and lisa desjardins joins me along with yamiche alcindor to help keep up with this fast moving story. thank you, an it is fast moving, these developments just in the last few mnutes. lisa, i'm going to start with you, th. you have been talking to democrats. what should we expect them to do inoming days as theove this inquiry forward? >> i don't know that we've had a pbusier day or i've eve on a more complicated story at thestr top of the newscast as now. this is what's crystallizing what's happening this week. we're going to have three major depositions or days for the house intelligence committee. we're going to have wednesday, former ambassador mario vanovich, the ambassador of ukraine asked to leave and still works at the state departmt. after that thursday, house intelligence committee will be hearing from ambassador volcker who used to be u.s. envoy to ukraine for president trumphe stepped down last friday, that is the dedlin secretary of state pompeo to hand over documents thhouse inlligence committee is seeking. also friday is when the house intelligence coittee will hear from

yamiche alcindor at the white house, lisa desjardins at the yocapitol. thanboth.he >> woodruff:are lethal legacies of war. landmines present a constant, hidden threat. special correspondent fred de same lazaro reports fromca odia, where the danger is part of daily life. but, an unlikely battalion of animalis making a difference. this is part of fred's series, "agents for change." ri reporter: let's face it, rodents rarely ter warm fuzzy feelings in most people. but, these african giantouch rats, being gently awoken from their cages, are called hero rats by their handlers. they have names like harry potter, godiva, and, er...di frederick-- no relation. after getting sunscreened up, this "rat pack" of 11 animals is headed out before dawn to a former battlefield in rural cambodia. their task: sniff out landmines. >> everyone was surprised, even me. before i came to apopo, i heard that the rats were detecting landmines.th it was like sog unbelievable to me. >> reporter: mark shukuru is head rat traer in cambodia for the belgian non-profit apopo. he is from t

yamiche alcindor at the ewh house, lisa desjardins at the capitol. thank you both. >> woodruff: they are lethal legacies of war.mi las present a constant, hidden threat. special correspondent fred de same lazaro reports fromia cambwhere the danger is part of daily life. bu an unlikely battalion of animals is ming a difference. this is part of fred's series,ra but, these african giant pouch their cages, are called heroom rats by their handlers. they have names like harry potter, godiva, and, er... frederick-- no relation. geteg ttr crsuind eensne headed out before dawn to a former battlefield iiarural camb their task: sniff out landmines. >> everyone was surprised, even me before i came to apopo, i heard that the rats were detecting landmines. it was like somethin unbelievable to me. >> reporter: mark shukuru is head rat trainer in mbodia for the belgian non-profit apopo. he is from tanzania, where this species is also native, and he halearned early that they some of the most sensitive noses in the animal kingdo each comes out of a rigorous program in

i think there arn people not o the stage tonight worth watching. >> nawaz: that's lisa desjardins on the ound for us in houston, the site of tonight's democratic presidential primary debate. thanks, lisa. >> you're welcome. >> nawaz: as congress heads back to work following a string of deadly mass shootings this summer, pressure is building on lawmake to pass meaningful legislation that could reduce cn violence in this country.ce today, a number porate leaders and c.e.o.s added their voices to the debate with a new campaign that's directed at the senate. previous gun legislation has ten died there in the past. william brangham has a closer look now at this new campaign. >> brangham: that's right, amna. the c.e.o.s of 145 u.s. ercompanies just sent a leo senators, urging them to pass legiation to expand backgrou checks on anyone seeking to buy a gun, ando implement a national "red flag" law, which would allow law forcement to temporarily take guns from anyone judged to be a danger to themselves or to others. the letter said, in part, "doing nothing about america's gun violence crisis

on the ground in houston, the siur of tonight's debate, is own lisa desjardins, with more ta how the debate is shaping up. lisa to me. when it comes to the lineup, to t the format, what should we expect to see tonight? >> well, this campus of texas southern university is going to see a unique debate. first of all, let's look at those ten candidates leading the poll. our first time with a single te. as you see in that lineup, there mee five senators, three , and two texans in the debate, but i think the focus will be on the center of the stage. this will be first time that former vice president joe biden will be on stage with elabeth warren, the senator from massachusetts, and amna, she clearly has been gaining the most in polls in the last months i can tell you from talking to voters here in houston, there is a sense of excitement about r that you don't hear about joe biden. the biden campaign told us todae theyoing to try and make the case that while elizabeth has many policy s, the key is to try to implement them. they will say he's the man to carry out those ideas. now, one other

lisa desjardins, thank you. >> woodruff: it is election day in israel all over again. prime minister benjamin netanyahu pushed the unprecedented do-over aftete falling one parliament seat short of forming a government last april. special correspondent ryan chilcote is there for us, and has the story. >> reporter: election day was o deja vu, allr again, less than six months after the last go-round. prolonging the nation's political turmoil, and putting its long-serving prime minister in peril. at the center of it all: prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his right-wing likud party. and his chief rival: benny ntz, his former military chief of staff, who leads the centrist blue and white party. voters flocked to the pollswh and e support for the ruling likud party fell, neither of israel's largest parties may have the votes to form a government. that leaves this man, avagdor lieberman, netanyahu's long-time ally-turned-foe, as a potential kingmaker.an he says he w a national unitdgovernment, forcing liku and the blue and white to govern together. in a last-minute get-out

to help us understand where thin stand, i'm joined by ournd own lisa desjardins. iv >> a conservweb page why would it be leaked to them? well, this idea was to expandro universal bacd. someone in the white house were bushing this by putting this out on a conservative web page before it readlly ha any legs, it undermined it. it essentially killed that plan. so whan.you have here is forces behind the scenes really tryingf to luence the president against working on universal gu background checks or an an expansion of background checks which is somethingmany in the senateare talking about. >> reporter: every time there's a high profile mass shooting, we have this conversation again. where is the public on is? that pressure going to do anything? >> i think you can see th public pressure is building and that goes back to senator mcconnell, he made e of his strongesstatements yet this week ability where he is on this issue and what he wants to see happen. let's listen. >> we need some guidance fromt the presid abut what kind of proposal that would make a difference, he w

our own lisa desjardins has been digging into all of this, and she's here with me now. hello, lisa. so tell us, where is this money coming from, what are these projects? >> start with that first. as you said, it's 127 projects, it's about $3.6 billion that the president will move to helpor build barriers of various sorts. half of this money is comingom overseas installations. the other half is from litary installations here in the u.s. let's look at where those are. those are affecting3 states, and i want to leave this up for a minute so people can look for their states. it's the perimeter of the country. this affects everything from service academies like west point to small and large institutions, tra facilities, all o the branches of the service are being affected by this. these funds, judy, impted specifically are those who have been approved by congress, but there is nota contract yet to start building them. on hold and the president is refundg congress will them later, it's not clear congress will do that. >> woodruff:27 different projects. tell us more about what the projtts

our lisa desjardins begins with the latest. >> desjardins: another rapid- fire day of news centering around president trump, who was atinhe u.n. mewith world leaders today. but the headlines came from his decision to declsify and release a five page memo describing a july krone call withnian president volodymyr zelensky. the text is critical to the fastising impeachment debate. it shows preside zelebrky ging up the military, javelin missiles he wants to buy from the united states,at immey following that, president trump asks for wha ate says immediately following that, president trump asks for a favor: to look into crowdstrike the company that conclud russia was to blame for hacking into democratic party email in 2016, a conclusion the president has questioned. after zelensky resnds,re ing the ethics of ukrainian investigations, inesident trump next says he heard about a ukn prosecutor who was unfairly shutdown.at ay have been a referenceen to this man, viktor shokin, whom the us saw as birrupt and joe n tried to have fired. a few sentences later mr trump says there's a lot of talk a

trump says he'll release the record of a critical phone call.e congressional correspondent lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> desjardins: a dizzying day of devepments. speaker of the house nancy pelosi went further than ever, late this afternoon, on formally beginning impeachment. >> the actions of the trump ofesidency revealed the dishonorable fache president's betrayal of his oato of office, betrayal of our nalonal security, and betra of the integrity of our elections. the house of representativescing moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. >> desrdins: at the united nations, a president arriving to talk about u.s. policyk immediaty faced questions about his own actis, and whether he pressured ukraine to investigate the biden family. >> i think it's ridiculous.ch it's a wunt. >> desjardins: he seemed to confirm, a defend, the fact that he withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for ukraine recently. >> my complaint has always been-- and i'd withhold again, and i'll continue to withhold until such time ot europe and r nations contribute to ukraine, because they'r

lisa desjardins reports on the latest sprint amonghe democratic hopefuls. >> reporter: in iowa, the pressure and the stakes couldn't be higher. saturday, democratic candidates angled for attention at the annual iowa steak fry-- grilling meat and veggie burgers. >> in this unprecedented moment in american history, we need to run an unprecedented campaign. >>sreorter: and it comes the presidential pack faces some shifng realities. the new iowa poll from the des moines register and cnn shows a change. massachusetts senator elizabeths warrentepped into first place in the hawkeye state, two points ahead of former vice president joe biden. vermont senator bernie sanders, while still in third, is now 11h points bd the lead. warren played down the results sunday while picketing with >> i don't do polls.in detroit we are still months away from the iowa caucuses and the first primary elections. we aay on this picket line tod to say we're gonna make this american work for everyone. >> reporter: b iowa numbers are clearly on others' minds. senator kamala harris, running in fifth in the poll there, is ch

we know from lisa desjardins' report from the hill about what congress can doirntion but you've also been loking at public opinion polls. what are you seeing from the american people about this whole impeachment process? >> we conducted a poll yesterday, and people are really split on whether or not the house should be cusing on this impeachment inquiry. i want to talk through numbers. 49% sad they app troved e house starting an impmeea inquiry. we believe that's a 10-point jump from something from the past because e asked a ilar question in april after the mueller report waseleased. we also found that 46% of people found they disapproved of the house focusing on this impeachment inquiry. i also want to say ouroll found that voters think the impeachment inquiry won't impt who they vote for president. when we asked will impeachment 25uiry influence your vote, 25% said a major factor, 40% said a minor factor and 48% said not a factor at all. pretty striking given what's happening. >> woodruff: yamiche alcindor,> a lot to follow from the white house, as usual. thank yo, yamiche. >> than

for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >>oodruff: president trump deid he would be willing to meet with iranian pre hassan rouhani at the u.n. general assembly, but rouhani rejected that offer days before this attack. joining me to discuss the regional implications of thisca attack is frederic wehrey. he is a senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace and has 20 years of mideast experiencs from me in the air force. frederic frederic we w wehrey, . >> thanks for having me. >> reporter: what do you make by the trks saying they're confident iran was behind the attack. >> i think it's pected given the dministration's feelinof iran being the root of all evili givethe prnt's comments, they're walking back initial certainty about iran. i think they want to leave room, perhaps, for some negotiation. this is a president who has t statat he doesn't want war in the region, he doesn't want to get backed into some sort of corner -- >> woodruff: he said again today he didn't want war. >> right. >> woodruff: will we

the newshour's lisa desjardins has the detail ( explosion ) >> reporter: a w of words and ages after weekend aeria attacks left two saudi oil sites in flameand smoke. a u.s. official shared these images showing damaged facilities and blackened, scorched areas. today, apokesman for a saudi- led military coalition said the firepower responsible was iranian-made, and was not launched in yemen, contrary to claims by rebels there. >> ( translated ): initial evidence shows that these weapons are iranian weapons anda investigating this and we will announce the findings. initial findings show that theta terrorist did not originate from yemeni territories as claimed by the houthi militia. >> reporter:inhe u.s. also d to iran. secretary of state pompeotu tweeted ay that "iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world's energy idpply." and, "there is no ce the attacks came from yemen." buthat is precisely who ha claimed responsibility-- houthi rabels in yemen. they are backed by but a spokesman said saturday they themselves launched ten drones at the oil facities-- and threatened mo

lisa desjardins, correspondent for the p newshour. and vivian lama, white house reporter for the wall street journal. michael, you're a national security reporter, white house treporter at the new yores. what else have we learned about this complaint? >> well, we know that it involves a conversation the president had with a foreign eleader. andnow it also involves ukraine. and tonight the new york times is also reporting that president trump did pressureai u's president zelensky to investigate whether joe biden's son might have, you know, done something inappropriate in ukraine and whetherid joe ght have intervened. really the underlying facts thereon't bear out the president's theoryhat there was something sinister going on. but we still h don'te the full contours of what this whistle-blower complaint consisted of. intelligenche community filed a complaint and it has multiple comnents to it. ukraine is one part ofert. s a cl to a foreign leader. we don't know if that'w the same thing as the ukraine complaint. congress by law ought to

for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: a that brings us to the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields, and "new york times" columnist david brooks. what did you take away? did one or another help himself or herself? >> if you go by raw qualities, i think klobuchar and buttigieg otional, the sort ofmetimesi candidates donald trump probably coul't pound down very far. among the leaders and the people who seem likely to get the nomination, i thought joe biden night, beginningt back onhe best warren and sanders on they're going to take away the private insurance. i think warren had a good night, too. the fundamental thi, common agreement, nothing shifted in the debate but things sort of solidified a little more and that's probably good for joe biden. >> woodruff: solidified for joe biden? >> i don't agree wiith david think he's too glib and too -- (laughter) no, judy, somehow, nce the last two debateb, the democratio candidates dired that there had been one democrat since frank lynn roosevelt who twice won the white house with over 50% the

desjardins fills in the picture. the first hot spotingrolina is president trump for a campaign rally tonight ahead of a special congressional election. and congress is also back, with democrats in the house shedding the spotlight on gun violence and impeachment. that's plenty for our weekly "politics mond" round-up with amy walter of the "cook political report" and host of public radio's "politics with amy walter" and tamara keith of "npr" and co-host of the "npr politics podcast." it's election day tomorrow, just hee inspection, t north carolina -- special election, the north carolina 9th congressional district. fiscal conservative running against dan mccready, a marine investment and former manager, running as more of a moderate. why are people paying such tention to this race and what does it tell you? >> the people, the parties a outside groups are spending a lot of money, ove mr $10 atllion utside groups have spent in this race for one congress seat. it's because it's symbolic. this is a district that the democr

for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: also to pacific hurricane lorena buffeted cabo san lucas, mexico, near the tip of e baja california peninsula. it could bring heavy rain andof wind5 miles an hour, through the night. in afghanistan, the deh toll has nearly doubled to 39 in a taliban bombing at a hospital on thursday. the suicide blast rocked the capital of zabul province, in the south. the attack destroyed the hospital, and left at least 140 people wounded. local officials reported thatth most odead were civilians. a second confirmed case of polio raised alarms in the philippinea today. officials declared the country's first outbreak in nearly two decades. they are now launching a mass vaccination campaign. its goal is to immunize more than five million children under the age of five. bap in this country, the tr administration signed an agreement for el salvador to luke in migrants seeking a in the u.s. details were sparse, and it was unear how one of central america's most violent places could qualifas a refuge. but, the acting secretary of homeland security, kev

for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: earlier, i spoke with chairman schiff, and i started by askg him if today's testimony gave him a better understanding of how the trump administration handled the whistle-blower's complaint against the president.t. >> well, it did, and it raised profound concerns that a process that was meant to allow a whistleblower to provide informion to congress broke down, and it brthke down on advice of white house counsel and the department of justice. considering that the complaint volved activity, misconduct by the president, considering that bill barr himself wads implica in the complaint, the idea that a director would go to those two sources for dance in whether this complaint needed to beid pr to congress shows i shothink the most direct conflit of interest, and that meant this complaint was withheld weeks after it should have been turned over to congress, and it was being withheld at a time when the president was stilll withholding itary aid, vital military assistance to ukraine. so we have a problem here, but, of course, the far br

lisa desjardins ings us this campaign update. >> desjardins: therehey were, at work today among the crowds and parades, charming poteial voters. but listen closely: on this labor day, democtic candidates for presidenfocused less on jobs and wages, and more on the gun debate, after odessa texas became the latest site of a mass ooting on saturday. take former vice president joe biden, in iowa.d he se constitution does not protect semi-automatic rifles, like the one used in odessa >> having assault weapons on the street, or magazines carryingmu iple bullets, is irrational. there is no need for it, and your second amendment rights are in no way violated. >> desjardins: minnesota senator amy klobuchar, singled out senate republican leader mitchel mccoon guns. >> mitch mcconnell is going to have to decide what side he's on. so he's going to have to explain to the people of this country why he wouldn't let that bill that just passed t house come up for a vote. >> desjardins: and all this follows the comments from former texas congressman beto o'rourke, who used an explete on cnn, nosunday while r

lisa desjardins has our report. >> desjardins: in parts of southeastern texas, only the roofs of buildings and cars are above water. roadhave become rivers, with drivers leaving wide wakes as they brave the depths. rescue crews worked overnight through heavy rain, to save people in stranded vehicles.nd all of this just two years since hurricane harvey inundatedhe50 region witnches of rain. harris county sheriff ed gonzalez said last night that t houston region waspa better pd. >> we had more rescue vehicles deployed all across the county. as we saw, some of the areas that were harder-hit, we re-depyed them a little bit closer. >> desjardins: the downpours finally stopped by daybreak. still, the deluge put major highways under water in houston proper, and forced schools to close. on new caney, about 30 miles northeast of houan r.v. floated sideways today in muddy water, and cars anlyhomes were neubmerged. along the san jacinto river, arbridge was closed after rushing water tores off their moorings nearby. they crashed into the span, shtating down part of ters 10. and overnight, in beaunt, g

. >> desjardins: the report looks at all children in h.h.s. care. some arrived on their own, others were separated from their parents. for the latter especially, it points to a number of disturbing effects: accounts of inconsolablerying among children, heightened anxiety and feelings of abandonment. some showesymptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, even refusing to eat. and that comes after enduring extreme duress in the home countries they left behind.t the inspector general's office5 visited facilities between august and september 2018 and spoke wi clinicians and other professional staff. ann maxwell is the assistant inspector general for evaluation and inspec tions who worked on this report and she joins me now. thank you. this report is not easy to read. i want to start by talking about the children who the u.s. separad from their parents, specifically among the many quotes here, an example, just one of a seven or eight-year-old boy, the report shes as under the delusion his father had been killed and believed that he also would be killed. c