September 4, 2024 - PBS News Hour full episode
09/04/2024 | 56m 46s | Video has closed captioning.
September 4, 2024 - PBS News Hour full episode
Aired: 09/04/24
Expires: 10/04/24
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AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.
I'm Amna Nawaz.
GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.
On the "News Hour" tonight: Just as the new school year is getting under way, the nation is rocked by another shooting, this time at a Georgia high school.
AMNA NAWAZ: The Biden administration accuses Russia and other nations of once again meddling in the U.S. presidential race.
The new steps that are being taken to counter foreign interference.
MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. Attorney General: We have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our demographic system of government.
GEOFF BENNETT: And Kamala Harris unveils more of her economic plans, including an incentive for business start-ups.
We delve into the two presidential contenders' plans to boost the U.S. economy.
(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."
The Department of Justice is warning that America's elections are once again under foreign assault.
More on that shortly.
GEOFF BENNETT: We start tonight's program in Georgia, where authorities say a gunman opened fire at a high school, killing four people, two students and two teachers.
At least nine others were injured.
Police say they have arrested a student who is the suspect.
And investigators say they don't yet know a motive.
This morning, about an hour outside of Atlanta, all-too-familiar scenes of chaos, ambulances and police cars racing toward Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia, after reports of an active shooter.
Dozens of emergency vehicles and a medevac chopper descended onto school grounds as students sought safety on the football field, all the while parents worried sick.
WOMAN: I'm shocked because, I mean, this is Barrow County.
And stuff like this never happens here.
Going to school, doing school after school, whatever you do, just pray because you never know, like, when stuff like this going to happen.
GEOFF BENNETT: Nearly 2,000 students attend Apalachee.
The new school year kicked off about a month ago in early August.
This afternoon, county officials identified the shooter as Colt Gray, a 14-year-old student at the school.
He will be charged with murder as an adult.
JUD SMITH, Barrow County, Georgia, Sheriff: Our school resource officer engaged him.
And the shooter quickly realized that if he did not give up, that it would end with an OIS, an officer-involved shooting.
GEOFF BENNETT: Jud Smith is the Barrow County sheriff.
JUD SMITH: This hits home for me.
I was born and raised here.
I went to school in this school system.
My kids go to this school system.
I'm proud of this school system.
My heart hurts for these kids.
My heart hurts for our community.
But I want to make it very clear that hate will not prevail in this county.
GEOFF BENNETT: In Washington, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Biden had been briefed on the situation and called for action from Congress.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, White House Press Secretary: Students and teachers deserve to know that their schools are safe.
They should focus on learning, not lockdowns.
GEOFF BENNETT: And the shooting reverberated on the campaign trail.
Vice President Kamala Harris began an afternoon event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on a solemn note.
KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: This is just a senseless tragedy, on top of so many senseless tragedies.
And it's just outrageous that every day, in our country in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive.
GEOFF BENNETT: Donald Trump writing on his social media platform said in part: "Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, Georgia."
Another school shooting, another community tonight in mourning.
AMNA NAWAZ: Now to the day's other top story, foreign efforts to interfere with the U.S. presidential election.
GEOFF BENNETT: In the press conference this afternoon, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland outlined what he called sophisticated disinformation campaigns undertaken by Russia and other adversaries, promoting lies via fake news outlets and real social media influencers.
And Garland issued this warning: MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. Attorney General: The Justice Department's message is clear.
We have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government.
We will be relentlessly aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts by Russia and Iran, as well as China or any other foreign malign actor, to interfere in our elections and undermine our democracy.
AMNA NAWAZ: Joining us now from the White House is National Security Council spokesman retired Rear Admiral John Kirby.
Admiral Kirby, welcome back.
Thanks for joining us.
JOHN KIRBY, NSC Coordinator For Strategic Communications: Thank you so much for having me.
AMNA NAWAZ: So, these efforts, I think it's safe to say, are a long way from Russian intelligence packing and dumping e-mails like they did with the DNC back in 2016.
Just before we dig into some of the specifics today, big picture and briefly, what does all of this say to you about how Russian election interference has evolved over the years?
JOHN KIRBY: Well, they have gotten more sophisticated.
They have gotten more organized.
And, quite frankly, they have gotten more funding, support right at the top of the Kremlin.
We believe Mr. Putin is witting of this scheme -- or these schemes, I should say.
There's more than one.
But they have gotten a lot more clever.
And, unfortunately for them, we have gotten pretty clever too.
We have gotten pretty smart as well.
And we were able to detect and monitor these threats and, as you saw today, take action to hold them accountable.
AMNA NAWAZ: So, one of these schemes, as you put it -- let's kind of break it down here.
The Department of Justice has charged two employees of a Russian state-controlled media outlet, R.T., saying that they poured $10 million into an effort to distribute content with hidden Russian government messaging.
What kind of messaging are we talking about and where might people have seen that?
JOHN KIRBY: Well, a great example of the messaging, for instance, was blaming Ukraine and the United States for the terrorist attack that happened in Moscow several months ago that we all know it was conducted by ISIS.
Even ISIS acknowledged that they conducted that attack on that concert hall.
So that was one example.
Another example was continuing to put out information to undermine Ukraine's fight for its own democracy and for its sovereignty.
So, it's messaging and disinformation.
It's propaganda that tries to undermine public support for what Ukraine is trying to do to defend itself and a range of other things that Russia wants to do to sort of portray the United States as some sort of evil actor in the world.
So there's a series of initiatives that they're undertaking, again, to undermine faith and confidence in democracy writ large, certainly undermine faith and confidence in America's democracy.
AMNA NAWAZ: One of the other schemes laid out was related to the Department of Justice seizing 32 Internet domains that they say were used to spread Russian propaganda with the aim... JOHN KIRBY: Yes.
AMNA NAWAZ: ... of influencing voters in the U.S. and foreign elections, including the U.S. 2024 presidential election.
I just want to show for viewers here the Web sites were designed to look like U.S. information and news sites, like these that you're seeing right now that look exactly like Washington Post articles, but they are not.
JOHN KIRBY: Right.
AMNA NAWAZ: Admiral Kirby, can these kinds of sites be taken down faster than they can keep going up?
Is it safe to assume this information is still out there?
JOHN KIRBY: Well, we're certainly going to keep having conversations with tech companies about making sure they're aware of these threats and these actors out there.
We have to rely on them to take the decisions that they deem are appropriate to their own policies and procedures.
But we're certainly going to keep having that conversation with tech companies.
But I think what you're seeing here -- and I'm glad you mentioned the Social Design Agency and what they have been doing as well -- is, on one hand you have got them using R.T., a former propaganda outlet, now just a full-on covert influence organization, to work through funding companies, even a company here in the United States to get them to push information out in the vein of a legitimate media outlet.
And thy also working at a tactical level with social media influencers.
Many of them, as the attorney general laid out, are simply made up.
They're a fictional persona.
But they're going at it from a media outlet perspective, and they're going at it from an individual social media user perspective.
AMNA NAWAZ: Well, when it comes to influencing, especially the 2024 presidential election, Attorney General Garland said that they're seeking a preferred outcome here.
What is that preferred outcome?
What do you see this Russian propaganda working towards?
JOHN KIRBY: They are working towards undermining U.S. policies, the kinds of U.S. policies that this administration has been laboring so hard to pursue around the world, shoring up alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, supporting Ukraine, obviously, making sure that... AMNA NAWAZ: But does that -- is that to say that they're working to undermine the Democratic candidate, in this case Kamala Harris?
JOHN KIRBY: I don't have specific evidence that I can speak to about undermining a particular candidate, but we have seen in the past where Mr. Putin certainly has shown a proclivity for one particular candidate.
But, again, I don't want to get ahead of where we are right now.
Where we are right now is, we know that they are using these tools, these vehicles, this funding to sow discord and try to increase this unity here in the United States.
AMNA NAWAZ: Wouldn't it help people, though, to spot some of this disinformation if they knew if it tends to lean one way or the other?
JOHN KIRBY: Well, look, that's one of the things that we did today, why the attorney general went public.
That's why we here at the White House laid it out, the State Department, the Treasury.
I mean, part of the aim of educating the American people is to disclose what we're seeing out there and the kinds of content that they're putting out there.
And as I said in my opening statement today in the Briefing Room, it can't just be the government doing this.
We need the help of American citizens to bear a hand here and to carefully and scrupulously take a look at what you're digesting, the news, information that you're getting online or elsewhere to try to make sure that you're getting the absolute best, credible, most accurate information that you can.
AMNA NAWAZ: It is also worth pointing out people start voting in this election very soon, within days.
And the last day of voting, Election Day, is just over 60 days away.
A lot of this content has already been out there for a while, has had millions of views.
Are these steps and actions coming too late to have an impact?
JOHN KIRBY: Well, we certainly hope not.
I mean, I would just tell you that the timing today was driven by the scope of the investigation that the attorney general talked about.
And he made it clear it's an ongoing investigation.
So there may be additional actions here coming.
I don't know.
But it was driven really by the status of the investigation.
That was what was really on our minds.
And as soon as we could package all that information up and get it out into the public domain, we wanted to do that.
AMNA NAWAZ: That's the National Security Council spokesman, Admiral John Kirby, joining us from the White House tonight.
Sir, thank you.
Good to see you.
JOHN KIRBY: Thank you.
GEOFF BENNETT: And we start the day's other headlines in Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accepted the resignation of his foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba.
Kuleba gave no reason for stepping down.
His announcement comes as four other ministers also submitted resignations.
It's set to be among the most significant overhauls of Zelenskyy's cabinet since the war began.
Zelenskyy, who is in Ireland today, said it was time for a change as the war against Russia drags on.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): I am very grateful to the ministers and the entire cabinet team who worked for Ukraine for the sake of Ukrainians.
Today, we need new energy, and these steps are connected.
They are only connected with strengthening our state in various areas.
International politics and diplomacy are no exception.
GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, Russian strikes killed at least seven people and injured more than 50 others in the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv near the Polish border.
The long-range Russian strikes come just a day after one of the deadliest attacks of the war, a missile attack on a Ukrainian military academy that killed more than 50 people.
In the Middle East, Israel's operation in the occupied West Bank shows no sign of letting up after more than a week of deadly raids.
IDF bulldozers pushed through the streets of Tulkarm today.
Palestinian officials say 33 people have been killed so far.
Israel says most of them were militants.
The Jenin area has seen the most fatalities, including a 16-year-old girl who was laid to rest today.
Her father says she was shot by Israeli forces yesterday when she opened a window curtain during a raid.
Israel says it's looking into the incident.
OSAMA MUSLEH, Daughter Killed in West Bank Raid (through translator): All the neighbors are witnesses.
She didn't go to the roof.
She didn't hurl a stone, and she wasn't carrying a weapon.
She is 16 years old.
The only thing she did is, she looked from a window and the soldiers shot her in the forehead.
GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, in Gaza, the U.N.'s children's agency says a polio vaccination campaign has now reached some 189,000 children.
UNICEF called the program a rare bright spot in the ongoing war and says it hopes to expand the campaign to harder-hit areas.
In the U.K., an investigation into the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster found that the tragedy was avoidable.
In its final report released today, the inquiry found that mistakes from the government, the construction industry and firefighters were to blame.
The independent investigation started soon after 72 people were killed when a fire broke out at the apartment block in West London during the early hours of June 14, 2017.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government is sorry for the loss of life and vowed to act on the report's findings.
KEIR STARMER, British Prime Minister: I want to start with an apology on behalf of the British state to each and every one of you and indeed to all of the families affected by this tragedy.
It should never have happened.
GEOFF BENNETT: The report clears the way for law enforcement authorities to finish their criminal investigation of the disaster.
The effort had been put on hold to avoid any conflict with the independent inquiry.
Prosecutors are not expected to announce any charges until the end of 2026.
A global human rights watchdog has implicated Venezuela's security forces in the deadly crackdown on protests following the country's disputed election in July.
In findings released today, Human Rights Watch outlined evidence that linked the country's National Guard and police to some of the 24 killings that took place as people protested the outcome of the vote.
President Nicolas Maduro said the protests were an attempted coup.
And in an effort to distract from anger over the election, Maduro declared on national TV today that Christmas is quite literally coming early.
NICOLAS MADURO, Venezuelan President (through translator): September is coming, and I said it smells like Christmas.
That's why, this year, in homage to you and gratitude to you, I'm going to decree.
Christmas starts on October 1 for everyone.
Christmas is here with peace, happiness, and security.
GEOFF BENNETT: Separately, the Pentagon said today that a U.S. Navy sailor has been detained in Venezuela after traveling there on personal business.
Officials say the visit was not authorized.
The Navy says it's working with the State Department to monitor the situation.
In Northeastern Nigeria, locals there say at least 100 villagers were killed when suspected Boko Haram militants rampaged through their area on motorcycles.
While the death toll is in dispute, local police say more than 50 extremists opened fire on a market in people's homes on Sunday night before setting buildings on fire.
The radical Islamic group has killed thousands of Nigerians since launching an insurgency in 2009 that has also displaced more than two million people.
On Wall Street today, stocks struggled to find their footing.
The Dow Jones industrial average added just 38 points, so mostly unchanged.
The Nasdaq dropped more than 50 points, slipping back towards that 17000-point level.
The S&P 500 also ended a bit lower on the day.
And there were more victories for Team USA at the Paralympic Games in Paris today.
Oksana Masters won her eighth Paralympic gold by speeding to victory in the women's para cycling time trial.
In track and field, shot putter Noelle Malkamaki broke her previous world record with a throw distance of just over 14 meters, easily clearing her path to gold.
And the U.S. women's wheelchair basketball team won a close game against Great Britain, propelling them to the semifinals.
And still to come on the "News Hour": a contemporary artist takes the ancient tradition of basket weaving in new directions; and a retired scientist teaches others how to experience nature without sight.
AMNA NAWAZ: Today, in New Hampshire, Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled more of her economic plans, proposing tax breaks for new small businesses and a change to the capital gains tax.
KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: If you earn a million dollars a year or more, the tax rate on your long-term capital gains will be 28 percent under my plan, because we know, when the government encourages investment, it leads to broad-based economic growth and it creates jobs, which makes our economy stronger.
AMNA NAWAZ: Now, that is a smaller increase on investment income tax than what President Biden has called for in his latest budget proposal.
The economy and inflation are top priorities for voters.
And on the trail, Harris and former President Donald Trump have highlighted their different approaches if elected in November.
Our White House correspondent has been covering both candidates' plans, and she joins us now.
Laura Barron-Lopez, always good to have you here.
So let's start with Vice President Harris then.
Just walk us through the key points in her economic plans that she says will lower costs for everyday Americans.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So, in addition to the capital gains tax she proposed, today, she also announced that she wants to do a $50,000 tax deduction expenses for small businesses.
That's an increase in the tax break from $5,000 for start-ups.
She also has a goal of 25 million new business applications in her first term, were she to win.
And this builds on other key proposals that she's already outlined, outlined as early as last month of her economic proposals, that include the construction of three million new housing units, $25,000 down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, a federal ban on price gouging food and groceries.
And she wants to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent.
Amna, she also wants to permanently expand the child tax credit to $6,000 for middle- and low-income families for the first year of their child's life.
And she's also made the promise that President Biden made, which was to not raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year.
So, ultimately, a lot of her proposals are very similar to President Biden's.
AMNA NAWAZ: What about when you compare them to former President Trump?
How do they differ?
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Economic policy is not necessarily a regular part of Donald Trump's stump speech, but Donald Trump has claimed that he plans to fix inflation on day one.
DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: On my first day back in the Oval Office, I will sign an executive order directing every Cabinet secretary and agency head to use every tool and authority at their disposal to defeat inflation and to bring consumer prices rapidly down.
It will be a whole-of-government effort to raise the standard of living and make American life affordable again.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Donald Trump has provided little specifics on how exactly he would lower inflation, but here's what we do know about his economic policy.
He said that he wants to cut taxes for corporations, lowering the rate from 21 percent to 15 percent, eliminate taxes on tips and Social Security benefits, institute a 10 to 20 percent tariffs on all foreign goods, with an extra focus on China, imposing tariffs of 60 percent on Chinese imports.
And he wants to make those 2017 tax cuts permanent, Amna Those 2017 tax cuts, which saw the corporate rate be implemented at 20 -- tax cut be implemented at 21 percent and individual tax cuts across all earners, especially top earners, those tax cuts are going to expire next year, so he wants to make them permanent.
AMNA NAWAZ: So, when you take a step back here, big picture, when you compare what we see as the Harris vision and the Trump vision, what are the key differences here?
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The biggest differences are on their housing, taxes, tariffs, and mass deportation of migrants proposals when it comes to how it will impact the economy.
My producer Shrai Popat and I spoke to multiple economists, including Mark Zandi, who's the chief economist at Moody's.
And Zandi joked that you put 10 economists in a room and they will come out with 20 opinions, but, overall, he cited warnings from 16 Nobel laureate economists saying that Trump's plans would increase inflation.
And that's also what Moody's found.
MARK ZANDI, Chief Economist, Moody's Analytics: I think President Trump's policies would lead to a somewhat diminished economy, not a recession, but a diminished economy, slower growth, higher - - somewhat higher unemployment, but ultimately higher inflation and higher deficits and debt.
And if you're a high-income household, a high net worth household, you will certainly do better under President Trump.
But I think if you're kind of a middle-income American, you're a lower-income American, you will do better under President Harris.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: One of the similarities, Mark Zandi said, is that proposal to eliminate taxes on tips that both have said they want to do.
But a lot of the economists say that people who necessarily rely on tips for their well-being don't pay that much in taxes to begin with.
So they question the impact.
And, overall, the attitudes of the two candidates are very different on the economy, Amna, Trump's campaign arguing that his is about a less globalized approach and that he wants to promote investment.
Harris is much more focused on the middle class, specifically parents and housing.
AMNA NAWAZ: So, as you talk to the experts and they look at both sets of policy proposals, what do they say could be the biggest impacts of those proposals?
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: One of the proposals that multiple economists raise was Trump's plan for mass deportations of millions of undocumented migrants.
J.D.
Vance, his running mate, has said that plan is their housing plan, that, ultimately, U.S. citizens are fighting for housing with U.S. migrants and that deporting millions of migrants could make housing more affordable.
We spoke to Michael Strain, who is an economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, and he said that that proposal would be detrimental to the economy.
MICHAEL STRAIN, American Enterprise Institute: What that would do would be to remove hundreds of thousands, maybe even more, undocumented workers from workplaces.
When you walk into the grocery store, the price of fresh produce would go up.
The price of a renting hotel room would go up.
The price of a restaurant meal would go up, maybe the price of home construction.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Strain said ultimately the way to fix the housing crisis is to build more homes.
But, also, when it comes to impacts, Amna, the nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model conducted an analysis of both the candidates' proposals and found that Trump's proposals increase the national debt more than $5 trillion over 10 years.
By comparison, Harris' plan would add over $1 trillion over the same amount of time.
AMNA NAWAZ: And what about when you talk to voters?
This is the number one issue for them.
What do they think about these plans?
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: This is consistently, as you said, Amna, the top issue for voters across the spectrum.
A new NBC poll out today found that Gen Z voters, 18-to-29-year-olds, say that inflation and cost of living is their top issue.
And we spoke to a number of voters in states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Robert Nix (ph), who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, said that he feels like Trump just says whatever people want to hear, and he doesn't like Trump's proposal on tariffs.
We also spoke to Ethan Lentz (ph), who voted for Trump in 2020, but is disenchanted with him now and said he's not a fan of necessarily either candidates' policies, and feels that Trump's are too vague, while Harris' price gouging is something that he's -- price gouging, federal ban on that is something that he's skeptical about, Amna.
AMNA NAWAZ: All right, Laura Barron-Lopez with a look at both candidates' proposals here.
Laura, great reporting.
Thank you.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.
GEOFF BENNETT: Today's Justice Department indictments alleging ongoing Russian efforts to spread disinformation come just two months before Election Day.
Moscow's attempts to interfere in U.S. and other elections are nothing new, though their tactics and strategy are constantly evolving.
Before today's announcement, special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky recently sat down with an investigative journalist who spent years uncovering Russian operations about yet another effort to sow doubt and chaos, this time using artificial intelligence.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service has a new plan to influence Western countries in this election year.
Russia's CIA, which goes by its initials too, SVR, plans to use artificial intelligence to mask a sophisticated effort to interfere in a third straight U.S. presidential election.
First, a quick tour of 2016.
DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Russian intelligence hacked the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chair.
Thousands of e-mails were then dumped in a coordinated fashion to influence the race.
And that's not to mention the operations of Russian troll farms that created thousands of digital sock puppet soldiers to repeat and repeat and repeat messages that boosted Donald Trump, at Hillary Clinton's expense.
CHRISTO GROZEV, The Insider: They have declared war, full-scale, hot war, information war on the rest of the world.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: The man who helped uncover this new effort is Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist who's unmasked many intelligence operations.
Perhaps most famously, he found the operatives who poisoned the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020 and helped Navalny, who died in a Russian prison this past February, confront one of his assailants.
You have discovered a program that the Russian security services are trying to develop.
What is this program actually about?
CHRISTO GROZEV: We got access to a mailbox belonging to a senior intelligence officer working under cover of a commercial company in Russia.
And that mailbox contained initially reports that criticized the handling of the global propaganda effort by Russia, saying, we're losing to the West, we're losing to the Ukrainians, everybody loves Ukraine, everybody hates Russia.
We have to change something about this.
They have decided to use A.I.
and use all kind of new methods to make it indistinguishable from the regular flow of information we're getting.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: We know that Russia has been trying to pit Western societies against themselves at least since the 2016 election.
What's different about this new effort that you have discovered?
CHRISTO GROZEV: They will infiltrate Western organizations, some of them organizations that are even in defense of Western values.
They're going to infiltrate pro-Ukrainian organizations and within those organizations create disruption.
They're going to make unreasonable demands to Western leaders, making Western societies tire and get annoyed with these "Ukrainian demands" -- in quotation marks.
They're no longer going to defend Russia.
They're going to just cause disruption within Western societies.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: They're no longer going to be trying to convince our societies that Russia's great.
They're just going to use various different methods to make us angry at each other, angry at our allies, angry at Ukraine?
CHRISTO GROZEV: That is exactly so.
And that's both bad news and good news.
The good news part of it is that they realize that the ship has sailed on trying to convince the rest of the world that Russia is a powerful good.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Who's taking the lead in this project?
Who's running it?
CHRISTO GROZEV: This is the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia.
And, traditionally... SIMON OSTROVSKY: SVR.
CHRISTO GROZEV: SVR.
They're essentially criticizing the other agencies as having failed so far.
And they have propositioned this to the Kremlin as, let us take care of this.
We know how to do it better.
And, initially, we thought this may be just one proposal that may not have been accepted, but full of documents that we found show us that the program has been approved, recruitment has started, and there's even a document which is a letter to the head of the SVR, Naryshkin, which instructs him to allocate particular people to this program who will work under the cover of Kremlin officials.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: And is there anything you can tell me about how you got this information?
CHRISTO GROZEV: Since the war started, the source of data from Russian databases has become both harder to get and easier to get, harder because there's a lot of clampdown on data providers, and easier because there are so many whistle-blowers and hacktivists, actually Russian hackers, who go and hack mailboxes of government officials.
And the latter is what happened with us right now.
The name of the author of the program is Mikhail Kolesov.
And, interestingly, he admits to being a high level SVR officer in his own C.V. that I have made available to you.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: In his resume?
CHRISTO GROZEV: In his resume.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Incredible.
Kolesov's resume states that he's worked for the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia since 2001 and oversees 40 agents.
He lists among his achievements the rollout of 1,500 propaganda campaigns that supported achieving Russia's goals in the international arena.
He also boasts of receiving a medal in 2019 for developing new sources of information for the country's top leadership.
Grozev was also able to obtain Kolesov's I.D.
badge from an e-mail attachment, revealing the SVR agent's face for the first time.
CHRISTO GROZEV: Notably, he has two different resumes in his mailbox, one for the common people like you and us.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Yes.
CHRISTO GROZEV: And for the real bosses, he actually admits to having worked for the last 19 years as a senior officer in the SVR.
And the SVR officer who is delegated to this program, seconded to this program and travels around the world, his name is Andrey Shcherbakov (ph).
And he has a diplomatic passport, and we expect he will be able to travel to Western Europe and the United States, maybe not after this program.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: I read in one of the documents that you got access to that they plan on actually hijacking our personal communication devices.
What does that mean?
CHRISTO GROZEV: They plan to do insertion of advertising, which is in fact hidden as news, and in this way bombard the target population with things that may be misconstrued as news, but are in fact advertising content.
They plan to disguise that advertising content on a person-to-person level as if it is content from their favorite news sites.
Now, we haven't seen that in action, but it's an intent, and they claim they have developed the technology to do that.
They're very explicit that they're not going to use Russia-related platforms or even separate platforms.
They're going to infiltrate the platform that the target already uses.
And that is what sounds scary.
If they have developed anything like that, then we would not know that one sentence from what we use on the read in The New York Times, for example, has been altered just for you as a reader to mislead you in what the content, the meaning of the article is.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Then the target is you and I and the general public?
CHRISTO GROZEV: The target is the general public on a mass, but custom -- custom-made scale.
They specifically talk about using A.I.
to customize the message based on the biases and preferences of each individual user.
And while, before, they couldn't do that even with a troll farm run by Prigozhin in St. Petersburg of 10,000 people, because you can only customize it to 10,000 targets, now with A.I., you can do that to tens of million of people.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: The documents hacked from Kolesov's inbox describe in stilted bureaucratic language an ambitious plan to shake the so-called main adversary, AKA the West, to its very foundations by secretly influencing key figures with new disinformation techniques.
The text reads: "It is proposed that the theme of our campaign and countries of the main adversary be the stimulation of fear in recipients, the strongest emotion in human psychology."
CHRISTO GROZEV: The same team from Russia's foreign intelligence that is behind this global program is doing specific hit jobs on specific enemies of the Russian state.
This -- these hit jobs go under the cover program named Ledorub, which means ice pick, because ice pick is what Stalin organized the assassination of Trotsky with last century.
And there's no doubt that this is the meaning of this character assassination tool.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: Now it seems like they're being much more targeted and trying to essentially send disinformation to specific, key individuals around a target.
CHRISTO GROZEV: They have a term in Russian, which is to make him unhandshakeable, somebody that nobody will want to engage with on a day-to-day basis.
SIMON OSTROVSKY: The program's goals are, of course, much broader than individual Kremlin opponents, and is one more thing for U.S. news consumers to watch for as the election approaches.
For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Simon Ostrovsky in New York.
AMNA NAWAZ: The ancient native tradition of weaving baskets is now grabbing the attention of the contemporary art world, with one artist taking the form in new directions.
Jeffrey Brown takes us to Maine for our arts and culture series, Canvas.
JEREMY FREY, Artist: That one right there is a large, healthy brown ash.
You see how similar it looks to the white?
JEFFREY BROWN: A walk in the woods near his Eddington, Maine, home with Jeremy Frey in search of brown ash trees, whose pliable wood has made them so valued in the Wabanaki Indian basket making tradition for centuries and for Frey today.
JEREMY FREY: So that right there is a perfect basket tree.
You see how straight it is?
There's no knots, no branches.
I will be making a basket out of that someday.
JEFFREY BROWN: You will?
JEREMY FREY: Yes.
JEFFREY BROWN: These days, the fruits of Frey's work can be found in very different settings, art museums, in a first major survey titled Woven at the Portland Museum of Art, as well as in the collections of leading institutions, including New York's Metropolitan Museum, baskets of different sizes, shapes, patterns, colors made over the last 20 years, featuring innovations and refinements Frey introduced, such as fine weaves and double wall baskets, one within another.
JEREMY FREY: If you duck way down, there's color under there that you can never see.
JEFFREY BROWN: Oh, I didn't see that.
JEREMY FREY: I just did that for me.
(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: All of it building on centuries of knowledge and craft.
JEREMY FREY: Weaving is so simple.
It's up, down, over and under.
I mean, it's this simple binary process.
Like, you get your ones, you get your zeros.
And how do you make that more?
JEFFREY BROWN: The making of baskets, weaving, has been going on for a long, long time all over the world.
JEREMY FREY: Yes.
Yes.
JEFFREY BROWN: You like being part of that history?
JEREMY FREY: I do like being part of that history.
But I had this thought the other day that, in thousands or tens of thousands of years of nearly every culture in the world doing this, no one's ever done what I have done.
JEFFREY BROWN: Frey refers to the baskets as woven sculptures.
And for this exhibition, he's also played with form in new ways, creating flat prints, a kind of basket vortex that spirals into the wall, and a video capturing the making and fiery loss of a basket.
JEREMY FREY: I have this duality going.
I want to exist as a contemporary artist, but I also have a Native side to me that is always going to be present, and this work comes directly from that.
And it's like balancing that, doing that in a respectful way, is important, but also stating that this is me.
JEFFREY BROWN: A member of the Passamaquoddy Nation, Frey grew up on the Indian Township Reservation near Maine's border with Canada.
He can trace basket making back seven generations in his family.
In his studio, there are baskets made by his grandfather.
But Frey himself didn't come to it until his 20s, when he sought to get past a rough time of drug use that had begun in his teens.
Drug abuse would lead to the loss of many of his friends.
His mother, also a basket maker, suggested he take up weaving to keep focused and busy.
JEREMY FREY: I just needed to reset my life.
I remember it being very frustrating.
It was probably partially what I was going through, but also just trying to learn these techniques.
And the tension of the wood tends to want to spring apart at times.
JEFFREY BROWN: Sort of a metaphor for life, isn't it?
JEREMY FREY: It really is.
JEFFREY BROWN: When you're telling me what you're going through at that time, resetting your own life.
JEREMY FREY: Yes.
Yes, and challenging myself at the same time.
I didn't know it at the time, but I think the act of weaving kind of helped save my life.
JEFFREY BROWN: Learned traditional techniques and then began developing his own, every basket a result of weeks and months of work, pounding, spraying, scraping, splitting, gauging, cutting, dying, weaving.
In addition to ash, he works with sweetgrass for braiding, cedar bark, and porcupine quills for the tops of baskets.
All of it, he's gathered or harvested himself.
Why is it important to do it this way, come into the woods, find the exact right... JEREMY FREY: For me -- so, some people buy their material.
But, for me, I find that when you harvest your own material, there's something spiritual about that, but, beyond that, you get the exact quality you want.
Having that connection, it's part of basketry.
JEFFREY BROWN: He learned first from elders, including members of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, a group intent on preserving and furthering the craft.
He began taking his work to craft markets and fairs, gaining attention and winning prizes, including, in 2011, best in show at the renowned Santa Fe Indian Market.
And then the art world, eager to expand its boundaries of contemporary art, began to take notice.
The Portland Museum of Art's Ramey Mize is co-curator of this show.
RAMEY MIZE, Portland Museum of Art: Baskets of this kind were seen within the dichotomy and a sort of perceived hierarchy of art and craft, art versus craft.
And so much of what Jeremy Frey is doing is attuning people to the extraordinary vision and genius behind these works that absolutely deserves to be considered within a -- quote, unquote -- "fine art" context, but not abandoning the incredible craft, roots and processes that bring it to life.
JEFFREY BROWN: But even as basketry begins to reach new and growing museum audiences, it faces an existential threat from the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that's decimating North America's ash trees.
JEREMY FREY: As what I'm doing as an artist peaks, I'm going to lose the material to actually do it.
You can tell the same story with another material, but it won't be the same story.
You can still make the image look similar, but it doesn't have the history, it doesn't have the cultural significance.
The material isn't going to necessarily behave the same way.
JEFFREY BROWN: For now, Frey is harvesting more trees than he needs and storing them against a grim future, while also enjoying the attention he's getting in what he admits is a very unexpected, even surreal present, including the packed opening for this exhibition.
JEREMY FREY: It was intense.
It was overwhelming.
It still doesn't really feel like it happened.
Like, I'm still -- I mean, I don't know.
I mean, at the end of the day, I just feel like a guy in his studio making baskets.
So, yes, it's pretty cool.
JEFFREY BROWN: The next stop for Jeremy Frey's exhibition Woven is at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it opens October 26.
For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in Portland and Eddington, Maine.
AMNA NAWAZ: And we will be back shortly with a story of a retired scientist who started guiding a unique nature walk after losing his sight.
GEOFF BENNETT: But, first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station.
It's a chance to offer your support, which helps to keep programs like the "News Hour" on the air.
For those of you staying with us, ask many preteens what's at the top of their wish list, and there's a good chance the answer will be skin care.
In this encore report, special correspondent and Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell explores the growing market and concerns about this boom.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: One of Emma Scott's must-have skin care products is her glow recipe toner.
EMMA SCOTT, 10 Years Old: And if you smell it, it smells, like, really good.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Oh, yes.
Sort of fruity?
EMMA SCOTT: Mm-hmm.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: The 10-year-old's preferred body butter, Sol de Janeiro.
EMMA SCOTT: This one is like a creamy consistency.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: In her skin care fridge.
EMMA SCOTT: I really like this Laneige sleeping mask.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: And for lip care, Summer Fridays' butter balm.
EMMA SCOTT: Because it's like a limited edition.
And I was like, oh, I really want this.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Scott does a multistep skin care routine every morning and every evening.
EMMA SCOTT: In the morning, I will do a face wash, a toner, a moisturizer, and my ELF-tinted SPF.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Why do you do it every day?
EMMA SCOTT: Because I feel like it's really hydrating for your skin and it feels good on my skin.
Normally, when I first wake up, I look like a really -- like a white ghost.
So, I like being a little bit tanner and glowier.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Move over, Barbie.
Today's tweens are obsessed with expensive skin care, products usually marketed to a much older, wealthier clientele.
Households with tweens, aged 6 through 12, spent almost $2.5 billion facial skin care last year, an annual spending increase of 27 percent, more than double the average.
GIRL: I like that it's like kind of watery.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: This is Scott's skin care crew, a group of friends and fellow skin care enthusiasts who meet daily, usually online, to bond over their beauty regimes.
GIRL: I'm going to moisturize my hands.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: The girl's parents are still getting up to speed.
AMY SCOTT, Mother: I don't really use a whole lot of anything, so it's been very eye-opening for me.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Amy Scott is Emma's mother.
AMY SCOTT: Sometimes, I get her leftovers, so I have started using a gel moisturizer that she has turned me on to.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: And you got her leftovers because she didn't like it?
AMY SCOTT: No, she was just sick of using it.
She always is looking for the newest thing.
GIRL: Get ready for the day.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: The newest thing, as seen on social media.
GIRL: First, I'm going to use these bronzer drops and then the oil.
Let's do it.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: YouTube and TikTok teem with so-called skinfluencer content.
GIRL: We're going to do a pump of that like this.
GIRL: And then I go in with a little bit of this (INAUDIBLE) moisturizer.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: There are get ready with me videos of step-by-step routines.
GIRL: I love that stuff.
It makes my skin feel so good after putting that stuff on.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Unboxing videos and P.R.
hauls showcase the latest products...
GIRL: Glow recipe.
Look how this box opens.
Very unique.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: ... sent to influencers by brands for promotion.
This is the actual Plum Plump moisturizer.
Fabulous.
Thank you, Glow Recipe.
AMY SCOTT: She sees this person opening this product and it's like, oh, I have to try that.
It's very expensive.
So it's trying to say, let's talk about this.
Is it really worth it?
CATHERINE RAMPELL: The most popular place to shop for skin care, Sephora.
ALLIE ROSS, Influencer: First thing first, we need to see if they have the new Sol de Janeiro body cream.
EMMA SCOTT: There's this girl that I watch, Allie Ross.
And she goes to Sephora a lot.
ALLIE ROSS: Oh, my God.
You're kidding me.
EMMA SCOTT: And she will, like, buy all these products.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: The retailer is now notorious for packs of young shoppers or Sephora kids looking for viral skin care products.
Emma Scott goes at least once a week.
How much do you think Emma has spent this year?
AMY SCOTT: It's got to be hundreds.
GIRL: Do they have the pink one?
CATHERINE RAMPELL: We tagged along with the skin care crew on a recent visit as they browsed, tested, counted their money, and spent.
EMMA SCOTT: Thank you.
Amy Scott insists Emma use her own money or gift cards from her birthday and other holidays.
While this trend is certainly a boon for Sephora, others aren't totally sold.
DR. NAVA GREENFIELD, Schweiger Dermatology Group: We're seeing 10-, 11-, 12-year-old girls bringing a shopping bag of their 12-step routine that they're doing in the morning and their 10-step routine that they're doing at night.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Nava Greenfield is a dermatologist in Manhattan.
DR. NAVA GREENFIELD: They might say, I want beautiful, flawless, perfect skin and I'm looking at them thinking, you already have that.
There are a few times in life where a skin is going to be more beautiful.
GIRL: Next up, my Glow recipe Firm Serum.
Got to keep those wrinkles away.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Greenfield blames influencers for convincing tweens that they need lotions and potions containing anti-aging agents like retinol and other active ingredients that can be harmful to young skin.
GIRL: Ever since I told my mom's retinol and started using it, I swear I'm aging backwards.
I look so young.
DR. NAVA GREENFIELD: Just like adults will use Dr. Google to talk to me about their skin and about what they think is going on with their rash, adolescents do too.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: So, it's Dr. TikTok instead of Dr. Google.
DR. NAVA GREENFIELD: Exactly, yes.
GIRL: My friend's skin is gorgeous.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Greenfield says it's not just young girls who think they need extensive skin care.
DR. NAVA GREENFIELD: I have adolescent boys coming in and asking about Botox.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Really?
DR. NAVA GREENFIELD: Yes.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: What do you tell them?
DR. NAVA GREENFIELD: I tell them, you don't need Botox.
I'm very direct.
(LAUGHTER) DR. NAVA GREENFIELD: And I tell the girls too.
I say, you have perfect skin.
I can't help you.
SONIA RODRIGUES, Rutgers University: I think it's mostly just wanting to fit in and feeling connected to their friends and being a part of the new trend and craze.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: But psychotherapist Sonia Rodrigues says the high cost can be a stressor.
SONIA RODRIGUES: This is a huge issue because a lot of parents can't afford this, and the kids feel like, I can't keep up with my friends.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Post-pandemic tweens are also hyper aware of how they look on camera.
SONIA RODRIGUES: A lot of kids were able to hide behind masks, and now there's no masks and there's also so much happening on their phones with their face front and center.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Do you think that there's more focus on physical appearance today than was the case when you started out practicing?
SONIA RODRIGUES: Yes, absolutely.
I think now, with social media and the pressure that kids are constantly feeling with all of the products that they're seeing, how people are looking, the airbrushing, there's so much pressure on kids to look a certain way.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Emma Scott says her primping routine is just a hobby.
EMMA SCOTT: Doing with my friends, it's really fun and I feel like it's really relaxing, and I can sit up here and, like, watch a movie and just have a face mask on to do all that fun stuff.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Emma says she avoids ingredients that are bad for young skin.
Mom Amy keeps tabs on Emma and the rest of her crew.
AMY SCOTT: For all of them not to, like, compare themselves to these digital influencers, because a lot of them are very pretty, and, from my standpoint, always being involved and knowing that it's OK to say no.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Amy makes sure her daughter carefully weighs each purchase.
AMY SCOTT: She will say, this is at Sephora, I want to go see what it is or I want to buy it.
Well, why would you want to buy it?
Because so-and-so has it.
Well, that's no reason to buy something.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Dr. Greenfield admits there are some benefits to the skin care craze.
DR. NAVA GREENFIELD: It's wonderful from my perspective that people are thinking about their skin and people are taking the health of their skin very seriously, more so than we ever used to.
But it's important to strike a balance.
If their goal is to have healthy skin, well, then that's really just about a cleanser, moisturizer and sunscreen.
You really don't need anything more than that.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Despite what you might hear from Dr. TikTok.
For the PBS "News Hour," I'm Catherine Rampell in Greensboro, North Carolina.
AMNA NAWAZ: Finally tonight, the story of a man who found meaning in darkness.
In this story from KPBS' Kori Suzuki and Carolyne Corelis, we visit the Tijuana River Estuary in Southern California, where a volunteer is leading a tour that encourages visitors to experience nature a little differently.
RON PETERSON, Volunteer Docent: Ron Peterson Good question.
Yes, this is lemonade berry.
And the reason I know it's lemonade berry is because the leaves are thick and leathery, almost like the tongue of a leather shoe.
I have learned to identify about almost 40 plants just by touch and also smell.
All right, Gidget, here we go.
My name is Ron Peterson.
I'm 73 years old.
I'm a retired scientist and engineer.
I live here in Imperial Beach, and I am blind.
And we are here at the Tijuana Estuary.
This is one of my homes away from home.
There's several nature walks and there's several bird walks.
And one of those nature walks is mine.
I'm a docent for this nature walk called the Eye-Opening Experience Without Sight, where a blind person leads a nature walk and introduces visitors to the native plants with the emphasis on the other four senses besides sight.
Well, let's start over here with a very special plant right over here.
Everyone take a whiff and tell me what you think.
WOMAN: I don't love it.
RON PETERSON: Oh, OK, we have a "I don't love it."
Most people don't care for it all that much.
And this plant is actually called bladderpod, and I think you can see why it has the name bladderpod.
(LAUGHTER) RON PETERSON: One reason I know this is buckwheat is, I can -- I have worked here as a volunteer for about nine years planting native plants and clearing trails.
But then, five years ago, things kind of went south for me, glaucoma.
I lost my vision.
And I couldn't work here anymore.
I couldn't do the things that I was doing.
A couple of years ago, the idea came along that, since I had already learned many of these plants by sight, I could learn these plants by touch and smell and then share that with people.
WOMAN: Oh, wow.
RON PETERSON: It's the wonderful feel and the speciality of the smells.
And there's even sounds.
Come on closer, folks.
Come on closer.
So we -- the shape of these leaves, if there's a strong breeze, they will vibrate a little bit.
It's really an aerodynamics thing.
And that vibration causes the tree to kind of shimmer, some people say murmur in a breeze.
Feel this and smell this wonderful plant.
The thing about giving to others is, not only is it a good thing to do, it's the right thing to do, but also it takes the focus off of yourself to -- so you don't feel sorry for yourself.
But it has helped me to wake up with a smile on my face, to wake up looking forward to the day, and feeling like I accomplished something at the end of each day, that I did something for someone besides me.
AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.
I'm Amna Nawaz.
GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.
For all of us here at the "PBS News Hour," thanks for spending part of your evening with us.
