather storms that might knock out our satellite gps systems, about its about looking at the emissions of Carbon Dioxide and methane at the last place on earth that see those emissions. Reporter to do that, halley six is a feat of engineering in one of the most extreme environments. Its eight interlocking pods shield up to 70 researchers and support staff from freezing. Special hydraulic legs lift the pods as snow accumulates, and when the time comes, the pods can be towed on their skilike feet. The reason to be able to move halley station is because the ice sheet itself moves. So if were going to maintain a certain geographical position, we have to move the station across the ice. Reporter another reason to be able to move . Should that ice shelf threaten to become an iceberg. This summer yes, its summer in the Southern Hemisphere halley six was already being towed 15 miles inland to avoid this decadesold chasm when a new, nearly 30mile long crack opened suddenly on its other side. The crack that you are seeing goes all the way down to the ocean. And if you can look deep enough in there, you would see sea water in there. Really, it is the interaction between these two cracks and then how this ice shelf would respond as a whole, that we actually find very unpredictable. Reporter the agency has decided to vacate the station altogether before winter. In the summer, we have the opportunity to remove people relatively rapidly from the station, but during the winter when it is cold and dark and stormy for many months at a time, thats the point at which we would find it quite hard to get people out. Reporter while other ice shelves on the antarctic peninsula have been impacted by climate change, vaughan thinks this may be part of a natural cycle. Maybe the ice shelf will go back to a new equilibrium in time, but at the moment, we just cant predict with any certainty how long that will take. Reporter this marks the first time scientists will be removed from a halley station. British Antarctic Survey hopes they will return next november. For the pbs newshour, im Julia Griffin slightly warmer in arlington, virginia. Woodruff on the newshour online right now, our job hunting columnist weighs in on why you should always try to make a personal contact with a hiring manager. All that and more is on our website, www. Pbs. Org newshour. Cornish and thats the newshour for tonight. On thursday, making sense of how the Trump Presidency is affecting the trump brand. Im audie cornish. Woodruff and im judy woodruff. Join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and well see you soon. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by bnsf railway. Xq institute. Supported by the rockefeller foundation. Promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world, by building resilience and inclusive economies. More at www. Rockefellerfoundation. Org. 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. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org youre watching pbs. Tonight on quest all living beings share a common ancestry. Today, this is a basic idea. But when Charles Darwin published it, he transformed the biological sciences forever. In celebration of darwins 200th birthday, quest follows California Academy of sciences beetle expert david kavanaugh. Can darwins principles on evolution, coupled with modern dna analysis, help him prove the existence of a New California species