Bringing a chicago neighborhood together by focusing on its most basic needs. How you going to change anything in your neighborhood, if you really cant start with the place that really sustains the neighborhood . And thats the food, right . Woodruff and, its friday. Mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze the weeks news. Sreenivasan 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. The ford foundation. Working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan the Senate RepublicanHealth Care Bill has suffered another critical defection the fifth so far. Nevada republican dean heller announced in las vegas today that he cant support the bill in its current form. Its going to be very difficult to get me to a yes. They have a lot of work to do. But you have to protect Medicaid Expansion states. Thats what i want. Make sure were taken care of in the state of nevada. Thats going to be a very difficult lift, because i can see the other side is going to have a problem with that. Sreenivasan four other Senate Republicans oppose the measure over its subsidies. But with democrats united in opposition, g. O. P. Leaders cant afford to lose more than two of their own and still pass the bill. President trump says he wanted to force former f. B. I. Director james comey to be honest about their conversations, when he suggested there might be tapes. He spoke to fox news after announcing yesterday that he did not make recordings. As for firing special counsel robert mueller, he said, were going to have to see. Later, the white house said mr. Trump has no intention of doing that. In cincinnati, the murder trial of a former University Police officer ended today in a hung jury for a second time. Ray tensing killed an unarmed black man during a traffic stop in july 2015. He testified that he feared sam dubose was trying to drag him, or run him over. After a judge declared a mistrial today, duboses family called it an unjust result. City officials urged calm. As a city, we will make sure that people who are feeling a variety of emotions and in my opinion, justifiably so have a right to express themselves peacefully. And we have every expectation that that will be the case. Sreenivasan the university of cincinnati fired tensing last year, after his indictment. North korea is denying responsibility for the death of otto warmbier, the american student it held for more than a year. He passed away this week, days after being returned home in a coma. In a statement, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said, the fact that warmbier died suddenly is a mystery to us as well. Saudi arabia and three other gulf arab nations have issued 13 demands to qatar. Theyve already imposed an economic blockade, accusing the persian gulf kingdom of supporting terror groups. Today, they said qatar must shut down the broadcaster aljazeera, and downgrade diplomatic relations with iran, among other steps. Qatar had no immediate response. Officials in london began evacuating five apartment buildings late today, over fire concerns. Hundreds of people are affected, and repairs could take several weeks. The buildings have siding similar to a highrise that erupted in flames last week, killing 79 people. Investigators confirmed today that the siding on that building likely contributed to the flames rapid spread. Preliminary tests show the insulation samples collected from Grenfell Tower combusted soon after the test started. Cladding tiles also failed the safety tests. Sreenivasan the investigators say the fire started in a refrigerator. Theyre considering manslaughter and other criminal charges against companies that built and maintained the apartment tower. Negotiations are officially underway to sort out britains exit from the european union. Today at an e. U. Summit, british Prime Minister theresa may promised no e. U. Nationals living in the United Kingdom would have to leave. May called it a good, constructive start, but e. U. Leaders were less enthused. Russias National Election commission has barred Opposition LeaderAlexei Navalny from running for president. The Commission Says a criminal conviction for embezzlement makes him ineligible. The anticorruption activist maintains the case was politically motivated. Back in this country, u. S. Military leaders will seek a sixmonth delay before allowing transgender people to enlist. The Associated Press reports Service Chiefs are sending that recommendation to defense secretary james mattis. He will make the final decision. A ban on transgender troops serving openly ended last year. The Service Chiefs want more time to develop policies on the change. President trump has signed a bill aimed at making the government more accountable to military veterans. Vets and their families looked on during todays ceremony. The bill gives the department of Veterans Affairs more power to fire employees, and it protects whistleblowers. And on wall street, stocks struggled to make any headway. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost two points to close at 21,394. The nasdaq rose 28 points, and the s p 500 added three. Still to come on the newshour new revelations on the Obama Administrations response to russia. The head of the nations largest pharmaceutical group on the battle over health care. How a muslim group is rebuilding a chicago community. And, much more. Sreenivasan there are new revelations today about how president obama learned of russias efforts to tip the 2016 election in Donald Trumps favor, and how his administration responded. I spoke a short time ago to greg miller, National Security correspondent for the washington post. And i began by asking about the role putin played. In early august, the c. I. A. Comes to the white house with a really warrickable piece of intelligence. Its drawn on sourcing deep inside the russian government. It establishes that putin himself is directing this operation. This election interference is just unfolding in the united states. But it goes one step farther than that and thats whats most interesting and extraordinary to me. It also captures putins instructions on what the objectives of this operation are. He identifies these objectives as denigrating, damaging Hillary Clinton, trying to help defeat her and trying to help elect donald trump. You also point out the levels of secrecy and precaution taken by the administration and the intelligence agencies and how this information gets to the president and even how people need to talk about it and share information. Yeah, its likely remarkable the precautions that the administration was taking with this information. This intel, when its delivered to the white house, is brought by courier in an envelope with restricted markings on it. Its eyes only, which means it can only be shared with the four people who are named on the envelope, president obama and three of his senior aides. When theyre done reading this thing, they have to put it back in the envelope, send it straight back to the c. I. A. It gets in motion a series of highlevel meetings at the white house in the situation room. Only four senior officials are initially allowed to participate, although that circle begins to widen in the ensuing leaks. Even there, there are things that i didnt know about how the white house works that, apparently, in the situation room, there are video cameras that send feeds to other offices in the white house so that others sitting at their desks can monitor whats happening in that room. All those feeds were shut off for these discussions. The only time that happened before was in h the runup to the bin laden operation in 2011. Sreenivasan lets talk about what the Obama Administration tried to do about it. They debated a menu of options for quite some time. They debated and debated and debated. That went on for months after this bombshell Intelligence Report from the c. I. A. They get off to a fast start. There are groups, n. S. C. Interagency groups convening at the white house an kicking around ideas that are really aggressive, sectorwide economic sanctions that could put a dent in russias economy, Cyber Retaliation that could take portions of russias power grid or other targets offline for short periods, even releasing embarrassing information on putin, the way he was sort of accused of orchestrating embarrassing leaks about Hillary Clinton. None of those end up surviving this debate process that goes well past the election deep into november and december. Sreenivasan you also high light bureaucratic hurdles that the department of Homeland Security goes out to states that could be affected by this hacking and say we would like to help but the voting infrastructure in america is not deemed critical enough . Yeah, and this is one of those cases where the hyperpartisanship of our country now really works against our security interests, in many ways. So this is a case where the Obama Administration is just trying to reach out to state officials saying russias attacking us, we are worried about what might happen on election day. We want to try to help make sure that all of our voting systems are secure. We can run scans. We can try to be of assistance here. And republicans, in particular, state officials resist this and see it as sort of an overreach, an attempted federal takeover of state authorities and argue against it. Rest you know, you point out that this is in the backdrop of a climate where there is an underlying assumption that Hillary Clinton is going to win, where donald trump has gone out and said the election is going to be rigged anyway and really not until after the election does the Obama Administration start to put all these pieces together. Yeah, i dont think you can overestimate the importance of that because the assumption in the white house and as well as across media organizations like ours and across the country, frankly, there was just an assumption that we were looking at a coming Clinton Administration. So inside the white house, their deliberations are, well, this is all important, but weve got to were going to have time to deal with this after the election. In fact, if we dont finish dealing with it, well the Clinton Administration certainly can, and, also, they dont want to take any action leading up to the election that would be perceived as interfering politically to help Hillary Clinton. Theyre worried that would contaminate her expected triumph. Sreenivasan greg miller, the reporting is fantastic, you and your colleagues as well. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Sreenivasan as the battle over health care rages in congress, one constant complaint from consumers is over drug prices. Judy woodruff is in colorado with our look at that issue. Judy . Woodruff thanks, hari. The pharmaceutical research and manufacturers association, or pharma, is the nations Largest Group representing Drug Companies. Stephen ubl is its president and c. E. O. I sat down with him here at the Aspen Spotlight Health conference today, and began by asking about the latest republican plan to overhaul obamacare. Its still a fluid dynamic, as you know. We havent taken a formal position on the bill. I think its clear there is a direction towards more autonomy for states to shape their Insurance Markets as well as shaping their own insurance designs, so well be very engaged in this discussion, and the the prism with which well look at it is making sure that patients have access to the breakthrough treatments and cures our industry is developing. Woodruff the other major healthcare associations, hospitals, doctors and others have been pretty critical. Is the pharmaceutical industry alone in a way or almost alone in not being as worried, as critical of what the republicans are doing . Well, i think its fair to say that those stakeholders are focused on the same issues that we are, but, again, i think the bill is still making its way through the process, and well be very engaged as the possess unfolds. We heard President Trump during the campaign speak about the high cost of Prescription Drugs, i guess it was not long after the election he talked about the Drug Companies getting away with murder. Were now hearing, though, that the Administration May not be coming down as hard on the pharmaceutical industry as some thought, moving to a different system. Is that your sense of whats happening, that youre going to get maybe a better treatment from this administration than some had expected . I dont think i want to speculate on what the administration will do in this area. I will say that we had a very productive discussion with the president , with some of our leadership earlier in the year, and i think the president s focused on two things. One is ensuring that we continue to lead the world in developing better treatments and cures and, two, on jobs, ensuring that we have more domestic investment in the united states, and i think our industry is really poised to deliver on both those fronts, and our industry spends 70 billion a year in research and development which is more than any other industry. So, in general, were encouraged by the direction were heading. Woodruff i think everybody agrees drug prices are out of control in this country. Pfizer announces its raising the prices of 100 drugs by 20 including wellknown drugs like viagra and lyrica. Drug companies have been sued by some state attorneys general, alleged collusion and rising prices. What do you see is the problem here . I should start by trying to make sure were on the same fact basis. If you look at express scripts, a leading p. V. M. In the industry, farm p. B. M. In the industry, pharmacy ben sit manager. In 2016, drug expenditure went up 3. 5 and net prices up 2. 8 . Going back three years ago, Prescription Drug is lowest growing prices in healthcare. F. D. A. Approved a number of new drugs, medicaid was expanded and a new cure for hepatitis c was introduced which revolutionized the treatment of that disease and will obviate the need for liver transplant as well as reduce the incidence of liver cancer. Were now on the back half of that spike, if you will. The python has digested the tennis ball and estimate drug spending will be between 4 and 6 for the next ten years, roughly in line with overall healthcare spending. Woodruff at the same time, a lot of finger pointing going on in the Healthcare Industry between the Drug Companies, the pharmacy benefit managers, hospitals, insurers. A lot of those fingers are pointed still at your industry. We think there are. We take these issues very seriously and we think there are pricpragmatic, consumeroriented solutions to address some of the issues that have been raised. A lot of the Media Attention in the last year is focused on companies that are really nothing like our member companies. They are Companies Taking old drugs without Market Competition and raising the price dramatically and we think there are policy solutions primarily at the f. D. A. That would address those situations. Similarly, we think as an industry, the pricing model needs to evolve. We need to move away from paying for volume to paying for the value of care. Woodruff i was reading thats what the administration is among the things the administration is looking at. Also, the critics look at it and say, in the end, it may work for some people but not for everybody who needs Prescription Drugs. Well, again, our sector may be a little bit lagging other healthcare sectors in this Movement Towards paying based on value as opposed to the volume of care, but its one of the rare areas in healthcare policies everyone agrees, payers want to move in this direction, providers want to move in this direction. Cancer therapy, we want to be able to offer novel discounts but there are a number of Public Policy barriers that stand in the way of moving that direction. Woodruff one of the fundamental questions ive heard out there is why cant, for example, Veterans Administration folks get drug prices much lower than what ordinary people can get . Why cant there be why cant there be some sort of movement in that direction . Why cant there be negotiations with medicare over the price of drugs . I think theres been a little bit of acrinicle trial on this question. If you look at countries that have adopted models like the v. A. On a broad scale, the u. K. , for example, what you find is that patients have less access to novel therapies, and we think that would be a movement in the wrong direction. So the v. A. , keep in mind, is a closed system, a relatively small number of hospitals a