To take a chance once in awhile. Woodruff all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org and with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff theres growing talk tonight that a bomb destroyed that Russian Airliner over egypts sinai peninsula. The metrojet plane broke up and crashed saturday, on a flight from Sharm Elsheikh to st. Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board. Now the Associated Press and others say u. S. Intelligence believes Islamic State militants may have planted the bomb. That follows similar reports out of cairo and london, as we hear from Alex Thompson of independent Television News. Reporter after days of inevitable speculation based upon not much, tday something altogether more substantial appears to be building. Early this afternoon, egyptian media reports indicated the plane had suffered an explosion in one engine. They sourced this to black box flight recorder investigations, which continue. This afternoon in london, a statement from downing street that, as more information has come to light, quote, we have become concerned that the plane may well have been brought down by an explosive device. As a precautionary measure, weve decided that flights due to leave Sharm Elsheikh this evening for the u. K. Will be delayed. And that will allow us time to ensure that the right security measures are in place for flights. Downey straight said it recognizes the moves will cause anxiety but the travel advice remains unchanged. The Foreign Office advises red sea resorts are fine, but many other areas, sinai in pwhere the russian plane came down, should be considered off limits. Ifill at least 36 people died in a cargo plane crash in south sudan today. The russianbuilt plane went down shortly after taking off from the capital juba. Wreckage was strewn across a wide area along the banks of the nile river. Early indications were that Security Officials may have allowed too many people on board. Woodruff in malaysia, disputes over chinas claims in the South China Sea dominated a meeting of u. S. And asian defense ministers. The gathering ended without a public statement, when china insisted there be no mention of territorial disputes. Later, defense secretary ash carter played down the tensions, but acknowledged chinas neighbors are worried. I had no expectation that everyone would agree on the South China Sea or any other issue. Thats the reason for this forum is to discuss these issues, and that reflects i think the level of concern that was reflected in the conversation about activities in the South China Sea. Woodruff carter also defended u. S. Navy patrols in the contested waters. To underscore the point, hell be on the u. S. Aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt as it transits the South China Sea on thursday. Ifill canadas new Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau was sworn in today. He took office during a ceremony in ottawa, becoming, at the age of 43, the countrys second youngest Prime Minister ever. Trudeau succeeds conservative stephen harper. Woodruff in the u. S. President ial race, the filing period opened for new hampshires firstinthenation primary, in february. Donald trump was the first major candidate on the republican side to submit his papers and pay the 1,000 dollar filing fee. Former maryland govern Martin Omalley registered on the democratic side. Hes been a distant alsoran, but he said voters are just starting to focus on the election. Ifill the chair of the Federal Reserve is suggesting again that shortterm Interest Rates could rise before years end. Speaking at a house hearing today, janet yellen said the fed has yet to make a final decision. She told lawmakers it all depends on whether the economy is still performing well, as well as other key factors. If the incoming information supports that expectation, then our statement indicates that december would be a live possibility, but importantly that weve made no decision about it. Ifill separately, yellen warned that the nations biggest banks still arent doing enough to guard against serious financial shocks. Woodruff the latest look at europes economy shows its growing only modestly. A closelywatched monthly survey, out today, found that Economic Activity across the eurozone isnt enough to make a dent in unemployment. That could push the European Central bank to increase its stimulus efforts. Ifill volkswagen stock plummeted nearly 10 in european trading today, after a new revelation. The company acknowledged tuesday it understated dioxide emissions for some 800,000 cars, mostly in europe. And on wall street, the Dow Jones Industrial average lost 50 points to close below 17,870. The nasdaq fell 2 points, and the s p 500 slid 7. Woodruff still to come on the newshour what yesterdays Election Results say about voter sentiment; why more middleaged white americans are dying; capturing harmful methane emissions, and much more. Ifill from a significant win in a key governors race to a number of ballot initiatives; conservatives had a big day at the polls yesterday. Ifill it was one of the nights headline issues. Supporters hoped ohio would be the first midwestern state to legalize marijuana for medical and recreational use. But, by nearly twotoone, voters gave that a resounding no. The same conservative wave cost kentucky democrats their long time hold on the governors mansion. Attorney general jack conway lost to republican matt bevin, who opposed the federal Health Care Law and gay marriage. Im grateful that you all went to the ballot box. And those that are watching, and those that collectively decided that we want a fresh start, that we want to turn the page. This is your kentucky. Ifill meanwhile in houston, an ordinance to curb discrimination against gays and transgender people went down to defeat. Outgoing mayor annise parker, the nations only lesbian mayor, lamented the outcome. I fear that this will have stained houstons reputation as a tolerant welcoming global city. And i absolutely fear that there will be a direct economic backlash as a result of this ordinance going into defeat. Ifill but the Family Research council and other conservative groups praised the result. Council president tony perkins called it a rallying cry for those tired of seeing their freedoms trampled in a politically correct stampede to redefine marriage and sexuality. In san francisco, it was freedom to rent that topped the ballot. Voters handed a victory to the online site air bnb, which was founded in the city by the bay, refusing to limit how often home owners may rent out rooms. Ifill for more on last nights results, we turn now to stu rothenberg of the rothenberggonzales political report, and molly hennessyfiske, Houston Bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times. Stu, the republicans or conservative causes had gains on issues. They had gains on candidates. Lets start in kentucky. How did matt bevin confound the polls . Well, gwen, youre right. Almost all the pollsters got it wrong and there are a number of possible explanations. To some extent, they always had jack conway, the democrat, running in the mid40s, but with a 2 to fivepoint lead. He ended up losing but also got in the mid40ss, just what they predicted. On the other hand, i think its more likely that it was a late break in cultural issues, social issues, issues like planned parenthood funding thats been a big issue. Samesex marriage, religious liberty. Cultural issues seem to take hold. And, also, theres one other thing i think you have to consider. That is kentucky has been moving republican over the past few decades. And it is now reliably republican federal races. State races tend to be different. The minority party, the wrong party, can sometimes win statewide offices. But in this case, republicans did go to the barack obama well again and again, and it may well be that these republicans voters decided they couldnt vote for a democrat for governor. Ifill you talk about trends. There was, obviously, a trend towards republicans in kentucky. But on social issues like in ohio, the Marijuana Legalization vote, there have always been weve always been headed in the other direction, and ohio said no resoundingly. Well, in ohio it might have been just too much, too fast in terms of Recreational Marijuana usage. But it was more than that. It was the ballot measure itself. Sometimes the actual structure of the measures matter. In this case, i think folks in ohio were unhappy that a select group of growers and investors were going to get, in fact, a monopoly on this in ohio omarijuana. And that was a significant factor. And its funny, there are people who supported legalization of marijuana who opposed this initiative. Ifill because of the way it was structured. The structure of the measure. Ifill you know, we dont pay enough attention to what happens in state houses, but in virginia last night there had been a big push for democrats to try to take control of the status and it didnt work out. It didnt because the republicans held their seats and the democrats held their seats, so the republicans still have a 2119 advantage in the victor state senate. On one level, thats so what else is new . Nothings new, really. This was a bit of a black eye for the governor, terry mcauliffe, known as a great fundraiser and a savvy political operative, a friend of the clintons, all the clintons. He could not work his magic and flip a seat so that the democrats control the senate. It doesnt i dont think it fundamentally changes the dynamic of the politics there. But it is an embarrassment for the governor. Ifill molly hennessyfiske, how did the houston discrimination ordnance, or antidiscrimination ordnance, how it dit rise and how did it fall . Well, it lost pretty resoundingly, 61 to 39 . Both sides had thought that it was going to be a very close race. The mayor had championed it, made it a personal cause of hers, mayor annis annise parker. The city council already voted for it and approved it and there was a protracted legal battle and political battle that led to it being placed on the ballot. So it was a pretty big victory for the conservatives who had petitioned and sued to get it put on the ballot, put to a vote, and now theyd like to have it all put to rest, but some folks are still vowing to fight for it. Ifill now, lets be clear, this was an ordnance that would have prohibited discrimination against gays and l. G. B. T. Individuals. Thats right. Ifill which hads passed in other cities around texas but this became defined differently. Lets listen to a little bit of one ad that we heard. It was a Houston Astros star lance berkman. Lets listen. Im lance berkman. I played professional baseball for 15 years but my family is more important. My wife and i have four daughters. Proposition 1 would allow troubled men who claim to be women to enter womens bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms. Its better to prevent this danger by closing the room to men. Ifill this is about transgender issues and not antidiscrimination and it was redefined. Well, it depends who is talking about it. I would say both sides would probably say its more complicated than that. This measure did end up getting dubbed the bathroom ordnance as you heard in the ad by the former houston astro. But condition the conservatives who scored a victory with this said it means more to them than that. They felt like the other thing that was at issue was religious liberty, that if, for instance, a florist was asked by a samesex couple to do the, you know, flowers for their wedding, that if they said no under this ordnance, they could face penalties or be sued. And the proordnance Campaign Said it was about way more than bathrooms. In fact, the mayor repeatedly said that the ordnance didnt specifically talk about bathrooms, and she felt like that was a lot of fear mongering and a scare tactic that spread a lot of misinformation and that today she even said at a press conference that she felt like the voters werent really voting about what the ordnance was really about. Ifill but thats what redefining things does. In the end, they were also able to appeal to black churches, for instance, to take the side against the ordnance. You would think an antidiscrimination ordnance would be appealing to African Americans. Thats right, and i talked to some of those pastors as the campaign was going on who were very upset, not just because of the ordnance and what it says and what they feared it might do but also because in the process of the legal battle, the city had subpoenaed some of their sermons, and they really got their backs up about that, felt like that was an inprivilegement on freedom of religion, and freedom of speech, and even though the city backed off they felt they were under attack and had to work to lobby against it. Ifill and there is a mayoral runoff which may get played out against in houston. Stu, its always possible to overreach and overinterpret these from a National Point of view, but i wonder what the parties, the individual parties and the wings of those parties are taking from all these results yesterday. Well, the republicans, at least in their p. R. Releases are saying Something Big happened, a string of republican victories in virginia. Theyre predicting this shows the turnaround, virginias coming back the republican column. Im hesitant to read very much outside of kentucky, the particular circumstance circums. Look, next year, were going to have a different kind of election with a different kind of electorate, where the election will be about im not sure what its going to be about, but it could be about Hillary Clinton or the republican nominee or the middle east or health care. And once we know sense on the ebb and flow of the campaigns and the general lay of the land of the election. Ifill stu rothenberg of the Rothenberg Gonzales political report, and molly hennessyfiske of the Los Angeles Times, thank you. Woodruff death rates in the United States have declined steadily for decades. But a study out this week found a disturbing reversal in mortality rates for white americans between the ages of 45 and 54, who do not hold a college degree. For that group the rate of death has climbed since 1999, even as rates for people of different ages, races and education levels have continued to fall. The causes of death driving the reversal were suicide, alcoholrelated liver diseases and prescription opioids and heroin overdoses. Im joined now by one of the studys authors, anne case. She is a professor of economics and Public Affairs at princeton university. And by dante chinni, a data reporter and director of the American Communities project, a politicial science and Journalism Program at American University that uses data to look at social, political and cultural divides. And welcome to you both. Professor case, let me begin with you. You have said that when you and your husband who is professor angus deeton, the winner of this years nobel prize, he was the coauthor of this study, that when you came across these numbers, you basically stumbled across this information, and he said you practically fell out of your chairs. It was that surprising . It is that surprising. After so many decades in which mortality rate fell at 2 a year, and the fact that in all of the sister countries that we compare ourselveses to, all the wealthy countries of europe and all the englishspeaking countries canada, australia, new zealand with their mortality rates also falling at 2 a year, to suddenly see this reversal was really stunning, and it has been stunning to all of the medical people, the epidemiologists that weve talked to as well. Woodruff professor case, its already being labeled by some as despairrelated deaths. What is it particularly about this these this mortality rate that stood out to you . The fact that there are several parts of this that are puzzles that we have to dig into further. The fact that its men and wom women, mortality rates by suicide, by drug overdose, by alcoholrelated deaths, rising for all for both men and women, the fact that its not happening in the African American community. Its not happening in the hispanic community. And its no not happening abroa. So all of those things stood out to us as puzzle pieces that we have to look into further to figure out what are the root causes of this . We know proximate causes drug overdose, availability of prescription open outside but i think the next round of research will be to look at the deeper causes. Woodruff dante chinni, how does this scare with what youve been seeing as you look at americans everywhere and you think about the cohort were talking about middleaged americans, 4554, white. What have you seen . Well, the way i look at the country, the breakdown we coat the American Communities project, there are large segments of america that are made up of large chunks of this population. So they tend to be rural, wh