captioning spowsored by ur productions, llc >> brangham: good evening. i'm william brangham. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: the trump administration again rolls back eironmental regulations, this time for coal plants. then, the world's worst humanitarian crisis. an on-the-ground report on the famine in yemen. >> in many other crises in the world, those people would be gettinfood assistance in an operation, but in yemen, the scale of the needs is outpacing the capacity and the resources. >> brangham: plus, it's friday. michael gerson and jonathan capehart analyze the week in politics. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.io and by contrib to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brangham: the partial government shutdown ended it first full week today, with no signs of negotiaons before the new year, and the new congress. president trump insisted again today that any spending bill to reopen the goverent must

include billions of dollars in funding for a southern border wall. he wrote on twitter that, "we will be forced to close the southern border enrely" if there's no money for the wall. the president has also the case of gustavo perez arriaga, the illegal immiant accused of killing a policeman in northern california. he was arrested today in bakersfield. in modesto, the sheriff of stanislaus county, where the killing occurred, said california's sanctuary law blocked any prior effort to have the man deported. >> based on two arrests for d.u.i. and some other active warrants that this criminal has out there, law enforcement would have been prevented, prohibited, from shang any information with i.c.e. about this criminal gang member. ladies and gentlemen, this is not how you protect a communityb ngham: investigators say officer ronil singh was shot anr killed ae pulled over perez arriaga for allegedly driving drunk. new mexico officials now say a

guatemalan he died in federal detention, on christmas eve. eighyear-old felipe gomez alonzo was the second child to die this month while in border patrol custody. he had been held in new mexico, but passed away at a hospital in el paso, texas. meanwhile, t secretary of homeland security, kristjen wielsen, visited el paso today to discuss the cas officials. in syria, the danger of new y fighting escalated at a wn where u.s. troops have been supporting kurdish fighters. syrian forces arrived near manbij, apparently to aid the kurds against a possible attack by turkey. the turks consider the kurds terrorists. but a turkish build-up also continued, and president recep tayyip erdogan brushed aside the syri move. >> ( translated ): we know there is a situationhere their syrian flag has been hoisted, but there is nothing confirmed, serious yet. our entire aim is to make terror organizations leave the area.

if terror organizations leav i then theno work left for us anyway. >> brangham: the syrian and turkish military mov have accelerated since president trump announced last week that u.s. troops will leave syria. right now, about 2,2 deployed there. crews in indonesia struggled again today to reach an erupting volcano and assess the dangers a of new tsunami.an bad weathean enormous cloud of volcanic ash spewing a mile high hampered the efforta focond day. the eruptions triggered a monster wave last saturday that. killed 426 peo more than 40,000 others remain displaced. back in this coury, flood warnings were out todaa from louisian new jersey as a powerful storm dumped heavy rain. had already sent up to a foot of rain rushing through the streets of columbia, mississippi today. the downpours moved north and east. meanwhile, another storm brought blizzard conditions across the

dakotas and minnesota. wells fargo will pay $575 million in a settlement over the fake accounts the bank opened in customers' names. the agreement, made public today, includes all 50 u.s. states and the district of columbia. the company admitted in 2015 that employees opened millions of fake accounts in order to meet sales goals. it has already been ordered to pay more than $1.2 billion in penalties. and, wall street's rally ended today. the dow jones industrial average lost 76 points to close at 23,062. the nasdaq fell five points, and the s&p 500 slipped three. for the week, the dow and the s&p gained nearly 3%. the nasdaq gained nearly 4%. ill to come on the newshour:ni the trump admistration rolls back environmental rulations t coal plants. the world's worsmanitarian crisis-- theamine in yemen. alysis from michael gerson and jonathan capehart on the week'ss political

and, much more. >> brangham: the trump administration is movi to partially roll back yet another obama-era environmental rule-- this time, on the mercury emissions that come out of the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants. the environmental protection agency announced the proposal today, saying that the cost of these regulations outweighs the health benefits. mercury can cause birth defects, brain damage and learning disabilities in children. under presidenobama, the e.p.a. had said power plants must limit mercury and other pollutants, and it justified those rules by saying the changes would prevent thousands of deaths and save tens of billions of dollars. but president trump's e.p.a. doesn't agree with those t calculations at all, andid utilities won't have to comply with those rules in the future. juliet eilperin of the

ashington post" has beenri co the e.p.a. throughout the trump administration. nice to see you. >> great to see you. >> brangham: let's ck in time. in 2011, the obama administration and his e.p.a.ru puts out thesles. this is considered one of obama's signature environmental rules. what did they do back then? >> the rules mandated power companies reduce the mercury thatome out of the smokestacks of power plants by 90% over the course of five years, and, so, that's what was set in hogs there were a series of lawsuits about this questioning again how they came to this conclusion, but that was really what was triggered by thema o administration and accounts for why we've seen such a decline in mercury from power plants across the country. >> brangham: so the rules, if they were intended to recuse mercury, they worked? >> they succeeded a nd 2016, the industry was in fully compliance with whama set out to do in 2011.

>> brangham: remind us why we care about mercury getting into the air. >> it's a powerful neurotoxin. there are also other hazardous pollutants emitted along with mercury. itat happens is, over time, can accumulate, for example, in fish, which we eat, and ultimately poses the greatest risks to unborn children and infants as their brains are developing. so it's somethin obviously, the medical communities are concerned about. >> brangham: you menetioned at time there were lawsuits. those were from the industry saying we don't want to comply? >> yes, both the industry and the number of states that were alive with industry challenged this. one of the main issues that the raised was the idea that, when thobama e.p.a. originally calculated it, they said it would cost roughly 9.6 billion a year for the industry to install these pollution controls, and it would really only save the -- the limits on mercury would only translate to $6 million a year

in healthn beefits. >> brangham: 1 billion versus off6 million. >> yes, and they said if you take into account by cleaning up the power plants they are reduce nitrogen e oxllutants throirchgd heart and lung dig easy that likely what we're talking about are public health benefits in the range of90 37 billion toillion a year, so the benefits far outweigh th. co >> brangham: i see. so that was the obama administration's justifications on the cost enefit analysis. >> yes. >> brangham: the ramp e.p.a. says that was the wrong calculation? >> they said the acting administrator for the epia.p. math.ufortd this as fuzzy he said, look, we're just trying to change the way we count t ings. the fu're cleaning up these other pollutants, these fine particles that cause lung disease, these are what we call co-benefits, incidental and noti

ctly tied to mercury, so we should exclude those altogether and very much changes the th, as you can see. >> brangham: they're not saying the co-benefits aren'ts, actually benefthough, right? >> right. they're not saying we're not assaying those don't exist or we're not trying to reduce the fine particles and other pollute minutes other rules, but for the purposes of this rule they're saying we're not going to count them in the equation. >> brangham: is industry happy e?out this mov >> it's a very interesting question. what industry is very clear on is they want to kep the obama era rule in place becausey they've alreent the money to clean up their plants and they would consider it ait compe disadvantage if suddenly things were reversed and they take the scrubbers off. the fascinating ing is and reached out to the biggs trade seengsd what they said is, sentially, they understand that e.p.a. cane review th rules but most importantly the rules stay in place. rely, this is much more aout changing the calculus going

forward from the perspective of trumofficials. brangham: so interesting. as we've talked with you many times on the show, this is obviously a partf the much larger rollback of environmental era -- obama era environmental rules. ou look back on the year, the two years of the trumpat e.p.a., else do you point to as other signature roll,lbac? >> where are a number of them, but i would say in terms of some of the most high-profile e.p.a. reverse also that we've had since trump has take office, at the top of the list would be the repeal of the cleat power pl this was, you know, essentially -- >> the omnibus -- signature obama effort to deal with climate change by curbing the greenhouse gases that come out of power plants. so at this point the epia.p. has proposed its own version of this which is far less stringent. then you also have the fact that they've frozen fuel efciency standards for cars and light

trucks -- again, an arguably eagerly significant climate rul that came outve the obama administration. again, in the past sev weeks, we've seen a rollback of the wears of the u.s. rule. this is an extremely wonky rule but significant that essentially defines what waters are protected in the united states from bhiewngs, from being trained drained -- from pollion and drained. >> brangham: lastly we know scott pruitt, former e.p.a. chief, an andrew we wiler w weie act chief do. we see a policy shift at theto >> you will see the controversial initiatives sco pushed being sidelined under the new administrator, things like doing a public de otever whether climate change is cause bid human activi, or one particularly controversial

proposal which had to do with easing pollution controls on diesel freight trks, so a few outlier things. but for the most part, what we're seeing from andrew wheeler and what you can expect in the coming years is he will pursue many of the same degulatory initiatives that have been the hallmark of the trump era. >> brangham: juliet eilperin, as always, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> brangham: this month, the united nations annoued that 73,000 yemenis are living under famine conditions, and millions more risk dying from hunger as the country's humanitarian crisis spirals downward. since 2014, yemen has been torn apart by a civil war, pitting rebels w against the yemeni government, which is allied wi saudi arabia. saudia arabia, in turn, receives military support from the united states. special correspondent jane

ferguson managed to visit rebel-held areas for the newshour earli and she returned this month to provide this exclusive report on the worsening situation. and a warning-- some of the scenes in this story are very disturbing. >> reporter: when ikram bakil's emoves her clothes, the extent of her suffering is clear. she is starving. below the waist, her body dorinks away to nothing. this is what famines to a four-year-old child. her mother aisha cannot bear to watch her waste away. she is overcome by a wave of grief as she tells us of her struggles to keep ikram alive. >> ( translated ): my husband's family sayi shouldn't worry about it. when i asked them to give mesa money, the "allah will take care of her." i took her to the hospital. i sold a ring for $27 and got her treatment, but it didn't work. they sent us here and now they are treating her, but she is

still sick. >> reporter: the war in yemen has devastated the economy. millions are out of work, and the price of food and fuel has spiked. it is home to the worst humanitarian suffering in the world, with countless falies unable to feed themselves. the u.n. says two-thirds of yemenis need food aid and millions are on the brink of famine. i came here in june and found unimaginable misery. since then, fighting has intensified across the country, and i returned to find the osisis even worse. thistal is in the capital, sanaa. only the lucky ones make it thi. many simply cannot afford the bus fare. millions are stranded in rur areas. to find some of those, we headed out to hajja, high up in the noheh yemen mountains, where

main regional medical center is overflowing with crowds ofpa desperatnts and children. here we found dr. al maqtali, working hard to save lives. but, she only has medicine to give them, when what they really need is od. so they come back again and again, worse each time. how do you feel when you are treating them? >> i am feeling very, very sad because i cannot help th. when they came here in the tpatient, they are moderate malnourished. i cannot ge them food-- from where i will give them food? after that, they are coming to the ward with severe malnutrition.is s the process. moderate to severe and dying. >> reporter: so you are forced to watch them get worse. >> yes. >> reporter: she's afraid this is only tip of the iceberg. many of the worst cases, she doesn't see. that's because so many parents can't even afford the cost of bringing their children for treatment. do you fear that there's a lot that are still out there?

>> yes. for one coming here, there is w. not coming, maybe 20, 30, 50. we don't kno >> reporter: we headed furthernt into the couside. here at a basic rural clinic, parents waited in line for their children to get examined. they are all from the same area? this ea? >> yeah. >> reporter: the daily weighing and measuring tiny arms comes to the same conclusion every time: when the shows severely malnourished. driving deeper into th mountains, we learned of a family struggling to keep their newest born alive. here in their isolated community, they were living only on rice and a prayer. hamoud abdullah is stunted and unresponsive. been malnourished his entire, short life. incredibly, he is two years old, but looks like he is just a few

months. his mother amany took him to the hospital once fore. >> ( translated ): you could not imagine. when we brought him to the hospital, he was almost dead, and we thought he wouldn't survive. in the hospital, they said he was finished. they gave him oxygen and injections. we stayed for almost a month before returning home. >> reporter: now he is sick again, and there is no more money left for the journey backh to theospital. yemen's mothers are surviving on one meal a day, often just breae an they are not getting enough nutrition to be able to breastfeed, and their babies weaken and die. the cost of a simple bus fare has spiked as fuel pd ces increasee to the war. half the country's health facilities are shut, and even if fieamdo make it to one, they then have to pay for a place to stay in the town while the child gets treatment. all too often, they leave the hospital too ely, and return

to a home where food remains scarce. it's not just hunger that claims the lives of yemen's children. diseases have taken hold here, too. poor sanitation and living conditions as a result of th war have spawned the world's worst cholera outbreak. every hospital now has to ve cholera wards like this. five-year-old akram is barely conscious, suffering from dangerously severe dehydration. nearby lies wadah, also five years old. he has been hospitalized with cholera twice in the last month. the ward is full of women-- mothers ill with the disease, all with children back home depending on them. saba just arrived today with cholera. she has been sick for four days, and she just arrived today for treatment with cholera. she is one of five people thativ have arr into this clinic so far today.

in the room next door lies ten- year-old yasmine. her breathing comes in painful ipsps, as she struggles with the deadly diseaseheria. it's an illness that doctors here never treated before, havi been largely eradicated in yemen with vaccinations. but this waras undone everything. in the four years the conflict has ravaged yemen, the number of needy people has steadily increased. most here need food donations. the way this war is being fought is directly causing the hunger here. an air, land and sea blockade on the rebel-controlled north of yemen, and saudi-led campaign of air strikes have brought the economy to its knees. millions of households have lost their incomes, and food prices have increased. the rebels prevent aid workers from accessing areas near the front line, where many need their help. nowhere else on earth are so

many people going hungry and the u.n. is struggling to keep up. >> if i would plot it on a graph, it's going like this. and the question is, how much can be done? if every year the needs are going to go up, if we were feeding three million people two years ago, and today we are ,eding eight million peop and next year we are going to feed 12 million people, where is it going to stop? whe only way it will stop is there is peace. >> reporter: even if the u.n. manages to feed 12 millions people tming year, 20 million need their help. that gap is a reality that aid workers here simply have to accept >> in many other places in the world, we would be feeding those people. in many othecrises in the world, those people would be getting food assistance in an operation. but in yemen, it's just the scale of the needs is outpacg the capacity and the resources.

>> reporter: in yemen, this suffering is man-made. the war is causing the famine. the majority of those killed in this conflict are dying of hunger and preventable diseases. the starving are the it's casualties, children like ikram, the most innocent of victims. for the pbnewshour, i'm jane ferguson, in sanaa, yemen. >> brangham: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: a recap of the best television of 2018. the life of israeli writer andad peaccate, amos oz. and, turning salt from theo dead sea it. washington, d.c. and the nation

are closing the year in the middle of a government shutdown, with the twoes as far apart as you can be over the need for a border wall. for some analysis on tek in politics, i'm joined by "washington post" columnists michael gerson and jonathan capehart. mark shields and david brooks are away. w gentlemecome. >> thank you. >> brangham: jonathan, to you first. the chasm between the democratic party and president trump over this shutdown fight over immigration gets wider and wider and wider. is it your sense that either side genuinely wants a solion, or do they actually relish this fight? >> i'll take president trump first. i think he relishes the fighhe been talking about this border wall since his campaign days, he's been talking about it as president. a couple of things have ifted -- who's going ay for it, was always going to be mexico during the campaign, mexico through ost to have the administration, and -- mexico through most of the a administrati now he's trying to put the american

taxpayer on the hook f. the wa also the definition. nt's a wall, then slats, th whatever else. as for the democrats, i actually do think they do want to have a solution, not just when it comes to a border wall, but also when it comes to im we have been down this road at least two times this year -- and correct me if i'm wrong, michaee said yes to funding for a border wall in exchange for otection for dreamers, or in exchange for rm and, eachre time, the president has rejected. each time the republicans have rejected it. so, now, i think, with democrats coming into the majority next week that we might see a puh for that, but let's not for something -- republicans still control the house, they still control the senate, and president trump is still in the white house, and they could do something with the majority at they have right now.

clearly're choosing not to. >> brangham: michael, do you see any obvious end to this log jam? >> well, i think you're correct, jonathan, that democrats have the elements of maybe a deal isn it's not as though they're talking about two massively different positions here. it's a rounding error in the budget. and i talked with a democratic senator today who said, you know, there are two positions that might solve this problem, one incdi the dreamers, but said we no longer trust the president, he has to move firsta >> bra because they put those on the table in the past and the president has said no t them. >> exactly, and pulled the rug out. and, so, he's the unreliable negotiating partner. the president and his people do believe that, first of l, they dominate the issue, that, instead of the speaker of theng house haer issues, okay, they're going to dominate what the topic of discussion is, and

they think that that's a winner. this is really a case in which both sides think they're winning. i think it's not likely the president is winning, but i do think that this is a little bitf a different shutdown than in the past because it's a very partial shutwn. you're not shutting down veterans and h.h.s. -- b>> brangham: which woulde much more politically unpalatable. >> exaly, i think the cost would be much higher. this is a partial shutdown, which could go on longer. >> brangham: you're saying the republicans have the chips how much changes when nancy pelosi and the democrats take over next week? >> the biggest thick will be nancy pelosi will be speaker, the democrats will have a big majority. but michael hits on something that is going to be the wildcard in all this and that' president trump. i talked to someone today on the ouuse side who brought up the same issue thatbrought up, which is no one knows what the

president actually wants. a long time ago, senator schumer said negotiating with prident trump is like negotiating with jell-o. i think what you're going to hear is, from the democrats, here's what our plan is, but we can't move until we hear from the presint what exactly he wants, what are the contours of the deal, and theonce that's out there, pray that he sticks to it because, as our colleague kathere writes in a column today, we've seen many times when the wpresidel publicly say he wants this fill-in-the-blank deal and then at the last minute pull the rug out from under it, as michael said. >> it's particularly interesting the majority of the senate, aak republican, isg the same position, a neutral position saying work this out, i'm no longer in this. and that is a strange game as thwell. i mean is supposed to be a unifying, governing party, and it is notons issue right now.

>> brangham: can i ask you a question specifically about the president's rhetoric about immigratn and the impact that has on this debate? ae immigrants who come to this country, they're nl saints, but they are not, as the president portrays them, a criminal, violent, contagiths hoar he wants us all to think of them as. doesn'that rhetoric and the failure of anyone in the g.o.p. to step up andsay, this is dangerous rhetoric, doesn't that make this debate really unsolvable if that's the way he portrays them? >> there are two levels here. there's a policy debate out border security, and that's a valid debate. youcan talk about whether want a wall or you don't want a wall, there's no evil approheh ine. the problem comes when youze dehumaigrants as a way to raise this debate and that's what the president has done, put at the center of the republican agenda byiz dehumg migrants, and that's a very tough thing to

get any agarreemenound. you can't, you know, come up with a comprehensive solution under those terms. the president would have to essentially give up some that if he wanted agreement. but he thinks that that is best play, going into the 2020 election. it's a littlodd because that was his message in the mid-term ection. didn't turn out all that well. but he did not learn any lessonr the midterm, as far as i can tell. he still thinks this is theng unifrepublican theme. >> brangham: and jonathan, to this point, it's not justn immigration. nc's on so many issues that the republican resisto the president on syria, saudi arabia, climate change, whatever it might be, the president, he reallhas taken full leadership of his party. yes. full leadership of his party, but also, as vd through the prism of who he views as his so we talk about the fact that

the president has sort of a solid 30% of the base. he talks only to them. this rhetoric, his closinggu nt, which, to my mind, was a racist closing arguntabout the immigration -- the immigrant hoard coming to the border, he's carrying that througbecause it plays well with the people who are applauding him, people who are watching certain cable channels that cater to that and, as we have seen in terms of the reaction to what the president may or may not do on immigratiohe people who are on television or on radio who might disagree with him vehemently, they have outsized power in terms of the president in terms of what he will do and propose.s so as longe president caters to them and do not do what democrats and rep in the white house and the oval office have done for generationh get int office, you broaden

your reach -- he has not done that he has made a point to exclude anyone whom he ght view as someone who has not supported him or doesn't support him. el, looking: mic forward to next year, there's obviously the other elephant in the room, and that is robert mueller and at might or might not come out of this ongoing investigation, whit the presidas -- it has been a thorn in his side, tohe say least, for the entirety of the investigation. when you look forward and imagine how that might play out, what do you think is going to happen? >> the rumors are we m see something pop in mid february. >> brangham: like a repor from robert mueller? >> that's just rumor. but if it were to happen in tha time frame, then, you know, caere would be an assessment of how strong thee is here. i think there would be tremendous pssure within the democratic constituency to support impeachment if there's a

strongbase made y mueller, and i think that may not be good i've talked to some democrats , o aren't sure that that's good politiven the clinton example, but i think there's going to be hu pressure, and then that would be the nterpiece argument of merican politics at that point. there will be no other topic as far as, you know, under the radar screen. i talked with a number of mcconnell's staff who saidand asked the question what can you get done while you're debin impeachment? and the answer was just enough gs going.h i think that's the likely outcome here. then you have the drama of thee. ho but then the drama of the senate, you know, we can only lose a few republicans, it's not a huge gap that has to be made up, and that, i think, is going to be the central drama of american politics. >> brangham: is that how you see it? >> oh, absolutely, and i thi,

especially if counselor muellerr ents evidence that is overwhelming, i think that gives cover, not now, because the democratit party's posn is let's impeach the guy now without anything from mueller, but what a mueller report would do ithere is that evidence that we all think might be there, that gives everyone sort a centerpiece to fous on. i think democrats in the house would beel coled to start impeachment proceedings, if the evidence warrants, and i think it would sort of focus the mindb in the repcan-controlled senate if those articles of impeachment do come over. ey have to take them seriously and have to debate them seriously and have to hold the president accountable and judge the fact as they are if we get to that point because, i think michael is right, it will be the central focus of american lifane politics because the charges and the issues that we will be debating at that time will be that serious.

>> brangham: -- and it would put tremendous strain on american institutions, the f.b.i., the wayrethe co reacts, whether it's responsible or not responsible. brangham: how the courts respond. >> exactly. so it would be, you know, ain faing historical moment when american institutions areis iness. >> brangham: let's just say that you have both put forward the example where it's con cliewfs evidence, clearly black d white, but i have to were more on the margins and there are weren't n smoking g, doesn't that put the whole impeachment much in jeopardy? >> i think it's a very possible outcome that you will have a report that is strong enough for every democrat to pport impeachment in the house of representatives and not strong enough to brng any republican senators in the senate, that's quite possible.or >>onviction. right, for conviction. then you have a polarization machine. i mean, you're divcoiding the

try in fundamental ways without a clear argument either way. you kninw, that's to put huge strains on person political life. >> but i do think, though, that, even though there would be that strain on our political institutions, that should not be an argument for doing nothing. we have these processes in place, and it's written in the constitution to safeguard againssomeone doing something untoward that is in violation of their oath of ofce and in violation of the trust of the american people, and i think, at a minimum, we have to let the process run its couknrse. yow, whatever that means for our institutions and our politics, that's what they're there for. >>rangham: jonathan capehart, michael gerson, thank you very much. >> thank you. good to be here.

>> brangham: it's the start ofee long holidaynd, and that likely means you're going to see some binge viewing amongome members of your family in the coming days. that makes it a perfect time for jeffrey brown to get a sampling of this year's best tv-- traditional and otherwise. >> brown: it's utterly impossible for anyone to keep up with all the offerinle on sion and streaming these days, but we have asked the impossible of two leading tvit s to give us a few of the year's best. eric deggans is with npr and sonraiya is with "vanity fair." welcome back to both of you. you both had "killing eve." eric, you startd why u love that one? >> this is an espionage show that turns every convention about espionage thrillers on its head. sandra figures out how to attract an amazi super asags played by jody comber and

mehow they had a mutual attraction that they're attracted toone another in a way and a cat and mouse game evolves where they each try to catch each other and try to avoid each other. i think it's a wonderful subversion of all these espionage thriller shows we have. >> brown: let's take a look. i said it w prbably a woman. he was a misynist and sex trafficker. he may not have considered a a ssing woman a threat. she must have been able to get close. >> thanku yo. thank you, eve. >> brown: sonia, why did you love this one? >> justhe fact that it's a woman tracking another woman and then, of course, jody comer who plays the assassin figures out this woman is trying to assassinate her and stalks her back. there is a way th women compete which is a subtle aggression, and the show is vey funny n how it presents these two women

competing and sort of trying to one-up each other. it's a fun and unpredictable show in that way. >> brown: t of themillions, eric, give us one or two orthofavorites. >> so i loved "barry" which is a show on hbo by bill hader, used to be on "sturday night live," and he plays a low-level assassin and decides he wants to try to be an actor when he follows a guy he's supposed toa kill inton acting class. it's the darkest of dark lcomedies, but somehow l hader makes it work. i also loved "homecoming," this wonderful show starring julia roberts on amazon, where she plays this woman who's kind of a frazzled middle managementin person, rua program that's corporate run but fund the government that's supposed to be helping u.s. soldiers but slowly she figures out tha dark side to the program. it's a wonderful, fast-paced,

short episode drama. >> brown: sonia, what have you got for us? >> my favorite show of the year is "e good place." eth a network sitcom whe everyone's died which is a really weird plot, but kristen anbelieves the demon imprisoning them, played by ted danson, tv comedy veteran. it's a rea, lly funird show about existential crises. all the characters have to grapple with he fathey weren't good when they wereth alive an's why they're in the bad place and they're trying to find an esc aape. itun show. the other pick is "pose," which it's kind of a period piece set in the '80s, takes place in a queer ballroom scene iewn york where all the drag queen you

see, all of these people marginalized out of their own communities and families and came together to find a way to create a community such an incredibly inclusive show but also heart rending. takes place at the t of the aids crisis. interesting and worth checking out. >> brown: we asked you to pick a grt performance that stood out for you. eric, youicked m.j. rodrigues in "pose."ow >> do you hat the greatest pain a person can feel is? the gfatest tragedy a lie can experience? it's having the truth inside ono you and you being able to share it, it is having a great beauty and no one there to seeth it! young boy has been discarded, and he is so you he believes it has something to do with who he is. >> brown: eric, what did you

love here? >> so when you watch "pe" and you see this great story that sonia desuncribedld, you have a sense that you're seeing a star born, when you tch m.. do what she does so well, playing blanca. eshe, of coursean- she, you c tell from the clip, does amazing acting work. we're at a point where there's pressure and advocacy to have transgender played by transgender actors and actsses and she's doing an amazing job playing the authentic performance when is what you ge when you cast transgender people in transgender roles. >> brown: sonnia you picked amy adams in "sharp objects," the drama. let's take a look at the clip first.

>> okay, in missouri, from nnessee. >> i know where it is. i asked what it's like. >> small. population 2,000 for years. only real industry is hog butchering, so you've got your old money and yor trash. >> which one are you? trash. from money. >> brown: sonia, different from what we've seen or dobe re, you think? >> absolutely. it's like the dark side of amy adams, buadt amyams does such a great job of showing you how vulnerable and fragile this character is and the story takes her back to heometown where she has to confront a lot of hard truths about her family and where she's come from. amy adams takes you on this journey into this cha'sract worst nightmares and she's really such an incredible inrformer, it's a real treat to watch hersharp objects." >> brown: finish with the question we like to ask. the show that was completely and sadly overlooked, the one you reouly want to tell us ato go back and look for.

eric? >> i would say "sorry for your loss" which is a show on facebook watch, and it starsel abeth olson, you may remember her from the avengers mthovie scarlet witch, but this is a tender emotional drama where she plays a widow who lost her husband wo is struggling to cope. it's a sense at happens to a family when you have a tremendous loss and then you have someone struggling to cope and how it can affect everyone in that family. and it's on facebook watch which isa new platform t people may not be used to watching original shows on. >> bt wn: yeah, janother new platform for us to get used to, huh? ice?a, what's your cho >> so mine is actually a film, but it was a film that was never released theaterricly. it's tall "the tale." laura durham stars in it playing m e director of the filwho created a fictionalized story of the process she went throughli

when he red a relationship she had when she was 13 years old was an exploitive and abuse one but shows you as an adult how she learns how toe grapth those memories and trying to understand what it means to be a survivor of sexual assault, and i think it delvesot into af stuff we talk about in the news now in a personal and heart-wrenching way. it's absolutely worth check ou >> brown: i don't know how you two do it toheep up wit all this, but thanks for helping us out, son son, eric e, thanks again. >> thank you. >> brangham: we wanted to take time tonight to remember the renowned israeli author amos oz. he died today of cancer at the age of 79. rthis novels, essays and s stories made him one of israel's most widely-read writers. his work was praised worldwide, and he w said to be a long- time contender for the nobel prize in literatur

oz wrote over 40 books, including "black box," "in the land of israel," and his acclaimed 2002 memoir, "a tale of love d darkness," which chronicled his tumultuous childhood, and his mother's suicide when he was just 12 years old. born amos klausner, he changed his name to oz-- which is hebrew for courage-- at the age of 14. throughout his life, oz was a leading advocate for peace with the palestinians, supporting a two-state solution as the best approach to the israeli- palestinian conflict. he appeared on theewshour several times, most recently in 2016 when jeffrey brown sat down with oz r a wide-ranging interview. oz spoke of how characters drive his novels. >> always characters first. always?n >> and i walk around pregnant with the characters for a long time before i write a single sentence. and when, inside my head or inside my guts, the characters begin to do thin to each other, what they do to each

other is the plot. and then i can start wo ting. what do to one another? it's the one and only subject of literature, if you really ha to squeeze it in a nutshell. >> brown: what is the job or role of a writer, in a country like israel? >> i resent the very term "role of writers," or role of literature. i think the righthterm should be "gift of literature," not the role of literature.gi >> brown: . >> makes us look one more time at some things which we have seen a million times, and we see them afresh. or sometimes it makes us reconsider things that we were sure we knew or we were sure we were convinced of. >> brown: but is it different in a country such as israel? >> i don't think so. no i don't think so. i think literature is based on the deep human need to hear stories and to tell stories. it dsn't have to serve any

other purpose. >> brown: you have advocated a two-state idea long before it was a diplomatic solution, right? is that two-state solution dead? >> i don't think so. n't see any alternative the two-state solution. it is 50ears now since i, a few of my colleagues, first advocated the two-state solution. 50 years is a long time in my life, but it's a very short ti in history. look, it's very simple. there are two nations rightlyhe claimingame tiny land. they just don't trust the other. there is a lack of courageous leadership on both sides. you know, it's like a patient kn aing that he has to under surgery-- wanting to postpone it because it's painful, but the doctors are cowards. they don't have the guts to tell the patient "let's do it now, the sooner the better." >> brown: you still have hope for it? >> of course, because i see no

alternative. >> brangham: today of course is friday, and in many cultures, that's the day to eat fish. but the health of our oceans may be in danger from a different part of the fish industry-- the booming market for fish oille sunts. now, paul greenberg, author ofs three bo the fishing industry, offers his "humble alinion" on why we should simply eat more of the re thing. >> the average american eats only around 14 poundeafood per year, compared to over 200 pods of meat. yet some 18 million american adults-- nearly 8% of thonadult popula take fish oil supplements. as we think about eating light and getting healthy, my advice to skip the pill and eat the fish instead. first off, most omega-3 supplements come to us from little fish that big fish like to eat. h anchoviering, sardines-- these essential creatures are

the targets of what is called "the reduction industry"-- ado multi-billioar business that boils down tons and tons of marine life into fertilizer, animal feed and, yes, dietary supplements. if we left those little fish in the water, there'd be many more big fish teat. no brainer, right? and if you get past the supplement fixation, it's clear that fish and shellfish are much more than simply vessels for omega-3s. fish are low in fat, high in protein, and overall a much lower-calorie way of getting sential nutrients into our bodies. yes, there are issues with n withy contaminat bigger fish, but it turns out that all those little fish that we normally reducento supplements and animal feed are some of the lowest in mercury and other pollutants.rh s most surprising, seafood, both farmed and wild,t turns have some profound ecological advantages. errbon footprint, freshwat use, and conservation of open space all come out better with a seafood-aning diet than a land

meat diet. that's because land animals stand while fish float. a large portion of the food we have to feed land animals to bring th to market gets burned up simply by ld animal's sisting the pull of gravity. fish, meanwhile, use all that energy to grow more meat for the ble. and, farmed mussels and oysters are even better. you don't have to feed tho guys anything. they get bigger and fatter just by filtering the water. of course, we shouldn't eat seafood with abandon. a couple meals a week-- try some clams or mussels-- and smaller fish like anchovies. and we should stay away from wild fish and ellfish that are over-harvested, and farmed seafood grown using unsustainable practices. after all that, if you feel you must take a pill, there e now supplements made from much greener alternatives, like algae. in short, get your omegas. just be principled about it.

>> brangham: finally tonight,r ewshour shares," something interesting that caught our eye. sculptors traditionally user bronzerble or even wood to create their works, but one israeli artist works with a rather striking material. the newshour's julia griffin explains. >> reporter: from the waters of the dead sea rently emerged the glistening, dripping form of a ballerina's tutu. it was not weighted down by the heft of water, but crystallized in salt-- a dancers'me, frozen in time. >> this mineral is really like rocks. you put something completely flimsy and weightless, and after the accumulation, you're raising something which hamultiplied its weight times ten, times 20. >> reporter: sigalit eth landau is an israeli sculptor, video creator and installation artist. but for nearly 15 years, the southern basin of the de sea has been her studio. >> it's not the easiest water. it's not the nicest place to be

in august. but there is something about the dead sea. i have a language going on there, defitely. >> reporter: at more than 1,400 feet below sea level, the dead sea lies on the lowest piece on land on earth. its mineral-rich watnearly ten times saltier than the ocean and nearly devoid of all life. but, it has attracted health- conscious tourists fora. millen in the summer, temperatures in the area regularly top 1 grees, and because heat speeds up the crystallization process, summer is when the dead se becomes ethel landau's artistic partner.bo >> a can just come and put your glasses in. and if you take goodarare and if yolucky, you might end up with a beautiful piece of art. zet there is a limit. there's a right nd right time of year. >> reporter: as a child, ethel ndau spent many saturdays with her family relaxing on the israeli shore of the dead sea. after working indoors for years, she first experimented creatingt art usinhyper-saline

waters in 2003. since then, she has placed nearly 100 handcrafted piecesms and everyday isuch as shoes and musical instruments, underwer. some objects, like the ballerina's tutu, have biographical ties. ethel landau used to be a dancer. others play off the water's ability to transform, like this traditional yiddish mourning gown, now a sparking wedding dress. or, blue flags turned white. >> with a white flag, you den go to a pre and say, look, this is a kind of healing process. a white flag wants to say something about sharg, about water, about coping. >> reporter: and while ethel landau's salt sculptures have traveled the world for museum exhibitions, she never loses the constant pull of the dead sea. >> i work in many mediums, but there is something about the dead sea that i'm proud of strealizing that i chose t

close to it. >> reporter: a book chronicling ethel landau's work in the dead sea will be released in the spring. for the pbs newshour, i'm julia griffin. >> b newshour for tonight. on monday, the best books of 2018. i'm lliam brangham. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> financial services firm raymond james. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their -olutions to the world's most pressing problems- skollfoundation.org. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting stitutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation fort public broadg. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored bydu newshour pions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're wating pbs.

♪ oo -next, a "kqed new special on the arts. -♪ his love -sometimes it takes more than a 90-minute, intermissionless play f to kick somebody outtheir . -an entertainer's take on american history rt and a world-renownedt tapping the global refugee crisis. -you know, they all havefae and we cannot pretend we are naive on those issues. -plus the joy served up by the coolest museum in town focused on something sweet. -when you see the power of human connection in such a mplified form, i think it can be a grt example of how we should move forward as a country. -hello. i'm thuy vu. welcome to a special edition of "kqed newsroom" about arts and culture. on this program, we're revisiting stories from our archives with innovative and influential figures in film, the performing arts, and visual culture. we begin with the role of comedy in today's political clima.