♪ geoff: good evening. happy new year. i'm geoff bennett. amna nawaz is away. on "the newshour" tonight -- israel's supreme court strikes down a controversial overhaul of the nation's judiciary, a blow to prime minister netanyahu, already facing scrutiny amid the war. an investigation finds auditors consistently overlook child migrants being put to work in unsafe and often illegal conditions. and, the consolidation of health care services into corporate hospital systems is driving some doctors to unionize.

>> the main problem is we have so much paperwork, so much administrative work that really isn't about delivering care to patients. the victims of that are really the patients we see. ♪ >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- ♪ the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of "the newshour," including -- leonard and norma klorfine, and the judy and peter bloom coble or foundation. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at hewlett.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and

institutions -- ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to "the newshour." israel has opened 2024 with what could be a major shift in the war in gaza. the military announced today it's withdrawing several thousand troops, the first such move since the war started. meantime, israeli air strikes again hit central gaza.

the associated press reported a missile strike killed at least 17 people. to the south, palestinian children in rafah said they're praying for peace in the new year. layan: i wish not to die in 2024. our childhood is gone, there is no bathroom, no food, and no water, only tents, there is no safe space. there is nothing. our wish is to go back to our homes, and end this. geoff: amid the fighting in gaza, there was news on the political front in israel. in an 8-to-7 decision, the country's supreme court rejected a key part of prime minister benjamin netanyahu's judicial overhaul. the plan sparked deep divisions, but they've largely been put aside since hamas attacked on october 7th. we turn now to npr international correspondent daniel estrin, who is in tel aviv, for more on all of this. so, daniel, tell us on what grounds did israel's supreme court strike down that law that limited its power and oversight?

and what exactly are the implications? daniel: the israeli supreme court said that it was an overreach, that the supreme court in israel's democracy is part of the separation of powers and that the supreme court, quite simply, has the power of oversight over the government. the law that that israel passed several months ago was trying to strip the supreme court of one of its key powers, the power of oversight in certain decisions. and this is opening -- it could potentially open a pandora's box in israel at this very sensitive time, as the government is waging a war. the government is facing very low approval ratings, according to polls. netanyahu's government has lost between a third and a fourth of its support during this war and because of the war. and now a government which is

trying to hold on to power needs to face the public that largely sees it as lacking that legitimacy. and while it's waging a war at this catastrophic time for israel. and so now with this divisive issue coming back up in the israeli public, this issue of the separation of powers, an issue that brought out hundreds of thousands of israelis to protest in the months leading up to the war, it's a big question whether the government will continue to keep this polarizing issue of changing the makeup of israel's separation of powers. we'll continue to keep that on the back burner while it while it wages the war. will it take up this issue again now that the supreme court has struck it down? geoff: i want to ask you about this other significant development today. israel's military announcing the drawdown of troops for the first time since the war started. israel had called up more than 220,000 reservists at the start of this conflict, pulling them

from the work force and putting them into battle. help us understand the timing. why now? why the scaling back now of troops and gaza? daniel: an israeli defense official told me that israel believes that it has attained some operational gains in the war so far. speaking about the number of hamas militants killed, weapons confiscated, tunnels destroyed in gaza. he describes largely gaza's northern area as under israel's operational control, most of it. there still is some fighting there. and the fighting is based chiefly now in khan yunis, which is gaza's second largest city in the southern area of the gaza strip. and so with these gains that israel sees in the war, it is allowing itself to draw back some of its troops. this also comes, of course, as the u.s. has called on israel to

take this significant step to transition this war from the high intensity bombardment that we've seen with enormous death tolls on the gaza side, nearly reaching 22,000 people, according to gaza's health ministry, and to transition it to a more lower intensity conflict, lower intensity in terms of more concentrated, more pinpointed raids at high value targets and less of this wide scale offensive. and so that is the backdrop. but the way the army is portraying it, it says that israeli reservist soldiers need to go back to their families. they need to go back to their jobs. the economy has been lagging, as people have been called up to war and so they need to be given this breather. geoff: daniel, when you talk to israelis in the course of your

daily reporting, what did they tell you about netanyahu's leadership the war in hamas and , about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in gaza right now? daniel: this is a moment in the war where you do sense a growing sense of skepticism and debate among the israeli public about what kind of victory israel can achieve against hamas. for many on the centerleft, they see that israel is not reaching a deal with hamas. they would like to see combat put on pause, at least, and to try to reach a deal with hamas for the release of the remaining hostages. more than a hundred still remaining in gaza. for those on the right, many say that israel is not hitting gaza hard enough and that a complete victory would be a complete occupation of the gaza strip. and seeing to it even that palestinians are transferred out

of gaza to neighboring countries. but israeli soldiers are being killed and wounded every day. very, very high numbers for an israeli operation and you get a sense that people are feeling that victory, that decisive victory that israel promised may not be achievable. geoff: npr international correspondent daniel estrin. daniel, thank you for sharing your reporting and insights with us. daniel: you're welcome. ♪ geoff: in the day's other headlines -- russian forces pounded ukraine today with a record 90 drones during the early hours of the new year. the barrage struck lviv in the west and odesa in the south, and it followed a weekend of intensive new russian aerial assaults.

in moscow, president vladimir putin blamed it on ukraine's attack on a russian border city on saturday that reportedly killed 25 people. pres. putin: what is the point of what they are doing? they want firstly, to intimidate us and then create some kind of uncertainty inside our country. for our part, we will increase our strikes. undoubtedly, this is a crime against the civilian population and will not go unpunished. geoff: russian officials said ukrainian officials also shelled parts of a russian occupied region today. central japan's strongest earthquake in more than 40 years rocked the region today, killing at least four people. it was centered on the noto peninsula, along the sea of japan, and it triggered tsunami warnings, but they were later downgraded. still, nearly 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate. the quake also destroyed scores of homes and businesses, and sparked fires. a court in bangladesh has

convicted nobel peace prize winner muhammad yunus of violating labor laws at his non-profit telecom company. he appeared in court today and was sentenced to six months in jail but granted bail for now. protesters outside the court claimed he is being prosecuted for political reasons. he gained recognition for pioneering micro-loans to alleviate poverty. and, this first day of 2024 has brought parades and football here at home -- and other time-honored festivities the world over. in taiwan, dazzling fireworks lit up the taipei tower at midnight. in the netherlands, hardy souls charged into the new year with an ice-cold plunge in the north sea. and, at london's new year's day parade, thousands lined up to see fleets of carriages, iconic british cars and a bobby balloon go by. still to come on "the newshour" -- tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. the department of transportation scrutinizes frequent flyer

programs. we look at the major discoveries in space exploration over the past year. and the art of removing graffiti in rhode island. >> this is "the pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: while presidential candidates have been making their case to early state voters for months now, 2024 is officially here and the first votes are just weeks away. our politics monday team is here with a look at the busy year ahead. that's amy walter of "the cook political report with amy walter," and tamara keith of npr. happy new year. great to see you both. i am told by a source familiar that as early as tomorrow, donald trump's eagle team could file challenges to the pair of rulings in maine and colorado that knock him off those states's primary ballots.

how has his campaign sought to capitalize on these rulings? tamara: here is another instance of something that happened that caused people who oppose donald trump to come to his defense. these are the sorts of events he thrives on and benefits from. you had anti-trump republicans being interviewed and saying i don't think you should be running and i don't think he should win but in this case he shouldn't be pushed off the ballot. this is a situation where you even have people on the left who feel this could be dangerous territory and create a situation where anyone could be removed from the ballot, anyone could say something that is insurrection without a conviction. the main secretary of state was interviewed by my colleague and she said they welcome the supreme court weighing in

because this is credibly murky territory. geoff: the secretary of state has received death threats since the ruling. meanwhile, nikki haley and ron desantis both saying if they are elected they would pardon donald trump if he is convicted on anyone of the 91 felony county faces. >> if he is found guilty, a leader needs to think about what is in the best interest of the country. what is in the best interest of the country is to not have an 80-year-old man sitting in jail that continues to divide our country. what is in the best interest of the country would be to pardon him so that we can move on as a country and no longer talk about him. geoff: this is a persistent question, how can nikki haley or ron desantis distinguish themselves when they continue to court donald trump space of supporters? amy: and question many of the legal challenges against him.

i think it's important to go back, even before the campaign started to wear a lot of this began, which was right after the 2020 election, where after january 6, republicans had an opportunity to impeach the president and did not. going into 2022, the january 6 commission was supposed to be a bipartisan commission. in the senate, republicans said we don't want to support that. on the house side, speaker mccarthy pulled republicans he had picked to be on the committee. from the very beginning, this campaign basically started at the end of 2021, republicans in power have been basically saying to the voters that we think this is ok. it's not ok to to size him and certainly not ok to see that some of these very critical issues, other it is january 6,

mar-a-lago, the documents there are worthy of questioning whether he isn't -- forget about guilty, whether he should be a candidate, a serious candidate for office. that's the position those presidential candidates find themselves in all these month later. the ground was already tilled by previous republican leadership and that is maybe mixing a metaphor, but that's what they will have to deal with, that environment. geoff: nikki haley is ascendant in new hampshire. she faced criticism from desantis and chris christie after her comments about the cause of the civil war. the two of them certainly see vulnerability. is there time for her ♪ ♪ ♪ manage the momentum -- her to manage the momentum ahead of the new have your primary? tamara: the new hampshire primary is three weeks away.

real-life voting will happen and we will have to talk about -- we will not have to talk about polls, we can talk about actual voting in real momentum and not just perceived momentum. this is a key crunch time and it is almost very normal in this very abnormal year, to have a candidate ascendant have a controversy everyone is talking about. what is not clear is what the controversy will mean with voters. she's been trying to get those suburban voters, the independent voters, the non-trump republicans. fumbling on this and having to answer a few times and saying someone was trying to ask her a trick question about something that should be pretty easy to answer, just talk about slavery.

does that hurt her with the voters she needs as part of her coalition? is chris christie able to make the case he's trying to make? or is the governor of new hampshire able to make the case he's trying to make, which is don't look at that, and chris christie, you should go away. geoff: meantime, looking ahead to the general, we were talking before the broadcast about how both of you increasingly encounter people in your reporting and research that have a sense of disbelief that this will be a biden and trump matchup. amy: we have this discussion every week, how will voters react to this? this is not just folks not paying close attention, includes people that are paying close attention, they are still in disbelief the two candidates will be donald trump and joe biden, that at some point something will happen and we

will have two different nominees. when we talk about these voters, they are not pricing it in yet because it's not something they believe yet is going to be true and i'm not sure when this will kick in. will we have to wait until the actual conventions? will it be earlier than that? even at the conventions i've had people say to me, maybe one of the candidates will drop out at the convention. tamara: i've had people literally say who are you going to be covering in 2024? really? joe biden is running for president? yes, he is running for reelection. i repeatedly have spoken to people who are in disbelief that he really is going to follow through with it there is a campaign infrastructure in place good he is really running for president and donald trump is really running for president and building a ground game in iowa and trying to finish this off

early so that if trials were to start later in the spring, he could be structured by the trials because he was already the de facto nominee. geoff: what is the biggest political story you are watching outside of the election looking forward? amy: i'm really fascinated by the group of voters that donald trump did better with in 2020 then he did in 2016, latino voters. we remember in 2012, after republicans lost previous elections, they did an autopsy saying this party is not going to survive if we don't do better reaching out to and winning over latino voters, and then they nominated donald trump who talked about muslim bands and building a wall and yet in 2020 he did quite well with latino voters, much better than many republican candidates have, and with african-american voters. a lot of republicans believe a coalition is being built right

now, donald trump is at the head of it but it might not always be donald trump, a more multiracial, populist coalition, sort of the class, multiracial coalition that will be the new republican party and fully 20 force a test case. tamara: i am looking way down ballot, and the last couple of years they've got a lot of national attention and in many ways they have been nationalized. i'm watching to see whether in a year when there is a presidential race that gets all of this attention, whether those races will continue to be nationalized. if the mayor of kenosha, wisconsin will get big money from outside of the state should geoff: thanks for being here. ♪

migrant children in the u.s. are working in some of the most dangerous jobs in the country. what's more, private auditors assigned to root out unlawful labor practices often overlook child labor. laura barron lopez has more. laura: a recent new york times investigation found auditors failed to identify child migrants working at production warehouses used by some of america's most recognizable brands, including skittles, mcdonalds, and gerber. in addition, the most common job for migrant children coming to the u.s. is also one of the most hazardous, roofing and construction, despite federal law prohibiting anyone under 18 from doing so. hannah dreier of the new york times joins me now. thank you so much for being here. you reviewed private audits connected at 20 production facilities for well-known brands. what did those audits reveal about the use of illegal child labor? hannah: at all of these

production facilities there were children working usually the night shift wh fake ids, doing jobs totally off-limits for minors. industrial jobs, working with caustic chemicals, at slaughterhouses. despite the fact there were private auditors sent explicitly to find out if the plants were using child labor, these kids were missed every time. laura: how did the companies respond to your investigation that these children were missed repeatedly? hannah: i've been covering migrant child labor for the past almost two years now and we have uncovered children working these kinds of jobs and all 50 states. every time i have gone to the companies and said mcdonald's, why are children making the pork in your same urges, or gerber, why are children working on your baby food products? they say that can happen because we have auditors who are supposed to be catching this

stuff. what we found is the system is set up in a way that will not find children. children work at night and the auditors come in the morning. children work with fake ids and the auditors are checking paperwork and not speaking with children. a 16-year-old was killed over the summer making chicken that goes in chick-fil-a sandwiches, but his id said he was in the 30's. that's never going to get caught by the system. laura: the private auditing system makes billions to root out bad labor practices so you hinted at why these children sometimes fall through the crack's, children that are on cleaning crews for slaughterhouses or working in meatpacking plants across the country. are there disincentives for auditors to actually say there are child laborers? hannah: that's exactly right. i've talked to dozens of these auditors and they say they essentially have a conflict of interest. the audits are paid for by the

factories. auditors say when they come in and find a lot of violations, they get in trouble with the factories and sometimes with their own auditing firms. i spoke to one auditor who was finding a lot of problems at factories and his bosses sent him an email and said people will forget what you said and what they did but they won't forget how you made them feel, essentially saying we want you to provide better customer service. this auditor is trying to find actual problems and getting pushback from inside his own organization. laura: your reporting has also documented a surge in the number of migrant children coming to the u.s.. since 2021, nearly 400,000 migrant children have arrived alone in the united states. what countries are these children coming from and what has caused the increase? hannah: we have seen record numbers of children coming every year since 2021. like you say, they are coming from central america for the

most part and really escaping poverty. these are places that were hit very hard by the pandemic. food prices soared and jobs didn't come back. again and again parents are sending children, sometimes as young as 10 and 11 years old and expecting these kids to not only support themselves in the u.s. but also send money back. we have a situation now where there are nearly half a million kids in this country and they are under huge pressure to make money and ending up in these jobs that are some of the only jobs they can get. laura: many of these migrant children are working in roofing and you spoke to more than 100 child roofers. what kind of tasks are they assigned and can you give us a picture of the type of serious injuries they might have when working in these jobs? hannah: i went on sites with some of the children's -- with children and the conditions are terrifying. sometimes 30 or 40 feet, without

harnesses or training. sometimes they are falling. roofing is one of the three most dangerous jobs in the country, something a child shouldever be doing but these kids are working 12 hour days and in a lot of cases getting hurt. i spoke to the family of a 15-year-old who died in alabama after he fell 40 feet, he was releasing the roof unaware hails -- on a warehouse. a 16-year-old was killed this past year in florida when he fell from the roof of the house. even when children are not dying they're getting terribly injured, they are getting waves -- legs ripped off or arms/open. sometimes they are struggling to go to school, they are sleep deprived. it's terrible for their health. laura: the times investigation spanned a euro more. how has the labor department responded to all of this and

what do experts say needs to be done to root out unlawful child labor? hannah: the increase is coming at the worst time. the department of labor is facing historically low staffing levels. right now it would take more than 100 years for inspectors to visit every workplace ones. the department of labor has said in a response to a reporting it is stepping this work up and has opened some new investigations in response to things we found, kids at certain slaughterhouses and factories. but in the absence of a more robust labor department, really it's falling back on these private audits, which are failing to find kids. it's the kind of situation where if companies really wanted to go out and change how they are audited, they probably could find these kids, they look young and are not hard-to-find but they have to want to find out what is going on. laura: hannah, thank you. hannah: thank you. ♪

geoff: as recently as the early 1980s, roughly 75 percent of doctors in the u.s. worked for themselves, owning small clinics. today, that same percentage of physicians are employees of hospital systems or large corporate groups. some physicians worry that trend is taking a heavy personal toll and leading to diminished quality of care. as fred de sam lazaro reports, doctors at one large, midwestern health provider decided to unionize. fred: hours before sunrise, kate martin shepherds her daughter to the ice rink. while her daughter perfects her balance on the ice, martin uses the time to seek her own work-life balance. dr. martin: i have 80 things in my in basket.

fred: for family practitioner leah duvor, the best time to catch up with backlogged work is after her small children are in bed. dr. duvor: it will depend on my kids, whether they wake up, come down, cry, the baby needs a bottle. fred: for many primary care clinicians, work stretches far beyond clinic hours -- notes from clinic appointments, lab results, medication orders, messages from specialists. for some it's reaching a breaking point. on this recent morning, martin, a nurse practitioner and colleagues, doctors and physician assistants -- all employed by the allina health system, gathered in an unfamiliar setting the , minneapolis offices of the national labor relations board. here to witness the ballot count in a historic vote to form a union. dr. hoffman: we can't rely on corporations, we can't rely on healthcare executives to do the right thing for our patients. fred: dr. matt hoffman, a lead organizer of the drive, says primary care providers have borne the brunt of a relentless drive to squeeze profits by increasingly large corporate

owners, at the expense of patient care. his employer, allina, is a 5 billion dollar a year health system, with 60 primary and urgent care clinics across the twin cities area and nearby wisconsin communities. hoffman says that the problems here are hardly unique. dr. hoffman: you could go to any city, you could find a health system where the same issues exist. the main problem is we have so much paperwork, so much administrative work that really isn't about delivering care to patients. the victims of that are really the patients we see. it's waiting on hold, it's not getting to see your normal doctor, it's having to see someone that doesn't know about you. fred: pediatrician jennifer mehmal said she'd had enough and took an early retirement from allina to strike out on her own. with a psychotherapist colleague , she was just settling in a new small clinic above a st paul

strip mall, targeted at adolescent patients. >> i can spend the amount of time i need. fred: she began her career in a provider-owned group, which was later bought by allina. with the merger came centralized scheduling and standardization in everything from how much time is spent with each patient, even to hand sanitizers, she says. >> they were putting them all at waist level and i went up to the fellow doing it and said this is the pediatrics department, how about if we put them up a little bit higher? cause i could see kids really enjoying these. he said no, i've been told they have to all be at this level. a week later of course they had to come and move them. fred: dr. hoffman was among those who protested an even graver policy at allina, one they took to the new york times. the policy instructed staff to stop providing care to patients with more than $4500 in overdue bills, going beyond the more common practice of turning such

debts over to collection agencies. did you have personal experiences with patients that you could no longer see? dr. hoffman: yes, absolutely. these are the patients are really need the care the most. people that can't pay their bills. a lot of these people are children. fred: allina announced it has since discontinued the policy. the company declined to be interviewed for this story but in a statement said, "while we are disappointed in the decision by some of our providers to be represented by a union we remain , committed to our ongoing work to create a culture where all employees feel supported and valued." when all ballots were tallied the 500+ providers voted two to one in favor of the union. what do you expect if you get to the bargaining table? dr. hoffman: we need more staff, we need better paid staff to help support us so that we can spend our time in the exam room with patients. we need help with our paperwork with the administrative tasks so , that we can focus on patient care. that's really what we're looking r.

paul: things have to be pretty bad, i would argue, when physicians do try to organize because this has never remotely been a part of their professional culture. fred: and, paul clark, a professor of labor and employment relations at penn state, says the doctors' vote is hardly the final chapter your guess is that we won't see a contract between allina and this group of doctors who just unionized anytime soon? paul: if there was it would be highly unusual. they've sent a signal that they're going to fight this, they've hired one of the top anti-union law firms in the country and paid them a tremendous amount of money. fred: the same law firm has represented starbucks, he notes, where employees at more than 300 outlets have voted to unionize over the past two years. not one has reached a contract. paul: the strategy is delay, delay, delay. if you can delay signing a contract for a year, then there's a provision of the law that allows the workers to

basically reverse their vote. it's called decertification. workers expect a contract that's going to improve things, the hospital delays, a year goes by the employees there are saying, , well, we're not getting what we thought we would get. we're paying dues. and we went to all this trouble. and it's not producing anything. fred: on the other hand, he says, physicians do have more leverage and less job turnover than baristas. and the vote comes as a recent gallup poll showed a majority of americans, 71%, approve of unions, the highest level since 1965. whether these doctors get a contract and how far, if at all, the allina model spreads, clark says, may become clearer in a couple of years. for the pbs newshour, i'm fred de sam lazaro in minneapolis. geoff: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under told stories project at the

university of st. thomas in minnesota. ♪ frequent flyer miles are one-way airlines try to maintain customer loyalty. the promise is accumulated miles can later be redeemed for free travel or other rewards. but as william brangham reports, there is fresh scrutiny about whether they use deceptive practices. william: that scrutiny is coming from the u.s. department of transportation, which is examining whether airlines have been making promises about the value of the frequent flyer miles, then tweaking the fine print and making them worth or making them harder to use. david shepherdson has been covering all of this for waiters and joins me now. what are they looking at? david: the value of the miles,

is it harder to book the same tickets for the same number of miles? transparency, how easy is it to get on the website and book a ticket, how easy is it to determine whether to use miles? how easy is it to transfer those miles? do you have to pay to transfer them to someone else. they want to take a deep dive, they brought all of the major airlines in 41-on-one meetings f --or one-on-one meetings. william: the myriad complaints came from senators raising this initially? david: that's right, there's a big fight in congress right now over the fees credit cards charge people to use, the retailers and the credit card companies and airlines are in the middle of that. senator durbin from illinois, and a republican introduced this bill. the airlines argue that with a

reduction of the fees, it makes it impossible to offer the popular -- credit cards offer points, free miles when you book a ticket, or you buy something and get points for it. during the middle of that fight, d.o.t. is scrutinizing these programs, are they treating consumers properly and following the letter of the law? william: i think when people sign up for these things, they may be assume there might be -- where does the line cross from being vague and confusing and shifting to being officially unfair or illegal or deceptive? david: that's a really good question and i don't know yet where that is. one issue is the value of the miles because airlines are using something called dynamic pricing. it used to be a thousand miles get you anywhere domestically.

now it is about the number of seats available, like buying with money. there's a relationship between the price of the ticket and miles, what it costs for the ticket. you might have to spend more miles. airlines would argue that helps guarantee you connection he book a ticket. if they limit the number of seats you can use miles with, you might not get a ticket. william: what are airlines doing that could be considered unfair or deceptive? david: if you listen to consumer advocacy, there are a lot of miles chasing a relatively few number of seats and prices are going up. different airlines have different policies, how easy it is to get on the website and

determine, can i book it today or tomorrow, how easy is it to find a magic flight where i can book the ticket? that is one of a number of different questions d.o.t. is looking at. this is just the latest, they have sent the last two years cracking down on the airlines. southwest had to pay a record penalty over the snowstorm. secretary buttigieg has had previously he will beat up on the airlines when necessary to ensure that consumers get what they are entitled to. also there has been proposed a number of new regulations, including airlines paying compensation for delays, more than three hours that is still a ways off but it's an example of the administration trying to compel the airlines to treat consumers better. william: you were saying before, so many miles chasing so few flights. how big of an issue is this? how many miles are in the

either? david: a staggering amount. close to 1% of u.s. gdp is charged on a delta amex credit card. that's upwards of $250 billion. they are generating revenue from their amex partnership, five to $7 billion a year. it's a massive business for the airlines. it also helps get newer, younger people -- you are at college, trying to save for that first ticket, use the credit card. also about loyalty. you might get free bags or better status so you can avoid lines. these credit cards are integral to the airlines's plan to keep you flying the same airline regardless of price. william: what to the airlines say about the criticism? david: in the meeting with the dot, they argue they are

transparent. they say 15 million tickets were booked last year using just points from airline credit cards and people do love the credit cards they love the programs mostly pure they don't love the changes. generally speaking people are happy with frequent flyer plans. william: why is this something the department of transportation is looking into? david: because congress took the authority away from the federal trade commission, state attorney general's and handed all consumer protection responsibility for d.o.t. some states have argued they should have more authority to tackle this issue and argue that prior administrations have not been aggressive enough in tackling this issue. outside of antitrust, d.o.t. is the only one that is in charge of enforcing these consumer responsibility laws. william: david shepherdson, thank you. david: thank you, great to be here. ♪

geoff: 2023 saw incredibly detailed images from the most advanced telescope in space. it was also the 25th year of a global partnership sending astronauts to orbit earth. digital video producer casey kuhn delves into the major space news from the last year with our own newshour space junkie. >> this year brought incredible discoveries as humanity ventured further into space than ever before. to talk about what this year look like for space exploration and what will come in the year ahead, i am joined by our science correspondent, miles o'brien. thank you for joining me. i'm excited we get to talk about space news from 2023 and what's to come. i have a lot of questions for you but we also asked reviewers to send in questions and i will be posing those to you as well. first off, what were some of the strand -- standouts in 2023?

miles: casey, if we listen very quietly we might be able to hear number one, which is -- drumroll please -- the hum of the universe. the nanograv observatory was able to pick up these waves detected by studying rapidly spinning dead stars, giant ripples in space-time. it may be might get us closer to the elusive hunt for dark matter, one of those things we know is out there but we haven't been able to find it. the james webb space telescope -- wow. there are so many observations, amazing images. fundamentally, james webb is rewriting the astronomy textbooks right now and changing a lot of theories about how the universe was formed, how it

expanded and why we are sitting here talking to each other for that matter. osiris racks -- rex, love that mission, hope you could follow it. it went off to an asteroid. it is a potential threat to earth in a couple of decades if we don't watch it carefully. it will come pretty close. osiris rex, part of its mission is to figure out the asteroid is made of pure so if we had to deflect it we would know what to do. casey: the james webb telescope revealed stunning images of the universe. what are some of the highlights? miles: it just goes on and on. it is an amazing instrument. after all of the delays and expense and everything. it has seen these stellar nurseries that we have never seen before. the youngest stars, how they form.

high-resolutions of all kind of images, including the smallest brown dwarf ever captured on any image seen by human beings. it has captured stunning images of supernova. it has looked at our own solar system and found a large polar cap on uranus. there are so me discoveries it's hard to keep up with them. it seems any time it points its gaze in any direction it changes the way we think about the universe. we are just getting started. they only launched it in 2021 and i'm really looking forward casey: we did ask viewers what questions they would like to ask you and we got dozens of them. mike from oregon wants to know how does a launch so often and what does that mean? miles: nasa has never built its own rockets, it always had a

contractor. what is different about space x is it retains a lot of autonomy, its own intellectual property and sells its services back to nasa. it's not a defense style contract as nasa did for so many years. that really unleashed -- it gave space x a terminus amount of freedom to not only provide services for nasa, which of course kept the lights on as they were doing business, but also allowed them to take those same rockets and seldom to commercial players. couple that with the silicon valley eat those that elon musk brings to the -- ethos that elon musk brings to the table, go fast and break things, has

put them at a launched tempo that nasa could never come near to. casey: from texas, whether these space launches are a contributor to climate change and pollution? miles: they are. right now you would put it as a rounding error number. liquid hydrogen is one of the fuels in play but it does create water crystals at high altitudes and that has a climate impact. water is a greenhouse effective chemical of course. there are other fuels involved, hydrogen-based fuels that create black soot. and of course co2. up until recently, the number of launches has made that somewhat insignificant. when you consider some of these launches are designed to put satellites up there to help us understand climate change, it's

probably worth it at the bottom of the ledger, now that we are at 100-plus launches and beyond i think it's time for the space community to get serious and start thinking about more sustainable ways of doing this. it will not be an electric ride to space but there's got to be ways for smart people to come up with less greenhouse gas, i should say, less intensive ways to get to space. casey: mars in 2024? miles: [laughs] not mars. i hope to live to see it. casey: thank you for joining me. miles: such a pleasure. ♪ geoff: spray-painted words and pictures, usually clandestine and often illegal, are getting erased by a group of new englander's who have tagged themselves the anti-graffiti vigilantes.

but, as pamela watts of rhode island pbs weekly reports, the method they employ against the perpetrators is an art in itself. the story is part of our arts and culture series, "canvas." >> i love those rocks. they are my friends, i've known them forever. i take it very personally when people deface them, put terrible things on them. pamela: artist holy flag has good reason to be protective of the breathtaking rocks that define the 400 miles of rhode island's rugged coastline. it is the view right out the window of her third-floor studio in the home her family has lived in for generations. the rocks were her childhood playground. >> grew up there, picnic, ran all over the rocks. no them like the back of my hand. i'm also an artist so i love the beauty of them. they are unique. pamela: raw, natural beauty is

the bedrock of her work. she is currently painting watercolors of nebula from pictures captured by nasa's hubble space telescope. she's also a graphic artist, creating designs for the metropolitan opera and museum of natural history in new york. but when so-called street art, spray painted graffiti, began proliferating along the rocks in her neighborhood, the artist saw red. >> when you see somebody defacing them and writing personal messages that they think will be immortal all over the rocks, it's really upsetting to me. it is visceral. pamela: she was so outraged, she took justice into her own hands, forming the citizens group, anti-graffiti vigilantes. >> just lightly brush over it with this. pamela: armed with only a brush and cans of latex house paint,

she started taking a swipe against what she sees as crimes against nature. soon, a small posse of like-minded volunteers took up the charge. their restoration of these geologic gems requires wiping out words and pictures in such a way it tricks the eye. instead of just a cover-up, the rocks magically appear as they once were. >> i judge how close i am with the color i put on. the key to a good job is feathering in lightly. let the texture of the rock come through. pamela: at first they tried to clean off the spray paint with wire brushes and even chemicals. nothing works because the rocks were too porous. the beach was too steep for sandblasting equipment. >> i know about painting and colors and nuance so we said let's try painting over it, camouflage.

pamela: how did you come up with this technique of camouflage? >> i didn't think about it, it's just very basic. how do i make this look like the rock? i keep adjusting my paint colors as i go along. you keep doing it until you like the effect you've gotten. pamela: because the rocks are different, see you have to pick the colors. >> yet, and you do many colors over one little area you don't just say this rock is great, here is great. pamela: a big, dry rush and you smash it into the rock. joan is a social worker, artist and determined to restore the rocks to their natural state. >> it's a way of making my own mark by marking over other people's work. you think about what art is, it is market-making. hopefully we are creating an environment so it's not going to be vandalized again. >> if we do a good job i can't

tell where it was and that's what we are hoping, when you walk around you don't even think about graffiti. it's not what you came here to see. pamela: volunteer marion joined the group a -- marianne joined a decade ago. spring and summer, they attack rocks at places like this. they gather tips from informants. >> they watch for it and people tell us about it. we say ok, we need to come on down. pamela: the anti-graffiti vigilantes say those who come to stroll along the shore often voice appreciation and sometimes offer to help. >> a lot of people say i'm so glad you're doing that, and then there are people who have no clue what we are doing. they just think we are a bunch of weird people. pamela: undaunted, they keep chipping away, true rock stars of rhode island's shores. >> i want you to be able to look

at these beautiful rocks and not read things. no words, no images, just say these rocks are beautiful. this ocean is beautiful and we are grateful to have it. pamela: for the pbs newshour, i am pamela watts in narragansett, rhode island. ♪ geoff: we invite you to join us tomorrow for an exclusive interview with one of the israeli women who was held hostage by hamas. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. thanks for starting your 2024 with us. have a good evening. >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- ♪ >> architect. beekeeper.

mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. >> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. ♪ supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions -- ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs news station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

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. [commanding music] - hello everyone, and welcome to amanpour and company. here's what's coming up. after rolling back carbon neutral targets, britain now doubles down, drilling for more gas and oil. senior green party leader, zack polanski joins me. then, president biden's historic picket where his climate targets are an issue for striking auto workers. but what are the facts? i ask michigannomics professor betsey stevenson. plus, as migrant crossing surge at the southern u.s. border, chilean author isabel allende gives a face to the faceless in her new novel,