Plus, the pentagon investigates claims of distorted intelligence. Did military analysts spin too rosy a picture of the fight against the Islamic State . All that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. 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. Violence erupted today between Hungarian Police and thousands now blocked from entering the country. The clashes came at a key crossing point in a new barrier stretching 110 miles along the border with serbia. At the same time, the flow of mostly Syrian Refugees shifted to a new frontline state croatia. Jonathan miller of independent Television News reports on the days events. Reporter on the serbian side of the frontier, tensions ratcheted up. Anger rose and temps frayed in the late summer heat. Hungarian riot police held firm. From above, a Hungarian Police helicopter kept watch. Suddenly, frustrations exploded into hop hostility on this the Southern Front in the migration war of 2015. Tear gas forcing the refugees and the migrants to retreat, eyes stinging, women and children among those now backing away. Others enraged, retaliated, flinging stones at the Hungarian Police who, in turn, brought out the water cannons. Rumors of trouble on the hungarian front have been passed down the lines to belgrade and south to the mas donian border. By social media and word of mouth a grand diversion was agreed upon. A new Overland Route bypassing water cannon and razor wire. The the lone marchers set a brisk pace to the northwestern serbian corn fields towards croatia, the e. U. s newest member. The finish line still somewhat off, ahead the e. U. s new front line. This dusty farm track is the serbcroac border. Croation please were there. They warned refugees from distant conflict and wandering through unmatched mine fields from the balkan wars 20 years ago when last time hundreds of thousands trudged through the region towards western europe. We entered croatia by a more formal route and found a Refugee Crisis Center in a nearby town. A croatian government minister was watching. Is croatia prepared for whats about to happen . We have been following whats happening in croatia and hungry for the past month, weve prepared protocols and want to be a good host for people transiting through croatia and into the european union. Reporter transit it is, for nobody we spoke to wants asylum in the balkans. Like hungary, part of the schengen zone, where they can head where they please, no restrictions. At least ten bus loads arrived in the border today but after what happened on the hungarian frontier this afternoon, you can belt with the multitudes will soon be on their way. Ifill this evening, serbias government accused hungary of brutal and noneuropean behavior, and sent more police to the border. In turn, hungarys Prime Minister viktor orban announced his government will extend the border fence to parts of its frontier with croatia. Meanwhile, syrian president Bashar Alassad declared the refugee crisis is europes fault. He said western support for rebels in syria has escalated the fighting, and driven people to flee. Speaking to russian reporters, assad also criticized what he called european double standards. Europe is to blame for the problem of refugees. How can one be indignant about a drowned child and remain silent about the death of thousands of children, elderly people, women and men killed by terrorists in syria . Europe supports terrorism and provides protection for terrorists, calling them moderates. Ifill the syrian leader did not directly address the Russian Military buildup in his country. But he did accuse u. S. Officials of willful blindness, for refusing to coordinate with syrias military on attacking Islamic State forces. Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu will visit washington in november to discuss the Iran Nuclear Deal directly with president obama. The two men have had chilly relations, and netanyahu had urged congress to block the iran deal. That effort failed. The president pressed Congressional Republicans today to steer clear of another government shutdown. A partial closure could happen october 1st unless lawmakers approve money to keep things running. But mr. Obama warned a Business Roundtable gathering today that demands to defund planned parenthood could block a budget agreement. The notion that we play chicken with an 18 trillion economy and Global Markets that are already skittish, all because of an issue around a Womens Health provider that receives less than 20 cents out of every 1,000 in the federal budget, thats not good policy making. Ifill later, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell also rejected a shutdown, and warned against what he called exercises in futility. We need to deal with the world we have. We have a president who deeply supports planned parenthood and will not sign a bill that defunds it. And even if he did sign such a bill, it wouldnt work, because it would only take a small portion of funds away from planned parenthood. Ifill instead, mcconnell said he will seek temporary funding to keep federal operations going through late fall. Income and poverty were virtually unchanged in the u. S. Last year, over the year before. The latest Census Bureau report finds Median Income was about 53,700, down very slightly. The poverty rate rose slightly to 14. 8 of the population. A separate report found the number of Americans Without Health Care insurance dropped nearly 3 . A 14yearold muslim boy who was hauled out of school in handcuffs spoke out today. Ahmed mohamed is an amateur inventor. But when he brought a homemade clock to school on monday, staffers said it looked like a bomb, and he was taken away. But the incident sparked a huge debate on social media, where the school and the police were accused of antimuslim profiling. Facebook Ceo Mark Zuckerberg invited mohamed to visit. And president obama tweeted that the clock was cool, and invited the teenager to the white house. Wall street scored gains today with Energy Stocks leading the way. They shot higher, along with oil prices, after inventories of crude oil fell. In turn, the Dow Jones Industrial average jumped 140 points to close at 16,740. The nasdaq rose nearly 29 points, and the s p added 17. And in colorado, retailers selling marijuana offered doorbuster specials today, hoping for a windfall. Recreational use of pot is legal in the state, but taxes, totaling 25 , were suspended for the day due to a quirk in state law. As a result, customers came out in droves, hoping for bargains. And, stores handed out coupons and deals. Still to come on the newshour previewing the second Republican Debate. The Science Behind the rampant wildfires in the west. And much more. Ifill the stage is set for tonights cnn Republican Debate from the Ronald Reagan president ial library. The candidates with 11 meeting in the prime time event and four in the early round. The majority have a great deal riding on the outcome as they seek to emerge on the shadow of frontrunner donald trump. Lisa desjardins is in simi valley tonight and she is watching the doings and joins us now. Hello, lisa hi, gwen. Ifill lets talk about donald trump, first of all. What is it that he has at stake as the prohibitive frontrunner at this point . It might sound strange, but there are big stakes that the Trump Campaign sees at this point. They think he needs to work on his longterm viability, make sure by being a fire brand he doesnt become only the fire brand. By that they say theyre going to try to tone him down. Donald trump himself talked to the Christian Broadcasting Network about that in the last days. I noticed on the u. S. U. S u. S. S, less sharp tones, talking about immigration, talking about what he calls the border babies, but he seemed to have a less sharp tone overall, and the campaign thinks thats important so he can actually make it past this early wave hes riding and get some soiled ground beneath him for iowa, for new hampshire, for the spring into march. Ifill we know jeb bush and scott walker had pretty big early waste and may again but they are looking at the debate differently. Whats at stake for them . Thats right. They have perhaps the highest stakes of anyone on stage because they had such a clear slide. Lets start first of all with jeb bush. What the Bush Campaign wants to do Going Forward is have the former governor be more assertive. Also hell keep talking about policy issues. But they will say he is going to specifically differentiate himself more and more from donald trump. How will he do that . Hes going to talk about how he is a true conservative and make the argument donald trump is not a conservative and not a republican. Hes already been doing that, gwen, as weve seen, but now theyre going to ramp that up. As for scott walker who considers himself the ultimate conservative, notice the theme here, gwen, his Campaign Says he will also be more aggressive, that he is going to try to get out front and, these are the words they told me, inject himself more into the overall debate. Also look for scott walker to come out with more policy positions. They think he is a smart candidate who has serious policy to offer. They say the time for the summer love fest is over and they think this more serious phase of the campaign will lead to perhaps more consideration of policy. At least thats what they hope. Ifill assume wegre senterring the more serious phase of the campaign, what that might mean, at some point tonight or Going Forward theyll talk about policy, is that in the play book not only for tonight but after tonight for any of these candidates . I think its a fascinating moment, gwen, because that exact issue, do you talk about policy or not now, is one of the Strategic Issues separating these campaigns. Youre going to see, as i said, bush and walker coming out and perhaps pounding a lot of serious policy showing they know their stuff on serious issues and they know how to govern. Theyll probably speak to past experience. John kasich, we may see policy positions from him as well. Other candidates like donald trump arent offering specifics expect on immigration, but with that exception, we dont know exactly how he wants to build the American Military and so far he has no plans to tell us. One specific contrast, i talked to dr. Ben carson in the last hour and a half and asked him when do you think the time is to come out with more policy positions. He said, honestly, i dont think policy specifics are helpful now. I dont think thats what i should be doing. I think the American People need to get to know the voters. I think the appetite among voters that the politicians are trying to feel out, do they want someone they like, trust, who is an outsider, or someone they think that can govern both sides of the field and are gambling on what the question is. Ifill and some are waiting to see who eats the spinach, i suppose. Have a good time at the debate. You got it. Of course. Ifill crews battling wildfires in california seem to have turned a corner against two of the most difficult and destructive blazes. Progress was reported in containing the valley fire, which erupted this weekend north of napa valley, which torched nearly 600 homes and left many homeless. That, and a second fire, have scorched more than 140,000 acres in just a matter of days, much of it exacerbated by californias continuing drought. Hari sreenivasan, in our new york studio, has that. Sreenivasan the fires in recent days have led to the evacuation of 20,000 people and left some towns looking like charred ruins. Despite the progress, conditions remain unsafe in many areas. And it comes as the west is facing a potentially record breaking fire season. In california alone, more than 650,000 acres have been burned by more than 7,000 wildfires. Newshour science correspondent miles obrien joins me from california. Miles, the focus thats been on fires over the past few days videos that we see, but really the drought is affecting pretty much everything around there. It affects every aspect of life there. Los angeles came in yesterday, all abuzz over a little rainfall theyve had. Actually had rain in july which caught them by surprise, that doesnt happen here often. There are indications of a strong el nino season ahead this we wanter, pretty strong indications. Everyone is thinking el nino is going to save them but really wont. It might make a down payment but there is a doubleedged sword component. A lot of el nino rain after all this drought can lead to all kinds of problems including mudslides. Sreenivasan when you talk about a good rain season and perhaps good winter, how much of a dent is that likely to make in the snow pack which i saw animations and graphics yesterday that said its the worst in 500 years. Its at a 500year low. Some scientists looking at data thats been collected in more modern times and, also, looking at tree ring data, comparing tree rings, came up with this notion that in the Sierra Nevadas its at the 500year low. The ice pack in the Sierra Nevada as a lot ofeople dont realize provide onethird of the Drinking Water in all of california. Another third is aquifer, another third out of rivers and lakes and so forth. Thats a very significant thing to watch. When you hear a 500year low, thats got to get your attention. Reporterattention. Sreenivasan when you look at the Drought Monitor map, its not just california, you go all the way into washington and you see deep reds where its very dry there, too. Its a scary picture, hari, and unfortunately as you project to the middle of the century ahead of us, it gets scarier. Were looking at consequences of almost 2degree fahrenheit increase in temperature since 1970 and were expected to do much worse than that over the next 40rbgs 50 years. What that does is make things drier where places are drier and makes places that are wetter wetter, too. The Climate Change changes in weird ways with Climate Change. We have less of a snow pack. We have drier conditions for a longer period of time. We have more fires, the fires are more severe, and the fire season lasts longer and then just had to that the fact that were building homes in the middle of the areas susceptible to forest fires and you have a big problem ahead. Yesterday we herd experts in the past couple of days saying the explosiveness of these fires is different because almost everything around is like kindling. It is. You know, a lot of this has to do with Fire Management techniques and the fact the fuel builds up, but when you have a situation where you have a longer season that is drier, you make more kindling and you also make it easier for bugs and other pests to do their work and make the trees less hardy when it comes into the face of fire. So there is all kinds of subtle, unintentt cons unintended consequences that come as a result of Climate Change and theres a mound of science that will tell us this is likely fueling a much worse fire picture here in the west along with a drought situation. And finally, briefly, looks like in the weather maps that youre bound to get a little bit of rain. That should help. A little bit of rain should help but they need a lot of rain and you have to make sure, too, that youre phot drinking from a fire hose. If you get el nino downpours on land that is dry and devoid of a lot of foliage, that causes all kinds of problems. Sreenivasan newshour science correspondent miles obrien joining me from california, thanks so much. Youre welcome. Ifill stay with us. Coming up on the newshour a look at the socalled henry ford of heart surgeries. How Climate Change is altering the way that sea turtles breed. And the unusual childhood and remarkable career of a black pioneer. Ifill but first, a look at a growing controversy that has gripped one part of the governments intelligence community. At centcom, the military headquarters for u. S. Forces in the middle east, a number of Intelligence Officers are claiming that senior officials have been altering their analysis, painting a more optimistic assessment about the fight against the Islamic State group. Jeffrey brown has the story. Brown the pentagons Inspector General is now conducting an investigation of these allegations. And this morning, the commander of Central Command, general lloyd austin, addressed this issue at a hearing on capitol hill. Because the allegations are currently under investigation, it would be prematu