wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. ♪ amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "newshour" tonight. ukraine's president makes his case to congress for more funding as soldiers persevere through brutal winter warfare. amna: president biden warns israel is losing support. the same day a majority of

united nations member states call for a ceasefire in gaza. geoff: and, an investigation into china's global fishing fleet exposes how seafood that's sold in the u.s. is caught and processed using forced labor. >> there's a huge state-run labor transfer program with thousands of uighurs that are forcibly removed from this inland province xinjiang and transported 2000 miles away to the other side of the country to work in the factories. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour been provided by -- ♪ the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson and camila and george smith. >> pediatric surgeon.

volunteer. topiary artist. a raymondjames financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. >> actually you don't need vision to do most things in life. it is exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that is the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo. ♪ >> the john s and james l knight foundation. more at kf.org. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and 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. geoff: welcome to the newshour. a harsh winter has descended on ukraine as the war nears its third year. and ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy is here in washington, urging congress to unfreeze badly needed military aid. amna: that debate over aid comes as a declassified u.s. intelligence assessment details staggering losses for russia. nearly 90% of its pre-war force either killed or wounded in ukraine. lisa desjardins on capitol hill begins our coverage. lisa: a president at war, flagged by democratic and republican leaders. >> what does it mean if you don't get aid by the end of the year?

lisa: for lorimer zelenskyy, this third trip to washington after the russian invasion has been the most complicated as congress has slowed down talks over whether to send him help. he met with nearly all u.s. senators in the morning. sen. schumer: president zelenskyy made it so clear that he needs help, but if he gets the help, he can win this war. lisa: though a different message from house republicans, speaker mike johnson but not his full conference met with zelenskyy. >> the biden administration seems to be asking for billions of additional dollars with no appropriate oversight, no clear strategy to win, and none of the answers i think the american people are owed. lisa: congress is divided over president biden's request for an additional $110 billion. that would include some $61 billion in aid for ukraine, about $14 billion each for is and border security. senators told us zelenskyy was

powerful and oppressive, but for senate republicans -- and impressive, but for senate republicans that is not the issue. migrant crossings hitting more than 10,000 apprehensions per day by border patrol in the past few weeks. republicans say until there are dramatic policy changes, they will not approve money for ukraine. >> an investment of u.s. dollars into ukraine's defense is a good investment, but it does not change the context, the criteria for me, and that is we have to defend ourselves first. we can demonstrate that by securing the southern border. lisa: all this comes as ukraine's months long counteroffensive that began in june is frozen in place as winter descends and a new u.s. assessment says russia believes a military deadlock through the winter would drain western support for ukraine and advantage moscow. democrats on capitol hill are the ukraine hawks and warning that time is running out with

congress coupled to recess for the holidays later this week. >> we stand ready to engage on these topics and provide assistance, but we also understand the timeline ahead of us. the calendar is a concern. lisa: president biden has signaled he's willing to tighten border laws but democrats and replicants are far apart on a possible deal. now republican senate leader mitch mcconnell is openly saying biden must personally get involved. which made his meeting with zelenskyy this afternoon a potential that point. >> we want to see ukraine win the war. winning means ukraine is a sovereign independent nation and that can afford to defend itself today and deter further aggression. >> putin wants a prolonged war. we dream of a christmas in peacetime, of course. we are working to turn our

success into peace. lisa: ukraine and those near it are waiting to see what the white house and congress do next. amna: lisa joins us now from capitol hill. laura is with us and studio and nick schifrin is at the white house. nick, you are at that press conference at the white house. president zelenskyy made a passionate, powerful case for continued support. what is the context we need to understand for that message he is delivering? nick: it is a bit of a hail mary, because as lisa reported, without significant border concessions, congress is not going to pass the tens of billions of dollars that ukraine needs, at least not right now. ukraine is concerned that hungary is on the verge of blocking tens of billions of dollars of european eight. ukraine says both of those packages are the difference between victory and defeat. what does that mean? ukraine thanks without that money it will run out of air defense that prevents russian jets from flying all over the

country. it is concerned that it won't ever get a love -- get enough long-range missiles to threaten crimea, which zelenskyy said today was one of the ways ukraine could win the war. ukraine is concerned it won't be able to pay its bills. its government needs $4 billion a month just to pay its bills. a usa director said without ongoing economic assistance, putin can win the war without russian forces firing another shot. the pentagon says it still has $900 million worth of funds that it can use to replenish for weapons that i can still send to ukraine today, even if congress -- it can send to ukraine today even if this does not pass aid. amna: is this moment, this -- what does this moment mean for president biden? laura: it is a big deal. the president and white house made clear that if additional

funding is not passed by congress, then the money they have allocated for ukraine currently runs out at the end of the year. aides inside the white house are definitely frustrated. they essentially are saying that the president's key foreign policy mission of keeping nato unified in the face of russian aggression is at stake here, and also the president has promised that he is someone who can maintain u.s. leadership on the world stage, he can combat authoritarianism, and if this doesn't pass, then it's much more difficult to keep allies united on that front. another big thing is that president biden is trying to make this argument alongside the ukrainian president. this pressure campaign on congress. the two big messages are, putin won't stop there, he won't stop at ukraine. as well as, helping an ally

without having to commit u.s. troops, helping an ally degrade the military of one of the biggest adversaries that is russia should be a key national security priority for. heard him say he hoped republicans were not align themselves with russia and the propaganda coming out of russia. amna: republicans personally heard those pleas from is in zelenskyy. are there demands -- are their demands on border policy still the same? lisa: think of the affordable care act, think about the debt ceiling, that is what is happening now on capitol hill. republicans, no, they are not changing their petitions. they to the border. -- they point to the butter. they feel they are in the right. they feel they have the momentum because president biden has said he's willing to make concessions. you bring all of that down and look at what republicans are asking. that is where we have issues with democrats.

let's look at three things they are asking for. first, on asylum, republicans would like to block many of these asylum-seekers from entering this country, especially those from south and central america. they would like to make expedited removal a national program, meaning that some immigration officers could challenge almost anyone in this country and if they were not documented they could expedite removal. they would like to limit different types of parole, including humanitarian parole. some of those programs democrats think could be adjusted, but they are worried that what republicans are posing could sweep up people that have legitimate claims and even have legal status in this country. amna: where do negotiations go from here? what happens next? lisa: all of this, the ukraine aid, israel aid, and water talks are hanging on the edge of a knife right now. right now there is a slight reason for hope.

i came from a meeting with the dhs secretary behind closed doors with three senators, republican jim langford from oklahoma, independent kyrsten sinema of arizona and chris murphy of connecticut, the democrat, as well as staffers. kyrsten sinema walked out of that meeting and told me they made substantive progress. we have heard that before, but there is hope they can do this. no one can get to an airport more quickly than a member of congress before a holiday recess. senator schumer asked leaders to stay in town, but the entire house of representatives is getting ready to leave on thursday. this next they will be critical to see if a deal can be made or not. amna: what about other democrats, what pressure are they putting on the white house in these talks? and where do the american people stand on this issue of more aid for ukraine? laura: democrats are very concerned.

based on what lisa just outlined, those severe restrictions to asylum that republicans are proposing, that the white house may concede on that. they are hearing the white house is open to things like that and they don't want that to happen, so they will be applying pressure on the president. democrats in the end coming days will be talking about this, holding press conferences. as for where voters stand, we have a new newshour npr/maris po ll that asked voters whether they believe the u.s. should authorize additional funding to support ukraine and israel. a total of 32% said yes, 41% democrats, 26% of republicans are saying more support and 32% of independents. for those that believe the u.s. should not authorize additional funding for either, a total of 36%. 24% of democrats, 39% of republicans and 38% independence. in total our poll found 48% of

americans support giving additional aid to ukraine, but there is not a lot of support among republicans in particular. one thing that is key context there, senator mcconnell said support among republicans has gone down because of the rhetoric from former president trump. amna: when you look at where the war is right now, where you spent so much time, the head of the ukrainian military is no: the war a stalemate -- is now calling the war a stalemate. nick: the administer and says there is no plan b and president biden reiterated his definition of victory. senior officials are beginning to say that if u.s. support continues, what they want to see in 2024 is ukraine holding the line, even if that means a stalemate on the front. and that by the end of 2024, u.s., european, ukrainian domestic arms production could come online to the point where ukraine could go back on the

counteroffensive in 2025. that assumes biden wins reelection. that also assumes that in 2025 ukraine can do more with those weapons that it has not already done with $110 billion of aid. amna: nick schifrin at the white house, lisa desjardins on capitol hill, laura brownlow is with me in studio. thank you to you all. ♪ geoff: the united nations general assembly overwhelmed -- has overwhelmingly approved a measure calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in gaza. the u.s. was one of ten nations to vote against the non-binding resolution. before today's vote, president joe biden said israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu needs to change his hardline government, adding that israel is losing global support due to what he called its "indiscriminate bombing" in gaza. president biden's off-camera

remarks to democratic donors in washington today are the latest sign of increasing u.s. concern about israel's bombing campaign in gaza, which has killed thousands of list indian civilians -- of list indian civilians. this is the most conservative government in israel's history, said mr. biden, adding the netanyahu led coalition does not want a two state solution. washington's preferred outcome after the war with hamas. the president said israel is starting to lose support around the world, saying of netanyahu "i think he has to change and this government in israel is making it difficult for him to move." earlier today netanyahu said israel enjoys u.s. support for its goal of destroying hamas, while he acknowledged differing views about up and for after the war-- about a plan for after the war. >> there are disputes about the day after hamas and i hope we will reach an agreement here as

well. i will not allow that after the great sacrifice of our citizens and fighters we bring into lighter -- into gaza those who support and finance terrorism. geoff: it all comes as israel's siege on gaza today continued in all directions. >> the world's conscience is dead. no humanity or any kind of morals. geoff: from the north, israeli soldiers pushed their ground invasion further into the gaza strip. hospitals struggle to keep up with the injured and often orphaned children now in their care. >> i wish the war ends and we go back to our relatives in our home and that's it. geoff: this 10-year-old lost her parents, two siblings and other members of her extended family in an israeli airstrike. >> a lot of children who come here, we don't know their names. we write unknown on their entry files until someone recognizes them, including the patient you mentioned earlier. she was unknown for days and

days in the cardiac icu until a relative came and recognized her. geoff: but the strikes keep coming, filling streets with smoke and debris and leaving palestinians without homes and increasingly hope. in the day's other headlines: cheaper gas helped ease inflation in november. the labor department's consumer price index edged up just 0.1% last month, from october. on a year-to-year basis, the rate dropped slightly to 3.1% from the previous november. the core inflation rate, excluding volatile food and energy costs, rose 0.3%, a bit faster than in october. house republicans moved today to set a vote on formalizing their impeachment inquiry into president biden. the focus is whether he benefited from family business dealings, but so far there is no evidence tying him to wrongdoing. republicans argued today the resolution would give stronger legal backing for subpoenas. democrats said it's all a political stunt.

they spoke at separate briefings. >> to fulfill our constitutional responsibility, we have to take the next step. we're not making a political decision, it's a legal decision. people have feelings about it one way or the other, we can't prejudge the outcome, the constitution does not permit us to do so. we have to follow the truth where it takes us. >> the vote this week is the culmination of the extreme maga republican year-long agenda, exacting political retribution on behalf of donald trump. it's painfully obvious they're trying to hurt president biden politically to help president trump get reelected. geoff: with a closely divided house, the resolution would need near-total republican support. the vote could come tomorrow. republican presidential candidate nikki haley gets a key endorsement in new hampshire tonight, six weeks before the state's primary. governor chris sununu is expected to come out for haley. he's been a vocal critic of

former president trump. polls show mr. trump leading by wide margins in new hampshire. claudine gay will remain president of harvard after a backlash over her congressional testimony on campus antisemitism. the university's governing body issued a statement today saying "president gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing." at a house hearing last week, gay and other school leaders struggled to answer questions from republican elise stefanik. today, stefanik had fresh criticism. >> this is a moral failure of harvard's leadership and higher education leadership at the highest levels. and the only change they have made to their code of conduct where they failed to condemn calls for genocide of the jewish people, the only update to the code of conduct is to allow a plagiarist as the president of harvard. geoff: harvard's governing body said an independent review of plagiarism allegations against gay found no violation of school standards.

in pakistan, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police station today, killing at least 23 people. a taliban offshoot claimed responsibility. the attack in the northwestern part of that country was one of the deadliest in recent months. the force of the blast shattered windows, damaged nearby businesses and wounded dozens of people. pakistan's military said other militants triggered an hours-long shootout before they were killed. back in this country, google will appeal a federal jury verdict in san francisco that found its android app store operates as an illegal monopoly. epic games argued the system quashes competitors and ultimately hurts smartphone users. the judge will now determine what steps google must take, but the appeals process could take years. and on wall street stocks advanced again on the inflation report and ahead of tomorrow's federal reserve statement on interest rates. the dow jones industrial average gained 173 points to close at 36,578. the nasdaq rose 101 points.

the s&p 500 added 21. still to come on the newshour, the latest global climate conference faces criticism for its tepid progress. hip hop mogul sean diddy combs faces sexual assault lawsuits made possible by a new state law. how the israel-hamas war is affecting hanukkah celebrations in the u.s. and what shohei ohtani's record-breaking contract means for major league baseball. ♪ >> this is the be is newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: as the united nations climate conference known as cop 28 comes to a close in dubai, countries are racing against the clock. more than 100 countries including the u.s., the uk and australia are pushing for a firm commitment to stop the use of coal, oil and gas after earlier drafts advocated for eventually phasing out fossil fuels.

michael mann has been among those climate experts critical of what's happened at this summit. he's the director of the penn center for science, sustainability and the media and the university of pennsylvania. his new book is "our fragile moment: how lessons from earth's past can help us survive the climate crisis." welcome back to the newshour. michael: great to be with you. geoff: you wrote a co-op bed in the new york times saying that not only has cop28 failed to meet the moment, it has made a character of it -- a caricature of it in what ways. ? michael: the united arab emirates is a petro state and the president of cop28 is in fact an oil executive. there are reasons to be skeptical from the very start, given just those plain facts.

and everything we have seen since, the fact that the president of cop28 has been using language claiming that there is no science to back up the need to phase out fossil fuels, when of course the science overwhelmingly indicates we have to bring carbon emissions down dramatically to avert catastrophic warming. he even used climate denier tropes like we will all be back in the caves if we make a clean energy transition. the fact that we have not seen much progress, we have seen other petro states like saudi arabia now say there is no way they will agree to language to phase out fossil fuels. in fact, they won't even agree to language to phase down, whatever that means, to phase down fossil fuels. there is a lot of pessimism right now that a few bad apples are spoiling the stability of a meaningful agreement. as this window of opportunity is

closing, if we don't see progress now, it becomes increasingly difficult to see warming below a catastrophic three degrees fahrenheit. geoff: yet these cop summits are the only venue for glide pit -- venue for global climate change negotiations. what reforms are needed? michael: that's right. we resist calls to dissolve the entire cop process, because as you just said it is the only multilateral framework we have for global climate.negotiations burgers would like nothing more than to see the you -- climate negotiations. repairs would like nothing more than to see it end. we argue for example that we cannot allow a single country like saudi arabia to prevent the agreement from passing. there should be something instead like a super majority,

75% of participating countries have to agree to a particular resolution for it to pass, but you can't have a system where one bad actor like saudi arabia can block any progress at all. that is where we are now. there need to be penalties. in the past month the enforcement mechanism was called name and shame for countries that do not make a good effort to participate in negotiations, you call them out and try to shame them. some of these countries like saudi arabia have shown they have no shame. there need to be real penalties for bad actors who essentially are trying to prevent any meaningful progress from taking place. geoff: understanding that critics have made the point that oil interests have co-opted cop, there are any number of countries who say completely phasing out fossil fuels hurts them economically and puts them at a disadvantage. do they have a point? michael: we no longer kill wha

les for whale oil because something better came along. that was fossil fuels centuries ago. now something better has come along, clean energy. we need to provide the incentives for developing countries to leapfrog past the fossil fuel stage of their economic development. we cannot afford for them to make the same mystics we need. we need assistance to help developing countries develop clean energy infrastructure. it's win-win. clean energy means a better planet, a better environment, far more jobs available in clean energy installation than in the largely automated fossil fuel industry. and we also know that petro states tend to be authoritative states, antidemocratic countries. and so all of the things we like to see, more widespread

democracy, a cleaner environment, good jobs, clean jobs for people, all of that is favored by a proactive effort to transition. we are not talking about stopping all fossil fuel production cold turkey. what we are talking about is a steady transition, bringing carbon emissions down 50% this decades, bringing them down to zero by mid century. we have the technology to do that. renewable energy, solar, wind, geothermal. we just need the political will to make this transition. geoff: thanks as always for your insights. michael: thank you. ♪ amna: an investigation into chinese fishing fleets and processing centers has

discovered that seafood produced with forced labor is making its way to american dinner tables. that's despite a u.s. ban on imports made by workers from china's xinjiang province. the region in northwest china is home to muslim minority uyghurs, who have been the victims of well-documented human rights violations. john yang has more. john: if you buy frozen seafood at the grocery store or order fish at a chain restaurant, chances are pretty good that it was caught by a chinese fishing vessel or processed in a chinese plant. china runs what may be the largest maritime operation ever known. an investigation by the not for profit journalism organization called the outlaw ocean project has documented human rights, labor and environmental concerns related to the chinese fleet, as outlaw ocean founder ian urbina tells us in this excerpt from the group's reporting. chinese fishing ships rely on forced labor. >> foreign journalists are generally forbidden from

reporting in xinjiang. so, the team of investigators had to rely on a range of publicly available materials, including company newsletter local news reports, trade data, satellite imagery and social media. but the real kind of key to our investigation became the use of the chinese version of tik tok, which is called douyin. >> videos posted by uyghurs from seafood plants show that many live in military-style dormitories, under the watch of security personnel. uyghur workers' dorms are often searched, and if a quran or other contraband is found, the owner may be sent to a reeducation camp. uyghurs' social media posts are also closely monitored by chinese online censors. posting anything critical of the regime could quickly land them in a detention center. but it appears that many uyghurs have found a way to include

cryptic messages in their videos to convey their suffering, while also bypassing the chinese censors. ♪ >> thousands of tons of seafood processed in china with forced labor continue to enter the united states and europe. importers sent their products to major supermarkets around the world, including walmart, kroger, tesco and carrefour. the importers also send seafood to sysco, the global food service giant that supplies more than 400,000 restaurants in the u.s. alone. over the past five years, the us government spent more than $200 million to buy seafood from importers linked to uyghur labor, for use in military bases, federal prisons, and public schools. >> this investigation represents four years of work by ian urbina, the executive editor of the outlaw ocean project.

how did you find that this this labor, putting the uyghurs to work in these processing plants sort of fit in in the chinese overall strategy in dealing with with the uyghurs? uyghurs are a muslim minority in china. ian: there is this general policy from the chinese government to try to relocate many of the uyghurs in xinjiang and disperse them elsewhere in the country to sort of pacify the population, if you will. so there's a huge state run labor transfer program with thousands of uighurs that are forcibly removed from this inland province xinjiang and transported 2000 miles away to the other side of the country to work in the factories. and it's all part of an effort to sort of bring this restive province under control. john: ian, you talked to about more than two dozen of the crew members, people who worked on these ships. what did they tell you about the conditions they worked under and the conditions of their employment? ian: yeah, i mean, we found a lot of forced labor and trafficked labor. before covid a lot of these workers were indonesian, after covid, largely rural chinese.

they're pretty nervous to talk openly when we were on board, but you could see the conditions. there are a lot of reports of violence on board and neglect, severe neglect. john: and these ships often don't return to port for two years. stay at sea for two years. how did you manage to talk to these people? ian: it was a process. typically it takes several days just to get out to the fishing grounds or on the high seas. once we're out there, we make radio contact with the captain. we try to warm the captain up and see if he'll let us on board. if not, oftentimes the ships would flee and we'd get on board a faster boat called a skiff and follow the fishing ships. and in those cases, we'd put messages in a bottle asking questions of the crew in bahasa , indonesian or chinese and english and throw the bottles onto the back of the ship and then follow them until the crew threw the bottles back with answers. john: and not only answers, but some of them asking for help, some of them giving you phone numbers. ian: yeah, the most useful thing were the phone numbers, because

then we could contact families back home in indonesia or china and ask those families how long they've been gone and sort of what they knew of their lost family. john: you also found violations of law in the way they fished and also environmental violations. ian: many cases of, you know, shark finning, of invasions of sovereignty. so this is a huge fleet. and often these vessels are aggressively going into waters where they're forbidden -argentinean, chilean, ecuadorian waters where they're not allowed. so we documented those cases just to show how pervasive the problem is. john: and how were they able to escape enforcement, escape inspection and that sort of thing? ian: you know, these vessels largely are the high seas. and this is an area that's very hard to get to. the vessels are in constant motion in most countries around the world don't have navies out there patrolling their own waters, much less the high seas. so these are working places that are largely out of reach of governments, and that's why they can do as they please. john: and there were also signs that these ships were doing more than fishing or fishing for

other things in a way. ian: china's fishing fleet is in many ways sort of an arm of its geopolitical agenda. it's sort of a projection of power. and so if you look at places like the south china sea, contested waters in that area, the fishing fleet is essentially acting as a civilian militia. and you have enough fishing vessels there that they can crowd around other countries, vessels and crowd around islands that are in contested waters and sort of establish sovereignty and show muscle. john: it's an ambitious project. and you found it some very interesting things, now where can people read and see your reporting? ian: with the new yorker on their website. john: very good. ian urbina, the founder and executive editor of the outlaw ocean project. thank you very much. ian: thanks for having me. ♪ amna: four women are suing hip hop mogul sean "diddy" combs over sexual assault allegations

dating back to the early 90's. previously, those lawsuits couldn't have been filed, because of the statute of limitations. but most were filed under a new york state law that allowed survivors a one-year window to sue for past abuse. about 3,000 civil lawsuits were filed under the law before its deadline last month. joining me now attorney mariann wang who has represented multiple clients seeking justice for sexual crimes, both before and after this new york law. and npr music correspondent sidney madden. thank you both for joining us. 3000 civil lawsuits before that legal deadline closed. tell us what you were seeing in your practice as the deadline approached, what kind of inquiries you were fielding. mariann: we were fielding dozens in the final days, sometimes in the final hours, but throughout the year, as there was war awareness -- was more awareness of the opening, i spoke to probably hundreds of women, mostly women, who had been

victims of very serious trauma and rape and sexual assault many years before, and who were finally in a place in their lives where they had processed it and were actually able to speak about it to somebody who wanted to do something. that is the importance of these laws, because of the trauma that is perpetrated on women during sexual assault and afterwards, it really takes an enormous amount of time for people to process. amna: this and got a lot of attention because some of the names we are talking about, but we know most of the accused are not celebrities. pant us a portrait of your clients. sidney: so many of them are very vulnerable people to begin with as young women or as women who don't have any resources who are preyed upon by those with a lot more resources or people and

relative power. so employers or members of institutions, there are people who suffered in foster care or later in life people who were incarcerated who were assaulted by guards and others. and those types of people are often the most vulnerable and have very little ability to even first understand how they are and over the years understand they might have the ability to hold someone to account. it just takes a very long time before people understand that. amna: we know one of those lawsuits was filed by an r&b singer known as cassie, the former girlfriend of sean diddy combs. sidney: the tidal wave of allegations really started with the case that was filed by cassie ventura, diddy's not only longtime romantic partner but

one of his employees. this was really big news in the hip hop space and beyond for a few key reasons. first of all, the severity of the allegations were utterly shocking. in the civil suit that cassie filed, she detailed almost a decade of psychological and physical abuse, moments where he had complete control over her life, coercion. she even alleged that he raped her in her own home toward the end of her relationship and once blew up the car of a man who was interested in cassie. the details of this case filing were absolutely explosive, no pun intended there. also another factor is the stature of diddy overall. this is a man who has been ubiquitous in the hip hop and music space for over 30 years. he is credited with making the careers of people like notorious b.i.g. and mary j. blige and even now he is one of hip hop's

billionaires, someone who has skyrocketed in not only the music space but wine and spirits, media with his own company revolt entertainment. and so he is one of the most well-connected, influential and richest people, definitely a power player in this space. to hear these allegations was a big shock. amna: cassie's case was settled out of court, but she was not the only one to come forward. three other women have come forward, one of whom was a minor at the time of her alleged abuse. diddy is one of the most powerful people in this space. is this a moment of a larger reckoning in the industry, or is that going too far? sidney: it is an interesting question and one that has been circling around a lot of hip hop spaces. this is one of many cases that have been filed. there were also civil suits filed against a former record

exec, also two very powerful people in the music space. it is definitely bringing back to conversations of a #metoo reckoning. it is a crucial turning point we could be having, but i think it is too early to tell. it is a yes and no. there are a lot of big events coming up that will determine where diddy and others lie in terms of their own cultural capital, things like the grammys, where diddy is nominated in the ceremony upcoming, that is where we will see the power of his bank account and how people relate to him going forward. amna: meanwhile although these other many women are searching for justice in their cases. the deadline for the adult survivors act has now passed, so now what? what happens with anyone else who wants to come forward with a case from long ago? mariann: the most important

thing to tell any survivor is that if they think they could have a case or have been hurt and want to seek justice, they should try to learn about their legal rights. the legal landscape is fairly complicated and it depends on when it happened. the fact of the matter is having a time limit to immediately file a lawsuit after you have either been controlled by and/or abused for years sometimes by a perpetrator, it's something that takes years to understand and get healthy from and get to a place where you actually feel like maybe you can pursue something and can face this perpetrator again in court. it is not an easy thing. i think the public and the legislators should understand that. that should be reflected in

extending or eliminating statutes of limitations. geoff: thank you to you both. we appreciate your time. sidney: thank you, amna. ♪ geoff: while many jewish-americans are celebrating hanukkah this week, some of the festivities are being tempered by the ongoing war between israel and hamas, and concerns closer to home of antisemitism. we spoke with people across the country about what hanukkah means to them and if they are celebrating it differently this year. >> i'm rebecca lowin. >> my name is david berenson. i'm from the cleveland area. >> i'm rabbi jill perlman and i serve as the senior rabbi at temple isaiah in lafayette, california. >> my name is gadi peleg and i'm the founder and owner of breads bakery in new york city. >> my name is marc baker.

i'm the president and ceo of combined jewish philanthropies. >> the hanukkah holiday feels incredibly poignant and in some ways too relevant to this year. hanukkah, first and foremost, is a story about resistance. it's about our willingness to stand up and fight against people who would try to do us harm. and it's a story about the courage to overcome. >> certainly in our synagogue and in synagogues across the country we will be holding close the over 130 hostages that are still being held in gaza. we are hoping and praying that there is peace in the region and all who are suffering, the innocent who are suffering in gaza, in israel, that at suffering is able to come to an end and we're able to find a solution that will be one in which all will ultimately be at peace. >> errani -- i run a jewish lifestyle blog. i recently had a post take off

on instagram that was all about how to celebrate this year given everything that's going on both in the middle east again and here at home with the rise of antisemitism. moses said it best: "i have set before you life and death, blessing and curse, oh that you would choose life so that you and your children may live." so go ahead and celebrate. decorate. bake cupcakes with tiny potatoes on them. just don't do it lightly. >> i think one reason why the video went viral is that people within the jewish community are looking for that permission to resume normal life and to celebrate this holiday that we all love so much and to do it with some joy in our hearts. >> it is, of course, the celebration of the miracle of the oil. and that miracle is celebrated by eating sufganiyot, that are jelly doughnuts, and latkes. we are seeing a huge demand for all of our hanukkah items as people are eager to celebrate this holiday, which has

particular importance and particular meaning this year. >> we need to come together as a community and publicly to say we're proud of who we are and nothing's going to get in the way of us celebrating our tradition and our past and our stories. >> we have family coming in from out of town that we don't always have around hanukkah. i don't know what to anticipate with our family discussions this year. i'm kind of looking forward to it, even though it may be challenging at a time because you get 10 people together in a room and you get 15 different perspectives. >> we can hold multiple emotions and and multiple reactions to what is happening at the same time. there is sadness and and even some despair over the ongoing war in israel and in gaza. but we're also going to continue to hold on to hope and make sure

that we are finding the joy of this holiday and the joy of just what it means to be alive each and every day. ♪ amna: major league baseball's shohei ohtani is heading to the l.a. dodgers. his new home stadium is only about 30 miles north of where he currently plays with the los angeles angels. but that small move is coming with a big paycheck. ohtani's record-breaking $700 million 10-year contract recognizes his value as a unique baseball talent, the likes of which we haven't seen in generations. stephanie sy looks at the ohtani phenomenon, his massive contract and what it could mean for baseball. stephanie: shohei ohtani's contract is the highest in professional team sports in north america. ohtani blew by a recent record set by kansas city chiefs

quarterback patrick mahomes - by a good $250 million. the 29-year-old from japan dominates in both pitching and hitting. he was the league's most valuable player this past season. i'm joined now by joe posnanski, a sportswriter who's on substack under "joeblogs" and author of "why we love baseball." so how great is ohtani, is he baseball's goat, the best player the sport's ever seen? joe: it is a little bit early to call him the best that ever played, but what you can definitely say about him is that no one has ever been like him. he is unlike anybody. we have never seen a player who both is a dominant hitter and dominant pitcher at the same time. it has happened in the past. babe ruth started his career as a pitcher, but by that time that he hit he left itching behind. to see what otani has done has

been remarkable. stephanie: otani said in his announcement that until the last day of his playing career he wants to "strive forward not only for the dodgers, but for the baseball world." why is ohtani and this deal so good for baseball? joe: i think because he is so good for baseball. you hear in that statement what makes them so special, and that is he's not just playing for himself, not just playing for his team, not just playing for today, he's playing to be one of the greatest players that ever lived. it is part of who he is. it is why he decided to hit and pitch. it has not been done. it simply has not been done. it is something that has driven him to be not only a great player, but one of the greatest and players who pushes baseball forward. it is so good for the sport. and it is exciting for the sport to have him with a marquee team like the los angeles dodgers.

stephanie: i want to get to that team in a second. you cannot be the greatest without a world series title. with the angels, otani never even made it to the playoffs. the dodgers made it to the playoffs for over a decade. joe: it certainly is a big part of what is in it for him. you are right, i don't think you can be considered the greatest ever if you have not played in the world series and thrived in the world series, done some amazing things in the world series. it is part of baseball and it wasn't happening in anaheim, in los angeles for the angels. he needed i think to go to a team where he could succeed, and like you say the dodgers have not only made the playoffs, they have won 100 games five or six times in the last few years. every year they are a dominant team. that has to be exciting for him, and it's exciting for us. stephanie: between ohtani,

mookie betts, and freddie freeman, this trio will generate a lot of excitement, but that is a colossal amount of pressure to win the world series. is there any doubt they can handle that? joe: i don't think there is any doubt they can handle the pressure, because betts and freeman have been there already. what is fun about the dodgers at least from an outsider perspective is they face this pressure every year. there is no year where it is good enough to just win 100 games, just to make the playoffs. the intense pressure is on them to win the world series every year and they have not really done that. they have won one world series back in 2020 during the covid year, so it is a bit of a different kind of season. that pressure is always there. stephanie: i want to talk about this contract but also the fact that shohei ohtani has had two surgeries related to his elbow and i believe there is another

surgery and he will not be pitching next year. he will be hitting but not pitching. 97% of the actual payout is basically deferred in that contract until he is 40 years old, about to retire. is that legal? does that give the dodgers another advantage to keep paying high salaries to other players in the organization? joe: that had to be a big privet for otani. it does not feel legal, honestly. it is a $700 million contract that does not really begin until 2034. it is a very strange thing and it is kind of hard to even get your arms around what it means, but for the dodgers it does mean that they can go out, get more pitching, which is what they need right now. as far as otani and the injuries, that had to be a huge part of the decision process. as far as we know, he's not

going to pitch this year. we don't really know exactly what the surgery has been and where his elbow is from a health perspective. you would think the dodgers would have a better perspective on that than any of us do. the thing that is so amazing about shohei ohtani is how driven he is to get better, to be a part of baseball history. i am sure what the doctors are betting on is that of commitment from shohei ohtani. stephanie: joe posnanski, author of "why we love baseball." great to have you. joe: great to be here. ♪ geoff: later tonight on pbs, frontline presents a film about one of the biggest leaks of government secrets in u.s. history. "the discord leaks" focuses on the more than 300 pages of classified information, posted on the chat platform discord,

allegedly by 21 year old airman jack teixeira. >> in the summer of 2020, jack graduates high school. that is the first year of the pandemic. he actually skips high school graduation because he is off to basic training. he goes on to start taking the course work that he needs to become a cyber transport specialist. >> it was a low level i.t. job, but it required a security clearance and a background check. >> he was a little bit worried they were going to, in their interview, bring up we found this disc account -- discord account. in that time he became less active in discord and he was active about keeping the things he was doing private. >> what was he worried that the background investigation might turn up with regards to discord? >> there was a lot of racist

talk on that server. there was a lot of talk of killing atf agents, killing different government officials, committing acts of terrorism, things that are probably not great for someone in the military to be saying. so i think that is probably what he was worried about. >> but he was investigated and ultimately approved for security clearance by the department of defense. >> one big question we have right now is how did jack teixeira get a security clearance? i we are lookingf -- if we are looking at all the things he posted online, the racist violent comments and the fact that he is accused of leaking hundreds of classified documents, okay, wait a minute, there should have been red flags along the way. geoff: frontline's "the discord leaks" premieres tonight at 10pm eastern on pbs and on youtube. amna: and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz.

geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. thanks for joining us and have a good evening. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. well, somebody's pocket, with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

thank you. ♪ ♪ >>

wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. ♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. as israel tightens its grip on gaza, the leader of the l leftist labor party tells me why she's leaving politics. then, who should represent the palestinians?