Woodruff those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by at bae systems, our pride and dedication show in everything we do; from Electronics Systems to intelligence analysis and cyber operations; from combat vehicles and weapons to the maintenance and modernization of ships, aircraft, and critical infrastructure. Knowing our work makes a difference inspires us everyday. Thats bae systems. Thats inspired work. Ive been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it. The ones getting involved, staying engaged. They are not afraid to question the path theyre on. Because the one question they never want to ask is, how did i end up here . I started schwab with those people. People who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ifill israel widened the scope of its military barrage against hamas in gaza, as it promised it would. Hamas has said it wont stop firing rockets into israel until it gets an international guarantee the border blockade will end. Today, heavy strikes came on the ground and from the air as the Palestinian Death toll reached 1,120. On the israeli side, 53 soldiers and three civilians have been killed. Flames and smoke billowed out of gazas only power plant this morning. The plants director said the damage would have a severe impact on the 1. 7 million palestinians living in the narrow coastal territory. translated i would like to say to the world that this was a humanitarian plant that served the people, therefore its existence helped people, life, hospitals and the normal, simple life of the people of gaza. Ifill the power plant was just one in a string of targets israel hit in the 22nd day of fighting with hamas. The bombardment started overnight, as huge explosions filled the night sky over gaza. Among the other sites hit the unoccupied home of gazas hamas leader and the hamasrun alaqsa satellite t. V. Station. Israeli media said the army had also destroyed 20 of the more than 30 tunnels used by hamas to sneak weapons into the country. Israeli military spokesman peter lerner this is a gradual increase in the pressure on this organization. It has been over the last three weeks taking a new step every day and indeed we are striking and we are determined to strike this organization and relieve us from this threat. Ifill there were also multiple reports of ceasefire agreements today; all eventually squashed. At one point, the Palestinian Liberation Organization announced it had offered a temporary truce, and said it was speaking for hamas. translated following consultations with our brothers in hamas and islamic jihad, the Palestinian Authority declares its adiness to an immediate ceasefire and a humanitarian ceasefire for 24 hours. Ifill hamas later denied that. Then, israels Channel Two Television reported the two sides agreed in principle to an egyptbrokered ceasefire, only to retract it moments later. Iran got involved too the Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei put out a call to muslims around the world to help palestinian fighters. translated we call on the world, and especially the islamic world, to support and arm the palestinian nation. Ifill meanwhile, both palestinians and israelis buried their dead, as the casualty count continued to grow. Woodruff in other news, there was word today police in china shot dead dozens of gang members who used knives to stage attacks on two areas. The attacks happened yesterday in the Western Region of xinjiang and hit two neighboring towns. The gangs went after civilians and set fire to cars. The dead and injured included ethnic uighurs and also members of chinas majority han population. Ifill also in china, the Ruling Communist Party began investigating the countrys former security chief over allegations of corruption. Zhou yongkang who retired in 2012 was a powerful leader in the partys inner circle. Its members have long been considered offlimits for prosecution to maintain party unity. Its the latest move in president xi jinpings widespread crackdown on corruption within the communist party. Woodruff mississippionly Abortion Clinic will not be closing, a federal Appeals Court ruled today. A state law passed in 2012 required doctors at the clinic to have the privilege to admit patients to local hospitals, but the hospitals wouldnt give them those privileges. The court ruled that forcing women to go out of state placed an undue burden on a womans right to seek an abortion. Ifill the acting u. S. Surgeon general had a warning for sun worshippers today stop sunbathing and stop using indoor tanning beds. A report released today cites a 200 jump in deadly melanoma cases since 1973. More than five Million People in the u. S. Are treated for skin cancer each year, and 8 billion is spent treating the mostly preventable disease. Woodruff a series of public hearings got underway today on president obamas proposed rules to cut pollution from power plants. Hes seeking to slash Carbon Dioxide emissions 30 by the year 2030. This week, the Environmental Protection agency is hearing from supporters and opponents in four cities atlanta, denver, pittsburgh and washington before it unveils its final proposal next year. Lets get the facts straight. Carbon pollution is waging a direct assault on rural america. It is a direct assault on jobs in america. And if we sit back and do nothing, there will be severe economic disruption. E. P. As proposal is an unacceptable example of executive overreach. Decisions how and whether to create laws of this breadth should be made by our representative branches of government, not by unelected federal agency officials. Woodruff also today, the president s council of economic advisers issued a new report that warns delaying Climate Action could cost the economy billions of dollars. Ifill the former governor of minnesota, jesse ventura, was awarded nearly 2 million in damages today in a defamation lawsuit. A federal jury agreed author and exnavy seal chris kyle didnt tell the truth in his book claiming he and ventura got into a bar fight in 2006. Ventura was also a former navy seal and said the fit never happened. Woodruff more than 35 of americans have debts and unpaid bills that have been reported to Debt Collection agencies. The urban institute, a washington based policy Research Center studied the credit files of seven million americans to come up with that figure. It found the average amount reported to collection agencies was more than 5,000. The highest concentration of people delinquent in their payments live in southern and western states. Ifill stocks on wall street fell modestly today, with a new batch of Economic Growth reports expected tomorrow. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 70 points to close at 16,912. The nasdaq fell two points to close above 4,442. The s p 500 dropped nearly nine points to close just under 1,970. Ifill still to come on the newshour the u. S. And europe ramp up pressure on russia, College Sports changes how it handles concussions, why longer school days can be more fun for students, has government surveillance silenced reporters sources . And, senators cory booker and rand paul team up to reduce prison sentences. Woodruff as the violence escalates in ukraine and international frustrations mount over seperatists control of the Malaysia Airline crash site, the u. S. And europe stepped up their response to russia today. In a bid to force moscow to pull back its support of the rebels. Hours after the European Union announced its greatly expanded sectorwide sanctions, the president deepened u. S. Penalties against russia and its economy. If russia continues on its current path, the cost on russia will continue to grow. And today is a reminder that the United States means what it says. Russias actions in ukraine and the sanctions that weve already imposed have made a weak russian economy even weaker. Foreign investors already are increasingly staying away. Even before our actions today, nearly 100 billion in capital was expected to flee russia. Russias energy, financal and defense sectors are feeling the pain. Projections for russian Economic Growth are down to near zero. The major sanctions were announcing today will continue to ratchet up. The pressure on russia, including the cronies and companies that are supporting russias illegal actions in ukraine. Woodruff the e. U. Mirrored u. S. Sanctions against the banking, defense and Energy Sectors in russia. Yesterday russias foreign minister Sergey Lavrov was defiant in advance of the e. U. Move translated i can reassure you, we will overcome the difficulties that will arise in certain parts of our economy. Maybe, we will become more self reliant and more selfconfident. Woodruff but today, Dutch Foreign minister Frans Timmerman said lavrovs tough talk would hurt moscow. translated the consequence is that russia chooses to isolate itself. And thats not positive for russia. My colleague lavrov can say to the media in that way we will be more independent, but that is an independence that will lead to more poverty for the russians. Woodruff the dutch are also reeling from the crash nearly two weeks ago of the malaysian airliner flight 17 that originated in amsterdam. More than 100 dutch citizens out of almost 300 total died when a surfacetoair missile allegedly fired by prorussian separatists brought down the aircraft in eastern ukraine. Investigators from the organization for security and cooperation in europe or o. S. C. E said they were still working on getting to the crash site after being forced to turn back yesterday by heavy fighting in the area. The crash site is north of donestk. The rebel stronghold and regional capital of ukraines east is now becoming a battleground. Its leafy boulevards now empty except for men with guns. The shrouded, badlymangled body of a man was loaded on to a stretcher outside a centercity apartment block as shelling hit donetsk. He was the husband of lubov skorikh; they had fled the ravaged city of slavyansk for donetsk. translated i looked at him, and at first couldnt understand who he was, but then i saw the shoes. They were his shoes. Do you understand . His shoes my god i have lived with him for 45 years. Woodruff a National Security spokesman in kyiv said the battle for donetsk was at hand. translated ukrainian servicemen will recapture the city of donetsk and will save infrastructure. But the primary goal is to save the lives of people who remain there of civilians. Woodruff fighting nearby over the past day has killed dozens of civilians, prorussian separatists and ukrainian troops. Yesterday, the rebels commander, Igor Strelkov the who was a former Russian MilitaryIntelligence Officer gave his account of the pitched fighting. translated i will not estimate the outcome because not all operations are clear. I can say only this the enemy is throwing everything they have into battle. Woodruff Russian Support for stelkov and other separatists is one of a raft of serious issues now plaguing u. S. Russia relations. And today, a new and serious grievance emerged. The u. S. Now contends russia has routinely violated a reaganera weapons treaty signed with the soviet Union Governing intermediate nuclear forces. The 1987 pact governed, in part, the deployment and flight testing of groundlaunched Cruise Missiles, which the russians are alleged to have violated. To help make sense of todays actions against russia, our chief Foreign Affairs correspondent margaret warner. So, margaret, tell us more about what these sanctions do. Broadly, judy, what they try to do is hobble the russians access to both capital and technology in these three key areas, arms, energy and finance. So, for instance, lets just take finance. By now, five of the six stateowned russian banks basically will have no access to medium and longterm capital or debt, and since they get almost 100 of it from u. S. And western sources, as one u. S. Official said today, theyre essentially going to have to shut down. Private banks arent being touched. If you take the arms area, again, theyre going to use export license restrictions to prevent future sales of arms to russia. Then the energy sector, theyre going to use export license restrictions to prevent russiann companies from giving the russians access to future technologies particularly in deep water and shale gas. The key thing is nothing will interfere with current projects, whether b. P. , exxonmobil, the friend what theyre trying to do is not hit western businesses too hard but make it clear to the russians future investments will be really crippled. Woodruff tell me why europeans have been reluctant to impose critical sanctions on critical sectors. What caused them to change their mind . Talking to both europeans and western officials, its a shift of attitude of deep arrange about the downing of the plane and the russians reaction to it which is, as the president said, theyre stepping back on what theyre doing in ukraine. And mostly european victims, seeing the bodies left lying on the field, people rifling through their possessions. It really changed public attitudes. Key to this was german chancellor anjchancellor who wag and said were going to have to have sanctions. In the middle of the month, they said to putin, unless you stop shifting men and material and weapons across the border, were going to do. This well, he didnt and, so, they did. So kiev, the leaders of ukraines government, theyre now watching the european neighbors do this. Whats the reaction . Well, publicly, Ukrainian Foreign minister was here today and said this was terrific. But i talked to a wellplaced official in government in kiev late this afternoon and he said, well, you know, its good, but, he said, sometimes in an illness the medicine depends on being administered at the right stage. If this was done in may, it may have helped. It may persuade the russian elite this is a dangerous path but many believe mr. Putin is already committed to a fullscale invasion. Woodruff there has been talk whether the u. S. Will be providing lethal assistance to ukraine. Theres still a reluctance to provide lethal weapons. The u. S. Is still reluctant to provide more sophisticated weaponry. What happenedto when russia provided weaponry to the separatists. What the United States is willing to do is deeper intelligence sharing. The ukrainians say we really cant keep our eye on where the Russian Forces and the separatists are deployed, they need more High Resolution and realtime intelligence and Senior Defense intelligence officials are in kiev now. The fear has been that the intelligence and military in ukraine are too penetrated by russian intelligence and military, but im told that the belief is they have identified at least a couple of units and individuals they feel they can trust. Woodruff now, second thing that happened today, the Obama Administration accusing russia of violating a nuclear treaty. Tell us what are the russians what do they believe the russians have done, when did they do it and hoy serious is it . They think its very serious. I talked to another top official today who has been involved and said they consider it a serious violation. T theyre talking about simply test ago ground launch Cruise Missile but within the prohibited range of 500 to 5,000 kilometers. You recall that the reason the u. S. And then soviet union, gorbachev and reagan agreed woodruff it goes back to the 80s. 1987 and was negotiated through the 80s and really put europe in the crosshairs. Remember, america had shortrange missiles over there. So all the stkpiles were destroyed. What the u. S. Is saying now is that for several years, in fact, russia has been testing a ground launch Cruise Missile. Woodruff and they have proof. Are they sharing the proof . Well, somebody with n. A. T. O. , there have been consultations. There have been people on the hill who have already known about this. I dont know what kind of evidence they have demonstrated but they have been talking to the russians about this. Now, the russians answer apparently is, well, youre violating it, too, because the dummy missiles you used to test your antimissile systems could constitute even though theyre dummy missiles, theyre not armed but theyre dummy missiles, so basically they havent engaged and thats why president obama wrote this letter to president putin monday saying, you know, sit down, lets talk about it, lets not move to the next stage of deployment. Woodruff but you cant ignore the timing, comes between huge tensions between the u. S. And russia. Is there any connection between the two . Judy, i asked everyone i talked to today and they said hard to believe, this is on its own track. They had a report due on the hill two months overdue called the compliance report, actually concerns 2013 and for the first time the u. S. Says they really that did goods. I mean, in their view, they really had done the investigatatory work and ha