JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: President Trump tours a Gulf Coast ravaged by Hurricane Michael where long lines of people wait for basic necessities like food, water and gas.

Then, I sit down with the CEO of CVS to discuss how their takeover of insurance giant Aetna changes the landscape for the future of health care.

Plus, our fall films series continues with "22 July," a powerful movie that tells the story of the 2011 massacre at a Norwegian summer camp by a right-wing extremist.

PAUL GREENGRASS, Director, "22 July": It's very, very important, I think, that we don't close our eyes to what's going on in the world and we don't close our cinema to it either.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."

(BREAK) JUDY WOODRUFF: All across the Florida Panhandle, the long slog to recovery is under way, in the wake of Hurricane Michael.

The death toll stands at 17, and many survivors have with no power in their homes, or, far worse, no home at all.

President Trump got a firsthand look today, as William Brangham reports.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For nearly an hour, the president flew over a land laid waste along the Florida Gulf Coast.

Tiny Mexico Beach left in ruins by winds blasting 155 miles an hour and a storm surge that towered 14 feet.

Later, the president visited the town of Lynn Haven, marveling at what he had seen.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: These are massive trees, they're just ripped out of the earth.

We have seen mostly water.

And water can be very damaging and horrible and scary, when you have -- when see water rising 14, 15 feet.

But nobody's ever seen anything like this.

This is really incredible.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The president also promised federal help in rebuilding, and he praised the response so far.

DONALD TRUMP: Everybody has been incredible, FEMA, first-responders, everybody.

Law enforcement, they have incredible, with the power of this storm.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Back on Mexico Beach, rescue teams and search dogs spent the weekend combing through destroyed homes for any signs of life.

Today, the number of missing there dropped to just 46.

MAN: We haven't had cell phone services in a couple days now, and no power, no Internet, no way to connect with people other than walking around trying to find people.

But this is unbelievable.

This storm was -- catastrophic is not even the word for it.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In some isolated areas, people are trying other means of communication.

One homeowner in Bay County, Florida, used logs to spell out their plea for help.

Some 17,000 utility workers are trying to restore power, and an additional 2,000 are working to restore cell service.

But thousands could be waiting at least another week for the lights to come back on.

Meanwhile, many are trying to out what to do next.

HECTOR MORALES, Hurricane Victim: I lost everything.

I lost my clothes.

I lost everything, wallet, credit, everything, everything, everything.

I am at zero.

I got to start from zero.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All over the Panhandle, food and water remain scarce, and people are standing in lines to get basic supplies.

Even well inland, the storm's fierce winds knocked down thousands of trees and damaged countless buildings.

The president saw some of that damage today, as he flew from the Florida coast and into Georgia.

Last night, he declared a federal emergency in the state, and the National Guard is already distributing water and other aid.

All of this as Hurricane Michael's explosive power has generated new alarm about climate change supercharging these storms.

On "60 Minutes" last night, the president said he no longer views climate change as a hoax, but he also expressed some ideas that are at odds with the facts.

DONALD TRUMP: I don't think it's a hoax.

I think there's probably a difference.

But I don't know that it's manmade.

I think something is happening, something's changing, and it will change back again.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Last November, the federal government's own climate report confirmed the consensus view that humans are driving the rise in global temperatures, saying -- quote - - "There's no convincing alternative explanation."

The report also dismissed the idea of temperatures cooling again.

Instead, it said, they are only going up, including -- quote -- "more record-setting extremes."

But last night, the president also said he thinks many scientists have a political agenda.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now a new crisis point in the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Reports swirled today that the Saudi government will admit that he was killed at its consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

CNN and The New York Times say that the Saudis blame an interrogation gone wrong.

The Saudis finally permitted Turkish investigators to search the consulate today.

It's not clear what they found.

And in Washington, President Trump announced he was sending Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to meet with Saudi King Salman.

DONALD TRUMP: The king firmly denied any knowledge of it.

He didn't really know.

Maybe -- I don't want to get into his mind, but it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers.

Who knows.

We're going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon.

But his was a flat denial.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And our foreign affairs correspondent, Nick Schifrin, joins me now for some insight on what happened today.

So the president's talking about rogue killers.

Does this sound like something we're now going to hear from the Saudis?

NICK SCHIFRIN: It sounds like a lot like what we're going to hear from the Saudis.

According to the CNN report, the Saudis will admit that they wanted to interrogate Jamal Khashoggi, but there was some kind of rogue team or rogue officer who went too far and killed him.

And, of course, rogue exactly is exactly what we heard the president say today.

According to CNN, the statement will also say the Saudis will admit wanting to bring Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia from Turkey.

And, of course, that's a NATO ally.

And that itself is controversial.

But the Saudi and Turkish experts I talked to you today say this is a -- an attempt to have some kind of face-saving solution to this crisis, to admit some Saudi error and to punish some Saudis, in a way to try and avoid some kind of break in the U.S.-Saudi relationship or the Saudi-Turkish relationship, and, crucially, a way to make sure that Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince who is at the center of this controversy, survives.

The question is -- whether that works is not clear.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Nick, but given all the details that have been -- again, sourced details that have been coming out, is this going to be credible?

NICK SCHIFRIN: The Saudis experts I speak to say what is not credible is the idea that 15 people would leave Saudi Arabia in two jets from Riyadh, fly to Istanbul, be associated or be around the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul without Mohammed bin Salman's knowledge.

And so what the statement will say, according to the CNN report, is that Mohammed bin Salman might have been aware of the rendition, but wasn't responsible for the murder.

That's the distinction, it seems, this statement is going to make.

The problem with that is that there's been already a lot of questions about Mohammed bin Salman.

You talk to experts, and this is what they say.

There's questions about the military operation in Yemen, diplomatic initiatives with Qatar, Lebanon and questions about human rights.

And so what these experts are saying now is that, even if there's an attempt to have some kind of face-saving solution to this crisis, Mohammed bin Salman's reputation as a reformer, that might have been hit.

And that leads to the question, could Mohammed bin Salman lose his job as crown prince?

King Salman has replaced two crown princes in the past.

Most experts say that probably won't happen.

But some of his responsibilities may be taken away.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And we will just have to see what the U.S. response is.

Nick Schifrin, thank you very much.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And in the day's other news: A cautious calm prevailed in Syria's Idlib province, as rebels finished evacuating heavy guns and fighters from a demilitarized zone.

It's part of a deal that prevented a Syrian government offensive against the country's last rebel-held province.

In Damascus, Syria's foreign minister warned that the new focus is in the east, where U.S.-backed forces hold sway.

WALID AL-MOALLEM, Syrian Foreign Minister (through translator): To be honest with you, after Idlib, our target is the east of the Euphrates.

It is up to our brothers, whether they are tribes or Kurds, to decide what they want in the future, but under the slogan of returning Syrian sovereignty to all Syrian territories.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Elsewhere, a key border crossing with Jordan reopened after Syrian forces recaptured it.

A crossing along the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights also reopened.

British Prime Minister Theresa May insisted today that her government and the European Union can still come to terms on Britain leaving the E.U.

The two sides are hung up on the future of the border between British Northern Ireland and E.U.

member Ireland.

But May told Parliament that mains optimistic, ahead of an E.U.

summit in Brussels this week.

THERESA MAY, British Prime Minister: We cannot let this disagreement derail the prospects of a good deal and leave us with a no-deal outcome that no one wants.

I continue to believe that a negotiated deal is the best outcome for the U.K. and for the European Union.

I continue to believe that such a deal is achievable, and that is the spirit with which I will continue to work with our European partners.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Britain is due to leave the E.U.

on March 29 of next year.

Back in this country, a federal judge in Boston began hearing accusations that Harvard University discriminates against Asian Americans.

An anti-affirmative action group says that the school limits how many Asian Americans it admits, even when they score better than other.

The U.S. Justice Department has opened related investigations of Harvard, as well as Yale University.

Senator Elizabeth Warren released DNA tests today -- results today, that is, that support her claim of Native American ancestry.

They indicate that the Massachusetts Democrat's ancestor dates back six to 10 generations.

Warren is seen as a possible White House contender in 2020.

And President Trump has mocked her claim, calling her Pocahontas.

Last July, he said he would donate $1 million to charity if -- quote -- "You take the test and it shows you're an Indian."

Today, he was asked about his promise, and he said: "I didn't say that.

I didn't.

You better read it again."

Later, he said he will pay only if he conducts the DNA test himself.

On Wall Street, stocks gave ground for the sixth time in seven trading sessions.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 89 points to close at 25250.

The Nasdaq fell 66, and the S&P 500 slipped 16.

And Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen died this afternoon in Seattle.

A statement from his family said he had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Allen and Bill Gates created Microsoft in 1975 and went on to become billionaires and major philanthropists.

Allen also owned the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and the NBA's Portland Trailblazers.

He was 65 years old.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": the CEO of CVS on why he wants to change how Americans receive health care; pressure mounts on the Moroccan government to prosecute military personnel who opened fire on migrants; Sears declares bankruptcy, in the latest blow to the retail industry; and much more.

There's a major shift happening in the health care landscape that could affect tens of millions of Americans.

The largest health care players are merging and consolidating in a wave of big deals, particularly between insurance companies and the companies that negotiate prescription drug plans.

When the dust clears, it could change where people get their care, how they get their drugs and how much choice they have.

The biggest deal was just approved last week, a nearly $70 billion merger between CVS Health and Aetna, one of the country's largest insurers.

CVS, in addition to owning almost 10,000 retail stores across the country, provides drug plans to more than 90 million people.

This came after the Cigna insurance purchase of Express Scripts was approved for more than $50 billion.

All of this as big players are watching the potential emergence of Amazon in this sector.

Larry Merlo the chief executive of CVS Health.

He came to Washington to discuss this today.

And he joins me now.

Larry Merlo, welcome to the "NewsHour."

LARRY MERLO, CEO, CVS Health: Thank you, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, we can only assume that you and Aetna think this is good for your business.

Why is it also good for American health consumers?

LARRY MERLO: Well, Judy, certainly, when you look across the health care landscape, there are many, many challenges today.

And we have an opportunity to begin to transform an industry that has gotten way too complicated.

It's hard for, you know, patients and consumers to, you know, access, navigate the health care system.

And we know we can do a better job in terms of helping people achieve their best health at a lower cost.

JUDY WOODRUFF: How do you do that?

How do you get prices down?

Because, historically, what we have seen mergers in the health care industry have benefited the companies, but not necessarily the consumers.

LARRY MERLO: Well, Judy, there's a lot that you look at the landscape today, and the incidents of chronic disease, just as one example, today, about 60 percent of all Americans have one or more chronic diseases.

We know their names, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, asthma, mental illness.

Those health care conditions are costing our health care system about 86 percent of the dollars that we're spending.

And, at the same time, we can do a better job in terms of improving the outcomes that those patients are experiencing.

So, we see an opportunity that, you look at Aetna as a health insurer.

They have a tremendous amount of information about the members that they serve.

Aetna describes it is as, what's the next best action for that particular member?

But they don't have a good way with which to get that information to the member to create an action, change a behavior.

So we see this combination coming together, where we can make that data actionable in terms of creating an outcome by the face-to-face engagement of a pharmacist or a nurse practitioner, just as a couple of examples.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, in other words, information that Aetna, an insurance company, has can be shared with the pharmaceutical end of the business?

LARRY MERLO: If you look at an insurer today, the ways that they attempt to create that activation is, it's a telephone call, it's a faceless phone call.

It may be a letter in the mail.

We will be able to utilize our pharmacies with which to convey what Aetna is attempting to do either in a letter or a phone call by a trusted professional, someone that they know, the pharmacist they know and trust.

And we have been able to demonstrate with some of the things that we have done in terms of improving the adherence of prescription medications, that we can make an impact in terms of improving one's health.

JUDY WOODRUFF: I mean, getting people to abide by the regimen that they have been given, is that it, and making sure they're taking their pills?

LARRY MERLO: In its simplest form, Judy, that is the crux of the opportunity, that we know there are many, many times that those care plans are not being followed, whether it's being adherent to their medications or, again, that patient with diabetes making sure that they're checking their what's known as A1C levels.

And, oftentimes, the physician doesn't find that out until there's an unintended medical event, and the person has to be hospitalized because their blood sugar has gotten to a level that requires that medical intervention.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, potentially better, some better health outcomes.

But you made a pretty ambitious statement when this was announced.

You said CVS is going to lead the change that's needed in American health care.

But we know prescription drug prices, as big as they, are only, what, 10 percent of the total cost of American health care.

So, 10 percent, it's -- it's not insignificant, but that's not the whole picture.

LARRY MERLO: Yes, but, Judy, it goes well beyond that.

We have been talking a lot about, we're seeing the consumerism of health care.

And we have a lot of discussions about, when is someone a patient of health care, when is someone a consumer of health care?

There's no question that, when you're in the physician's office in the exam room or at the hospital, no question about being a patient under the direct supervision of a physician.

You're counting on he or she with which to diagnose, treat, create that plan.

But we're leaving too much up to what happens with the individual, where they now become that consumer of health care, where they're now responsible for following that care plan, accessing the resources that they need.

And that's where we see an opportunity to play an important role in terms of helping people achieve their best health.

And in doing so, we know that we can reduce the cost of care today.

JUDY WOODRUFF: These questions I'm putting to you are being raised by a lot of folks who study the health care world.

And they look at it and they say, these mergers mean they're going to be fewer players, fewer choice for people.

And so they're expressing worry on the part of Americans that they're going to have the say that they need to have in their own health care, and especially in the cost of health care.

LARRY MERLO: Yes, Judy, it's a very interesting dynamic, in that the opportunities that we see available to us that we believe we can make broadly available in the market -- certainly, CVS and Aetna creates the scale with which we will be able to make investments to lead this transformation.

But we have every plan to make many of these products and services broadly available in the marketplace.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Can you make a projection in terms of how much prescription drug prices are going to go down in the next five years, 10 years?

LARRY MERLO: We have made a dent in that cost curve.

There is certainly much more that can be done.

And I think one of the big opportunities -- there are many studies out there that people simply not taking their medications as prescribed is causing our health care system an additional cost of about $300 billion every year because of what the drug represents in terms of improving one's health, and when they're not taking it, the unintended event.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Larry Merlo, CEO of CVS Health, about to be part of one of the major mergers in the health care world, thank you very much.

LARRY MERLO: Thank you, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Over the past few months, Libya has cracked down on African migrants seeking to flee to Europe.

Italy has also clamped down on migrants who make it to their shores.

As a result, Morocco has become the new jumping-off point from the African continent for those who want to go to Europe.

One flash point is Ceuta.

It's a Spanish enclave at the northern tip of the country.

Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant recently traveled there and has this report, which was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

MALCOLM BRABANT: This is Tangier, a bustling port city in Northwestern Morocco.

The country, ruled by a king with considerable power, is the latest springboard for African migrants trying to make it across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Its importance has grown recently since Italy began closing its ports to migrants rescued at sea.

The north Moroccan coast is less than 10 miles from Spanish holiday beaches.

In recent days, there have been protests after a smuggler's vessel heading for Spain was shot up by the Moroccan military and a 19-year-old Moroccan student called Hayat was killed.

AHMED BENCHEMSI, Human Rights Watch: Up until today, the only official comment on this tragic incident mentioned the suspicious behavior of the skipper as the reason why coast guards opened fire.

They didn't mention any weapons.

They didn't mention any imminent threat coming from the boat.

And that would have been the only legal justification for shooting at the boat.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Ahmed Benchemsi is a Moroccan journalist and advocacy and communications director for Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division.

AHMED BENCHEMSI: Moroccan authorities pledged to investigate.

Well, we really hope they do, and quick.

And we really hope they publicize the results as well.

That's what we call them to do.

And also we hope they hold of all those responsible accountable for the tragic death of that young lady.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Moroccan anger has been fueled by this video on social media, which suggested it was shot on board the Moroccan military vessel.

But all is not what it seems.

This wasn't the Moroccan attack.

The footage was taken from a YouTube compilation of American and Russian operations against pirates operating off the coast of Somalia earlier this decade.

We wanted to get more accurate details about the story and drove towards the town of Tetouan, not far from where the attack took place, and doing our best to remain incognito.

I'm having to be extremely discreet about filming here because Morocco is an authoritarian state.

It doesn't welcome outside scrutiny, and there are police checkpoints all the way along this road in Northern Morocco.

In Tetouan, we found someone who knew where the victim was from, and we headed up into a hilly district.

But we didn't stay long.

We came here to try to interview the family of the young girl who was on the boat that was going to Spain when it was attacked by the Moroccan marines and they killed her.

And we were hoping we would get the family's story.

But there was a police guard on the home.

We were advised that there were secret policemen around there, and we were told to leave for our own security.

So, we have done that.

And we hope we can get back to Tangier with our film intact.

What happened in these waters remains murky.

The Moroccan government says the navy was targeting the captain of the smugglers boat, and not the migrants on board.

It says people be angry at mafia gangs operating in the Straits of Gibraltar, not the government.

Morocco is under pressure from the European Union to restrict the numbers of migrants heading across the Mediterranean.

This geographical anomaly is a flash point.

It's the town of Ceuta, which is a Spanish territory on a peninsula of the North African coast.

If migrants can get beyond the fortifications surrounding Ceuta, they have a foothold in the European Union.

And in late July, some 600 Africans did just that, breaching the border en masse.

The tactic of the migrants has been to gather in sufficient numbers so they can overwhelm the Spanish guards.

Normally, in the past, scores of sub-Saharan Africans could be seen along the road between Tangier and Ceuta making their way to and from camps deep in the forests near Ceuta, waiting for an opportune moment to enter the Spanish enclave.

But now it's different.

We are trying to find African migrants who are hiding out as they attempt to find a way through to get to Europe.

But the locals we have spoken to so far say that the Africans have disappeared.

Back in the old town in Tangier, we found some lying low in a cheap hotel, where they face constant eviction.

We met a 29-year-old man from Senegal who didn't want to be identified.

He said he feared being murdered.

He was sharing a room with two fellow nationals and had just made his way back to Tangier after twice being arrested by police and bused to the south of the country.

MAN (through translator): They wanted to take us, to put us somewhere a long way from here.

They wanted to take us to Dakhla.

They took us to Tiznit, I think the Algerian border, et cetera.

AHMED BENCHEMSI: Well, of course, Europe wants Morocco to keep people.

And the way Morocco does, it is not really of concern to European nations, specifically Spain.

And there were reports of ill treatment and harassment and raids on informal camps of migrants by security forces in Morocco.

There were also reports of racial profiling, people being arrested and moved to a place far away to the south just because they were black.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But the Moroccan government insists that operations transferring migrants to other cities are legitimate attempts to combat illegal migration.

Such operations, however, don't deter the high school-educated commercial agent from Senegal.

MAN (through translator): I came here simply to go to Europe.

That is my objective.

That's what I want.

I need to stay here to earn a little money to cross the sea, but, actually, to cross the sea is difficult.

You need to pass without getting caught or thrown out.

QUESTION (through translator): Are you afraid of the sea?

MAN (through translator): No, I'm not frightened of the sea.

I have no hope in this country.

It's death or a new life.

That's it.

MALCOLM BRABANT: At dusk, just as prayers were beginning, we ran into some more sub-Saharan Africans, some of whom were not afraid of speaking out publicly.

But we only had the briefest of conversations because, once again, we were starting to attract unwanted attention.

Siafa Ekolamu is 25 and comes from Guinea in West Africa.

SIAFA EKOLAMU, Migrant: I tried to go to Spain two times on the sea.

And we just saw the navy come, the Moroccan navy came around and catch all of us and take our boat and shove the knife inside and spoil the boat.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Earlier, before we were forced to leave Tetouan, we met a young man called Abdoulaye Doumbia, who also asked us to protect his identity.

He too came from Guinea and had been walking across Africa for more than a year.

He first tried to reach Europe by taking the route from Libya to Italy.

We went high up into the old town by the tannery to find a quiet place to talk.

And, as he explained, as so often happens, everything went sour in Libya.

ABDOULAYE DOUMBIA, Migrant (through translator): Me, I wanted to cross as well.

We left Libya by sea, but the police, the coast guard caught us there.

They put us in prison for three months.

Then they freed us.

I tried to go to Tunisia, but I saw there was nothing there.

And so I came here to Morocco.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Despite the police crackdowns and the dangers at sea, Doumbia is not turning back.

ABDOULAYE DOUMBIA (through translator): The only reason I am here is to go to Europe or Spain.

That's all.

That's all.

It's my dream.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Like so many migrants, Doumbia was oblivious to the notion that much of Europe doesn't want him or his fellow travelers, and that hardship and prejudice may await him should he make it across the water.

Nations may place obstacles in their way, but dreamers believe any barrier is surmountable.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Malcolm Brabant in Morocco.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Stay with us.

Coming up on the "NewsHour": Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the latest political news; we continue our look at fall films with the dramatization of the 2011 Norway terror attacks; and author Casey Gerald shares his humble opinion of the American dream.

But first: Sears, one of the legendary names of American retailing, filed for bankruptcy protection today.

The company, which owns Kmart, will continue to operate, as executives try to reverse a downward spiral.

John Yang has our story.

JOHN YANG: For generations, Sears lived up to its one-time advertising slogan.

NARRATOR: Sears, where America shops.

WOMAN (singing): There's more for your life.

JOHN YANG: It was a symbol of American culture and consumerism, home to some of the country's most iconic brand names.

Craftsman meant tools, Kenmore meant appliances, and DieHard meant car batteries.

Once the nation's largest retailer, it was one-stop shopping for many households.

WOMAN: Why do I shop at Sears?

It's easy for me.

I can pick up tennis balls, children's clothing, torque wrenches, and a dish all in the same shop.

JOHN YANG: Until the 1940s, Sears even sold houses themselves, delivered in pieces.

Hundreds still stand.

Richard W. Sears and Alvah C. Roebuck began it all as a mail order business in the late 1800s to sell watches.

The Sears catalog quickly expanded into other products, bring to rural America items once only available in big cities.

The Holiday Wish Book, hundreds of pages thick, fueled Christmas dreams for children and adults alike.

The first store opened in 1925.

As Americans moved to the suburbs after World War II, Sears moved with them, becoming a presence in shopping malls dotting the landscape.

But as buying habits shifted to online shopping and e-commerce giants like Amazon, Sears began to slip.

Under billionaire CEO Edward Lampert, it struggled through years of losses and the closure of hundreds of stores, before today's bankruptcy filing with $5.6 billion of debt.

We explore Sears' storied history and decline now with Jerry Hancock, a historian and high school history teacher who's written extensively on Sears and its impact on American life.

He joins us from Atlanta.

Jerry Hancock, thanks so much for joining us.

JERRY HANCOCK, Historian: Thanks for having me.

JOHN YANG: Given the changes in retail in America and the culture of America, was today's bankruptcy filing inevitable, or could they have done -- made some other decisions and avoided this?

JERRY HANCOCK: I think this late in the game, it was pretty expected.

This has really been a downward spiral since about 1993, which is ironic; 1993 was the last year Sears did their catalog.

And 1993 was where Wal-Mart surpassed Sears in sales.

The sad part about it is, is that on the corporate level, I have spoken with many retirees who - - who said that many of the corporate leaders in Sears never really considered Wal-Mart competition.

They considered Wal-Mart a discount store.

And it was at a time where Sears was sort of king of the kingdom.

And it's sort of sad to watch it all happen.

I do feel like some of the recent decisions have been very detrimental.

And I also don't think that Mr. Lampert has quite the respect that he should for the history of such -- such an incredible company.

JOHN YANG: Some of the decisions, you say, recent decisions, some of them made by Mr. Lampert, who stepped down today as CEOs -- he's remaining as chairman -- what were some of the decisions you question or may have accelerated today's filing?

JERRY HANCOCK: Well I think Sears has been sort of selling off itself for some time now, selling off things like Craftsman tools.

That was a big -- a big one.

I think it was one of the biggest draws for their retail stores and for their online orders as well, when you can just go up the street and buy it at the Ace Hardware.

I feel like they really shot themselves in the foot with that decision, not to mention some of the real estate decisions that have been going on, selling off properties piecemeal.

It's been a good time coming, I think, in some of the moves that they have made in recent years.

JOHN YANG: Isn't there some -- I mean, you talk about the -- sort of the e-commerce and the online retailers.

But at the beginning of the 20th century, wasn't Sears sort of taking advantage of changes in manufacturing, changes with distribution, in the same way that Amazon and Wal-Mart have been?

JERRY HANCOCK: Absolutely.

Sears started off obviously as a mail order catalog and gained a lot of momentum.

In the mid-1920s, they hired a man by the name of Robert Wood, General Robert Wood, who was part of the Panama Canal project.

He was a procurement officer for the supplies needed for this massive construction project.

He eventually ended up working for Montgomery Ward, and -- which was Sear's biggest competitor.

And he really saw the future of the automobile and the shifts in the way people shop.

And so he went to Ward and said, look, I think this retail thing is our next big move.

And Ward wouldn't jump on it.

They said, we're a mail order company, and we want to stick with what has made us big.

And, finally, he pushed so hard, they fired him from Montgomery Ward.

And he went directly to Sears and was hired by their president, Julius Rosenwald.

And Robert Wood went to Rosenwald with this idea about retail stores, and sold it.

And the year that they hired Robert Wood, 1924, they began making the move into retail, into radio, which was also a big part of it.

They purchased a radio station in Chicago called WLS, for World's Largest Store, was the call letters.

And they started opening retail stores around the country.

Here in Atlanta was one of those that opened in 1926.

JOHN YANG: This reorganization -- bankruptcy finally for reorganization, they're going to try to turn things around.

If they don't, what do you think Sears' legacy will be?

JERRY HANCOCK: Well, at this point, obviously, the nostalgia for older generations, Sears is everything.

I grew up in rural South Georgia, and those catalogs were everything to me.

Even if you couldn't afford to buy some of the items in the catalog, it was still that sort of tangible thing that you could hold in your hand.

JOHN YANG: Sears expert and history teacher Jerry Hancock, thanks so much for being with us.

JERRY HANCOCK: Thanks for having me.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The midterm elections are less than a month away, and President Trump continues to hit the campaign trail.

Here to lay out where things stand, we're joined by Tamara Keith of NPR and Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report.

Hello to both of you.

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Hello.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, the president has been out, it seems like every single day, out on the trail.

He was in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Tam, and he's headed out this week as well.

Is there a strategy here?

What is the president hoping to do and is he doing?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Yes.

He has this Western swing coming up, where he's going to Montana, Arizona and Nevada.

And there's probably a different strategy behind each one of those stops.

There are competitive Senate races in Arizona and Nevada and Montana.

But Montana may just be -- one source told be, he might just be getting back at Jon Tester for what he did to go after Ronny Jackson, the White House doctor who was up for VA secretary.

The impression that I'm getting from a lot of people that I have been talking to who are sort of Republicans in Republican campaign committees is that a lot of the president's travel is based on what best serves the president, what the president wants to do, who he wants to promote.

So he went to Kansas because the candidate for governor there is someone who he feels close to, he has a good relationship with, Kris Kobach.

So each stop is different.

But he's going to Elko, Nevada, which is rural part of the state, less population there, but also much more Republican.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Amy, we have been talking about this.

In the Senate races, the Republicans seem to be holding their own.

Democrats have a better shot at House races.

It seems contradictory.

Talk a little bit about what is behind this.

AMY WALTER: And explain what's going on.

Yes.

It's as if this election is taking place in two different countries.

The race for the Senate is taking place -- or at least for control of the Senate is taking place in really red parts of America.

These are states that the president carried by more than 19 points in the 2016 election, so places like Montana or Missouri, North Dakota.

The House is running through suburban America.

And in suburban America, Trump is very unpopular.

Some of these districts, he barely won.

Some of them, he narrowly lost, but he is certainly very underwater in those suburban districts, much more so than the places where he's going on the campaign trail.

So it's fascinating to watch where he's going, even when he goes to Pennsylvania.

He went to Erie, Pennsylvania, which is the one county that slipped from Obama carrying it to Trump carrying it.

And, notice, Pennsylvania isn't on a targeted list for Republicans this year.

The Senate race looks not very competitive, Democratic senator up there, and the Democratic governor seems to be cruising right along as well.

Instead, it's just the places where he's really deep red -- that are really deep red that he can go to.

Those places that determined the 2016 election, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, he's not spending as much time there.

And Democrats are doing very well there, at least statewide Democrats.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Tam, what's happened to this enthusiasm gap that we like to talk -- or enthusiasm, whether it's a gap or not?

What's happened with that?

At one point, the Democrats were ahead.

The Republicans caught up a little bit.

What are we looking at now?

How much of a difference is it making?

TAMARA KEITH: It's really unclear right now whether this was a shift that was related to Kavanaugh, whether it is an enduring shift, or whether it is a shift that was going to happen as the election got closer, people started paying more attention and Republicans came home.

And I think that it's really hard right now to know exactly what it is.

AMY WALTER: Yes, but it is -- I think that's right.

When I talk to Republicans, they just consistently tell me they just feel a lot better in these districts that are sort of congenitally red, right?

That's where they didn't see the energy behind their Republican base a couple weeks ago.

Now they're starting to see it come home.

Now, is it Kavanaugh?

Is it just because Republicans, they know that Election Day is around the corner?

The real challenge for Republicans right now, though, is that the Democratic enthusiasm hasn't weighed -- waned.

Excuse me.

TAMARA KEITH: For like two years.

AMY WALTER: Forever, right.

They're as intense today as they were back in... JUDY WOODRUFF: They're just as determined.

AMY WALTER: They're just as determined.

And spending a lot of time looking too at where independent voters are going.

And, right now, Trump is somewhere around 40 percent approval rating among independents.

You look at some of the most recent polls that came out today or this week.

The president -- or the president still not doing well with independents.

And then you ask the question about, who do you want to vote for, for Congress, independents breaking for Democrats by double digits.

That's where it gets very dangerous.

One Republican said to me: We can equal turnout with Democrats, but if we're losing independents by double digits, we're still in deep doo-doo.

And that's the challenge.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So -- and we have also been talking about whether there was a gender piece to this story.

And that's something we have addressed in the past.

But, Tam, today, there was this back and forth between Elizabeth Warren, who -- for whom it was released -- her DNA test results were made public.

It turns out she does have some Native American blood going back six to 10 generations.

The president who, of course, had challenged her to do this, to make a long story short, had said he would donate a million dollars.

Now he's saying he wouldn't do it unless he did it.

Does this take... (CROSSTALK) JUDY WOODRUFF: How long -- it's going to take me 10 minutes, an hour just to explain it.

(CROSSTALK) TAMARA KEITH: Exactly.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But does this go anywhere?

Does it -- are women voters paying attention to this?

It's a little early for 2020, isn't it?

TAMARA KEITH: It's a little early for 2020.

But if you watch the video that Elizabeth Warren put out to go along with these test results, there is no denying that that is a very slick campaign video introducing herself to America, or reintroducing herself to America.

One thing about Elizabeth Warren and President Trump, this is a rivalry that goes back a very long way.

On the 2016 campaign trail, when Elizabeth Warren was campaigning for Hillary Clinton, she had a unique ability to sort of troll candidate Trump, to get him to say things.

JUDY WOODRUFF: She got under his skin.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

TAMARA KEITH: She got under his skin.

And then along comes his term that he keeps using for Elizabeth Warren, this Pocahontas term, which many people find wildly offensive.

But, in the end, President Trump picks these feuds and fights with all of these people.

And, somehow, the people he feuds with end up being the ones that are sullied, and he just keeps going.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Just 20 seconds, Amy.

I guess it's never too early to talk about 2020.

(CROSSTALK) AMY WALTER: Well, there are a lot of Democrats, some of whom I talked to today, who would like Democrats not to talk about 2020 yet.

They said, we're doing really well, we have got our sights on 2018, national Democrats, don't start making this about you.

Keep the focus on 2018, on the issues we want to talk about, not the challenger to President Trump.

JUDY WOODRUFF: We will see if anybody is paying attention to those admonitions.

AMY WALTER: Yes, we will see.

(LAUGHTER) JUDY WOODRUFF: Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, thank you both.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Our fall films series continues with a report on "22 July" about the events and aftermath of the deadliest attack in Norway since World War II.

Jeffrey Brown has our look.

JEFFREY BROWN: July 22, 2011, 32-year-old Norwegian Anders Breivik has set off a bomb at a government building in Oslo and now, posing as a policeman, prepares an even more gruesome act.

ACTOR: You heard about the bomb in the city?

ACTRESS: Yes.

ACTOR: I have been sent to secure the island.

Where's the ferry?

ACTRESS: Oh, the ferry got canceled.

ACTOR: Get it over here.

I need it now.

JEFFREY BROWN: The film "22 July" is a dramatization of a real-life horror story, a right-wing fanatic's massacre of young people gathered on an island for a summer retreat; 77 were killed in the attacks, more than 200 wounded.

They left a nation shocked to its core, and the world wondering where it might lead next.

ACTOR: This was an attack on our government and on our children.

We are a long way from understanding why.

But what is clear is that our nation has been attacked by someone who would see it changed.

JEFFREY BROWN: British director Paul Greengrass ties it to a larger, ongoing rise of the extreme right in Europe and the U.S. PAUL GREENGRASS, Director, "22 July": I have got children.

And I think that this is an issue that young people are going to have to resolve.

They're going to have to choose how to respond to these immense forces and fight for the kinds of democracies that they want to live in.

And, you know, these changes can be explored through journalism or history or documentary, but they also need to be explored through our cinema.

It's very, very important, I think, that we don't close our eyes to what's going on in the world, and we don't close our cinema to it either.

JEFFREY BROWN: Greengrass is widely known as a director of action-packed thrillers, including three of the Jason Bourne movies.

He's also taken on recent political events that have shaken and shaped the world, such as his "United 93," about the September 11 attacks.

Here, he gives us a gut-wrenching and up-close view of a man acting out his belief that Muslims and other outsiders, aided by liberal elites, are poisoning his society, and then the aftermath: an ideologue and inevitably a nation on trial.

Greengrass says his first duty was to those personally impacted.

PAUL GREENGRASS: The film that I wanted to make wasn't about the attacks themselves.

It's about what happened afterwards.

It's about how the people of Norway and the particular characters that we portray and the survivors of those attacks fought for their democracy.

That's the story.

JEFFREY BROWN: The film is based on the 2016 book by journalist Asne Seierstad titled "One of Us."

She joined Greengrass for the screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.

ASNE SEIERSTAD, Author, "One of Us": It speaks to your emotions and your heart, but also to your mind, because it's also a very intellectual film, in the sense that you actually do get to explore the mind of the mass murderer, the terrorist.

And I think the audience is sitting and thinking, OK, is he mad or is he one of us?

JEFFREY BROWN: In the film, as in real life, Breivik had his day in court.

But the emphasis here is on the survivors, like 17-year-old Viljar Hanssen, played by Jonas Strand Gravli, who confronted Breivik at the trial.

ACTRESS: Just say a few words, that's all.

JONAS STRAND GRAVLI, Actor: And say what?

ACTRESS: What happened.

The truth.

JONAS STRAND GRAVLI: That I cry in my sleep?

That I can't talk to strangers?

That I'm frightened of dying?

I would rather not go than let him hear that.

JEFFREY BROWN: In August 2012, Anders Breivik was judged to be sane and guilty of the mass murders.

He will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

PAUL GREENGRASS: I came to the view that he was, as the court found, a political actor, a political extremist, a right-wing extremist.

But the film has to show how the process of coming to terms with him was to explore the family background, you know, whether or not he was sane or psychotic.

JEFFREY BROWN: One of the interesting things about this film and the trial itself, the actual story, is how much of a platform to give him.

PAUL GREENGRASS: I definitely thought about how Norway faced that challenge, whether or not to give him a platform, was the correct one.

They came to the view, in the legal process, that it was important that he be allowed to speak.

If we close our minds and eyes to that, it's not going to go away.

It'll get worse.

We have to, and the democracies of the West have to win this battle of ideas.

And we're only going to win that battle of ideas by acknowledging what the arguments are from the far-right side, what that world view is.

JEFFREY BROWN: "22 July" is available on Netflix, with a limited theatrical release as well.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown at the Toronto International Film Festival.

JUDY WOODRUFF: More than 20 percent of African-Americans and 18 percent of Hispanics are living in poverty in this country.

That's according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures.

While those numbers are on the wane, they remain roughly double the rate for whites.

Achieving the so-called American dream is clearly harder for some than for others.

Tonight, author and entrepreneur Casey Gerald shares his Humble Opinion on what he calls the myth of that dream and how its very notion can be destructive.

CASEY GERALD, Author, "There Will Be No Miracles Here": I was born on the wrong side of the tracks, or, as George W. Bush said of me, the other side of the river.

We'd met on the buffet line at his presidential library, and he'd become fond of retelling his version of my story.

And he was right: Most cities have railroad tracks to separate poor people of color from other citizens.

In Dallas, there's a whole river between us, the Trinity.

In all-black Oak Cliff, my neighborhood, I was raised by my grandmother, who worked as a domestic, and by my sister, who adopted me when our mother disappeared.

I watched my father struggle with addiction, and watched my friends endure the same or worse.

But that is not why Mr. Bush felt moved to share my story.

At 18, I left my side of the river and traveled 1,600 miles away to Yale.

I played varsity football.

I interned on Wall Street.

I worked in Washington in the early years of the Obama administration, and continued to Harvard Business School, where I started a nonprofit to work with small business owners in places like Detroit, New Orleans, and rural Montana.

I have seen and lived America from the very bottom to the very top.

And so, in Mr. Bush's eyes, and in many others', I am the embodiment of the American dream.

The sad thing is that they are right.

The American dream, you see, is a fantasy, a myth that relies on stories like mine to distract us from the American machine, the conveyor belt that leads most young people, especially from neighborhoods like mine, from nothing to nowhere, while picking off the chosen few, like me.

Yes, there is Oprah.

There is Sonia Sotomayor.

But the dream cannot compete with the American reality, that a kid in my neighborhood is expected to earn $21,000 a year, less than their parents were expected to make, that 13 million American children live in households without enough to eat, that one in 30 don't have a stable household at all.

The stats only begin to make the tragedy plain.

When we highlight stories like mine, we send the message to kids that it's their fault if they don't succeed.

Even worse, we send the message to the rest of society that it's not our fault that this country has failed to give every child a fair shot.

The dream makes the machine seem accidental, rather than designed.

That, to me, would be a story worth telling.

JUDY WOODRUFF: A lot to think about.

And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

Join us online and again here tomorrow evening.

For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, and we'll see you soon.